Instinct || Derek Hale.

eight.

Warnings: Strong language, violence, mentions of character death.

***

Alex.

The last forty-eight hours had been one big jumble of stress for Alex. First she'd broken into an old bank vault, battled against crazed out of control werewolves, spent hours tracking them through the woods, she'd ended up helping to save a woman she was still suspicious of, and when she'd tried to do a nice thing and check up on Derek and Cora, she'd ended up fighting against Deucalion's alphas and witnessed the torture of Derek. Then, to add fuel to an already out of control fire, Alex's kind of boyfriend turned up at her house unannounced. She'd only been back in Beacon Hills for two weeks, and she already couldn't wait to leave again.

Connor was still staying at the house, as was Isaac, after being kicked out by Derek. The McCall house was crowded and suffocating to Alex. She couldn't go five minutes without someone interrupting her privacy. Alex was starting to think things couldn't possibly get any worse. But then it did. Two days after her impromptu decision to check up on Derek, Alex was disturbed by the sound of the doorbell. She told Connor to stay in the kitchen. The last thing she needed was for some supernatural creature turning up and giving away their secret.

But as Alex swung the door open, she realised that there was only so long she could keep him away from the other side of her life.

"Derek?" Alex gasped. "What are you doing here?"

Derek eyed her suspiciously. "Is Scott here? I tried calling him, but he's not answering."

"Uh, no, he went to see Allison." Alex shook her head.

She heard movement from the kitchen and looked over her shoulder before looking back at Derek. She pulled the door closer to her, hoping to conceal the inside of her house from Derek. But he'd heard it too.

"Is someone here?" Derek asked, brow raised.

"Um, yeah, just an old friend." Alex said.

"You have friends?" Derek asked, genuinely surprised.

Alex rolled her eyes. However, before she could respond, Connor walked into the hallway.

"Babe? Is everything okay?"

Alex closed her eyes and let her head drop against the door. Derek's eyes widened as Connor walked up to the door.

"Who's this?" Connor asked, his eyes narrowing.

"A friend of Scott's." Alex said.

"Oh, sorry man, he's not here." Connor said casually.

But Derek ignored him. He spoke to Alex like Connor wasn't even there.

"I need to talk to you."

Alex looked up sharply. "About what?"

"About.. the current issue." Derek said, his eyes flicking to Connor and then back to her.

"Can't you talk to Isaac about it?" Alex said sarcastically. "Oh, wait. No, you can't. Because you kicked him out."

Derek rolled his eyes. "I had my reasons for that."

"Yeah, well, like I said, Scott's not here." Alex shook his head.

"He did say he'd be back soon. Can't his friend come in and wait?" Connor asked, clearly very unaware of the tension between Alex and Derek.

Knowing how much Derek liked to annoy her, Alex wasn't surprised when Derek grinned at Connor.

"I'd love to." Derek said.