Howl 3

1. Hale Property

"Can I open my eyes yet?"

"This is the third time you've asked in one minute, and the answer is still no."

I groan and internally roll my eyes. "How much further then? You know I'm not a fan of surprises."

Derek huffs a laugh. "Yeah, I got that when you nearly took off my head with a baseball bat a few weeks ago."

"You would've healed."

"But you would've felt it too."

All I can do is shrug – he's got a point there. Half of the anticipation I feel at the moment is Derek's, mixed with my nerves of whatever surprise he has in store. So far, all I know is it's high up as he's been leading me up a flight of stairs and into what I suppose is an elevator. One that screeches. Seriously, there's not enough oil in the world to save it.

"Almost there," Derek's breath fans against my neck, and a moment later, I hear the door rolls open. "Careful, there's a step...there you go."

"Can I open them now?" I ask again as he stops me.

"Yes, Riley, you can open them."

I just about peel his hands off my face and blink...then frown. We're in a warehouse, an abandoned one it seems. The room is big with steel columns holding up the ceiling. Several large and faded industrial windows drown the place in light, and another set of spiral stairs lead to the upper floor.

"It's..." I trail off, searching for words but find none, "...okay, nope, I don't know. What am I looking at?"

Derek breathes a laugh and ushers me further into the room. "And here I thought you were the smart one between you and Stiles."

I gasp indignantly and nudge him in the side. "I am the smart one of the Stilinski twins, thank you very much. But seriously, what is this place?"

"Officially Hale property as of last week. I bought the building. You're standing in our future loft."

That certainly got my attention. I look from the faded windows to him, wide-eyed. "Our future loft?"

Derek nods excitedly, reminding me of a child in a candy store. It's a good look on him, and almost make me forget about everything that happened these past few weeks.

"I know it's not much yet, it still needs a few pieces of furniture," he says, "But I hope this can be something we can do together, just the two of us."

Just the two of us.

Hearing those words is music to my ears.

It's high time we do something together again besides running around, searching the entire state for Boyd and Erica. A part of me still can't believe they left to join another pack, and especially right when I thought I had something good going with Erica.

And as if tracking two teenage werewolves aren't the 'best' way to spend one's summer, there was also the tiny, little part where I've been sneaking Ramona in and out of my house throughout the entire holiday. It felt wrong to let her fend for herself while I could offer her a temporary place to stay, but I just couldn't bring myself to introduce her to dad and Stiles yet. And for two obvious reasons. One being I'm afraid of what Stiles will say. The last thing I want him to think is that I'm replacing him with Ramona who is my biological sister. And two, if I introduce her to dad, he will go into cop-mode and do a full background check on her. Who knows to what conclusions he will come...

So, no, I will not be introducing Ramona to my family anytime soon. Not until I have no other choice, at least. And that's why I told her she's only allowed at my house when dad and Stiles are not around, or at night when she needs a place to crash.