Derek stepped from the woods at the same time Brenna pulled up in her Charger. His agitation rose, nerves still shot from when Natalie had visited him the night before, as she stepped from the driver's side. Zane followed out the passenger's.

"What do you want?" He demanded, throwing down the dead rabbit he'd taken his frustration out on.

"We swept the town. There's no hint of Kate." Zane stated, huffing out his tension as he sat on the warm hood of Brenna's car. "We know Scott said that Stiles was sure it wasn't Kate, but we wanted to make sure."

"It's not Kate that's in town." Derek responded firmly, biting his tongue on giving anymore than that. They didn't need to know about Natalie. It would put too much spotlight on him and how he knew before Stiles told him. Because Stiles hadn't, possibly wouldn't. He couldn't be the one to blow that whistle.

"Then who is it that had Stiles so spooked?" Zane questioned while Brenna halted. She was twitching, turning around and looking through the trees, looking toward the house. He turned to her, gauging her reactions, once he noticed she wasn't by his side. "What's up?"

"Do you smell that?" She asked, taking a few hesitant steps towards the house.

"What?" Zane asked, becoming more alert as he started to scent the air.

"Something's dead. Something more than that rabbit." Brenna informed as they all advanced on the house, Derek taking point as he too began to scent the air. There was something in there. Something fresher than the death that had already occurred in the Hale manor.

"This is property of the town. Maybe someone came up here to commit a good old fashioned murder because it's abandoned?" Zane questioned hopefully, but there were too many careless tracks. Tracks that reeked of werewolf. And Peter.

Derek was the first in the house, shifted in his rage even though the scent was hours old. He'd been gone since first light and it was already mid afternoon. Anyone that had trekked through the house with purpose was already long gone.

Except for the gift that was awaiting Derek in Laura's bedroom. He could smell the stench wiping away the last traces of Laura's lemongrass infused soap and apple shampoo. It was the last vestige of his sister he had left and his Uncle had made sure to taint it.

He took the stairs two at a time, trailed by Brenna and Zane, imagining all the ways he could kill his Uncle for the cruelty he was bestowing on his nephew. Those images only became more vivid upon seeing what had been left for him.

The boy was younger than the three Betas, probably no more than eighteen or nineteen. He was naked, his throat slashed open deeply to show muscle and bone, a puddle of blood staining the wood darker than it already had been. It was one of the few rooms that had been untouched by the fire and years of abandonment. That was no longer the case.

"He's Peter's." Brenna stated, coughing against the putrid scent of death assailing her heightened senses, trying to cover it with one of her gloved hands.

"Yeah, but why is he here?" Zane asked, "Peter's been gone hours. Why drop him off here and leave? He would've had the element of surprise. He would've been able to attack us, if he has a pack. I smell at least four other wolves aside from Peter and this kid. Why dump a body and leave?"

"To prove he can." Derek growled, his chest heaving as he dragged in harsh breaths. "He's building a pack. A strong one. This was an Omega that he was using to train the others." He paused, sending a look towards Brenna as he cautiously continued, "Like the old packs."

"Son of a bitch!" Brenna shuddered in repulsion and anger, turning around and punching her fist into the wall. Concrete cracked like wood underneath the force of her rage.

Derek and Zane watched her for a minute as she warred with shifting, cracking her neck as she attempted to control the urge to give into the pacing animal within her. Both knew she despised the laws of old packs, the way they hunted, recruited, lived. She was aware all too well of that.

"You okay?" Zane asked her when she seemed to have calmed herself enough. Zane's concern for what it would bring up for her was palpable to the wolves; even Derek felt a trickle of pity.

"Fine." She responded tightly, contradicting herself with her tense posture and gritted teeth. "So, is that the message? That he does have a pack. That he can get to you on your own turf. What else? There's gotta be more with Peter. It can't just be that."

"It's not." Derek toed his boot underneath the body, keeping his balance as he forced the boy over onto his stomach. Across his back, his skin frayed apart with a message.

"Sick bastard." Zane muttered under his breath, shaking his head and turning away. "He's just a kid. There was no reason to do that."

"He's an Omega. If Peter's going by old pack laws, that means that this kid was there to be used for training and then discarded when his Alpha got bored enough. He apparently wanted to send a message and this boy was the best way to do it." Brenna crouched next to the body, absentmindedly stroking the boy's buzzed head. "Not to mention, he has similarities to a certain human we all know and protect. That surely factored into his decision to do… this."

Derek had been trying to avoid the similarities between the Omega and Stiles. However, with Brenna shoving it into his face like that, it was hard to. He had no doubt that Peter had done that deliberately. Stiles was a touchy subject for so many reasons, and this was just his Uncle's way of clawing at the surface of Derek's resolve.

"We need to get rid of the body." Zane was the one to voice the thought no one else was willing to. It seemed wrong to.

"I can't." Brenna said, stepping away from the body. Her voice was choked and she seemed to have trouble breathing. "I'll head back into town and make sure that Peter didn't visit anyone while he was here. Just… I don't know, I'll meet up with you when it's done." She was out of the room before either men could protest or agree either way.

"We'll take him to the edge of town, far enough away from here that the Sheriff won't come looking, but close enough within town limits that the next county over won't be sniffing. We'll dump him; make it look like a cougar attack." Derek turned his emotions off as he looked at the kid. He couldn't let it get to him, had to stop picturing Stiles' face on the mutilated body.

Zane sighed, trying to get over his disgust at the take ahead of him. "We'll need to get rid of the message." The two men seemed to share a look, neither wanting to do what needed to be done.

"I'll do it when we drop him, spill more blood to make it look like it happened there." Derek said, resigned to the task. He knew though that if they didn't, Sheriff Stilinski would be right on his doorstep.

Because clawed into the boy's skin were three simple words.

Happy birthday, nephew.


I don't know when the next chapter will be. I haven't had time to write it. Hopefully within the week.