Even in the morning after the full moon and Derek had helped the newly turned werewolf, he was pretty much stalking him so that the hunters wouldn't find out about us so soon. We knew they would sometime, but we didn't want it to happen just yet.

"Just don't try to look for the Alpha today," Derek said.

"Why not?" I asked, crossing my arm over my chest before turning to the door way, and raising my arms and jumping to the edge, grabbing the top to start doing pull ups, and I was continuing on with them even while we spoke. "He killed Laura. I want him dead. And you're worrying about this newly turned . . kid instead of worrying about our actual problem."

"I get that," Derek said, still trying to talk me out of it. Like that was gonna happen. "I do. It's just--this new werewolf could help us in finding him. And would you stop doing that?"

I smirked, dropping to the ground. "You said us. Finally, you're on board with me helping."

"I didn't say that."

"Didn't mean that you didn't," I said, lowering to the ground, my arms below my shoulders as I started push ups, still talking to him while I did. "It doesn't matter. I'm not gonna want for your approval on who I can and can't kill."

Derek kicked at one of my arms to stop me from the exercises, and I fell to the ground, looking down at me simply, saying in the same way, "I said stop."

I glared up at him, pushing myself up from the ground, and while he turned around, I was planning on fighting back.

I swung around in a circle, my left arm going to hit him in the shoulder when he caught it, turning around back toward me with an exasperated sigh. My knee bent up, and I went to kick him when he, again, caught my leg with both hands, pushing it back toward the ground.

"Come on," I complained, almost angrily, but more annoyed than anything. "Just do something. Fight back. I can't just sit her and do nothing."

"That's exactly what you're gonna do," he said lamely, turning for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I'll be back soon," he non-answered.

It was dark outside, and we didn't hardly know anyone that was in Beacon Hills. Where was he gonna go?

When he got back, he came in with a shovel, tossing it over to me, and I caught it with ease.

We had to bury our sister. I looked down at her mangled, cut in half corpse down in the whole that we had dug on the side of the house, and I jumped down into the hole to wrap her body with a brown, leather cloth, wrapping it around her, and then using rope to tie it closed, and I tied it tight, more times then I could count. When I was done, I stood in the hole in the ground, looking up at Derek. "When are you getting the wolfsbane?" I asked.

"Tomorrow," he answered, reaching a hand toward mine, and I took his so he could pull me out,  and then we started to cover her body with dirt again, burying her completely. 

I was gonna kill the Alpha, whoever he or she was, for this, and it didn't matter if I died in the process.

I only had Derek now, other than Peter, who couldn't even blink in the hospital with burns covering half his face.

I wasn't going to let this go unpunished.

"Derek!" someone yelled from the outside the next day. "Derek!"

I recognized his voice as the kid that Derek had found, the one who had turned. He sounded more than pissed.

I walked outside, seeing Derek on the other side of the porch to my left, the kid looking at the grave that we had dug the night before, which still needed wolfsbane, and then he looked back the house, shocked to see Derek there and me coming out of the house.

He practically ignored my existence, yelling at Derek, "Stay away from her!" Derek started to walk for the stairs while I stayed on the porch. "She doesn't know anything!"

"Yeah?" Derek asked, jumping down to the ground and walking closer to the new wolf. "What if she does? You think your little buddy Stiles can just Google werewolves and now you got all the answers, is that it? You don't get it yet, Scott, but I'm looking out for you. Think about what could happen. You're out on the field, the agression takes over, and you shift in front of everyone." Derek looked down and grabbed the lacrosse stick that was on top of his bag. "Your mom, all your friends. And when they see you . . " I heard something ripping, and I knew it would be his claws tearing through the net " . . everything falls apart."

He threw up the lacrosse stick, and disappearing before Scott could catch it. I only heard his name once, just now, from Derek. Scott looked up to me on the porch, but I was already turning around and opening the door to go back inside.

Derek was already there, holding a piece of rope and a purple flower that was tied to the end of it, and I knew the purple, fluffy flower was wolfsbane.

"Finishing it tonight," Derek said, heading back outside when he knew that Scott was gone.

I followed after him, and we walked over to the grave for our sister. Derek handed me one end of the rope, and he had the other, the side with the wolfsbane on it, and he set it down at the edge of the grave while I took the rope and walked around it, making the rope curl around into a full circle before moving the edge in just a little bit to repeat the process again. And again. And again, until there was no more rope left.

The shape was no a spiral, our sign for a vendetta, or revenge. It meant that we were both planning to avenge Laura's death, one way or the other. The wolfsbane would keep her a wolf underground, so that if anyone did find her, all they would see would be a wolf. Not a werewolf or a girl. Just a wolf.

We only had one half of her body though. The police had the other.

Derek nodded to his car, the sky dark once more. "Come on."

"Where?"

"Just get in the car."

"Why?"

"Because I don't trust you not to go running off again looking for the Alpha on your own."

"Derek--"

"Tara, just get in the car." More annoyance was in his voice, and his eyes were flashing with it too.

I let out an annoyed sigh, but did as told and moved toward the car, Derek getting in on the driver's side, the car beeping as he did, and I got in on the other side.

He started the engine and we pulled away, and he looked over to me, noticing the way that my head was hanging and my eyelids were druping. "When's the last time you slept?"

"Don't do that," I said.

"Don't do what?"

"Try and take over every move I do."

"I'm not."

"Mm-hmm," I hummed sarcastically, leaning my head against the window, actually trying to remember the last time I had slept.

It had been before Laura died, and that had been days ago.

Before Derek could tell me what to do, my eyes were starting to close on their own, and I didn't remember the rest of that night.

I must've fallen asleep in the car, and Derek must've carried me inside, and he had fallen asleep too, when we heard the police sirens and the cars pulling up into the yard outside, both of which woke us up in an instant, both of us sitting up when the sheriff was knocking his way into the house.

The deputy with him was looking at Derek. "Derek Hale?"

"Yes?" he answered, but it sounded like a question.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you by the state."

The deputy was handcuffing Derek while we looked at each other in confusion, and Derek was being took outside.

I looked to the sheriff when he looked at me. "I'm sorry," he said. "But I'm afraid that he's under the suspcion of murder."

"Murder?" I repeated. "Who?"

The sheriff looked at me weirdly. "You don't know about the body that was buried on this property?"

Oh, my God, I thought, blinking an annoyed blink and looking away with what he had assumed to be confusion and shock. Which was true. Why would they think that Derek had killed our sister?

"Is there anywhere else you can go?" he asked me. I was about to lie and say yes, but he put up a hand and gestured for me to follow him. Right at the moment, I didn't have a choice, following him outside while I looked at the police that had invaded the yard, and then I saw Scott out in the edge of the treeline that bordered the property.

Of course he was involved.

The sheriff was walking over into another direction than his police car, which had Derek inside, and I sighed while I had to follow him. "Who are you exactly?" he asked me when I wasn't looking at Derek inside of the car.

I looked back to him, not answering, and looking away..

"Okay," he said awkwardly. "Well, I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to come with me to the police station so that we can call your parents." I tried not to scoff. I didn't have any parents. "Or any family that can take you in."

I looked back at him. "The only family I have is sitting in your car."

He blinked, surprised at my words. "You're a Hale?" I didn't answer, looking away. "You must be Tara then."

Having him say my name was a bit of a shock for me, and I turned back. How did he know that? Hardly anyone knew about me anymore. "How did you--"

"I've looked over the file for your house fire several times, Tara," he said, looking at me with sympathy. The look made me want to punch him. "I'm sorry, but you're still gonna have to come with us."

I let out another annoyed sigh, looking back over at the cop car while he did the same, and he let out one of his own. "Oh, God." I could see the kid that had been with Scott the other day, sitting in the front seat. "What the hell is my son doing? Excuse me."

He walked over to the car, pulling his son out while I looked at Derek and he looked back at me. I could hear him, "Don't cause trouble."

"But--"

"Just don't."

I sighed again, knowing I'd have to listen to him if I wanted to get out of this and find the Alpha, and then help to somehow get him out of jail.

After the sheriff's son and Scott's friend was walking away from him, he was walking back over to me. "Okay, Tara. Come on."

I sat in the sheriff's office, not answering any questions for the moment, because it was the deputies who were asking the questions. I wasn't going to talk to anyone but the sheriff. I was stubborn that way.

"Hey, Tara," he said as he walked in with two coffees, handing one to me and then sitting across from me at his desk. "They're saying that you're not talking to anybody." I shrugged, taking a sip of my coffee that he had gotten me. "Why is that?"

"Maybe it's because my brother's locked up, and I don't have anywhere to go."

"Okay," he said with a big sigh. "You don't have any family left that you can stay with for a little while?"

I shook my head, staring off. "Whole family's dead except for an uncle that's in a catatonic coma. And Derek."

The sheriff looked down at a file that was on his desk, not answering about the family part because of just how depressing it really was--except that I hadn't really thought about it as depressing as much as angering. "I looked up your school records here in Beacon Hills--you don't have any since the time you were nine."

I shrugged. "Being all over the place."

"How long have you been back here?"

"Few days."

"Why aren't you in school?" I didn't answer, drinking the coffee again. He let out another sigh. "Listen, Tara, I wish there was something that I could do to help you, but without immediate family or family friends . . . we're gonna have to put you with a foster family." 

I looked up at him, barely keeping in a scoff. "A foster family?" I repeated. 

"Yeah." 

I shook my head. "No." 

"Tara--" 

"I'm not leaving here," I said. 

"Okay, that's fine. We can find someone here." The sheriff set down his coffee. "It will take a while to have it officially set up, but you can stay here until we have it ready to go, okay?" 

"In the police station?" I asked, my voice half-mocking, half-not caring what happened to me. 

"Yes, but after a few hours . . we're going to have to find you a permanent place to live." 

"Don't kids who get put in foster homes end up messing up so bad that the place isn't permanent?"

"Well, that doesn't have to be you." I nodded sarcastically, looking away again as he got up. "I will be back in a few hours to see how everything's going, and, if your brother's really innocent, then we'll let you both go."

I nodded once again as he walked past me, and I took it as good of a time as any to settle back into the chair and get some sleep that I had lost the past few days.

And got woke up when the sheriff got back. "Good news," he said when I opened my eyes and looked around. "Derek's innocent, and you both're free to go."

I smirked a little, knowing that it hadn't been Derek at all, and I got up and started to walk for the door. "One thing, though, Tara," the sheriff said from behind me, and I turned my head to look at him. "I'm expecting to see you in school. If not, we're gonna have to make a few changes, okay?"

Great, I thought, wanting to hit my head against the brick walls. High school? Not my scene at all. I barely nodded, going out the door and outside, meeting Derek there. He already had his black camaro. "Get in."

I rolled my eyes at him, but got in anyway. "How's life in purgatory?"

Derek gave me a glare, and I shrugged one shoulder as he started to drive away. "So . .school?" 

This time, I glared at him. "I'm not going." 

"You kinda have to." 

"Because the cops said so?" 

"No, because I did." I raised my eyebrows at him. "I can't watch out for Scott every minute of every day, and most of the time, he's at the school. You're going." 

I rolled my eyes at him again, leaning my head against the seat, already starting to hate my life.