Christmas Morning Hale House-
Stiles Stilinski was feeling pretty gutsy this morning, charging up the stairs to Derek and Ophelia's room to wake the former up. It probably helped that he had yet to take any of his medication this morning, of course who'd want to take boring medication when they could OPENING PRESENTS! Or even sleep for that matter? I mean dude come on PRESENTS! With that being his last thought Stiles all but broke down the bedroom door and launched himself at Derek's groggily waking form.
"DEREK! WAKE UP! IT'S FREAKING CHRISTMAS!" Stiles shouted unafraid.
"STILES!" Derek growled out as he shoved the bouncing young man off his bed.
"Stiles run!" Scott pulled his friend off the floor as he noticed the predatory look in Derek's eyes.
"Derek take a deep breath." Isaac encouraged his alpha.
"I. Am. Going. To. Kill. Him." Bit out the words as he threw on a pair of black sweatpants and a black shirt before pushing the wide eyed beta out of his way.
"Move!" Stiles shoved Kaden out of his way once he made it down the stairs with one goal in mind: The Safest Spot in the House.
"Come here Stiles!" Derek growled out again, not in the playful mood.
"Ophelia!" Stiles tripped over his own graceful feet and ended up crawling to the alpha female who was trying her hardest not the laugh as Stiles wormed his way behind her, smashed between her and the back of the chair.
"Stiles!" She chided him as she almost dropped her tea due to his squirming.
"Get over here." Derek growled from the other side of the living room, everyone who had been in the kitchen came in to see what all the ruckus was about.
"Never." Stiles mumbled from behind the alpha female who could have moved but was clearly not going too.
"Oh Derek calm down, I gave him permission to wake you up." Ophelia smiled kindly at her mate as she reached behind her to pat Stiles on the back.
"You can't hide behind her forever Stiles." John unhelpfully pointed out to his son with a mall smile of his own.
"Et tu father?" Stiles mumbled from the pillow his face was buried in.
"I'm going to kill your son." Derek commented.
"PREMEDITATED MURDER! Seriously Derek in front of my dad the Sheriff?" Stiles looked up at his pack leader with a dubious expression.
"Get in line." John replied back as he sipped his coffee.
"Dad!" Stiles shot up giving his dad an expression which could only be classified as a mix between hurt, disbelief, and a pout.
"Oh don't worry I wouldn't let anyone hurt you." Ophelia cooed reaching behind her to run her fingers through Stiles hair as he rested his chin on her shoulder.
"You baby them far too much." Derek mumbled.
"Well someone's got too." Ophelia replied quietly as Isaac plopped down in front of her and she put down her mug so she could run her other hand in his hair as well.
"Can we open presents now?" Scott asked giving the room his best puppy eyes.
"Well we're still missing some people but I guess we can start, there's a shit ton of gifts under that tree so this is probably going to take all day anyways." Derek replied rolling his own eyes at Scott's antics.
By noon everyone had arrived and was seated in the living room, either on the floor or chairs they had pulled in from the dining room. Derek was right there were a lot of presents and they had to be opened just so according to Stiles who was backed by Ophelia because she wanted to record the whole event, every gift being unwrapped. Once everyone had a present then they could open the one and reveal to the rest of the room what they had gotten. All of Ophelia's gifts were hand knitted. She'd made a large amount of things in a short period of time, hats, mittens, scarves, and the like. It was part of her 'nesting', something that all female werewolves and most human females do as well to get ready for the baby they carry. Ophelia was currently making her little girl a beautiful blanket out of extremely soft and fluffy yarn. Of course Nora and Oz, Raven's parents didn't get knitted gifts, as they had been so recently introduced to the pack but they were promised items as soon as Ophelia could whip them out.
The whole day was fantastic. Ophelia and the baby were so content being surrounded by pack and the ones who loved them. It was a very special day. Even Derek spent most of the day with a smile plastered on his face once he got over Stiles 'wake up' and got over the fact that Ophelia was not going to allow him to throttle the boy even though he had permission from the Sheriff. It was hard for Chris and Allison given that it was the first real Christmas without her mother, but they could not keep the gentle smiles from their faces, even if Chris's was a bit more sad then Allison's. Ophelia did the best she could to keep those smiles on everyone's faces, and found that her mother and Melissa were a great help in that department. That night at Christmas dinner Ophelia made a toast.
"I consider each and every one of you a member of this pack and by the very definition part of my family. John, Melissa, Chris, Nora, and Oz I know you guys might not feel like you're part of this pack, just your kids are but you are too. Everyone at this huge over stuffed table is a part of this pack, even you Mom, Dad, and Kaden. I guess I just wanted to say that you all mean a great deal to me and I'm so glad I stumbled my way into Beacon Hills. I don't think I could have found better people if I search the entire world. I love you all." She had a majority of the table tearing up, "To Pack."
"To Pack!" Everyone raised their glasses.
Outside-
Aofie watched her family from a distance even though she wished nothing more than to join them. Years of solitude however prevented her from giving in to that biological urge to be near her daughter, her grandchildren, to feel the movement of her great-grandchild that Ophelia carried. It killed her like a lot of things did, but she'd survive, she'd survive and she'd watch over them all. Taking care that they would never sense her presence.
The night before she had heard Ophelia mention a Vaduva witch was in the area and had paid tribute to the pack. Aofie needed to find this witch, she knew from her reliable connections that this witch was sent by Victor. Scenting the air she picked up on a nearly washed away trail. It must have been the witch's great grandmother who performed the spell on Alexandra all those years ago. If she had knowledge of those events then she was doubly a threat to Aofie's family. All the more reason to take her out.
Unsurprisingly she'd been unable to get inside the witch's hotel room, mountain ash carefully lined the entire room, the bathroom as well. So Aofie waited until the young witch needed to leave the hotel and give her yuletide thanks in the woods not far from them. About three miles into the deep woods on the opposite end of the Hale House Aofie realized the witch was very much aware that she was being followed.
"What do you want?" The blond turned around, steeling herself as she had no idea who had followed her, of course an elderly woman was not expected.
"Why are you here?" Aofie asked in return stepping closer to the Vaduva witch but keeping a distance.
"I asked first." Natasha crossed her arms.
"Victor sent you here for Derek Hale and Ophelia Conner's, their pup too I imagine. How much does he know?" She demanded answers.
"He knows the pup is a boy and that's the Hale pack is strong, that's it." Natasha wasn't about to tell the truth to some random Were, she could be one of Victor's spies or another enterprise all together.
"Of course it's a boy." Aofie gave the witch a calculating once over with squinted eyes, she'd not expected that answer from the witch.
"Of course, because if it was a girl she could be just like her mother and many a pack would love to have an Alpha Breeder in their pack." Natasha was giving the she-wolf the same once over, judging to see what she knew and if she could be trusted.
"More trouble than their worth I've heard." Aofie wanted to see how much this girl knew but not give herself away.
"So I've heard. Curious though that Ophelia's own mother isn't an Alpha breeder, she's not even breeder." Natasha uncrossed her arms and metaphorically got ready to poke the bear.
"Curious indeed." Aofie agreed raising an eyebrow.
"I heard a story once from my great grandmother that a she-wolf came to her one day and asked her to do the unthinkable. To strip her pup of her biological identity, to cut away a piece of her soul. I never believed it when I was younger." Natasha found the similarities between this she-wolf and Ophelia strikingly enough to be further confirmation of this Were's identity.
"But you do now." Aofie's posture became increasingly defensive.
"Hard not too with the evidence staring back at me." Natasha figured Aofie was here to protect the growing Hale pack.
"When the time comes and you know it will, who will you stand by?" Aofie asked.
"I owe nothing to anyone." Natasha answered, in truth she was still on the fence about what she would do when Victor figured out the truth, recently running looked like a good option.
"If I find you a threat I will not hesitate to kill you." Aofie was done beating around the bush.
"Understood." Natasha tipped her head in recognition of the threat and held back the shiver that so desperately wanted to crawl up her spine, if everything she'd heard about Aofie was true, the last place she wanted to be was on the wrong end of the she-wolf's rage.
"You never saw me." Aofie said as she slowly backed away into the night.
"Saw who?" Natasha replied with a fake confused look before turning around and heading to outdoor alter.
