#onlyalphahale

February - city/state

Obviously I live in LA in California.

April - Favorite hair color and eye color

Hair would be red, and eye would be blue.

November - If I changed my name, what would it be

E: GODDDDD YOU HAVE TO HEAR THE NEW 1D ALBUM, LYDS IT'S PURE SEX

E: Oh... Oh no--Derek I, uh auto correct!! By 1D I meant... Um... Coldplay!!!

Cora woke with a scream, which was no longer surprising to her. In the midst of the electrocution that served as an alarm clock, she took note of her surroundings. There was a smiling Kate, hand manipulating the dial to the electricity, and Derek, watching a now-familiar scene, unable to help. But Cora could smell, just slightly, smoke. There wasn’t supposed to be smoke, Derek was awake, this wasn’t how it worked. Kate didn’t play with fire around Derek, and Cora liked it that way. But as Kate turned down the voltage at last, and Cora could sag down into her restraints, tired from seizing, she noted the slight bulge in Kate’s pocket, a lighter, and she knew that today, Kate would see them both burn.

The smell lingering on the lighter had Cora on edge, feeling phantom flames burn her. She wanted to scream already, and nothing had happened. Cora held her head high, though, pretending as if she had nothing to fear from the little box in Kate’s pocket. But she remembered the 'games'. Her clothes set on fire, burning her skin as she screamed. The lighter passing over her torso, her face, anywhere, burning and torturing without remorse. Just like the fire that she had barely survived, and her family not at all. She narrowed her eyes threateningly, though her muscles shook minutely. She was entirely focused on Kate, riveted, waiting for her move.

“Good morning, little bitch. Ready to play our little game?” Kate spoke brightly, smiling at the two werewolves. She grabbed the lighter from her pocket, and waved it around gleefully. Kate walked over to Cora, flicking the lighter on smoothly, a small flame glowing bright off the tip. Cora bit her lip, and pressed herself into the fence, as far away from the fire as possible. She knew what was coming next. Crooning, Kate stalked closer. “Come now, little Hale, this is nothing new for you.”

The hand holding the lighter came closer, hovering just barely over Cora’s face, and Cora trembled miserably, petrified with fear. Hitched breaths wobbled out of Cora’s throat, and Kate only smiled beatifically at the conditioned response. Cora swallowed thickly, trying to be brave, put up a strong front for Derek, so he wouldn’t be so worried. She had a feeling she was failing. But just as the flame was about to burn her cheek, Kate pulled away, laughing at Cora’s confused, relieved, and scared face.

“Didn’t your parents teach you to share?” Kate taunted. “Were you raised by wolves?” Kate giggled at her own joke, and twirled a piece of blond hair around her finger. “I guess I’ll have to explain how it works. You see, it’s not fair if only you get to play with fire. Derek deserves a turn too.”

“No!” Cora blurted. Derek couldn’t burn. He needed to be safe. Electricity they could survive, for now, but she wouldn’t let Derek burn like the rest of their family. She couldn’t let him. “Please, Kate, please,” Cora openly begged. “Please don’t.” She was desperate, and in her desperation Kate had won.

onlyalphahale

Erica was desperate, to say the least. The longer Derek was gone, the more she felt like she was going crazy. It was like there was an itch under her skin, she was jumpy and irritated. Everything was a mess. So, yes, she was absolutely desperate.

That's why she was sitting criss-crossed in an empty room, breathing deeply with her eyes closed. "Okay," She hummed, cracking one eye open. "Um.. Okay." Erica closed her eyes again and took one final exaggerated breath. 

'I've never meditated before,' She thought. 'But uh... I think this is how you do it... Clear your mind? Of everything but Derek. Derek? Hello? Hello, Derek, are you there? It's me Erica," She snickered out loud at her own joke before falling serious again. 

Cora stared at her alarm clock from her bed. 2:24 PM blinked red, and then changed to 2:25, queuing up the alarm Cora had set. She reached over and turned it off, and rolled out of her bed. So much for sleeping before her shift. Instead, she had just laid there and alternated between staring at her clock and her ceiling—neither was very interesting. Cora rubbed her hands over her face tiredly. Sure, she now took shifts off to ‘sleep’, getting people off her back about working too hard, but it wasn’t like she had done any sleeping. The last time she slept at all was four days ago, for two hours, before she dreamt of fire and ash and screams and woke up crying. Just like every time she tried to sleep. The only time she could get any sleep was when she had someone there to keep her sleep from becoming deep enough to have nightmares. But that wasn’t often. So Cora just didn’t sleep. And that was okay with her. Better to never sleep then to burn alive in her dreams.

She walked slowly to her closet, pulling out her clothes for the day, and shrugging them on briskly. She hadn’t actually left that much time to get to the hospital, and her shift started at 2:40. Only a single shift today; she’d promised Derek that she would cut back on her shifts a little, and she would—for about a week, same as always, before he hopefully had other things to worry about. Grabbing an apple and her converse, she headed out the door, locking it behind her. Glad that no one was in the hallway but her, she hopped on one foot to get one shoe on, then the same for the other, all the while holding her apple in-between her teeth. She probably looked ridiculous. Shoes on, and apple in her hand, Cora checked the time on her phone, 2:29. She’d have to hurry if she wanted to get there on time.

Cora ran at a not-quite human pace down the hallway, before vaulting herself off the stairway, hoping no one was watching her inhuman actions. Whatever, she was in a hurry. She walked quickly out of her apartment lobby, waving to a few of her neighbors, and began jogging to the hospital. Isaac would definitely give her a hard time if she was late again. Narrowly dodging asshole drivers as she crossed the few streets between her crappy apartment and the hospital, she had finished eating the apple and tossed the core into one of the many sidewalk trashcans. Only a few blocks away, she slowed down, walking sedately. Cora grabbed her phone to check the time. 2:34. She would definitely make it on time.

Phone still in hand, she dialed Hunter’s number. Cora needed some time to relax and hang out with more people than just work people. Hunter didn’t pick up, so Cora tried again. Still nothing. She was a little frustrated, but he did work at the LAFD and could be saving live, very important, so she supposed she’d cut him a little slack. Cora left him a voicemail instead, letting him know that he was picking her up after her shift, and to not be late. Hunter would probably be late just to spite her, but if he picked her up in the ’67 Impala all would be forgiven. She hung up after leaving her message, and tucked her phone back into her pocket.

Cora stopped in front of the hospital briefly, noticing that her shoe had come untied. Not a good thing when they could and have gotten got in wheelchairs and gurneys before. She knelt on the ground, out of the way of the entrance, slightly behind a few trees, and began to re-tie the laces. Cora heard footsteps coming from behind her, but didn’t really think anything of it. It was LA, people walked places all the time. Without warning though, the footsteps became a body, and a body that had arms around her.

Cora whirled around, almost breaking free of the strong, though human arms that gripped her harshly. She opened her mouth, preparing to ask what the hell this guy thought he was doing, when one of his hands flew up to her face, shoving a dirty cloth down her throat, and holding another one over her nose. She gagged on the fabric, and unsuccessfully tugged herself away from her attacker, before she fell to the ground. She felt dizzy, and her eyes began to water from her aborted coughs. Cora tried to move her arms, her head, anything, but her body felt like lead, and she was easily manhandled until her attacker held the cloth over her face tighter than before. She had trouble breathing, and foolishly inhaled beneath the cloth. Wolfsbane. Cora’s eyes widened briefly, before they shut altogether, and she lay unconscious on the cement.

~*~

Cora didn’t notice as she was lifted off the sidewalk, and loaded into a waiting van. Wolfsbane cloth still in her mouth, she was unconscious. She was unaware of the people in the van jeering at her body as they drove, of the perverted comments and suggestive gestures. She didn’t feel the grubby hands over her body, and the hollers from the men. She was ignorant of how they found her phone, in her back pocket, and felt her up in their ‘attempts’ to grab it. It, and her hope of calling for help, was thrown out of the window and onto the road below. Cora didn’t wake as the road turned rougher, and the van skidded to a stop.

She remained unconscious as she was flipped over a hunter’s shoulder, one of his hands holding a flashlight, and the other her ass. The laughter of the other hunters as she was carried down sets of stairs went unnoticed by her, as did their entering a large, dark room. Cora was ruthlessly strapped to a cold metal fence with wolfsbane laced bindings, next to the unconscious, slumped form of her own brother, and still, she knew nothing. Her sweatshirt and top had been cut away carelessly, leaving cuts sluggishly bleeding down her half-naked body, unable to heal while she continued to inhale the wolfsbane from the cloth. Electrodes were glued to her skin by rough hands, eager, overzealous. Cora could not feel the low-level current already running through them, though she twitched in discomfort.

Cora could not see or hear the delicate, feminine hand turn the dial to the machine she was connected to. But they heard her screams.

~*~

Cora woke with a muffled scream, choking on the sodden cloth still in her mouth. Waves of electricity flooded her body, and she convulsed helplessly. She gagged, managing to expel the cloth from her throat, though she coughed violently still. The voltage increased, and Cora retched, vomiting thick black liquid in front of her. That… Wasn’t a good sign. She bent over again, as much as she could with being restrained, coughing up more bile. Her bra and jeans were stained with blood, sweat, and black vomit. The wattage of the electricity died down a bit, and Cora could manage to stop throwing up, and lift up her head.

She wished she hadn’t.

A smiling Kate Argent was in front of her. Kate Argent, the hunter who had slaughtered her family. Cora couldn’t help but try to lunge at the huntress bitch, to make a mess of her pretty smiling face. But she was tied to the fence, and fell back uselessly onto the fence. In return, Argent turned up the voltage suddenly, and Cora screamed, her back arching and twitching as it was torn apart by pain. When the electricity had died back to a manageable level, she panted helplessly, shaking minutely as her muscles tried in vain to recover.

“Bad dog,” Kate pouted, patting Cora on the cheek patronizingly. Cora tried to bite at it, but the huntress moved out of the way too quickly.

“Now, now, little Alpha.”

Alpha? But Derek was the Alpha, not her; she would only be an alpha if he died. And Derek was fine; he should be sleeping in his apartment by now. His shift would be over. Derek wouldn’t have to see any of this, his baby sister being killed. Cora knew it was inevitable. She wasn’t going to make it out of here. But she would fight.

“If you don’t behave, I’ll just have to go play with your brother. And you don’t want that, do you?” Kate smirked victoriously, her eyes widening falsely, comically large and innocent.

Derek? No. No. No no no no no no no. He’s supposed to be safe, in LA, with the pack. He was the Alpha... God, not Derek.  Please, not Derek. 

But there he was, on a section of fencing slightly adjacent to her own, so close she could stretch out her fingertips and brush his own. He was slumped over, unmoving, blood dripping from his temple, and she couldn’t hear his heart over the thrumming of the electricity. Derek, he couldn’t be, no, he was alive. Right? But she didn’t know. Cora felt like she had been gutted. She felt her eyes widen, and she began straining against the bindings, unable to think past the mix of rage and grief she felt when she knew that he might be dead.

“Derek. Derek wake up. Derek, come on, please, please wake up,” Cora said, her voice hoarse from vomiting and the thought that Derek had been killed. “Please Derek, come on, big brother, please wake up.”

Kate laughed, a cold, tinkling laugh that had dread pouring itself into Cora’s bones. “Oh no,” Kate simpered. “He’s not dead. Yet, anyway. How long he’s alive and the shape he’s in depends entirely on you. Are you going to play nice?”

And Cora felt every inch of fight drain out of her.

E: Thinking about checking out some wedding dresses today.. When can I pick you up?

{ONE HOUR LATER}

E: Derek?

{ONE HOUR LATER}

Run errands for me?[x]yes[]no

Tie my shoe?[x]yes[]no

Be honest about how an outfit looks on me?[]yes[x]no (you’d probably be to terrified to tell me it looks terrible)

Help me decorate for a party?[x]yes[]no

Leave spare keys with?[x]yes[]no

Cover for me at work?[]yes[x]no (I wouldn’t make you do that.)

Pet-sit for me?[x]yes[]no

Babysit for me?[x]yes (You and Stiles will be my #1 on call babysitter just so you know.)[]no

Cook my dinner?[x]yes[]no

Confide in?[x]yes (to a certain extent)[x]no

Move in with me?[]yes[x]no (I really don’t need to hear you and Stiles and you really don’t need to hear me and Peter.)

Sleep in the same bed with me?[x]yes[]no

Help me conceal a crime?[]yes[x]no (Your eyebrows would judge me the whole time)

Runaway with?[]yes[x]no (Stiles wouldn’t be too happy)

Do I trust you to…

Run errands for me?[x]yes[]no

Tie my shoe?[x]yes (If I was completely incapable of doing it)[]no

Be honest about how an outfit looks on me?[x]yes[]no

Help me decorate for a party?[]yes[x]no (I have a feeling you'd just scowl at me until I made Stiles come help instead)

Leave spare keys with?[x]yes[]no

Cover for me at work?[x]yes[]no

Pet-sit for me?[x]yes[]no

Babysit for me?[x]yes[]no

Cook my dinner?[x]yes[]no

Confide in?[x]yes (you wouldn't judge me for some of the things I've done in my past)[]no

Move in with me?[x]yes[]no

Sleep in the same bed with me?[x]yes (Don't lie, you're a secret cuddlebug)[]no

Help me conceal a crime?[x]yes[]no

Runaway with?[x]yes[]no