Even now, even after all these years, Derek still found himself reacting to Kate. Not positively, but he still flinched whenever she touched him. He still growled at her threats. He should maybe know better and fight against her, find a way to make her lose, but Kate knew him too well. She knew which buttons to press. She had seen how much losing his family had fucked him up the first time around.
It was that thought that made him pause. It wasn't watching her light those matches. It wasn't the gasoline, or the realization of what she was going to do in the dream. He didn't care that she was about to torch up the entire place again, he could only hear her taunting.
You'll have no fucking idea when I strike and you won't be able to do a thing.
No. No. She couldn't be real. She couldn't be a ghost, he begged mentally to something he didn't even believe existed; please let this just be a nightmare. One of his many fucked up nightmares, because he didn't want to do this again. Not again. His family was going to be in danger. His pack...
You'll have no fucking idea when I strike and you won't be able to do a thing.
Matches were being tossed around, but Derek didn't care. Bile threatened at the back of his throat, but it had nothing to do with knowing he was going to burn alive. Not even the strong scent of gasoline was registering, because all he could think about was that his pack was in danger. It would happen again. It would happen again, she was going to hurt them all. Derek really did know better. He knew perfectly well what Kate was capable of. She wasn't going to stop until they were all in the ground, even if it was just through their dreams.
The flames were suddenly licking his skin, devouring his old home and starting to wrap around him. The pain was overwhelming, and as fought against the chains a sound emerged from his throat that was a mix of a scream of pain and a growl, almost as if howling as his human form collided hard with the wolf within him.
Just then the chains gave way, and Derek lunged out ready to go, but that was when he woke up. He was sitting up in bed, another howl choking him as he suddenly gasped for breath, and he looked around him. There were no flames. There were no chains, nothing holding him down, and Kate wasn't there.
It was a dream. It was a fucked up nightmare. She couldn't be real. No, she couldn't be back.
His hands flew to his thigh and his chest, as if making sure there was no blood from the bullet wounds, not even hearing Lydia's attempts to calm him down and focus. She had climbed into bed with him at some point in the dream, but Derek was drowning in desperation as the aftereffects of the nightmare kept pulling him under. He didn't realize he was shaking, didn't realize he was drenched in sweat; he could only hear Kate taunting him again and how he would never see her coming as she went through his pack.
Again, a voice clarified in his head. She would go through all of them again, and what was he going to do? What COULD he do? She was going to fuck with him by going through them, and the deja vu of it all made an hollow sort of laugh choke him as he leaned his elbows on his knees and tugged at his hair as if he was going to pull it all out at once. He may be now in his cell, and there were no flames threatening to reduce him to nothing but ash, but he was still in that nightmare. If Kate was really back, even as a ghost, then this was an even worse nightmare, and there would be no waking up.