Malia and I were still trapped in the loft with Corinne, the Desert Wolf, who wanted to kill both of us. She wanted to kill Malia to take her power. And she wanted to kill me because she couldn't kill my mother, who had taken Malia away from her when she was a baby before she could kill her then.

Malia was still upstairs in the hallway because I told her to stay upstairs for her protection.

I wasn't going to let Corinne kill my cousin. I may have just found out Malia was my cousin only a little while ago, but she was my family, and I wasn't going to let anything happen to her.

Corinne and I could hear Malia tapping keys on her phone.

"Who are you calling, Malia?" Corinne asked. "Is it Stiles, your boyfriend? Tell him to come. Bring all your friends, if you want. Go ahead, Malia. You tell me how many people I'm going to have to kill tonight."

We could hear Malia powering off her phone.

Corinne walked around the table I was taking cover from to try and shoot me. I rolled out of the way, standing, rolling over the table closer to Corinne to kick her in the stomach, pushing her against the spiral staircase railing behind her.

"It figures that my uncle Peter would be psychotic enough to sleep with someone as psychotic as you," I told her. Corinne smirked in amusement, using the gun to push me off of her, walking closer. I tried to punch her twice. Corinne caught either of my arms. I kneed her in the stomach, punching her in the face. Corinne tried to shoot me. I ducked behind the wall behind me to make her miss. "Almost, Corinne. But not quite. You'll get another chance. But you better make sure it's a headshot."

Corinne smirked. "Oh, I'll make sure." We heard the floorboards upstairs creaking. "Coming down, Malia?"

"Malia, don't move," I told her. "If you come down here, I can't protect you."

"That's right, Tara," Corinne told me, trying to shoot me again. I ducked out of the way. "But who's going to save you?"

Corinne walked closer to the wall I was behind to try to shoot me again. I caught her arm, twisting it behind her back, making her face away from me toward the wall of windows. Corinne headbutted me to make me let go, turning to face me, trying to shoot me again. I pushed the gun away, making it fire at the ceiling light above us, making the light shatter, and sparks and glass rain down around us. I punched Corinne in the face twice, kicking her back onto the table, making her flip over it. Corinne landed on her feet on the other side, instantly turning to face me to try to shoot me. I ducked to the floor so the shot missed, looking up, letting my eyes glow blue, growling, running closer, stepping over the table to jump at Corinne, tackling her to the floor, making both of us roll over the floor, and making her lose her gun in the process. We both rolled into crouching positions, facing each other, letting our eyes glow blue. I ran toward Corinne to push her back away from the gun.

    ***** 

 I threw Corinne onto the table, making her roll off to the floor.

We could hear Malia getting closer to the stairs from upstairs.

"Malia, come on down," Corinne told her.

"Don't listen to her!" I told her.

"I'm not gonna stop, Tara," Corinne told me. "I'm taking back what Malia stole from me."

"I didn't steal anything," Malia told her.

"But you did," Corinne told her. "And I don't care if you were a willing participant or not." She looked at me. "Your mother, Talia Hale, she spent nine months trying to convince me of the miracle of childbirth. You know what it really felt like? A parasite. Your mother said it was a gift. That the coyote passes down part of her power to her daughter. She called it beautiful. I call it theft."

"Well, my mother was a lot smarter than you are," I told her. "And a lot less psychotic."

Corinne became less amused and more angry, trying to shoot me. I ducked. 

We heard the stairs creaking as Malia made a move to come downstairs.

Corinne turned to shoot her gun at the stairs. I ran closer to push Corinne away from the stairs so that she didn't shoot Malia, pushing Corinne into the wall, punching her in the face twice, turning around, throwing her over the table to the floor, growling. Corinne groaned in pain, starting to stand. I jumped up onto the table, jumping off the table toward Corinne to punch her in the head with extra strength, making her fall to the floor, landing in a crouch next to her. Corinne drew another gun, trying to shoot me with both of the guns in both of her hands repeatedly. I rolled over the floor away from her to avoid being shot, but got hit with bullets in the side and stomach, groaning in pain, holding my hands over the wounds, seeing that the bullets were laced with wolfsbane, and were smoking from the wounds. 

Malia heard me groan in pain, worried. "Tara?"

Corinne grabbed me by the shoulders, slamming me against the wall. I punched Corinne in the face to make her let go, gripping her throat with one hand, walking toward her to push her away, turning to throw her through the loft into a beam, making her fall to the floor nearby the steps to the loft. Corinne tried to shoot me again. I took cover behind the table, holding my wounds, breathing heavily. Corinne leaped over the table toward me. I kicked Corinne back over the table, making her roll to the floor.

    ***** 

Corinne was getting closer to the table while I was trying to catch my breath and heal from the wolfsbane-laced wounds.

Malia jumped down the stairs before Corinne could get to me, kicking her away from me.  She growled, letting her eyes glow blue, trying to slash into Corinne repeatedly. Corinne ducked each time, spinning behind Malia, kicking her in the leg, making her fall to the floor, trying to shoot her. Malia spun out of the way, kicking Corinne in the stomach, making her fall back into the table, standing, growling, running toward Corinne, grabbing her, spinning her around. Corinne grabbed Malia by the arms, throwing her onto the steps of the loft, making her roll off the steps to the floor, trying to shoot her. 

I shoot, grabbing both of Corinne's arms so that she couldn't shoot Malia with either of the guns in her hands, flipping her to the floor, making her drop both guns, kicking both of them away from her.

Stiles ran into the loft. 

Malia and Corinne, still on the floor, and me, still standing and holding my wounds, all looked at Stiles.

Stiles saw the fight, coming to a stop. "Oh, damn."

Corinne rolled over the floor to grab both of her guns, landing in a crouching position, trying to shoot Stiles. Malia launched up from the floor to grab Stiles and put him behind the wall so that he wouldn't get shot, getting shot in the side in the process. 

I jumped up onto the table, jumping at Corinne to tackle her through the glass coffee table in front of the couch, making the glass table shatter beneath us, and both of us land on glass.

    ***** 

Corinne threw Malia into the wall, making her fall, shooting both Malia and me again. Stiles stood, trying to stop her. Corinne threw Stiles onto the glass shards of the table on the floor, making a large piece of glass stick out from Stiles' shoulder, close to his chest.

 Malia sat up worriedly. "Stiles?"

I growled, running toward Corinne, slashing into her, kicking her in the stomach. Corinne slashed her claws into my wounds, digging into the wolfsbane, making me groan in pain. I pushed Corinne off of me, against the walls, turning around, pushing her to the floor. Corinne and Malia both stood. Malia tried to punch Corinne. Corinne ducked, trying to punch Malia. Malia ducked. Corinne grabbed Malia from behind to try to restrain her. Malia made them back into the wall, making her let go, grabbing her by the arms, flipping Corinne off of her to the floor, making her roll into the wall. Corinne stood. Malia and I stood on either side of Corinne, ready to fight. Corinne tried to punch me. I ducked, spinning out of the way, grabbing Corinne, pushing her into the stairs by the door, growling. Corinne dug her claws into the wounds she left, pushing me back toward Malia, standing, running toward us. Malia and I both ducked, turning to grab Corinne as she started to soar over us, flipping her to the ground, standing over her.

    *****  

Corinne grabbed both of her guns from the floor, taking advantage of the fact that Malia and I were getting weaker from the wolfsbane, shooting both of us again twice, standing, walking closer. "It's not the full moon, Malia. But you know what? It's close enough."

"Stop," Malia told her.

Corinne shot us both again, making us back away. 

Malia and I took cover from behind the overturned table so that Corinne couldn't shoot us, and so that she couldn't see us.

Stiles crawled closer. "Tara."

I looked at him. Stiles threw the jar of Belasko's claws toward me, all ten of them.

I opened the jar to pull five of the claws on, tossing Malia the jar. Malia pulled the other five claws on her claws.

Corinne walked around the table toward us, snapping out her claws, letting her eyes glow blue, stabbing Malia in the stomach with her claws in her wolfsbane-laced wounds. "I want my power back."

Malia dropped the glass jar, stabbing Corinne in the stomach with Belasko's talons. "I want my family back."

I stood behind Corinne, stabbing her in the back with Belasko's talons. Both my eyes and Malia's eyes glowed blue more intensely as we took Corinne's power from her, while the blue glow faded from Corinne's eyes. We took the claws out of her after we took her power, letting her go. Corinne knew now that she didn't stand a chance, turning to run, only to face me. I punched her in the head with enough force to knock her out, letting her fall.

Malia and I looked at each other in relief, breathing heavily, managing small smiles though still wounded. We embraced, pulling away.

Stiles looked at us in relief, but was still in pain. "Can someone please come and take this gigantic shard of glass out of my chest? Please?"

Malia and I chuckled barely, walking closer, kneeling next to Stiles.

I took the glass out of Stiles' shoulder/chest, while Malia took his pain so that he didn't feel it.

    *****  

Once Malia and I had gotten to Deaton so that he could cure us of the wolfsbane before it could kill us, we found out that the Beast, Sebastian, had nearly killed Hayden, and that they had been able to kill the Beast, and save Mason.

Mason was okay.

And Malia, Hayden and I were going to be okay, too.

But Kira had used her sword to open the ground with the power of the Skinwalkers so that Theo's sister could come out of the ground and drag him under the hole and trap him with her.

In the clinic, Scott and Liam were with us now.

"Hayden, I've managed to stabilize the injury," Deaton told her. "But considering you're a Chimera, I don't know how, or if, you'll heal." 

"We can still take you to the hospital," Scott told her.

Hayden shook her head. "I've already died there once."

"It's your choice," Liam told her.

"I know," Hayden told us.

We knew that Hayden wanted to turn into a real Werewolf so that she would have a guaranteed recovery.

Scott and I looked at each other. I smiled a little, nodding.

Scott transformed so that he could give Hayden the bite, to turn her, and save her.

    ***** 

Kira was going back to the desert to be with the Skinwalkers so she could learn to control herself.

The next morning, Scott and I were in the loft, cleaning up the loft after the fight.

"I'm glad you're okay," Scott told me. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here."

"It's okay," I told him. "You were handling the bigger fight. Fighting the Beast and saving Mason? That was huge. They needed the Alpha."

"Yeah, and you fought the Desert Wolf, saved Malia," Scott told me. "Yeah, we both nearly died, but..."

"But what else is new?" I asked.

Scott chuckled. "You took the Desert Wolf's power. You're stronger now. You and Malia both are."

"Not by much, considering we split the power, but yeah," I told him.

"You know, we always seem to find each other," Scott told me. "You, me, the pack. Even Allison." I looked at him in confusion. "When you suggested that the pack symbol be my tattoo, even though I got it when I still had hope for me and Allison to be together, you told me that was why it should be the symbol. Because Allison was still a big part of the pack. And I wanted the symbol to also be something that symbolized you and Derek because without the two of you, I wouldn't be where I am. So I added the triskele to it. But last night..."

"What?" I asked.

Scott sighed. "It was in the tunnels. When Sebastian had his hands around my throat. The guy probably didn't even know what he was doing. His claws got into my neck. He was going to kill me, but then he stopped, and he said a name. Marie-Jeanne."

"The Maid of Gevaudan," I realized. "The one that killed the Beast the first time with the pike."

"Yeah," Scott agreed.

"He saw your memories," I told him.

"He saw Allison," Scott told me.

"They must have looked like each other," I told him. "I mean, maybe exactly like each other."

"It gave me a chance to break free," Scott told me.

"She saved you," I told him. "Allison saved your life."

Scott nodded. "It felt good to save Mason last night. To do something right... after so long of feeling like we've been doing nothing but failing."

"We may be Werewolves, Scott, but we're still teenagers," I told him. "Even me. We're gonna make a few mistakes along the way. But we can still get through them."

"If it wasn't for you, I don't know how I would've made it through everything," Scott told me.

I chuckled, nodding. "Well, I can say this. If it wasn't for you, I would still be that cold stone shell of a girl that didn't let anyone in. I'm living better this way." I walked toward him. "'Cause at least now I can feel alive. And I can feel the way I feel about you. And I love you."

"I love you, too," Scott told me.

Scott and I both smiled small smiles. Scott walked closer to take my hand in his, placing the other on my cheek, kissing me slowly and passionately for a long moment. I wrapped my arms around his neck to pull him into a deeper and more passionate kiss, as we continued to kiss in front of the wall of windows with sunlight pouring in.

This fight was over, but the next battle that we had to fight may have been worse.

But we could still get through that, too.

Because we always got through whatever fights we fought, as long as we, the pack, were together.