The Fox and The Wolf - Book Two {Sterek}

Chapter 16: Evolving

I clutched my mates limp body to my chest as I tried to remember how to breathe. I stared at his blank face, the blood on his lips still wet. I could hear things happening around me, but it felt like there was clay in my ears. Everything was muffled. I tried to feel Derek through the mate bond, but it was just blank. An emptiness.

I suddenly remembered the berserker and Kate, and my pups. I jolted back to the real world as sounds finally registered and my breaths came quickly. I glanced around me to see that Castiel and Dean had returned. Oh thank god, he heard me. Cas was in the midst of ripping the berserkers head from its body, his eyes unbearably bright. Malia and Isaac were watching the angel in awe while Dean was looking at me with sadness and guilt in his eyes. I couldn't see the werejaguar anywhere.

"Where's Kate?" I asked quietly, my voice breaking.

"She took off when we showed up," Dean answered just as quietly.

Suddenly there were two sets of arms around me, and I closed my eyes as I let my pups try to comfort me. Isaac had his face in my neck, nuzzling and whining quietly, wetting my shirt with his tears. Malia ran her fingers through my hair, keeping her other arm around my shoulders comfortingly. I keep Derek's body in my arms. I sucked in a breath. I needed to focus. This would hurt Isaac nearly as bad as it hurt me. I had to be strong for my pack, for my pup. My body felt numb, and I welcomed the feeling.

"Isaac," I whispered, bringing a bloody hand up to stroke his hair. I gently laid Derek beside me and pulled the curly haired wolf into my lap. "Shh, it's okay." It's not okay, nothing about this is okay. But what else do I say while I'm breaking too? He pulled himself closer to me as the tears got worse, and I felt some leaving my own eyes again. I didn't think there was any left.

There was a tingling in my chest, like sparks. But I ignored it, just adding it to the pain I was already feeling. I held Isaac harder, both of our grips nearly bone crushing- but we didn't care. We were both falling apart, and this was all that could hold us together.

"Uhh- guys?" Dean gulped. I kept my eyes closed against Isaacs shoulder.

"What?" I asked in a whisper, not really caring for a response.

"Stiles- Isaac!" Malia said, tapping our arms insistently.

"What?" I snapped, my head lifting itself from its resting place on Isaac.

My eyes widened at what was beside me. Where Derek's body had been, now laid a midnight black wolf. It's chest rising and falling with its breaths.

"What the hell?!" I demanded, scrambling up and pulling Isaac with me. "What- What happened?"

"Derek just... faded into... that," Dean tried to explain, his hands moving around much like my own always did.

My eyes got even wider, something I didn't think was possible. I fell to my knees beside the apparently sleeping wolf, reaching a hand out to touch it. Sparks ignited between my finger tips and the fur and I pulled back with a frightened yelp. Purple sparks.

"Derek?" I asked quietly, not daring to hope.

I reached out with the mate bond once more, trying to find the mate I had believed to be dead. But I felt him, he was there, right beside me.

"How is this possible?" I whispered, completely in awe.

"Is that him?" Isaac asked in disbelief. I nodded. I know it's him.

"Wait, Talia Hale could do this, couldn't she? She could transform into a full wolf form. Deaton told us about it. Because she was the Hale alpha. Is that what happened?" I wondered aloud, the question rhetorical.