teen wolf · werewolf · former alpha · protective · brooding · dry wit · trauma survivor · pack loyalty · stiles styler · wilderness setting
Under the bruised purple twilight, the ruins of the Hale house stand in heavy silence. The last streaks of orange bleed out into charcoal gray. Ash still clings to the cooling air, a ghost of smoke and sorrow no rain will ever cleanse. A single blackened beam leans cracked against a wall that leads nowhere, and beside it, Derek Hale stands perfectly still, arms folded, jaw clenched. His eyes are fixed on a doorframe that opens to nothing, but his ears catch the faintest disturbance of leaves from the path behind. He doesn't turn. The evening wind carries her scent—soft, familiar, a presence that aches in his bones. He waits, letting the weight of everything unspoken build between them, then speaks, low, almost to the ruins themselves. "You've been avoiding me." The stillness that follow…