Heart Monitor

Kenzie's POV

"Lia, homework then bath and bed"

"I wanna wait for daddy" she argued jumping up and down on our bed.

"Well he's out training the new Beta right now so you can at least do your homework" I finished cleaning up after dinner and put her homework onto the table. "Come on"

"I don't wanna!"

"Lia now and stop jumping on the bed before you fall down and hurt yourself" she pouted but jumped down and came over and sat down at the table to do her homework since we'd been noticing she'd been procrastinating the last few days and had gotten a call from Mrs Sally saying Lia hadn't handed in any homework for the last few days.

"But I don't get it" she argued.

"What don't you get, show me?" I sat down with her and pulled the work booklet towards me. "Lia it's basic addition, your dad went through this with you just last week" I replied then realised what the problem was. "Lia I know you want your dad here but he's got a lot on his plate right now and your have to share him, okay"

"But I don't want to share him, he's my daddy not Scott's" I reached out and brushed her hair out of her face.

"Of course he's not but Scott can be in big trouble if your dad doesn't help him and we don't want that okay so your just gonna have to be patient and until then I can help you, now…6+8=…"

"2" she pouted sating the wrong answer on purpose.

"Lia" I warned in a stern voice.

"I don't want to do it!" she threw the pencil down then got up.

"Natalia Hale enough with the attitude and come back here right now"

"No!" I stood up and crossed my arms at her.

"You have until the count of three…1…2…Lia!" she slammed her bedroom door shut and when it went over and tried the handle it was locked. "Lia open the door, you do not lock doors!"

"I hate you!" she yelled out and I immediately felt the pang in my chest.

"Lia please just open the door"

"Go away!" I groaned contemplating barging down the door but knew that wasn't going to help so I walked away laying down on Derek and my bed grabbing a pillow and screamed into it just wishing that this was all over already.

Derek's POV

I'd been following Scott all night since I was starting his training officially tonight in the only way I knew how to so when I saw him drop the milk out of his grocery bag I saw an opportunity and punctured it with my claws before making it roll back and when his eyes went up I let out a low growl and it was enough to make him run and I followed him on all fours pretending to be the Alpha following the sounds of his panicked breaths.

Just as I was about to hone into his position he made the car alarms go off and it hampered me as I stood and smirked a little since that had actually been smart but before I could mentally praise him too much I heard his ringtone and was able to pinpoint his location with it and jumped on the hood of the car he was hiding behind grabbing his shoulders pulling him up then slammed him down.

"You're dead" I stated looking down at him before I jumped off and started walking away.

"What the…what the hell was that?" he asked scrambling off the hood and started following me.

"Said I was gonna to teach you, I didn't say when"

"You scared the crap out of me!" he exclaimed.

"Not yet" I remarked.

"Okay but I was fast right?"

"Not fast enough"

"But the car alarm thing, that was smart right?"

"Until your phone rang" I told him not slowing down at all since I was done here and just wanted to get home already myself.

"Yeah but that was…I mean…would you just stop, please!" I sighed stopping and turned towards him. "What happened the other night, Stiles' dad getting hurt that was my fault, I should've been there to do something I need you and your wife to teach me how to control this!" I glared at him since Kenzie was to have nothing to do with this but I pushed the anger down still hating that they even had to find out about her.

"Look, Mackenzie and I are what we are because of birth, you were bitten and teaching someone who was bitten takes time, I don't even know if I can teach you"

"What do I have to do?!" he asked loudly.

"You have to get rid of distractions" I replied grabbing his phone out of his jacket. "You see this?" I showed him the screen that stated he had a missed call from Allison. "This is why I caught you, you want me to teach you get rid of her"

"What just because of her family?" he asked and I glared at him turning and threw his phone against the wall smashing it to pieces as he protested.

"You getting angry?" I asked seeing his jaw clenched and panting deep. "That's your first lesson, you want to learn how to control this, how to shift, you do it through anger by tapping into a primal animal rage and you can't do that with her around!" I yelled at him thinking back to before I met Kenzie to how Peter trained me.

"I can get angry" he argued.

"Not angry enough!" I argued right back knowing first hand just how much being around a girl can change your whole perspective on angry since all Kenzie had to go was touch my arm and it was as if all my anger disappeared which is why she became my anchor. "This is the only way that I can teach you, now can you stay away from her…at least until after the full moon?"

"If that's what it takes-"

"Do you want to live, do you want to protect your friends, yes or no?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "If you can teach me, I can stay away from her" he added but I knew it was a lie as his heart jumped but I was done arguing with him about it and left him getting into my car and drove off.

I pulled up in the motel parking lot and hesitated for a second before finally getting out and went upstairs towards our room and used my key to unlock the door closing it behind me frowning at Kenzie curled up in our bed looking like she was asleep but when I walked towards her, her eyes opened.

"What's wrong?" I asked kneeling beside the bed.

"I'm a horrible mother" she stated and I looked around in a slight panic at what she meant by that but I could hear Lia in her room sniffling.

"What happened?"

"I…I just tried to help her with her homework but she…she doesn't want me, she hates me"

"She doesn't hate you, we've talked about this"

"She said it!" she exclaimed then rolled over to her other side. "She told me she hated me Derek" I sighed standing up and went over to Lia's room to go inside but the door was locked which worried me even more on what went down with my girls.

"Lia, baby open the door" I knocked and heard her practically run towards the door and open it.

"Daddy!" she wrapped her arms around my waist and I looked over at Kenz seeing tears in her eyes so I looked down at Lia as I bent down.

"Lia what happened tonight?" I asked her and she instantly had a guilty look on her face and looked towards the ground. "Lia tell me" I told her more sternly.

"I…I gots angry at mommy"

"Why?"

"Because I missed you, I want you" she replied and I sighed.

"Natalia Claire Hale that does not mean you are rude to your mom, what did you say to her?"

"I told…I said I hated her" she cried then looked over at Kenz and suddenly pulled out of my arms and ran over to our bed crawling up. "I'm sorry mommy" she apologized and Kenz pulled her down into her arms. "I…I love you"

"I love you too baby girl" I watched the cuddle smiling to myself a little before I went over and laid down putting my arm over both of them.

"Now Lia I don't want to hear about you ever saying something mean like that to your mom ever again okay, promise us"

"I promise…I love you mommy…I sorry"

"It's okay…it's okay" Kenz cried smoothing out Lia's hair looking up at me with tears of her own. "You didn't mean it baby, I know" she looked up at me over the top of Lia's head which was snuggled into her shoulder and smiled.

I don't know how long it was before I looked down seeing Kenzie was asleep and so was Lia still with her head against Kenzie's chest, I smiled pressing my lips to each of their foreheads before I stood and grabbed a blanket laying it over them before I headed out just to check on Scott since I had a feeling he wouldn't have listened to me.

I made my way over to his place and climbed up into his bedroom but he wasn't here pretty much confirming my thoughts so I decided to wait and try a stronger approach but when he did finally come in he didn't even turn on the light and I could smell fear radiating off him as he rushed over to the open window I'd come in through shutting it and locked it before dropping the blinds then peered out before he finally reached over and flipped on the lamp that was next to me and jumped when he saw me sitting there and with a guess of his reactions I'd say he had a run in with the Alpha.

"You seriously need to stop doing that" he protested.

"So what happened?" I asked him. "Did he talk to you?"

"Yeah we had a nice conversation about the weather, no he didn't talk!" he exclaimed still trying to calm his breathing.

"Well did you get anything off of him, an impression"

"What do you mean?" he asked and I sighed standing up.

"Remember your other senses are heightened, communication doesn't have to be spoken what kind of feeling did you get from him?"

"Anger" he replied after a second of thought.

"Focused on you?" I asked to clarify.

"No, no not me" he said shaking his head. "But it was definitely anger I could feel it especially when he drew the spiral" he added and I frowned.

"Wait the what?" I asked him just to make sure I'd heard him right. "What'd you just say?"

"He drew this spiral on the window of my car, in the condensation you know" he replied and I looked down thinking about what that meant. "What…you have this look on your face like you know what it means"

"No it's…it's nothing" I told him heading towards his door.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait a second" he called grabbing my arm. "You can't do that, you can't ask me to trust you and then just keep things to yourself"

"It doesn't mean anything" I replied pulling the lock back so I could open the door.

"You buried your sister under a spiral, what does it mean?" he asked me but I sighed and put my hand on his shoulder.

"You don't want to know" I replied before I walked out heading towards my car that I'd parked a little bit down the street then went back to the motel seeing my girls exactly where I'd left them so I stripped out of my jeans then crawled in and just wrapped my arms around my family.

"You left?" I heard and looked up seeing Kenzie's eyes open looking up at me.

"Just had to talk to Scott again" I replied then sighed and she took note of it.

"What, is he okay?" she asked and I nodded.

"He had a run in with the Alpha, he's okay but he uh…he told me the Alpha drew a spiral on his car" I told her and watched her eyes widen.

"What?" she asked and I nodded. "He's doing this for revenge…revenge for what?" she asked but I had no clue so I stayed silent. "What if…what if this is personal, against us…the Hale name?" she asked pulling Lia closer to her.

"It's not" I reassured her.

"You can't know that, we have no idea who this is and we sure as hell don't know what this bastard really wants" she argued.

"Kenz please don't worry, nothing is going to happen to you or Lia since if this was about us he wouldn't be killing all these people" I told her and she sighed nodding her head looking back down at Lia who was sleeping peaceful as ever. "I'm gonna figure this out okay, I promise" I reached for her hand and squeezed it.

"I'm not biologically designed not to worry Derek" she argued and I sniggered looking at her.

"I know you aren't, it's one of the reasons I love you so much" I squeezed her hand seeing as I was unable to kiss her. "I think I need to go see Peter, see if I can get something from him…anything at this point"

"He's unresponsive" she argued looking at me with sad eyes. "I check in on him during my breaks sometime, I've tried talking to him but he never talks back"

"I know but I have to try something, I'm running out of ideas and we've gotten nowhere" she sighed and nodded her head.

"We'll talk in the morning, I'm gonna put her to bed" she went to get up but I held her in place.

"Leave her, one night is okay" I smiled just content to hold my girls in my arms.

"Yeah I'll remember that when she starts insisting on sleeping with us again" I laughed nodding as I remembered the time when Lia wouldn't sleep anywhere but our bed, she was around two years old and we'd let her sleep with us after a nightmare and then it just became and every night thing for months before Kenz put her foot down and we fought tooth and nail to get Lia used to sleeping in her own bed.

"I'll move her into her own bed before she wakes up, I just want to hold my family"

Kenzie's POV

I woke up to the smell of bacon and opened my eyes seeing I was alone in bed so I quickly looked around and smiled seeing Lia and Derek sitting at the small round table with breakfast in front of them and Lia was actually doing her homework with Derek's help.

"Uh-oh mommy's awake" Derek laughed as I sat up. "Lia do you want to say something?"

"I'm really sorry mommy for my behava yesyday" she apologized coming over and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"It's okay baby, I know this is hard" I brushed her hair out of her face almost laughing at the birds nest. "Hasn't your dad brushed your hair yet?"

"He tried!" Derek exclaimed.

"He pulls too hard, can you do it?" Lia asked so I smiled and nodded.

"Go grab your brush" I told her then went over and sat down at the table.

"See there are things that a girl just needs her mom for" Derek whispered making me smile as Lia bounded back towards me with her brush and stood in front of me as I brushed her hair and pulled it up into a pony tail for school before I let her finish off the last few questions on her homework while I showered and changed.

I had the day off work today so after Derek and I both dropped Lia off at school we decided to head out into the preserve for a little…one might call it training but for Derek and I it was a healthy round of friendly competition.

I kicked out my leg with him deflecting it with both of his hands before he threw a punch that I dodged effortlessly since we didn't do this to hurt each other we tested each other and kept ourselves fit while doing so and with everything going on we needed the refresher.

"Gotta move quicker babe" I smirked as we circled each other before I sprang moving towards him going for the gut but he spun out of the way throwing his leg out and I tripped stumbling into a tree which got my anger running and I turned to him with bright yellow-gold eyes.

"Ooh did I hit a nerve" he goaded back through a smirk which quickly fell as I moved towards throwing fists out towards his face which he deflected holding up his arms countering each one so I brought my leg up kicking him back making him stumble a few steps back then grabbed his shoulders and threw him over my head before getting on top and held him down with an arm against his throat and pinned his arms down with the other. "Okay, okay nice one"

"What was our mistake?" I asked since it was his favorite thing to ask me.

"I was too focused on deflecting for too long" he replied and I smirked letting go which he used quickly flipping our positions pinning me down face first into the ground with both hands behind my back. "Don't show mercy" he let me go and I stood up as we both laughed since we loved doing this and had been doing it for as long as we can remember after we first met, you could say it was how our relationship started.

Flashback – 8 years ago

"Don't hold back" I told Derek right before going for a punch with Peter, Laura and Cora watching all with smiles on their faces.

"Please it's not in my nature" he laughed which made me angry and I moved throwing more stronger punches right towards his face as he dodged each one dancing back with every punch before he went on the offence kicking his leg out but I jumped over it seeing it first which left him perfect opportunity to punch and I went back holding my cheek a little but didn't show weakness and moved towards him again.

"Come on Mackenzie!" Cora yelled out and I laughed.

"Brat!" Derek called back right as I sent a kick towards his head which he ducked but I'd followed through with a punch hitting him square in the jaw knocking him down so I moved to secure him slamming my foot against his chest.

"Uncle?" I asked him but he smirked grabbing my foot pulling it up which knocked me off balance and I went down with him moving quickly grabbing both of my hands securing them beside my head and no matter how much I kicked and fought to free myself he held strong.

"I believe I win" he smirked hovering over me knees on either side of my waist.

"God kiss already!" Laura yelled out which made us both look up and realised how this position would look to them and quickly scrambled off each other sharing an awkward look.

"Look at the time, my Dad's probably waiting…uh bye" I said and quickly ran off.

"Nice one Laura" I heard Peter grumble as I left.

"Earth to Mackenzie" I looked up snapped out of the memory and saw Derek in front of me. "Where'd you just go"

"Nowhere let's keep going" I told him and we continued to spar for a few more hours before we finally stopped both breathless and panting for breath laying side by side on the forest floor looking up at the sky. "Feels good to be doing this again" I laughed.

"Yeah" he agreed moving onto his elbow so he was looking down at me. "Wanna keep going?" he asked with a smirk and I laughed flipping myself up onto my feet.

We sparred for about another half an hour before stopping and headed back to the motel to shower and change clothes before we went to the finally decided now was the time to go and see Peter before we had to pick up Lia.

We walked into the long-term care facility hand-in-hand walking at a slow pace as we anxiously approached Peter's room before we went inside seeing him in the exact same spot he always was when I came in, sitting in his wheelchair staring blankly at the wall but when we reached him we sat on the bed and Derek reached out turning him to face us looking down so I reached out and laid a comforting hand on his knee.

"We need your help" he said looking back up at his Uncle. "If you can hear me, I need you to give us a sign…blink…raise a finger, anything just something to help point us in the right direction, okay?" he said then paused looking down at his lap, I knew this was hard on him more so then it is for me and it was hard on me so I couldn't imagine what was running through his mind right now. "Someone killed Laura" he added looking back up but kept his eyes lowered. "Your niece…Laura?" I knew he was hoping that hearing that we'd get a reaction but Peter was still as ever.

"Well whoever he is he's an Alpha now" I cut in when Derek looked down again. "But he's one without a pack which means he's not as strong" I added looking up sharing a look with Derek.

"We can take him but we have to find him first" Derek said turning back to Peter. "Look if you know something just give us a sign, is it one of us, someone else make it out of the fire?" I frowned looking down at my lap now because while that was a thought I doubted it deeply and it filled my heart with grief. "Just give me something, blink…raise a finger…just anything!" I looked up hearing the desperation creeping into Derek's voice. "Say something!" he yelled having enough and grabbed the sides of the wheelchair shaking it.

"Let him go!" a nurse yelled appearing in the doorway, it was the same nurse from the night we brought Scott here. "You think after six years of this, yelling at him is going to get a response?"

"You got a better method?" Derek argued glaring at her.

"Patience, he'll respond if you give him the time" she replied and Derek looked down at Peter who hadn't moved despite all that.

"We don't have any more time" he snapped grabbing my hand and we left walking back out to the car but I pulled on his hand.

"Derek wait…just breathe" I told him since I could smell the anger and frustration rolling off him, he stopped and took a deep breath in before letting it out. "We're gonna figure this out but not if we lose our heads, so calm down and take a breath" he sighed taking another deep breath letting it go. "You good now?" he smiled and nodded his head squeezing my hand before we made the move to get in but he paused looking at the front windscreen before he pulled a piece of paper from the wipers. "What is it?" I asked and he turned it to me and I saw the photo of a deer with a spiral carved into it's side and I recognized it since it was what brought Laura back to Beacon Hills in the first place.

We looked around as if we'd see the person who left it but the parking lot was deserted so we got into the car and drove off since we really had to get to the school and pick up Lia who came running towards us with her backpack bouncing on her back as soon as the class got out making me smile as she jumped straight into Derek's arms.

"Hey baby girl, how was school?" he asked her as we walked back towards the car.

"It was fun" she smiled hanging on to his neck.

"Oh yeah what did you do?" I asked.

"I played on the monkey bars and I met a boy" she explained and Derek's head snapped down at her when she said the last part.

"You what?" he asked her as I tried not to smile.

"Really what's his name?"

"Ryan, we played together at recess and now he's my boyfriend" she told us and I couldn't help laugh at the look on Derek's face, it was pure overprotective father.

"That's cool" I said and Derek turned to me with a look that said 'don't encourage her' "Relax" I mouthed at him since it wouldn't last, she was six so she didn't really understand what boyfriend meant and it was all just roleplay.

We went back to the motel but I knew Derek's mind was still on that piece of paper so after Lia went into her room to play I turned to him seeing him sitting on our bed so I sighed and walked over to him lifting his eyes to meet mine.

"Go" I told him and he frowned. "It's the first solid lead we've got since we got here, so go we'll be fine" he sighed nodding his head and stood pulling me to him right as Lia ran back into the room stopping us before we could kiss.

"Ew, no kissing!" we laughed turning to her.

"Why not?" Derek asked her before kissing my cheek.

"Cause it's gross daddy" she replied and he smiled.

"That's my girl" he laughed and I rolled my eyes. "Now I gotta go out for a bit but your gonna stay here and be a good girl for your mom" she pouted but nodded. "I love you"

"I love you too daddy" she replied hugging him before he quickly tickled her and she burst out in giggles. "Stop…stop please!" he laughed and stopped before he kissed her forehead and stood up straight.

"Be careful please" I told him and he nodded kissing me chastely before he was gone so I turned to Lia. "Pizza and princess movies?" I asked and she smiled.

"Yes!" I laughed and picked up my phone to call for pizza.

Derek's POV

I walked into the animal clinic hearing movement and a heartbeat from the backroom so I headed back and the vet turned expecting it to be Scott but his smile fell when he saw me instead of the teenager.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"I hope so" I replied walking further into the room. "I want to know about the animal you found with the spiral on it's side?"

"Excuse me, what animal?"

"Three months ago, the deer?" I said pulling out the paper and showed it to him. "You remember this?"

"Oh yes but it's just a deer and I didn't find it they called me because they wanted to know if I'd ever seen anything like it" he argued.

"What'd you tell 'em?" I shot back taking a few steps forward.

"I told them no" he replied but I heard his heartbeat stutter.

"Did you hear that?" I asked crumbling the paper up in my fist.

"Hear what?" he asked backing up away from me.

"The sound of your heartbeat rising"

"Excuse me?"

"It's the sound of you lying" I grabbed him and pulled him down on the table between us and hit him until he was unconscious before I tied him down to the chair waiting for him to wake up.

"Oh god" he mumbled finally coming to.

"Are you protecting someone?" I asked him since he didn't smell like a werewolf.

"Alright the key to the drug locker is in my pocket"

"I don't want drugs, I want to know why your lying" I demanded grabbing the back of his neck.

"I don't know what your talking about" he persisted so I spun the chair around and picked it up with him still in it. "What are you doing to me, what do you want!"

"I want to know who you are or who your protecting?!" I yelled right in his face.

"What are you doing!?" I heard Scott yell from the doorway as I dropped the chair when he flipped the light on then hit the vet again knocking him out. "Stop, stop!" Scott yelled.

"Look when he's conscious he can keep himself from healing but unconscious he can't"

"Are you out of your mind, what are you talking about?!" Scott demanded.

"You want to know what the spiral means Scott, it's our sign for a vendetta…for revenge it means he won't stop killing until he's satisfied!"

"You think he's the Alpha?" Scott asked practically glaring at me.

"We're about to find out" I shot back turning to the vet and raised my fist to punch him again but Scott caught my arm and when I turned I saw he'd shifted and roared at me throwing my arm down as I backed up looking at him shocked as he shifted back to normal without a problem.

"Hit him again and then you'll see me get angry"

Kenzie's POV

I picked Lia up carefully since she'd drifted off half way through sleeping beauty and I carried her towards her room and laid her down in the bed tucking the covers around her and made sure she had her stuffed wolf before I walked out closing the door so she wouldn't hear Derek come home and wake up then started to clean up the leftover pizza boxes.

I jumped into the shower getting ready for bed but right as I hopped out I felt a painful twinge go right through my back between my shoulder blades but when I reached back there was nothing there and when I looked in the mirror I didn't see anything but the pain was just getting worse making me pause and think…the last time I'd felt something this intense was two weeks ago when Derek had been shot…Derek!

I quickly wrapped a towel around myself and rushed out to my phone calling Derek but it rang out so I cursed quickly getting dressed then went into Lia's room and although I didn't want to take her if Derek was injured I had no choice.

"Lia…Lia baby I need you to get up, your Dad's in trouble" she sat up sleepily.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah baby we have to go…right now" I grabbed her and her blanket and headed out realizing Derek had the car so I went over to another car in the parking lot looking around before I put Lia down and used my elbow to smash the glass thankful no alarm went off then opened the door and quickly hotwired the car then turned and grabbed Lia sitting her down in the back seat before I drove off with the window down tracking my husbands scent.

It lead to the high school where I pulled up and saw the Camaro and Stiles' crappy power blue Jeep so I told Lia to stay put then ran up to the Jeep seeing the hood was bent up and took note of the claw marks scratched into the metal before my nose caught something else on the wind…blood…Derek's blood so I followed it and found Derek unconscious with blood and black goop staining his lips and blood covering his back.

"Derek…Derek?!" I knelt down and shook him roughly and he moaned but remained unconscious but at least he was alive. "Your lucky I don't finish the job you asshole" I rolled him over then stood and grabbed his arms and started dragging him towards the Camaro and Lia jumped out of the car.

"Daddy?!"

"It's okay Lia, your Dad's okay" I opened the Camaro door after lowering Derek down pulling the seat forward taking note that Lia's car seat wasn't in the back but I would've guessed that Derek put it in the boot so the teenagers didn't see it. "Lia jump in" she didn't argue and jumped into the back and I put the seat back upright then turned back to Derek lifting him up and sat him down into the seat. "You die on me and I swear to god-" I closed the door then quickly ran over to the car I'd stole and wiped down the steering wheel, front and back seat quickly with some wet wipes before I went back to the Camaro and jumped in taking off.