Hey, how'd you guys like to see Tara with a love interest??? :) You know, someone to break into her heart of fire, heart of stone, heart of ice, heart of darkness? :) Just to warn you :) 

Sitting on the spiral staircase, I watched Cora with her hair pulled back and in work-out clothes as she went at it, pulling up on a bar.

"Stop," Derek told her. "You're not done healing." 

"Yeah?" Cora asked, dropping to the floor. "Well, I'm done lying around." 

"Then sit," Derek said.

"Are you guys gonna help me go after them?" she asked, looking from Derek to me on the stairs, lowering to the floor, doing push-ups.

After she did a few, Derek walked forward, kicking her arm from under her, making her fall.

This reminded me a lot of what he'd done to me when I'd wanted to go after the Alpha. 

Especially when Cora stood, trying to fight, but Derek caught her wrists, blocking her moves as Cora exclaimed, "Come on, fight back!" 

"Don't take it personal," I said. "He did the same to me." 

"I came back for this?" Cora scoffed, shaking her head. "I can't believe I got my ass thrown in a vault for three months for you." She still wasn't looking at us. "All those rumors I heard." She finally looked at Derek. "A powerful new Alpha, his second-in-command Beta sister, both of them Hales, were building a pack. Do you know how long I waited to hear something like that?" She looked between us. "Do you have any idea how it felt to find out you both were alive?" 

I looked down to the newly-tattooed triskele on my hand, not answering, Derek saying, "I'm sorry to disappoint you." 

Then the alarm started to blar, and I looked up, getting up and going to stand next to Derek and Cora. 

"What is that?" Cora asked us. 

"Trouble," Derek said.

The door to the loft slid open, and the Alpha that had been at the hospital, the bald giant, was revealed, his eyes glowing red as he growled.

And Cora immediately started to run forward. 

"No, wait," Derek said. "Wait!" 

Cora ignored him, and the Alpha grabbed her throat, pushing her to the floor. 

I look a step forward, Derek holding his arm out to stop me.

"Ready for a rematch?" the Alpha asked.

And then another Alpha was walking in, a girl with darkish skin, and long, brown hair and no shoes on with claws for toenails as she roared at me and Derek.

These people hurt Cora and Boyd. Killed Erica. I hated them.

I ran forward, and when she spun in a circle trying to kick me, I ducked under her leg in a crouched position,

Derek took a step forward, and she kicked up to him, but he took a step back, and she spun, and he took another step back.

When she tried to kick him again, he grabbed her leg, throwing her away, and she spun, landing with one knew on the floor, on foot, her head next to her knee, one hand on the floor for balance and the other held behind her as she looked up.

Derek roared, shifted and she growled back as I stood, going to take a step forward when she turned to the pipe Cora had been using, pushing up from the floor and grabbing it, tearing it down to make steam hiss and smoke blow out.

She swung it behind her, swinging it in her hand out to the side, then using one side to knock me back, then turned it to hit Derek, both of us falling, and I felt a wetness on my cheek, a cut, my hand going up to the blood, and I was pissed as it started to heal, the girl hitting Derek in the head with the pole to knock him down, spinning it over her head as she roared, thrusting it into his back, causing him to roar and gasp and groan in pain.

I stood, taking a step forward before she shook her head, her finger going back and forth. "I wouldn't." 

Derek shook his head, and I looked to Cora on the floor under the big guy as another Alpha walked in with a walking blind man's cane, glasses covering his eyes. "Everybody done? 'Cause just listening to the was exhausting." 

He walked past me without a word, leaning in front of Derek. "So . . . Let's chat." 

"Sorry about this, Derek," Deucalion told him. "I asked Kali to be gentle, but . . . " 

"This is me being gentle," Kali said.

She pushed the pipe down further, and I took a step closer as he groaned. He looked up at me, shaking his head again. Then he looked at Cora and the giant. "Let . . . let her go." 

Deucalion used two fingers to gesture to the other Alpha, and he let Cora go, and she stood, coming to my side, and Derek saw us exchanging a look like we were coming up with a secret plan. "No." 

"See?" Deucalion asked. "We're not unreasonable." 

"What do you want?" Derek asked. "You want to kill me?" 

"You really think I'm that boring? Don't throw me in with sociopaths like your uncle. I'm a man with far more vision than simple murder. In fact . . . " He took off his dark glasses. "I'm here to show you just how much vision a blind man can have." At the end, Deucalion let his white eyes glow red.

Kali pushed the pole again, and Derek's blood dripped to the floor as I said, "Stop!" 

"You're killing him!" Cora exclaimed.

Kali looked back at us. "Not yet, little sisters. But I could." Derek coughed slightly as Kali turned back to Deucalion. "Who knows if it's five minutes or five hours before it's too late to take this thing out? But just to be on the safe side, Deuc, you might want to get to the point." 

"Now you see the one problem with being in an Alpha pack," Deucalion said. "Everybody wants to make the decisions. me? I'm more about discovering new talents . . .Like you." 

"Not interested," Derek breathed.

"But you haven't even heard my pitch." 

"You want me to . . . kill my own pack." 

"No. I want you to kill one of them. Do that, and I won't have to ask you to kill the others. You'll do it on your own. I did it. Ennis did." I saw the big guy, Ennis, apparently, nod slightly. "Kali did. Tell him what it's like, Kali, to kill one of your own." 

"Mm . . . Liberating," Kali said with a smile.

"Listen to me, Derek. Do you really want to stay beholden to a couple of maladjusted teenagers bound to become a liability? And believe me, they will become a liability. Just like your sister Tara has predicted all along."

"Well, now that I know you don't like them and want them dead, I'm starting to like them and respect them a whole lot better," I replied.

He smirked. "She has fire, just like your mother once had. But she was right to tell you not to recuit these . . . . children. In fact . . . I have a feeling one of them is getting himself into trouble right now." 

"See, the reason I'm always invested in new talent is simple. We all know a pack is strongest due to its individual parts." As he spoke, he folded his cane. "The stronger the individual parts, the greater the whole." He swung the cane out, and it came together again. "When I lost my sight, one of my Betas assumed I wasn't fit for my role anymore. He tried to take it from me. Killing him taught me something about Alphas I didn't know they could do. His power was added to mine. I became stronger, faster, more powerful than I'd even been. I tested this new ability to subsume the power of your own by killing another one. In fact, Derek, I killed them all. I took the individual parts and became a greater individual whole." 

Leaning in front of Derek again, Deucalion's hands searched Derek's face. "You're right, Kali. He looks like his mother. You'll get to know me, Derek. Like she did." 

"I know you," Derek said. "I know what you are. You're a fanatic." 

Deucalion stood, asking dangerously, "Know me? You've never seen anything like me. I am the Alpha of Alphas." We heard thunder outside. "I am the apex of apex predators. I am death, destroyer of world! I am the demon-wolf!" 

The thunder crackled again, and I looked to Cora, who knelt behind a beam, and I also noticed Deucalion's glasses broke. 

He removed them. "I hate it when that happens." 

Kali took out the pipe, throwing it to the side as she took Deucalion's arm, leading him and Ennis out and away. 

Cora and I went to Derek's side. 

The storm outside raged on as Derek told Isaac to leave.

"Ah . . . I don't get it," Isaac admitted. "Look, did something happen?" 

"It's just not gonna work with the three of you here," Derek said. "I've got Cora now. It's too much. I need you out tonight." 

Isaac scoffed. "Where am I supposed to go?" 

"Somewhere else," I stated, not looking up from the table.

Thunder crackled outside, the pelting rain continuing.

"Did I do something wrong?" Isaac asked us.

"You're doing something wrong right now by not leaving," Derek said.

"Oh, come on." 

"Just get out." 

"Derek, please." 

"Get out." 

"Come on." 

"Go!" Derek yelled, throwing his drinking glass toward him. 

Isaac's head moved before it hit him, the glass shattering on the beam behind him.

He glared at Derek, looking toward me, but I looked down, not saying anything as he took his bag and turned for the door. 

That was probably the last of Isaac we'd see for a while.