Stiles had barely made it out of the car, pulling a half-asleep Connor on to his hip, when Laura met him at the door. She looked distressed.

"Do you have any idea who is sitting in the back alley behind my house right now?"

Since Stiles was fairly certain he would have spotted the tank right away, he took his second best guess.

"Marin Morrell?"

"Behind the house! How did you know?"

Stiles smiled faintly. "Now you know how I always feel."

"She swarmed."

"Yes, finally. You wouldn't believe what it took to get her out of that place. You'd think she was a ghost – so tightly tethered as to never be separated."

Laura took a deep breath and composed herself. "Stiles, darling, please don't tell me you're responsible for . . . you know." She fluttered her hand in the air.

"Oh, no. Not me. Lydia."

"Oh. Of course. The shop owner." The vampire's expression was arrested, deadpan at this latest bit of information.

Stiles swore he could see the cogs and wheels of her massive intellect whirring away behind the painted face.

"Because of the drone?" She finally hazarded a guess.

Stiles was enjoying the upper hand for once. He never imagined that he would one day have more information than Laura did.

"No – Liam."

"Her son?"

"Not exactly hers."

"The little idiot the queen had with her? The one who ripped my dress?"

"That sounds like Liam."

"What's the hive queen doing with the inventor's son?"

"Apparently Allison left a will."

Laura rolled her eyes. "She left him in the care of the hive? Silly child."

"And Morrell stole him from Lydia. So Lydia built a tank and destroyed the hive house trying to get him back."

"Well, that's quite an escalation."

Stiles shrugged and made to move past Laura into the house.

She stiffened and her eyes flashed. "I'm sorry, but nobody can come in right now. Nobody but my own drones."

Stiles gave her an odd look. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"Nobody in here right now." She had such a serious expression on her normally carefree face that Stiles didn't even try to ask for a more in-depth explanation.

Laura gestured at Connor, still in Stiles's arms. "Connor may come in. He is mine. He would be safe here."

But Stiles shook his head. "I'm sorry, but no. Not if I can't go in."

She nodded. "I understand. I know I am not his only parent. I won't force you to put him somewhere that I won't let you in."

Stiles smiled - grateful that she understood. But then he grew concerned again.

"What are we going to do with the hive in the back, though?"

Laura shrugged. "As long as she is gone from here soon, I don't particularly care."

Stiles forgot sometimes, that vampires were very territorial. Laura's demeanor was rapidly reminding him. She seemed utterly unconcerned with anything other than getting the other vampires away from her house. Her entire demeanor screamed threat.

"To be really safe and buy us some extra time, we really out to get her out of New York."

"She won't like that at all, but there is sense to the suggestion."

"How long do we have? How long does swarming usually last?"

Laura frowned. Concerned over whether she should give Stiles this information, he suspected, rather than over any possibility of her not having it. "A new queen has months to settle, but an old queen has only a few hours."

Stiles shrugged. His house next door was clearly too close if Laura's demeanor was anything to go by, so that was out. Only one solution readily presented itself. It was the safest place he knew of—defensible and secure.

"I'll have to take her to Newark."

"If you say so, Stiles."

There was something in her tone that gave Stiles pause. She sounded like that when she had recently purchased designer shoes before anyone else. He couldn't understand why she should be so self-satisfied with this predicament. As his husband would say, vampires!

Someone had to do something. They couldn't let the Manhattan queen simply stay outside in the alley behind their houses.

"It will only be until we can figure out what to do with her. And how to fix this situation with Liam. Hopefully without destroying the rest of the city. Can I borrow a couple of cars? Mine was destroyed earlier and the rest of the packs' are already at Newark."

Laura nodded and went inside to have a few drones bring them around front, so no one would need to get any nearer to her house than necessary.

Stiles walked around to the back, still holding his increasingly heavier son to his hip.

Behind the house, the hive waited. Morrell was there with Ennis, Aiden, Ethan, and two other vampires Stiles did not know by name. The hive queen was not in any condition to converse on any topic, mundane or otherwise. She was in obvious mental distress, her movements frenzied and her nerves overset. She paced to and fro, muttering and jerking at any noise. Sometimes she fought against one of her male counterparts as though trying to escape from the loose circle they formed around her. Occasionally, she would lash out at one of them, clawing at his face or biting hard into an exposed body part. The male vampire would only gently put her back into the center of the group, his wounds healed by the time she resumed her twitching.

Stiles noted with relief that Liam had been transferred to Ethan's care. It was clearly not safe for a mortal to be near the queen.

When he got close enough, Morrell turned and hissed at him. Actually hissed.

"Oh, really." Stiles rolled his eyes. He looked at Ennis. "Would you like me to sober her up?" He twiddled his fingers at him.

Ennis snarled and leaped to place himself between Stiles and his queen.

"Apparently not. Have you a better solution?"

Ethan, calmer than the other vampires, said, "We could not have her mortal and vulnerable, not in such an unprotected state."

"Well, then I suggest we retreat to Newark for now. Take refuge there."

All the assembled vampires, even the queen, who seemed to have only a limited ability to follow what was going on around her, paused to look at Stiles as though he had just grown a second head.

"Are you certain, Dr. Stilinski?" asked one of them, almost timidly for a vampire.

Ethan stepped forward, elongated and frail-looking, for all he held the struggling Liam as though he weighed nothing. "You are inviting us to stay? At Newark?"

Stiles did not see the source of their persistent confusion. "Well, yes."

Aiden looked at Ennis. "It is unprecedented."

Ennis looked at Ethan. "There is no edict for this."

Ethan looked at Stiles, rolling his head from one side to the other. "The marriage was unprecedented and so was the child. He is simply maintaining his brand of tradition."

Aiden moved toward Morrell. Cautiously, careful not to make any sudden movements.

"My Queen, we have an option." He spoke precisely, careful to enunciate each and every word."

Morrell shook herself. "We have?" Her voice sounded hollow and very far away. "Who must we kill?"

"It is an offer freely given. An invitation."

For a moment, Morrell seemed to return to herself, focusing completely on the faces of her three most treasured hive members. Her supports. "Well, let us take it then. No time to spare." She looked around, eyes suddenly sharp. "Are we in an alley? Where have you brought me?"

With a nod to Stiles, Aiden hustled his queen around the corner into one of the cars. Ethan sat in the front of the car after placing Liam in the back and Aiden took the driver's seat. Stiles did not think it was a good idea to let the queen pull up to a castle of werewolves on the full moon without him, so resigned himself to riding with them. He clambered into the backseat with Morrell and put Connor in his lap. The rest of the hive took the other car. Ethan carefully watched to ensure that Liam stayed between Stiles and Morrell the whole ride, keeping Stiles from accidentally touching the queen.

When Stiles could finally see Newark Castle looming on the skyline, he heard a terrible crashing sound. It might have been difficult for Stiles to make out their enemy if it had been another car or just a single man, but the thing following them was a massive tank with eight metal arms – one of which was shooting fire at them.

Stiles, feeling like a horrible person, but knowing that it was ultimately going to save all their lives, grabbed Liam and held his head out the window, willing Lydia to realize her son was in the car.

The tank fell back just far enough to allow them to straighten up the car and continue on, but if Stiles knew Lydia, this was only giving the inventor time to come up with a new plan of attack. Lydia must realize Stiles was also in the car and that they were headed to Newark. There was no other reason to be on that road at that time.

A crushing, grinding noise came from behind them. Stiles had no idea what the tank was up to, but when he stuck his head out the window, he saw it was no longer following them. And they were almost home.

Mere moments later, a tremendous crash came in front of them and the car slewed to one side and came to a rocking halt. Out of the window Stiles could just see Newark ahead, silvered under the moonlight.

It might has well have been a thousand miles away, for the tank had felled a tree across the road before them and the grounds were too steep to drive a car up without the road. Aiden could not turn the car around, because behind them the tank barred the way. The vampire escort in the other car was already out of the car, forming a barrier around the car, as though they could stop any attack by physically imposing themselves between the tank and their queen.

Stiles glanced around in desperation. He was among enemies, exhausted, and his son was in danger. He was running out of options and would have to trust one of the vampires.

"Ethan, we need some help and we need a distraction if we are to make it to our destination."

"What do you suggest?"

"That we call out the hounds."

"And how do we do that? I don't think you'd make it to Newark with the child and I doubt you'd leave him behind. None of us can carry you and no claviger will take the word of a vampire messenger."

"Listen to me. You tell them that Stiles says it is a matter of urgency. The Alpha doctor requires his pack to attend him, regardless of their current state." I will have to change the secret phrase now.

"But—"

"It will work. You must trust me." He wasn't certain, of course. A matter of urgency and Alpha doctor were pack codes for Stiles acting as shah. He'd rarely had to use the summons, and then only with a perfectly sane husband or Beta, never with only clavigers. Would the message even be understood?

Ethan gave him one hard, long look. Then he whirled and ran, leaping the fallen tree with almost as much ease a werewolf, heading directly for the castle, supernatural speed in full effect.

"Give me Liam. You are out of options." There came a short pause. "I can hardly believe you, Stiles, helping vampires. They tried to kill you!"

Stiles yelled back. "So? Recently, you did too. In my experience, murder could almost be an expression of affection."

He may be joking out loud, but inside Stiles was afraid.

Then came the noise, an eerie blessing of a sound, one that Stiles had grown to love very much.

Wolves. Howling.