The next two years really did fly by. Derek had adapted himself to their small household and school was coming to an end, finally. Vanessa had managed to make him more engaged to school and helped him with their homework a lot.

Almost every day after school, they would stop by the woods and hang out there like old times, then go home to eat and hang out and lastly at night they'd go to that diner and just exist there. Zaina and Derek were getting along really well too, so their duo had become a trio instead, which neither of them complained about. Zaina was the comic relief they needed, a lot. However, sometimes she was the one speaking the truth and bringing seriousness to the group. For example, one night they were at the diner and Zaina chose to speak up.

"So, I know you two are doing it and all, but have you ever discussed what you are? Like, for real discussed it? And that vague conversation a year and a half ago you told me about doesn't count because it was barely a conversation."

Vanessa nearly choked on her milkshake and Derek only stared at the girl. Zaina shrugged carelessly and took a sip from her drink. Vanessa and Derek shared a long look before they put their focus back on their food, avoiding talking about it. Zaina rolled her eyes and let out a groan so loud the chefs could probably heard it. That's basically how it went every time Zaina tried making them discuss it.

Even if he never showed it, Vanessa knew the fire still haunted him. Laura found her own place to stay at, but she didn't go out that often and when she did, it was to visit Derek and check up on him. Vanessa never told them about Cora. Sometimes her heart ached for her to do it because it was their damn sister but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Cora had a good life in South America and she and Vanessa still talked every day. Having three close people growing up at the same time was tough; she couldn't believe how big Scott and Stiles had gotten and Cora sounded older and more mature for each phone call.

Peter was still in a coma and Derek occasionally visited him, which made it so much harder for Vanessa to sneak out and do so herself. Every meeting tired her out considering she was ranting, rambling and getting angry in the end but he couldn't respond. He couldn't even hear her, so all her words were in vain. Some deep part of her missed him a lot but she knew that part was dumb and should be drowned.

"Can you believe school is ending soon? We're practically adults." Vanessa remarked as she and Derek sat over the cliff, gazing down at Beacon Hills. It never really mattered what time it was because the sight managed to look amazing every time.

"Yeah, I can't believe that." Derek chuckled without moving a muscle.

With a sad frown, she turned her head to examine him. He had changed a lot, bot physically and mentally. He wasn't nearly as chirpy and happy as he used to be before the fire. His cocky expression has faltered and he rarely dared to smile. He was more severe, more preserved and cautious. She didn't blame him though. She was all of that too now.

"What are you planning to do after we graduate?" She asked and turned her focus back to the town below them.

"Not sure." He shrugged and glanced at her.

"I think... You should leave this town to become a professional basketball player. Remember? You wanted to be one." She suggested carefully.

"I was like, fourteen when wanted to be a basketball player." He said as if that would mean something.

"So? I've wanted to be an architect since I was ten. And basketball is the only sport you've felt passionate about. Why not pursue that?" She asked with a sigh, forcing him to look at her by placing her fingers on his jaws and turning his head to the side softly.

"I don't know, okay. I don't know what I wanna do after we graduate. I don't know where to go or how to live my life." He snapped, though not angrily, just with a weary voice and expression.

"At least tell me you'll leave this town, Hale. After everything you've been through here, please tell me you're planning on leaving?" She pressed with a frown on her face. The idea of him staying after everything was too surreal.

"Like I said, I don't know."

"What if Kate comes back? What if the hunters decide to go on a killing spree in a year? Are you seriously telling me you'd risk staying here?" She wanted so bad to tell him about Cora, about how she was happy, safe and content in another city. But like always, her lips remained sealed.

Derek didn't add anything to that. He merely turned his gaze back to the view and kept his shoulders tensed. Vanessa stared at him for a while before she gave up, standing on her feet and beginning to leave. The leaves rustled due to him hastily getting up as well.

"Wait, don't tell me you're angry?" He called and sighed. She was more disappointed than angry and maybe a little sad considering her lips almost quivered.

"Maybe I am because you have so much potential, Derek. You're smart and good and staying here won't make your life easier. Your family's gone, but you know who's still here? The Argents! Kate may have disappeared but her family is still here. I don't get why you're so set on staying. There's nothing left for you here and we're still young. The second we're done with school, I'm leaving." She ranted as she crossed her arms together.

"You mean you'd leave me? And Scott?" He asked in a hurtful tone, causing her shoulders to slump down a little.

"Come with me. I can always visit Scott. Please, come with me." She suggested with a light frown on her face.

"You don't get it, Nessa. I did lose my entire family and what kind of son would I be if I left? The Hales have lived here for decades and because of me..." He began, emphasizing the latter with a heavy tone of guilt and shame. "They're gone. I killed my family because I didn't listen to you and trusted Kate. I may not have lit the fire, but I led Kate there and it's my fault they're gone. It's my fault my uncle is in a coma, his face burnt. If I leave, I'm abandoning the family that I killed. I could never do that. I deserve to live here in misery, remembering what I've done."

Tears formed in his eyes now, his hands weakly shaking. Vanessa dropped her arms beside her body. She had never seen him so vulnerable. Sure, she knew he blamed himself but he had never vocally told her that before so all the guilty feelings came smashing down in sync with his words.

"That's the difference between us, Hale. I wouldn't see it as abandoning. I wouldn't see it as running from your problems. Your family, Talia, wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your life sulking in your ruined home. They'd want you to move on and be happy. That doesn't equal forgetting them. But hey, if you wanna stay here, sad and lonely... Fine. I'm not dependant on you and we're not a thing anyway, right?" She shrugged at the end before giving him a last look and leaving the woods.

She felt bad for simply walking away, but she had nothing more to say. Of course she didn't expect him to be chirpy and ready to leave his family heritage at the moment, but there was nothing keeping him here. This town was a literal dead end and staying made no sense to her.

A few days passed where Vanessa spent most of her time at home and Derek somewhere in the forest. Jacques asked but didn't receive that much of an answer. Vanessa was too stubborn and Derek was too careless, which was a bad combination. He figured that she'd come around eventually and talk to him while she sat with her arms folded and grumbled to herself, refusing to be the first to give in. The one thing they did share at the moment? How much they missed each other already.

On the next full moon, Vanessa planned on staying in her room the entire night. Now that Jacques knew, it was so much easier to excuse why she couldn't babysit the boys or why she had mood swings. However, she got too worried to just sit on. Derek wasn't there so she had no clue of what he was doing. What if he was hurting someone or himself? No other thoughts were necessary for her to actually get up and sneak out one last time. No doubt would her dad forbid her from leaving.

"Sweetie?" Jacques voice filled her ears. Frozen, she slowly turned arount to see him standing by the door with his arms crossed. "When you told me you were a werewolf, I mapped out all your escape routes since you always sneaked out. Where are you going?"

"I..." She started, dropping her arms beside her body. "I just need to find Derek. He doesn't have the control I have and I'd sleep better knowing he's safe."

"When you do find him, bring him home. We can make some hot cocoa and watch a movie." He surprised her, smiling softly which she returned with gratitude.

"I'll be careful."

Once he nodded, Vanessa turned back around and jogged toward the woods where she guessed he would sulk. Most likely at the remnants of the Hale house. It was eerily silent during full moons, much to people's surprise. There were rarely any wolf howls echoing and the moonlight shone through the trees in slim ways that made her skin crawl. As aesthetically pleasing a full moon-ed forest could be, it wasn't somewhere she wanted to be.

"If it isn't the elephant in the pack." A voice said coldly, making her turn around and swallow a lump in her throat. "It's been a while, don't you think?"

"Not long enough." She muttered and unconsciously crossed her arms together out of insecurity. "Kaleb, I'm not in the mood–"

"For what? I was just going to thank you for not giving our names to the hunters."

"You mean you know I was kidnapped?!" She exclaimed, taking him by surprise. "You jerk! It's because of you and Dalia that I was tortured and you never once asked if I was okay! You never even tried to find me afterwards and you have the audacity to thank me for not getting your ass killed? Wow. Screw you, Kaleb."

"Now that's rude. Is that how you talk to your alpha?"

Without warning, Kaleb approached her hastily, forcing her to step backwards in whimper until her back met a tree. His bloody red eyes stared at her and his lips were lightly pursed, his fists clenched and his posture hovering. But now, it didn't work anymore. She found herself straightening her back in confidence and defiance.

"You know what? I'm not... Scared of you anymore." She laughed satisfied, pushing him away from her. He even stumbled in shock. "You're an ass who's relying on your status and intimidating demeanor and it's not working anymore. So leave me alone and focus on your pack that for some reason still stand by your side."

Vanessa was on her way to leave when Kaleb snapped completely. It must've been enhanced by the full moon because even if Kaleb was an angry person, he went animalistic. Wrapping his hands around her neck, he banged her head against the tree and then tossed her to the ground.

"You annoying, childlike, pesky pain in the ass. I hate you so much and I should've done this a long time ago."

Before Kaleb could lay a hand on her, Vanessa took advantage of her long legs and kicked him first in the scrotch, then up his jaw and lastly on his stomach, throwing him flying back. She quickly got back on her feet and stared at him with wide eyes, her adrenaline already pumping through her veins.

"What the hell? Don't touch me!" She yelled with a strong voice, although it didn't seem like he even heard it considering he pounced at her again.

The muddy ground failed her, causing her feet to slip and her back to hit the ground again. This time Kaleb pressed his knee against her chest and took a hold of her neck. Her legs squirmed under his heavy body and soon his claws scraped against the skin of her neck. Vanessa wasn't sure what to do. The panic that grew blocked away all her memories of defense training with her dad and she felt weak and vulnerable.

"All you've done is being an inconvenience!" Kaleb growled, his knee pressing harder. Vanessa tried so hard to force his hands away by clawing at them and pushing them away but in vain. No matter how much she made him bleed, that hateful and insane look was still in his eyes. If anything, it aggravated his temper. "With you, I've never been able to make my pack more powerful because all you do is whine and whimper! You're an annoying child who never should've turned in the first place!"

The air was slowly leaving her lungs even when she refused to satisfy him with sounds of despair and pain. Her eyes were painfully wet but she refused to shed any tears for this monster, even if she feared that this was it. She was certain he'd snap her neck any second now and that devastated her. His words on the other hand? They flipped her mood. Instead of feeling sad and half dead, she remembered everything he's done and how she didn't deserve any of this.

"I. Am not. A damn. Child anymore!" Vanessa used every bit of strength left in her system to yell that in his face before she put her claws against his chest, pushing them in until his entire grip of her weakened. At first it was relieving, but then his heartbeat slowly stopped against her claws until his eyes stopped glowing and he fell down on top of her.

With shaking hands, Vanessa pushed him down beside her and swallowed back a choke. For the only time in her life, she prayed that Kaleb would get back up and yell at her. But he didn't. His eyes lost their color and she felt like puking. She sat up, arms hugging herself and legs up against her chest, as she realized what had just happened. To confirm his death even more, when Vanessa felt most drained, a surge of power floated through her until she could feel her eyes warming up. Soon tears rolled down her cheeks and she was full on sobbing, not being able to believe that she had just taken a life.

"Oh my gods..." Vanessa choked out before she began shaking Kaleb's lifeless body, tears streaming down her face faster by the second. "Kaleb, please, please wake up. Please!" She sobbed, having a hard time controlling her hands. "Please..." That came out as a strained whisper. He didn't move and she forgot to breathe for a moment.

"Vanessa? A soft, female voice spoke up from behind her. Twitching, she looked behind her and clenched her hands together. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"I– I didn't mean to." She sniffed and wiped her cheeks, though that only made them bloody. Emma placed a hand against her own mouth and stared at the scene in front of her. To Vanessa's surprised, her concern seemed to be directed to the young one. "I'm so sorry." Before Emma could say anything or attack her, Vanessa got up on her feet and hurried away from there.

"Vanessa, wait!"

Thanks to Kaleb's alpha powers, Vanessa was too far away to hear her. Realization dawned on her as she ran back home. She had actually murdered someone and now the pack was most likely going to kill her — they always thought she was too young to even be a werewolf, why would they think of her as a worthy leader? Regardless, she didn't want to be a leader. She just wanted out of the town already.

Once she bursted through the door, Jacques nearly jumped out of the couch from surprise. He quickly approached her and, when seeing her distressed state, wrapped his arms around her and tried to shush her down and calm her. Then he noticed the blood on her hands and face.

"What the hell happened? Did Derek do this?!" He exclaimed and received a sloppy head shaking from her.

"I did." She murmured and swallowed a lump in her throat, then began telling him what had happened. Some of her sentences were incoherent and her hands were still shaking of fear but Jacques understood what had happened and it pained him. "We have to leave this town, dad. I can't stand it anymore and his pack... They'll come after me. Especially John. He hates me."

The next day, Jacques called his estate agent and made up a story that his agent approved so he and Vanessa could move immediately and have their things delievered later when it was convenient. Vanessa spent that entire day locked up in her room, re-living the murder over and over again, coming up with different scenarios that could've happened that would exclude Kaleb dying. How someone could enjoy killing, she would never understand. This was eating her alive.

Two days later, the house was on sale and Jacques had found a terraced house in a town not too small but not too big either. When Derek approached their old house and knocked on the door, no one was there to open it.

hiya! so she finally leaves beacon hills and now you guys know why! don't forget to check out my tumblr for vanessa content, "princes-jasmine"!