
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/4710179.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage, Rape/Non-Con
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      Teen_Wolf_(TV)
  Relationship:
      Kate_Argent/Derek_Hale, Eventual_sterek_-_Relationship
  Character:
      Derek_Hale, Laura_Hale, Kate_Argent, (More_to_Be_Added), Stiles
      Stilinski, Sheriff_Stilinski, Melissa_McCall
  Additional Tags:
      Alternate_Universe_-_Soulmates, Soulmates, Angst, Statutory_Rape, Crazy
      Kate_Argent, Alternate_Hale_Fire, Eventual_Sterek, Cliffhangers, Suicidal
      Thoughts, Depression, Derek_blames_himself_for_Kate's_crazy, incompetent
      mountain_man_Derek_Hale
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-09-02 Updated: 2017-06-29 Chapters: 2/? Words: 4161
****** Impact. ******
by missmagoo
Summary
     Based on a bunch of tumblr posts I made a few months back that went
     something like this:
     Ok, but what if Kate Argent and Derek Hale were actually soulmates?
     What if Kate saw this beautiful boy with his too big ears and his
     beautiful eyes and her mark on his arm, and she was so utterly
     pleased right up until she learned he was a werewolf?
     What if learning that her soulmate was a beast, a lowly animal, a
     dangerous abomination she has been trained to hunt, drove her into a
     rage, and that’s why she burned the Hale house, thinking that Derek
     was inside?
     What if she was dragged to prison, raging and screaming about how she
     would not suffer some monster for a soulmate, and the whole tawdry
     story was spread through Beacon Hills like so much salacious gossip?
     What if Derek lost his entire family because of a mark on his arm and
     a woman who couldn’t stand the idea of loving him?
Notes
See the end of the work for notes
***** Chapter 1 *****
Derek is sixteen when he meets his soulmate. Sixteen, and unbelievably naive.
He’s popular in school, athletic and handsome and just the right level of smart
to fit in with the cool kids. He’s cocky, and like most cocky sixteen year old
boys, he likes to show off.
Specifically, he likes to show off his soul mark. Soul marks can look like
anything, and most look like a sort of rorschach ink blot. There’s shapes to be
found if you squint, if you look from just the right angle, but mostly they
just look like a random blotch that people spend their lives memorizing the
curves of so they can recognize it when they finally see the matching mark on
someone else.
Derek, though, Derek is lucky. Because his soul mark is absolutely, undeniably
the silhouette of a wolf howling at the moon. (Howling for his mate, Derek has
always liked to think.)
And a soul mark that cool just has to be shown off, so Derek does whenever he
can. He never turns down an invitation to swim, develops a habit of lifting his
shirt to wipe sweat from his brow when he works out, and can be reliably
counted on to play for the skins team of any shirts v. skins pickup game.
He's playing basketball when he meets Kate. The wolf on his ribs is glistening
with sweat, along with his hard-won six pack. He can't stop himself from
showing off a little when he first sees her watching the game, this beautiful
older woman who simply oozes sophistication and sex appeal.
He hogs the ball, does some showy trick dribbling, before slipping right past
the other team's defence and dunking the ball easily.
He swaggers over to her, a cocky grin on his face because he knows she's been
watching him.
"Hi, cutie," She purrs when he gets near. "Nice mark you've got there. I've got
one just like it. Wanna see?"
And when a beautiful older woman who's basically just admitted to being his
soulmate offers to take her shirt off for him, well, what sixteen year old boy
wouldn't follow her home?
 
===============================================================================
 
The thing about soulmates is that they're incredibly misunderstood.
Generally speaking, when a person hears "soulmate" they think of true love and
two people who are meant to spend happily ever after together, but that's not
what a soulmate is.
A soulmate, technically speaking, is the one person on this earth who will have
the greatest and most lasting impact on your life. And because the universe
loves balance, you will have the greatest and most lasting impact on their life
in return.
Most people love to focus on the romance of soulmates who become couples, but
in truth there are a great number of platonic soulmates in the world. Most
twins are each other's soulmates, and it’s not uncommon for soulmates to be
siblings or best friends. There are even occasionally recorded cases of parent
and child soulmates.
But what all the most common types of soulmates have in common is that they are
relationships of love and support, no matter what type of love it is.
Soulmates, almost universally, love each other unconditionally.
That's why Derek never suspects Kate for a moment.
She takes him to her apartment, pushes him down onto the bed, and winks at him
before peeling off her top to show off a soul mark in the shape of a wolf
howling at the moon, a perfect match to Derek’s mark.
Derek frantically toes off his shoes and shucks his basketball shorts while
Kate continues her strip show, wiggling out of her skinny jeans with a
seductive shimmy of her hips to reveal a lacy thong that matches her bra.
Then the bra comes off, showing off Kate's perfect, perky breasts. Derek stares
at them, mesmerized by the way they bounce as she takes off her thong and
crawls up the bed toward him.
She straddles his hips, smirking down at him as she lifts one of his hands to
cup her breast.
His other hand comes up to touch her ribs, reverently stroking the soul mark.
He thinks as she rides him about how lucky he is to be losing his virginity to
his soul mate. It’s not that he’s inexperienced - he’s dated and kissed people
and had hand jobs and blow jobs (though admittedly not nearly as frequently as
he’s happily let the school rumor mill believe) - but it's his first time
having real sex, and it’s with his soulmate.
He’s not stupid, he knows this isn't Kate's first time. She's older, more
worldly, and the way she moves on top of him speaks to practice and experience.
He doesn't mind, though. He’s just glad he's able to give this to her.
She feels so good around him, and Derek tries desperately not to embarrass
himself by coming too quickly, but sooner than he’d like he feels himself
rushing toward climax.
His hips buck wildly of the bed as he comes inside of Kate, and he feels his
eyes flash.
For a terrifying moment Derek panics that he’s let his family's most closely
guarded secret slip to a stranger, but then he remembers that Kate is his
soulmate. Of course she'll accept him for what he is.
Besides, there's every chance she was too caught up in her own pleasure to even
notice his slip-up.
Kate rolls off him, gracefully flipping her hair out of her face. They lay side
by side on the bed for a while, catching their breath, before Kate says, sweet
and teasing, “Derek, sweetie. I don’t think you even told me what your last
name is.”
Derek blushes, and says, “Oh, it’s Hale. Derek Hale.”
It might just be his imagination, but Kate seems to stiffen at the name. Still,
she seems relaxed enough a moment later when she says, “Hale? Like that big,
old house out in the woods?”
“Yeah,” Derek laughs, a little sheepishly. “That’s, uh. That’s my family.”
Kate makes a considering noise beside him, but doesn’t offer any information
about herself in return.
Instead she says, “Listen, cutie. I’m late to meet my brother for something.”
And she stands and starts dressing herself.
“I was supposed to be there twenty minutes ago, but you,” she leans down over
him and pinches his cheek, “you are just so distracting, aren’t you?”
“Oh, um. Ok?” Derek says as he pulls his shorts back on, a little reluctantly.
This isn’t exactly how he expected his first meeting with his soulmate to end,
but it’s not like Kate can help that she made other plans before they met so
unexpectedly.
“When will I see you again?” he asks, hoping it doesn’t come out too
desperately.
“Oh, soon,” Kate assures him. “Don’t you worry about that.”
 
===============================================================================
 
Later that week, Derek is at home, begging his sister to drive him back to
school for a book he left in his locker.
“Ugh, come on, Laura. Please?” he pleads.
“It’s not my fault you’re an idiot who forgot to bring home his textbook the
night before a big quiz,” Laura says haughtily.
“I’ll get suspended from the basketball team if I fail two quizzes in a row.
Come on, please?”
“That first quiz was your own damn fault,” Laura says.
“How is it my fault Harris won’t accept food poisoning as a valid excuse for
missing a quiz?”
Laura snorts. “You’re a werewolf, Der. You don’t get food poisoning. You just
skipped school.”
“Well yeah, but I really put my all into that performance,” Derek protests. “I
made myself throw up in the nurse's office and everything.”
Laura rolls her eyes.
“Look,” Derek says playing his trump card, “You can either drive me back to get
the book tonight, or I’ll wake you up at five am to start begging you to drive
me into school early.”
Laura is not a morning person. Laura likes to hit snooze on her alarm until the
last possible moment before she absolutely has to force herself out of bed to
avoid being late for homeroom. Derek, on the other hand, likes to wake up early
and run in the morning to get his thoughts in order before he starts the day.
“Fine,” Laura says, knowing from unfortunate experience that Derek doesn’t
typically make idle threats. “Let’s go get your stupid book.”
He’s strutting triumphantly out of the school, chemistry book in hand, while
Laura rolls her eyes at him from where she’s leaning against the hood of the
Camaro, when absolute anguish suddenly rolls through him like a physical pain.
He collapses, feeling like his heart is being torn out of his chest, and when
he looks up to Laura for help he sees that she’s collapsed, too.
“Laura,” he calls to her, “Laura, what’s happening?”
Laura looks up at him, and her eyes burn alpha red.
“No!” Derek cries, “No, Mom!” He scrambles to his feet, pulling Laura up as he
rushes to the car. Laura’s in no condition to drive, dealing with the sudden
unexpected rush of alpha power, so Derek grabs the keys and drives home as fast
as he can.
They arrive to find their house on fire, firemen surround the house spraying
streams of water that seem to do nothing against the flames.
Derek scrambles out of the car and rushes toward the house, only to be caught
and held by two deputies.
“Mom!” he cries desperately, “Mom, please!”
“It’s not just Mom,” Laura says hollowly, coming up beside him. “Derek, it’s
not just Mom. It’s everybody.”
He stares at her, disbelieving. Everybody. His whole family. They can’t all be
gone, they can’t --
“They deserved it!” he hears someone cry, and he looks over to see a wild-eyed
woman being dragged away by the Sheriff. “They were monsters, animals! They
deserved to die!”
He starts toward her, slowly recognizing her. She looks wild, mad. Nothing like
the cool, sophisticated woman he’d met before, but it’s her nonetheless.
“Kate?” he calls, moving toward her, “Kate, what are you doing here?”
When she recognizes him, her face erupts in fury. “You were inside!” she cries,
“You’re supposed to be dead!”
“Kate, what did you do?” Derek pleads.
“Son, do you know this woman?” The Sheriff asks him seriously, and Derek
realizes that he really, really doesn’t. Still --
“She-- she’s my soulmate,” he answers, unable to take his eyes off her even as
she glares at him with pure fury and hatred.
“Filthy, disgusting dogs like you don’t even have souls!” Kate snarls at him.
“You should have died with the rest of your pack.” She spits the word like an
insult, and Derek realizes that she knows what they are. She knows about
werewolves, and she hates them.
“Ms. Argent, you’re going to have to come with me to the station now,” The
Sheriff says firmly, and the name sets off alarms in Derek’s head.
“Argent?” he says, “You never told me your name was Argent.”
But she’s being shoved into the back of a squad car and driven away before she
can do more than glare at him.
“Derek, who was that? Did she do this?” Laura asks.
“Laura, I think… I think my soulmate just murdered our family.”
 
===============================================================================
 
The weeks that follow are torture.
He and Laura are all that’s left of the Hale pack. They’re orphans, and despite
Laura’s new alpha status making them still technically a pack, the sudden loss
of their entire pack has them both feeling more than a little like omegas.
There’s a terrifying moment where they have to meet with a social worker, who
makes noise about putting Derek into the foster system before Derek and Laura’s
frantic pleas convince the overtired, overworked woman that 18-year-old Laura
is an acceptable guardian for the 13 months Derek has left before he ages out
of the system anyway.
They’re lonely and grieving, and the police keep asking them questions about
the fire, about why they were gone when it happened, about their relationship
with Kate (about Derek’s relationship with Kate).
Derek tells them about the day he met Kate, about how she’d seen his soul mark
and told him that hers matched, about everything that happened after. The
police end up adding statutory rape to Kate’s charges, despite Derek telling
the police that he consented, of course he did, she had a soul mark that
matched his, so that meant she was supposed to love him, right?
The deputy interviewing him gives him a look filled with such pity that Derek
feels broken beyond all repair.
They keep asking him why -- the police, the prosecuting lawyers in Kate’s case,
even random people he runs into who want the inside scoop on the biggest piece
of gossip in town. Why would Kate have done this?
And part of Derek knows, Derek’s family were werewolves and Kate was a hunter,
an Argent. They’re supposed to live by a code, but all werewolves know that
hunters will use any excuse they can to justify killing a wolf. But the other
part of Derek saw the wolf on Kate’s ribs, traced it with his thumb, knows that
each curve matches the mark on his own body. Shouldn’t being his soulmate have
changed Kate’s mind? Shouldn’t she have loved him anyway?
Why the universe would pair a werewolf and a hunter with one another in the
first place is a better question, as far as Derek is concerned. Not why did she
kill them, but why is she his soulmate?
He makes it through her trial, makes it through recounting their first meeting
in excruciating detail in open court, makes it through seeing her face -- the
one he found so beautiful that first day, now ugly and twisted -- every day.
He makes it through listening to her lawyer’s defence. Makes it through hearing
about Kate’s crimes as if they were justified, as if they were understandable.
Makes it through hearing Kate talked about like someone to be pitied instead of
reviled.
He makes it all the way through to the jury declaring her guilty and the judge
sentencing her to life in prison before he finally feels like he can breathe
again.
Laura hugs him, crying with the relief of seeing Kate found guilty and with the
still-raw grief for the family members no jury can bring back to life.
It’s over, he thinks, still sixteen and still naive. He and Laura can move on
with their lives now, learn how to be a pack of two.
There’s a little boy and his mother walking past them as they leave the
courthouse, but before they get near, the mother veers the boy away, casting
Derek a suspicious glance.
It’s not the first time something like that has happened since the fire. He’s
had cashiers hurriedly throw up a Lane Closed sign when they see him
approaching. His classmates and former friends avoid him at school, and he
hears whispers that aren’t pitched low enough to escape his werewolf hearing
nearly everywhere he goes.
What kind of soulmates try to kill each other?
You can’t trust someone whose soulmate is evil.
If his soulmate is a murderer, does that make him one, too?
His soul must be poisoned, to share it with someone like that.
He’s tried to bear it, tried to ignore the nagging feeling that if he and Kate
are truly soulmates, that must make his soul as guilty as hers, but seeing this
little boy being steered away from him like he’s something dangerous is somehow
the final straw.
He runs.
He hears Laura call out to him, but he ignores her. She’ll be better off
without him anyway. She doesn’t need a brother with a tainted, evil soul
dragging her down.
He runs, and he runs, and he doesn’t stop until he physically can’t run
anymore. By that time, he’s deep in the forest, far from campgrounds or hiking
trails or any trace of human visitors.
He curls himself down beneath a tree stump and closes his eyes to sleep. If
he’s lucky, he thinks bitterly, maybe he just won’t wake up. 
 
***** Chapter 2 *****
Chapter Notes
     Ok so listen, I haven't written, like, at all for the past I don't
     even fucking know how long. And I would love to say that this update
     means that this fic (or, hell, any of my WIPs) are back on track and
     will be updating regularly, but that would be a blatant, bold-faced
     lie.
     But I was trying to find something to read, and got into those moods
     where nothing is what I'm actually craving, and generally speaking
     that's a good sign that writing might be a thing that could happen,
     so.... have another angsty chapter of my soulmate fic?
No human could be reasonably expected to survive the winter -- even the mild
California winter -- alone in the wilderness with nothing but the cheap suit
he’d worn to court. Derek accepts that. Embraces it, even. He can’t go back to
living with Laura, or with anyone, when he’s living with this evil, twisted
soul inside of him -- it’s better if he dies here, alone, in the woods where
his poisonous soul can’t hurt anyone but him. He can’t quite bring himself to
hasten the process, but at least he can stay out here until nature takes its
course. The only thing Derek forgot to consider, though, is that he isn’t
human.
He’s a werewolf.
As it turns out, a werewolf’s body can survive far more in terms of starvation,
exposure, tripping over beehives and sustaining dozens of simultaneous bee
stings, a badly broken leg from falling into a ravine, and a slew of other
painful and humiliating traumas Derek has endured.
He’s long-since lost track of how long he’s been out here, but he knows it must
be at least several years. His hair and beard have grown long and matted.
What’s left of his clothes are tattered and discolored. The animals have long-
since stopped skittering away from him, having accepted him as part of the
natural landscape. He sleeps in a crude lean-to he built several weeks (months,
maybe?) into his self-imposed exile, after the rain soaking him as he tried to
sleep started to feel more like an annoyance than a much-deserved punishment.
It’s on a ridge above a creek where Derek drinks and bathes and catches the
occasional fish.
When he first started living out here, he’d tried desperately to teach himself
how to make a fire. Failure after failure had left him too frustrated to
continue. At best, he’d get the tip of the stick he was rubbing slightly warm
to the touch. Once, he got a faint wisp of smoke. Eventually, he’d decided it
wasn’t worth it and gave up.
He still tries every now and then, mostly when the nights get freezing cold,
but he hasn’t had a cooked meal since he left Beacon Hills.
It’s fine, though. He’s gotten used to it. Raw fish isn’t even all that bad
after a while.
He’s used to his lonely life out in the woods. Not that he’s happy, not really,
but he isn’t sure he deserves to be. He’s just existing. But at least he knows
he isn’t hurting anyone.
It startles him, badly, when one day he hears footsteps near his camp. Not the
nimble skittering of animals he’s used to, either. Loud, clumsy, human
footsteps. It should be impossible. He’s migrated several times since coming to
live out in the woods, driven out of his makeshift shelter by lack of food, or
bad storms, or, once, an enormous bear, but he always, always makes sure that
he keeps his distance from any hint of civilization.
Derek scrambles to get away, to hide, but in his haste he trips over an exposed
root and tumbles downhill, knocking his head as he goes.
He doesn’t remember landing. He blinks, disoriented, to find a pair of whiskey
colored eyes peering down at him.
“Dude, are you ok?” a man, a person, is asking him. “You looked like you hit
your head pretty hard there. Man, you look rough. How long have you been out
here?”
Derek tries to scramble up and get away, knowing he’ll have to run further now
that someone can lead more people back to this spot, but the world spins around
him, making him feel nauseous. A gentle hand presses against his shoulder,
urging him to stay down.
“It’s ok, buddy,” the guy says. His face is zooming in and out of focus as
Derek struggles to stay alert. “You’re ok. I found you, and I know the way
back. We can get you home.”
===============================================================================
 
Derek doesn’t remember the trip back to civilization. Doesn’t actually remember
standing up, if he’s honest.
He vaguely remembers the beep of a walkie, muffled voices and radio static,
quiet reassurances from the whiskey-eyed man, footsteps, voices, and the
sensation of being lifted on a stretcher.
He wakes up in a bed.
He hasn’t slept in a bed in so long that he lays there paralyzed with fear that
one wrong move will send him tumbling over the edge. The hospital bed guard
rails don’t do much to alleviate his fear.
The machine next to him starts beeping faster and faster, and he realizes after
a moment that it’s measuring his heart rate.
Soon, there’s a woman rushing into his room.
“Oh, you’re awake!” she says, sounding relieved. “You’re in the hospital,
Mr…..” she trails off, clearly not knowing his name.
Derek doesn’t offer it.
His eyes dart around nervously. Maybe he can still get out of here, run back to
the woods before he has the chance to ruin anybody’s life.
“You were found in the woods by a hiker,” the nurse -- Derek thinks she’s a
nurse -- tells him, a bit unnecessarily. “Do you know how long you were out
there? It must have been a long time.”
Derek doesn’t answer. He needs to get out of here, needs to run away before
anyone realizes that he’s the boy whose soulmate killed his family.
“You were pretty well hydrated when you came in, which is good,” she tells him,
when it becomes clear he’s not going to answer her. “You must have found a good
source of running water. But you’re pretty undernourished. The doctor’s going
to give you some diet recommendations before you leave, alright?”
Derek sits up slightly and peers over the side of the bed to see how high it
is, then immediately lays back down. It’s not terribly far, but the ground
looks hard and unforgiving, nothing like the soft dirt and fallen leaves he’s
used to falling onto.
“Are you feeling ok, hon? You look nervous,” the nurse says. “Look, you came in
as a John Doe. Is there anyone you need us to call? Anyone who could come and
get you?”
Derek looks at her for a moment, then shakes his head sharply.
“Can you tell me your name, at least?” she asks.
Derek fidgets with the blanket, avoiding the nurse’s eyes until she sighs and
says, “I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake.”
She leaves Derek alone.
Derek brings a hand up to scratch at his beard, but it’s gone. His hand lands
on bare skin. He lifts his hand to the top of his head to find his hair has
been shorn, too. Not quite all the way, but it’s been buzzed short -- probably
too tangled and matted to have left it any longer.
He’s still rubbing his hand across his scalp when there’s a tentative knock on
the door.
“Hey, dude,” says the guy standing there. “You’re looking better! I barely
recognize you.”
The guy’s grinning. It takes Derek a moment, but he places him. Those same
whiskey eyes are the ones he saw in the woods before passing out.
The silence must drag on too long for the guy’s comfort, because his smile
falters a bit.
“You do, uh… you remember me, right?” The guys asks nervously.
Derek doesn’t answer.
“Right, um, that’s cool,” the guys says. “I mean, you were pretty out of it
back there, and then you were, like, unconscious and stuff, so…”
Someone else clears their throat out in the hallway.
“Right! Not the point. Um, the point is, there’s someone here who’d like to see
you,” the guy says before taking a step back and letting a woman and an older
man dressed like a sheriff through.
She looks familiar, but the memory is fuzzy, out of place. He stares at her, a
name pushing its way toward the tip of his tongue but Derek can’t quite
recognize her until she says, voice rough like she’s been crying or like she’s
about to, “Derek, you nimrod. I thought you were dead.”
Laura, he realizes, but so much older than when he’d last seen her.
“I’m sorry,” he says, voice croaking over the first words he’s uttered since he
left her,”I should be. I should have died instead of them.”
“Don’t say that,” Laura says harshly, pulling him into a hug. He bears it
stiffly, no longer used to human contact. “Don’t you ever say that. What
happened wasn’t your fault.”
She’s lying, Derek thinks, even if she doesn’t realize it or doesn’t want to.
It was his poisoned soul that got their family killed, and he wonders how Laura
can even stand to look at him.
“Come home,” she asks him, pleading. “You’re my brother, and I need you.”
And Derek doesn’t know how to refuse her.
End Notes
     The end.
      
      
     Ha ha, psych! No, there's totally gonna be another chapter. Or
     several. IDK. Come nag me for updates on tumblr
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