mortala | derek hale [1]

three

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

CHAPTER THREE

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"You were an enforcer?" Derek questioned, gripping onto his own cup of coffee while waiting as she took a seat. Taking a sip of her own cup of coffee, Lore gave a nod.

"Yep," she popped the p at the end.

"What does that even mean?"

Glancing up at the man across from her, she gave a small smile. "I didn't hunt the supernatural, Derek. I hunted hunters that broke the code." He blinked in surprise, staring at her. With a sigh, she leaned back in her seat. "I started out as a tracker. Helped my father with the police force in tracking baddies for a while before dad had me pick up jobs to capture those that were convicted and escaped from hunters. After some time, I earned the title of Enforcer."

Derek leaned forward, eyes narrowed at her as he listened to her heart. Not once did it escalate or de-escalate. She was telling the truth. "What made you retire?"

Looking down at her cup, she held it with both hands as the drink warmed her. "My daughter," she answered, looking up at the werewolf. "I found out I was pregnant, and unfortunately, enforcers don't really have a lot of friends. Many hunters even go out of their way to 'accidentally' kill enforcers so their antics aren't caught. I didn't want to bring Navaeh in a world full of bullets and blood," she explained. "I wanted to keep her safe, so I jumped ship and retired."

"You didn't move because of crimes," he spoke up, Lore then shaking her head to his statement.

"I mean– I did, yes. But I also moved us to get her somewhere safe. Not much had happened in this town in years, so I hoped..." Sparing him a glance, she then took a sip of her coffee.

"You knew what I was," Derek spoke. She assumed he meant it as a question, but the way he spoke had it sounding like a statement.

Giving a nod, she turned and grabbed the clipboard of the paperwork he had signed. "Not at first, no," she reasoned before placing the paperwork in front of him. "But when you signed your name as Derek Hale, I knew you were either human or werewolf. But you were causing no issues for me, so I saw no reason to bring it up. Not all wolves are bad people, and not all hunters are good, so I usually try to keep my past quiet. You never know how a shifter like yourself would react."

"And you have a daughter to keep safe," he observed, looking at the paperwork then at her. She gave a small smile his way and nodded. Derek gave a pensive smile back as her grip on her cup tightened. Her eyes were filled with determination as she looked at the werewolf directly.

"Abso-fuckin-lutely."

—

After a long night of talking with Derek and a few pots of coffee later, Lore was climbing into her truck to go pick her daughter up from the house and take her to school, only to then return back to work on barely any sleep. Parking in the driveway, she rubbed her eyes with a loud yawn. Her phone buzzed in the cup holder, causing the woman to reach over and unlock it.