Derek had become so accustomed to the pain for the past week that he hadn't even realized how deep it ran until the relief from it made him almost double over. Laura wouldn't be able to take away all his pain, not really, but just taking some of it away was enough to make an enormous difference.
When she said that this was the last thing she was asking him as his alpha, as his older sister, though, a wall shot up and his eyes hardened. No. NO. It was true, Laura had been taken away from him not by choice, but by force. How could she ask him to let her go?
"I AM looking at them, but I'm also looking at you. I need you, Laura. Peter took you away from me, but I DON'T WANT TO LET YOU GO." Letting go of her hand, he slammed his fists on the table before standing. The others didn't even glance over at them. It was like they didn't even exist.
They didn't need him. Scott had made it very clear so long ago that he was an alpha, but he wasn't his. He was Isaac's, and what good had that done? Erica, Boyd... The only one that was left was Cora. His eyes trailed over to her, and he felt his heart squeeze painfully. "Don't you realize she should have had you instead?" he finally admitted quietly, for the first time ever since Cora came back. "It's not me the one that she should have found alive. It should have been you all along, but for some fucked up reason, I'm the one that stayed behind. I'm the one that was left, and why? WHY? I wasn't meant to be the alpha, and now our sister has to get stuck with ME, of all people. How fucked up is that?"
Because, for all his confidence, and all his bravado, this was what he hadn't been able to admit outloud to anyone. Not even Lydia, or Cora, or anyone. There was a sense of finality in all this, though, and he just needed to say it. Let it go.