Derek gives the alpha, Luke, a skeptical look, but he isn't lying. His heart stays steady the whole time, and Derek swallows hard. It definitely adds up. His scent imbedded in that cabin, the too-big clothes that smell like him. The phone with all the unfamiliar numbers.

"I don't understand," Derek says quietly, because he believes him, but he doesn't understand. He wouldn't just leave his family. "There's no way to get back to Beacon Hills? It's in California."

There must not be, or he'd be there. He'd never willingly leave his family. They're his whole world; his anchor. A thought occurs to him and he blinks up at Luke. "I need to have an alpha, so that must be you, right? You're my alpha here?"

Derek specifies here because his mother will always be his true alpha, and then his sister after her. But if he can't be with her, he needs another one. He feels untethered, heart pounding away in his chest like a scared rabbit's, and he swallows hard as he looks hopefully at Luke.