My Puppies - Book One [Derek Hale]

Night School

When Henny comes home after her training with Chris, she finds her window open and hears groaning coming from her bed. "Derek?", she whispers. He slightly lifts his head, but doesn't give an answer. Henny closes her window and her door and then flicks on the lights.

Derek isn't wearing a shirt and his back is drenched in blood. Henny rushes into her bathroom and grabs a wet towel as well as a small tub of ointment that she brewed a few days earlier. First, she carefully cleans Derek's wounds and then she applies the healing potion as gently as she can. It won't allow the wounds to heal as fast as they would if they weren't from the Alpha, but it should speed up the process a little bit.

When she is done, Henny wraps bandages around Derek's torso and then looks at his face. Derek's eyes are duller than usual and his skin is pale from the blood loss. "Are you feeling any better?", Henny whispers. He nods weakly.

That night, Henny sleeps on the floor to make sure that she doesn't compromise Derek's healing process when she tosses or turns. Luckily, by morning the werewolf is almost as good as new. The claw marks are still visible, but he isn't bleeding anymore and his complexion is a lot healthier. So much so that Henny feels comfortable cuddling up to him.

After a long breakfast, Henny says goodbye to Derek and finally goes to see Noah at the station. When she gets there, everyone seems to be on edge. The Sheriff spots Henny and pulls her into his office. To her surprise, the man pulls her into a hug and squeezes her tight. "I am so sorry for everything that happened to you", Noah tells Henny. She takes a deep breath. "You read the files then?"

They sit down at the desk and Noah looks at Henny sadly. "It was very brave what you did. That couldn't have been easy." After a deep breath, she nods. "It wasn't. Escaping the cult was a risk all on its own, but the worst part were the trials afterwards. Over the span of three months I made the drive up to Maine seven times to get up on the witness stand. Having to relive all of those memories, everything they did to me. If Bobby hadn't been by my side through all of that, it would have broken me."

That's where Henny's academic drive comes from. She needed something else to focus on when the trials were happening. Through that time she found her love for learning. Out of desperation, she started doing something she now loves wholeheartedly. "Did you really not have anyone except for your uncle?", Noah wants to know. "No, I didn't. My friends from back in New York wouldn't answer my phone calls after I was free. Maybe they thought I ditched them or something, I don't know. Either way, they aren't in my life anymore."

"How about now? I saw you with Stiles the other day, are you settling in nicely?" A smile sneaks onto Henny's face at the thought of all the people she let into her heart. Obviously Derek is at the top of that list. Her two puppies, Stiles, Allison, Danny, even Chris. "I've made a lot of connections since I started school here. Which I wasn't expecting. In my head being two years older sounded like a deal breaker for friendships. And I was really relieved to find out that I can connect with kids in my grade after all. Like your son. I'll be honest, Stiles can be annoying, but deep down he just wants to be the best friend he can be."

Noah nods. "Yeah, him and Scott have been like brothers for a very long time. I don't think it will ever change. Especially after my wife Claudia passed away, he needed his best friend right by his side. Scott stayed over at our house so much that I was half anticipating him to move in." Henny sighs. "Was Stiles there when she passed?" "Not in the very moment. But he did have to experience the sickness slowly taking her away. Claudia had frontotemporal dementia. Over the course of months, small pieces of her personality were chipped away. The worst day of my life was when I walked into my wife's hospital room and found her accusing Stiles of killing her. How does a parent cope with that?"

A tear rolls down Noah's cheek and Henny grabs his hands that are tightly clutched together on the desk. "I can't even imagine how hard that must have been for both of you. And seeing Stiles now I can tell that you did a great job raising him. Not everything is fun and rainbows, but your son is strong. He has the courage to lean on others when he is overwhelmed. He wants to do everything for everyone else. And he definitely inherited your cop mentality. I haven't seen a mind as sharp as his often." Noah smiles gratefully and squeezes Henny's hand.

"If there is one thing I know about you from my son, it's that you pour your heart and soul into your team. You care for every single one of those boys, which is remarkable to me. How do you do it?" She smiles. "In a way, I want to be a mother to the boys on that team. I have my favorites of course. A few boys who I connect with more than the others. But I feel like all of them need me. Some need a firm hand to give rules and reel them in. Others need loving hugs and an open ear. A shoulder to cry on even. And being that person for them gives me so much happiness. When I see my boys smile and open up, I feel like I made a difference. If I can be a positive influence in their lives, then I have done my job right. I'm not just a coach. I'm a friend, a sister, a parent. I think that's the primary reason why I will stick to the sidelines. If I was to go onto the field, I don't know if I could keep up that relationship with all of them."

Noah nods and walks around the desk to hug Henny again. "I shouldn't be telling you this, so don't relay this information. But I feel like you should know what happened at school last night." Henny agrees. She only knows so much from Derek. "I heard that something happened, but so far no details. Was it another animal attack?" The Sheriff shakes his head. "No. A few kids were trapped at school last night and according to them, none of the attacks were conducted by an animal. The killer is human. And they claim that the janitor was killed. He is missing, but we couldn't find the body."

An uneasy feeling washes over Henny. Chances are that Stiles and Scott were the ones who were trapped inside the school. But why would they tell the police that the killer was human. "There's no way for us to know what exactly happened at the school. Scott and my son tell one story. Those two match to the T. The other three realistically match, but they didn't really see much. Allison Argent was too distraught to grasp anything that happened at all. Lydia Martin and Jackson Whittemore were very clear that someone was chasing them, but they couldn't identify him."

Henny's uneasy feeling worsens. "Him? Do you have an ID?" Noah nods. "Thanks to Scott and Stiles' witness statements, our prime suspect is Derek Hale. We put out an APB and have State Detectives coming in tomorrow. It should only be a matter of time until we have him in custody. But you should still be careful." It takes Henny all her self control to keep her face neutral. Nobody except Stiles and Scott is aware that she even knows Derek. "That name sounds vaguely familiar. Is he a prominent member of the community?", Henny carefully asks. "The Hales used to be a big presence in Beacon Hills. All of that changed six years ago when most of the family passed away in a fire. And we briefly arrested Derek Hale a few weeks ago for the first murder. The victim was his older sister."

Not wanting to accidentally reveal to much, Henny changes the topic. "Is Stiles okay after all of that? It must have been a traumatic experience." Noah nods. "He actually seems fine. Though I do feel like he isn't telling me the whole truth about what happened last night. Actually, I'm afraid that he has been hiding something from me for a while. Stiles is always weird, but something is different now. Like he's more focused and more scattered at the same time. It's hard to explain. But I don't want to bother you with that."

Henny sends him a kind smile. "You're not bothering me, Noah. You can always call me if you want a bridge between yours and his perspective." Noah nods. "I might just take you up on that. You're a fascinating young woman, Henny Finstock. Although I am very sorry that you had to go through what made you so mature." "I appreciate that." The two share one more smile and hug and Henny makes her way back home to break the news to her boyfriend.