He jumped when something was suddenly slammed against the hood of the Impala in front of him. He frowned at the newspaper in confusion, but then looked up to see Alec standing there, looking at him expectantly.

"Good morning to you too…" Dean muttered. He'd been looking for something else they could do, but he wasn't having much luck. There were only so many distractions he could use, and even going back and forth across the country wasn't enough to keep them from hunting forever.

"This is the most cut and dry werewolf hunt I've ever seen," Alec stated. "We're 10 miles away. We're the closest hunters and this is a hunt even a beginner could do. What's your excuse this time?"

Alec was completely healed now, his knee only hurt him when he ran too long, but he still didn't want to take his little brother on a hunt. He'd made up excuses and kept Alec distracted to keep them off of a hunt for three months now, but he knew it wasn't going to last forever. Alec hadn't been on a hunt in almost six months since he'd been bedridden for nearly three months at Bobby's and he'd managed to distract him for another three months, but now he was out of excuses and so was Sam.

"I don't feel like it," Dean finally mumbled, looking away from his little brother.

"You don't feel like it?!" Alec repeated in outrage. "Are you kidding me?!"

"Alec-"

"Fine. You don't want to go. But that's not going to stop me from going," Alec said.

He turned to face his brother and shook his head no, "There's no way you're goin' on this hunt by yourself."

"You're welcome to go with me," Alec said casually. "I could probably use some backup, especially since this will be my first hunt in six months…"

"Don't you think we should find an easier hunt to ease back into it?" Dean tried.

"No," Alec stated. "I'm still going, with or without you. I'm talking to Sam as soon as he gets out here."

"Alec, werewolves are not a good first hunt back," Dean said. "It's probably not just one werewolf, it's probably a pack with the number of deaths, so I think we need to find someone else to take care of it."

"So you did know about it," Alec accused.

"What?"

"You know how many deaths there have been, and you know it's probably a pack," Alec said. "You've been following this."

He took a deep breath and let it back out, unwilling to argue with his little brother more. Yes, he knew about the case, but he had no intension of letting Alec in on it. He wanted his little brother as far away from a pack of werewolves as he could get. The worst part was, he hadn't even realized there was a case until they got here, and he'd accidently caught sight of the headline on a newspaper. He was so used to not hunting ever since Sam told him to stop, that he'd just stopped looking for cases. It was just a weird coincidence.

"Hey, what's going on?" Sam asked, walking out of the hotel room.

"There's a hunt and we're going," Alec said. His little brother looked at him, daring him to argue again.

He looked to Sam, and he shrugged back to him. "You knew we were out of excuses," Sam said.

"It a pack of werewolves…" Dean muttered.

"Luckily, there are three of us," Sam said. "And we're already here."

"It's two against one," Alec said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And now I've got backup, so I'm not sure what other excuse you could use."

He couldn't think of anything to keep Alec from hunting.

"Fine. We can check it out," Dean grumbled.

"Why's Dean keeping us away from hunting?" Alec asked as they walked down the street of the small town. Dean was already at the diner, but Alec had volunteered to go do research with him. They really didn't need to do a lot of research since they knew the werewolves hunted down at the docks, but they had to wait around until dark anyway, so they might as well look.

"It hasn't been that long since we've gone hunting," Sam hedged. He didn't want to rat his brother out since he sort of agreed with him. Alec was safer not hunting.

"Yeah it has," Alec argued. "And now you're defending him."

"Alright, look, I think he was just trying o keep you safe," Sam said. "The last hunt freaked him out, so he's just worried that it's going to happen again. He just doesn't want you to get hurt, but he'll be ok since you're hunting with backup. We'd have to hunt again sooner or later."

"Yeah? I bet he'd be pissed if I started sneaking out, going on my own hunts like he has," Alec muttered.

"You knew?" Sam asked in surprise.

"You do know I'm a light sleeper, right?" Alec asked, scowling at him.

He shook his head in amusement, "Alright, I'll give you that one. But I told him that you were gonna figure it out, but he still wanted to put off hunting."

"You know I'm not delicate," Alec said. "I hurt my knee and I had a bunch of seizures, but I'm ok and that was a freak thing."

"Your heart stopped too," Sam said. He'd almost said the same thing that Alec was saying now to Dean not too long ago, but now he was siding more with Dean than he was with Alec in this argument. "I wasn't there when Dean had to do CPR the first time, but I was there this time, and the only other times I've really been that scared was when Dean almost died. But this was even worse because I didn't know what to do and we weren't in a hospital…You practically died, and then it took a long time to get you back on your feet. I can see why he wanted to wait this long to start hunting again."

"I know I scared you guys, but I'm ok and I've been ok for a while now," Alec said. "And hunting werewolves is one of my better hunts. There's a lot of shooting and I'm a really good shot."

He finally nodded and said, "I'll try to get him to back off, but I don't know how well that's gonna go over…"

"I'm sorry," Alec said. "But I want to hunt. I want to do something…make a difference and all that…I like helping people. And I haven't gotten to help anyone in a long time…"

He looked over at his little brother and realized this was really important to him. He'd actually been missing hunting a lot. "Don't worry, we'll go on this hunt," Sam reassured.

"What about after this hunt?" Alec asked.

"We'll do this one, and then Dean will see that you're ready for hunting," Sam said. "Just…don't get hurt on this one, ok? If you get hurt, then it'll be a lot harder to convince Dean that this is gonna be ok."

"I'm tellin' ya Sammy, I'm good at werewolves," Alec said with a wide smile.

"Hey, where're you going?" Dean asked him after they finished dinner.

"I'll meet you at the hotel," Alec said. Something was bugging him, and he wanted to figure it out before they went on the hunt.

"I don't think so, kiddo," Dean said, grabbing his arm and dragging him back. "You're not sneakin' off to go on this hunt by yourself."

"No-I'm not gonna do that," Alec said. "I just want to look at something before we go."

"What do you want to look at?" Dean asked. Sam stopped walking and slowly started back to them.

He hesitated before he said, "Nothing…it's nothing."

"No, it's gotta be somethin', so what is it?" Dean prodded.

"I don't know…it's nothing," Alec said. Sam's eyebrows raised like he didn't believe him, and it looked like Dean didn't believe him either. "It just feels like there's something more to this. I just wanted to get some newspapers from the past few years and make sure everything matched up."

"The past few years?" Dean asked, while Sam said, "We already did research."

"I know we did research and I know it doesn't make sense, but something doesn't feel right," Alec said.

"Alec, if you don't want to hunt, then I can call Bobby and he can get someone else on it," Dean said.

"No. I want to hunt," Alec said as fast as he could. "I just feel like something's off…"

"Hey, it's been a long time since we've hunted," Sam said. "My first hunt back after four years was rough, but we'll be fine."

"Can I still get the newspapers?" Alec asked.

Dean looked at him for a few seconds before he nodded, "Alright, let's go get your newspapers…"

After about another hour at the library, the three of them were back in the hotel with a huge stack of newspapers that they'd printed out. He was sitting in the middle of his bed with at least 20 papers surrounding him, but he still didn't know what was bothering him. Sam had tried to help, but he couldn't explain what he was looking for, so that didn't last long. Dean was cleaning all of their guns and stocking extra clips with silver bullets. Normally he would help clean their guns since it always helped him think straight, but he didn't have much time left to figure this out.

"Alec…just talk about it," Dean finally said. "Just talk it through with me. Whatever's bothering you, maybe talking about it will help."

"I can't talk about it because I don't know what it is…" Alec muttered, scanning another page as fast as he could.

"I can't help if I don't know what the problem is," Dean said.

"These are the only killings like this…" Alec finally said. "I haven't seen any other animal attack that's resulted in a death…ever…"

"Maybe the pack just moved into town…started a new hunting ground," Sam reasoned.

"The week that we roll into town?" Alec asked skeptically. "That's one Hell of a coincidence…"

"We can't just ignore it," Sam said. "They'll kill again tonight, and even if it is a trap, we've gotta try to stop it."

"Alec…maybe you should stay here tonight…" Dean muttered.

"I didn't bring this up just so you could bench me," Alec said.

"Dean, just because it could be a trap, it doesn't mean Alec has to sit out," Sam reasoned. "It's still the same hunt except they might be ready for us."

Dean's jaw clenched as he turned away from them and ran his hand through his hair. "Fine. But if we're gonna hunt, then we need to leave."

He stood up and grabbed his gear before Dean could change his mind.

"C'mon, you're with me," Dean said, grabbing Alec's arm before he could get too far away.

"Dean," Alec whined.

"You wanna hunt, then you hunt with me," Dean stated. He wasn't budging this time. He'd let Alec hunt as long as someone was there to back him up. He didn't want to do this in the first place, but Sam wouldn't let him hunt by himself anymore, and they really did need to kill the werewolves before they killed someone else, so this was the only thing they could do.

"This is so stupid…" Alec mumbled under his breath.

He decided to ignore what Alec said, and instead looked over at Sam, "If you run into them, just call." He tossed Sam another clip of silver bullets while Sam nodded back.

"You call too, ok?" Sam said, glancing over at Alec, and then back to him. Sam was just as worried about Alec as he was even though he'd sided with Alec on the whole hunting again thing. He couldn't shake the last time Alec had hunted. He'd nearly lost Alec, he'd been the only thing keeping his little brother alive, so even though it'd been a while since they hunted all together, he still thought he could lose his little brother.

"What do I have to do to prove that I'm ok?" Alec asked. "Because I'm ok! I've been ok for a long time, but I've been humoring you guys because I know I freaked you out. But I can't keep sitting around doing nothing. I have to get out and do things, or else I'm gonna go crazy."

"We're letting you hunt," Dean defended.

"Yeah, but you've got me on a leash," Alec grumbled.

"We can argue about it later," Sam said. "Right now, we've got a hunt we need to finish."

"Fine," he and Alec said at the same time. "C'mon, we're goin' left," Dean said, hitting Alec's arm.

Alec checked his clip, and then slid it back into place before he followed him. He knew Alec was mad, but he'd rather Alec be mad at him instead of hunting. But now Alec was mad at him and hunting, which royally sucked. But he had no doubt in his mind that Alec would still have his back. That was actually the part that was worrying him the most. Alec would try to protect him, and he would get hurt trying to keep him safe.

"You can stop the hovering," Alec whispered as they slowly made their way down the dock. "That last hunt was a fluke, it's not gonna happen again."

"Alec, you've nearly died at least five times since me and Sam found you," Dean said. "If you nearly die again, we're done hunting."

"You can't be serious, right?" Alec asked.

"Yeah I'm serious," Dean said. "Hunting took my Mom and Dad from me, I'm not letting it take my brothers."

"Dean, I have to keep hunting," Alec said, looking at him and silently begging him to understand. "This is the only way to prove that I'm worth something. I've done so much bad shit…I gotta do something good."

He was quiet for a few minutes before he nodded in understanding, "I get it, ok? I do. But I can't shake the feeling that you're gonna die."

"I will die," Alec said. "At some point, I'm gonna die. And that's ok, Dean. I'm ok with going out on a hunt, especially if it means that you and Sam will be ok. But I'm gonna do everything I can to not go out too soon. I want to stick around. You guys are my brothers, and you need me."

He smiled just a little and teased, "We need you, huh?"

"Yeah," Alec said with a decisive nod. "I'm the funny one in the family, and the best looking."

"I hope you're joking," Dean said. "You're the youngest…and how 'bout I give you…the most likely to take a nap in the middle of an Indiana Jones marathon."

"I was tired," Alec said.

"That's no excuse," Dean said.

"It is when you knew I couldn't stay awake for more than four hours at a time," Alec pointed out.

"Yeah, well-" he stopped when he heard something. He looked back to Alec, who nodded that he'd heard it too. They snuck down the dock towards a little shack, and Alec stayed behind him just like he hoped he would. Maybe they could get this hunt done before anything bad could happen.

Alec suddenly tapped his arm four times, which meant he could either see four of them or could hear them. He trusted Alec's senses way more than his own, so he didn't question it. He really wished there weren't four in the little shack, but he knew he and Alec could take them out.

Alec hit his arm again though, so he stopped and turned to look at him. "I don't think they're werewolves," Alec whispered. "They just smell human…"

"Ok, so, wrong shack?" Dean asked.

"I don't know…" Alec said. "Somethin's not right…"

He looked down the dock and saw someone walking towards them, and there was another one coming up behind them. "Looks like the shack might be our only option…"

Alec nodded, so they took off for the shack. Maybe the four in there really were human, so it might be their best option right now. They ran into the little building, and he shut the door as soon as Alec was inside.

"You think those other two were the werewolves?" Alec asked softly.

"I don't know…"

"Dean…you're a lot earlier than we thought you'd be," a voice said behind him.

He and Alec spun around at the same time to see four men standing there, two with shotguns against their shoulders, one with a handgun, and one with a baseball bat. "You guys hunters?" Dean asked. He didn't recognize any of them, but that didn't mean anything. He hadn't even known there were that many other hunters until the Roadhouse, so it wasn't a surprise he didn't know them.

"We are," said the one wearing the blue plaid.

The one wearing a cowboy hat said, "We've been trying to find you Winchesters for a long time. Decided we should just bring you to us. Who knew you guys would fall for it so quick…"

"Why were you looking for us?" Alec asked.

Baseball bat smirked and said, "We heard the Winchesters were the ones who let out all these extra demons."

"And we heard they had a freak ridin' around shotgun," the one with the handgun said. "Looks like we found the freak."

"Hey, you don't get to talk to my brother that way," Dean growled. These guys were dead. No one was allowed to treat his brother like that and live. Alec suddenly tugged on his beltloop, which meant he either wanted him to shut up or he thought they should run.

Running sounded good to him, so he rolled his shoulder to tell Alec that they would run, he just had to wait for his signal. The cowboy hat started talking again, but he fired his gun into the air, making the four men jump. As soon as he fired his gun, Alec kicked behind him to bust down the door.

Alec collapsed as soon as the door was open, and he turned to see what had happened. The two that he saw before they ran to the shack were there, and one had his rifle flipped around. He'd been the one who had hit Alec as soon as he saw him.

He started to run at the man but cried out when a burning pain tore through his left shoulder. He took a hard hit to his side from the butt of the rifle, and then the man followed up with a right cross to his jaw. He was forced to stumble away from Alec, who was still unconscious on the ground.

A gun barrel was put against his back, so he slowly raised his arms up in surrender. Alec was out, he was hurt…he just had to hope Sam was still ok and could get them out of this.

"You come with us," Blue plaid said. "And we won't kill the freak right away."

His arms were forced behind his back, and he had to stifle his cry of pain, but then cuffs were slapped on his wrists. He tried to turn to see what they were going to do with Alec, but two of them grabbed his arms and drug his limp body along with them.

The men brought him and Alec to another shack with three chairs set up in the middle of the room. His hope disappeared when he saw Sam already tied to one of the chairs. Sam looked over when he and Alec were brought in, but his face fell when he saw them. They were screwed now…

More soon...