Warning: This is not a happy chapter. Some non-consensual touching, some violence and a lot of Kate being Kate. Also, a little swearing.

Chapter 43: The Full Moon II

"Come on. Wake up, babe. Come on, there's a good girl. Hello, there you are."

The voice came from far away, as though shouted through a tube. It sounded raw, like whoever was talking had yet to recover from a serious chest cold. Something tapped Joe on the cheek, light slaps, growing harder when Joe still would not wake up. Joe frowned and blinked her eyes opened, head reeling from a sharp pain originating somewhere around her nose.

The world blurred into focus, someone moving in front of her illuminated by the soft glow of...camping lights? The blonde-haired person tilted their head at her — it was the source of that unfamiliar voice. Fighting down the urge to vomit from nausea, Joe forced her eyes wide open to see the blob for the person it was.

"Hiii, baby," Kate croaked and Joe's head rolled sideways, trying to focus. Through a haze of confusion, she felt Kate's hands on her thighs, running up towards her torso.

Joe's initial response was to shake Kate off and she jumped violently, but found all limbs fully secured to their original position. No matter how hard she pulled, nothing budged except the toes of her feet that kicked helplessly at the ground.

Ams strained where Kate had fastened somewhere above her head, feet bound together at her ankles, she barely managed to stand. A piece of fabric stretched around her head to keep her from talking or spitting in Kate's face as she wanted. Her thrashing made no difference to Kate's groping and she tried to yell, but could only make guttural noises that echoed in the cavern.

She yanked at the rope binding her hands, but it only hurt the already agonized muscles under her arms. Screaming only made her short of breath with the gag soaking up most of the noise. Kate seemed to wait for Joe's panic to die down, watching her with a gentle tilt of her head as Joe tried everything to get loose.

Jimmy. Oh my God, Jimmy. Joe tried to ignore Kate and scanned the cavern, finding a shivering lump chained to the wall. The chains looked new, bolted deep inside the bedrock, but Jimmy was not even trying to break free. He clutched his abdomen as before, whimpering and gulping for breath.

"Hm? Oh, that," Kate said as she noticed Joe's attention not fully on her. Like they were inspecting a new couch to buy, Kate stood next to Joe and studied Jimmy's near-unconscious body. "You know, the chains were already here. I just removed the safety feature so he can't get in and out himself. Convenient, when your prey does all the work for you."

Kate Argent alive.

It was surreal. How was that possible? How had she not realized it before? Joe tried to understand, but couldn't. Kate's voice was harsh and guttural, but that was to be expected by the angry red line crossing Kate's throat. Scarring on her vocal chords. A small nick in her eyebrow, courtesy of Joe, but otherwise she looked the same. She did not look dead. She looked very much alive, although with slightly more insanity in her eyes. The same wide eyes from Joe's nightmares now narrowing at Joe in a mockery of enjoyment.

"Mmmm, I've missed you," Kate said and took obvious pleasure in Joe's revulsed squirming as she continued to run her hands over Joe. "My little Nancy Drew. And her still useless sidekick."

There was no thought to Joe's actions. She yelled through her gag, cursing Kate as best she could, but it was unintelligeble and Kate did not even pay her attention. Kate, in cargo pants and a long white tank-top, stalked over to Jimmy's form. She used her foot to tip him over on his back and Joe saw the large gaping bullet hole in his stomach. Angry black veins spread from it, writhing over his twitching muscles.

"I gotta say though," Kate murmured in thought. "He's filled out in all the right places. Late bloomer, hm?" He choked out a gasp as Kate kicked him in the ribs. "And not useless I suppose." Kate looked up at Joe and winked. "He got you here. You took your time though. Almost thought you weren't coming. Trouble in platonic paradise?"

"Ffff ooo," Joe tried to say, but was unable to form the correct letters. Hands tied tightly, blood circulation already waning, she was unable to give Kate the finger either.

Question number one: Do you hate me for saving Kate's life?

Throwing her hands out in the cavern, Kate took a deep breath. "I'm trying not to sound like a Bond-villain, but I gotta be honest. I've waited for this. Waited and waited and waited for the right opportunity. First I was too weak, of course. Lost a lot of blood, a lot of muscle, some of my mind." Joe tried to get her hands to move, to see if she could slip out of her binds. "Then you kept on staying by Derek's side. Oh my God, Joe. baby! Give the guy some room to breathe!"

She laughed, that familiar throaty laugh. "Can't have that, can we? First rule when hunting mates. Gotta separate them."

"I mean, you're probably wondering why I'm doing this tonight." Kate had a taser wand strapped to her thigh that she unhooked now to twirl it around lazily. Whatever she wanted with Joe, she was not in a hurry. "I've been a hunter for a long time. There's always a risk when you hunt werewolves on the night of the full moon. 'Cause they're stronger, right?"

Kate kept talking like someone who loved the sound of her own voice. The grin stretching over her face made her look almost normal, but there was an edge to her eyes that had not been there before. "Stronger, okay, but also stupider.

"And," she said with another happy grin, "I made a new friend." Kate retrieved something from a pocket, it looked like a regular cell phone and she pressed the screen once. Derek's voice rang out:

"Full moon. It's gonna be a rough one. According to Deaton, one pill should be enough for the night."

"As I said," Kate smirked, "convenient when your prey does the work for you. How is our big bad Alpha, by the way, and his gang of ragged teens? Not good, it seems, as he gave you the pills. Oh, he can act tough, but we know him, don't we, Joe? He just can't stand anyone getting hurt-"

At her last word, Kate threw a solid punch into Joe's side and she nearly choked on the fabric in her mouth.

"It's sort of sad he won't feel it," Kate said as she leaned in with both hands stroking Joe's waist, only adding to the pain she had just caused. "Two birds with one stone and all. No way to find you, because you didn't tell him about Jimmy's place, did you? No, no one knows about this cave, other than us. You gave me that as well, by the way. GPS." She shook the phone in Joe's face again and winked at her. "Super convenient."

Tears flooded down Joe's face, both from the throbbing pain in her side and the words Kate threw at her. Jimmy still lay so unmoving on the floor, shallowed breathing, that she thought he was going to die any second now. His wound looked like Derek's had back at the vet clinic. He'd been hit in his arm and nearly died, Jimmy had been hit in the stomach. And it was her fault. Joe's fault.

"Matt, my new friend, is a special boy," Kate said conversationally, pocketing her phone again. "Very talented. Deeply disturbed. Eager to please. A lot like Derek when he was that age." The laughter rose in her throat at the sight of Joe thrashing harder in her binds. "Has a thing for the Argent-girls, but I'm not worried about Allison. She's got more important things on her mind now."

Joe tried to look away, but Kate was having none of that. She got up in Joe's face and grabbed her cheeks with one hand, pinching them together and forcing Joe's face up again.

"You know, I'm almost tempted to remove that gag. It's more fun when you talk back. You're so full of fire, Joe. Not like Derek, he only snarled and roared and whimpered, but you!" Joe let out a harsh noise when Kate grabbed her thighs again, squeezing at the soft flesh. She leaned in to whisper in Joe's ear, who tried to turn away. "You're fun."

Psycho Kate was back. Joe struggled against her restraints, even if she knew it was futile. If Kate could hold werewolf-Derek captured for a day straight, she knew how to subdue someone like Joe as well. She had to get help, but Kate was right, no one knew about this place. Scott knew she was here, but he did not know where here was! How could she have been so stupid, how could she have wandered right into this? Her only hope was either tricking Kate to let her go, which was hopeless with the gag still in place. Just the thought made her cry. No hope. Her fault. All her fault.

"Oh, Joe, baby!" Kate said and kept rubbing her hands on Joe's thighs. "There's so much I want to talk about. Jimmy filled me in on a few things, you see, we've had fun for a couple of days now. Aww, don't cry, baby. It's not your fault he's hiding out here, you couldn't know... I worried that pretty miss Kelly Brooks would get you to come up here too early, but I sort of broke up with her. Over text, and to be honest, that made me feel pretty bad." Kate made a noncommitting noise and shrugged. "I guess I did her a favor in the long run."

"But, see, that's the thing, right, no one could know I was back. It got close, didn't it? There were so many times I thought 'Oh, she definitely saw me'," Kate's face stretched in a large cat-like grin. "Only action I've been getting the last few months."

"Grrd nn oo?" Joe tried to ask if Gerard didn't know. She found that hard to believe from his comments to her. "Ff?" Chris? "Affn?" Allison?

"Matt told me you went to my funeral," Kate said coyly, ignoring Joe's attempt of speech, and brushed tears from Joe's cheeks. "Showed me some pictures. I'm flattered. No, really, I am. Especially since I remember everything you said to me!"

Joe screamed through her gag as Kate shoved a taser wand she'd had strapped to her leg into Joe's chest. Pure lightening tore through Joe's veins, pulling and tugging painfully on her cells, leaving her mind crushed into something unrecognizable. She coughed and sobbed for breath when Kate removed the wand. Derek had to feel that. He had to! He said the pills would dampen the bond, not remove it, and if that hadn't gone through, nothing would.

"Aww, baby," Kate cooed and grabbed Joe around her straining mouth. "I know that look. You're thinking he's gonna come save you. You found him, right, he's gotta find you! Hm hm hm," she tutted in dismissal, "he's not coming. Do you know why else it had to be tonight, hm?" Joe shuddered and tried to recoil when Kate stroked her hand over Joe's hair. "Full moon, you know. He tell you what he did to Victoria? To my sister in law? To Allison's mom?" Kate leaned in to whisper: "Do you know what Victoria had to do tonight?"

Had to. It was already done. No remorse in Kate's voice, Joe noted. No sympathy. Sociopath, narcissist, unable to feel anything for anyone but themselves. She was not here because of Victoria.

Still whispering, Kate rested her head on Joe's twitching cheek. "Derek's not gonna come save you, Berkeley. He's too busy being hunted. Your dad's a cop, you know what happens when one of their own gets killed. They get vindictive."

With a small shove that made Joe's armpit twinge at the impact, Kate stepped back and threw her arms out nonchalantly.

"You know, I was following orders!" Kate yelled into the cavern, drowning out both Joe and Jimmy's painful groans. She had lost that coy edge, dwelving into pure rage. "That's all I ever did! All I was ever taught. And when I was told to eradicate the Hale pack, I did! What else was I supposed to do? But now, when the buck's being passed around, it's suddenly my fault?"

Kate scoffed loudly at this major injustice in the world. Joe could barely see her through the tears as she tried to kick the bindings off her ankles. She stopped when Kate got up in Joe's face again, so close that Joe could see the manic glint in her eyes. Not shouting anymore, she seemed to calm down a bit, although calm was probably not the right word. "Did Derek ever tell you how we met?"

Without thought, Joe swung her head and crashed it into Kate's nose. Swearing, Kate stumbled back, nose running with blood. For a second, Joe thought that was it. Kate would kill her and it would still be worth it, but Kate threw her head back and laughed while wiping her bloodied nose.

"See? There's that fire!"

She went over to get something out of her bag, kicking Jimmy in her wake just to see if she got a response. There was none. A large pool of black ooze had gathered around Jimmy, as if he'd vomited when they weren't paying attention.

"The boys, ah...they're weak. They break so easily. I broke Derek just by mentioning his sister. I didn't even get to Paige." Instead of whatever torture instrument Joe imagined, Kate had brought out a small pocket mirror that she used to study her reflection, making sure to get all the blood off her face. Kate lifted her eyebrow as if a thought struck her. "He did...tell you about Paige, right?"

No, no, no! It was impossible to block out Kate's raspy voice, no matter how much she tried.

"Ohh, sweetie," Kate cooed when Joe could not help the truth shine in her wide eyes. "He didn't, did he? It's okay. It took some time before he told me too. I was substituting as a guidance counselor, that's how we met, by the way. Poor Derek...so scarred, he just needed a shoulder to cry on. And he got that and so-"

Joe threw herself at Kate, but the restraints snapped her back before she could even reach her. She thrashed and ignored the blazing pain in her wrists from the tugging. She could not listen to Kate tell her about how she raped Derek. She could not!

"You wanna know what he did to poor baby Paige? She was fifteen years old." Kate had a pout and nodded theatrically. "So young, a brillian cellist..."

On the floor, Jimmy whimpered loudly. At least he was still alive, but Joe wished she could die now. She did not want to hear this, not from Kate, not like this!

"And she met handsome, popular, basketball-playing Derek Hale. High school romance. It's brutal."

The new punch to her ribs didn't even register. Joe tried to shut off her ears, tried to make noises to drown out Kate's voice, but she just kept talking louder and louder until she shouted into the cavern.

"And he wants to turn her! Because he's afraid she's gonna leave him when she finds out what he is! And he can't turn her. Not him, no, his bite won't do it, it has to be an Alpha." Kate was stalking around, gesturing lazily with her hands, like she was pitching a brand new marketing strategy. "His mom said no, of course, so he asks this visiting Alpha from another pack. Big bastard, not gentle."

Joe screamed through her gag, tugging at her burning wrists and trying to kick herself off the ground, as if gaining momentum would make her able to stop Kate from talking. Why was she doing this? What did she want? Revenge? Then just kill them!

Question number two: Do you hate me for being human?

Nothing worked, her hands stayed bound and if she moved her feet, she could feel the effort suffocating her. However tempting, it hurt too much for her to follow through. Jimmy groaned on the floor again and she saw how his hands flexed against the sandy floor.

"Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Kate peered at Joe to see if she was still listening, as if she had a choice. She fully ignored Joe's insane thrashing.

"She rejects the bite, Joe. She's dying! Because of Derek! And she begs him to kill her, because the pain is just - too - much!"

Now Joe's breath came in short heavy bursts through the gag, like a steamroller, unable to think, unable to listen to this bitch spewing venom out of her mouth. Kate was trying to turn Joe against Derek. Separate the mates. She said it herself! But why? She screamed again, as much in frustration as to keep Kate's focus on her. Anything to give Jimmy a chance to get up, to get away.

"And he does. Derek kills Paige, his first love, out of mercy." Kate ended with a laugh, her voice coming more conversational now. "Such a shame he never told you about it. His version of the story is more fun."

Not even the roar of Joe's own heartbeat could block out the sound of Kate's voice. She hated this. She hated her. Inside, she was screaming at Jimmy to get up. By some odd twist of luck, the wounds hadn't killed him yet, not judging by the twitching of his fingers against the sandy floor. Maybe there was a chance. Maybe he could escape.

With a flourish, Kate pulled something out of her pocket. It looked like a photo ripped from a yearbook. She forced it into Joe's vision, grabbed her cheeks to make her face it, shoved it into her eyes.

"You see her?"

Joe did. A pretty brunette smiling gently in a black and white photo. Paige Krasikeva.

"Fifteen years old! See those soft lips? See those big eyes? That fair smooth skin? So innocent and pure and defiled by those animals!" Spit flew from Kate's lips as she snarled in Joe's face. "Died a virgin. I know, because so was Derek until I-"

"Anggrh!"

Joe let out a muffled cry and pulled her bound legs up high enough to kick Kate in the stomach. Her arms and core muscles screamed in protest, but the force was enough to send Kate flying back. It was worth it to shut her up. Joe would rather die than hear this from Kate.

On the ground, Kate threw her head back and laughed. She knew what Joe knew. Nothing Joe could do would make a difference. Her kick did not make a difference.

At least it shouldn't have.

As Kate laughed on the ground, a shadow rose behind her and Joe could not help her eyes being drawn to it. It was Jimmy.

He got up slowly from the ground with steam rolling off his expanding muscles. White plumes of smoke came out with every breath, he looked to be functioining on pure rage. He kept rising, growing, morphing into something beyond anything human, even beyond a regular werewolf.

The chains snapped off his wrists with a loud metallic sound.

Nearly dying had not dampened Kate's reflexes. The gag muffled what Joe yelled as a warning as she saw Kate pull out a handgun from her waistband. Everything slowed down and Joe could see how Kate pulled back the slide as she rolled around, then aiming and firing straight into Jimmy's chest without hesitation.

The bangs echoed through Joe's skull as much as her own scream did.

Jimmy — or the thing that used to be Jimmy — roared in both pain and anger. The bullets lodged themselves into his chest, pushing into the already massive open wound in his stomach.

Even with the bullets, at least a dozen of them, he continued to grow. Thick black fur sprouted on his skin — it had a purple sheen to it. Not quite what Peter had turned into, but similar. Thin hind legs, but a massive torso with a rounded back that ended in long arms reaching nearly to the ground. His claws were several inches, sharp and descending upon Kate.

She kept firing her gun, but it did not seem to make a difference. Each shot burst through Jimmy's thick fur and while he made a grunt of pain, he kept coming. Kate avoided the first strike with his heavy claws. She rolled on the floor, got up in a knee-stand and fired her handgun again. Pulling the trigger until she only got empty clicks.

Gagged and helpless, Joe could only watch even though she yanked harder and harder on the ropes holding her arms.

Jimmy seemed to move almost sluggishly. The wolfsbane. It made him slow and stopped him from healing. Kate, who'd dropped the empty gun, hit him with the taser wand instead and his muscles spasmed in response, an unnatural shriek rising from Jimmy's throat.

Biting into the gag, Joe braced herself and jumped up, trying to keep her feet up when coming down to loosen the fixture to the ceiling. The burn on her wrists made her cross-eyed, it hurt so bad. As she whimpered, knowing she had to keep trying, Kate kept shocking Jimmy with the baton.

Letting out a harsh snarl, Jimmy swept one of his gorilla-like arms and knocked Kate to the side. She cried out, but managed to dodge the next strike, diving for a large rifle by her bag. Joe only saw Jimmy's massive back, how the first shot opened up a large gaping hole in his flesh, how the second expanded it.

Pain and anger as he howled in pain, then a long ragged human scream from Kate.

Joe, unable to close her eyes, saw Jimmy stagger back to reveal Kate, bloodied and wild-eyed. Kate let out pained gasps, shoving herself back on the ground, clutching her side. A large gash in her torso — bite marks.

Desperate people do desperate things, Joe's dad had told her once, and it was all she could think when seeing that Kate was getting up, pulling a knife from a holster, heading for Joe. Bound and gagged, Joe tried to squirm out, cry for Jimmy, beg for mercy.

Kate let out a horrific war cry and seemed to muster everything she had left to pull back her hand and-

A large furry arm shot out and struck Kate right in the ribs. The impact threw her off the ground, through the air until she hit the far side of the cavern wall with an organic crack. Her body slumped down, unmoving, blood in her blonde hair.

That left Joe and what used to be Jimmy. Purple eyes glowed at her and she saw the teeth still wet with Kate's blood.

Full moon, her mind yelled at her, full fucking moon! This was not Jimmy, this was a werewolf, no matter the color of its eyes. If it was her or Kate or any other soft prey, it didn't care!

"Mmy," she still screamed through her gag, crying and whimpering and her voice rising like a chainsaw in her throat. "Mmy!"

One of his — its? — claws came up, but as Joe steeled herself for a sharp stinging pain, she felt the gag loosen around her mouth. Jimmy snapped it with no apparent effort. He did the same with her arms and Joe fell forward onto her face, her breath kicking up large plumes of sand. Next thing she knew, Jimmy's heavy form crashed down by her side and when she managed to squirm around, he was just Jimmy again.

Jimmy with a large gaping wound in his stomach.

"Oh God," Joe whimpered and her teeth chattered, muscles so cramped up she could hardly breathe. Her wrists burned and her hands were swollen from the lack of blood. She tried to flex them, flinching at the sharp pain, but desperate to try and help Jimmy. Not bothering with her bound feet, she crawled over to him where he laid shirtless and shallow-breathed — and mortally wounded.

"Wolfsbane," Joe gulped, remembering now and noted the angry black veins spreading across his entire upper body. "Stops the healing." What had Derek done back at the clinic?

The bullet, she had to find a bullet.

Kate's discarded knife lay on the ground next to her and she used it to cut the cord on her feet. Tumbling, out of balance and muscles screaming, she limped over to the assault rifle. One bullet left in the chamber. Behind her, Jimmy's breath got more and more shallow.

"Okay, okay, okay," Joe chanted to herself, trembling almost too much to get back to Jimmy. What then? What had Derek done? The powder, she had to set it on fire and then use the ash to spread it into Jimmy's open and violently infected wound. "Oh God, oh God."

This was not a tiny scratch on the arm. Joe unscrewed the bullet and poured the powder onto the floor. A small pile. She doubted there would be enough ash for the literal hole through Jimmy. Needed to try anyway. Fire. She needed some kind of fire.

Her eyes fell on the taser wand and she used it to get a spark going on the floor, watching one of them leap to the pile of powder. Like at the clinic, it ignited immediately and she scooped up the ashes, cringing at how much sand she got in as well, and while whispering apologies to Jimmy, she pressed it into the writhing carnage that used to be his torso.

"Uhhhn!" Jimmy's back arched off the floor and she fought to keep her ash-coated hands into his wound. The black veins retreated, just as it had with Derek, but Jimmy's head snapped back as he screamed, no, howled in pain. His eyes burst open and the clear purple shone up at Joe.

"You're okay," she mumbled, over and over again. "You're okay, you're gonna be okay."

After a small lifetime where Joe thought her own heart would stop, he flopped back down on the ground. Sand clung to his sweaty skin, making him almost yellow in appearance, and while the wound was healing, it was still bad. Not enough ash.

If she had more, if Kate had more ammo-

Joe looked up, but Kate was nowhere to be seen.

Question number three: Do you wish you never met me?

...

Sorry for the lack of Derek, but he's too busy getting mauled by his betas... And the night's not over yet :)

On another note, I couldn't help but notice a little drop in interaction from you guys on the previous chapter. Number of readers seemed to stay the same as always, so either you guys really hated the plot twist, which is perfectly valid, or you just didn't feel like reviewing, which is also perfectly valid. I'll try not to overthink it (which I always do when it comes to my writing...) and just hope all of you guys are doing okay!

Normally I wouldn't address it (because it's not like I got zero feedback on the last chapter either), but I've seen this come up in a few different forums lately and just wanted to check in with you!

Seasonal burnout is a real thing and this year is particularly difficult. In fact, it's incredibly difficult! I've been working from home since March and it's been so busy it got to the point where my doctor and supervisor both told me that you either take some time off now to get back on your feet or you might end up with six months of leave because of burnout. I'm in Norway and is blessed to have paid sick leave (yes, even for six months), but I know that's not the case for everyone. So it's not like I can just tell you to take a day off all of a sudden (even worse if you're in school), but please take care of yourself any way you can. If you ever want to talk, my inbox is always open and if you just want to read the story and get out, that's also fine (and I really mean this).

A depressing author's note after a depressing chapter to really get into this Christmas spirit! It's almost like I wish I could post a different chapter than today's because it's so dark, but unfortunately that's where we are in the story at the moment. It gets better, I promise. I'm all about happy endings!

Okay, well, thank you for reading anyway and please let me know what you think if you feel like it! This was one of the hardest chapters I had to write, so I would love some feedback on it.