Revelations

The scent hit him like a punch to the gut. Lavender with an undercurrent of newly turned earth. The moon sat high in the clouds pale and pregnant with silence. The hushed murmurs of the pack plaguing his ears he lifted his face to the night sky, nostrils flaring the scent came and went with the wind. Closing his eyes briefly to the flashing flames from the fire Derek rolled his shoulders, a clawed hand roughly massaging away the stiffness in his left shoulder.

Attention returning to his gathered "family" a smirk lit across his lips. Settling for an uncomfortable grin his gaze flitted over each member in attendance. The newest members jabbing each other restlessly in whatever vulnerable area they could find made him smile. New beginnings were bittersweet and he knew that. Never to last long. He settled himself across from Scott and Allison he watched with bitter resentment at the subtle stares between the teens. Scott leaning in but more around Allison, his hand resting on her thigh and the way he would sneakily steal chances to inhale her scent. Memorizing it.

Derek moved his gaze to Stiles and Lydia. A genuine smile peaked at the edges of his chiseled mouth. That boy was relentless. He watched the teen slide barely inches closer to the girl, trying with witty and smart assed remarks to maintain her attention. He knew how hard that was, keeping the attention of a newly. Even during his observations of his pack the scent continued to assail his sense, turning them on edge and thrumming through him like the thrill of the first hunt.

A tentative peace had settled over his pack and the residents of Beacon Hills. His member quota met and secured Derek still found himself unsettled if not completely on edge. Hard to rest with the Argents sniffing around his feet like dogs. For three weeks he kept the newest residents of his pack in line, forbidding the turning of anyone else and condemning baseless attacks on the local humans. He glanced back to Allison, a frown flitting across his face before he quickly masked it with his well known stoicism.

A hunter in training, female none the less the girl played the system like a well tuned instrument. Gaining her knowledge in everything from hand to hand combat to basic explosives she was quickly becoming the most formidable human opponent Derek had ever drifted across. Yet she played her father so well, keeping up her trysts with Scott in secrecy. Derek had agreed with Erica and Boyd that maintaining their tentative friendship with Scott was key in the packs survival. New, unidentified Hunters streamed into the forests of Beacon Hills with a vengeance. Something was building and gaining strength fast.

He considered a pre-emptive strike against the Argents. Contimplating everything from the forced turn of Allison to the sequential elimination of everyone close to the lead Hunter. Choices, choices, choices he mused with a smirk. In one of Stiles offhanded quips the boy mentioned should Allison ever be turned, regardless of the situation, she would become one of the most dangerous female Omegas to be created to date.

That alone was enough to consider her for potential future addition to the pack. Was it worth it though? Raking enlarged and vicously sharpened nails across the day old stubble on his chin the scent slammed into him again, scattering any thoughts of war and settling in the pit of his stomach like a lead weight.

Agitated he rose to his feet, ignoring the curious stares from juvenile members at his sudden shift in demeanor. Eyes shining with malicious ruby lights he hastily beat a path through the back door of his newly acquired cabin. Sporting a simple one bedroom layout it was his newest addition to growing assets attained from the insurance pay-outs from his uncles sudden passing. His unsettled agitation growing by the second he grabbed his keys from the counter leaving tell tale gouges in the marbled top.

Winding a path through the boxes litering his living room he awkwardly grappled with the door knob. Damnit why didn't he have handles installed instead of knobs? Anger at being assailed with the unknown engulfed him, just what in the fuck was he smelling? He stopped a moment before reaching his car door, lifting his shifted face to the wind and inhaling. It was there again, briefly disappearing before rushing back to his flared nostrils. He had tracked everything in his life from injured humans to the stench of rotting corpses. This was nothing like what he was experiencing now and it left him with the unsettling sense of forboding as he pulled out of his gravel drive, gunning the sports car in drive and blitzing down the road.

A New Beginning

"I'm getting the last boxes, can you start taking pictures Mom?" her booted feet tripped up on the new stone walkway leading from her front door to the SUV parked in the drive.

"Yeah honey I got this hurry up and finish!" Her mother's voice echoed out from the sprawling ranch style home. Giddy she cradled the last two boxes against her chest, barely escaping dropping her cargo as she slammed the trunk door closed. The sounds of tiny laughter filtered out into the chilly night air, filling her heart with a sense of home for the first time in her life.

Marley Brock had been anything but stable in the past. Moving from apartment to apartment she toted her three kids along with her. Still babies themselves she had struggled with single parenthood, especially to her disabled son. Evan having been diagnosed with spots of brain death and autism she had centered her life around his care.

He was eight now and a testament to all his mother's hard work. Told he would never walk let alone run and laugh like other children his age he had blown away his specialist at every turn. Now being able to be removed from integrated classrooms to standard settings he was flourishing with minimum setbacks. Caught up in her absent musings , she clumsily tripped on the same walkway. Both boxes went flying into the snow littered front yard, scattering pictures and mementos in disarray.

Scrambling to save her children's baby books from the soggy earth she barely noticed the black sedan blaze a path through her street, break lights blaring and its speed greatly decreasing it slowed to a stop just from sight around the corner.

She glanced up, dismissing it as another deranged teen she returned her attention to repacking the boxes.

"Mar seriously they're driving me nuts!" Her mother Kat's voice beat a shrill path through her ears and straight into headache land. Heaving a sigh she struggled with her load again, balancing it on one knee as she settled in and made a slow trek to her door. Hands shot out from the doorway to catch one of the rogue boxes as it started to fall causing Marley to grappled for it. Her footing compromised she landed with a resounding thud on the concrete stoop. Dazed but still smiling she stared up at her mother's face above her, the same cock eyed grin plastered over her aging mouth Kat stuck out her tongue at her daughter.

"You have got to be the most clumsy shit I have ever seen!" Kat reached down grasping Marley by the elbow and struggled to lift her oldest baby from the wet cement.

"Who the hell is that?" Kat's attention had been drawn to the slow moving black sedan drifting lazily past their new home. Bracing her awkward position with one hand Marley turned to stare in the direction her mother was glaring. The same sedan from minutes before was inching its way past her house but the darkly tinted windows did nothing to reveal its occupants.

"Fuck if I know Ma, probably lost or something." Marley brushed the sleet and dirt from her rear end, shivering as her eyes continued to follow the disappearing vehicle.

"Well if the asshole comes back I'm callin' the cops." Kat absently brushed snow from her daughters shoulders and back length raven hair.

"You know you should start dating, we're in a new place and a different situation you know you could get laid and save us the depressive slump you've been in?" Marley's mouth fell open in astonishment Chocolate eyes flashing with amusement she stepped past her mother into the house, pausing to pat her on the shoulder.

"Yeah and you could stop aging at an advanced rate and save me the nursing home bill for a few more years!"

"Who said anything about a nursing home brat your changing my diapers!"

Their bantering became muffled then silence as Kat closed the door. Derek sat on the trunk of his car just around the bend from the house, confusion furrowing his brow and hands clasped tightly together. Just what in the fuck was that all about? He licked his lips, now tasting the scent as well as it assailing his nose. So that's where it was coming from, her? He brushed the falling snow flakes from his face trying in vain to concentrate his acute hearing on the sounds echoing from the house. He growled low in his throat, rolling his eyes when all that met his ears was the sounds of kids running through the house and adults laughing it up. He managed to catch snipets of conversation as he sat, snow building up on his broad shoulders and hair. He managed to make out the kids names Evan, Ethan and Elizabeth. Pretty ordinary to him he also caught what he hoped was the woman's last name being hollered at her as she was rudely requested to get her son's shoe out of the dishwasher.

Marley Brock. At least he had a name to go with the aggravating scent. It had receeded since they closed their door leaving Derek with nothing but a strong memory to go on. It definitely wasn't a werewolf from around the area, hell if he didn't create them he was closely related to them all. To beat it all it didn't even have the usual musky signature of a shifter at all, just that undercurrent of earth to it and that left the Alpha completely baffled.

Sliding from the lid of his trunk Derek briefly fought to keep his footing on the quickly freezing pavement. That was it, he was pissed, not only did this bitch make him curious but he almost fell on his ass. Slamming his car door shut with force he started the engine and struck off into the quickly approaching snow storm.

Marley Brock.

He would find out every piece of dirt on this chick if it was the last thing he did. He knew were to start to as he picked up his cell phone from the center console.

"Stilleesss…" his usually deep voice cracked and that just pissed him off more "No you fucking idiot I'm not in the house, do me a favor and call your pops tell him you need a favor."

Barely controlled irritation whitened Dereks knuckles as he gripped his phone.

"No dip shit I don't need help getting rid of a body I need him to do a background run on a Marley Brock, lives at 28 Deers Run Road…"

"Yes I know that's my street Stiles just do as I ask." Stiles muttered off one of his typical sarcastic replies and quickly hung up the phone. Throwing his cell across the car's cabin when he heard the dead tone Derek growled outright. Pissed at Stiles and pissed at his sudden consuming curiousity about Marley he skidded his car to a halt just before his driveway.

Glancing into his rear view he took note of exactly how close the bitch lived to him. Maybe two or three hundred feet, drive way to drive way. Oh this was going to be a piece of cake.

Road Block

Her muscles protested at movement. Groaning Marley rolled to her side bracing one hand against her wrought iron head board and the other trembling against her eyes she sought to shut out her nightmare. Smoke, god the smell lingered on her clothes and in her nose. Bitter and accompanied by the sickly sweet scent of blood it was all she could do not to vomit in her mouth.

They had been in their new home for a little over two weeks. Those two weeks had been the busiest she had ever had. Registering her three kids for school, enrolling them in daycare, getting their physicals, registering with the local tax office and submitting her background check to the homeowners association had drained her. She still wasn't done yet that was the bad thing. Tossing her hair up into a messy bun she leaned back against her hands, legs dangling off the side of the tall bed. Grocery shopping, doctors appointment, and oil change. She mentally checked off her to-do list, tilting her head back with a depressed sigh.

The damn dream had been tormenting her for the last five nights. Stealing precious sleep from her schedule and leaving her feeling terrified and physically drained. It always started with hearing someone's heart beat. Not the usual thump-thump but the racing melody beating vicously against the persons chest. It was then she could smell the blood and feel metal cutting into her wrists.

She dragged herself into an upright position, rubbing her left wrist absently, that was always the one that hurt the most. She continued to let her mind run over the nightmare. The beautiful but older house being licked by towering flames. Screams echoing into the winter sky, hands burst from the basement windows. The skin was bubbling and falling from their fingers, small and large alike. It was akin to watching an ice cube melt, but the horror of watching bone begin to protrude from the holes while they still wriggled in agony was what stuck in Marley's tortured mind.

She knew in her heart that the majority of the screams were children. Small ones at that. They set apart from the deeper voices of the adults, high pitched and keening they begged for help Marley knew would never come. She remembered feeling the intense hatred and rage then overwhelming guilt. It had been plaguing her, assaulting her throughout her days as if it was her own children doomed to die. The vision of thick wrists straining and breaking their metallic bonds was something that was relatively new. It had started a few days into the horrible experience. She could always remember watching the blood stream down muscled forearms, smell its acrid scent.

Closing her eyes against the phantom screams still resounding in her head she rubbed her weary eyes and rubbed her wrist again. Fuck it was hurting more than usual. It didn't register in her mind until she felt the cold drip on her bare thigh. Her attention slammed to the forefront as her eyes took in her body's state. Singe marks licked at the edge of her shorts, smearing a bleak path across her thighs and disappearing underneath her Ramones t-shirt.

A weak whimper forced its way up her throat as she gingerly touched her left wrist again, holding up her hand with its blood coated fingertips just infront of her nose. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she fell from her bed, fighting desperately to gain her footing she scooted on her rear end into her bathroom a scant few feet away. Her index finger nail broke back painfully into the quick while she pulled herself up and grabbed the towel from its rack.

"Shit, shit , shit, shit oh fuck, shit!" She bitterly spat out the words as she applied pressure to her wrist. The blood seeped through the thick cotton forcing her to double over the fabric. Leaning her lower body against the counter she flipped on the faucet vaguely noticing the scalding temperature of the liquid as it streamed over her bloodied wrist. It turned the water a sharp , bright red in contrast with the brilliant white of the porcelain sink.

Squinting her eyes to clear the tears from her vision she turned her wrist this way and that, the water making slow work of clearing away the blood. Its sharp scent tickled her nose putting her on the verge of turning up her stomach. Swallowing the bile she leaned closer towards the sink, absently blowing strands of hair that fell into her eyes.

It was a crude, jagged tear that circled her entire wrist. Seperating the skin from bone she could see the vivid white peaking through the blood and tissue.

Just Fuck.

Her mind whirled with possibilities as to the cause of her injury. Turning off the water she wrapped her wrist in the same bloody towel, stopping to flick off the light she left bloody fingerprints all over her wall. Rolling her eyes then wincing at the sudden onset of stinging pain it was all she could do not to pass out.

Reaching her bedside her eyes took in the previously unnoticed scene. Her usually white cotton sheets were streaked with black soot, everything from her pillowcases to comforter. The bright red blood stood out in terrifying contrast as it was smeared in foot long sections on her pillows and mattress. Dazed and astonished she simply stood there dumbfounded. There was nothing that she could see that would have ravaged her wrist the way it was, nothing she could have gotten caught on in her sleep that could have produced that much damage.

Not to mention the soot smeared for miles. Marley spun around, examining her curtains, carpet and the room in general. Her dripping wrist forgotten she sought out any sign of smoke or fire damage. Nothing was there, the green light flashing from the smoke detector on her ceiling confirmed her belief that wherever it had come from, it wasn't in this room or this house.

Banging her sore forearm against her bed post she was jerked back to the present concern of her profusely bleeding appendage. Cursing thickly at the scattered crimson stains on her precious golden carpet she held up her wrist to her chest, cradling it and the soaked towel she made a hasty path out of her room and into the hallway.

Bouncing clumsily against the wall she rounded the corner into the kitchen, her mother Kat looked up briefly before dropping her spatula to the ground.

"What the fuck happened?" Kat scurried around the kitchen island, stubbing her bare foot on the corner. Letting out a string of explicit unbecoming language she jerked Marley onto the wooden barstool. Beating a path back to the kitchen sink Kat grabbed a roll of paper towels. Unraveling it as she lit back to her daughter, she dropped the cigarette from her mouth onto the stone kitchen flooring.

"Mom your ashing all over the fucking kitchen." Marleys quiet words rang loudly through the eerily quiet room.

"Mar your bleeding all over the place and your worried about my smokes?" Kat harsh words bit into Marley's diminishing awareness. The room seemed to tilt this way and that, settling at an awkward sideways view. Her body slumped sideways tilting the barstool at a dangerous position before it dumped her pale form into the kitchen floor.

"Mar? Marley Ann baby open your eyes!" Kat fell to the floor beside her daughter, gripping roughly at the torn skin trying to stop the pouring of blood. Marley tried in vain to open her eyes, catching a brief glimpse of the ceiling and her mothers tear streaked face before her world went black.

An Unsettling Run-In

Derek rubbed the side of his head as the shrill bleating of sirens assaulted his sensitive hearing. He loved the acute hearing when he needed it but cursed it in his day to day activities. Everything had become ten times more sensitive since becoming the Alpha.

Turning his attention from the snot nosed child across from him he stared at the glass doors as they whooshed open. Four paramedics rushed in, yelling out vitals and information of their latest save. The smell of blood rushed his senses as it dripped from the side of the gurney onto the speckled laminate flooring.

Covering his nose discreetly with his hand he wrinkled his brow at the scene unfolding before him. The body stretched out haphazardly on the gurney was a striking pale shade of grey. The paramedics obscured his view of the patients upper body but by the painted purple toe nails he assumed the person was female.

Shaking his head at Beacon Hills latest accident victim he had little time to let what he was hearing catch up to the smell that rushed him like a linebacker. It was back. Lavender and earth swam around his head in a dizzy haze, making him squeeze his eyes shut before slamming them open when his mind processed the sounds in the emergency room.

Marley Brock. Female. 28 years old. Severe laceration to the left wrist. Significant blood loss. Weak vitals.

He jerked upright in his chair, his magazine falling unceremoniously to the floor. Eyes momentarily flashing red he closed them briefly, regaining the control her scent stole from him he slowly stood. Quietly making his way to stand just beyond the nurses station he peered into the open curtained room the woman was taken into.

A rush of nurses and doctors surrounded the gurney obstructing his view of Marley. Her small body was being jerked this way and that, still laying limply, she obviously was becoming unresponsive. He caught the streak of an older woman rush past him, skidding to a halt at the window of the nurses station.

"Marley Brock, my daughter came in by ambulance what room?" The woman's rough voice bit out the demand, the keys in her hand shaking violently against the counter top.

A middle aged nurse quickly came out from around the window, gently taking the woman by the arms, she led her to a nearby chair and forced her down.

"Please…my baby please.." her speech was choked up by a sob "where is she , is she okay?" Derek watched the pulse beat in Kat's throat, momentarily mesmerized by its rabbit speed thump against her skin.

"They have her just across the hall, over there." The nurse pointed in the direction of all the activity. "You can't go in there you'll just get in the way hun," Kat held her breath, her neck and cheeks turning pink with frustration. "You can watch from right here and I promise you as soon as shes stable we will take you right in."

"Yes, thank you uhm…" Kat looked to the nurse's badge dangling between them "Rose, yes thank you." Her hand nervously grasped at the back of her head, the color slowly receeding as she calmed herself.