Broken Things (Broken Book 1)

1: La Loba

Derek Hale was thrown against the table in his loft. The Hunters that had caught him and his uncle, Peter, in South America had found his Beacon Hills, California loft, having waited until after dark to break in.

Their leader, Severio Calavera, pumped a shotgun and then pointed it at him. "Now, my friend, do you want to tell us about La Loba?"

The Calaveras had wanted him and Peter to tell them where a she-wolf was and they seemed convinced that the two surviving Hales knew where she was. Peter had even briefly lost a finger before they were rescued by Braeden, a woman sent by an Alpha named Deucalion. An Alpha who had actually tried to kill him several weeks before their capture. Derek reached up and wiped away the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth from the sucker punch.

"Where's the she-wolf?"

In truth, there was only one she-wolf he knew. And there was no way in hell he was revealing her location after having thought her dead for six years and then giving up his own Alpha status to save her life. Derek tasted blood and spit as he walked towards Severio. The other Hunters with him pointed their own guns at him.

"You should just go ahead and kill me," he said defiantly. "Because you're never going to find Cora."

"Cora? Who the hell is Cora?" Severio asked, confused.

If they weren't after his sister, then what she-wolf were they after?

A smoke canister flew over their heads. A flash went off, momentarily blinding Derek and he dropped to a crouch and moved to the right, completely clueless on what was going on. The Hunters turned and started looking for the intruder. He knew it wasn't Chris, he knew the former Hunter's scent well and he wouldn't have used a flash bang around him. Derek looked around for the intruder as well as the room filled with smoke. The Hunters were shouting to each other in Spanish. Derek heard an unfamiliar growl. The werewolf searched the room, but the smoke didn't allow him any more visibility than the Hunters, but caught a vaguely familiar scent. Suddenly, one of the Hunters went down with a cry of surprise. 

"Light 'em up!" Severio shouted.

The Hunters started shooting. Derek stayed low to avoid the bullets, he had no doubt they were laced with wolfsbane, all while trying to see who the intruder was. Whoever they were, they were quick. Even Kali, the worst Alpha in the Alpha Pack that had descended on Beacon Hills with the intent of forcing him and Scott into their ranks, wasn't that fast. One by one, the Hunters were felled.

When all quieted, Derek slowly stood. He whipped his head around at the sound of a shotgun being pumped. "This has to be a dream," he muttered when he saw who had killed the Hunters.

Blond hair. Leather jacket. White shirt. Tight jeans. Shotgun pointed directly at him. She smiled and pulled the trigger.

Derek didn't dodge in time and he took the buckshot to the stomach. He fell to his knees, the pain bringing him somewhat out of his shock. He knew then that this was no dream as he looked down at the wound. "It's real," he whispered. He looked up at her. "You're real."

Kate Argent walked closer to him, shotgun at her side. How was she alive? Peter had ripped her throat out after discovering that she'd been the one who'd set the fire at the Hale House that had killed all but four of the Hales and put Peter into a six-year healing coma. Even her own brother had turned against her because she'd broken the Argents' honor code of hunting only werewolves that had taken a human life. Many of her victims had been human, not all the Hales had been born werewolves after all.

"That's right, Derek," she said. "If seeing me is a surprise, watch this." Her eyes turned green, almost like a cat's, her skin turned blue, and fangs extended as she growled. Derek's eyes widened. Peter had been an Alpha at the time of Kate's death. There were two ways he knew of to turn a human. The Bite and a scratch that went deep enough. Kate had survived because of Peter's claws. And now she had returned to finish Derek off, like she had been planning to do that night had Chris not stopped her werewolf killing spree. He had a stray wonder if this was who the Hunters had been looking for. Kate extended her claws.