AN: So there's only a few more chaps of this left, and I have a poll on my profile regarding what the next Teen Wolf Fic should be (a Sequel to this fic being one of the options) I'll keep the poll up until a week after this story ends and then I'll start writing the new story. In the downtime between the end of this multi chap and the beginning of the next I'll be posting a few one shots (one related to this fic) so be on the look out for that.

Disclaimer: I do not own TW or the characters, just my effed up AU/AR. Also FYI, this is un-betaed, so all the mistakes are mine.


Previously on Teen She-Wolf…

"They left no scent behind Derek…We both know what that means."

"Born wolves with bad intentions"

"Apparently, this pack has declared war on ours. Their aim is to kill all our pack-mates and pack allies until you, Cora and I are all that's left. That's what they want, she-wolves to breed."

"I don't recognize them. There were eight wolves at my house tonight, and those two weren't there. But they have the same tattoo on their neck that my attackers did. Same pack."

"The Thorne Pack will rise again."

"You're an alpha's mate, you have the ability to rise to alpha status in case Derek were to die."

"…She's rising to alpha-female, she'll be a beta with some alpha powers. She's responding to the threat by rising so she'll be stronger and able to help defend the pack. It's impressive usually takes longer in Bitten-mates, she can't be older than a month?...No, the only people that should be fearful she is rising are these idiots that declared war this morning. I bet they did not anticipate you having a mate Derek. Even insane in-bred idiots know not to attack a pack that has a mated pair leading it..."

Danger. Pack is in danger. Must rise to protect.

Intruders will die. Die for their threat. Die for hurting pack-sister.

No one harms our pack. Not while we are alpha-female.

"Rival pack sets a fire. Two die…your parents."

"Not today boys…you don't kill my parents and get to live."

"If Derek is willing to bite me, I will be. I am a liability to this pack without it. I need to be able to defend the pack and myself; I can't as a human. I'll be able to as a wolf or Banshee."

Banshee. Sarah. Killing to protect.

"As much as I love all this time we have been spending together, we can't stay on lockdown indefinitely."

"We can't hide forever…If we have to fight we fight, but we cannot hide and we cannot bring our lives to a stop."

"…Cora said they were taunting them about the one we were unable to protect, that they killed someone that would hurt our pack already. And they would bring the final battle to us soon."

"I talked to Alan yesterday, he has Braeden and Morell at a safe house, and was on his way back with some research that would help our pack in the battle. He should be back in town tomorrow night. John and Melissa are okay and Kira's parents are safely in their new home. What are we missing?"

"No. You can't be dead… You can't be dead."

Pack Emissary. Friend. Dead. Hale Pack Grieves.

"I'm so sorry Alan…I'm so sorry."

"…We all will survive this and I will come back… My place is with the Hale Pack as Emissary; like my father was, like his father, and his mother were. But until I can come back here, don't hesitate to call me if you need help."

"That's not possible. Men in my family can't do this."

"But you still carry the ability in your DNA, you just have to tap into that innate power. You won't shift into a full wolf…It will be more like Peter's alpha form. Not appealing to look at, and certainly not as powerful as your mother in her wolf form, but you, and all your wolves will be significantly stronger if you can complete that ritual."

"Derek…Before things start getting worse, I want to say something…I love you Derek."

"I love you too Erica."


Teen She-Wolf: Chapter Twelve

The next day was spent prepping for the ritual. It was decided that it should take place at midnight because of that was when werewolves felt the moon the strongest.

"And if we're going to have some sort of ancient pagan ritual with blood sacrifice and all I'd be pretty pissed if we didn't do it at midnight." Stiles had said. "It would be like Hollywood lied to me my whole life about these things."

It was also decided that it would be only Derek and Erica performing the ritual. Actually, Derek had decided that. He was afraid that he would not be able to control his new form and end up attacking pack members, wolves and non-wolves alike. Everyone would be mountain ash-ed in the Den until Derek felt that he could control himself. The only reason Erica was allowed to be present was because he needed her blood, and she promised to wear his clothing so she smelt like him and his wolf form would recognize her.

Peter and Cora had spent the day gathering the appropriate herbs from various stores and from the supplies at Wolf's Run. When the moon rose, Derek began mixing the herbs he had been at it for a few hours now. The herbs now were looking like a paste.

"Remind us again what you are doing with that?" Scott asked.

"The ritual is Erica adding her blood to the mixture, then Derek painting the mixture on himself while saying some…prayers…for lack of a better word." Cora explained. "It's one of the lesser involved rituals I've read about. No muss, no fuss…"

Derek glared at her. "Yeah, for you maybe. I'm the one that will go thorough the agony once its starts working. My body wasn't meant to shift like this, I'd imagine that a change like that will be pretty painful the first time."

Erica did a sharp intake of breath. "You never said that you'd have to go through pain."

"This is a pretty powerful request he's asking mother moon Erica." Peter said. "She doesn't just give power like this out for free. I had to lose the majority of my family, nearly die in a fire and loose most of my mind to get a new form to achieve my vengeance."

She looked to Derek. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Would it really be worth it to weaken Derek with that much suffering, just so they could maybe win against the Thornes?

He looked up from his herb mixing. "I'm doing this Erica. I know what's in store and I'm willing to suffer if it means the survival of you and our pack." He said with finality before returning to his work.

Erica stormed out of the study at his remarks and joined the rest of the pack in the living room.

"Silly Puppy." Isaac said scooping her up into a hug. "We're not going to let him suffer alone."

Erica hugged him back. "But how? He's already alpha-ordered you all to stay inside the Den and not break the mountain ash barrier." She asked.

"When the reformed evil do-er known as Peter is on your side, you can do anything." Stiles said from one of the couches.

"What did you do?" said Derek with a growl.

Erica grinned and let go of Isaac in excitement.

"Cora asked me to run some errands for her, after she called mini-Deaton for advice." Peter said, and Erica could hear the smile on his face. "Then, again simply following orders from your second in command, Sarah and I spiked everyone's food with a helpful elixir this evening."

"We are all temporarily linked." Lydia said from her seat in an armchair. "When Derek performs the ritual tonight, we will all experience a bit of the pain."

"Not much." Cora added from the study. "You'll still experience the most of it. But this way it won't weaken you completely, we'll all share in the burden."

"You did what!" Derek yelled.

"Chill out Der. Everyone knew about it, except for you and Puppy." Malia said, entering the living room from the study, eyes rolling before turning to toward Erica and giving an apologetic look. "Sorry, we didn't let you know. You've been glued to his side most of the day, we didn't have a chance."

Erica shrugged. She found that she didn't care, she would have told them to go for it. "Anything to help him through it. I don't mind one bit."

"Because you love him." Kira said with a giggle.

Erica glared at her and noticed that the entire pack was giggling.

"And you call me the puppy when you act like children about a declaration of love?" She said looking around at her friends.

"For a powerful, alpha-mate, you look about as menacing as a puppy right now." Aiden told her.

"So adorable." Danny teased.

They all outright laughed until Derek entered the room moments later with the completed mixture. He sent a glare to the pack before turning to her. "Go change."

She looked down at her outfit. "What are you talking about? We agreed I'd wear your clothes. This is your v-neck, these are your sweatpants."

He sighed before taking off the shirt her was wearing (while some of the more juvenile members of the pack catcalled and she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat) and handed it to her. "Erica, your supposed to smell like me, that shirt is fresh out of the wash."

Erica gulped, trying not to admire her mate so openly, but judging by the disgusted looks on some of the wolves' faces, they could already smell her reaction. "Yeah about that. I decided not to wear a dirty shirt. But you wore these sweatpants to bed last night, and they haven't been in a dirty clothes hamper, that has got to be okay enough?"

He simply continued his glare until she took the shirt. "I'll meet you outside." He said, flashing a smile to her she left the room to change in the guest bathroom. As she was changing she heard him say. "Someone put up the barrier when she leaves the Den. And no one leaves this house or let's us back in until Erica and I both say I have control again got it?"

There were mutters of agreement (and some sass) and Derek left. Erica changed the shirt to the one that Derek just took off, and tried her hardest not to think that her mate would be getting even more naked tonight. This was not the time for her overactive teenage wolf hormones to take control. This was a very important ritual, this would help the pack, and she just had to keep herself together long enough for her mate to complete it.

She took a deep breath and gave herself a pep talk. Okay Erica. It's Showtime. Just only look from the neck up and you'll be fine.

With that she left the house and met Derek outside. He held out his hand and they walked together to where they would perform the ritual.


"Isn't it a bit creepy to do this here?" She asked looking around at the Hale family mausoleum and then to the ruins of the old Hale House. The site was hard to get to, (accessed only by hiking trail) and was the farthest structure from the house. She could see why Derek chose the spot. It was set in one of the few clearings Wolf's Run had (aside from the large one where the Den and other structures were) and it was the only clearing on the property that was a safe distance from the rest of the pack.

"Maybe." He said, opening the jar of paste and holding it out to her. "Ready? It's almost time."

"Do I have to say something special?"

To this he smiled. "No, you're an ingredient. You don't say any thing." At her glare he explained more. "The final ingredient calls for the blood of relative or mate, freely sacrificed under the moonlight. So as long as you are sure about this just cut open your wrist and let it bleed in the jar until you heal."

She looked towards the moon, feeling its effects now; it was nearly midnight so they had to get started. She let her claws extend and used them to make a small incision on her right wrist, putting the bleeding wrist over the jar she looked at Derek, waiting for her wrist to heal.

After a minute, the blood stopped flowing and her wrist looked like it had never been touched at all. Derek closed the jar and shook it. The clear paste and her blood merged, and Derek shook the container until the mixture was clear again.

He then began to finish undressing and cover himself in the paste. Erica turned around for this, not trusting her hormones in this situation.

"Okay." He said from behind her. She could hear him still at it so she did not turn around. "Let's go over this one more time. If my new form starts to growl and come at you, what do you do?"

Erica sighed. They had gone over this so much today, she was tired of it. Her mate was a worrier. She didn't blame him for being that way, life had not been kind to his family, everything that could have gone wrong had until he became alpha. "Do not run, do not approach. Stay as still as possible, to show I am not a threat. Bare my neck to show that I am in your pack and you are my alpha and don't look you in the eyes. And try my hardest not to shift, because then you may see that as a threat or see my red-eyes and think I'm a rival alpha."

"Good." He said. "You can sit on the porch and watch. This might take awhile." He told her.

She turned around to look at him, and took her earlier advice of only looking at the neck up. "Is it safe for me to sit on the porch?"

"Yes. The porch is newly re-built. I was going to have the Den built here, where the old house was. But by the time I finished the porch I realized I could never build a home over the old home." He told her. "Plus it's more downwind than where you are standing now so the thick cloud of lust coming off you wont be as distracting." He said with a grin.

Mildly embarrassed, she smiled and, walked over to the porch to sit down. Derek then walked into the center of the clearing and looked up at the moon. He began to chant something in a language she was unfamiliar with for about ten minutes until her fell silent and closed his eyes.

She waited in silence for what felt like hours, but in reality was only thirty minutes. Just as she had begun to think that it wasn't going to work, the moonlight became brighter around Derek. The light lifted him off the ground a foot before letting him fall to the ground. When he hit the ground his body began to twitch, and Erica heard bones begin to break and reset.

It was then she began to feel the pain, and by the howls coming from the direction of the Den, the pack was feeling it too. She knew they were only feeling a fraction of what Derek was feeling, but that did little to comfort her as the pain intensified and she began to cry. She was worried for the humans and banshees in her pack, what if this was too intense for them? She was a wolf and she was in tears.

When she looked up, she saw her mate, on the ground. He let out a howl in agony as his body began to change from. He slowly began to look more animal than man. She was warned that this form would not look like a wolf would. He would look like as some of her pack members put it "A cross between The Hulk and a wolf", and she could begin to see what they meant. Derek was as huge as a bear, all muscles, fur and large teeth. His howl was constant through the process, which was comforting because that was the only bit of her mate she recognized in the beast. Erica did not think ever think she would be terrified of her mate in his new form, but she was. The pain had stopped and the beast that used to be Derek was staring at her.

She felt a rush of power run through the pack. The only time she felt something similar to this was when Derek turned Sarah. But this felt…more powerful, so powerful it bled into her links with the entire pack. She felt the power entwine itself with the pack-link, and would be surprised if the rest of them, even non-wolves could not hear it.

In the distance she heard the howls of her packmates.

We're fine.

We feel it.

Is alpha okay?

She wanted to respond, but did not want to do so until she was certain Derek knew who she was again. Her heart beat fast as he approached the porch. She knew she had to stay as still as possible, so she slowly bared her neck and tried her best to keep still. He showed more of his teeth as she bared her neck, and she couldn't help but remember the last time she was this freighted of him; the night she was turned.

Not that long ago she had been scared of the monster that bit her in the hospital and took her to his home, then later told her she was his mate. Now she was in love with the man, and he did not recognize her and would kill her if she gave one wrong move.

Derek inhaled deeply when he got near her, and soon he was in front of her, nose to her neck. She knew she was in the clear when the beasts tongue swiped across her face, and he stepped back giving another howl.

I'm fine.

Erica let out a smile. "Der? Can I move now? Do you know me?"

He nodded his head.

"Are you going to practice shifting between forms now?"

Another nod.

She spent the next hour watching as her mate practiced shifting between his three forms; human, the werewolf, and werewolf-on-steroids. After that he put his pants back on (to which Erica let out a sigh of relief) and held out his hand for her.

She took it and they began to walk back to the Den. "So? What do you think?"

"It's great. You feel that power right? It's like we added ten adult wolves to our pack at once." He told her. "But shifting into the new form is still difficult. I don't know if I should fight in that form in a battle. I'm not used to it. The power will still flow through our pack, but the wolf form that came with it might be a hindrance to us if the fight is coming soon."

"Plus it hurts." She said.

"Well, yeah. Now I understand why Cora and Malia prefer to use their ordinary wolf form. You don't have to break bones just to turn. If I thought shifting into the new form would help us in a fight, I would. But I don't think it would."

Erica smiled at him. "I know. You'd do anything to protect us. You are a good alpha."

He stopped them. "You think so?"

Erica was confused, the question sounded so haunted and unsure; it was a tone of voice she never thought to hear from her mate. "Yeah, why?"

He looked sad. "I was never supposed to be an alpha. The most I expected to be was Laura's second. Mom was supposed to be alpha and Laura would take over when she passed. But it didn't work that way, Mom and Laura are both gone and I'm just trying to keep my pack alive. I have no clue what I'm doing." He admitted. Leaning against a tree. "At first I only started to turn wolves to protect Cora. There couldn't be a pack with just the two of us. I wanted to rebuild our strength, so I took Scott in, and then gave the bite to Stiles. The next thing I know I'm turning college kids left and right, they are forming mate bonds, friendship bonds, and getting under my skin and I start to love them as if they were always apart of my family…But I don't I deserve to be followed, to be their alpha. I couldn't protect the people that my pack cares for: your parents, my cousin's dad, and a man who was one of my mother's best friends. And soon we go to war against this other pack, and I know there is a possibility I might lose some of you…I feel like there is something more I should be doing."

"You mean besides what you have already done?" Erica asked embracing him. "You built your pack a fortress so they can be safe from any threat, you may not be the most warm individual we know how much you love and care for us, you train us so we can be better prepared for what might happen, and you just endured unbearable pain, to give us a better chance of survival. How are those actions of a man undeserving of being alpha?"

He let out a sigh, but didn't say anything back, just tightened his hold on her. "Each and everyone of us would follow where ever you lead. And if you don't know where to go, you have plenty of people ready to voice their opinions on the matter. You are not alone Derek. We all are willing to do our part to keep us safe, we just don't need you doubting yourself right before we begin a war."

There were another few minutes of silence. "You're right." He said before breaking the hug and grabbing her hand. "Let's go let our pack out of the Den."


The next afternoon, after lunch was over the entire pack was sitting around the dining room table. Everyone had recovered from sharing Derek's pain after a good night's sleep except Derek, who was still healing. So he sat back and let his sister and cousin help him go over the battle plans they spent the morning on.

"We're going to do this just outside the back gate of our property." Cora told the group. "Lydia, Sarah and Allison, you are going to make perches on the top of the wall and make sure no one gets close to the gate, also you will cover John and Kira."

"Kira, John I want you both on ATVs just outside the back gate. Kira you can do your sword thing if you have too, but mostly I want you and John helping guard the gate and retrieving any of the seriously injured pack members, if that happens. Mellissa will set up just inside the gate ready to treat any serious injuries, and armed with herbs to speed up healing so any injured wolves can join the fight again."

"Derek will be at front, Erica at his side. Everyone will fight in the following pairs: Cora and myself, Scott and Stiles, Isaac and Boyd, Jackson and Danny, and Ethan and Aiden." Malia said. "Those are the pairs we all fight the best in, so that is how we will fight."

"What about me?" Peter asked. "We both know that Derek and I will be the biggest targets once they get a whiff of you and Cora."

"We need you to help Cora and Malia." Derek said. "I need the three of you fighting together. You are the bait. Malia has a plan."

Everyone looked confused. But Malia, Derek and Cora grinned.

Peter was the first to catch on and grinned too. "That is devious my dear." Erica could have sworn that Malia brightened at the "praise" Peter had given her.

The rest of the pack just stared at the Hale family members until someone finally said what they all were thinking.

"Could you all please stop with your devious, secret, and attractive smirks and let us all in on this plan?" Stiles asked.

"They won't be visible initially." Derek said. "So the Thorne's will go after Peter, thinking he is alone, and knowing he is the father of one of the females they want. Malia and Cora will be in the trees. Peter will draw some of the stupider Thorne's away from the majority of the fighting.

At this Boyd smiled. "And you two have been practicing jumping and shifting…"

"Yep." Malia grinned. "We're quite good at it now. We will jump from the trees and by the time we hit the ground we will be in our four-legged form ready to tear some limbs from bodies."

"If these guys weren't evil, I would feel bad for them. But they are the evilest, so I love it." Erica said.

"I guess the evil-genius apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Jackson said but held up his hands when Boyd and Malia shifted and Kira hit him. "I joke out of love guys!" He said. "No offense! It was a compliment!"

After that was settled. Derek went over the rest of the plan, and gave everyone the next few hours off ordering them all to rest. "This all ends tonight. We will get everyone into position at seven sharp, and then lure or enemy to us."


AN: Hope you enjoyed! See you in a few days for the battle!

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