her name was paige.

[ 3.04 ]

Jennifer Blake walked through the empty school hallway, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. She felt like she was being watched. Or like someone was waiting for her. And on the off chance that it was one of the werewolves coming to check on her after what happened at the school that Friday night, she put up a scared facade.

After hearing a door slam in the distance, she scurried to her room as quickly as she could. Then she slammed her door shut, leaning her forehead against it in relief that she got there safely. But as she turned around, she screamed.

Derek Hale was standing in the classroom, an eyebrow raised at her reaction. Jennifer quickly grabbed a yardstick and held it out like a weapon as if it would help defend herself.

"What do you want?" she asked, adding a tremble to her voice. "You gonna threaten me? Tell me that no one's gonna believe me? Try to scare me? Kill me?"

Derek waited a moment, honestly amused. She hadn't even been the one locked in the boiler room with two savage werewolves. She only caught a glimpse of them and was still so scared. "I was gonna see if you were okay."

"Physically or emotionally?" she asked. "Although I guess that presupposes I was emotionally okay before any of this. And according to my therapist, I - it's been debatable for a long time."

"I think you're gonna be okay," Derek told her. He slowly reached for the yardstick and took it from her when he was sure that she wasn't going to hit him.

"Obviously, you've never taught high school," Jennifer muttered. "In twenty minutes, I have to start two dozen teenagers on The Crucible, and I honestly have no idea what I'm gonna say. Not only that, but I have to look Willow in the eye knowing that I practically sent her to her death."

"Willow is alright," Derek told her. He hadn't really left her side, especially after what happened at her birthday party. "She wanted me to make sure that you're alright. We know it was a lot to take in."

"Definitely a lot."

"And as for The Crucible, why don't you start by telling them that it's an allegory for McCarthyism?" he suggested. Derek would have to remember that point for later so that he could prove to Willow and Cora that he did in fact know how to read.

"Is that a subtle way of suggesting that I shouldn't say anything?" Jennifer asked, backing up. "Because I won't."

Derek chuckled before handing her back the yardstick. Then he made his way to the door, convinced that she wouldn't run around screaming 'werewolf' anytime soon.

"Who are you?" she asked, stopping him at the door.

"I'm Derek."

"Jennifer," she said with a smile.

"Thank you for that night," Derek told her. It surprised Jennifer, not knowing what he meant. "You knew that Willow was in danger, so you did something about it. You didn't run or leave to let her fend for herself down there."

"Of course. I care about all of my students' safety."

"Well, caring about Willow's safety is the quickest way to earn any of our trust."

And that was just what Jennifer needed if she was to succeed. Their trust.

☽︎

Willow found herself in the boys' locker room at the request of Coach Finstock. While waiting for the rest of the lacrosse team to arrive, she stayed by Scott and Stiles at their lockers, doing her best to keep her head down and not see anything she wasn't meant to.

Scott was informing the two about a boy who disappeared from the animal clinic the night before, leaving behind his dog and everything.

"I looked everywhere," Scott told them. "It's like he just walked away. Left his car, his dog."

"Okay. Was he, like... could he have been a virgin maybe?" Stiles asked. Apparently, three people had been killed now and all of them were virgins. How Stiles learned that, Willow didn't want to know. "Did he look like a virgin? Was he, you know, virginal?"

"No, definitely not. Deaton makes me have sex with all of his clients. It's a new policy," Scott joked. He and Willow laughed, but Stiles wasn't impressed, so Scott sighed. "No, I don't know if he was a virgin. And why are you talking like he's already dead? He's just missing."

"Missing and presumed dead because he's probably a virgin, Scott. And you know who else is a virgin?" Stiles asked. "Me. I'm a virgin, okay? And you know what that means? It means that my lack of sexual experience is now literally a threat to my life. Okay, I need to have sex, like, right now. Someone needs to have sex with me, like, today. Like, someone needs to sex me right now!"

Suddenly the locker next to them slammed shut, revealing Danny who had overheard the end of their conversation. He looked at Stiles with a confident smirk.

"All right, I'll do it."

"What?" Stiles asked in disbelief.

"Come to my place at nine. Plan to stay the night. I like to cuddle," he told him.

"Oh. That was so sweet," Stiles said, touched by the offer. "Are you kidding?"

Danny scoffed and shook his head. "Yes, I'm kidding."

"Okay, you know, you don't toy with a guy's emotions like that, Danny. It's not attractive, all right?" Stiles complained as Danny walked off. Then his eyes settled on Willow. "Are you—"

"Stiles," Scott hissed, not believing that he was about to ask Willow that.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes, Stiles," Willow said, her cheeks pink. "However, I think the looming threat from the Alpha pack is a little more important than whoever is killing virgins."

"W - well what if you and I just—"

"Oh my God, Derek's gonna kill you if he finds out," Scott said, shaking his head. "You are actively digging your grave right now."

"I'm - I'm gonna find Coach," Willow said, unable to even look at Stiles after that. He was letting himself get far too worried and he never would've suggested something like that under normal circumstances.

"Mr. Lahey, happy to have you back. Not happy that you're late," Coach said when Isaac came into the locker room. Willow followed the sound of his voice until she found him.

"Sorry, Coach," Isaac said half-heartedly as he went to his locker.

"There you are," Coach said, grabbing Willow's shoulder. "Alright, I'll remind you all, cross-country is not optional for lacrosse players. I don't need you turning into a bunch of fat-asses in the off-season."

As he spoke, Danny and Isaac were getting changed. Willow felt a little ashamed for staring, but their abs and well-defined arms clearly showed Coach that no one was getting out of shape anytime soon.

"I, um, I think they're fine," Willow mumbled, cheeks even pinker. And this was why she never came into the locker room.

"Right," Coach muttered. "Anyway, Worthington here is the captain. At every practice this year, if her time is better than yours, you've got thirty minutes non-stop of suicide runs out on the field."

"But Coach, she's the fastest runner in the state," Danny protested.

"I know," Coach said, an amused grin on his face. He was looking forward to their pain. "Which makes no sense because her legs are so short."

"I could go a little slower since it's just the first practice," Willow offered kindly.

"Absolutely not!" Coach exclaimed, tugging on her ponytail, annoyed that she'd even offer to go easy on them. "You better run so fast that you make these boys weep."

"Got it, Coach."

☽︎

"You can't use werewolf speed, which means you're about to eat my dust, Lahey," Willow teased, stretching her legs. "Also, your shoe is untied."

"If you really wanted me to eat your dust, you wouldn't have told me about the shoe and just let me trip," he said, smiling. Then he knelt down to tie his shoe.

As he did so, two people walked up on either side of them. Willow froze, realizing that it was the twins. Up until then, she had forgotten that they'd be on the cross-country team with them. Their reasoning now made sense — they wanted to keep an even better eye on them.

Isaac looked at Aiden, glaring when he saw the cocky grin on his face. Everyone was still furious about what happened at Willow's party, and seeing them at school only made it worse. Willow quickly moved away, not trusting that they wouldn't try anything even with people around.

When Coach blew his whistle, Willow shot off like a rocket, not looking back as she ran. Isaac wasn't really sure if the twins were following her or running with the team, but he wouldn't take that chance.

"Isaac, wait!" Scott called, smelling the anger on him. But it was useless. Isaac ran ahead, quickly passing the humans and gaining on the twins. "Isaac!"

Willow was in the lead but she could hear the twins close behind her. She could hear them laughing like it was some kind of game. And it was a game to them.

But eventually, the twins fell back, knowing that Willow wasn't their target. Deucalion made it clear that she was off-limits. She was his.

Isaac slowed at one point in the trail, straining his ears to try and hear the twins. Then out of nowhere, they ambushed him. Ethan crashed into Isaac, knocking him off the trail and down a hill.

"Ethan, I always forget, how many bones in the human body?" Aiden asked his brother while they both kept Isaac in a painful hold.

"I don't know," Ethan said, grinning. "Let's count."

Before he could break Isaac's arm, someone broke his jaw. "That's one," Scott told him, arriving to help Isaac.

Each wolf got to their feet, fangs bared and claws out. They growled lowly, ready to attack. But then a chilling scream rang through the air.

"Willow," Scott said with wide eyes, recognizing her voice.

Scott and Isaac booked it, the twins following curiously. They ran a little farther up the trail to see everyone gathered around a tree. Stiles was holding Willow, pushing her face against his chest to hide the gory sight.

Kyle, the boy from the animal clinic, was tied to the base of the tree, his throat slashed and covered in blood. Scott felt sick at his stomach seeing that he had been choked with his own dog's leash.

"It's him, isn't it?" Isaac asked Scott quietly. Scott could only nod, dread filling him.

It didn't take long at all for the police to arrive. And Noah acted quickly, trying to get a perimeter set up.

"Hey, get out of the way. Get back. Get this area cordoned off before they trample every piece of evidence!" he shouted, pushing students back.

"Back up! Everyone back!" Deputy Tara ordered.

"Get these kids out of here," Noah said.

Stiles broke through the perimeter and went up to his father. "Dad, just come here. Look, look. Look at it. It's the same as the others, you see?"

"Yeah, I see that," he said, sighing. "Do me a favor. Go back to school, yeah? Coach, can you give us a hand here?"

"You heard the man. Nothing to see here. Probably just some homeless kid," Coach said, trying to make it less of a big deal.

"Coach," Scott said hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"He was a senior."

"Oh," Coach said, his face dropping. "He wasn't on the team, was he?"

Suddenly a girl came upon the scene, seeing her dead boyfriend's body. "Kyle! Oh, God, Kyle! Oh, God!"

Noah quickly shooed Stiles and the others off, knowing there was a lot to do.

"You see the way the twins looked at him?" Isaac asked as they stepped away from the tree.

"Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened," Stiles stated pointedly.

"No, no, they knew," Isaac denied. He just couldn't believe that anyone else had done this.

"The kid was strangled with a garrote, all right? Am I the only one recognizing the lack of werewolf-itude in these murders?" he asked.

"Oh, you think it's a coincidence they turn up and then people start dying?" Isaac shot back.

"Well, no, but I still don't think it's them," he said. Then Stiles looked to Scott and Willow, who had both been silent. "Scott? Will?"

"How 'bout you guys?" Isaac asked, wanting to know whose side they were taking.

"I don't know yet," Scott mumbled.

"You don't know yet?" Stiles asked flatly.

"Well, he's got a point," he said, nodding to Isaac. "Seriously, dude, human sacrifices?"

"Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then will immediately disappear, and if I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal, but you're telling me that you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?" Stiles asked, getting more annoyed.

Scott sighed before looking back at Isaac. "That's a good point too."

"I don't care," Isaac muttered. "They killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me, and they're trying to kill Willow. I'm gonna kill them too."

Willow sighed as Isaac stalked off. Then she noticed Stiles and Scott looking at her expectantly.

"I - I don't think it's them," Willow told Scott. "I think Stiles is right about the sacrifices. Looking back at history, there are plenty of instances of it, so it's not unheard of."

"Yes!" Stiles cheered, glad that someone was on his side. "This is why she's my favorite. Now we just need to figure out if Kyle is a—"

"Willow!" Noah called, approaching them. So they quickly silenced all talk of werewolves and virgin sacrifices. "Coach says you're the one that found the body."

"I am," she said quietly. "I didn't see anyone around it. And I didn't touch it. Most people showed up right after I screamed."

"I'll still need you to give a statement," he told her. "We can do it in the main office. Boys, get to class, and Willow can join you when she's done."

☽︎

As it turns out, when you find a dead body, you are excused from classes for the day. Though Willow opted to stay at school, she was still given the option to leave. She also wanted to be there to keep Isaac calm, who wasn't handling the twins' presence at school well at all.

They sat together at their shared lab table in their physics class. Isaac had a tight grip on the table, growing angrier by the second. Willow kept trying to whisper calming words, but they didn't help.

"All right, since inertia is a subject of which you all know plenty, why don't we start with momentum?" Mr. Harris said, circling the word on the chalkboard.

"They're here for a reason," Scott whispered to Isaac, leaning forward in his seat behind him. "Give me a chance to figure it out before you do anything. Okay? Isaac?"

Isaac didn't respond, Scott's words going in one ear and out the other.

"Danny, what do we know about momentum?"

"It's the product of mass and velocity," Danny answered, glancing at his textbook. "The more massive something is, the faster it's going—"

"Mr. Harris, can I use the bathroom, please?" Isaac interrupted suddenly. Mr. Harris looked annoyed at how rude he was but nodded his head nonetheless.

As Isaac left the room, Scott stood abruptly, worried that he was going to do something he'd regret. "I have to go to the bathroom too."

"One at a time," Mr. Harris said in a flat tone.

"But I really have to go," he said desperately. "Like, medical emergency have to go."

"Mr. McCall, if your bladder suddenly exploded and urine began to pour from every orifice, I would still respond, "one at a time." Is that enough hyperbole for you, or would you like me to come up with something more vivid?"

"No. No. That's pretty good," Scott mumbled, sighing as he sat back down.

Mr. Harris went back to teaching, but it only lasted about a minute. Everyone could hear sounds of struggle coming from the hallway, and it sounded as if someone had been thrown into the lockers.

"What the hell?" Mr. Harris asked, going to the door. All the other students followed, feeling nosy and wanting to see a fight if there was one taking place. And they didn't see a fight technically, but Ethan was laying at Isaac's feet in the hallway, face beaten up and covered in blood.

"What is this? What's going on?" Mr. Harris asked angrily.

Willow spotted Aiden turning the corner at the end of the hall. And given that Isaac's fists didn't have any blood on them, she correctly guessed that Ethan's brother had beaten him up to get Isaac in trouble.

"You all right?" Danny asked, crouching next to Ethan to help him sit up.

"He just... he just came at me," Ethan groaned.

"Isaac, what the hell did you do?" Mr. Harris asked.

☽︎

Thankfully, Isaac wasn't suspended for what happened. He wasn't even given after-school detention, which was typically longer than lunchtime detentions. After class let out, Willow and Scott met Isaac at his locker.

"Don't let it bother you. It's just lunchtime detention. If all they want right now is to piss you off, then don't give in. They're just trying to get to you," Scott said. They couldn't have Isaac losing his head around the twins.

"It's not just me. Not even just Willow," Isaac said.

He nodded across the hall to Lydia's locker. She wasn't there alone. Aiden was leaning against the lockers with a charming smile on his face. Scott grew worried as he listened in.

"What about tonight?" Aiden asked with a hopeful smile.

"Nope. Studying," she informed him.

"I could help you."

"Do you have an IQ higher than 170?" she asked, tilting her head.

"Okay. You could help me," he said, chuckling. "Tonight then?"

"Are you forgetting how you kidnapped my best friend from her birthday party on Saturday?" Lydia asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or is your IQ just so low that you genuinely don't remember?"

Scott clenched his fist, hating how Aiden was trying to make a move on Lydia. They were slowly infiltrating every part of their lives and everyone in it. And Scott had no idea why.

He could feel Isaac's eyes on him, an amused smirk on his face. "What?"

"Now they're getting to you," he said smugly.

Scott huffed and turned away from Aiden. "Willow, maybe you should leave school for the rest of the day," Scott told her. "Clearly, Ethan and Aiden are causing trouble. And I don't want you here if things get worse throughout the day."

"But I hate missing class," she said, frowning.

"I'll give you any notes you miss," he promised.

Willow grimaced. "Scott, I love you, but your notes are horrible. Even with this New Scott studying method."

"Alright, Lydia will give you any notes you miss," he said while Isaac chuckled. "Just go to Derek's. Lie low with him. We still don't know when Deucalion wants to come for you."

"I'll go, but please promise to stay safe. Don't do anything that could end with you getting hurt," she said. "I'd like one day where I don't worry about you guys."

"That's a pretty tall order," Isaac joked.

"Unfortunately tall. And I am quite short."

☽︎

Things at Derek's loft were just as horrific and gory as cross-country had been. Ennis had Cora pinned to the ground, and Derek had a long metal pole skewering him like a kebab, courtesy of Kali. And Deucalion stood over him, ready to get on with his plans.

"Sorry about this, Derek," Deucalion said, not really meaning it. "I asked Kali to be gentle, but..."

"This is me being gentle," Kali said, grinning viciously. She twisted the pole in Derek's body, earning a pained groan.

"Let... let her go," Derek said weakly, his eyes never leaving his sister. With a nod from Deucalion, Ennis released Cora. She moved to help Derek, but he shook his head. It'd only end with her getting hurt.

"See? We're not unreasonable," Deucalion said.

"What do you want? You want to kill me?" It was a fight to get out each breath, let alone his words.

"You really think I'm that boring?" he asked. "Don't throw me in with sociopaths like your Uncle. I'm a man with far more vision than simple murder. In fact, I'm here to show you just how much vision a blind man can have."

"You're killing him!" Cora shouted helplessly as Kali once again moved the pole around.

"Not yet, little sister. But I could," she said. Derek began coughing up blood, it dropping into the ever-growing pool underneath him. "Who knows if it's five minutes or five hours before it's too late to take this thing out? But just to be on the safe side, Duke, you might want to get to the point."

Deucalion sighed as he took a seat on the couch, facing Derek. "Now you see the one problem with being in an Alpha pack. Everybody wants to make the decisions. Me? I'm more about discovering new talents. Like you. Like Willow."

"Not interested," Derek muttered. He wouldn't give Deucalion the satisfaction of reacting to the mention of Willow.

"But you haven't even heard my pitch," Deucalion said, sounding disappointed.

"You want me to... kill my own pack."

"No. I want you to kill one of them. Do that, and I won't have to ask you to kill the others. You'll do it on your own," he said. "I did it. Ennis did. Kali did. Tell him what it's like, Kali, to kill one of your own."

"Mm... Liberating," was all Kali said in a cold tone.

"Listen to me, Derek. Do you really want to stay beholden to a couple of maladjusted teenagers bound to become a liability?" Deucalion asked. "And believe me, they will become a liability. In fact, I have a feeling one of them is getting himself into trouble right now."

That is, as long as Ethan and Aiden were following instructions and tormenting Isaac.

"See, the reason I'm always invested in new talent is simple," Deucalion said, moving around the room. "We all know a pack is strongest due to its individual parts. The stronger the individual parts, the greater the whole. When I lost my sight, one of my betas assumed I wasn't fit for my role anymore. He tried to take it from me. Killing him taught me something about alphas I didn't know they could do. His power was added to mine. I became stronger, faster, more powerful than I'd ever been. I tested this new ability to subsume the power of your own by killing another one. In fact, Derek, I killed them all. I took the individual parts and became a greater individual whole."

Kali rocked the pole inside of Derek back and forth, getting joy from the sounds of his pain. Deucalion then crouched in front of Derek, feeling his face since he was too weak and trapped to pull away.

"You're right, Kali. He looks like his mother," Deucalion said, righting himself. Mentioning Talia sent a new wave of anger through Derek, but there was nothing he could do about it. "You'll get to know me, Derek. Like she did."

"I know you," Derek grunted, spitting more blood out. "I know what you are. You're a fanatic."

"Know me?" Deucalion asked, facing him once more. Thunder roared outside, seemingly at his command. "You've never seen anything like me. I am the Alpha of alphas. I am the apex of apex predators! I am death, destroyer of worlds! I am the demon-wolf!"

As lightning struck the window, Deucalion's sunglasses cracked right across his eyes.

"Hate it when that happens," he muttered. But then the flat look on his face shifted to one of twisted delight. "Speaking of new talent."

Derek had to strain his ears, almost not catching it over the blood pumping in his head. But he could smell the fresh scent of strawberry lipgloss and wildflowers, accompanied by her soft humming to herself. It was Willow.

"N - no," Derek said weakly, almost unable to get the word out. "Don't - don't hurt her."

"Oh, I'm not going to hurt her," Deucalion said, chuckling. "Well, much."

Willow let herself into Derek's loft, knowing that he and Cora would be home. But when the door slid open, she was met with a horrific sight. She knew the alphas were there but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Derek, who had an entire pole through his chest. And the puddle of blood under him was unbelievably large.

"Willow, run!" Cora shouted.

But Ennis acted quicker, wrapping his arms around her in a crushing hold. Willow cried out in pain but knew struggling would be pointless.

"What a wonderful surprise," Deucalion said in a chipper tone, coming closer. "And here I thought that I'd have to come to you. You've made this very easy, Willow."

"Please," she begged. "Let him go. Please."

"Oh, we will. He's heard all that needs to be said," he told her. "But I do believe I have a birthday gift for you."

"N - not her," Derek said quietly before choking on blood. Kali twisted the pole once more, making him let out a sharp, pained groan.

"One day, you'll thank me for this," Deucalion said, ignoring Derek.

Ennis grabbed Willow's right arm and forced it out, her struggling absolutely useless against his strength. Deucalion drew nearer, finding her arm. She winced as his claws pierced the skin of her wrist.

"Please. Please," Willow cried, shaking her head. "I don't - I don't want this. I don't want to be a werewolf. Please!"

"Such the charmer, Miss Worthington. You're so delicate and innocent that it almost temps me to let you go," Deucalion murmured. "But not nearly tempting enough."

Deucalion brought her arm to his mouth, tuning out her cries and Derek's weak protests. A sickening crunch sounded throughout the loft followed by Willow's pained scream. It felt like her arm was on fire as his teeth tore through her flesh.

As soon as Deucalion was done with her, Ennis tossed her to the side while Deucalion used a handkerchief to wipe the blood from his mouth. Willow looked at her arm through teary vision, blood flowing from the fresh wound.

"I do hope you survive," Deucalion said, his head still facing toward Willow. Though he was blind, she felt as if his covered eyes were staring right at her, seeing her as clear as day. "Kali, you've had your fun and I've had mine. I suspect we'll need to be getting the twins out of trouble."

In one swift motion, Kali removed the pole from Derek's chest, letting it clatter loudly to the floor. Derek collapsed in the puddle of his own blood, unable to keep himself up. Neither Cora nor Willow looked at the alphas as they left the loft.

Willow crawled across the floor to Derek, reaching him just after Cora. They turned him on his back, seeing his eyes closed.

"Is - is he breathing?" Willow asked in an awfully small voice. If Derek was breathing, it was so weak that his chest wasn't moving. "Oh god, is he breathing?"

Cora leaned in closer, finally picking up on a shallow intake of breath. His pulse was impossibly slow, but it was beating, and that was what was important.

"He's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay," Cora said, trying to convince herself as well as Willow.

Willow nodded and rested her forehead on Derek's. "You're gonna be okay."

"So will you," Cora said quietly. Her eyes weren't on Willow but on her arm.

Willow's voice cracked as she spoke, the weight of the bite finally sinking in. "Will I?"

☽︎

It was a long time before Derek woke up, and when he did, he was laying on the couch in his loft. He let out a low groan before opening his eyes, a dull, aching pain in his chest.

He looked down to see his shirt removed. All the blood had been cleaned off of him. All that remained of the gaping hole in his chest from earlier was a shallow wound. Though it'd be another day or two before he was back in fighting shape.

Then Derek saw Willow.

She was laying with the top half of her body on the couch and the rest on the floor. Her head was resting near his shoulder, not wanting to leave him until she knew he would wake up. There was dried blood on her legs and staining her blue skirt.

Derek's blood.

He zeroed in on her arm that was resting on the couch. Someone had wrapped a bandage around her forearm, but a few red spots of blood were seeping through.

It had been a long time since Derek Hale cried, but it was impossible to stop his eyes from welling with tears as he continued to stare at the covered bite.

Slowly, he lifted Willow's arm and peeled the bandage off. He held his breath, praying that there would be no black blood and that it was already showing signs of healing. The movement stirred Willow, who began to wake up before he could get it all the way off.

"Derek!" she exclaimed, seeing him awake and looking much better. She couldn't stop herself from throwing her arms around him, hugging him tightly. "I thought - I thought they were going to kill you."

"Let me see it," Derek requested in a quiet voice. "Willow, let me see the bite."

She leaned back and saw the tears in his eyes but didn't comment on them. Slowly, she moved her arm so that it was between them. Before Willow could try to get it off with one hand, Derek did it for her. She noticed his hands shaking too, but again, stayed quiet.

When the bandages were peeled off, they both looked at the bite that looked just as fresh as it did when Deucalion had done it. It hadn't even finished clotting.

"It's not healed," Derek whispered, his voice cracking.

"It's only been a few hours," Willow said softly. "It was days before Jackson started rejecting the bite. And he survived—"

"It only took a day for her," Derek cut her off, his voice barely audible. "She - she started getting dizzy and cold and then the blood. A - and then she - she—"

Derek cut himself off and pressed his forehead to Willow's, not wanting to let her go.

"I can't do it again," he whispered, his eyes clenched shut. Even so, a tear slipped down his cheek. "I can't lose you, Willow."

"Is that what happened to her?" Willow asked him quietly. As she comfortingly brushed her thumbs over his cheeks, he opened his eyes once more. "She got bit and she died in your arms."

Willow could count on one hand how many times Derek's first love was mentioned. And she never dared to ask, knowing that whatever happened was far too painful to talk about. But now she had an idea as to what he went through. 

But Derek nodded the slightest bit, letting her know the answer.

"You don't have to tell me," Willow said softly.

"Her name was Paige."

☽︎

For the first time, it was Derek and not Willow who fell asleep while counting the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling in her bedroom. Willow was glad to see him sleeping peacefully, knowing that he was exhausted both physically from the attack and emotionally from talking about Paige.

He told Willow everything about her. How they met because he was an insufferable, annoying little fifteen-year-old. How they fell in love with each shallow argument and snide comment to get on the other's nerves. How Derek was so scared of losing her that he let Peter talk him into having an alpha from an allied pack bite her.

And then when her body rejected the bite, Derek didn't leave her side. Not even when he killed her to end her suffering.

Even though black blood never started flowing from Willow's body, Derek wouldn't stop living in fear of losing her the same way until he had concrete proof that the bite had changed her. The bite never healed after the first day like Scott's and Isaac's and Jackson's. Instead, it was like Lydia's bite. Healing slowly and at a mostly-human rate.

And considering Lydia was hearing things that weren't there and stumbling across dead bodies, Derek wasn't necessarily comforted by that either. Lydia was something, they just didn't know what. But the pack was willing to bet that she and Willow weren't the same — if they were, then Deucalion would've just taken her instead of doing this to Willow.

Willow admired Derek in the dark, a small mushroom-shaped nightlight giving her enough light to see him. He looked so calm and at peace in the way he only ever did when asleep or alone with Willow.

Almost as if he could sense she was close but not close enough, Derek reached out for Willow in his sleep. With a soft smile on her face, Willow intertwined her fingers with one of his hands while his other arm sought her out, pulling her against his chest.

Willow didn't know what was happening. She didn't know what was coming. But as long as she had her dad, Scribbles, Derek, and glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling, she'd make it through whatever the future decided to throw at her.