The next day Peter packed some tools and drove out to the lake. He had a door to repair.

He should let things rest, he knew that. Before he'd stumbled over Stiles everything with the water creature had been quiet and peaceful, so quiet that he hadn't even known that it was out there. There was no need in waking sleeping dogs, or water creatures. However, he couldn't stop thinking about Stiles. About the things he had implied. And outright said.

And it looked like the sheriff, who shouldn't know anything about the supernatural world knew at least about what was going on with Stiles and that didn't sit right with Peter.

It was still early in the day so Peter hoped that he would find Stiles at the cabin. Looking like a sixteen-year-old he hardly could wander around town while he was supposed to be at school. Especially as the sheriff's nephew.

Peter knocked at the door which Stiles hadn't bothered to close this time. It was still hanging askew, Peter had almost ripped it off and Stiles fighting with it every time he wanted to get in or out of the cabin hadn't done it any favors either.

Stiles was lying on the bed in the corner, which was more a pile of pillows and blankets than anything else, but now he looked up from the book he was reading.

"You again?" He groaned but didn't put down his book. "What do you want?"

Peter raised the toolbox.

"You said I owe you for the door."

That seemed to throw him off. Stiles dropped the book and rolled to his feet, and almost landed on his ass again when his foot got caught in a ripple of a blanket, but then he bounced back to his feet with a wide grin.

"Seriously?"

"I broke it."

"Thanks, man." Stiles came over to have a look at the tools in the box. "John promised to take care of it but I don't know when he's going to come around to it. He's working double shifts at the moment."

Peter nodded to that and had a closer look at the door.

"You didn't ask ... what was his name?" Peter asked with a gesture at the lake.

"Derek," Stiles confirmed the name Peter had in mind. "He's not great with human stuff. Never got doors."

Peter threw a glance at the lake, the shore was only a few feet away. Could the creature hear them? It had come out yesterday when Stiles had been talking too much.

"What exactly is he?" Peter dared to ask while he bent the hinge back into shape with his bare hands. He felt Stiles watching him with interest but he kept his eyes on the work at hand. The whole cabin was kind of old style, the hinges looked ancient but they were still in good condition. Peter was confident that they would hold the door just fine for at least a few more years.

"Why do you want to know that?" Stiles asked.

"I like to know what kind of creature is living this close to my pack," Peter answered honestly and reached for the screws to secure the hinges where they belonged.

"His name is Derek," Stiles said stiffly. "Don't call him a creature, creature."

Peter threw him a glance.

"I didn't mean to insult him," he said. "I just want to know what I'm dealing with."

"Why are you dealing with us anyway?" Stiles raised his arms to emphasize the question. "We've been fine going separate ways for decades. Why is a werewolf suddenly on this side of the town?"

Peter had another look at the lake. The surface was rippled by a light breeze but there was nothing indicating that Derek was nearby. Even the bad feeling he'd had when he'd come here the other night had eased off.

"I would like to talk to you somewhere private," Peter said and tried the door. It closed properly with only a hind of fraction when it fell into the lock. A careful tug in the right direction took care of that.

"Good as new." Satisfied with his work, Peter opened and closed the door a few time.

"What do you want to talk about?" Stiles narrowed his eyes on him, completely ignoring the door. Which was a shame.

"You, Derek, the part my pack played in whatever happened to you." Peter shrugged. "And I would like to have that talk somewhere not at the lake." He gave Stiles a pointed look.

"Who says that I want to talk to you?"

"I'm usually at the library around four in the afternoon on Fridays," Peter told him while he picked up his toolbox.

"You think I'll show up just because you say so?" Stiles yelled after him but Peter was already on his way back to his car. With the lake in his back, the uneasy feeling in his stomach was back again. He was not welcomed here, that much was clear. And he was pretty sure that he was being watched. And not by Stiles. At least not just by him.

Peter came home just in time to say goodbye to Laura. Walter would drive her to the airport and they had to hurry if Laura didn't want to miss her flight. So she just hugged Peter, promised to do some studying alongside the partying, a promise she gave with an eye-roll, and then she was gone.

It always felt strange when a pack member left for a longer period of time so Peter watched the car until it disappeared behind the trees.

Pamela was in the garden, there was always something to do there, but otherwise, the house was empty. At this time of the day the others were at work or school.

Peter used the quiet time to go back to his research. He had been able to narrow the creature, Derek, down to a handful of possibilities. He was living in a lake which crossed out a lot of things living in rivers and for sure everything ocean-related was out as well. And he appeared as a man. A lot of water spirits looked like women, those were out as well. So were kelpies and the like.

But Peter didn't want to assume too much. Just because Derek lived in a lake didn't mean he couldn't have chosen a river instead if he'd wanted to. And one appearance didn't mean that he couldn't take on a different shape as well.

Peter spent the next hours in the library with ancient books. The internet was fine and dandy but a lot of things he could only find in old books that hadn't even been translated into English.

"What are you working on?" Pamela came in with a tray.

"What time is it?" He hadn't thought that he'd been on this for that long but if she was here with sandwiches and coffee, it must be way past lunchtime.

"Almost two." She set the tray down on the desk that was not cluttered with books and notes. Once she had her hands free and there was no danger of spilling coffee over priceless books any longer, she had a closer look at what Peter was currently reading.

The text was in Latin but it was illustrated with woodcuts which showed a Vodyanoy, an East European water creature. This one was pretty high on Peter's list. It was known to present as a man, it could be pacified by gifts and it was known to keep people it drowned as servants.

"Brushing up on water creatures," Peter answered and reached for a sandwich. He had told Talia that there was one living in the lake but she was the alpha, she needed to know. The rest of the pack didn't. In most cases, they never got to know the dangers Peter kept them safe from.

If this thing was a danger to his pack, he was still trying to find out.

"Do I dare to ask why?" Pamela gave him a look.

"Just curious." Peter took a bite of the sandwich.

Pamela made an unbelieving noised but didn't push it.

"They say there's something out in the lake," she said, still eyeing the picture in the book.

It was a not flattering picture of the creature. It had a frog's head and there was seaweed hanging off its sleeves. But it was also known to be wearing wet clothes all the time which was a way to tell it apart from a human. Derek didn't have a frog head but he had been dripping wet. Given that he'd just came out of the water it didn't have to mean much, though.

"Why haven't I heard about that?" Peter wondered. It was his job to know about things like that. Most fairy tales had a grain of truth and for sure he needed to know if there were tales about that lake.

"Just something the adults used to tell us kids to scare us away from the lake," Pamela dismissed him. "There had been a few drownings when I was a kid and our parents didn't want us to go anywhere near the lake. So they told us that something was lurking there that would drag us underwater if we set as much as a foot in the water."

Peter had read about that series. There had been four cases, all ruled accidents. It had been a hot summer and a bunch of young people had been camping at the lake over the weekend. It read like some cheap horror movie, especially knowing that there was something in the water that had killed them and not just some undercurrent. It made sense that parents didn't want their kids to go there.

However, that didn't give him something new to go on with.

Without more information, he doubted that he could determine what exactly that Derek thing was so in the late afternoon, when people were piling in and the house became noisy again, Peter finished up in the library and left the house. Just because he had a mystery to solve didn't mean that he could neglect his other duties.

He made his round through the preserve, checking the borders, but everything was quiet. So far no werewolf or hunter had entered their territory but with that omega he'd killed the other day, Peter wanted to make sure.

Satisfied with that he drove back into town just to make sure nothing was going on there as well. Perks of having such a large pack spread all over the town, he had his contacts everywhere.

Peter didn't solve his pack's day-to-day problems but he had an open ear for them and the information he was gathering this way did help him to keep his pack safe and not just from supernatural threats. If something needed Talia's attention he would relate it to her later that day.

Nobody told him something important today, things were quiet on this front as well. The biggest problem seemed to be that an English teacher wouldn't be back anytime soon and that the substitute teacher would stay for the foreseeable future.

Cora had that class as well and she hadn't been complaining so Peter just nodded politely and hurried to leave before he had to listen to more school-related problems.

There was nothing he had to tell Talia so that evening they were just enjoying each other's company. Laura had arrived safely at her dorm which was the most important news.

As usual, Peter was the last one up and before he turned in, he made sure that the house was safe. Then he went to the bathroom to get ready for the night.

He was just rinsing the toothpaste out of his mouth when he heard something behind him. He shut off the water and strained his ears. The house was old but that was a noise he couldn't quite place. A soft scraping. Metal on metal.

Suddenly water started to drip from the showerhead.

Peter frowned at the knobs which of course weren't moving while he was watching them. Without taking his eyes off the shower he put down the toothbrush to have both hands free.

When after long seconds the showerhead just kept dripping without anything else happening, he stepped over to shut it off.

Somebody was standing behind him. Of course, there was. Peter gritted his teeth.

"What do you want from Stiles?" Derek asked.

Peter turned around and brought some distance between himself and the man standing in his bathroom. Which wasn't a man at all. Like yesterday he was dripping wet and glaring at him from under thick eyebrows.

"Leave us alone." Derek stepped closer backing him up against the wall.

"I don't mean to …" Peter started but Derek didn't let him finish the sentence.

He was quick. The next second he had pinned Peter against the wall, his hand covering his nose and mouth. To prevent him from screaming Peter thought but then water filled his airways.

Peter tried to break free but Derek just pressed his water-hand more firmly over the lower half of his face.

"I wasn't given what I've been promised," Derek said, not in the slightest bothered by Peter's claws slashing at his arm and face. "Maybe I'll take you instead."