Hello there, remember me? The one who vanished into thin air? Well, I've decided to rewrite this story and continue it.

I must say I'm freakishly pissed that the Hales left Teen Wolf so..yeah. Also, naturally this story is AU and set after season 4. And even that is slightly AU, but whatever part of the season is different you will find explained in the story, I'm not leaving you hanging there and making wild guesses.

So, you know how it goes; Read & Review, ask me anything you want and of course enjoy!


She rested a hand on the metal banister of the balcony outside her motel room; the silver of her rings clicking against the magma of metallic whatever as she unconsciously moved them to some rhythm she had never been able to place. She had to admire the work that was done with the place —a few months back there was nothing on that spot, just a vast empty space and then...

Then there was the construction site a few miles away.

She had watched the ruins of the old, burnt down, Hale house being removed a week after she arrived to town and even though she had never seen the house in its former glory it pained her to watch what was left of it being taken away. She could bet her right arm that, even in ruins, it was homier than some places she had stayed at —places with concrete walls and no holes on the roof or between floors. That alone had to count for something.

She wasn't some tragic heroine who needed to be coddled and protected at all costs; she had enough self respect —or maybe it was pride— to not view herself as one and she refused to let others treat her as such. She could take care of herself, she'd done it for a long time and though she sometimes needed help, she didn't need people bending backwards to save or pity her. So she kept her head held high, her war-paint on at all times, her mouth shut and acted like one of the girls she'd never get to be. The human world was never really her world; she'd always known that much but, then again, the supernatural world wasn't where she belonged either. Where did she belong? Did she have a place to call home? —Sure, once or twice, a long time ago, but everything went up in flames.

A low chuckle escaped her as she brought the travelers' mug she was holding to her lips —only a few more minutes left till sunrise. A few more minutes till the start of another day, a day in which she'd once more make no progress, another day she'd stay in a one-horse town like a sitting duck instead of being out there, moving. —Running. All out of some misbegotten belief that the promise she had been made would be fulfilled.

It was starting to seem pointless…

Laura Hale had turned out to be one very hard woman to find, but being who she was, it was almost natural. For a few weeks she had lurked around town, played tourist, asked inconspicuous questions about the Hale woman but nobody seemed willing to answer; they all gave her the same spooked look before pointing her towards the Sheriff's office. But she never bothered. It's not like she could walk in there and say "I'm looking for Laura Hale, your town's almighty Alpha". That would roll well, insert sarcasm.

Sighing she pushed herself away from the banister and ran a hand through her long hair. She didn't want to, but she had pushed back this day too much already. Today she had to dress up, act like a normal teen and enroll herself in high school like she had promised people who had actually made something of themselves. People who had willingly taken one for the team —hell, they had taken one for her. And it was all it took. This was her way of saying thank you to them; not letting herself go, not letting the opportunities they gave her go to waste because she sometimes didn't see the point in trying for a borrowed life.


The pack was a mismatched group but they somehow made it all work. They were an odd fit, or maybe family, in which they all had found their place and contributed with their mere existence. Scott was an inspiring leader, Stiles was quirky yet wise, Kira was grounded, Malia was spontaneous, Liam was eager and Lydia…

She was always known for being quality. —Soon-to-be elected senior class president, junior prom queen, straight-A student and, as of the start of the school year, a volunteer at the tutoring center. Hell, if she was being honest, she had mostly done that for Malia before the rest of the gang; if most members of the McCall pack had one thing in common was their mediocre grades. And she planned to change that for them, she wanted to make sure they all went with a bang. She didn't want the town to sigh in relief when they graduate and she refused to accept anything different than making a good exit; they needed something good to happen in their lives and maybe leaving high school on a good note would be just what they needed to start adulthood anew.

Senior year, Stiles and Lydia had taken it upon themselves to be the group's reality check since everything started going downhill. And the past year wasn't so kind to them either; the dead pool had physically and mentally exhausted them and the deaths of Ethan and Jackson have left them with a feeling of defeat. They lost two of their own; people who weren't even on the list. People who were innocent; who didn't use what they were to cause harm and only tried to find their place in the world like all young men their age.

And for what? All because they were deemed guilty of an uncommitted crime. —Monsters inside a crazed mind.

In the mist of all the destruction their junior year had been, the pack had made some valuable allies in the most unlikely places. Crazy as it was, the Mexican hunters slash friendly cartel was now on their side. See, Araya Calavera was a smart woman and, in a weird way, a fair one too. She supported the hunt, she lived for it even, but she did not kill innocent kids. And it was the Calaveras who cleaned up the mess the pack had made after the ultimate face off and Scott had found himself in their debt. At first it seemed like an ominous idea but when all the hunters asked for was a promise to eliminate Kate Argent upon her first misstep, they were all more than happy to agree.

Surprisingly, there wasn't a kill order out for Peter Hale despite his endless list of sins. Yet.


She tried hard not to stand out in the flock of students flying in and out of classrooms, clogging the hallway in an effort to make the most of their free time before class. Her pace was even, not too fast yet not too slow; she wasn't in a hurry, far from it actually. She knew the drill, she needed both hands to mark the number of schools she had changed over the years and one more wouldn't make a difference to how her future. She could already see how the year would go; like in all her old schools, the kids would stare at her and then avoid her like the plague till she did something completely irresponsible or one of the jocks deemed her hot enough to chase after —at that point she'd become the school's most popular girl and all the boys would chase her while the girls would either hate her —shocker!— or want to be her friends just to soak up some of the attention before it died down and she'd become just another Senior among many.

The dark floral dress she wore wasn't exactly her style and her heeled boots wouldn't make running away a cakewalk but the outfit had previously been deemed 'first day appropriate' so it would do. Asking a group she pinpointed as sophomores, she finally found the administration office and after a little convincing and, sadly, having to bat her eyelashes at a few people, she managed to enroll herself in school without too many uncomfortable questions asked. It's not like she had answers to give them though; not ones that wouldn't get her a ticket to a five-star room in Eichen House anyway. So, for all the school knew, she was an orphan who lost her parents at an accident —it was only half a lie anyway. She was an orphan, or so she considered herself, and her dad was dead.

Schedule in hand she found her first class for the day. English —that was cool or whatever, since it could have been Math and that would be an unfortunate start. Studying the seating chart she found an empty seat at the middle row and plopped herself down as other students came in.

High school jungle rule number one; don't steal someone else's seat unless you have a death wish.

A group of students came in and scattered on the seats around her. The two boys took the seats on her left, one next to her and the other one behind him, a strawberry blonde girl sat right behind her, while a nearly blonde girl sat on her right with a brunette taking the seat behind her. They seemed unfazed by her seating there as they chatted about some list they were done with and had to forget all about —it wasn't like she cared enough to eavesdrop, so she tapped her pen mindlessly on her desk till she was shoved to the left. "Hey!" She protested looking at the girl on her right.

"I told you it'd get her attention." Malia told Kira with a semi-smug look on her face before she turned to the new girl. "We've been trying to get you to notice us; hello!" she said and Lydia glared at her.

"Sweetie, we're trying to get to know her. We don't need her hating us already." Lydia sighed from behind the girl who turned around to look at her —Lydia would hand it to her, she was pretty. She wore a little too much make up but then again so did she once upon a time. "I'm Lydia." She announced casually.

"Malia." The blonde announced quickly before she even opened her mouth to return the pleasantries or even breathe. "Are you new?"

She nodded carefully, waiting for some comment to spill out of the tactless girl's —Malia's— mouth but the only thing that came was a grin that took over most of her face. Wow, she wasn't sure people had ever grinned so widely at her without her even uttering a single word. Oh well, maybe it was time for her to open her mouth and speak, be the change she wanted to see in her life or at least make an effort towards all the things she wanted for herself and never could have. "Kaya." she offered simply and Malia nodded and pumped her fist in the air towards Lydia in some weird victory. Okay, on second thought, this Malia girl may be a little weird…

"Don't mind her." the boy sitting next to her whispered. "Last year she was the new girl and she hated it. I'm Scott." he offered with a lopsided smile before pointing to the boy behind him and then the girl behind Malia. "My buddy Stiles and that's Kira, my girlfriend."

Kaya acknowledged them with a nod while Stiles waved at her frantically while Kira offered a timid smile. They were odd as a group but at least they were friends, she thought. Who did she have? Nobody to call a friend or family, nobody to go home to; just an empty motel room waiting for her, with frozen meals and cups of instant coffee the single mom next door make for her in the mornings as a thank you for watching out for her little ones while she ran errands for other tenants of the motel in order to raise some extra cash. So her neighbor and her twins were all she had —it didn't bode well with her. It wasn't who she was; sure she kept her life to herself but she was raised in communities, with many people around her.

Maybe just this once, Kaya had to mentally scold herself and refrain from passing judgment because, odd as these people were, they had reached out to her when the rest had ignored her. So she smiled a little brighter and chatted with them. She allowed Lydia to towel off some of her make up in the bathroom during the break and squeezed herself between Kira and Liam, her cute little sophomore cuddle-bear, who seemed to have developed an instant baby brother syndrome when it came to her, during lunch.

And so two weeks went by almost without her even noticing that Lydia's perfectionism was slowly becoming the bane of her existence. The shorter girl had decided it was in Kaya's benefit to join the tutoring class she was overseeing just to catch up with the rest of them and of course improve her grades. —Just what she needed, more studying. It wasn't like Kaya cared about school or grades all that much; she just wanted to make it to graduation alive. Scott seemed to enjoy her small personal hell and find all of her frustrated faces amusing till Kira finally jabbed him hard on the ribs before saying Lydia only meant well. In all honesty, she gathered that much when she saw Malia's notes from junior year and compared them with her notes now. There was admittedly a major improvement there…

Okay, Lydia Martin may or may not know how to make miracles happen around town, Kaya had to admit. But she didn't need a 4.0 average; she needed to find Laura Hale, explain her situation and get the she-wolf to agree help keeping her alive. Her situation was that simple actually, simple yet complicated at the same time. She needed someone to keep her from eventually waking up dead so she'd come to need Lydia's help in getting that damn perfect average and maybe a kickass dress to wear for graduation.

In her days there with her new friends she learnt a lot of cool stuff; Kira's dad was their history teacher and Lydia's mom had taken on teaching a few junior classes. Liam's dad was a doctor while Scott's mom was a nurse and Stiles' dad was the Sheriff. It was convenient and scary how resourceful her new friends turned out to be and how easy it would be for her to manipulate a few situations here and there to the advantage of her cause. But no, in her short time with them, she had actually grown fond of their odd little group —a group they seemed to consider her a part of if the fact that the girls' going to the bathroom with her or the boys' inviting her to watch them practice was an indicator.

They counted her in when they made plans; it wasn't something that often happened to her and being around them she had soon come to realize that they did it though it wasn't always easy for them either. Maybe all those years she had spent practically friendless were her fault. She understood better than anyone that she wasn't an easy person to be around; wound up too tight, always ready to bolt, weary of everyone's intentions but her own. She never realized till that moment that maybe she was putting an invisible barrier between herself and the rest of the world. Maybe she had been her own worst enemy when it came to being normal.

These people didn't hold back; not as much as she did anyway. They spoke their minds and told stories, though sometimes wary, and through one of those stories she came into a useful piece of information regarding the Hales. The family still lived in Beacon Hills, Liam had let the information slipped to the obvious discomfort of the rest, in a loft somewhere in the industrial area of the town. She gathered quickly that they didn't want her knowing much about the Hales or that they obviously had some sort of connection to them. Kaya didn't mind their withholding from her all that much; it wasn't like she was letting them in all of her secrets so she didn't push the issue. She had gotten what she needed to know without forcing anyone's hand so there was no need to make life hard on anyone for going over the heads of everyone else by sharing more.

Did they know what the Hales were? With all the secrecy, yes, she could bet her head on it. Her new gang was more than a mismatched group of friends; they acted like a pack. Which made it even weirder for her to pinpoint... Had Laura created this weird ass pack of kids? Kaya didn't know the woman, but she wouldn't be surprised if she had; not really. The werewolves had long ago freed themselves from the narrow sense of terms like 'pack' or 'family'. Which is why, she thought, they'd always survive unlike others...

The werewolves, as she knew them, were actually benevolent creatures at heart; warm and ready to offer someone the world had they proved themselves to be on the right side. But their trust had to be earned with pure honesty; which could totally come back to bite her if things went awry. Suddenly there was more for her to lose than just being denied the support of Laura Hale; now she had friends to lose as well. And most importantly, if it all went downhill, she could even lose her life.