Derek and Braeden

When Derek apparently became an ordinary human, Braeden taught him hand-to-hand combat and the usage firearms
Both developed genuine feelings for one another and became a couple
Both protected the McCall Pack and Satomi Ito's pack from Deadpool assassins
Braeden was heartbroken when Derek presumably died at the hands of a Berserker
Derek regained his powers and came back to life, leaving Braeden relieved and ecstatic
They traveled together through the United States in search of the Desert Wolf
They separated from one another and lost contact one way or another
Derek eventually passed away to defeat the Nogitsune

### Ship Name

Draeden

**The relationship between Evolved Beta Werewolf Derek Hale and Human Mercenary Braeden**.

Braeden and Derek first met in the second half of Season 3, when Deucalion hired her as a mercenary to rescue Derek (and, by extension, his uncle Peter Hale) from the Calavera Compound, where they were being held hostage and tortured for information about *La Loba* by Araya and Severo Calavera, prolific Hunters from the Calavera Family. In the process, Braeden was able to help the two Hales recover the claws of Derek's mother and Peter's sister, Talia Hale.

The two did not see each other again until the beginning of Season 4, when Braeden was hired by Araya Calavera for two purposes—to help the McCall Pack locate Derek, who had been missing for several weeks, and to locate the recently resurrected Werejaguar Kate Argent who had taken him captive. Much to Braeden's shock, she and Scott McCall found Derek de-aged to his teenage self through a ritual performed by Kate, later revealed to have been part of her plan to break into the Hale Vault and steal the Triskelion Medallion, which she mistakenly believed was a true supernatural talisman.

When Derek was returned to his normal adult self, he used his inheritance to hire Braeden to track Kate down, as his Werewolf eyes had mysteriously turned from blue to gold (a color they had not been since he was fifteen years old, before mercy-killing Paige Krasikeva) and he wanted to know why. He made it clear from the start that he did not trust Braeden (especially when she correctly deduced his true motives—finding out what Kate did to him—rather than believing that he and Peter simply wanted the bearer bonds from the Hale Vault back), but Braeden seemed to be interested in him romantically from the start and went out of her way to earn his trust, including lending her skills and assistance to their cause without her usual payment.

In time, the two eventually grew closer and began to trust each other while also developing romantic tension, which peaked when Derek saved Braeden's life after she was presumably shot by Kate in the Beacon Hills Preserve during a meet-up with Satomi Ito's pack. Shortly afterward, she discovered that Derek had begun losing his powers following Kate's age-regression ritual and decided to train him in human combat and the use of firearms so he could still defend himself.

During this training, the two consummated their affection for one another and began a romantic and sexual relationship that continued throughout Season 4. Braeden was horrified when she realized that Derek did not expect to survive the final battle with Kate and her Berserkers while the two were planning their return to La Iglesia in order to save Scott McCall and Kira Yukimura, and she vowed that she would not allow this to occur.

However, Derek's death appeared to be imminent upon their arrival to the temple when he was immediately attacked by one of Kate's Berserkers, and Braeden was devastated when she thought he had ultimately succumbed to his fatal wounds. Fortunately for them both, Derek's loss of powers had actually been the result of his evolution into a Werewolf with the power to fully shift into a black wolf, just like his mother Talia and sister Laura, regaining his powers and allowing him to recover from his injuries.

Braeden was ecstatic to have him back, and after the battle ended in their favor, the two then decided to leave Beacon Hills, traveling the world as a pair while they tracked the assassin known as the Desert Wolf, an unsolved case that Braeden had become obsessed with during her time as a U.S. Marshal and had "reopened" upon learning the deadly assassin was Malia Tate's biological mother. At some point, the two separated for an unknown period of time; first, when Braeden returned to Beacon Hills on her own in Season 5 to help Malia fight against the Desert Wolf after learning that her daughter was alive, and also when Derek eventually ended up in Brazil on a solo mission in 2013 to investigate the murders of a pack of Werewolves by Hunters in Tamora Monroe and Gerard Argent's army.

By 2026, Derek had become father to a son named Eli, though it was unknown if he was still in a relationship with Braeden, who neither appears nor is referenced at least once throughout the whole movie. In order to ensure the permanent death of the Nogitsune, Derek decided to let the Hellhound Jordan Parrish incinerate him and the Nogitsune, which left Eli and Derek's packmates and allies heartbroken. A memorial service was organized by Scott to honor his sacrifice, which was attended by his remaining relatives and his closest friends. It remains a mystery where Braeden is currently residing and if she learns the truth of her lover's fate from any of the McCall Pack members.

**Braeden and Derek are known as Draeden by fans**

## Throughout *Teen Wolf*

* Season 3B
* Season 4

In *More Bad Than Good*, Derek Hale and Peter Hale were captured by the Calavera Family of Hunters and being held in their Mexico-based compound's basement, where they were being tortured for information on *La Loba*. During a brief break in their interrogation, Braeden arrived and began shooting at the Hunters throughout the house with her shotgun as she made her way down into the cell. After defeating the last guard, she took a moment to leer at Derek's shirtless body as he was shackled to the chain-link fence behind him before beginning to free him from his restraints.

When she was questioned about what she was doing, Braeden revealed that she was hired by Deucalion to save Derek, taking great pleasure to emphasize that saving Peter was not part of the deal and that she was happy to leave him for dead, though she did ultimately free him as well for Derek's benefit. When Derek and Peter voiced their confusion as to why she was working for Deucalion, who had slashed her throat with his claws and nearly killed her in *Tattoo*, she shrugged and retorted, "Girl's gotta eat."

Braeden went on to insist that they needed to get out of the compound quickly, Derek argued that he wasn't leaving without which they had come looking, leading the three to search the compound for the relic Derek and Peter sought—an urn made from wood from the Nemeton with the Hale Family triskelion carved into the lid and containing Derek's mother and Peter's older sister Talia Hale's claws. They found the urn in a rowan-wood box filled with Mountain Ash, so Braeden, as the group's sole human, was the only one who could open it to obtain the object. Afterward, the three went their separate ways, with Derek and Peter returning to their homes in Beacon Hills and Braeden resuming her work as a mercenary.

In *The Dark Moon*, Araya Calavera hired Braeden to guide the McCall Pack to the Mexican ruins of an old temple of the ancient Aztec god Tezcatlipoca known as La Iglesia. Araya's plan was to have Braeden assist the pack in locating Derek Hale, who had been missing for several weeks, as she believed that by doing so, the group would also locate his captor Kate Argent, who Araya wanted to capture due to her recent resurrection and transformation into a Werejaguar.

When Stiles Stilinski's Stiles' Jeep broke down on the way to La Iglesia, Braeden was forced to continue on with Scott McCall on her motorcycle while the others tried to fix the Jeep. After battling Kate's Berserkers and breaking through a stone wall in the temple, Braeden and Scott found Derek, who, to their surprise, had been de-aged to his sixteen-year-old self as part of Kate's plan. Braeden then presumably left the group to continue her search for Kate while Scott and the others brought the young Derek back to Beacon Hills to be examined by Alan Deaton, the pack's Druid Emissary.

In *Muted*, Braeden was summoned to Derek's loft, where Derek and Peter met with her to hire her to find Kate Argent. Derek watched as Braeden and Peter bantered over Braeden putting her boots on the table and argued back and forth over how much she would be paid; while Peter believed catching Kate and bringing her to them was a simple job worthy of basic pay, Braeden reminded them that she had already been hired by the Calavera Family to find Kate and going against them would be what cost them extra.

Derek, desperate to figure out what was wrong with him after Kate de-aged him and somehow caused his normally-blue Werewolf eyes to turn gold, agreed to pay Braeden whatever she wanted as long as they got results, much to Peter's frustration. After Braeden agreed to the deal and left, Peter wasted no time before asking, "Are you insane?", believing the amount of money they promised her was unwise due to the fact that someone (whom they incorrectly believed to be Kate Argent) had also stolen 117 million dollars from Peter's safe in the Beacon Hills Hale Vault. Peter's accusation led Derek to grab his wrist in anger and roar in his face, his fangs extended and his now-golden Werewolf eyes glowing, which clearly unsettled Peter. Derek went on to say that he was willing to pay Braeden whatever was necessary if it meant finding out what Kate did to him.

Later, Braeden returned to the loft with an update after she used her cover story as a U.S. Marshall to get information on a recent murder of an entire family the day before in hopes it was related to their situation with Kate. While Braeden changed out of her business clothes and back into her earlier tank top and black leather pants, Derek read the case file he brought her, remarking that there was nothing in there about Kate, only something about a killer using an axe. Braeden corrected him by stating that it was actually a military tomahawk, which, as Derek pointed out, was not in the report she had given him.

This led Derek to assume that Braeden knew more than she was letting on, a suspicion Braeden confirmed before slyly adding that she wasn't ready to tell him yet because she didn't know much at this time. Braeden went on to say that they had a problem—the people with whom Braeden needed to meet to get more information on their case "don't talk to people like you," implying that they had an issue with Werewolves.

Derek, somewhat flirtatiously, wondered aloud if this meant she wanted him to wait for her, and Braeden retorted that she wanted him to *trust* her. Derek, slightly offended, reminded her that he didn't know anything about her, to which Braeden responded, "Yeah, well... I know *you*. And I know what you really want. You want what she took from you. *Briseann an dúchas trí shúile an chait*. It means 'the true nature of someone is reflected in their eyes.' In your case, the color of your eyes." Derek, intrigued, informed her that he would give her a week to get the information he sought before tossing her gun to her as she walked out the door.

In *Orphaned*, after fellow shapeshifter Brett Talbot was poisoned by a rare form of yellow wolfsbane through a stab wound inflicted by the Deadpool assassin Garrett, Derek enlisted the help of his cousin Malia Tate in hopes that her superhuman senses could lead them to the rest of Brett's pack in order to warn them against possible attack. (Unbeknownst to Malia, Derek needed her assistance not only due to her expert knowledge of the Beacon Hills Preserve's layout, but because he was slowly losing his Werewolf Sense of smell).

Malia ultimately led the pair to Lookout Point in the nature preserve, where they found the majority of Brett's pack dead from a modified canine distemper virus. Derek was shocked upon seeing one of the victims moving, and soon realized that it was actually Braeden, who had presumably been looking for the pack's Alpha, Satomi Ito, and who was shot in the process.

In *Weaponized*, Derek was seen holding Braeden in a bridal-carry as he rushed her into the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital for treatment after having found her bleeding out from a gunshot wound in the previous episode. After the bullet had been removed, Derek was found sitting at Braeden's bedside, staring at her with obvious romantic interest, when Melissa McCall came in to talk to her. He immediately began to protest when Melissa administered naloxone, a medication used to reverse the effects of opiate painkillers such as the morphine she was given for pain management, to wake her up in hopes of getting information on what she saw before she was shot. Though Derek insisted that Satomi's Pack had been poisoned, the newly-conscious Braeden weakly corrected him by stating that they had actually been exposed to a virus created to kill Werewolves, which is exactly what it did.

Later, when Braeden awoke a second time to find Derek still sitting at her bedside, checking on her, she wasted no time asking him what he was still doing there. Derek, slightly embarrassed to have been called out like that, playfully joked that he was simply "protecting his investment," as he had a lot of money riding on her ability to find Kate Argent. Just then, they were once again interrupted by Melissa, who informed Derek that she had found someone he was looking for-- Satomi Ito—and that the Alpha also wanted to talk to Derek.

In *Time of Death*, Braeden awoke in Derek's bed at the loft to find that Derek was seemingly sound asleep on his couch. Noticing something off about him, she walked over to the couch and knelt down, considering her options for a moment before gingerly reaching out and gently lifting up the hem of Derek's tank top, frowning when she saw that the bullet graze from the shoot-out the previous day at the hospital was still visible on his side above his hip.

However, before she could consider this further, Derek revealed that he was, in fact, awake by clapping his hands over hers, not even bothering to open his eyes until after Braeden, startled, flinched. When he asked her what she was doing, Braeden gave him a look and referenced their conversation when she was in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound-- "Protecting my investment." Derek, clearly not believing her, simply hummed and nodded his head in hopes that they could end the conversation there, but Braeden wasn't about to let the topic go without comment and demanded to know why he wasn't healing. Derek, embarrassed, evasively stated that some wounds just take longer to heal, and Braeden gave him a knowing look before she added, "And some leave scars-- but not for people like you."

She once again asked him what was going on, but Derek stubbornly turned over and pretended to go back to sleep, claiming that it could be because he was tired. Braeden, even more concerned by the fact that Derek was unwilling to honestly answer her questions, firmly asked him to show her his eyes, meaning his Werewolf eyes, and when Derek petulantly retorted that she just saw them, keeping his eyes closed the whole time, Braeden repeated herself with even more seriousness in her voice. Tired of arguing, Derek sighed and turned back around to face her, looking her in the eyes with his own hazel human eyes. Realizing that something must really be *wrong*, Braeden once again asked him what was really going on, and Derek sighed again before presumably explaining what had happened since Kate Argent had kidnapped and de-aged him.

A short time later, Braeden was seen standing in front of Derek by the table, where she was cleaning and bandaging up his bullet graze. She joked that he needed to make sure that it didn't get infected, Derek only half-heartedly chuckled, leading Braeden to bring up the fact that he'd never had to worry about that before. When Derek remained silent, Braeden asked him if he had lost *all* of his Werewolf powers, aside from the already-discussed loss of his glowing eyes and Accelerated Healing, and Derek grimly admitted that he also lost his superhuman senses of sight, hearing, and smell and his speed.

Braeden asked if this meant he even lost his immense strength, Derek, offended, retorted that he could still win a fight, though Braeden gave him a skeptical look. To prove himself, Derek challenged her to an arm-wrestling match which Braeden happily accepted before asking if he was ready. She was in the middle of counting to three when, at the count of two, Braeden jabbed Derek in the side with her hand and then easily overpowered him in the arm wrestling contest, causing a once-again embarrassed Derek to complain that she cheated. Braeden gave him a serious look before correcting him, stating that she won, and that when you're a human facing off against the supernatural, you need to bend the rules to work in your favor. She then informed him that she would be teaching him how to bend, which intrigued Derek.

Braeden had seemingly just finished showing Derek her gun collection before holding out one of her guns, identifying it as a Sig Sauer P226 9mm. Derek, skeptical, stated that he didn't like guns, and though Braeden assured him that it was just because he had never learned to shoot one, Derek's argument (that he had been shot *repeatedly* throughout his life by Hunters) won out, leaving Braeden to insist that he would learn to like this one. She then started explaining the characteristics of the gun, such as the legal clip size in California, and taught him the importance of knowing how many shots have been fired to avoid getting killed and/or looking stupid.

She went on to say that using a gun was also about getting distance from one's opponent, and when Derek asked why, she explained that the average person can move twenty-one feet in one and a half seconds, allowing them to use a knife to potentially harm or kill the shooter before they can pull the trigger. She then handed Derek the gun and instructed him to pull it on her. Derek confidently raised his arm and aimed the gun at her, but was quickly disarmed by Braeden, who took the gun and turned it on him. Derek, blushing, immediately tried to excuse his performance, and when Braeden asked him if he wanted to try again, he eagerly agreed. He shook out his shoulders and tried it again, but ended up being disarmed the same way once again.

Derek insisted on being able to try it one more time, and Braeden flirtatiously retorted that she could do this all day. He took a deep breath as though he was about to steady himself, but instead of pulling the gun, he launched himself at Braeden and began passionately making out with her for a long moment before aiming the end of the gun at her rib cage. Pulling away slightly, Braeden rolled her eyes and pointed out that he cheated, but Derek just smirked and stated that he was "learning to bend" before the two began making out again, with Derek lifting Braeden up so she could sit on the table with her legs wrapped around his waist as she quickly stripped off his shirt.

Later that night, Derek woke up in his bed to find Braeden soundly asleep next to him, and he smiled softly as he gently extricated himself from their embrace so he could get up and walk over to the table where all of Braeden's guns have been set out and arranged. He looked pensive and concerned as he leaned against the table, the bandage covering his bullet graze visible as he considered his life without Werewolf powers.

In *Perishable*,

In *Monstrous*,

In *Smoke and Mirrors*,
## Trivia

* Braeden is Derek's fourth love interest introduced in the show and his first relationship that was both honest and healthy.
	+ Derek's relationship with Paige Krasikeva was healthy but involved secrets on Derek's part, namely that he was a Werewolf and that he secretly planned to turn her into a Werewolf without her consent in hopes of them staying together forever.
	+ Derek's relationship with Kate Argent was unhealthy due to the severe age difference (with Derek being a minor at age sixteen while Kate was an adult at age twenty or so) and dishonest due to their relationship being built on lies, specifically the fact that she hated Werewolves and that she had been assigned to get close to Derek with the intent of using their relationship to kill his entire family in the Hale House Fire.
	+ Derek's relationship with Jennifer Blake unhealthy due to Jennifer's obsessive feelings for Derek (stemming from the fact that it was his sacrifice of Paige that allowed her to survive her wounds from Kali) and was dishonest due to the fact that Jennifer was secretly the Darach who was committing human sacrifices in order to gain the power necessary to kill the members of the Alpha Pack.
* Both initially seemed to be a bit closed off when it comes to their feelings, but they both developed a deeply trusting and caring bond between each other.
* According to Meagan Tandy and Tyler Hoechlin, the actors who play Braeden and Derek, respectively, the two characters are still happily in a relationship.

## Gallery

OrphanedWeaponizedWeaponizedMonstrousSmoke and MirrorsSmoke and MirrorsSmoke and Mirrors