See Chapter 1 for all warnings.
To Save Them All
37
"Er, no?" I try to act cagey and I even go as far as twiddling my fingers, "Nope totally not me, I mean Stiles…"
"Stiles, I know it's you," and the mask he wears when he hunts slips over Chris' face.
"Damn it," I swear and deliberately take the armoured mask off of my face, I widen my eyes and try to look as young as I possibly can, "You weren't supposed to find out," I turn my voice whiney, "Peter said if we kept quiet no one would know, that I could be a teenager, and everyone would think the Alpha left Beacon Hills," see I can improv too.
"Stiles," Chris sounds angry.
"Yes Mr Argent?" I'm not completely meek as I answer him, but I'm not a grumpy twenty something either, I never thought that really helped Derek in the slightest, but then Chris did threaten to shoot Scott if he touched his daughter, so maybe it was just the werewolf thing that he never liked.
"You're the Alpha?" He manages to imbue a lot of disbelief into that sentence, I'm a little offended by that, I could be an Alpha now if I wanted, but it is way too much hassle.
"Um?" I scuff my foot on the leaves, "Do I have to answer that? Because I really don't want to get into trouble over it." I think that's how a teenager would answer it, dodging and whining a bit.
Sighing Chris looks like he can't believe this is his life, and I know the feeling, "Do you have any control over your abilities? How far along are you on the scenting and hunting? Have you managed to track and kill something easy like a deer? Did you prefer the taste after chasing it?"
There's no way I'm telling them how good, or bad, I am at being a werewolf, he's a hunter first and foremost so I flail my arms again, "Whoa! Stop!" And surprisingly he does, "You want to know if I killed and ate Bambi's mom?" I put as much horror and shock in as I can and then spin to yell at the Hales, "You never said I had to kill Bambi's mom! Oh my god, what kind of monster kills Bambi's mom?"
I'm expecting Peter to jump in but instead Derek sighs, "No you idiot, that's what the butchers shops are for. Some werewolves like running around and hunting down their dinner," Derek doesn't sound like he's a big fan of that, and I know he isn't, he prefers to get his food via take outs. "The rest of us buy meat like everyone else."
"Oh thank god," I put a hand to my chest and then pause, "I don't have to run around naked at the full moon either, right?"
"No," Peter does jump in now, "You can wear clothes, just make sure they're baggy enough to take the Beta form, remember you'll bulk up a bit," I take the time to poke at one of my arm muscles.
"He's really the Alpha?" The trigger happy hunter is far from happy and his hands are far away from his weapons, like he doesn't believe I'm a threat, which is good, at least for me right now.
Pointing at my eyes I let them glow and then I stomp off towards Derek and Peter. Folding my arms I lean against Derek's other side, and he glares down at me, I stare up, well it's only an inch or so but still it's up and I jerk away from him, "Okay, Jeez Derek, I'm totally your Alpha, I should be able to lean if I want to…" I then go into a sulk and shove my hands in my pockets.
"He's really the Alpha," Peter confirms and I wait for my next cue.
Seemingly making up his mind Chris nods, "We'll sell the story of the unknown Beta becoming Alpha, Gerard will be so busy hunting for him that Stiles will, hopefully, slip under his radar."
The man who told us about Gerard's little delivery of wolfsbane frowns, "Will that be enough to dissuade him? He'll have made the Derek connection too, he might still come after the Hales."
"It won't do him any good," Chris says, "As long as it's only Derek or Peter that are forced to Bite him he won't turn. We have to keep him from discovering that Stiles is a werewolf, and that Stiles is the Alpha. If we can keep Stiles and Gerard apart we can outwait Gerard. If he's not taking his medicine the cancer will progress a lot faster, so his window of opportunity is rapidly closing."
Butting in I point out, "But that will only make him more desperate, right? I mean he's going to die soon, so he has to get Bitten soon, what if he just leaves Beacon Hills and finds another Alpha to Bite him?"
"He won't," Chris is firm about that, "He's lost too much face in the hunter community already, what with Kate and then me, he's trying to stir up support here in Beacon Hills, he's already invested time and effort, if he cut and runs now," he spreads his hands, "He'll have wasted too much time and I know him well enough to know the manipulative son of bitch won't do that, if he can't get the Bite he'll go down and take as many people with him as he can."
And that is a frightening thought, Gerard is more than capable of doing a lot of damage, he's sneaky and underhanded enough to plan for almost anything.
"So we keep Stiles hidden," Peter muses, "And allow Gerard to tire himself chasing a ghost, we watch him, and as long as he doesn't break from that behaviour we're safe. If he breaks and starts something, anything, different from his routine we may have no choice but to strike at him first, unless you would prefer another route?"
Touching his gun Chris frowns, "I'd prefer to remove him now, he might have tipped his hand a few times already but he's far from finished. I won't be able to get approval from the other hunters though, he's got too contacts for them to let me execute him, especially now I've left. They'll want a solid reason first and I'll never be able to persuade them that he wants the Bite, not in time to do any good, it's ingrained in us to die rather than turn."
"It's a pity he isn't like Kate," the tale spinning hunter says, "If that kind of shit exploded in his face we could get the Council to call him in, he'd be blocked from getting anywhere near the Alpha," I get a nod sent toward me.
"So if people like the FBI and CIA were interested in him, that would be a good thing?" I ask as my mind whirls, "'Coz dad says there's all kinds of things different people have been trying to pin on him, but he's covered his tracks too well." Everyone is staring at me, "Well that's what he said in the car, he said there were too many missing people, but nothing to connect them to Gerard or Kate."
"Nothing the police could use," Chris says slowly, "But hunters look at things differently, they see evidence differently, perhaps that could at least slow him down more, if he's up against the Council, no matter how far removed they are, that would chip away at any support he could rustle up."
"Then happy hunting," Peter even smiles at Chris, "We wish you luck and we'll be leaving now, Stiles has school in the morning, and I have some more of that wonderful physiotherapy to endure."
"Hmm," the hunter glares at me, "So he does, I look forward to driving him to school tomorrow," oh shit he is totally my chauffeur.
"Yay?" I do a half-hearted fist pump.
"Oh just one thing Stiles," Chris stalks towards us and even leans in close to me, which puts him well within striking distance of the other two werewolves, "If my daughter is ever Bitten, or clawed, or harmed, by you, I swear that you will die a very slow horrible death, I'll take my time and you'll beg for death long before it comes. And don't get too used to her being around, I'll keep her close to protect her from Gerard, but after that I'll send her somewhere safe, somewhere far away from werewolves."
It's an impressive threat, hunters are very imaginative when it comes to hurting werewolves, so I deliberately smile, "Dude, I'm glad you're taking her safety seriously, I don't want her mixed up with this, she's too nice and sweet. Plus there's Scott and his family to think about too, Jesus they'd be mincemeat, can you imagine what Gerard could do to them?" Impulsively I hug him and all three of the hunters behind him have their hands on their weapons, "I am so glad we're doing a superhero team up, we can defeat the bad guy and go back to our lives."
Releasing him, he didn't hug back, which is just bad manners, because I give awesome hugs, I wave my hands, "Should we come up with a secret handshake? What about code words?" All of the hunters and the Hales are staring at me with stupefied expressions, "What? I totally saw it on TV."
"Stiles," Derek snaps at me, "Shut up."
"But…" I try for puppy eyes, it's never worked for me before, it doesn't work now.
"Stiles," it's more of a bark from Derek this time.
"Shutting up," I grumble but all the hunters have relaxed again and that's their cue to leave as Derek and I manhandle Peter back to the house, where he collapses on his bed laughing.
"Did you see their faces? Oh Stiles you were magnificent, absolutely magnificent," I preen under his praise, "And Derek you were perfect too. Now they believe our Pack consists of an underage idiot for an Alpha, a partially crippled Beta, and a somewhat surly but dumb Beta."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," I can't help smiling at Peter, I like making him laugh.
Breaking into our moment Derek clears his throat, "And what happens if Gerard comes for any of us," it kills the mood instantly.
"We run," Peter says simply, "None of us stick around to fight him, we leave him to the hunters," he snarls that word, "We let them take him down and we slip under all their radars. It's just a matter of time until they can get evidence against Gerard, and when they do we sit back and let them take all the risks."
That's actually a good plan, except Gerard will be hunting for the Alpha, and now it's a matter of time and luck until one side or the other gets there first. It should be our side, we have more resources, but I'll strengthen our wards anyway and I'll try and make a charm to hide Peter's true eye colour, as long as he doesn't take it off he'll be able to hide as a Beta. Which will back up our plan to throw an unknown Beta under the bus.
A/N: Sorry for any and all mistakes, I've tried to catch those I could, but I'm only human.