Ownership is disclaimed. See Ch. 1.

"You couldn't erase the past. You couldn't even change it. But sometimes life offered you the opportunity to put it right."

― Ann Brashares, Girls In Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

"So let me get this straight. Peter killed Laura, you killed Peter, Peter came back from the dead, Peter is part of your pack?"

"Pretty much."

"And you trust him?"

"More than I should, but not as much as he thinks," Derek answered Frost.

"Where is he now?" Frost asked.

Derek said, " I don't know." Her hand flew up and smacked him in the back of the head. Derek laughed, "What was that? It felt like a little butterfly fluttering against my skull."

"Jerk," Frost snapped back a bit of laughter in her voice. "But, seriously, you have enough potential problems floating around unchecked. Peter should not be one of them."

"I know. What about Gerard any ideas what's happened to him?" Derek asked.

"Are you sure that it is him that's leaving these bodies behind?"

"Yeah, Scott confirmed Gerard's scent the night of the last victim."

Frost stood and paced the kitchen. "And Scott & this Dr. Deaton laced Gerard's pills with Mountain Ash before you were forced to bite him?"

"According to Scott. What are you thinking?"

"A lot of people don't understand the Rowan tree's potential and that's what Mountain Ash is, a rowan tree. It's much more than protection against the supernatural. In fact, it acts as a catalyst or conduit for the most powerful magic. The magic of belief."

"So what does that mean for Gerard?"

"He could be bound to a werewolf form, twisted into some new monster, or trapped between the corporeal and incorporeal. Scott could have believed the magic into something different from what he & Dr. Deaton planned just by imagining it differently."

"How do we find out for sure? How do we stop him?" Derek asked.

"I need to talk to Scott and Dr. Deaton. There are different forms of mountain ash, different species- all of this could play a factor. What they were both thinking as they put mountain ash into the pills… Hell, even what Gerard was thinking after you bit him could affect what he's become. And I as much as it makes me want to vomit, I need to see the bodies of the victims."

"How long do we have before this hits the point of no return?"

Frost sighed, "Not long. Beacon Hills is already making the gossip rounds. If you hadn't found scapegoats in the Argent woman and that kid Matt for the deaths caused by Peter and the kanima, I think we'd be looking at a full-scale PR clean up already. Bodies keep dropping and I won't be able to stop the next phase. You and I both know that doesn't turn out well."

"Makes sense the alpha pack's been keeping a low profile," Derek said.

"Yes, because they can't afford to get you killed. They believe their bloodlines are sacred and thus so are yours. Since only you and Peter are left from your line, you have value to them alive. The rest of your pack is in danger, Derek. That includes Scott and Stiles even if they don't believe you are their alpha and Stiles is human. In fact, I think every human you've mentioned will be caught in the crosshairs of this fight."

"I know. Dammit, it doesn't help that I screwed up with Scott from the beginning. He was just so twisted up in Allison Argent and all I could see was the past repeating itself."

"Gasp…Did Derek Hale just admit to making a mistake?...Wait, where's my mother? I swear the apocalypse just began."

Derek growled at her.

"Stow it, big bad wolf. You don't scare me," Frost said eyes twinkling with laughter.

"You and Snow were cut from the same cloth. You just hide it better than she does," Derek said with sudden insight, and, then, abruptly, he changed the subject, "Frost, I'm sorry about what happened with…I never meant to hurt you."

Her face paled, "I know, but you did. Look we can't undo what happened, and I'm still...I just don't…I've been so angry with you for so long and then you called and I wanted to ignore it, but Snow was Snow, and she…she misses you…and I still want to push you in a pool of water and drop a live wire in, but I care too much to let anyone else do it. So let's just not, you know, talk about the past. I'm here, I want to help, let's not muck it up with old shit."

Derek nodded, "Ok, but just how many ways do you have to torture me?"

"Derek, you know who my mom is, right?," she smiled evily. "Well, you really don't want to know."

Stiles waited until the Pre-calc teacher had assigned them classwork before poking Snow in the shoulder with his pencil. "So what's the first pack?" he whispered.

Isaac who was sitting across from Snow turned to listen as Snow answered, "The first pack."

"Yeah, that's what I said."

"No, padawan, the first pack is just that the FIRST pack. Before werewolves became a whole bunch of different packs there was just one pack aka the FIRST pack," Snow whispered.

"So were they like uber-werewovles or something?" Stiles asked.

Snow tossed a tiny piece of paper at his head. "Nooo. The alpha pack just likes to think that because they have inflated egos. Honestly, I think the male ones are just compensating either that or the entire pack eats troll scat."

"Trolls are real?" Stiles asked eyes gleaming with excitement.

"What does troll scat do?" Isaac asked.

"It causes megalomania. Avoid troll scat dealers," Snow said with a shudder, "they are cray cray."

"Troll scat dealers?" the boys both asked at the same time.

"Oh yeah, there's a huge business in bodily fluids and scat among the supernatural set. Personally, I don't want any scat or spit or piss or jizz from some random creature up in my mouth or veins or well anywhere for that matter….but barring the poop and piss, Isaac," Snow said suggestively with a wink of her eye.

"You said that Derek descended from an unbroken line of wolves that started with the first pack. That makes him werewolf royalty?" Isaac asked attempting to ignore Snow's persistence.

Snow beamed at him, "Well, sort of, my future baby daddy. It's more like his family is famous than royalty. The alpha of the first pack was supposedly Fenrir from, you know, Norse mythology, but myths get twisted in retelling so who knows for sure. So besides being linked to a Norse wolf god and from an unbroken line, the alphas in his line have resisted the alpha pack for the last like 1000 years," Snow leaned across the aisle towards his desk. "And if you failed to understand my suggestive comment, I was trying to say, 'I WANT YOU.'"

Ignoring Isaac's continued embarrassment, Stiles said, "So the alpha pack is like a religious cult?"

Snow refocused, "Ding, ding, ding. Winner, winner, chicken dinner."

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period. "So who has Spanish I third period?" Snow asked. "Or will I be learning to speak el Spanish with no amigos?"

Chris Argent reached for the phone as it rang. "Argent."

"Hello, Christopher."

He sat up a little straighter even though she couldn't see him. "Ma'am."

"An opportunity is about to present itself to strike the one who sits at the top. We believe her children may be in Beacon Hills. I want you to find and identify all of them. Do not engage them. Report back what you learn and we will plan from there."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And, Christopher, this time no questionable alliances."

Sorry for the delay. I had the whole chapter except the end written a week ago, but I couldn't find a good way to bring it to a close.

Thoughts?