Chapter One.

iAmbivalence./i The word seemed to be in bold print on the page. Stiles wasn't sure why this word stood out to him among the mess of words that was his SAT practice test, but there was just something about this word. His eyes moved from the word and there beside it was the definition. n. the state of being uncertain or stuck between two or more options. A small laugh escaped past his closed lips, he didn't know there was a word to what he was feeling in the moment. This was senior year, the last year to get things right or more than likely, wrong. Stiles rolled his eyes at himself as he closed the book for the night, there was no point in learning any more vocabulary words for the time being and his stomach was already mad at him for only having Cheez-Its like five hours ago, he picked up his cellphone and saw three texts, each of them from Scott.

Pack Meeting Tonight

Don't Bail

Stiles, there will be pizza

He replied back to the last one saying that he would be there, it was like Scott knew he needed to eat, which was probably true. Scott was always there for him and he wasn't sure what he was going to do if he didn't go to college with his best friend next year, could Scott even leave Beacon Hills? Things had been quiet lately, nothing had gone too crazy. Maybe everything could be what passes for normal again? The pack meetings had become a place for them all to just hang out once a week and just relax, also a place for Derek to complain about a bunch of teenagers in his loft and the place where Derek would continue to make it perfectly clear that Stiles was human. He wasn't even sure why Derek felt the need to remind everyone. Maybe he did it to remind Stiles that when things got too intense, he needed to stay behind. That he wasn't strong enough to do what they could. Nevermind that a lot of the time, Stiles had been the one to save them. He had been the one to come up with a clever way to beat the bad guys and save the day. Stiles was the motherfucking Batman and Derek was a sourwolf. Stiles never let things really get him down, but lately his mind had been so wrapped up in various things. What did happen if he was away from the other's, would they just move on with their lives and never think of him again, what if he really wasn't the only one that could come up with a clever way of beating the bad guys.

An hour later, Stiles parked Roscoe in the parking garage of Derek's loft. Parking it beside a Porsche that Jackson, Lydia, and Isaac were climbing out of.

"More duct tape, Stilinski?" asked Jackson in his normal snobby tone as he looked at the silver, metallic tape on the hood. His little joke got a smirk from Isaac and an eye roll from Lydia.

"Fuck off, Jackson." said Stiles with a roll of his own eyes as he stepped beside Isaac as they four of them moved to the elevator. Stiles didn't really hate Jackson much anymore if he was being honest, he had grown on him after the Kanima thing and now he was just a regular beta wolf. As the four of them stepped onto the elevator, they all stood there in an awkward silence. It wasn't that they didn't like each other, it was just an odd pairing on the elevator. Stiles watched as Jackson's hand snaked around Lydia's waist, he heard a scoff come from beside him, he turned to look at Isaac and he knew all he needed to know in that look. Jackson and Lydia never took their hands off each other lately and their PDA had become a lot for almost everyone in the pack to handle, more for the wolves since they could actually smell when something was, well, up. If Stiles or Isaac would say anything though, they would just call them both jealous, at least that was how it went the last three times either of them had brought it up, so they had just stopped. Stiles was happy when the doors opened and they were in the loft, Scott was already sitting on the couch with a piece of pizza hanging from his lips. Derek was in the kitchen pouring a beer into a glass that had no doubt recently been pulled from the freezer. Peter was standing next to him, already nursing his own beer in the same fashion. Stiles made his way into the kitchen, grabbing a piece of pizza from the box and putting it on one of the paper plates beside the box, Peter made an annoyed grunt which was common when Stiles entered a room and he was already occupying it, Derek didn't even look up from his glass like the foam of his beer was more important than Stiles.

"Stiles, you are smelling of annoyance, jealous again?" asked Peter loud enough for everyone in the loft to hear him, Stiles pretended to not see every head turn towards him and then quickly looked around for a more important spot to stare at. "Next time, just ask Jackson and Lydia if you can join, I am sure they won't mind."

"Fuck off, Peter." said Stiles and Jackson in unison, Stiles wasn't sure if he should be offended by Jackson saying it or not, he knew he was saying it because it sounded like a gross notion and not cause he was standing up for Stiles, that didn't and would never happen. Peter raised his hands in mock defeat as everyone else went back to the conversations they were already in the middle of before Peter's bullshit.

"Can I have one of those?" asked Stiles, giving Derek a nudge in his ribs with the hand not holding the pizza, causing the other to look up at him with an annoyed raise of his brow.

"I don't think I should give into more of your delinquency, what would your father think." said Derek with a smirk, causing Stiles to glare at the other.

"I am pretty sure me drinking a beer is the least of his worries, he is more worried that I will steal another radio from the station and go looking for more trouble." said Stiles as he looked at the beer and then to Derek, who quickly took his beer off the table and walked into the living room, sitting down in the chair that sat across from the couch. It had already been deemed Derek's chair and no one dared to sit in it. Stiles moved to sit on the couch beside Isaac, who was now sitting between him and Scott. Jackson was sitting on the love seat with Lydia beside him, but her legs were over his legs. Which caused him and Isaac to share another look with a smile, again neither one of them said anything. Stiles opened his mouth to say something, when the text tone on Derek's phone sounded, he slowly leaned up and fished the phone from his pocket. It was a text from Boyd but before he could even respond to the single line of i 911/i, his phone rang and he quickly answered it.

"Boyd, what is the emergency?" asked Derek into the phone, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and were now looking at Derek with confusion on their faces. "What do you mean by a symbol? What kind of symbol? Just send me a fucking picture." Everyone in the room was honestly confused, Derek seemed stressed and every wolf in the room could smell it and sense it. Even Stiles, who hadn't yet been reminded he was human, could tell that Derek was worried. Peter walked into the room, standing beside Derek, their eyes glued to the phone as they waited for the picture. It was like they knew something that everyone else in the room didn't. They were in on some i wolfie secret/i and it was true, they were. When the text tone sounded through the quiet room, Derek and Peter looked from the phone to each other and they each said one simple word.

"Alphas"