Through the years

57.

Everything they had seen just now felt as if a huge load had been dumped on the pack. They never expected to ever see the faces of the legendary Hale family. They were very different from what they had all imagined them to be. If they were honest, they weren't even aware that there were so many people in this pack to begin with. 

Derek, Peter and Cora never were ones to speak that much about their relatives, if not at all, and so they knew barely anything. It was just this vague general idea of what they used to be and how powerful they were at the time. But other than that, they had no knowledge of this famous pack. Now, seeing as they had seen every single one of the Hale pack members, they felt both stunned and saddened. Stunned because of the amount of people they actually were in the pack and saddened because they only now realised how many people had perished in that devastating fire. 

They were starting to understand why Stiles had been so impacted by the tragedy. They were starting to understand, thanks to those videos, why the remaining Hales never spoke of their family. But it was different for one person. 

Malia. 

Because she knew that this could've been her life, this could've been her family. And, who knows, maybe if things were different at the time, she would've found herself on those videos as well, smiling and waving happily along with her big family. But she wasn't. Because this wasn't really her family and she didn't know these people. But Stiles, Derek, Cora and Peter did and she wanted to know more. It had picked her curiosity and she needed to know. 

So, she asked. 

"Who was that woman?" Malia asked, breaking the heavy silence surrounding them now and they all turned their attention on her. But she had her eyes on Peter, her father. 

"Who?"

"The one by your side." Malia said, although both she and Peter knew that Peter had already guessed before Malia could say it. 

He had half expected it. 

Malia was his daughter but she had never asked about the Hale side of her heritage. For many years she had considered Peter not to be her real dad and the wolf understood that. He couldn't exactly blame her for it either. He had done many bad things, made a lot of bad decisions and made a whole bunch of mistakes in his life. But he had always cared about family in the end. Even though he had betrayed said family a few times for selfish reasons, deep down, he had always cared. More so, in recent years, seeing he had proven he could be trusted to the pack. 

However, for some of them, it was too late. They would never trust him again and as sad as it was, Peter understood their reasoning. But, when that person was his own daughter, his flesh and blood...it didn't sit well with him. But there was nothing he could do anymore. He was actually glad that she now had gotten better at talking with him, accepting the fact that he was her father too. It had been enough for a while. 

Now, especially since Stiles was back and with his memories of the pack, Peter felt the need to have a good relationship with one of his children again. Malia was his child, there was no denying it and he accepted it a long time ago. And now he was craving a strong father-daughter bond like he used to have with his second daughter, Mia. Sadly enough, Peter wasn't delusional and knew it was most likely to never happen. So, instead, he gladly accepted whatever he had now. 

"Eviana Tamira Hale." Peter answered, looking straight back at his daughter. "My wife." 

"You were married?" Aiden said in surprise. He had never thought Peter to be the dating type and much less the marriage one. This piece of information was quite shocking to him and looking to the side, he could see that he wasn't the only one as a few of them were sporting expressions of surprise on their faces.