Derek dragged him out of the room by his arm, leading him out of the house before he turned to him with questioning eyes.

"What?" Derek said succinctly, crossing his arms as he turned to his uncle who reached into his jacket and pulled out a worn out journal, which seemed to be crumbling of old age. As soon as the scent hit Derek's nose however, he drew back, taking back a step as a sudden grief rose. It was the scent of all the old Hale stuff. A scent he hadn't smelled since putting all of their old stuff in the storage unit with Laura.

"Why...why did you go?" Derek said before Peter could even let out a word. "Peter, why the fuck would you go there after all the good that's been happening? Can't you just enjoy having some happiness for a moment?"

"I didn't understand it at first, Derek, but I get it now." Peter laughed almost emptily. "Stiles is my son-"

"Stiles is not my cousin, Peter." Derek's lip curled in disgust.

Peter let out a frustrated breath.

"That's not what I meant. Listen!" Peter snarled, his hand tightening around the journal. "This whole time that Stiles has been turned small, I couldn't get the thought of my son out of my head. But the more I thought about him, the more I couldn't remember him. His face. The color of his eyes. How he laughed. Nothing. It was like those memories that blurs when you think too hard about it. But how could I forget everything specific to my son? I had to find out what was happening. I had to remember, and the only place where I could go for that was the storage unit."

Peter looked down at this and he licked his lips before raising his eyes to the Alpha was frowning.

"I never had a son, Derek. It's hilarious that I didn't even question having a son before. Derek, I'm asexual. How the hell was I supposed to have a child if I hated sex? And I could never have adopted because I moved around too much." Peter snorted. "Someone messed with my head. They made me think that all the memories I had of Stiles when he was younger were memories of some son I had, that I guess when the fire happened I just assumed died in the fire."

"Wait, I don't get it. You never had a son?" Derek frowned. "But I remember..." Derek's eyes widened as his eyes shifted, trying to remember. The memories seemed to be there, but the more Derek sought them, the more they eluded him.

"Exactly." Peter's lips settled into a straight line. "There is nothing to remember, because whatever spell was put on us makes us forget the details of my supposed son."

"But, wait, how do you know it's Stiles? It could just be a spell to put fake memories in your head."

Peter silently handed him the journal.

"You know there's no one I trust more than myself. So imagine my not surprise when my past self explained to me exactly what I was missing."

Derek opened the journal cautiously and managed to catch the photo that slipped out of the pages and he froze when he saw what it was. It was a picture of a younger tween version of him laughing as a young Stiles tackling him to the ground...But that was impossible because he hadn't met Stiles until he had met Scott which was only a few years ago.

"I thought you might like that certain photo I found from among the albums." Peter sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Sit down. It's going to take you a while to read all of it."

Derek wordlessly opened the journal as he slid down the trunk of the tree next to them.


The first time Peter had met Claudia Stilinski was through Talia. Claudia and her pack had moved from Los Angeles to the small town of Beacon Hills, and they had come to ask permission from the Alpha of the main pack of the territory, Talia Hale. As it turns out, the werefox and werewolf had a lot in common and became instant friends.

It helped of course that the minute Claudia stepped foot inside the door with her husband right behind her, the sound of footsteps rushing down the stairs suddenly filled the air.

Talia turned on her heel, ready to scold her second oldest son, Derek, from letting his younger siblings out only to find herself shocked at the sight of him speeding past her and towards the young Stilinski child who was holding his mother's hand.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't help it. He smells amazing." Derek babbled as he leaned into the young werefox's space. The golden-eyed child giggled and pressed his hand on Derek's cheek. Talia stared in horror, her eyes flickering to the werefox alpha only to find her equally amused and surprised at the turn of events.

"What is he doing to our child, Claudia?" John let out in a desperate tone after realizing that no one was going to say anything about the young boy nuzzling his son. Claudia laughed.

"They're true mates, John. Genim, do you wanna go play with the young Hale?" She said sweetly to her son. Talia let out a sigh of relief. She was worried that the Alpha werefox would rightfully tear Derek a new one.

"Yes, mama." Stiles toothily smiled as he took Derek's hand.

As her eyes shifted to the father, she quickly realized that her problem wasn't going to reside in the Alpha but in the father who was currently glaring intensely at her son. Derek seemed to be over the moon as he looked at their joined hands.

"Why don't you two go upstairs and play with some of your toys, Derek?" Talia gently suggested. Stiles whirled towards the young werewolf with shining eyes.

"Toy?!" Stiles gasped excitedly. Derek nodded and tugged them up the stairs to his room, leaving Talia with Claudia and John Stilinski.

"So, I believe we will be getting to know each other very well." Claudia smiled as Talia led them to sit on the couch.

"I do believe you're right." Talia laughed, breaking what was left of tension in the room.

Peter who had stayed quiet during the whole exchange spoke up.

"While my sister may trust you blindly, I would like to know why you conveniently decided to move to Beacon Hills." Peter sniffed as he suspiciously glared at John who seemed happy to have someone to direct his annoyance to.

"My husband is going to get an interview to be the new Deputy." Claudia responded gently, squeezing their conjoined hands. "We moved from Los Angeles because it was too busy and there were simply too many eyes watching. Genim hasn't been able to fully control his shift and we wanted to make sure he would be able to practice without getting caught."

"You do know that a whole family of hunters live here, right? The Argents are the most well-known hunters of the west coast." Peter sneered, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the wall. He could feel the glare that Talia was directing at him, but he kept the eye contact with the werefox. In the corner of his eye, Peter saw John visibly stiffen and turn his head questioningly to Claudia whose sunny disposition faltered.

"I know, but I also know of the pact between the Argents and the Hales. The Hales can allow other packs to settle in the town with the protection of secrecy as long as there are no more than two magical beings in the pack. I was hoping you would be willing to let us settle here, considering we're only a pack of three, with one human, one fully developed werefox, and a child werefox." Claudia had shifted her gaze from Peter to Talia halfway through her speech.

Now it was Peter's turn to glare at Talia and his sister seemed all too aware of the power she had in her hands.

"I would be happy to welcome you to Beacon Hills, Alpha Stilinski." Talia said succinctly and Peter's mouth dropped open indignantly.

"Talia-!" Peter began to protest but was interrupted by Claudia.

"Thank you so much, Alpha Hale." Claudia enthusiastically said with a wide grin.

The beta werewolf huffed as the two Alphas began to talk about which neighborhoods were the best and when a dinner should be set up as thanks. Sneaking away angrily, Peter climbed the stairs by two and he turned to head towards his room. These were the reasons that made him question why Talia had turned out to be Alpha. She was too trusting! This werefox pack could easily be looking to exploit the biggest pack of southern California.

Halfway through his mental rant, Peter's attention was suddenly on the sound of a light giggling laughter coming from Derek's room.

He silently walked towards the open door.

Genim was enthusiastically playing out a story with some of Derek's Power Rangers in front of the young werewolf. Talia's youngest children were there too, enraptured by their brother's new friend and his stories.

Peter watched as the young werefox grabbed the toys from Derek's hands. A sense of rage filled him but he kept it down, releasing the tight fists he had on either side of him. How could Talia not see how dangerous this little boy could be?

His nieces and nephews were the first to notice his presence. They looked up at Peter with backs straightened, but Genim continued playing with Derek who seemed as enraptured as the younger boy. Before Peter could let out a growl, Genim finally seemed to notice the older beta werewolf and he gave him a wide grin, letting go of the toy he had in his hand. With shaky hands, he got to his feet and began to walk over to Peter who frowned suspiciously at the lack of fear in Genim' steps. The other kids seemed to be stretching out their hands as if to stop Genim but were too hesitant to get close to Peter themselves. Derek, in particular, was moving back and forth like if there was a rope pulling him back and forth.

The young werefox reached Peter's leg and looked up at him with the biggest smile Peter had ever seen on a kid in his vicinity.

"Batman." Genim said as he outstretched his hands up, motioning for Peter to pick him up. "Hero Batman. Up! Up!" Peter spluttered for a second. However, Genim didn't seem to be overly concerned with the existential crisis Peter was going through, and he began stomping his feet, pouting.

And, if Peter had to choose a moment where Genim slithered into his heart was at this moment, with the werefox's bright gold eyes looking up at him with unbridled awe as he picked him up.


Derek's head shot up from the journal with his mouth wide open.

"But, that's impossible. Why can none of us remember him? What about Deaton? Wouldn't he still know?" Derek flipped through the pages, catching phrases and pictures that were put on the pages.

"Come on, Derek. We both know that Deaton is not a reliable source of information when it comes to things like this." Peter crossed his arms, rolling his eyes at the naivety of his nephew. The air around them seemed to have grown stiller as Derek had read the journal, and Derek ran a hand down his face, letting out a sigh.

"Well, then, what happened? And just tell me, because your handwriting is a fucking headache to read." Derek said, closing the notebook and handing it back to the beta. The other tsked, rolling his eyes.

"That's why I started using a laptop. And according to me, this was what happened..."


Claudia's hands tightened on the car wheel. The slick Jeep was so recognizable that she could spot it from 20 miles away. The only thing was how did SHE manage to follow them here? The Stilinski Alpha pulled out of the supermarket parking lot, making her way back home.

In their old city, the hunters and the weres in the community had gotten along before the monster that goes by Kate Argent began swimming in the hunter's circles, making other hunters throw away the rules and just shoot down the supernatural community. Kate was one of the reasons she had decided to move. Genim was too precious to her to even allow him to be near such a despicable human being.

But...but now she was here in Beacon Hills, which made Claudia's anxiety and anger rise. There was no doubt about it. That...that bitch was here to try and kill her and her son.

The Alpha knew that she could manage to get by, because she had trained her fox until she had perfect control. The only problem was that Stiles didn't have that iron control over his wolf. If he got too upset or happy, his werefox traits would appear. She couldn't let this happen, and there was only one person who could help her with this.

It was this train of thought that led to her standing in front of Emrys Pendragon's front door step. It only took her three knocks before the door opened to reveal one of the two inhabitants of the house.

"Claudia?" Arthur frowned in confusion. "Is everything alright? Come in."

"Thank you. Come on, Genim." She tugged her son's hand who had been distracted by the lion statue next to the doorbell. Once the door was shut behind them, she turned to Arthur who was had taken her coat.

"I'm here to see Merlin." She admitted. "I need him to cast a spell for me"

The blond man immediately nodded.

"He's in the study. What kind of spell is it?" Arthur looked curiously at her as he led her into the house.

"There's a hunter in town, and I think she's here for Genim and me." Claudia said. "Genim is too young to control his shift, and I just think it would be safer for him to have those genes turned dormant. I've seen the spell cast before. I know that Merlin can do it. After all, he's the greatest sorcerer that's ever walked the earth."

"Aw, Claudia, you're making me blush." Merlin grinned as his husband and their visitor walked into his study. "See, Arthur, at least SOMEONE appreciates my talents." He stood up, pulling the Alpha into a tight hug. The two had known each other since they were in college, with Claudia on a study abroad trip in England and Merlin was a professor for Medieval Mythological Literature. They had discovered rather quickly that the other also belonged to the supernatural realm.

"If your head got any bigger, we would need to get a new house for how much space your ears take up." Arthur sneered, crossing his arms.

"Prat." Merlin stuck his tongue out at him, and a giggle filled the room. The blue eyed sorcerer turned his head down to the source of the noise.

"And who would this be?" Merlin asked , bending down to see the young giggling boy who was holding on to his mother's p legs. The sorcerer waved at him and Stiles waved back, giving him a toothy smile.

"My name is Genim." The young werefox said shyly. Claudia wanted to laugh at the timidity that Genim was showing . He was never like this with other people, but Claudia knew the effect Merin could have on supernaturals who were affected by auras.

"I have a favor to ask of you." She said, and Merlin could tell the situation had just gotten intense, and she went back to his feet brushing off the dust that had gotten on his pants. He motioned for the Alpha to sit down in front of him.

"What's wrong, Claudia?" He asked, as he sat down behind his desk. Genim settled himself on his mother's lap, content to snuggle into the warmth she provided and the scent of him of home and safety.

"There's this new hunter in town. Her name is Kate Argent. She ... she was in my last town and I'm pretty sure she's after Genim and me. I think that with Genim's current level of control on his shift that it would be easier for him if we just turn his genes dormant."

"This is a pretty big deal." Merlin said slowly. "And I can't begin to understand what it feels like to be hunted, but ... isn't this a little bit extreme?" Merlin shifted in his chair, rubbing the pad of his thumb on his upper lip. "Does John know about this?"

"No. He wouldn't agree with me. He would say that we should just move again, and I don't want to put that on him. We've moved enough as it is."

"Claudia, I've never done this type of spell before."

Claudia leaned forward, grasping his hand in hers, squeezing it.

"I'm sorry that I'm putting this on you, but I just... I don't know who else to turn to. I just want Genim to be safe and alive."

"You understand that this type of spell is something that lasts quite a bit of time, right? Like this won't go away in a few days or even weeks. It would have to be a few months or even years for it to wear off."

"I know."

Merlin pursed his lips, looking at the young boy who had dozed off halfway through the their talk.

"There is a chance that he might never return to being a werefox. In fact, there's a very good chance that turning half of his genes dormant would cause him to die." Merlin said softly. Guilt filled Claudia but this was the only way.

"Emrys, I know that you wouldn't let that happen."

Arthur who had been observing the exchange put up some protest.

"Hey, that's not fair of your to put that on Merlin."

"No, it's fine." Merlin waved a hand in Arthur's direction. I just want to make sure that you are 100 percent sure that you want to do this."

"Emrys, this is the only way. We need to turn Genim human."