"What are you doing to him?" asked Kali, her eyes on Derek, an air of suspicion mixed in with fear showing on her face.
Derek was still on the floor, trying his best to crawl away from them, through the anguish Jennifer was forcing him to endure. The sight of him was deplorable and painful as he kept trying to shift, his eyes switched between his human and supernatural ones in flashes; whatever she was doing to him, was not only impairing his movements but preventing him from shifting as well, keeping him as helpless as possible.
"There I am, serving him on silver platter to you, what else do you need me to do?" Jennifer said.
Both werewolves knew what she was hinting at with those words, she wanted them to finish the job and put an end to his existence right then and there. Seeing as Anas was hesitating, Kali decided to move forward, towards Derek.
He stopped trying to crawl away when he perceived Kali's feet; he slowly lifted his head to face her. She towered over him, and Derek still couldn't decipher the expression she returned to him at that moment. In fact, he couldn't figure it out at all, he wondered how much time he had to ponder on it, on her reasons, on her motivations...
"Are we waiting for the grass to grow?" Jennifer egged her on.
upon hearing her, Kali's lips parted in an attempt to push words out, but what came out at that moment was,"I am sorry," it mostly came out as a whisper. She proceeded to lift her arm up, her claws ready, to stab through his back all the way to his chest, till his heart gave out on him.
She paused before giving the coup de grace, frowned then turned away, Anas seemed to copy after her, leaving Jennifer in the Dark," What are you doing?" Before she could add any insults to show her displeasure, something came to her ears from a far. A voice, a scream, growing louder with the winds that brought it closer; it was her turn to frown after that, she'd recognize that scream among millions, even though she'd only heard few of it.
Derek on his end, managed to exude an air of surprise through all those pained expressions he was reflecting, he wondered about the meaning of it. Was Lydia and the others in danger? He pushed himself beyond the limits of exceeding hurt he was feeling and clenched his fists as tight as his muscles allowed, saddened that he could offer nothing to help his friends, who he thought were probably going through their own ordeals at that moment as well.
Something rattled things around. Anas, Kali, and Jennifer all began to turn their heads around, looking for the source. The disturbance, just like the scream, also seemed to come from a far. Kali was the first one to stop looking around the place, she'd locked eyes with a figure, humanoid at first sight, eyes glowing with a golden hue. She let out the smallest of gasps that didn't go unnoticed by her partners; both Anas and Jennifer followed Kali's gaze, then a short moment of deafening silence fell.
"Did you miss me, bitche?" the figure finally spoke in a feminine voice, breaking that lapse of quietude. She made a few steps forward, in order to leave the shadows she was hiding behind.
"Erika?" Derek uttered in disbelief.
Before anyone could say anything else, Anas was propelled forward and fell heavy to the ground, and a large, cloaked shape rested on his back; they'd successfully tackled Anas from behind, "I got this one," said the masculine voice coming from the hooded mass on top of Anas.
"All yours," said Erika before launching herself forward in Kali's direction. Both women collided and had their claws in each other's skin, they both wanted to live but Erika seemingly had more intention to win, but most of all, she wanted Kali dead for what she'd done to her.
Derek saw an opportunity to lift himself up, sensing that Jennifer's influence on his body had somewhat decreased. He sure was thankful to his rescuers, but at that moment he couldn't care to wonder about the identity of the second figure, even though he had his idea on the matter. He quickly shifted to his wolf form and darted towards Jennifer who seemed a bit distracted by their most recent Developpement. But alas, he was too slow, she saw him coming and stopped him right away. He growled at first but couldn't hold the howl back any longer, she'd inflicted far more pain on him than the first time she did.
The four other werewolves were busy tearing each other apart in the background, the sound of ripping and breaking soon became muffled to Derek's ears. His senses weakened; he was unable to focus his hearing on the area around him. Through sheer determination, he'd managed to lift his head with difficulty; he first caught a glimpse of a blurry version of Jennifer in front of him, but then... He saw something else, someone else standing behind her.
"Somehow, I knew I couldn't count on you two to get this done," said the voice.
Everyone ceased their doings at once, "Oh! go kick some rocks, no one asked to see your face," retorted Erika.
"What's so wrong with my face?" the man asked feigning offense.
In response Kali opened her mouth, shocked at his sight, "Deucalion?"
"We thought you were dead," said Anas.
"I thought the same thing about you two, to be fair," Deucalion replied.
Jennifer had backed away from him by that point; she was a lot stronger than she'd been when they last met and faced each other, but she still had that inexplicable fear of him. She looked behind her only to see that Kali and Anas were already roughed up and bleeding, coming close to get out of commission.
"What's the matter Jennifer? You don't seem pleasantly surprised to see me," he taunted.
She did not look pleased the slightest, in fact, just the opposite of that, she looked furious, at many things certainly, but nobody paid attention to that side," We're leaving," she stated.
"Leaving us so soon?" Deucalion asked, his tone oozing with sarcasm.
"Don't think so, we're not done yet!" said Erika, firing her golden eyes at Kali, before launching at her again.
But Erika never reached her target; strong winds came through the large doors and raised a tempest of thick veils from dust all around them. When it all finally died down, there was no trace of Jennifer, Kali nor Anas in the distillery, they vanished right before their eyes.
"Well, can't say I didn't expect that," Deucalion announced.
"You are alive? All of you!" Derek managed to say as he slowly got back up on his feet.
"I mean, you saw them alive, why are you surprised to see us?" Erika had her usual irritated tone, before it swiftly transitioned into a smile, she ran towards Derek and hugged him tightly, stopping only when his wincing and complaining got too loud to ignore, he was still sore.
He turned toward the still cloaked figure in anticipation, who seemed to understand the gist and took the hood off his face, "Boyd?" Derek was floored. That or the opposite really, he felt his feet leave the ground, he thought he'd be able to float from excitement... And joy. One that he couldn't hide, he'd been the one to sire Erika and Boyd into the werewolves they became, and then he lost them both very tragically, very quickly, he was their first alpha.
"I feel like I am third wheeling this moment," said Deucalion, amused by the sight of them.