Chapter Four

Stiles sat in Derek's black Chevy Camaro, mixed emotions running through his mind. He wasn't sure if he should have gotten in Derek's car... He did just see him kill that Kate woman... Like... Derek didn't even give Stiles a chance to defend himself, he could have talked Kate out of killing him... She wouldn't really kill him, would she? "Stop that."

Stiles jerked his head toward Derek, confused. "What?"

"You're thinking. Stop it," Derek said, keeping his eyes on the road.

"You can read minds?" Stiles asked, kind of getting freaked out. What is this guy?

"I can hear your heartbeat speed up, you're thinking about Kate, aren't you? Listen, she would have killed you. She would have shown no mercy. What she wanted, she got. She wanted to kill you, and I couldn't let that happen," Derek said, glancing over at Stiles for a split second and went back to driving.

"Why? Why did you save me? Do I know you?"

"We've met before," he said, pulling onto a dirt road that headed into the woods. 

"When?" 

"Ten years ago, remember? You and Scott were attacked by a pack of wolves and I saved you. That's the night that they decided that you were-" He started, but stopped talking.

"I was what?" Stiles asked, not remembering that night but curious about what Derek was clearly too nervous to tell him.

"Nothing," Derek said, not looking at Stiles. 

"No, tell me," Stiles ordered. Derek shot him the scariest look that Stiles has ever seen, Derek's eyes turned bright blue for a second, and then flashed back to hazel.

"You do not order me around, you hear me? I just saved your life, I could have just let her kill you. I did not kill her for you to order me around. If I don't want to tell you something I don't have to, got it?" Derek growled.

Stiles swallowed hard, nodding. 

"Good, now shut up until we get to my house," Derek said, looking back at the road. 

What seemed like forever in silence, they finally reached a half burned down house. "What-"

"My house was burned down around ten years ago, the night we first met. That's how I'm still alive... I wasn't there... But the rest of my family wasn't so lucky... The only people that got out was my uncle, my sister, and I," Derek said, starring at the house.

••••••

Derek walked through the woods, couldn't get that Stiles kid off his mind. He could see those big brown eyes, looking up at him like he was Superman. He heard screams from the other side of the woods, his werewolf hearing letting him hear. He started running once he recognized the screams. His super speed got him to the clearing that his house stood faster than any human.

What he saw broke his heart, his house was on fire, he saw hands come out of the bars of the basement windows, he started to run towards them when he saw headlights, he quickly jumped back, hiding behind a tree.

The car pulled out and quickly left the scene. Derek quickly ran to the bars, looking into his mother's eyes. She didn't look like his mother, her face was all burned up, but her eyes were unmistakable. "Derek... Call... The firemen..." His mother side, "save this house..."

That's when all he saw was flames coming out of the bars.  He slowly backed up, feeling the tears starting to falling down his cheeks. He reached into his pocket and pulled his phone out, dialing the number that his mother gave him just in case this stuff happened. They were special firemen, known to be able to save lives of werewolves. As soon as someone answered Derek began, "hurry to the Hale's house... please... There has been a fire... There still is... Please hurry..."

"Derek," someone said, for a second Derek thought it was from the other line, but the other line had hung up. He turned around to face his uncle. That's when he started sobbing, running into his uncle's open arms.

••••••

"Derek? Hello?" Stiles asked.

Derek came out of his flashback with a gasp, tears starting to come down his checks.

"Derek... What's... What's wrong..." Stiles said, reaching up to wipe Derek's tears away but Derek stopped his hand, more tears falling down. Stiles looked into Derek's eyes and tried again, this time Derek let him. He softly touched Derek's cold skin, wiping away the tears from his face while keeping eye contact. "Whatever happened... It's alright now..."

"No, it's not. All my family died. How could you even say that? You don't know anything. Now get inside and leave me alone," Derek said, getting out of the car and going inside.