A/N.
Not a chapter but something from when Ace ran with Scott after the attack on their old pack.
WARNING: SO MUCH ANGEST, like, even more than usually, so beware.

I'm so very sorry for the massive delay in writing, but we had an all hands needed situation on work (work from 3am – 1pm) and tomorrow is the first day off in almost three weeks, so if I don't lay in my bed sleeping all day, hopefully I can get started on the next real chapter.

Thank you so much to Izi Wilson for the review, nice to see you back.

Chapter twenty-two.
I wanna shelter you
But with the beast inside
There's nowhere we can hide.

-Imagine Dragons, Demons.

NOTE: Ace is eight years old, Scott is around three.

Alexander POV.

He gasped and heaved as he ran through the forest. His arms were straining and heavy at holding the weight of his younger brother, his younger brother who were too quiet.

He stopped up and almost dropped him but got a grip just before it was too late, and he sat Scott down on the wet forest ground, his own eyes glowing a faint golden in the night air.

The pup wasn't crying, but small hiccups and stuttering breath was the only sigh that the boy was in distress.

Their eyes locked and he swallowed thickly before scooping Scott up in his arms again, the small child clinging on for dear life. They were still too close to the pack and hunters, they had to find daddy.

A howl too close to them made Scott flinch in his arms and caused himself to stumble and fall to the ground, yelping at the sharp pain, before he was on his legs again, hugging his baby brother close to his body as the massive body of a big, black wolf came out from the trees, causing him to take a step backwards, his heartbeat picking up speed.

He whimpered and tried to shield Scott from the wolf's vision but it let out a deep growl, its eyes glowing the brightest crimson that the young boy had ever seen in his entire short life.

He watched terrified as the wolf's lips curled back in a snarl and he stepped back, hoping that the wolf would just let them be, that they would not be a threat.

Suddenly the wolf tensed and its sharp red eyes looked around, almost like a signal had been made. It shook its head before stepping back a little and it turned tail and ran, leaving two very stunned children in its wake.

"Mommy," he heard Scott whisper quietly and he hushed the younger child, they didn't need a repeat of what had just happened.

"Not mommy, pup," he whispered back before half walking, half running in the direction that they had been going in, before the wolf had come.

They ran till he saw the sun rise from the horizon, and he stopped, forcing Scott to stop as well. He had stopped carrying his younger brother when he realized that they could never move fast enough if he was carrying the extra weight.

Scott looked confused at him with his big brown eyes; he shuddered when he looked into them and behind all the confusion he saw anger and hate.

He took yet another deep breath before pulling the younger wolf into a tight hug, hating himself for what he was about to do. Their mother would disown him if she figured it out; found out that he had left his baby brother to himself.

Now remember when I told you that's the last that you'll see
of me. Remember when I broke you down to tears
I know I took the path that you would never want for me
I gave you hell through all the years.

"Scotty," he swallowed and looked down, he couldn't look his brother into the eyes as he told him that he would have to leave him alone.

"I have to let you go on, on your own. Think you can do that? Run like the big boy you are," he tried to smile through the tears that clouded his vision but found that he couldn't.

The pup in front of him looked at him with big eyes for just a second before it was like something went down in his eyes and Ace shuddered, his next breath coming out like a gasp.

Scott took a step backwards and Alexander swore he could see the young boy swallow before he turned around and ran, leaving the older boy alone again.

His entire body convulsed as he sank down on his knees and starred into his hands, wishing that he just hadn't condemned his brother to be alone without anyone who really knew him.

God how he wished.

But God didn't care.

Ten years later…

Ace POV.

He flinched as he heard the yell from inside the house he stood in front of. The sound of breaking glass followed quickly and a female voice that was trying to soothe the angry person at their best abilities but failed.

The slam of a door made him shake his head and begin to walk again before he was discovered stalking; something he knew wasn't going to be appreciated, even if he was recognized.

"Hey!" he yelled after the kid, causing Scott to turn around; his eyes flashing an angry golden before he got it under control again.

Alexander watched as the young teen's lips curled back in a snarl but he didn't get much further before he had him slammed down on the ground, the late evening hiding their encounter.

"Watch what you're doing kid! Or else an Alpha's going to be the least of your troubles."

He watched as his words caught Scott's brain and his heart broke when the teen's breath caught and he twisted so his neck was bared to him, submitting.

Alexander took a deep shuddering breath and fought back the tears.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do Scotty," he whispered before leaving the teen alone again.

Thirteen years later.

He heaved after his breath on the ground. Bended over he knew he made the perfect target but that wasn't his main concern right now.

He looked frantic around him, blue eyes darting around, searching the trees around him, looking for whatever had hunted him.

He swallowed and held his breath for a second, sharpning his hearing, listening for any sound that shouldn't be, anything that didn't belong.

But it was quiet, too quiet.

Two years later.

He screamed at the sky as the wound on his left arm tried to heal. He didn't want to suffer any more than he already had. He had already left his brother and family behind. He hadn't dared to think what had happened to his little brother, he was afraid that the guilt would consume him again.

He gasped after breath and sat down on the forest ground when he noticed something.

It was silent. There were no bird song, no frogs making sounds and none of the usual night time animal that he had come to enjoy.

He held his breath as good as he could and tried not to move.

He fell down on his ass when a huge shadow jumped him

Scott's death and uprising.

Alexander POV.

He ignored the tears silently rolling down his cheeks as his eyes followed the forms of Derek Hale and his father, carrying a too unmoving Scott in their arms.

He knew he would never be able to forget the look on his father's face, an expression of pure grief and pain. The man had found his son, only to lose him again. Derek's was similar but he knew it was the feeling of losing a beta that had hit the Hale Alpha, still, it was nothing compared to Peter.

He swallowed thickly and ignored the way his breath hitched along with it and he began to move with the two wolves, unseen but still able to see them.

At some point before they reached the forest, he passed them in a run, the wind picking at his hair as he ran towards the Hale grounds. He knew where they were headed.

Stopping at the area that he knew Laura Hale had once been buried in, he went inside the house and picked up a shovel and began to dig a hole in the ground right in front of the house. He had to work fast enough for his scent to fade enough for Peter to not recognize it.

When he deemed that he had dug deep enough, he tossed the shovel to the side and went to hide inside the house. He knew it was risky hiding there but he had to say goodbye too.

He needed to say goodbye.

He stifled his whimpers and whines the best he could as he watched them arrive, he saw how they looked at each other, how his father looked at Scott, he was trying to not show how much he was hurting but Alexander had learned long ago to spot internal pain, before they lowered his brother into the ground, kicking the dirt that he had dug over him.

He got ready to go out again when they turned around to walk away but right before he stepped out in the moonlight, Peter turned around and their eyes locked, Peter's eyes flashing crimson before the older wolf nodded and followed Derek, leaving a stunned Alexander behind, eyes wide open.

Arms wide open, I stand alone
I'm no hero and I'm not made of stone.

He finally moved out of the house and went to the grave, falling down on his knees and closing his eyes as he turns his head towards the hidden sky, the tears silently falling down his face and when he tries to take a deep breath, everything shatter and he curled down on top of the grave, not giving a fuck about scent of anything like that. Peter had seen him and he knew the man wouldn't out him.

And I use you as a makeshift gate
Of how much to give and how much
to take.

He didn't know if it would work. He didn't know how their father had managed to come back from life, he could only hope that the books he had managed to find in the Hale house had been enough and as he watched the full moon rise between the tree tops, his heartrate picked up speed and he could feel how his wolf itched to be let out.

He had turned to wandering the small clearing when something's finally happening, like everything around him suddenly got amplified or something else, and he turned his front towards the grave, his heart giving a little flutter in future happiness over the fact that he would soon have his brother back.

He wasn't stupid; he was just very good at acting like he was. He knew that the person that would come up from the hole he had dug in the ground would not be the same that he had sent away in the forest all those years ago, hell, not even the one that had trashed the entire house he had once lived in.

He would be angry, confused and a shitload of other things but he knew that Scott would most of all be scared, because he had thought he had been done, that he had played his role and then his selfish older brother brought him back from the dead all because he couldn't live with what he had done over a decade ago.

By the time he had thought everything through, his younger brother was halfway out of the grave and Alexander carefully made his way over but didn't try the help, it wouldn't be appreciated.

He went completely still when their eyes met; Scott's dark brown ones, against his own caramel.

He watched as Scott's eyes shifted and ran over the black burns that covered his arms and hand and he heard the teen's breath hitch before Scott sat down on his ass and looked at him like a confused pup, his eyes changing constantly from brown to blue and then stayed a little longer on a soft crimson.

He stepped out from the cover of the trees and reached out with a hand, a soft smile covering his face as he hoped that the wolf before him would take the hand.

Eight years later.

Alexander. It was his name, given by parents that he barely remembered anymore.

He frowned at the sight of his hands. The blood just wouldn't wash off, not really and after countless of attempts, the deep red color of blood, had faded to a faint pink. His nose twisted and he shook his head. Why was he even doing this anymore? He saw no appeal in the job anymore, not as much as he had once done.

He shook his head. Maybe a little change would do him good.

He shuddered when he thought where he could go next. He had stalked his younger brother, he could admit that, and therefore he knew that their father was alive, or at least had been, he was unaware of the last parent he had, state of mind and body.

Scott on the other hand. He had been adopted as soon as he was out of hospital and after some minor trouble with one Rafael McCall, he knew his younger brother wasn't suffering, not too much, he hadn't dared to get too close, he couldn't risk Scott catching his scent, and he just couldn't.

NOW:

He grunted and laid his head on his brother's hip, desperately taking deep breath, like he was starved for it. Maybe he was; who knew.

His bloodshot eyes looked over at Isaac's silent shape. The beta was sitting hunched over, his fingers constantly running through his hair and tugging.

He shook his head and his eyes turned to their mother.

Isobel was leaning against a wall, tears rolling down her cheeks and Alexander never wanted to see their mother cry again, mothers weren't supposed to cry, not ever. They were meant to be the rock, the one thing that never moved, the thing that was unbeatable and unrelenting.

But who was strong for her?

He snorted and shook his head. She had left them all to themselves. He didn't even know he she had looked for them, had done anything at all.

He dared a short glance at her again. The tears had stopped coming and now she was just starring into thin air, her hands in fists by her side.

He looked away again. No matter how angry and hurt by the lack of her presence, he still couldn't stand to see her cry, he had never could.

He shivered and laid his forehead against Scott's shoulder and just hoped that there would be an end to the nightmare they called life.

Demons. (Alexander)

I wanna hide the truth

A/N.
Hope it wasn't too bad. Promise the next chapter is a real one, I swear on my life.
Review.