Strong with a K

And Giving Up

Mina made it out alive. She would survive. She would live.

And her survival only made me question who had done this to her.

It hadn't been an accident, a faulty gas line or electrical outlet. I'd smelled the gasoline; I'd known, before the authorities broke the news, that this was murder, that this was purposeful, I'd known.

Somebody had set my house on fire with an intent to kill, me or my family. And they were going to pay.

I had no idea how to start an investigation, didn't know who could possibly have a motive strong enough for murder. I didn't have to waste much time in guessing though; the culprit came to me.

She came in the form of a 17 year old, psychotic, jealous girl with dirty blonde hair and a million tricks up her sleeve. And apparently, she hated me enough to kill for without any concern of collateral damage.

Kate Argent could not hold back her boasting. She wanted me to know she did it. She wanted me to know she was responsible, to feel the weight of it, to know what she was capable of.

She wanted me to feel the pain of losing someone I loved and knowing it was by her hand.

Naturally, I couldn't contain my anger. Naturally, I immediately wanted revenge. That just wasn't a line she was supposed to cross, not ever, and especially not over some high school drama.

"Didn't I tell you I'd come for you? Well, that day came and now it's gone. Do you really want to go toe-to-toe with me again?" She risked coming close to me, whispering, "You'd lose."

I snarled at her cockiness, struggling to keep it together but epically failing.

We were in front of our school. There were witnesses. There were bystanders. Yet most everything in me could care less about who saw and who suffered as long as Kate was in the latter category. "I'll kill you. I will rip you to shreds."

"Sure you will, sweetie. In front of all your friends?"

"You think I care? Do you really believe I care who sees me? You killed my mom. You almost killed Mina, and you're going to pay for it." My feet were moving of their own accord toward her, slowly, stalkingly, murderously. My hands hid the claws already extracted from my nails. They dug into my palms painfully, drawing blood, but I only wanted Kate's.

"Go ahead and get your revenge. You'll either be shot down like a rabid dog or be hauled off to jail. Take your pick."

Her argument made me stall for a split second but then she opened her mouth again.

"Win-win either way for me. I got what I wanted. If you're gone that leaves me with Derek and the rest of your family, to do whatever I like with them, and you'll be powerless to stop me just like you were this time. By the way, when you get there, tell mommy I said hi."

She smirked, and I lost it.

The roar that left my mouth sounded throughout the parking lot, and I was racing towards her smug face, her evil intact face, itching to render it unrecognizable.

But in the next second, I was surrounded by forest, wrapped in Laura Hale's arms, crying my eyes out, hands covered in my own blood.

"Laura! Let me go Laura! She killed her! She killed her!"

"I know. I figured. But you can't do the same thing. You're not a monster. You can't stoop down to her level."

"She needs to pay," I growled out trying to release myself but she wasn't budging. "Someone has to pay."

"Whoa! Whoa! What's going on here?" Derek stood in front of me now, cupping my face and wiping away the tears.

Half of me wanted him to stay, and the other half screamed that he was sleeping with the enemy.

"She—she—" I breathed out. My heart was pounding in my ears. I could barely think, let alone breathe. I didn't know what I was doing. I was lost in this sea of hopelessness, of grief, of revenge. I didn't know which way was up or down, left or right, yet killing Kate seemed like something I should definitely do. Out of all the solutions, out of all the cures, that seemed like the best option, the one thing that would work.

I wanted to crush her. I wanted to make her feel everything my mom felt in her death and then some. I wanted to place on her every single emotion going through my being right now and more. My eyes flashed gold. My claws stretched and sharpened, and Derek placed his forehead against mine.

Despite everything in me, my breathing calmed. My heartbeat fell. My claws retracted. Derek was bringing me back. He was anchoring me to him, to Earth, to sanity.

I calmed and he whispered. "What happened?"

"She did it." My voice was a low hum but I knew he could hear me. "Kate did it."

His hands dropped from my face as I slid to the ground still engulfed in his sister's arms. My tears fell for my mom. For my sister who almost didn't make it. For the severed relationship between me and Ella, me and Alan. With that one death, Kate had stripped my entire family from me.

She had destroyed me.

"No no no." Derek's voice seemed far away, lost as I drowned in tears. "She couldn't have."

"Of course I didn't." Her voice spoke up from a few feet away, and a growl escaped my throat before I could stop it. "Listen to her. I would never do such a horrible thing."

I jumped up from the ground sprinting towards her, but Derek beat me to it.

He was stood in front of her, arms out, feet wide, eyes shining blue, protecting her, defending her. And she stood behind him with her ever present smirk.

The look on his face was my undoing: the indecision, the doubt, the hurt. He was confused. He didn't know what to believe but he also, without hesitation, chose her.

I was his best friend. I was the person that was there for him always. Yet Kate was the one he believed, the one he stood behind and in front of.

"You believe her." Not a question. A sad statement. An admittance of defeat. Giving Kate everything. Every single thing.

"We don't know for a fact that she did it, Kammy. I don't want you to do something you'll regret."

"I know Derek. I know she did it. And that should have been enough."

His eyes fell but his position held and all the anger inside of me shrunk down; sadness took its place. Sadness and grief and blame and defeat.

I stepped around Derek and said to the devil herself, "You win."

And then I ran, off into the woods, leaving behind all the people I called my family, leaving behind emotions, leaving behind Beacon Hills, leaving behind Kamina Allain, and handing the reins over to the wolf.