Author's note: set in 1x07.

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf. No financial gain is made from this. This is for entertainment purposes only.


The ride back to the school was complicated. I hadn't regained my full senses and my muscles were cramped and uncooperative. My fear didn't help either.

I had long lost sight of the Alpha, but I knew where he was headed. And I knew who he was.

The school was apparently deserted, except for the beautiful and expensive black sports car and the battered and old Jeep. I sucked in shaky gulps of breath. I knew the Alpha was here, I knew Peter Hale was watching me from somewhere hidden.

I got off my bicycle, taking a few steps towards the cars. Dr. Deaton was no longer there and I feared the worst when I saw blood near. I crouched and touched it, with evident disgust. It was somehow fresh and it tainted my fingers red.

Suddenly, a menacing growl gave away the presence of the Alpha at my back. I gulped, rose to my feet and turned. I could feel his rancid breath on my face, we were mere inches away. But I had planned this moment, probably in the most stupid move ever.

I looked straight into his red eyes, forgetting about the feral noises, the large size, the red in his claws. I raised my head, clenched my fists, found my voice and said in a soft whisper, "leave".

He roared, I cowered. It was a warning.

Then he left.

My legs felt like jelly and they gave in. I fell to the ground, not caring that my pants were getting soaked with blood. Brave and stupid seemed to be my style, but this new piece of information required answers.

Derek told me not to face the Alpha some weeks ago – though they felt like years -, but tonight, he had told me otherwise. 'It won't be dangerous, not for you', he had said. Why? I needed to find him, I needed answers.

I rose, wiping my trembling hands on my pants. I noticed then the trail of blood that led away from the school and I heard racket coming from it.

A hard decision to be made.

I ran to the school's door, but they were locked. I knew there were other entries, but didn't venture. Instead, I took my bike and followed the trail. It became weaker as I traveled through the city until it was an intermittent line of small patches of dried blood. Soon I understood they led me to the forest and when the trace stopped I just rode to Derek's house.

In the shelter of the night, the old manor looked spooky. But I was getting used to live in a horror film, so I strode to the semi-opened door and walked inside.

Derek growled at me, then hissed in pain when he noticed who the intruder was. He was slouched on a chair, covered in blood. His own blood, I deduced, by the way he struggled to breathe properly.

"Imogene?" he grunted.

I was paralyzed by the grotesque scene. "What happened?" I murmured. "Are you okay?"

He ignored the idiocy of my last question. "The Alpha…"

I moved closer, tentatively. "Is there anything-?"

"I'll be okay. I'm already healing," he interrupted me. It didn't make me feel better and I looked away, feeling sick. "Why are you here?" he asked, despite the obvious pain it caused him to speak.

"Right, I almost forgot. I came for answers."

"Can't you wait until tomorrow, I'm a little tired."

"Why can't the Alpha hurt me?"

I heard him try to move and wince. "What?"

"Tonight, when he was fighting you, I called him and he stopped before hurting me. I first thought it was because of the wolfsbane in the bookshop's walls, but then, I faced him again tonight and he just ran away," I explained.

This time he did move. With much pain, he rose from his chair. "You did what?" he exclaimed, angry.

I faced him, defiant, as I had faced the Alpha before. "I went back to school after I was told that I wasn't dying and faced up to the Alpha. He left me go. He didn't even touch me. Why didn't he?"

Derek dragged his hand along his face and slumped back in the chair, who welcomed back his dead weight with a sorrowful cracking sound. "I do not know."

I scoffed. For once, I was the more irritated of the pair of us. "You lie. I know. What did you mean then when you told me it will not be dangerous for me to accompany you to hunt the Alpha? I remind you that is what you said when we went after the vet." No answer. I took some angry steps towards him, dust rising with every movement. "What are you not telling me?" He glared but I ignored it. I also ignored his pitiful state, the wounds, the metallic smell of blood and the sweat. I ignored it all and pointed a finger at him. "I am tired of your games! If you know something, tell me!"

He grabbed my hand by the wrist and put it away. "I do not have anything to tell you."

"Why the Alpha cannot hurt me?" I insisted.

"It can!" he snapped. "You speak as if you were suddenly invincible, but you are just an idiot for facing him like that. You are as defenseless as any human it has killed before."

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you not telling me, Derek?"

His name sounded uncomfortable in the silence of the damaged house, for both of us, and he shifted in his chair. I heard him take a deep breath, close his eyes, muster the strength to speak about something that he clearly wanted to avoid.

"You have good deduction skills, Imogene," he was surprisingly gentle for the rough man he pretended to be, "so why you never wondered how there has been no winner in an ongoing battle carried on for centuries?"

I was taken aback. Why was he asking me questions? And such random question… I could not guess what he was talking about. "What?"

"Hunters versus werewolves… We have been at it for centuries… How there is not a winner?" Speaking was clearly painful for him, but he still humored me. "How?"

"I-I don't know…"

"How did we reach this balance in which the whole of werewolves are not annihilated and werewolves do not prey constantly on humans?" He coughed. "Take a guess."

I felt stupid standing in front of him in the empty room barely illuminated by the moonlight. I felt bared and exposed. "I don't know," I repeated lamely.

"Before chaos arrived, a new force appeared to bring balance." He paused, waiting to see some recognition but I was blank.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Your family is very old, Imogene. Older than mine, older than any hunter's."

"What does this have to do with my father?"

He overlooked my question and continued his retelling. "It is not only old, but also powerful in a way that neither hunters or werewolves, or any creature in this world would risk to oppose them."

"What are they then?"

He laughed eerily. "They are humans with knowledge."

"I don't understand."

"For years- No, not years, centuries. For centuries this family – your family – gathered information – books, gadgets, millenarian artifacts -, powerful ones, to help maintain the balance in an unending war. And in some point, they became a legend, truth and fantasy mixing. Grandmothers speak to their cubs about these 'observers' when they want them to behave…" He chuckled. "'Be good with your brothers or the war hawks will come and get you', and then you would behave, because you did not want this big bird to take out your guts…"

"A hawk?"

"Yes, exactly, as the dead bird you found at your door or the symbol in the entrance of your father's library. It is a family symbol."

"But then my father…"

"Your family's duty was to create pressure so any faction – hunter or werewolf – acted against each other."

"But then… why?" I simply asked, words failing, but he understood perfectly.

"Your father sold us to the hunters. He gave them permission to attack the Hale family and-"

"But what could he have done?! He is just a bookstore seller!"

"That is what he has made you believe! All this time he has been conspiring with the Argents against us! He gave them the white flag to attack us! And now he even gave them part of your family's knowledge to be used as a weapon!"

"The red book…" I muttered.

"Your family is feared by infants and adults equally because they have weapons which could end this war once for all… At the cost of eliminating one of both ends."

"Why don't they do it then? Why don't they end the war and stop the deaths of innocent people?"

"Would you be able to side with one faction and condemn the other?"

I fidgeted. All this information… so important… why had it been kept away from me? And my father… in a power position… it was ridiculous.

"How can I believe you?"

He raised his eyebrows, fixed his eyes in mine, so bright with the reflection of the moon. "Why would I lie?"

"Why would you not tell me before?" I was tense and my voice sounded accusing. Judging by our positions one would believe that I was the angry cop and him, my suspect.

"I didn't trust you," he said.

And I really wanted to believe that, because it meant that he trusted me now, that I had earned it. But I did not. It was there, in the tone of his voice, in the way his battered body slouched and lost some of its overwhelming confidence, in the way his eyes searched the floor for forgiveness.

"Lies," I announced to the night. "You lie." He waited for the truth to be formed in my lips and echo. "You did not tell me because it made it easier for you to use me." I took a deep breath and felt tired, exhausted. "Because had I known, I would have never tried to get that book for you. Because making me believe that my father was a hunter, made him a common enemy, no questions."

"Imogene-"

"You told me I was using you to get out of my dull life and I felt guilty. And it was true… I guess now we are even."

I sighed.

I turned on my heels.

I strode out of the house, head high, feeling low.

"I need you," I heard behind me. I kept on walking away. A usually stronger hand grabbed my arm, too weak to hurt me. "I need you to help me." He still didn't sound as miserable as I felt.

I turned my head and stared at him. "Why would I do that?"

"I-"

His sentence was cut by flashing lights pointing at us, blinding, approaching.

"Wha-?" I whispered.

"Police," he said.

The same hand in my arm that was keeping me from going away suddenly started pushing me along.

"What are you doing? Where are we going?"

He kept dragging me and made me crouch a few meters away from the house, between bushes. My knees sunk into the wet dirt and I lost my balance, but his grip kept me in place.

"Derek Hale!" a policeman shouted to the empty manor, guns held high. "Derek Hale! Come out!"

We didn't stick to see what happened. Derek led me inside the forest, past the two police cars and away. I wished for some light. Also for some understanding. I fell several times, but each of them I was pushed up by the hand in my arm. A hand growing stronger by the second.

We stopped at some random point and I panted away my frustrations.

"They are looking for me," Derek said.

"I can see that." He looked around us, but stayed silent. "What are you going to do?"

"Hide."

I rolled my eyes. "Where?"

He looked hopeless for the first time since we met. I inevitably tried to look for a solution. My house, aconitum filled. The bookstore, aconitum filled.

"Maybe we can get to your car first. I do not think we can get away very far by foot."

He looked at me. "You can. You can leave, if you want."

I chuckled. "If I want…" I muttered quietly.

The ghost of a smirk graced his lips, but I had already taken the decision to stop association once he was safe.

We sat in the grass, waited for the police to leave. He could hear them from here.

"Are you okay?" He raised an eyebrow. "You got a good beating at the school."

"I will heal."

The Derek Hale I had met some weeks ago resurfaced and it ended any attempt of conversation. After excruciating minutes, we moved back to the house and into the car. I was impressed by the inside of the luxurious car, even although my knowledge on automobiles was null. I was careful not to touch anything in such an expensive environment.

We started rolling without a clear objective.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

His lack of answer was discouraging.

I looked out of the window for a while, watching the village grow around us. The Sun peaked at the horizon, casting a new day.

"I still don't understand," I said. "What does the Alpha fears to make him not attack me?"

"Would you risk attacking someone that may or may not have a way to kill you easily? The monster under your bed may just be dust moved by the wind, but it scares you because it is unknown."

"Fair enough."

I saw my house at the end of the street and the car stopped.

I frowned. "We cannot hide you in my house… The walls are filled-"

"Get out of the car, Imogene," he said, "and go home."

I opened my mouth, but there was nothing to say. I unfastened my seatbelt, opened the door, left. Only once I couldn't hear anymore the car, once it was out of sight to God knew were, only then, the words escaped through my lips, "Take care."