Destiny [D.H.]

32

I was planning on one update today, but why the hell not do two?

This episode offers some important detail. Hence the........

v

(Slight trigger warning.)

I paced across the floor of Derek's loft. He hadn't shown up for our little run through the woods, which worried me. He always showed up.

Cora stared at me as I paced. "Ella, relax. I'm sure he's just busy."

I stopped and stared at her. "Cora, you don't believe that; do you?"

"I-"

"Cora, come on. I can handle the truth."

She sighed. "No. I don't. What are you feeling?"

"Honestly, I don't really know. I don't feel in pain, which I suppose is a good thing. I think I'm just worried about him."

"You and me both, Ella. But I'm sure he'll come back soon. He always does. He wouldn't leave his mate. You know that."

I frowned. "Someone's here. What the hell is he doing here?"

Cora opened the door to reveal Stiles and he said, "Okay, so where's Derek?"

"We don't know," Cora replied. "He's been missing for two days. They were there for two days, waiting, hiding. That's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us... hide and heal."

I sighed. "Evan's with him, too. I think. I haven't heard anything from him, either. My dad's a little worried."

Stiles frowned. "Okay, so is two days standard, then, or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?"

"Why do you care?" Cora shot back, earning a look from me.

"Why do I care? Let's see... Because over the last few weeks, my best friends tried to kill themselves. His boss nearly got ritually sacrificed. A girl that Ella and I've known since we were three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by alphas. I... Do you want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, all right? For, like, an hour."

I held a hand up. "We get it, Stiles."

"You think Derek can do anything about that?" Cora questioned.

"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it, yeah," Stiles replied.

"I don't know. There's something different about him now. And it's not just Eliana being in his life. He wasn't like this when we knew him."

"What was he like?"

"A lot like Scott, actually," Peter said, walking down the spiral staircase. "A lot like most teenagers... Unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic, tolerable really only to other teenagers."

"And so what happened? What changed him?"

"Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men... A girl."

"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart? That's why Derek is the way he is? Ella, stop giving me a dirty look."

"Do you remember Derek before he was an Alpha had blue eyes? Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?"

"I just always thought it was, like, a genetic thing. I mean, Ella's got blue eyes."

"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color of his eyes, and of your friend's."

Peter launched into a story about a younger Derek and a girl named Paige Krasikeva.

I remembered hearing a little about her from Evan.