A/N~ Thank you everyone for being so patient about the late updates in my writing and thank you to whoever it was who said, "It's worth the wait." My fans are the best they always make me smile or cry and the crying is usually happy tears or the kind you get when you just want to reach through the computer screen and give someone a bone-crushing hug… but in a good way. Please remember to review, suggestions and so forth are welcome. ~A

Chapter 33

Stiles stood as soon as the woman was ushered into the curtained off oasis he had arranged with Mr. Vincente. He extended his hand and shook her hand warmly as he let Mr. Vincente seat the older woman.

He waited for the older man to leave their area before he spoke formally, "I am grateful you agreed to meet with me Alpha Hale," Stiles studied the woman even as he knew she was studying him.

"Your proposal as I said intrigued me, Squire Stilinski." she replied and although her tone was pleasant he knew that probably wasn't going to last long.

"I'm glad to hear it." He decided to nip the contention between them in the bud. "Especially considering the recent unpleasantness between our two Packs."

"Our Packs?" and there it was the imperiousness of the Alpha, very clearly rang in that tone.

"You have declared your son, no longer part of your Pack. Basically disowned him," he reminded her, "You didn't expect him to seek out a Pack of his own?" Stiles asked seriously studying the woman.

He saw the flash in her eyes and once again she spoke in the Alpha tone, as though that was supposed to quell his speaking to her about things that she really didn't want to discuss. "I expected him to leave the area, as any self respecting rogue, should do." She said as she lifted the goblet of water to her lips and took a long drink of the clear liquid.

"Except he never was a rogue, even though you and your daughter tried very hard to push him that way. I recognize your desire to keep the Pack leadership…matriarchal. Traditionally, a feminine leadership is more stable and nurturing than most masculine lines where the leadership tends to be more territorial and combative." He said knowledgeably and did his best to hide the spark of hope he felt as Talia Hale looked at him with new found respect.

Stiles prided himself on his skills of observation, a trait he very proudly blamed on his father. So when Talia took another sip of water, he noticed the minute tremor to her hand. Then his focus zeroed in on the woman's fingernails, particularly the nail beds which showed a slight hint of lavender.

If it were Lydia or perhaps even Cora he would say it were the artifice of a well done manicure or distinctive nail polish. In this case he didn't think so though. The woman was a professional, a lawyer, for heaven sakes, he didn't see her using such a childish decoration.

He realized that he had missed part of her answer as he had been lost in his thoughts and cursed his ADHD, as he asked the Alpha to repeat herself. She looked a little irritated when she said, "This is true, now why do I think you will have some argument against this."

"Because I do, while matriarchs are more stable. Mated Alpha pairs are even more stable, than the matriarchs as they have both the nurturing of the maternal side and the protective side of the male. Considering where we live you can surely understand the need for the more territorial aspects that might be needed in light of the Nemeton." Stiles said thoughtfully.

"Although wolves are usually anti-magic, I'm sure by your very nature Alpha Hale that you recognize the Nemeton is already calling darkness to it." he suggested even as the waiter came towards them to take their order.

Although Stiles wanted to have some caffeine to keep his energy up the woman in front of him needed something more. Plus he had a sneaking suspicion tat someone had poisoned the leader of the Hale Pack. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew who he also knew that she wouldn't trust anything he gave her unless he took it too.

"Hot water please?" he told the waiter before the woman could order. When they both looked at him in confusion he repeated, "Hot water, please. As in for tea, for two?" He said and waved the waiter away before the woman could argue.

"I'm not particularly fond of tea, Mr. Stilinski." the Alpha said in the regal tone again, "Nor am I fond of young men who think they know what a woman wants just because they're a man."

"Well then it's a good thing that my mother taught me to have better manners than that." Stiles said with a slightly cheeky grin, "However, my main concern at the moment is what my mate would want, which in this case is for his mother not to die." He lifted his messenger bag from the floor and after puling several files out he pulled two vials from a side pocket and put some of the files back into the messenger bag.

He scanned the room not seeing anyone he recognized but then he wasn't familiar with Derek's former Pack and truth be told wasn't entirely sure he would recognize them if he saw them. "Alpha Hale can you tell me if any of your Pack are in the restaurant?"

He saw the stubborn tilt of the head that was so reminiscent of Derek that before she could argue the point, he said sharply, "Talia is anyone from your Pack here?"

She recognized the urgency in his tone and drew a deep breath closing her eyes. Like a sommelier tasting a fine wine she studied over the various scents and tastes on the air in the restaurant, before opening her eyes again and saying, "No, no one from my Pack is here at the moment.

Stiles seemed deep in thought for a few seconds as the waiter came and set up the tea water for the pair, then his head came up and he looked at the older woman as he said, "Who did you have dinner with?"

"Laura, and a couple of her cousins, my birthday is coming up in a few days. Derek used to …when he was part of our Pack would make a little birthday celebration for just me and the kids and when he was in town my husband…."

"Laura?" Stiles asked instantly suspicious.

"Yes," Talia said ignoring the tone of his voice as she continued, "It was rather sad actually, she's not as good a baker as Derek but still she should have gotten to sample some of her wares."

"Derek can bake? I didn't even know he could cook. Wait, that's irrelevant. Why didn't Laura get to eat the cupcakes?" Stiles asked going from incredulous and curious back to suspicious again in nothing flat.

"She got sick almost instantly after she served the cupcakes," Talia said staring at the teen as his head fell to the table and then he hit his head on the table a couple of times.

Lifting his head he poured something from two of the vials into Talia's teacup and then the same two plus another into his teacup. He poured water over both as he explained that he thought something was affecting Laura tainting her Alpha power.

When Talia started in on the denials he drew the Hale mother's attention to her own nail beds and the lavender color which had darkened in color even as they had sat their talking for the few minutes. He also explained about the Rede curse he had put on Lara after her attack on Cora. "She got sick because she was trying to poison you with Wolves Bane." He explained as they waited for the tea to steep.

She still didn't believe him until he reminded her of all the things that Laura had done over the past several months. Like forcing Talia to choose between son and daughter, sending the three werewolves to attack the Argents and endangering the treaty between the Pack and the Hunters.

Biting Jackson and then abandoning the teen before the first Full Moon against several of the guidelines that governed the werewolves. Then finally the attack on Cora. "Your daughter has gone rogue, Alpha Hale, she just hides it well. My guess she only put enough wolves bane in the cupcakes to make you a little ill in order to test the Rede's power."

His face twisted into a look of sorrow, "Waste of a perfectly good cupcake," he said sadly shaking his head.

Talia struggled to maintain a straight face as she finally got to see some of the real teenager. She had a feeling the young mans discussion about mated Alpha pairs weren't just an example he was making. She very carefully scented the air and realized that while Stiles had been marked, he hadn't yet been claimed.

She was trying to decide how to broach the subject without being totally inappropriate, when he pushed the cup of tea in her direction and then proceeded to drink his own tea. He smiled and there was an expression in his eyes that were almost amber in the candlelight. The expression were that of contentment but the glow of the eyes were definitely a reminder of a wolf.

Talia took a sip of the tea, bracing herself for the bite of the aconite. Only to find the tea while refreshing not to have the usual bitter after bite of the poison. Stiles was studying her and he said, "So here's the real reason I asked you here, Alpha Hale."

"Your daughter is having some issues. I think she needs help, professional therapeutic help. There is an Alpha, a therapist in Alaska. She deals with werewolves who have problems. Sometimes the ones who have suffered a loss due to Hunters, those who are having difficulties dealing with the pressures of being an Alpha." I don't claim to know what is going on with Laura, but and especially after this, he said indicating her hands, "Something is definitely going on with Laura. I would like her to get the help she needs before something happens that can't be glossed over."

Talia was about to respond angrily when she actually thought through everything that Stiles had said and realized that he was right. She had been glossing over, overlooking and generally ignoring the things Laura had been doing.

Laura had turned someone before she was actually the Alpha. It was something she was allowed to do as the Heir, but only if she had the Alpha Prime's permission. She didn't. Talia had been unaware that the Argents had been attacked and Stiles was right the Hunters could claim the treaty void because of the attack and call in every Hunter in the country to take out the Hale Pack for the unwarranted attack.

Now this, poisoning of her own Alpha, was enough to have her daughter put to death by Pack Law. For all that she had done since the return of her brother to Beacon Hills Laura had basically signed her own death warrant. Talia lifted the cup of tea to her lips and took a drink too collect her thoughts.

Other than what Stiles had suggested she saw no escape for her daughter and the things she had done? Any reasonable Alpha would never let her anywhere near any position of power within the Pack. Not even the Bolverk, the doers of evil things among the Pack were allowed such outrageous activities without the Alpha's permission.

Any such activity drew attention to the supernatural's and to werewolves in particular. The fact that the Argents hadn't called an end to the treaty was shocking in itself. When she looked up it was to find Stiles watching her and for just a second she thought he could read every thing she was thinking.

The next thing he said made her certain of it, "The reason the Argents haven't voided the treaty is because of your Bolverk saving them from the attack by your Betas." The young man said before finishing off his tea.

"Peter saved them? I didn't think…" and she stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes darkening, before she asked, "when exactly did the attack on the Argents take place?"

Stiles gave her the date and saw realization dawn in her eyes. "That was the date several of the Betas never came home and Laura said they had moved on to form their own Pack. It was also the day that Peter informed me he had chosen to join Derek's Pack."

"Yes," Stiles agreed noncommittally. He placed the cup at the edge of the table and in just a moment a desert menu appeared in front of the pair even as the cups disappeared from the table.

Talia studied Stiles more closely as he studied the desert menu. "Does Derek know…"

"What Derek knows is that you are his mother and that he love you. He loves his sister as well but recognizes that she is…ill right now and needs help. What his wolf knows is something else entirely. His wolf knows that Laura has attacked no less than five members of his Pack and family. That puts her very firmly in the enemy side of the equation. Not a great place to be." he studied the woman and said in a gentler tone of voice.

"Anything else that he might need to know, either as an Alpha or as your son," he said his eyes lowering back to the menu he explained, "We agreed that it should come from you."

"I think I'll have the Dark Orange Brownie with Ice Cream." Stiles finally said. "I highly recommend that you fill your chocolate quotient for the day and then some to make up for the atrocity that was the Cupcake Incident." Stiles shuddered and Talia could not decide if the shudder was just Stiles being dramatic or an actual act of revulsion because of the contamination of a treat food.

As she studied the desert menu Talia said without looking up at the younger man, "You think I should make Derek my Alpha Heir at least temporarily until Laura has been treated for whatever is wrong with her." It was a statement of fact rather than a suggestion.

Stiles however played it off perfectly, closing his desert menu with a snap he said, "What a brilliant idea and the fact that Derek is already an Alpha in his own right is so convenient. Don't you agree?" the little emissary said before taking a sip of water.

Talia merely smiled and said, "I think you're right I'll have the Triple Chocolate Truffle Cake. I'm quite sure I'll need it when dealing with you."

"Brain food, chocolate is brain food. At last I have a convert," he said with a smile that literally charmed the Alpha.

My son has no idea, what he's gotten himself into with you. Does he?" Talia asked as she lifted her water goblet in a toasting gesture.

Stiles playfully clinked glasses with the older woman as he agreed with a grin that was turning a little cheeky, "Course not, where's the fun if you solve the mystery in the first few chapters?"

A/N/N~ Also character death coming, don't worry not a major character but still traumatic for both Packs. So a little forewarning there in case of triggers. ~A