Archive of Our Own ^beta

     It happened at an abandoned cabin in the woods, a place Peter would always remember because he couldn’t forget. He’d never forget the deep, earthy scent of the dirt floor and the logs that made the walls, nor how that scent became so intwined with the blood of the innocent lives he’d killed. Though, they were hardly innocent at all.

     Someone had been misfortunate enough to witness Talia shift, or rather, Talia had been careless enough to get caught on tape doing so. Thankfully, the video was never uploaded online, but those who were shown it were just as dangerous. There were seven of them, three women and four men. Highly religious, self-righteous, and fueled by panic, they had taken Talia by surprise.

     They may have gotten away with it if it weren’t for six-year-old Derek having seen the whole thing. The pup had hidden himself when he realized what was happening, thank the moon. Peter shuddered to think of what could have happened to the pup if he’d tried to fight them. Instead, Derek hid, and as soon as they were gone, he booked it home.

     “They took Mom!” Derek shouted as he burst into the house, and Peter was out of his room in a heartbeat, meeting Derek at the bottom of the stairs. He picked the snot-faced pup up as Derek sobbed and hid against his neck as he told him what happened.

     Peter rubbed his back and listened, lips pressed together, and brow furrowed. His tone was even and comforting as he pulled Derek back, looked him in the eyes, and asked the only question he had that Derek hadn’t answered already. “Did they hurt you?”

     Derek sniffled, falling quiet for a moment before shaking his head. “I just want Mommy back.”

     Peter eased at the reassurance that Derek hadn’t gotten hurt. “I’m going to get her back. It’ll be okay,” He reassured him, wiping his tears and scenting him gently before handing him over to his sister-in-law, Hannah. They were the only ones home at the moment; Hannah was human, and Peter didn’t have the time to wait for backup. The weatherman was calling for heavy thunderstorms that afternoon, and if Peter didn’t leave now, he’d risk losing their scent. “Send word to the others. I’ll be back with Talia.”

     “Uncle Peter!”

     Peter froze at the door, twisting to look at Derek as the pup clung to his leg, having thrown himself out of Hannah’s arms. “What is it, pup?” He asked, setting a hand on Derek’s head.

     His nephew stared at him with teary eyes and a trembling lip. “Don’t die.”

     Peter smiled, letting his eyes glow gold and his teeth sharpen his grin. “I won’t,” He promised, ruffling Derek’s hair as Hannah pulled him back gently. The door closed behind him, and Peter set his jaw as he started running. He had an alpha to save- a sister to protect.

     An hour later, Peter had tracked the group to an old, long-abandoned cabin in the woods outside of Beacon Hills. The sun had set, and rain had just started to drizzle down as Peter crouched outside the cabin, listening through the window. He scoffed quietly at the fact that they didn’t have a guard posted outside. Such amateurs.

     “We have to kill it. We can’t have this abomination roaming the streets of Beacon. It’s too dangerous. What if it kills someone? Or worse, what if it makes us into monsters too?”

     “I agree. It’s the merciful thing to do. I’m sure she’d rather die than turn into that horrifying beast.”

     Peter’s lip curled in distaste at the ignorant remarks. His sister was no ‘it’, and she’d certainly never been human to start with like they seemed to think. They were purebloods, after all. He slowly eased himself up, peering through the window into the candlelit room. The group was gathered in a circle as they started discussing who should kill her. His sister was lying on a cot, trussed up and barely awake. They must’ve given her an elephant’s dosage of tranquilizers to keep her docile like this, but he could still see the blaze of red embers in her gaze as she glared at her captors.

     “The women shouldn’t need to do this.”

     “I agree. But that still begs the question, which of us should take the shot?”

     It was one man who spoke up to put the question to rest, and Peter’s fury tripled at the words.

     “All of us. It’s our duty to do so, and four bullets or eight will be better than one or two. A monster like this might not die quickly.”

     Peter barely held back a growl as they all agreed, and he watched as the group shifted, the women pulling away as the men readied their guns. Before any of them could pull the trigger, Peter let out a roar, jumping through the window in an explosion of glass as he took out the fledgeling hunter closest to him.

     A misfire hit the wall behind him, and Peter snarled as he lunged for the next man. In such close quarters, their rifles were mostly useless, and Peter had taken out all seven of them in a matter of minutes. They weren’t all dead, but their threat was neutralized for the moment as Peter moved to his sister’s side. She stared at him with a question in her eyes, and Peter answered as he slashed through her bindings carefully with his claws. “Derek is fine. Came home to get me, and Hannah’s watching him now.”

     Talia coughed and spat at the ground when he took the gag out of her mouth before nodding and exhaling in relief. “Thank goodness. I was worried they might have hurt him.”

     “How did this happen?” Peter asked, and Talia nodded toward the small table in the corner. He turned to see the camcorder resting atop it and scowled. “You have to be more careful,” He scolded, helping her up. She was a bit unsteady but managed to keep her feet under her as he guided her toward the door.

     “This is not my fault,” Talia hissed defensively, cutting her eyes at him.

     Peter kept his tongue and ushered her through the door, only to freeze as a woman spoke up behind him.

     “You won’t get away with this…” She wheezed, one of her ribs possibly broken. “We’ll find you, and we will kill you. You and your kids, Hale!”

     Peter growled loudly, his eyes blazing gold with fury. His teeth ached as his fangs filled his mouth again, and he looked at Talia as the woman behind them kept threatening their pack, their pups .

     Talia’s eyes were blazing red as their eyes met, but she made no move to shut the woman up. Nor did she order Peter to leave it be. All Talia did was close her eyes and turn away from him.

     It wasn’t permission, per se, but it was as good as she’d give him, and Peter couldn’t let a threat to the pack persist, especially if his alpha wouldn’t take care of it herself. With a loud roar, Peter turned back around, rushing the woman who spewed such filth about their deaths.

     Ten minutes later, Peter walked out of the cabin, a clawed and bloodied hand grasping the camcorder at his side. Rain poured down over him, steadily washing away the blood trail that followed his footsteps. Her red eyes met the new, blue glow of his own, and her lips downturned at the corners. “That was unnecessary,” She murmured.

     Peter scoffed, brushing past her. “Didn’t see you stopping me.”

     Talia was silent as she fell into step behind him, and a few minutes passed as they trudged through the mud and rain before she spoke up. “Things will be different from now on.”

     Peter glanced back at her, and his eyes were back to their regular blue, but the gaze he leveled on her was just as intense as the fury that lit his eyes so shortly ago. “Then so be it.”

*****

     “Mommy!” Derek flung himself at his mother when they got home, and Peter’s chest squeezed as Derek’s face lit up with a broad smile as Talia bent down to hug him before standing back up, letting Derek’s attention turn to his uncle.

     “Thank you, Uncle Peter!” He said, jumping at him, seemingly unaware of his wet clothes and the blood that still stained them. “You saved her!”

     Peter smiled, hugging his nephew close. “Of course. That’s what I do, pup,” He told him, his eyes raising to the pack as he caught the whispered news Talia gave the others. Incensed but not backing away, Peter let his eyes blaze blue as they stared at him. “I’ll always save my pack.”

     Talia frowned, and some of the others avoided his gaze uneasily, but Hannah met his eyes and nodded at him. She understood, maybe better than any wolf. After all, a human’s eyes never betray their secrets.

*****

     In the bullpen of the BHPD, a young deputy stared at the files in front of him, the dental records of seven missing persons that matched those of the half-destroyed skeletons found in the ruins of a cabin that burned to the ground. It was ruled an accident, a hunting trip gone wrong because there was no evidence pointing elsewhere. The details didn’t match up, though. They told no one where they were going, and not a single one of them managed to escape the tiny cabin before it burned. He picked up one of the files, frowning at the picture that featured the tibia of one victim, with four deep gouges in the bone.

     An unplanned trip, a single-room cabin trapping seven people inside, and unexplained bone trauma? There was definitely something deeper going on there. If only he had some lead to follow…

     “Hello?” Noah answered his phone as it rang and smiled, putting the case out of his mind as he closed the file and shuffled them all into a pile on his desk. “Yeah, I’m on my way home, Claudia. Alright, I’ll see you soon. Yes, I’ll pick up some curly fries… Right, love you too.” He chuckled as he hung up, shaking his head fondly at his wife’s pregnancy cravings. He grabbed his jacket, found his keys (why were they in his coffee cup?), and said goodnight to the receptionist on his way out.

     Hannah Hale waved him goodnight, and Noah left, leaving no one behind in the quiet station to notice as Hannah sat at his desk and opened the files. She bit her lip as she found the photo of the claw marks, glancing around cautiously as she slipped it into her purse and set the file back down, shuffling it under some of the others.

     Clocking out as the late night shift took over a short while later, Hannah ducked into an alley next to the parking garage and pulled out the photo with a lighter, setting it ablaze and letting it flutter to the ground as she watched it burn to nothing.

     Hannah wasn’t a wolf by bite or blood, but she was still a Hale, and she’d do whatever it took to protect her pack.