As much as I missed Derek being by my side at night, I slept like the dead last night. Working with Matt all day had worn me out.

When I woke up the next day, Matt was gone. Tess told me during breakfast that he had some business to take care of and he would be back soon. I wandered the house until I found the boys. To my surprise, they were working on their online classes.

"You two really think there's a life outside of running?" I asked from the doorway.

"Tori got out," Simon shrugged.

"Tori's hiding from us," I said.

Simon shook his head, "No. I think she got out of this life. If she was still running she would've come back here by now. Tori can't live on the run alone, she needs people to pick on."

I laughed.

Derek finally looked up from his computer, "Are you going to just stand in the doorway or are you coming in?"

I shrugged, "Aunt Lauren can see me from the living room if I stand here. Which means less of a chance of her yelling at me."

Derek looked back down at the computer.

"Are you mad at me or something?" I asked.

"He's just grumpy today," Simon said. "Dad laid into him trying to figure out where we'd gone off to."

"You didn't tell him did you?"

Derek grunted a no.

I absently picked at the spot on my thigh where I had scratched the symbols. Worried about Kit finding out we had gone and seen the Alpha. I wondered if I still needed the symbols or the cuffs since I had been tapping into my powers with Matt. It probably wouldn't hurt, like when I had mom's pendant. Maybe I could make another pendant or something with the symbols. For just in case.

"You ok?" Simon asked me. Breaking my train of thought.

"Yeah, why?"

"You seem out of it."

"I'm just worried about what we did, you know?" I said. "What if that's not the end of it? Some of his words are still sticking with me."

"Like what?" Derek asked.

"The excuse of the moon and the crossfire thing he said before we left."

Derek looked up again. Curious.

I tried to quote him as best as I could, "You're welcome back anytime, except full moons. Derek could get hurt in the crossfire in the future."

"Are you thinking of going back to him?" Derek asked.

I shook my head, though that wasn't a completely true answer.

"Then we don't need to worry about any future crossfire," Derek said.

"Ok," I nodded. Then lied, "I think Tess is calling me. I'll be right back."

I walked away from the room and out the front door. I hated to steal from Tess after all that she did for me but I needed the cuffs for the symbols and I didn't want to admit to her that I had struggled with my powers. I darted across the yard to the tall grassy area and found the door.

I took a moment to catch my breath when I got inside. It smelled musty in here so I cracked the door to get some air flow. I turned around to go to the cabinet when the door shifted behind me. I would've thought it was the wind if I hadn't heard an 'ahem' follow it.

I turned around to see Aunt Lauren.

"Hi," I said nervously.

She stepped inside, hands on her hips.

"What do you think your doing in here?" She asked.

"Exploring," I answered.

Aunt Lauren rolled her eyes, "No. You were planning something with those boys again, weren't you?"

I shook my head, "They don't even know I'm here."

Aunt Lauren's smile sent chills down my spine.

"For your sake, I hope you're lying."

The back of Aunt Lauren's hand caught the side of my face.

"What're you doing?" I stumble back with surprise.

"Teaching you a lesson. You won't listen to my reasoning so maybe you need to listen to force."

She stepped forward and smacked me again.

"Those boys are poison."

"This isn't you," I cried out. "Please stop."

"You're damn right it isn't me. But you aren't you either," Aunt Lauren spat. "You killed my innocent little niece and replaced her with this perverse mutant." She grabbed me by the front of my shirt. "This isn't even my nieces body. You have changed everything about her." She got closer to my face. "And I'm going to get her back."

Something sharp pinched my neck and everything faded to black.

I woke up sometime later in the backseat of a car. I flashed back to when Aunt Lauren tried to 'help' me before and turned me in. I looked around groggily, my body felt so heavy from the drug. Aunt Lauren saw the movement in her mirror and pulled off the road so she could turn around.

"I hoped your werewolf metabolism would hold out," she sighed. "Here."

She reached back and before I could process what she was doing; I felt the pinch and went back into the blackness.