LOVERS ROCK

chapter twelve ; code breaker
[ season one - episode twelve ]

A fire crackled, the only sound in the room as the man leaned on the fireplace, staring into those dancing orange flames as he tried to keep his cool, his fists were clenched together, his jaw too. He was infuriated, enranged, seething, and more. He couldn't believe it. It had all seemed like it was coming together, they had found the beta they had been looking for, finding the Alpha was imminent. Now, all that was gone. It had been screwed up, and someone had gotten hurt, if he were to count emotional hurt too, more than one person had been harmed. All of which led back to one person.

As that thought washed over him again, the man grabbed the vase from the mantle piece, letting it crash to the floor as shards fluttered across the room, the sound echoing so even his daughter and wife could hear from upstairs. All while his sister sat watching him from the sofa with her lips pulled into a slight smirk, her arms folded, as though, unlike how he saw it, this was a victory, he couldn't see the benefits of this. This was all the beginning of something bigger and better.

Of course, he couldn't see that, and nobody else in the house could. Allison was heartbroken, in just one sitting, she had found out what her family was, werewolf hunters, and the one they had been hunting for months, was none other than her boyfriend. Victoria was furious, her husband had promised that their daughter would be kept out of all of this, that they wouldn't tell her yet, not until she was at least eighteen when she was old enough to process it all. The fury of a plan gone wrong stretched further than their household, but to one close to them too, the Carters, it affected them too. Chris had caught wind of what had happened at the school, how one of the teenagers who had come running toward the school with the girl who had been attacked was a girl named Honey. There was only one of those in this town. Of course, as any friend would, the Argent man called Jude, asking what had happened, only to be filled in with the truth, how this, their daughters finding out, led down to the truth that had been spilled by one of their own.

"Feeling better?" Kate asked, the leak herself.

"Don't push me, Kate!" The man bellowed, the house shaking beneath his voice, the huntress in question cringing at the loud sound, but she didn't let it shake her, the woman had far too much confidence for that, confidence in herself, and confidence in her plan. And there was nothing the woman loved more than seeing her brother shaken. Women were supposed to be the leaders in these situations for a reason, they were calmer, and more disciplined, at least some. She smiled as she made a remark, telling him that she actually thought it was a pretty healthy display of his aggression. But he didn't find humor in this. "You told them." He said with a snarl, them, Allison and Honey, though Kate hadn't needed that clarification, she knew what she did.

"They found out." The woman argued back, failing to convince her brother. He knew about the clues she had been leaving with Allison, starting with the necklace she'd given her. And now, he not only had to send his daughter away, but Honey had disappeared, nobody had seen the girl since she rushed up to the school with Jackson Whittemore. Perhaps he shouldn't care, Honey wasn't his daughter, but he did, she was the daughter of their friend, Allison's friend too, they'd welcomed her like family due to Kate's relationship with her father, so he felt it only necessary that he cared for the girl's wellbeing. "They know because you wanted them to know."

"Because they need to" Kate's voice rose as she stood up to her brother. "Not to mention Honey knew about all this before, Jude knows that too, why else would he have been so willing to help us? You know how he feels about all of this."

Chris paused for a moment, failing to find an argument, that was true. Jude had suspected that his daughter had been involved in all of this, even before their move to Beacon Hills, that old ex-boyfriend of hers, Jude had always been suspicious about him. It was as if history was repeating itself, that was what the man was so scared of. "You didn't have the right to tell her about Emily."

"It's her mother, Chris. She deserved to know, someone had to tell her. She's better off knowing."

The man returned back to his angered silence as the woman basked in her success, seeing how he failed to argue with her points, as she was sure Jude would if he were here rather than being out searching for his daughter, expecting that after their exchange she had rushed to find Scott or Stiles. She smirked as Chris allowed all the information to sink in, suspecting that Allison had known longer than he thought, how there had been hints, her change in behavior. He knew that this was a bad idea, he should have known that this town would allow them to find out, Beacon Hills had a way of messing with lives, it didn't need Kate's help.

Why did you come back here? Chris asked his sister, changing the subject from the Carters. She hated this town, and he had a network of names he could have called, all a lot closer than them, but she called first. Kate turned defensive, questioning whether her brother wanted her help or not, but he wasn't sure he knew who she was helping.

Now, the woman didn't feel so smug. "Oh, come on. I'm here to catch the Alpha. Remember the one running around here killing people at random?"

Not random, the man shook his head, confusing the woman, one of his hunters, Tyhurst learned that Sheriff Stilinski can connect every murderer back to the Hale fire. Suddenly, Kate was quiet as she sat back in her seat, swallowing the lump in her throat before she dared to speak again, a seemingly untouchable confidence had been knocked. She shook off the fear, using the fire as a reason for the two girls to know about their families, because they had always been blamed for that fire. Her voice croaked, a detection of fear in her tone, as if she were nervous. It had to have been Derek Hale or some other relative, but she guaranteed they were circling around their two families as their last targets.

Chris nodded, he suspected that too, which was why she was taking Allison out of here tonight, meanwhile he was going to help Jude look for his daughter. They would go to the house over in Washington, and they would stay there until he called. He assumed, and hoped, they wouldn't be far behind with Honey.

"Are you kidding me?" Kate stood up again, in complete disbelief as she scoffed at her brother's suggestion. "You're gonna bench your star player in the last quarter?" She asked, angering the hunter more as he smashed the pieces of the vase he had been picking up back on the floor, he couldn't deal with another minute of Kate's disobedience.

Get your things, he insisted, he wanted her and Allison on the road within the hour. With a face like thunder, Kate listened as she retreated to the guest room to pack her belongings, leaving the hunter to stand in the mess he had made, both in his living room, and in this town when he had decided it was worth coming back to. He wasn't sure how to come back from this, whether they even could. Would Allison forgive him for lying all of this time? Could he fix what was broken? Or was he in over his head?

"You know you can't do this without me," Kate told her brother as she and Allison sat in the car, their bags packed as they prepared to head to Washington, neither of them wanting to leave, for very different reasons. Chris wasn't interested in what his sister had to say, he continued looking at his daughter in the passenger seat, though she couldn't do the same. "You're not gonna find him on your own."

Chris continued to ignore her, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder. We're gonna talk about everything, he promised the teenage girl. Call me when you get there, he asked, the girl nodded, allowing that to be the only thing she had to say to her father. He and Victoria watched as the car drove into the darkness, the woman beside him growing increasingly uncomfortable, unable to stop herself from asking whether Kate was right, whether he could find the Alpha without her. It wasn't something the man was proud to admit when he said no, but he had a plan, he knew that someone could find the Alpha. He just had to find her.

·❥·

In a quiet hospital waiting room, Honey Carter sat with her head down, thinking about what this night had become, how every lie she had ever been told was slowly starting to unravel, revealing the true image of her life, and just how wrong she had had it. She tried to think of everything she knew about herself and her life, whether it was all a lie, or if there was at least something real. It wasn't easy to work out, there were still a lot of things she didn't know, and a lot of questions to still be asked. None of which could be asked right now. Her father had tried to call her, but she'd stared at his name on her phone each time, refusing to answer, unsure whether she would ever be able to talk to him again, whether she could forgive him.

She stared down at the ripped white gown she wore, stained with the scarlet red blood from the innocent girl who had been attacked tonight. She was surprised at herself, how much she cared about Lydia getting hurt, she thought that she would have taken enjoyment out of it, finding at least a hint of pleasure in knowing the girl was suffering, but when it came to it, her heart ached for the redhead when saw her across the field lying, presumably, dead. Nobody could be sure of what happened to her, though she especially had her suspicions, ones that could be confirmed if only Stiles answered his phone. But like Scott, he was M.I.A.

Jackson kept asking her questions, it was clear he knew something, but it was all new to him, he didn't quite understand it in the depth that she did. He wanted to, at least part of him did, but he was terrified too. Enough to leave him speechless as he sat beside the girl in the waiting room, it was a waiting game, waiting for Sheriff Stilinski or one of the doctors to tell them how Lydia was doing, whether they had helped her in time.

The blonde girl sighed heavily, looking up from her dress, her eyes stopped as she looked across the room, staring at a man sitting opposite her and Jackson with his head in his hands, the man was accompanied by a deputy, one seemingly comforting him, though the notepad in his hands told him that he was there to ask questions, ones that would be hard, ones about someone who had clearly gotten hurt, or even died. But that wasn't why the girl stared, it wasn't because she'd felt guilty for the man, though she did feel that, it was the familiar look of the man that made her stare at him, unable to draw her eyes away.

Sir, I know this is hard, but I just need to ask you some questions about your wife, she heard the deputy plead with the heartbroken man. The man nodded, pulling himself together as he finally looked up, looking straight at the blonde girl staring at him. And it was like he saw her too. She watched the man stand up, her breaths in her chest as she watched him walk closer and closer, until he walked straight past her, stopping at a hospital room, looking through the window, the deputy following him, comforting the man.

Confused, Honey drew her eyes away, turning to look beside her, where Jackson had been just a moment ago, but now, she was alone. The sound of the double doors opening took the blonde's attention as she turned to see herself, her clothes a tint of green from the grass she'd been lying on for hours on end, her brown hair disheveled, her eyes red, sore from the stinging of her tears. She felt her heart almost stop, every breath caught in her throat as she watched the girl's knees give up on her, sending her crashing to the ground with a sob, her father catching her before she hit the tiled floor.

"Honey?" A voice spoke, the girl looked up from her white dress with tears in her eyes, her body trembling as she looked at the man kneeling down in front of her. "Did you hear me?" He asked, the girl shook her head. "I said did you see anything? Do you know who could have done this to Lydia?" Stilinski asked, the girl looked at him, straight in the eye, but it was like she wasn't here with them, as though she was on a different planet.

"No," She shook her head. "No, no, I was too late." She said in a low mumble, only partially was she talking about Lydia.

As the elevator beeped, their attention was drawn to it, a breathless Stiles came clamoring out of it, he looked as disheveled as she did, he rushed straight to the window into Lydia's room, his heart in his throat as he looked at the injured girl. Regretful it had played out this way. Stilinski's attention immediately went to his son, rushing over to him, pulling him from the window. It's a good job we're in a hospital, he told the boy, because I'm gonna kill you, he yelled, pointing his finger in his son's face.

Stammering, the boy apologized, telling him that he lost the keys to his Jeep, that he had to run the entire way here, though his eyes landed on Honey as he spoke, and something told the girl it was a complete lie. The man told him he didn't care, there were more important questions to be asked, but Stiles went first, questioning whether Lydia was okay. Stilinski pulled his son aside as he sighed, giving him the cold hard truth, they didn't know, he explained, partially because they didn't know what happened to her, but she had lost a lot of blood. But there was something else going on with her. Stiles' brows raised, something else? He questioned, his heartbeat rising, the first thought being something werewolf-y was happening to her, perhaps some claws or fangs or glowing eyes.

Noah explained that it was like an allergic reaction, that her body kept going into shock, even as he explained it, he couldn't understand it, so he didn't expect that his son would. As he'd asked Honey, he asked his son whether he had seen anything, if he had any idea who or what attacked Lydia. Stiles shook his head, he had no idea, he told the man.

"What about Scott? Did Scott see anything?" Sheriff questioned, taking the boy by surprise, he'd immediately looked past the blonde who shook her head, Scott wasn't here, she confirmed with a single shake of the head, she had been waiting for him too, but there was no sign of him. Stiles turned back to his father, showing his surprise that his best friend was here, Noah admitted that he had tried the wolf's cellphone, but he couldn't get in touch, he was just another missing teen tonight, it seemed to be the recurring theme.

The moment that his father had leave him be, Stiles rushed over to the blonde girl, grabbing her hand as he pulled her aside, hoping they could fill each other in on what had happened. Honey immediately asked where he had been, questioning how he could leave Lydia for dead, or who'd attacked her in the first place. As she'd suspected, this was Peter's doing, he had bitten Lydia on the field when she had gone looking for Jackson, and when he had found her, Peter insisted that he helped find Derek, refusing to allow him to stay with Lydia, Jackson was the best he had been able to do.

"Stiles, someone came up to me at the dance, telling me to go out to the field," Honey admitted, pointing at the redhead girl in a hospital bed beside her mother. "That was supposed to be me. I should be the one in there right now." She said in a hushed whisper, before either of them had a chance to discuss the possibility that it was her Peter aimed to maim and kill, Stilinski came up to them again, requesting that they ask his son some more questions about his date.

As the boy was pulled into a private room, Honey was left alone in the hospital waiting room, her mind spiraling again, a sickness washing over her. She found herself standing, watching Lydia as her mom stroked her hair back, praying that her daughter would recover, that only made Honey feel sicker. If this had been her, if this had gone the way Peter wanted it to, she would be the one lying in that bed, only she would be alone, or with her dad, the one who had cast this fate, killing Peter's entire family. She saw him as guilty as the man who did this to Lydia.

Soon enough, the thought became too much, she retreated back to her seat, burying her head in her hands, hoping not to see any more flashbacks of the night her mother died, or to think of the other possibilities of how tonight could have ended, or how it would end, the night was young, it wasn't over, she could feel that. The blonde only dared to look up again when she heard the two Stilinskis talking once again at the end of the hall, the two seemed to be in a heated discussion as she stood up, waiting for Stiles to approach her and fill her in, her body too eager to wait, her legs instinctively walking her closer to the conversation.

"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 in a poor attempt to explain it to his son. "Now can I go and answer the phone?" The man asked, his thumb already answering it as he walked away from the teenage boy.

"What was that about?" She asked with a furrowed brow as Stiles approached her.

"The Hale fire." He told her, those words caused her stomach to drop, realizing there was a detail she had forgotten to tell him. "It was arson."

"I know," Honey admitted, taking him by surprise as he questioned how she knew, how long she had known too, a flurry of questions escaped his mouth, not all of them quite making sense, but the boy stopped him. "Stiles, my dad was one of them. My dad started that fire. The magnets he used to get me from his trips. He was here, Stiles. He was here the time that the fire started and when I asked him about it, he didn't deny it, he just kept saying we would talk about it, that he would explain but I didn't give him the chance, I went with Jackson instead and then we found Lydia and- Oh, my God."

"What?"

"A pendant." She said, forgetting all that she had been saying before. "Stiles, who do we know that wears a distinctive pendant? One that she got from her aunt? A hunter?" She asked, Stiles soon realizing who was to blame for the Hale fire alongside her father.

The two began rushing through the hospital, determined to find Scott, they didn't know how to find him, or where to begin, but now they knew the truth, they had no choice but to find him, it made sense now. The people who Peter claimed to be the responsible ones. He had known the entire time who had started that fire, everyone who had a part to play, and one by one the man hadn't been taking them down. Kate was the only one left. As they rushed through the halls of the hospital, Jackson chased after them, asking where they were going, Stiles kept it simple, he had no interest in talking to him, as for the blonde, she had no interest in involving anyone else in this mess, enough people were in danger without it. Unbeknownst to her, it was Jackson's inability to keep a secret that had gotten so many of them involved in this mess, blabbing to the hunters that Scott was a werewolf.

Neither of you have a car, Jackson reminded the two of them, both very aware of that fault in a poorly crafted plan. He volunteered to drive, feeling it was only appropriate after the mess he'd made, he took ahold of the blonde's arm, trying to get her to listen, but his touch on the blonde only made matters worse. Stiles stepped closer to him, snatching Jackson's arm from off of her as he refrained from punching the jock again instead. "Look, just because you feel guilty all of a sudden doesn't make it okay, all right? Half of this is still your fault." He snarled at the jock, the blonde unsure what he meant by the comment.

"I have a car. You two don't. Do you want my help or not?" Jackson spat out at him, before Stiles could reject the offer, Honey accepted it, leaving Stiles no choice but to allow Jackson to help. It was already a time crunch without having to find the missing werewolf on foot.

The jock pulled his car keys from his tuxedo pocket, the Stilinski boy quickly snatched them up, insisting that he would be the one to drive, storming off ahead before another argument could break out, only none of them had anticipated another barrier in their plan. Or more specifically, three barriers, better known as Argent and his hunters. The three barricaded the exit as each of the teenagers stopped before them, a worried look across their faces.

Honey. Boys, Argent greeted them with a proud look, mostly because of the fear he managed to instill in the two teenage boys who seemed much more intimidated than the blonde girl, rather than fear, she just seemed to dread the upcoming conversation, knowing that it would lead back to her father one way or another. "I was wondering if you could tell me where Scott McCall is." He asked, the fear on their faces growing stronger.

"Scott McCall? Haven't seen him since the dance." Stiles shook his head, though it wasn't a lie, it wasn't since Coach caught the werewolf dancing with Danny that he had seen him. "What about you, Jackson?"

As the boy stammered, too intimidated to keep up with the lie, Honey mumbled a prayer for the three of them, knowing that he had managed to make a bad situation worse. The two larger men behind Argent grabbed Jackson and Stiles while she was left to walk at her own free will, only in the direction that Argent had told her to go in. The two teenage boys were thrown into the room, almost tripping over a hospital bed while Honey was left cowering in the corner, all three of the teenagers had been interrogated once tonight, but as Argent locked the door was when it really began. He had questions for them, more invasive than those asked by the Sheriff and his deputy.

Stiles was first to receive the interrogations as Argent threw him against a medicine cabinet, the boy tried to remain calm and contained as the man stood inches from his face, hoping he would become as fearful as Jackson, the kind of fear that would allow him to blab all of the answers, if only Jackson knew the answers that Stiles and Honey knew. But he didn't, his fear had made it obvious that he hadn't seen as much as them, that he didn't know half of what they knew.

Have you ever seen a rabid dog? Argent asked him. No, Stiles told him, but if the man let him go he was sure he could put it on his to-do list. The hunter didn't appreciate the sarcasm, though it didn't stop him, he continued to make his point, insisting that he had, and the only thing that he could compare it to was seeing a friend of his turn during a full moon. He asked whether the boy wanted to know what happened next, but he wasn't interested in the man's story.

Chris continued anyway. "He tried to kill me, and I was forced to put a bullet in his head." Argent said plainly, as though he had no emotional correction to the story. "The whole while that he lay there dying, he was still trying to claw his way toward me, still trying to kill me." He continued as Stiles and Honey recalled a full moon with Scott, how he was like another person, a more rabid person at that, one that scared them. "Like it was the most important thing he could do with his last breath. Can you imagine that?"

"No." Stiles shook his head again, lying through his teeth. He could remember it, he had lived it, Scott had once lunged for him, trying to kill him. He had barely managed to slip away. That was just another thing he wouldn't tell the man. Instead, he used sarcasm again. "And it sounds like you need to be a little more selective-"

Growing more frustrated, Argent slammed his hand against the medical cabinet. "Did Scott try to kill you on the full moon? Did you have to lock him up?" He asked, becoming closer to hitting the boy, or at least Honey was scared of that happening, so before Stiles said something else to get himself a black eye, the blonde girl shouted the answer across the room. Yes, she admitted, they had had to lock him up, they had handcuffed him to a radiator, she explained as the hunter turned back to Stiles with a smirk, he was getting somewhere.

"Why?" The boy asked. "Would you prefer we locked him in the basement and burned the whole house down around him?" Stiles snarled at the man, while Honey's face dropped, while it wasn't meant to hurt her, it had.

I hate to dispel a popular rumor, Argent told the boy, but his family never did that, he claimed, a point they knew to be incorrect. Honey spoke up once again, suggesting that the man might find they did. He looked at the girl with disbelief, no, he shook his head, they had a code, he told her, a cold that nobody ever broke, they lived by it. I know about the code, she told him, her mother had died because of that code, but not everyone lived by it, not always.

Who are we talking about here? Chris asked the girl. My mother, she said, and your sister. Kate. He didn't try to argue with it, instead, it looked as though some answers had fallen into place for him too, he had always suspected that his sister had something to do with the fire, more so since their return to Beacon Hills, he had never suspected that she wasn't alone in it. Without another word, he dropped Stiles, approaching the blonde girl who prepared for a threat of her own, only she didn't receive one, she received nothing more than a hand on her back, one that guided her out of the hospital room and straight outside to his SUV.

"How long have you suspected that your mother had something to do with the fire?" Chris asked as he stopped at the trunk of his car, the blonde prepared to be shoved in it.

"Only tonight." She told him truthfully. "How long have our families been killing innocent people for?" She followed it with, using the same hint of hatred she used when talking to her father just a few hours ago, when he seemed like the man she should be hating.

"They're not all innocent," Chris argued with her. "But your father will teach you that one day." He reassured her. "For now, I'm gonna teach you the basics." Chris insisted, opening his trunk to reveal a duffel bag full of weapons. Guns. Crossbows. Daggers. "There's an art to hunting, Honey. A necessity." He began his lecture, picking up a gun for her to try out. "It's in your blood."

"It's in my nightmares," Honey argued, turning her nose up at the weapon. "I'm not touching it."

On a drive across the entire town Honey had been told all about the hunter's code, how it was a necessary evil, how without following it, the things that had happened to Lydia would happen to more people. The blonde wasn't interested in what he had to say, she sat in silence, chewing on her fingernails as the two of them drove to the Hale house, where this had, arguably, began, and where it would end. She was sure her father would be there, either Chris would have told him or he would have figured out to go there himself, it didn't matter how or who had figured it out, but she knew this would be a fight between werewolves and hunters, one she would be stuck in the middle of, asked to choose a side.

Allison was supposed to be on her way to Washington with Kate, but after what the man learned about his sister, and what he knew about her already, he had a feeling neither of them would be on the road, or even intending to go to Washington. He assumed they would be here, and Kate's urge to kill the Hale family would be as everlasting as it always had been. Chris stopped the SUV at the bottom of the hill leading to the house, causing the two to rush up it in the hopes that the two of them had made a bold, incorrect assumption about what was going on tonight, only they weren't, their intuitions were right, and they entered in the middle of a fight.

Honey's feet stopped at the sight of the exchange, Kate pointed her gun toward Scott as he lay helpless on the floor, Allison and her father pointing their weapons towards an already injured Derek who's hand rested on his bleeding shoulder. She could see the divide, the hunters versus the werewolves. Those who wanted this lifestyle, and those who didn't.

"Put the gun down, Kate." Argent spoke, ordering his sister as he aimed his gun at her. "We know what you did." He told her, but the woman didn't have a look of remorse on her face, she felt no guilt for what had happened at this house, she defended her actions, she did what she was told to do. "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."

He spoke in French, the code that the hunters were supposed to follow. We hunt those who hunt us. Kate hadn't cared for those words when she was taught to be a hunter, and she didn't now, it meant nothing to her, she looked at the man with a smirk on her face, humored by the fact that he thought those words would change any of this. Angered, Chris shot his gun, a bullet flew past the woman's head, hitting a nearby tree, her warning. Kate hesitantly lowered her weapon, Scott was visibly relieved as his chest loosened, able to take breaths again without fearing that it may land a bullet in his head.

The werewolf's relief was short-lived as the door of the Hale house opened with a creak, filling a tension-filled woods as every hunter, human, and werewolf turned to look in its direction. Chris warned his daughter to get back, the groups slowly coming together as Allison and Jude walked towards Argent and Honey, leaving Kate alone to fend for herself as she raised her gun again, all six of them kept their eyes on the door, waiting for something or someone to emerge. Scott too retreated toward the others, his arms extended across Allison and Honey as the brunette dared to ask what it was. The Alpha, Scott answered in a low, hoarse mumble, he had already begun to raise his own defenses, prepared to transition right before the group of hunters. Allison reached for her crossbow, drawing it as she aimed toward the dark house.

Between the instincts of werewolves and hunters, none had been quick enough as the shadow rushed past them, knocking many off of their feet. He ran circles around them, turning them in each direction until nobody knew where he was, all of them fumbling as they tried to see him, trying to aim for him with their weapons. Low growls sounded with each body taken down, all but two, a father and daughter remained standing, inches from one another, looking around at the other four who had been taken down.

Another whoosh of winded sounded through the girl's ears before a sharp gasp that turned her to her father, Peter stood behind the man, his claws dug into Jude's neck. "Sorry, blondie." The Alpha grinned.

"No!" Honey screamed as Peter slashed his claws across the man's throat, killing him instantly, his body dropped to the floor as his daughter caught him, holding the man in her lap, applying pressure to his bloody neck, hoping that she could save him. The man with no pulse. And hardly a throat. "Dad. Dad, please." Honey sobbed into the man's chest.

Shots sounded around them as Kate rose to her feet again, trying to shoot at the Alpha but the werewolf's speed was too fast for even bullets, effortlessly he had managed to approach Kate, grabbing the arm that Kate held her gun with forcing her to shoot a few shots into the night sky. He bent the woman's arm back until the sound of bones cracking was louder than the sobs of the blonde girl crying over her father's dead body, the one that nobody dared to step near, too scared it would land them in the same position if they dared to move. The Alpha gripped her by the throat, throwing her through the air until she was at the foot of the house that she'd burned all those years ago, prepared to finish what she had started.

Allison scrambled to her feet, rushing toward the house that Peter dragged her aunt through, the blonde looked up, seeing the brunette rush past her. With the instinct to protect Allison, she left her father's body, following her into the derelict house, both teenage girls stopping in the arch of the living room where Peter and Kate stood. As he had moments ago with Jude, Peter pressed a set of claws to the woman's neck, poetic, for the two lovers to die in the same way, he proposed. For the first time in her life, Kate Argent looked scared, as though all of the damage she'd caused had finally caught up to her, her karma finally ready to pay up.

The brunette tried to plead for her aunt's life, but her pleas landed on deaf ears, Peter paid no attention to the brunette, his eyes remained on the blonde girl beside her, the one whose eyes were filled with more hate than ever toward the man. That hate looked familiar. "Isn't she just beautiful, Kate? She looks just like Emily." He complimented the blonde. "Your father has a type doesn't he, blondie?" Peter chortled, looking at the woman beneath his claws, the blonde hair, the dark eyes. Jude had found the carbon copy down to his wife, right down to the bitter heart inside. "She's probably not as damaged as the two of you." He shrugged, implying that he knew Emily as much as he knew Kate. "So I'm going to give you a chance to save her. To save both of them." He added, nodding toward the girl who still wore the Argent pendant around her neck. It was as though history was repeating itself. An Argent and a Carter stood before the Hale house.

Apologize, Peter insisted of the woman. Please, Allison begged her aunt, tears in her eyes as she wished this aunt she had always known to return, the one who would do anything for her if need be, the one she saw as more of a sister than an aunt. But the woman remained silent. "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." He insisted, adding more and more pressure onto the flesh of her neck.

"Kate, please," Honey begged the woman. She had already lost her mother and father because of their involvement with werewolves, she couldn't bear to see another person die, she couldn't bear the thought of Allison having to go through what she had gone through because she'd been too stubborn to admit the error of her ways.

Through her gasps for air, Kate mumbled the apology that Peter pleaded for. The Alpha took in a deep breath, relishing in the words, convincing the two teenage girls for a second that he had an inch of decency, a slight moral compass that now he had what he wanted, he would spare Kate's life, he had already taken one tonight. But no. That wasn't Peter Hale. His eyes landed on Honey and Allison again, the corner of his lips pulled into a smile, before either of them had a chance to react, his claws dragged across the woman's throat at a speed humans couldn't begin to fathom.

Her blood splattered across the room, staining the windows and the charred floor, just like all of the blood she had spilled when she chose to burn this place to the ground. Allison gasped as her hand covered her mouth, looking at the dead body that lay at their feet. Honey couldn't speak, it felt as though her heart was stuck in her throat, suffocating her as she tried to breathe, staring at the murderer in front of them who smiled back at her. He didn't know about them, but Kate just didn't sound sincere enough to him, he joked as the girls looked at him in awe. In awe of how a person could be so damaged that killing two people didn't affect him, leave him with even a hint of remorse, no matter how wrong the person he killed.

"People have to pay for what they did," Peter told them as he slowly stepped forward. "Kate had to pay. Your mother should have paid." He said in a snarl as he looked at the girl. "But your father sufficed." He spoke, watching the girl's eyes widen. "What? You thought your dad did this?" Peter asked as he gestured to the burnt house around him, Allison and Honey slowly moving away as they edged toward the front door. "No. No, this takes a mind that's sick, twisted. Emily was that. Worse than Kate even." He continued. "And all sweet little daddy did was try to protect you," He sighed with a grin. "Nice guys really do finish last."

Honey couldn't spit out an insult, she didn't have the ability to, she could hardly breathe. Maybe it was watching two people have their throats slashed right in front of her, or perhaps it was that thought that she had blamed her father for her mother's wrongdoing, that she had treated him so badly for something he had never done, that her last words to the man had been filled with a heart full of hatred. Ones she would never be able to take back.

A low growl came from behind the two girls, a fully transitioned Scott McCall stepped in front of them, warning them both to run as Derek too appeared from a dark corner of the house, the two had Peter surrounded, ready to finish off the battle. Now werewolf against werewolf. Neither of the girls hesitated to rush out of the door, Allison to the aid of her concussed father, and Honey to the body of her father, praying that in the short time she had been gone a miracle might have occurred, and he would be okay, alive, just so she could apologize to him, to tell him she wished she could take back all of the things she said. But he was still, gone forever. His dead eyes looked straight into hers as she cried, closing them for him. I'm sorry dad, she muttered weakly, pulling off Jackson's tux jacket, covering the man's body.

As the blonde stood up, prepared to approach the two Argents, Scott came crashing through the already broken windows of the Hale house, landing at her feet as a much larger wolf appeared, a beast in fact, Peter's much stronger form, like the one she had seen a handful of times now. One that never got easier to see. She stumbled back as Peter grabbed the boy by his shirt, raising him into the air, struggling to free himself, Scott kicked the Alpha in his chest, gathering every ounce of strength he had behind it, pushing the larger werewolf backward while he landed with a loud thud once again.

Before Peter could lunge for his beta once again, the horn of a familiar silver Porsche distracted him, allowing Honey to help pull the beta to his feet, turning to the two boys who'd saved him, both of which holding a beaker of liquid in their hands. A molotov cocktail. With the best throw he could give, Stiles launched the beaker, hoping to ignite him, only Peter's fast reflexes caught it, making him a seven-foot werewolf armed with fire. Honey's eyes landed on the gun laying at her dead father's side, her stomach turned as she thought about it, but she acted on an impulse as she grabbed it, within the blink of an eye she had shot a bullet toward the beaker in the wolf's hand, igniting the flame that consumed the werewolf's arm.

Her shaky hands lowered the gun as a second beaker was thrown at the flailing Alpha, engulfing him in a large dancing flame, illuminating the entire dark woods. Even in the midst of his death, Peter sought revenge on the family that had killed his, or at least one of them, he headed toward Allison and Argent, prepared to take them down in a fiery depth with him.

Scott intervened once more, another kick to the Alpha werewolf, sending him stumbling, trying to fight off the flames that consumed him, slowly burning out as he fell to the floor, leaving him sunken in the leaves, in the same state he had been all of six years ago. History did repeat itself, sometimes, it came with a twist, but it all came down to the same people, the same stories in a different light. Werewolves versus Hunters. A werewolf falling in love with a human. A forbidden love. Innocent lives taken in the midst of a battle.

As everything fell silent once more, Allison stood up, leaving her now conscious father, heading toward the werewolf who'd defended not only her tonight, but her father, even after what they had done. Scott turned away, as if it were second nature to turn away from the girl every time he felt himself in his other form, as though there was still a secret to hide. She gently cupped Scott's face, turning his head toward her as she planted a soft kiss on his lips, allowing that side of him to fade in the hands of his anchor.

Usually, it was a sight that would bring the girl joy, seeing the two of them together, making the best out of a bad situation, ignoring everything that should have been clear to them because it didn't matter when they were together. But she couldn't, not tonight. Not when she stood next to the body of her father. Not when she had found out the truth, somehow worse than the one she thought she knew. A hand rested on the girl's shoulder as she turned to see Stiles beside her, he didn't know what had happened besides Jude getting caught up in what had happened here, despite what he didn't know, he could see that the girl needed comfort as he pulled her into his chest, holding her tightly.

"Wait!" Scott's voice shouted as he turned to the other beta that had slowly approached Peter's decaying, burnt body. Derek stood over the man who gasped for his final breaths, unable to try and speak, but his eyes plead for his life to be spared. Scott approached the two Hales, making a plea of his own "You said the cure comes from the one who bit you," He said as he looked back at Argent, the hunter still able to form a look of grimace when he looked at the boy his daughter loved. "Derek, if you do this I'm dead. Her father, her family... What am I supposed to do?" Scott asked him.

They all waited for Derek to give in, to allow Scott at the chance of being relieved of the "gift" he never asked for, the one that would stop him from being with Allison. But that wasn't something the man believed in as he raised his claws, another scream for him to stop escaping Scott, but it was too late, Derek's claws came swooshing down as he slashed Peter's throat. The third throat slash of their night, the third death of the night. The Alpha was dead. And a new one was made. Derek was the Alpha now.