A/N Sorry for the delay, I'm still hungover from NaNoWriMo. I'll have to figure out a schedule but I have lots of chapters just waiting to get posted so stay tuned, there will be more soon.
Peter cursed under his breath but wrote Cora that he was on his way.
What was Stiles doing at the house? He had been the one who had emphasized more than once that they should each stay on their side of the town and now he was at the Hale house? Okay, it was the best place to look for Peter, he had to admit that.
In his head, Peter was calculating who could be home at this time of the day. It was just after noon, the kids should be all at school and the adults at work. He didn't know if Walter or Pamela were home for lunch, though. Why was Cora even at the house? She should be at school.
Peter pushed it and was back home in no time. He parked right next to the beat-up jeep that told him that Stiles was still here.
"Hello?" He asked into the empty house when he entered the front hall.
The house was quiet. It didn't look like Pamela or Walter were here but he didn't pick up on Cora or Stiles either. Peter made his way through the house and found them on the back porch. They were talking to each other but stopped before he was close enough to make out the words. He heard Cora giggling, though.
"You two having fun?" Peter came out the back door where they were sitting next to each other on the stairs.
"You weren't here so I made do with who I got." Stiles turned until he could lean his back against one of the posts framing the stairs. "And I don't see my bag." Stiles narrowed his eyes on him.
"You were a few minutes too late, I'd just dropped it off with your uncle." Peter mimicked his nonchalant position by leaning his shoulder against the door frame. "Didn't expect you to show up here."
"I'm full of surprises." Stiles grinned at him.
"And you're making friends." Peter's eyes flickered over to Cora who was watching the exchange with interest.
"Just friendly small talk," Stiles assured him. "You know, getting to know each other. Since we're supposed to be dating and all that."
That made Cora giggle again.
"I'm never going to live that down, am I?" Peter shook his head.
"Nope."
"Why were you telling people that Stiles and I are dating anyway?" Cora wondered. "We don't even know each other."
"It was a necessary lie at that point."
"You're just weird." Cora got up. "Anyway, nice meeting you, Stiles." With that, she shouldered her way past Peter.
Before he hadn't paid much attention to her, his focus had been on Stiles but now he couldn't ignore her scent. The hormone cocktail of a teenager in love, somebody had been fooling around. Peter wasn't able to get a reading of the other person involved, Cora was emitting too many pheromones of her own, but the other scent was female, no doubt about that. Interesting.
However, that had to wait until later. First, he had to get Stiles away from here before other nosy pack members came back home.
"I thought you don't go here," Peter said and pushed himself off the door frame. With a tilt of his head, he indicated Stiles to follow him down the stairs. Stiles got up as well and the way he was looking at the house he got that Cora was most likely still close enough to hear every word.
"As I said, I'm full of surprises." Stiles walked with him away from the house. "The house has changed a lot since I've been here the last time." He waved his hand in the general direction as if Peter didn't know which house he meant.
"You've been here before?" The way Stiles had been talking, he hadn't set a foot on this side of the town in ages.
"I come here to have a look from time to time, last time in the fifties, I think, might have been the early sixties, whatever. Haven't cared to come here since then." He had another look over his shoulder. "Back in Johnathan's days, it has been way smaller. They demolished that one eventually and built this one."
"Did Johnathan ever see you?" Peter wondered. He would have loved to witness that. Johnathan's expression must have been priceless.
"Not at first." Stiles shook his head, a distant look on his face. "The first year or so I barely left the lake. But then I started to explore the town. Derek had told me about the Hale pack, I didn't have a clue who or what they were when those werewolves grabbed me so one day I wanted to see for myself. I didn't dare to get too close, Derek had said that they would be able to hear and smell me long before they saw me." He looked around, probably estimating the distance to the house. "Didn't see shit." He laughed to himself. "But I did run into one of the guys Johnathan had with him in town someday. He looked as if he was seeing a ghost."
"I can imagine."
"It is possible that I kind of started to haunt them." There was an evil glint in his eye. "Johnathan and his two henchmen, I mean. It got even funnier after they tried to kill me again."
"Can you be killed?" Peter wondered.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Stiles just grinned at him.
"I want to know everything about you," Peter countered. It was true. He wanted to know if Stiles could die or if he was kind of immortal, he couldn't help it, his brain just worked like that. He wanted to know every little detail, wanted to fill in every blank so that he knew exactly what he was dealing with. With Stiles, however, he wanted to hear things like this as well. Fun little stories, the things that made him laugh and what made him sad, he wanted to know everything. It was kind of exciting and scary at the same time because it had been a long time since he'd been actually interested in a person. Most of the time he just wondered if somebody posed a threat or how he could manipulate and use somebody.
Stiles threw him a glance.
"Do you want to know how I sound when I come?"
Peter's foot must have gotten caught in a rabbit hole. He stumbled a few steps before he was able to catch himself.
"Thought werewolves were supposed to be graceful." Stiles laughed but kept walking as if the incident just now had never happened. They were rounding the house and their cars came back in sight.
"You did go through my stuff before you handed my bag over to John, didn't you?" Stiles changed the topic.
"Of course." Peter saw no point in lying, Stiles would have done the same.
"And you're not worried about me?" Stiles wondered. "You're the pack's left hand, you should be worried when you find someone gathering information about your pack like this."
"I doubt you're going to act on that information, you just want to have it. Just in case."
"Takes one to know one." Stiles gave him a knowing nod. "You're gathering information about me as well. And Derek. Found out what he is by now?"
"A limnad?" Peter asked the first thing popping into his mind. It was on his list of possibilities but it didn't quite fit what he knew about Derek so far.
"Nope." Stiles let the word pop. They were back at the cars. "I should leave, this is not my side of the town. And I have a bag to pick up."
Peter nodded to that, there wasn't much he could say. And he just knew that Cora had been circling the house with them and was now watching them from behind a window. Not that he was thinking of doing something stupid like kissing Stiles goodbye. His gaze flickered to Stiles' lips but Peter forced himself to look somewhere else. He was not a horny teenager.
"You didn't answer my question." Stiles hopped into the driver's seat and closed the door. "See you around." With that, the jeep came to live and Stiles slammed it in reverse.
"You're impossible, you know that?" Peter told him which got him another grin and then Stiles left. Peter watched him for a few seconds but then he turned back to the house.
"So that's the sheriff's nephew." Cora didn't even try to hide the fact that she'd been watching them. "What's the deal with him?"
"Nothing," Peter said but that wouldn't get her off his back. "We met at the library and we started talking, that's all."
"It still doesn't explain your necessary lie," Cora repeated his words back to him.
"I wanted to know who he is," Peter explained which was actually the truth. "It's my job to know the people around here and he's the sheriff's nephew. Denise got nosy and I could hardly tell her why I wanted to know about him. That you and Stiles are dating was her idea, I just didn't correct her."
"And what if people hear about it? Have you thought about that?" Cora asked louder than necessary. Her fingers were twitching as if she wanted to throw fists.
"People or one certain person?" Peter made a point of sniffing the air. Cora froze. "And it's fresh, that's why you've been skipping school?"
"I ... I ... didn't ..." She started but broke off after a second, there was no point in lying. "Don't tell mom."
"Two things." Peter took pity on her. "Three, actually. First, don't come home when you skip school, I thought you're smart enough for that. Second, don't skip school. You can fool around after school, better for your grades and less likely to make Talia suspicious." He made a pause. "And thirdly, if you don't want to out yourself to the whole pack, watch your scent."
At that, all the color left her face and she was staring at him with huge eyes.
"Don't tell mom!" She squeaked. "I'm not ready. I don't even know if ... I mean I shouldn't ... it's wrong, I'm wrong." Gone was the teenager in love, the only thing Cora was emitting now was anxiety and panic. Peter's nose was clogged with the bad emotions coming off her.
He couldn't stand it, his wolf whined in distress at her distress. Without even thinking, he closed the gap between them and closed his arms around her.
"You're not wrong," he said. "You're just fine the way you are."
"I don't want to be different." She was hugging him back now and Peter smelled tears.
"You're a werewolf, you should be used to being different," he joked in hope to lighten the mood. This was not what he'd signed up for, this was Talia's job. She was the alpha and Cora's mother, if anybody, she should be holding her daughter through this. But no, here he was, holding his crying niece.
"As a werewolf, I'm not alone," she whispered into his chest. She had a point there. There were a few pack members Peter knew or at least suspected were not straight but none of them had outed themselves.
"You're not alone in this either," Peter said with a sigh. Looked like they had to talk about this.
"Yeah?" Cora made. "Who?"
"I for example." He had never made a secret out of it but it had been a long time since he'd been interested in anyone.
"You?" Cora brought some distance between them. "Stop making fun of me."
"I'm not."
"You were married." Of course, she had to bring that up now. "You loved Aunt Olivia, we all felt your grief for months when she died."
Peter felt his jaw working, he did not want to think of Olivia right now but Cora had put her out there and now he had to say something to that.
"I loved her very much, still do." His voice sounded a bit raspy in his own ears. "But that doesn't change the fact that I've always liked men as well. I'm bisexual."
He had never thought that he would have to come out to his niece like this but today was strange like that. He was holding her gaze while she was searching for the lie. Which she wouldn't find. This might have been the most honest thing he'd said in quite a while.
After a long moment of doubt, she broke out in a huge smile.
"I think, I'm a lesbian," Cora said proudly but the next second she slapped her hands over her mouth as if she wanted to stuff the words back in. "Don't tell Mom. Don't tell anybody."
"Of course not."
She let out a breath, her relief washing over Peter.
"Thank you."
She mumbled something about homework and turned to leave but then she stopped.
"By the way, that advice with the scent?" She sniffed the air. "That goes both ways."
