"We need to talk," Chris Argent said while at the same time Peter said: "Emily, get in the car."
Stiles hadn't noticed the man stepping out of the car, he'd been listening to what Emily had to say about the series Peter was reading to her, but when he looked up, he recognized the hunter immediately. They had never met but Stiles had seen pictures.
Peter's command didn't leave room to argue and without questioning, Emily hurried to get in the car. She slammed the door shut and then she was watching with big eyes the standoff between her uncle and the hunter.
Stiles stepped around the car to stand next to Peter. Chris' gaze flickered over to him but it quickly settled back on the bigger threat right in front of him.
"What do we need to talk about?" Peter asked. He was looking at ease, his stand relaxed with his hands loose by his sides but Stiles knew him well enough to know that he was ready to defend them.
Chris was emitting the same false calm which made Stiles want to twitch even more. He was nobody for a stand-off like this, trying to intimidate each other.
"You sicced your attack dog on me and my wife," Chris stated.
For a second, long enough for Peter to say that he hadn't sicced anybody on them, Stiles wondered if Peter had failed to mention something important but then it dawned on him who Chris was talking about.
"Wait, did you just call Derek a dog?" Stiles almost tripped over his own feet with his outrage. "He answers to nobody and for sure not to the Hale pack."
Stiles stepped forward and jabbed a finger at Chris who finally had to acknowledge him.
"He came after you because your buddies kidnapped me. They beat me half to death, that's why he came after you. I bet he didn't even mention the Hales. He came to you with a hands off Stiles or else, am I right?"
Chris didn't confirm it but the way he was shifting his weight to his other foot was answer enough.
"I wasn't the one who kidnapped you."
"No," Peter spoke up. "But you're working with them. At the very least you're providing them with ammunition."
"So you're Stiles." Chris didn't rise to the bait and focused on Stiles instead. "The sheriff's nephew."
"That's me." Stiles beamed at him. This reminded him of one of his first encounters with Peter. Except that he did not like the way Chris was looking at him. Peter had been more curious than anything else, Chris was looking at him as if he was pondering if he should shoot him now or later.
"You're not, I checked." Chris crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You're not part of the pack either." At that, he jerked his chin in Peter's direction.
"What do you want?" Peter cut in.
"I don't want to be threatened in my own home." He locked eyes with Peter, pegging him for the ring leader here.
Stiles half-expected Peter to agree, he had made the same experience with Derek after all, but that would give Chris more information and Peter did not offer those willingly.
"I don't know who or what this Derek guy is but he better does not come after me or my wife again."
"But your sister is fair game?" Peter asked and when Chris just glared at him, he gave him a toothy smile. "Sorry, was it a secret that one of the teachers at the local High School is a hunter?"
"That has nothing to do with you."
"So it's coincidence that she's teaching my niece's grade?" Peter raised an eyebrow at him. "Or that hunters are swarming Beacon Hills lately? But I heard that one of your buddies had a little accident."
To that Chris took a breath, visibly restraining himself.
"I had nothing to do with that," he repeated. "Neither had my sister. We're not responsible for what those others did."
"Two things." Peter stepped closer. "You're sister's scent was still lingering in the cabin where they've taken and tortured Stiles and two of my pack. And second, as Stiles said, you brought Derek onto yourself when you took Stiles. Don't blame me or my pack for that."
Peter stepped back and reached for the driver's door.
"Stiles, get in the car, we're leaving."
Stiles didn't have to be told twice and hurried to get to the other side of the car.
"What are you, Stiles?" Chris asked before Stiles could slip into the passenger seat.
Stiles braced his arms on the roof of the car and the open door.
"Wouldn't you want to know?" He grinned at him. Chris and Peter were not that different, he'd had the exact same conversation with Peter not long ago. Like Peter, Chris was somebody who liked to gather as much information as possible.
Chris just waited for him to answer.
"Abominable snowman. But it's more of, like, a wintertime thing." Stiles made a vague gesture. "You know, seasonal."
Chris did not look impressed.
"Hey, Peter thought I was fae." Stiles' grin widened but when Peter made an impatient noise in his throat he slipped into the seat and shut the door.
Peter was already behind the wheel and the second Stiles was inside, the car started moving. Chris made no attempt to stop them, he was just watching them until Stiles lost sight of him.
"You okay, Emily?" Peter checked on the little girl in the backseat via mirror.
"I'm okay," she answered but when Stiles turned around to check on her as well, he found her looking back at him with big eyes. She might not fully understand what had just happened but enough to get scared.
"Was that a bad man?" Emily asked.
"Yes." Peter nodded. "He's one of the bad people your Aunt Talia has warned us about."
Emily's eyes grew bigger with that and she was covering her mouth with both hands.
"What was that about you being an abominable snowman?" Peter changed the topic and it took Stiles a second notice that Peter was talking to him.
"You don't look anything like a snowman," Peter continued with a side glance at him.
"That's the part bothering you?" Stiles punched him in the shoulder but he got that this was Peter trying to lighten the mood for Emily. "You're uncle thinks I'm abominable. Can you believe that?" Stiles put his full body into his words which made Emily giggle.
"Well …" Peter made a point of looking him up and down.
"You're impossible." Stiles pouted.
He would have loved to discuss their encounter with Chris but that had to wait until they were alone. So Peter just dropped him off at the lake with the promise to come by later.
"Not too soon." Stiles climbed out of the car and made extra sure that he got his bag with him. "I'm going under for a bit, I want to talk to Derek." For Emily's sake, he didn't say what he wanted to talk about. Not that it was necessary.
"Until Sunday," Stiles promised the little girl even if he still wasn't sure how he felt about meeting the whole pack.
"Are you going to read to me?" Emily asked to which Stiles agreed easily. Maybe that was a way to dodge the adults.
Before Stiles went into the lake, he shot John a message to tell him about Chris but he didn't wait for the answer. He dropped his phone on the bed, stripped down to his underwear, and then he dove into the lake.
Like always Derek welcomed him with open arms and Stiles just sank into his presence.
"Something is bothering you." Derek picked up on his mood.
"Ran into Chris Argent." Stiles let out a sigh. "Or rather, he ran into us. Ambushed us in front of the library. We had Emily with us." That was the thing that bothered Stiles the most. He got that hunters were not fond of werewolves, to them only a dead werewolf was a good werewolf, but that Chris had dragged a child into this … that was not right.
"Did he hurt you?" Derek's focus was on Stiles. Always.
"No," Stiles assured him. "He just wanted to talk, flex his muscles so to speak. You scared him pretty good, big guy."
"Was that wrong?" Derek asked. "He wasn't one of the people who took you."
"Na." Stiles waved him off. "You did good. He's involved, somehow. I think he's following his sister's lead on this."
Peter had eyes on the Argents but so far Chris and his wife hadn't done anything suspicious. But Kate had been at their house at least once and who knew where they met up to scheme their evil plans? Peter had his informants all over town but even they couldn't catch everything.
"By the way, did you go after that other hunter as well? The buddy of the guy in the basement?"
"No, I can't find him." He seemed genuinely upset about that fact. Usually, he didn't care about what was going on outside of his lake but it looked like he was willing to make an exception to scare the ones who had hurt Stiles. He might even enjoy it.
"It's only a matter of time until John or Peter can put a name to his face," Stiles assured him. Names held power. Once they had a name, there was no place in the world where that hunter could hide from Derek.
Derek grumbled to that.
Stiles would have liked to stay with him for longer, maybe even until next week so he didn't have to attend dinner with the Hales on Sunday, but Peter was probably already waiting at the cabin for him so Stiles tore himself out of Derek's presence.
Peter was indeed waiting for him at the cabin. He had dragged out a chair and was now sitting there, overlooking the lake. He had a book in his lap but he put it down the second Stiles broke the surface.
"Like what you see?" Stiles asked but wading out of the water was anything but sexy even with water running down his lean body. His boxers were saggy under best conditions but soaked like this, he had to hold on to them to not lose them in the water.
"Ursula Andress did it better."
"I'm the bond girl now?" Stiles stepped out of the lake, still clutching his boxers. "Don't get too full of yourself, James."
Stiles made sure to flick some water into Peter's face when he stomped past him. But then he stopped in his tracks.
"Should I feel old for getting that reference?"
"You were there before movies have even been invented," Peter reminded him.
"Thanks, now I really feel old."
"Sorry to break it to you but you are old, my dear."
Stiles flipped him off and went to get dressed.
"What did your pack say?"
"To you or Chris?" Peter followed him but stopped in the door frame to dramatically lean against it.
Stiles ditched the boxers and reached for a towel to dry off before he went to search for some not too dirty clothes. It was time for another laundry day.
"Both." Stiles threw the towel over the remaining chair to dry. "But mainly what they think about me. What did Emily tell them?" For some reason, he was more worried about the little girl's opinion on him than what the adults might think of him.
"She loves you."
Stiles felt Peter's gaze on him when he bent down to put on a fresh pair of underwear which was better than facing him because Stiles was pretty sure that he was blushing.
"They want to meet you." Peter stepped closer.
Stiles felt his heart-rate pick up at that. He did not want to get reminded of Sunday so he was frantically looking for something to change the topic. His eyes fell on the book Peter had in his hand.
"What are you reading?" It did not look like some leisure reading.
Peter turned the book so that Stiles could read the title.
"Thought I'd brush up on some German folklore. I'm mainly interested in something called a Nöck." Peter gave him a toothy smile.
"What else." Stiles had expected nothing less from him. In fact, he would be worried if Peter did not openly admit that he was researching Derek. "Found a way to kill him yet?"
