Stiles pulled his shirt on, more than a little unhappy that stupid school time was interfering with amazing sex time, but it was what it was. If he didn’t go to school then he would be grounded and if he was grounded than there would be no sex time at all, so all things considered a few hours of being otherwise occupied was a small price to pay for getting the D on the regular. Not that three days of sex was on the regular, in fact he was fairly sure that you had to go at least a month in a sex heavy, steady relationship of some definition before those particular parameters would actually apply legally speaking.
“You’re thinking too much, come back to bed.” The current sex god of his thoughts mumbled reaching out for him with one hand to try and pull him back for more cuddle time. Highly underrated, cuddle time, as good if not better in its own way than sex time. All that hard muscle and supple skin wrapped around him making him feel special and safe. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time for that right now.
“Sorry, no can do. I have school to be getting to, if I skip they’ll call my dad and tattle on me then where would we be.” This had him sitting up at full attention, like he always seemed to do when it came time for Stiles to go somewhere where he would not be. He was half convinced he would enroll in all his twenty-somethings glory if he thought he could get away with it and become his shadow at all times. Strangely enough rather than irritate him, the idea seemed to both thrill and comfort him.
“Do you have to go?” He purred the question, like he didn’t already know the answer. It wasn’t fair how much sex he could put just in his voice, the timbre of it turning his legs to jelly without even trying.
“Yes, I do and no fair trying to use your bedroom voice to weaken my resolve. While I’m gone though do me a favor yeah. Have a good long think about the Hales and just how culpable they really are in your own personal tragedy of the day. You told me yourself that you never actually told them what it was you were looking for, and if they didn’t know what it was how were they supposed to know that they had it at all let alone give it to you without prompting. I’m not saying you have to forgive and forget I don’t know nearly enough about this whole mess to be doling out any advice one way or the other, but I think you’ll know for sure if you set aside all the hurt feelings and anger and really think about who did what and when.” The guy had looked mutinous at the start of his little speech, probably thinking it was going to end with a plea from clemency on behalf of his friends or something, only to start looking thoughtful when he finally spelled out his reasoning for his request. Leaning down he gave him a quick kiss before continuing.
“The Hales are my friends, I even like creepy Peter on his good days or my bad days whichever comes first, but that’s so not the point. I’m not asking you to do this because I like them, I’m doing it because I think you would like them too if you gave them a chance. I’ll see you after school lets out.” Grabbing his jacket he bolted for the door, wanting to get started on his day so that it could end already and he could go back to cuddling with his mister. He knew if he let him Derek would take him to school but the walk helped him to clear his head and get into the right kind of headspace for school and all its many pitfalls. He had given up driving his baby for the foreseeable future, while he loved his jeep it just wasn’t a workable option to drive it to school have Derek pick him up in the afternoon just to take him back down to the school later to pick up his baby.
Coming up to the school he found Scott waiting for him, something the other boy hadn’t really done in a while, not since he began avoiding him anyway. Maybe this meant that the mysterious calamity that made him persona non grata was finally passing and he would be back in the loop. That would be nice, he hated not knowing stuff it drove him fucking crazy.
“Hey Scott, long time no talk.” He wasn’t above admitting silently to himself that he was a little gratified when his best friend flushed and looked down in embarrassment at the call out of his behavior.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that Stiles, a lot’s been going on lately and I really want to talk to you about it, but I can’t right now. We can talk during gym class, we’re doing cross country today and we can just split off and have a little chat in the woods. I’ll tell you everything I swear, even the unbelievable parts. Forgive me?” The other boy looked so sheepish about not being able to tell him about whatever top secret supernatural FUBAR he was sunk into. It was impossible for him to hold his grudge for more than a few seconds. Damn it Scott, enough with the puppy dog eyes it shouldn’t be allowed for a werewolf. If anything it was cheating.
“Sure man, I understand we’re totally good. You’ll tell when the time is right.”
Hitching his bag up higher on his shoulder he started to stride towards school, his best friend in tow, chattering together about anything and everything but the one thing they both wanted to talk about. Both of them oblivious to the woman standing across the street watching them go.
Scott walked towards where Laura said to meet up with her, when he told her he didn’t know what to say to Stiles to explain everything she offered to help him. He knew if he was left to his own devices he would screw everything up and jumble things to the point that Stiles wouldn’t believe him about Derek and Laura said they needed Stiles help if they were going to survive this whole mess. He knew Stiles was starting to get antsy the farther into the woods they walked away from the trail, but he also knew he would follow him until he stopped. They were bros like that.
He could smell Laura up ahead, it wasn’t much farther now.
“Stiles, a lot of what I’m going to have to tell you is going to sound straight out of a cheesy b-movie.” If he hadn’t sat through the whole speech from Deaton and had Talia backing him up all the way he wouldn’t believe it himself, but he needed Stiles to take him seriously.
“Dude, everything about Beacon Hills sounds that way these days.” He had a point. Ever since he’d gotten bitten everything he thought he knew about the world had been flipped and turned every which way. Now he was lucky if he could tell up from down.
“Yeah.” Stopping he turned to face his best friend, seeing Laura behind him. He must have overshot the meeting place, it wouldn’t surprise him with how nervous he was. He opened his mouth to start explaining everything that he knew about Derek when Laura lunged for Stiles.
Why was she doing that? That wasn’t part of the plan. Maybe she wanted to make sure he stayed through the whole explanation, but attacking him from behind wasn’t the way to do it.
The moment her hands landed on his shoulders he was flipping her, hard. She seemed stunned to find herself on the ground, though he could have told her that trying to physically hold him anywhere was a bad idea. The sheriff, or really the thing masquerading as the sheriff, was paranoid about Stiles safety and had taught him defensive moves his whole life. Even with the added advantage of wolf strength getting the jump on Stiles and keeping the upper hand was nearly impossible.
“Laura, what the hell?” Stiles sounded more annoyed than angry, which was good because an angry Stiles was a mean Stiles. He looked to him for an explanation and he quickly put his hands up in the universal sign for not my idea bro.
“She just said she wanted to be here when we talked so she could confirm what I said. You know, give you multiple sources. I got no idea why she did that.” While they were talking Laura had gotten back on her feet and was now tackling Stiles again only this time she went lower and got him around the waist. Bad idea.
Stiles did some kind of twist or something that threw her off him a second time, this time backing away from her a little more until he was right in front of Scott.
“Grab him Scott!” Again he found himself with his hands up wanting no part in whatever was going on here. He had no idea why Laura kept trying to grab Stiles but he did know that no matter what side he chose he would be screwing himself hard, so instead he simply backed out of the arena and decided to take no side at all.
Stiles looked at him with a shine of betrayal in his eyes, but bro code be damned, he was done.
Stiles was so preoccupied looking at him he was caught off guard when Laura swung the downed tree branch at his head. He was out cold.
“What the hell Scott?” What the hell indeed.
Deaton knew that it would be a risk to call on another of his people for aid with this particular problem, but he had exhausted all of his own sources and still come up empty handed. If they were truly going to try and convince Derek that they had tried everything to help and failed, then they needed to try everything before reporting their failure. Picking up the phone he called on his oldest friend hoping that their connection to one another would be enough to overcome that long entrenched urge to shift this particular problem around rather than ever actually deal with it.
“Hello.” She sounded wide awake which was good for him, if he’d woken her up regardless of the hour he would have already lost before he’d even begun.
“Marin it’s Alan, I need a favor.” Metaphorically crossing all of his fingers he began to relate the story of his latest incident to his oldest friend. He knew she was disappointed in him from the tone of her silence, before he met her he had never known that silence could be so loud and clear. By the time he stopped talking he felt almost like a young boy called before a teacher with a flimsy excuse for why he didn’t do his assignment.
“You don’t want my help, you want my blessing and I can’t give it to you Alan. You know what you’re doing is wrong, there’s a reason we all agreed to handle the situation the way we have all these years and now out of fear you’re trying to rationalize something that makes no sense. If Derek regains what he’s lost there will be no stopping him, he needs to remain distracted if any of us are to survive. The needs of the one Alan.”
He knew she was right, in fact he had thought much the same every time he heard of one of their brethren falling to Derek’s rage in the past. He would mourn them for a moment as you would a stranger you heard about in passing, but he would know deep down that their death was necessary. He knew it then, but now that it was his town at risk he wasn’t so strong in his convictions. There were people here getting caught up in a fight they had nothing to do with, and for once it didn’t seem fair. In truth none of them really had anything to do with it, this was a mess that began long before any of them ever drew their first breath.
“Alan, you know what you have to do.” She sounded so certain and strong, he wondered in a small dark part of his mind if she would still sound so sure if Derek was standing in front of her. Knowing Marin, she probably would.
Thanking her for her advice he hung up the phone and tried to order his mind. Everything had been so much simpler when Derek was just an abstract concept on the horizon, a maybe one day danger. Now that he was in Beacon Hills he knew he didn’t have it in him to do what everyone expected him to do. If it was just his life on the line, maybe it would have been different, but it wasn’t the Hales were in equal danger now that Stiles had been found.
God, he didn’t know what to do.
Marin Morrell hung up from Alan and began to pace. Only he would ever truly find himself in such a ludicrous situation, to not only have gained Derek’s attention but to have him find his mate within his town as well, it was unfathomable. Then to compound the entire mess he instead of doing what needed to be done and sending Stiles away, he had begun a desperate search for a new solution, like no one else had ever tried before. He made it sound like he was breaking new ground, when that was far from the truth.
Others had tried to find a way to end this standoff in the past and one of two things always happened. Either they died in the attempt, because they were messing with powers beyond their scope. Or the druids who started them all down this path found out and put a stop to it, permanently.
While many of her fellows believed that all of the original group had died out by now, citing their own hubris as the cause, she knew better. She had met several of them over the years, they were easy to spot once you knew what to look for and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that while Derek wasn’t to be trifled with neither were they. Each of them had sacrificed too much in their own opinions and come too far to give up now just because other people were dying for their mistakes. If that had bothered them none of them would be in this situation.
No this situation was far more difficult to navigate than Alan realized, he was only focusing on one side of the threat and ignoring the other like the fool he always was. For centuries the safeguards had held, keeping their casualties down to a manageable number while the search continued but now, all hope of survival was beginning to slip through their fingers and for what, because Alan didn’t have the balls to do what needed to be done.
Well, if he didn’t she would just have to help him along, she would miss him of course but no one life was worth them all. Picking up the phone she called the one person she had hoped to never have to speak to again.
“Hello.”
“Katherine it’s Marin, we have a problem. Derek has found him.” And may God have mercy on them all, because no one else will, not after today.
Kate hung up the phone and tried to keep her hysteria at bay. Derek had found Stiles, they were together again. This could not happen, if Derek no longer had to search for Stiles he would begin searching for her and the others instead. Though they all knew it would be her who bore the brunt of his rage, she was the one who had led the charge against him and his precious Stiles in the past. It was her eyes he stared into with so much rage it nearly moved her to tears.
It had all seemed so perfect when they began, all they had to do was keep one skinny runt under control and they could have everything they ever wanted in life and so much more beyond it. Then things had begun coming apart, bit by bit, so slowly and yet quickly that none of them had seen what was coming for them until it was too late and they all nearly died. Now they were sentenced to this half life of being so close to what they had originally wanted and yet so far away that the idea of ever reaching that goal now was laughable. Sometimes she wondered if it was even worth it anymore to continue with this plan of theirs.
No. She had lived too long, sacrificed too much to let her life slip away from her so easily.
Clutching at the crystal hanging around her neck she focused all her concentration, all of her will power on this one act. The golem would wake, the boy would be swept from his king’s side once more, and the hunt would begin again. Only this time there would be no more interference from her meddlesome kin. It was time to make an example of Alan Deaton, and show the entire supernatural world exactly why the legends of her and her people still persisted to this day.
Derek sat in his car outside of the infernal high school that continuously took Stiles’ time and attention away from him and tried not to scowl. He’d done what was asked of him and searched his memory looking for where to place the guilt for their current situation. He had to admit that Stiles had a point, then again he usually did, he never had truly given the Hales a chance to be of use to him, he had grown so used to all others being against him in his search he had given up on asking for help from outsiders long before he ever stepped foot in this sleepy little town. Maybe it was time that he changed that.
Glancing down at his watch he tried to reign in his impatience, Stiles was taking longer than usual but he had seen him talking with that Beta Scott more and more over the last few days so it was possible he was caught up with him again. He would give him five more minutes before he went in search of him. Five more minutes.
Kasey1939 