METAMORPHOSIS • DEREK HALE [COMPLETED]

Chapter Thirty

BREAKING NEWS: Ashley finally updated wow

Her feet pounded heavily against the crumbling path. Blood rushed in her ears, yet she could still hear the sounds of fighting from every direction. Stuck in a twisting tunnel, Alex realized she was also caught in her own crossfire; she needed to warn the pack about Peter wanting to kill Scott yet her gut screamed to go outside, to see if Derek was truly there.

Recognizing Stiles' voice coming from a shorter distance than from where she stood, she sprinted in his direction. On the alert for Peter, Alex kept her hearing aware for him but relaxed only in slightest, knowing he was meters and a few separating walls away. It would take him time to return, especially in the state she left him in.

Her feet skidded to a halt at the moment she reached an opening and saw all of her friends standing still, frozen in thought of what to do, as Scott stood in the middle of them. Only he wasn't Scott entirely. It was the first time she saw him since he was taken, and to say she was shocked was an understatement.

A skull masked his face along with other various animal bones to clad his torso, yet his warm brown eyes still pierced through.

Stiles spotted her first in the midst of receiving a blow from Scott. Falling to the floor, Alex sprinted to meet him. Helping him up, she uttered through near hyperventilating breaths, "It's Peter. He planned all of this. God- I should have known."

"Alex, what's going on," Stiles looked up at her, dazed.

Turning her head to the side to listen, she heard Peter still stumbling, disoriented, throughout the twists of the temple. She just needed to make sure they had time before he came. "This," she motioned to them all in the room, a friend uncontrollably pitted against his friends, "this was his plan. He wanted us all here. He wants mine and Scott's power. He wants Scott dead, but we need to break Scott out of whatever Kate did to him. You, you and Liam, you both can bring him out of it."

"Okay," he nodded as he rose to his feet, eyes and voice shaky. "Wait, Alex where's Derek?"

"H-he's outside," her voice began to break. "He- I saw him-, but now I just heard something outside, and I don't know what to do Stiles. I can't leave him, but I can't leave you guys either."

"Go, Alex," Stiles nodded. "He needs you out there, and we'll get Scott. We're all going home together. No one's left behind."

His words relieving her, she nodded and gripped his shoulder, "Thanks Stiles, I'll see you out there."

She sent a thought of good luck to everyone in there before her feet began to pound on the dirt floor once more. Even though dust stung her eyes and darkness clouded her vision, she found her way through the tunnels by scent. The trail of fear and anger left a pretty powerful mark within the stale air. Alex ran, fast, and she broke through the surface, finding herself in the midst of an awestruck crowd.

All gunfire had ceased, the descending moon being the only source of light. But Alex didn't need that to see a wolf, black as night and eyes blue as steel, standing in the middle of the clearing with Kate, in her transformation, fallen in front of him.

She knew those eyes like the back of her hand, and within seconds, she covered her mouth to stifle the gasp of relief.

Kate withered and moaned and pain on the ground, blood running from the recent bite marks, inflicted by Derek. Everyone stood in awe, the Calaveras looked onward from behind the protection of their van doors as Alex stood, feeling as weightless as ever. Derek's 'death' mere hours ago had piled on the weight of the world on her shoulders but seeing him alive melted it all away. She watched him rise from the wolf into the man she cared for.