CHAPTER 41

"This is not how I thought our meeting would go." Deaton said while tapping on the countertop as he faced Derek.

Derek's claws were out, extended an extra length at the fingertips, as he growled threateningly at the composed man. "You still haven't answered my question. Who are you?" 

Deaton on the other hand remained unfazed behind the counter at Derek's theatrics and continued tapping on the counter. To be perfectly honest, he would have been happy had none of the complications of the supernatural dragged him in any further but unfortunately it was just not to be. 

"I'm just a veterinarian." Deaton said calmly. 

"You're not telling me the whole truth." Derek said as he walked closer to Deaton, straining his senses on the man before him but he didn't find what he was looking for – a slight uptick – meaning he wasn't scared. 

"Well, that's the funny thing about truths, isn't it. It's hardly ever whole."

Having had enough of the roundabout answers, Derek reached forward to grab Deaton who was in arm's reach, but something surprising happened… 

VWOOM. 

His hands came against a blue barrier that bounced him back, shocking him greatly as his face turned from stunned to grim. 

"Who are you!?" Derek immediately became guarded and his senses went into overdrive due to the development of the current events. 

"Mountain ash. You should be quite familiar with it." A small smile graced Deaton's as he spoke. He tapped a little harder on the countertop for emphasis, "It's quite a blessed thing, isn't that right? Just a handful and it'll ward against any supernatural."

"You're not the Alpha."

"I thought that was already established?" 

Derek stood in front of the counter, which he concluded had mountain ash filtered in it. "You haven't answered my earlier question." He stated. 

Deaton put on a thoughtful expression for a few seconds before schooling it back before making his way to sit on the chair and then gestured for Derek to do the same to the chair behind him.

"I figured a civil conversation would be better accomplished with both of us facing each other… seated down." Deaton's words made Derek grit his teeth with the realization that the momentum wasn't with him but with the man in front of him. And also the fact that he couldn't retake it by attacking him irked him more. 

Derek acquiesced the silent demand and took his seat. He could be pretty reasonable if he wanted to. "So?"

Deaton chuckled at Derek's hard-headedness. "I'm not the Alpha."

Derek rolled his eyes at Deaton's sarcasm but he didn't let it roll off him unhindered. "Well, I think that was the first thing I established after walking in, right?"

"Touché."

"Is this what we're going to do? Back and forths?"

"Well, no." Deaton said. "Personally I would've preferred this conversation never happened." Derek's expression showed that he didn't suffer Deaton's unfortunate circumstances. "Right."

"Are you one of them?" He asked. 

"'Them'? You mean the Hunters? No." The not-so-normal veterinarian shook his head. "I'm more of a person that tows the blurred lines."

"Nice wordings there, but you still haven't answered what you are." It was only the fact that he knew he couldn't strike him that held him back. 

"Well for one, I'm completely human. I more of a guide-" 

"An Emissary." Derek interjected as he recalled the human, well at least they looked so, advisors that the Alpha's of old had, even his mother. But if he was an Emissary then… 

"I'm afraid me being an Emissary is sort of wrong in and of itself, as it turns out that it used to be my former profession." Deaton suddenly said. 

"Why?"

"… Because she died."

The room fell silent at those words and Derek soon understood why. Since Deaton's Alpha was dead, that meant he was like an esquire without a lord in primeval times. 

"… I'm sorry-"

"Don't be. It wasn't something any of us would do anything about." Deaton cut off his apology. "For your own rest of mind, I don't know who the Alpha is, nor am I in any sort of alliance with him… Is that enough for you?"

Derek listened to his heartbeat and the static of his blood flow, reaching to only one conclusion. 

"Yes." He stood up to leave but another question came to his mind. "Do you know my sister?"

"Laura Hale? Yes I did. She also came looking for answers but I told her exactly what I'm telling you; I have no idea what it is. All I know is what you probably are already well aware of."

Derek nodded his head and with that, walked away from the animal clinic. 

… 

[Tristan Hayes POV] 

I've been trying as much as I could to blend in as much as possible but something about vampires being cold-blooded made me think that by nature they were recluse beings the same way wolves moved in packs. 

It was not like I was not aware of how off-putting my character was to others and thankfully I've been able to at least make a few friends in Boyd, and maybe Allison too. 

To be honest, I didn't know what to think about the oblivious Huntress in Allison. My feelings towards Allison as a friend(what else) and my protective instincts for Malia made it quite complicated to really know where I stood in regards to Allison. 

Despite the complications with Allison, I could proudly say Boyd and I were friends. While we've never hung like normal teens, we understood each other quite well. Maybe there was more to teenagers than being horny. 

To be honestly frank, school wasn't that bad, at least the normal part of it and all its over glorified sexual tensions. It wasn't overly complicated like what I'd thought it'd be. It was quite straightforward as long as you knew why you were there. If it was to study, then study ahead. If it was to have fun, then there was quite the diverse way to do it. You wanted to reinvent yourself, then dive in headfirst. 

If there was one thing I had to say that spoiled this whole experience, then it was without doubt tests. Surprise tests being the worst of them all. 

"School isn't that bad."

"Well, not completely. I'd say 50-50." 

I was brought out of my musings by Malia's reply to my subconscious question. The reason for most of our frustrations surprisingly wasn't the close vicinity we had with the Hunters, oh no. It was our grades. 

We were in the library trying to get some reading in because we both knew there was not much motivation we had to read our books at home. Who would motivate who? 

"True." I nodded. "Done with that?" I asked as Malia dropped her Literature text in favor of Maths. 

"Not exactly. I'd rather drop it for now than suffer having a migraine because of all the complicated words in there. Not to mention the plot." She said as she flipped to the page she had marked on the Math textbook. "What are you reading?" She asked. 

"Physics." I said. 

"Ughh~"

I chuckled at her reaction. "What's up with that?"

"It's on my top 3." She said with a frown. "Of?"

"Worst subjects ever – what else could it be?" I had to stifle my laugh as we were in the library since as hilarious as it was, I completely understood. Physics wasn't the most healthy subject to tackle, intellectually. 

"Well, it's not as if I have anything better to do." We didn't spend that long in the library after that, which was very obvious as it had been proven on different numerous occasions that we weren't the studious bunch. 

We left the library after managing to stifle the torture for 30 minutes, the highest record we've ever spent reading relevant subjects materials. 

Since we had nothing to do, we figured we might as well meet up with Allison who we found being pestered by Lydia, obviously trying to rope her into her popular girl clique. 

"See you later, Allison. Tristan." She said as she walked right by us, completely ignoring Malia who copied her action and acted as if she was never there. 

"What's up?" I called out to her as she made her way towards us. 

"Hey guys, where've you been? I've been looking all over for you?" She seemed a little hyper and that immediately led me in on where this conversation might lead. Despite all her level-headedness, there were times she behaved rebellious. Like wanting to sneak out at night to hang out, or her love for parties. It wasn't the parties that made her excited per se, it was just that it provided another opportunity to hang out with us, making me wonder how living in her house felt. 

"Library. What's up with the skank this time?" Malia asked. Unlike initially, she didn't outright bare her fangs at the mention of Lydia but rather acted as if she was discussing something lowly. 

Allison rolled her eyes at Malia's antics having grown somewhat used to it by now. "Well she only invited me for shopping, you know, an exchange of fashion tastes."

I don't think I'll ever understand girls all that much, with Malia being a thankful exception, or the way they think. 

For guys it was pretty simple. 

You like a shirt? What color? Take it. 

Pants? There's not that much difference apart form the color and texture, sometimes style. Buy it. 

In fact, we know pretty much what we want before going to the store. It was also why I don't do much shopping. The activity was as mundane as it could get, not that much different from grocery shopping if you're doing it alone. 

"You're going?" Malia asked. 

"Should I?" 

"Why are you asking me?" Not just Malia, but even I was confused why she was asking us that. 

"It's just shopping right?" She nodded. "What's there to ask?"

Her expression told me I missed the mark of what she was insinuating quite a bit but meh. 

"Well I told her I'll think about it, so the invitation is still open." She swung her side bangs over her ears before plugging in an earpiece into one ear. "I heard Coach wanted you to join the lacrosse team. Did you accept?" She directed towards me. 

I shook my head at her. "No. It's a little troublesome." I gave a half-assed reply. 

"Why would you do that? You don't like sports or something?"

"It's not like that." We made our way down a fleet of steps. "I've never played sports before, not any one like this anyway. And besides, I'm quite lazy by nature." It wasn't the complete truth but it wasn't like she needed a complete truth. 

She didn't look satisfied with that answer but she nevertheless dropped that line of questioning and asked something else. "Do you guys have anything else to do after school?… other than going back home that is."

We both looked at each other before shaking our heads simultaneously. 

"I heard a new coffee shop just opened. How about we check it out." She suggested. 

I wasn't that much of a coffee drinker so it didn't appeal to me that much. 

"They also sell ice-cream."

It wouldn't hurt to visit and check out the place after school since we were both thinking of eating out tonight after all. 

"I can't see why a quick visit will be bad. It's not as if we had something planned tonight anyway." Malia didn't object so there was that. 

To be honest, pointless things like these made me almost wish that supernatural problems stayed away from us. Almost. 

"Is that all what you guys were talking about?" Malia asked. 

"Well not completely. She also wanted to introduce me to a couple of boys from the team, but I turned that down."

"Why?"

"Well, I kinda thought I'd lay off dating till college. You know, a stable environment where we won't have to move all that much."

"You don't really think that resolution is going to hold, right?"

"Well…"

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