AN: I do not own Teen Wolf, I only created the plot and original characters
Ps. This one is kind of shorter, but it felt right to end it where I did
It wasn't Derek.
He couldn't be sure if he was relived or not, because he doesn't think he could mentally handle being relieved to see Peter Hale, alive and well, on his welcome mat.
"What? Are you not going to let me in?" Peter gave a mocking pout, and Stiles starred at him expressionlessly for several minutes, before taking one step back and opened his door, letting the former Alpha into his apartment, where he immediately scented a foreign werewolf in the room and on Stiles. He could already feel the judgment flowing off the man.
"Well, you certainly don't waste any time. My nephew will be heartbroken" Peter smirked, and Stiles looked him in the eyes.
"Probably not as much as when you tore his sister to pieces for him to find. I'm going to make some coffee, would you like any? No? Suit yourself" Stiles smiled pleasantly, and could feel Peter glaring at his back as he walked towards his kitchen.
"So much as happened since you burned me alive, and my nephew slashed my throat. You and my nephew getting handsy, Scott alienating you, the falling out with your dad, and Erica had so much to say about your magic..." Peter smirked when Stiles closed his cupboard a little too hard, but Stiles tried not to let the wolf get to him.
"All wonderful reasons why I left, so why are you here? How did you even find me..." Stiles trailed off, and Peter smirked knowingly.
"Well, with how the Pack is panicking at your disappearance, I got curious. Imagine my surprise when I find your mothers estranged parents had placed quite the bribe to a local prep school, I just found it so funny that a plane to the same city was leaving from the airport a few minutes after your little call. Really, all it took was one little spell after that to narrow down your location, and send ahead a mutual friend of ours to see how you were doing" Peter smiled angelically, and Stiles scowled at him.
"The hunter, you sent him after me to see how I'd handle it" Stiles declared, and Peter looked positively thrilled.
"And you did so well, the hunter didn't even realize the knife you stabbed him with was cursed. Police found him dead today, an overdose they said, and no one suspected you" Peter beamed, and Stiles took a deep calming breath.
"So, what do you want?" Stiles repeated, and Peter studied him.
"Well, I wanted to make sure you weren't dying in a ditch, this way I can honestly tell Derek that you are okay. You've done remarkably well, and fairly quickly as well, an apartment, a job, your enrolled in a prestigious school, you've already got some friends, and a wolf on the side" Peter smiled, looking slightly rueful, and Stiles raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Yeah? And what? Your gonna blackmail me? Drag me back to Beacon Hills?" Stiles scoffed, his hands tightening on his coffee cup, and Peter studied him.
"No, Stiles, I'm not. You... You smell happier than I've ever seen you, so I'll keep your secret. It just makes me wonder what would have happened if Scott was caught instead of you. You've managed all this in a few days, and Scott can barely tie his shoes with you gone... I have no doubt that if I had bitten you, I wouldn't have lost... You would have made such a beautiful wolf, but its a shame it would have cut you off from most of your magic" Peter smiled, and Stiles cheeks flushed as he looked down at his coffee.
"So, you just came here to be creepy then" Stiles said as he raised his coffee to his mouth, and Peter smirked, dragging his eyes up and down Stiles body approvingly, making Stiles choke on his coffee, and Peter laughed at him.
"Relax, I am more inclined towards Chris Argent than yourself. My nephew might be attracted to your jailbait allure, but I prefer something a little more mature. It is surprising that Derek could even stomach touching you though" Peter said, and Stiles heart plummeted and the coffee in his mouth turned sour.
"Right, well, everyone makes mistakes" Stiles said bitterly, and Peter looked at him in surprise, then suddenly he looked frustrated and rueful.
"Right, its not that unexpected that Derek wouldn't tell you. Unfortunately, that must have made you come to the wrong conclusion" Peter said, and Stiles looked up from his coffee cup.
"What? Derek wasn't exactly big on sharing, we barely even knew each other... What didn't he tell me that was so important, he married?" Stiles snorted, and Peter looked at him sharply.
"No, but his last serious girlfriend burned his family alive" Peter said expressionlessly, and suddenly Stiles was sick to his stomach for an entirely different reason.
"Derek was sixteen at the time of the fire, and Kate was probably in her late twenties" Stiles said through his teeth, fury burning in the pit of his stomach, and Peter didn't say anything, just leaving Stiles to stew in his anger.
"Derek couldn't be more different from Kate, but when he came around to realizing how young you were? Its no surprise he pushed you away" Peter said, and Stiles couldn't stop the silent ears that rolled down his cheeks as he looked at his coffee like it might hold all the answers to his problems.
"Things between me and Derek wouldn't have worked, and its not because of our age gap, its because the man doesn't trust anyone... You cant truly love someone you don't trust... He never would have loved me back..." Stiles whispered, and Peter looked at him with wide eyes.
"You love him? I thought it was just... Sex and a crush gone bad" Peter said, and Stiles avoided his eyes.
"He... I loved him, he was beautiful, broken, but beautiful. Like a puzzle, put all the pieces together, you can still see the scars, but it still forms a pretty picture" Stiles said, suddenly exhausted, and Peter studied him carefully for a moment.
"If things had worked out differently... I think Talia would have loved to have you as a son in law" Peter smiled sadly, looking down at his hands, and Stiles ran a hand through his hair.
"You know, I did some research on the fire when you were on your murder spree, and something about the number of bodies found doesn't sit right with me... Its just a feeling, but, well, I found this bloodline spell, I just need a Hale" Stiles said, and Peter stopped breathing, his body locking up.
"If your wrong, and no one managed to get out..." Peter trailed off, and Stiles gave him some time to process what he was offering. Stiles was pouring himself a new cup of coffee, when Peter finally made up his mind.
"I have everything I need, just let me set it up" Stiles grabbed a globe, an atheme and a baggie of mountain ash. He threw the ash up in the air, and it settled into a perfect circle around him and Peter, then he knelt by the globe, and reached for Peter's hand, and cut open his hand, dripping three drops onto the top of the globe, and watched as the blood moved, covering the globe, and finally it locked onto three people, settling over where Beacon Hills was, and Stiles and Peter shared a look.
"Maybe its just focusing on Derek?" Peter frowned, and Stiles, pressed his finger against the blood and focused on his power. One of his attributes was blood, and it couldn't just be the violent side of magic, so maybe he could do this. Maybe he could see them... There was a hooking sensation in his stomach, and when Stiles opened his eyes, he was kneeling on the ground, a few feet away from Derek, who had his back turned.
"What do you mean Jackson and Isaac are missing?! How did they just disappear?" Derek demanded of Scott, and Scott sighed heavily.
"Isaac was at Jackson's, trying to convince him to join the pack, and something felt off, so I went to check on them, and they were gone. It smelt like two werewolves, that's why I'm here. Derek, you have more experience with this, can you tell if their apart of the Alpha Pack?" Scott asked hopefully, handing Derek a sweater, and Derek inhaled deeply.
"Its definitely Alpha, their scents are always stronger... But... Is it just me, or do you smell... Magic... Blood... Peter... And... Stiles" Derek whipped around, his eyes flashing red, and suddenly Derek could see him, but Scott couldn't, not even when he flashed his eyes, and Stiles neck suddenly ached.
"Are you sure? I don't smell anything?" Scott said uncertainly, and Stiles looked at his best friend, searching his face, but despite looking stressed, he seemed fine. Happy, even...
The hooking sensation returned, and when Stiles blinked, he found he was in a vault, standing in front of a brunette woman with the most disgusting pedicure Stiles had ever seen.
"What" a girl around Stiles age whispered, and Stiles noticed she was chained to a wall, Isaac and Jackson unconscious a few feet away.
So only the Hale's could see him because he's looking for them...
"You must be Cora or Thea Hale, I'm Stiles. I'm using Peter's blood to search for survivors..." Stiles trailed off, and her eyes widened.
"Who?" she whispered, and Stiles smiled warmly at her.
"Derek, Laura and Peter survived, but Laura died a few months ago" Stiles admitted, and her face fell slightly.
"Who are they?" Cora looked at the alpha, but Stiles knew she was asking him.
"Derek is an Alpha, these are his betas. Can you tell me where you are?" Stiles asked, and Cora looked at a symbol on the floor when the Alpha stepped towards her threateningly. Luckily, Stiles recognized the symbol, they were in Beacon Hills First National Bank.
"What do you want with us?" Cora asked the alpha, and refused to cower when the alpha snarled at her to be quiet.
"Don't worry, you wont be here much longer" Stiles promised, and Cora didn't smile, but her eyes were warm as the hooking sensation returned again, and Stiles was suddenly in a forest.
"Okay. What..." he trailed off, looking around, and froze when he seen a coyote looking at him, her fur raised, werewolf blue eyes glowing at him, and Stiles flared his own silver eyes, and he must have done something because suddenly his magic was no longer inside his body, instead it had exploded from his body and had knocked several trees to the ground, dirt and leaves suddenly flying through the air... And when it settled, Stiles found not just a naked teenage girl, but also a few drops of old blood on the ground were glowing silver, and Stiles realized why this clearing was familiar, and why this unknown Hale was drawn to it...
This is where Peter killed Laura...
Stiles doesn't know what happened after this, but he woke up to Peter shaking him roughly.
"What did you do?" Peter demanded, looking panicked and afraid, and Stiles first adrenaline rush through him as he sat up quickly, looking around his apartment, but everything seemed fine.
"I... What happened?" Stiles asked, confused and disoriented, and Peter gave him an incredulous look.
"What happened?! How about activate three pack bonds to the niece I thought was dead, the daughter I didn't know existed, and the other niece I killed!" Peter growled lowly, his eyes wide, tears welling up in them, and Stiles didn't know how to react to that.
"What?! Laura was literally cut into pieces, how did I bring her back?" Stiles asked, and Peter took several calming breaths.
"Because her body was reassembled in the casket, and you are way more powerful than I'd imagined" Peter choked out, and suddenly Peter had wrapped him in a tight hug, and Stiles gently wrapped his arms around him, Higgin him back as the wolf cried into his shoulder.
"Wait... Wait, Peter, wait, you need to call Derek. Peter! Call Derek, you need to tell him Cora is in danger" Stiles demanded, and Peter immediately pulled his phone out and dialed his nephew, with Stiles sitting a foo away, able to hear everything they said.
"Peter, unless you know what happened, I don't want to hear it" Derek growled, and Peter cleared his throat, his eyes still red.
"I found Stiles, and he... He did a spell to search for other Hale's, and he found you, and... Cora. He found Cora, Derek, she's alive. And I also have a daughter I never knew about, she... she was stuck as a coyote, and when Stiles turned her back, he... he might have accidentally resurrected Laur, so you might have to dig up her grave" Peter rushed out, his voice raw, and Derek was silent.
"Cora... and Laura" Derek whispered, and Stiles tried to gather all his strength as he took the phone with gentle hands as Peter started to cry again.
"Cora is with Jackson and Isaac at Beacon Hills First National Bank, she's in trouble... And I don't know how I brought Laura back" Stiles said, trying to keep his voice even.
"Stiles, please come home" Derek whispered, and Stiles felt the tears roll down his cheeks before he even realized he was crying.
"Please, just... Let me go, Derek, don't follow me... I need this..." Stiles whispered, and Peter set a hand on his shoulder.
"Stiles, I'm so sorry. I know... I know what happened... its why you left, but... Your dad and Scott need you" Derek said, his voice shaking slightly.
"Why do you think I left, Derek? You might have been a factor, but it wasn't the reason... I was drowning, Derek, and no one noticed... I need to be strong on my own, so please... Just let me go, and I'll come back when I'm ready" Stiles pleaded, and Derek's breath hitched.
"I'm sorry, I never should have... I should have been stronger, I should have seen..." Derek whispered, and Stiles wiped his tears.
"I never had a problem with the age gap, Derek, I knew that if I'd asked, you would have stopped without question... The reason we never would have worked, is you never could have trusted me until you learnt to trust yourself... You were right though, nothing is more important than your Pack, so go save them, and never let them go. Don't push them away, like you pushed me away... Goodbye, Derek" Stiles said, his tone was gentle, his hurt and affection both warring with each other.
"Stiles, don't go-" Derek pleaded, but he hung up, giving Peter his phone back, and Peter rubbed his palm against Stiles neck, scenting him, and Stiles gave him a weary smile.
"I have to go, but consider us even... And Stiles, you might not be my beta, but you are definitely Pack" Peter looked at him warmly, and then he left, leaving only a slip of paper with his phone number on it.
What a day...