The Alexandra Chronicles ¤ Derek Hale

Chapter 11

"Damn it," Scott muttered. "I forgot where I parked." He and I had just finished grocery shopping. Mom hasn't had the time to go, so usually I do all the shopping, but today Scott wanted to come with me. I assumed it had to do with me getting attacked the other night; now, he didn't like when I went anywhere alone. Also, he insisted on driving, and since I don't let anyone drive my car(don't judge me, it's a '65 mustang - do you know how long I spent saving up to put a down payment on that?), Scott borrowed Mom's car.
"I'm pretty sure we parked on the fifth level," I said.
"No, it was the fourth... I think." I just shot him a look and he muttered under his breath. "Alright, hold on." Scott set the grocery bags down - he insisted on carrying them all - and fished around in his pocket for the car keys. When he finally pulled them out, he held them up and pressed the unlock button. Above us, on the fifth level, we could hear the car beep. I smirked smugly and he huffed, leaning down to pick the bags up. A bottle of milk fell out and started rolling away; I hurried after it to try and catch it, but it had already rolled underneath a car.
"Crap," I muttered. "Let's just leave it, Scott." Just as I started to get back up, the bottle of milk rolled back toward me... only there were scratches on the bottle that caused the milk to leak.
"Alex," Scott whispered, and that's when I heard the growling.
"You gotta be kidding me," I groaned as my brother yanked me to my feet. The growling became louder and more persistent, and when we heard the roar Scott and I took off running. Unfortunately, seeing as how I'm not a werewolf, I was falling a little behind. If I hadn't done track last year, I'd probably have been mauled by now...
"Run faster, Alex!" Scott exclaimed as he kept looking back at me. "It's catching up to us!" We rounded the corner and Scott suddenly dove behind a car, grabbing me and pulling me down with him. The two of us sat there catching our breath for a moment, totally freaking out because we knew the alpha would hear us and find us soon. That's when it hit me: we're in a car garage. Why not use that to our advantage? "What are you doing?" Scott hissed as I stood up.
"I have an idea," I whispered. "Follow my lead." Without bothering to wait for him to respond, I took off running and jumped onto the hood of a car. Its alarm started going off, and as I jumped from car to car so did all the others. Scott was following closely behind me, and every so often I could feel his hand brush against my elbow, as if afraid I was going to lose my footing. To be honest, it was probably a miracle that I didn't.
Once we successfully set off a whole row of car alarms, Scott and I ran around the corner and hid behind another vehicle to catch our breath again. If we were lucky, the high-pitched sounds would throw off the alpha's senses and send him over to the wrong place, which would give us enough time to get the hell out of here.
But then a phone started ringing, and I shot Scott a fearful and frustrated look. "Turn it off!" I hissed as he fumbled in his pockets for the cell phone. Suddenly, he was yanked in the air and slammed against the car hood. As I hurriedly stood up, I was about to (probably very foolishly) throw myself at Scott's attacker - but then I realized it was Derek.
"You're dead," he told Scott in disapproval. Then he stepped back and I helped Scott off of the car.
"What - what the hell was that?" Scott demanded as we began walking.
"Said I was gonna teach you," Derek responded. "Didn't say when."
"You scared the crap out of us!"
Derek shrugged. "Your sister dealt pretty well. And she's human."
"Hey!" I said defensively. "That sounds a lot like a backhanded compliment."
Derek smirked at me as Scott said, "Okay, but, I was fast, right?"
"Not fast enough."
"But - but the car alarm thing, that was smart, right?"
"Yeah, thanks to Alexandra," Derek said without missing a beat. "At least, until your phone rang."
Scott huffed. "Yeah, but that was - I mean - would you just stop?" He snapped. Derek stopped walking and turned around to face my brother as I stood at Scott's side. "What happened the other night, Stiles's dad getting hurt, that was my fault."
"Scott," I said softly.
"No, Alex!" He exclaimed, waving his hand dismissively at me. Turning back to Derek, he said, "It's true. I should have been there to do something. I need you to teach me how to control this." I sighed to myself. Ever since the mountain lion terrorized the school at parent-teacher conferences the other night, Scott's been beating himself up. Apparently he saved Allison from getting pummeled by a car, but he wasn't there when Sheriff Stilinski got rear-ended by one. Even though he was perfectly okay, Scott was still beating himself up about it. He didn't understand that he was new to all of this, and besides, he can't be in two places at once.
Derek pursed his lips. "Look, I am what I am because of birth; you were bitten," he pointed out. "Teaching someone who was bitten takes time. I don't even know if I can teach you."
Scott calmed down a little bit. "What do I have to do?" He asked.
"You have to get rid of distractions." He held up Scott's phone and showed us the screen, which said that he had a missed call from Allison. "You see this? This is why I caught you. You want me to teach you? Get rid of her."
My brother scowled. "What, just because of her family?" Derek's jaw clenched and he held up Scott's phone, turning toward the concrete wall. "Wait, whoa whoa whoa!" But it was too late; he'd already chucked the cell phone at the wall, shattering it to pieces.
"You getting angry?" Derek taunted. "That's your first lesson. You want to learn how to control this, how to shift - you do it through anger, by tapping into a primal animal rage, and you can't do that with her around."
Scott glared at him. "I can get angry," he insisted.
"Not angry enough!" Derek exclaimed. "This is the only way that I can teach you. Now, can you stay away from her? At least until after the full moon?"
He hesitated. "If that's what it takes-"
"Do you want to live?" Derek demanded. "Do you want to protect your friends, and your sister?" He added, glancing over at me for a second. "Yes or no?"
"Yes! If you can teach me, I can stay away from her."
"Good," Derek said curtly. Scott shot him one last glare and walked off.
I sighed. "He is so not going to stay away from her," I said.