Wow, this took forever and I didnt even put everything I wanted to. I might, possibly add more but this chapter is killing me.

Episode 1: Close, But No Cigar

Derek pulled up at the side of the house. I couldn't help wincing at the sight. The years have not been kind to the Hale house, the walls looked they were about to collapse into themselves, the windows broken, and there seemed to be some beer cans lying around. Probably a bunch of drunken losers, were hanging around. It hurt to see my house in such a state but what did I expect, for the house to be magically returned to what it used to be like before the fire.

"Stay here." I heard Derek say, as he got out of the car and starting to make his way to the house. I ignored Derek's order and followed him. There was no way I was going to stay there for another minute. We've been driving for six hours, that's like watching Pirates of the Caribbean twice and that's including the credits. There was also the matter of my ass hurting like hell from sitting in an upright position for six hours, because the front seat was being difficult and Derek didn't want me to lie down in the back. Jerk.

Derek gave me a pointed look but looked away. Huh, guess Derek isn't going to forcibly drag me to the car and trap me inside using the child lock.

We went inside the house, Lauras scent was all over the place but old. She probably hadn't been there for a few hours. We checked the rest of the house just to be sure being careful to not fall down through the wooden floor, but we didn't find her.

I guess it was too much to hope to find her here safe and sound.

"You think she's close by?" I asked Derek, as we went back outside. The sun had started to set and the moon shone faintly, along with a few stars.

"Maybe," Derek stated simply, walking towards the forest trail. "We'll just have to keep following her trail, ready for a run?"

Was Derek kidding of course I wanted to run. I had all this pent up energy and I was just itching to give my legs a good stretch. I gave Derek a toothy smile, and started to run giving me a head start.

Not that it really mattered; Derek caught up easily enough and passed me, taking the lead. Show off. It's because he has longer legs than I do, he covers more ground.

It didn't stop me from trying to catch up though. I started to gain speed making it to Derek's legs but not quite passing them. It didn't help that Derek had started to block my path so I wouldn't pass. It seemed he was starting to make a game out of this.

So it was going to be like that was it?

I started to slow so I would be exactly behind Derek. I took a breath readying myself, making sure that Derek wouldn't do a sudden turn and then I jumped, landing squarely on Derek's back. This of course caused him to fall down face first to the ground, allowing me to take the lead.

I could hear Derek growl from behind me and help but laugh, swerving around the occasional tree that crossed my way. By this time I had gained a lot of ground, leaving Derek literally in the dust. I could hear Derek calling me from behind, but I ignored him so I could focus on the trail ahead. I wouldn't fall for Derek's distraction so easily, the first five times were enough of a lesson.

I was so focused on Laura's trail and getting to wherever it was leading us before Derek, that I didn't notice the large mass of fur that barreled toward me, pinning me to the ground. I looked up slowly only to be met by a snarling Alpha. Its red eyes glaring at me and I couldn't suppress a whimper of submission. I struggled, but it wasn't really any use. Werewolves were strong but nothing could really beat the strength of an Alpha.

"Derek!" I screamed, pushing myself away from the Alpha as far as possible.

Werewolves usually didn't harm other werewolves. Mostly they just chase you off their territory, Alphas however…..

"Derek, Help!" The Alpha gave a loud roar, and started to bare his fangs at me. "Derek!"

All of a sudden the weight that was on top of me was gone. I raised my head and saw Derek taking on the Alpha himself. They were on the ground, Derek had pinned the Alpha down to the ground and tried to cut his throat, but he didn't have the chance. The Alpha gave a harsh kick, causing Derek to fly off the Alpha.

The Alpha started stalking towards Derek taking advantage of his loss of breath. I wasn't going to have none of that. I pushed myself of the floor and grabbed onto the Alpha from behind. I wasn't strong enough to take him to the ground but I could distract him enough for Derek to get back into the fight.

The Alpha who's attention was now on me started to bite my face off. When that didn't work, he grasped one of my arms that I had firmly around his neck and threw me in the direction of my brother.

I could hear Derek growling from right next to me, and I tried to follow his lead, but when I looked up and caught sight of the Alphas eyes I flinched.

Unlike me Derek held up the Alphas gaze, standing his ground, the Alpha did the same. They stood there for what seemed like hours, the moon was above us shining brightly and it seemed like the Alpha took notice of it. He gave one last growl and left, which to be honest surprised the hell out of me.

I gave long sigh of relief.

Alphas usually kill on sight when it came to other werewolves crossing into their territory, not that I was complaining, it's just weird, suspicious I guess. It's also kind of confusing. From what I remember, our family was the only family that uh, had the tendency to transform into furry monsters with anger management problems. I guess it's possible that a new pack moved in but then where were the others, the Alpha wouldn't move without his or her pack.

Well they usually didn't move without their pack. Laura is an exception.

Wait a second, Laura…

"Derek didn't that Alpha…." I bit my lip sharply rushing in the direction of where the werewolf came from. Derek was calling behind me, and I hesitated a second. I didn't want a repeat of what happened before but I needed to check if Laura was ok, so I rushed on. I continued to run, each step taking me closer to Laura. Her scent growing more putrid assaulting my senses, it didn't help when I saw her half her body on the ground, just half.

I went to the nearest bush and promptly threw up. The smell of my own sick not really helping matters as the new wave of stink caused me to dry heave. I tried to pull myself together but it was so difficult. Right there on the ground was my sister, spewing her guts all over the forest floor, blood pooling around her and drenching the area of her scent.

Derek yanked me up to his level and turned me away from the body.

"Don't look at the body. Relax your big brothers here alright; your big brother will take care of this." Derek gripped my shoulders painfully, allowing me to break out of my panic and focus. Right, deep breaths, focus on the pain, use it as an anchor.

"I'm ok." I lied.

Derek looked at me. I could tell he knew I wasn't ok, but he loosened his grip and patted my shoulder in an awkward gesture of comfort. I would like to say it worked, but that was never really Derek's area of expertise.

Derek seemed to get the hint and stopped raking his hand through the little hair he had.

"Scott, we are going back to the car, you are going to sit in the car and wait for me."

I didn't bother protesting.

When Derek gave an order like this there really was no room to argue.

The trip back to the car was slow and a lot less exciting. As soon as we arrived back to the car I went inside to lie down in the back. I could hear Derek pop the car from behind.

I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

I woke up with a start. Derek had opened the door and was resting his head on the steering wheel. I looked out the window and noticed that the sun was slowly rising. Derek must have stayed up the whole night.

I sat up straight, not really feeling particularly tired anymore now that the events of last night caught up to me. "Derek, what's going to happen now?"

Derek sighed, turning around so he could face me. He looked exhausted, but he still had that determined look on his face.

"We find the Alpha and we kill him."

"Easier said than done," I muttered. "Don't you remember the first time we met up with him, we nearly got ourselves killed. I don't know why he even let us go considering what he did to…" I swallowed, hating myself for feeling so scared.

"He let us go because he needs us, until he makes a pack of his own he'll allow us, the old pack to try to join his."

I snorted, that definitely wasn't going to happen. Not in a million years.

"That's just great Derek, just great. What if he already started?"

"Then we use it to our advantage."

He made it sound so easy. I mean so many things could go wrong. The Alpha could gain a huge following and either kill us or run us out of town, making us no better than the average dog on the street. There could be hunters all over the place killing us before the alpha did, and what if I lost Derek too. What would I do then?

"Trust in your big brother to take care of this." He said, and so I did.

Unrelated subject: Empires