A/N~ And this is where once again my fingers just sort of took over and the chapter got a mind of it's own. After 15,000 words I decided it was time to break the chapter in half and I'm still not don with it. I call this a little revisionist history of Teen Wolf. After the Hale Fire was waylaid by Stiles and Mary. Hope you all enjoy the first half of the chapter, even if it is late. Please read, enjoy and review. ~A
Chapter 20A
Stiles shocked awake, and then nearly choked as he drew in a deep breath and his lungs burned as though he had been holding his breath for a long time. say a few months at least. His head ached terribly, so it took a few minutes for him to remember Mary His head whipped around to search for the older woman which didn't help his headache at all. The fact that he saw what he figured was her leg under a bush nearby, didn't help his heart at all.
He crawled toward her a little fearfully, until he reached out to touch her ankle and felt the warmth in her leg. He pulled some of the low hanging branches aside to see her laying on the ground, just sleeping. He shook her ankle and had the tiniest bit of vindictive pleasure, no matter how unwarranted, of hearing his mentor groan in pain as she too roused.
"And this is where I threaten to turn you into a toad, cub," the older woman said a little hoarsely from the pain.
The younger man merely scooted himself over to where he could cross fold his legs and put his elbows on his knees, while waiting for the both of them to recover enough for conversation and strategizing.
He didn't have to wait long, Mary sat up and mirrored his pose. Pushing a little healing energy through the both of them. She oriented herself and said quietly, "The Hale House is about a quarter mile that way," she indicated the west and slightly over her right shoulder, "Do you have the time?"
The younger Stilinski pulled out his cell phone and tried to turn it on, only to have nothing happen, "This should be almost fully charged still." he said perplexed.
"That particular version of that phone hasn't been invented yet Stiles," Mary reminded as the teen nodded sheepishly and tucked the cell phone back into his pants pocket.
Shoving the sleeve back on his hoodie he looked at the dial of his wrist watch and said, "6:30. We have about forty-five minutes."
"Which means that Kate and her co-conspirators are probably already in the woods. The teen nodded and closed his eyes for a minute, when they reopened the embers were there and he looked over at the older woman.
They are in the woods coming from the direction of the Argent home instead of the road." he concentrated for a moment longer. The family seems to be having a reunion or party of some kind. The coroner lied or the meeting was a surprise of some sort because there are a lot more people there than were in the official report." Stiles said with consternation and not all of them are wolves. There are a lot more humans there and people who weren't part of the family."
"Then we should get going," Mary said as she rose gingerly from the ground. "How do you want to handle this cub?" asked the older woman hand on his shoulder supportively.
"She knows me in the future, so do those others, at least a couple of them. Can't let them see me now. I'll get everyone out of the house, you do your best to stop them from burning the house down." Stiles said simply.
"Oh let's try for a couple levels better than that," suggested Mary helpfully as they began to run through the woods toward the Hale House. "Let's try to catch them and hand them over to your father shall we?"
"Sounds wonderful except for two things, we have no way to call my dad and we can't let my dad see me or you." the younger man said as they desperately picked up speed pushing a little magic into their systems to get to the property faster.
"No reason we have to be glory hounds and stick around for the accolades is there?" Mary offered in between breaths of air.
"Good point," Stiles agreed as the two of them ran through the woods. Silently since their plan was laid, their motions fluid and soundless now. In the distance the two of them felt a hum, and a new surge of adrenaline came from nowhere and surged through their body. Both of the magic users sent an answering thrum back through the lines of magic they were connected to the earth by. A sign of appreciation to the Nemeton who was helping them along with their appreciation.
In their straightforward plan they had not taken several things into consideration. One they came through the back door of the Hale House. A house crowded with werewolves and humans having a party of sorts. A Pack of powerful super-naturals who had been persecuted in the past and had a healthy suspiscion of anyone or anything outside of the pack.
Stiles had gone barreling through the backdoor into the kitchen where several Pack members had gathered, as families were wont to do. Two of the Pack members grabbed for him, he deftly avoided them but crashed into a third and carried her to the ground in a tangle of limbs. With a quick sorry to the woman on the ground, Stiles tried to untangle their limbs as he called, "Alpha Hale, I need to see Alpha Hale, it's urgent."
The woman under him looked up at the Spark and inhaling deeply said in a warm contralto, "I'm Talia Hale, who are you and why do you smell like my son and lightning?"
Realizing he was lying on Derek's mother who could rip his throat out, Stiles tried even harder to untangle his limbs as he explained in his usual babble, "Friends, magic, hunters coming, going to burn down house with all of you inside. Get out, everyone get out, where's your phone?"
There were suddenly disjointed bits of conversation around him as he finally managed to get untangled and rise, before reaching down to help the Alpha to her feet. Some of the pack were seeking family members, some were reacting with suspicion, others with downright scorn. Then Stiles noticed that while he wasn't alone in the kitchen, Mary wasn't with him.
"Quiet," Talia Hale said without raising her voice. Almost immediately a level of quiet fell over the kitchen Stiles wouldn't have imagined was possible with this many people in the space. She looked at Stiles and said encouragingly, "Explain?"
"I'd love to but there's no time. Hunters are on their way here now, they'll be here in," he checked his watch again and sped up, "less than five minutes. They intend to burn down the house with everyone inside and make it look like an electrical fire."
He saw the Alpha shaking her head, "We have a pact with the Hunters…" she began.
"With the Argents, more specifically with Chris Argent. Apparently not all of the Argents signed that agreement, or follow that damned code. Kate, Gerard, and Victoria, they think of it more as guidelines, very loose guidelines. Chris Argent doesn't know about the attack but Kate is leading it, and they're on their way here now."
A dark look came into the older woman's eyes, the look of a mother preparing to do battle for her child and Stiles was about to waylay the protective mother vibe when they all heard a child's shriek from the front hall. "Oh great they're early," Stiles said with a sarcastic growl as he forced his way through the surge of bodies that were headed to the front hall, forgetting the plan to stay out of sight, entirely.
There stood Kate Argent facing Talia Hale who was barely holding a beta couple who had shifted and were trying desperately to get to the hunter. Or more specifically the terrified four year old she was holding by the throat. The boy to his credit wasn't making a sound, Stiles chose to think it was bravery and not the fact that the female hunter was holding the little boy in mid-air by his throat while holding a hunting knife to his pale neck.
"Get back, all of you mutts get into the basement or I slit your puppy's throat," the Hunter said with a cold grin. "Move!" she demanded. Talia Hale began to back up. The rest of the pack followed their Alpha backing toward what Stiles could only assume was the direction to the entrance to the basement.
Stiles didn't move. "Didn't you hear me kid, I said move?"
"I'm not part of this Pack," he said in an eerily calm voice.
"Yeah well it doesn't matter," said one of the men who came up behind Kate with a gun and aimed it at the teenager, "Wolves still die when you shoot them with wolves bane."
"So do humans but then you don't really care if I'm human either do you Kate," the dark eyed man said staring at her.
"You know me?" the female hunter asked suspiciously studying the dark haired boy before her.
"We've met before, or we will. You never answered me Kate. You don't really care who you kill do you? Just so you get to kill something, right?" Stiles asked and took a step forward to look more sharply at the older woman. "As a mater of fact you don't care what you do to get to kill someone, right? For instance do your friends out there know that you're a pedophile, Kate?" He said moving another step closer as he spoke.
The female hunter watched him with a mad light in her eyes. "Who the hell are you?"
"Doesn't matter," said the hunter beside her as he prepared to shoot Stiles. "If you're a wolf, you'll die, if you're human you're a race traitor. Either way, you'll die with the rest."
Kate tried to stop the other hunter but the gun went off or rather blew up in the hunters face. He fell to the floor and Stiles very pointedly didn't look down at the hunter on the ground, instead he looked at the woman and said, "I'm other."
He put out a hand and said, "Peratio." The knife was suddenly in his hand and the boy was in his arms a few seconds later. Suddenly they all smelled smoke. Kate Argent pulled her gun and was aiming it at the Pack who were beginning to panic.
Mary lunged through the still open front door and grabbed the woman pulling her hard into a burning wall. The fire caught both of the women's clothing on fire. Mary yanked the younger woman out the door. Stiles remembering the plan yelled, "Everyone out the back now!" When the Pack didn't move Stiles flashed his ember eyes and they then turned red as he shouted, "Now!" and the roar that came out of him was definitely Alpha quality. Everyone froze for a split second before seeming to teleport out the door.
Stiles wasn't surprised to find two of the arsonists just outside the door waiting for them. He was still holding the toddler in his arms which he regretted when one of the arsonists threw a can of accelerant at him and then followed it with a flare. As soon as he was doused with the accelerant he tossed the boy back toward the pack, with a blast of force he blew the flare apart mid-air.
He couldn't help the scream of pain he let out as his shirt caught fire from the fragments from the flare. He was gratified however when Unger's clothing also caught fire. He wasn't awfully surprised when a summer cloudburst suddenly occurred, the burning was doused but he could still smell the accelerant and saw
Reddick standing there with another can of the stuff, looking dumbfounded.
Unger was huddled on the ground whimpering, Stiles didn't even bother looking at the pathetic human being. He couldn't even feel the pain from his own burns, he attributed that to the Nemeton and also to a very healthy dose of adrenaline. Both of which were probably why he felt as though his brain was literally burning with rage. He reached up to touch his scalp to make sure only to discover his face and head were unmarred by the fire.
He looked back to discover over a dozen people huddled together outside the back door. He looked back at the house and discovered there was now smoke and steam coming from the house. With a hoarse voice from the smoke and screaming he shouted, "Don't just stand there, see if the fire is out and call 911, tell them we need EMT's, fire and police. Where's the boy?"
Talia was suddenly there in front of him, gosh that woman was fast. "The boy is fine, he's with his parents." She looked back and said, "Don't bother calling the police, we'll take care of this with our own form of justice."
"The hell you say," Stiles retorted sharply, "just because you're werewolves doesn't mean you're above the law." The eyebrow she raised was disturbingly familiar and Stiles nearly giggled at the stray thought, "Now I know where he gets it from."
"I'm not used to being naysaid," the female Alpha said.
"Yeah well I am used to it," said Stiles ignoring the man holding the can of toxic chemicals. "It sucks especially when you know the other person is right and your wrong. Get used to it, as your kids get older it's going to happen a lot."
Peripherally he saw Reddick trying to creep away and said, "You move another step Reddick and I may just decide to light you up like a Roman candle. Just like you and your friends tried to do to this house and these nice people. These kids." With that he looked over at the toddler he'd saved and froze for a split-second when he saw what he could only assume was a much younger Cora. Then he added looking back at the arsonist in a low, growling tone, "Me."
The older man dropped the can in the grass and knelt with his hands in the air in a classic gesture of surrender. "Good," Stiles muttered and then called, "Mary?"
There wasn't an immediate answer and though he shouldn't waste the magic, he muttered something and suddenly wasn't there. Followed quickly by the night air being split by the sound of a gunshot.
A few of the Pack stayed with the pair of arsonists while the rest ran to the front of the building. Mary stood there or rather leaned against a nearby tree. The other hunters and arsonists were all laid out on the ground around the front yard. One was smoking closer to the house, the rest were in various stages of unconsciousness around the clearing in the front of the house.
Kate Argent was in the middle of the clearing. She was frozen in place, not even able to speak. Though from the minute movements she was making it didn't stop her from trying. Her gun was raised but she couldn't even twitch enough to pull the trigger. Stiles went to check on the woman who was leaning against the tree.
He moved her hair over her shoulder so he could see her burns. Her face and shoulder were obviously burned but she grinned wickedly at him as he nodded her head in the direction of the female hunter. Stiles smirked at the older woman before he headed toward Kate.
"I do love your style, Mary," he told the older woman. He carefully pried the gun out of the older woman's hand and facing away from the people gathered in the clearing the Spark rendered the gun safe and then came back to face Kate. He said with no amusement whatsoever, "You know what Kate, you're a hunter who doesn't learn. Prey change, if the hunter doesn't then he will become the prey."
"Luckily for you, the werewolves adapted to become more human or I should say more humane. While you…well you devolved to become less human and less animal. You unfortunately devolved into arrogance. A very unattractive and lethally stupid trait, as your about to find out." he said to her coldly.
"To paraphrase a movie I like. The winner isn't the one who has the bigger claws," he said harshly, then holding up her weapon he continued, "or the bigger guns. It's the one who has the bigger brains. We have that, you don't."
Stiles lifted his head and almost seemed to scent the air, and said almost too quietly for anyone to hear, "Hi dad."
"Time to go," he said helping Mary move away from the tree before looking at Kate and saying with a sassy little smirk, "He's right, you never will evolve. Nighty-night, Kate." Just like a puppet that suddenly had the strings cut Kate Argent flopped to the ground, unconscious or asleep. None of the pack really cared.
That's when the others heard the sirens from the sound just at the edge of the Preserve. "Tell my…the deputy what happened. Tell him Garrison Myers, the arson inspector got paid off to list this as an electrical fire, check his financials. Tell him Harris the science teacher at the high school was manipulated by Kate to tell her how to set a fire and make it look like an electrical fire. Tell them they talked in front of you, told you all that but get your stories straight before the deputy gets here. Get it straight, or he'll catch on. He's sharp."
Mary leaned against the younger man and looked up at the Pack as she said, "Don't forget us." Then there was a bright flash of light and the pair disappeared.
XXXXXXXXX
Derek Hale graduated from Columbia with a degree in architecture in 2009, a year earlier, but then his sponsor Mr Sands had offered him a position in the company as his apprentice if he succeeded. He still called his family frequently and visited on holidays and as frequently as he could.
While living in San Jose had come with a few challenges, and not a few pleasurable evenings, Derek had felt he was missing something. One evening while out on a run he was attacked by a rogue Alpha, the creature was feral and nearly insane, Derek defended himself and ended up killing the Alpha, thus becoming the Alpha himself.
When he told his mother she was obviously relieved he was okay but when he told her he thought he might be an Alpha now because of the incident her reaction was strained. A year after he joined the firm Mr. Sands and the other partners were so impressed with his skills that they made him a partner.
His first assignment as partner was a job in his hometown. An older woman wanted a home built for herself and an industrial building redesigned into loft apartments for her godson and whoever he wanted to join the group.
It had been three months since Derek had visited home the last time. To say his reception was cool was putting it mildly. His mother who was his inspiration in all things, was suddenly cold to him. Laura his older sister was openly hostile, even his father was distant.
Only his Uncle Peter and his younger sister Cora were unchanged. Cora had practically tackled him in her enthusiasm on seeing him. Peter had given him a manly hug, and then Derek had gone into his room to find his bed gone and all of his belongings packed up in boxes.
He stood in the doorway of his room stunned for several minutes before Peter came and reminded him gently, "Two active Alpha's can rarely share the same territory, nephew. You know that your mother has planned for Laura to take her place all this time, you suddenly becoming an Alpha rather by accident… has caused three Alpha's in the Hale Pack. Thus there has been a little tension."
Derek looked sharply at his Uncle and noticed something in his eyes. "What happened?"
His uncle sighed deeply as he said, "Laura didn't want your mother to allow you back in the territory, they argued. It wasn't pretty, several of the human pack members left until things were settled. Your mother agreed it might be…safer that way. In short the Pack is unsettled." The older man said diplomatically.
"Safer...has Laura become violent?" asked Derek an expression of confused concern clear on his face.
"Not physically, no. However her emotions have become volatile," they both hear a door slam downstairs and Peter said helpfully, "I took the liberty of getting you a hotel room in town. Shall we?"
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Stiles was in a dangerous state, bored. He was headed to the loft to practice magic. Just a little air magic he felt the need to move and make magic. It helped inspire him where his designs were concerned. One would think the space would be difficult to work magic in, considering it was rather confined, was practically surrounded in glass, and seemed to trouble as well as the Nemeton did. Stiles found the space inspirational both for his magic and drawing.
Stiles godmother had come to town a few months ago, both his dad and he vaguely remembered her, though neither of them could exactly place her. When she had arrived in town and had informed them both that not only was Stiles a Spark (which she then had to explain to the pair) but that she was there to teach him how to use his powers. The resulting laughing fit only ended when the pair had hit the ceiling literally, as in laughed their way to the ceiling. They only finally settled back to the ground about half an hour later, in which they were served dinner.
The only matter they got stone-walled on was when Stiles had asked her quite innocently if she didn't have a family of her own that might be looking for her, she had gotten a strange look in her eyes and said, "None that will miss me."
Mary had told him that she had hired an architect that would help him work on a practical design for the industrial building and what she affectionately called the Sister House.
Stiles and Mary had already had an electrician and an inspector come and do the upgrades and rewiring on the space and to deem it if not exactly habitable yet at least structurally sound. Stiles would often come here after school and clean. In the past week he had managed to clear out the staircase that led to the loft. A space that was filled with the refuse of countless homeless people and disenfranchised youth, Mary's term not his.
The loft itself was one of his favorite spaces in the whole building. The bank of windows made it possible to see the city laid out like colored jewels at night. Today he was going to try an experiment, he put the ten pound bag of sand he had lugged up the stairs on the floor. The space was structurally sound but the electrician was waiting for parts to repair the old service elevator that they were going to keep. So Stiles lugged.
Mary had told him it would build character to which his father had replied, "It's Stiles, trust me, he doesn't need anymore character. If he becomes anymore of a character he'll need his own zip code because nobody else will be able to be in the same area as him."
Stiles pulled out the ladder the electrician had used to start installing lighting in the space. Pulling the plastic tarps and painters tape out of his backpack he began putting a protective layer of the plastic over all the windows. He was glad his father wasn't here. Knowing your son was learning magic and actually practicing it was one thing. Watching him climb walls and the ceiling like Spiderman when the ladder wasn't tall enough, yeah that was something else entirely.
Mary and his father weren't exactly close but the woman was very honest with his father. She had brought a book to dinner one night and after the meal had given his father a bottle of scotch, the good stuff and told him to start reading. The book had witches, demons, kitsunes, every kind of were-animal you could imagine and a few things you shouldn't.
She had then informed him that every one of the monsters in that book was real and a possible threat. The bottle was empty before his father was halfway through the book. On the positive side his father was still stone cold sober, on the negative side the things in the book were what had pretty much scared him stone cold sober.
Stiles stood up on the ceiling and surveyed his work. When he was satisfied that the glass was all covered he concentrated and did a back flip off the ceiling, it was surprisingly graceful, considering what a klutz Stiles was, and he stuck the landing easily with his magic. One day he might just try flying but he didn't quite trust his magical ability that far yet.
He really needed to remember to discuss air conditioning with his godmother, he thought as he pulled his sweat soaked t-shirt off and wiped his face with it. He then put the shirt in his backpack and the backpack and ladder back into the other room making sure to close the door securely. The walls of the building, especially this particular room were covered with a couple of decades worth of graffiti, gum and other things he didn't even want to think of.
The inspector had recommended sandblasting. Stiles had done one of the things he did best, research.. Only to discover that sandblasting the entire building would cost thousands, probably tens of thousands. So he decided to try a short cut. Mary had suggested that the teen take up some tai chi to learn more grace and better control of his body.
Stiles had done just that until is best friend had spied him in the park with the few other practitioners and proceeded to tease him unmercifully. The teasing had irritated Stiles more than he let on. Stiles hadn't stopped he just carried on the tai-chi in private now. He had progressed to more aggressive and advanced katas at home, but he couldn't really push himself in the very limited space of his living room at home.
He was tempted due to the heat to remove his jeans as well due to the heat but decided against it. Opening the bag of sand, he poured it out on the wood floor. He decided to start in the far corner away from the door. He took the first stance and began his kata, his movements were fluid and smooth as he began the slow initial movements. As his muscles warmed he began the more complex motions and then mentally began weaving the spell to cause the sand to move with him. At first it just spun around his feet, before rising higher and higher around his body, it's movements becoming faster even as Stiles movements also became more quick.
As Stiles movements became more frenetic so did the movements of the sand. When he had reached a certain level of intensity he began to send the sand into the paint covered wall. The swift moving silica ate away at the layers of paint caked on the wall. Eating away at the layers of paint, dirt and grime just as he intended, Stiles was pleased with himself but didn't allow his focus to alter. He was able to multi-task as always, while he was able to maintain his fluid and powerful movements, he also continued to keep up the spell work.
He continued to move along the wall, but it wasn't just the walls he scoured the ceiling and wood floors were also sanded in the same way, though perhaps not as intensely. The magic made a kind of music in his head, a song that only he could hear and his body was following with its movements. He laughed as he continued to move around the room.
He was so focused on what he was doing, it took several minutes before he noticed he was no longer alone. What really grabbed his attention was the sound of someone clapping.
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After his uncle had helped him move his things into the hotel room, and yes that still made him both hurt and angry. He had called around and found a storage unit available and rented that and a truck. He hadn't spoken to any of his other family members later that morning when he had returned to Hale house and used his key to let himself back into his former home.
His mother, Laura and his uncle were all at work. So were several of the others, you honesty couldn't even tell the fire had ever happened. No one ever really spoke of that night. He had testified but only in the judge's chambers to his part in what had happened and no one spoke of it ever again. Kate had been banned from any communication with him, which was just fine with him.
The fact that she had used him to get information on his family in order to kill them, would be something he would feel guilty about for the rest of his life. At the time his mother had insisted he wasn't to blame that the incident wasn't his fault, that Kate Argent and her conspirators were the only ones who were responsible for that dark night was still something he had trouble reconciling within himself.
They still never spoke of the night two strangers had saved their entire Pack and then just as quickly disappeared without explanation. Derek now wondered that wasn't because of him, if the Pack didn't really blame him and just kept quiet out of respect for the Alpha.
It was on his third trip of carrying boxes from his room out to the truck that his father came into the entry hall. "What do you think you're doing?" the older man said gruffly. Derek had looked at his father, his pa, and felt the sting of tears try to fight their way to the surface.
His own faded green eyes stared back at him as he said, "I thought you would be proud of me for surviving the attack of an Alpha Obviously I should have let him kill me. If I had known this would be my families reaction," Derek could only shrug as he carried the boxes past his father to the rented truck. He couldn't finish speaking to his father, the lump in his throat nearly choking him.
When he walked back into the entry way his father stood in the same place, slack jawed. Derek knew that while he was Alpha mate, his father wouldn't go against his mothers decisions. It's just not how it was done in his family, he froze mid-step as he corrected himself mentally. In the Hale pack, of which he was apparently no longer a part. He closed and locked the door behind him and went into his closet, he removed the magnet from the metal of the door jam and used it to open the concealed door in the floor in the back corner. He took out the lock box there.
Not bothering to open the metal box he put it and the magnet in the bottom of the cardboard box and sealed it with the masking tape He then reset the trap door in is closet before closing the closet door. He looked around the room and went to look out his window into the trees of the Preserve, one final time Then unlocking his bedroom door he headed down the stairs with the final box in his arms.
He stopped in front of his father, and without looking at him said in a cold tone, "I have a job to do in Beacon Hills, I'll do my best to stay out of the Preserve. Do me the kindness of not interfering if Cora wants to see me."
"That's not.." his father started.
Derek interrupted and actually flashed his red eyes at his father in anger accidentally, "Right, not my Pack anymore, funny thing no one bothered to mention it over the phone. But then you're out of the family is probably more a face to face thing isn't it. You the only one with the guts to say it to my face, pa?"
The green eyes of the older man was looking at anything but his son's face as he walked out the door past the rest of the Pack members in the house. He put the box on the seat beside him as he climbed into the cab of the truck. He finally looked back at his childhood home as he was driving away. His eyes stayed on the rearview mirror as he headed down the road that led out of the Preserve for as long as he could see the familiar edifice.
As soon as he reached the border of the Preserve he knew he needed some time before he headed back to the hotel. The storage place was one of those 24 hour establishments and well lighted so he could drop off his meager belongings anytime and the truck didn't have to be back until the next day He needed a place to think for a while, not public.
He pulled out his wallet and checked the address of the industrial site he was supposed to be helping to redesign. The area was isolated, had been abandoned for nearly two decades and since it was Saturday the entire Industrial Park area should be very quiet. Putting the truck in gear Derek headed in that direction.
When he pulled into the parking lot several minutes later, the newly minted Alpha was shocked to see an older model blue Jeep sitting in the parking lot. He dismissed it quickly enough as an abandoned vehicle. He rolled down the windows so the summer heat could warm his suddenly chilled bones. He recognized the symptoms of shock and impending grief. He had just lost his entire family, he felt…alone.
A flash of light caught his eye. Looking up Derek could have sworn he saw movement through a large bank of windows on one of the upper floors. His brows knit as Derek climbed out of the truck and locked the doors. It took him a couple of minutes before he found and unlocked the door to the place, as he climbed the stairs he extended his werewolf hearing. He heard a pounding heartbeat, the sound of feet moving sporadically, and a sound he couldn't really identify as anything other than a hissing sound constant and somewhat annoying. Derek found an old loft door, and the sounds were coming from behind that door.
He pulled the handle of the door and was shocked to find that the thing moved quietly and easily on a track that had apparently been recently greased. That didn't shock him as much as what he saw when he walked into the loft itself. Movement at the far end of the room drew the werewolves attention, the lithe almost too skinny form of a young man was going through a complicated but very precise series of movements.
The sight of sand dancing around him on air currents was the truly shocking part. When they were younger he and the other cubs of the pack were often told stories, either by the adults of the Pack or by Deaton his packs emissary of Sparks, witches, wizards, sorcerers, druids. Derek wasn't sure which kind he was looking at right now but he was definitely looking at one of a variety of magic users. And from the zing in the air, a zing not unlike a massive dose of static electricity, this guy was very powerful indeed.
He watched for several minutes as the male figure, who was mostly concealed by the whirling wind and sand, continued to move gracefully and skillfully. He realized a few things as he stood there watching, one the figure was extremely skilled and potentially quite deadly, two the young man was drawing the attention of his baser instincts.
The extremely short hair showed the beautiful lines of his head and face. His bare torso gleamed with sweat even as it showed the spare musculature to perfection. Whoever he was he definitely had a dancers frame and whoever he was he was very cleverly using his powers to remove graffiti, mold and filth from the walls with the whirling tornado of sand that spun around him. The younger man was going through a series of movements meant to show off his strength and flexibility in a series of gymnastic moves.
Derek began clapping in the middle of a set of one handed cartwheels. A set of large amber eyes flashed in the werewolves direction. He registered a cool wash of awareness even as the young man he had been watching was suddenly on his back and all of the sand that had been moving in the magically made sand storm suddenly fell on the sweat soaked body on the floor. Even as arms whipped up to cover an unprotected face.
The new Alpha rushed over to the slender young mans side. To find the formerly sweat covered skin was now covered in a rather heavy layer of sand and filth. Sputtering and coughing the eyes looked up at him in shock, "Ow, yeah, not embarrassing at all."
"You okay?" asked the werewolf with concern as he offered his hand to help the other man up from the floor. It was hard to determine age with the person covered in this much grime, he figured the younger man might be about his sister Cora's age. Thoughts of his younger sister were painful enough for him to avoid the thought and concentrate on the young man in front of him.
Short hair, very short almost shaved to the scalp. Which was admittedly making it easier for him to get the sand out of, sort of. A very expressive face, incredible amber colored eyes, a lean, muscled body, couldn't really tell with the jeans but the legs looked slim.
"Uhm yeah, just doing a little tai chi, kicked up a bit of dust. More than I expected, I have to say." The teen said, obviously trying to distract Derek from the fact that he was doing magic, as he shook his hand a little nervously.
"Really, is that what it was?" Derek said not able to keep the amused disbelief out of his voice.
"Yeah, I'm a master you know." Stiles said not looking into the older man's green eyes, "sometimes I don't even know my own power." Shaking the hand again.
Derek knit his brows, obviously the teen didn't know that he could hear the stutter in his heartbeat with the lie he was telling. But Derek could also smell the others distress and he didn't think it was the fear of discovery or even the distress some people felt over lying. "I would have said you were a master magic user, or at least a highly talented one."
Then he notices Stiles shake out the same wrist for the third time, and steps closer to the slightly sorter teen as he asks, "You hurt?"
"Naw, just dinged my wrist a bit," the brunette said dismissively, then added in a self-deprecating manner, "Which just proves I'm not a master at anything except being a klutz."
Derek made a quick decision, it was rather obvious that the only way to gain the kids trust was to prove he could be trusted to keep secrets. Gently he took the injured wrist and concentrated as he said, "I think I can help with that." Without another word, he starts drawing the teens pain, the black of the pain coursing through his veins as he did so.
Amber eyes met his own green ones in stunned surprise, as the younger man sighed in relief, "You're a supernatural, werewolf I'm guessing?" He framed it as a question but there was little doubt in his voice when he asked.
Derek merely nodded and when he had finished taking the pain he slid his hand down to shake the younger man's hand and said, "I'm Derek Hale. I'm supposed to help redesign this place."
"Stiles Stilinski, so am I, sort of," he said sheepishly as he shook the older mans hand.
"So witch, warlock, sorcerer, Spark, druid or other?" asked Derek, almost reluctant to draw his hand back.
"Spark, at least according to my godmother." said Stiles and then something caught his attention. "Did you say you're name was Hale?"
Derek stiffened almost imperceptibly but nodded his head. Stiles smiled cheerfully, "I think I know your sister, Cora."
The new Alpha relaxed and nodded his head and grinned, this may just be someone he could actually trust, he decided.
XXXXXXXXX
Laura Hale was enraged. She was drinking at the Overlook or as the humans called it Lover's Leap. She had purchased a bottle of Jack Daniels from the local liquor shop. Then added a few petals of the purple aconite. It gave the alcohol a strange hue but made it more effective on werewolf metabolism.
If her parents found out they would no doubt give her another lecture on the responsibilities of being a werewolf let alone an Alpha. She really wished that the lectures and lessons would stop and she could just start working on creating her own pack. She was in her mid-twenties now, eventually she'd have to take over the Hale Pack or create her own.
She sighed as she took a large gulp of the tainted Jack and enjoyed the buzz and burn of it as it went down. She looked out over Beacon Hills and contemplated what was really ticking her off. Derek, her younger brother, the one who was never supposed to be more than a Beta, was by some comical cosmic accident, an Alpha.
Not that she didn't love her brother, she did, but he was supposed to have eventually been her Beta, her second in command. Now her Alpha instincts were telling her to kill this rival who was in her territory. The fact that Cora and her Uncle Peter now smelled strongly of Derek. The fact that his smell was in Hale House, and the fact that her own father had been feeling miserable all day, just rankled.
The fact that she and her little sister had nearly come to blows this evening at dinner, had brought the wrath of her mother down on her head. She had questioned why Cora smelled too much like Derek and then had questioned Cora's loyalty to her. Cora had the audacity to stand up to her, shoving her older sister away from her she had said she would rather be Derek's beta because she knew he would actually care if something happened to her, Laura not so much.
When Laura had reminded her sister, "The safety of the Pack is more important than one member."
Cora had responded, "The Pack is made up of individuals. Obedience to the Alpha is instinct, loyalty is earned. So far you haven't earned mine as an Alpha, and you're starting to lose it as a sister. Think about that sis." she said harshly and then turning to her father not her mother and had asked, "May I be excused?" When her father nodded his assent she was out of the dining room and the house like a flash.
When Laura rose from her chair to follow, her mother had used her Alpha tone to tell her to sit back down. Laura's own Alpha wolf tried to resist but her mother was still her Alpha. When she started to argue with her mother, a bone chilling silence had fallen all around the table. Laura's tongue had frozen to the roof of her suddenly dry mouth. Reminding her that you never argued with your Alpha, about anything. Even if she was your mother.
Her mother hadn't really told Laura anything she hadn't heard before. That it was, her, Laura, that Talia Hale had chosen as successor, not Derek. That while Derek was an Alpha he was no longer really welcome in the Hale Pack because of said status. Her father had looked very angry at that and had without permission left the table. Her mother in turn had looked very unhappy, but then had let the cold face of the Alpha slide into place as she continued to lecture her eldest on Alpha etiquette.
Laura snorted to herself, as she remembered her mother's expression when her father had relocated to the guest room, after dinner. Laura and everyone else in the pack knew it was only temporary. The Alpha pair were too much in love for it to be any other way.
The fact that her stupid younger brother was the cause of all this still ticked her off mightily. She started to take another gulp of the Jack Daniels and realized that the bottle was three-fourths of the way gone. Laura also realized that the tainted alcohol must be affecting her more than she originally thought because she was just now hearing someone coming up the path to the Overlook.
The young man who emerged from the tree line was handsome, actually incredibly handsome. Blonde haired, blue-eyed and a facial structure that most sculptors would weep over trying to imitate. The scent of his distress was also obvious to her werewolf senses once her mind cleared enough from the wolves bane laced alcohol to notice.
Laura stood so the young man would notice her. He did even in the limited moonlight and his distress ratcheted up, but he pasted a charming and undoubtedly heartbreaking smile on his face as he stepped forward. "Hey, sorry to intrude, I just really didn't think anyone would be up here this late, even on a Saturday night."
"Yeah, well don't feel bad, neither did I. Trying to get rid of a bad day," she said waving he bottle around. "Care to join me?"
"Is it working?" the young man asked, stepping closer to Laura to take the bottle from her outstretched fist.
Laura hummed at the blond as she considered her answer, "Not so far, but one can always hope."
The handsome male nodded his head and said, "Here's to forgetting," and took a drink of the fiery liquid." He then stared at it for a minute and muttered something the she wolf didn't quite catch.
Laura merely took the bottle back and took a drink herself. The pair then sat down beside each other and admired the view as they shared the remaining alcohol with most of it going to the young man.
The werewolf then proceeded to unburden herself to the younger man, albeit a highly modified version of events. Her being the chosen heir and suddenly her brother coming back to try and take over and some of the family was on her side and some on his.
"At least, you know your parents. Your real parents I mean. I'm adopted. Mine were killed when I was really young. I'll never know them or what they were like, or what I'm supposed to be like." he said as he stared into the nearly empty liquor bottle. "I don't know what my adoptive parents want me to be, so I'm trying to be perfect. Problem, is perfect is kind of….I kind of come off like an ass most of the time, because being perfect means being around the right people which are other perfect people."
"Personally I think there are two sides to being perfect. One people are born the way they're intended to be and that should be perfect enough for everyone. Two other peoples perfect is kind of hard to achieve because every ones idea of perfect is different…and you know you can't please everybody, so you should only try to please yourself. Which it kind of sounds like you're not pleased with right now." Laura said before realizing that if she could sound that coherent after nearly a whole bottle of baned whiskey, she really hadn't brought enough alcohol with her.
The blond male said, "You sound just like Stilinski, he said pretty much the same thing when he was yelling at me the other day." He laughed as he drank the very last of the Jack Daniels, then coughed slightly as though he'd gotten choked on something and then spat something out into the palm of his hand. A couple of purple petals twisted together.
Laura suddenly had a flash of realization as he said, "What the hell is this?" Wolvesbane, aconite, wasn't just poisonous to wolves, it could be poisonous, deadly even to humans. Her mother would kill her if this kid died from aconite poisoning. Without thought Laura leaned forward and said, "I'd like to give you a gift, may I?" It was a very shortened version of what they were supposed to ask when they offered the bite to someone, but depending on how much aconite he had taken in she had to work fast.
The alcohol addled kid gave her his charming smile again and said, "Sure, what is it?" Instead of answering, Laura showed him. She wasn't sure if it was shock or the alcohol maybe, but the teen didn't make a sound at first. Then there was a whining cry of pain, that erupted from his lips as the empty bottle crashed on a rock beside him.
Laura laid him gently on the ground as he seemed to lose consciousness. She sat with him for an hour or so when she realized the sun was coming up and that her mother would know something was up if she didn't get back home before dawn. Laura really wasn't sure how her mother would react if she found out that Laura had bitten her first Beta without her mothers permission. Giving the young man a kiss on the forehead she whispered, "Be strong baby beta."
Then shifting into her own beta form she ran down the trail that led to the Overlook. Using her werewolf senses to avoid stumbling in the dark.
Meanwhile back at the Overlook, Jackson Whittemore as going through another life changing event. The second in as many weeks. While he dreamed some really strange dreams about wolves and the moon and other weird things, though there was a scent that stuck with him over the strange smell of the whiskey he had consumed. The scent was clean, calming and yet exciting, the scent said home to him. For a young man who had just had his life turned upside down, that was very important to him. Somewhere deep in his sleep-addled, alcohol infused, werewolf changing body and mind, a small growl sounded, "Mate."
A/N/N~ So having some technical difficulties with keys sticking on my keyboard. Particularly g,t,h, etc, So any errors you found because of this I apologize for. Yes I did try applying compressed air and it did help but didn't eliminate the problem entirely. I have double-proofed so hopefully I caught everything. Love and affection. ~A