Ares and Peter are gone, and only Jennifer remains.

The nurse backs herself into a corner as Derek stalks forward, breath ragged with rage. His eyes shine bright blue-he has no reason to keep them hidden. This woman helped Peter. This woman knows about them. This woman has the audacity to beg Derek to stop, holding out her hands in a placating manner, tears gathering in her eyes, her voice cracking. She knows about werewolves, and after helping one murder several people already, she knows how deadly one can be.

Her heart pounds in terror, and Derek would revel in it if not for the thought that Ares must have been just as terrified, if not more, when Peter took her.

Derek wonders if Jennifer realizes Peter left her here to die.

"Please-"

Derek's hand shoots out and closes around her throat, cutting her off. Her eyes bulge and her hands grab at his arm, scratching and tugging to little effect. He only tightens his hold, claws digging in but not breaking skin. She gasps, struggling to draw in breath and he ignores how she beats against his chest, his face. She stills, however, when he pulls her close, snarling in her face.

"Where. Is. She?"

Jennifer swallows hard, chokes, and Derek eases the grip just enough for her to suck in a greedy breath.

"Peter… Peter took her," Jennifer says, voice weak, and Derek growls at the unhelpfulness of it.

"Where." He applies more pressure to her windpipes, and she squawks in alarm. She squeezes her eyes shut, and tears stream down her face and Derek… Derek feels nothing for her. Nothing for her, but still, a burning rage, betrayal, and terror. Cold terror. Because he doesn't know what Peter plans to do with Ares.

Ares…

His impossible, horrible, worst human. Who makes him smile. Who makes him feel after being numb for so long.

Who he couldn't protect.

"… House." Derek narrows his eyes at the nurse. "He took her to the house." She looks at him with pleading eyes. "He took her home."

Home.

Derek growls out in frustration. Jennifer whimpers, only to go silent when he flashes his eyes at her. She helped Peter. This whole time she had been helping him. Hadn't stopped him from taking Ares.

Had she helped kill Laura as well?

He tightens his grip around her throat, thinks about how easy it would be to rip it out and leave her to bleed out, just as Peter had done to his victims. He would feel nothing if he ended her life now. No one would care if she disappeared.

He digs his claws in, and she gapes, eyes rolling as he only just breaks the skin. Small pinpricks of blood well up. How easy it would be to end her. How easy-

"You'll still be you, right?"

He goes still, Ares hesitant words floating in his mind. He inhales, focusing on her words, and loosens his grip on Jennifer. He wouldn't kill her. He wouldn't be like Peter.

Even so. He's always had some issues with anger.

He slams Jennifer back into the wall, and the plaster dents in with the force as her head connects with a heavy thud. She goes limp, and Derek lets her fall, crumble to the ground. She makes no move to get up.

But she's breathing.

It's time to go home.

The house is silent when Derek gets there. He jumps out of the camaro as soon as appropriate, barely remembering to put it in park. He leaves the door open, not bothering to slam it shut. Ares's car is parked near the front, and its engine is still hot, its frame creaking.

He never cared for the old thing, but Ares adores it. He wonders if she drove, or if it had been Peter.

He jumps up the stairs to the porch, and, not slowing down, throws open the door. It slams into the wall, bouncing, and Derek steps in. There's no hiding his presence from Peter, and so he doesn't even try.

"Peter!"

Two heart beats are his only reply. Two calm, steady heart beats, though one slightly slower than the other. Almost as if asleep. Unconscious.

Ares.

He follows her heart into the darkened living room. The sense of anxiety he thought he had lost around the house after squatting in it the weeks before Ares convinced him to leave has returned tenfold, and he has to internally reprimand himself. He can't afford to have the jitters around an old haunted house, even if he's the reason it's so. Not when Ares's life is on the line.

The room is as he left it, including the new bullet holes from when Kate tried to kill him, the slashes in the floor and furniture when Scott came to fight him-

Ares.

She lays on the old singed couch, the very couch he slept on when he first returned. His breath catches in his throat, and for a split second everything falls away. There is only Ares, still as the dead, and for a terrifying second, Derek thinks she is dead. But she breathes in, her chest moving, and he still hears her heartbeat, the steady beat he could now pick out anywhere.

He takes a step forward, fully intending to rush to her, only to stop short, thinking better of it. Peter's smart. He's killed six people without leaving anything behind, he almost got Scott to kill Ares twice now, and the only reason Derek ever realized it was him was because he let him. For him to just leave her there…

But then she lets out a soft sound, the quietest whimper, and Derek throws whatever caution he might have thought he had to the wind. He rushes forward, dropping to his knees before her.

"Ares!"

Her eyelids flutter, responding to his voice, but remain stubbornly shut. Derek looks her over, noting the way she's positioned. She's lain on the couch, head pillowed by a cushion that somehow - somewhat - survived the blaze, her hair fanned beneath her, her hands folded over her stomach. Derek recognizes it for what it is.

A perverted parody of the fairy tales Peter used to read Cora - Sleeping Beauty, Snow White. The princess waiting for her hero. The corpse waiting to be laid for its final rest. Derek bites back a growl, and goes on to check her over. No blood, though her scent is laced with chemicals.

Drugged, but alive. Seemingly unharmed. He reaches out, cupping her bruised cheek. She remains solid beneath his touch, warm, yet not dispersing into smoke as the others he's loved had in this house.

"I didn't intend for this to happen."

Derek stills as Peter's voice floats into the room. Smooth, apologetic, without a trace of a lie. It takes everything within to not just scoop Ares into his arms and make a run for it. But he knows that way lies failure. He turns, slowly, all while keeping a defensive position in front of Ares.

"I didn't intend for any of this to happen," Peter goes on, and Derek finds him standing by the living room entrance, effectively blocking the way to freedom. Derek feels the telltale ache in his fingertips and jaw, and a low growl escapes his throat as fury blooms in his chest.

"You killed Laura."

Peter draws back in indignation, and Derek follows his movement closely as he steps into the room.

"You think I killed her on purpose?" he demands. He doesn't take a direct path to Derek, instead sticking to the wall, remaining half hidden in the shadows. "One of my own family?" He pauses. "When I have so little left…" He trails off, and his eyes flash in the darkness. "Derek, you have to understand-"

"I don't have to understand anything," Derek snarls, taking a step forward, fully intending to attack Peter. His sister's killer. The one that took the last of his family away from him. But rushing Peter would leave Ares unguarded. Would leave her open, vulnerable, and above all else, Derek's instincts screamed at him to protect her. Keep her safe. "You killed her."

Peter's anger fills the room with a thick electricity as he moves. "My mind," he starts, trailing his hand along the charred wall. "My personality were literally burned out of me. I was being driven by pure instinct," he says, as if it excused his actions. As if it pardoned what he had done.

"You want forgiveness?" Derek seethes, squaring his shoulders and lowering ever so slightly into a more offensive position as Peter nears.

"I want understanding," he replies, and his tone hardens as he goes on. "Do you have any idea what it was like for me during those years? Slowly healing. Cell. By. Cell. Even more slowly coming back to consciousness."

Derek might have felt sympathy for his uncle. He might have been able to set aside the murders, the biting of Scott, being a cliche monster movie villian in general. He might have been able to look past all that.

If he hadn't killed Laura.

If he hadn't taken Ares.

"Yes," Peter goes on. "Becoming an Alpha, taking that from Laura, pushed me over a plateau of the healing process. I can't help that." Peter pauses, steps out of the shadows and exposing his face. Derek draws back in shock; gone are the scars that marred his features for six years. The Peter of the past returned, the handsome, disarming face that often charmed itself out of trouble and left it for others. Derek more often than anyone else.

"I tried to tell you what was happening," he says, his voice taking a softer quality, like a child trying to shift the blame to someone else. "I tried to warn you." He pauses, and he's closer than Derek is comfortable with. He shifts to have better chance at reacting should Peter try anything. "You have to give me a chance to explain," Peter pleads. "After all, we're family."

There's nothing in his voice that betrays his words, his heartbeat remaining steady. Derek isn't sure if he's being genuinely sincere, or if he just fully mastered the art of controlling his heartbeat to better manipulate others. Either way, the years trapped in his body warped his mind more than he thought possible, leaving a darkened shadow of the man he once knew.

Peter's gaze flickers down past Derek, towards Ares's unconscious form, and Derek snarls, shifting to hide her from view. Peter lifts his gaze, and even in the dark, Derek can see the corners of his lips quirk up before smoothing away into an expression of concern.

"She's a distraction," he says softly, almost apologetic. "To Scott. To you." His expressions hardens. "I had every intention of getting rid of her. Of having Scott do it so we could finally be a pack but…" he trails off, shifting to get a better look at her. His expression is genuinely impressed. "The girl is surprisingly hard to kill. Not that you're any help. She's tenacious. She has fight in her." He looks up at Derek and smiles warmly. "I can see why you like her so much."

He moves again, striding casually at an angle like he had before, and again Derek follows his movements, making sure to keep himself between Peter and Ares.

"You should be proud of her," he goes on. "She managed to get a hit in on me before Jennifer drugged her-" he stops short, face going blank in remembrance. "Did you kill her, by the way?"

Derek narrows his eyes at him, and offers no answer. Unbothered, Peter shrugs and goes on.

"I didn't realize how…" Peter pauses, again turning his gaze to Ares, to the way Derek stands in front of her, positioned to react at a second's notice. "Attached you had gotten to the girl. Oh, I knew you liked her, made friends," he adds in a conversational rush. "But it wasn't until Monday night that it finally occurred to me how you felt for her."

Derek narrows his eyes, remembering just why he had almost been too late to getting to Ares and Scott. Why he had been so adamant to checking the doors and windows.

"You were there," he accuses. Peter tilts his head to the side.

"Of course. You saw me, didn't you?"

Derek saw him from a window that night, a dark hulking shape lurking next to the McCall house. It had darted for the front, toward the street, and Derek, stupid, impulsive, rage consumed Derek, had started to give chase. Hadn't realized it had been a diversion. Hadn't realized he had left Ares in danger until it was almost too late.

"When you went back for her," Peter goes on, "when you almost killed Scott for her, when she was the reason you didn't, well… I can't bring myself to take that from you."

No, Derek thinks, but you'll kidnap her to use against me.

"I didn't bring her here to kill her, Derek." Peter steps up, into the center of the room. Close. Much too close to Ares, even with Derek acting as a barrier. Derek's lips curl up in a snarl, and he holds his arms out to his side, claws extended. He'll kill Peter, he knows, if he comes any closer to her. He'll kill him, or die trying. His muscles tense, coiled to strike if he so much as breathes the wrong way. Peter raises his hand in a placating manner and it only serves to agitate Derek further.

"I brought her here for you, Derek. I'm trying to make things right."

The words make Derek draw back, leave him with a sickened feeling in his stomach. "What?"

Peter tilts his head to the side. "I took someone you loved - we loved," he corrects, and while Derek thinks Peter might have loved Laura once, he clearly didn't as he ripped her in two. "Away from you. From us. I can't erase that." He gestures to Ares on the couch, and Derek shifts a leg back, closer to her. "But I can make her yours."

All breath rushes out of Derek's lungs as he realizes what Peter wants to do.

"I'll give her this gift," he says, eyes shining red. "Just as I did for Scott. Imagine, Derek! Beautiful golden eyes. And that sense of loyalty?" Peter sucks in a breath through his teeth. "She's born to be a Beta."

No. She's born to be an Alpha.

"She'll be perfect, Derek. Perfect for you. For us. For my pack."

For all that Derek's eyes are blue, he sees red.

He lunges without thinking, roaring as he goes for Peter's throat. Peter ducks to the side, and Derek twists. He catches the back of Peter's coat and uses his momentum to yank him back, away from Ares. They both tumble away from her, a tangle of limbs and claws, and Derek lets out a snarl of pain when Peter manages to stab his claws into his side. They fall apart as Derek kicks Peter off of him. Upon righting himself, Derek realizes with horror that he's on the far side from Ares, and that Peter stands between them.

However, Peter doesn't seem to care about his advantage. He looks down at his coat, at the tear Derek made along the sleeve, face twisting in distaste.

"That was new," he chides, tugging it off and letting it fall to the ground. "Derek, I don't want to fight you-"

"Too fucking bad," he snarls as he lunges again, and in some irrational part in the back of his head he thinks maybe he's hanging out with Ares too much, because he never really used to cuss before.

He's too slow though, and Peter slams his fist into Derek's side, the side he clawed, and Derek doubles over, gasping in pain. Peter takes the chance to slam his foot into his side, sending him sprawling to the ground. He grits his teeth, waiting for Peter to attack again.

"Let me rephrase that," Peter says instead, stepping back to observe his work. "You don't want to fight me." Derek clenches his jaw, presses a hand to his bleeding side. How could he have thought he could do this? A beta, an omega, against an Alpha. "You can stop this now," Peter says gently, softly, and Derek goes still as he rests a hand on his head. Cards it through his hair. "We can be a pack again, Derek. Help me bring Scott home to us. He'll need a brother to show him the way." He pauses, his hand stilling. "And Ares."

Derek looks up, gaze falling on her in front of him. Unconscious still, utterly unaware of the danger she's in. Her expression is soft, as if simply asleep. He remembers, briefly, how he had woken at some point Monday night to find her pressed to his side. One arm curled around that old penguin, her other hand gripping his shirt. She had managed to cocoon herself in the blankets in her sleep, and, not wanting a repeat of Saturday morning, Derek took a moment to untangle her. But not before taking a moment to just… take in her presence and realize how completely and utterly fucked he was.

His impossible human. Found standing in the very spot he had lost his Alpha. More worried about idiot teenagers than herself. Who, like the idiot she herself occasionally is, went off to confront an Alpha werewolf.

"The bite did wonders for Scott," Peter muses, and Derek's lungs constrict as he steps away from him, moving toward Ares. "Image what it can do for her-"

And Derek sees Paige, black bile spilling from her mouth as he holds her. Her body wracked with agonized tremors. He sees Paige, and her face warps to Ares, and he knows. She won't survive it. The Bite will poison her. Will kill her.

And God.

It'll kill Derek with her.

He lurches forward, tackling Peter's legs out from under him before he can reach her, and they fall together. And Derek, knowing his best bet is to grab Ares and run, scrambles up as Peter lays stunned. His side twinges in pain, but he ignores it. He reaches her, is about to pull her into his arms. Get her out, get her out, get her out, runs through his mind, a panicked mantra.

A clawed hand digs into Derek's shoulder, and the mantra comes to a screeching stop as he's thrown away from her. He crashes into a burnt table, and it collapses beneath him. His jacket protects him from the shards of wood, but the crash leaves him stunned. Gasping for breath. His head pounds, his vision blurry.

A figure - Peter - appears above him before he can push himself up.

"I've had enough of this," he snarls, reaching down and tangling his hand into Derek's hair, forcing him up. "I'm doing this for you. For her." Peter drags him after him as he makes his way back to Ares, and Derek doesn't have the strength to break free. "Look at her," Peter orders, holding Derek up over her. And he looks at her. Through his blurring vision - a concussion coming and going - he looks at her. Focuses only on her.

Her lashes flutter, an attempt to pull herself out of unconsciousness. Her brow furrows ever so slightly, and Derek wants nothing more than to reach out and smooth it away. To bring her out of whatever drug induced nightmares she finds herself in.

"You think you're protecting her?" Peter demands, pulling Derek out of his thoughts. Peter yanks him back and throws him to the ground, away from Ares. "Don't be an idiot, you can't protect her."

"I can-"

"Yes, because you've done so well thus far," Peter snaps, in a tone reminiscent to an adult scolding a child. "You can't even keep a single beta away from her. What will you do when the Argent's decide to use her against you?"

"She's human-"

"Because that stopped them last time?" Peter shouts, and his voice bounces off the burnt walls, his eyes flashing red in his outrage. Derek shrinks back, automatically, a beta reacting to an alpha. Peter takes a breath, running a hand through his hair to smooth it down. "You can't protect her," he repeats, voice softer. "But I can." He holds his hand out to Derek, and his expression is earnest. "Join me, Derek. Help me get Scott to see the truth. And I'll protect her. I'll give you the strength to keep her safe." He pauses as Derek looks past him to Ares. "I won't even bite her, if it makes you feel better."

It takes less time than it should for him to make his decision.

Derek grabs Peter's hand and lets his uncle pull him up. Peter's grin is nothing less than feral.

"Excellent," he says, clasping Derek on the shoulder. "Let's go get my beta-"

"I'm taking her home," Derek interrupts. Peter narrows his eyes at him. "You said you'd protect her. She isn't safe here where Argents can find her alone."

Peter scowls. "The game will be over soon-"

"I'm taking her home," Derek repeats, shrugging Peter's hand off of him. He crosses the room, body aching and feeling disgusted with himself. But he pushes it down as he scoops Ares into his arms, shifting her so her head is pillowed on his shoulder. Her heart beats steadily, and she lets out a sigh.

Peter says something about only having fifteen minutes. Derek doesn't quite hear over the beating of Ares' heart.

The McCall house is silent when Derek gets there. It takes some maneuvering, but he gets the door open. Gets Ares upstairs to her bedroom. She hadn't stirred since he got her out of the Hale House, and he worries about the effects she'd feel from whatever Jennifer drugged her with when she wakes.

He lays her on her bed, removes her shoes and makes sure she's in a comfortable position before grabbing the throw blanket on her trunk to cover her. She turns her face into her pillow, and he takes a moment he doesn't have to realize what he had done.

Joining Peter would give Derek strength. It would let him close to him. He might still need Scott's help, but he would be able to kill Peter. Avenge Laura. Protect Ares. Make things right.

Ares would hate him. If he chose her safety over Scott's, she'd never speak to him. She'd probably go to the Argents herself for a monkshood bullet.

But she'd be safe.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly, sitting next to her on the bed. "I'm so sorry."

Had it really been just hours before that they had… become something. Hours ago that he allowed himself to think he could provide happiness, support. He wanted to be an anchor for her, just as she is for him.

But Derek Hale came to realize that he's never meant to bring happiness to anyone, let alone Ares Delgado. So he would keep her safe. Protect her in the way he could, because a part of him knew Peter was right.

He presses a kiss to her forehead, much like he had earlier today, before forcing himself to stand. Forcing himself to leave her behind. He didn't know what Peter planned to do at the game, didn't know what Scott would tell Ares after.

He can try to explain to her later. After. If there is an after.

*maui voice* You're welcome!

Serious talk, i want to take a moment to thank kkiyomizu and hufflepuff-true over on tumblr for lowkey beta-ing this chapter (and previous and future chapters). hufflepuff-true is my go-to when it comes to writing Peter, and if the Peter you just read was worth anything, it was because of her.

I also hella encourage you guys - if you haven't already - to check out these other oc authors here on ff.n: yourpalmoony, known for The Gloaming, and its sequel is out now The Awakening. Musiciatee with Sonder - her oc Annie is an angry magical girl and i love her. vortexFM - Loretta Jane and the Twilight Zone (Twilight fandom). ilseneumcnn with her fic Prende la Fruite - I know im missing people bc there are so many talented writers out there, but these chicks deserve some love. Go forth!

A note of self-promoting: tumblr! y'all should totes check out thegalanerd over on tumblr, bc there are some kerosene hearts edits and oneshots that have been done. In case you're wondering why it took me a minute to update - i was over there playing with gifs and writing oneshots. Also, I give updates on the writing process. so go check it out!

As always, welcome to the new favs/followers! To those who've been here: told you shit was about to get real! Reviewers, thank you so much! I love hearing what you guys think, and I really appreciate them all.

Stay schway, y'all!