Laura had disappeared on me. Again. Each and every time she did this, I would have to go and find her.

There was a new werewolf running along Beacon Hills, which hadn't been our home in six years, since our house fire that had killed most of our family, including our mother and our sister Cora, and others who had been human, children.

I was lucky to get out. I had been in the house, but our uncle Peter had gotten us both out. I had been sick that day, and I hadn't been able to go to school. I had been nine years old.

Now I was fifteen, and everything that my sister Laura, an Alpha, knew about fighting and controlling of full moons and just about everything else that made her as good as she was, I knew. So I was a pretty bad ass fifteen year old.

We hadn't heard from our brother Derek in a while though. Laura had told him about coming back here, but .. . .

Laura had told me to wait in the car while she was in the woods. She had been gone awhile. I didn't even know where she was. I had always liked how Laura could actually shift into a full wolf, like our mother had been able to do before she died, but Derek and I didn't have the ability to do that. It was just Laura because she was the Hale family Alpha wolf. Peter would be, but he . . .

Well, never mind.

I was getting annoyed very quickly with Laura taking forever. Hales weren't very good with their tempers or languages or anything like that.

So when I got out of the car to go look for her, it wasn't a surprise that I would be pissed.

I shut the car door and headed into the direction Laura had, following her scent. I had lived with her for the past six years. I knew her scent well. And being that I had the ability to sense an Alpha nearby helped.

But this time, I didn't feel an Alpha nearby. It was like she had vanished. I kept following her scent anyway, not caring.

"Laura?"

I didn't get an answer.

I felt eyes on me. I stopped and looked to my right, my eyes glowing blue as I used the night vision that I could when I was shifted or partly shifted. Something was running away before I could see it or them, and I wasn't slow to start to take off after it, using every advantage as a werewolf I had.

I ran as fast as I could, and I could run well, my arms pumping at my sides before my gaze fell to something on the ground.

Not something.

A body.

Cut in half.

I used my night vision to look at who it was again.

And froze.

Laura.

Laura, with her long brown hair and brown eyes, with her body competely cut in half at the waist, beyond dead.

Though I didn't take it as hard as I would've if I had been a normal fifteen year old girl. I had lost almost my entire family in one night. My mom, uncles, aunts, cousins, my sister Cora, but Peter had dragged me and him out while Derek and Laura had been at school. I had to see most of them die. Their burning flesh as they burned alive, the smoke that they were inhaling killing them before the flames could . . .

This was no different.

Except this sister was the one that I had been with for the last six years.

But I would grieve later.

Now? Now I was pissed, and I wanted to kill whoever did it, not caring if I had gotten killed too.

I ran after whatever had run away from me before, taking off after it just as fast as before, ignoring everything, jumping over logs and over trees. Being a werewolf gave you many gifts, and I had been used to these gifts for most of my life, so I knew how to use them well.

But whatever it was was running faster and faster away, before I could get sight of what it actualy was.

No. I knew what it was. It was a werewolf, I was sure of it. And whoever it was was an Alpha now, thanks to him killing Laura.

And I would kill him for it.

I walked back in the direction of Laura's body, but before I got there, I saw two joggers coming, and I hid before they could see me. Getting in trouble with the police now, with no guardian, would be like a death wish right now.

One of them was a girl, and she screamed when she saw Laura, the two joggers running away before I could see anything else, but I heard the girl calling the police on her cell phone. "911. What's your emergency?"

I couldn't stay there.

I had to get out now, before the cops got there.

I turned and started to run for the car. It seemed like I was always running, always on the move. But that was what happened when werewolf hunters kill your entire family and then now your only guardian left.

Apparently, I hadn't thought about the Preserve's security.

One was at the car, looking inside, looking for any clues as to how the car got there and who it belonged to, and before I could run anymore, I heard one of them behind me.

I closed my eyes with severe annoyance and started to turn around.

"And you are?"

I didn't answer, but I knew that I was gonna be at the police station for a long time for tonight.

I wasn't telling the police anything. I wasn't talking to them. I didn't want to, didn't need to, and possibly couldn't. I wouldn't tell them who Laura was was, or how I had ended up "finding her dead body in the woods".

This was bad. Laura hadn't told me exactly why we had come back to Beacon Hills, just that she was looking for an Alpha.

But I knew one thing.

Killing Laura wasn't just to get the Alpha power that she had had. No, it was to lure our brother here too, and I didn't have any way to contact him.

The Sheriff and other deputies were too busy out looking for the actual body while I sat in one of the police cars, and as soon as one of them wasn't looking, I reached up and grabbed one of the back of their necks, slamming his head against the steering wheel, and when the other cop turned to me, I hit his head against the glass window hard enough to knock him out, but not enough to kill him.

It wasn't like I hadn't killed anybody before though. That's why my eyes were blue instead of gold when they glowed. But it had been an attempt to put someone out of their misery. It had been one of my other family members, a human, in the fire. She had had gotten her leg stuck in the floorboards, the smoke and flames going to kill her in a very slow, very painful death. I hadn't wanted to give in and put her out of her misery then, I had wanted to help her get out. But, like I had said, she had been human, and she had injuries that would slowly kill her anyway. I hadn't wanted her to die a slow painfuk death, so I had done as she had wished. I took her life so that she hadn't had to have go through want the rest of our family went through. That had been right before Peter dragged me out.

But now, with both deputies knocked out, I could turn and kick the door open with as much strength as I could, the door swinging open and I got out, my hands still behind my back in hand cuffs, but I snapped those with just a pull of my wrists, and then I was unlocking them with one hand each, letting the broken cuffs fall to the ground as I looked around to see if anyone was watching me.

When I was satisfied that no one was, I was taking off again.

Always running. Always, always running.

The only place I knew to go to was home. Yes, the home that should've burned to the ground six years ago home.

I hadn't been back here since that day, when it had gone up in flames.

It was actually light out now, night time completely drained away.

And I was looking up the stairs to the house as I walked in. As I looked around, I saw flashes of the fire, the way the flames had engulfed the entire house six years ago. I saw the light orangish-reddish-yellowish glow as the flames destroyed my home.

The stairs? Check. Halls? Yes. Living room? Yeah. Basement? That was a whole hell yes.

I had been standing like that for about five minutes, and without even turning around, I knew he was there. "Laura's dead."

"I know," Derek, my older brother said.

I slowly turned around, looking at him weirdly. "How'd you find out so soon?"

"I knew I should've been close when she said she was looking for an Alpha."

"So you were," I said, looking away and nodding.

Derek and I were the same. We were almost dead on the inside, so distant from everything so that no one would become so close that we would care and then lose them. It was something that Laura had learned too. Peter was in the hospital, in a catatonic coma. He hadn't needed to learn that.

I was numb on the inside for more reason than simply losing our entire family--I had to see it happen, remember their screams, and then me having to kill Lucy, teenage human cousin that had had her leg stuck in the floorboards.

"How are we gonna find the Alpha now?" I asked.

"We?" Derek repeated.

"Yes, we," I said. "I'm the one who found her. I saw an Alpha in the woods, but I don't even think he was in human form. I want him dead."

"You want revenge," Derek said.

"Don't you?"

Derek just stared back at me, not answering, and I knew I was right. "I don't want you having any part in it."

I stepped closer to him barely as I started to head for the door, I said, "I've been with Laura for the past six years. She's taught me everything I need to know. I can take care of myself."

"Tara--"

I didn't listen to him, walking outside, walking through the woods and ignoring him as he followed me, walking further and further and further away and seeing two guys standing further out in the woods. Derek was walking past me, closer to them, and the one that was almost bald with a target on his shirt tapped the one leaning to the ground on the shoulder, getting his attention and pointing to us.

He got up from the ground, looking over to us while Derek walked closer to them. "What are you doing here? Huh? This is private property."

The one with the target on his chest said, "Uh, sorry, man, we didn't know."

"Yeah, we were just looking for something, but . . " the other one was saying. "Uh, forget it."

Derek threw something over to him, which he caught easily, and I gave him a weird look, sensing something familiar about him. Was he one of us?

Derek turned around and walked past me, and then I started to follow as I heard the one with the inhaler say, "All right, man, come on, I gotta get to work."

"Dude," the one with the target on his chest said, "That was Derek Hale. You remember, right? He's only, like, a few years older than us. I think the girl was his younger sister Tara."

"Remember what?"

"Their family? They all burned to death in a fire, like, ten years ago."

If he wanted to spread stories, he should have gotten the facts right. "Wonder what they're doing back," the other said.

I didn't pay attention to the rest, walking away and heading back to the house even though I knew that I could've gone anywhere else.

"He's a wolf, isn't he?" I asked Derek as I got inside. He didn't answer me, and I squinted my eyes at him. "You do remember I'm your sister, right? You can tell me these things. Because if you're not going to trust me, I'm not going to trust you."

"Maybe," Derek said. "I don't know."

"Then find out."

"You could probably find out more easily."

I shook my head. "No. I'm not going to high school."

Derek gave me a weird look. "I wasn't gonna make you."

"Fine."

This was gonna be a long bumpy ride for us both. Technically, other than Peter, we were the only Hales left, and neither of us trusted each other right yet, and if he was gonna keep me out of things like trying to find the Alpha, then I was going to try to do things on my own.

Tonight was the full moon, and I saw Derek leaving the house. It was my chance to try to find the Alpha.

Derek had told me that he was gonna find out about the new wolf.

So while he was out doing that, I was going to look for the Alpha. I didn't care if Derek didn't want me to. He hadn't been the sibling to take care of me and raise me for the past six years.

So I was already on my way, pulling on my usual leather jacket before I eveb left the burned and broken house that I seemed to be living in now, since I technically couldn't live on my own just yet, even though I was fully capable of doing so.

I walked out onto the porch, feeling every minute of the full moon and how it was tugging at the edges of my concentration and wanting to make me slip into a darker side of myself that would be willing to kill anything if I didn't have an anchor, but I had had been fighting against the full moons for a long time.

I knew that I was going to be at a disadvantage against the wolf that had killed Laura. One, they would have taken her Alpha power, making them stronger and faster than any Beta, like Derek and I were. Two, I didn't know if this Alpha gave itself over to the full moon, letting it control him or her, but if they did, they would be even stronger and faster, just for tonight.

The full moons didn't just give you loss of control, but it gave you extra strength and power.

Even though I was fighting against the full moon, I was stronger than any normal night. Not by much, but enough to where it could count.

Enough of thinking, I said, stepping off of the porch and heading into the woods. Time to find the Alpha.

If I could find them, then I could kill him.

I was going to walk, for a change, to the preserve so that I could go to where Laura had been killed, so I could get a lock on the scent of the Alpha.

One tricky thing about Alphas. Their scents as humans--if they could fully transform--could be completely different than their scents as whatever they turned into.

So, if I had any chance to catch him, it had to be when he was transformed. And, being it was a full moon, it could either be harder or easier to do so. Harder, for me, was because I would be off balance. Easier because the Alpha would be too.

The Preserve was across town, but it didn't take me long to get there. Finding the exact location Laura had been killed wasn't that hard either. I must have looked like a stupid girl walking through the woods about to find a body, but also at the same time, very smart and fast and strong.

I was just looking for a scent that was different than Laura's. And when I found it, I took in a long, deep breath through my nose so I would never forget the scent, for awhile, at least.

This new Alpha had killed Laura. I was gonna kill them.

I walked out of the Preserve and started to walk through town and the surrounding woods.

I hadn't found much of anything until I finally caught something, and they were heading into the woods, my head and eyes turning that way before I was following it.

I kept following it, and it had been a while since I had started to follow it.

I stopped when the trail ended, right in the middle of the woods. No, that couldn't be right. They couldn't just disappear into thin air.

A snapping twig over to my right made me think otherwise, my eyes snapping into that direction before I ran after it, already feeling the half transformation. My eyes were glowing blue, there were four sharp canines in my mouth, two on top and two on bottom. My nails weren't just nails anymore. They were growing into sharp, murderering claws. But my hair, even while running, hid the very back of my cheeks, which would have brown hair growing from them, and it also hid my ears, which would be pointed.

I could see the monsterous beast that the Alpha could turn into, red glowing eyes, signaling he was in fact an Alpha, but I didn't care. The only reason that he had them and that he could turn into that beast was because he took that power from Laura.

I didn't know who this Alpha was, but I wanted him dead.

But why was he running? He was an Alpha, I knew that he could kill me if he really wanted to, but I didn't care.

The sound of an arrow being let loose from its bow had stopped both of us, the light flashing from the end of it, and I hadn't had a chance to cover my eyes before I was momentarily blinded.

Hunters were back in Beacon Hills too. I wasn't I surprised about that?

And let me guess. They were Argents.

I heard the Alpha running again, but, even while blinded like this, I wasn't going to let him get away. Also, I had to get away from the hunters.

An arrow shooting right into the tree in front of me kind of made that hard to do, and I knew that there were more than I could handle alone.

I started to turn in the other direction, hating to have to abandon my killing-the-Alpha misson, but I kinda didn't have a choice unless I wanted to die too.

I started to run in that direction that I had turned too, my vision still a little foggy from the light, but I kept on running.

Whenever I heard an arrow coming, I was ducking away and continuing on.

Except, one time, I didn't duck fast enough, the arrow going straight through my arm.

I had trouble not yelling or screaming at the pain, and I knew that I had to get it out before I could run anymore.

So I hid behind the biggest tree I could find, but it didn't matter--I was small, I could easily hid behind the thinnest tree that was around.

I knew not to risk a look back at the hunters. They would've seen me. I looked down painfully at the arrow that was sticking through my arm and my favorite leather jacket. Oh, well. I had clothes at the hotel that Laura and I had been staying at. I couldn't stay there anymore because I didn't have anymore money. But my stuff was still there. I could still get my stuff.

My other hand slowly wrapped around the arrow that was in my arm. I knew I had to tear it out quickly so I could get out of there.

So I did. Even though it hurt like hell, I had to pull the arrow as fast and as hard as I could. It didn't wanna come out, procrastinating by sliding slowly through the wound, but finally, it slipped out with a disgusting sucking sound, and it was out for good.

I could already feel myself healing as I leaned my head back against the tree in annoyance, the arrow still in my hand.

I knew what to do.

I was already turning around to face the tree, climbing my way up to one of the branches, thick and sturdy and enough leaves around to hide from the hunters, but I wasn't planning on hiding for long.

The hunters were looking for me. They hadn't seeb where I had went.

Using the arrow, I threw it into one of the hunters' shoulder, him grunting out in pain and knocked back a step, making the other hunters turn to him.

Just like I had wanted and needed. They weren't looking at me or in my direction as I turned and jumped down from the tree, immediately starting to run again, hearing the arrows and gunshots, but I had been quick enough and stealth enough to not get hit by anything else again.

That was the advantage to being small--you could run fast.

I managed to get way past them, losing them in the process of running. At least I knew that that habit of mine was gonna be of use in this town.

Wow. Even as a werewolf, I was really tired. All I had been doing tonight was running. First, running after the Alpha that had took my sister's life, and then running for mine.

I knew that the Alpha would be long gone by now. He probably wasn't even in his beast-like form anymore.

I didn't know what else to do other than go home. Or well, the burnt home that I was now living at with Derek.

When I heard a trip wire being tripped and an arrow soaring to my head, I ducked once more, looking behind me to look at who had tripped the tripwire.

Derek was standing there with ine of the boys from a few days ago, and Derek was looking at him with a disapproving, you've-gotta-be-kidding me look.

"Sorry," the kid said awkwardly.

I looked at Derek to explain. "Yes, he's one of us."

"I kinda figured that out already," I said, turning around and starting to walk away.

Derek grabbed my arm before I did, the arm that had gotten shot. He looked at the ripped leather jacket and the dark blue shirt cloth underneath that was now red because of the blood. He looked at me the same way he had looked at the kid.

"Looks like we all had a busy night tonight," was all I said, turning around and heading back to the burnt hell-hole of a home.

I knew that I would have to work a lot harder trying to find and kill the Alpha with the hunters around.

I wasn't going to stop until he was dead.