Removed > "It is worth noting that this is a lie in a number of ways. Laura was an alpha when she came to Beacon Hills, she didn't come looking for "the alpha," and Derek knows full well that being an alpha doesn't make someone automatically more animal than a beta."

What Derek says is not a lie at all. The viewer here is making incorrect assumptions.

Derek: "It's called an alpha. It's the most dangerous of our kind. You and I, we're betas. This thing is more powerful, more animal than either of us. My sister came here looking for him. Now I'm trying to find him. But I don't think I can do it without you."

Derek is saying that this particular alpha - "this thing," not alphas in general - is more animal than either of them, which is true. Laura being an alpha when she came back to Beacon Hills is irrelevant. Derek never states Laura came looking for an alpha, only that what Laura came looking for now is an alpha. Nothing is stated about what the alpha was when Laura was still alive.