𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍, derek hale ✓

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐖𝐎

┏━━━━⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆━━━━┓

FACE OFF

SURRENDERING IN EXCHANGE FOR THE SAFETY OF OTHERS WAS A SMALL PRICE TO PAY.

Emerson knew she would pay it a million times over if it meant just that— if it meant everyone else was safe from the warpath Deucalion wanted to go on.

He seemed to be upholding his end of the deal, much to her surprise, and it started with a simple conversation they'd had when he told her she'd be staying in his penthouse. The blind man assured her that no harm would come to Hannah from his pack, as they were instructed not to intervene in her affairs anymore.

Emerson knew that was his way of telling her that they would've killed the Prescott woman had she not accepted, but mow she'd be left to reside in that hospital room until the alpha pack moved on from Beacon Hills in due time. Only then would Deucalion permit her to give Hannah the bite that would heal her.

He was still as shifty as ever, rarely including the blonde in his plans because according to him, they were meant to be lying low. In reassuring her of the Hale Pack's safety, he promised Emerson that they would not strike first in an attempt to keep the peace. His heartbeat didn't blip, nor did it blip when he welcomed her home.

Home. What a funny thing that was.

It wasn't that Emerson considered that penthouse home, but it was more like a feeling. This man, this arguably evil man who she spent her whole life running away from, was her own blood. Sure, his methods were far from morally correct, but the way he'd so easily welcomed her in, thrusting a pack bond her way that felt warm. Familial.

She wondered if that's what it would've felt like to have a bond with her mother, had she been alive, of course.

Emerson found it harder to not trust him as the days blended together, even as he expressed an interest in her athletic achievements and even as he took into account the way she hated the colour purple. The purple curtains in the room he had set up for her were gone the following day after he discovered that, Kali whisking them away as she grumbled on about her talents going to waste over redecorating.

She was getting used to it, the brief normalcy she felt as being with family, that she didn't know what to make of Deucalion inviting her on an outing. An outing to meet Scott McCall.

"Why the sudden interest in Scott?" she asked, mostly out of genuine curiosity. Scott was a good kid, and had it given her a fright to see him in the elevator just yesterday? Absolutely, but she hoped her message of leaving a voicemail would resonate with them more than the way she left them in the dust.

It's for their own good, she kept reminding herself.

"There's something there," Deucalion offered, rather cryptically like he always did when speaking of werewolf matters. "I intend on finding out."

Emerson's stomach tumbled for a brief moment. "He's in Derek's pack," she reminded him, reminding him of the deal they'd made only a couple of days ago, before they'd ran into the boy in the elevator.

Deucalion only levelled her a look that spoke a thousand words, yet she could identify something in his pointed gaze. He knew something.

"Is he, though?"

Emerson blanched at the insinuation, shoulders deflating because although Scott had teamed up with Derek, he was not in his pack.

No, their deal didn't apply to Scott McCall, and here Deucalion was, bringing it up on a technicality.