After Allison turned me into in own personal archery target, I awoke in a dark, gloomy basement. And if that hadn't sounded creepy enough to begin with, I was also hanging from the ceiling by my wrists, suspending just above the floor. There were live wires tied around my wrists, running up my body and sending an electric current through me, which kept my body spasming every odd second. A piece of duct tape had been slapped across my mouth as well, preventing me from screaming whenever I was shocked.

Initially when I awoke, I started to struggle against my restraints, tried to shift and cut myself free, but I couldn't. And with each jolt of electricity I felt my strength vanish, only reemerging for less than a second before it vanished again. I'd been crying too, the pain having gotten to me even when I was unconscious apparently. Or maybe it had been because of Erica and Boyd.

When I started struggling I noticed they were alongside me – Erica strung up between me and Boyd. Both hung up in the exact same way as me. Boyd was keeping it together, even though I could see how terrified he was from his eyes. Erica was in tears, mumbling against her duct tape as she tried to talk to me. I had no idea what she was saying, but I knew I had to comfort her, to reassure her that everything would be okay. But I couldn't even do that. I couldn't hold her because of my restraints, and I couldn't talk to her because of my own gag. All we could do was mumble at one another and have a conversation that somehow we managed to understand.

Are you all right?

No. You?

No.

How are we going to get out of here?

I don't know.

That was the gist of what we were saying, although I think we might have both been making up what the other was saying in our heads. Still if it brought Erica even a the tiniest bit of comfort, I'd take it for now.

We were in darkness for a long while, left alone and scared with only each other for company. I hadn't seen any Hunters since I awoke, not even Allison – who I'd been expecting to be right there, ready to torture me for her own kicks. I still didn't understand why I'd apologised to her? And I couldn't ask Erica or Boyd if any Hunters had been down since they had woke up. All I could do was fight futilely against my restraints until finally the door at the top of the stairs opened.

Our heads turned as one, each of us stopping in what we were doing. Me in struggling, Erica in crying, and Boyd in mumbling. We all hung there, watching the light that had filled the room, before a grumbling voice that we knew too well came from the top.

A series of 'ows' followed before Stiles was shoved down the remaining stairs and into the basement where he hit the floor face first. Once he had, the door above closed and we were left in darkness again. Our eyes adjusted quickly enough, but Stiles' took longer, only able to hear our mumbles and tears without actually seeing us. But then once he was up on his feet, and looking right at us, he figured it out.

With his hand whacking the wall randomly until he found the light switch, he continued to stare as light filled the room and his eyes widened while his mouth dropped. Staring in horror as he saw all three of us tied up, with tear stained faces and terrified eyes. "What the hell…?" Stiles murmured as he stepped towards us. "What are they doing to you?" Stiles asked us all, though he was stood in front of Erica and looking solely into her sad, sad eyes.

"Doesn't matter," Stiles then said, shaking his head with an odd determination in his voice. "I'm getting you guys out of these." Instantly Erica started mumbling at him, shaking her head as she tried to warn him off. Stiles didn't seem to understand, instead shushing her as he reached up for the wires around her wrists. Of course, the second he touched them he got an electric shock, which then hit Erica as well as she swung about from her restraints.

I would have started to shout at him then, even if I had been gaged, had it not been for the voice that spoke up next.

"They were trying to warn you, it's electrified," Gerard said as he came down the stairs and into the basement, hitting us all with yet another cold Argent glare. Allison's had given me shivers, but this old man's…his shook me straight to the core.

"What are you doing with them?" Stiles demanded with a strange amount of bravery that I would never have associated with him. And he didn't even waver before the old man, not like we Werewolves were at the moment. All three of us fighting the urge to wet ourselves as we came face to face with the leader of the Hunters – though part of that was due to the electricity.

As Gerard stepped off the last step, he made himself comfy against the wall, folding his arms as he stared at us. "At the moment, just keeping them comfortable," Gerard answered Stiles. "There's no point in torturing them, they won't give up Derek. The instinct to protect their Alpha is too strong." If I could have, I might have pointed out that we no longer saw Derek as our Alpha. But I could only seen myself doing that if they were to let Erica go at least, Boyd too. I'd do anything to protect them right now.

"Okay…so what are you doing with me?" Stiles asked slowly, as if knowing he wasn't going to like the answer. But then rather than letting Gerard answer, Stiles did what Stiles always did. Stiles kept on talking. "Because Scott can find me, all right. He knows my scent. It's pungent, you know? It's more like a stench. He could find me even if I was buried at the bottom of a sewer covered in focal matter and urine." If he kept talking like this I was going to need someone to remove this gag before I threw up in my mouth.

"You have a knack for creating a vivid picture, Mr. Stilinski," Gerard complimented him, to which I had to agree. "Let me paint one of my own," he then said, raising a finger before he stepped towards Stiles, who had no where to go except back into us. Then, in a darker tone, Gerard described his picture to us all. "Scott McCall finds his best friend bloodied and beaten to a pulp. How does that sound?"

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Stiles responded in a way only Stiles could in a situation like this. "I think I might prefer more of a still life or landscape, you know?" He then stopped talking, realising how dark Gerard's look was, and that he was staring very intensely at him. Stiles quickly seemed to grasp the situation. I wanted to warn him, for Erica's sake more than anything, but I couldn't. I didn't even mumble though, to afraid of what Gerard might do to us for interfering.

"What are you, ninety? Look, I can probably kick your ass up and down this room–" Gerard didn't let him finish, slapping him clean across the face and sending him to the floor, during which all three of us grimaced as we turned away. The sound of the slap had been more than enough to tell us how hard Stiles had been hit.

When I then looked back, Gerard was knelt down over Stiles. One hand holding the front of his lacrosse jersey while the other was clenched into a fist. Stiles mumbled out some warnings but Gerard ignored them, as he started pounding his fist into Stiles face. With each punch I had to look away again, grimacing every time I heard the impact. For a Werewolf it would have been all right. It would have hurt like hell but we would have healed. Stiles, however, didn't have our abilities, and was defenceless against the strength Gerard had accumulated over the years.

Boyd did the same as me, looking away each time Gerard's fist collided with Stiles. Erica however, started screaming from behind her gag, thrashing about against her restraints as she was forced to watch her crush suffer. Finally she'd had enough, and did something completely and utterly stupid. I couldn't have stopped her though, even if I'd been able to, doing so wouldn't have been an option. She swung out with her bonded legs, kicking Gerard in the back and forcing him to stumble away from Stiles – who was now covered in blood with black and blue patches of skin all over. And Gerard had only just started hitting him as well.

My gaze then went to Gerard, and I saw the kind of thing I imagined Isaac saw in his father. A look of pure hatred and anger.

Pushing himself back up, Gerard brushed himself off as he marched towards Erica. "You should learn to pick your battles," growled Gerard, before he slammed his fist into Erica's stomach, causing her to cry out once more form behind her gag, her eyes widening in pain as further tears fell from her eyes.

That was when I started thrashing around, trying to get at him, as he pounded into my sister. I screamed as loud as I could but he was lost in his anger, punching Erica just as he had with Stiles, showing no remorse towards the thing he hated the most.

"Stop it… Stop it… Leave her alone! Aren't you supposed to be beating me up! Isn't that the whole point!" Stiles shouted from the floor, trying to get Gerard's attention, but he was lost in the moment, like a boxer as he threw punch after punch at Erica who was in clear agony.

Finally I managed to swing my legs in such a way that I got his attention, kicking him in the side before he then threw a punch at my face. Blood burst from my nose, a wave of pain shortly following as I screamed in silence. Another punch to my gut had me winded, unable to scream or mumble any further as I struggled to breath. Then he went back to Erica, and all I could do was cry, unable to do anything more.

I'd failed her, failed her so many times. All the decisions I'd made; accepting the bite from Derek, getting him to give it to her, the decision to become who we were now…it had all been for nothing. All I'd done was turn the psychological bullying into this. And honestly, I was struggling to tell which was worse. But in either scenario, I had to watch Erica suffer, and it was killing me inside. Killing me to be so powerless yet again.

All I could do was cry, cry silently as I watched Erica take punch after punch, just like I'd taken those arrows. I would have taken a thousand more to spare her from all this, to give her a life were she didn't have to suffer. Life hadn't been fair to us, but when I'd chosen to become a Werewolf, I'd brought this upon her. When I'd wanted revenge against Lydia, I'd brought her wrath upon the Pack. And in going after Allison and her boyfriend, I'd caused her to turn into a cold heartless Hunter. Every decision I'd made had lead me and Erica here, and I couldn't help but feel guilty, wishing I could get one thing right, just for her.

Then maybe, I got my wish, as Stiles grabbed Gerard from behind, pulling him away from Erica before he could get another punch in. "Leave her alone!" he shouted, ready to throw a punch of his own, until Gerard got one in first.

Practically foaming at the mouth now, Gerard kicked Stiles legs out form under him, before bending down to resume the job he'd started before. He went back to beating Stiles.

Regretfully I couldn't step in, nor could Erica. She wanted to, I could feel it, but she hadn't the strength and neither did I. And yet Stiles had stepped in to protect us, to protect Erica. He cared enough to put himself between her and Gerard. That might be the one good thing that had come out of all of this. Was it worth it? I couldn't answer that, only Erica could, if this ever ended.

The pummelling did eventually stop, but only once Stiles was unconscious. After that Gerard got two Hunter to take him upstairs, and that was the last we saw of Stiles, before Gerard turned up the electricity, knocking us all out with one turn of the dial.

In my dreams I relived the nightmares of Lydia. As in the previous dreams I'd been having recently, she was working with the Hunters, though namely Allison. Both of them hunting me, capturing me, torturing me. I'd be minding my own business in school and then they'd appear, marching doing the hallway towards me in full hunting gear. I'd turn to run but they'd hit me with arrows and I'd go down. I'd cry out for help, but everyone would either ignore me or just laugh along with Allison and Lydia. Then they'd use wolfsbane on me, weaken me and then drag me away – to watch while they did the same thing to Erica.

That happened over and over, only broken up by a change of sincere. Sometimes they'd chase me around the woods, turn me into a wounded animal as they shot me in the leg, then mock me as I limped away – both of them keeping pace as they simply walked behind me. Other times we were in Derek's lair, and Lydia would appear out of nowhere. A dozen clones or more, all of them restraining the entire Pack with sudden supernatural strength. Then they'd make me watch as they used their purple wolfsbane on us, on by one. After that I'd be transported into a dark room, one with just me and Allison. She'd hurt me, use me for target practise – whether it was with knifes or arrows – and then she'd drag in Erica and murderer her right in front of me. I'd scream, and then I'd be in the hallway, or the forest, or even the lair again. I'd see Erica smiling, and beg for her and the Pack to run, before the cycle repeated.

Thankfully the nightmares did end, but when I awoke I was still in that basement, still in the grim reality of the Hunters' prison. Only this time it wasn't Gerard himself who was stood in the basement with us, it was his son, Allison's father. Chris Argent.

"You know, my family's done this for a long time," Chris began to explain, hand hovering over the generator that control the electricity. He must have only just lowered it enough to wake us up. I glance over, seeing Erica and Boyd were awake too before I looked back to Chris as he continued to talk.

"Long enough to learn things like how a certain level of electric current can keep you from transforming. At another level, you can't heal." That explained the pain I was still feeling in both my nose and stomach, bruised from Gerard's punch. Also why my sister was more black and blue than pale white. "A few amps higher, and no heightened strength. Another step up, and it'll keep you in a suspended unconsciousness state, until eventually your heart just gives out." I wondered how close we'd been to that, how long we'd been out before he came to wake us up. "That kind of scientific accuracy – it makes you wonder where the line between the natural, and the supernatural, really exists."

Chris's head lowered, hand still on the dial, staring at it with something very close to guilt on his face. "It's when lines like that blur…you sometimes find yourself surprised by which side you end up on." He looked up to us, genuine sorrow in his expression. But then he looked back down, hand ready to turn the generator back up.

The three of us closed our eyes, waiting for the intensified shock when suddenly the generator cut out. My eyes shot open, seeing Chris having turned off the generator. He said nothing more after that, merely looked me in the eye, and then turned and left.

It was only a few minutes after he left, I realised what he'd been tell us. About the electric current and what it could do to our bodies as Werewolves. But there wasn't an electric current anymore, and already my supernatural powers were coming back. I could hear again, hear throughout the house and I knew there was no one inside. It was just us in the house, unguarded, with our restraints loosened enough for us to escape.

If I ever saw Allison's dad again – which I honestly hoped I didn't – I'd have to thank him. Because he'd given me a chance to save them to save Erica and Boyd. And I wasn't going to waste it.

Groaning in effort I forced on my anger, using it like Derek had taught me, using it to shift. I still wasn't great at it, but I'd done it once tonight and I'd do it again. I had to, there was no other decision to be made, I was going to free myself and Erica and Boyd.

Finally I felt the shift, complete and whole as my body transformed. My claws elongating, as I pulled with all of my strength and severed the cables and straps around my wrists.

I collapsed onto the floor but I didn't care, I was free, and that was enough to make me smile, while Boyd and Erica swung about, mumbling to try and get my attention. They had nothing to worry about, I was never going to leave them, or maybe they were just overjoyed because they already knew that.

With no time to waste I got back up to my feet, cutting them both down and ripping off the duct tape over their mouths. We then idiotically took a moment to group hug, but we needed it. And from that hug alone I felt myself begin to heal. By the time I'd pulled away in fact, Erica's face was less bruised and looking more like her natural self again.

I wanted to make sure she was okay after everything that had just happened – make sure she wasn't too hurt physically, or psychologically after watching Stiles get beaten to an inch of his life by Gerard. And she still had no idea what had happened to him either, none of us did. How much had we all missed? But more importantly than all of that, was getting Eric and Boyd to safety. So we ran outside and took off into the woods, the safest place for now, our own territory.

We ran for as long as we could, pushing ourselves until finally Boyd called out to us from behind. He'd been lagging the whole way, but now he was well and truly falling behind. I stopped, Erica with me, as we let Boyd catch up before he threw his body over, hands going to his knees as he tried to catch his breath. "Sorry. I just – I just need to catch my breath."

"It's all right," I reassured him as he moved to lean against a tree. "We should be far enough away now. And I don't hear anyone following us. No scents either."

"What are we going to do now?" Erica asked, breathing just as heavily as Boyd. I wasn't in much better shape either, exhausted after everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Us leaving the Pack, getting captured and tortured by the Argents, before finally escaping. I'd had more than enough drama for a week, but we still needed to get to safety.

"We're going to find Derek and Scott," I declared. Both looked to me as if about to argue my point, when we all heard a branch snap and turned to see a woman standing just a few meters away from us. She was older than us, though probably not as old as Derek was. Attractive, tanned skin that wasn't given justice in the moonlight and forest shadows. Long wavy black hair and dark coloured eyes that seemed to be alight at the moment.

She was dressed casually, jeans and a short light sparkly t-shirt, loosely wrapped silk scarf around her neck, held in place by the locks of her hair, running down either side of her shoulders. Around her right wrist was a series of thin red bracelets that all dropped towards her hand, dangling by her side. Her other hand was on her waist, a tattoo of some kind on it, but hard to make out in the light and from the way she was standing.

She was not someone you would expect to find in the forest at this time of night. But what shocked me more was the fact that I'd had no idea she was there until right now, when she'd broken the branch. I hand't heard her when listening for Argents and I hadn't smelt her when I was checking for scents.

"That wouldn't happen to be Derek Hale and Scott McCall, now would it?" the mysterious woman asked, lifting her chin as she studied us.

"Why? You know them?" Boyd asked, still hunched over, though more alert now.

As for Erica, she'd moved closer to me, her arms going around one of mine as I moved forward to place myself between her and this intruder. "And more importantly who are you?" I asked.

She smiled. "We'll get to that."

Another twig snapped and we turned, finding two more figures coming out of the forest towards us. I sniffed to try and catch their scents and suddenly realised we were surrounded…by Werewolves.

A snort rang out and Boyd jumped towards us, as a black wolf with red eyes approached the tree he'd been leaning against. Now huddled together in a group, we watched as this red eyed wolf sat himself down by the base of the tree, folding its paws before lowering its bored head onto them. An Alpha.

There were seven in total, including the Alpha – that could apparently turn into a wolf. That left six betas…or so I thought. Because as they closed in around us, their eyes all started to glow. And all of them were red.

Four of them drew their claws. Two boys that looked identical – twins – a large brute of a man and another woman with long straight hair, who also had claws on her feet as well. Those four stood in a crescent around us, leaving us only one way to go. Which lead us right into the woman who'd spoken to us and a man who was now stood next to her with tinted red glasses. As for the wolf, it hardly seemed interested in any of this, still sat by the tree licking it's paws.

"Very well done, Maria," congratulated the man – in a British accent – next to the woman who'd spoken. Maria, I presumed.

"It wasn't exactly hard," said the modest Maria, grinning away at me and my fellow Betas. She then began to step towards us, to which we took a step back, prompting her to chuckle as she stared right at me. "So this is the Hale Pack's tracker, huh?" She looked me up and down. "Not every impressive. She didn't even sense us coming."

"She is newly turned remember," pointed out the man with the red glasses. "I'm sure with more time, she'll get a chance to improve."

Maria stood up to her full height, though still wasn't as tall as the man she was stood in front of, turning around to cock an eyebrow at him. "So what? You thinking of replacing me?"

A chuckle from the man with the red glasses. "I wouldn't dream of it my dear," he said, stepping forward before laying his hand on Maria's shoulder, smiling fondly at her. Then his head turned towards us. "Take them," he ordered, and just then I felt Erica and Boyd pulled away from me.

I turned, already screaming along with Erica and Boyd. The twins had Erica, each holding an arm of hers, while Boyd had been pulled right off his feet and slammed into the ground by the brute. Said brute then delivered a jaw break blow to Boyd's face, knocking him clean out. I ran to try and protect him in his unconscious state, but the woman with claws instead of hands and feet got between us, sending me back with a kick of incomparable strength.

I sailed through the air, feeling the wind leave me as I hit the forest floor, sending up a storm of leaves as I did. I pushed myself back up quickly enough, but the pain that shot out through my stomach stopped me from getting back up to my feet with any great speed.

My eyes then went to Erica, and the twins that had her. One was shoving her down, holding her with both arms while the other only had one on her. That one had his other hand raised, claws catching the light, before he swung them down into Erica's neck.

She let out a scream of pain, her eyes flashing bright yellow, before they faded and she dropped down to the ground, unconscious.

Then I was screaming, shouting her name as I tried to get to her, to save her from whatever was happening, but Maria grabbed me from behind and pushed her weight on me, forcing me down onto my belly while she sprawled herself out on top of me. "Let me go!" I shouted, which resulted in my face getting shoved into the dirt, only to be removed when I stop shouting and screaming.

"Your name's, Dylan Reyes, right? The Hale Pack's Second?" Maria's voice held that of one that already knew the answer to her own question.

I could practically feel her smile on my ear as she continued, the tips of her claws tickling the back of my neck. "We've got someone I'm sure would love to meet you." I had no idea what she was talking about, or why I was of some importance to her and this bizarre Pack.

"That's enough for now, Maria," the man with the red glasses spoke up, stepping carefully towards us. It was only when his white cane stopped in front of my face that I realised, he was blind. "We don't want to ruin all the surprises quite yet, do we?"

Trying to look up at the man speaking, I found I couldn't crane my neck far enough, so I had to settle for looking at his hands, folded at the top of his walking stick. "Who are you people?" I groaned out from beneath Maria's weight.

"We, are the Alpha Pack," the man answered. "And you are going to help us add a new member to our ranks." Before I could ask anything more, I felt Maria's claws pierce my neck. My head shot up right, my eyes glowing as I gasped. I could feel her inside me, inside my mind. Searching through all my thoughts and memories while also pushing me out, towards the blackness. I tried to fight her off, but I was already falling, everything else fading into one single light that then blinked out, leaving me alone in the darkness. The last place I wanted to be.