Chapter Twenty: Bad Business
Stiles woke to Derek tugging him from the bed and almost carrying him into the connecting bathroom where he was shoved into the hot steaming shower. The Omega moaned at the delicious heat of the water and the lack of sensitivity, which had made life difficult for the last several days. He didn't really know how much time had passed and he didn't ask Derek who left him alone in the shower or Ricky who was strangely absent from the Heat room. When he was scrubbed clean from their activities and his hair was sticking up from being vigorously rinsed then toweled, he noticed the terry cloth robe sitting on the closed toilet bowl. He pushed each arm into the soft sleeves and wrapped the belt around him and tied it tight, loving the warmth of the fabric. He had no idea where his clothes were and vaguely remembered being carried into the Heat room to begin with. He opened the bathroom door to find Ricky back and fully dressed, sitting on the bed with a laptop resting on his thighs.
Stiles grinned seeing the little sexy frown in the center between the Beta's eyebrows before he walked over to smooth his thumb into the crease before leaning down and pressed his mouth over the Beta's in a closemouthed kiss.
"Hey," Ricky whispered with a little smile even though he didn't seem ready to turn his attention away from the computer screen.
"You're wearing clothes," Stiles said with a mini pout.
"Yes because we are going back to school little man, I have to get some assignments turned in and I need to speak to a few of my teachers. Luckily I haven't missed any deadlines but this school has a strict attendance policy."
"You were helping your mate through Heat, they cannot punish you for that," Stiles replied quietly, not sure if he should be telling the beta this since again, he was a beta and was going to catch flack for mating stuff until they were able to substantiate their claims.
Ricky shrugged and said nothing so Stiles looked around, "Where did Derek go?" he asked with a frown.
"Food, for before we go but here some water, you should get rehydrated."
Stiles nodded again and took the bottle gratefully to suck down some water, wondering if he'd eaten at all in the last few days. Doubtful, he figured. He settled his head down on Ricky's shoulder before he spoke again, "Don't we need to get back to our other room and get all our stuff?"
"Most of it is in the car already, here's your phone. I think there's a few messages for you."
Stiles dived for the phone, which Rick had pulled from his sweater pocket as the bottle of water skidded out of his hand with barely anything in it now. He looked at the screen and saw the missed calls were from the campus administration. He accessed his voicemail, entering his password quickly. He pressed on the first message which turned out to be from Scott, possibly calling from a campus phone instead of his personal cell, "Some crazy is going down on campus, where are you!"
Stiles frowned and turned to share the confusion with Ricky who had titled his head in concern as well at Scott's desperate tone though the other alpha tended to lose it over small things just like Stiles sometimes. Stiles pushed on the next message and listened as it played back, "Mr. Stilinski, it would be in your best interests to meet with the Vice President Alpha Andrew Varack this afternoon."
Stiles rolled his eyes since the secretary felt she should state that Varack was an alpha, like he needed more authority than VP to make Stiles listen or something. He looked and realized that message was from two days ago. Stiles skipped to the next message quickly, this time it was Varack himself if the superior tone of voice was anything to go by. "Mr. Stilinski, after your conduct and blatant disregard for the safety of yourself and other students, please return to the campus to retrieve your belonging before vacating the premises. You are being officially asked to leave the college."
"What?" Stiles shouted, he couldn't believe they had decided such a thing without even speaking to him in person.
"Derek," Ricky was saying into the house phone, which Stiles hadn't even noticed the Beta lifting from its cradle next to the bed in his focused attention on the message. "Get back up here now."
Stiles stared down at his phone as he thought of the implications. The Beacon Hills college was where he'd received tuition grants, he wouldn't have anywhere else to go, "Oh god, Oh my god! They kicked me out for being an Omega. What the hell! That's not okay!"
Rick's arms came around Stiles' shoulder and hugged him close, one hand clasping his shaking fingers and the other along the side of the Omega's neck. Stiles tried to keep his breathing under control but it was getting harder to focus on something supposedly so simple as breathing. Then the door slammed open and Derek was suddenly kneeling down in front of Stiles, tucked between his knees and the Alpha pressed his hand into the other side of Stiles' neck from where Ricky was already touching him.
It helped to have them both touching him.
"What happened?" Derek asked gently.
"Varack called, they kicked Stiles out of school," Ricky said and Stiles started breathing heavily at the reminder. Derek shushed him even while his eyes flashed red in anger. Stiles wanted to pace, to work off the nervous energy that was rising beneath his skin. The Wolf was aching to run, to rip into someone for the injustice of what the college was doing to him.
"I'm going to call Peter and tell him to contact the school immediately and we should follow their decision for now."
Stiles gasped, hurt by Derek's words and shocked into open-mouthed silence.
"Stiles," Derek crooned, deeply aware of his little mate's emotional response. "Do you want to give them a good reason to keep you out of the campus. It's probably what their hoping for, to turn this into a ploy to protect you to which you responded badly and unfairly and then they would have every right to make the suspension indefinite."
Stiles sighed and scuffed his bare toe along the floor. He was more annoyed about the fact that they wouldn't even get the chance to enjoy the after Heat glow when most Mates would be able to scent each other at their leisure. Instead their worlds were being tossed into chaos immediately.
"Oh the joys of being a freaking Omega," he scoffed and rubbed his fingers into his tired eyes, having to moved around Derek's immovable and comforting presence. Ricky's arm was still around his shoulder and his free hand tangled around Derek's hand while the Alpha was futzing on his cell phone. Stiles wanted to do something incredibly selfish and childish like swat the phone away from his Alpha but when Derek pressed down on Peter Hale's contact information Stiles knew for sure that Derek was very present in his crisis but his brain was in fix-it mode instead of panic and cry about it phase. Ricky seemed to be doing everything in his power to keep Stiles calm which, thank you very much Stiles thought, wasn't requiring too much attention.
"There was plenty of joy in you being an Omega, don't forget that," Ricky mumbled into the skin of Stiles' cheek to which the Omega snorted in amusement.
"Did you just—?"
"Made you laugh," Ricky responded with a shrug.
Derek held up a finger, motioning for them to quiet down, "Peter, hey this is Derek. The school has let Stiles know he's been asked to leave the campus, what's our next step?"
They could clearly hear Peter on the other side of the phone, "Return to the campus and retrieve the boy's belongings and take him to your apartment and resume life as if normal. Lodge an immediate complaint against the ruling as they did not speak to Stiles about his alleged behavior and so he has not been given sufficient chance to amend his behavior. Be prepared to apologize for anything they are planning to use against you, though do not do or say anything until I call the school on behalf of the boy."
Stiles rolled his eyes, "I am not 'the boy'," he sniped and crossed his arms over his chest. His robe was starting to loosen, especially with Derek still between his legs but now his chest was being exposed, one nipple freed to the slight chill of the room and the wandering eyes of his mates, too bad no one's hands were wandering. Derek and Ricky both snorted in amusement, Stiles was pretty sure they were sneaking into his thoughts again but that's okay with him.
"Tell 'the boy' to get over it, its better than some of the things I could call him. Several slurs about his Caste were always my favorite in youth," Peter was sneering, it was actually clear in his tone of voice, which surprised Stiles, but maybe it shouldn't have. Peter, from their short visit with him was an elitist and a prideful Alpha from an Alpha family. Stiles was just grateful again that Derek wasn't like that.
"Watch it Peter, you can't take me and I will fight for him," Derek said while he rubbed a gentle hand up and down Stiles' thigh, which was pushing the robe off to the side to bare warm pale skin. The Alpha suddenly realized how close he was to Stiles' warmth and with a pained wince, he stood and pressed his free hand into the Omega's shoulder instead of answering the passion's call that Stiles' body was just starting to make.
Stiles sighed and Ricky chuckled quietly in humor while Derek kept speaking, "Make the call Peter and don't screw this us. He's a Hale now, they both are and you are duty bound to protect them as if they were your own!" There was a distinct beep when Derek hung up the cell phone before the Alpha moved to kneel in front of Stiles again to take his free hand gently between his. Ricky placed his and Stiles' other hand over Derek's and they all breathed in relief at the pleasant contact.
"We're going to get through this bull, I promise. Soon they are going to be begging for your return to the campus and until then we are going to help you keep up with your workload, okay?"
At those words Stiles slumped into their arms, he didn't know this kind of support was even possible outside of his dad let alone ever going to happen to him. He'd never really accepted that his Alpha was Derek until they met again here at the campus. Stiles leaned down and pressed his lips into Derek's mouth for a quick kiss. He didn't really want to talk about the tears slipping from his eye so he turned and kissed Ricky quick before he struggled out of their restraining hold, "I should get dressed so we can get things sorted out at the campus."
They nodded and watched him carefully, certainly waiting for Stiles to fall apart not that he was going to. He was an Omega and a lot of people assumed those of his Caste were simpering idiots just waiting for their alpha to make it all better all the time but that wasn't Stiles. He knows what he is, but he denies the stereotype. He has been preparing for this kind of treatment since he was a small child and he'd heard all the slurs for Omegas from asshole Alphas and confused Betas. He has been preparing for this battle of equality since he went on suppressants because he'd hated it and despised the fact that he would be hiding from the rest of the world until he found his Alpha and not only that but he was still be breeder, wet little cunt… there were others of course and he didn't really care about them because he loved being an Omega, being something special and something that Derek and Ricky treasured and kept safe like they did.
So, he found his clothes resting at the head of the bed and quickly dropped the robe. He enjoyed the sound of Derek and Ricky gasping at the sight of all his skin on display, taking in a deep breath to calm the rising hunger they wouldn't be able to feed at the moment all the while, Stiles was slipping one leg into his boxer shorts then the other. Next came his jeans and then his t-shirt and his over shirt. He looked up finally but found Derek and Ricky still staring at him. He smiled at their twin dopey expressions before he crossed his arms over his chest and waited for them to decide they were done with the staring contest. Stiles suddenly realized something huge as he looked at them while they attempted to get their acts together.
With them at his side, this was a fight he was prepared to fight and win!