A/N: I cannot believe that I have reached chapter twenty-five I honestly cannot believe it and I can't thank you guys enough for all the support. I wrote this while avoiding the 4500-word essay I had due in three days and hadn't started at the time.

I hope you guys enjoy.

After the War

Twenty-five.

.

"Do you have any concept of what the bond between an alpha and his beta is like? I would say it's as strong if not stronger than the bond between parent and child. Imagine what would happen to the parent if I snapped his child's neck and dropped it at his feet."

.

It never occurred to Scott, he never really thought about how it would have affected Derek. Not even when he became an alpha of his own pack, not really. Not until Liam did he think about it. What it was like to turn someone, to have that bond, it wasn't something that could be explained easily. Hell, most of the time he still didn't even understand it.

After everything they had been through – the past year, the past few months especially – Scott understood it now: how Derek must have felt. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Derek had been an alpha, the brief time it had been, amongst all the fighting before his leaving Beacon Hills.

He was glad Derek was sticking around Beacon Hills after the final battle with the Anuk-ite, for a while at least anyway.

"Everything all right, Scott?"

"I'm sorry," Scott replied.

Derek's brow furrowed in confusion as he joined Scott on the front porch of the house, sitting down beside the younger werewolf on the stairs. "Last I checked you had nothing to apologise her," Derek said, sipping a beer that he'd stolen from Argent. It wasn't spiked so he couldn't get drunk but he Derek liked to indulge in the occasional beer anyway.

Scott thought about how to explain it. "I learned a lot from you, and since you left I've learned even more about being an alpha I guess," he started.

"I can imagine," Derek chuckled, looking back at the house, where Liam and the other were inside. "Liam still seems like a handful. Still angry I see, from what you've filled us in on,"

Scott laughed a little too. "Oh, you mean the whole him trying to kill me thing?" Scott shook his head. "He's a good kid," he said.

"I'm sure he is," Derek said.

Scott gulped. "Boyd and Erica were good kids too," he said. Derek stiffened. "I'm sorry about what happened to them,"

"Scott, what's going on?" Derek asked. "That was a long time ago,"

"Not that long ago. But, well, I never really understood it before," Scott offered. "I'm sure I said sorry back then but it's different now. Since I became an alpha, since I bit Liam, everything that's gone on. I mean even when he tried to kill me, I felt like I could barely defend myself, I couldn't bear killing him or losing him. We've all been so close to death, almost died so many times. I don't know I guess it made me think about Boyd and Erica," he said.

Derek nodded and a sad expression glazed over his face about the thought of his former pack, the loss of it. "The bond between alphas and betas is extraordinary, but hard to explain," he replied. "But you don't need to apologise for what happened,"

"And I'm sorry I kind of stole Isaac," he laughed, lightening the mood.

Derek smirked and shook his head. "You can't steal beta's, Scott. Besides, I was never meant to be an alpha. That role was always yours," he replied.

"I don't know why," Scott said, shaking his head.

"Sure you do. C'mon," Derek said.

The two of them stood from the stairs on the porch and made their way back inside the house, where the rest of the pack was catching up and sharing stories of what had been going on, filling each other in on everything others had missed. Derek paused. "Where the hell is Isaac anyway?"

.

.

I don't even know where this came from but I just wanted to write it down and post it before I lost my nerve and decided against it. It's really short, nothing almost, but I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Feedback and suggestions are always loved.

Shannxx