Forest for the Trees – 2 – Hazel

Reading Time:
21 Minutes

“I do hope I didn’t interrupt any sensitive developments.”

Derek scowled at the older man as they both turned and headed into the trees.  “Just because you can’t go out for a drink without taking someone home doesn’t mean I have the same lack of self-control.”

“Is that a thread of frustration I detect in your tone, nephew?”

He knew confiding in his youngest uncle was a recipe for unrepentant teasing, but with Eric still in Davis for his residency, there were few options in the pack that weren’t a direct pipeline to his mother.  Derek sighed.  “Not the kind you’re implying.”

Peter hummed as he turned onto one of the smaller running paths.

“You remember that new guidance counselor at the high school?”

“The one that has been throwing herself at you since January?”

Derek could hear the smirk in those words.  “She showed up at the bar tonight.”

“Oh dear.  It would seem your attempts to let the poor girl down easy haven’t been as effective as you’d hoped.”

The statement echoed the admission he’d made at the bar, but he could say what he wanted to that with his uncle in a way he never could to a random cute guy.  “Should I have just told her bluntly that I have no interest in dating her for any reason?  Because there’s no way a direct and clear rejection could ever come back to hurt me.”

Peter paused briefly but didn’t look back at him.  Silence descended as they made their way onto an even smaller path.  No doubt they were both thinking the same thing.  It had been roughly eleven years since Laura’s pointed rejection of Ennis’ nephew had led the alpha to retaliate against her younger brother, and the two of them still seemed to be paying for it.

For all that his sister had had every single right to decline the offered marriage arrangement, a small part of him still blamed her for Paige’s death, no matter how illogical he knew it to be.  And the pre-existing animosity between Peter and his older sister had not lessened the impact of her shunning that had followed his actions in killing Ennis that night.  Not even Peter giving up the alpha spark as she’d demanded and saving Derek’s life had made Talia Hale more understanding in the aftermath.

As he did every time he thought of the events, Derek bit his tongue to prevent himself from asking his uncle why the hell he had stayed in the Hale Pack after that.  He knew his uncle had his reasons, but he had never felt he had the right to ask, no matter how close the two of them had grown in their subsequent placement on the edges of the pack.

It was several more seconds before Peter made the same suggestion he had when he’d first learned of the woman’s unwelcome interest.  “You could always give her the romp she’s looking for and ghost her after.  It’s not as though you haven’t any experience in such things.”

Derek sighed and made the same response he had the last time.  “And when she conveniently continues to run into me every time I pick Summer up at the school?”

“However do you breathe through all the drama that plagues you?”

“Fuck off.”

Peter laughed and gestured to a barely-there track branching off still further into the woods.

“Besides.  Unless she’s the type to help someone cheat, I think she might leave me alone from now on.”

“Oh,” his wolf eyes unfortunately allowed him to see the single arched brow he got in response.  “You’ve found yourself some pretty thing and haven’t introduced them to your beloved uncle?  I’m hurt, Derek.  Truly.”

Derek huffed.  “There was a guy at the bar tonight.  We were talking when she came over and just acted like we were together so she’d go away.  It’s not a thing and it’s not going to be a thing.”

This time when Peter stopped, he turned and gave a wide grin.  “You had a meet-cute at the bar with someone willing and able to be your faux partner to save you from the unwanted advances of a dastardly older woman?  How utterly adorable.”

He crossed his arms in what he knew was a defensive manner but he decided he didn’t care.  “My life is not a made for TV rom-com, for fuck’s sake.”  Peter just grinned wider.  “Besides, I told you it isn’t a thing.  There’s no way I’m starting something with him, he just helped me out in the moment.  That’s all.”

The grin persisted.  “Methinks thou dost protest too much, nephew dear.  Who exactly is this paragon of generosity?  You did get his name, didn’t you?  Please don’t tell me you didn’t at least get his name?”

“Are we going to the site you mentioned or not?  I have better things to do with my evening, Peter.”

“Better things you say?  How uncharacteristically objectifying of you.”

“Stop implying I’ve started some illicit affair like a Hallmark heroine, damn it, and just show me the site you called me about.”

Peter grinned for another few seconds, then turned with a laugh and gestured dramatically ahead of them.  “It’s just a few hundred feet this way.  You won’t miss it, I assure you.”

Derek barely refrained from stomping as he passed the older wolf and took the lead.  He in fact did not miss what had prompted his uncle’s phone call.  The odd animal deaths in the preserve for the last year or more had been growing more suspicious with each occurrence.  Not to mention the other suspiciously magical signs that had been showing up.  Strange symbols carved into trees and put on bits of wood and crystal left little doubt in his mind that there was something worth looking into.

Mentioning the finds to Laura, in her role as Park Ranger or Alpha Heir, had gotten him nowhere.  The sheriff however, had been much more receptive and asked Derek to keep an eye out.  His patrol route rarely went deep into the preserve, but the pack’s left hand ran a much different patrol that had apparently provided him with the evidence he needed to turn the situation into a full investigation.  Because in front of him was the site of a clear ritual sacrifice.

The three snakes laid out carefully at the foot of the large oak were each in a circle around a symbol carved deeply into the dirt.  The last set of dead animals that had been found were also snakes and had also been in a set of three.  The symbol was new, however.

He looked over at Peter, where the wolf was lounging with deceptive casualty against a nearby tree.  “I’ll need to take an official statement from you at some point tomorrow.”

“But of course, Deputy, I would never turn down an official request from our esteemed sheriff’s department.”

Derek narrowed his eyes and stared at him silently.  The pack had almost always had a member in local law enforcement the same way they had almost always had someone serving as a forest ranger.  He’d never regretted becoming a deputy with the expectation that he would keep an eye on the territory in the name of the Hale Pack.  He didn’t even regret his assignment on the small Supernatural Unit and was actually very proud of the fact that he had been the head of the unit for nearly a year now.

But in a matter of territory security, he knew that his duty to his job and his duty to his pack could very well put him in a difficult position.  Even given his relationship with the pack’s left hand.  Maybe especially given his relationship.  It was Peter, after all.

“Mom and Laura both have insisted that there was nothing magical occurring in our territory that required the pack’s involvement.  They told me explicitly that the pack wasn’t going to waste time looking into this.”  The Hale Pack Left Hand adopted an innocent expression so insincere that Derek wished he was still young enough to get away with rolling his eyes.  “That means your statement is the end of your role here.”

Peter dropped all pretense and met his gaze steadily.  “I trust that you will give this matter your utmost professional attention, and utilize all the resources of our esteemed Sheriff’s Department.  I am prepared to leave the matter in your hands.  Officially.”

The for now went unspoken, but they both heard it.  Derek stared for a few more seconds and then nodded.  It was the best he was going to get and he knew it.  He looked down at the three carefully placed snakes and resolved to find the answers needed to protect the territory.  He may not be ecstatic with his position in the pack, or even his inclusion in it.  But Beacon Hills was his home and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure whatever was going on in the preserve was not a threat to it.

— —

Derek wanted to tear his hair out.  After being up half the night helping process the evidence in the preserve, an irate and irrational phone call from his mother had not been how he wanted to start his Sunday.  Yet he’d had more than one argument with his mother since that 6am call.  The last one had driven him to the only pack member in town who might be able to help.

“I don’t know what the hell to do.  I tried to explain it was just an act to discourage Morrell and she just started yelling about how she wasn’t going to stand for me lying to her and Marin is a lovely woman and I had no reason to scare her away so obviously I really had been dating someone and just didn’t want to admit to her that I had lied this whole time.  It was completely unhinged.”

It said a lot about the Hale Pack and its Alpha that Peter didn’t even look half as shocked by this turn of events as Derek was.  “You know that once your mother forms an opinion or makes up her mind about something that no amount of logic or evidence is going to convince her that she’s wrong.”

Derek ran both hands through his hair for the hundredth time that day.  “But I’m not dating anyone!”

His uncle shrugged.  “Your mother has decided that you are.”

“But how?  Why?  It doesn’t make sense.”  He paced back and forth across Peter’s living room.

“It seems that your mother got a phone call last night.  From Marin Morrell.”

Derek stopped in his tracks.  “What?”  He wanted to say that was impossible but his mother’s repeated insistence that Marin was lovely repeated in his head.  “You’re saying Morrell called my mother because I won’t go out with her?”

Peter had that look he wore when he knew something someone else didn’t and he was about to prove his intellectual superiority.  “I’m saying, it appears that Ms. Morrell has been in contact with your mother since she got to town.”

“What?”  Derek repeated, shaking his head in confusion.  “That doesn’t make sense.”

“It makes perfect sense if one knows that Marin Morrell is the daughter of Preston Morrell, member of the Druidic Circle and husband of Celeste.”

Derek blinked.  “Celeste.  Why do I know that name?”

“Because Celeste Morrell, nee Deaton, was the Hale Pack Emissary until shortly before your grandmother became Alpha, when the post was passed to her son.  Alan.”

It all made a horrific and ridiculous kind of sense.  His mother thought Alan Deaton was practically infallible.  So obviously she would be inclined to believe and support his little sister.  Even so.  “This is insane.”

Peter hummed, leaning back and clasping his hands over his stomach.  “Your mother is arrogant and stubborn to her own detriment.  And there are times, no matter how inconvenient or illogical, that those of us around her are forced to adjust ourselves and our lives to suit her.”

“So I’m supposed to, what?”  He threw one hand in the air.  “Spend the next however long pretending to date someone I don’t know, who happens to be the only son of my boss, the sheriff so that she can spend months passive aggressively disapproving of my supposed choice of partner.  Because we both know unless she picks them out for me, no one will meet her standards.”

Great- now he was thinking of those hellish months after he came home from college trying to arrange his marriage with high placed members of allied packs.  “Just because she would be less aggressive about my poor taste in partners doesn’t make it the solution to her being so monumentally pissed that I’m supposedly lying to her about having lied to her in the past.”  Derek resumed pacing.  “Now we both sound as crazy as she does.”

“Look, Derek,” Peter leaned forward, elbows on his knees and expression devoid of its normal smirk.  “If your mother has decided that you’ve been seeing someone behind her back for months, then she is not going to let this go.  She – as Alpha – is going to be hounding you to produce this secret boyfriend, be he real or imagined.”

His uncle held his gaze driving home his point.  “And if you do manage to convince her that she is wrong in this instance, she is going to double down on her belief that the lovely Ms. Morrell would be perfect for you.  If you think the woman’s pursuit of you now is ardent, I shudder to think how you would describe a combined effort between Morrell and your mother.”

He shook his head again.  This was practically a nightmare.  In fact, he’d had this exact nightmare for a month after he avoided the flurry of attempted arranged marriages.  And the women in question back then hadn’t had a clear and immediate connection to Deaton.  Which also meant that if he turned her down without what his mother and her emissary would consider a good reason, Deaton may also end up pissed off at him.  He didn’t particularly want to know what that creepy guy did to people he was pissed at.

His life was a literal nightmare.

“If it helps, one of my contacts has said that Morrell is in talks with Alpha Deucalion to become his next Emissary.”

“How does that help me?”  He pinched the bridge of his nose.  He’d always been told that werewolves didn’t get headaches.  He was pretty sure they were full of shit.

“It indicates that the woman does not intend to stay in Beacon Hills permanently.  And were she to gain the position, she will be relocating to live with his pack.”  A few seconds of silence passed.  His uncle sighed.  “Which means, any charade you are forced to undertake to satisfy your mother’s perception of reality would be limited to the time Morrell remains in town.  My contact is of the impression that her appointment will be official within a month, and she would be taking over emissarial duties for the pack by mid July.”

“You’re honestly telling me the best course of action to handle my mom’s misunderstanding is to fake a relationship with the only son of the sheriff.  Who again, is my boss.”  The headache he shouldn’t be able to have was getting worse, he was sure of it.  “Exactly how would you propose I pull that off?”

“Well, nephew, I suppose it would probably start off with some version of ‘my mother is mentally unstable and has decided I’m dating your son so it would be very helpful to me if he would agree to present this delusional façade to keep her from losing her shit at me and trying to arrange my marriage with a druid who’s been stalking me for months.”

Derek just stared.  Because the amount of sarcasm his uncle had used in that rambling statement did not approach the amount needed to make that make sense.

Peter shrugged, non-pulsed.  “Worst case scenario, the sheriff is pissed off that you’d ask his son to pretend to date you.  Your mother is already pissed off at you for not introducing her to the boyfriend she’s decided exists.  Someone is going to be pissed at you either way.  So you’re going to have to decide who you want to be pissed at you.  The sheriff who will probably work past his upset and deal with reality like a rational, sane individual with common sense and empathy?  Or your mother?”

And that didn’t even take into account the aggressive campaign that would surely ensue to pair him off with Marin.  Derek dropped into the armchair he usually occupied when he visited his uncle and dropped his face into his hands.  “I’m going to have to explain to my boss that my mother is crazy.”

“Well, good luck with that, nephew.”  Derek didn’t bother to look up when he heard Peter stand and walk back into the kitchen where he’d been when Derek arrived to plead for advice.

“Thanks, so much.  This has been really helpful Uncle Peter.”

Peter shouted cheerfully from the kitchen as Derek let himself out.  “Always glad to be of service!”

The worst part, was that no matter how long he spent obsessing over the situation, by the next morning it looked like the discussion with Peter was as helpful as it was going to get.  The texts had kept coming all day, from almost every member of the pack over the age of 15.  And the conversation with his brother Eric had consisted mostly of Eric laughing at him once he’d heard the events of Saturday night with Stiles and Sunday morning with their mom.

With no better ideas, and another three failed attempts to convince his mother that he wasn’t dating anyone, he went to work Monday morning and tried to concentrate on compiling the file on the new investigation.  While also trying to simultaneously talk himself into – and out of – talking to the sheriff.  The decision was taken out of his hands when Noah walked past his desk.

“Hale.  My office, please.”

He followed, grabbing the file on the off chance he was being called in to go over the crime scene analysis from the preserve Saturday night.  The sight of Stiles, sprawled in one of the visitor’s chairs crushed that hope pretty quickly.  He hadn’t even seen Stiles come into the station.

“So,” the sheriff said as he sat behind his desk.  “I heard an interesting story yesterday from Cathy Reynolds.”  The old lady who’s daughter worked for his mom at City Hall.  Perfect.

Derek stood stiffly, trying not to look guilty.

“Naturally, I called my son and got his side of things last night.  And now I’d like to hear your side.”

He’d always prided himself on his control and professionalism, so he surprised even himself when he dropped into the spare chair and blurted out, “My mother’s lost it.”

By the time he was finished with the entire explanation five minutes later, both Stilinski’s were staring at him, open mouthed.  Stiles wiped a hand down his face.  “Dude!  That’s insane.”  If it hadn’t been for the circumstances, the way the man bit his lip afterwards would have probably stolen all of his attention.  But then Stiles spoke again.  “And honestly, kind of hilarious.  We’re staring in our own three part special on hallmark, dude!”

Derek sighed, and expected the sheriff to follow that up with some kind of reasoned, sober assessment of Talia Hale’s mental state.  Or a very angry demand of whether his deputy thought he was going to allow this to continue.  Instead, he threw his head back and laughed.

That set off Stiles and father and son spent at least an entire minute laughing.  When one would start to calm down, they’d look at each other or at him and lose it all over again.

How was this his life?

The rest of the day continued apace.  He compiled a list of known magic users in Beacon Hills and the surrounding area for the suspect list, which logically, had to include Stiles.  His ‘boyfriend.’  The sense of unreality was almost distracting as he talked with Deputy Parrish about confirming the evidence Noah had already compiled to prove where Stiles was during the previous suspicious animal deaths.

Because he was ‘dating’ him.  He had his boss’ son’s phone number programed into his phone so they could get together a few times during the week to prepare for Saturday’s BBQ at the pack house.  That he had already texted his mother that they would be attending.  As a couple.  With an entire pack of wolves that could hear a lie.

No matter the months of lessons Peter had put him through when he’d moved back, that had taught him to control his heart beat when lying.  No matter the sheriff and Stiles’ assurances that between magic and his own abilities, that he could ‘lie like a really awesome expensive Persian rug’ in Stiles’ words.  Derek was sure they were going to get caught and then what?  His mother would accuse him of lying again, he was sure.

Maybe she’d think he was still keeping his real boyfriend secret and was using the son of his boss to avoid introducing that boyfriend to his mother.  Though, honestly, predicting what his mother was going to think and believe appeared to be damn near impossible at the moment.

So he went along with the insanity, ignoring Noah’s amused smirk as he went to pick up his cousin at the high school.  Since the woman had used her role as guidance counselor more than once to corner him in the halls, he texted Summer before leaving the station and asked her to meet him at his car.

Just when he was starting to worry that she hadn’t seen his text, or hadn’t been able to find his car, his 16 year old cousin appeared at the passenger side window with a wave.

“Ms. Morrell asked me twice if you were coming to get me today,” she said as she buckled her seatbelt.  “When I told her that I was meeting you, she looked weird.”  Her nose scrunched.  “She smelled weird too.  Can you help me with my scent tracking after school lets out?”

Derek eased out of the crowded parking lot and shot her a smile that was only slightly strained.  “Of course.  We can work on it shifted too.  My tracking got better after I practiced with my full shift a few times.”

She bounced in her seat a little at the idea.  Since the pack didn’t really know that she had managed to achieve her full shift, she hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to run as a wolf, let alone do anything else.  He could more than relate.  He had full shifted four years younger than Laura had, and even at the age of thirteen, he knew better than to let his mother or sister know such a thing.  No one other than his great aunt Edith, the left hand before Peter, had known until just before he’d left for college.

“That would be so cool!  Can we go to the cabin?”

Summer only had a few more months to wait before she planned to reveal her accomplishment, but having to hide it at all because you’d managed it younger than the Alpha Heir and both Alpha and Heir would have a problem with that said more than he wanted to admit about his pack.

He forced a smile, determined to preserve as much of the fun and excitement for his cousin as possible. “Of course.  Maybe the week of the twentieth.  It’s a new moon.”

“Oh, that would be so awesome!  We can tell my dad we’re hunting.  For a forest ranger, he’s remarkably skittish about that kind of thing.”

“Well, hunting is absolutely a tracking exercise, no matter how many legs you have.”

Summer laughed, and spent the rest of the ride coming up with increasingly outrageous things they could do to test her scent tracking as a wolf.  She only changed the subject when they turned onto the street that led to the long drive up to the pack house.  Derek let her chatter along about admissions essays and her upcoming senior year, but even with following closely what she was saying he didn’t miss the sight of his mother in the front window.

Neither did Summer.  “I thought Alpha Talia was at work today?”

She was supposed to be at City Hall.  He knew exactly why she wasn’t.  As he put the car into park in front of the house, he took the few seconds of chaos provided by Summer gathering up her backpack and sweater and water bottle to slip out his phone.

To Stiles: Call now

He wasn’t the best at texting but he hoped it was enough as he dropped the cell into the cup holder and his mother came onto the front porch, arms crossed.

“Derek.”

Summer slipped past her with a nod of deference and disappeared inside.

“Hi Mom.”  He exited his cruiser and stood next to it, his head tipped back just a little, exposing his throat.

“You’ve decided to come to the moon gathering on Saturday with your boyfriend.”

Since he’d texted her exactly that hours before, he just nodded.  “We thought we’d bring a dessert?”  It shouldn’t have been a question since that was what he’d brought to every BBQ for the last four years, but the uncertain tone was almost automatic given her expression.

The muscle in her jaw jumped.

His phone rang clearly from inside the car before she could respond.

She arched a brow.  “Are you going to answer that?”

Derek reached in the still open door and picked up, speaking the instant it connected.  “Hey babe, I’m out at the house.”  It wasn’t on speaker but it wasn’t like she wouldn’t be able to hear it clearly when Stiles spoke with barely a pause.

“Right.  School pick up, sorry.  I was heading to the store and wasn’t sure if you’d changed your mind about dinner.”

It took a second for him to answer.  Had he mentioned picking up his cousin?  “No, no changes, we’ll do something new next week.”

“Great.”  The sound of traffic could be heard in the background, then as the engine noise cut out, there was the distinctive clang Derek had always associated with two grocery carts colliding.  “I shouldn’t be more than an hour.”

He wasn’t sure how Stiles managed to come up with such a domestic excuse for a phone call, but just the fact that he’d called and played along seamlessly was such a relief, he couldn’t help but smile just a little.  “Okay, see you later.”

“Count on it.”

The call cut out and Derek glanced back up to find his mother looking almost confused, if still angry.  She shifted her weight a little and nodded.  “Dessert is fine.  Just don’t be late, I want a chance to talk to him before the meal.”

He nodded back.  “Of course.  We’ll see you Saturday.”

His dad’s voice from inside the house had her glancing over her shoulder for a moment before she turned back to him.  “You will.”

Derek hoped it was his nerves that made the statement sound so foreboding, but he took the opportunity to leave anyway.

He didn’t let out a full breath until he was out of earshot of the house.  “Fuck my life.”