The hand on Cora's shoulder tightened a little at her response to Caitlin. You're not making this better, hush and let me handle it the gesture said and he had a feeling Cora would get the drift.
"I'm a shape-shifter," he agreed, rolling with Caitlin's terminology because it meant less panic, potentially, than werewolf. People heard werewolf and they thought of the horrible — inaccurate — depictions on the silver screen and that was not an image he wanted to have attached to him.
Derek took a deep breath. "No," he said, shaking his head. It wasn't entirely true; of course all of Beacon Hills knew it, but he wasn't going to drag them all under the bus with him, even if he had a feeling that, were the tables turned, they'd throw him in front of the bus without a second thought. Isaac maybe wouldn't, but everyone else either had or he was sure would, in a pinch. Derek wasn't going to do that. "Just...can we keep this right here? Between the three of us, Caitlin, please? I'm asking you as a friend, please. It's really important to me, that's why she was lying to try to keep it a secret. I don't want people to know.
"I have complete control over it, I'm not vicious, I don't have blood lust, I know all of those things are stigmas attached to shape-shifters, but I'm none of those things. I'm not here to hurt anybody, I just want to keep living my life like I have been," he said, taking a few steps backward and guiding Cora with him, using her as a human shield until he could reach back and grab his shorts, stepping into them and finally coming out from behind his sister. "Please, can it just be our secret?" he asked again, holding his hands up just slightly — the human equivalent of a white flag without the actual white flag to wave.