Fic: Discovery Channel (9/12)
Title: Discovery Channel
Author: kayevelyn
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Stiles/Derek
Rating: Overall R
Warnings: eventual knotting
Summary: Stiles is the best werewolf ever. fork in the road au. (were!stiles)
[Read on AO3]
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
The first thing Stiles noticed when he sat down at lunch was that Allison couldn’t look Lydia in the face. Actually, no one at their table could. Even Danny, who normally seemed so immune to her antics, was having a hard time doing it without breaking into a smile.
Lydia, for her part, couldn’t seem to care less, and she opened up her history book so she could go over the homework. It wasn’t until she was halfway through checking over her answers that she looked up and met everyone’s eyes. “What?” Danny snorted as Allison and Scott made quick work of looking not interested. “Oh please, it wasn’t that big of a fire.”
Stiles rolled his eyes, pulling out his phone to see if Derek had texted him. “I’m pretty sure if it had been anything spectacular Harris would have kicked you out instead of just sent you to in-school.”
Lydia sniffed and hit his hand, knocking his cell phone onto the table. “Stop checking your phone. Your boyfriend is driving home so he shouldn’t even be texting. I don’t care about your super special reflex powers.”
Stiles couldn’t stop the blush that rose up on his cheeks and he tucked his phone away. Derek and he hadn’t announced anything, but with the way they had acted during the full moon while everyone was over, they didn’t really need to say anything. He glanced at Danny, but then looked away. A part of him felt like he shouldn’t be moving on, that he should still be torn up, or at least, try to be alone, because Danny was alone. They hadn’t ended their relationship because of a lack of attraction; it was for Danny’s protection, but by him moving on to Derek, it cheapened that reason.
But the other part of Stiles, the louder part, thought everything was okay. There was nothing wrong with moving on, and it wasn’t like he was picking someone new. It was Derek, and he’d been with him through a lot. Derek protected him, and he protected Derek. There was a balance there, a give and take that Stiles couldn’t have with anyone else.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Stiles muttered, but he knew he had waited too long to respond, and the conversation had already moved on.
“So Jackson is getting out of the hospital today,” Danny was saying.
Lydia perked up. “They say he should be back in school this week, too.”
Danny coughed over his laugh. “Yeah, if he works up the nerve to come in.” He looked amused as he leaned over to whisper to Allison. “He still has some bruising from the surgery and he doesn’t want to come back until it’s gone.”
Lydia waved her hand, shutting her book. “If Joey Donner can manage then I’m sure Jackson can.”
Allison giggled as Danny looked patiently at Lydia. “I’m going to pretend we all get that reference and assume it was something vaguely sympathetic.” Allison and Lydia shared a look and another giggle. Danny sighed. “I’m just bringing it up because I wasn’t sure if we had decided or not. Are we telling Jackson?”
Stiles felt Lydia go still next to him, and he looked at her. She was worrying her bottom lip in thought. Stiles wasn’t sure why that was, but he knew his position. “No. He has no reason to know.”
Danny leveled Stiles with a cool look. “I think he does since he was there.”
Stiles shook his head. “So? He doesn't remember, and I want to keep it that way.”
“Why? Because you don’t like him?”
“Exactly. Jackson knowing would cause more trouble than it’s worth. For all we know he’d have no problem going to the hunters if I pissed him off.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Danny argued, looking frustrated.
Stiles took a deep breath. He didn’t want to fight Danny on this, especially when their relationship was rocky at best. “I don’t trust him, so he’s not finding out.”
Danny’s face turned sour. “He’s not the bad guy here, Stiles.”
“I never said he was!” Stiles hissed, ducking his head so his voice wouldn’t get too loud. “He’s selfish though, and the werewolf thing only benefits him one way, and I refuse to let him get the bite.” Stiles was close to slamming his fist on the table, but he pulled it back. He wasn’t mad at Danny. Danny was just trying to stick up for his friend. Stiles just needed to keep reminding himself of that.
“But it’s just fine that Lydia’s already plotting where she falls in pack hierarchy? That’s bullshit,” Danny turned his attention to Lydia, “and you know it. Jackson only ever does what’s expected of him. He never wants to disappoint us, and by hiding this from him? Us automatically assuming he’ll run off? That will make him do just that.” Danny stood up quickly, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “You guys can lie to him all you want, but if he asks me - if he figures out something is up? I’m telling him.”
“Danny wait!” Stiles called as Danny grabbed his tray and left.
Lydia put her hand on Stiles’ shoulder to keep him seated and she stood up, following after Danny. Stiles watched as she grabbed Danny’s bicep, guiding him out of the lunchroom as she whispered angrily at him.
“I thought we had already talked about this,” she was saying, and Stiles almost felt bad for listening in.
There was a brief struggle, Danny snatching his arm from Lydia’s grip before she latched back on.
“We did, but I can change my mind,” Danny argued back.
“Not about this you can’t.”
The roar of the cafeteria got too be too much as Danny and Lydia left and Stiles couldn’t stay focused on their conversation. He came back to the table, where Allison and Scott were looking at him, both nervous.
“For what it’s worth, I agree with you, dude,” Scott said. “Jackson shouldn’t know. He’ll just cause problems.”
Stiles gave a weak smile. “Thanks. It means a lot.”
Stiles’ dad was in the kitchen when he got home, files spread out all over the table. He had a take out carton from the Chinese food place in town and when Stiles went over he saw it was empty. His dad was engrossed in his reading and Stiles sighed, taking the carton and throwing it out before going to the refrigerator to pour himself a glass of milk.
The fridge was empty.
Which made sense. Derek had gone to buy groceries and if his dad had been home all day there wasn’t any way for Derek to bring them in.
“Yeah, we’re all out,” his dad called and Stiles spun around to look at him. His dad looked sheepish. “I meant to go out and get some more groceries, but the case,” he waved to the stack of papers.
Stiles shut the fridge and smiled at his dad. “It’s alright. I thought I still had some milk left. I’ll go out later.”
His dad stretched and closed the manila folder he was reading. “No need. Let’s go out now.” Stiles’ mouth dropped open in surprise. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. Makes me think I never help grocery shop.”
Stiles closed his mouth. “No! No, it’s not that. It’s just…” he didn’t know how he could say groceries had been bought, they were just probably waiting in the back of Derek’s car to be brought in. Stiles watched his dad give him a sly look and Stiles sighed. “Lemme go put my bag upstairs and I’ll come with you. Otherwise you might find out that what I’ve been passing off as whole milk is actually soy.”
His dad’s laugh followed him upstairs and Sitles flung open his bedroom door. His room still smelled like Derek and he took a moment to breathe it in. He had gotten used to Derek being out of range at some point during his training, realizing he couldn’t constantly monitor everyone, but it was still hard when he couldn’t feel his pack mate immediately.
He grabbed a notebook and a bright green highlighter, hoping it would catch Derek’s attention when he got home. He left a note saying he was going out, and to try and hide the groceries some place so his dad wouldn’t notice them right away.
Stiles frowned at the feeling like he should add more, but wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Stiles! Come on!” His dad called from downstairs.
Stiles tacked on a crudely drawn wolf paw, figuring that Derek would get a kick out of it, but he ran down after his dad. “Come on father-mine,” Stiles said grabbing his jacket. “Let’s see you shop like an adult.”
His dad sighed to cover up a laugh and he grabbed his own jacket.
Derek wasn’t home when they got back. Stiles had kept an ear out for him during the trip to the grocery store, waiting for that moment Derek got back in range, but there’d been nothing. His fingers itched to text Derek and see where he was, but Lydia’s stern reminder played in the back of his mind and he resisted the urge.
Instead Stiles did homework, and then moved onto research. His dad hadn’t given him too many details on the case, but he had confirmed that he’d spoken with Mr. Harris for reasons undisclosed.
Stiles debated exactly how unethical it would be to sneak down after his dad had gone to bed and go over the files, but it was mostly to distract himself from the lack of Derek.
Around midnight Stiles started to fidget even more, stomach knotting up because Derek still wasn’t back. He wasn’t even pinging on Stiles’ radar, and that wasn’t normal.
Stiles distracted himself by signing onto his WoW account for the first time in a while, reuniting with a few of his friends online, and playing through a few quests. It didn’t do much to stop his senses from trying to reach out and find Derek though, and after an hour Stiles had to sign off because he was too distracted to do any good.
He climbed into bed, burying his face in their pillows, the combined scent calming him.
There was no reason to panic. The alpha was crazy but he needed them, and the hunters were dangerous, but tied by their code.
Stiles rolled around his bed, trying to get comfortable without Derek’s arms wrapped around him. His bed had never been large, but he felt like he had too much room after spending a month sharing with Derek.
He stripped off his shirt after a moment of debating the pros and cons. If Derek came in while he was sleeping wouldn’t it be a nice way to come to bed? Stiles thought so at least. He debated with his pajama pants, and in a fit of confidence he pushed them down, kicking the pants off and onto the floor. Stiles pulled the sheet over himself.
He still wasn’t comfortable, and he didn’t want to look at the clock; it would just make him antsy. He wanted Derek home, and he was going to tell him as much tomorrow when Derek finally showed back up.
Stiles bit his thumb, not even realizing he had put it in his mouth, the nervous habit to bite the skin around his thumb kicking in without his permission. He pulled it out in frustration, trying to even out his breathing so he could go to sleep. He knew he didn’t need it, but he liked it. It was a human thing he could indulge in.
Stiles shut his eyes, forcing his hands down his hips so they were as far away from his mouth as possible. It didn’t matter that the skin could heal over, he shouldn’t be indulging in his nervous habits anyway. Because there was no reason to be nervous.
He rolled over and wrapped his arms around Derek’s pillow, trying to focus on that. He’d always liked how Derek had smelled, even before he’d realized he was attracted to him. It was one of those things that Stiles had blamed on the wolf. It smelled like home and safety in a way even his father couldn’t master, and after taking a few deep, calming breaths, Stiles realized he didn’t want his dad to smell like this.
It would just give him bad touch feelings, because this smell? It also turned him on, because it was Derek, and that was enough for his body apparently.
Stiles pressed his hips against the bed, feeling himself getting hard. He twisted his head so he was breathing only in the pillow, and it took a moment before he decided, fuck it, it was Derek’s own fault if he left for the night and came back and Stiles had been jacking off. It was one of those things they hadn’t talked about when they started living together, what with the super hearing and scent. Stiles was always distantly aware when Derek had come back from the shower and jerked off, but they just didn’t talk about it.
It was different now though, wasn’t it? They were together so it wouldn’t be too weird if Stiles did it in their bed. If he did it with Derek in mind. Hell, Derek might even like knowing it had happened, and when he got back tomorrow, either before, or after Stiles had gone to school, he would come in and smell it, and yeah…
It would be okay.
Stiles shoved his hand in his boxers to wrap around his cock, his face still pushed into Derek’s pillow. He didn’t need it to give him any ideas, to make his mind race with thoughts of Derek and him, but it was nice to have. Comforting.
Stiles thrust into his hand, panting loudly. He was going to get off quickly, but he needed that. His body was wound tight with nerves, and he tried to focus on the idea of Derek, what he would say if he saw Stiles like this.
Would he keep watching?
Would he interrupt?
Stiles liked to imagine he would interrupt, try to get in on the action, because deep down they were both needy people. They liked to be touched, and liked touching each other.
His stuck two of his other fingers in his mouth, pretending it was Derek. He had felt his cock once or twice, the hazards of sleeping curled up against one another, and at the time they hadn’t mentioned it, but now Stiles was trying to remember how it felt. Hard pressure against his hip, and Stiles was sure if he remembered just right, he could feel Derek rotating his hips just a bit, trying to get a little friction to relieve the ache.
Stiles felt himself getting close, and his knot was starting to grow, but this time Stiles let it happen, because there was no reason to hide it. Derek knew, and Derek had one too, so it wouldn’t be weird. It was just a part of him.
Stiles fucked his hand faster, trying to get his fingers to form a tighter hole as he sucked on his other fingers. His hips arched and Stiles made sure to tighten his fingers behind the knot so there was pressure. It made the orgasm feel that much more intense, and Stiles felt warm come hit his stomach.
He was sure there was some on the bed too, but suddenly he was lax, all the tension drained out of him.
He didn’t even feel that bad that he’d ruined Derek’s spot. It was what he got for being away for the night.
***
He woke up to ice and fire, and it took a moment to realize he was being hosed down. The water was cold, but the pressure of the hose made it burn hot against his flesh and Derek choked.
His arms were bound up and he could feel metal grates against his back as the pressure of the water pushed him as far back as he could go. His arm had healed the wrong way and that was going to be a bitch to fix. Derek was not looking forward to that.
The hose shut off, but it took a moment for him to be able to open his eyes, or hear, or smell.
He was underground, in a dark room. There was a lantern on a table, and Derek spotted his phone over there as well.
“Sorry about the bath, but you smelled like spoiled milk,” a voice - Kate - said.
Derek didn’t give her any reaction.
She didn’t seem to mind though, and she continued to talk. Derek drowned her out, because he wasn’t going to answer anyway. Nothing she did could make him.
***
He woke up to a cold bed. Stiles clutched Derek’s pillow to his chest and tried to push the worry down. Derek hadn’t gone a night without coming back to bed, but things happened. Stiles tried not to let his imagination run wild with crazy ideas as he reached over for a towel, cleaning himself off as best he could.
Derek might have run into another pack. He could have gotten lost. He could have just decided to spend the night at his own apartment. If he’d picked up a tail there was no way he would risk coming to see Stiles.
He tried to stay calm as he got dressed, and went downstairs. His dad was already at work and Stiles ate his toast slowly. He wasn’t going to freak out.
Even though Stiles couldn’t get any sense of Derek being anywhere in the town, and he knew this because he had taken the long way to school, driving to the borders of town to try and see if there was any place that he had missed.
He was trying not to be a wreck, but he knew he was doing a poor job. Scott had asked him what was wrong, and so had other people, some who rarely spoke to him. Stiles didn’t like this, and when he saw Derek later that day they were going to have a long talk about how Stiles was apparently co-dependent now and Derek would need to be in range forever because he was pretty sure he wasn’t getting over that.
Stiles made it to chemistry on autopilot, collapsing into his seat. He had no plans to get out his notebook, figuring that Harris would see this and send him out of the classroom, giving him a chance to call Derek and yell at him for making Stiles feel like this.
His plans were thwarted by Lydia taking her seat next to Stiles and pushing up his overshirt’s sleeve to reveal his forearm. Stiles raised his head to look at what she was doing as Harris started lecturing and Stiles frowned as Lydia pulled out a permanent marker and started drawing something on his arm.
“What are you doing?” Stiles whispered, watching as she finished coloring in what appeared to be a paw print.
“Testing a mixture I made up last night,” Lydia said, pointing to the bottle she had pulled out of her pocket. “If I got it right it should remove stains in one swipe.”
“But?” Stiles asked, because there was always a but.
“It may also take off half your skin!” She smiled as she dabbed a cotton ball with whatever she had made.
Stiles sighed, turning away so he wouldn’t have to see if he skin got taken off, because what good was his healing factor if people didn’t abuse it? He grit his teeth as he felt the cotton ball touch his skin, and he finally looked when Lydia whispered, “oops.”
Yup, half his skin was gone, and that was actually really gross. Stiles shot Lydia a look, and he debated covering it up before it healed or not when the intercom came on.
“Mr. Harris. Can Stiles please come to the office?”
Stiles looked confused as Mr. Harris gave the affirmative, and he stood up, making sure to hide his healing arm from Mr. Harris.
Stiles jogged to the office and then stopped. His dad was there, with Deputy Miller, and Stiles had no idea why.
“Dad?” He tried for casual, not knowing how else to approach this.
“Stiles,” his dad said, looking up with a blank expression, before turning to the secretary, who nodded towards an empty office off to the side. “Come in. I have a few questions for you.”
Stiles’ nerves picked up, but he waited for Deputy Miller to shut the door before he spoke. “What’s up?”
“I-“ his dad started and then restarted, “we were just wondering if you had any contact information for Derek Hale’s next of kin.”
Stiles’ heart dropped. “What?”
“Derek’s next of kin.”
Stiles shook his head, and it took a lot to stop himself from saying that he was Derek’s next of kin. “Why?”
He saw his dad and Miller trade looks before his dad spoke. “We found his car on the side of the road this morning a few miles outside of town. Looks like it got hit by something, and the car rolled off the road.” Stiles’ heart started pounding and he wanted to speak, but his mouth was dry and it felt like his tongue was swollen in his own mouth. “We can’t find him, and we have no record of next of kin to notify about the accident.” Stiles couldn’t breathe and he had to sit down. His dad kept talking. “I know you two were - friends. So if you can maybe remember, did he mention anyone? Any family?”
Stiles shook his head. “Nope. Just Laura.” It was all he could say, because his mind was racing, and he was getting too warm for his clothes. He was pretty sure he was having a panic attack, but he couldn’t remember the signs or what he was supposed to do.
Deputy Miller kneeled down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Stiles. We won’t ask any questions if you know anything. We just want to give his family a call to notify them of the accident.” Stiles could hear a cough from his father and Miller’s hand dropped from his shoulder.
“I don’t know anything,” Stiles finally managed to get out, but he wasn’t able to raise his head up from where he had stuck it between his knees.
He felt his dad’s hand on his shoulder, but it didn’t pull him back like it normally did. Stiles felt guilty because this was something he should have been able to feel, right? He should have known something had happened to Derek.
“Stiles?” His dad asked but Stiles just shook his head. He didn’t know how to talk to his dad. He knew he was overreacting to the news if the only story you knew was that he was just some dumb kid with a crush on Derek, and Stiles really hoped that’s the story his dad believed. “Stiles, you need to breathe.”
He tried to follow his dad’s instructions, and it took a few attempts before he felt himself coming back to reality.
“Are you okay?” His dad asked, and Stiles was finally able to lift his head up.
He gave his dad what he was sure was a watery smile and he tried to nod. “Yeah. No big deal. Just a little high strung. Derek- Derek was supposed to meet up with me yesterday and he never showed up, and I’ve spent all morning working out how I was going to react to each excuse and this was not what I was expecting at all.”
He saw Miller cover his mouth with his hand, and Stiles could understand why he was smiling. No one ever expected the worst, but really they should.
“How about you stay here for a few more minutes and get yourself put back together okay?” His dad asked, and Stiles nodded, sniffing, and he hadn’t realized he had started to cry during his attack.
He wiped his face as his dad and Miller left the room.
“It was worth a shot,” Miller said the moment the door was shut halfway.
His dad made a noise in the back of his throat, and Stiles could hear him rub his temple. “How are the guys working out getting the warrant to search his place for the information?”
“Boyd is pushing for it.” Miller paused, and Stiles could hear her radio go off. “We have the K-9 unit out looking for Hale. With the injuries he probably sustained he wouldn’t have gotten far. We’ll probably find him before nightfall.”
“Yeah well, that’s if he made it through one night.”
Stiles put his hands over his ears because he didn’t want to hear this. They were talking about Derek as if he were a human, and that wasn’t even close to the truth. A car crash couldn’t hurt him. That had even been one of the examples Derek had given the first time they had met. He said they could crash their car and walk out just fine.
Which meant it was something else, and that’s what worried Stiles so much.
Stiles took a heavy seat into the chair and Scott, Lydia and Allison looked over at him. He had skipped gym with his dad’s permission, taking a period in the office to try and recompose himself. It hadn’t worked that well from the way his friends were looking at him.
“What’s the matter?” Danny asked as he took a seat across from Stiles, looking at everyone.
They all looked at Stiles and he had to take a minute or else the words would come out wrong.
“Derek’s missing.”
Everyone was silent, and then everyone was talking all at once.
“What?” Allison’s voice went high pitched.
“Is that why you got called to the office?” Lydia asked.
“Are you sure?” Danny hissed, eyes wide in disbelief.
“Maybe he’s just taking a vacation?” Scott asked.
“No, he’s gone, Scott,” Stiles said, focusing on the last person he heard. “The police found his car crashed on the side of the road outside of town, but there’s no sign of him.”
He felt Scott’s hand on his and he looked down to see he had started to grow claws. He curled in his hand into a fist as Lydia spoke.
“That doesn’t mean anything, Stiles. He could have gotten injured and went off on instinct.”
“If he were going off of instinct he would have come home,” Stiles said fiercely. “Back to my room. And he didn’t.” He dropped his head against the table, trying to calm himself down. “And I didn’t even notice. I mean, I knew he wasn’t in town, but I was trying so hard not to worry, because what could it be? Nothing, and then it turned out it was something and I don’t even know what.”
Someone else put their hand on his back, and it took a moment to realize it was Allison, her and Scott rubbing his back to calm him down.
“What can we do?” Danny asked, and Stiles took a deep breath, trying to think.
“Nothing. I’ll- after school I’m going to go look at the crash site. Try and track him.”
“We’re coming with you,” Lydia said immediately, glaring at Stiles when he tried to protest. “No. We are. Derek is your boyfriend, and you’re our friend, so it’s only natural.”
Stiles didn’t have it in him to protest, too worn out from working himself up into a worry.
Stiles parked almost a mile away from the crash because he could still hear police around the area. The four others stumbled after him, and he wondered again why he had brought them. He wouldn’t be able to get very close with all of them with him.
Stiles veered off the road, keeping low just inside the forest that was on the side of the road, and it only took a little bit for Lydia to let out a curse, her heel breaking.
“You guys didn’t need to come,” he muttered, not looking back because he could hear Danny taking care of Lydia, offering her a ride on his back. His senses were stretched as far as he could get them, looking for signs of Derek.
“Yes, we did,” Scott said, throwing an arm around his shoulders. “You’ve got us for a reason, and it’s what we’re for.”
Stiles didn’t relax as they got closer to the crash, and he stopped when he felt himself in range of the few cops still looking around. He looked at his friends. “I’m going over really quick, just to get a look and a sniff, and then I’ll be back. Stay here.” He tried to get a lot of authority in his voice but he wasn’t sure it transferred over.
Either way, no one moved in the few seconds it took him to run to the car and back, taking in as much detail as he could before he was seen.
The biggest thing he took in was that he couldn’t smell anything, and that disturbed him.
“Well?” Lydia asked from over Danny’s shoulder.
Stiles frowned. “I can’t smell anything.”
“Like there are too many scents because of the police?” Allison asked.
Stiles shook his head. “No. Like I literally can’t smell Derek. I know that’s his car, I’ve ridden in it enough I know exactly what it smells like, and now it just smells like car. Impersonal.”
“What could hide the smell of a werewolf?” Scott asked.
Stiles took a deep breath, trying to get a grasp on the wrongness he was smelling, but he couldn’t. “The alpha did it all the time,” he finally said, feeling himself get angry.
If this was a new game by Peter, some sort of training...
“You think he could be responsible for this?” Allison asked.
Stiles looked back off towards the crash. “The car is totaled, and it’s possible he crashed into the side of the car to run Derek off the road and make him weak for the time it would take to overpower him.”
“And what?” Allison asked. “What could he want with Derek? I thought he needed you guys.”
“He does. But he also wants to train me,” Stiles said, feeling himself wilt as it hit him that if the alpha had Derek there was almost nothing he could do. “And I don’t know who else could hide a werewolf’s scent.”
Lydia was frowning where she rested her head on Danny’s shoulder and she looked unconvinced, but she didn’t say anything except, “come on, it’s getting dark and not all of us are werewolves with awesome sight.”
Stiles took one last look at the crash before he followed after his friends. He would need to find Peter, which would lead to Derek.
***
Jackson hadn’t wanted to go back to school that week. If he’d had it his way he wouldn’t have returned until his face was completely healed, but the doctor’s note only covered so long, and the bruising and swelling had gone down so his parents had pretty much forced him to go back.
He met Danny outside the front door, wearing a pair of sunglasses, which only caused Danny to raise his eyebrows.
“You look ridiculous,” Danny said, and he reached for the glasses. Jackson tried to dodge, but Danny was too quick and he plucked off the sunglasses. “You don’t even look that bad. Just like you’ve had a few rough nights.”
Jackson growled because he could tell from Danny’s face that he was just trying to be nice, but it still made him feel better. He never usually cared what people thought, and knowing that his friend was making a joke out of it made it better.
He was still not prepared to see Stiles though, and he told Danny as much.
“Don’t worry,” Danny said leading them towards his locker. “Stiles doesn't want to see you just as much.”
“Still can’t believe that punk got away with everything,” Jackson muttered as he watched Danny unlock his locker.
“Well, would you rather have everyone know that Stiles was the one who punched you?” Danny asked, and no, Jackson did not, but he’d never admit that.
“So. Lydia said that you two broke up?”
Jackson watched Danny’s face for any sign of hurt, but he kept his emotions hidden. It was one of the things Jackson hated, because Danny didn’t normally hide his emotions, so when he did it just meant that he would eventually crack and Jackson would need to be there to catch him. And he didn’t mind catching Danny, that’s what friends were for. But Jackson didn’t want to clean up Stiles’ mess because there shouldn’t have been a mess to begin with. This should never have happened.
“Danny!” He said, because Danny wasn’t answering him.
Danny shut his locker. “I got you special permission to be late to a few of your classes, so we can take the long way around to our first class, okay?”
“Danny,” Jackson said again, catching Danny’s shoulder to stop him from walking off before their conversation was finished. “Talk to me.”
Danny shrugged him off and offered him a smile. “It’s nothing, Jackson. Just don’t want to talk about it since I know you don’t really care.” Jackson opened his mouth in surprise, honestly offended by that. Danny quickly corrected himself. “Not that you don’t care, but you were expecting it, and I just- I’m over it, okay?”
Jackson let him go with a sigh, because Danny was in one of those moods where he thought he was doing the right thing but not saying anything. “We’re going to talk about this eventually, Danny.”
***
“Stiles Stilinski I swear to god once I find out your first name I am going to enjoy it using it in situations like this,” Lydia cursed him as she brought up the rear of their group.
Stiles sighed but didn’t give her a response. There wasn’t really one he could say because he had already tried to tell the group of them not to follow him. He was slowing his pace down enough as is just to have them tag along, he didn’t need to be guilt tripped because he was walking too fast.
The group had followed him when he had trekked out to the old Hale house, which had been a big waste of time. Stiles wasn’t sure why he wasn’t surprised. That would have been too obvious, Peter hiding out in his old house. The only thing that had been there was the stench of humans that was too old to be of any use.
The woods were also empty and even though it hadn’t even been a week yet Stiles was still getting antsy. He wasn’t sleeping well, because what was the point of sleeping if he could be out looking for Peter and Derek.
The not sleeping was catching up to him though, and he was starting to become aggressive. That’s why Scott had been the one to suggest going to Doctor Deaton for answers.
Stiles didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before, probably because his memory of Deaton helping was tarnished by the pain in his thigh from the bullet. But it made sense. Deaton was in on this werewolf lore, and while he wasn’t one himself, he might know something a werewolf would use to hide their scent. Stiles didn’t understand why everyone felt the need to follow him to Deaton’s office, but they insisted and Stiles had gotten past the point of caring.
“I will reiterate, I don’t understand what it is you guys don’t understand about the idea of letting me do this on my own,” Stiles finally said as he got to the front door of Deaton’s clinic. He turned back to look at the four of them.
“Obviously the core concept,” Allison said, looking way too chipper. Stiles could tell how much she was enjoying the legwork behind trying to track Derek. Lydia, Scott and Danny didn’t like it so much, but did it because they felt they had to, but Allison thrived in it.
Stiles had to admire that, even if it made him want to strangle her sometimes because they were already in too deep. He should be doing this on his own, but now he wasn’t sure if he even knew how.
“Will you guys at least stay in the lobby?” He asked as he stepped inside the office.
“Now Mr. Stilinski there is no reason for that.”
Stiles jumped because he hadn’t even heard Deaton come up behind him. Or maybe his senses were just going because of sleep deprivation.
“Doctor Deaton, hello,” Stiles said, falling into the lobby.
His friends followed him and Deaton smiled at all of them. “What can I do for you, Mr. Stilinski? Oh! I saw your alpha the other day,” Deaton said, casual as can be as he walked behind the counter, leaving it open so Stiles could follow.
Stiles froze. “He’s not my alpha.”
Deaton smiled at him and then continued into the back. “Then I assume you aren’t wondering what he was here for. So why are you here?”
“No. I want to know as much about Peter as I can,” Stiles said, following Deaton into the back. “He’s taken Derek in some sick training exercise and he’s doing this thing where it messes with my senses so I can’t track him.”
Deaton hummed thoughtfully as he opened one of the cages and pulled out a sleeping cat. “I need to give the animals their shots, I hope you don’t mind.” Stiles shook his head and Deaton nodded to Scott. “Can you help, Scott?” Scott sprang into action, grabbing some of the medicine and going about helping Deaton.
Stiles looked at Deaton as he took out another cat for a shot. “Have you heard about anything like that before? I haven’t read about it, and neither has Lydia.”
Deaton gave Lydia a faint smile. “Well, if Lydia hasn’t heard about it then it probably doesn’t exist.”
Lydia crossed her arms over her chest. “Or I just haven’t found the right book yet.”
“Whatever it is,” Stiles cut in. “I just want to know what it is, and how to get around it.”
Deaton’s lips went thin as he frowned. “I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Stiles asked sharply.
“Can’t,” Deaton responded, his voice leaving no room for disagreement. “An alpha who is blocking himself from his betas isn’t something you can just get around. Now, if it were hunters you were being blocked from, that I would have solution for.”
Stiles felt like he had been hit with a truck as Lydia pushed her way forward.
“Hunters have a way to block smells from wolves?”
Deaton nodded, reaching for another cat, the last in the room. “They use a certain strand of wolfsbane to do the trick. I keep a running stock in my office. You wouldn’t notice anything off, and Derek probably wouldn’t either, but Peter had, which is why he came to see me.” He gave the last cat a shot and then had Scott put the cat back in its cage.
Lydia spun on her heel and looked at Stiles excitedly. He shook his head. “No,” he said. “It was Peter. It has to be.”
He could handle Derek being locked away somewhere with Peter. There was a high chance he wasn’t even locked away, just told to stay away. But hunters were different. Hunters were unpredictable and they would hurt him.
Stiles felt his claws bite into his palms as he repeated that mantra in his head.
***
Allison was doing her homework when Kate knocked on her bedroom door. She looked up and tried not to look forced as she smiled. It was hard though, because she knew what Kate was capable of, and it scared her.
Especially if she was part of the reason Derek had gone missing. Stiles had left Deaton’s in a panic, wanting to tear up all the places he had already searched with new fervor because now he had a new culprit. A new suspect. Scott and Lydia had run after him, leaving her and Danny behind. Danny was hanging out with Jackson, and Allison had a curfew.
“Hey you,” Kate said, leaning her hip on the doorframe. “Long time no talk. How goes everything?”
Allison looked at her homework and then back at her aunt. “Slowly?”
Kate came into her room, sweeping over to her bed and taking a seat. “We haven’t had a chance to talk, just the two of us. You don’t tell me about school, or your boyfriend. Kinda feels like you’re blocking me out.”
Allison looked away from Kate, going back to her homework. “Dad says the same thing,” or at least, he would if he spoke to her for more than a few minutes when she grabbed breakfast. “So just know it’s not you.”
“What’s got you like this, Ally?”
Allison gripped her pen, trying to think what she should say, how she should react. “Don't call me Ally.”
She heard the bedspring squeak and Allison looked behind her at Kate standing up. “I see. Getting to that point where you’re growing up, isn’t it?” She placed a hand on Allison’s shoulder and she squeezed. “I know all about that. You feel like your parents don’t understand you, that you don’t fit in.” Allison kept quiet, letting Kate ramble. “But I’ll let you in on a little secret.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “You aren’t that different from anyone else. Especially anyone in this family. We’ve all been there. Me. Your mom. We have a lot in common.”
Allison snorted. “I highly doubt that.”
Kate pulled away, taking Allison’s chair with her as she did, giving Allison no choice but to follow. “How about this. I’ll show you how much we have in common. A little family secret.”
Allison’s heart lurched up to her throat and she couldn’t stop herself from glancing at her desk drawer that held the arrowhead she had found in the kitchen earlier this week. She hadn’t had a chance to use it yet, but she could only imagine what it did. Lydia had taken it apart the other day, over under the guise of doing homework, and she’d found an explosive inside it.
“A family secret?” Allison said, huffing.
Kate’s eyes had followed hers though and she was smirking. “You can’t tell me you aren’t intrigued a little, can you?”
Allison didn’t know what Kate could possibly mean, whether the secret would be the hunting or not, but she still wanted to know. She wanted to see Kate’s hand.
“Lead the way,” Allison said, waving a hand.
Kate grinned and took Allison’s hand, leading her out of the house.
They had been driving for a little while, Kate’s car leading the way because she said she had things to do after and Allison needed to get home at a reasonable hour because she had school. Allison didn’t complain because she wasn’t sure she would have been able to handle being a car with Kate alone. She might have snapped, not sure what else to say.
She followed Kate up a hill, and in the dark the woods looked different, but when they pulled up behind a house, Allison recognized it. Stiles had brought them here, looking around desperately for the alpha and Derek. He hadn’t let them follow him inside, saying the floor boards were too weak, so Allison had spent the time looking around outside.
Kate didn’t head inside. She walked to the side of the house, leaning down and brushing aside some leaves to reveal a cellar door. Allison could barely see in the dark, and all she had was the flashlight Kate had handed her.
“Don’t be afraid,” Kate said with a smile. “This is almost a family tradition. You know, if you hadn’t been raised by my brother, you would have done this ages ago.”
Allison bit her lip to keep herself from saying something she shouldn’t. She had a sinking suspicion what was going on, what Kate was going to show her, but her stomach still dropped to her toes when Kate lead her into a room and turned on another light to reveal Derek, chained up to a wall.
Allison’s scream was real, as were the tears that followed when she saw Kate turn on the device she had hooked up to Derek’s side, causing him to shift right there.
Kate was talking, but Allison wasn’t listening.
“Isn’t it disgusting?” Allison finally looked at her aunt, unable to believe what she was seeing.
“What- what are you doing?” Allison asked, and a part of her realized she should ask what it is, but she didn’t have time. She needed to know what Kate was doing and then she needed to leave and get help.
“Well, I could say I was trying to get information, but I’d be lying,” Kate said, fingers trailing over Derek’s stomach and Allison looked away. “You see, these things? Werewolves? They rarely give up their pack. I could spend literally months trying to work him open,” she smirked. “Actually, I have. But not this time, right Derek?” Derek fought his chains, snarling and biting and Allison let out another gasp. Kate seemed uninterested. “He won’t talk again. Which is a real shame, because I would love to know everything he knew. Sadly some things are not meant to be.”
“So what will you do instead? If he won’t talk?” Allison asked, pushing herself against the door. There were guards, other hunters, and Allison was trying to map out the place in her mind so she could relay it to the others.
“Kill him probably,” Kate said with a shrug, flipping the switch again, shooting pain through Derek’s body. He snarled and tried to fight it but Allison could see how much it tired him out. “Want a go?” Kate asked, but when she looked at Allison her face softened and she approached her. “Allison? Are you okay?” Allison shook her head, and Kate made soft cooing noises, as if that would calm Allison down. “There, there. I know it’s a lot to take in.”
She embraced Allison, and she just stood stiffly in Kate’s arms because she couldn’t get the image of Derek fighting, chained up, out of her mind. She wasn’t sure she ever would.
She needed to tell the others. She needed to tell Stiles.
***
“Hey dad,” Stiles said collapsing into the seat opposite his father.
He knew he probably looked a mess, but he didn’t care. He needed the normality, and the calm that his father gave him because if he didn’t Stiles was pretty sure he would go insane. The thought that Derek might be held by hunters was tearing him up, and it made him search harder. But the searching wasn’t helping. Deaton hadn’t been able to provide him with the solution immediately, saying he needed the flower to grow just a little more, but Stiles didn’t have time. He couldn’t wait a couple more days for some flower to come into bloom.
He wanted to announce his presence to the hunters, howling and clawing, but he couldn’t. He would risk putting more than himself in danger if he did. So he came home to his father, and the million notes from his investigation. Notes he was making no attempt to hide, so Stiles didn’t feel bad picking up a pile of notes and looking them over.
They were the details to his dad’s interview with Mr. Harris and a few other people. His dad didn’t say anything as Stiles looked through more of the papers. They didn’t connect together all at once, but by the time he got to the bottom of the pile, where a report of the Hale fire laid, Stiles realized the connection.
“All of this ties into the fire?” He asked, and his dad finally looked up from the notes he was looking at.
“Stiles, you shouldn’t be looking at these,” he said with a sigh, but he didn’t try to shoo Stiles away.
“Yeah I know,” Stiles said brushing it off. “But what? Is the fire the connection you think?”
His dad let out a sigh and put his notes on the table and Stiles reached for them. His dad must have been tired because he just grunted and didn’t say anything as Stiles looked over the few notes he hadn’t seen.
“From what I’ve gathered, when Laura got to town she started asking around about the fire. And it seems like everyone attacked might have something to do with the fire, but… I can’t figure out who started it all.”
“You think it could have been someone covering their tracks?” Stiles licked his lips, looking at the drawing in his hand. He knew who had killed everyone so far, but no one would believe that.
“It’s possible. They found out Laura was snooping around, and so they killed her, and then killed everyone connected with the fire so there was nothing left.” His dad rubbed his eyes. “But since most of the witnesses are dead, and the only thing we have is a statement from Harris saying that it was a young girl wearing that pendant, well you can imagine our frustration.”
Stiles rubbed his lower lip, trying to remember where he had seen the pendant before. He almost had it when the doorbell rang, scaring both of them.
Before Stiles could get up his dad was already up, motioning for Stiles to stay in his seat. He sighed and turned back to the pendant drawing. It was on the tip of his tongue where he had seen it when the smell of who was at the door hit him.
“Allison!” He said, jumping up and running to the front door.
His dad stepped to the side as Allison rushed towards him, and Stiles could smell tears. He hugged her as she ran into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder and Stiles was pretty sure he looked half-terrified from the way his dad was looking at him.
“Uh- I… we’re gonna go upstairs. Relationship issues, her and Scott, big fight,” Stiles said, turning and heading up the stairs with Allison. He could feel his dad’s eyes boring into the back of his head and he was so going to have to explain himself with something more convincing then that.
“Keep your door open,” his dad called after him and Stiles winced, because yup, his dad had gotten the exact wrong impression.
But that didn’t matter right now, what mattered was why Allison was crying. He turned to her the moment they were inside his bedroom, hoping she would start explaining.
“Allison?”
She pulled away from him, and rubbed her face, trying to get control. “Derek,” she said and Stiles gave her his full attention.
“Derek? What about Derek? Did you see him?”
Allison nodded, and let out a dry hiccup. “Hunters. They have him. My aunt,” she took a deep breath. “My aunt has him.”
Stiles felt his control start to shift and he couldn’t have that. He needed to find something to anchor to, but it was so hard because hunters had Derek. Kate Argent had Derek.
Stiles snapped his attention to Allison. “You. Where did you get your pendant?”
Allison looked at him for a moment, and then nodded, understanding that his questions had a logical purpose. “My birthday. It was a family heirloom.”
“Who gave it to you? Your mom? Kate?” He tried so hard to reach and grab Allison by the shoulders because he was scared of his own strength. He didn’t want to hurt her.
Allison shook her head. “Kate. It was hers.”
Stiles felt himself go limp and he collapsed on his bed as it all came together. Kate was who Peter was after. He was going after everyone who had had a hand in the fire, and Kate was the mastermind. She had to have been.
Before Stiles could say anything to Allison, to tell her what he’d figured out Scott came barreling in the room. He rushed straight for Allison, wrapping her up in his arms, as she let out a fresh wave of tears.
Stiles rubbed his face and glanced to his door where he could see his dad looking in suspiciously. He shook his head and stood up, walking over. “Like I said, big fight. All better now.” He tried to smile but his dad’s face told him he wasn’t very convincing.
“Alright,” his dad said. “If you say.”
Stiles shut the door as his dad left and he turned back to his friends. “Hunters have Derek,” Stiles whispered because he could still hear his dad outside.
Scott heard him though, eyes going wide. “Where? Are we going?”
Stiles shook his head. “No. I’m going.”
“No,” Allison cut him off. “You aren’t. We need a plan Stiles. There were at least six hunters there, each armed. If you go in there now, who knows what will happen to you.”
Stiles dropped onto the bed because that was the truth, but he didn’t want to believe that. “Fine,” he admitted, grabbing his phone because if he was going to plan he wanted Lydia in on it. She would point out everything they would be overlooking.
***
“Come on Danny, cheer up,” Jackson said, pulling into the diner parking lot. “We are getting crap food, and then going to see whatever shitty movie you want.”
He saw Danny give a faint smile but besides that he didn’t have any reaction. Jackson was getting a little sick of that because he was trying for his friend. Normally it would be Lydia and him doing this, but Lydia had been distant since Jackson had come back from the hospital. Sure, she came in to check on him, and she seemed the same, but she was busier than usual, running off to do other things. So it was up to Jackson to pull off their normal ‘Danny’s post-break-up’ night by himself.
Danny let himself go along with it, but Jackson could see his heart wasn’t really into it, which was why he jumped on the text he got as he was exiting Jackson’s car.
“Jackson,” Danny called, “we have to go.”
Jackson stopped and turned. “What do you mean? This is your night.”
“I know,” Danny said patiently, waving his phone. “And now you need to take us to Lydia’s house.”
“Excuse me?” Jackson asked, but he was walking backwards, opening the door back to his car. He restarted the car and looked at Danny as he pulled out onto the street. “Are you going to explain anything?”
“Just go to Lydia’s house.”
Jackson sucked in a breath. He was normally patient with Danny, but it was really growing thin. Danny had been distant all week and now he was blatantly leaving Jackson out of the loop. “Why?”
Danny took a deep breath, looking at his phone. “Because Stiles is a werewolf and they just called a pack meeting.”
Jackson slammed on the brakes, ignoring the honks. “What?”
Danny looked a mix of annoyed and impatient as he responded to a text and then pointed for Jackson to pull over so they weren’t in the middle of the road. Jackson did as he was told, and then looked at Danny for an explanation.
“Stiles is a werewolf and so is Derek, and so was the thing chasing us in the school.” He turned to give Jackson a big fake smile. “Werewolves. That’s why I broke up with Stiles, because I didn’t want to be involved in this shit, but I still am, because I’m literally the only sane person in this fucking pack.”
Jackson put his hand against Danny’s forehead, checking for a fever. Danny shook his off and Jackson glared. “Danny-“
“No! Don’t,” Danny said harshly. “I’ve told you because I know you can handle this, so if you start freaking out on me I will sock you so hard I don’t care if it rebreaks your face, and Lydia is forced to make me and Stiles her dates.”
Jackson’s jaw clenched and then he winced in pain. “I-“
“Just drive and I’ll fill you in on the way.”
Jackson half listened while he drove towards Lydia’s house, letting Danny talk about everything.
Werewolves. Fucking werewolves. No wonder Stiles had been able to cause so much damage if he had super strength and god knows what else.
“Is that why you dated him? Because of some weird werewolf power?”
Danny shot him a glare. “No. Werewolves don’t have mind control. Trust me, I made sure.”
Jackson didn’t relax. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure, Jackson,” he huffed, sinking into his seat. “I already checked but werewolves can’t do that. I dated Stiles because I thought he was safe and boring and obviously I can’t have nice things because that didn’t happen.”
“You deserve nice things,” Jackson said, because he wasn’t sure what else he could say to that.
“Yeah, well,” Danny rolled his neck and looked out his window. “No one wanted me to tell you, but I think you deserve to know.”
“Thanks for that,” Jackson said, and he meant it. “So why are we going to a pack meeting?” He stumbled over the words because they were weird, something he had never expected to say before, but Danny didn’t comment.
Danny shrugged. “We don’t say much in our texts. I just got a text from Lydia saying there was a crisis. I think it has to do with Derek.”
“Derek,” Jackson said flatly. “The other werewolf.”
“Yeah. Stiles’ new boyfriend.” The way Danny said it just showed how much it hurt him and even if he didn’t want to let it, Jackson still knew.
He resisted the urge to slam on the breaks again. “They are dating?”
“They might as well be. Lydia keeps saying they are. Listen, it doesn’t matter, and don’t bring it up. He’s missing and it’s thrown Stiles for a loop. That’s why I’ve kept you away from him all week.”
Jackson gripped the steering wheel as he turned into Lydia’s driveway. There were already two cars, Allison and Stiles’, and Jackson parked beside them. He tried to calm himself down and he looked over at Danny to see how he was acting. He would mimic Danny, because Danny knew what to do.
It was hard though, when he walked into Lydia’s room and suddenly felt like an outsider. The other four teens were sitting on Lydia’s bed, talking in hushed voices, all touching in some way that made it seem like they didn’t even notice what they were doing. And that was fine for Scott and Allison. They were dating, but Lydia was rubbing Stiles’ forearm and the only thing that stopped Jackson from throwing a hissy fit was Danny’s words that Derek and Stiles were a thing, and the pain in his face reminding him what happened last time.
They all looked at him, and he felt even more like he didn’t belong. He could see how much they didn’t want him there, but no one said anything. They all looked at Danny, even Stiles, and something must have passed between them, maybe a pack thing, but they all looked away and went back to talking.
Danny grabbed Jackson’s wrist and pulled him into the room, shutting the door behind him. Jackson took a seat on Lydia’s computer chair and looked at everyone.
“So what’s this crisis about?” He asked, because damn if he was going to let anyone see him thrown for a loop again.
Chapter 10
Author: kayevelyn
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Stiles/Derek
Rating: Overall R
Warnings: eventual knotting
Summary: Stiles is the best werewolf ever. fork in the road au. (were!stiles)
[Read on AO3]
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
The first thing Stiles noticed when he sat down at lunch was that Allison couldn’t look Lydia in the face. Actually, no one at their table could. Even Danny, who normally seemed so immune to her antics, was having a hard time doing it without breaking into a smile.
Lydia, for her part, couldn’t seem to care less, and she opened up her history book so she could go over the homework. It wasn’t until she was halfway through checking over her answers that she looked up and met everyone’s eyes. “What?” Danny snorted as Allison and Scott made quick work of looking not interested. “Oh please, it wasn’t that big of a fire.”
Stiles rolled his eyes, pulling out his phone to see if Derek had texted him. “I’m pretty sure if it had been anything spectacular Harris would have kicked you out instead of just sent you to in-school.”
Lydia sniffed and hit his hand, knocking his cell phone onto the table. “Stop checking your phone. Your boyfriend is driving home so he shouldn’t even be texting. I don’t care about your super special reflex powers.”
Stiles couldn’t stop the blush that rose up on his cheeks and he tucked his phone away. Derek and he hadn’t announced anything, but with the way they had acted during the full moon while everyone was over, they didn’t really need to say anything. He glanced at Danny, but then looked away. A part of him felt like he shouldn’t be moving on, that he should still be torn up, or at least, try to be alone, because Danny was alone. They hadn’t ended their relationship because of a lack of attraction; it was for Danny’s protection, but by him moving on to Derek, it cheapened that reason.
But the other part of Stiles, the louder part, thought everything was okay. There was nothing wrong with moving on, and it wasn’t like he was picking someone new. It was Derek, and he’d been with him through a lot. Derek protected him, and he protected Derek. There was a balance there, a give and take that Stiles couldn’t have with anyone else.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Stiles muttered, but he knew he had waited too long to respond, and the conversation had already moved on.
“So Jackson is getting out of the hospital today,” Danny was saying.
Lydia perked up. “They say he should be back in school this week, too.”
Danny coughed over his laugh. “Yeah, if he works up the nerve to come in.” He looked amused as he leaned over to whisper to Allison. “He still has some bruising from the surgery and he doesn’t want to come back until it’s gone.”
Lydia waved her hand, shutting her book. “If Joey Donner can manage then I’m sure Jackson can.”
Allison giggled as Danny looked patiently at Lydia. “I’m going to pretend we all get that reference and assume it was something vaguely sympathetic.” Allison and Lydia shared a look and another giggle. Danny sighed. “I’m just bringing it up because I wasn’t sure if we had decided or not. Are we telling Jackson?”
Stiles felt Lydia go still next to him, and he looked at her. She was worrying her bottom lip in thought. Stiles wasn’t sure why that was, but he knew his position. “No. He has no reason to know.”
Danny leveled Stiles with a cool look. “I think he does since he was there.”
Stiles shook his head. “So? He doesn't remember, and I want to keep it that way.”
“Why? Because you don’t like him?”
“Exactly. Jackson knowing would cause more trouble than it’s worth. For all we know he’d have no problem going to the hunters if I pissed him off.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Danny argued, looking frustrated.
Stiles took a deep breath. He didn’t want to fight Danny on this, especially when their relationship was rocky at best. “I don’t trust him, so he’s not finding out.”
Danny’s face turned sour. “He’s not the bad guy here, Stiles.”
“I never said he was!” Stiles hissed, ducking his head so his voice wouldn’t get too loud. “He’s selfish though, and the werewolf thing only benefits him one way, and I refuse to let him get the bite.” Stiles was close to slamming his fist on the table, but he pulled it back. He wasn’t mad at Danny. Danny was just trying to stick up for his friend. Stiles just needed to keep reminding himself of that.
“But it’s just fine that Lydia’s already plotting where she falls in pack hierarchy? That’s bullshit,” Danny turned his attention to Lydia, “and you know it. Jackson only ever does what’s expected of him. He never wants to disappoint us, and by hiding this from him? Us automatically assuming he’ll run off? That will make him do just that.” Danny stood up quickly, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “You guys can lie to him all you want, but if he asks me - if he figures out something is up? I’m telling him.”
“Danny wait!” Stiles called as Danny grabbed his tray and left.
Lydia put her hand on Stiles’ shoulder to keep him seated and she stood up, following after Danny. Stiles watched as she grabbed Danny’s bicep, guiding him out of the lunchroom as she whispered angrily at him.
“I thought we had already talked about this,” she was saying, and Stiles almost felt bad for listening in.
There was a brief struggle, Danny snatching his arm from Lydia’s grip before she latched back on.
“We did, but I can change my mind,” Danny argued back.
“Not about this you can’t.”
The roar of the cafeteria got too be too much as Danny and Lydia left and Stiles couldn’t stay focused on their conversation. He came back to the table, where Allison and Scott were looking at him, both nervous.
“For what it’s worth, I agree with you, dude,” Scott said. “Jackson shouldn’t know. He’ll just cause problems.”
Stiles gave a weak smile. “Thanks. It means a lot.”
Stiles’ dad was in the kitchen when he got home, files spread out all over the table. He had a take out carton from the Chinese food place in town and when Stiles went over he saw it was empty. His dad was engrossed in his reading and Stiles sighed, taking the carton and throwing it out before going to the refrigerator to pour himself a glass of milk.
The fridge was empty.
Which made sense. Derek had gone to buy groceries and if his dad had been home all day there wasn’t any way for Derek to bring them in.
“Yeah, we’re all out,” his dad called and Stiles spun around to look at him. His dad looked sheepish. “I meant to go out and get some more groceries, but the case,” he waved to the stack of papers.
Stiles shut the fridge and smiled at his dad. “It’s alright. I thought I still had some milk left. I’ll go out later.”
His dad stretched and closed the manila folder he was reading. “No need. Let’s go out now.” Stiles’ mouth dropped open in surprise. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. Makes me think I never help grocery shop.”
Stiles closed his mouth. “No! No, it’s not that. It’s just…” he didn’t know how he could say groceries had been bought, they were just probably waiting in the back of Derek’s car to be brought in. Stiles watched his dad give him a sly look and Stiles sighed. “Lemme go put my bag upstairs and I’ll come with you. Otherwise you might find out that what I’ve been passing off as whole milk is actually soy.”
His dad’s laugh followed him upstairs and Sitles flung open his bedroom door. His room still smelled like Derek and he took a moment to breathe it in. He had gotten used to Derek being out of range at some point during his training, realizing he couldn’t constantly monitor everyone, but it was still hard when he couldn’t feel his pack mate immediately.
He grabbed a notebook and a bright green highlighter, hoping it would catch Derek’s attention when he got home. He left a note saying he was going out, and to try and hide the groceries some place so his dad wouldn’t notice them right away.
Stiles frowned at the feeling like he should add more, but wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Stiles! Come on!” His dad called from downstairs.
Stiles tacked on a crudely drawn wolf paw, figuring that Derek would get a kick out of it, but he ran down after his dad. “Come on father-mine,” Stiles said grabbing his jacket. “Let’s see you shop like an adult.”
His dad sighed to cover up a laugh and he grabbed his own jacket.
Derek wasn’t home when they got back. Stiles had kept an ear out for him during the trip to the grocery store, waiting for that moment Derek got back in range, but there’d been nothing. His fingers itched to text Derek and see where he was, but Lydia’s stern reminder played in the back of his mind and he resisted the urge.
Instead Stiles did homework, and then moved onto research. His dad hadn’t given him too many details on the case, but he had confirmed that he’d spoken with Mr. Harris for reasons undisclosed.
Stiles debated exactly how unethical it would be to sneak down after his dad had gone to bed and go over the files, but it was mostly to distract himself from the lack of Derek.
Around midnight Stiles started to fidget even more, stomach knotting up because Derek still wasn’t back. He wasn’t even pinging on Stiles’ radar, and that wasn’t normal.
Stiles distracted himself by signing onto his WoW account for the first time in a while, reuniting with a few of his friends online, and playing through a few quests. It didn’t do much to stop his senses from trying to reach out and find Derek though, and after an hour Stiles had to sign off because he was too distracted to do any good.
He climbed into bed, burying his face in their pillows, the combined scent calming him.
There was no reason to panic. The alpha was crazy but he needed them, and the hunters were dangerous, but tied by their code.
Stiles rolled around his bed, trying to get comfortable without Derek’s arms wrapped around him. His bed had never been large, but he felt like he had too much room after spending a month sharing with Derek.
He stripped off his shirt after a moment of debating the pros and cons. If Derek came in while he was sleeping wouldn’t it be a nice way to come to bed? Stiles thought so at least. He debated with his pajama pants, and in a fit of confidence he pushed them down, kicking the pants off and onto the floor. Stiles pulled the sheet over himself.
He still wasn’t comfortable, and he didn’t want to look at the clock; it would just make him antsy. He wanted Derek home, and he was going to tell him as much tomorrow when Derek finally showed back up.
Stiles bit his thumb, not even realizing he had put it in his mouth, the nervous habit to bite the skin around his thumb kicking in without his permission. He pulled it out in frustration, trying to even out his breathing so he could go to sleep. He knew he didn’t need it, but he liked it. It was a human thing he could indulge in.
Stiles shut his eyes, forcing his hands down his hips so they were as far away from his mouth as possible. It didn’t matter that the skin could heal over, he shouldn’t be indulging in his nervous habits anyway. Because there was no reason to be nervous.
He rolled over and wrapped his arms around Derek’s pillow, trying to focus on that. He’d always liked how Derek had smelled, even before he’d realized he was attracted to him. It was one of those things that Stiles had blamed on the wolf. It smelled like home and safety in a way even his father couldn’t master, and after taking a few deep, calming breaths, Stiles realized he didn’t want his dad to smell like this.
It would just give him bad touch feelings, because this smell? It also turned him on, because it was Derek, and that was enough for his body apparently.
Stiles pressed his hips against the bed, feeling himself getting hard. He twisted his head so he was breathing only in the pillow, and it took a moment before he decided, fuck it, it was Derek’s own fault if he left for the night and came back and Stiles had been jacking off. It was one of those things they hadn’t talked about when they started living together, what with the super hearing and scent. Stiles was always distantly aware when Derek had come back from the shower and jerked off, but they just didn’t talk about it.
It was different now though, wasn’t it? They were together so it wouldn’t be too weird if Stiles did it in their bed. If he did it with Derek in mind. Hell, Derek might even like knowing it had happened, and when he got back tomorrow, either before, or after Stiles had gone to school, he would come in and smell it, and yeah…
It would be okay.
Stiles shoved his hand in his boxers to wrap around his cock, his face still pushed into Derek’s pillow. He didn’t need it to give him any ideas, to make his mind race with thoughts of Derek and him, but it was nice to have. Comforting.
Stiles thrust into his hand, panting loudly. He was going to get off quickly, but he needed that. His body was wound tight with nerves, and he tried to focus on the idea of Derek, what he would say if he saw Stiles like this.
Would he keep watching?
Would he interrupt?
Stiles liked to imagine he would interrupt, try to get in on the action, because deep down they were both needy people. They liked to be touched, and liked touching each other.
His stuck two of his other fingers in his mouth, pretending it was Derek. He had felt his cock once or twice, the hazards of sleeping curled up against one another, and at the time they hadn’t mentioned it, but now Stiles was trying to remember how it felt. Hard pressure against his hip, and Stiles was sure if he remembered just right, he could feel Derek rotating his hips just a bit, trying to get a little friction to relieve the ache.
Stiles felt himself getting close, and his knot was starting to grow, but this time Stiles let it happen, because there was no reason to hide it. Derek knew, and Derek had one too, so it wouldn’t be weird. It was just a part of him.
Stiles fucked his hand faster, trying to get his fingers to form a tighter hole as he sucked on his other fingers. His hips arched and Stiles made sure to tighten his fingers behind the knot so there was pressure. It made the orgasm feel that much more intense, and Stiles felt warm come hit his stomach.
He was sure there was some on the bed too, but suddenly he was lax, all the tension drained out of him.
He didn’t even feel that bad that he’d ruined Derek’s spot. It was what he got for being away for the night.
***
He woke up to ice and fire, and it took a moment to realize he was being hosed down. The water was cold, but the pressure of the hose made it burn hot against his flesh and Derek choked.
His arms were bound up and he could feel metal grates against his back as the pressure of the water pushed him as far back as he could go. His arm had healed the wrong way and that was going to be a bitch to fix. Derek was not looking forward to that.
The hose shut off, but it took a moment for him to be able to open his eyes, or hear, or smell.
He was underground, in a dark room. There was a lantern on a table, and Derek spotted his phone over there as well.
“Sorry about the bath, but you smelled like spoiled milk,” a voice - Kate - said.
Derek didn’t give her any reaction.
She didn’t seem to mind though, and she continued to talk. Derek drowned her out, because he wasn’t going to answer anyway. Nothing she did could make him.
***
He woke up to a cold bed. Stiles clutched Derek’s pillow to his chest and tried to push the worry down. Derek hadn’t gone a night without coming back to bed, but things happened. Stiles tried not to let his imagination run wild with crazy ideas as he reached over for a towel, cleaning himself off as best he could.
Derek might have run into another pack. He could have gotten lost. He could have just decided to spend the night at his own apartment. If he’d picked up a tail there was no way he would risk coming to see Stiles.
He tried to stay calm as he got dressed, and went downstairs. His dad was already at work and Stiles ate his toast slowly. He wasn’t going to freak out.
Even though Stiles couldn’t get any sense of Derek being anywhere in the town, and he knew this because he had taken the long way to school, driving to the borders of town to try and see if there was any place that he had missed.
He was trying not to be a wreck, but he knew he was doing a poor job. Scott had asked him what was wrong, and so had other people, some who rarely spoke to him. Stiles didn’t like this, and when he saw Derek later that day they were going to have a long talk about how Stiles was apparently co-dependent now and Derek would need to be in range forever because he was pretty sure he wasn’t getting over that.
Stiles made it to chemistry on autopilot, collapsing into his seat. He had no plans to get out his notebook, figuring that Harris would see this and send him out of the classroom, giving him a chance to call Derek and yell at him for making Stiles feel like this.
His plans were thwarted by Lydia taking her seat next to Stiles and pushing up his overshirt’s sleeve to reveal his forearm. Stiles raised his head to look at what she was doing as Harris started lecturing and Stiles frowned as Lydia pulled out a permanent marker and started drawing something on his arm.
“What are you doing?” Stiles whispered, watching as she finished coloring in what appeared to be a paw print.
“Testing a mixture I made up last night,” Lydia said, pointing to the bottle she had pulled out of her pocket. “If I got it right it should remove stains in one swipe.”
“But?” Stiles asked, because there was always a but.
“It may also take off half your skin!” She smiled as she dabbed a cotton ball with whatever she had made.
Stiles sighed, turning away so he wouldn’t have to see if he skin got taken off, because what good was his healing factor if people didn’t abuse it? He grit his teeth as he felt the cotton ball touch his skin, and he finally looked when Lydia whispered, “oops.”
Yup, half his skin was gone, and that was actually really gross. Stiles shot Lydia a look, and he debated covering it up before it healed or not when the intercom came on.
“Mr. Harris. Can Stiles please come to the office?”
Stiles looked confused as Mr. Harris gave the affirmative, and he stood up, making sure to hide his healing arm from Mr. Harris.
Stiles jogged to the office and then stopped. His dad was there, with Deputy Miller, and Stiles had no idea why.
“Dad?” He tried for casual, not knowing how else to approach this.
“Stiles,” his dad said, looking up with a blank expression, before turning to the secretary, who nodded towards an empty office off to the side. “Come in. I have a few questions for you.”
Stiles’ nerves picked up, but he waited for Deputy Miller to shut the door before he spoke. “What’s up?”
“I-“ his dad started and then restarted, “we were just wondering if you had any contact information for Derek Hale’s next of kin.”
Stiles’ heart dropped. “What?”
“Derek’s next of kin.”
Stiles shook his head, and it took a lot to stop himself from saying that he was Derek’s next of kin. “Why?”
He saw his dad and Miller trade looks before his dad spoke. “We found his car on the side of the road this morning a few miles outside of town. Looks like it got hit by something, and the car rolled off the road.” Stiles’ heart started pounding and he wanted to speak, but his mouth was dry and it felt like his tongue was swollen in his own mouth. “We can’t find him, and we have no record of next of kin to notify about the accident.” Stiles couldn’t breathe and he had to sit down. His dad kept talking. “I know you two were - friends. So if you can maybe remember, did he mention anyone? Any family?”
Stiles shook his head. “Nope. Just Laura.” It was all he could say, because his mind was racing, and he was getting too warm for his clothes. He was pretty sure he was having a panic attack, but he couldn’t remember the signs or what he was supposed to do.
Deputy Miller kneeled down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Stiles. We won’t ask any questions if you know anything. We just want to give his family a call to notify them of the accident.” Stiles could hear a cough from his father and Miller’s hand dropped from his shoulder.
“I don’t know anything,” Stiles finally managed to get out, but he wasn’t able to raise his head up from where he had stuck it between his knees.
He felt his dad’s hand on his shoulder, but it didn’t pull him back like it normally did. Stiles felt guilty because this was something he should have been able to feel, right? He should have known something had happened to Derek.
“Stiles?” His dad asked but Stiles just shook his head. He didn’t know how to talk to his dad. He knew he was overreacting to the news if the only story you knew was that he was just some dumb kid with a crush on Derek, and Stiles really hoped that’s the story his dad believed. “Stiles, you need to breathe.”
He tried to follow his dad’s instructions, and it took a few attempts before he felt himself coming back to reality.
“Are you okay?” His dad asked, and Stiles was finally able to lift his head up.
He gave his dad what he was sure was a watery smile and he tried to nod. “Yeah. No big deal. Just a little high strung. Derek- Derek was supposed to meet up with me yesterday and he never showed up, and I’ve spent all morning working out how I was going to react to each excuse and this was not what I was expecting at all.”
He saw Miller cover his mouth with his hand, and Stiles could understand why he was smiling. No one ever expected the worst, but really they should.
“How about you stay here for a few more minutes and get yourself put back together okay?” His dad asked, and Stiles nodded, sniffing, and he hadn’t realized he had started to cry during his attack.
He wiped his face as his dad and Miller left the room.
“It was worth a shot,” Miller said the moment the door was shut halfway.
His dad made a noise in the back of his throat, and Stiles could hear him rub his temple. “How are the guys working out getting the warrant to search his place for the information?”
“Boyd is pushing for it.” Miller paused, and Stiles could hear her radio go off. “We have the K-9 unit out looking for Hale. With the injuries he probably sustained he wouldn’t have gotten far. We’ll probably find him before nightfall.”
“Yeah well, that’s if he made it through one night.”
Stiles put his hands over his ears because he didn’t want to hear this. They were talking about Derek as if he were a human, and that wasn’t even close to the truth. A car crash couldn’t hurt him. That had even been one of the examples Derek had given the first time they had met. He said they could crash their car and walk out just fine.
Which meant it was something else, and that’s what worried Stiles so much.
Stiles took a heavy seat into the chair and Scott, Lydia and Allison looked over at him. He had skipped gym with his dad’s permission, taking a period in the office to try and recompose himself. It hadn’t worked that well from the way his friends were looking at him.
“What’s the matter?” Danny asked as he took a seat across from Stiles, looking at everyone.
They all looked at Stiles and he had to take a minute or else the words would come out wrong.
“Derek’s missing.”
Everyone was silent, and then everyone was talking all at once.
“What?” Allison’s voice went high pitched.
“Is that why you got called to the office?” Lydia asked.
“Are you sure?” Danny hissed, eyes wide in disbelief.
“Maybe he’s just taking a vacation?” Scott asked.
“No, he’s gone, Scott,” Stiles said, focusing on the last person he heard. “The police found his car crashed on the side of the road outside of town, but there’s no sign of him.”
He felt Scott’s hand on his and he looked down to see he had started to grow claws. He curled in his hand into a fist as Lydia spoke.
“That doesn’t mean anything, Stiles. He could have gotten injured and went off on instinct.”
“If he were going off of instinct he would have come home,” Stiles said fiercely. “Back to my room. And he didn’t.” He dropped his head against the table, trying to calm himself down. “And I didn’t even notice. I mean, I knew he wasn’t in town, but I was trying so hard not to worry, because what could it be? Nothing, and then it turned out it was something and I don’t even know what.”
Someone else put their hand on his back, and it took a moment to realize it was Allison, her and Scott rubbing his back to calm him down.
“What can we do?” Danny asked, and Stiles took a deep breath, trying to think.
“Nothing. I’ll- after school I’m going to go look at the crash site. Try and track him.”
“We’re coming with you,” Lydia said immediately, glaring at Stiles when he tried to protest. “No. We are. Derek is your boyfriend, and you’re our friend, so it’s only natural.”
Stiles didn’t have it in him to protest, too worn out from working himself up into a worry.
Stiles parked almost a mile away from the crash because he could still hear police around the area. The four others stumbled after him, and he wondered again why he had brought them. He wouldn’t be able to get very close with all of them with him.
Stiles veered off the road, keeping low just inside the forest that was on the side of the road, and it only took a little bit for Lydia to let out a curse, her heel breaking.
“You guys didn’t need to come,” he muttered, not looking back because he could hear Danny taking care of Lydia, offering her a ride on his back. His senses were stretched as far as he could get them, looking for signs of Derek.
“Yes, we did,” Scott said, throwing an arm around his shoulders. “You’ve got us for a reason, and it’s what we’re for.”
Stiles didn’t relax as they got closer to the crash, and he stopped when he felt himself in range of the few cops still looking around. He looked at his friends. “I’m going over really quick, just to get a look and a sniff, and then I’ll be back. Stay here.” He tried to get a lot of authority in his voice but he wasn’t sure it transferred over.
Either way, no one moved in the few seconds it took him to run to the car and back, taking in as much detail as he could before he was seen.
The biggest thing he took in was that he couldn’t smell anything, and that disturbed him.
“Well?” Lydia asked from over Danny’s shoulder.
Stiles frowned. “I can’t smell anything.”
“Like there are too many scents because of the police?” Allison asked.
Stiles shook his head. “No. Like I literally can’t smell Derek. I know that’s his car, I’ve ridden in it enough I know exactly what it smells like, and now it just smells like car. Impersonal.”
“What could hide the smell of a werewolf?” Scott asked.
Stiles took a deep breath, trying to get a grasp on the wrongness he was smelling, but he couldn’t. “The alpha did it all the time,” he finally said, feeling himself get angry.
If this was a new game by Peter, some sort of training...
“You think he could be responsible for this?” Allison asked.
Stiles looked back off towards the crash. “The car is totaled, and it’s possible he crashed into the side of the car to run Derek off the road and make him weak for the time it would take to overpower him.”
“And what?” Allison asked. “What could he want with Derek? I thought he needed you guys.”
“He does. But he also wants to train me,” Stiles said, feeling himself wilt as it hit him that if the alpha had Derek there was almost nothing he could do. “And I don’t know who else could hide a werewolf’s scent.”
Lydia was frowning where she rested her head on Danny’s shoulder and she looked unconvinced, but she didn’t say anything except, “come on, it’s getting dark and not all of us are werewolves with awesome sight.”
Stiles took one last look at the crash before he followed after his friends. He would need to find Peter, which would lead to Derek.
***
Jackson hadn’t wanted to go back to school that week. If he’d had it his way he wouldn’t have returned until his face was completely healed, but the doctor’s note only covered so long, and the bruising and swelling had gone down so his parents had pretty much forced him to go back.
He met Danny outside the front door, wearing a pair of sunglasses, which only caused Danny to raise his eyebrows.
“You look ridiculous,” Danny said, and he reached for the glasses. Jackson tried to dodge, but Danny was too quick and he plucked off the sunglasses. “You don’t even look that bad. Just like you’ve had a few rough nights.”
Jackson growled because he could tell from Danny’s face that he was just trying to be nice, but it still made him feel better. He never usually cared what people thought, and knowing that his friend was making a joke out of it made it better.
He was still not prepared to see Stiles though, and he told Danny as much.
“Don’t worry,” Danny said leading them towards his locker. “Stiles doesn't want to see you just as much.”
“Still can’t believe that punk got away with everything,” Jackson muttered as he watched Danny unlock his locker.
“Well, would you rather have everyone know that Stiles was the one who punched you?” Danny asked, and no, Jackson did not, but he’d never admit that.
“So. Lydia said that you two broke up?”
Jackson watched Danny’s face for any sign of hurt, but he kept his emotions hidden. It was one of the things Jackson hated, because Danny didn’t normally hide his emotions, so when he did it just meant that he would eventually crack and Jackson would need to be there to catch him. And he didn’t mind catching Danny, that’s what friends were for. But Jackson didn’t want to clean up Stiles’ mess because there shouldn’t have been a mess to begin with. This should never have happened.
“Danny!” He said, because Danny wasn’t answering him.
Danny shut his locker. “I got you special permission to be late to a few of your classes, so we can take the long way around to our first class, okay?”
“Danny,” Jackson said again, catching Danny’s shoulder to stop him from walking off before their conversation was finished. “Talk to me.”
Danny shrugged him off and offered him a smile. “It’s nothing, Jackson. Just don’t want to talk about it since I know you don’t really care.” Jackson opened his mouth in surprise, honestly offended by that. Danny quickly corrected himself. “Not that you don’t care, but you were expecting it, and I just- I’m over it, okay?”
Jackson let him go with a sigh, because Danny was in one of those moods where he thought he was doing the right thing but not saying anything. “We’re going to talk about this eventually, Danny.”
***
“Stiles Stilinski I swear to god once I find out your first name I am going to enjoy it using it in situations like this,” Lydia cursed him as she brought up the rear of their group.
Stiles sighed but didn’t give her a response. There wasn’t really one he could say because he had already tried to tell the group of them not to follow him. He was slowing his pace down enough as is just to have them tag along, he didn’t need to be guilt tripped because he was walking too fast.
The group had followed him when he had trekked out to the old Hale house, which had been a big waste of time. Stiles wasn’t sure why he wasn’t surprised. That would have been too obvious, Peter hiding out in his old house. The only thing that had been there was the stench of humans that was too old to be of any use.
The woods were also empty and even though it hadn’t even been a week yet Stiles was still getting antsy. He wasn’t sleeping well, because what was the point of sleeping if he could be out looking for Peter and Derek.
The not sleeping was catching up to him though, and he was starting to become aggressive. That’s why Scott had been the one to suggest going to Doctor Deaton for answers.
Stiles didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before, probably because his memory of Deaton helping was tarnished by the pain in his thigh from the bullet. But it made sense. Deaton was in on this werewolf lore, and while he wasn’t one himself, he might know something a werewolf would use to hide their scent. Stiles didn’t understand why everyone felt the need to follow him to Deaton’s office, but they insisted and Stiles had gotten past the point of caring.
“I will reiterate, I don’t understand what it is you guys don’t understand about the idea of letting me do this on my own,” Stiles finally said as he got to the front door of Deaton’s clinic. He turned back to look at the four of them.
“Obviously the core concept,” Allison said, looking way too chipper. Stiles could tell how much she was enjoying the legwork behind trying to track Derek. Lydia, Scott and Danny didn’t like it so much, but did it because they felt they had to, but Allison thrived in it.
Stiles had to admire that, even if it made him want to strangle her sometimes because they were already in too deep. He should be doing this on his own, but now he wasn’t sure if he even knew how.
“Will you guys at least stay in the lobby?” He asked as he stepped inside the office.
“Now Mr. Stilinski there is no reason for that.”
Stiles jumped because he hadn’t even heard Deaton come up behind him. Or maybe his senses were just going because of sleep deprivation.
“Doctor Deaton, hello,” Stiles said, falling into the lobby.
His friends followed him and Deaton smiled at all of them. “What can I do for you, Mr. Stilinski? Oh! I saw your alpha the other day,” Deaton said, casual as can be as he walked behind the counter, leaving it open so Stiles could follow.
Stiles froze. “He’s not my alpha.”
Deaton smiled at him and then continued into the back. “Then I assume you aren’t wondering what he was here for. So why are you here?”
“No. I want to know as much about Peter as I can,” Stiles said, following Deaton into the back. “He’s taken Derek in some sick training exercise and he’s doing this thing where it messes with my senses so I can’t track him.”
Deaton hummed thoughtfully as he opened one of the cages and pulled out a sleeping cat. “I need to give the animals their shots, I hope you don’t mind.” Stiles shook his head and Deaton nodded to Scott. “Can you help, Scott?” Scott sprang into action, grabbing some of the medicine and going about helping Deaton.
Stiles looked at Deaton as he took out another cat for a shot. “Have you heard about anything like that before? I haven’t read about it, and neither has Lydia.”
Deaton gave Lydia a faint smile. “Well, if Lydia hasn’t heard about it then it probably doesn’t exist.”
Lydia crossed her arms over her chest. “Or I just haven’t found the right book yet.”
“Whatever it is,” Stiles cut in. “I just want to know what it is, and how to get around it.”
Deaton’s lips went thin as he frowned. “I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Stiles asked sharply.
“Can’t,” Deaton responded, his voice leaving no room for disagreement. “An alpha who is blocking himself from his betas isn’t something you can just get around. Now, if it were hunters you were being blocked from, that I would have solution for.”
Stiles felt like he had been hit with a truck as Lydia pushed her way forward.
“Hunters have a way to block smells from wolves?”
Deaton nodded, reaching for another cat, the last in the room. “They use a certain strand of wolfsbane to do the trick. I keep a running stock in my office. You wouldn’t notice anything off, and Derek probably wouldn’t either, but Peter had, which is why he came to see me.” He gave the last cat a shot and then had Scott put the cat back in its cage.
Lydia spun on her heel and looked at Stiles excitedly. He shook his head. “No,” he said. “It was Peter. It has to be.”
He could handle Derek being locked away somewhere with Peter. There was a high chance he wasn’t even locked away, just told to stay away. But hunters were different. Hunters were unpredictable and they would hurt him.
Stiles felt his claws bite into his palms as he repeated that mantra in his head.
***
Allison was doing her homework when Kate knocked on her bedroom door. She looked up and tried not to look forced as she smiled. It was hard though, because she knew what Kate was capable of, and it scared her.
Especially if she was part of the reason Derek had gone missing. Stiles had left Deaton’s in a panic, wanting to tear up all the places he had already searched with new fervor because now he had a new culprit. A new suspect. Scott and Lydia had run after him, leaving her and Danny behind. Danny was hanging out with Jackson, and Allison had a curfew.
“Hey you,” Kate said, leaning her hip on the doorframe. “Long time no talk. How goes everything?”
Allison looked at her homework and then back at her aunt. “Slowly?”
Kate came into her room, sweeping over to her bed and taking a seat. “We haven’t had a chance to talk, just the two of us. You don’t tell me about school, or your boyfriend. Kinda feels like you’re blocking me out.”
Allison looked away from Kate, going back to her homework. “Dad says the same thing,” or at least, he would if he spoke to her for more than a few minutes when she grabbed breakfast. “So just know it’s not you.”
“What’s got you like this, Ally?”
Allison gripped her pen, trying to think what she should say, how she should react. “Don't call me Ally.”
She heard the bedspring squeak and Allison looked behind her at Kate standing up. “I see. Getting to that point where you’re growing up, isn’t it?” She placed a hand on Allison’s shoulder and she squeezed. “I know all about that. You feel like your parents don’t understand you, that you don’t fit in.” Allison kept quiet, letting Kate ramble. “But I’ll let you in on a little secret.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “You aren’t that different from anyone else. Especially anyone in this family. We’ve all been there. Me. Your mom. We have a lot in common.”
Allison snorted. “I highly doubt that.”
Kate pulled away, taking Allison’s chair with her as she did, giving Allison no choice but to follow. “How about this. I’ll show you how much we have in common. A little family secret.”
Allison’s heart lurched up to her throat and she couldn’t stop herself from glancing at her desk drawer that held the arrowhead she had found in the kitchen earlier this week. She hadn’t had a chance to use it yet, but she could only imagine what it did. Lydia had taken it apart the other day, over under the guise of doing homework, and she’d found an explosive inside it.
“A family secret?” Allison said, huffing.
Kate’s eyes had followed hers though and she was smirking. “You can’t tell me you aren’t intrigued a little, can you?”
Allison didn’t know what Kate could possibly mean, whether the secret would be the hunting or not, but she still wanted to know. She wanted to see Kate’s hand.
“Lead the way,” Allison said, waving a hand.
Kate grinned and took Allison’s hand, leading her out of the house.
They had been driving for a little while, Kate’s car leading the way because she said she had things to do after and Allison needed to get home at a reasonable hour because she had school. Allison didn’t complain because she wasn’t sure she would have been able to handle being a car with Kate alone. She might have snapped, not sure what else to say.
She followed Kate up a hill, and in the dark the woods looked different, but when they pulled up behind a house, Allison recognized it. Stiles had brought them here, looking around desperately for the alpha and Derek. He hadn’t let them follow him inside, saying the floor boards were too weak, so Allison had spent the time looking around outside.
Kate didn’t head inside. She walked to the side of the house, leaning down and brushing aside some leaves to reveal a cellar door. Allison could barely see in the dark, and all she had was the flashlight Kate had handed her.
“Don’t be afraid,” Kate said with a smile. “This is almost a family tradition. You know, if you hadn’t been raised by my brother, you would have done this ages ago.”
Allison bit her lip to keep herself from saying something she shouldn’t. She had a sinking suspicion what was going on, what Kate was going to show her, but her stomach still dropped to her toes when Kate lead her into a room and turned on another light to reveal Derek, chained up to a wall.
Allison’s scream was real, as were the tears that followed when she saw Kate turn on the device she had hooked up to Derek’s side, causing him to shift right there.
Kate was talking, but Allison wasn’t listening.
“Isn’t it disgusting?” Allison finally looked at her aunt, unable to believe what she was seeing.
“What- what are you doing?” Allison asked, and a part of her realized she should ask what it is, but she didn’t have time. She needed to know what Kate was doing and then she needed to leave and get help.
“Well, I could say I was trying to get information, but I’d be lying,” Kate said, fingers trailing over Derek’s stomach and Allison looked away. “You see, these things? Werewolves? They rarely give up their pack. I could spend literally months trying to work him open,” she smirked. “Actually, I have. But not this time, right Derek?” Derek fought his chains, snarling and biting and Allison let out another gasp. Kate seemed uninterested. “He won’t talk again. Which is a real shame, because I would love to know everything he knew. Sadly some things are not meant to be.”
“So what will you do instead? If he won’t talk?” Allison asked, pushing herself against the door. There were guards, other hunters, and Allison was trying to map out the place in her mind so she could relay it to the others.
“Kill him probably,” Kate said with a shrug, flipping the switch again, shooting pain through Derek’s body. He snarled and tried to fight it but Allison could see how much it tired him out. “Want a go?” Kate asked, but when she looked at Allison her face softened and she approached her. “Allison? Are you okay?” Allison shook her head, and Kate made soft cooing noises, as if that would calm Allison down. “There, there. I know it’s a lot to take in.”
She embraced Allison, and she just stood stiffly in Kate’s arms because she couldn’t get the image of Derek fighting, chained up, out of her mind. She wasn’t sure she ever would.
She needed to tell the others. She needed to tell Stiles.
***
“Hey dad,” Stiles said collapsing into the seat opposite his father.
He knew he probably looked a mess, but he didn’t care. He needed the normality, and the calm that his father gave him because if he didn’t Stiles was pretty sure he would go insane. The thought that Derek might be held by hunters was tearing him up, and it made him search harder. But the searching wasn’t helping. Deaton hadn’t been able to provide him with the solution immediately, saying he needed the flower to grow just a little more, but Stiles didn’t have time. He couldn’t wait a couple more days for some flower to come into bloom.
He wanted to announce his presence to the hunters, howling and clawing, but he couldn’t. He would risk putting more than himself in danger if he did. So he came home to his father, and the million notes from his investigation. Notes he was making no attempt to hide, so Stiles didn’t feel bad picking up a pile of notes and looking them over.
They were the details to his dad’s interview with Mr. Harris and a few other people. His dad didn’t say anything as Stiles looked through more of the papers. They didn’t connect together all at once, but by the time he got to the bottom of the pile, where a report of the Hale fire laid, Stiles realized the connection.
“All of this ties into the fire?” He asked, and his dad finally looked up from the notes he was looking at.
“Stiles, you shouldn’t be looking at these,” he said with a sigh, but he didn’t try to shoo Stiles away.
“Yeah I know,” Stiles said brushing it off. “But what? Is the fire the connection you think?”
His dad let out a sigh and put his notes on the table and Stiles reached for them. His dad must have been tired because he just grunted and didn’t say anything as Stiles looked over the few notes he hadn’t seen.
“From what I’ve gathered, when Laura got to town she started asking around about the fire. And it seems like everyone attacked might have something to do with the fire, but… I can’t figure out who started it all.”
“You think it could have been someone covering their tracks?” Stiles licked his lips, looking at the drawing in his hand. He knew who had killed everyone so far, but no one would believe that.
“It’s possible. They found out Laura was snooping around, and so they killed her, and then killed everyone connected with the fire so there was nothing left.” His dad rubbed his eyes. “But since most of the witnesses are dead, and the only thing we have is a statement from Harris saying that it was a young girl wearing that pendant, well you can imagine our frustration.”
Stiles rubbed his lower lip, trying to remember where he had seen the pendant before. He almost had it when the doorbell rang, scaring both of them.
Before Stiles could get up his dad was already up, motioning for Stiles to stay in his seat. He sighed and turned back to the pendant drawing. It was on the tip of his tongue where he had seen it when the smell of who was at the door hit him.
“Allison!” He said, jumping up and running to the front door.
His dad stepped to the side as Allison rushed towards him, and Stiles could smell tears. He hugged her as she ran into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder and Stiles was pretty sure he looked half-terrified from the way his dad was looking at him.
“Uh- I… we’re gonna go upstairs. Relationship issues, her and Scott, big fight,” Stiles said, turning and heading up the stairs with Allison. He could feel his dad’s eyes boring into the back of his head and he was so going to have to explain himself with something more convincing then that.
“Keep your door open,” his dad called after him and Stiles winced, because yup, his dad had gotten the exact wrong impression.
But that didn’t matter right now, what mattered was why Allison was crying. He turned to her the moment they were inside his bedroom, hoping she would start explaining.
“Allison?”
She pulled away from him, and rubbed her face, trying to get control. “Derek,” she said and Stiles gave her his full attention.
“Derek? What about Derek? Did you see him?”
Allison nodded, and let out a dry hiccup. “Hunters. They have him. My aunt,” she took a deep breath. “My aunt has him.”
Stiles felt his control start to shift and he couldn’t have that. He needed to find something to anchor to, but it was so hard because hunters had Derek. Kate Argent had Derek.
Stiles snapped his attention to Allison. “You. Where did you get your pendant?”
Allison looked at him for a moment, and then nodded, understanding that his questions had a logical purpose. “My birthday. It was a family heirloom.”
“Who gave it to you? Your mom? Kate?” He tried so hard to reach and grab Allison by the shoulders because he was scared of his own strength. He didn’t want to hurt her.
Allison shook her head. “Kate. It was hers.”
Stiles felt himself go limp and he collapsed on his bed as it all came together. Kate was who Peter was after. He was going after everyone who had had a hand in the fire, and Kate was the mastermind. She had to have been.
Before Stiles could say anything to Allison, to tell her what he’d figured out Scott came barreling in the room. He rushed straight for Allison, wrapping her up in his arms, as she let out a fresh wave of tears.
Stiles rubbed his face and glanced to his door where he could see his dad looking in suspiciously. He shook his head and stood up, walking over. “Like I said, big fight. All better now.” He tried to smile but his dad’s face told him he wasn’t very convincing.
“Alright,” his dad said. “If you say.”
Stiles shut the door as his dad left and he turned back to his friends. “Hunters have Derek,” Stiles whispered because he could still hear his dad outside.
Scott heard him though, eyes going wide. “Where? Are we going?”
Stiles shook his head. “No. I’m going.”
“No,” Allison cut him off. “You aren’t. We need a plan Stiles. There were at least six hunters there, each armed. If you go in there now, who knows what will happen to you.”
Stiles dropped onto the bed because that was the truth, but he didn’t want to believe that. “Fine,” he admitted, grabbing his phone because if he was going to plan he wanted Lydia in on it. She would point out everything they would be overlooking.
***
“Come on Danny, cheer up,” Jackson said, pulling into the diner parking lot. “We are getting crap food, and then going to see whatever shitty movie you want.”
He saw Danny give a faint smile but besides that he didn’t have any reaction. Jackson was getting a little sick of that because he was trying for his friend. Normally it would be Lydia and him doing this, but Lydia had been distant since Jackson had come back from the hospital. Sure, she came in to check on him, and she seemed the same, but she was busier than usual, running off to do other things. So it was up to Jackson to pull off their normal ‘Danny’s post-break-up’ night by himself.
Danny let himself go along with it, but Jackson could see his heart wasn’t really into it, which was why he jumped on the text he got as he was exiting Jackson’s car.
“Jackson,” Danny called, “we have to go.”
Jackson stopped and turned. “What do you mean? This is your night.”
“I know,” Danny said patiently, waving his phone. “And now you need to take us to Lydia’s house.”
“Excuse me?” Jackson asked, but he was walking backwards, opening the door back to his car. He restarted the car and looked at Danny as he pulled out onto the street. “Are you going to explain anything?”
“Just go to Lydia’s house.”
Jackson sucked in a breath. He was normally patient with Danny, but it was really growing thin. Danny had been distant all week and now he was blatantly leaving Jackson out of the loop. “Why?”
Danny took a deep breath, looking at his phone. “Because Stiles is a werewolf and they just called a pack meeting.”
Jackson slammed on the brakes, ignoring the honks. “What?”
Danny looked a mix of annoyed and impatient as he responded to a text and then pointed for Jackson to pull over so they weren’t in the middle of the road. Jackson did as he was told, and then looked at Danny for an explanation.
“Stiles is a werewolf and so is Derek, and so was the thing chasing us in the school.” He turned to give Jackson a big fake smile. “Werewolves. That’s why I broke up with Stiles, because I didn’t want to be involved in this shit, but I still am, because I’m literally the only sane person in this fucking pack.”
Jackson put his hand against Danny’s forehead, checking for a fever. Danny shook his off and Jackson glared. “Danny-“
“No! Don’t,” Danny said harshly. “I’ve told you because I know you can handle this, so if you start freaking out on me I will sock you so hard I don’t care if it rebreaks your face, and Lydia is forced to make me and Stiles her dates.”
Jackson’s jaw clenched and then he winced in pain. “I-“
“Just drive and I’ll fill you in on the way.”
Jackson half listened while he drove towards Lydia’s house, letting Danny talk about everything.
Werewolves. Fucking werewolves. No wonder Stiles had been able to cause so much damage if he had super strength and god knows what else.
“Is that why you dated him? Because of some weird werewolf power?”
Danny shot him a glare. “No. Werewolves don’t have mind control. Trust me, I made sure.”
Jackson didn’t relax. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure, Jackson,” he huffed, sinking into his seat. “I already checked but werewolves can’t do that. I dated Stiles because I thought he was safe and boring and obviously I can’t have nice things because that didn’t happen.”
“You deserve nice things,” Jackson said, because he wasn’t sure what else he could say to that.
“Yeah, well,” Danny rolled his neck and looked out his window. “No one wanted me to tell you, but I think you deserve to know.”
“Thanks for that,” Jackson said, and he meant it. “So why are we going to a pack meeting?” He stumbled over the words because they were weird, something he had never expected to say before, but Danny didn’t comment.
Danny shrugged. “We don’t say much in our texts. I just got a text from Lydia saying there was a crisis. I think it has to do with Derek.”
“Derek,” Jackson said flatly. “The other werewolf.”
“Yeah. Stiles’ new boyfriend.” The way Danny said it just showed how much it hurt him and even if he didn’t want to let it, Jackson still knew.
He resisted the urge to slam on the breaks again. “They are dating?”
“They might as well be. Lydia keeps saying they are. Listen, it doesn’t matter, and don’t bring it up. He’s missing and it’s thrown Stiles for a loop. That’s why I’ve kept you away from him all week.”
Jackson gripped the steering wheel as he turned into Lydia’s driveway. There were already two cars, Allison and Stiles’, and Jackson parked beside them. He tried to calm himself down and he looked over at Danny to see how he was acting. He would mimic Danny, because Danny knew what to do.
It was hard though, when he walked into Lydia’s room and suddenly felt like an outsider. The other four teens were sitting on Lydia’s bed, talking in hushed voices, all touching in some way that made it seem like they didn’t even notice what they were doing. And that was fine for Scott and Allison. They were dating, but Lydia was rubbing Stiles’ forearm and the only thing that stopped Jackson from throwing a hissy fit was Danny’s words that Derek and Stiles were a thing, and the pain in his face reminding him what happened last time.
They all looked at him, and he felt even more like he didn’t belong. He could see how much they didn’t want him there, but no one said anything. They all looked at Danny, even Stiles, and something must have passed between them, maybe a pack thing, but they all looked away and went back to talking.
Danny grabbed Jackson’s wrist and pulled him into the room, shutting the door behind him. Jackson took a seat on Lydia’s computer chair and looked at everyone.
“So what’s this crisis about?” He asked, because damn if he was going to let anyone see him thrown for a loop again.
Chapter 10