Setting: Directly after the events in the warehouse with Jackson.
Spoilers: Season two finale.
Warning: No Beta, so WILL have spelling and grammar mistakes. (You have been warned so please don't complain. If this is likely to bug you, stop reading now.)
To anyone observing them, they were just your average group of teenagers, hanging out at a dinner, stuffing their faces with unhealthy fast food and talking about weird on-line games. But they weren't average, far from it. They sat gathered around the table, eating their meals and talking about their lives.
"Dr Deaton says the alpha pack is like some kind of wolf review board. When a new Alpha comes to power they hit town to judge if their ready to be put in control." Scott said around his burger. "They check them and their pack out."
"Check them out?" Lydia asked with a mix of nervousness and interest.
"Test them, make sure the Alpha's up to the job and that the pack is willing to follow him."
"Well, looks to me, like Derek's screwed." Jackson laughed.
"And?" Stiles pressed, ignoring both Jackson's comment and the tightening of his stomach.
"And according to the doc, they test the whole pack to breaking point."
"Well that's alright, I'm not part of his pack." Jackson said defiantly.
"Maybe, but I am." Isaac murmured, looking nervously at his half eaten burger.
Scott looked over at him. "Then maybe you should think about, you know, cutting ties. Deaton says their only interested in Derek's pack, they won't care about omega's."
"I - I can't do that." Isaac whispered. "I can't just turn my back on Derek. He saved me."
Stiles watched him closely, glad to see there was some loyalty around the table.
"Saved you? He made you a wolf." Scott snapped angrily.
"I asked."
"He offered. He knew you were in trouble, he prayed on you because you were weak. Just like he did with Erica and Boyd."
Isaac shook his head disagreeing, but Stiles could see that he was seeing Scott's point of view. Stiles didn't know why but it kind of made him angry.
Stiles shifted in his seat at the mention of the other wolves, wolves he'd last seen tied up in the Argent's basement. Christopher Argent had told them he'd let Erica and Boyd go and they hadn't heard from them since. Apparently they'd decided life in Beacon Hills was too dangerous for them. A sentiment Stiles could heartily agree with.
"Then Derek wouldn't have a pack." Isaac frowned.
"Does he really deserve one?" Scott scoffed.
"Everyone deserves a family." Stiles murmured, forgetting for a moment that he was surrounded by wolves.
"We're not his family." Scott said almost furiously.
"I was just saying, it's gotta suck, he's on his own now." Stiles shrugged, playing absently with his fries.
"Since when have you been president of the Derek Hale fan club, Stilinski?" Jackson scoffed.
"I'm not, I'm just saying." Stiles snapped back.
"Well, he's got Peter."
They all noticed Lydia's discomfort at the man's name and Scott sent her an apologetic look.
"Yeah, cause he's a person you want watching your back." Stiles said sarcastically. "And what if this alpha pack, once it's finished with Derek decides to go after you." Stiles snapped, looking around the table. "Cause we're kinda looking like a pack to me. - Derek already calls you our alpha." he said, looking directly at Scott. "What then huh? What if you're the next to take the test."
"Hey, Scott ain't my alpha any more than Derek is. I don't have…."
Stiles sent him a hard look. "Really, so your sitting with us why?"
Everyone looked at Stiles like he'd grown a second and third head. His heart was racing and he knew they could hear it. "I'm just saying okay, that we're all new to this, and some of us, don't have super powers, so I think I've got a right to be concerned."
"So you're saying we should join Derek's pack?" Scott frowned, looking at his friend with concern.
Stiles pushed back his chair and got to his feet, heaving his lacrosse stuff over his shoulder. "I'm saying that if you had any sense, you'd think about the group rather than just yourselves." with that Stiles left the table then the dinner, fully aware that there were four sets of eyes following him.
~HARDER TO SWIM, THAN DROWN~
Stiles was working away on his computer when a familiar face popped up in the corner of the screen.
"Hey." Scott said nervously.
"Hi." Stiles nodded.
"You still pissed at me?"
"Nuh. - Sorry about earlier. I think it's all the stress of the past few months." Stiles forced a warm smile.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. We good?"
"Of course."
There was an awkward silence as Stiles and Scott shifted in their individual chairs, looking at the screen nervously.
"Did you mean what you said, about Derek?" Scott asked finally.
Stiles shrugged. "You know I can't stand the guy, but it took us weeks longer to figure out about Jackson because you two weren't talking. I just think for the greater good of the group we should at least, you know….talk to him."
Scott looked guiltily at his desk top. "He's just so….unreasonable. He's convinced he's always right, and won't listen to anyone."
"Sounds familiar." Stiles scoffed.
"What's that meant to mean?" Scott frowned through the screen.
"Just that maybe the reason you hate Derek so much, is because he reminds you of you." Stiles shrugged.
"So what's your excuse?" Scott asked harshly.
"I think constantly being shoved and threatened and treated like a play toy is reason enough, don't you?"
Scott laughed a little. "Good point."
The teen wolf heaved a heavy sigh, "Alright, you may have a point. I'll think about it. Okay. - We up for practice tomorrow?"
"When you say practice, you mean me sat on the bench with Lydia while you and the pack play chase the tail? - Sure, why not. Let's just avoid discussions about Alphas okay."
"Deal. See you at nine?"
"Nine? Are you crazy, it's spring break, I'll see you at eleven." Stiles grinned. "Night."
Scott laughed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, night Stiles."
Stiles signed off and closed down his computer before heading off to take a shower. Twenty minutes later, he was lying in bed staring at the ceiling telling himself that he had to get a grip. He couldn't keep defending Derek, he had to stop letting his heart skip at the mere mention of him. It was ridiculous. If he didn't, the guys would know something was up, and then there would be trouble and like hell was he getting stuck between his best friend and….Derek Hale.
~HARDER TO SWIM, THAN DROWN~
Derek watched from a distance. He was losing his pack or at least the single member he had. He could feel Isaac pulling away from him, his loyalty shifting to the wayward Omega. Though Scott wasn't so much as an omega as a reluctant alpha. At any other time Derek would have cared, he'd just go out and start again, but then Scott would probably take them too.
Derek wasn't one for jealousy, so it wasn't that that was coursing through his veins at the thought of Scott dismantling his pack piece by piece, it was frustration at the boy for not seeing that he couldn't protect the pack he was creating for himself. Sure he had the loyalty and the brains but he didn't have the knowledge or the experience. There was still so much he didn't know about what he was, about the world he now belonged too. And without those things the pack would crumble.
If Scott would only accept him as alpha, he could teach him, show him how to be a stronger better leader, and then one day hand over control of the pack to him. But Scott was too stubborn and it was going to get them all killed. Because once the Alpha pack were finished ripping him of his position and then into pieces, they would go after the teenagers and they most definitely weren't ready for that.
His attention was drawn to Stiles as he sat with the strawberry blond, Lydia, on the bench. Joking, laughing and trying his best to flirt. Derek clenched his jaw and ignored the anger bubbling in his gut. He'd been furious at the boy for days, unable to believe that he'd honestly thought he'd tried to use him to get to Scott. When had he ever given the impression he was like that? It would however have been easier if that was the truth, it would have saved Derek from countless hours of worry over whether he was going to lose control like that again. Because in the past few months he'd been really wanting too and after the other night, he wasn't sure he'd be able to stay so distant if they were forced into the same room together. So maybe it was a good thing that Scott kept to himself, and his pack.
~HARDER TO SWIM, THAN DROWN~
Derek returned to the house to find Erica and Boyd sat close together on the porch, they looked exhausted. He could see the dark shadows under Erica's eyes, both were pale.
"What are you two doing back here?" He asked walking cautiously up to the house.
"They wouldn't let us leave." Erica murmured pitifully.
Derek didn't need to ask who. His gaze settled on the mark still painted onto his door.
"Aren't ya gonna ask who?"
"I know. - What did they say to you?"
Boyd looked at Erica, pulling her closer. Derek watched them closely. He'd planned for Erica to become Scott's mate, once he'd realised he couldn't take her, it seemed that she'd chosen her own though.
"They asked us a ton of questions. About you. - Then they put us….through tests, made us show them what we'd learnt." Boyd told him.
"Then they said we had to return to our Alpha, and we can't leave town."
Derek stood silently listening to the pair, his gut clenching tight. It had already started. It was only a matter of time before they went after Isaac.
"What did you tell them?" Derek asked, not sounding partially worried.
Boyd and Erica exchanged nervous looks.
"Everything." Erica murmured, staring at her feet.
Derek nodded then turned his head slightly and let out a call, only werewolves would hear. Calling Isaac home, confident that Scott hadn't gained his loyalty yet. "Go inside, rest. School starts in a couple of days, you need to regain your strength."
"School? You want us to…."
"Yes." Derek said, turning as Isaac came rushing out of the woods. "Until then none of you are to leave the property. Understood." he said, looking directly at Isaac, who lowered his gaze submissively.
Derek turned and marched up the stairs, passing Peter on his way in the house. "That goes for you too."
"Where else would I go?" Peter smirked with a shrug.
A/N: Thank you for reading.
