Author's Note: Thanks for reading, guys. Teen Wolf is only up to its fourth episode in my country, so bear with me as things may get incongruent. I view this piece as a stand-alone.

Chapter 2: Wounds

The thing that jumps onto her back weights like a tonne of bricks and feels like it too. In a fraction of a second she is crushed against a large tree trunk. Her head is spinning. She can barely see what she is up against. The thing is pushing her into the tree as it let out a terrifying howl. It comes to Kate as a death sentence – she is in the clutches of an Alpha. The abominable mutation of a wild beast that infect a human body and transforms the human into the beast's very own fury and grotesque. The Alpha is large and strong, hungry and furious. In mere seconds, she is going to die, in the most horrific death one can imagine.

And just as sudden as it came down on her, it is pulled away. She drops to the grown on all fours, retching and gasping for air. She feels for cuts or torn limbs but finds none. Kate Argent looks up and sees in the half light, a lean and nimble man pounding his fist into the face of the beastly creature, which is fully covered with hair and completely animalistic. They are both are baring their canines, hissing and growling as they claw into each other furiously. Dust fly on the spot they are duking it out. Kate tries to find the blade she slipped into her belt. Her head is still pounding.

But she notices something is getting the Alpha's attention. It looks up, ears standing up despite the man continuing to claw into its seemingly impenetrable body. Then, the animal let go off the man who has proven almost to be its equal and slips into the night like a demon rushing into the gates of hell. It howls like a weeping ghost.

The pain is subsiding and Kate feels a rough hand touching her face and pushing her head aside. The face of the person touching her face is so close to her, she can taste his musky, earthen aroma.

Derek Hale.

He breathes in annoyance into her face. His other hand is travelling to her back, ribcage and front. Its travel is urgent but not violating.

"You're fine! Get up!" He says gruffly and pulls her jacket to get on her feet. Kate is used to rough men, but this one is different. He wants her to walk off her pain and pretend nothing has happened. At the same time, it makes her angry that he is brazenly checking her body with the perfect excuse of examining her injuries. He is supposed to kill her the first chance he gets, as she would have done to him. For the first time in her life, she doesn't understand him. She doesn't understand the very man that she has at one point made prisoner and taunted him so he would feel weak. This confusion is making her pissed.

"Get your paws off me!" She hisses, pushing him away on the chest. Something she touches made her take her hand away from him like she has touched a live wire. Her hands come off with blood, lots of it. He is bleeding. On closer focus, she sees deep gashes on his chest and torso, which are easily hidden by his black get up. And it seems to her that he is noticing his injuries for the first time too. He staggers, sways and kneels on the ground. Derek Hale closes his eyes and clenches his fists. Kate knows exactly what is going on. Derek is healing himself.

And at that moment when Derek Hale is taking the much needed concentration and exertion to repair his body, Kate hears a loud crash of a gun. Instantly, Derek is thrown to the ground, writhing in pain.

Kate turns around in horror.

"Kate! Are you OK?"

It is Chris, carrying his gun. The one which he always got loaded with silver bullets.

"Did it hurt you?"

Kate looks at Derek, who is gasping and struggling with pain as he faces death alone but under the watch of two people who seek only for his destruction and nothing else.