"Make sure he doesn't cry too much while I'm gone, okay?"

"Sure..." I kissed Derek hard on the lips as I prepared to leave.

Today was the day I was going to take control of the shifters, or take as many of them down with me as I could. It was getting increasingly hard to leave, though.

Derek embraced me and lifted me into his arms, and I could sense his hesitancy to let me go.

He released me from our long kiss and pressed his forehead to mine, both of our breathing labored now. "When you get back...no more waiting. We're going to make that second baby."

I laughed a bit. "Again, this is my body that's gonna carry the stress of another baby...Exactly how many babies are you planning on me having? My hips won't be able to take it." Derek chuckled and smirked.

"They'll take as many babies as they can, because that's how many babies I want with you..." Another laugh escaped my lips then, and I laughed so hard I almost broke down in tears.

When my laughing/crying fit was done with, Derek put me down and gave me the keys to his Camaro.

"Take care of her, ya hear?"

"Don't worry, I won't give her a single scratch."

Derek smirked again and said "I was talking to the car."

"Well, I won't have a scratch either." I kissed him again and went off the porch to his car.

The sky was getting lighter in the East and I knew sunrise was quickly approaching, which was the time I'd chosen to appear to the shifters. I didn't look back at Derek as I pulled away from the house and went down the long driveway that led to the long road beyond.

The farm where the shifters were hiding was about 2 miles away, and looked absolutely deserted when I drove up to it. I knew that was a lie, because I could feel the presence of at least two humans in the house, and the shifters were all gathered together in the nearby barn.

I smirked. They really had a good cover figured out, didn't they?

I removed my belt and threw it in the passenger seat, glad I'd worn some of Derek's clothes as a disguise. If I was going to do what I planned, I couldn't leave any details unchecked.

I focused on Daniel's face and body, bringing up every single detail I could remember, from the sound of his voice to the shape of his face. Once I had a solid picture in my mind, I took a deep breath and prepared to shift.

I had a feeling that this was going to hurt. A lot.

As soon as I began to shift a terrible pain ripped through me, like when I sprouted wings, but this time it covered my entire body. My bones cracked and healed and did it again 100 times over, and my skin stretched and bubbled and changed as well. I could feel every tiny cell stretch and change and I almost bashed my head through the windshield just to make the pain stop.

When it finally did, I looked in the mirror and almost lost it.

I didn't count on it working so well my first time, but when I looked in the rearview mirror, all I saw was Daniel's face and body. The image of his face made me snarl mine in anger, and the face in the mirror snarled as well. This had worked way too well.

I got out, feeling a little awkward because I was now bigger and taller than normal, and all of my girlish features were gone. I walked slowly into the barn and saw animals sleeping all around, and I knew the shifters were just in their disguises. The cured shifter was right, though; there looked to be about thirty of them right there in the barn with me.

One of them, disguised as a dog, looked at me from the shadows and I said "Wake everyone. Now."

He howled loud and clear, and all the others began to slowly wake. Once they saw me, Daniel to them, they got up a lot faster and began shifting back into their normal selves.

I was surprised at who some of them were. I recognized at least two from my time in Westwood, and several more from when I'd been in town here. How long had they been slowly infiltrating this city?

I was soon surrounded by thirty naked people, all waiting for me to speak. Some looked groggy and angry, like they didn't want to be there, and I realized Daniel must not have had the iron-clad hold over all of them that I assumed he had. He was just another shifter that had fought for control, and he was definitely no Alpha.

"As you may have notice, our little trip several days ago failed...And our brothers have perished." There was some angry jeers. "I've decided that we need to stop hunting the wolves for now, at least until we come up with a better strategy than what we've been using."

"And who says you run things?" One of the males, I noticed the group was mostly male, stepped up and shouted "You're the one that's come up with all these shît plans that keep getting us killed!"

"Shut your goddâmned mouth before I shut it for you." The shifter looked surprised, and I guessed Daniel didn't normally talk to them like that. "I know my other plans haven't worked, and that's why we need to back off and think of something new. Maybe you'll agree with me when I tell you that one of our fallen brothers ratted us out to the wolves and told them of our numbers."

Now the entire group got riled up, shouting and jeering and being generally discontent.

The first shifter, the one that'd been the dog, came to my side and said "Which one was it?"

"It doesn't matter...He is dead now, they all are."

One of the other discontent shifters yelled "You suck as a leader! We want someone else!"

I growled low and felt my Alpha self clawing beneath the surface.

Fine. If they wanted to provoke me, I would show them what I really was.

"If you want a new leader, I don't have a problem giving you one." That actually silenced most of the shifters.

The dog shifter nearly lost it. "What are you talking about?! Do you not remember how long we took to get here!?"

I smirked. "What are you talking about? I'm not even Daniel."

I didn't bother prepping myself for the immense pain of it, but when I began to shift back to myself, I found it didn't hurt nearly as much. I did have an extreme urge to vomit, though.

The sounds of my bones cracking echoed through the barn, and my elastic skin quickly pulled itself back into its usual shape, and I breathed a sigh of relief. What came from the shifters was very different.

Every single one of them was dead silent, and from the spiteful looks in their eyes, I knew that each and every one knew who I was, and had inferred that I'd killed Daniel.

"Well, here's your new leader. I just have one request from all of you...You can either listen to what I tell you, or I'll kill each and every one of you without a second thought. If you don't believe I can do it, well, feel free to attack."

Their faces twisted with anger, but still not a word was said.

"Nothing? Well, you lot are a lot more docile than I would've thought...And you're supposed to be killing me? Please."

The first one that had shouted now spoke. "You're Ian Moore, the one that was born an Alpha...A half-breed." I gritted my teeth at half-breed. It was like an insult to my parents for having me. "You're the one Daniel tried to make our leader."

"Well, if you mean he tried to kill all of my friends in an attempt to make me join you, then yes. Needless to say, I refused."

The dog shifter asked "Then why are you here now? Have you finally come to accept the offer? Because it's too late."

"I haven't...not exactly. I've come to tell you exactly what I said. Leave Beacon Hills and stop attacking me and my family, or none of you will make it to next week."

"And what will you do to stop us?"

I smirked and said "Me? I didn't say it would be me...I just said you wouldn't survive the next few days."

I grabbed the shifter by the throat and squeezed, and his veins popped out of his neck like an overripe tomato. He dropped dead to the floor and the others screamed and ran forward, and I didn't bother trying to stop them.

They shifted into a pack of dogs and began attacking me, and I simply let them.

Compared to the pain of shifting into another person, the pain of being bitten over and over again was almost bearable, and I simply fell the ground and let them attack me.

One might've called me foolish, if not for what would soon happen next.

Once they'd all had their chance to tear at my body, that first angry shifter turned back into himself and said "Stop." The others stopped and backed away, and I was faced with the horror of what my body had become.

It was unrecognizable, with all the marks and gashed and chunks that were missing. I did not mind though, because it was the price I was paying for saving my family.

The shifter knelt down in the bloody dirt beside me and asked "Was it really worth coming here to die? You know we're just going to go after that precious son of yours next."

I coughed and a spurt of blood flew onto the shifter, and I started laughing. "I'd really...like to see you try...human."

"What'd you call me?"

He leaned closer and I shouted "Human!"

As if on cue, shifters started convulsing and falling to the ground, the venom that was my blood working infinitely faster than with just a simple bite. The one before me fell to the ground, gritting his teeth together so hard they began to crack.

"That's what you get...for coming after...my baby...you pig."

I didn't know if it was the blood loss or all the shifter bites I'd suffered from, but I was quickly beginning to lose consciousness. The barn started to go black and I felt weaker and weaker, until I was too weak to even keep my eyes open.

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

(Derek's PointOfView)

"You did what?!" I was immediately faced with a half dozen angry faces, the only one of them not twisted with rage being my uncle. He was the only one that knew where Ian had went.

"It was Ian's choice to go to the shifters. She left before dawn."

I was surprised when the normally-peaceful Kay started to lose her cool. "How could you let Ian do that? She's a mother! Your future wife! You know dawn was four hours ago, right? Chances are that they did something to her! What if she doesn't come home!?"

"She'll come home!" However much faith I had in Ian, there was a tiny part of me that knew Kay was right...That knew something had to've happen to Ian. She hadn't checked in in the entire four hours she'd been gone, and I was really starting to get worried. "Look, if it'll make you all feel better, I'll go look for Ian."

"I'm coming with you." I held up a hand to Kay.

"No, it'll be better if I go alone..."

"NO! She's my goddâmned family, and I'm going!" She marched past me outside with the keys to her and Rachel's Audi, not giving me a choice.

I groaned and said to the rest of them "We'll be back...I'll call if anything's wrong."

I took the keys from Kay once we were outside and said "Get in..."

We were to the shifter farm in less than two minutes. I wasn't nearly patient enough right now to be obeying any traffic laws.

My Camaro was sitting outside of an old barn, and the smell of blood hit me like a train as soon as I opened the car door.

I said to Kay "You go and check if there's anyone in that house over there...I'll see if anyone's in here."

She nodded and went off, and I slowly approached the foul smell of blood that was coming from inside the decrepit barn.

The first thing I saw was a man with his throat torn out, and then a whole mass of naked men and women stirring on the floor. I knew immediately that whatever Ian had done had worked, because these people no longer had the smell of shifter like the ones we had encountered before.

I happened to see one particular body with clothes on, torn and bloody clothes, and when I went to investigate I yelled.

"Ian!" I sped to her still body laying on the ground and lifted her into my arms, but she didn't move. I shook her and yelled in her ear and she still didn't respond. "Ian..! Come on baby, wake up!"

She wasn't dead, I could hear her heartbeat, but she just wouldn't wake up.

The newly cured shifters around me began to wake up, their faces filling with anger when they saw me with Ian's limp body.

Several came over and tried to strike me, but since they had been turned human, their blows barely affected me. When they realized this they quickly began to scatter, and I lifted Ian's body and went out of the barn.

Kay was running out of the house and screamed when she saw us.

"This is your fault! You shouldn't have let her come here!" I ignored Kay and carried Ian over to my car, and laid her carefully in the passenger seat. I ignored Kay's wails and got in my car and drove away.

I was tempted to take her home, but I only knew the others would be just as angry at me for letting Ian go, and might even try to attack me because of it. There was one place I could go, but I didn't know if he would even be able to help in this situation.

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

I knocked hard enough on the door to almost break the glass, and he immediately came and opened it.

"Derek?" I pushed the door the rest of the way open and entered the vet clinic with Ian in my arms. Dr. Deaton asked "What are you doing here with her?"

"I need your help." We went into the back and I laid Ian down on the large metal table and explained. "Ian was attacked by a group of shifters. Her wounds aren't healing and she isn't waking up and...I don't know what to do."

"Shifters...You mean shapeshifters? I've only heard of their confirmed existence quite recently, thanks to your friends the Argents. I can say I don't know much about them..."

"What do you mean?! Can you help or not?!"

"Relax Derek. Getting angry won't help the situation. I can try to help, but from what I've heard your fiancée isn't a regular shifter, so I can't tell how she's going to react to anything I try."

I looked down at Ian's still bleeding body, at the bite marks that covered her from head to toe, and said "You do whatever the hêll you have to do to save my wife."