The last thing James "Jay" Hale ever imagined was to begrudgingly return to Beacon Hills, find out his older sister was murdered, and then be forced to go on a wild goose chase after an enigmatic Alpha that seemed to have a particular interest in ru...
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:
The First Reckoning
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When Jay finally reached the iron gate to the underground portion of the Hale house, he didn't know what to make of it. He'd known of the gate before, but he wasn't exactly a very adventurous kid and never thought to explore it. It looked like the kind of thing that people would get lost in and never come out from again.
He knew there were at least three people inside, and he knew one of them was Derek by the familiar heartbeat alone. No one else would be able to recognize such a thing, but Jay grew up listening to his older brother's heartbeat as a lullaby. He was so intrinsically linked to that heartbeat, that he could recognize it anywhere, even ten feet underground.
It meant that neither Peter nor Scott got to him yet. And with the way Jay was running, to the point where the soles of his shoes were worn down and slightly hot against the arch of his foot, he wasn't surprised. But it also meant the two others inside were unaccounted for.
Jay flashed his eyes in the pitch-black tunnel as he entered, carefully assessing the brick walls and dusty crevices. He sidestepped a big puddle of water but didn't manage to miss the small drippings from above. It dropped onto his head, dampening his hair and making him screw his face up in disgust.
He continued inching forward, one hand feeling his way along until the stone walls became less dusty with torn sheets of plastic covering them, clearly a new addition from the hunters. He wandered further inside and nearly tripped over a lump on the floor.
Not a lump, an unconscious body.
He jumped in surprise but then he heard low voices from inside the room next to the body and carefully listened.
"Scott, help me with this."
With a great exhale of relief, Jay jumped over the body and let himself into the room. Scott gave him a surprised look, and Derek looked relieved and thankfully all in one piece.
"Derek, what the hell? Did you always know we had secret tunnels under the house, or did you only find out now?" It was a stupid thing to be focused on, and probably not what he should be saying after finding his brother strung up on a chain fence with electrode pins attached to his sides, but it was way better than being all soppy and saying something completely false and ridiculous like he was worried about him.
Derek glanced up and looked like he wanted to wring him around the neck. "The voicemail? Really? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" He grumbled, yanking at the lone restraint on his wrist that he couldn't seem to figure out.
"That's funny. You're the second person who said that to me today!" Jay grinned, practically skipping his way over to help. The faster they got Derek free, the faster the man could heal and they could finally take Peter down. But before he could reach his brother, Scott shot a hand out to stop him.
