Title: Chance Meeting
Fandoms: Teen Wolf & Harry Potter
Pairing: Cora Hale/Lavender Brown
Rating: T
Length: 2,190 words
Content notes: Canon divergent. Set years after Cora and Derek leave Beacon Hills. Two very minor OCs.
Author notes: I've played around with timelines (what timelines?) Can be read as a sequel to "In the Face of Fear, Bravely." (Also on AO3)
Prompts: (Amnesty) Challenge: Introductions. It also fills the "bar" square of my bingo card here and the prompt "welcome" of my 100 fandoms table challenge.
Summary: After three years of running away, Cora and Derek finally decide to settle for a while. They choose England, and there is where Cora meets Lavender Brown.

Chance Meeting

When they leave, they don’t have a plan, really. Getting away from Beacon Hills is enough for both of them; getting as far away from the town that took everything from them. Cora hates Beacon Hills with her whole being and resents every minute she had to spend in there after swearing she would never go back.

But she had. Of course she had. How could she not, when there was talk of a new Hale Pack? It didn’t turn out exactly as she’d hoped for, but she was glad, really, that she had decided to return to check out the rumors. She may have hated every moment of it, but she’s still glad because if nothing else, Beacon Hills has given her Derek back, and having her brother alive and with her is more than anything she could have ever hoped, after that night.

It still makes her bitter and spiteful in turn, though, knowing that if it wasn’t for the damn cursed town she could also have had Laura and Peter back (the Peter she remembers, not the one he became, not Laura’s murderer).

She’s not sad at all to leave it all behind, to take with her the pieces that remain of the brother she loved and the few little things she’s gotten for herself since being saved after the whole mess with the Alpha pack, and flee.

She only bothered to say goodbye to Stiles, because from the McCall pack Stiles seems to be the only one who cares about their story, about what actually happened to their family and how much it has affected them. The boy’s good and wasted on that pack, and Cora knows that once Derek’s better, once he has healed and made peace with his own feelings, he will probably come back to him (if only to take him away.)

But for now, they go. They dip into the insurance money, buy a plane ticket to Brazil and don’t look back.

Brazil turns to Peru and then Chile. They explore Argentina, then Australia, then Greece. Italy, Spain, Egypt. They spend three months living in a far-off little village in India, and that’s the longest they stay in one place until England.

It’s not that they particularly like England, but after two years of living the nomadic life the itch of packpackpackneedmorepackalpha is too strong to ignore. They’re both healing still, and though much better than they were three years before, they are still not ready to go back to the States. Derek did toy with the idea of at least visiting his former pack (not hers. Never hers. Stiles, she likes somewhat, but the others are… no), but he finally decided that it isn’t worth it, not yet.

They can’t live in big cities for long, so they choose another small town in the countryside where they think they’ve located a small local pack. Not much is known about them, so they are going to test the waters, so to speak, and see whether they would be a good fit, even if a temporary one.

After some exploring around and keeping keen eyes (and open ears) on the people of the small town, they find themselves in a bar.

The place is small and has few patrons. It’s mostly made of wood and the floors creak when they walk inside, but the people sitting around nursing their glasses don’t give them more than a cursory look before going back to their drinks. It’s only the bartender who snaps to attention, looking at them with wary curiosity, which makes Cora take a subtle sniff of the air. Werewolf, her senses tell her, and she’s lived in the wild for enough years to trust them completely. It takes Derek a little more time, but she knows he has it the moment his shoulders tense and his scowl deepens.

Cora has to fight down a sigh. Derek is only worried, but his face and posture scream aggression even when there is none, and she can’t blame the other wolf from reacting to it. The man seems to be around his forties, with sandy-brown hair and deep sideburns. Ice-blue eyes narrow, fixed on her brother, and his back straightens to the point of almost snapping. Cora knows that if he were in his wolf form, the man’s hackles would be raised. As it is, she can almost see the hint of beta-gold in his eyes.

A sub-vocal grumble starts in Derek’s throat and the man immediately returns it. The tense air begins attracting attention they cannot afford, so Cora decides it’s time to intervene. She clears her throat and pointedly puts herself between the two men, cutting off the increasingly hostile eye-contact.

“Excuse my brother,” she says, trying to be polite. It’s more difficult than she’d have thought. Even after two years of living around other people again, social niceties are difficult to grasp. She doesn’t make eye contact. “He doesn’t mean any harm.” Slowly, she tilts her head to the left, not baring her throat completely but just enough to show her intentions are honest. They’re not here to fight. “We wanted to know if we could, ah, speak with the one in charge here?” We want a meeting with your Alpha, she means, and the beta seems to understand. He studies them closely for another moment, then nods.

“She’s not in right now,” he says slowly; his vowels are thick. So, the alpha is a woman, good to know. “Why don’tcha come back around nine, she’ll be in by then.”

Derek takes a step forward, looking like he’d like to demand to be taken to the Alpha right now, so Cora takes his arm in a death grip and gives him a stern look. He glowers at her, but she stands firm. He might be his older brother, and he might have been her Alpha for a very short time, but he’s now a beta again and she had always been the one to take charge when they were kids. Now that they have the same status again, things have gone back to normal. Derek was never meant to be Alpha, and while Cora has never wanted to be, she could have made a good one.

“That’s fine. Thanks. We’ll be back,” she says rather stiffly, then dips her head in acknowledgment. “C’mon, Derek,” she adds, pitched low so that only her brother can hear.

Derek grumbles but follows her lead, and together they exit the bar.

“What was that?”

Cora sighs and looks at her brother from the corner of her eye. “You can’t start a fight in Pack territory, stupid. We don’t know how many wolves they have, and we’re only two betas. Foreigners, at that.”

Derek rubs his face with a hand; his shoulders droop. “Yes,” he says. “I know. It’s just...”

“It rankles a bit,” Cora says, shrugging. “I get it. Still.”

“I’ll try to keep my temper,” Derek promises. Cora knows that’s the best she’ll get.

“If you do, then I will, too.”

Derek barks out a laugh, short and dry. It’s still such a rare and precious occurrence that Cora can’t help but feel smug.

They kill time by visiting the town hall and asking about accommodation possibilities. There aren’t many places for sale and the rents are not the worst they’ve ever seen, so they tentatively sort through their options in case they might actually be able to stay. They need to talk to the Alpha before they make any kind of decision about it, but it’s good to know what they have to work with.

At eight, the building closes and they make their way to the only square in town, placed just in front. They buy two cones of fish and chips from a street vendor and silently eat, sitting on a bench and listening to the quiet sounds of insects moving around and the buzzing sound of the street lights.

Cora muses. She thinks about the future, trying to imagine what it would be like to have a new Alpha and a new pack. The sole thought brings about mixed feelings: dread and sadness (with a hint of anger that she even has to find a new one, when hers had been so good and should still be there), but also elation and nervous excitement at the possibility of finding a home.

She’s not expecting to find it here, not really. At least not right away. This little town, this little pack—they are just stepping stones, the first steps towards that dream. If they get some acceptance and protection in the meanwhile, well, that’d be nice.

At fifteen to nine, they get up and throw away their trash before walking back to the bar. When they reach it, there’s a sign that proclaims it closed. They hesitate for a moment outside the door, but then the bartender from that evening opens it, letting them in.

There are no patrons left, only the old furniture and a young girl of about fifteen wiping up tables. Her eyes flicker towards them and she nods, and Cora does the same. She’s also a wolf, but… there’s something else there in her smell, something that Cora cannot place.

“Alpha Brown’s upstairs,” the man says, interrupting her thoughts. He doesn’t give his name, nor the girl’s. Unless the Alpha tells them, they won’t know them—it’s a matter of security and werewolf etiquette. “Follow me, please.”

Cora walks right after him, with Derek at her back. The stairs are narrow and they creak beneath their weight, but they are sturdy. The man walks them down a corridor right towards a door at the end, and knocks twice.

“Enter,” a female voice requests, and Cora’s spine straightens in response to the authoritative quality of it without any input from her brain. It’s instinctive.

“I brought them,” the man says, opening the door and seeing them inside.

“Yes, thank you, Grant,” Alpha Brown says, not looking up from what she’s doing. She’s sitting behind a big oak desk covered with papers and odd-looking, moving trinkets. “Go help Danny with the closing up.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Grant says, dips his head and exits the room, closing the door behind him.

Cora and Derek stand there for a moment, awkwardly, wondering what to do. Cora’s biting her tongue in order to keep herself from saying something stupid.

“Well,” Alpha Brown says, raising her head to look at them, and Cora’s mouth fills with blood. She’s actually bitten through her tongue. The woman’s much younger than she expected, probably around Derek’s age, maybe a little older. She has short blond hair and a sharp nose, and her eyes—

Cora inhales sharply at the sheer power exuding from those eyes in waves. She’s not even posturing and still, her air of command in unmistakable. Derek felt nothing like this when he was still an Alpha; McCall didn’t, either, even though he’s a ‘True Alpha’. The Alpha Pack members were terrifyingly powerful, yes, but they felt different: jaded, sharp. Their aura didn’t offer comfort and protection as well, not like her mother’s had done, and not like this woman’s does.

Alpha Brown studies them with a flick of those eyes (and how would they look like, shining red? Breathtaking, she’s sure) and Cora feels a shiver run down her spine.

She wants.

She wants so much that she can’t even keep back the small whine that rises in her throat. It should be embarrassing and mortifying and utterly terrifying, but it’s not. Not when Alpha Brown’s eyes turn soft and her mouth curls into a smile and Cora feels drunk in her scent and her power.

She’s beautiful and Cora can’t look away.

“My name’s Lavender Brown,” she says, and oh, damn, her voice. Cora has never thought of British accents as particularly attractive, before. “You two are Derek and Cora Hale, right?”

“Yes,” Derek says, voice rough. He’s been affected, too, Cora can vaguely tell even in her state. She cannot answer.

“There are a couple of things we should talk about, first.” Alpha Lavender stands and goes around the desk until she’s in front of them while Cora greedily takes in her every movement. They are about the same height. “But I believe a welcome is in order.”

She raises her right hand, questioning, and what can Cora do but turn her head and submit?

A warm palm settles on her bared neck, scent-marking her in a gesture of invitation and partial claim, and Cora’s chest feels filled to burst.

It’s a struggle not to whine or snarl or do something equally embarrassing once Alpha Lavender takes her hand back to do the same to Derek, but she manages.

They’re not yet part of the pack, and they won’t be for a long while, if they ever do. At least one full moon they have to spend together and they have to meet every other wolf and they have to see if they work well together, but…

Alpha Lavender smiles and Cora thinks maybe she’s found it. Maybe she’s found her home.