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teleios } { for derek
She’s been hanging out on the outskirts of this pack for a couple weeks.
They know she’s there but they don’t really acknowledge her outright. It’s better for them if they don’t ask questions, and they know it. They know who she is, can see her mother in the angles of her profile and they want her to stay away. If word got around that they had taken in the last of the Hales, the Calaveras would probably come and tear through their pack to get to her and Cora doesn’t want that for them either. As it is, she won’t be staying much longer than this – she may only be thirteen but she knows enough to know that staying still for too long is making herself an easier target to shoot, and she doesn’t intend to die anytime soon.
She’s been pulling this kind of game for years, only staying long enough to get rid of any scents on her tail and then moving on again. She hates it, never really settling, no family, no pack, but it’s what she has to do to survive. It’s what she has to do until she can find Laura.
(And Laura has to be alive. Her mother’s power had to go somewhere, and since it didn’t go to Cora, one of her siblings had to have survived. She’s banking on Laura, hoping against hope that the person who was being trained to be an alpha is strong enough to push through, but she’d take Derek too. Anyone, so long as they were family.)
Valentina is a wolf about her age, with long dark hair and a sunny smile. She’s probably the closest thing Cora has to a friend, even if they’re not actually friends. She works in a bakery in the middle of the city and will sometimes bring Cora fresh bread and occasionally even something sweet so she has something to eat. Between that and occasional meals she’s able to trade for, she has a pretty decent life. She also still winds up stealing, but it’s only what she absolutely needs that she can’t get anywhere else.
And the hunters still come. The hunters always come. It’s why Valentina is there with her now, even though she shouldn’t be. She is the one who dragged her to one of the pack’s safehouses, hidden away from the eyes of hunters so that they can treat a bullet wound that Cora should have been fast enough to miss. The hunter got lucky, and that only serves to piss her off more, even though she’s in pain. The pain is fading, though, along with the smell of ozone and burning skin, and Valentina is placing the cooling blowtorch to the side.
“You shouldn’t be here.” Cora shifts into a sitting position, one hand resting against her side. “If they find us…”
“They won’t find us.” Valentina stands, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she leans against the far wall. There’s a distance there that comes when she has to say something she doesn’t want to, and Cora already knows what it is before she says it. “But my abuelita says you need to leave.”
Valentina’s grandmother was the alpha of the pack, and had been eyeing Cora warily for some time. Cora’s honestly surprised this hadn’t come sooner, but she hadn’t been a direct threat before. She just hopes that none of the other pack members had gotten hurt in the crossfire. Cora nods, agreeing because she had to, because those were the choices an omega got, but still sad all the same.
She had liked it here. She wishes she could have been here longer.
“Okay. I’ll head out in the morning, once I pack my stuff.”
“There’s something else you should know.”
Cora turns and blinks at her, surprised. She isn’t sure what exactly it is that, unless it’s hunter recon or hazards about another pack, but this didn’t feel like that. The way Valentina is looking at her, it almost seems hopeful. Like what she has to say is good news. “There is?”
“There have been some … rumors. I don’t have a lot of details, so I don’t know how true they are but it’s about the Hale alpha.”
It almost seems too good to be true. In recent months she had started to think that maybe she was making it up. Maybe there was no chance that her family was out there and something else had happened to cut off the line of succession. She’s been looking for this news for so long, and she drinks it in like a man in the desert, dying of thirst.
“What about her?”
“I don’t know if it’s a he or a she, but there’s rumors that they’re in Beacon Hills.” There’s a pause an Valentina takes a few steps closer, taking Cora’s hands in hers and giving them a small squeeze. “They’re building a pack. You can go home.”
Cora isn’t really sure how much of a home Beacon Hills is anymore, not when the city stood by and let the Argents destroy its protectors. But at the same time if the Hale alpha, her alpha was already there, then that’s exactly where she should be.
“Are you sure? Are you sure it’s not the hunters setting a trap?”
She shakes her head. “No. I heard it from one of the visiting pack members from Guadalajara. Then there was some news a couple weeks before that. It’s coming from the wolves, not from humans.”
The news bowls her over a bit, hands coming forward to brace herself against the table she’s sitting on, but Valentina is there to catch her, sliding her arms around her shoulders and pulling her in tight. It takes her a moment to even really respond to the hug, but when she does, she’s hugging her back just as fiercely.
“Thank you,” she murmurs against her shoulder. For protecting her or for giving her this last bit of hope, she isn’t entirely sure, but she does know that she won’t forget this, even if she never sees her again, and the odds for that are high. And while she is sad about that, losing the first real friend she’s had in a very long time, she can’t help but feel joyous all at the same time, because Valentina has given her one of the best gifts she could.
Cora’s going home.
1044 words
They know she’s there but they don’t really acknowledge her outright. It’s better for them if they don’t ask questions, and they know it. They know who she is, can see her mother in the angles of her profile and they want her to stay away. If word got around that they had taken in the last of the Hales, the Calaveras would probably come and tear through their pack to get to her and Cora doesn’t want that for them either. As it is, she won’t be staying much longer than this – she may only be thirteen but she knows enough to know that staying still for too long is making herself an easier target to shoot, and she doesn’t intend to die anytime soon.
She’s been pulling this kind of game for years, only staying long enough to get rid of any scents on her tail and then moving on again. She hates it, never really settling, no family, no pack, but it’s what she has to do to survive. It’s what she has to do until she can find Laura.
(And Laura has to be alive. Her mother’s power had to go somewhere, and since it didn’t go to Cora, one of her siblings had to have survived. She’s banking on Laura, hoping against hope that the person who was being trained to be an alpha is strong enough to push through, but she’d take Derek too. Anyone, so long as they were family.)
Valentina is a wolf about her age, with long dark hair and a sunny smile. She’s probably the closest thing Cora has to a friend, even if they’re not actually friends. She works in a bakery in the middle of the city and will sometimes bring Cora fresh bread and occasionally even something sweet so she has something to eat. Between that and occasional meals she’s able to trade for, she has a pretty decent life. She also still winds up stealing, but it’s only what she absolutely needs that she can’t get anywhere else.
And the hunters still come. The hunters always come. It’s why Valentina is there with her now, even though she shouldn’t be. She is the one who dragged her to one of the pack’s safehouses, hidden away from the eyes of hunters so that they can treat a bullet wound that Cora should have been fast enough to miss. The hunter got lucky, and that only serves to piss her off more, even though she’s in pain. The pain is fading, though, along with the smell of ozone and burning skin, and Valentina is placing the cooling blowtorch to the side.
“You shouldn’t be here.” Cora shifts into a sitting position, one hand resting against her side. “If they find us…”
“They won’t find us.” Valentina stands, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she leans against the far wall. There’s a distance there that comes when she has to say something she doesn’t want to, and Cora already knows what it is before she says it. “But my abuelita says you need to leave.”
Valentina’s grandmother was the alpha of the pack, and had been eyeing Cora warily for some time. Cora’s honestly surprised this hadn’t come sooner, but she hadn’t been a direct threat before. She just hopes that none of the other pack members had gotten hurt in the crossfire. Cora nods, agreeing because she had to, because those were the choices an omega got, but still sad all the same.
She had liked it here. She wishes she could have been here longer.
“Okay. I’ll head out in the morning, once I pack my stuff.”
“There’s something else you should know.”
Cora turns and blinks at her, surprised. She isn’t sure what exactly it is that, unless it’s hunter recon or hazards about another pack, but this didn’t feel like that. The way Valentina is looking at her, it almost seems hopeful. Like what she has to say is good news. “There is?”
“There have been some … rumors. I don’t have a lot of details, so I don’t know how true they are but it’s about the Hale alpha.”
It almost seems too good to be true. In recent months she had started to think that maybe she was making it up. Maybe there was no chance that her family was out there and something else had happened to cut off the line of succession. She’s been looking for this news for so long, and she drinks it in like a man in the desert, dying of thirst.
“What about her?”
“I don’t know if it’s a he or a she, but there’s rumors that they’re in Beacon Hills.” There’s a pause an Valentina takes a few steps closer, taking Cora’s hands in hers and giving them a small squeeze. “They’re building a pack. You can go home.”
Cora isn’t really sure how much of a home Beacon Hills is anymore, not when the city stood by and let the Argents destroy its protectors. But at the same time if the Hale alpha, her alpha was already there, then that’s exactly where she should be.
“Are you sure? Are you sure it’s not the hunters setting a trap?”
She shakes her head. “No. I heard it from one of the visiting pack members from Guadalajara. Then there was some news a couple weeks before that. It’s coming from the wolves, not from humans.”
The news bowls her over a bit, hands coming forward to brace herself against the table she’s sitting on, but Valentina is there to catch her, sliding her arms around her shoulders and pulling her in tight. It takes her a moment to even really respond to the hug, but when she does, she’s hugging her back just as fiercely.
“Thank you,” she murmurs against her shoulder. For protecting her or for giving her this last bit of hope, she isn’t entirely sure, but she does know that she won’t forget this, even if she never sees her again, and the odds for that are high. And while she is sad about that, losing the first real friend she’s had in a very long time, she can’t help but feel joyous all at the same time, because Valentina has given her one of the best gifts she could.
Cora’s going home.
1044 words