*ARCHIVED* Truth Or Dare (Sciles | Dark Descent, Book 1)

Chapter 12

FEBRUARY 14, 2016
SUNDAY
1:17 P.M.

Stiles couldn't speak.

He opened his mouth to say something, although he wasn't sure what, but all that came out was a chopped gasp. Derek stepped to Stiles. He instinctively flinched and stepped back, but Derek grabbed his arms and held them tightly, with a surprising gentleness that Stiles would have never expected. Stiles felt like he'd stepped off the edge of a cliff. One part of his stomach had lodged itself in his throat and the other had fallen to his feet. Derek's eyes darted around widely as he looked into Stiles's, as if he were looking for something.

"Stiles?"

Stiles swallowed. "I...You...You're crazy. That's crazy. You're crazy."

Stiles stepped away, pulling his arms from Derek's grasp. The vampire let him, making Stiles feel even more weak in the knees. It was all too confusing. As Stiles backed away, his foot caught on the foot of the coffee table and he fell backward, but before he could hit the ground, Derek was there, scooping Stiles up into his arms and swinging him around and discarding him onto the sofa. Derek fell to his knees in front of Stiles.

"I'm not crazy," Derek said. "I wish I was. I wish it wasn't true but it is. Stiles, you're mine."

"I am not yours. Even if it were true, even if I was yours...No, I'll never be yours. Never."

Derek shook his head. "You don't have a choice."

"I would rather die than be yours."

Derek's head snapped back like he'd been slapped. He got to his feet suddenly, all traces of gentleness gone. Now his shoulders were squared and his face was tight with anger.

"You'd be anything I wanted to keep your friends safe," Derek replied coldly.

"I'd only be yours if you let them go."

"I can't let them go. How do I know you wouldn't run away as soon as I did?"

"You know you could stop me before I even got out the door. You would kill me if I tried."

Derek made a sound in his throat and swiped his hand over his face in frustration. "No no no no, don't you get it? I can't kill you. Just the thought of it --" Derek made another odd sound and sighed. "When your soulmate dies, it's like you lose a part of yourself. And that ache never goes away."

"Stop calling me that. Your soulmate. People don't do the things you've done to their soulmates. They don't threaten them and the ones they love, or hold them hostage. Derek, this isn't how you love someone."

"I...I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know how to make you mine." Derek spoke like he couldn't think of what to say in time to say it. He was frowning now, his eyes flickering between Stiles to all around the room and back. He looked like he was about to lose his mind.

Stiles's unease and surprise drowned from the force of the waves of his anger. "I. Won't. Ever. Be. Yours!" Stiles shouted the last word. It exploded out of him with such force that he was shocked, himself. He was so unbelievably frustrated that Derek could sit there and say these things to him. "If you want me to be yours, you might as well kill me."

Sending a chill down Stiles's spine, Derek laughed. "Is it Scott? You think he's your soulmate?" Derek hardened again, his eyes suddenly turning to fire. "I'll kill him. If he touches you again."

"That's what I'm talking about! You don't say these things -- you don't threaten the people that you love!"

Derek dove to his knees in front of Stiles again, cupping his face in his hands. He was gentle again. The back and forth of his demeanor was making Stiles's head spin. "I don't love you, not yet. But I will. I know it."