AUTHOR'S NOTE:

It has been forever and I apologize, I was just figuring out how I wanted this all to go and now I know and this is a nice, long, chapter. Everyone gets a focus and things get explained. The chapter after next will be fluffy, fluffy, fluffy, okay?

WARNINGS: Language, Violence, Gore, Sexual Situations

ENJOY!

xxxx

While Derek was rather pissed off that Charlotte just left him out there like that, he understood why she did it. Her pack was treating her like a villain and she had just killed one of her own Betas and she was feeling like it was best here to be a martyr. Even though he understood that completely, Derek Hale was pissed off. Charlotte was being selfish and as Derek thought about it, getting up and trying to catch her scent, wanting to find her before anything truly bad happened to her.

He knew that out there somewhere Gerard was torturing her and he couldn't have been more right about the situation. Gerard had her all tied up, aconite laced gag in her mouth, a knife in her hand and even though her eyes were screwed shut, there were tears on her cheeks and Gerard knew her eyes were red. Revenge was something that Gerard did better than anyone and he was going to have his revenge on Charlotte if it was the last thing that he did—after all she killed his daughter and he couldn't let her get away with that.

"You must have thought you were so clever," Gerard told her with a cruel laugh. "I mean, all this time you had even my own son in your pocket. Owing your mother a debt means nothing to me."

Charlotte wanted to answer, but she was gagged.

"All it took was convincing Allison to talk and she's just like Kate—so malleable," Gerard explained with a grin as he grabbed Charlotte's hair forcefully. "Killing you is going to bring a lot of hunters a lot of pleasure…mostly me."

Even though Charlotte had whimpered at the violence to her hair, she was staying as strong as she could feeling weak and in pain. Gerard was happy about her tears and the whimpers that came when he moved the knife or cut her with a different one and the aconite she was tasting on her tongue from the gag and breathing in was making her weaker and weaker and soon she would be dead. She would be nothing more than an overcome obstacle and deep down she knew that had she not fought for Derek, then he would be there too.

What never crossed her mind, however, was the fallout of her actions but that had always been the case with her. She was a woman of emotions and she always leapt before she thought, so she and Derek had been such a good team before—they kept each other in check. Then things had fallen apart and they weren't even completely back together and yet Charlotte was still leaping before thinking. She was so determined to protect Derek that she wasn't letting him protect her…she wasn't letting him prove to her for once and for all that the two of them were stronger as a unit than as two separate parts. If she made it out of this, she was promising herself to try harder.

"I think that I'll make sure that Derek finds your body," Gerard said nodding. "Then your parents and when I get them in my sights, I will kill them all. Mark my words, Charlotte: every werewolf in this town is going to be put down like the dogs that they are. That includes what is left of your pack, though…I'm impressed."

Charlotte's eyes opened as he said that and she peered at him.

"You've just opened the door to something else that you don't even truly understand," Gerard continued with a nod. "There are other forces out there beyond your control and the ones that you can control you don't even get. Do you see that? You're an Alpha but you're not even knowledgeable about what happens to your own kind when you turn on them like you have."

Gerard smiled at her and let the blade trail down her cheek. "In fact, I bet your father hasn't told you a lot of things. He's always been the weak one—protecting you all even from the truth. You are supposed to be predators, but instead you are the prey now and you're easy prey at that."

Not wanting to see his face again, Charlotte closed her eyes, Derek catching her scent and calling Scott since neither Phasmi nor Isaac had answered their phones. Normally he wouldn't resort to that, but he needed someone very strong and while Scott protested at first, he wanted to help Charlotte. She had tried to get him out of plenty a sticky situation and sided with him on most things, so he was there as soon as he could, both young wolves heading straight for her.

They were cautious at first, but Gerard had taken a break to let Charlotte stew, a mistake on his part because Derek went barging in. Charlotte looked up as he got there, moving to her and taking out the gag, noticing right away what it was. Scott helped Derek to untie her and looked around for Gerard, Derek picking Charlotte up bridal style and holding her to him. He felt like if he let go he would lose her and they hadn't even been separated very long. Still, it was time to rely on werewolf speed because Gerard would be back any minute and they couldn't have that.

"I've got you," Derek whispered before he and Scott took off.

Once away, Scott left them to go back home, having to deal with his mother and how she knew he was a wolf now, and Derek took Charlotte back to her home. Matthew and Melody saw their daughter and wanted to help, but Derek insisted on staying, Charlotte passed out in his arms then, and they let him. Derek didn't want to be away from her and as he set her down on her bed and went about curing her of the aconite in her system, Gerard came to the empty chair and smirked a little bit: he was fairly certain that Derek Hale wouldn't leave his mate behind no matter what.

Unfortunately that made his task a bit harder than anticipated, but Gerard had been testing a theory and he was right. Charlotte would do anything for her pack and anything for Derek—Liam had been the perfect plan for that—so Gerard could easily corner her at any time. Also, she seemed to be following in Matthew's footsteps, which would make it easier to get to the rest of her family through her…through them. All Gerard had to do now was wait…

Wait and use the Kanima to his advantage.

xx

It had been a week since Matt had been drowned by Gerard and everyone was trying to put the whole Full Moon havoc behind them.

Caroline and Scott were being ignored by their mother, who was still having a hard time processing what it was she could do. Both of her children had been turned into what she would consider monsters and she was afraid…not entirely of them, but of what that all meant and what that brought into their lives. More than ever, Scott and Caroline were relying on each other and on Artemis and Stiles. Artemis and Stiles were a bit scarred themselves, but the four of them had been sticking together as much as they could.

They wanted more than anything to stick together and try to get through what had happened—they had lost a classmate. Matt had drowned and it was hard to deal with, not to mention that Charlotte had been kidnapped and then saved and Charlotte thought it was a setup and Caroline didn't even want to talk about it. Liam was dead as well so it hurt to even bring up the pack, Eric hanging out with Phasmi and Isaac and the other pack because it was too hard to deal with what was happening and he couldn't just sit around and rant with Caroline.

On top of that, Lydia and Eric were having some issues as she was so worried about Jackson and Peter was in her head and Eric didn't know what to do. It wasn't something that noncommittal sex could really solve and he was dealing with the fact that Charlotte had snapped in his own way so he was avoiding a bit. Right now, though, it was lunch time and Scott, Caroline, Artemis and Stiles were sitting at a table together eating some food. Boyd, Erica and Isaac were missing, but it was probably because Derek and Charlotte were mobilizing them on their own.

"This sandwich is weird," Artemis said with a sigh. "I love my aunt, but I don't think she checks to see if the mayo is off or not."

Scott chuckled a little bit. "Here, have mine."

"But then you don't have one," Artemis explained shaking her head. "I will live off of the chips, fruit cup and Gushers until after school when I will then get homemade snacks while I do my homework."

"That's the one thing that I envy about you guys and your study club," Stiles admitted with a grin. "I can join that right?"

"I thought you had a meeting with the counselor." Caroline told him, looking at him and stroking his hair. "It's a good idea to go."

They all needed someone to talk to and the counselor had made it so that everyone involved was required to see her. Stiles was going back and it was because he really didn't want to have to drag Caroline and Scott into it, as they had to deal with their mother. Artemis was sticking around with Danny and hanging out with Charlotte and the packs and so Stiles just needed to say some things to someone that was there to listen.

"Just like it might be a good idea to go train with your pack," Scott said as he bit into his PB&J that Caroline had made him. "Eat those homemade snacks…"

Caroline looked at him with a glare. "No."

"Is this still about Liam?" Artemis asked slowly. "I know that you and Eric feel personally victimized, but Charlotte was protecting you."

"He was going to kill you," Stiles told Caroline, sighing when Caroline pulled her hand away. "Care, there is not a person at this table that is siding with you. Does it suck that Charles did that? Yeah, it really does, but Liam was going to kill all of you. She had to!"

"There is always another way," Caroline said as she stood up. "It's not just that she killed him…it's that he was a member of her pack. If we snap, will she do that too? He deserved to be talked down."

Without waiting for them to answer, Caroline headed away from the table, the other three sitting there in silence until Stiles asked if Charlotte was going to have cookies there. Artemis was pretty certain that Charlotte was definitely baking and it was a good thing that she had something to focus on because she had been off since she had had to kill Liam. She had regretted it since doing it, but at the same time there wasn't really anything that she could do about it now that it was done.

On another front, Phasmi and Isaac were spending more and more time together, closer than ever after the moon. They spent the majority of their time nuzzling and sometimes play wrestling on the floor, giggling and making a lot of noise. Still, most thought they were adorable and Boyd and Erica were glad to see them so happy—glad that while they had each other, Phasmi and Isaac had each other too.

"Are you awake?" Phasmi asked slowly.

Taking a deep breath, Isaac chuckled and then turned over, smiling at Phasmi and stroking her dark hair as they looked at each other. Then Phasmi leaned over and kissed him gently, Isaac smiling at her as he pulled back and nuzzling his nose against hers. They wrapped their arms and legs around each other and then lay there for just a little while trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their day.

"Is it wrong to just want to lay here forever?" Isaac asked as he held Phasmi close to him.

Phasmi smiled at him. "I would love to do that—we have training to do though, don't we?"

"As the prized Betas I think that we can take a day off," Isaac laughed, kissing Phasmi again.

"This is probably true," Phasmi giggled, kissing him and pulling him on top of her. "I just don't want you to have to deal with Derek's wrath."

"If all else fails, Charlotte will take care of that," Isaac replied, kissing her to silence her.

In fact Charlotte had taken care of it and things seemed to go on as usual…except that Caroline and Eric still didn't want t have anything to do with Charlotte. They were upset and Charlotte understood, and she was worried about what Gerard was planning, but she wanted things to go back to normal and kept inviting the two young wolves to the study sessions. What Phasmi wanted right now was to train, so she was training with Isaac and Eric and trying to get the pack back in order.

There was only one way that she knew how to do that…

xx

Charlotte looked up when the timer went off, closing her book and putting the oven mitt on her right hand. She got the cookies out of the oven and set another timer so that they could cool off just a little bit, smiling gently when she saw Derek come right into the room and then he leaned on the door frame. He'd been watching her since he had fixed her up and Charlotte was well aware that Derek was a little upset with her: 'little' was an understatement, actually. He was being affectionate and he was being a tad overbearing, but it was because he was still a little bit annoyed about the conversation that they had had before. While he had seemed satisfied at the time, a lot had happened in this week.

"How could you do that?!" Derek asked Charlotte angrily.

Swallowing, Charlotte nodded. "Should have expected you to be more upset with me than worried about me feeling weak…"

"YOU CAN'T JUST MAKE LIFE AND DEATH DECISIONS FOR ME!" Derek bellowed. "By now you should know that I would do anything for you! THAT WE SHOULD BE TOGETHER ON THINGS!"

"OKAY, STOP YELLING AT ME!" Charlotte yelled back.

Derek tried to take a series of deep breaths, nodding and getting Charlotte all settled into her bed before he sat down on it. He ran his fingers through his hair and then reached out to hold her hand, bringing it up to his lips and placing a kiss to each of her fingers. If she wasn't so weak, Charlotte would have been much more turned on and tried to solicit some mating…but now just wasn't the time. Derek was too upset about her selfishness and she really couldn't blame him because she knew that should the roles be reversed, she'd be just as angry if not more so.

"You are really bad at doing what you preach," Derek told her, smirking a little bit. "You talk about being a family—being a pack—and then you take all of our choices away and insist on doing things on your own. I know that I do it too, but damn-it, Charlee…"

Charlotte nodded and sat up more, face near Derek's. "I know, baby, I know. Just…I can't change overnight, alright? I am going to try my hardest not to be as selfish, but my first instinct will always be to sacrifice myself."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Derek admitted, sighing loudly. "I know that on the one hand I have to have some faith in you and in your abilities and strength, but I can't lose you. I'm not just saying that—I mean it. Everyone in my life gets hurt or killed and that cannot be you. Hell, that can't be anyone in your family. Please, Charlee..."

"I hear you and I will try," Charlotte promised, smiling a little when Derek did because he knew that she was telling him the truth. "Right now might be the best time to try anyway…my pack hates me."

Derek wanted to believe that Charlotte was trying her best, but her head just wasn't in the game right now, so to speak. All she could think about was trying to get the pack back together, when there was still the matter of Matthew bringing Peter back from the dead and Gerard controlling the Kanima now. In fact, it seemed like (from reports from Isaac) the Kanima was really taking over Jackson these days and he should have been the focus…but Caroline and Eric were being so distant and Charlotte couldn't handle it. Not to mention Charlotte was having nightmares about Darren, Liam and Gerard and Derek hadn't left her side even once.

Sometimes when she would bolt up in bed, she would just start crying, but she had Derek right there with her, up because she was up. He'd just wrap her up in his strong arms and stroke her hair and her back, making sure they were both back and snuggled under the covers, just holding her. This whole ordeal was so traumatic for her that he wondered how Caroline and Eric had been handling it. After all, they were the ones that were being held captive and Liam was definitely going to kill them and then he would set in on Charlotte when she was weakened from the loss of pack members.

"Are Caroline and Eric coming?" Derek asked Charlotte slowly.

Charlotte shrugged as she put the cookies on the cooling rack. "I don't know but they might—they can't be mad at me forever, can they?"

"Hopefully not, because you were saving their lives," Derek responded, sighing heavily. "I really don't understand why they don't get that. You were protecting them."

"I didn't give Liam a chance," Charlotte replied sadly. "Caroline and Eric are afraid that if they ever got influenced, I'd kill them right then and there and what if I can't stop myself? I remember killing Liam rather vividly and there was a moment there when instinct took over."

"You gave Liam plenty of choices," Derek explained as he crossed over to her and put his hands on her shoulders, making her face him. "You were protecting your pack and while it's unorthodox to kill your own Beta and I know it hurts like Hell, you and I are going to get through this, Charlee."

Charlotte nodded and looked Derek in the eye. "I know that, I just…I can't handle them being mad at me. So much is happening right now and what if they want out? This isn't even about pack power this is…they're my family. They're my pack. They're…"

When she trailed off, Derek nodded and pulled her to him, laughing a little bit when he heard her sniffle and then she bit into one of the warm cookies. It was chocolate chip because they were easy to make and Charlotte had the ingredients, so when Derek pulled back, he saw a little bit of chocolate on her lip. Without saying a word, Derek leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, Charlotte pausing her chewing to kiss him back, moaning when he sucked her lip into his mouth to get the chocolate off. Then he pulled back and she finished eating the bite, holding it up to Derek's mouth.

"Stop being sexy or take me on the counter—those are the only two options," Charlotte told him as he took a bite of the cookie.

Derek chuckled, cookie in his mouth. "Didn't you just make food here?"

"Nope, you're still being sexy," Charlotte teased, hopping up onto the counter and taking a third bite of cookie. "Food and sex though…aren't those the two things you need most in life?"

"We can't," Derek said as he let Charlotte feed him the last of the cookie, her legs wrapping around him and pulling him to her. "I don't have a condom on me."

Charlotte pouted at him, kissing his jaw and then nibbling at his Adam's apple. "Then we just have to do food and sex some other time…"

"Preferably not on my countertops," Melody said as she came into the room rolling her eyes, a slight smile on her face. "Aren't you two getting ready for a study group to come over here tonight. This is where Phasmi is learning things from."

"Sorry, Mom," Charlotte responded as she blushed feverishly. "I'll be better—Derek is just a bad influence on me."

Derek narrowed his eyes at Charlotte and shook his head slowly. "Even though sex and food was your idea in the first place?"

"Derek!" Charlotte chastised, covering his mouth with her hand. "Not in front of my mother!"

Melody laughed, trying to ease the tension in the room, giving Derek a platter to put the cookies in and handing Charlotte the mini ice cream scoop to get more batter onto baking sheets. She was glad that her daughter was in love and that Derek was in love with her too, but she drew the line at sex on her countertops, so she thought of the next best thing. There were things that they could do to live a life together and they needed to start doing that.

"You know…I think that you two should start living in your new place," Melody explained to them. "It might not be the time when we've got so much to do but, you both deserve to get to spread your wings again not being under my roof. I love you both, but still."

Charlotte smiled and nodded. "Yeah, this is true. It's just that last time Derek and I were alone with a pack…"

"We kind of messed up," Derek put in when Charlotte trailed off. "It's the only reason that we haven't actually moved in yet."

"Well, I have faith in the two of you, so…why don't you try?" Melody asked them, giving them one last smile before she left them in the kitchen to think it all over.

xx

Peter smiled as Matthew came to him with a sandwich. "You come bearing food, I see."

"It seems that you feel a bit stronger than you did before, Peter." Matthew put in with a laugh and a shrug. "You need to have food."

"Perhaps, but I'd rather be out there saving myself from Gerard," Peter admitted with a sigh. "I'm back to being a Beta and you have no idea how that feels."

Matthew nodded at him. "Yeah, that's true—I've been an Alpha for as long as I can remember, but I carry around a different kind of pain."

"The kind of pain you wanted to spare Charlotte from?" Peter asked him.

He knew better than anyone that Matthew put his family first and that was why he recognized that look on Matthew's face. What he had done he had done for them even though it didn't look like it and it made Matthew sigh because that kind of hurt him that Peter knew him so well. Matthew looked at Peter and then sat down, shaking his head and then putting his head in his hands for a moment before he looked back up at Peter.

"There are too many things that that girl picked up from me," Matthew said sadly. "Her stubbornness, her want to be an Alpha, her taste in strong mates, her selfishness that leads to while putting others before herself, her own expenses…and now this. She did this and she can't go back…if I had been honest with her from the beginning then maybe I could have spared her this fate. This fate that I have to live every day of my life."

Note: SO WHAT IS MATTHEW'S SECRET IN ITS ENTIRETY?! The next chapter will end Season Two and then we will have a very fluffy beginning to Season Three as well as a bit of Matthew's secret coming to light. Feedback is always appreciated!