REVISED chapter 5: So I just noticed that I posted the wrong version earlier. Here's the final one...not that it has a big diff. Just a few lines added to the first scene, but in the scheme of things it matters to me lol.

Disclaimer: Don't own Teen Wolf or anyone in it. If I did, I'd be busy having way too much fun doing other stuff. ^_~

Redemption

Chapter 5

"Who the hell are you?" Derek growled and squared his jaw, straightened his back and put on his 'don't mess with me' glare, trying to look as intimidating as possible.

"Is that how you Beacon Hills-billies welcome visitors to your quaint little town? Tsk," the stranger responded with a wily grin.

Derek was silent as he continued to glare at the trespasser with the perfectly mussed hair.

The golden haired alpha shrugged casually and reached out a hand to Derek. "I'm Cain. And I think you got my calling card." He canted his head towards the mark on the house. When Derek made no move to take his hand Cain continued, "No? Oh well. We had meant to introduce ourselves later, but I figured we should stop by sooner when we realized you had someone poking around looking for us. Not to mention we found your lost little wolf puppies and figured you might be missing them."

Derek's blood ran cold when he heard Cain's reveal what he had been secretly fearing all along. Erica and Boyd ran into the alpha pack… no wonder no one had heard from them or was able to find even a trace of them. But as floored as he was, Derek remained unmoving. The only indication that the words had any effect on him was the slight widening of his eyes.

"What the hell did you do to them?" Derek asked coldly as he clenched his fists so tight that blood dripped from them, though he didn't even realize it.

"Why don't we go into the house and chat?" Cain gestured toward the house, his air of confidence not ruffled by Derek in the least.

That was when Derek noticed the smell of blood in the air and realized he could hear soft sounds of struggles coming from the house. He rushed past Cain and into the house and was treated to the sight of Peter being held down by two other male werewolves, the red glint of alpha status apparent in their eyes. Peter's face was heavily bruised and he had a gash on his chest that seemed to be healing and then Derek saw Boyd lying in a bloody heap on the ground with another male alpha's booted foot on his back.

Frantically, Derek looked around for Erica but doesn't see her anywhere. But he could smell her and when he followed her scent, it pointed him to the two female alphas lounging on the couch. He narrowed his eyes as he slowly approached them.

"Where is she?" Derek asked in a low voice that should have frozen any living being in fear.

Unfortunately for him, these two weren't just any living beings, they were alphas…in an alpha pack. They simply looked at him unfazed as they knew they had the upper hand. "She was really troublesome… And you know us girls. We're a lot less tolerant of those we don't care for than guys are. And we honestly didn't realize she was that weak. Must have been the runt of your litter. Sorry…but we broke the bitch," the blonde female alpha said mockingly as the brunette beside her pretended to smother an amused laugh.

With a viciously angry snarl, Derek let his wolf out and lunged at them, but Cain and one of the alphas holding Peter down leapt over and grabbed him, pulling him away from the female alphas. Derek tried to fight them off, but the two alphas are able to subdue him. And Derek noticed that Cain was uncommonly strong. A lot stronger than the other alpha and Derek could tell Cain was even stronger than him.

Finally Derek stopped struggling, it was no use. There were six of them and only one of him. And Erica was dead. The thought hit Derek like a ton of bricks. She was dead and it was his fault. It was his fault because he was the one who turned her. He turned her and he didn't prepare her for what was out there. His wolf receded and Derek hung from their grasps and when they sensed he had stopped fighting, released him.

"Ok, now that we've all calmed down, I just want to officially apologize for what happened," Cain said patronizingly. "We didn't mean to do any real harm. It was unfortunate, for them, that they happened to be in the woods when we arrived. But in our defense, we took them both alive. But she somehow managed to escape. I think your boy had something to do with that. But it really was too bad, for her, because well, we couldn't just let her get away. And it had been awhile since we hunted and the smell of fear in the air…well let's just say it was overwhelming and regrettably, it got the better of us."

Knowing Cain didn't mean a single word, Derek continued to glare at him. "Yeah right, I'm sure you were completely broken up about killing an innocent girl."

Cain shrugged and gave Derek another fake apologetic smile, "Like I said, she ran and we had to hunt her down, I mean find her, and the fear she exuded and well…she should have just stayed put."

He might as well have said it was their fault the alpha pack attacked them and killed Erica. Derek knew that was what he really meant.

Sensing Derek getting riled up again, Cain said quickly, "Ok, ok. I completely understand why you're upset. Believe me, we had no intentions of starting our relationship with you this way. We really had hoped to meet under better circumstances. We just want to be friends with you."

"Friends?" Derek asked incredulously. "Friends? You want to be friends, so this is how you introduce yourselves? Huh? Friend?" It was clear that Cain was not completely right in the head to think Derek would ever be 'friends' with them, especially now.

"Oh, yeah. And in the midst of all this unpleasantness, I forgot to introduce you to everyone." Cain gestured to the other alphas. "First, we've got Ashe and Blake," he swept an arm towards the alphas next to Peter, one with light brown hair and the other with dark brown hair. "Next is Wes," Cain clapped the raven haired alpha who was keeping Boyd down on the back. "And last, but not least, Athena and Avery," Cain finished as the blonde and brunette waved respectively. "And no need for you to introduce yourself. We already know who you are, Derek."

"What do you want?" Derek ground out.

"Like I said, we just want to be your friends." Cain smiled at him again.

"You honestly think I'd want to be 'friends' with you after what you did?" Derek shouted. "You killed Erica –"

"Oh was that her name?" Cain interrupted. "That's a nice name."

"You beat up two of my other pack members," Derek continued.

"But they'll heal, look," Cain pointed to Peter, the gash on his chest now just a faint pink line. "Practically good as new already. And we weren't even planning on hurting him to begin with. It's just that he objected to us showing up with that one in tow in the shape he was." He gestured carelessly towards Boyd as he sat down on the couch.

"And you wonder why I would want you as friends," Derek replied, adding a mirthless smile of his own.

"You should want to be friends with us. Think about it, it really would be to your advantage. If you were with us, you would be stronger. We'd all be stronger." Cain propped an elbow up on the arm of the couch and set his chin on his hand.

"Stronger?" Derek looked at him confused. "The only way werewolves would make each other stronger is to –" He cut himself off, realizing now what they wanted from him.

"That's right," Cain said with a wink. "We didn't just want to make friends, we came to town to look for you because we had a proposition for you. We would like very much if you would join us."

At a complete loss for words, Derek just stood there for a moment before he found his voice again. "I thought you were an alpha pack. Alpha's only. I have four – three – betas in my pack."

"Yes, we are an alpha pack," Cain looked at Derek pointedly.

"You'd have to cut them loose," Athena said. "And we already took care of one for you."

Anger spiking again, Derek took a menacing step forward and Cain jumped up to halt him. "What she meant was, sorry about your girl, but we just want you to realize that what you have right now means nothing. This," Cain gestured to all the alphas again, "could be your future. All you have to do is say yes and release your pack."

"Why me? You could go anywhere, pick anyone. So why me?" Derek asked.

"You make it sound as if alphas are a dime a dozen," Cain laughed. Then his look turned serious, "And I picked you because I feel like we're kindred spirits. We're the same, you and I."

"We're nothing alike," Derek snarled. "After what you did, how could you even think I would want anything to do with you? I would never –"

"Never say never," Cain interrupted. Then he sighed gave him a sympathetic look. "Well, it's been a pretty trying night for you, so we'll just let you mull things over and catch up with you later… Think about it. And you'll see, we are the same."

With that, Cain led the alpha pack out of his house. Wes, the last one to go, gave Derek a weird look and some parting words, "It really would be for your own good."

After they had gone, Derek and a completely healed Peter rush to Boyd's side.

"Are you alright?" Derek asked urgently. Something was wrong. Boyd should have healed, but there was so much blood he couldn't tell.

"My side, fell on something when we were running from them," Boyd gasped in pain as he tried to reach for whatever it was.

Gently, Derek rolled Boyd over and saw a thick tree branch protruding from his left flank. "Did you have this in you this whole time?" He reached for it and gingerly tugged on it a little, causing Boyd to cry out in pain.

"Damn it!" Derek looked at Peter. "Hold him still, it's gonna hurt." Once he saw that Peter had a firm hold of Boyd, Derek pulled the branch out as fast as he could.

Boyd shouted again but Derek could see the wound slowly begin to close. "S-Sorry," Boyd stammered. "Sorry, we left. Shoulda never left – shoulda never – the window was too small for me… I convinced her to escape – to get help. My fault she's dead," Boyd's voice cracked with a sob.

"It's not your fault," Derek cut him off. "If I had been a better leader. Given you guys reasons to have more confidence in me. I failed you." But no more, Derek thought. Then he turned to Peter. "They won't be coming back tonight. Can you help Boyd get cleaned up? I need to find Isaac and Scott and make sure they're ok." And Jackson, Derek had to find Jackson. As a pack-less omega, he would be in the most danger if he should cross paths with them.

'I'm so stupid!' Jackson thought to himself.

He was lying on his bed again, completely depressed again. Jackson scoffed at himself. What the hell was he thinking? Why would he think that Derek would think of him any differently? That things between the two of them would change. From day one, Jackson had acted like an asshole around Derek. He never did anything to prove otherwise. Scott might argue that Jackson helped them defeat alpha Peter, but everyone had to know it was because Jackson wanted the bite. A guy like Jackson never did anything without an angle, without wanting something in return. At least, that was what the pre-Kanima Jackson was like.

Unfortunately for post-Kanima Jackson, a guy like Derek didn't give out many chances. And even though he was determined to change for the better, it looked like he blew his last chance when he refused to acknowledge that Derek was his alpha and mocked him instead.

Though that day seemed like it happened eons ago, Derek must have a good memory. Add to that the fact that the Kanima tried to kill him and of course Derek would write him off. As Derek said, the only reason he had been willing to help Jackson was because he bit him and didn't want innocent people to suffer from it.

But even as Jackson flinched from memories of Derek's words earlier that night, he couldn't help but think how attractive Derek had looked while he was berating him. Like some beautiful angel of death and vengeance or something. Jackson covered his face with his hands and shook his head. God, how sad and pathetic was he? And even as he knew Derek wanted nothing to do with him, a small part of him still couldn't help hoping, wishing, that maybe in time…

"No!" Jackson sat up quickly. He knew he couldn't just stay in bed for another week. The tension he felt from his parents were just finally easing up when they found out he'd started going back to school and he couldn't regress from that. Jackson got off his bed and put on some running clothes. Hopefully a nice long run would help to clear his mind. Probably not, but one could only hope.

"I told you so Cain," Wes said angrily as he crossed his arms. "I told you not to let the girls go too crazy. If I were Derek Hale, I would never trust anything any of us says."

The alphas were lounging on the hoods of some cars in the parking lot of the local shopping center, snacking on some food they filched from a nearby convenience store.

"Lighten up, Wes," Cain rolled his eyes. "You're acting like someone died or something…oh wait...I guess someone did. It's not a big deal."

The girls laughed. "Come on Wes, you haven't eaten anything," Avery tried to cajole him.

"How can you think this is not a big deal?" Wes walked to stand over Cain. "We needed him to join the pack! As it stands – "

"As it stands, I'm the pack leader," Cain asserted as he rose to meet Wes at eye level. "We may all be alphas, but I'm still number one and you're still number two. Got it?"

"Why do I have the feeling that maybe you don't want Hale to join the pack?" Wes narrowed his eyes.

Sensing the nervous tension start to rise from the other alphas, Cain flashed Wes a lazy smile. "Don't be ridiculous. Of course I want him to join. And besides, what happened was only the beginning of the inevitable…" Cain trailed off as a scent caught him. He turned his head to one side and breathed in deep. The scent was new, and yet somehow familiar. Whoever it was smelled amazing.

Turning back to Wes, Cain said, "Don't worry so much, you'll get wrinkles. We might heal fast, but we still do continue to age after all. I'll catch you guys later." He then turned on his wolf speed and took off into the night.

As Cain rounded a corner, he caught sight of his objective. The hooded figure was running as if demons were chasing him. An omega… And he smelled so good. Cain smirked and casually started walking towards the omega, who must have been completely lost deep within his own thoughts, because he didn't notice Cain until he practically ran into him.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't see you," the omega gasped as he halted but still collided with Cain. His abrupt movements caused the hood to fall back, revealing the most stunning guy Cain had ever set eyes on and it was lust at first sight, or rather at first sniff to be more accurate.

"No worries, it's dark. I get that you might have had trouble spotting me," Cain smiled.

"Are you ok?" The omega asked and Cain watched as his brilliant azure eyes glanced over him as if to make sure he hadn't caused Cain any pain. Aww, how very sweet. The omega had absolutely no clue who what standing before him.

"No, no, I'm fine," Cain assured him with a dazzling smile, which grew even wider when he saw the omega's face flush. "But actually, I do need a bit of help. You see, I'm new in town and I'm afraid I got myself turned around somehow. I'm staying at the Beacon Hills something Inn. It's close to the woods. Would you by any chance know where it is?"

"Umm, yeah," the omega nodded. "You should head back that way and –"

"Actually, I'm really bad with directions," Cain interrupted and faked an embarrassed look. "That's part of the reason I'm here instead of back in my room. I'd hate to trouble you, but do you think you could show me the way? I'm Cain, by the way." He smiled again and held out his hand. "And you are…?"

The omega took Cain's offered hand and answered, "Nice to meet you. My name is Jackson."

Yup, I did it…I killed off Erica. I never really liked her and when I found out recently that she wasn't going to be in Season 3, I was like…meh, no biggie. Although someone did tell me she wasn't dead…but it's my story and I'll kill off whoever I want to. =P Sorry tho…if any of you did like her… =/

Thanks for reading! Reviews would be greatly appreciated. =)