Chapter Text
The house is two storeys high of colonial design. It has a boxy and symmetrical design with central door and balanced windows. It has brick siding with restrained ornament, and it is painted with calming dark grey. Derek first saw its leasing advertisement on the internet when he was trying to find a house for his pack. He found this house and fell in love with it instantly. He knows that although he only has three pack members, relatively a small number for a pack, but it is too large of numbers to settle at an apartment. Especially, a pack of werewolves is anything but quiet. They are way too loud for a subtle life in an apartment somewhere in the city. They received too many complains to count and moved from one apartment to the other as often. Derek tried to return to his childhood house to live with his family. But Talia, his mother, as one of the strongest alphas ever exist, is leading a huge pack, so to squeeze another four werewolves is highly impossible for an option.
Therefore, Derek resorts to start spending his allowance to buy him and his pack a house. He started his hunting by the end of the last year, found this beautiful colonial house on his first search, visited its open house and decided to buy it. After he made some renovations and spent around four months to finish the project, just shortly before the summer starts, he finally could haul his pack to move to their new house. The house itself is located in Beacon Hills, a small town surrounded by lush forestry that is perfect for a run. That is one of the major reasons why Derek likes the house very much. When he visited the open house, he checked their preserve too, and decided that his pack could use it during the full moon without need to worry to harm anyone or to be seen during their full shift.
He, however, received fair warnings from his mother’s senior pack members. It is more to hearsay, if he may guesses, that Beacon Hills has some reports on supernatural activities. Yet, no one ever confirms it, so, as Derek thought previously, it may only be hearsay. Hell, which place on earth doesn’t have it? Moreover, he is leading a pack of werewolves! A small one, indeed, but they are werewolves nonetheless. They could protect themselves. So, dismissing the warning, Derek bought the house, renovated it, and moves there.
“Is this it?” Erica’s big eyes widen. She looks thrilled, and jumps off the car as soon as Derek pulls over at the driveway. Like a little curious child, she runs around the vicinity and bouncing excitedly at the porch, hardly can wait until Derek opens the door.
“Can you at least help us first, Er’?” Isaac pouts while taking out their suitcases from the SUV trunk. Boyd chuckles at the sight of his girlfriend’s excitement, while Derek rolls his eyes and tosses Erica the keys. The blonde catches it and opens the door swiftly. Not long after, the three men could hear her footsteps stomping and echoing inside the house, as she is browsing the interior.
“Boyd, baby, this room has great view!!” She yells from one of the windows, just right above the porch. “We take this one, Okay?”
“Are you sure that’s not the master bedroom, Babe?” Boyd yells back, frowning. The room Erica is in looks quite big, and the location is, as Erica stated, great. “Master bedroom is for Derek!”
Derek chuckles behind Boyd. Dragging his suitcase in one hand and a box of electronics in his other hand, he brushes off Boyd’s worry. “I’ve chosen my own room at the first floor. It's facing the forestry at the back and the backyard. I like it more than that one. You two can use that master bedroom if you like it.”
“You are spoiling her,” Boyd grins. “She is getting harder and harder to be tamed, you know. I’ll blame you for that.”
“Is there other bedroom downstairs, Derek?” Isaac puts his suitcase in front of the hall closet next to the door and gazes his eyes around the hallway. There are the staircases greeting them once they opened the door, with long hallway that Isaac sure will lead to the backyard and the particular bedroom Derek told them. On the right of the stairways is the dining room and kitchen, whereas a large living room is on their left. There are three doors along the hallway, and they are what Isaac is eyeing. “I want to have proper sleep and not get tortured with their promiscuous voice and behaviour at night time.”
Derek laughs, “I figured you’ll ask that. That’s one of the many reasons why I bought this house in the first place. The master bedroom is upstairs, which Erica could claim however she wants to, but it still has these rooms downstairs,” he grins at the blushing Boyd, before signaling Isaac to follow him to one of the doors at the hallway. He opens it and letting Isaac examines it. The room is not too big, but spacious enough for one person to occupy it, and it has big windows for great lighting. Derek even had the four walls painted in sky-blue colour, one of Isaac’s favourite colours.
“What do you think about this room?” He asks. “It is supposed to be a study, the realtor told me, but the last owner transformed it into a bedroom, and I'm maintaining its function as bedroom also. It’s tad small, in comparison with the other bedrooms upstairs, and you need to use the bathroom next door, though.”
Isaac stretches his arms and takes a spin. Wide smile flashes across his face. He is beaming and his big eyes start to get teary. “I love it, Der. Thank you,” he whispers.
Derek nods and walks to the bedroom he chose, at the end of the hallway, to put his suitcase. The room has two big windows with view of the forestry and small porch leads to the beautiful backyard. With this kind of view, Derek is sure he can do his work properly even without a study. He is a novelist and this house offers him one hell of view and quiet neighbourhood he needs to write. He already sees himself lounging at the small porch, with his laptop on his lap, and a glass of hot coffee resting on the railing. Whenever he gets tired facing the computer screen, he could gaze toward the lush green forestry and the flower beds on the backyard. He smiles to the imagination and patting himself for his luck to be able to buy this house.
The room has spacious dresser, and Derek puts his suitcases there. He will unpack it as soon as they took all the boxes out from the moving truck.
“It’s here!!” Boyd yells, just before the sound of the said moving truck approaching heard. There are loud running steps descending the stairs and Erica sharp voice is heard greeting the movers. Derek shakes his head and smiles. He is more likely raising pups instead of a pack.
When he is walking outside, his pack members have been busy helping the movers. Erica has two large boxes piling in her arms, makes one of the movers gaping. Derek sighs. He takes mental notice to have a word with that blonde girl, reminding her to be more subtle with her power around ordinary human. It’s not natural, no matter how you see it, for a girl to move two big heavy boxes of (great, out of other boxes, she chose that particular ones) books. Derek grins to the mover, tries to distract him by asking him to help with the couch. The young mover finally takes his eyes away from Erica, and deftly helps Derek.
When Derek is on his third round moving big furniture to the living room, he hears another voice of vehicle. From the sound, it is a big car, probably a cruiser. Derek frowns and walks to the door to greet the guest. Once he’s stepping out the yard, he sees a Beacon Hills Police Department’s cruiser is parked behind his SUV. A young sheriff jumps out the cruiser and nods to Derek with a professional smile. Baffled, the raven hair walks approaching him.
That young sheriff is tall and has short dark brown hair on top of his high forehead. He has soft facial feature, but his eyes are sharp and alert. He is watching Derek intensely, although the smile is still plastered on his face. He extends his hand, offering Derek a handshake.
“Good afternoon, Sheriff,” Derek returns the handshake. “I’m Derek Hale.”
“I heard you are moving in today, so I came to greet you. My name is Jordan Parrish, and the sheriff office is at the town center, just next to the Fire Department. Have you look around the town?”
“No, not yet. We just arrived and decided to finish the moving first. Maybe we’ll head downtown in two or three days, as soon as we’re done unpacking.”
Sheriff Parrish nods understandingly, before he tilts toward Derek’s pack who are watching them not too stealthily. “Who are you taking with you?” Derek whips his head to them and flashing his red eye subtly, too fast for any human eyes to see, but enough for the wolves, as a warning for his pack to stand down and not to wolf out in front of a sheriff. His pack got his message and return to help the movers.
“The blonde siblings are my cousins, Isaac and Erica,” he points to Isaac and Erica respectively. To avoid suspicion, they had agreed beforehand to tell such of cover story. Since they are both blonde, Erica and Isaac will go as siblings, while Boyd is being Boyd. Derek throws his chin toward the dark-skinned guy, “And the other guy is Boyd, Erica’s boyfriend. They have been staying with me since they left their family house. Isaac will start his uni this year, and he got accepted at your BHU. That’s one of the reasons of our moving too. I’m a writer, so I could use this kind of neighbourhood very much. Boyd and Erica are tagging along in the process.”
“I see,” Parrish seems satisfied with the explanation. “Have your cousin Erica and his boyfriend found job here?”
Derek shakes his head, and Parrish smiles again. “We could use someone like Boyd to be deputy or to help with the Fire Department. We always need more people anyway. Don’t get me wrong, the crime rate at Beacon Hills is low, but there are a lot of senior citizens and children here, and they are always in need for our help on trivial matters. Thus, we’re extremely overwhelmed on our busiest days. I’ve been fetching three cats from trees all this morning, so you know.”
Derek laughs, and waves to Boyd and Erica. “Why don’t you tell them yourself, Sheriff? Boyd!! Erica!!”
The couple jogging down the driveway and stop in front of them with befuddled expression. Derek frowns when he catches Parrish squints his nose a bit when the couple are approaching, like he is sniffing their scents, but he smiles again, so the raven hair dismisses it. It is most likely nothing, Derek thinks. His mother's pack members never tell him about another werewolf pack in Beacon Hills, anyway. He returns his attention to the conversation, as Parrish tells Boyd and Erica everything he told Derek previously and offers them some job vacancies they could do.
“So, what do you think?” The sheriff asks.
Boyd nods. “I’ll check your office and the FD as soon as we’re done with our stuffs. I can moon lighting on both, right?”
“It’s a small town. Many people have two jobs in one time here. I help doing errands too, sometimes,” Parrish chuckles.
Erica and Boyd laughs. “I think I’ll try the library and other admin jobs you have,” Erica chimes in.
“I’ll wait for the two of you then,” Parrish shakes their hands again, before the couple dart back to the house. “Well, welcome to Beacon Hills, Mr. Hale. I hope you like it here.”
“I’m sure we will,” Derek assures him.
Parrish is pacing back to his cruiser before he stops again and turns back. “Right, the house. Everything’s good?”
“Yes, we like it very much. Why?” Derek frowns.
“Nah, nothing. Just wanted to make sure, is all. Welcome once more, Mr. Hale,” the sheriff taps his hat and resumes walking to his cruiser, leaving the bemused Derek standing on the driveway.
The house? Derek observes the property he just owned. It’s perfect. Right?
**
Derek is thirsty and is woken up against his will because of it. He sees his alarm clock still shows 2AM. He grumbles and tries to sleep again, ignoring his thirst, but his throat is killing him. Cursing, he finally pulls himself to slip off his bed and drags his heels to the kitchen. He blames himself for not bringing a glass of water before he went to bed. He curses when his foot bumps one of the stray boxes left at the hallway. He should have asks Isaac to move them somewhere safe, instead.
Thanks to the pain, Derek is wide awake now. He takes out the glass from the cupboard and pours himself water. Derek is walking back to his room and about to close the door when he sees it. He almost drops his glass out of surprise, but he gets his ass together as fast as he could, and secures the fragile glassware on his dresser table. It is sitting on the window seat cushion next to his bed. Derek blinks rapidly, making sure he isn’t dreaming. It’s still there, a silhouette of a young boy, presumably on his late teens, sitting with his knees on his chest, arms around his legs, and his face buries into his knees.
Derek could feel his heartbeat is escalating from the sight. He is afraid of no ghost, of course, but having one in his house will never be a pleasant knowledge. Is him what the good sheriff was trying to talk about? That this house is haunted? If so, he’ll make sure to sue that realtor tomorrow. He has right to be in know beforehand about this shit, before he was shoved with all those buying agreements and decided to put down his signature on them.
A soothing smell suddenly fills his nostrils. Derek frowns, with eyes are still on that thing. Where does it come from? It’s a smell of wild flowers, of forest after the rain, of earth. The scent is so soothing, anchors him to the ground and it feels like home. Derek didn’t smell it when he first entered the house and this room. He didn’t even smell it when he went to sleep. However, it is dancing in the air at the moment, once the creature shows himself. Derek frowns to a realization. Could it be this is its scent? Could a ghost smell?
Whatever, Derek can google it tomorrow, once he sued that realtor. But now, he is tired from the unpacking and moving things, he just wants his sleep. And in order to do so, that creature needs to leave him alone. Derek paces forward and is about to ward it out when the boy suddenly lifts his head and turns it to face Derek.
Derek could hear his breath hitches. That boy has the most beautiful face Derek ever sees. His amber eyes are big and expressive, and they’re locking into Derek’s. He has cute turn-up nose and rosy thin upper lips. His lily-white skin is glowing under the soft moonlight, and Derek could see constellation of moles on his cheek down to his neck, until they are hidden by his shirt. His neck is long and is inviting to plant kisses there. He is lean and presumably tall. The boy flutters his long eyelashes, looks equally perplexed as Derek is, and is about to open his mouth, before he is suddenly gone.
“Wait!” Derek instinctively rushes toward the cushion to catch the boy, but he’s gone. Nothing is there, but the scent is still lingering for a while, before it is completely dissolved in the air, like its owner.
**