Peter was here on behalf of his alpha. His job was to keep his mouth shut and to look intimidating while Talia did the talking. But if he was honest, he was more on Stiles' side in this. So when Talia asked why she should trust them, Peter opened his mouth to tell her a thing or two about that but he got interrupted by Stiles who barked out a bitter laugh.

"You're asking why you should trust us? Seriously? You betrayed us." Stiles fixed her with a cold glare. "From my point of view, your pack doesn't honor contracts and is willing to just kill a random person for their benefit. So why in hell should I trust you?"

Taken aback Talia didn't know what to say.

"But yeah, I get why you might think that we're out for revenge," Stiles added after a moment.

They were saved by their food arriving. Nobody spoke while the waitress set down the plates and at least Stiles dug immediately into his food, looked like John had been right about the food thing.

"I came to an agreement with Johnathan Hale," Derek spoke up when they were alone again. "To keep the truce between us, I'm willing to do the same with you."

"What are you thinking of?" Talia asked but at least she was listening.

"You and your pack can stay and I won't interfere with you," Derek stated. "In exchange, you will stay away from my lake."

"Except for Peter," Stiles piped up. "He has a standing invitation. He can come to the lake whenever he wants. Which will be quite often, I hope." He winked at Peter who just rolled his eyes at him.

"You still owe me a member of your pack," Derek continued. "But I won't insist on that. At least for now." His eyes had a dark glint to them now. "But if you betray me or Stiles again or if you try to harm us, I will insist."

"What would happen to Stiles?" Peter couldn't help but wonder. "If you take one of us? Just hypothetically."

Would Stiles be free? Would he die? Or would nothing change at all? Peter had thought about this before, here was his chance for a real answer.

"Nothing would happen to him," Derek answered. "Stiles is mine, nothing is going to change that. But I can keep more than one person if I want."

He turned back to Talia.

"Will you accept?" He held out his hand and not only Peter was holding his breath for Talia's reaction.

"I accept," she said after a long moment and shook his hand.

With that out of the way, they turned their attention to the food in front of them but at least Peter was not particularly hungry.

Talia tried to ask Stiles questions about his life, about his relationship with John, and of course about his intentions with Peter. It felt more like an interrogation than an attempt to make some small talk and Stiles didn't take it well. He gave clipped answers if he answered at all and otherwise he was eating his sandwich with angry determination. By now he'd eaten half of his straw as well.

However, they parted on civilized terms with the agreement to not kill each other.

"So, what do you think?" Peter asked when he was back in the car with Talia. They had been the first to leave because Stiles had been unwilling to turn his back on the alpha. At least Talia had understood the hint and had made the first move.

"Stiles is afraid of me." Talia let out a sigh.

"And that surprises you why?" Peter asked. He would have glared at her but he kind of had to keep his eyes on the street. "He only agreed to see you because he doesn't want to end what he has with me. He had a fucking panic attack when I asked him. And the first thing you do is attack him. You're supposed to be the diplomatic one."

"I know." She looked out of the window. "You didn't tell me he had a panic attack."

"And that would have made a difference?"

She didn't say anything to that and just kept looking out of the window.

"I don't think he's a threat," she finally admitted. "And neither is Derek. At least not as long as we leave him alone."

Out of the corner of his eye, Peter caught her nibbling at the nail of her thumb. As a kid, she'd always been a nail biter but as an adult, she had it under control. Most of the time.

"He's not what I expected."

"Stiles or Derek?"

"Both." She let go of her thumb and placed her hands in her lap. "Derek, he's clearly not human but he's not the monster I expected. He's protective of Stiles." She fell silent for a moment. "And I got the impression that he just wants to be left alone. That he doesn't care what's going on in town as long as we stay away from his lake."

"Yeah." Peter had been surprised by Derek as well. He could be the scary monster he was ought to be, their first encounter in the bathroom came to mind and thinking about it, Peter could almost taste the lake water forcing its way into his airways, but most of the time Derek chose to not be like that.

"And Stiles," Talia continued. "He's so young."

"He's older than the both of us combined," Peter repeated what John had said to him the other day. "He's mature, kind of. He doesn't have the mind of a teenager. Don't worry, I'm not interested in him because of how he looks."

He admired Stiles' lean body and his smooth skin, he liked the moles and the upturned nose but that was not why he wanted to have more of Stiles. Stiles was sassy and sarcastic and he could be an asshole. He had a sharp mind, Peter liked that. He could have a conversation with Stiles and not feel like he was getting dumber by the minute. Not many had that talent.

"You like him," Talia said as if she'd realized that just now. Peter couldn't blame her. Since Olivia, he hadn't been serious with anybody. Before he'd met Stiles he would have said that he wasn't even capable of being with somebody ever again. He'd gotten used to being alone and independent but with Stiles, he would never have a normal relationship anyway.

Peter wasn't even sure what a long term relationship with Stiles would look like but he was more than willing to just live in the moment for now and see where things went.

"Stiles didn't seem bothered when Derek said that he's his and that nothing can change that," Talia continued. "I can't even imagine …"

"Me neither." He hadn't even told her about the very short amount of time Stiles could stay away from the lake. Peter couldn't imagine living like that. What kind of purpose did a life like that even have? Stiles was facing eternity and what was he doing? Reading books and watching movies.

At least that was what he was doing now. Peter had no idea what he'd done a decade ago or would do next century.

Back at home, Talia got swept away by Christina for something baby related and Peter hurried to retreat to his room before somebody could ambush him as well. It was the early afternoon, there were quite a few people home.

Upstairs it wasn't that quiet either. On the weekends Isaac had time to play on his computer and sometimes him yelling at the other players was audible on the whole floor even for human ears. It got countered by loud music coming from Erica's room and if Peter wasn't mistaken, Boyd was in there as well. Sometimes some loud music was a good thing.

Boyd and Erica would leave later in the evening to go out for a movie or a party or whatever teenagers were up to these days while Isaac would keep playing until four in the morning. So Peter was sitting in his room with music coming from one direction and faint shooting noises and Isaac yelling over them from the other.

Peter turned on some music as well, just loud enough to cancel out most of the noises of the people in the house, and opened the live feed he had from the camera at the Argents' house. There was nobody in sight and Peter wasn't even sure if they were home at the moment. There was no car in the driveway but the garage was closed.

Before he did anything else, Peter texted Stiles to ask him if he was okay but the checkmark didn't turn blue so he guessed that he wouldn't get an answer any time soon. Stiles was most likely under again.

Peter went back to where he'd left off with the observation of the Argents and then he was fast-forwarding his way through the video.

He watched Chris Argent taking out the trash and Victoria coming home with groceries. The elderly lady Peter had spoken to the other day came over for a little chat when she saw Victoria outside. Peter didn't have a good view on Victoria's face but it looked kind of forced when she was making friendly with the neighbor.

Aside from that, nobody else came by.

Chris had left in his car a while ago but if it was for another errand or if he had the trunk loaded with wolfsbane bullets, Peter couldn't tell.

It became more and more clear that the hunters would not show up at the Argent's house. It was more likely that they had met somewhere else and that the hunters already had their delivery and were on their merry way.

However, Chris Argent was a hunter so Peter better kept an eye on him nevertheless. He'd given Chris' name and license plate, along with what he knew about the other hunters, to the pack members working at the sheriff's department to keep an eye out for them but so far nothing had come up.

Peter kept the live stream running but at the moment he was looking at an empty house.

With nothing else to do, Peter had another look at the receipt he'd gotten from the hardware store. It didn't become less disturbing when he went over it now.

The hunter, Daniel Page, had bought some tools, electrical wiring, and several feet of chain. There might be some innocent explanation for that purchase, maybe Page had some interesting kinks, but to Peter, this looked a lot like somebody was preparing to capture a werewolf. He should talk to Talia about this, they needed to enforce some basic safety rules.

Still nothing on the guy in the bookstore, though. Why a High School chemistry book? Maybe that had been a personal purchase and had nothing to do with hunting werewolves. Even hunters had hobbies. Or so Peter had heard.

Not getting anywhere with this, Peter opened the file he had on Derek. Mainly it was a list of wild guesses what he might be.

Derek hadn't shown any intention to do anything to the pack as long as they left him and his lake alone. And Stiles. Derek had come to Peter twice to find out about their intention with Stiles. If Derek ever thought that they were harming Stiles in any way …

Derek had even stated Stiles' safety as one of his conditions to keep the truce between himself and the pack. He'd spoken about the both of them but Peter had the feeling that Derek put Stiles' safety above his own. Peter hoped that Derek was not one to take an argument or a breakup as hurting somebody, though.

Not that he had the intention to break up with Stiles but there was no way to be with somebody without hurting their feelings at one point or the other, that was just life. Question was if Derek understood that.

Either way, it never sat right with Peter if he didn't know who or what he was dealing with so he was determined to find out what Derek was. Even if it was just to satisfy his own curiosity.

He was browsing the internet for some inspiration, he did have quite some books on European myths and tales but there were too many variations to fit in a book, when he caught movement on the small window with the live feed from the Argents' house. There was somebody at their door.

"Who are you?"