Disclaimer: So... How exactly do I put this? Oh right, I own absolutely nothing that you people recognize from something that actually made someone money.

Large tables full of fire power just shouldn't have been as familiar to Kyla as they were at this point. Seventeen year old girls should be standing around desks full of homework and cosmetic products. Of course, she wasn't going to be seventeen for very much longer... She pulled her mind away from those thoughts and checked the sight on a rifle. Her regular arrows weren't enough against a berserker and she only had so many explosive arrows.

"Is still don't like having to rely on these things," Derek muttered bracing his hands against the table. Kyla bit her lower lip but said nothing. Whatever was going on with Derek's abilities could not have picked a worse time to kick back in. Not when they needed every possible advantage to take down Kate and save Scott and Kira.

Braeden loaded a clip of ammunition. The mercenary had helped Kyla give Derek a crash course on firearms. Archery was more Kyla's forte than sharp shooting so most of the teaching had been down to Braeden. "Hey I get it alright," she said. "You miss your power. I would to."

Derek frowned and shook his head. "It's not about power," he explained. His voice was slightly strained and Kyla could tell that he was trying not to sound frustrated. "It's about being able to help. I don't like feeling helpless."

"I'm human," Kyla cut in. "Well, a bit anyway. Braeden is to. Do either of us look helpless?"

His eyes scanned her up and down before they flicked to the large machine gun Braeden was holding. "You're both much better shots than me," he said finally. A tiny smile emerging as his eyes found hers again.

Kyla let out a deep breath. "Braeden do you mind giving us a minute?" she asked, not looking away. She waited until she heard the door slam behind the mercenary before she let her shoulders relax. She placed the gun on the table and leaned across it towards Derek, studying him. The edge of the table pressed against her hips and the metal felt cold below her fingers. "Do you really think you won't be coming back?"

Derek gave a tiny half shrug, looking down and avoiding her gaze. The gesture seemed exhausted, as though he had been carrying something heavy for a long time. They were all exhausted. "Not alive," he said finally.

Kyla pushed herself back from the table and walked around it until she was standing in front of him. "That's not okay with me and you know it," she stated. She stretched out her hand and pressed her palm against his chest, feeling his heart beet below her fingers. "You feel alive to me," she said quietly, tipping her head back a bit to look at him. "I'm not okay with that changing."

He didn't speak, turning his body fully towards her and closing the tiny distance between them. His large, warm hand came up to cradle her face, his fingers tangling just slightly in the loose strands of her hair. Derek leaned down pressing his mouth against hers. It was a different kind of kiss. The perfect kind. The kind that was so sweet and gentle and sad that you could almost feel your heart breaking a little.

"I am," he murmured after pulling away. His forehead was leaning down against hers. Kyla stared up at him, but his eyes were still closed. She couldn't speak. The words just wouldn't form. "You have to save Scott and Kira," he said quietly and then took a tiny step back. Kyla's hands tightened reflexively on his waist but she forced her fingers to release. "Let's be honest we don't even know if this is enough firepower to take down one berserker."

"Not. Even. Close," came a familiar drawling voice. Looking up, Kyla saw Peter making his way down the stairs and devoted a good few moments of mental capacity to roundly cursing him out inside her head. "Killing a berserker is next to impossible," Peter continued, choosing to ignore her slightly murderous expression. "It's not just about the fire power, it's about breaking the animal spirit from the human."

Kyla sighed. "Yeah well, I've told everyone everything I know about that. It's not even anything concrete. Just the old Myths and those are subject to change over time."

"And the only other person we know with that kind of experience is Argent," Derek contributed. "And he's not getting back to me."

Peter gave a contented shrug. "Well then we're going to need help," he stated lightly. "The mercenary waiting outside, Malia, maybe Liam, definitely me." The small smirk on his face made Kyla think of all of the stories she had ever heard about making deals with the devil.

When they pulled in to the warehouse space they had all decided to meet in, the others had already arrived. Braeden was standing a few feet in front of a federal prison transport van with Stiles, Malia, and Liam. "We're really bringing him?" Derek asked, jerking his head at Liam as they walked up to the others.

"We're really bringing him?" Stiles threw back at him, gesturing to Peter.

Kyla was partially inclined to agree with him, but during a battle se recognized the necessity of taking all possible allies. Even when those allies were potential enemies. "We're taking everybody," Peter informed him superiorly. "And considering Kate took Scott and Kira the night before a full moon, we should probably get going."

"What's that mean?" Malia demanded.

"If Kate took Scott back to the same temple that she took Derek, how do we know that she's not planning on doing the same thing?" he asked rhetorically, raising an admittedly valid point.

Liam frowned, looking a bit confused. The new Beta looked even younger than he had the last time Kyla had seen him, with his hair a mess, his face pale, and wearing an oversized grey and red sweatshirt. "She wants to make him younger?"

"Or take him back to when he wasn't a werewolf," Derek realized. Kyla twisted her fingers with his and gave a brief squeeze. Trying to convey a promise that they would figure things out.

Peter continued on with his hypothetical scenario. "A human can't steel the power of a true Alpha but maybe, a Nahual jaguar with the power of Tezcatlipoca behind her can." He let that hang for a moment before continuing cheerily. "So, if everyone is sufficiently freaked out, I say we get going."

"We can't," Stiles said determinedly. "Not without Lydia."

A tense half hour later, Stiles was leaving his fifth voice mail, and Braeden and Peter were both pacing. Liam was shifting his weight from foot to foot, and Kyla was channeling an unusually high level of self-restraint to keep herself from humming. "What is she doing at the school anyway?" Derek asked, barely hiding the impatience in his voice.

Malia held out Kira's katana. "We got Kira's sword but we need something with a stronger scent. Lydia wants to get a jacket out of her locker."

"Nothing," Stiles told them as he rejoined the group.

"If she has a car she can always catch up with us," Kyla suggested. "She knows where we're going and her car has a better GPS than any of ours anyway."

Peter pointed at her. "That's a good point. We should hit the road."

"No," Stiles protested worriedly. "What if something happened? What if something's wrong?"

Kyla sighed. Stiles's devotion to his friends and his desire to stay in one group was plenty admirable, but at that point everything was wrong. "Fine!" Peter huffed. "You stay here. You find her. We're going to go on without you." With that he stormed off to Derek's car.

"I could call Mason," Liam suggested uncertainly, looking between the rest of them. "He has a study group at school. Maybe he could look for her."

It sounded like as good a plan as any to her and from the way Derek had raised his eyebrows at Stiles he thought so to. Stiles sighed unhappily. "Alright fine."

Before Kyla could pile in to the transport van with Braeden, Derek, Liam, and Stiles, Peter stopped them. "Remember what we're dealing with here," he advised. The man shrugged a jacket on over his shoulders. "It's not jus Kate, it's berserkers. Their might be human eyes behind those skulls but do not assume that their is any humanity left."

Kyla didn't meet his pale blue eyes. She knew all about things that looked human but weren't. She was one of them.

Peter's icy eyes landed on Liam. "Aw... This little one is terrified of them aren't you?" Stiles glanced at Liam and Kyla felt a bit bad for the youngest member of their little group. He hadn't had time to learn yet that fear didn't have to be a disadvantage. Fear could be like a super power. Peter almost seemed to read her mind. "Don't worry my friend it is that fear that will keep you alive." He looked back at the larger group. "Reminder to everyone: you do not fight berserkers to stay alive. You fight to kill."

Braeden drove as Kyla, Derek, and Stiles worked on getting Liam secured. "All good?" Derek asked. Liam jerked his wrist, checking the strength of the cuffs. He looked back up at Derek and nodded. "I brought something else to help you," Derek drew the round triskele medallion from his jacket pocket and held it in his hands so that Liam could see it. "This has been with my family for centuries," he said.

Kyla was pretty sure that that was actually the medallion Peter claimed had been made in China, but just then didn't seem quite like the right time to bring it up. "It's a very powerful supernatural talisman," Derek continued. "We use it to teach new Betas control during the full moon." He held the medallion out to Liam who took it uncertainly.

Derek looked at Stiles expectantly. Stiles just raised his eyebrows questioningly. Derek jerked his head at Liam and a look of realization emerged on Stiles's face. Kyla found herself trying not to laugh. "Yes," Stiles said slowly. "It's powerful," he coughed awkwardly. "Very... powerful."

Kyla offered him a small smile. "I'm right here too Liam," she reminded him. "The full moon is when you've got the least control but it's when I have the most power. See my eyes?" Liam focused on her almost pure silver irises and nodded. "That means I'm on full power right now," she explained. "If you get out of control there's a pretty good chance I can just order you to stop."

Liam nodded and shut his eyes, taking deep, slow breaths. Kyla leaned back, her side pressed against Derek's. She could feel him breathing in and out, in and out. She sighed. This was going to be a long drive.

As the moon rose, Kyla felt her strength rising. The power ghosted through her system in warm waves that began as a tingling sensation in her fingers and then spread through her body. She frowned, that was a much larger power boost than normal. Somehow, Derek seemed to be able to sense something was different. he was splitting his gaze between her and Liam. The young Beta was getting further out of control with every passing second.

"What every you were going to teach me," he gritted out around a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. His claws had grown out around the triskele medallion still clutched in his hand. He looked up, eyes glowing a bright, feral yellow. "I think you'd better start."

Derek leaned forward. "Okay Liam, you with me?" Liam gave a shaky nod. "Repeat it, you focus on the words. It's like meditating. You say the words until you feel control coming back to you."

"Okay," Liam panted out. His body jerked and he doubled over, trying to contain the shift. "Okay what are the words!?"

"Look at the triskeilion," Derek prompted. He was speaking quickly and urgently with an air of concentrated calm. "You see the symbol? I have a tattoo on my back of exactly the same thing. Each spiral means something."

Stiles stared. "Alpha, Beta, Omega," he realized.

Derek didn't bother giving him a verbal response but kept his focus on Liam. "It represents how we can all rise to on and fall back to another. Betas can become Alphas."

"Alphas can become Betas," Kyla added.

Liam took a deep shaking breath. "Can Alpha's become Omegas?"

Derek nodded. "All you have to do is say the three words, and with each one you tell yourself your getting calmer. More in control," he paused a moment to let Liam take another breath. "Go ahead," he prompted.

"Alpha Beta-" he started

"Slower," Derek enunciated to him slowly.

Kyla allowed a bit of power to slip in to her tone. "Breath Liam."

He obeyed the command without really processing it and began again. "Alpha, Beta, Omega. Alpha, Beta, Omega."

"Good," Derek told him. "Now say it again. Remember that every time you say the words you're getting calmer."

Liam fought back a snarl. His body was shaking so much that the van had begun to wobble. "Alpha, Beta, Omega." An inhuman note had tangled in his voice, making it deeper and more primal.

"Oh god," Stiles mumbled, drawing his feet up on to his seat ad retreating to the farthest corner he could get to. "Derek I don't think that powerful talisman of self control is working."

As if his words were prophetic, the last of Liam's control snapped. His eyes shone a feral glow stick yellow and his jaw distorted as his canines erupted fully. He jerked forward and the entire van tipped with him. Kyla banged painfully in to the back wall of the van and barely caught herself before she was hurled to the floor as the vehicle skidded. The handcuffs snapped as Liam hurled himself at Derek who threw up his hands just in time to try to push Liam back.

"Guys!" Braeden called worriedly.

Stiles scrambled over to the thin layer of mesh that separated them from the driver. "I think we're going to need to go a little faster!"

"Liam calm down."Kyla said, speaking with all of the power she could put in to those words. It didn't matter much though. Liam's additional anger issues were giving him further fuel. The part in werewolves that normally left them conscious enough to respond to her commands was too blocked.

"Keep going!" Derek shouted, just barely managing to hold Liam off.

The car accelerated to it's absolute limits and Kyla helped Derek shove Liam back in to his seat. "We're almost there!" Braeden shouted.

As Liam continued to jerk and shift Stiles shouted. "I really don't think the mantra Alpha, Beta, Omega, is resonating with him!" His voice was high and panicky.

"Do you any other mantras!" Derek demanded.

Suddenly Kyla realized something. "We do," she said quietly. She shifted in to Liam's direct line of sight and made sure his eyes were tracking her as she crouched to the floor. "Liam! What three things can not long remain hidden?!"

Stiles immediately saw what she was doing. "Answer her Liam!" he ordered. 'What three things can not long remain hidden?"

"Liam look at me!" Kyla shouted as his claws got closer and closer to Derek's face. "What three things!" Stiles was shouting much the same thing. Both of them were just trying to better their odds of not getting torn apart.

"The sun, moon, the truth," Liam managed. His voice was straining, caught halfway between his human voice and a wolfs growl.

Stiles looked like he wanted to cry with relief. 'That's right, that's it. Say it again. Look at what Kyla's doing."

Kyla used her stele against the floor to carve the runes for the sun, the moon, and the truth as Liam said the words again. His claws slowly began to retract and Derek managed a deep breath. Kyla looked at him questioningly as Braeden called back, "Guys?"

"We're good," Derek said exhaustedly. He gripped Kyla's free hand tightly. "We're all okay."

For now. Kyla thought privately. She leaned her head against Derek's shoulder, letting him pull her back on to the bench seat beside him. Liam kept reciting the mantra. His teeth and claws slowly shrunk back to their human form. "Well now we know why so many people from your family and pack are border line insane," she mumbled in to his shoulder. "Uncountable generations of practical werewolf royalty and you've been using the wrong damn mantra."

Derek actually managed dark chuckle as they pulled up outside La Iglesia. "I can't believe I did it," Liam said incredulously. He looked at them. "You know for a minute their I actually thought I was going to tear the three of you apart."

"Yeah well that would've made for an awkward ride home so thanks," Stiles said sarcastically.

Derek simply put the comment to the side and kept his focus on Liam. "Do you think you can maintain the same level of control inside La Iglesia?" The Spanish syllables rolled off his tongue beautifully, as though he was reciting poetry. Kyla remembered how his teenaged self had spoken with Agent McCall. She would have to ask him when he had learned someday. A cold feeling rolled down her spine. If Derek was right, they might not get someday.

Liam threw out his hand experimentally. Wickedly sharp claws sprung from his fingertips on command and he smiled proudly.

"Alright," Kyla said. "With you and Malia both in control we might actually be able to do this."

Stiles nodded and looked to Derek. Derek got up and went to open the doors of the van. Seconds after he had opened the door he was thrown out of it by a hulking berserker. It smashed Derek repeatedly in to a boulder and slashed at him with a brutally sharp sort of blade. In a second Kyla's bow was in her hand and she fired explosive arrow at the thing at top speed. Braeden joined her with a gun and the berserker ran off.

Kyla was next to him in an instant. She dropped to the ground next to him, and tried to examine the wound in his abdomen with shaking fingers. Blood was pouring from it and his breathing shook. Kyla pushed her hand against the gash. She dimly recognized that everyone was standing frozen. All she could really see was the blood leaking out around her fingers.

"How bad is it?" Peter asked. It was strange, but in that moment Kyla could tell that as sociopathic as Peter was at times, one of the few things remaining that he actually cared about was Derek.

She was about to speak but Derek cut her off. "I'm fine, I' fine," he said, lying desperately. His eyes were tightly shut and a tiny bit of blood was leaking from the corner of his mouth. Kyla shook her head but couldn't speak. A knot had formed in her throat and no sound would come out. "Just get to Scott," he ordered. "Just find him. No one moved a muscle as Derek struggled to breath. He locked eyes with Kyla. "We'll be right behind you," he said, still addressing the others. "Just go." Still no one moved. "Go!"

Peter looked like something was tearing at him, but he ran off. Moments later, Kyla heard the footsteps of the others following him. "Hey- hey," Derek said again, his voice loosing force. Kyla whipped around to see that Stiles still hadn't moved. Derek pulled in a painful breath. "Save him." It was an order and a request. Stiles nodded and turned. But he did hesitate to look back. That single moment of hesitation broke Kyla's heart more than anything else. Out of everyone there including her, Stiles and Derek had known each other the longest.

"Lydia-" Derek chocked out. "Lydia was right."

"Shut up," Kyla ordered as a knee jerk reaction to the comment. "No wait, don't shut up. Keep talking to me. Derek!" she shouted at him as his eyes fell shut. "Talk to me! But not about death because I swear to the gods if you die I will climb down in to the underworld and drag you back out of there my self!"

Against all the odds, in the total chaos of the situation Derek almost seemed to choke on a laugh. "I'm not kidding," Kyla said seriously. "I will fucking do it Derek."

He coughed around another pained chuckle and it sounded like a knife being scraped over a rock. "I-" his speech was broken. "I know you- will."Power from the moon thrummed through her veins and Kyla concentrated all of her might on pushing it out of her and in to Derek. "Don't," he said gripping her wrist. "Don't waste it on me. Find- find Scott and Kira."

"I'm not letting you die!" she hissed, but the healing wasn't working. The blood seeping around her fingers was starting to turn black as his system rejected the magic.

Braeden ran up behind them and took a hand gun from the holster on her hip. "Can he still pull a trigger?" she asked bending down on Derek's other side.

The question was directed to Kyla but Derek answered it. "Yeah," he nodded weekly and let his head lean back against an ancient wall. His eyes were drifting closed and Braeden handed the gun to Kyla. Kyla in turn pressed the weapon in to his fingers, curling them so that they could reach the trigger. His normally warm hands felt horribly cold.

"Jut stay with me okay?" Kyla begged, pressing his empty hand across the wound in his stomach trying desperately to keep the blood that meant he was alive inside his body. "You're going to be fine." She was lying. There was no way in heaven or hell she could guarantee that all of this was going to be fine.

Derek knew it to. Another one of those infuriatingly week little laughs fought it's way out of his throat. It was ironic that Kyla had heard him laugh the most on a night that might end with her never hearing him laugh again. "It's a mortal wound," he pointed out, fighting for air. "And uh, right now I'm feeling pretty mortal."

"I told you already!" Kyla exclaimed. "I'm not going to let you die!" A screeching noise echoed through the old ruins and Braeden stood, scanning their surroundings carefully.

"You both might just have to focus on saving yourselves," Derek breathed out, his voice going weaker and weaker with every word. He swallowed hard. "Come here," he told Kyla. She leaned down and he pressed a kiss against her forehead. HIs lips were cracked and dry. "Go," he said. "Survive."

It felt like her heart was being ripped in half. Kyla got up slowly, and ran with silent steps up a flight of stairs so that she could get a better vantage point. Tears dripped silently down her face and splashed on the ground. They almost seem to gleam like silver in the moonlight and she didn't bother to brush them away.

Then came the first berserker. Without hesitation Kyla aimed and fired. Arrow after arrow made contact with the hulking form, exploding against the armor. The berserker barely even slowed down until she was pinned to the wall. She heard Braeden's gun shots stop and hoped that the mercenary wasn't dead yet. Anyone not trying to kill her was a friend at that point.

"Poor little Kyla," the steely voice of Kate Argent said from a point near the ground a few feet away said. Kyla struggled to make eye contact with her but the task was made trickier by the berserker's hand strangling her. "Just a poor seventeen year old mixed up with the big bad wolf. You even have the gorgeous red hair." Kyla struggled but it was no good. One of the first things a typical self defense teacher taught a student was to run away if the person they were up against was clarly someone that they couldn't beet. Kyla had clearly missed that class.

Kate was still considering her. "And such gorgeous eyes," she continued. "They really are pure silver now aren't they? Now that's something special."

Kyla grinned coldly. "All the better to see you with," she said in a sickly sweet voice. A burst of energy blasted out from her and Kate and the berserker flew back as she dropped to the ground. The darkness was split by the shine of high powered headlights. The vans unloaded t reveal Argent, Parish, and a whole clan of Spanish speaking, heavily armed hunters. The Calaveras had joined the party.

And Derek hadn't left it yet. Kyla could feel it. The thread of energy that signified his life was pulsing determinedly on. Somewhere around there, Derek's heart was still beating.

She dashed threw the commotion of gun fire. She saw Argent and Parish shooting and hunters falling, but she bypassed all of it and headed straight for Derek. He was still there, still lying right where she had left him. Still breathing. "Derek," she said quietly.

His clouded eyes tiredly focused on hers. A small, genuine smile split his face "Mi nina de la luna," he said on a breath. And then his eyes fell shut.

Kyla gasped and tried desperately to breath. It was felt like she had been hit by a semi-truck. She brought her hands up, cupping his face and took a moment in all of the chaos to lean her forehead against his. Her tears splattered off her cheeks and onto his, leaving silver trails across his skin.

Then all of the gun fire began again along with a cacophony of snarling. She lifted her bow, firing arrow after arrow in Kate's direction. The silver points buried themselves in the were-jaguars skin as tears poured down Kyla's cheeks. Her chest felt like it was being constricted and her lungs felt like they had been filled with lava. Jason had tried to describe seeing Hera in her true form once and had said it was like burning from the inside out. Kyla wondered if this was what he had meant.

It was hard to say how long the fighting lasted. Everything was a wash of explosions and gunshots and not being able to breath. "You're next Ariyah!" Kate called as Ariyah Calavera stepped forward.

"Come La Loba," she said in a voice of icy determination. "Let me show you how the Calaveras die!"

Then the night was rent with a beautiful, eerie, musical howl. The cry of a wolf. Kyla glanced around frantically, trying to place what was wrong about the scene in front of her. Apart from pretty much absolutely everything. Then it hit her. Derek's body was gone. Suddenly Kyla could feel the air pouring through her lungs in clean sharp gusts.

A lean, pure black wolf with broad shoulders leaped gracefully over a cluster of rocks. It paused next to Ariyah and the toothy snarl shrank from Kate's face as the wolf's eyes flashed a pure electric blue. Then it launched it's self forward, tackling Kate to the ground snapping and tearing at any flesh it could reach. Then it leapt away and Kate rolled across the ground with a pained grown.

The wolf snarled, showing sparkling and deadly canine teeth. Then the wolf began to change. Growing taller and more human each second until Derek stood. Naked and broad shouldered and very very alive. A smile so wide Kyla thought her cheeks might split formed on Kyla's face. The hunters dropped their weapons, simply watching the scene unfold as Derek advanced on Kate.

"You were," Kate panted out in an awed, disbelieving voice. "You were dead."

Derek shook his head. "No," a triumphant expression on his face. "I was evolving. Something you'll never do." His head snapped up as a berserker came forward. He blocked the creature's first strike easily. Then moving almost so fast Kyla's eyes couldn't process it he managed to get inside the berserkers guard. Derek gripped the berserkers skull and pulled, yanking the creature apart with his bare hands. And the berserker exploded, leaving nothing but armor to show that it had ever existed.

A single extra gun shot echoed through the night and Kate flew trough the air before crumpling back to the earth. Kyla searched for the source of the bullet and found Chris Argent, still holding the gun he had just used against his sister. "Chris?" Kate breathed. Then she ran.

Chris moved to follow her but Derek ran straight to Derek, throwing her arms around his neck. "Oh my gods," she breathed. One of her hands moved quickly down his chest and pressed down against his heartbeat. His skin was smooth and warm as his heart thundered below her finger tips. "You're alive."

He nodded, leaning down and pressing his head against hers. "I'm alive."

Kyla opened and closed her mouth trying to think of what to say next but nothing came. Then his mouth was on hers, and it didn't matter anymore. The feeling of his lips and tongue moving with hers erased all other thought, and when they did eventually break apart Kyla's mind was blissfully blank.

She took a tiny half step backwards. "As cool as the wolf thing is," she said with a smile. "We're going to need to find you some clothes unless you plan on doing it again." Derek grinned and took a step back himself. In the next moment, the black wolf was back.

The wolf that was Derek trotted forward and stood directly beside her. He was so large and Kyla was so small that his head could nudge against her hip with the smallest stretch of his neck. Slowly, Kyla ran her fingers through the ebony fur at the back of his neck. As the silky strands slid across her fingers a low, almost purring sound rumbled through Derek's wolf body. "We're still going to need to find you some clothes," she told him.

By the time the sun rose the next morning, everyone was generally exhausted. If people weren't dead they were injured and if they were neither they were at the very least spattered with blood. Scott was back to being an Alpha werewolf and Peter was out cold.

"There's enough yellow wolfsbane to keep Peter out for the trip back," Argent told them all.

"You're really going with them?" Scott asked. His fingers were tightly woven with Kira's and the Kitsune was still covered in her own dry blood. Not everyone had been able to pack spare clothes as Derek had. Good thing he had to, otherwise the options for a drive home would have been a naked guy or a giant wolf.

Argent nodded. "I made a deal with the Calaveras weeks ago," he explained. "They'll leave you alone. All of you. But only if I help them catch Kate."

"What if you can't find her," Kira asked worriedly.

"I'll find her," Argent stated plainly. "Someone has to." He gave Derek a small nod as he passed and Derek returned it.

As they all got ready to go, Derek tuned his hearing to Kyla's voice as she spoke to Braeden. "You're not actually a U.S Marshal right?" she was asking.

"I was," Braeden admitted. "Until I spent too long looking for one person. It's hard to keep a job when part of it becomes an obsession."

Derek made his way over to the two of them and let his arm twist around Kyla's waist, pulling her in against his side as he held the door open. "Who were you after?" he questioned.

Braeden's eyes flicked to him. "All I had was a code name," she told him. "The Dessert Wolf."

Derek frowned and saw a similar expression on Kyla's face as the two of them moved to let Braeden get in to the car and shut her door.

He and Kyla walked around to his car, and Derek held the passenger side open for her. Peter had driven the car there but would be spending the return journey bound, gagged, and sedated in the trunk. He nodded to Scott before climbing in and shutting the door.

As they pulled away from La Iglesia, he could feel Kyla watching him. "What?" he asked, looking at her. Now that the moon was no longer full, her eyes had begun to fade pack to leaf green.

"Nothing," she said with a small smile. "It's just- you being alive..." the smile grew. "It's the best birthday present ever."

"You turned eighteen yesterday?" Derek asked, startled. He was pretty sure it was in the job description of boyfriends to remember birthdays.

She laughed. "At the stroke of midnight. You can relax though. You being alive and able to completely turn in to a wolf is a pretty kick ass birthday present. Besides, no one else died either. I call that a good day."

Derek glanced over at her again and found that a small velvet box rested in her hand. He remembered Nico Diangelo handing it to her. "What's that?"

She shrugged. "According to Nico it's a present from my father."

"The dead one?" he checked.

"Yeah," she sighed and very slowly opened the box. It was almost like she was worried it might bite her. Inside rested a three delicate charms on a small silver chain. The symbols were a bow, a rune that Derek recognized from Kyla's skin, and strangely a triskeilion. Kyla flipped the charm over. "Meta tin apokalypsi," she read out loud.

Derek frowned. He may have been bilingual but Greek was not one of the two languages in his vocabulary. "What does it mean?"

Kyla laughed again and let her head fall back against the seat. She twined the fingers of her left hand with his right as it sat over the gear shift. "It means after the apocalypse," she translated. "Post apocalyptic chaos."

A/N: So how was it? The conclusion of season 4! I hope it was worth the wait. Let me know what you thought! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxo