The Feud (Young Derek Hale)

35

As soon as I stepped foot on my old territory I regretted it. Mainly because, it's now my old territory. The land feels  foreign beneath my feet. I cringed but I have to do this.

It was a nerve wracking walk to the lake I normally go to to wash off the evidence of Derek's scent. However no matter how hard I scrubbed or submerged myself, the scent wouldn't waver. It was only then did I look down at my shirt. I tipped my head back in annoyance, I'd used my sleeve to wipe my mouth. Thus soaking it in his blood.

Fuck.

I'm an idiot. I can't just show up to my house in only my bra. Especially when my entire pack, minus Alec and Anna are awaiting my return to punish me for knowing about Aaron. I sighed, I have to think. And fast, before some pack member finds me.

I'm a member of the Hale pack. It's offical, I knew it. I mean I submitted to Tahlia, I knew what that meant. I didn't think it'd feel like this...

The trees look foreign, the scents of my family however faint have a hint of something sinister to them. Like poison or a bad aftertaste, threatening. 

A scent of danger, a survival instinct Hales have developed over the hundreds of years to easily recognise a Wood. It's a slap in the face that my family now isn't my pack.

Deep breath, my father will know the second he sees me that I'm no longer apart of the pack. But the other members of my family they won't be able to tell so easily. I bit my lip...

Would they have felt the loss of my connection in the pack?...Anna hadn't mentioned it over the phone. I suppose Anna being blamed for Aaron's death and being labelled officially as a betrayer of peace by both Thalia and the Emissary is a big enough distraction. That fact that they have till dawn to hand her over, or more likely in their eyes...until dawn to plan for war.

I began the walk home. My thoughts scattered and scared. The punishment that awaits me. Anna's eyes being blue and hanging up on her before she could explain why. I shuddered, who has she killed if not Aaron?. My family have locked her in the dungeons, most likely for her own protection. But still, I can't forget the way her voice broke as she'd said that they think it's her.

I shook my head. It wasn't her, I know  at least that much. But that still doesn't answer my question...

Why are they suddenly blue?!?.

Deep breath Avery, you got this. That's the lie I've been chanting in my head with each step closer to my house.  Until I'm standing on the porch and wolf like door knockers stare me down. The mansion has never felt so cold, so unwelcoming before now. 

Perhaps its that knowing once I'm inside they'll all know. Know I've been hiding secrets from them all for months. That I've swapped sides. That my mate is one of them.

Its why I let out a small sob as I pushed open the door. Why my legs were shaking. I cringed as my steps echoed loudly throughout the marble walls. Could already taste the salty tear that'd made its way down my face.

Its silent. Too silent...

I paused, my senses picking up on multiple heartbeats, all of them directly below me. I gulped, they're all in the dungeons. 

All six of the-

"Avery!"

I jumped at the sheer volume and power that my father's voice possessed. Only an alpha can be heard crystal clear from so far away. It frightened me to my core.

He knows.

He can sense it. He knows its only me, due to my scent. But he'll be able to recognise that scent no longer registers as a member of his pack. Theres no hiding that, not from him.

And I know, the longer I stay here gluded to the floor in fright then the worse he'll be. So I do what I have to and slowly start to make my way down to the dungeons.  It feels like walking down death row.

Down endless halls until those halls are no longer covered in extravegant tapastries but are cold stone. Floor that was once marble is now concrete. I shiver before I raise my head and find a grusome scene. 

My brother, his shirt gone and whats left is dried blood caked on perfectly normal skin. As if someone decided to paint his entire torso for a beacon hills basketball game, only they swapped paint for blood.

My sister, weeping in a cell. Her grip on the bars tighten when she sees me, before she frowns as her nose twitches at the foreign scent of me.

My grandparents in the corner, both stare at me. Grandfather curtly growls, while grandmother tips her head. A look that reads 'what have you done?'.

I gulp, they can all tell too.

And then I look directly up at the pair of them. A power couple of  fear. My eyes meet her's as she stands straighter with a loud sniff . Its a low growl that follows.  

You could cut the tension with a knife. That's when I hear my father's growl. 

The growl of an Alpha, that is not mine.