code breaker

Kinsey sat in the back of the Jeep looking down at her blood-stained hands. She'd never forget how she'd been forced to leave her best friend when she was bleeding out and at her weakest, though Peter had been lenient in allowing her to call for Jackson's help retrieving Lydia she still couldn't forgive herself for leaving. She should have fought harder. She should have refused. Even after Stiles had had to drag her from the field kicking and screaming Kinsey felt nothing but guilt as she now sat safely in the back of Stiles's Jeep with the man who might have killed her best friend. And until Peter had deemed them no longer useful she'd be left unaware of whether Lydia had lived through her wounds, and if not, the blood was on her hands. Quite literally. When they would ask about Lydia and when people would say that Kinsey was the last one to be seen with her she'd be their first suspect, the one who would be blamed for her death. How would she explain to Allison that she had left Lydia when she was dying? If she couldn't forgive herself there was no chance Allison would ever forgive her, all because of Peter Hale. Now they were stuck with him for who knew how long, being forced to help him when he had made their lives a living hell when he'd tormented them for months. When he had scarred them. But of course, Peter didn't care about who he hurt if he got what he wanted, in that sense, he was similar to the girl's mother. She didn't care about those things either. The car was filled with nothing but the sound of Kinsey's heavy breathing from all of the screaming and sobbing she had done. Stiles kept his eyes on the road ahead, his blood boiling every time he caught a small glimpse of the wolf beside him in the corner of his eye. And Peter, once again, unphased.

She still wasn't sure what part she was playing in the man's plan, she had no idea how to hack into a computer or track a GPS on a phone, she wasn't the smart one. As far as she could see she served no purpose. Of course, she had seen him attack her best friend and could plead as a witness, but if he was that bothered she would tell he would have killed her like he threatened to. Nothing was stopping her from going to the Sheriff once he was done with them tonight, yet she was still alive and breathing. Which told her that she was more useful than she could see.

"Don't feel bad," Peter spoke up, breaking the silence that the two teenagers didn't want to be broken. They would have been happy to spend the whole night in silence, his presence was already too much for them. His words were unnecessary. They already hated him, they were already helping him. "If she lives, she'll become a werewolf. She'll be incredibly powerful."

"Yeah, and once a month she'll go out of her freaking mind and try to tear us apart." Stiles retorted in a bland tone to show how uninterested he was in making conversation with him. Kinsey hadn't thought about that side of things. The side where Lydia survives. Where she would become a werewolf like Scott, Derek, and Peter. When her best friend would become the very thing she had tried protecting her from for the duration of time she'd known about them. She'd failed in that mission. Lydia would have to learn to control as Scott did, to find some kind of anchor that would allow her to keep her human side intact. And it was poor timing on Peter's behalf. She was a teenage girl going through a breakup, going through trauma that he caused.

"Well, actually, considering that she's a woman, twice a month." Peter deadpanned as he looked at the only woman in the car with a smirk but Kinsey remained less than impressed by his comment as she pierced her eyes at him and folded her arms. Right now she wished she had the canines to kill him like Lydia would have if she had survived the wounds. Then she would have been able to get her revenge, for all of them. But despite how inappropriate his comment had been and how poorly timed he may have just had a point. If Scott lashed out every time that he got angry or when his hormones were a little too strong how would Lydia cope when she was riding the crimson wave? Or when she saw someone's uncoordinated outfit? Or if Kinsey made a poor excuse to avoid third-wheeling her and her future boyfriend? Lydia could be scary as a human but as a werewolf, she was given the power to do something with that anger. To unleash hell on the whole of Beacon Hills like Peter had probably intended when he had bitten her. Kinsey sat with a scowl on her face as she looked out of the window, refusing to entertain conversation with Peter more than they had with those three sentences. All she could think about was her family, what they thought of her for "running away" when her best friend had just been attacked in the middle of formal. Whether they'd even try finding her.

-☽○☾-

Chris stood across the room as he threw a vase towards his fireplace, the shards hitting the floor echoing through his home, but that hadn't been enough to express his anger as he walked up to kick its remnants into the burning fire while Kate sat on the couch watching him. Not only had his daughter's boyfriend just been revealed as the second beta they'd been searching for, but it had happened in front of Allison. Kinsey was nowhere to be seen and a girl had been attacked at the school. A girl that he knew as the friend of his daughter and niece. Allison was upstairs with her mother packing her things for a quick escape to the house in Washington, where they intended for Kinsey to go too as soon as they found her. All of them would retreat there. After almost two months of living in Beacon Hills, their time here was already over as far as Chris was concerned. In those two months, their lives had shifted beneath their feet. And now Allison knew the secret. Kinsey knew the secret. He had no doubt in his mind how they both knew it either.

"Feeling better?" Kate asked her brother who was able to hear her smirk in her words.

"Don't push me, Kate!"

"I thought it was a pretty healthy display of aggression, actually."

Chris turned with growing anger towards his little sister who didn't seem to see the severity of this situation. "You told them."

"They found out." Kate corrected but the slight laugh hadn't been convincing.

"Don't think I don't know about the clues that you've been leaving, starting with those necklaces. They know because you wanted them to know. And now Kinsey is missing."

"Because they need to," Kate yelled back. "And you're a fool if you think that Kinsey didn't know about all of this a long time ago. She's known for weeks. Maybe even months." Chris paused for a moment as he thought about that possibility. Thinking back on how his niece had been behaving. How she had gone from a girl hanging out with his daughter all the time, always home with Allison from never being seen at the house. Always seeming so secretive. Paranoid. Not to mention how close she had become with Scott, there was no way she could have spent so much time with the boy without finding out his secret. She really had known for a long time.

Kate smirked as she watched her brother realize that he hadn't kept the secret as well as he thought he had. Both of them should have known better than to think Kinsey wouldn't find out about it, even without the clues. "Why did you come back here? You hate this town." Chris asked as he changed the subject. "And don't even tell me it was for your daughter, we both know that's not why. I had a network of names I could've called a lot closer than you. But you called first."

"So now you don't want my help?"

"I'm not sure I know who you're helping." Chris sighed.

"Oh, come on. I'm here to catch the Alpha. Remember the one running around here killing people at random?"

"Not random." Chris shook his head as he turned his back to the woman to clean up his mess.

"What?"

"Tyhurst said that Sheriff Stilinski can connect every murder back to the Hale fire."

Kate sat back in her seat, swallowing the lump in her throat before she tried to speak again. Clearly, her confidence had been knocked by what Chris had told her about the victims. "Well, then that's even more reason for them to know, 'cause they've always blamed us for that fire." Her voice still came through croaky as though she was nervous. "It had to have been Derek and some other relative. But I guarantee they're circling around to us as their last targets."

"I know." Chris deadpanned. "Which is why you're taking Allison out of here tonight while I go and look for your daughter. You're gonna drive her to the house in Washington, and you will stay there until I call. Hopefully, Victoria won't be far behind you with Kinsey."

"Are you kidding me?" Kate laughed in disbelief as she stood up. "You're gonna bench your star player in the last quarter." But her words only angered Chris more as he smashed the pieces of the vase back off of the ground causing another echo through the house that was quieter than usual. Maybe because of the absence of a certain sixteen-year-old brunette.

"Get your things. I want the two of you on the road within the hour." Despite Kate's displeasure with the idea of leaving Beacon Hills when they were the closest, they had been to find the Alpha since the arrival she had packed her things, just like Allison had with her own. Even finding the time to pack things for Kinsey when she joined them. If she did. Nobody had heard from her. She'd found that out in the one phone call her mother had granted her to Jackson. As well as finding out the horrific truth about her redheaded best friend. When the two were packed Chris stood beside the car ready to bid a temporary farewell to Allison who struggled to even look at him, or any of them after what had happened tonight. The only person in the entire family she wanted to see right now was the missing Kinsey, with what had been going on behind her back she didn't know what Kinsey could have gotten herself into tonight. None of the Argents did.

"You know you can't do this without me. You're not gonna find him on your own." Kate argued her case one last time as she leaned over the car to speak to the man who ignored her.

"We're gonna talk about everything, I promise." He said softly to his daughter in the passenger seat. "Call me when you get there." Despite Allison's own displeasure with leaving Beacon Hills at a time like this, she nodded in agreement before Kate drove off.

Victoria and Chris stood on the driveway watching as the car drove off into the darkness, neither knowing how long it would be until they made it to Washington themselves. It all depended on many things. Kinsey. The Alpha. How they would handle either of those things when they were faced with the challenge. There was no way to determine how it would all go down.

"Is she right?" Victoria asked her husband. "Can you find The Alpha?"

"No," Chris admitted. "But Kinsey can. And I know how to find her."

-☽○☾-

At the last minute, Peter told the boy in the driver's seat to make a sharp turn into a parking garage that hadn't filled either of the two silent teenagers with confidence. For all, they knew Peter would get what he wanted from them, shove their dead body in the back of a random car's trunk, and in five months' time, they'd be found rotted and shriveled at the point of no return. The two of them had barely gotten out of the car before Peter had gripped a handful of Stiles's shirt collar and a tight hold on Kinsey's arm guaranteeing that neither of them would be able to run if they had the idea, which until then, neither of them had considered doing that. He finally let go of the two teenagers when they got across the garage to a parked grey Lexus, a seemingly normal car which was odd considering he couldn't be further from the idea of being normal.

"Whose car is this?" Stiles asked curiously.

"It belonged to my nurse."

"What happened to your-" Before Kinsey could finish her sentence Peter opened up his trunk to reveal the rotting dead body of his nurse, so her assumption about the wolf dumping a body in a trunk of a car hadn't been wrong. It just hadn't been them. While Stiles freaked out, repeatedly shouting the three words of "Oh, my God." Kinsey held onto her stomach as she tried not to throw up. Peter lifted the woman rotting arm to retrieve the laptop case tucked beneath it which he shoved into Stiles's arms. Though they were thoroughly disgusted neither could take their eyes off of the woman's dead body, partially because they can't believe what they were seeing.

"I got better." Peter shrugged as he shut the trunk again without a care.

Kinsey gagged as she held onto her stomach again. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Good luck getting a signal down here," Stiles commented as if that should have been a bigger concern than the fact they had just been shown the body of a dead woman whose family might be wondering where she is. That could be them in just a mere few hours. Peter pulled out a small MiFi box and passed it to the boy without another word as he opened up the laptop. "Oh, Mifi. And you're a Mac guy. Does that go for all werewolves or just a personal preference?"

"Turn it on. Get connected." Peter deadpanned, now he was the one uninterested in creating a conversation when the whole ride here they'd had to listen to him drone on about how kids their age didn't value the things that he did. Even if Peter didn't look old enough to be a fossil he was starting to sound like he was a fossil. Kinsey had been tempted to ask him about how his time with the dinosaurs was but she knew her humor would be wasted on the man.

"You really know how to kill the whole werewolf mystique, huh?" Kinsey asked, only to receive a glare from Peter as well as Stiles. Her humor was wasted on both of them right now. So rather than trying to lighten the mood her mind went back to worrying about her loved ones, mainly Lydia and Allison, as well as concentrating her hate on Peter for taking her phone.

"Look, you still need Scott's username and password, and I'm sorry. But I don't know them."

"You know both of them." Peter deadpanned as he looked at the boy.

"No, I don't."

"Even if I couldn't hear your heartbeat, I would still be able to tell that you're lying," Peter said with his usual lack of emotion. Just as Stiles began to object that he knew the passwords Peter grabbed the nape of his neck slamming the boy's head onto the keyboard of his Macbook while looking Kinsey straight in the face as this was his way of threatening her too. The Hale's must have something for slamming people's heads off of objects because this had been the second time she witnessed one of them hit Stiles's head off of something, first a steering wheel, and now a keyboard. "I can be very persuasive, Stiles. Don't make me persuade you. I'd hate to hurt her." Peter deadpanned as he flashed Kinsey an unfriendly smile, she was his persuasion. That was why she was here. He was using her as a way to get to Stiles.

Stiles agreed to comply allowing him to be released from Peters's grip as he began typing on the computer ready to track Scott's phone, but this was Stiles and he refused to just do what the man wanted. He had questions and a lot of them. The same questions that Kinsey wanted to hear but was too scared not to ask, not because of what Peter might do if she got too nosey but the answers that she would receive when she asked him. What happens when they find Derek? Will he kill people? But the answers he gave weren't satisfying them or their concerns. It only opened them up to more questions like who were the "responsible ones" that Peter kept on referring to. They knew it had something to do with the Hale fire, it seemed obvious enough but to be able to kill those people he had to know who they were. And they wanted to know too.

"Look, if I do this, you have to promise you'll leave Scott out of it," Stiles said as he attempted to bargain with the man, of course, Kinsey looked at him with wide eyes questioning why he was trying to negotiate this when his head had just been hit off a keyboard and they both knew that Peter was capable of a lot more, and he wouldn't hesitate to show them that either.

"Do you know why wolves hunt in packs? It's because their favored prey are too large to be brought down by one wolf alone. I need Derek and Scott. I need both of them."

"And what about Lydia? Do you need her or was she just collateral damage in this scheme." Kinsey snarled at the wolf who didn't answer her question as he just looked at her with that smirk she was growing extremely sick of seeing today. "Scott won't help you anyway."

"Oh, he will. Because it will save Allison." Peter nodded, confident about his answer, not only because of how much Allison meant to Scott but he knew it hit a soft spot in her too. He'd managed to learn a lot about Kinsey since being the Alpha, and he'd learned that she always tried to protect Allison even if it meant getting hurt herself. Just like Scott. It worked well in his favor. Peter then turned to Stiles to continue his threat. "And you will, because it will save our little Kinsey here. And Scott. Your best friend whom you know so well you even have his username and password." Peter said with a grin, just like that he had cracked Stiles who began to type.

Kinsey and Peter's jaw slowly fell slack in confusion as they read out the letters that Stiles typed, with every letter they were more and more amazed by what they had seen. Not because it was a complicated password and username that could only be remembered if written down, or because it was some kind of genius password that nobody would have ever guessed. It was the fact it was the complete opposite of both of those things. It couldn't have been more simple. It couldn't have been more guessable if he tried. Peter could have cracked this password on his own, there was no need to have kidnapped the two teenagers, someone who only knew Scott by name probably could have guessed the password if they'd tried for long enough. Kinsey couldn't help but facepalm, she knew now the true meaning of second-hand embarrassment.

"His username is "Allison?"." Kinsey deadpanned.

"His password is also "Allison?" Peter added as he and the girl shared a raised brow.

"You still want him in your pack?" Stiles added, he too just as shocked at how Scott could be and he'd been the one to know the boy's password for a long time. By the look on the wolf's face, he was actually considering what Stiles said, clearly during his time he'd been watching them all he hadn't learned just how head over heels Scott really was for Allison Argent.

It took a mere few seconds of looking at the map before the three of them had realized where the pinpoint was sat on the map. The Hale house. Or more so, underneath it. Peter knew exactly where his nephew had been taken, and now Kinsey did too. She didn't know at the time Kate had shown her Derek that she had been beneath the Hale house, but there was no need for her to know that information now Peter would retrieve him. Meaning she and Stiles could get back to the hospital to check on Lydia, as well as receive a million questions about where they'd been for the past two hours. Whether it was the Sheriff, the deputies, or the most dreaded- Chris and Kate. Peter immediately began packing up his belongings as he remained vague about what he planned to do with the two beta's he had acquired during his time as Alpha, but he did let them into the little clue that someone else knew where Derek was. The two watched as Peter began to seem more flustered, in a hurry to dump his things into the back of the car, saving them the pain of having to look at his dead nurse again. Just as he shut the car door he paused again with that same panicked look across his face before he turned to Stiles.

"Give me your keys."

In the time that they'd spent with Peter, he'd learned not to argue or try and fight back against him, so he simply sighed as he placed the keys in the man's hand warning that him that his beloved Roscoe grinded in second gear. But rather than use the Jeep as his getaway car Peter crushed the keys within his palm in one single movement making them completely useless as well as his house key, Scott's house key, and even his key rings. Both Kinsey and Stiles looked at one another and the keys with a puzzled look across their faces, one, questioning how they'd get home, two, wondering why he needed to do that, and three what happened next.

"So you're not going to kill us?" Stiles asked as he shoved his broken keys in his pocket.

Peter didn't utter a word as he stepped away from the car he was about to get in, instead, moving closer to the two teenagers who instinctively took a step back as a familiar lump began to grow in their throats. It had become too familiar. Kinsey was prepared for either death or yet another thing that would give her those sleepless nights, they had a tendency to start with him.

"Don't the two of you understand yet? I'm not the bad guy here."

"Pfft. Heard that one before." Kinsey mumbled under her breath.

"You turn into a giant monster with red eyes and fangs, and you're not the bad guy here?" Stiles argued, making a fairly good point. Not to mention all the people Peter had either killed, his own niece included, as well as all the people he had given trauma too whether that had been his intention or not. For example, everyone they loved. All of them had been hurt somehow.

"I like you two." Peter deadpanned. "And since you've helped me, I'm going to give you both something in return. Do you want the bite?"

"No."

"What?"

Kinsey and Stiles's answers had been very different. While the girl was quick to reject the offer it seemed like the boy was taking a moment to consider the offer that Peter was handing them, maybe he hadn't thought about it much. But she had. She'd thought about the nightmare of having the bite. She'd seen what Scott had been put through when he hadn't even chosen to get bitten that night, there was no doubt in her mind that she would want to put herself through that. She thought that Stiles would have thought the same. He'd seen more than she had.

"Do you want the bite?" Peter reiterated as he gave both of them a strong look, giving Kinsey the chance to reconsider the answer she had been so quick to give but she was still sure that she didn't, nor would she ever want the bite. "If it doesn't kill you, and it could, the two of you will become like us. A werewolf. Would you like me to draw you a picture?"

"I think he knows what you mean." Kinsey snarled at the man. How could they not know?

"That first night in the woods, I took Scott because I needed a new pack," Peter explained as he took a few steps closer to Stiles who'd been there that night. "It could've easily been you. You'd be every bit as powerful as him. No more standing by his side, watching him become stronger, and quicker, more popular, watching him get the girl. You'd be equals. Or maybe more."

"Stiles," Kinsey mumbled, temporarily taking his attention. "You can't seriously be thinking about this? Think about who we're talking to. Think about what he's really offering."

Peter held up the boy's arm asking him one more time whether he wanted the bite as he drew his mouth closer to his skin, ready to make his mark as he had on Scott and Lydia. Kinsey cringed as he became too close for comfort, hoping that Stiles would say something to stop him before it was too late. She couldn't see another person lose their life, their control, their chance at having a normal life at the hands of Peter freaking Hale and being a werewolf. She couldn't bear it. Her stomach churned as Peter's canines began to grow and Stiles was still yet to object to his offer until Peter's teeth were just centimeters away from his arm, that was when the reality had truly sunk in for the boy who snatched his arm back allowing Kinsey to take a sigh of relief.

"I don't want to be like you. Stiles doesn't want to be like you. And Scott and Lydia didn't want it either. Nobody wants to be a monster like you." Kinsey argued.

"Do you know what I heard just then? Your heart beating slightly faster over the words "I don't want.". You may believe that you're telling the truth, Kinsey, but you are lying to yourself."

Peter left on those words leaving Kinsey speechless and Stiles almost as speechless as he looked at her with a raised brow, questioning if she really had been lying. He knew it had taken him too long to resist the temptation but for Kinsey to say no, but her heart to say something different meant she was a lot more invested in the idea than she was.

-☽○☾-

It had taken an hour of running, and occasionally walking, for Kinsey and Stiles to reach the hospital. The two had gained some looks with the brunette making her way through town with a blood-stained blue dress and no shoes but the heels had become unbearable and a change of clothes hadn't exactly been an option for two teenagers who'd been kidnapped by an Alpha on the night of their winter formal. Neither particularly cared about the looks they received or how much their feet ached from the distance they had had to travel to reach the hospital if it meant that they'd be able to find out if Lydia had survived the bite. That was all that mattered. Peter still had both of their phones so what had happened in the past two hours was completely anonymous to them, it would all hit them the minute that they stepped out of the elevator and onto the third floor where the ICU was located. That was the only place they were willing to look because it was the only place a girl with Lydia's injuries who had survived would be. The ride in the elevator felt like the longest ride ever, while Kinsey stood jiggling up and down nervously and trying to rub the dry blood from her hands Stiles nervously cracked every bone in his hands with the fear of the unknown eating away at him. He too had been thinking about what he'd tell people, how he'd explain why he wasn't there to save his date to the formal, where he and Kinsey had been for the past two hours. Something they'd have to come up with on the spot.

As the elevator beeped for the third floor Kinsey and Stiles didn't give it chance to open before they were squeezing their way through the small gap desperately hoping that Lydia would be on the other side alive and healing. Even if it meant she'd heal and become a werewolf. But instead, they were met with Sheriff Stilinski who wouldn't even let them near the window, only allowing a small glance at the redhead who lay in a hospital bed connected to a ventilator.

"You know what? It's a good job were in a hospital, because I'm gonna kill you." Sheriff Stilinski yelled as he pointed a finger in his son's face. He couldn't outright say he'd kill the brunette girl since she wasn't his own, but she got the point anyway.

"I'm sorry." Stiles stammered. "I lost the keys to my Jeep. We had to run all the way here."

"Stiles, I don't care!"

"Is she okay?" Kinsey spoke up, her voice cracking. Asking that question had made it feel all that more real. Lydia really was in that hospital room behind the man, she was still alive, but based on the small glimpse she had gotten of her when she had slid between the elevator doors it was barely. Sheriff Stilinski sighed as he stepped aside just enough for the two to be able to see Lydia properly, her eyes shut, looking peaceful despite the situation while Natalie sat on her bedside with swollen red eyes. That was when she had noticed Jackson stood at the window. He hadn't turned to look at the two of them, but she dreaded when he did, he'd know more than the rest of the people here how Lydia was doing as the boy who'd brought her into the hospital.

"They don't know," Noah answered honestly as he turned back to the tearful girl. "Partially because they don't know what happened. She lost a lot of blood." He said as he glanced down at her blood-stained dress assuming that was where most of it had ended up, she didn't look as if she had been the one bleeding. "But there's something else going on with her."

"What do you mean?" Stiles asked with a stammer, his forehead lining with sweat.

"The doctors say it's like she's having an allergic reaction. Her body keeps going into shock." He explained as the two of them became more and more nervous, and it was becoming harder to hide it. "Did either of you see anything? Do you have any idea who or what attacked her?"

"No. No, I have no idea." This time Stiles had been the one to provide the quick answer while Kinsey stood with her head bowed, looking down at those bloody hands once again wondering if she should say something. Whether she should tell the Sheriff about Peter Hale and what he had done. But she knew that wasn't something that came without consequence.

"Kinsey?"

"No. I don't know anything." She shook her head.

"What about Scott? Did Scott see anything?"

Kinsey and Stiles shared a look with one another before looking back at the Sheriff. Both would have assumed that Scott was here, when he had promised to keep Lydia safe under his oath to do more to keep everyone safe they'd thought he would have been one of the first people here. They hoped he was here. They didn't know where else he could be. And they didn't want to even begin thinking of all the places that he could be in Beacon Hills, especially with Peter on the loose and hunting down vengeance on those he deemed responsible.

"What do you mean? Is he not here?" Stiles asked, no profusely sweating. When his father had explained that he was unable to get in touch with Scott in the time that the two of them had been missing Kinsey watched as Jackson finally turned his head towards them, mouthing that he also didn't know where Scott was tonight which hadn't boosted their confidence.

After being questioned by the Sheriff and one of his deputies it had been Stiles's turn to receive the interrogation from his father while Kinsey waited outside giving neither of them a chance to get a story straight. Neither knew what the other would say about tonight's events, where they'd been when Lydia was attacked, how they could possibly explain all of the blood on Kinsey's dress. There was a slim to none chance that the two of them wouldn't seem guilty in this. For a short while, Kinsey stood outside of Lydia's hospital room watching as she didn't even know her best friend was outside praying that she made it through this. That she wasn't the part of the people who didn't survive the bite. Eventually, it had become too hard looking at Lydia in the state that she was in and Kinsey retreated to sitting back outside of the office where Stiles was being questioned. Her time could have been better spent if she had had her phone to call the absent wolf, but of course, that was too simple for the life that she leads. The time that Stiles was in that office felt like a lifetime, she wasn't sure how long she had spent in there but it hadn't felt as long as she had been waiting outside for him. But like the time she'd sat in the waiting room with Lydia and Jackson, time didn't seem to pass, hospitals ran on a different kind of clock. An awfully slow one. Kinsey had never jumped up quicker than she had when she saw the office door open with Stiles and his dad emerging from it, finally, it felt like her heart wasn't in her stomach and she wasn't going to throw up. She couldn't hear what the two were talking about as they made their way closer to her, but the conversation seemed heated. At least on the behalf of Sheriff Stilinski who looked as if he was lecturing his son once again, though his lecture had allowed her to catch a glimpse of the conversation. Only one she wished she hadn't heard.

"She's probably in her early to mid-thirties. All we know is that she had a very distinctive... what do you call it? A pendant. A necklace." Sheriff Stilinski said as he struggled for the words. "Now can I go and answer the phone?" He asked though it was a rhetorical question as he'd already picked up the call and walked back in the direction that they'd come from.

Stiles stood with his hands running through his hair, clearly flustered.

"Stiles?" Kinsey muttered as the boy turned around. "What was that about?"

"The Hale fire. It was arson."

"And the woman who did it was in her early to mid-thirties and had a pendant?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Kinsey didn't say anything as she pulled the pendant from around her neck holding it up to him as he watched his face drop in realization. Neither had to say anything to know they had realized the same thing. The arsonist. There was no other person it could be. She fit the profile. Early to mid-thirties. Wore a pendant. It was Kate. That was why Derek hated Argent's, why Kate gave both her daughter and Allison the pendant as if it wasn't a unique heirloom that would be drawn back to her. It was Kate's way of covering her tracks but it had failed after six years. When Kinsey had wondered why her mother never told her about the Hale fire when she knew her mom was in town at the time it happened, it was because she was the one committing the crime, not her first suspicion that it had slipped her mother's mind. Her mother was a murderer.

"Hey, where are you two going?" Jackson shouted as he chased after the two teenagers storming through the halls of the hospital, clearly on a mission that he wasn't involved in. After realizing that Kate was the arsonist Peter had been looking for, the "responsible one".

"To find Scott." Stiles deadpanned. He was uninterested in any conversation, and after explaining to Kinsey that Jackson had been the one to tell her uncle that Scott was the beta he was looking for she could see why. If it wasn't for Jackson's inability to keep a secret tonight may have gone a lot different to how it had. Lydia could have been fine if he wasn't out at the back of the school telling her uncle about Scott, she wouldn't be covered in her best friend's blood, Scott might not be about to get himself into trouble with an Alpha. The only thing that wouldn't have changed if tonight had gone differently was the fact her mother killed an entire family, for what reason she wasn't sure, and she didn't know if she'd get the chance to ask.

"Neither of you have a car."

"We're aware of that. Thank you." Kinsey nodded, neither had bothered to turn to Jackson as he tried to catch up to their quick pace. After running across town after being ditched by Peter they were sure they could run to the Hale house too, Kinsey did track after all and, Stiles, well he had more adrenaline in his system than he'd ever had before.

"Here, I'll drive." Jackson insisted as he grabbed a hold of Kinsey's arm trying to get her to slow down but his touch on Kinsey only made Stiles more pissed off with him as he pulled his grip harshly off of the girl. But at least it wasn't another punch to the jaw. That wasn't what any of them needed right now, even if Jackson was an ass he did have a car for them to use.

"Look, just because you feel guilty all of a sudden doesn't make it okay, all right? Half of this is still your fault." Stiles lectured the boy while Kinsey stood with a bowed head. Part of her could agree with that statement but the large majority couldn't. The two people at biggest fault here was Peter and her mother, the two murderers. And as Kate's daughter, it meant that it was her fault too. She should have known something more was going on when her mother had given her the pendant, or when Derek had shown her that piece of paper with it drawn on. They'd given up after searching Allison's necklace to see it contained nothing, she should have known it was the pendant itself was the link they needed. The link to her arsonist, murdering mother, Kate. So for that, she couldn't place all of the blame on Jackson, not even half of the blame like Stiles had chosen to, out of the three of them she was the most to blame for having a sociopathic mother.

"I have a car. You two don't. Do you want my help or not?"

"All right." Stiles sighed. "Did you bring the Porsche?"

Jackson nodded as he pulled his car keys from his tux pocket which were quickly snatched up by Stiles who demanded he'd be the one driving, which after feeling just as blameful for tonight's events he couldn't argue against. And out of the three of them, he was probably the best one of them to drive, Jackson didn't have the reckless driving skill that Kinsey and Stiles had, Kinsey wouldn't be able to focus on the road for long enough that they wouldn't crash which left Stiles. The three turned to head towards the exit before being stopped by a barricade of three men, one of which they didn't anticipate running into, Chris. All of their faces had dropped but none as much as his own niece who stood in between the two boys knowing that this wasn't going to end well. And not because she hadn't called for over three hours to tell them where she was.

"Kinsey. Boys." Chris greeted them with a slight smirk across his face, he took some slight joy in seeing how fearful the two teenage boys were of him, that fear would work to his advantage with them if Kinsey didn't cooperate, which he had a feeling she wouldn't. Not if he knew her well enough, and certainly not if she was anything like her mother was. "I was wondering if you could tell me where Scott McCall is." Kinsey felt more fearful of the two large men stood behind her uncle, their faces and posture a lot more threatening than the only male figure in her life.

"Scott McCall? Haven't seen him since the dance." Stiles shook his head. "Jackson, you?"

"Uh... I..."

"For the love of God." Kinsey mumbled under her breath knowing Jackson had just screwed all three of them over by his inability to speak.

The two larger men grabbed a hold of the two boys, harshly lugging them to a private surgery room by the nape of their necks while Chris took the softer approach on his dear niece as he guided her to the room with his hand on her back. Even if she seemed to be on the wrong side she was still his niece, a girl he'd practically raise himself and that wouldn't change because of who she'd chosen to support tonight. While the two boys were thrown into the room leaving them to hold their balance on the hospital bed Kinsey was shoved up the corner, like how she hadn't known her place when Peter had chosen to take her too she didn't know now what her uncle intended to do. He knew more than anyone how stubborn she could be when she put her mind to it. No amount of threats or violence would get a word out of her, Chris knew that. As soon as Chris locked the door the real interrogation begin, Kinsey could tell by the look on the two boys faces that it was only a matter of time before one of them blurted out where Scott was but there was a strong chance they'd gain a few black eyes or fractured bones before it got to that point. Apparently, even the Argents with two teenagers in their household didn't care about what they had to do to teenagers if it meant they got what they wanted.

His first interrogation had begun on Stiles who he threw against the medicine cabinet while his other guys kept a close eye on the other teenagers. Jackson was shaking beneath the grip of the smaller of the other two hunters while Kinsey stood with folded arms, not a single inch of her intimidated by the larger man who had been assigned to guard her. She assumed she got the larger of the two so she didn't try and do a runner, which she had considered in the time she'd been stood here. But there was no chance Jackson would have the guts to run too.

"Let me ask you a question, Stiles. Have you ever seen a rabid dog?"

"No. I could put it on my to-do list if you just let me go." He retorted with his usual level of sarcasm which wasn't the most ideal tactic to use when dealing with potentially armed hunters who were in a pretty pissy mood. But it was his natural defense mechanism against everything.

"Well, I have, and the only thing I've ever been able to compare it to is seeing a friend of mine turn on a full moon. Do you want to know what happened?"

Stiles shook his head. "Not really. No offense to your storytelling skills."

"He tried to kill me, and I was forced to put a bullet in his head. The whole while that he lay there dying, he was still trying to claw his way toward me, still trying to kill me, like it was the most important thing he could do with his last breath. Can you imagine that?"

"No." He shook his head again. "And it sounds like you need to be a little more selective-"

Chris slammed his hand against the medical cabinet creating a large slam that interrupted one of Stiles's infamous sarcastic comments, even Kinsey had cringed at the sound of the slam in her ears. Let alone the fact her uncle's hand had been inches from the boy's face. She would've liked to believe her uncle wouldn't hit Stiles, especially not when he's just sixteen, but then she also would've liked to believe he wasn't a werewolf hunter trying to kill her best friend.

"Did Scott try to kill you on the full moon? Did you have to lock him up?"

"Yes!" Kinsey shouted at the man, she couldn't take watching him and Stiles any longer. "Yeah, we did. We had to handcuff him to the radiator." She explained receiving a stare from her uncle who seemed even more surprised by the second at just how much she knew about werewolves, just like Kate said. He was a fool to think she hadn't known about this for a long time.

"Why? Would you prefer we locked him in the basement and burned the whole house down around him?" Stiles snarled at the man, while Kinsey's face dropped. That one had stung.

Chris chuckled as he turned around to look at his niece who now had tears in her eyes, though she did wonder if Chris played any part in that whole event. Even though she knew he wasn't in Beacon Hills at the time of the fire because he was the one looking after her she still wondered if he'd done something to help his little sister murder an entire family. A family that probably had children in, a house that could have had children in, for all they knew someone who had been just ten years old like she and Allison were at the time could have been in that house when it had perished. She knew her mother didn't have maternal instincts and that she probably wouldn't have cared about killing children, but she thought that her uncle was better than that.

"I hate to dispel a popular rumor, Stiles, but we never did that.

Kinsey cleared her throat. "Actually, uncle Chris. We did."

"No. No, we have a code. Nobody ever breaks that code, Kinsey. We live by it."

Stiles chuckled slightly, in the midst of his anger he didn't care what he was saying about the girl's mother. In his eyes she wasn't her mother right now, she was an arsonist, murderer, and hunter out to kill his best friend, she wasn't a human. He didn't care what came out of his mouth about the woman and she could see that. Even Jackson who was slightly lost and confused right now could see that as he looked at Kinsey, it did begin to make sense at why she always had that look across her face when she thought about her mother now. Why she hadn't been thrilled that the woman had returned to town a few weeks ago. "And what if someone does break it?"

"Who are we talking about here?" Chris said as he looked between the two who seemed to have the most answers out of everyone in this room. But Kinsey wasn't able to spit out the words.

"Your sister."

The man didn't say another word as he gave his two guys a single look, that seemed to be enough for them to understand what he wanted. The one who'd been guarding Kinsey had moved to guard Stiles again while the one who'd had a grip on Jackson this entire time moved away from the door to allow Chris through as he began guiding Kinsey out of the room again not allowing her to ask any questions as she gave the two boys a parting look before the door had closed once again. She didn't know what was going to happen to the two of them in there, whether Chris would let them go as soon as she was out of the perimeter or what would even happen to her as she was guided towards the exit and to her uncle's SUV. He continued his silence as he opened the trunk leaving Kinsey to stand watching him with a furrowed brow as he shoved a duffel bag in her arms letting her see what was inside. Kinsey had expected some kind of weapons like a rifle or a crossbow since that was his apparently favored weapon, but instead, she was met with the sight of some of her clothes, and thankfully, a change of shoes.

He nodded back towards the hospital as if that was her signal to go and get changed, of course, she hadn't hesitated to get out of the dress she'd been in for longer than she'd anticipated when she had put it on. As well as finally getting some shoes that weren't four inches tall and wouldn't give her blisters with every little step that she had taken. Not to mention they weren't covered in Lydia's blood which instantly made them the best thing she'd laid her eyes on tonight. When she returned back to the car Chris was still stood at the trunk watching the time on his watch, she'd been as little as three minutes but she still felt pressured to jog up to him as soon as she saw him checking the time. She wasn't sure how exactly he could time what was going to happen when none of them explicitly knew what would happen, they just knew it would be something bad.

Chris shoved another duffel bag in the brunette's arms once again leaving her to open it and see what was inside, this had been more what she expected the first time.

"You're giving your sixteen-year-old niece a gun?" Kinsey asked as she looked down at the gun in the duffel bag that was alongside a set of Chinese rings daggers, confirming that had been the reason why Kate had trained her in the strange weapon. It was her weapon now.

"Are you surprised?"

"Probably not as much as I should be." She admitted. "But I've never shot one?"

"You know how one's shot. You've got the aim. I'll give you pointers on the way. Get in."

Kinsey had never known her uncle drive at the speed he had especially as the rain began to pour down over them setting the dull mood of the night, but it hadn't taken long to figure out where they were headed, by now she was familiar with the roads of Beacon Hills and knew that they were heading to the Hale house. Like he had said he would Chris gave his niece tips on how to shoot the gun he'd equipped her with as well as asking her the odd question about how exactly she'd come to figure out it was Kate that had committed the crime of the Hale house. By the end of the explanation, Kinsey found the pendant in her hand, disgusted by the sight of it unlike when she'd once loved it. Just as they pulled onto the path leading up to the persevere Kinsey made the bold choice to throw it out of the window hoping it would be her last time of seeing it. It held no sentimentality to it anymore, just disgust and heartache. It was a symbol of the person her mother really was, the person she'd always been, she just hadn't known. Chris had also explained his original plan to ship her and Allison off to Washington once he'd found her but that plan had changed drastically, and he had a feeling Kate's half of that had changed to and his daughter wouldn't in fact be safe like how he'd hoped her to of been. The two had ran up the hill leading to the Hale house, they were already able to see figures in the far distance, one of those holding up a gun which could only be presumed as Kate.

"Mom," Kinsey spoke up as she stopped at the sight of her mom holding a gun up to Scott who lay on the floor helpless, much like Allison and Derek who was bleeding from his shoulder and leg. At this moment Kinsey was an image of her mother, stood tall with a gun drawn. If it wasn't for the fact that a gun was pointed at her best friend's head she would have felt sickened by that. "We know what you did." Her voice cracked as she looked up at the house towering over them.

"Put the gun down, Kate." Chris added as he stood beside his niece.

With her gun still drawn at Scott's head, Kate tried to defend her actions as if it would change the opinion her daughter already had on her. "I did what I was told to do." Not only had her actions changed Kinsey's opinion of her but also Allison who looked at her with a similar face of disgust after realizing what her aunt had done.

"No one asked you to murder innocent people. There were children in that house, ones who were human. Look what you're doing now. You're holding a gun at a sixteen-year-old boy with no proof he spilled human blood. We go by the code." Chris lectured his sister followed by a phrase that he spoke in French. Both Kinsey and Allison had managed to translate the french that Chris spoke in a matter of seconds, both of them recognizing it as "we hunt those who hunt us." but Kate didn't seem to care about the code as she began pressing down lightly on the trigger which only made Kinsey raise the one she had temporarily dropped back up to her own mother. Kate looked at her with the assumption that she wouldn't use the weapon, she knew that Kinsey didn't know how to use a gun the way that she and Chris did. But Kinsey took a deep breath as she aimed past her mother's head and to the tree that stood behind her with narrowed eyes, the bullet brushing past the woman's head as she looked between the bullet mark in the tree and her daughter. Kate hesitantly lowered her gun, as did Kinsey as Scott breathed a sigh of relief which was short-lived when the door to the Hale house began creaking open catching the attention of the six who stood outside, or in the case of the injured werewolf and Allison, lay. "Allison, get back." Chris warned. Immediately Kate had raised her gun again, Scott had pulled himself off of his feet and Kinsey moved to stand beside Allison as both of them kept their weapons by their side unable to anticipate what was about to happen to them.

"What is it?" Allison murmured weakly, her legs barely able to stand as they shook out of fear.

"It's the Alpha." Scott retorted in a low tone. A tone Kinsey recognized as the one he used when he was transitioning or preparing to. Both she and Allison took that as their cue to raise up the gun and crossbow they'd acquired, aiming it towards the door as their parents did.

But none of them had been quick enough as the wolf rushed past them faster than any of them were able to move as they spun around trying to catch a glimpse of him, but Peter ran circles around the six of them until they were all facing different directions ready to shoot whatever the weapon they held in their hand was. A low growl sounded before the thud of a body hitting the floor taking Chris down before another thud had hit taking down Allison as she dropped at her cousin's feet along with her crossbow. Kate and Kinsey continued to hold their guns tightly as their breaths became less stable while Scott stood behind them ready to pounce at the chance. With a third thud, Scott was on the ground leaving Kinsey and Kate stood almost back to back as Kate screamed for the Alpha to show his face. A fourth thud sounded as Kinsey was swept off of her feet by Peter, left to lay weakly beside Allison, then Peter decided to show his real face as he grabbed the arm that Kate held up with her gun forcing her to shoot a few shots into the air.

Following the gunshots, Peter bent the woman's arm back until the sound of her bones cracking was loud enough for even those without enhanced hearing to hear as they lay on the ground, some still conscious, unlike Chris who'd taken a harder hit to the ground than his daughter and niece who felt just as hopeless with the dull ache of pain in their bodies.

Peter gripped Kate by the throat as he threw her through the air to the foot of the door, Kinsey and Allison had barely been able to follow the man with their eyes before he too was at the door of the Hale house dragging Kate into the darkness as she kicked her feet.

"No!" Kinsey screamed as she scrambled to her feet with Allison following closely behind her as the two of them ran into the dark house without even another thought about what they were about to get themselves into. Even as the monster her mother was Kinsey didn't want to see her hurt. Neither did Allison. If that meant going against the Alpha both knew they weren't as strong as then that was something they were willing to do, even without their weapons.

The two ran into the house to find Peter stood in what used to be the living room of the Hale house, of course, after the fire most of the furniture and the exterior was covered in soot, it was barely stable under the two girls feet as they stood in the doorway. His claws were already out and resting on Kate's skin, hard enough that she could feel the pressure, but her skin was still intact beneath them as she looked at the two girls' tearful eyes. Sadness wasn't an emotion either of them was used to seeing the woman sporting, or any emotion for that matter.

"She is beautiful, Kate. She looks like you." Peter complimented as he looked at Kinsey whose teary eyes matched her mother's, the disgust she'd felt for her mother an hour ago had all moved to Peter. Though it hadn't been the first time she felt disgusted when looking at him, after the time he'd spent traumatizing her it was no surprise she felt so much hatred for the man. "Probably not as damaged. So I'm going to give you a chance to save her. To save both of them." He added as he looked at Allison who still wore the Argent pendant around her neck.

"Apologize." He demanded as he put more pressure on Kate's neck.

"Mom, please," Kinsey begged as she began to sob.

"Say that you're sorry for decimating my family, for leaving me burned and broken for six years. Say it. And I'll let them live." Peter said, slowly adding more and more pressure onto her.

"Mom." Kinsey repeated again. She'd never been so desperate for her mother to pull through for her. To not disappoint her like she'd become used to. "Please. Please just say it."

"I'm sorry." Kate mumbled as she gasped for air.

Peter took a deep breath, making it seem for a split second that he had an ounce of decency to him. That he had morals and would let go of her like he would let the two girls live as he said he would. But that all changed when he looked at the two teenagers with a smirk across his face as he dug his claws further into the woman's neck, ripping it apart as her blood splashed across the room. Her blood staining the windows, the floor, everywhere. Just like the blood she had spilled when she had set this house on fire her blood had been spilled in vengeance. Kinsey screamed at the top of her lungs as she dropped down in front of her mother's dead body, loud enough to shake the already unstable house as tears dripped down her face. Both Kinsey and Allison had gasped for a breath as they looked up at the man who'd just murdered their mother and aunt, barely able to process what had just happened right in front of their eyes. But after tonight it was sure to leave its mark, to scar them. It would be something they'd never be able to unsee.

"I don't know about you, girls, but that apology didn't sound very sincere."

Kinsey stumbled back to her feet as she stood back beside Allison, if he had killed Kate they knew he wouldn't hesitate to kill them. He wouldn't keep the promise that he made before he had ripped her throat out right in front of them as if it were nothing. Peter had that demented look in his eye as he began stepping closer to the two girls preparing for them to meet the same fate as Kate, to Peter it only seemed fair that the entire family paid. Like his family had paid. A low growl came from beside them as they turned to see Scott, fully transitioned and ready to fight followed by the creaking of the unstable floorboards that turned their attention to Derek who was prepared to take on his uncle from another angle. He too fully transitioned.

After Scott had screamed for the two girls to run neither of them hesitated to run straight out of the door they'd come through, both running straight to the aid of their uncle/father who was still unconscious as they shook him and shouted his name. They could hear the fight raging inside as they tried to focus on the man in front of them though it was becoming harder with the sound of crushing wood and grunting of the two younger wolves. Kinsey and Allison's heads had shot up with the sound of glass smashing with Scott's body landing outside of the house seconds before a much larger figure had emerged. One Kinsey had seen too many times after the night at the video store as well as at the school, Peter had gone full-wolf and was ready to spill more blood.

He grabbed Scott by his shirt as he pulled him into the air, growling at the boy with his large canines just inches from his face when Scott had kicked him in the chest, sending him flying back towards the direction of the almost derelict house. A honking horn had managed to take Peter's attention from Scott to the car it had come from, a silver Porsche with Jackson and Stiles standing either side. Both with a beaker of solution that Kinsey recognized as a Molotov cocktail, just like the one Lydia had made the night at the school. Stiles had launched the beaker at the Alpha only for him to catch it flawlessly leaving all of them at a loss for words, as well as wondering what the hell they'd do to fight off the seven-foot-tall beast now.

"Kinsey!" Scott shouted as he grabbed the gun that had been hidden in the leaves throwing it to the brunette as she stood up, catching it as if she had those werewolf abilities that allowed the three werewolves she knew to catch so well.

In a heartbeat, she shot the gun towards the beaker in the Alpha's hand as he held it up high making it an even easier target for her. The Molotov cocktail ignited in his hand setting his arm on fire lighting up the dark night that settled around them. Jackson threw the second cocktail allowing the rest of the beast's body to spark until he was a large dancing flame. Even in the midst of his fiery downfall, he attempted to step closer to the two Argent girls that he'd intended to kill before it had all turned sour for him. But before he had the chance to get too close Scott had kicked him out of the way once again until he was stumbling back unable to carry the weight of his own body. They all watched as the dancing orange flame burnt out and left Peter sunken in the leaves in his human form once again, in the same state he'd been in six years ago.

Allison stood up from her place beside Chris and headed towards Scott who turned away, this wasn't the first time Allison had seen him in his wolf form, but it was the first time he was able to control it. He was able to turn away and hide what he'd wanted to hide all along. But Allison had grabbed a gentle hold of the wolf's chin turning his face back to hers. Kinsey watched as Scott's wolf-like features melted away in the hands of the girl he loved, his anchor, the person that he'd done all of this for. She couldn't help but smile to herself for the happiness of both her cousin and her best friend, being a werewolf didn't matter to Allison, no matter what rules had been made between their kind and hers. It didn't matter that they were werewolves and hunters.

Kinsey looked up at Stiles and Jackson who still stood by the Porsche watching Scott and Allison as intently as she had. The blonde boy gave her a nod as she smiled at him, maybe it had taken him longer than she'd wished for him to show that he wasn't the bad guy, but tonight he'd come through and proved he wasn't all bad. He did still have a part of good inside of him no matter how small it seemed some days. Stiles provided Kinsey with the same nod and smile which she returned despite the true feeling that settled in the stomach under the realization that tonight she'd lost her mother to the hands of Peter Hale. Which she'd have to tell him. Which she'd have to tell everyone who ever asked her about what happened to her mother whether it was just someone curious or the sheriff's department when they came knocking on the door.

All of their heads turned at the sound of crunching leaves that lead them to Derek standing over the dying, burnt body of his uncle who gasped for his last few breaths. Breaths that he didn't deserve in Kinsey's opinion and those who were around her.

"Wait!" Scott yelled as she rushed to his feet ready to plead his case to Derek who stood ready to truly end the chaos Peter Hale had caused. "You said the cure comes from the one who bit you."

Chris grabbed ahold of the two girls under his protection as the three of them stood watching as Scott tried to get himself a cure, obviously so that he could be with Allison. He knew, and they knew that if he remained a wolf there was no way Chris would let them be together. Although Allison didn't care that Scott was a werewolf he did and his mind couldn't be so easily changed.

"Derek, if you do this I'm dead. Her father, her family... What am I supposed to do?"

Kinsey looked at Allison as she became more and more nervous as to what Derek was going to do, the future of her relationship lay in his hands, and frankly, she'd learned he couldn't be trusted. Especially not with this. All eyes were on Derek as he stood towering over his uncle seemingly contemplating his decision to kill the man, the heartbeats of the five teenagers in his ears at once, pounding. It wasn't just Scott and Allison who cared about what he chose to do.

Derek raised his hand, claws extracted. "Wait! No, no! Don't!" Scott pleaded but just as quickly as Peter had killed Kate with his claws he'd met that same fate. His throat was slashed by his own nephew. Leaving him dead outside the house that he'd originally suppose to have died inside of. Kinsey let out a sharp gasp as she turned to her uncle, burying her head in her chest unable to look at the wolf who killed her mother any longer even if he had got what was coming to him. Seeing two people have their throats ripped out in one night was no easy sight and when it was your own mother, that only made the task more difficult to cope with.

-☽○☾-

The brunette had been sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, her chin resting on them as she stared blankly at the blue wall opposing her. It was the only thing that had managed to clear her head from all that had happened last night, those thoughts still hadn't settled. She could still see her mother's blood splattering against the walls as if her bedroom had become the sight of the death. When Sheriff Stilinski had knocked on the door this morning to announce the death of Kate Argent to her family they all had to act as if that had been the first they'd heard of it, not that they'd watched it happen. Not that Kinsey had placed Allison's pendant around the neck of her dead mother to show that she had been the arsonist. Even if it wasn't the first she'd heard of the death it still felt fresh, her reaction hadn't been fake. The tears she shed, the uncontrolled sob she realized when she dropped to the floor wasn't an act she'd put on for Sheriff Stilinski's sake. It was still her emotions and her reaction as she relived the death once again. She hated her mother for what she did. So she chose to mourn the mother she remembered. When Kate was an actual mother to her and not what seemed to be a distant relative who came over to visit on birthdays. She chose to mourn the mother who she lived with at a young age, who showed she cared. That was the only Kate Argent that her daughter wished to remember. Not the one who murdered innocent people, or that had been killed right in front of her eyes.

As a knock sounded at the door Kinsey temporarily took her eyes off of the wall to mutter a small "come in" expecting it to be her aunt Victoria at the door checking up on her once again, the woman had been more overbearing than ever since she returned home after formal. And even if Kinsey completely understood why she wanted nothing more than to be alone. She didn't bother looking for long enough to see who had come through the door, her stare had turned back to the wall opposite her which grabbed her attention more than humans. When she felt someone sit beside her she knew it wasn't Victoria who had came into the room, Victoria only came in to bring up some food like the plate that still sat on her dresser untouched.

"You doing okay?" Allison asked softly as she rested her head on the girl's shoulder.

"Honestly? Probably better than I should be for someone who watched their moms throat get ripped out right in front of them. It hurts, but not as much as I know it should. I don't feel sad, really, I just feel..."

"Numb?"

"Yeah." Kinsey nodded. "It just doesn't feel real? Like she's not actually gone."

"I just talked to Stiles. He asked how you were. Him and Scott just went to check on Lydia, her bite hasn't healed but they don't know what it means, but so far, it looks like she's not a werewolf. Which right now, I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not."

"No, I don't know either."

"Hey. Wanna go somewhere?" Allison suggested as she sat up with a burst of energy.

"You're going to drag me out of bed even if I say no, aren't you?"

Allison nodded with a proud smile. "Come on, you don't even have to get dressed." Within fifteen minutes Allison had managed to pull the brunette out of her bed and get her into the car still with her hair thrown up in a messy bun which more so looked like she'd been pulled through a bush, she was still wearing shorts that certainly weren't weather-appropriate for going out on a cold February night but she supposed the hoodie she'd thrown on would make up for that. Kinsey hadn't quite understood where Allison was taking her until they took a familiar left turn, from that point Kinsey couldn't even hide the smile emerging across her face. She didn't know when Allison had declared this spot as theirs but clearly, they had, but it was exactly what she needed tonight. When they pulled up to the spot on the preserve that looked over the town Scott and Stiles were already sat on the edge with a blanket laid out and take-out food ready for the two brunettes to arrive. "We thought you could use some fresh air and company."

"And curly fries," Stiles added as he held them out to the girl.

Scott moved over to make space for Allison while Kinsey took the space beside Stiles who had the bigger supply of curly fries between him and the wolf which automatically made the seat beside him the winning one. The four of them had failed to mention the events that occurred last night, instead, they focused on what mattered most, the four of them being alive and Lydia seemingly getting better and not being a werewolf. They didn't know how that had happened but they weren't going to ask questions if she was okay. Stiles had arranged to go back to the hospital once they were finished here which Kinsey had quickly jumped on, they'd be there waiting for the second that Lydia opened her eyes no matter how long it took. While Allison and Scott decided to make the most of their relationship before Chris interfered with it, which was only a matter of time, as well as making plans for when he finally did break them up. Because they weren't going to let each other go that easily, Stiles and Kinsey would have killed them after how much Allison and Scott had put them through to end up together. They hadn't all fought this hard for things not to go the way that they had intended, and right now they had.