Hope

It had been nearly a week, since Sydney had been kidnapped and beaten up by a group of hunters looking for information on her friends. She had recovered quickly, but the shadows of the beating were still visible on her skin and vivid nightmares still plagued her restless sleep.

Being in a pack had always made her feel stronger some how, but those hunters seemed to have managed to break something deep inside her, that had remained, even after the cuts and bruises had fully healed. Getting ready for school, Sydney made her way downstairs and joined her godfather at the kitchen table for breakfast.

"Looking forward to seeing the pack today?" Brad asked, watching as Sydney poured herself a cup of coffee and froze at the mere mention of her friends.

"I guess," she mumbled in response, taking a sip of her drink and avoiding his gaze.

"You can't avoid them forever, Syd."

"Maybe not, but I can try."

Finishing her coffee without another word, Sydney grabbed a slice of toast off of the table and headed out the front door with her bag slung over her shoulder. As soon as she arrived at the school, she immediately spotted her friends gathered around a familiar black Camaro and kept her head down as she hurried through the doors into the main corridor. Avoiding them was going well, until lunch time came around and Scott tracked her down in the art room.

"You should know by now that you can't hide from a werewolf," he stated as he sat down beside her.

"I'm not hiding," Sydney replied, refusing to meet his eyes and concentrating on the sketch that she had been working on, "I had some art work to catch up on is all."

"You can't lie to us either."

"Just leave it, Scott... please," Sydney begged, packing away her stuff and heading towards the door.

"Not until you tell me what's going on with you," Scott demanded, grabbing her arm and spinning her round to face him.

"I just need time..." Sydney mumbled, "Time away from the pack and the messed up world that exists, where it feels like everyone is trying to kill us."

"So what... you don't want to be friends anymore?"

"That's not what I said," Sydney argued, feeling guilty for putting the hurt look on Scott's face and turning as she reached the door, "We'll always be friends... I just need space to clear my head."

The rest of the school day flew by and Sydney made the walk home, where she settled on the sofa to work on the mountain of homework she had been given. She was just finishing an essay for English, when someone knocked on the front door and she answered it to find Derek standing on the other side.

"We need to talk," Derek stated, moving past her and making himself comfortable in one of the armchairs.

"I'm guessing you spoke to Scott."

"I did, but that's not why I'm here..." Derek told her, "You know you can talk to me, right?"

"I know, I just..." Sydney started, before falling silent and sitting down on the sofa, "I don't belong, not here with Brad or with you and the pack... not anywhere. Since everything happened with those hunters, things around me just seem dark... I feel numb, Der."

"Numb?"

"My heart, my head, my entire existence," Sydney added, "I... it's like I'm on the verge of disappearing and I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"You belong here," Derek told her, standing up and crouching in front of where Sydney was sitting, "Close your eyes..."

Hesitating, Sydney did as he asked and closed her eyes. Feeling Derek take her hands, she opened her eyes with a frown and looked at him.

"What are we doing?"

"Just trust me and close your eyes..." Derek repeated with an encouraging nod, "Clear your mind and focus on nothing but the pack... tell me what you feel."

Shutting her eyes again, Sydney took a deep breath and concentrated her mind solely on the pack. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then she felt it... a sudden wave of emotions and she knew straight away that it was the pack's connection to each other.

"I feel... it feels like family," Sydney said, feeling a lump form in her throat and opening her eyes as tears ran down her cheeks.

"That's what we all feel," Derek explained, wiping away a tear off her cheek with his thumb and pulling her into a hug, "Pack means family and as a group, we are stronger, that includes humans. Don't ever doubt your place in the pack, Sydney, because you'll find that you're more important than you could ever imagine... you're the person who keeps me human."

"What do you mean?" Sydney inquired, tilting her head to one side in confusion and watching as Derek got to his feet, "Der?"

"You know that each wolf has an anchor... something that pulls forward our humanity and subdues the wolf," Derek replied, pacing back and forth as if fighting the urge to flee, "That's what your presence does for me, but it's more than that, I... I'm in love with you and I have been for a while."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I couldn't," Derek admitted, "We can't ever... I'm not good for you and I don't want to hurt you... I don't want to be the reason you get hurt."

"Don't I get a say in this?"

"You deserve someone who can tell you they love you without wanting to run away and hide, someone who can show you what it is to be in love," Derek said, his eyes flashing red as he growled in frustration, "I will never be that person."

"What if that isn't the type of person I want to be with?" Sydney argued, stepping in front of Derek to stop him in his tracks and entwining their fingers, "What if I want to be with someone who doesn't see himself the way I do? A guy that just makes me feel whole... then what?"

"Why would you settle for that, when you could have so much more?"

"Maybe I don't want more, because I would rather be with the person I truly love and fight for what we have than settle for something that I've never wanted," Sydney answered honestly, "I don't need to hear the words 'I love you ' in order to know that it's true, I just want to be with the person I love... I just want to be with you."

Derek stared at their hands that were still interlocked, hesitating momentarily, before cupping her cheek and kissing her gently. Falling into the moment, Sydney wrapped her arms around his neck as his strong arms snaked around her waist and smiled. The numb feeling she felt was still there and she wasn't sure if it would ever go away, but Derek had given her hope. Perhaps by letting him in, she would find her place and finally feel like she had a home.