Hey there, it's been a few years since I originally wrote and posted this story and so I've decided to rewrite/heavily edit. I believe my writing has vastly improved since I first started it and so I hope you'll decide to give it a second chance. There will be some major changes so I apologize in advance if it ticks anyone off. The prologue is gone, as I've decided to start the character off with an air of mystery. A lot of the details of Caroline's past will be different. So all you need to know about Caroline for now is that she was born and spent several years in Cardiff, Wales (Her father was a Welshman while her mother was British) and therefore speaks with a slight Welsh accent that's not too thick as she'd moved to the USA as a ten year old. She does not speak actual Welsh. I've tried to incorporate some Welsh, although mostly British, slang as much as possible without it seeming overwhelming. I will be slowly editing a few chapters at a time so please be patient with me. Thank you.

The ever-famous disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or any of the characters, aside from my original character, Caroline Mills-Hale, and any other minor original characters such as Jonathan Hale.

Chapter I

"Oh, you've got to be joking," Caroline concludes as she stares up at the remnants of what must have once been a very large and very expensive house, now burnt to an absolute crisp. She turns to the small group of ten-year-old boys who'd led her to the house and grimaces.

"Are you absolutely certain this is the Hale residence?" she inquires warily. One of the boys nods, frowning up at her like he thinks she's trying to snake her way out of their deal.

"Yes," he stresses. "Derek Hale's been around town lately but we don't know where he lives so this is pretty much it." Caroline tries her hardest not to lose her patience as the boys all simultaneously stick out their hands, obviously in expectance of their promised payment. Caroline sighs, reaching into her duffel bag before pulling out her wallet and handing each boy their promised five dollars, leaving her short twenty dollars in one go.

"Thanks," she mutters dejectedly, then pouts and watches as they all turn their bicycles around and pedal their way back up the road towards town. Caroline turns to the house when she can no longer see the children and scowls at the sight of it.

"Now what?" she groans as she eyes the charred house. "Bollocks." She stands there for a moment, just staring at what remains of the house, before she sighs in defeat and trudges inside with her duffel bag, her shoulders hunched over in disappointment.

"Fuck me sideways," she swears, halting at the bottom of the dark stairway, blackened by fire, and drops her bag to the floor. It's quite obvious no one lives in the house. It's completely uninhabitable. There's no possible way Derek Hale can still be living here. She reaches up and rubs two fingers at her right temple, wondering how the hell she's going to find the man now.

A faint sound of movement pulls her out of her despairing thoughts not a second later and she springs into action, jumping aside just in the nick of time as a werewolf lunges out of seemingly nowhere and comes to a stop where she'd been standing a moment earlier, arms crossed like he'd been attempting to catch her in his arms.

Caroline lands on the scorched banister, almost gracefully, her chocolate brown eyes wide as she stares down at what's very obviously a werewolf, albeit a young werewolf. He stands there, glaring distrustfully up at her, his eyes shining a deep gold, and slowly drops his clawed hands to his sides. He sniffs at the air, in her direction, and frowns deeply, almost as if he's confused.

Caroline tilts her head as she stares down at him. His eyes aren't supposed to be golden. Caroline's sure they're supposed to be blue. Jon had told her the story he'd heard from his sister, Talia, the story of how Derek had caused the death of a girl he'd fallen in love with. That means his eyes are supposed to be blue.

Yet again, Caroline hears a muted sound of movement, only this time she's too busy pondering the werewolf's eye color to react quickly enough and before she knows it, she's pinned to the floor underneath a heavy weight and a clawed hand is wrapped around her pale neck. She lets out a sharp gasp as the much larger werewolf, this one with glowing blue eyes, looms over her, deadly and determined. Caroline immediately reaches up and grabs at the constricting hand around her throat, desperate for air as she struggles.

"Who are you?" the blue-eyed werewolf demands, his voice a dangerous hiss and his grip around Caroline's throat tightening with every second that passes.

"Plea—," she chokes out frantically, sucking in any air she can get and pulling at his clawed hand with all the strength she can muster. The golden-eyed werewolf steps out of the shadows then, frowning as he reaches out and places a hesitant hand on her attacker's shoulder.

"Derek, she's trying to say something," the shorter werewolf mutters. Caroline's eyes widen as she realizes the blue eyed menace currently choking the life out of her is who she's been looking for, Jon's nephew and her cousin, Derek. She nods her head quickly, almost hysterically, confirming the younger werewolf's statement. Derek loosens his grip, just a bit, only enough to give her some air. But it's more than enough for Caroline, who greedily gasps and chokes for oxygen almost immediately.

"Who are you?" Derek snaps again, clearly irritated beyond imagination and about a second away from ripping out her throat.

"My name is Caroline!" Caroline wheezes out between large breaths, eyes still wide and full of disbelief that this man is the cousin she's been looking for. "Caroline Mills-Hale! I'm your cousin! Please, I—" Her words are cut off as she watches Derek's eyes expand for a moment, only to narrow down at her once more, baring his sharp canines angrily.

"I have no cousins!" he shouts furiously. His hand around her throat begins to tighten once again and Caroline swears she can almost see her life flash before her eyes when she realizes he's raising his other clawed hand to strike.

"Derek, wait!" the younger werewolf cries out as he lurches forward and catches Derek's hand in mid-air. "She's telling the truth! You know she is! What the hell are you doing?"

"I really a-am!" Caroline chokes out. "Jon! J-Jonathan Hale!" Derek's eyes widen in recognition, his grip around her neck loosening. He eyes her distrustfully for a moment before he finally releases his hold on her neck and pulls his arm out of the other werewolf's grip. He stands up slowly as Caroline reaches up to her neck and rubs at the tender skin, staring up at the obviously enraged werewolf.

"My uncle?" Derek spits out, eyes narrowed. "The hunter?" Caroline swallows nervously and sits up slowly, hesitantly, eyeing Derek closely, in fear of being attacked again.

"Yes," she rasps. "Jon was my adoptive father. He sent me to find you." Derek sneers down at her.

"Was?" he inquires. Caroline's gaze drops to her lap, her chest constricting at the thought of Jon.

"He's dead," she admits quietly. It's the first time she says it out loud and it's the hardest thing she's ever had to admit in her entire life. So when Derek scoffs, her head snaps up and her eyes narrow venomously up at him.

"Good," Derek declares, with a careless shrug of his shoulders. "He had it coming. He betrayed us." Caroline frowns at the man's obvious lack of faith but her disappointment is tossed out the window and replaced by rage when Derek adds on a low, "Hope it was a werewolf who tore the bastard to pieces." Caroline feels a sudden incredible urge to stick a really sharp knife down the werewolf's throat.

"How dare you!" she snarls, scrambling to her feet, nearly tripping in her fury. "He left your family to protect it! And for your fucking information, arsehole, it wasn't a werewolf who killed him, he was turned by a vampire and I had to cut off his head!" It's the first time she's admitted out loud what happened and it's almost too much for her. Her eyes well up with tears but she stubbornly refuses to let them fall, refuses to show weakness.

"Wait, vampire?" the younger werewolf practically squeaks, his facial features slowly morphing back into a more human form. "Those exist?" Now that Caroline's getting a good look at him, she can see he's only a teenager, probably around her own age. Derek rolls his eyes at the younger werewolf as he glances over at the boy. He still looks wary but Caroline hopes that his taking his eyes off her means he's squared away the urge to maim and murder her.

"Scott, why are you even here?" Derek grunts, letting his features alter to make him look human. "Did you sniff her out and follow her here?" The shorter werewolf, Scott, frowns but his cheeks flush with a bit of color meaning Derek's correct in his assumption. Scott's lips part to say something but Derek waves a hand toward him and cuts him off.

"You know what, I don't even wanna know," he reveals. "But to answer your question, yes, they exist. That's what she is." The fury Caroline feels at being accused of being a vampire is immense and almost all consuming. Her eyes mutate from a shadowy brown to a vivid green that glows brightly, her fangs extend down and poke at the inside of her bottom lip, and her nails sharpen into claws. Both werewolves take a small step back, their eyes widening and shoulders tensing, as her own shoulders heave with a barely suppressed rage.

"I'm not a vampire," Caroline hisses dangerously, her hands twitching at her sides because she wants to clench them into fists but she knows that if she does that, she'll only hurt herself. "Do not ever call me that." She's nothing like those monsters and she won't stand to be thought of as one of them. Derek arches a challenging brow at her.

"Really?" he asks, the tone of his voice dripping with barely concealed sarcasm as he glances down first at her fangs and then at her sharp claws. Caroline realizes he's got a point. Letting her anger get the best of her is no way to attempt to win the man's trust over. She exhales sharply and forces her fangs to retract, wills her claws away, and then takes a handful of deep breaths until her eyes fade back to their natural brown.

"I'm a dhampir," she states softly, looking over at Derek and hoping he can see that she doesn't want to fight. "And I'm different than most. Aren't you?" She arches a brow as well. Jon had once told her that Derek was a different man than most in the family, and especially different from most werewolves. She sincerely hopes her father had been right. Derek gives her a suspicious once over then sighs, almost dejectedly.

"What did you say your name was again?" he asks.

"Caroline," she tells him, trying not too feel too hopeful all at once at his tolerant tone. "It's… a pleasure."

"No way in hell," Derek announces, crossing his arms over his chest resolutely, even as Caroline's face falls miserably.

"But I-I have nowhere else to go!" she argues, staring up at her cousin desperately. "I'm only sixteen years old, you know." Scott stands off to the side, watching as Derek and Caroline go back and forth in an argument that seems to be going nowhere fast.

"Look, Caroline," Derek begins with an irritated huff. "You're a vampire—" He cuts himself off with a roll of his eyes when Caroline glares at him. "Dhampir," he corrects. "You're the enemy. My uncle was a hunter, also the enemy. I don't trust you, I don't know you, and you're not staying with me." The tone of his voice screams 'end of conversation' but Caroline isn't ready to quit just yet. She shoots up off the remnants of an ancient and singed floral sofa and throws her hands up into the air.

"Then where the bloody hell am I supposed to go, Derek?" she shouts. "You tell me! I have no one! And nothing! You're the only family I have left!" She pauses for a moment, eyes wide with disbelief, and shakes her head at him.

"Jon told me you were a good man," she continues halfheartedly. "That you were to be trusted. He trusted you." Derek's eyes widen a fraction, his arms falling to his sides. Caroline sighs in defeat and drops her hands to her sides as well.

"I guess he was wrong," she mumbles disappointedly. "Maybe he'd been away far too long." Derek frowns, eyes narrowing once again.

"It was his choice to leave us," he growls. "His family." Caroline honestly can't believe the man is this dense, can't understand how he hasn't figured out the truth after all these years.

"To protect you, Derek," she tells him softly. "He never would've hurt his own family." Derek scoffs, obviously unbelieving, and crosses his arms over his chest once more. He stands that way a lot, Caroline's noticed.

"Yeah?" he snaps, annoyed. "How would you know?"

"I'm living proof of it," she testifies. "I've been a dhampir for two years now and not once did Jon ever think of harming me. He protected me, taught me to use my new abilities, helped me through it all. So trust me when I say that Jon did everything he did only to protect us, his family." Derek's eyes widen once more and he frowns for a while before he finally sighs in defeat, though his arms remain across his chest.

"Fine," he decides. Caroline grins widely and throws an excited fist into the air. Her elation seems to be premature though when Derek continues, ignoring her outburst.

"But you can't stay with me," he goes on. "You're only sixteen. You need to go to school. Everyone in this town hates me. I can't be your legal guardian." Caroline arches a curious brow at him as she wonders why the entire town supposedly hates him. But her despair at being denied the right to live with her cousin wins over her pondering.

"Well, then, where am I supposed to stay?" she asks, nearly sulking.

"She could stay with me," Scott pipes up out of the blue. Caroline smiles over at him gratefully for a moment, and Scott grins right back at her, only to have Derek interrupt them.

"No," he dictates. "Scott, why are you still here? Go home." Both Scott and Caroline turn to gaze up at Derek with confused expressions on their faces.

"Why not?" Scott asks, ignoring Derek's orders to leave. Derek rolls his eyes down at the two frowning teenagers.

"Think about it, Scott," he drawls, as if he's talking to a pair of five year olds. "You're a newborn werewolf. You're still learning to control yourself. She's a two-year-old vamp— I mean dhampir that could kill you in a heartbeat if you lose control and attack her. So no. End of discussion." Scott doesn't look happy about it but he nods in understanding. Caroline supposes Derek has a point so she does the same before crossing her arms over her chest, mirroring her cousin.

"Well, then where do I stay?" she inquires. Derek seems to think it over for a moment before he glances over at Scott and gives him a pointed look. Scott stares at him, confused for a very long moment, before his eyebrows rise and his lips form a silent 'o'.

"What?" Caroline questions as she glances between them, wondering if werewolves have suddenly developed the ability to communicate telepathically.

"Stiles," they both mutter simultaneously, both frowning for some odd reason. Caroline continues to glance between them, confusion etched all over her expression and growing at an alarming rate.

"Stiles?" she repeats. "What in the bloody hell is a Stiles?"

"Scott, couldn't we have simply knocked on the front door?" Caroline asks the golden-eyed werewolf as she leaps up onto the rooftop of the small home. "I understand it's the polite way to go about it." Scott shrugs his shoulders, ignoring her little jest, as she turns and helps pull him up onto the roof as well.

"I gotta talk to Stiles about it first," Scott says, dusting off his jeans, and breathing a bit harshly from the climb. "And then we gotta see if the Sheriff'll go for it." Caroline reminds herself to teach him to jump at some point in the near future before standing back to watch as he moves toward a window and yanks it open. He climbs through it and into a bedroom and Caroline follows after him, although it all seems a bit dodgy to her.

As soon as she sets her foot down on the carpet inside the room, her eyes widen, as she's hit with the most alluring smell she's ever encountered. She doesn't know how to explain it. It smells absolutely delectable, like a combination of the scent of a forest after it's just rained, something warm that reminds her of home or being wrapped up in her mother's arms as a child, and just a tad hint of vanilla. She wants to wrap the smell around her like a blanket and drown in it.

"He must be in the shower," she hears Scott mumble as he leans against a dresser. Caroline shakes her head, trying her hardest to distract herself from the incredible scent in the room, and sits down across from Scott at the edge of the full size bed. The smell is even more intense on the bed and Caroline has to chase away the urge to bury her face into the sheets and sniff to her heart's content.

"So, um, this Stiles bloke," she begins, in an attempt to occupy herself. "He's your best mate, yeah?" Scott simply nods.

"Yeah, since kindergarten," he tells Caroline. "He's more like my brother, really." She smiles up at him. She supposes it must be awfully nice to have a best friend. She's never really had one, just a couple kids from school she would spend time with if she wasn't out training or hunting with Jon. She feels her chest tighten uncomfortably at the thought of her father. She wonders for a moment if Scott's aware of how lucky he is to have a best friend whom he can talk to.

The door to the bedroom swings open suddenly, pulling Caroline from her thoughts, and that amazing warm, woodsy, vanilla scent doubles vastly as a tall, lean, brown haired human boy with a buzz cut and brown eyes walks into the room, nothing but a dark blue towel hanging dangerously low at his skinny hips.

"Jesus!" he yelps, almost tripping over himself when he spots Scott leaning up against the dresser. Caroline's eyes widen, as she looks the boy up and down. She feels something strange in her chest as she studies him, a warm tugging feeling that makes her want to rub at her chest to make it go away.

"Dude, seriously," The boy, whom Caroline assumes is Stiles, huffs out, holding one hand to his chest in surprise and using the other to grasp the towel at his waist. "You should really try and use the front door. Like just once maybe." Scott smiles sheepishly at his best friend.

"Sorry," he mumbles, but Caroline doubts he's truly sorry, not when he looks so amused. "It's not like you don't do the same at my house." Stiles sighs and his gaze sweeps across the room to the nightstand next to his bed, his gaze rushing right past the girl sitting on his bed. Then almost as if it's suddenly clicked in his brain that there's someone else there, his gaze snaps back to Caroline.

Caroline thinks she should find his surprised expression amusing but she can do nothing but stare dumbly right back at him as she realizes the mouth-watering scent swirling around her seems to be emanating from him. Stiles glances over at Scott for a moment.

"Uh, dude," he calls. "Am I finally losing my mind here or is there really a smoking hot blonde sitting on my bed?" Caroline grins up at him. And Stiles, seeing her grin, does so as well. And Caroline thinks his smile is adorable, it's a cute yet sort of goofy grin, and it almost seems as if he's thinking 'Hey, she thinks I'm funny'. Scott chuckles softly and Stiles looks over at his best friend, his cheeks flushing an endearing soft shade of pink.

"Stiles, this is Caroline Mills-Hale," Scott introduces. "Caroline, meet Stiles." All at once, the smile on Stiles' face vanishes and his eyes widen. Caroline tilts her head just a bit, confused and bit upset that his smile is gone

"Hale?" Stiles mumbles numbly. "As in like related to Derek Hale? Super scary werewolf Derek Hale?" Caroline nods and stands up off of his bed, internally cursing Derek for giving the boy a bad impression of the Hale name.

"Yes," she tells him, slowly walking over to stand at Scott's side. "Unless you know any other Derek Hales around here." Once again all parties present ignore her little joke. But she doesn't have the time to be disheartened by it. She notices Stiles is taller than her, a good deal taller. She really likes that for some reason.

"Oh, uh, British, okay," Stiles mumbles out awkwardly. "Nice to meet you?" He reaches up to rub at the back of his neck, almost nervously, glancing between her and Scott.

"Welsh actually, and likewise," Caroline offers; hoping his sudden jumpy behavior isn't a bad sign. For some reason, she's feeling this incessant lingering need in the back of her mind to have his approval. It's a bit annoying if she's being completely honest with herself.

"Stiles, we gotta talk," Scott tells him. Stiles tenses, as if he doesn't like the sound of those words and Caroline shakes off the impulse to assure him it's nothing bad.

"Right, okay, so, uh," Stiles stutters out, glancing around for a moment. "I'd like to get dressed."

"Yeah, no problem," Scott agrees. "Your dad's not home yet, is he?" Stiles shakes his head in response so Scott reaches over and places his hand at the small of Caroline's back to lead her out of his best friend's bedroom. As soon as the door is shut behind them, a painful sounding thud rings out from inside the room. Caroline jumps at the sound, her eyes widening as she stares at the bedroom door, but Scott just rolls his eyes.

"Fuck me," Stiles' voice curses weakly from the other side of the door. "Son of a mother freaking—" He cuts himself off when Scott calls out a soft, "You okay, dude?"

"Yup, I'm fine!" Stiles exclaims in a huff. "Just, um, tripped a little." Caroline's shoulders relax and she realizes, startlingly, that she'd tensed up at the sound of the boy tripping. She shakes her head slightly, as if to clear her mind, and wonders what the hell is up with her. Scott glances over at her and repeats almost the same question, but this time it's aimed at her.

"I'm alright," she assures him, before glancing to the bedroom door once again. "I like him. He's funny." She doesn't add on the bit where she thinks he smells amazing, like Christmas morning and a summer day at the beach all wrapped up in one, but she supposes Scott wouldn't want to hear it either way.

Not sure how often I'll be updating as Teen Wolf is technically over and I just haven't been very into it as of late. Still, I promise I won't abandon this story. Ate least, I hope not to.