Board Thread:WARNING ALL USERS False Info\Spoilers/@comment-121.45.89.17-20130804051413/@comment-19765459-20140210165011

My inference is that a "True Alpha" is a Beta or Omega who ascends to Alpha status without having to get the spark from somebody dying, whether that death was them killing an existing Alpha or that Alpha dying from some other means. That is why it is rare. Most Alphas "inherit" the spark one way or another.

When Derek was hovering on the edge of death in "Motel California", Scott's eyes kept intermittently turning red and then going back to yellow as Derek's condition fluctuated. That was something I do not think was part of the hallucination (although it shaped what kind of vision he had - Deucalion saying he was now an Alpha). I think that Scott, as the first person Bitten by a Hale Alpha in a long time, and definitely the one with the highest status among the existing Betas, would have inherited Derek's spark had he died.

As for the shapeshifting, that is a skill, and not just a feature of being an Alpha. Talia was well-respected because she had mastered it to the extent that she could become fully-wolf. Peter was more of a wolf-human hybrid, although that might have reflected his homicidal mindset. Scott cannot change because he is too scared of losing his humanity, but he has the potential ability.