"Simply focus. As if you were transforming into a wolf, but do not visualize the wolf. Visualize another animal. A dog, a cat, a bird, anything you like."

"How about I visualize a dragon so I can spit fire and kill you? Oh wait, someone already did that...Just missed my chance." I heard Scott and Stiles stifle laughter from their places on the back porch of the house. Them, Derek, Rachel, Kay, and my two cousins were sitting there too, all waiting to see if I would be able to transform like Peter was trying to help me to do. Only he was irritating me more than he was helping me.

Maybe it was just because of who he was and what he'd done, or the way he kept glancing over at Derek holding the baby, that angered me. I didn't know. But when he turned to look again, I shoved him and said "Why do you keep doing that?"

"If he sees you transform, he may try to do the same...And that's not a shifter thing, that's just because you're his mother. So try to keep the violence to a minimum."

I shut my eyes and inhaled a deep breath through my nose, and said "If you touch me, you're gonna lose those fingers." I peeked an eye open to see him lowering one of his hands.

Peter looked over at Derek again and said "Quite a feisty woman you have here, Derek...I don't remember you going for this type back in the day."

Just loud enough for us to hear, Derek said "Just wait until you really get her angry. I'll probably have to

step in to help. You."

This time, Stiles and Scott broke out in uncontrollable laughter, even as Derek glared at them. The slightest smile appeared on my face and I winked at my fiancé, and the smile grew when he returned the gesture.

"Pay attention Ian...Unless you want to transform into a bug, in which case I might not see you underneath my foot..." I growled but didn't speak a response, knowing it would just give him satisfaction. I kept my mouth shut as I closed my eyes and focused again.

I begun to imagine a cat in my mind, one of the simplest things I could think of. But with Derek's uncle's incessant muttering in my ear about focus and my own growing impatience, I decide to go right for something bigger.

I hunched over on all fours as I let out a howl, which slowly replaced itself with the higher-pitched yeowllll! of a cat. A big cat. I could hear my clothes tear as my body expanded, my skin yellowing and sprouting orange-tinted fur, and a tail growing its way out of the small of my back.

Peter jumped back several feet as I swung my head around and roared at him. I smiled internally, realizing I was fully awake and aware, and knew what I was doing. But Peter didn't know that...

I advanced on him, feeling my new curved feline claws dig into the dirt and my tail swing slowly back-and-forth. I turned my gaze on the house, and in the back window could see my own reflection. Just like a real lion, except the eyes. My eyes were still their normal bright blue.

I stepped toward Derek's uncle again, emitting a long, continuous growl and I moved almost weightlessly. He back up slowly and said "Ian...Derek, you'd better get your woman!"

I sent a mind message to Derek. Don't worry, I'm just scaring him...I won't kill him. Yet.

Derek laughed and said "Nah, it looks like you got this one uncle. I'll just wait here."

Peter cursed his nephew and I stepped forward again, and saw his eyes flash Alpha red.

I sent a mind message to him too. The next time you bother me, remember this moment. I could have pounced and ripped your throat out with my teeth, but I chose not to...Remember.

Peter stood straight up as he realized I hadn't lost control, that I was only messing with him, and stalked back towards the house. I decided I wasn't quite done with him yet, and next focused the image of a great eagle in my mind.

I held in my scream of protest this time, as my body began to shrink to less than half the lion's size and my legs retracted, and were replaced with wings and giant talons. I screeched and launched myself in the air, finding that flying came almost as easily to me as did walking or anything else. I could really get used to this shifter stuff.

I dove towards Peter's retreating form, but pulled up when he quickly disappeared beneath the porch overhang. There were more bellows of laughter, and Peter mumbling sarcastically.

Rachel. I felt her acknowledge my mind-speak. Can you bring me some clothes since I shredded mine?

That was your fault...You should've just turned into a cat.

I did. Just not a house cat. I heard her laugh and she entered the house, and I flew up by her bedroom window,

A minute or so passed before she struggled to pull it open and I flew in, and shifted back into myself. "I think we need to oil these windows...I don't think my grandparents ever opened them."

"Think of where we live. Would you leave them open either?" She shrugged. "Where's my clothes?"

"Oh, yeah, here." She tossed me something that definitely was not mine. "New you, new clothes, right?"

I chuckled as I examined the black leather and fabric. "Where did you get this?"

"It's mine, of course...Even I like to buy the occasional naughty thing." I laughed.

"You should've told me sooner...I might have to borrow your stash when Derek and I go on our honeymoon, whenever we get married." We both broke out in laughter.

"The matching boots are in the closet. Have fun." Rachel left the room and shut the door. I left the window open to let a bit of a breeze in, because the air in here was stagnant and made it harder to breathe. And I hated the smell of stagnant air, it was so...musty.

One pair of torn black skinnies, a gray skintight shirt, black stiletto ankle boots, and one pair of fingerless gloves later, I looked like the badâss chick that I felt like at that moment. And when Rachel walked back in carrying a cup of coffee, her face told me I looked good too.

"Who knew my lil' sis would get her figure back so fast after having that baby...You look nice."

I laughed. "This isn't even my figure. Suck out two cup sizes from my boobs and and least one from my âss, then maybe. Maybe." We both laughed. "Everyone's inside?"

She nodded. "Kay has little Derek, and everyone is keeping a watch on Derek's uncle, just in case. Your fiancé is the only one still out back though. I guess you're gonna surprise him out the window?"

I placed a hand over my heart and mockingly said "You know me so well. Close the window reeeeeally quietly, okay?"

I climbed out onto the porch overhang, and Rachel slowly shut her window. I looked over the edge and saw Derek standing against one of the wood staffs supporting the overhang, arms crossed.

"You look so serious Derek...What happened to the lighthearted, laughing guy from ten minutes ago?"

Without looking up he said "He's waiting for his woman, that's what. Are you wearing leather?"

I chuckled. "So you can smell that, huh? I'll have to remember that..." I grabbed the edge of the small roof and swung down, wrapping my legs around Derek before he even had a chance to blink. "What do you think? I think it'll do awesome as my new shapeshifter-hunting gear."

He uncrossed his arms and slid them down my skintight jeans, sticking his thumbs through the destroyed holes in them. "I think these will come off way too easily..."

"That's the point...And not just for the reasons you're thinking of." I wrapped my hands around his neck and he walked out onto the grass. "And the best part is, they're not even mine."

He smirked. "So I can literally rip these clothes off your body without worrying about you getting angry...Hmm..." As he pretended to think, he jerked his thumbs up my thighs, tearing the jeans even more. "Now what should I do with that information..."

I giggled. "They're expecting us inside, you know..."

"And your friend Rachel gave this to you for a reason, didn't she?" Another jerk, another inch torn up my leg. "She knew I was outside alone, and that you'd come out to find me..." He was muttering his warm breath on my ear and I shivered in delight. "And you knew you wouldn't be able to keep this on for long..."

As he softly pressed his lips to my neck, I moaned "I...hoped..."

I heard a growl from deep in Derek's chest and a loud tearing sound, and the skintight shirt I wore tore free of one shoulder. I dug my fingers in his hair as he buried his face in the crook of my neck, nibbling hard at the skin there.

I felt his desire through his jeans as he laid me down on the soft grass, and I saw that we were much farther from the house than I thought, and behind a thick bunch of trees.

"You evil bâstârd...Distracting me like that..."

Against my skin he muttered "Don't know what you're talking about" and I heard another tear, and the shirt split right down the middle. As he pressed his lips down my torso, he again muttered "I didn't do anything."

"Liar..." It was more a moan than a word as he dug his fingers into the hem of my tight jeans and, with a flick of the wrist, the button flew off. "You're gonna...pay for that..."

"Hmm...Gonna make me..?" I gasped as he trailed his tongue down my stomach and to the edge of my jeans which he slowly began to inch down. "I didn't hear an answer..."

My body's answer was to emit a low growl from deep in my chest, almost like a cat's purr. He chuckled and was momentarily distracted from his task of trying to get my pants off.

I chuckled along with him until a crackle of leaves distracted me, and I froze. He looked up and I placed a finger to his lips, and pointed out towards the other trees. I slowly inched my pants back up and Derek positioned himself protectively over me, eyes flitting from one tree or bush to the next.

I heard another similar sound, but this time I knew he heard it too, because he tensed and his eyes zeroed in on a spot way out in the woods.

He began to growl but I shushed him.

I used my mind speak to say Hold on. I might be able to find out who it is. He nodded, reluctantly.

I reached out with my mind, way out into the woods, and could feel the minds of all the little animals that were now fleeing the scene. Off in the direction Derek was staring, I felt the presence of a familiar mind.

Daniel, why are you here?

Only here to see you, of course. To apologize for the other night...And to see if you would reconsider our offer.

No. Neither me or my son are going to join your stupid little cult of a pack.

Even if you were our leader? There are dozens of us, dozens, and we are all waiting for our own Alpha to lead us. And that's you, and your son.

Sorry, still not interested. I suggest you get outta here right now. You might've been able to take on all three of my cousins, but they weren't an Alpha like Derek is. Or a shifter, or an Alpha shifter, like I am.

I heard Daniel chuckle in his mind.

You're alone out here. By the time your pack of wolves hears you, it'll be too late to save you.

I pushed against Derek and he stood, and pulled me up with him.

Show yourself. We're far enough away from the house that they can't hear us. Show your face or I'll come hunting for it.

There was a pause before I spotted movement way back in the trees, and Daniel appeared. Derek took off his own shirt and I pulled it over my head, to replace the one he'd just ripped.

With a smirk as he reached us, Daniel said "Looks like someone was doing something they shouldn't have out here in the middle of the woods...You've gotten so bad, Ian."

"What I do with my time and my fiancé is none of your business. Why would you show up here right now? I told you, I'm not interested in anything you have to tell me."

"Are you sure?" I growled.

"You bit my best friend and now she's going to die. You're trying to get me to be the leader of your idiotic group of shifters, and I'm guessing only so you can be second-in-command? I'll have no part of it, and neither will my family."

"I see...What if I told you your two cousins were going to be shifters too?" My face twisted with rage. "I can easily call someone down right now to bite them and everyone else in that house...Including your other friend, Rachel, I think her name is?"

"You'll do nothing!" My voice came out as a roar and I advanced on him. "You come threatening my family again and simply expect me to go with you? I fought you off once, I can fight you off again."

"I am simply trying to show you our ways. If you would come with us, see how we live, you would see things as we do...And you wouldn't need to stay here in this place that causes you so much pain."

"I'll go nowhere with you." My eyes filmed over Alpha red and I felt that side of me coming out, wanting to shred this idiot to pieces. "Get the hêll out of here before I rip your intestines out and use them to hang you from a tree."

Daniel backed up several paces. "You'll regret this, Ian...I won't be the only one of us that will come for you now. Even both of your packs combined will never be enough to finish off five dozen of us. I'm warning you now. Feel lucky I am even telling you this. If we wanted, we could show up in the night and suffocate you all while you sleep, and nobody would ever know a thing...They'd find your charred bodies laying in your beds, and never find out who set the fire. Right Derek?"

I felt Derek tense and he let out his own growl, and I took his clawed hand tightly in mine. Daniel disappeared back into the trees, and neither I nor Derek moved an inch until we couldn't hear or smell him anymore.

One I was sure he was gone, I wrapped my arms around Derek and pressed my face to his chest. I held in the sobs that desperately wanted to come out. I'd cried enough when Ryan died and Kay was bitten.

In his low, rough wolf voice he growled "He had no right to talk about my family...None." I looked up and saw Derek's perfect features twisted into the snarling grimace of the werewolf, his eyes glowing bright red as he stared after Daniel. "I should follow his scent and hunt him down right now."

"But we can't leave the family unprotected, you know that." I paused for a second when I realized what I'd said. Not 'my cousins' or 'Rachel and Kay' or even 'Scott and Stiles'. My family. All of them.

"I didn't say we. I said me."

"No!" I wrenched his twisted face down to look at me. When I went to put my hand on his cheek, he turned his face away, but I pulled it gently back. "Wolf or not, I don't want this face to leave my sight, not even for a second."

I ran my hand across his distorted features, over the mouth that contained his poisonous canines, that I now knew could kill me if they ever pierced my skin.

I looked into his green-again eyes before pressing my lips to his. He paused before kissing me back, and I could feel his wolf features melt away. And when I pulled back, he had the same old face I dreamed about every night and stared at every day.

"You're not going anywhere, you hear me? If we fight them, we fight them together. That's what a family does."

"Family..." Derek sighed. "I haven't had one of those in a long time..."

"Well, you have one now. And I don't just mean me and little Derek. We're all a family here. We stayed a family through Jakob, we'll stay a family through this."

I slipped my hand into his and our fingers entwined, and we took our time walking back to the house.

As we did, I stared at it and thought about all of us living in it as a family. Like Derek's old family, in his old house.

I prayed to the gods I no longer believed in that our new family wouldn't meet the same grisly end.