The Sicilian Defence [Derek Hale]

Chapter One

Warning for the whole book: profanity (nothing used in an offensive manner), violence, mentions of death, mentions of car crashes, mentions of drowning, mentions of abortions, misuse of drugs more will be added when necessary and if you read something which you believe needs a warning please let me know and I will add it in. Thank you.

My father once taught me that chess could be looked as a model for life. It starts with an unassuming set of inconsequential moves and many players just choose their first moves the same each time, then comes the 'middlegame'. That's the interesting part, lasting for indeterminate length and with unpredictable results. It's a whirlwind of individual events that are difficult to analyse as they occur, but at some point you reach 'endgame' and at that point, all bets are off. You see the break down of the other players games. And soon, you either win or you lose and it's over.

I suppose that's why I liked it so much. It was an organised chaos, a battle of the mind and a world where everything is according to a set of rules. There were very few surprises for me now. If there was, I knew exactly how to counter it.

Resting my chin on my knee, I had my feet on the chair I was sat on with one tucked around my body and the other brought to my chest. I had one hand wrapped around that leg to keep it upright just in case it slipped off the chair. Reaching out, I picked up my king moving it to d8 with a robotic grace.

Noah, my uncle, glanced up at me before looking back to the board and then he shook his head, "I resign," he finally said.

"You're supposed to put the king down if you do that," I reminded - my voice thick with a Scottish accent - reaching out and knocking over his king the sound of the wood hitting wood an incredibly satisfying sound to myself.

Noah sighed leaning back in his chair. He seemed to scan the board for a second before a smile broke out on his face. "How do you do it?" He asked and I bit back the grin which wanted to break out so desperately on my face. "We've played four games and I still never win," he groaned out.

"Perhaps I'm just better at it than you are," I teased.

"There's no perhaps about it. I'm gonna have to stick to playing with Stiles," he joked, "you can tell your Alastair's daughter, alright. I'm pretty sure you could have beaten him," he admitted and I nodded my smile falling sad. "You could have definitely beaten Louisa, she was terrible at chess." Louisa and Alastair were my parents, except they had both passed away a long time ago in a car crash.

"I used to beat her when I was nine," I admitted beginning to move the pieces back into their original positions. It was a good distraction from the pain. "I would have beaten her in three moves now," I added on and a smile broke out on his face, "again?" I asked and he sighed.

"Sorry kiddo, I gotta get to work, we can have another game tomorrow, though," he said and I nodded in understanding. We'd been here for an hour and a half now so it made sense enough. "See you in the morning."

"Course," I muttered offering a smile as he left.

The moment the door slammed shut downstairs, mine got swung open by my cousin, Stiles - he was younger than me by two years, "Grace, Grace, Grace," he chanted. I didn't bother to look at him, it was very rarely he had anything useful to say.

"What is it?" I asked as I began to straighten out the few moves.

"There's been a dead body found in the forest," he said and I almost hesitated in my actions. "I think we should go look for it."

"Why would I want to go and find a dead body, Stiles? I have no interest in seeing some dead stranger," I pointed out and he groaned out of annoyance.