Being down here with Derek was pointless it seemed. Not long after I'd 'arrived' Kate came down for some mild threatening, then left and had yet to come back. Derek didn't tell her about Peter, Scott hadn't miraculously come to find me, and Peter was nowhere to be found. I felt like I was doing a whole lot of nothing just sitting in this chair. Derek and I didn't talk either, even though it seemed like the opportune moment to get some things out on the table, so the only noise in the tiny space was me attempting to rattle my handcuffs behind me musically.

"Handcuffs? There's gotta be a compliment in there somewhere Kate."

"You're giving me a headache."

"Well, that's too bad." I iterated every word with a rattle of the handcuffs. I was beyond bored. "I just want to get out of here. Kate hasn't come back for a long time. Now's our chance! Just break out of those cuffs and we can get outta here."

"It's not that easy Leah. I can't-"

A loud roar echoed into the night, and despite being underground, it reverberated in my ears and bounced off the dewy walls. It sounded like a call for guidance, for assistance. Only one person could be roaring like that; Scott. "Was that?" I didn't even need to finish before Derek nodded and got this determined look on his face. He roared back. It wasn't as loud at Scott's and it sounded pained and weak, but I hoped it would be enough to signal to Scott where we were. I didn't know how much longer I could sit here in this uncomfortable chair.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"No, but I have a feeling you're going to ask it anyway."

"You got that right." I sat back in the chair, a little deflated from what I was about to say. "I know that- that Kate was the one who set the fire. But, how did she know that they would all be there? And why are you still alive when-?" He didn't need me to finish. It felt like an intrusion of privacy, but I just had to know. It was a long time before Derek spoke, barely loud enough for me to hear him.

"I did." My gasp of shock must've been deafening in his ears. "She used me for information, make me think she cared, and then killed my entire family." I could feel the pressure behind my eyes of used tears. It broke my heart to see him so down and upset. It was obvious the guilt was eating at him at I couldn't imagine how he felt, feeling responsible for the death of his whole family. Peter was all he had left, despite how crazy he was, and it made so much more sense that Derek wouldn't give up Peter. He was his only family. His only ties to the people he lost.

"I'm so sorry." I couldn't think of anything else to say.

The door rumbled open and a big, surly man sauntered in carrying a baseball bat. "Ready to have some more fun?" His voice rumbled, and his warm hands fell upon my exposed shoulders. I shivered under his insistent touch. More fun? "I say we try with your girlfriend this time, huh? She's quite a looker Hale, how'd you manage that?" He flicked out a small pocketknife, not big enough to do any damage to Derek, but definitely to me.

Derek stays quiet and the man presses the blade to my upper cheek, right under my eye. He swishes downward and I can feel the steady trickle of blood running down my face. It isn't agonisingly painful, per se, but it definitely isn't a pleasant feeling. As much as I want to cry out in pain, I keep quiet, knowing that one sound of discomfort will place me in a much worse position than this.

"Pretty and tough! Looks like you've gone and hit the jackpot."

"Hey, that's my sister jerk." Scott's voice is contrastingly bubbly and sassy in comparison to the man's and the bat the man was using to lean on beside me gets pulled from under him. I don't see what's going on, but I hear a loud smack and then an even louder thump, like a body hitting the ground. Scott's hands wrap around the handcuffs and pull outwards, breaking them in two easily. He moved to my feet then, and broke those too, but stopped when Derek asked for help.

"No. Not until you tell me how to stop Peter."

"Scott! Get him out of those please! We don't know when Kate's going to be back and we need to be making tracks!"

"He's going to kill Allison's family." Scott turned around and attempted a placating gesture with his hands. We didn't have time for Allison to be front and centre right now. We needed to get out of here, and fast.

"So what?" Derek was beyond livid.

"So tell me how to stop him!"

"You can't!"

"Promise you'll help me."

"You want me to risk your life for your girlfriend? For your stupid little teenage crush that means absolutely nothing?" I could hear the underlying meaning of Derek's words. 6 years ago, when Kate set the fire, he would've been 16, a teenager. He fell in love with Kate and he thought she felt the same way. It brought more tears to my eyes. "You're not in love Scott! You're 16 years old, you're a child!" That had tears running down my face.

"You're right." Scott said under his breath. "But I know something you don't. Peter said that he didn't know what he was doing when he killed your sister, right?" Scott rummaged in his jacket for a piece of paper and held it out for Derek to see. It was a picture of a deer with a spiral cut into it's side. I remember Scott telling me about the symbol, that it meant revenge or something like that. "This is what brought your sister back to Beacon Hills right?"

"Where did you get that?" Derek seemed spooked.

"My boss told me that three months ago, someone came to the clinic asking for a copy of this picture. Do you know who it was? Peter's nurse!" The pieces to the puzzle were all starting to fit together. "They brought your sister here so that Peter could kill her and become the Alpha. That's why you're going to help me."

"Just- say you'll help me and I'll unlock your other-"

A loud clang rang in the room and Derek dropped from the bars, rubbing at his sore wrists. "I'll help you."

It didn't take a genius to know that Derek was hurt. Whatever Kate had done to him before she took me there, which looked to be something to do with an electrocution machine, had taken a massive toll on him and he couldn't barely stand. I know he hated it, but he leant on me for support every so often, stopping for breaks and panting heavily. The familiar trek to the house from the bottom of the hill was a steep one, and I questioned how much longer Derek would be able to hold on for.

"Something doesn't feel right." Derek panted, pushing off me and leaning against a nearby tree.

"What do you mean? Like it was to ea-"

"No, no, don't say to easy!" Scott interrupts rudely and holds up a finger to silence me. "People say to easy and bad things happen. Do you think finding you and Derek was easy? Getting away from Allison's dad, none of this has been easy!" The night was clearly taking a toll on all of us. My ankles hurt from the uncomfortable trek up the hill in my heels, Derek was almost passing out, and Scott was one step away from having a mental breakdown.

"Okay. You're right. Sorry Mr Grumpypants." Scott looked over at me like he'd had enough of me to last him a lifetime and I shot him a toothy smile in return. He loved me.

An arrow went sailing by so fast I couldn't comprehend it until I heard it hits its target: Derek's chest. He fell heavily on his side and it was like a slow motion movie when Scott and I turned around to see Allison and Kate. Allison was poised and on her knee with a mean-looking bow, already pulling out another arrow, and Kate leaned over her like an impressed tourist, and goaded her on. The next arrow flew right into Derek's leg and knocked it from under him, his body rolling in the leaves.

"Scott, your eyes!" He called out, and I ran over to him fumbling with the arrows already. The arrow hit a tree behind Scott and exploded into what seemed like a shower of light. We needed to quit this place. I counted to three out loud before breaking the arrow in Derek's leg, while he broke the one in his chest. I left him to get up himself, as I ran and grabbed Scott's collar dragging him up the hill with me despite his size.

I didn't know why Allison was with her aunt, or when she'd found out about Scott, but it didn't seem like she cared that it was Scott she was shooting at. Her eyes were on the prize, and the prize was Derek's head on a spike. I knew we didn't stand much of a chance, but I pulled as hard as I could and collapsed along with Scott at the base of the stairs to the verandah.

"Allison, I can explain." Already trying to get back into her good books.

"Stop lying. For once, stop lying."

"I was gonna tell you the truth at the formal. I was going to tell you everything. Everything that I said, everything I did was-"

"To protect me." Allison had tears in her eyes and shook her head, more to herself than to either of us. "I don't believe you. And Leah, you lied to me as well?"

"I didn't so much lie as omit the truth. There's a big difference-"

"Oh god. Can we please shut up already. And shoot him before I shoot myself." Kate groaned sounding bored more than anything else.

"I thought you said we were just going to catch them?" Allison looked genuinely confused. Perhaps she didn't know as much about her aunt and the type of things she did as well as I thought. She looked to Scott and then me, like she was having an internal battle with herself. This wasn't her, she knew. It was either follow in her aunt's footsteps, or defer from the family business.

"We did that. Now we're going to kill them." She shot Derek in the chest without a blinking of her eye and he fell down like a sack of potatoes. I squealed loudly and looked to his still body, willing him to still be alive. "Oh please, like he was ever gonna do you anyway. Now, to the main event." She stopped and examined Allison, noticing the terrified look on her face. She wasn't going to hurt Scott if Kate paid her a million dollars to do it. Kate must've understood the look on Allison's face as I did and put on a sympathetic face. "I know that look. That's the 'you're going to have to do it yourself look'. Oh well-" She shrugged her shoulders, pulling out the gun to point it at Scott and pushing Allison onto the floor. She scrambled to get up in the moist leaves, and Kate gave her an icy glare until she stopped.

It couldn't end like this. Suddenly I was in front of Kate, holding Scott protectively behind me and staring down the barrel of Kate's gun. If I could do this and save Scott, it would be worth it. I'd happily give my life to save Scott's. Being confronted with your death in real time does something strange to you, and before I can even stop it, tears are streaming down my face. Scott struggles behind me, and Kate chuckles menacingly.

"Please don't hurt him Kate." My chest is heaving with sobs and my lips tremble. I really don't want to die. "He's innocent; he didn't do anything. He's not anything like the Alpha, and you know it."

"You're stupider than I thought Leah."

"Kate! I know what you did." A familiar voice booms from the tree line and Chris steps out of the shadows. The look on Kate's face is something life confusion and disbelief, but she holds the gun out in our direction confidently. "Put the gun down."

"I did what I was told to do." I already know what she's talking about.

"No one asked you to murder innocent people." Chris looked disappointed, and disgusted. "There were children in that house. Ones that were human." Allison all of a sudden looked shocked, and stared up at the shell of the Hale house, realisation clouding her features. I guess she didn't know as much about her aunt as she thought. "Look at what you're doing now! You're holding a gun up to a 16 year-old boy, with no proof he's split human blood. And a human too, while you're at it. We go by the code: Nous chassons ceux qui nous chassent."

I didn't know what that meant because hello I don't speak French, but Allison muttered something under her breath and I figured she knew. Kate didn't seem to care either way, an exasperated look on her face, and she turned to be and pressed her finger lightly on the trigger. I was coming, and I closed my eyes so I wouldn't have to see. A gun went off and I was in blissful peace for a moment, before I realised it wasn't Kate's gun. There was a chip in a tree directly to the left of Kate and I knew that Chris had sent off a warning shot.

"Put the gun down, before I put you down." Chris didn't really seem to be fazed by the fact that he might have to kill his sister, and Kate sighed loudly, dropping the gun to her side. I would live to see another day. I didn't need another second to turn around and wrap my arms around Scott, thankful that we were both alive. He squeezed me until I couldn't breathe, but I didn't really care. Until the door of the house creaked open behind us and it was Scott's turn to stand protectively in front of me.

"Allison, get back." I heard Chris order behind me.

It was like a switch flipped and Kate turned to the door, holding up her gun ready to fire. Allison scrambled up from the floor and Scott pulled me up by my arm, pushing me toward Allison. "What is that?" I could hear the terror in her voice as she whimpered.

"It's the Alpha."

It all happened so fast. Everyone was poised and ready with weapons and I stood there like I frightened, incapable child. Peter darted in between us, knocking us off our feet and onto our backs. My back already hurt from sitting in the metal chair, but it slammed against the ground and pair rippled up my back like lightning. Allison yelled "No!" beside me and I flipped off my back quickly, pressing my hands into the dirt just in time to see Peter drag Kate into the house.

"Leah are you alright?" Scott pulled me up gently, looking at me with this look that encompassed worry, and sorrow, and love and fear. I knew he felt bad about what had happened in the school, and as much as it pained me to say, I knew that just because Allison brought him back from that dark place that it didn't mean that I wasn't important in his life anymore or that he cared about her more. I didn't even answer, just pulled him into a tight hug and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"You need to go in there and save your girlfriend." Scott pulled back and looked at me like he couldn't believe the words came out of my mouth, and kissed my cheek quickly before running up the stairs and into the house. I could hear roars in there, along with slamming and crashing, and it wasn't long before Scott's body was flung out of the front window that was somehow still intact. Peter quickly followed, grabbing Scott by the jacket and lifting him to snarl in his face. Seeing Peter in the dark at the school was one thing, but seeing him now was worse. His body was gargantuan and deformed, and thick black hair almost made him blend in with the night if it wasn't for his blood red eyes shining like beacons.

Scott used his dangling legs to kick Peter, and he stumbled and fell but shot up and was ready to attack almost instantly. He lifted his giant claw and was ready to slash Scott, but Stiles jumped out of Jackson's car - how and when did they get here? - and threw a beaker full of brown liquid at Peter. A molotov cocktail. I knew it would light up on impact, and apparently so did Peter, because he caught the beaker and growled in frustration.

"Allison!" Scott called, and in a flurry of limbs Allison was aiming her bow right at the beaker and releasing the arrow. It pierced the beaker with an audible crash, and then everything was ablaze. Peter flailed his flaming arm, roaring in pain, and Jackson threw another cocktail that put Peter in flames completely. The smell of burning flesh was putrid and stung my nose, the light of Peter's burning body illuminating the forest around us. I thought for sure he was going to keel over when he made a move for Allison - very wrong on his part - but Scott jumped into a flying kick that sent Peter sprawling into the trees. He fell to his knees, the severity of the burns apparent on his skin covered in blisters, boils and open wounds, and coughed one last time before falling to the ground.

It was over. Peter, the awful tyrannical villain that had gone around town killing people, was now dead himself and we could all breathe a little easier. I jumped to my feet, wanting to squeal and jump and celebrate with Scott, to only turn around and see him kissing Allison. It was heartwarming; even Chris didn't look as constipated as he usually did and Stiles just looked his awkward self. I smiled at the sight. Perhaps things would't be so bad. But then the air around us changed if that's even possible and I heard a shuffling in the leaves over near Peter's body. My heart sunk into my stomach. It couldn't be. Except it was only Derek, stalking slowly over to Peter's body and kneeling over him.

"Wait!" Scott scrambled from his place on the floor and ran to the tree line. "You said the cure comes from the one that bit you. Derek, if you do this I am dead. Her father, her family- What am I supposed to do?"

A cure? That was all new information to me. Derek seemed to take a moment to think about it before lifting his arm and slashing Peter's throat. I could hear the sound of blood spraying the ground and his gurgled last breaths. I didn't blame him. Peter had killed his last remaining family, caused everyone in the town to think he was a killer, tricked him and beat him up and forced him to follow him. I couldn't help but feel bad for Scott. He was stuck this way now, forever, and he'd just have to live with it.

Derek stood slowly and turned, his eyes blood red. "I'm the Alpha now."

With the moonlight shining down on us and the stench of burning flesh in the air, I came to a realisation. Peter might be dead, but it would be a long time before this was over.

"Dad, Leah is here to see you!" Allison smiled grabbing Scott's hand and traipsed upstairs. Chris came down the hall pretty quickly, a look of confusion on his face. Hell, I was confused too. I had no idea if my coming here was actually going to get me what I wanted, but I had to try. On Saturday night, I felt helpless. While everyone was fighting for themselves, I had to stand by on the sidelines to be taken care of like a child. I hated that feeling. Even Allison, who knew less about werewolves than I did, was kicking ass with the bow and arrow.

I had to do something.

"I know I'm probably not the first person you want to see right now and I can't say Kate passing put that much of a downer on my weekend but- Sorry. Mr Argent, I'm here about something concerning my brother." He seemed exasperated with he conversation already and I'd only just started talking. "He's probably not your number one person on the planet either- okay you really really hate him." I quickly changed my point of view when a scowl made its way onto his face. I got it; her being with my brother put her in danger. But not much more danger than she already would've been in considering her family heritage. "But this is it for him. There's no cure for him unless there's magical pixie dust or witches brew, unless-"

"Unless he dies." Chris finished for me with a grimace on his face. Removing Scott from the picture would certainly make things easier for him, but he knew that if something happened to Scott because of him that Allison would never forgive him.

"Yeah unless that happens. And one way I can stop that from happening is to make sure all of his attention is focused on werewolf duties or whatever and not on me or my mom, and one way I can do that is to be able to protect myself."

"I can't give you what you want Leah. Call me crazy but I doubt you'd be able to kill you're brother let alone one of his own kind."

"Not become a hunter just learn the basics? It could be a way to repay me since your sister did kidnap me and have one of her hunter guys almost torture me. Let's just say on a trial basis." Chris looked like his resolve was waning and i knew I had him. "Plus, if something ever happens I know that I can not only protect myself, but also Allison." That seemed to change his mind. It made me smile. Allison's dad was so ready to do anything to keep her safe, even train her werewolf boyfriend's sister how to protect herself.

"Are you going to do it? Will you teach me?" Chris nodded one single time and I was filled with happiness. "Oh wow there are no words to show you how thankful I am, I have to show you my gratitude somehow." I could finally learn how to take care of myself. I'd never felt so helpless in my life and I just wanted to be able to protect myself instead of hoping and expecting other people to do it for me. "Do you like chocolate cake? My mom makes a killer chocolate cake. If you're interested I'm sure she'd make one up if I asked- umph." It only took a second for Chris to pull some intricate karate move and have me pressed against the wall, my arm behind my back.

"Lesson one: never take your eye off your opponent."

And there we go! Season 1 finished. I think the first season was definitely the hardest for me to write, as you can see by the year it took me to upload a new chapter, but now it's over and we can move onto bigger and better things. Lots of juicy things entail for Leah in the next season when Derek starts cooking up new werewolves, a romance stirs, and a death rattles the peaceful balance of Beacon Hills. I hope you all stay with me on this wild journey we are about to embark on... Make sure to drop a review to let me know what you're thinking about the happenings of the season, and your predictions as to what's to come for our favourite characters in the next one! Much love wolfies xxxxxx

Oh, and copy this link into your browser, remove the brackets and press 'enter' to see Leah's awesome Winter Formal outfit: www(.polyvore.)com/cgi/set?id=210470737