I sat on the dining room table and stared at the shifter that was tied down on a chair. Since we'd left the hospital four hours ago, we'd gotten the news that the Danny writhing in pain from Derek's bite had died, and that my son was growing four times faster than he should have been. All in all, I wasn't in a very good mood, and it showed.

I kicked the shifter's leg and he yelped. "What was that for?!"

"Where are the rest of you shifters at?" He didn't say anything and I grabbed him by the throat. "Where are they!?"

Derek must've heard my shout, because he and Rachel both appeared in the doorway with concerned looks on their faces.

"Ian...You shouldn't be torturing this idiot, you should be looking after little Derek..."

"I am." I used my mind powers to push them both back from the doorway and slam it shut, and my head began to pound. My body still hadn't recovered from my little stunt of sprouting wings, and so even the littlest effort tired me out. I looked back at the shifter. "Now, are you going to

answer me?"

"Go to hêll, you bîtch. We came here to see if you would lead us, but you just betrayed us...to be with a wolf." The way he spat the word wolf ate at me, and I dug my claws into his leg, and he screamed. "That hurts!"

"Well of course it does..." Something suddenly occurred to me that didn't make sense: I was hurting this shifter, but he wasn't reacting like a shifter would, at least not physically. He was reacting...like a human. "You, try to use your mind powers."

"Why?"

"Do you want me to rip something off? Just do it." He sat quiet for a moment.

"I...can't." I scratched him again and he yelped, and I brought my claws to my nose and inhaled deeply.

It was human blood.

"Derek! Get in here!" The door flew open and he burst in. "Something went really wrong at the hospital...This isn't a shifter, it's a human!"

"What?" Derek sniffed the air around the immobilized shifter. "How in the hêll..?"

"I don't know! You grabbed the right person, right?"

"Of course I did!" Derek grabbed him by the hair and said "I saw this shifter attack you, and after we were done fighting I grabbed him and stuffed him in the trunk of my car. Now, you tell me if it's possible that I grabbed the wrong person."

I buried my head in my hands, confused. "How could this happen..?"

"He might've come into contact with something..." I jolted upright. "Ian?"

"I bit him. When he attacked me, I bit him, and you said we should watch to see how he reacts...What if this is it?" The shifter sat upright as well.

"You turned me back into a human!?" He struggled, but as a human now, couldn't make a move against the thick ropes that held him.

I looked down and said "If we let you go, are you going to go back to them?" He grumbled.

"No...Besides the fact that they won't accept me as a human, we weren't supposed to come back form the hospital without the baby."

"So are you going to tell us where they're hiding?" There were a few moments of hard silence.

"On a farm a few miles outside of town. There's about two dozen there, but they'll probably bring more shifters in if there are any, now that you've killed some of us."

"Fantastic..." With a swipe of my wrist, I slashed the ropes holding the man to the chair. "You don't tell anyone about this. If they find out, they'll triple their efforts to kill me, and then I'll be coming after you."

"No problem there." He quickly ran out of the front of the house, and I dropped into one of the other dining room chairs.

I stared up at Derek, not knowing what to think or say. Within the last 6 hours, one of my friends had died and I found out my bite had cured a shifter. What was even happening!?

"Ian. I don't know if that was a fluke or if you can cure more people...but I think we can use this."

"How?"

"Well, if there's really two dozen or more shifters outside of town waiting for us, we can use this against them."

"How? Fill up a bunch of tiny darts and shoot them, and hope this wasn't just a fluke?"

"We can test it again, to make sure."

Test it? "On who?"

"Anyone we've turned...Kay." I stood up.

"I...have to think about this..." I turned away from him and went upstairs, shutting myself in the master bedroom.

I went to little Derek's crib and he looked up at me with his big green eyes, and I picked him up and took him to my bed. I laid back and sat him on my stomach, and he sat up by himself. Anyone who saw him could swear he was five months old, not five weeks old.

"You're so much bigger than you should be...Stop growing! Give me a little more time to hold you and fuss over you before you grow up...Is that really too much to ask?" Little Derek was silent, and simply continued to stare at me. He reached for my wolf pendant that still hung around my neck, and I briefly remembered the day Derek had given it to me. Well, when he left it in my bedroom for me to find.

"I wish I knew what to do...I wish we weren't horribly outnumbered, I wish I wasn't losing it every minute of the day...I wish I was more like your father...At least he knows how to be useful in a fight."

Little Derek pulled at my necklace and I heard his mind-voice in my head.

I'm okay, you're okay, Daddy's okay...Just think about that.

I couldn't help but laugh. "I'm getting advice from my son who's not even 2 months old...I feel so pathetic."

"But you're not." I looked at the bedroom doorway and saw Derek coming in. He sat on the bed beside my head and little Derek smiled a toothless smile. "You're not pathetic, and you're not useless."

"Maybe to you, but I sure feel like it...I mean, I have no idea what I'm even doing anymore! When I first came here you helped me, then that Jakob thing came along and we worked through that...but this? Neither of us know what we're doing, and it could have severe consequences."

"We'll get through this just like we did everything else...If anything, it will be better." I looked up at him questioningly. "The shifters told us you were an Alpha shifter, that you could tell the other shifters what to do. Don't you think we could use that to our advantage?"

"But...that would mean I'd have to leave you and little Derek to go with them..." My eyes went back to little Derek, who'd begun reaching for his dad. "I'd have to leave you two and go try to take control of two dozen or more shifters. But what then? Even if it somehow works, what the hêll am I supposed to do afterwards?"

"That...I don't know...But it will help us to fight them. You could at least command them to leave our son alone, right?"

I sat upright, holding little Derek tight to my chest. Derek was right; I could tell the shifters to leave us all alone, so then we wouldn't even have to fight them...But that still meant I'd have to leave my son for god-knows how long.

"But I would still have to leave you and the baby...I don't know if I could stay away for very long."

His face hardened. "I don't want you to stay away...But I don't want them trying to kill us anymore. You and maybe Kay go, do what you need to...And I'll be waiting right here with the baby."

He took little Derek and I buried my head in my hands, unsure if it would really be the right thing to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, I heard about your plan to commit suicide from my nephew." I looked up from little Derek sitting on the bed to Peter, standing in the bedroom doorway. "Are you really going to go through with it?"

"What are you talking about?" I finished dressing little Derek and turned to face Peter.

"Going to try to take control of the shapeshifters, that's what I'm talking about. Just because you're the strongest one they've seen doesn't mean they'll just submit to you. You've killed some of their own."

"I can do this. You took control of Scott when he wasn't willing, didn't you? And Derek eventually too?"

"Werewolves are a lot easier to control than shapeshifters. These shifters have never had a leader before, and I can guarantee all of them won't be so keen on accepting one now. You're putting yourself and all of us in danger."

"You'd better watch your words Peter...Just because we're friendly now doesn't mean I won't put you back in the ground. Alpha or not, you know I can do it."

"Maybe. But you also know that ignoring my advice is stupid, since I'm the only one that's successfully dealt with shifters before." I narrowed my eyes and he stepped into the room. "Even so, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this...You haven't spent any time trying to figure out anything about your son, have you?"

"Of course I have. I know he's a shifter, and that he's growing a lot faster than normal...What else is there to figure out?"

"Maybe why that's happening. You didn't grow faster than normal when you were young, did you? You didn't have psychic powers or could shapeshift when you were a baby, could you? I'm starting to think I'm the only one that's noticed that those shifters outside aren't our only problem."

"Peter...You'd better not be thinking of doing anything to my son."

"Oh, trust me, I'm not that stupid. I'd rather keep on living a free life than have you and my nephew trailing me forever." He came and sat on my bed, and I felt my Alpha side scratching right beneath the surface. It almost broke through when he began to reach for little Derek. "I'm just saying that your son might not always be the little angel you think he is."

"So what are you trying to say?"

"He might be okay now, but when he's older...he might want to join them. He'll probably end up being an Alpha shifter like you, so you know they'll want him on their side instead of ours. If that happens,you'll be on opposite sides of the battle, and I know you don't want that."

"Of course not!" I snatched little Derek up off the bed and scowled hard at Peter. "My baby is not going to end up like one of those evil bâstârds out there...Me and Derek are going to raise him right and he'll grow up to lead the pack in Beacon Hills when Derek and I are done. If worst comes to worst I'll...I'll cure him if I have to!"

Peter's eyes widened and I could tell he was shocked. He didn't have much time to react though, because Derek appeared behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I suggest you go downstairs so we can have some privacy." Peter turned and left the room, and Derek quickly shut the double doors behind him. I sat on the bed and kept little Derek in my lap, and without looking Derek asked "Were you being serious?"

"About what?"

He turned to face me, looking both worried and angry. "Don't act like you don't know what I mean...I was sitting downstairs, trying to understand why you were so upset, and I suddenly hear you say you're going to cure our son? What am I supposed to think about that?!"

"I don't know!" Little Derek began to fuss and I lowered my voice. "He was making me angry, and I just yelled it out...But you can't possible tell me that it's a bad idea. He's growing so fast, we won't be able to get the time with him that we're supposed to..."

"It's not a bad idea, you're right...If it would even work." I looked at him questioningly and he sat beside me. "Not only did you carry him, but you've been breastfeeding him since the day he was born...I don't think he even can be cured."

"But...then what if what you're uncle was saying is right? What if he grows up and wants to go with the shifters, or turns...bad?"

"He won't. We haven't, so he won't, and it's as simple as that. Let him tell you yourself if you think I'm wrong."

I looked down at little Derek, and sure enough, he said Daddy's right. I'll stay good just like you and him.

I held back a sob and said "I'm sorry...I've just been so worried about everything, and I've had no idea what to do about any of it..."

"You're my fiancée, I'm supposed to put up with a bunch of crâp." I chuckled. "Now, you just straighten up and go to those shifters and kick their âssês...Show them you're worthy enough to have my name."

Now I laughed hysterically, because that was so out of context for Derek to say.

Wiping a tear from my eye, I managed to say "Thanks for the vote of confidence...If I was still pregnant, I think I would've peed myself."

"Then I guess we'll have to hurry and get rid of these shifters so we can work on that second baby."