𝐷𝐸𝑀𝑂𝐿𝐼𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁 𝐿𝑂𝑉𝐸𝑅𝑆 ➪ 𝐶𝐻𝑅𝐼𝑆 𝐴𝑅𝐺𝐸𝑁𝑇

09.

Two weeks later, Derek and Dahlia were at the old Hale house looking through books. The two of them pause and stand up straight, turning around to face Erica and Boyd.

"You've decided." Derek states. "When?" Dahlia questions, crossing her arms. "Tonight." Erica answers hesitantly. "Everyone's gonna be at the game, and we figured it was the best time." Boyd explains. "It's not like we want to." Erica adds. Derek steps forward at that. "What do you want?" He asks her. "Since I just turned sixteen a month ago, I wouldn't mind getting my license. I can't do that if I'm dead, you know." Erica answers more firmly.

"Well, we told you there was a price." Dahlia speaks up again. "Yeah? Well, you didn't say it would be like this." Boyd tells her. "Yeah, but we told you how to survive! You do it as a pack, and you're not a pack without an alpha." She defends. Derek shakes his head and turns around. "We know." Boyd says, causing Derek to turn back around.

"You wanna look for another pack? How are you even gonna find one?" The raven haired Hale questions. "Well think we already did." Boyd tells him cautiously.

Dahlia watches as her nephew's face falls. "Like, all of a sudden we heard all this howling. It was unbelievable." Erica quickly clarifies. "There must have been a dozen of 'em." Boyd grins out. "Maybe more." Erica adds.

"Yeah, or maybe only two." Dahlia scoffs out. "You know what the Beau Geste effect is? If they modulate their howls with a rapid shift in tone, two wolves can sound like twenty." She explains to the two betas.

"Look, that doesn't matter, okay? There's another pack out there. There's got to be." Erica dismisses. "We've made up our minds." She states to the two alphas. "We lost, Derek. And it's over. We're leaving." Boyd says softly.

"No." Derek denies. "No, you're running." He corrects. "And once you start, you don't stop. You'll always be running." He then watches the two leave the house and feels his aunt's hand on his shoulder.

After a moment, Dahlia uses her free hand to pick up a glass shard on the table. She looks at her reflection, then turns to swiftly chuck the glass at Peter's throat. Peter, being himself, catches the glass with two fingers.

"Always throwing things at my throat, Dahl. I expected a slightly warmer welcome this time." The former alpha taunts. "But point taken." He adds. Dahlia places her hands on her hips and glares at him. "It's quite a situation you've let your auntie get yourself in here, Derek. I mean, I'm out of commission for a few weeks and suddenly, there's lizard people, geriatric psychopaths, angry ex in-laws, and you're cooking up werewolves out of every self-esteem-deprived adolescent in town. Not counting Arianne or Beckett, the latter is too busy having family bonding time with the enemy. The other is just in an emotional spiral." He comments.

"What do you want?" Derek asks flatly. "Well, I wanna help. You're my nephew." Peter answers, stepping forward. "And my baby sister." He adds, looking to Dahlia. "You two, both our kids- you're the only relative family that I have left. You know, there's still a lot that I can teach you. All five of you. Can we just talk?" He continues, reaching out to place a hand on his sister's shoulder. Dahlia looks down at it in disgust and Derek holds back a smirk. "Sure. Let's talk."

Elvira steps out from her hiding place as Dahlia suddenly flings Peter into the staircase. "And so the fight begins." She whisper to Derek, quickly walking over to him. "We're still mad at you, you know that right?" He asks her. "Of course."

As the brother and sister fight continued, it had eventually turned dark outside and Peter was heaving. Dahlia throws him down the stairs and kicks him in the stomach after he punches her in the face. "You don't actually think that I want to be the alpha again, do you? That wasn't my finest performance, considering it ended in my death." Peter coughs out, spitting up blood. "I mean, I'm usually more..-okay! Okay, go ahead!" He cries out as Dahlia picks him up by his shirt collar.