"You know how the Argent's and the Hale's have always had a history. Well one of the first times Derek saw them, they shot an arrow through someone's neck" I said, watching Stiles grimace. "But Peter found Derek and the two of them managed to escape to a place in the woods"

"They were there for two days, waiting, hiding" Cora said.

"That's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us hide and heal" I said.

"Okay, so is two days standard, then, or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?" Stiles asked.

I turned to look at him with a frown.
"Why do you care?"

"Why do I care? Let's see because over the last few weeks, my best friend's tried to kill himself. His boss nearly got ritually sacrificed. A girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by alphas. I-do you want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, all right? For, like, an hour" Stiles practically yelled.

"You think Derek can do anything about that?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it, yeah" Stiles sassed.

"I don't know. There's something different about him now. He wasn't like this when we knew him" Cora said.

"What was he like?" Stiles questioned.

I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and looked over to see my Uncle. "A lot like Scott, actually. A lot like most teenagers unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic, tolerable really only to other teenagers" He said.

Stiles frowned. "And so what happened? What changed him?"

"Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men. A girl" My uncle replied.

"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart? That's why Derek is the way he is?"

"Do you remember Derek before he was an Alpha? Had blue eyes? Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?" Peter asked him.

"I just always thought it was, like, a genetic thing"

My uncle and I shared a look.

"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the colour of his eyes" Peter said.

~

"Okay, so if Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he? How old were you? How old are you now?" Stiles rambled.

"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you might think" Peter replied.

"Okay, that was frustratingly vague" I commented.

"How old are you?" Stiles asked Cora.

"I'm 17" she replied.

"See, that's an answer. That's how we answer people" Stiles said, pointing to my sister.

"Well, 17 how you'd measure in years-" Cora started.

"All right, I'm just gonna drop it"

"What happened to Derek and the cello girl?" Stiles asked curiously.

"What do you think happened? They were teenagers. One minute, it's, 'I hate you, don't talk to me'. The next, it's frantic groping in any dark corner they could manage to find themselves alone for five minutes. Their favorite dark corner was an abandoned distillery outside of Beacon Hills"

"All right, hold up. How do you know all this? You just said that they were alone" I said, slightly weirded out by my uncle.

"Back then, I wasn't just Derek's Uncle. I was his best friend, his closest confidante. That's how I know"

My uncle sat and told us the tale about the alpha's before they formed one massive pack.

"So the Argent's killed one of Ennis'?" Stiles double checked.

I nodded as Peter started to draw a spiral on the window.

"Our mark for vendetta" he said.

"Man, you guys really take that revenge thing to, like, a whole new level, don't you?" Stiles said sarcastically.

"It's not just revenge. Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family. It's like you lose a limb" I said.

"They wouldn't even let him see the body" Peter added.

"I don't get it. What does this have to do with Derek?"

"Everything. It's never just a single moment. It's a confluence of events.
Personally, I looked at Ennis' circumstances, I saw a profound loss.
Derek saw something different. He saw opportunity" Peter explained.

"Opportunity? To do what?" Stiles questioned.

"To always be with her. The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it, thinking about it all night, all day, always on his mind"

"He was going to turn her" I said, suddenly realising.

Peter nodded. "I kept telling him not to do it. Every day the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. You know teenagers. I bet he even blames me. He's probably convinced himself the whole thing was my idea" Peter said.

I rolled my eyes. "That's probably because it was your idea"

Peter shot me a glare.

"And then there's the emissary's" my uncle continued.

"Emissary?" Stiles frowned.

"They keep us connected to humanity. But they're a secret, even in the pack. Sometimes only the alpha knows who the emissary is. Derek and I had no idea about Deaton" Cora said.

"Or his sister, Morrel" I chimed in.

"She's an emissary too?" Stiles asked.

"For the Alpha pack" Peter answered.

"Our guidance counsellor?" Stiles exclaimed. "Why the hell don't you people tell me any of this stuff, huh? I shared some really intimate details with her"

"And did she give you good advice?" I asked.

"Actually, yeah" Stiles replied.

"That's what they do" Peter said. "That's what Deaton used to do for Talia"

"Okay, so what happened to Derek and the girl" Stiles asked.

"He got Ennis to bite her" Peter replied.

"Ennis? Why would you choose him?" Stiles asked.

"Why not? Ennis needed a new member for his pack. Paige was young and strong. Doing a favor for Derek meant Ennis would be in good with Talia. Back then, everybody wanted to be in good with her" Peter shrugged.

"He doesn't remember it was Ennis, does he?" I queried.

"If he does, he keeps it to himself"

"So then what happened? Did he turn her?" Stiles asked, seeming like he was gripped by the story.

"Almost. He came at Ennis. A 15 year-old boy against a giant. There was no reason for him to fight. She'd already been bitten" Peter said.

"So did she turn?" Cora asked.

"She should have. Most of the time, the bite takes-" Peter cut off. "Most of the time"

"When you offered it to me, you said, 'if it doesn't kill you-'" Stiles started.

"If" My uncle corrected. "He asked what was happening to her. He knew the answer, though. It didn't matter that she was young and strong.
Some people just aren't made for this. But she fought. She struggled desperately, trying to survive" Peter said. "I remember taking her body from his arms, to the woods, to a place where I knew that it would be found. Another in a long line of Beacon Hills animal attacks"

"And what about Derek?" I asked.

"Taking an innocent life takes something from you as well, a bit of your soul. Darkening it, dimming the once brilliant, golden yellow to a cold, steel blue" Peter flashed his eyes. "Like mine"

~

"What? What's this-what's this look on your face?" I asked Stiles with an exasperated sigh.

"What look?" He asked, baffled.

Cora and I glanced at each other.

"The kind of look that makes me want to punch you" I retorted.

"Oh, my God. You are so Derek's sister. I forgot"

I rolled my eyes.

"Well, what is with the look?" Cora persisted.

"I just don't believe him"

I frowned. "You have a point. I mean it is Peter we're talking about. But why would he make up something like that?"

"All right, in Ms. Blake's class, we're reading heart of darkness, and it's in first person, right? Narrated by Marlow. The thing is that he's he's an unreliable narrator. You know the details of it have changed, you know, just because of his perspective" Stiles explained.

"Well, then we heard the story from Peter's perspective" Cora reminded.

"Right, and I don't think we got the whole story"

"So, what, are - Are you just gonna ask Derek about the girl he fell in love with and then killed?" I frowned.

"If I have to, yeah"

~

A/N

I'm so sorry it's been like over a week since I last updated. And this chapter was awful because I literally only spent today writing it as I've been ill all week and have had no motivation to write.

I tried :( ❤️