A/N: Not beta-read, as I'm currently beta-less again ... *sighs* If the fact that every single of my past betas so far has been struck by personal tragedy or just disappeared (on me, can't say if they were abducted by aliens or not ;)) doesn't frighten you please let me know.

"SecretsofNelle" Oh don't worry, she'll be telling him off a lot.

"DCT Won't Forget You Now" I try to slowly grow her, glad you like it (so far)

"Weregrrrl13" Yes, they are ... it'll be a few days 'til school starts again, so it'll be a while but I promise that this will come up.

"sharonpijl" well I guess I let the chapter speak for itself ;)

Chapter 22 A touch of nature

Rubèn and Naira were waiting for them in the garage. Leaning against the Jeep, Naira was carefully pressing herself against Rubèn and they were busy kissing like teenagers. When Lydia and Peter approached them, those two just smiled at each other and then got into the car: Naira behind the driver's seat and Rubèn next to her. That left the back seat for her and Peter.

Lydia didn't feel like talking and Peter seemed to be lost in his thoughts. Naira more than made up for that, sharing enthusiastically how alive and energetic she felt. It all boiled down to her clearly enjoying her transformation. There was none of that awkward brooding charm that Scott had displayed or the dickish anxiety of Jackson. From Rubèn's replies, Lydia learned that this trip wasn't just about Naira learning to handle her new senses better but also to gain control over her new excess energy.

"The full moon will be here quicker than you can imagine," Peter eventually said.

Naira drove the Jeep out of the city and onto an uneven but broad path in the woods. Even before they arrived Lydia realised where they were headed. It was a place she was all too familiar with: the old Hale house, where she had brought Peter back from the dead.

"Why here?" Lydia asked when they stopped.

"Why not?" Peter replied, "You think I'll avoid the place just because of what happened here?"

It was so typical that he immediately assumed this was about him and not about her possible discomfort. Lydia didn't say anything, after all she hadn't thought for one second that this place might bring up some past demons for Peter.. She sighed softly, feeling that maybe it wasn't so unreasonable of him to not think about her experiences her when his involved witnessing his family burning to death her, not to mention the other things that happened here.

Despite him making it sound as if questioning their choice of location was the most unreasonable thing, Lydia felt that it was just deflection: Peter got out of the car very quickly and he hadn't actually looked at her. It made her think, he just came here to show that he didn't care. Maybe Lydia was wrong and Peter didn't care but she doubted it.

"I could imagine a more cheerful place to train," Rubén said to Peter as Lydia opened her door and left the car.

"It's remote, I know the area and the house at the very least provides cover," Peter explained and then looked over to Lydia. "Just in case hunters show up."

"Yeah, and if it rains, we don't get wet," Naira added with a smile.

Lydia sighed, standing so close to the house made her feel bad. If she had a choice, she would avoid the place, but if Peter could act as if it did not bother him, then Lydia could do the same. Seeing that Rufus sat down on the steps leading up to the house, she decided to join him.

"I guess we're going to spend the rest of the day here?" Lydia said to Rubèn.

"Well, so far I've been doing this alone with her", he told her, "but since I'm still not at a hundred percent. Besides Peter's the alpha, it can't hurt if he gets a bit more involved."

"Believe me," Peter said from a few steps away, "if it wasn't for two undead killers calling negative attention to this place, I'd be more invested."

"It's okay," Naira shrugged and took her coat off. "Rubèn is a born wolf - so he knows the basics just as well."

Lydia shivered just seeing Naira's naked arms. She imagined someone that muscular was probably producing a lot of heat but this time of year it was still a strange sight. At least Peter had on a long armed shirt.

"So," Lydia remarked wrapping her arms tighter around her. "That's how you spent your time? Beating each other up in the woods?"

Rubèn started to laugh but stopped soon holding his ribs. The other two werewolves had heard it as well and were equally amused.

"I guess that would be one way of looking at it," Peter replied.

Even though he was looking at Lydia while he said it, before he had ended, he lunged in one quick dash at Naira, who had also laughed, even though a bit more restraint, at Lydia's remark. It stopped on the spot and in one quick move she dodged the surprise attack.

"That's my girl," Rubèn said proudly. Lydia sighed, but she was secretly glad that the attack had missed it's mark. Violence was something she abhorred and she had already seen enough of it yesterday when Deucalion had attacked her and the ensuing fight had trashed her room.

Since there was little else to do, Lydia did watch the ongoing fight. There were differences in the fight with Deucalion. At first she couldn't really make out what felt different but as kept observing she noticed a few things. For once, even though their claws were out, no blood was spilled. Naira was thrown to the ground a couple of times, they landed blows on each other but seriously injuring the other party wasn't the objective.

For the most part Naira used the fact that she had open space to evade a lot of hits, she was very fast and while she couldn't keep up with strength, she clearly was equally matched in speed. There was one more thing that endeared Naira a lot to Lydia: Her eyes glowed a beautiful golden tone.

"I admit it gets rather boring to watch," Rubèn suddenly said and looked at her.

"You don't say," Lydia replied with a sarcastic tone. Looking back him, she suddenly realised she probably was going to talk to her new chemistry teacher. They had a psychotic darach as a teacher, a semi-sane werewolf was probably not that big a deal in comparison. She began wondering what the color of Rubèn's eyes was.

"Time for a change of strategy," she heard Peter say.

When they looked around they say him pinning Naira to the ground and then leaning over to whisper something to her. Lydia looked at Rubèn, who didn't seem very concerned.

"He's saying the same as I've told her: she's not relying enough on her new senses," Rubén explained.

Transformed back to a normal human appearance, Peter rose and walked toward both of them. Behind him Naira looking frustrated. She got up as well, shaking the leaves out of her long black hair.

"We're going to stick around, Rubèn will know if someone or something comes close, then Naira and I will be back in moments," Peter explained.

Lydia swallowed hard; it was a reminder that she indeed was in danger. While Peter might put an emphasis on it just to scare her and make her feel like she did need him, the memories of that zombie creature coming after her was as real as Deucalion finding her alone. She had no chance to reply, as Peter turned very quickly and disappeared into the woods.

Naira walked over, and crouched next to Rubèn. "Any hints?"

"Well, keep in mind you're not tracking just a person - you're tracking a werewolf. You can't rely on your usual tracking skills, you need to primarily use your senses: especially smell and hearing," Rubèn said, sounding very serious.

With a kiss for him and a nod to Lydia, Naira shifted back to her wolfish appearance and followed Peter. It was almost bizarre to think that the werewolves seemed to play tag but Lydia realised it wasn't a game. It was a way to become familiar with their second nature. One reason why Scott in all his stubbornness had come to listen to Derek and Peter had been because even he knew that being born a wolf meant they knew things he had yet to learn. Judging by what Lydia had seen and what Stiles had told her, Scott had a lot phases where he still didn't feel like listening.

Naira was different: she wanted to learn and Peter deemed it important enough to not skip a day of training for her. What they did was different than what Isaac had told Allison about everything that Derek had done with his betas.

"So," Lydia said, "you try to teach Naira to use her new abilities."

Ruben nodded. "Yeah, she already knows how to fight, you don't need much training to use the increased strength or learn how to ignore wounds."

"Scott seemed often very distracted by his improved hearing." Lydia shuddered to think about what he could suddenly smell or the werewolves in general. Although in hindsight a lot of Scott's oddities made more sense.

"It isn't just the heightened senses," Rubèn explained while leaning against a pillar. "I've seen it often in turned wolves: They have a hard time becoming one with the animal inside. That is where most of the problems come from. They fear to lose control and fight it, but when they lose they don't have any control."

It made sense that it was easier for the born werewolves, as they never knew any different. Lydia could only assume what this was like: not that she was sad about that. Her sense of style did not go with long, pointy ears. The furthest she ever went in that direction was dressing up as elf for halloween and those ears had been cute.

But she was curious and as Rubèn was definitely more talkative than Derek and probably more trustworthy than Peter she just had to ask. "How does it work when you're born with it? I suppose if you turn as a baby every full moon that would be very stressful."

Rubèn laughed, "Yes, it would be." After he had calmed down a bit, primarily due to his injuries, he explained more. "The change comes more gradually than that, true some of us turn very early on but mostly the actual transformation occurs around the time you reach puberty. Even before, you do have heightened senses and they're already a part of you. Which makes socialising with non-werewolf kids often not easy."

Lydia wondered how often things did went wrong. From what she had seen and heard werewolves - on average - did manage to control themselves or took at least steps to ensure that nothing bad happened. Yet, there were the Argents with their code that said they would only go after the guilty once: the werewolves that had spilled innocent blood. There was something really off. Either werewolves were in denial about how well they were able to control themselves or the code was applied way too loosely. Even if some young teenwolf went out of control, Lydia wasn't sure if she would condone shooting them for it.

It was probably a good thing that Allison had revised the code to something less vague and more positive.

"What happens if a person can't handle it?" Lydia wondered what a pack would do if one of theirs went crazy.

If the packs didn't take care of their rogue's that might explain how the Argents found so many to take down. Lydia recalled Allison's dad pointing out how dangerous werewolves were. That wasn't a false statement, but it didn't automatically made them killers. Lydia began to see that it was less about them being werewolves and more how well adjusted they were.

Werewolf or not - a teenager with issues could get very dangerous - the numerous shootings every year more than proved that.

"When a person survives the bite but then becomes unstable," Rubèn paused a moment and tilted his head. "As harsh as it might sound, but that person would be taken care off."

Lydia nodded. It did make sense, then before she could say something, he added: "But of course some packs just sent that person off, not taking responsibility."

"But yours didn't?" she asked before really thinking about it.

Rubèn looked into the distance. "My father gave the bite to my sister's fiancé. He wasn't a stable person and well ... let's say the marriage didn't happen, my father and my sister didn't talk to each other for a while."

"I'm sorry," Lydia found herself saying, regretting that she had brought it up.

"It's okay, I just sometimes I cannot believe that they're really all dead, except my niece of course. But she's with another pack now," Rubèn said, looking genuinely sad.

"Couldn't she join you now?" Lydia wasn't sure that having Peter as an Alpha was the best thing for a what must be a young, traumatized teenager but she felt bad that Rubèn was cut off from his only remaining family member.

"The whole idea behind getting her into another pack was for her being safe. And honestly," he looked around, "this is not safe. I don't mind sticking around here, fighting what supernatural creatures latch onto the Nemeton but she shouldn't have to go through this."

Then he stopped and looked at her if he suddenly realised that maybe this also applied to her. Lydia certainly felt that frown upon her face. Deep down she had known that what her friends had done with that ritual was bad but in this moment she realised that it had more than just personal consequences. As long as she was here, there would be creatures that would probably be on her banshee radar or whatever it was that she could do. If Peter was right and banshees were hunted down by other supernatural creatures, just leaving wasn't an option either.

"I'm sorry, you didn't ask for this either," Rubèn finally said, avoiding to look at her.

"Well, at least if I freak out during class, I know one teacher who won't be making fun of me."

That brought a smile to his face. "From what I heard, it's not like one missed class or a couple is going to be a great problem for you."

Lydia shrugged, she often felt that not going to class was a more productive, especially given what a stiff and boring teacher Harris had been. "No - but you're going to run into a lot of problems, we're so far behind."

From that moment on the supernatural was forgotten for a while and they talked about chemistry, their substitute teachers and where Rubèn would have to pick up. Lydia felt like he actually cared about doing a great job and wasn't just going through the materials and not giving a damn who kept up and who didn't. It was nice to talk about something mundane for a change, without anything weird coming up.

Time passed by fast as Lydia described what their substitute teachers and Harris had been up to and what she thought about their teaching methods. Instead of being defensive Rubèn had his own opinion about which approach was effective. It wasn't until he grew tense and looked around that Lydia remembered that there was a reason she spend the afternoon in the forest with three werewolves of which two hadn't been around for a while.

"What is it?", she asked worried.

Rubèn relaxed. "It's them or rather Peter, Naira probably won't be far behind."

Lydia had to wait for two more minutes until she saw Peter stepping into the open space in front of the house. It was impressive that Rubèn had been able to tell it was Peter and not Naira or even to be so sure that it wasn't someone else creeping up on them. "I guess, he's not wearing whatever anti-scent he usually uses," Lydia remarked.

"That would beat the purpose of this exercise, wouldn't it?" he said and stretched. "Those wounds feel so much better already."

As Peter came closer, Lydia was realising that she was actually glad to see him. It probably was just the fright when she had noticed Rubèn sensing something a few minutes ago. When Peter sat down next to her, she was relieved when she also noticed a healthy dose of anger directed at him. It was relieving because her first impulse had been to lean closer and she was not even that cold.

The decision was soon taken away from her, Peter casually remarked. "Are you're cold?"

Before she was even able to open her mouth, he used the chance to wrap his arm around her and pull her closer. Lydia protested and said she wasn't that cold but Peter used that just as an excuse to feel the uncovered skin on her wrists. Even though she protested she could not help that her heart beat just a little bit faster each time.

Peter knew the effect he had on her and he used it against her. If she knew how, she would try and see if she could turn this around somehow and be the one to initiate the contact. At least as long as someone else was around.

"So, did Naira got lost in the woods?" Rubèn asked with a grin.

"In the river," Peter said and both werewolves grinned at each.

Lydia was a bit surprised that Rubèn seemed so amused about the fact that Naira obviously had taken an unwilling bath and wasn't even back yet. "So, I guess, she didn't do too well?"

Peter thought about it, then said: "She she knows how to track someone in the woods and she relies too much on her old methods. I think we need to try something different."

"The blindfold?" Rubèn asked and Peter nodded.

Then he turned to her and offered an explanation. "Taken one sense out, she is forced to rely more on her other senses and thus will hopefully learn to take advantage of them."

"There she is," Rubèn slowly stood up, not in as much in pain as before.

Following his gaze, Lydia saw Naira walking up, her trousers were wet up to her thighs, but she didn't look upset at all. As she approached, Lydia realised why she needed more time to come. Naira had wrung out the wet fabric and removed her socks and shoes which she held in her hand.

Rubèn closed in and whispered something to her, that she couldn't hear. Lydia used the moment to turn to Peter. "Did you really have to push her into the water?"

"It sort of happened," he replied and then whispered into her ear. "I think it rates pretty low on my list of offences."

"You don't get any arguments from me there." Lydia rolled her eyes.

While Naira and Rubèn finished their short chat, she hung up her socks. Deciding to take a break, they all sat down on the porch and ate the sandwiches. Lydia wondered if she felt weird doing this because she sat eating in front of a burned out house where she had resurrected someone from the dead or because she hated outdoor picnics.

Then there was the fact that everyone around her was at least ten years older than she was. With werewolves who knew what age they were anyway? Naira looked like she was thirty and that was probably close to her real age, since she had only been bitten a week ago or so. Rubèn could easily be forty judging by his education and teaching experience even though he did not look much older than Naira.

The full moon in five days was the thing they talked about the most and Lydia had no intention to bring it around to the creepy zombie thing from the crypt. She mostly hung back in the conversation because what did she know about the problem? Lydia did remember that when she had knocked out Derek with the wolfsbane powder, he had his betas all locked up in that bus he had come out off. There was no indication that the two planned to do anything similar with Naira. It seemed they wanted her to be out in the woods. Which sounded pretty dangerous but she waited until Peter and Naira got up to continue the lessons.

Once Naira had put on her socks and shoes, Peter blindfolded her and then told her to follow his voice. They went further away from the house but were still in sight. Rubèn looked at them curiously and Lydia watched as well. At first they were mostly talking, which Lydia assumed was Peter giving her directions and then answering her questions. They took it slow, he moved and attacked but without actually hitting her. Naira did sweep a few punches away from her but it took time.

"On Scott's first full moon, Stiles said he had to chain Scott to his radiator," she began addressing Rubèn.

He turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "That doesn't really help learning to achieve control. I know some believe that new werewolves should be chained up until they get that kind of control but that can take a couple of full moons."

Lydia was not too happy with the revelations. It seemed to her the longer method was a lot safer. "Aren't you worried she might harm someone?"

"Not really," Rubèn said, shaking his head. "I'm going to be there, in the unlikely event that someone does show up in the middle of nowhere, I'm able to intervene if she is going to attack." His speech became more spirited. "It's a false conception that we're looking for a human being to tear to pieces on a full moon. It's just a state where our instincts are at their the strongest."

"So, if someone's instincts are generally opposed to killing," Lydia began, when Rubèn finished the thought for her. "It's less likely they are going to kill someone - but if a person has issues, like being bullied or discriminated, then feelings of revenge can lead to some drastic results. Because that person suddenly has the power, the urge to fight back. Think about it: we're such a charming society with a strict hacking order and it never bodes well when someone from the bottom finds themselves suddenly on top of it." Rubèn took a deep breath. "But Naira is well adjusted, so I don't have any worries."

Lydia could think of a few troubled werewolves, that probably were better locked up during a full moon. Looking over to Naira and Peter, Lydia wondered if Rubèn was right about his assessment of Naira. Under her blindfold she seemed very frustrated. She was clearly not as good at blocking Peter's attacks as she liked to be. He was very unrelenting and even though he assured her she was getting better, Naira clearly wasn't happy with her progress.

Suddenly, Peter stepped back and Naira pulled off her blindfold. They looked around and then even Lydia heard the car approaching. Naira went over to the Jeep and went for the trunk.

"I don't think, you'll need that," Peter said and Lydia could only speculate that Naira had reached for her gun.

Rubèn sounded cautious and worried. "You recognise the car?"

"I can see it, it's not the hunters."

Peter proved to be right, when the car approached Lydia recognised Derek's Jeep. It was indeed Derek who emerged from the vehicle once it had stopped a good three feet from their Jeep.

"It's my nephew," Peter said and then when Cora got out, he added with smile: "And my niece."

Rubèn stood up and walked over to where Peter and Naira stood. Lydia wondered what Peter had told them about Derek and Cora. They didn't look particularly happy to see them.

"You left me no choice but to come back," Derek began as if he really wasn't looking forward to this confrontation. Then again, Lydia wasn't able to recall him ever being enthusiastic about anything. She could see him check out the two betas, probably wondering who they were.

"So you came to ask for a place in my new pack?" Peter was enjoying the new situation.

Lydia saw the look on Derek's face and realised that he had no idea what really was going on. His last information was probably still that they suspected Peter was involved in the killings and that they needed help covering the area for those useless patrols they had been doing. Derek turned to look at Cora, who just shrugged and looked as if she was saying: 'Hey, don't ask me.'

"Your pack?" Derek eyed Naira and when his gaze went over to Rubèn, he noticed Lydia. "What is she doing here?"

"I'm just looking out for her," Peter looked back at her and Lydia saw this big smile on his face.

"Looking out for her? Is that what you call it?" Derek said snarling and shook his head. "She's young enough to be your daughter."

Peter laughed and replied: "Unlike you, I was never that reckless in my late teens."

Annoyed that the conversation drifted to her but she was still treated as if she wasn't there, Lydia rose and walked over. It seemed like the situation was about to escalate, but as Derek was not sure what to make of it, there was probably still time to avoid that. Cora seemed to feel similar about it, Lydia could not help but think that nearly dying had made her a lot more reasonable.

"You said 'your pack' does that mean you're an alpha again?" Cora popped in the big question.

Her tone was very neutral and Lydia wasn't sure if Cora was afraid of an yes or hoping for one, but she saw the youngest Hale looking at her as if to find out if she was okay. Which was a far cry away from threatening to tear her apart for dating someone that Derek did not approve of.

"Didn't Scott tell you?" Peter replied, "That's right, he only found out recently. Don't look so disappointed, Derek."

Derek appeared to be more than just disappointed, he looked resentful. While he had given up his Alpha powers gladly to save Cora and seemed okay with being a beta, he was obviously not okay with Peter getting his powers back.

"So you get your powers back and immediately start to murder people again?"

Naira sighed annoyed and Rubèn rolled his eyes, while Peter just smiled which only seemed to anger Derek further.

"It's not him," Lydia said and was a bit shocked about how aggravated her voice sounded. She also couldn't believe that the first words coming out of her mouth were in defense of Peter. It was probably this mindless jumping to conclusions and the talking over her that did it.

"Forgive me, if I don't trust your judgement on this," Derek replied deprecatingly.

"Maybe you should," Naira suddenly said. "Because thanks to her, we now know what one of the killers actually is."

Lydia couldn't help but like that Naira for pointing this looked quite pleased with his beta getting in Derek's face. Lydia just hoped that Derek was not going to start a fight because from what she had seen and heard, she was convinced that Naira would kick his ass.

"What? Not who?" Cora asked puzzled.

"While Scott and the others have narrowmindedly made me out as the culprit, they overlooked that whatever does the killings is undead, that goes for both killers," Peter explained.

"Two undead killers?" Derek said sceptical, "What do we have a ghoul and a vampire going around Beacon Hills?"

"Who knows?" Peter said all serious. "What we do know that there is a Greater Zombie Master responsible for the animal killings."

"A greater what?" Derek and Cora almost asked it simultaneously and ready to shrug it off as nonsense.

There was no denying that it sounded ridiculous, even if you were accustomed to werewolves roaming around. Lydia knew better than anyone how serious this was and when Derek told Peter that he had come up with more convincing lies, she lost it a bit. Pulling up her sleeves she showed her two mangled wrists. The twisted one had a huge blue bruised area while the other one was covered in all sorts of colours.

"It's not made up," Lydia told him. "This thing is real and it's powerful enough to hurt me through my dreams, so who cares if it's got this ridiculous long denominator and not a short cutesy gaelic term? Over a dozen people have been murdered and most of them by that thing. All you and Stiles and Scott and the others are doing is insisting that Peter is behind it. When he's the only one actually doing anything about it. Nevermind the fact that he has an alibi for last night's killing."

Derek stared at her with a mixture of kicked puppy face and a dismissive attitude, but he saw Naira nod at her mentioning the alibi. Lydia had noticed how after seeing the bruises Derek had shot Peter a venomous look. That was exactly the point, they always suspected him of doing the worst, ignoring that just because Peter was capable of that, it did not mean he was automatically behind everything bad.

"I should believe, you care about people dying?" Derek shook his head.

"If people are getting torn apart by animals, that's bad for all of us, Dere,k" Rubèn added sounding a bit like he was talking down to a particular disruptive student.

"Do I know you?" Derek asked hostile.

"You might remember Rubèn of the Salceda Clan?" Peter said with a shrug.

The clan name clearly ran a bell, Lydia wondered if he had heard about what happened or if Derek knew the name from prior contact with them.

"I've heard the clan was wiped out", Cora suddenly replied.

"Yes," Rubèn replied bitterly and Lydia noticed Naira taking his hand. He took a deep breath and looked at Cora. "Kate Argent did it - killed everyone there."

For a moment nobody said anything. Mentioning Kate, Derek immediately stared to the ground and when he looked up there was this guilt stricken expression on his face.

"I still don't trust you," Derek eventually said and then directed at all of them: "If I were you, I wouldn't either. He murdered his own niece, if you're in trouble he'll just let you die."

"Oh, we know what he did," Naira replied clearly not impressed. "We also know what you did."

"We're a pack now," Rubèn said very assured. "We'll look after each other just fine."

"You're not crazy enough enough to trust him, as well?"

The fact that Derek suddenly asked for her opinion just told Lydia that he was desperate for one person to agree with him about Peter not being trustworthy.

"Only in some areas," Lydia found herself replying, "like helping me with my dreams."

"Might I remind you, that he nearly killed you," Derek seemed one step short of grabbing her by the shoulders to shake her.

Lydia wasn't impressed or intimidated by his outburst. "And once you tried to have me killed."

"She's got a point there," Peter happily pointed out, proving once more how good he was at spinning everything on it's head to make himself look good or at least not as worse. "Besides, I didn't intend to kill her. I just tried to convince Stiles to help me to save you. Remember, the Argents had captured you. Which also proves that sometimes I do lift a finger or two to help. Don't think that because I'm not willing to go on a suicide mission for two strays, I wouldn't look out for my own pack or family."

Those last words were more directed at Cora and Lydia saw how Derek's eyes narrowed when he noticed. He even stepped a bit to the side to disrupt the line of sight between his sister and Peter.

"Like you looked out for Laura?" Derek said.

Lydia felt a bit as if he was beating a dead horse. After all previously Derek had no problems asking Peter for advice. Now, because of something Scott had said, Derek was riled up again. It also made her wonder how Peter had sold Laura's murder to Rubèn and Naira as neither of them were bothered by it.

"I'm getting tired of you bringing that up," Peter replied with his tone sounding a bit annoyed. "It's not like you didn't already kill me for it or the fact it wouldn't have happened if you had listened to me. I've warned you - I told you that bitch was bad news but you did not listen."

Derek's lip quivered and he looked ready to punch Peter or sink into a hole in the ground. That line clearly got to him.

"What is he talking about?" Cora asked her brother who swallowed hard but was otherwise frozen in that almost helpless stare at his own feet. Leaving Laura to once more ask the question, this time looking at Peter. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Kate Argent," he almost spat out the name. "I guess Derek never mentioned that he lead her here, told her about the gathering. I assume in between pillow talk."

"What?" Cora turned pale but when she looked at Derek, it was so obvious that Peter had not made that up. Lydia thought it explained a lot of things about Derek, but that was the only affect the revelation had on her. Unlike Cora who grabbed her brother's jacket and made him face her. "Tell me that's not true."

There was no reply from him, Derek just stared down at his boots. "I'm ..", he began after a few moments but did not manage to finish it.

"You're what? Sorry?" Cora shouted, being beyond horrified. "You slept with that psycho? Oh my god, is that what gets you off? No wonder you were so into Miss Blake."

"In all fairness, I think he just falls easily for a pretty face," Peter interjected himself into her tirade and Lydia wondered what he was playing at. He certainly held Cora's attention now, while Derek wasn't saying anything, he was completely frozen on the spot and kept staring at the ground. Lydia felt a bit sorry for him. Peter was certainly right about him falling for their looks, she knew what it was like when everyone looked at your dating record and thought you were into sociopathic killer just because you happened to have sex with four of them.

"We all did things we're not proud of, all I'm saying is, we should probably focus on the current problems. Fact is: if we don't stop these killings soon, we will have other hunters coming here. Then there is the FBI and the ongoing threat of the Nemeton," Peter explained.

Cora was still riled up but it did seem to calm her down a bit. "What do you plan on doing?"

"I'll know more after talking with my Emissary this evening, but the most important thing is keeping Lydia save," Peter said and ended with a dramatic sigh. "Unfortunately, the twins don't really lived up to the task and so far the others have been pretty uncooperative."

"I'm not going to join your pack," Derek looked up again. "If you're really so concerned about her, I'm sure she's much safer with us, given that we're three alphas and four betas, which clearly beats your numbers."

Lydia rolled her eyes, it was so typical that neither of them ever bothered to ask her what she wanted. At least she didn't need to fear that Peter was going to hand her over, for once she was everything but unhappy about that. The truth was, there might be more potential protectors if she went with them, but she doubted that she would be as safe with them: at least safe from the Greater Zombie Master, since she knew that being with Peter was far from safe to begin with.

"I'm afraid, we come as a package deal," Peter replied and to demonstrate that he wrapped his arm around her.

Derek tightened his jaw, his fingers were curled into a fist. He was so incredibly tense that it seemed like had just waited for a chance to lash out. With her so close to him, that chance was gone.

"Don't you think her parents will notice that she's gone?" Cora wondered.

Lydia noticed that she had stepped a bit away from Derek. Whenever Cora looked at her brother there was this hurt in her eyes, as if she still could not believe that he had lead Kate to their home or maybe that he hadn't told her. It was always hard to swallow if you heard important revelations from someone you didn't trust and thus discovering that those whom you had trusted kept something from you.

"My parents are out of town and with what's going on, I want it to stay this way," Lydia said hoping that they would understand. "Look like I'm not that thrilled about this either, but if I want to figure this out, then Peter can help me better than anyone."

It didn't sound very convincing but Lydia figured better than telling the truth: that this Zombie creature scared her and whatever else Peter had done she wanted him close by. As long as that thing was out there, she wanted to have the option of sleeping next to him, so the Greater Zombie Master couldn't come after her in her sleep.

Derek didn't see it that way, he just shook his head and gave her a look as if she was crazy. Which was oddly familiar and Lydia realised that she really didn't care what Derek thought. Especially since his bright ideas involved antagonising people he might better befriend, not listening to advice when it would prevent problems and also attempting to kill her after drawing the wrong conclusions about a very fallible test. Then there was the matter that after he was up to his neck in trouble, he tended to listen to Peter anyway.

If the others wanted to wait until it got even worse before they considered that for once Peter was not the worst problem, then Lydia had no choice to be on her own. Which was ironic, because if they were more reasonable, then maybe right now, she wouldn't be.

"So you honestly want to stay here?" Cora asked her.

Lydia considered that a great improvement, but somehow couldn't help to reply with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "Yeah, sure I love hanging out in the woods."

Cora did not look like she was out for an argument. "That's not what I meant."

"She's obviously safer with us," Naira spoke up again, "besides since the killings started over two weeks ago, your pal Scott and his buddies haven't figured out anything. Peter has already figured out the nature of one of the killers after less than a week."

Derek shot Naira an angry glare which she clearly did not care about. After a moment he turned to Peter. "Fine, if you got everything figured out."

With those words Derek turned around and walked to his Jeep. Cora stared after him as if she could not believe that he would just go. There was certainly more she wanted to hear but despite the recent revelations she was drawn to follow him. After two steps she turned around. "Is there anything we can do?"

"You could try and convince the others to at least listen," Peter answered her as he spoke he looked at her, "Lydia and I will have chat with my Emissary," he looked back at his niece. "After that I might even have a strategy, you see this Zombie Master in it's current form is unstoppable. Lydia here is the key to changing that."

"So you will be at the animal clinic later?" Cora asked with a hopeful tone.

Peter laughed. "Oh no, Deaton isn't my emissary, I prefer a druid that actually gives out good advice on a regular basis. But I'm sure she'll brief him at some point."

Cora took in that news, but was distracted by Derek opening the door and slamming it shut loudly after he got in. "You never really liked Deaton," she said thoughtfully before adding a question. "How did you become an alpha?"

"Deucalion," Peter stated with some pride.

While Lydia cringed inside hearing the name, Cora smiled widely. "You killed him?"

"Not exactly, I didn't want to antagonize Derek and Scott further, so I just took his powers," Peter shrugged. His words were carefully selected. Cora frowned when he reminded her that they had let Deucalion walk away and Derek honking didn't help. Lydia was sure it was all about driving a wedge between them. His next words practically confirmed Lydia's suspicions that Peter wanted to win Cora for his pack. "But it's a long story, maybe we can talk about it at some point, when we got more time."

There was another honk and Cora nodded. "Yes, maybe."

With a frustrated sigh, she turned and hurried to the waiting Jeep.

Final Note: I'd like to say thanks for everyone who comments and let's me know that I'm on track or what you're curious to hear more about (or in more detail) while I got he story and plot in my head, what aspects I focus on more or what I just summarize and what I dwell on is not set in stone yet - so that really helps me. So thank you for that :D