EDITED:: I edited this chapter. The ending is different and it flows a bit better.

A/N:: So here's chapter three. Or two. Depending on how you look at it. I know it's been forever and a day, and I'm sowweh. *offers cookie* Can Iz be forgiven? It seems that my mind took 'freshmen year midterm exams' and decided to say 'oh, by the way, working on your stories will be all you can think about when you should be studying.' So.. This happened. It sucks compared to the last chapter I think, but oh well.

Disclaimer:: I don't even own a car. Do you think I own Teen Wolf?

Pairings:: This chapter has some mentions of Lydia/Aiden and Melissa/Peter

Derek was surrounded. He was standing stone still, eyes glowing red and elongated fangs reflecting the moonlight that lit up a night that was unnaturally still and yet at the same time filled with noise and motion. He was in the circle of surging beasts, wolves almost as tall as him dancing and howling in an eerie, haunting melody that wound around him like an icy current. He watched with an terrified sort of awe as the many creatures became one, their movements so fluid that they appeared to be a stream of heat, fur, bone, and flesh. Browns, greys, and silvers blended into a kind of natural meld, beautiful and yet at the same time igniting several conflicting instincts within him. He wanted to fight his way out, to run as far away as he could from these beings who could rip him to shreds in seconds, yet at the same time he wanted to stand right here and watch for as long as he could.

He supposed he should be wondering where he was, but he couldn't hold onto the train of thought for long, before his attention was pulled back to the creatures that seemed to soar around him. Then, quite suddenly, they seemed to become incredibly agitated. Several growls rumbled around him, and heads tossed this way and that, giving him a sudden view of eyes that glowed brilliant golden and icy blue. It was this peculiar view of those who encircled him that struck something, a realization he felt stupid for not noticing earlier. The pack, for they were too acquainted and responded too well to each other's body language to be anything else, had no alpha among them. No pair of eyes glowed ruby red in the darkness.

Now that he knew what he was looking for, Derek began noticing little things about the pack, little details that'd been masked by the bigger questions he'd been answering moments ago. Despite the confidence in which they carried themselves, there was an underlying current of nervousness amongst them, shown with the occasional pinning back of ears and bristling of tails and hackles, the haltering of a howl. They were waiting for their alpha.

Three alphas.

Derek whirled around as fast as his body would allow him to as a whisper brushed against his ear. As he turned, he was unnerved to discover that there was no apparent source of the voice, a quiet one filled with fear and anger and awe. He tossed his head around like a caged animal - which in a sense he was - and growled quietly in response, as if it were one of the dancing wolves who'd spoken to him.

Three alphas, one pack.

Derek whirled again, an odd sort of fear nagging at the back of his mind. Was he insane? It wouldn't surprise him too much. He felt insane sometimes. He was called insane often. Maybe he'd actually lost it, but if he had, then what was this? Was this some sort of madness-initiated hallucination? Experimentally, he stepped toward the living wall, curiosity outweighing caution. He was met with the sharp reprimand of teeth against his shoulder from a silvery brown wolf with brilliant golden eyes. Her gait barely faltered as she snapped at him, rearing back almost instantly and returning to her spot amongst her pack.

Guided by the Father. Led by the brother.

Again, the voice whispered to Derek, and again he whirled about to be faced with no explanation. The pack didn't seem to have heard, or if they did, they didn't care. A moment later, he heard a distinct change in the wavering howls, changing from anxious to excited. The tempo of paws hitting the ground seemed to increase, and once more the voice chimed in behind Derk's ear.

Led by the emerald eyed brother. The Faoladh.

The last word, that unfamiliar word, Faoladh. It stirred something inside Derek as he struggled to comprehend what the bodiless voice was telling him. It was completely foreign to him, yet at the same time his bones seemed to quiver as he repeated the word to himself in his own whisper.

Faoladh. They are the Faoladh.

The voice seemed to encourage the way his mind was going with the cryptic information it was given, it's tone was encouraging, satisfied. Despite his initial urge to not become distracted by this train of thought, a thought stung about by a voice without a body, he found himself thinking even harder upon the topic. Emerald eyes? What kind of werewolf had emerald eyes?

The Fáidh. The Faoladh led by the Fáidh.

This seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Confusion warred with the defiance of a trapped alpha, and Derek began looking for a weak chink in the armor. A low growl rumbled through his chest and he made a few false charges at the line, leaping backwards before the slashing teeth met his body. He considered the possibility of perhaps leaping over the wolves that leapt for the sky like birds, but on his first attempt he was met with the teeth and paws of a grizzled gray male with blue eyes, who reared up on his hind legs to force a furious Derek back to the ground. The slash that dripped blood down Derek's face was enough to convince him not to try that particular method of escape.

As Derek began to consider another route to freedom, the howls stopped, and the wolves that encircled him slowly came to a shaky stop, although ears still twitched, tails still quirked, and hackles still rose and fell. Derek counted nine of them, varying from pale silver to almost black, and considered another attempt at escape. As he initially moved to try once more, something else stopped him cold.

They come. The brothers. They come! Bringers of calm, bloody chaos.

The return of the voice stilled Derek, and he moved his own eyes to where the entirety of the pack seemed to be watching from. Suddenly, the circle opened, part of it compressing inward, and for a moment, Derek considered fleeing out of it, but he found himself physically unable to move. Then he saw the glow of red in the distance.

Two wolves, larger than the others, stalked out of the surrounding forest, shoulder to shoulder. Heads raised and chests thrown out pridefully, they approached the pack. One was snowy white, and his counterpart was a dark brown. Tails high, they took their spot at the outside of the gap, gaining tail wags and quiet barks from a few of their pack. A low growl issued from the darkness outside of the formation, and Derek knew he was staring at what the voice had called Fáidh. Eyes that glowed an unnaturally bright shade of green became visible, pools of molten gemstones that seemed to sink into his very being.

The Fáidh's fur was jet black, the only thing truly visible at a distance being his spectacular eyes, he was largest of all the pack, and was clearly in complete control. He stalked forward, moving with a type of arrogant saunter that pushed the two alphas to lower their heads and tails in wake of his approach. As he stepped into the final opening in the halo, and suddenly all muzzles were pointed at none other than Derek Hale.

Derek refused to retreat out of spite as the devil wolf, for in his eyes, he looked like a demonic being, an actual part of the darkness, stepped toward him. With a single lash of his paw, Derek was on the ground, pinned beneath the Fáidh's paw, sporting a gushing wound on his stomach. His very DNA balked against this. He was an alpha! It was against everything he was to submit to anyone! He thrashed for as long as he dared before another graze of teeth set his left hip on a one way journey to blood loss. After that, he finally stilled, looking away from this being, submitting. It was humiliating, and Derek felt his eyes fading to their normal hazel, his body becoming human again.

Finally, he dared to look back up at his assailant and as he did so, the voice that had haunted him through this whole ordeal began speaking again.

Don't tempt the Faoladh. Don't tempt the Fáidh, lest this come to pass Derek.

"Derek!"

Derek Hale awoke, panting and covered in a thick sheen of sweat. He choked for breath and pulled himself upward, running his hands over his skin repeatedly as he assured himself that it had all been just a dream, though he'd never experienced a dream that vivid, ever. So profound was his confusion over the reality of his dream versus the reality of the waking world, it took him a moment to realize that he hadn't woken up - He'd been woken up. He blinked and tried to put on his best 'I'm-really-fucking-annoyed-you-better-have-a-good-reason-for-this look as his focus switched to Aiden, whom had backed away from his bed and retreated to the doorway.

"What?" He grumbled as he pulled himself over the bed and stood. "It's two thirty in the morning. What's wrong?" More alert now, he noticed the nervousness written in the young alpha's body language. It was unusual.

"Uhm.. Long story short?" Aiden asked with a quirk of his eyebrows as he hid the anxiousness that practically rolled off of him in waves, "A werewolf just checked into the hospital. An alpha. From the looks of him, he was hit hard by some hunters who must've followed him here."

"Wait.." Derek said, pausing midway into the hall. "How do you know an alpha checked into the hospital at two in the morning?" He asked, then backtracked, "How the hell do you know he's an alpha, anyway?" He wasn't sure how these questions hadn't registered before.

"Isabelle started running a fever this afternoon and it hadn't died down. Lydia called the doctor, and they said to take her to the ER." Aiden explained, voice warming slightly when he mentioned the name of his daughter. "Apparently he was trying to get to the hospital and he got hit in the parking lot first. Lydia had been outside calling me and was the first to get to him. He started muttering about not wanting to leave his pack behind. She swears his eyes flickered red for a second, and she's usually not wrong about stuff like this."

Derek's nose wrinkled as he entered the hospital, the scent of soap and anesthetics burning his throat a bit as he breathed at first. He was met, to slight surprise by Melissa McCall, who gave a slight smile as she saw him. He did his best to return the smile, but it came out looking forced and faked. Obviously she'd been informed of the situation, because before he could say a word to her, she nodded her head.

"He's right this way." He watched as she picked up a clipboard and started walking. He fell into step behind her, Aiden dashing off to find his wife and daughter. He smelled Peter on her, like usual, and it made him feel a bit better. It was, after all, almost the anniversary of Scott's disappearance, and a few weeks ago had been the marker of his actual death. His mind flickered to the night they pretty much knew Scott died.

It had been a completely normal day. Nothing of great importance had happened, except the slight intrusion of an omega, who'd quickly realized his mistake and left.

Derek sat on the steps to the newly renovated Hale house, watching the two betas - Cora and Isaac - spar like there was no tomorrow.

Without warning his, his body exploded in mind numbing pain. He groaned sharply, body curling in on itself a little in an attempt to fight off an invisible enemy. It was like a rubber band had been stretched from him for miles and miles and it had suddenly just snapped back and he'd been hit in the recoil.

He identified the feeling, and a white hot flash of fear boiled through him. He'd felt it all those years ago, sitting in school while his family died. He'd felt it when Erica had died, though he hadn't known what it was then, and he'd felt it faintly when Boyd had died. He'd even felt it when Lizzy, who'd been accepted with her little brother had died at the hands of hunters. This pain meant the loss of a packmate. This pain was familiar, and he didn't want to know who was dead this time.

"Derek!?" He felt hands on his side, checking for injuries.

"..."

"Derek!"

"Somebody's dead."

"What?!"

"Someone is dead. Get the pack here. All of them."

"You've gotta be kidding-"

"Just do it!"

It had been three months shy of a year, and it went unspoken that it was Scott that died for another month after. They didn't want to admit it, because admitting it made it real. Peter had told Melissa the news, and the pack checked in on her often, because what had been devastation had turned into barely functioning. The news meant her son was dead and there was no way he would be coming back, and it almost killed her.

Derek was pulled from his depressing chain of thought when Melissa stopped at the door and waved to it vaguely.

"He's in there. He's pumped full of painkillers and he's not awake yet. Right now, we don't want him to. We've got him on several IVs, trying to replenish his body." There was a tone of sympathy in her voice, a type of pity that was unusual for her.

"What do you mean, 'replenish his body'?" Derek asked, looking through the door, not really being able to see for the angle.

"What I mean, is that this kid's barely breathing. I don't even know how he walked himself in here under his own power, even without the injuries." She said, looking in at him. "He was so dehydrated when he got in here.. and he's starved. You can see every bone in his body. I don't think he's eaten anything substantial in at least two or more weeks. Honestly, werewolf or not, I have no idea how he's alive."

"Well, that would explain why he came here, he literally couldn't heal himself. His body didn't have it in him."

"Yeah.. Look, I've gotta go do rounds. Don't try to wake him up." She fixed him with a stern look before turning and going back the way they came. Derek tilted his head and entered the room.

Melissa was right. Even with the hospital blanket over him, he could still see the faint outline of the kid's bones. He was emaciated.

He stepped closer, eyes ghosting over the extremely pale hair, dirty and still harboring a little bit of blood, and the face that - for a person his age - should've been innocent but seemed weighed down with fear and responsibility, even in sleep. A gash ran deep above his left eye, stitched shut, and another one ran from behind his right ear along his jaw.

Derek was going to move even nearer to the young werewolf, but was stopped in his tracks when the heart monitor attached to his wrist skyrocketed, the beeping increasing to what must've been dangerous levels and said werewolf whimpered quietly, moving his head a little. The sounds continued, fearful and agonized. It took him a second to realize that the teenager was still sleeping, dreaming.

"No.. no.. please." He whined, shoulders moving weakly as if bracing himself for an impact. He whined a few more times before falling almost eerily silent. Though he was no longer vocalizing his panic, the heart monitor kept up its marathon pace until Melissa arrived to increase the medication.

Derek wasn't the least bit surprised to see Peter right behind her. Of course he'd shown up. As soon as the meds were administered, the youth's heart rate slowed steadily until it was back at a normal pace.

"What happened?" Melissa asked tiredly, in a way that sounded so worn down he almost wished she'd be angry, accusatory. "I thought I asked you not to try and wake him."

"I didn't." He defended himself. "He was dreaming. Having a nightmare." He paused, and looked to Peter, who was looking at the medical chart that hung at the end of the bed, before posing a question that'd been eating at him since he'd arrived. "What does this to an alpha? What drives an alpha to push himself so far past his limits? What scared this kid so much he's having nightmares about it?"

Peter glanced at the report, evidence of stab wounds in the abdomen and upper back. He looked at his nephew, expression grim.

"I think the real question is 'who'."

Yeah, yeah. Cheesy, stupid cliff ending just because I don't wanna over do it in one chapter. I'm sorry this one is so choppy and just.. ew. It didn't come easy, but I felt like I had to do something with this story or I'd end up abandoning it or something again.

Reviews are always welcome, and if you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to let me know and I'll gladly take them into consideration.

~TheFallenArchangel