When we pulled up to the Hale house I eyed my Bug sadly. I just wished I could drive it again, but I had no idea how to fix cars. I checked the sky, and was dismayed to see we only had about fifteen minutes until we had to meet the alphas. Isaac and I bounded into the house, where everyone already was. They were talking loudly, it seemed like they were nervous. They were all gathered around the kitchen counter. Most of them were anxiously eating the bag of chips that was in front of them. Isaac and I squeezed our way in between them; me between Peter and Scott, Isaac between Jackson and Stiles.

Stiles was talking, "Look guys, I'm freaked out of my mind. All you werewolves can protect yourselves. Allison is a Hunter and she gave Lydia a crossbow, and Maria is a witch. I can't do anything, I can't walk without tripping, and you expect me to be threatening."

"Well maybe Allison can give you a crossbow," Scott said, trying to comfort Stiles.

Allison just shook her head, "Didn't bring an extra one."

I furiously began digging in my bag, looking for one of the goodies I'd shoved in there earlier. When my finger grazed the blade I pulled it out triumphantly, a single drop of blood falling on the counter. It didn't even sting a little.

"It is such a stupid idea to carry a machete in your purse," Jackson snorted all-knowingly.

I just shook my head and looked at the black dagger in my hand, and was, as always, dazzled by its awesomeness. It was something my djed gave me when I was nine and still living in Croatia, right before he died.

I handed the long, curved black blade to Stiles, who just gave me an incredulous look, "This is great and all, but werewolves will heal too fast for this."

I nodded, "Yeah… no. It's laced with wolf's bane."

As if on command, every wolf leaped back from it like it could kill them, because it could kill them.

"Calm down guys, it's only dangerous if it cuts you," I said reassuringly. Only Erica and Jackson relaxed, the others just looked at the knife with incredible malice. "Be careful with that, Stiles. It was the last thing my Granddad gave me and it's the only weapon I'm giving you."

Our new Alpha nodded, understanding. "Well then, we should probably head out," he said, but to all of us is felt like a command. I guess that was an Alpha thing.

When we walked out of the house we were in tight formation. Scott, Allison, Stiles, and Derek were in front, followed by Peter, Isaac, and I. In back were Lydia and Jackson, and Boyd and Erica. In front of me Stiles was rubbing the flat part of the knife with his thumb, every once and a while slipping and cutting his thumb on the blade. He didn't seem to notice the blood on his fingers; he was probably too nervous. I could see Scott and Derek shifting in and out of their wolf form with their claws sliding in and out every few seconds.

I didn't even notice how much I was shaking until Peter put his arm around my shoulders to try and stop it. He leaned down a bit to talk to me, "Don't be nervous. If anything happens you can protect yourself, and if for some reason you can't protect yourself Isaac and I will take care of you." Peter looked over to Isaac for an assurance, to which Isaac nodded.

"And stop shaking," Peter added, "If they sense your nervousness they'll go for you first."

I actually had something that could help me with the nervousness. I reached into my back and pulled out a necklace with a big pendant on it. The pendant was made of Tiger's Eye, a stone that was supposed to give me courage and protection. I fixed it around my neck. Peter glanced down at it and nodded with approval, "Tiger's Eye, good idea. A bit of a Pagan idea, but since you are a witch it makes sense."

"I'm not a Unnatürliche Hexe, so it may not work." An Unnatürliche Hexe was a witch with no natural powers. They were Wiccans or Pagans and they tended to be significantly less powerful than Urtümlichs, but hopefully their tricks would work.

I had already stopped shaking, and I was already feeling a lot better about the meeting with the Alphas.

Speaking of the Alphas, we were already at the clearing. No one was there but us yet, though there was only a sliver of the sun above the horizon.

"They should be here, it's sunrise. Where are they?," Scott wondered aloud, his voice cracking on the last word.

"We're here, Scott, we're all here." Suddenly five Alphas appeared. Two jumping in synchrony out of a tree, one materializing out from behind a tree, and the last one stepping out from the ranks of our pack. How he got to be between Boyd and Jackson I didn't understand, but when he stepped out our rank changed and we stood all in one line. Stiles, our Alpha, was flanked by Derek and Scott on the right side of him, and Allison and I on the left side. On my left stood Isaac and beside him stood Peter, who looked unnervingly calm. The rest of the pack was to the right of Stiles.

The Alpha pack stood in rank like ours, the pack arranged in a way that would protect the Alpha or in their case the Alpha…um… Alpha. The twins flanked either side of the seemingly blind man. Flanking the twins were the man and the woman.

"You have a rather interesting pack, I must say," said the blind Alpha.

Peter nodded, "Well with all due respect, you know quite a bit about that yourself, don't you?"

He smiled and laughed, though it seemed rather fake, "That is true, but really I think you know a bit more about that. One human Alpha, five werewolves, one resurrected Alpha with no conscious, one Resurrecter, one Urtümlich, one hunter, and one ex-Kanima. You are certainly an advocate for diversity, aren't you?"

"Why are you here?," Stiles asked bravely. I looked over at him, leaning back ever so slightly to see his hand on the spiral hilt of the dagger. Though it was nice to know the weapon was giving him confidence, it certainly would not protect him if all of the Alpha pack went after him. I made a mental note for Allison and I to teach him how to defend himself.

"Well Stiles, because of your diversity, we believe you are a threat."

"To who? We're perfectly under control, and no one here's ever killed anyone… well except for Jackson and Peter."

"And me," I added.

"And Maria," Stiles confirmed, then gasped almost comically, "Wait, who the hell did you kill?"

I shook my head, and he gave me a we'll-talk-about-this-later kind of look. Isaac looked at me and leaned away. The space he moved for infinitesimal, but I still sensed it, and I was weirdly hurt. Allison didn't move at all, but she glanced over at me. I gave her something that I hoped was an it's-not-as-bad-as-it-seems look. She seemed to get the message and nodded reassuringly at me.

"It's not your control that is what bothers us, it's your power. With all of these people here, with their knowledge and abilities and your sheer size you endanger our pack. We'll give you a week to disband or we'll slaughter you all."

I was shell-shocked, because I knew we would die. We would most certainly die if we fought back.

I guess Jackson didn't recognize the danger, because he snorted at the Alpha's promise, "What, you and your tiny pack? I bet I could beat you all up and down Beacon Hills you blind vagrant."

"Hold my cane, Aiden," The Alpha handed his cane to one of the twins, "Would you like to hit me, Jackson?"

"It would be my pleasure, old man." Jackson stepped forward, and Allison and I tensed; we both knew what was going to happen next.

Jackson curled his fist into a ball and flexed his arm threateningly. When Jackson's fist hit the Alpha a great clang rang out in the clearing. It was like the Alpha was made of metal. Suddenly there was a flash of movement and Jackson was lying on the ground, rolling in agony. The Alpha had hit him, and now he was leaning down with his claws out. He rested his knee on Jackson's chest and sunk his claws into his skin.

Lydia gasped and both Isaac and Allison closed their eyes. I didn't understand why no one was helping him. "Stop!," I yelled out. The Alpha didn't stop digging his claws in, but he raised his head in my direction.

I raised a gust of air and blew the Alpha off of Jackson. I ran forward and pulled Jackson up, his head was on my shoulder, he didn't even have to energy to hold it up. All of his weight was on me and I could barely keep him up. My hand was around his waist, trying to get a firm grip.

Despite the Alpha not being able to finish his work, he still smiled, "You have a week, or it's war."

Then the pack disappeared into forest and looked at Jackson's chest, he wasn't healing. "Why isn't he healing?," I asked, my voice tinged with panic.

"It's from an Alpha," answered Scott, "he'll be out of commission for a day or two."

Derek walked over and took Jackson out of my arms.

Lydia, who has been strangely quiet, spoke, "So what? Are we disbanding?"

"Well it's either that or die," answered Stiles, a deep sadness in his voice.

Allison and I looked at each other, it seemed we had that same idea.

"Well guys, that's very stupid," Allison said, "We can win this, we just need to smart about how we go about fighting them."

"We have to fight for this, we're not going to let this pack try to exterminate us because we might be a threat," I followed up for Allison.

"They're right," Erica said, "We need to fight for this."

"Well what if one of us dies?," asked Boyd, though it seemed as if his question was directed towards Erica.

Erica smiled her usual toothy smile, "Then we slaughter them all."

I saw a synchronous nod go through the pack.

"Okay then," Stiles said, "We fight."