So this chapter is super long and there's lots of dialogue, especially at the end, but bear with me here. Things will get exciting starting with the next chapter.

I looked up into the bright blue eyes, my voice caught in my throat. I thought back to what Deaton had said. Peter would prey on Derek's insecurities. I was definitely prey. I was a lamb that had wandered right in the path of a hungry wolf. He stepped closer to me, leaning against a tree.

"Why did you do it?" I whispered, not breaking eye contact with him.

"Why? Because being dead isn't the most pleasant experience in the world." He squatted down in front of me.

"What do you want?"

"I need an alpha." His hand reached out, slowly sliding up my leg towards my knee. "I'm weak, I need a pack to regain some of my abilities. That and, I want to help you. Both of you." His hands moved to the ground beside me, his face leaning in close to me. "And you're going to get me a spot in Derek's roster. If anyone can convince him...it's you."

"Derek won't trust you. Derek doesn't trust anyone."

"Hmmm." He ran a finger down my cheek, moving along my jaw to my hair. "I wouldn't say that just yet." He tugged on one of my curls, chuckling. "Don't worry, Derek will be here soon."

"What?"

"I could smell your fear from a mile away. And being this close to you..." He leaned in even closer, our noses almost touching. He smiled as my heart beat picked up even faster, almost in an arrhythmia. "I can feel it." He whispered. He pulled back a little so he was looking me in the eyes again. "I'm not going to hurt you. It was never my intention to hurt you. I just want to leave an impression." He moved my shirt to the side, looking at Derek's mark. "A mark, if you will."

He leaned in, nuzzling his cheek in my neck. His skin was smooth, a stark contrast to what I was used to. His jaw ran under mine, slowly, sensually before he leaned into my ear, taking a deep breath in.

"Run."

I didn't hesitate when he released me, taking off in the opposite direction. I ran as fast as I could until two arms shot out, grabbing me around the waist, halting my movement. I screamed, terrified Peter had followed me and was now going to kill me.

"Please. Please don't kill me." Tears were running down my cheeks, my breaths coming in gasps.

"Hey." I was spun around, looking up into familiar green eyes.

His brow was furrowed, eyes piercing as he took in my terrified form. His arms were still around me, warm hands on my back but I still shivered in fear. I had been in the presence of two psychopathic killers in one night and I was on my last straw. Derek opened his mouth to say something, but froze, leaning in close to my neck, breathing in deeply.

His hands gripped the back of my shirt, tightening into fists as he pulled me closer to his body. I could feel the anger rolling off him as he continued to breathe deeply.

"He said he needs an alpha. He wants to help."

"That's exactly what he wants us to think." He ran a hand over his face, then through his hair.

"Derek, can I go home?" He furrowed his eyebrows at me even more than they were before. "Look, I've had a really long night and I just want to take a bath and sleep for the next two days."

Derek nodded before slipping his arms around me, picking me up and carrying me back to the station and to my car. The Argents were gone, as well as pretty much everyone else that was there. Derek deposited me in the passenger seat before pulling away from the station. I played with my fingers as he drove, the silence suffocating between us. I was still mad over everything that had happened between us, what he said, what he did. Though, stabbing him did make me feel a little better. But it didn't quell the ache in my chest.

Derek walked me to the door after we pulled into the driveway. There was still silence between us as we stood on the porch, neither of us able to look at the other.

"You should get back. Take care of your betas. I'll call you later." He nodded and went to turn away. "Be careful. The Argents are still out there."

"I know." He gave me a half smile before walking down the steps, disappearing down the street.

I entered the house, not expecting anyone to be up, but my mother was sitting on the couch, pouring over an old book.

"Peter Hale's alive." She said, not looking up from the book.

"Yeah. I saw."

"I don't know how he did it. Unless he wasn't really dead to begin with." She closed the book, turning to me. "He came by. Said he was looking for you, naked as the day he was born and covered in dirt. I let him use the shower, gave him some of your father's old clothes." I noticed the dirty foot prints in the carpet leading up the stairs. "I offered him dinner, but he said he had some business he had to attend to. I'm assuming he got what he needed."

"I guess so. He was pretty clear as to what he wanted." I shook my head. "I can't believe you let a psychopathic murderer into the house and let him use our shower. And gave him food."

She stood up, holding the book to her chest. "Think about it this way. He's almost your Uncle as well. When you and Derek get married, he'll be family too. What did he want from you anyways?"

"He wants into Derek's pack. He's weak now, and offered his help."

"Should you trust him?"

"In the long run, probably not. But he does know a lot about the supernatural. He'd be a bad ally. But an even worse enemy."

"What does Derek think?"

"Derek doesn't trust anyone."

My mom squeezed my shoulder. "Go get some sleep. It looks like you've had a long night."

I nodded, following the footprints up the stairs. I changed into a long t-shirt before climbing in bed, trying to forget everything that had happened, but it still haunted my dreams.

I was dreaming. My powers wouldn't work and Matt had the gun to my head.

'If I can't have you, no one can.'

He pulled the trigger, my body numb as it fell, my hands and feet already going cold.

I jolted awake, breathing hard. An arm tightened around my waist, pulling me back into a warm chest.

"Shh. You're okay." Derek's stubble tickled my shoulder as he whispered into my ear before he relaxed again.

It was getting light outside, but I closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep again with Derek's arms wrapped tightly around me.

I woke up to a calloused finger tracing spirals on my thigh. It was well into the morning, almost afternoon, the sun shining in through the window. My stomach growled a little and the hand on my leg froze.

"Want me to grab you some breakfast?" Derek murmured in my ear.

"What about my parents?"

"Your mom and sister left an hour ago. And your dad's in the office. Plus your mom's the one that let me in this morning. She told me about Peter and I told her what happened at the Sheriff's Station." He squeezed my arm before rolling away from me, walking around the bed to my desk where his clothes were thrown over the chair.

I had a very nice view of his behind, and I tried not to stare as he bent down to slip on his jeans. I was still a little mad at him over what had happened, but watching him disappear from my room in nothing but his jeans made some of my anger disappear. He was just trying to protect me. But that still didn't make it hurt any less.

Derek came back a few minutes later with a bowl and a glass of juice. He set the juice on the nightstand next to my head before climbing over me into bed.

"Wait-so my mom let you in and let you sleep up here with me?" I turned to face him where he sat, his back against the headboard.

"Yeah. She said you looked depressed and she wanted to make sure Peter wouldn't come back in the middle of the night."

Derek reached into the bowl, pulling a strawberry out before pressing it against my lips. I opened my mouth, taking a bite out of it, keeping my eyes locked with his. I watched as he lifted the rest of the berry to his mouth, finishing it off. He repeated the motion, feeding me half and finishing the rest himself.

"You don't have to feed me, you know."

"I know." He fed me another berry. "Just think of this as me making it up to you, for the way I treated you yesterday."

"So Matt's dead, and Gerard is now the Kanima's master." I said after a moment of silence.

"Right."

"The car. I pushed Matt in front of a car. That must have been Gerard. Maybe I should have killed him instead. Then this whole thing could be over."

"It's not your fault. You were saving your own life." He brushed some hair away from my face. "If you would have killed Matt, Gerard would have just killed you next."

I stayed silent as he fed me another berry. He was right. But I still feel like I could have stopped all this from happening.

Once the berries were done, he leaned over me, placing the bowl on my nightstand before settling in beside me, cupping the side of my neck with his hand. He searched my eyes, looking for reassurance before he closed the gap between us. Our lips moved hungrily, his hand sliding down my shoulder to my back, pressing me closer to his body. His tongue licked my bottom lip, asking for permission and I granted it, tasting the strawberries on his tongue.

He rolled us over so he was hovering over me, elbows encasing my head. One of his knees parted my own, his body slipping in between my legs. His mouth trailed down my chin to my neck, leaving a trail of open mouthed kisses down my pulse.

"Okay, I may not be a supernatural creature, but my parenting sixth sense is telling me it got way too quiet in there." My dad's voice sounded outside the door way.

Derek pulled away from me and I sighed rolling my eyes. "Parents." I huffed.

"I heard that."

"Why are you still outside my door?"

I heard his retreating footsteps and Derek leaned down, rubbing his cheek against my neck, his stubble scratching my skin, before climbing off me, grabbing his shirt from my desk chair. I sat up, stretching, my back popping.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, sliding my legs so they were hanging over the edge of the bed.

"My family kept records of every supernatural creature they came in contact with. I want to look through those books and see if I can find anything about the Kanima."

"I'll come with you. I think my mom has a book like that somewhere in the office."

I turned my back to him, pulling my shirt over my head. I could feel his eyes on me as I grabbed a bra from my dresser, pulling it on before pulling on a dress from my closet. I pulled on tights and my combat boots before going into the bathroom to take care of some personal business before walking down the hall, Derek in tow to the office.

My dad was behind the desk on his computer when we walked in. I looked at the books lining the shelves against the wall.

"What are you looking for?" My dad asked, not looking up from his computer.

"A book." I said, closing my eyes.

"That's real specific."

I concentrated, running my fingers over the leather bound covers before they stopped, something telling me I'd found it. I opened my eyes, pulling the book off the shelf, flipping through a couple pages. Derek leaned over my shoulder, looking at the pages.

"What is that?"

"Archaic Latin."

"You can read Archaic Latin?"

"Yeah. A lot of spells are written in Archaic Latin. My mom taught me when I was Mya's age."

I closed the book, skipping over to my dad.

"See you later, Daddy." I kissed him on the cheek before grabbing Derek's hand, dragging him out to my car.

Derek flipped through the book while I drove out to the Hale house.

"I don't see anything that resembles a Kanima."

"That doesn't mean there isn't anything in there."

I pulled up outside the house, taking the book from Derek as we entered, Derek pulling a bunch of books out from under a floorboard.

"Wow. So I take it we'll be here for a while." I said, staring at the massive volumes.

He gave me a look, setting the books on a shelf before picking one up and flipping through it. I made myself comfortable on a dusty chair, starting to go through the book, looking for anything that remotely resembled a Kanima.

It was silent for a while, the only sound being turning pages and Derek occasionally slamming a book closed. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up to find Boyd and Erica standing in the doorway.

"You decided." Derek said, turning to face the two betas. Decided what? "When?"

"Tonight." Erica said, looking away from Derek.

"Everyone's gonna be at the game, and we figured it was the best time." Boyd said.

"It's not like we want to." Erica said.

Derek walked closer to the pair. "What do you want?"

"Since I just turned 16 a month ago I wouldn't mind getting my license." Erica said. "I can't do that if I'm dead you know."

"Well I told you there was a price."

"You didn't say it would be like this." Boyd said.

"Yeah, but I told you how to survive. You do it as a pack. And your not a pack without an alpha." Derek turned back around and I could see the hurt and frustration on his face.

"We know." Boyd said, looking anywhere but Derek when he turned around.

"You want to look for another pack?" Neither of the betas would look at him. "How are you even gonna find one?"

They looked at each other. "We think we already did." Boyd said.

"We were in the woods last night. It got really quiet then all of a sudden we heard all this howling. It was unbelievable." Erica said.

"There must have been a dozen of them. Maybe more."

"Yeah, or maybe only two." Derek said. "Do you know what the beau geste effect is? If they modulate their howls with a rapid shift in tone, two wolves can sound like twenty."

"Look, that doesn't matter, okay? There's another pack out there. There's gotta be. We made up our minds." Erica said.

"We lost, Derek. And it's over. We're leaving."

"No." Derek shook his head. "No, you're running. And once you start, you don't stop. You'll always be running." Derek motioned to the door with the book in his hand and both Erica and Boyd left.

I felt a little tug in my chest watching them go. Derek turned back around, leaning against the bookshelf. I set the book aside, going to stand up, but what I saw behind Derek made me stop. I froze, my words of warning stuck in my throat. Derek picked up the mirror shard he'd kept before throwing it at Peter. He caught it right before it impaled his throat. Derek took a defensive stance, keeping himself between Peter and I.

"I expected a slightly warmer welcome. But," He held the shard up. "Point taken." He tossed the shard to the side. "It's quite the situation you've got yourself in here, Derek. I mean, I'm out of commission for a few weeks and suddenly there's lizard people, geriatric psychopaths and you're cooking up werewolves out f every self-esteem deprived adolescent in town."

"What do you want?"

"Well, I want to help." Peter said, walking closer. "You're my nephew," He paused. "And almost niece." He motioned to me. "One relative that I have left. You know, there's still a lot I can teach you." He was in front of Derek now. "Can we just talk?" He put his hand on Derek's shoulder.

Derek looked down at his hand for a moment and I bit my lip, knowing what was coming. "Sure. Let's talk."

He grabbed Peter, throwing him into the staircase railing.

"Stay here." He said to me over his shoulder before walking over to Peter, grabbing him again.

They disappeared from sight, the sounds of crashes and bangs echoing around the house. I read through the book some more until it got too dark to do so, so I pulled out my phone, seeing a text from Isaac. There were several crashes from upstairs before Peter came falling down the stairs, Derek following closely behind. Derek punched him in the face, kicking him in the stomach before stopping.

Peter coughed. "You don't actually think I want to be alpha again, do you? That wasn't my finest performance, considering it ended in my death." Derek grabbed Peter by the collar, raising his fist. "I mean I usually-okay! Go ahead! Hit me, hit me." Peter stared up at him as I stepped closer to the two. "I can see that it's cathartic for you. You're letting go of all the anger, self loathing and hatred that comes with total, complete failure. I may be the one taking the beating Derek, but you've already been beaten. So, go ahead. Hit me if it would make you feel better. After all, I did say that I wanted to help."

Derek released him after a moment, pushing him back on the ground.

"You can't help me." He stepped over Peter walking towards me.

I grabbed his hands, watching the cuts on his knuckles disappear. I pulled him over to the staircase, sitting down next to him on a step as Peter stood, grabbing the mirror shard from where he'd disposed of it on the floor. Derek tensed for a second before Peter held up the shard, wiping the blood off his face. I wiped at the blood on Derek's knuckles with my sleeve, leaning in close to his warm side.

"See? Prime example right here. I'm not healing as fast. Coming back from the dead isn't easy, you know. I'm not as strong as I used to be. I need a pack. An alpha like you. I need you as much as you need me."

Derek scoffed. "Why would I want help from a total psycho?"

"First of all, I'm not a total psycho. And by the way, you're the one that slashed my throat wide open. But we're all works in progress, right? So, we need each other. Sometimes when you need help, you turn to the people you'd never expect."

Peter walked closer to the stairs and I moved up one step, unconsciously shifting slightly behind Derek. A low growl rumbled in Derek's chest and Peter held his hands up in surrender.

"I'm not going to touch you. Or hurt you."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Your mother trusted me enough to let me in her home. She even offered me food. That's because she knows what I know. One day, you and Derek will have a family of your own. Lots of little pups running around, and Old Uncle Peter will babysit on date night." He leaned forward, placing both hands on the banister, closing us in. He smiled at me before turning back to Derek. "Listen, you tried to build your pack. You tried to prepare for the worst. You weren't ready. Because of it, Gerard is winning. He's taking his time. He's toying with Scott. He's going after your wolves one by one. He's relishing in his victory, and soon, he'll take your little witch and her family and hand them over to the hunters. Or maybe he'll take the kill himself."

Derek placed a hand on my leg. It was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but it put me more on edge.

"How about you tell me something I don't know?"

"Oh, I'm going to. And it's going to prove why you should trust me. Why you need to trust me. Because I'm going to tell you how to stop Jackson."

"What do you mean? You know how to kill him?"

"Actually, how to save him. There's a myth that you can cure a werewolf by simply calling out it's Christian name."

"It's just a myth."

"Well, sometimes, myths and legends bear a hint of truth. Our name is a symbol of who we are. But the Kanima has no identity. That's why it doesn't seek a pack."

"It seeks a master."

"And who else grows up without a pack? No identity?"

"An orphan."

"Like Jackson. And right now, his identity is disappearing beneath the reptilian skin. You need to bring him back."

"How?" Derek shouted, startling me.

"Through his heart. How else?"

"You know, in case you hadn't noticed,Jackson doesn't really have to much of a heart to begin with."

"Not true. He'd never admit it, but there is one person. One young lady with whom Jackson shared a real bond. One person who could reach him. Who could save him."

"Lydia."

"Your best ally has always been anger, Derek, but what you lack most is a heart. That's why you've always known that you need Scott more than anyone. And even somebody as burned and dead on the inside as me knows better than to underestimate the simple yet undeniable power of human love." Peter looked to me. "That night when you were shot by Kate and you healed yourself, how did you do it?"

"I...I just thought about Derek. And how much it would hurt him if I died."

Peter nodded. "And how do you control your power?"

"Thinking about Derek." I said it so quietly that if they weren't werewolves, they probably wouldn't have heard it.

"The power of love, Derek. It's amazing what it can do." I ran my hand along Derek's back, rubbing slow circles. The emotions coming off him were suffocating. Peter looked between us a few times before settling on Derek. "You haven't done it yet."

Derek stiffened, looking up at Peter. "We haven't had time."

"Oh, there's always time for that."

"Time for what?" I asked, looking from the back of Derek's head to Peter's face.

"You haven't told her either?" Peter chuckled. "I would get on that as soon as possible, Derek."

"Told me what?" I was getting frustrated.

"Leave it." Derek growled. I wasn't sure who it was directed at, maybe both of us.

"You're missing out on a lot of valuable benefits. And some other bonuses as well." He smirked. "But seriously, Derek, do it while you still can."

I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. And a part of me didn't want to know.