Behind Enemy Lines

"Explain to me again why Hannah and Cora don't have to go to school?" Isaac complained, grabbing his backpack and everything else he needed for school that day. It was his first day back after recovering from his attack a few days ago.

"Because no one thinks you're dead." Derek sighed. "Hannah, watch Cora until I get back." He instructed, grabbing the keys to his camaro.

"Derek, I'm pretty sure she's younger than me. Shouldn't you be telling me to watch her?" Derek's younger sister, Cora, asked. She'd been living with us since Derek found her in the bank vault. He thought she was dead. I'm really starting to wonder just what Derek's gone through during his life. Who the hell doesn't know their sister is alive then magically finds her on a rescue mission to save someone else?

Then again, my entire family thinks I'm dead. Maybe they'll find me on a hunting trip in a few years.

"I trust Hannah more than you." Derek shrugged, following Isaac out of the loft.

"Don't." Cora stopped me as I opened my mouth to speak. She stood up from the table we sat at and walked upstairs.

□☾□

I wasn't really sure what Derek wanted me watching Cora for, but I had a feeling he wouldn't like what she was doing.

I was right.

I had gone upstairs to get dressed. When I returned, Cora was working out. Hard. I wanted to say something, but I'm pretty sure she hates me already, so I just left her for Derek to deal with, taking a seat on the couch and pretending Cora wasn't even there.

"Stop. You're not done healing."

"Yeah, but I'm done lying around." Ah, time for some Hale family fun.

"Then sit." If there was one thing I learned in my short time with Derek, it was that every member of the Hale family seems to be equally as stubborn as the others. Course, there were only 3 Hales that I knew of. Maybe all the non-stubborn Hales died off. Natural selection.

"I can't believe I came back for this. I got my ass thrown in a vault for three months for you. All those rumors I heard. A powerful new alpha, one of the Hales, building a pack. Do you know how long I've waited to hear something like that?"

"Sorry to disappoint, Cora." He turned towards me. "Thank you so much for watching my sister."

"I DON'T NEED TO BE WATCHED!" Cora yelled at him before I could respond. A loud alarm sounded as she finished her sentence. Cora and I both turned to look at the flashing red light on the wall. "What's that?" she asked.

"Trouble." Derek said, crouching into a fighting position and the door slid open, revealing a large, muscular alpha. Cora immediately ran to fight him. "Don't, Cora!" Derek yelled at her as the alpha pushed her down on the concrete floor. A second alpha walked in, and I recognized her as the 'nurse' from the hospital. "Hannah, go upstairs, take Cora with you."

"Cute, you think you can run." One of the wolves laughed as clawed hands wrapped around my arm and pushed me to the ground. I looked up to see the female alpha break off some of the exposed pipe and shove it into Derek's back.

Great.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did when a third alpha walked in. Isn't that how it always works?

"Everybody done? 'Cause just listening to that was exhausting." He said in his accented voice, making his way towards Derek. When he reached the bleeding, injured man, he crouched down to his level. "So," Derek looked up, "let's chat."

He pulled up a chair from the kitchen and placed it right where he had just been. "Sorry about this, Derek, I asked Kali to be gentle, but..."

"This is me being gentle." The female alpha-slash-nurse-slash-person who had just shoved a metal pipe through my alpha's body said. i guess her name's Kali. She twisted the pipe a little, causing Derek to make some pained noises.

If it had been, say, a week or so ago, maybe I would've enjoyed this a little.

A lot can change in a week.

"Let them go." Derek forced out, and I found myself feeling...guilty...that Derek cared more about me and Cora than he did himself. But then again, he probably only cared about Cora. He did just get her back from the dead. But I supposed he cared about me, too. I mean, if this was the pack he was preparing to fight against, he definitely needed all the help he could get.

The alpha in the chair motioned to the third alpha to release us, which he did. I just kind of stood there, unsure of what the hell was going on, while Cora ran over to her brother. "No." he forced out, shaking his head. "Go upstairs. Hannah, you, too." Cora wasn't going to give in that easily. Like I said, typical, stubborn Hale. "Cora, now."

This time, she listened, and we both made our way up the spiral staircase.

I'm pretty sure Cora hates me, so it was a bit of a surprise when she wanted to stay together upstairs. I guess hard times make you do weird things.

Unfortunately for her, I suck at calming people down. She ended up punching a lot of things. But, as quickly as it had started, the fighting stopped.

"Do you think they're gone?" I asked Cora as I heard the loft door slide shut.

"Only one way to find out." She shrugged, already halfway out the door. I followed her down the stairs to find only a bleeding Derek.

"Shit that's a lot of blood." I commented, looking at the large red puddle surrounding Derek.

"Clean it up." Cora instructed me in an unhappy, stern voice as she helped her brother up.

"Cora, I'll be fine. I can already feel it healing. Just leave me alone." Derek said, pushing her out of the path to his bed.

□☾□

Even with the noise from the downpour outside, I could clearly make out the sound of glass shattering, followed by footsteps that were obviously heading my way. I guess you could say werewolf hearing's kinda nice.

"Derek said we have to leave. Now." Isaac appeared at my door, running his hands through his hair.

"Leave? For how long? Why?"

"Leave as in move out. And I don't know why. But he said to leave as soon as possible, so get packing."

Like I said earlier, Hard times make you do weird things, so I didn't question it. The only part that really upset me was how unexpected it all was. Isaac had just gotten home from his first day back at school after being attacked by the same alphas that attacked us again today and who killed Isaac's closest friend, and now we're homeless. Great timing, Derek.

"Where are we heading?" I asked Isaac once I had finished packing my few items.

"I don't know. My family's dead, your family things you're dead and would kill you the moment they found out you weren't. Not really a lot of options."

"What about your friends?"

"I guess we could try Scott, just for the night."