CHAPTER 57

HOOOOOOOWL!

The serene night of Beacon Hills was interrupted with the sharp howl of a raging Peter as he faced the assault of the three people before him.

If before he was confident of facing all three and easily coming out victorious then now the foundation of those thoughts have been severely shaken.

He had been mistaken about the boy and that had been a fatal oversight, something he realized all too late as the fight got more heated.

But that wasn't the reason for his ever rising rage. Oh no. The reason why he became increasingly angry was a fact that he came to realize as the fight progressively went on.

They were fighting as a pack.

The very notion of it caused Peter to grit his and his murderous intent soaring higher.

They didn't fight in one spot. They pushed deeper into the forest, mostly caused by Peter as he tried to break the trifecta and the cage they had him in.

Tristan was the one who spearheaded the charge as the only one who could keep up with the Alpha's speed, even surpassing it as the fight went on, so he kept the Alpha from running too far for the others to keep up.

He was also responsible for the most wounds inflicted on the Alpha which only served to further solidify his place as the first person on Peter's 'most wanted to kill' list.

While as the most experienced, Derek tried his best to hold Peter down as much as he could with Malia's help. Being Peter's nephew, he was naturally someone Peter had a deep grudge against due to his 'betrayal' so he suffered Peter's full attention for the brief period that Tristan was out of the picture.

As for Malia, she didn't need to worry much about anything as the first two were doing a good job taking the whole of Peter's attention to themselves. All that was required of her, and a role she happily fulfilled, was depositing all of her suppressed frustrations on the beast in front of her.

… Peter was not having a good time on this cold ill-fated night.

Tristan's bloodshot eyes locked unto Peter as they both crashed to the ground. His body was riddled with bite and slash marks and also one that divided his face with a brutal cosmetic but none of that mattered to him as much as the image of Peter struggling to maintain his beast form.

Grunting his teeth from the pain that was assaulting his body with every slight motion he made, he picked himself up and ran towards the writhing form of Peter and only pushed himself faster seeing as how Malia had gotten there before him.

Malia kicked the kneeling Peter on his face, causing him to stumble, and as he tried to push himself off the ground Tristan got to him and used his head as a stepping stone to lift himself a bit up before driving the force of his momentum to bring Peter's head colliding against the ground for the second time.

"Arghhh!" He screamed as he felt the tendons in his ankle sliced through but his eyes shone even more dangerously. He gritted his teeth despite the pain and dived Peter who was trying to get up.

They rolled for a bit, ending up with Peter above him with one of his hands wide open to slash Tristan's throat open while the other one held the boy down with his greater strength.

Before he could take Tristan's life, Derek caught his hands and put him in a headlock to strictly impede his movements while Malia pulled Tristan from under him.

Seeing the opportunity once again to feed, Tristan wasted no time in latching to Peter's neck and driving his fangs deep into his arteries, drawing blood.

"What are you doing?!" Derek shouted as he saw Tristan drinking Peter's blood frantically instead of killing him, or at least rendering him unable to continue fighting.

"He's weakening him." Malia added as she saw Peter's eyes flickering, his red eyes sometimes losing its bright shade.

Derek watched the scene with a conflicted look as he could feel the strength in Peter's body declining at a steady rate.

Feeling his life draining, Peter was scared of what this represented and when he looked at the source of his creeping fear, he finally realized the reason he had such an instinctual for Tristan since the first time they met.

"Y-you… V-vampire?" The thought alone made Peter's blood run cold as he finally knew what Tristan was about to do, even though the boy was mostly oblivious.

Using all his strength for one last push for survival, he released his head a bit from Derek's right grip and bit down on the arm that had been wrapping around his neck, forcing Derek to release his head.

He tried peeling Tristan off his body but Malia wasn't hearing it as she held his hand and drive a headbutt to his face causing him to stumble.

Derek, no longer willing to take any chances, grabbed Peter by his other hand and drove his claws into Peter's chest, all the while Tristan continued sucking his blood.

Feeling Peter's body go limp, Tristan's once blue eyes lost it shining intensity and dimmed a lot as if trying to change its color but something was lacking – a catalyst needed for the changing.

Finally regaining himself, Tristan pulled his fangs out of Peter's cold body and turned his eyes towards Derek just in time to see his eyes turning from its once beautiful blue to a haunting red, just like Peter's.

"Alpha." He muttered. He finally understood the importance of the reason behind the red eyes and had it not been for Derek, he would have stolen the spark from Peter and with it he would have finally pieced together a missing link from his lifelong puzzle.

He looked at Derek once again and the feeling he got from him was a lot more subdued than what he felt from Peter, or even Satomi for that matter.

Derek's red eyes were a shade darker than that of Peter's and he understood why.

It was impossible for him to gain an Alpha spark from an Alpha werewolf by just killing them. He needed to drink their lifeblood, a lot of it, thereby gradually sucking away their spark as their life filtered towards its end.

Regrettably Derek had beaten him to the benchmark by going for the quickest method by directly plunging the life out of Peter's body.

"It feels… different." Derek muttered as he felt the power flowing through his veins, elevating him to the highest peak of his kind, or at least the starting point of it.

Tristan looked at Peter for a few seconds before clicking his tongue and dropping the husk of the dead man.

It was a successful hunt but it felt a little lacking for him, mostly because he missed the climate of it. He took in a deep breath and calmed the bloodlust he was emitting and then calmly looked at Derek. "That was unfair."

It was more than unfair. It was impolite to steal the prey from the maws of the hunter, and that was what Derek just did.

"Sorry, but I had to. This is the last thing I have from my family. It has a certain sentimental value to me." Derek said.

Though Tristan didn't like it one bit, he understood what Derek was trying to say. While he and Malia could gang up on Derek and definitely kill him, it would go against his teachings to kill someone just for power, an ally no less.

"Since you're the Alpha now, whatever grudges Peter stacked up will be automatically transferred to you so what are you going to do?" Tristan asked while helping Malia stand up.

"Thanks."

Derek looked at his fist and squeezed them. "Regardless of the sides Peter and I stood on, the fact remains that the Argents are to blame for this vendetta, and I plan on carrying it out. Blood for blood." He said with eyes resolute.

Tristan nodded in understanding as he knew Derek wasn't giving up his revenge anytime soon so he asked instead. "Who?"

"Kate." Derek simply replied. "She caused the fire and I plan to end it with her and whoever gets in my way of killing her will die." He said to Tristan and Malia in a light warning, one directed towards a specific member of the family.

Malia harrumphed as she heard what Derek said. "You can do whatever you want but keep Allison out of it."

Derek looked at both of them as if asking whether they were joking but seeing their serious faces he concluded they weren't which was even more baffling. "You know she's been trained to be a Hunter right? She'll naturally hate you and even try to kill you when she finds out you knew all along that I wanted to kill her family members."

To Derek's words, Tristan just shrugged despite the complications of the matter and the frustration he was feeling. "At least this way, she'll be able to smile a little longer." He looked at Malia and chuckled as he saw the apologizing look she was sending his way. He kissed her head and rubbed back to show he wasn't mad about her plea.

"She's my friend too, you know." He then turned to Derek who was watching them with a soft smile on his bloodied face. "Is this how stressful being a normal teenager is?"

Derek laughed and at the end of it was a reminiscent smile on his face. "No, it's not. We're just special that way." He then waved toward them, "Come on, let's go. My hunt is not yet over."

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