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Laura Hale is a survivor. She survived the death of her pack, she survived the other Hunters, the other Argents; the point is she survives.
And so, when she senses something behind her, she moves. She turns to face the threat, and it is a werewolf. It feels familiar but she won’t dwell on that, not now. When she lunges at her, she lunges back. It claws and scrapes and bites, but it is not a survivor like Laura, so it does not live long.
After the adrenaline wears off and she no longer smells like death, she goes to see her brother. She tells him she found the threat and that it’s gone and her heart aches at how cold he is now. She drags him out to get ice cream and tells him his hair looks disgusting.
The Argents are back in Beacon Hills. Laura knows, she knows, that she cannot harm any of them or they will kill her but the anger inside her needs an outlet, so she wanders around the town that she used to know.
She was not always this angry. She was once full of smiles and laughter and her mother called her ‘Sunshine’; her mother is nothing but ash now, along with everyone else she loved, yes everyone because Derek died that day too; he’s a living corpse, just like Laura. The only living thing inside them is their anger.
On her bad days it seems like she’s tethered to this town, this graveyard. It seems like it’s her anchor point or the north on her compass. Just as surely as the sun will rise, Laura will always return to her town; because how could she not? Abandoning this town would be like saying her family had never lived. It would be leaving behind empty graves and burnt houses. It would be leaving her pack, and she cannot do that.
In the early days of Laura’s survival, a question kept ricocheting around in her head, “how am I meant to get past this?”, how was she meant to grow older than 19 when her family would never see her at 20? Was she meant to grow older than her mother? Was she meant to have children and tell them of the people they would never meet?
She never did get answers but unfortunately, Laura had to survive.
There’s a freshly turned werewolf, Derek tells her, and he won’t listen.
Laura goes to see Scott McCall and all she sees is a scared teenager. His friend is talking about how cool werewolves are and yet Scott McCall’s heartbeat is like a hummingbird. She tries to reassure him that he won’t be alone, but she lost her warmth a long time ago. She tells him that he has to let her help him. He agrees.
Laura is the Alpha of the Hale pack and for the first time in 7 years, they have a new member. Laura’s heart aches.
She tells Derek to be nicer and she tells Scott not to take his words to heart. The familiarity of managing pack arguments is gut wrenching.
Scott’s friend, Stiles, is apparently part of her pack. When told that humans are not pack, Scott looked indignant and replied he said that he and Stiles are a package deal.
Stiles is all questions and energy, and Laura really doesn’t like him. He wants to ask her about the fire. He is the curious sort and doesn’t like not having answers, but he will have to adapt as Laura is not discussing the fire with him.
Scott McCall is dating Allison Argent and suddenly she is 19 years old finding out that her baby brother is dating Kate Argent. Laura can admit that she should have been calmer and more level-headed but instead she is anger incarnate. She shouts and forbids and storms out.
She is running on autopilot, but it comes as no surprise that she ends up at the ruins of her house. She always ends up here; she is constantly running towards the burnt ashes of her family, chasing ghosts.
Scott, predictably, doesn’t listen to her. She compromises with this: He will invite Allison Argent to a family dinner with his mother and Laura both present. Scott agrees.
Laura has never met Scott’s mother, but she supposes she should talk to her before the dinner. She was raised with manners.
Melissa McCall is a good person. That’s all Laura can say. She is warm smiles and sarcastic comments and twinkling eyes.
The dinner does not go bad. Allison Argent is sweet, and kind and Laura hates her. Allison Argent did not lie once, and Laura wishes she did because now Laura can’t hate her. She can’t hate an innocent teenage girl simply because of her family’s legacy.
Scott is smug that she was wrong, and he looks so painfully innocent.
Laura decides that she cannot risk anymore Pack members. She cannot keep getting attached to people. People die. Laura will not be able to handle anymore death.
Laura breaks her own vow when she meets Erica Reyes. She is waiting for Scott in the school parking lot, and she can hear crying. Laura acts on instinct, forever a big sister. Erica Reyes looks so young that her heart breaks as she crouches down and asks, “Are you okay?”
In lieu of answering, Erica throws herself into Laura’s arms and starts sobbing as she tells an absolute stranger her life story. Laura is thrown back in time to when she used to cry in her mother’s arms when the kids at school were mean.
Erica is introduced to the Pack later that day, and with threat of pain upon Scott and Stiles, they protect her at school.
She is introduced to Erica’s best friend, Isaac Lahey, later that week. It is clear that they are a package deal too, so Isaac Lahey is a part of her Pack now as well.
The loft that she and Derek live in used to be quiet. It’s never quiet now. Scott and Stiles are over nearly every day for Scott’s training, Erica and Isaac have all but moved in, and there is never any quiet anymore.
Kate Argent is back in town, and she is hunting Laura’s Pack. Again. Laura can smell smoke and burning flesh and she can hear her family crying; she goes to talk to Allison Argent. She tells this young, fierce, girl what her family has done to Laura’s. Allison Argent starts crying but she accepts the truth and then with steel in her eyes she asks what Laura needs her to do.
Chris Argent comes later. He approaches her with a cautious but steady resolve.
(“I didn’t know.”
“Okay.”
“I would’ve stopped her, if I’d known.”
“But you didn’t, and it doesn’t matter now.”
“I’m sorry.”)
The Hunters leave, at Chris’s request. Kate Argent doesn’t. She waits and almost shoots an arrow into Laura’s baby brother, and Laura can almost see it happen, but the arrow never fires. Kate Argent falls to the ground, an arrow through her eye and her niece standing behind her, bow drawn. Laura cannot see any tears in Allison's eyes; all she sees is steel.
Allison joins her Pack. She is a regular fixture at the loft now. She lounges on the couch with Scott and teases Stiles.
The first time Laura feels pure, genuine affection for the girl is when she storms into the loft, eyes righteous with fury and bruised knuckles. Some kid was cruel to Erica and Allison didn’t hesitate to break his nose.
Allison and Erica are close after that. They can be found painting each other’s nails and discussing the best archery bows. Allison offered to teach Erica how to shoot and now it's their thing.
On the rare occasion, they manage to convince Derek to let them paint his nails.
Laura Hale’s Pack consists of 2 werewolves and 3 humans. They are all loud and they clash sometimes but now all her teenagers sit together at school. The entire Pack shows up to the lacrosse games and Laura has been added to a group chat with Melissa McCall and Sheriff Stilinski.
Lydia Martin is someone Laura does not know. Allison and she are friends, but Laura has not met her. So, it comes as a surprise when she is cornered by the girl.
“I was bitten by a werewolf.” The girl tells her. “On vacation.”
“Oh.” Laura replies, unsure of what to say.
“What happens if the bite doesn’t turn you into a werewolf?” the girl asks, undeterred.
That question sparks her interest and so she invites the girl to the loft to investigate what exactly she is.
3 days later Lydia Martin screams and wakes up in front of a nursing home.
Lydia Martin is a banshee, and Allison gave her pleading eyes so now Laura’s pack consists of 2 werewolves, 3 humans, and a banshee.
Lydia’s introduction does not go as smoothly as Laura had hoped. Stiles looks lovesick, Scott smiles at her with his usual happiness, Allison is thrilled, Erica is wary and Derek flat out ignored her.
However, Lydia Martin is a girl with a goal. So, she talks to Erica about the boys at school and offers to spread rumours about the ones that are cruel to her and asks Derek where he bought his jacket.
Derek accused her of taking in strays and Laura had smiled and pointed to the face mask he was wearing after being invited to girls’ night. “You like them, though.”
He looked affronted, “I really don’t.”
Laura just raised an eyebrow and walked away.
The next time she comes across a stray it’s not her that brings it in. Vernon Boyd looked lonely, Erica had said and Isaac, ever loyal, backed her up.
What surprises her about the kid is her first conversation with him:
“I know you’re a werewolf.”
Laura blinked. “Okay.”
Boyd gave her a small smile and walked away.
Vernon Boyd now sits with her teenagers at lunch.
The supernatural surprisingly doesn’t come up in their day-to-day lives too much. It just exists in their routines. Laura can track Lydia’s phone so she can pick her up after she goes into a death trance, the humans stay away during the full moon.
After every full moon there is a box full of some type of pastry and a sticky note with a drawn-on heart that Laura knows is from Erica.
The next stray is brought to her by a panicked Scott and Stiles. Only this time it is not a human nor a banshee but a coyote. Laura is so going to Melissa’s house after this and drinking all her wine.
The coyote is a were-coyote and when Laura turns her human, she looks so fragile and fierce at the same time.
The were-coyotes name is Malia Tate. Laura fixes the couch for her.
Laura buys a house. Her Pack is getting too big for the loft. Laura can afford a 6-bedroom 4 bath Victorian mansion with a large basement and backyard. She doesn’t think about how she is spending her mother’s money.
Derek stays in the loft, but Laura knew he would, so she made sure to pick a house within walking distance. Isaac moves in with her and she goes to his house to pack up his things, and if later that night she threatens his father, that’s her business. Malia lives with her, as does Erica and Boyd.
Boyd and Erica’s parents aren’t the hitting type, but they do not understand their children, and so they live with Laura.
The other 2 rooms are always ready for her other Pack members.
For the first time in a long time Laura is happy. She can hear bustling in the floor above her and can hear laughter and she is happy.
(Laura should have known that it would not last; she is not a happy girl)
Erica and Boyd are taken. Laura feels the loss like a phantom limb, but they are not dead, and she will not allow them to die.
Laura opens the vault that houses her Pack, and she sees Erica and Boyd and she can breathe for the first time in 2 weeks. Their energy is weakened but they both slam into her and she holds them tight.
Isaac shouts and then they are off of her and holding onto him like he’s disappearing.
Laura scans the vault and her heart stops. She staggers in place, drawn like a moth to the flame, towards her baby sister. Her dead baby sister.
“Cora?” even to her own ears Laura sounds like a wounded animal.
Cora’s head snaps up and then she is in Laura’s arms and crushing her ribs. Laura holds her tighter and cries into her hair.
Laura does not let go of Cora. Even after she has explained her survival, Laura does not let go because if she lets go then her baby sister will be dead again.
Derek is at her house when they all arrive back home. He looks so cautiously hopeful that all she can do is nod and then he is crushing them both in a rare display of affection.
After months of asking, she gives Erica the Bite.
The Pack settles. They adjust to their new members, and they learn about each other. There is no new threat, and they have time to be teenagers again.
Laura Hale is 27 and she is a survivor. She has a Pack again and she will protect it with her life. She is a survivor, but she can see a future where she does not have that title; where she is breathing air that she did not have to fight for.