Grievances (Book Three Of Hale Wolves For Teen Wolf :))

Ch. 15: Galvanize

Derek was sewing Peter's finger back on back at home for only one reason, and I stood next to them as Peter said as needle pierced skin, "Ow! Don't you have any anesthetic?"

Derek looked up. "Yep."

"Well, are you at least gonna tell me what I risked my life and digits for?"

Derek finished, Peter groaning as he pulled his hand away.

"I'm gonna show you," Derek said, twisting the triskele lid off of the wooden canister. He poured our mother's claws onto the table. "After the fire, that's all that was left of her."

"Talia," Peter said. "I can't decide if that's touching or morbid." Derek turned his head to glare while I tilted my head. "I guess the real question is, what are you planning to do with them?"

"I have to ask her something," Derek answered. "And from what I've heard, this is the only way it's possible."

I shook my head. "And I can't be the one to do it. I don't know how, and one slip could paralyze or kill someone, remember?" Peter looked up at me with a glare. "Your words."

Peter looked at his hand that Derek had just sewed his finger back onto, then looked from me to Derek with a glare. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Why do you think I sewed your finger back on?" Derek replied.

*

Derek was now dropping our mother's claws into the wooden canister, making them pierce the wood and stand so it'd be easier for someone to wear, and I sighed as I watched, still standing next to them.

"You know, there's always an element of danger in rituals like these," Peter said.

"That's why you're doing it, not me," I said.

Derek looked toward me as he grabbed the next claw, but Peter ignored me by saying, "I'm not particularly fond of them myself, Tara. Unless they somehow benefit me."

I scoffed, shaking my head. We'd known Peter would want something in return, just not what.

"What do you want?" Derek asked.

"I want to keep them." Derek looked at him weirdly as my eyebrows furrowed. "Sentimental value." My eyebrows raised slightly, not believing him. "She was your mother, but she was also my sister." He looked from Derek's skeptical look to mine. "What? Am I not allowed a little bit of sentiment?"

"I don't think you have a sentimental bone in your body," I told him, and he looked toward me with another glare. I forced a smile as Derek dropped the next claw in.

Neither of us said anything, and Peter smiled, and Derek stood, walking closer to me, standing next to me with his arms crossed over his chest as we watched Peter procrastinating at putting them on.

I shook my head, walking forward. "Too long."

"No!" Peter said. "No, wait!"

Using my right hand, the same hand that had the triskele tattoo on the back of my hand, I pushed his hand down anyway, the claws piercing his skin, into his fingers.

His eyes glowed blue as he looked up at the ceiling.

*

"That's not exactly my color," Peter said, looking down at the claws as I sat down on the spiral staircase, watching, and Derek sat on a chair, leaning against the back of it, which was in front of him. "This is going to be excruciatingly painful."

"Just do it," Derek told him.

"Oh, I'm going to. I just wanted you to know we all have our petty revenges."

Then he dug her claws right into Derek's neck, and we waited for Derek to ask her the question and come back to us.

*

Finally, Peter took out the claws, and Derek, sweaty and tired, came back to consciousness, and I stood up, coming closer.

"Did you see her?" Peter asked. "What did you ask her? Did she say anything about me?"

Derek turned to give him a huge glare.

"Well, that doesn't look good."

I knew the question, but not it's answer, or why it effected Derek so badly now.

But it had to have been pretty damn bad, and the answer must have been really bad.