Chapter Eleven

'It worked.' I almost squealed with relief after the howl died out.

'I'm glad you thought of it.' Scott told me, standing as I pulled on his arm.

We started to run in the direction the howl had come from, I tried not to run too fast in my eagerness to get to Derek—the need to make sure he was okay was strong but I didn't want to get split up from my twin. We both exchanged a slightly confused look when we arrived at the Hale property and I was about to panic that we had somehow gone in the wrong direction when Scott grabbed my arm and pointed to his ear in explanation when I looked over to him. I frowned, but did as he instructed and I almost cried with relief when I heard another heartbeat coming from below us. We started to look around for a way that would allow us to access underneath the house after about ten minutes of looking, Scott pointed out a circular tunnel blanketed with grass to keep it hidden. We made our way over to it and shared a look of recognition when we picked up Derek's scent. I pulled open the bars and held the gate open for Scott to walk through first before gently closing it behind me. My twin went to make his way down the tunnel but I stopped him with a hand on his arm.

'You should wait here and keep watch.' I whispered, continuing when he went to protest, 'if any of the hunters come back you can come and warn us and give us all enough time to hide.'

'What if someone's already in there?' Scott whispered back.

'There's only one heartbeat.' I told him confidently, 'I won't be long, just come and find me if any of the hunters show up. Stay hidden and be careful.'

'I will. You too,' we shared a hug before I parted ways with him.

I followed both the sound of Derek's heartbeat and his scent through the tunnel, trying not to cringe at the other sounds invading my ears, like the sounds of rats, the flickering of the lights or the ominous whooshing of the wind through the trees from above. Eventually I reached a huge metal door and I knew with every fiber of my being that Derek was in there. I summoned all my strength and pulled the door open with enough force to send it to the other side of the wall with a huge bang.

'That wasn't as heavy as I thought it was going to be.' I mumbled, biting my lip as I gently pulled the door to close. My head whipped around when I heard the shocked voice of Derek Hale.

'Stacey?' he breathed, almost as if he couldn't believe I was there; I felt my heartbeat pick up as I was so overcome with relief to see him in one piece.

'The one and only,' I offered him a cheeky grin that made him chuckle as I rushed over to where he was tied up.

I felt my relief turn into pure outrage at the sight before me. He was strung up onto a metal grid that appeared to be attached to some wiring—it didn't take a genius to figure out what they had been doing to him. It was a good job that whoever had been doing this to him—my money was on Kate Argent—wasn't there in that moment because it would have taken all of her fire power to stop me from ripping her apart. With fury coursing through my veins, it wasn't hard to summon the strength needed to break his bindings and set him free. Thankfully I had supernatural reflexes otherwise I might not have caught him before he fell to the floor. I circled my arm around his waist and held onto the hand that was resting on my shoulders.

'What can I do?' I asked him quietly, bringing a hand to the side of his face to get him to look at me.

I knew he hated people seeing him vulnerable, but for whatever reason he didn't care as much when it was I. Maybe because he knew I would never use it against him, or because he had seen me vulnerable. All I knew was that I just wanted to help in whatever way I could—if it was doable I would have taken all of his pain so he didn't have to suffer but that just wasn't possible.

'We need to get out of here before—,' he cut off and for a moment I was worried he was about to pass out, that was when I noticed the black veins highlighted on his face that seemed to be travelling into my hand and up my arm—I nearly dropped him in shock.

'What the—,' I frowned, staring at my arm and wondering what the hell had just happened.

'You took some of my pain.' He explained, giving me a look that was filled with gratitude and another emotion that I couldn't identify.

'I did? Good.' I smiled, happy to have made him a little more comfortable, I would address the fact that we could even take peoples pain later when the threat of danger wasn't so imminent, 'we should go before whoever kidnapped you comes back.'

'Good idea.' He nodded, gently moving away from me to the table where the control panel for the grid he had been strapped to was. He pulled on his shirt, then is jacket before grabbing his phone, wallet and keys.

We were about to leave but I paused, a thought occurring to me, 'who did this to you?' I already had a pretty good idea, but I wanted to know for sure.

Derek looked over to me, probably seeing straight through my forced casual tone as I offered him support to help him walk again. It took him a minute to answer me and I assumed he was debating whether or not he should tell me. Eventually he did, 'It was the Argents, more specifically Kate. She figured out that Scott was one of the betas, and she's pretty sure you're the other one.'

'Yeah they tested Scott at the dance, got her to wolf out in front of Allison.' I shook my head in disgust, angered on my twin's behalf, 'but it sure took her long enough,' I rolled my eyes, pushing down my worry and fury, 'she suspected Jackson and Stiles for god's sake, she's not the brightest bulb in the box, I'm proud of her for putting the pieces together.'

Derek snorted in amusement before asking in a soft voice, 'what day is it?'

'Friday,' I answered just as quietly, guiltily biting my lip as I led him through the tunnel, 'I would have come looking sooner but I thought you were just ignoring me because Peter was getting suspicious.'

'It's fine, I get it.' He assured me, squeezing my shoulders with the arm that was resting there comfortingly.

'How did they get you?' I asked, controlling my voice so my resentment didn't come through.

'I was getting gas, I'd just put the pump in my tank and the next thing I know is I'm being injected with something and I woke up here.' He sighed, sounding like he was blaming himself.

'Why would she take you?' I wondered, it didn't make any sense.

'I think she was planning on exposing the supernatural to her niece. I heard her on the phone with her a few times, but every time Kate asked her to meet, Allison blew her off because she was busy with either you, Stiles or Scott.' He sounded pleased that Kate hadn't gotten her way and honestly, I was too.

Ever since Peter had started going after those closest to us we had been on constant watch. That meant taking shifts to keep an eye on Allison, Jackson and our Mom. So far we had managed pretty well and we hadn't heard from Peter since Saturday so I was calling it a win.

'Serves her right, psychotic bitch,' I muttered, smiling when I heard Derek's soft chuckle.

We reached the end of the tunnel and met up with Scott. I saw his expression cloud with relief when he saw that we were okay, only to transform into concern when he saw how much support Derek needed.

'Dude are you okay?' Scott asked, frowning at his appearance.

'I will be,' Derek glared but he was only able to hold it for a moment, 'I just need to heal.'

'We should get going.' I commented, moving to step forward but Scott held out an arm to stop me.

'What is it?' Derek asked, probably wondering what the hold up was.

'There are two heartbeats out there. They showed up a minute or two before you two did.' Scott explained, looking between Derek and I as if he wanted orders on what to do.

Derek's eyes paled with fear and concern but he covered it up quickly and took a breath with his eyes closed. I wondered what he was doing and after a moment it hit me—he was trying to pick up a scent. His eyes were only shut for a moment and when he opened them again they were an electric blue.

'One of them is Kate, I recognize the scent.' He informed me.

'Wonderful.' I said sarcastically, 'what are we gonna do?'

He pulled up off me and I looked over to see him fully transformed. I was prepared to catch him but he was clearly channeling his rage and concern into strength at that moment because he didn't waver once.

'We fight,' He growled, pushing open the gate and stepping out with a confident stride.

I rolled my eyes and shared a look with my twin, but we followed a few paces behind him, prepared to offer him backup should he need it. We walked up the hill to stand on the clearing in front of his house, my eyes widened when I heard something swooshing through the air and I saw an arrow soaring through the air, aiming for Derek. I didn't even have to think about it—I dived on top of the blue-eyed wolf, knocking him out of the weapon's path.

'Unlucky,' Kate said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

I rolled off Derek when I heard the sound of another arrow being loaded and narrowed my eyes when I saw who was firing them. I felt Scott come to stand beside me, but when I looked over to him his expression was one of complete and utter betrayal, which just fueled my anger even more.

'Allison?' I rolled my eyes and ran a hand through my hair as I prepared myself to catch all the arrows she aimed my way—Derek was doing the same, I discretely stood in front of Scott seeing as he was frozen in disbelief, 'what the hell are you doing?'

'You both lied to me.' She said simply.

'Gee, I wonder why? Why wouldn't we tell you, a girl who comes from a family of werewolf hunters that we are werewolves? I'll give you a second to think about that because it is a toughie!' I shouted sarcastically.

My words made Allison hesitate, much to Kate's annoyance, and before her aunt could manipulate her niece any further she dropped her bow and arrow all together, fixing her aunt with a glare.

'You said they didn't tell me because they wanted to kill me! You said they wanted to hurt me like the alpha hurt Lydia!' Allison screeched.

I frowned in confusion—what had happened to Lydia? I squelched down my worry for the strawberry blonde, knowing I couldn't afford to be distracted in that moment. I shared a look with Derek and Scott before my twin managed to find his voice.

'Allison,' he said, drawing the huntresses attention, 'I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I wanted to, but I knew that your family wouldn't accept me and I didn't know how involved you were with your family's business.'

He paused to look over to the stunning brunette and he continued, encouraged by the lack of hatred and anger in her expression.

'I just want you to know, everything I did was to protect you. To keep you safe.' He declared, his voice ringing with sincerity. I took his hand in mine to silently offer him my support. He squeezed me gratefully but didn't take his attention off his love.

'I believe you.' Allison whispered, and before they could run into each other's arms our attention was drawn to the sound of a chamber clicking into place.

I looked over and saw Kate aiming her gun at my brother and I felt my blood turn to ice; I was just about to dive on top of Scott when a cold voice cut across the night air and froze everyone in place.

'Put the gun down, Kate.' Chris said, his own gun was steadily pointed at his sister.

Kate regarded her brother for a moment and after deciding that he wasn't being serious she scoffed and looked back over to us. I bit back a growl when she aimed her gun at me this time. I saw Derek and Scott take a small step forward protectively, which seemed to amuse the psychotic blonde. Before she could taunt us, Chris' voice cut across the cool night air, once again drawing her attention.

'Put it down. I know what you did.' He said gravely, looking disgusted with her.

'I did what I was told.' She insisted, no remorse present in her voice.

When I realized what they were talking about, I stepped closer to Derek, sliding my hand into his to offer him some comfort. He squeezed my hand gratefully as we continued to watch what was happening.

'No one told you to burn down a house full of innocent people. There were children inside that house, Kate.' He told her, his blue eyes shining with hatred, 'look at you, holding a gun to a sixteen year old with no proof she's spilled innocent blood. We go by the code. Nous chassons ceux qui nous chassent.'

'We hunt those who hunt us.' Allison translated in a whisper.

'Put it down.' Chris yelled, his voice as cold as ice.

Kate's gun moved from me and back over to my brother. I narrowed my eyes and moved Scott so that he was stood behind me. I had to bite my lip to hold in a smartass comment that probably would have resulted in me getting shot when she sent me a smirk. I jumped when Chris shot a warning shot over Kate's head, missing her by inches. Derek squeezed the hand he was still holding a little tighter in an attempt to calm me.

'Put it down. Before I put you down.' He said, and I didn't doubt his words for one second.

Kate's eyes widened in shock and she finally complied with her brother and lowered her arm. I breathed in relief when I saw Kate's finger move off the trigger. I was just about to make a run for it with Scott and Derek when the sound of the door to the Hale house creaking open distracted me.

'What is that?' Allison whispered and I felt my stomach drop to my feet—there was only one person that it could be.

'The alpha.' Scott and I said at the same time.

I squeezed Derek's hand one last time, and my twin's, before letting them both go and summoning my werewolf face forward. It was time.

Peter moved too fast for anyone's eyes to follow, even mine with my supernatural eyesight. I was helpless to watch as people started falling down around me. First it was Chris, then Scott, then Derek and then Allison. I was glancing around frantically, still trying to find him when I felt something tear at the back of my thighs, sending me tumbling to the ground as I bit back a scream of pain. I leaned up on my elbows when I noticed that Kate was the only one left standing.

'Come on!' She shouted, loading her gun and sounding far too confident.

Sure enough, Peter appeared almost out of nowhere and twisted her wrist with a sadistic smile on his face. Kate gasped in pain and her gun fell to the ground with a thud. I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't co-operate and I was helpless to watch as Peter dragged her into the house. I saw Allison get up and before she could chase after them I gestured for her to come and help me. She hesitated for a moment, glancing over to the house and frowning in concern, but a second later she made up her mind and raced over to me. I sighed in relief as I felt the blood rushing through my legs as I got to my feet—it allowed the wounds to heal faster and the pain subsided to a dull ache pretty quickly. I spared Derek and Scott a glance; both of them were unconscious so with a sigh I followed Allison into the house. I pulled her to a stop when I saw Peter standing in the middle of the room to our left, Kate's back against his chest as he held his claws to her throat.

'She really is beautiful, Kate.' Peter said in a patronizing tone that sent a shiver of apprehension down my spine.

I stepped in front of Allison, keeping her safely behind me and away from Peter's stare.

'Let her go.' I said, drawing his attention back to me.

'Stacey,' he tutted, giving me an amused look, 'you know I'm not going to do that.'

'Well it was worth a try. But you know that whether you kill her or not, you're not leaving here alive.' My eyes flashed and Peter's flashed in response.

'Are you threatening me?' He asked, sounding a mixture of amused and enraged.

'I'm making an educated guess seeing as even without Kate there will still be two hunters and three werewolves who want you dead.' I told him, my tone making it sound obvious.

He threw back his head and laughed, I took that moment to discretely push Allison towards the door and gesturing for her to wake up the others. By the time Peter composed himself, she was gone.

'See that is why I bit you, Stacey.' He smiled and it was all teeth.

'I thought it was random?' I frowned, wondering how he could have possibly planned it.

'No, no, no, you see I needed some beta's to add to my strength and, yes, it was pure luck that you were in the woods that night. I recognized you immediately, your laugh, your scent and your smile. Your brother was a means to add to my power, but you, Stacey McCall, were a means to add to my strength.' He moved to step forward but seemed to remember he was still holding Kate, without flinching he slashed open her throat with this claws and threw her carelessly to the side.

I stepped backwards as he made his way over to me, my heart beating wildly in my chest—I was terrified because I knew I couldn't fight him on my own. But I refused to let him see that so I squared my shoulders and deliberately wiped any trace of fear off my face. I paused when I stepped back against the staircase—I was trapped.

'Even when you were a little girl you were exceptionally clever, loyal and cunning. All qualities I knew would make you a good beta.' He caressed the side of my face and I resisted the urge to try and push him off me because I knew I wouldn't be a match for his strength, 'and I was right.'

'Maybe you were right about me making a good beta, but you were wrong to think you would ever be a good alpha.' I told him honestly, without thinking I bought my knee up to his groin with as much force as I could summon. I was relieved when he keeled over and I took the opportunity to kick him in his side and send him flying through the dry wall into the other room. He laughed manically, standing up straight and giving me a look that was a mixture of angry and impressed.

I bought my werewolf face forward, knowing that this was going to get worse before it got better. He lunged at me, aiming a punch to my side that I skillfully dodged whilst landing an elbow to the side of his head. I danced around him, kicking him in the back of his leg and causing him to stumble forward. I went to kick him again but he span around and caught my foot, throwing me backwards and making me fall onto my back with a thud. I ignored the pain exploding in my spine and moved to get up off the floor but Peter held me down with his hand on my shoulder effortlessly.

'It's your last chance, Stacey; you're either with me or against me. Join me.' Peter said, his face a mere inch away from mine.

'No way in hell,' I growled, trying again to push him off me, but it was useless.

'Wrong choice.' Peter said, his claws digging into my shoulder and slashing across my collarbone.

I screamed from the pain, increasing my efforts to push him away and thankfully in the next second he was off me. But not due to my own struggles—Derek had thrown him off with enough force to send him to the wall on the opposite end of the house. He and Scott offered me a hand up, both wearing concerned expressions.

'I'll heal.' I assured them; the pain had already subsided into a dull ache and I could feel my skin knitting back together.

Before anything else could be said, Peter stepped calmly back into the room and we all circled him, each of us fully transformed. Derek lunged first, but Peter sent him flying backwards before he could even land a punch. I moved next, ducking to avoid a blow and swiping my claws out to slash open his thigh. He let out an enraged roar before kicking me in the abdomen, knocking the wind out of me and rendering me incapable of breathing for a moment. Scott managed to land a punch to the alpha's jaw that freakily made his face shift in between his wolf face and his actual face. I leapt back to my feet when I got my breath back, and all of us advanced forward and started hitting him in the face, hard enough to make him transform, if only briefly. Clearly annoyed, Peter tossed Derek back with enough force to render him unconscious before throwing Scott and I through the front window, leading us to land with a thud in the clearing.

I got to my feet immediately and helped my twin up as we prepared for what was going to come out of the door. I glanced over and noticed that Chris was finally awake and Allison was ready to fire with her crossbow.

My attention snapped back to the house as Peter exited, his eyes glowing a bloody red and his fangs glinting in the moonlight. I gulped and prepared to have my ass kicked even more but before anyone could move, a car came into the clearing, which I recognized as Jackson's Porsche. Before I could wonder what the hell he was doing here, Stiles jumped out of the car and threw a flask of something at the alpha, but Peter caught it effortlessly and growled out a laugh for his efforts.

'Allison!' Scott shouted, gesturing for the huntress to do something, which she did. In the next second an arrow pierced the flask and set the alpha's arm and half of its torso on fire. Jackson threw another flask, after a moments hesitation, and set the rest of its body alight with flames. Peter roared in panic and looked over to me, I knew my face was blank because I didn't know how to feel about what was happening in that moment. Before I could comprehend it, the alpha lunged for me, but Scott landed a kick that sent him tumbling in the opposite direction. He stumbled and eventually transformed back into his human self and fell on the dead leaves, panting and gasping for breath. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy—he must have been relieving the fire in that moment. But I squashed down my concern, knowing he didn't deserve it.

I startled when Scott moved away from me and looked over just in time to see Allison kiss my twin passionately. Despite the situation I couldn't stop the happy smile that broke out across my lips—Scott deserved to get the girl.

'Why did you do that?' Scott asked, sounding amazed.

'Because I love you.' She told him with a soft smile that my twin returned.

I was about to head into the house to see if Derek was okay when the man himself walked out, but he didn't look over to us, his attention was solely focused on Peter who was struggling for breath. He stood over him and I was confused as to what he could possibly be doing when I saw him raise his hand in the air, his claws protruding from the ends of his fingers.

'Derek! Wait!' My twin shouted, 'you said the cure was to kill the one that bit you. I can't be what I am and be with her. What am I supposed to do?'

I frowned—when had Derek told Scott there was a cure? Why hadn't either of them told me?

'He's already decided. I can smell it on you.' Peter rasped out with a sneer.

Derek raised his hand again and didn't let my twin's shouts of protest stop him this time. Peter went still as his nephew slashed his throat, his heart stopped and so did his breath. Derek turned, his eyes flashing red as he growled.

'I'm the alpha now.'

Later that night.

I threw my keys onto the table by the door with a tired sigh, ready to just climb into bed. We had been at the Hale house for a little over an hour, working out how we were going to reveal this to the police. It took a while but eventually Argent took Allison's necklace and put it on Kate after hearing from Stiles that the Sherriff was looking for the person wearing it. Derek had said he would bury Peter's body and he left without a backwards glance. I assumed being around Chris made him nervous, which I couldn't blame him for. After that Scott, Stiles and I squeezed into Jackson's car—barely—and he took us all home. Stiles had filled us in on what had happened at the dance—apparently Peter had been there and he had bitten Lydia in an attempt to get Stiles to help him find Derek. When the alpha realized that our hyperactive friend didn't know where he was—he hadn't even known he was missing—he had left just as I had howled for Derek. Peter had left and Stiles had gone running into the dance for help and after an ambulance took Lydia away, Stiles and Jackson headed to the hospital, where they were cornered by Chris over where Scott and I were. Stiles had denied knowing anything but apparently Jackson choked and they ended up being interrogated until Stiles revealed Kate's dirty little secret. That was when Chris had left and found is in the clearing.

I asked Stiles about where he had gotten the firepower from and he sheepishly admitted that he saw Lydia reading about a self-igniting Molotov cocktail once in chemistry and had decided to look it up himself. He was definitely hopelessly in love with that girl. Stiles was dropped off first, Scott asked to be dropped off at Allison's and I'd been dropped off last. As soon as we were alone in the car, I had decided to address the elephant present, I frowned in concern as I remembered the conversation that had taken place just minutes ago.

'You're going to ask Derek for the bite aren't you?' I asked knowingly as we pulled away from Allison's house.

'I-I,' he stumbled but I cut him off.

'Don't try and lie to me Jackson, I can hear your heart beat so it's pointless.' I told him with an amused look.

'Fine. Yes, I'm going to ask Derek for the bite.' He admitted, his hands tightening on the steering wheel.

'Okay.'

'Okay? You're not going to try and talk me out of it?' Jackson asked incredulously.

'It's your choice and you're convinced it's what you want so nothing I say will be able to talk you out of it.' I shrugged—if Jackson wanted the bite and Derek wanted to give it to him, there was nothing I could do about it, 'you should know, there is a chance your body will reject the bite and you could die.'

'Thanks for the warning.' He muttered, offering me a smile that was genuine, I returned it and we fell into a comfortable silence for the rest of the journey.

It was now nearing two in the morning and I was close to being dead on my feet. I climbed the stairs with a tired sigh, desperate to fall into a dreamless slumber and forget about everything for the next nine hours. I was volunteering at the hospital from 12 until 8 tomorrow, so that left me with plenty of time to get some rest. I stumbled through my bedroom door and nearly screamed when I saw Derek sitting on the end of my bed.

'Derek, a little warning would have been nice.' I huffed, running a hand through my hair and stumbling over to my drawers to pull out some pyjamas.

'You're not mad at me?' He asked, his tone was careful, almost as if he was afraid to be hopeful.

'Why would I be?' I frowned, stepping into the bathroom to change.

'Because I took away your only chance of being cured.' He said as if it was obvious.

'Well I didn't know that chance existed until a few hours ago and honestly I don't think I would have taken it—I like being a werewolf.' I shrugged, throwing my dirty clothes into my hamper and stepping back out into my room.

'I'm glad.' A small smile played on his lips.

'Though I am a little pissed that no one even told me about it.' I gave him a pointed look that made him duck his head to avoid my stare.

'I-I don't know why I didn't tell you,' he mumbled, choosing his words carefully. He seemed to be deliberating whether to tell me the truth or not and when he looked up to meet my gaze again, the sincerity in his eyes took my breath away, 'I was afraid that if you weren't a wolf anymore that you wouldn't need me.'

'Derek, that's crazy,' I told him, sitting next to him on the foot of my bed and taking his hand in mine, 'you're a part of my life now, no matter what, you're not getting rid of me.' My tone turned teasing at the end in an attempt to lighten the mood.

He chuckled a little before he murmured, 'I'm glad.'

I squeezed his hand before letting go and climbing into my side of the bed.

'Are you staying?' I yawned, wiggling to get comfortable.

'Sure.' Derek said, I heard the sounds of his clothes hitting the floor and him locking my door and turning off my light before he climbed underneath the sheets with me. I immediately snuggled up to him, my head resting on his chest, my arm around his waist and my leg thrown over his.

'You're always warm.' I mumbled against his chest, silently telling my heart to calm down.

'So you like to tell me.' He said and I could have sworn I heard a smile in his voice.

'Are you okay?' I asked, fighting back a yawn that threatened to escape, 'you lost your uncle and Kate died too.'

'My uncle died when I lost him in that fire and as for Kate, I haven't cared about her for a long time.' He told me, his voice soft with an emotion I couldn't identify.

'Am I a terrible person if I say that I'm glad she's dead?' I wondered, glad that my face was on his chest so I didn't have to see the disgust in his eyes.

'Not at all. It makes you human to want justice for what she did.' He assured me, running his hand through my hair comfortingly.

We fell into a comfortable silence and with Derek stroking my hair and the sound of his steady heartbeat underneath me, it didn't take me long to fall asleep.

Wow, can't believe this season's over so soon! I'm looking forward to writing the next one, but I think I'm gonna add a few more chapters that take place over winter break before I get on with season two. I hope that's okay with you guys :)

PLEASE REVIEW.

Until next time

Xoxo

-VampireGirl1797

I've changed this one too, this one isn't as drastic but I hope it flows better now. Thanks again to Rbenham2 for the constructive criticism, I really appreciate it :) Let me know what you think of the updates!

Xoxo