c h a p t e r t w e n t y
hale no

After texting Stiles that she was okay and that she would explain later, Harper called Derek. Yes, Derek Hale, creepy werewolf with even creepier issues. She needed his help, bad. Surprisingly, he picked up on her first time calling him.

"Derek, I need your help." Harper spoke urgently.

"What is it?" While his tone wasn't panicked, but he did sound slightly concerned.

"Okay, well, you know how you said that the Alpha wanted me in its pack? Well, yeah, it bit me on the night that we were trapped at the school and ever since really strange things have been happening and I don't know-"

"The Alpha bit you?" Derek repeated, this time sounding a little panicked. "What kind of things? How strange?"

Harper groaned. "Can we meet up somewhere? It's probably easier if I explain it to you in person."

"Meet me at Stiles' house." He replied.

He hung up before Harper had the chance to ask him why he was at her boyfriend's house. Harper bit her lip, putting her phone in the back pocket of her jeans. She had gone home quickly to put on some warmer clothes, so it wouldn't take long to get to Stiles' house by foot.

Her grandma stopped her before she could leave the house. "Where are you going?" Rose asked.

Harper forced an awkward smile. "Stiles' house."

"Ah, your boyfriend's house." She raised her eyebrows teasingly.

Ever since Rose had found out about Harper and Stiles dating, she hadn't stopped teasing her granddaughter about it. She was always saying things like 'I told you so' or 'I knew you would end up together when you were only eleven' and refering to Stiles as 'Harper's boyfriend' instead of just 'Stiles'.

"Yes, my boyfriend's house." Harper muttered under her breath, blushing heavily. "Can I go now? I'm having dinner with him." She lied.

Rose nodded. "I suppose." She began to cough. "Silly old cough. It's getting bad again."

Harper frowned. "Do you need me to book you another appointment with the doctors, grandma?" She asked sweetly, concerned.

Her grandma shook her head. "Made one myself. I'll see you when you get back then."

"Okay." Harper was hesitant as she placed a kiss on her grandma's forehead. "You'll be okay?"

"Yes, now go!" Rose chuckled, wheezing a little.

...

Harper rushed towards the Stilinski household just as Stiles pulled up in front of it. He watched her with furrowed eyebrows as she quickly tapped on his window. Stiles opened the door, climbing out.

"What are you doing here?" He questioned, opening the front door to his house. "I mean, not that I don't want you to be here, it's just-"

Rolling her brown eyes, Harper replied. "Derek told me to meet him here. I need to talk to him about the supernatural stuff that's been going on with me, since I have no clue what's happening."

Stiles' eyes widened. "You trust him?!" He exclaimed.

Harper sighed. "He knows more than us. I don't know, maybe he can smell out what I am and then we can go from there. I just know that I'm done with... whatever the hell is happening to me."

Stiles' eyebrows raised as they walked up the stairs. "What is happening to you?"

"I'll explain it when Derek gets here. Saves me having to tell it twice."

The couple entered Stiles' bedroom and Stiles immediately chucked his bag down on the floor beside the door, sitting down at the chair in front of his desk. Harper was about to lay on his bed when she saw a dark figure. She gasped, almost having a heart attack until she realised it was just Derek.

"Hey, Stiles!" Noah called from downstairs.

"Yo, Da- Derek." His eyes widened when he saw him stood there.

Derek held his finger up to his lips and warned Stiles with hand movements to get rid of his dad. Harper sat down on Stiles' bed, watching.

"I, um." Stiles raced towards the door, poking half of his body out to that Noah couldn't see inside.

"What did you just say?" She heard Noah frown.

Stiles scoffed. "What? I said 'Yo, Dad'."

"Listen, I've got something I've got to take care of..."

Harper stopped listening as she turned to face Derek. She didn't know what to say first. The brunette sighed and laid down on the bed, facing the ceiling as she waited for Stiles and Noah to be done talking. She'd wait to see why Derek wanted to meet at Stiles' house in the first place, and then ask him.

"Me too, I'm happy and proud of myself." Harper caught the end of the Stilinski's conversation, mentally cringing at her boyfriend's awkwardness.

"So they're really gonna let you play, right?" Noah hesitated, and Harper had to hold back a snort at the lack of faith that he had in his son.

"Yeah, dad. I'm first line," Stiles announced. "You bet." He added in a squeak.

"I'm very proud." Harper could practically hear the smile on Noah's face.

"Oh, me too." He paused. "Again, I'm... oh."

The door closed behind Stiles fully as his dad wrapped him into a tight hug, patting his back.

"Huggie. Huggie, huggie." He muttered awkwardly as they pulled away from each other.

"See you there." Harper heard Noah say before his footsteps began to go down the hall.

Stiles replied, "Take it easy."

As soon as Stiles came back through the door, Harper sat up in time to see Derek grab his jacket and slam him up against it. Harper's eyes widened and she jumped off of the bed, angrily watching as Derek pointed a finger at the lanky teenager, anger radiating off of him.

Harper could feel his anger for Stiles, and it made her angry at her boyfriend, too. She tried to hold it back, she didn't want to yell at Stiles or be mad at him, but she couldn't help it. What was going on with her?

"If you say one word..." Derek growled.

"What, you mean, like, 'hey, dad, Derek Hale's in my room. Bring your gun'?" Stiles sassed back. "Yeah, that's right. If I'm harboring your fugitive ass, it's my house, my rules, buddy." He slapped Derek's shoulder as the werewolf nodded and released him.

Harper felt the anger melt away and she sighed with relief, falling back onto Stiles' bed. His scent lingered on the covers and the pillows, instantly managing to calm her down even further.

"Scott didn't  get the necklace?" Derek guessed as Stiles sat back down in his desk chair.

"Nope." Harper muttered. "Still working on it."

Stiles nodded, "yeah, but there's something else we can try. The night we were trapped in the school, Scott sent a text to Allison and Harper asking them to meet us there."

Derek frowned, "so?"

"So it wasn't Scott."

Derek frowned even deeper. "Well, can you find out who sent it?"

The boy with the buzz cut shook his head. "No, not me. But I think I know someone who can." He turned around and began to type on his laptop.

Danny.

...

"You want me to do what?" Danny gaped, complete disbelief written across his features as he stood in front of Stiles, his bag hung over his shoulders.

"Trace a text." Stiles replied simply.

"I came here to do lab work. That's what lab partners do."

Stiles groaned. "And we will, once you trace the text."

Harper watched from where she was still sat on the bed as Danny squinted his eyes. "And what makes you think I know how?"

"I looked up your arrest report, so..." Stiles spoke more nervously.

Danny looked completely flustered. "I- I was thirteen." He claimed. "They dropped the charges. No, we're doing lab work."

Harper's head fell against the pillow yet again as she closed her eyes. She wasn't going to sleep, since they were currently in the middle of something very important, but she needed to rest her eyes. The poor girl had been feeling a hell of a lot of emotions today, towards people she didn't even know, towards the people she loved.

She heard typing on Stiles' laptop.

"Who's he again?" She just about heard Danny murmur.

He was talking about Derek who was sat on a chair by the bed, reading a book. Harper waited for Stiles' excuse.

"Um, my cousin... Miguel."

"Is that blood on his shirt?" Danny asked, confused.

Stiles took too long to reply so Harper quickly spoke up, opening her eyes. "Yeah, well, he gets these really bad nosebleeds for, like, no reason sometimes."

Her boyfriend nodded along quickly, turning to face the werewolf at the back of the room. "Hey, Miguel. I thought I told you you could borrow one of my shirts." He nodded his head towards the chest of drawers beside him.

Derek closed the book silently, throwing it down onto the bed beside Harper's feet, missing them by only a couple of centimetres. He got up and took his shirt off, revealing a tattoo on his back. Harper stared at it for a moment, wondering what it meant.

"Stiles?" Derek inturrupted the two teenage boys from talking. "This... no fit." He stretched the smaller shirt in his hands, turning around.

Stiles just glared at him while Danny stared. "Then try something else on." The pale teenager hissed before turning back to Danny, only to see him watching Derek like a hawk.

Harper raised her eyebrows as her boyfriend turned to face her, the two of them sharing knowing smirks.

"That one looks pretty good, huh?" The girl had to hold back a laugh as Derek put on an ugly brown and blue shirt, the material clinging to him like a second layer of skin.

Harper had never even seen Stiles wear that shirt.

Stiles nodded, slapping Derek's shoulder. "What do you think, Danny?"

Danny snapped out of his trance. "Huh?" He replied awkwardly.

Stiles pointed towards a very grumpy looking Derek. "The shirt."

The tan boy sighed loudly, hesitating before saying, "It's... It's not really his colour." He cleared his throat.

Derek took his shirt off again, looking through the drawers for a new one.

"You swing for a different team, but you still play ball, don't you, Danny Boy?" Stiles teased, his voice low as they turned back around to face Stiles' MacBook.

"You're a horrible person." Danny dead-panned.

Stiles didn't miss a beat before replying. "I know. It keeps me awake at night. "Anyway, about that text..."

"Stiles!" Derek suddenly yelled, making Harper jump. "None of these fit." He seethed, holding up a dark shirt in his clenched fist.

Stiles and Harper turned back to Danny.

"I'll need the ISP, the phone number, and the exact time of the text." He said quickly, leaning forwards and pressing something on Stiles' laptop.

...

Harper and Derek stood behind Danny and Stiles as Danny typed away on the laptop. She watched curiously as Danny clicked a button, the screen loading to reveal yet another page.

He sighed. "There." He pointed at the screen. "This text was sent from a computer. This one."

Harper leaned forwards to see better, practically breathing down her boyfriend's neck. Stiles and Harper were both extremely confused, and she could even feel the shock coming off of Derek, only adding to her own surprise.

"Registered to that account name?" Derek confirmed.

Harper shook her head, chuckling nervously. "Surely something's wrong. She wouldn't... Would she?"

Text message located::filesystem catalog entry:

Account registered to:

Beacon Hills Hospital - Melissa McCall

...

Harper was in the back of the jeep while Derek and Stiles sat in the front as they made their way to Beacon Hills Hospital to find the computer that Melissa had sent the text message from, or just Melissa.

"Hey," she tapped the older werewolf's shoulder. "You said that you'd help me find out what's going on with me."

Derek nodded, looking back at the teenage girl. "What's happened since the Alpha bit you?"

He scanned Harper up and down, managing to instantly make her feel uncomfortable. She started to play with her own hands, a nervous habit of hers.

The brunette sighed. "Not what happened to Scott, that's for sure. It took over a day for my bite to heal, and I don't have heightened senses like he did."

"That's because you're not a werewolf." Derek explained. "Remember what I told you. You're not human, you're something else. The Alpha bit you to speed up the process of you gaining whatever power you have so you can join his pack. If you tell me what's happened to you then maybe I can tell you what you are."

"Does that mean there are a whole load of supernatural things living in Beacon Hills?" Stiles interrupted, amazed that he hadn't noticed any strange things happening before Scott had been bitten.

Derek just nodded, shooting Stiles a look of annoyance.

"Cool!" He grinned.

Harper gave him a glare and he stopped. "Well, this is going to sound crazy, but I can feel what everybody else is feeling. Like, in my exam all I could feel was everybody's anxiety, and then I could feel Scott's anger, Lydia's sadness... And it's completely overwhelming."

Derek's eyes were wide. "I know what you are."

Both Harper and Stiles jolted spastically. "Tell me." Harper gasped, feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

The werewolf shook his head. "I don't know how I didn't realise before, your last name is literally Verum." The two teenagers stared at him in complete confusion. "Do you even know what your last name translates to in Latin?"

Harper shook her head no. She wasn't the kind of person to research her family history or look up what her name meant in different languages. She figured the name "Harper Verum" was pretty plain and boring.

"It means truth."

Stiles spoke up. "Harper said something weird in her sleep the night she was bitten... I think it was Latin, too."

Derek looked to Stiles. "Do you know what she said?"

The boy with buzz cut sighed, shaking his head. He wished he had recorded it or memorised the words, but he had been too busy trying to wake Harper up from whatever nightmare she was having.

"Wait, so what am I?" Harper questioned, not knowing if she really wanted to know or not.

"An Empath."

Harper raised her eyebrows. "An Empath?" She repeated, bored. Out of everything she could possibly be, it had to be an Empath- possibly one of the most useless supernatural creatures ever.

Derek nodded once.

"Great, so I'm like a knock-off banshee?" Harper asked sarcastically.

"It's not that bad. If you really want to know about your kind, you should look it up. Empaths aren't common- the last ever family lived in England- your family. But that's about all I know."

"Does that mean I'm the last Empath?" Harper asked, trying to think things over calmly.

"Unless your grandma is, too." Derek replied. "Who was the Empath out of your parents?"

Harper rolled her eyes. "I don't know, I'd ask, but they're kind of dead."

Derek growled at her as a warning. "Which one of your parents had the surname."

"My mum. She kept 'Verum' even when she married my dad. He didn't want to take the surname."

This was news to Stiles. Despite knowing Harper's parents closely before they died, he had always thought they were all just 'Verum'.

"So your mum was the Empath. You need to talk to anybody on your mum's side of the family. If they aren't, then you are the last Empath in the world." Derek announced.

Harper whistled, "that's a lot of responsibility."

Harper had so many more questions, but she was cut off by her phone ringing. She looked down to see Scott's caller ID come up, a cheesy picture of him underneath it. Stiles pulled over and into the car park.

"Did you get the picture?" Scott asked as soon as she put him on speaker, so Derek and Stiles could talk to him too.

"Yeah, I did, and it looks just like the drawing." Stiles explained.

Derek grabbed Stiles' wrist, pulling the phone to his face. "Hey, is there something on the back of it? There's gotta be something. An inscription, an opening, something."

"No, no, the thing's flat. And no, it doesn't open." Scott told them. "There's nothing in it, on it, around it, nothing. And where are you? You're supposed to be here. You're first line."

Harper's heart dropped when she remembered that Stiles was missing his first ever lacrosse game. She heard Scott start to talk to Scott in the background of the call, or more like yell.

"Man, you're not gonna play if you're not here to start." The teen wolf warned him.

"I know." Stiles slammed the bottom of his hand against the wheel, clearly fustrated. "Look, if you see my dad, can you tell him... Tell him I'll be there, I'll just be a little late, okay? All right, thanks."

Harper hung up.

Derek stared at him. "You're not gonna make it."

"I know."

"And you didn't tell him about his mum, either."

Harper sighed. "We're not telling Scott anything until we find out the truth."

It was silent for a few seconds before Derek spoke up again. "By the way, one more thing."

"Yeah." Stiles turned to face him.

Before Harper could react, Derek had grabbed the back of Stiles' head and slammed it into the wheel. Stiles let out a cry and Harper gasped loudly, feeling her nose start to trickle with blood.

"What the hell, Derek?" She cried, her tone muffled as she pinched her nose, trying to stop the bleeding without ruining her white long sleeved shirt.

Stiles was swearing under his breath, yelping rubbed his sore nose.

Derek rolled his eyes, "you know what that was for. Go. Go!"

Harper grumbled out curses as she climbed over the seat, making sure to 'accidentally' kick Derek with her heeled shoe on the way out. She let go of her nose to inspect Stiles' face for any bruising or bleeding. There was nothing.

"Your nose is bleeding." Stiles winced, using the sleeve of his jacket to wipe it away since he didn't have a tissue. "Was that your... empath abilities?"

The brunette rolled her eyes. "I guess."

...

Harper grabbed Stiles' hand as they walked around the empty halls of Beacon Hills hospitals, trying to find Melissa.

"Yeah, I said we can't find her." Stiles told Derek down the phone.

"Look, ask for Jennifer. She's been looking after my uncle."

The couple walked around the corner to Peter's hospital room, only to find it was empty. Everything was clean and untouched, the bed made and not a single personal item in sight.

"Yeah, well, he's not here either." Stiles announced.

"What?" Derek questioned in disblief.

"He's not here. He's gone." Harper reached up onto her toes to speak into the phone. Stiles lowered it slightly for her to talk to before pressing it against his ear again.

Harper didn't hear the rest since Stiles took Derek off speaker phone. She was distracted by a black mist trailing faintly around her feet. She looked up at the same time as Stiles, only to see a man stood there. The black mist surrounded him before Harper blinked, and then suddenly it was gone.

It was Peter Hale, Derek's uncle.

Stiles' eyes were wide as he took in the man, Peter's, appearance. Half of his face was burnt off, from the fire about ten years ago. He just stared at them, his eyes lingering over Harper.

"Harper." Peter allowed a sadistic grin to cross his face. "How is my Empath doing?" He glanced over at the horrified boy standing next to her. "And you must be Stiles."

Stiles grabbed Harper's hand tighter, placing her slightly behind him as he lowered the phone slowly from his ear, taking a step backwards, ready to run. They stopped in their tracks when they saw a nurse stood in their way, an innocent look on her face.

"What are you doing here?" Her tone was mocking. "Visiting hours are over."

Harper's eyes widened, realising that it and been them to send the text message to her and Allison.

Peter Hale was the Alpha.

Stiles' face fell again. "You..." He pointed at the nurse. "And him." He paused. "You're the one who... Oh, my... And he's..." He kept looking back and forth between them. "Oh, my God, we're gonna die. We're gonna die."

"Oh, bloody hell." Harper muttered.

Harper squeezed his hand just as Derek jumped in, smacking the nurse with his elbow and sending her straight to the ground. She remained unconcious and Peter didn't even flinch.

"That's not nice." Peter mocked. "She's my nurse."

Derek huffed. "She's a psychotic bitch helping you kill people. Get out of the way." He gestured towards the two teenagers.

Stiles quickly pulled his girlfriend down with him to the ground, muttering something under his breath, his heart beating out of control. He was honestly more worried about Harper's life than his own. After all, death doesn't happen to you, it happens to the people around you.

"You think I killed Laura on purpose?" Peter began to walk towards Derek. "One of my own family?"

Derek suddenly growled, his eyes flashing an electric blue colour. Derek jumped up onto the wall and kicked off of it, landing straight on Peter. Stiles tugged Harper back as Peter grabbed Derek's jacket, slamming him against the wall.

Stiles shielded Harper as the two werewolves began to fight, slamming each other into walls and growling. Peter threw Derek beside Harper and Stiles, dust from the walls falling on top of them. The teenage boy scrambled away, taking Harper with him behind the reception counter.

The sound of glass smashing and a body falling was the last straw for Stiles. He needed to get Harper and himself out of there. Harper already had the same idea- grabbing Stiles arm and dragging him out of the back of the hospital. They didn't stop running until they were back in Stiles' jeep.

Stiles turned on the engine as Harper suddenly realised. "Wait! What about Derek? He'll be okay, right?" She bit her lip nervously as Stiles pulled out of the hospital.

Stiles looked back at the hospital anxiously. "We can only hope."
..

I hit 1K reads!!! tysm guys !

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