Scott approached the creature ahead of him without reluctance, but he was apprehensive, nonetheless. That abomination on the other hand, stood its ground, very confident.

"Matt?" uttered Scott once he thought he was close enough to the thing.

"Scott," Matt said in a taunting manner, "Glad to know you haven't forgotten about me," he added.

"I wish I could just do that," Scott admitted under his breath.

"You're an alpha now! Congratulations by the way," Every word out of Matt's mouth felt calculated and planned for the only purpose to push Scott's buttons.

Not that it would have been surprising, in a way the only thing that hadn't changed about him was just that, his attitude. Everything else seemed almost too foreign; his eyes bared the same cold mass of hatred they'd always displayed. The only exception was that then, it was pretty apparent.

"I see you upgraded too," Scott attempted.

Matt ignored that remark and instead transferred his attention onto Chris, who, was standing a few steps behind Scott, the man clutched his weapon with a little more intensity than he liked to admit.

"Argent! Still alive?... Unlike the rest of your family," he mocked him. Chris tensed up even more than he already had upon hearing those words. Matt knew where it hurt, and he clearly enjoyed pressing on that sore spot. When nobody said anything, Matt decided to add, "I hear your father had been wreaking havoc around the world. I wish he was still alive though," he pouted.

"And why is that?" Chris finally spoke.

"Well, you know... I kinda owe him for the last time,"

"If you're here for revenge, you're a little too late. As you said, he's dead,"

"Yeah, I saw. well, you know, we gotta make do with what we have," Matt cracked a malevolent smile at the end of his statement. It announced the colors of his intentions to Scott and Chris. The latter didn't wait for an invitation, he swiftly lifted his weapon, aimed and shot Matt right through the heart and...

And nothing happened. Matt didn't move, didn't stumble backwards and didn't fall to his death a second time as they'd both expected after that shot.

"Bullets laced with mountain-ash? Really?" The previously malicious smile Matt offered slowly morphed into a devious giggle.

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Scott seemed as shocked as Chris by the fact. They stood transfixed, watching the hole in the creature's chest refill itself, regenerating cell by cell before their eyes, quicker than it had been shot. Braden had shared the information about the bullets needed to take the longtails down, wondering why those didn't work on him, needed to wait.

Matt had stopped laughing, "Well, you know, I wish I could stay longer for more idle chit chat but, I've kinda got a job to do, and I don't want to fail,"

"What job?" Scott tried with him again.

"You see, I am the new recruit, I don't want to turn out..." he appeared to be searching for his words before he finally finished his sentence, "Disappointing," and with that, he lifted his forearm and flicked his finger in the direction of Chris.

Neither of them anticipated the next thing that happened, not even Scott. One of the extra longtails who had been lurking around them for a while crashed into Chris, sending him a few feet away from where he originally stood. The creature then turned towards Scott, picked him up by the throat and slammed him to the ground as hard as its power allowed it to.

It held him down in place, allowing Matt to walk forward. He stopped near Scott's head, towering over him, "I didn't have that kind of power last time we met. Ow how tables have spun and spun around!"

"We didn't do anything to you!" The alpha struggled to push the words out past his tightly held jaw.

"What was that? Ow but you did... You stood in my way, and we all know how that ended,"

"What were we supposed to do? let you kill innocent people?"

"Innocent!? Innocent? Of course, you'd say that! perfect Scott MCcall. You know? She was right, you haven't changed a bit,"

"She?" Scott wondered, but again, Matt ignored his questions and turned towards Chris who was still trying to regain his senses, after what the creature put him through. He strolled his way dangerously and Scott knew what was on his mind. Matt was planning to finish him off.

It was then that Scott found the imperishable strength to grab the large hand squeezing his throat and breaking the bones holding it together, in a loud and painful crack. His facial expression had nothing of the confusion exhibited a few minutes earlier to that. Eyes flashing red and with sheer determination he kicked the longtail away from himself.

He ran towards Matt who, dodged him a little too easily. He seemed to have all the time in the world to simply move aside, as Scott jumped forward in an attempt to reach Matt. The werewolf landed on his feet first then his knees second.

"Damn... You're slow for an alpha," Matt stated simply, "And a true alpha at that!" he mocked further.

"How did you do that?" asked Scott, remaining in that position.

"What?" Matt feigned ignorance for a moment before he continued, "Ow, you mean this?" he said before holding his hand up and plunging it hard into his own chest, braving through the layers of skin, flesh, muscle and bones like there were none, but that was not the most impressive thing about it. As he did that, he simply stood there, barely reacting to what was happening to his body, it was as if that man, that creature had never even heard about the concept of pain.

"What the...?" Scott could think of nothing to do but gawk at the pure insanity he was witnessing, after all the crazy things he'd seen.

"Surprised?" he spoke again, retrieving his hand out his torso, only for it to grow whole again before Scott's eyes, "See? shooting or stabbing me through the heart does nothing to me... I am what you may call the... King of hearts,"