Peter left the task of telling the pack about the hunters to Talia. As the alpha, it was her job anyway and she was better at convincing people that they had things under control and that they were enforcing basic safety rules just in case. Peter wouldn't say that they had the situation under control and the safety rules were not there just in case because it was clear that the hunters were up to something. But it was Talia's job to keep the pack calm and safe while it was Peter's to get rid of the threat.

Which meant that he had to find those damn hunters. He knew where the Argents lived and he had eyes on both of them but so far no sign of those other hunters. Peter spent the afternoon, making calls and seeing people but so far no luck. The hunters were lying low.

By the time Peter pick up Stiles, he did have some good news on the identity thing, though.

Like he'd said, it would take time to make it solid but he should get a birth certificate for him the day after tomorrow. Along with the official documents, making John Stiles' guardian. John could enroll him tomorrow with the excuse that Stiles had to leave his parents' home quickly and that they needed a day or two to get the papers in order.

Peter parked next to the sheriff's cruiser in John's driveway with mixed feelings, though. John had explicitly told him to not use Stiles for his own benefit or else. And here he was, asking for just that.

Which reminded him, Derek had given him the same warning.

"John and Derek won't be mad at me, will they?" Peter only half-joked. Being on the sheriff's bad side would be not good, being on Derek's could end in a disaster for him and his pack.

"Isn't it a bit late to think about that?" Stiles asked. "John will be cool with it, don't worry. And Derek finds the idea amusing, to be honest. It's not as if you're abusing me, I'm a willing participant."

Peter wanted to say something to that but then the front door opened and John asked if they wanted to come in or camp out in the car.

Stiles had been right, John was more than willing to listen as long as he got his burger. On the other hand, he immediately knew that something was up when he spotted the logo on the bags Stiles was carrying in but with Peter tagging along he'd known already.

At least John already knew about werewolves and turned out he knew about hunters as well.

"Where do you think I got the wolfsbane bullets from?" John asked and used his napkin to wipe some sauce off his chin. "I needed to know a few things so I went to the people who knew."

"Hunters are not a reliable source of information." Peter didn't even want to think about all the wrong ideas those hunters must have put into John's head. Along with what Stiles had to say about werewolves, it was a miracle that they were sitting peacefully at the same table.

"Figured that much," John agreed and reached for the curly fries.

Stiles looked as if he wanted to snatch those away like he'd done with Peter earlier that day but unlike him, John was allowed to have some. But Stiles kept a close eye on how many he took.

Peter guessed that it was only partly because Stiles didn't want to share the fries, it was more the fact that John was just a mere mortal. He was Stiles' only family, Stiles had pointed that out just minutes ago, and Peter got that he wanted to have him around for as long as possible. Eventually, John would die, Stiles was very aware of that fact, that much was clear. Peter wondered if Stiles would be as protective over him as well someday. As a werewolf, Peter was not likely to die from a random heart attack but he was still mortal, he too would die eventually while Stiles wouldn't have aged a day.

"I listened to the tales of bloodthirsty werewolves but I wanted to see for myself," John continued, pulling Peter out of his thoughts.

"So you just sat back and waited if bodies turned up?" Peter wondered. John had managed to be in the know and stay undetected for how long?

"Derek was the bigger threat," John reminded him. "He was actually killing people." He locked eyes with Peter. "As long as you play by the rules and don't endanger people, I don't care if you howl at the moon at night."

"We don't actually do that." Peter felt the need to clarify.

"Besides, in the eyes of most hunters, Stiles is not human either and as that a threat they need to take care of."

"Yeah, I'm a scary monster." Stiles huffed out a bitter laugh.

"Anyway, I'm not on the side of the hunters," John said. "But I'm not on your side either. I'm on the side of the law. I will protect you as well as I can but the same goes for them. Don't break the law and we're all good." He ended his little speech with a stern look at Peter.

"Speaking of breaking the law …" Peter started to which John made a pained face. He even put down his burger.

"So this is the part where you tell me what you two are up to?" He looked from Peter to Stiles but in the end, he settled on Peter.

"I set some things in motion to set up an identity for Stiles," Peter said. "Starting with a birth certificate."

"You can do that?" John asked, his voice breaking just like Stiles' when they'd talked about this earlier. Stiles' eyes were way too shiny again too. If Peter had known how much this meant to him, he would have offered weeks ago.

"Yes," Peter confirmed but then to lighten the mood, this was getting uncomfortable, he added: "If the sheriff is willing to look the other way while I forge official documents, heard he's very strict when it comes to obeying the law."

It had the desired effect, John snorted and shared a glance with Stiles. However, his focus was on Peter again a second later.

"You didn't come up with that just to do something nice for Stiles."

"No," Peter admitted. He did wish he'd come up with this just because, though.

He told John about Kate Argent who was currently teaching English at the local High School.

"I'm going undercover," Stiles piped up. At least he seemed to have grown fond of the idea.

"I hate to break it to you." John squinted at Stiles, trying to picture him going undercover, no doubt. "But you're not subtle, you're loud and annoying."

"Hey!"

"In this case, it's a good thing," Peter said. "Anybody new in that class will look suspicious but some quiet kid who just watches all the time would raise way more red flags. Stiles is perfect for this job. He looks the right age, he doesn't have a connection to the Hale Pack and as your nephew, he has an established background."

"Didn't you mention that Cora knows about you and Peter?" John wondered.

"I have a deal with her, she won't tell anybody," Peter assured him before Stiles could answer the question. "Aside from her only Talia knows about our relationship."

After dinner, they moved over to the living room where they discussed the details for a little while longer and in the end, they agreed that Stiles should start school as quickly as possible.

Officially Stiles would live with John from now on so Stiles would come "home" after school instead of driving back out to the lake in case somebody was watching him.

Stiles wouldn't be able to stay for long, he had to go back to the lake one way or the other but it should be enough to convince whoever might be observing him that he did live with the sheriff.

John had to leave for his night shift not much later but he promised to contact the school first thing in the morning. Peter wasn't sure if this was his cue to leave as well but Stiles held him back.

"How about some more Marvel?" Stiles asked and how could Peter say no to that? The movies were fun, Peter had to admit, but what sold it was Stiles' enthusiasm.

And Peter was already looking forward to the discussion they would have afterward. Stiles knew his meta and he liked to get carried away but at the same time he managed to keep it on Peter's level and only referred to the movies Peter had watched so far.

They were still talking about the movie when suddenly Derek stood in the door to the kitchen.

"Shit!" Stiles almost fell from the couch when he spotted him. "What time is it?"

As if that mattered somehow. Derek was here so it was time to go. That didn't stop Stiles from whining about time running too fast. Loudly.

"We didn't even get to the sex part."

"I'm sure Derek will wait if we make it quick," Peter said dryly.

"Would you?" Stiles looked at Derek with big eyes and way too much hope.

"No." Peter cut him off before Derek could say anything to that. "We're not going to have sex while Derek is standing right there."

Stiles pouted but Peter hoped that it was all fake. Exhibitionism was not on his kink list and there wasn't coming any help from Derek who was just standing there. So far he hadn't even said a word.

"Okay, rain check." Stiles gave in. "But you're coming by the cabin tomorrow and we're going to blow each other's brains out."

"That sounds rather threatening."

The way Stiles smirked at him was not helping and Peter really wished that they had the time but now Derek was stepping forward.

"Stiles."

"Yeah, yeah, just let me see out Peter real quick."

With Derek looming in the background, they didn't even kiss goodbye and seconds later Peter was on his way back home.

It was a strange feeling to let Cora go to school the next morning but there was nothing Peter could do about it. He and Talia shared a glance, she didn't like it either. If it had been Emily they could have kept her home for a few days claiming some illness but Kate knew that Cora was a werewolf. If they did that Kate would know that they had made the connection between Chris and her.

Peter didn't know Kate well enough to predict how she would react but he doubted that she would drop everything and run. It was more likely that she would rush her plan whatever it was and Peter did not want that. Not before he knew more.

So he and Talia just watched when Cora climbed into the car with Boyd, Erica, and Isaac. At least everybody now knew that there were hunters in town and that this was not the time to fool around.

Since it was a normal school day, Kate would be at school as well, meaning this was the best time to have a closer look at her place.

Breaking into her place was not that hard but there was not that much to find either. Kate didn't have many personal items in her apartment although she'd been living here for months. In the bathroom, he found only the basics but not much make-up or luxury of any kind. The clothes in the closet were more practical than fancy and there weren't that many either.

"You travel light," Peter said when he closed the closet. "Ready to run at any time."

She had a laptop but there weren't many personal files on there, Peter mainly found school-related things. The most personal thing he found was an email exchange with another teacher. They had set up what sounded like a date and the guy, Adrian, thanked her in a later email for the great evening. Apparently, not many people shared his interests and he was looking forward to continuing their conversation, maybe over dinner sometime? That email was weeks old, Kate hadn't responded. Peter made a copy anyway.

He closed the laptop and had a look around the living room.

On a side-table, he found a High School Chemistry book.

Kate was an English teacher, she had nothing to do with chemistry. However, one of the other hunters had purchased a book like this not long ago.

"So you do know them."

He skimmed through the book. Kate had marked a passage about thermic reactions and a few experiments related to that topic. Peter remembered some of those from his own chemistry lessons, the most memorable one included some singed eyebrows, not Peter's, but even on a bigger scale, nothing in that book should be able to cause real harm to a werewolf. Should.

Peter left Kate's apartment with an uneasy feeling and still no clue what she was planning.