Chapter 3

Two hours later and Derek heard his name being called from the kitchen. Seems as though his pack was finally done with their work. About time.

"Alright," Derek said walking in and clapping his hands together, "whose ready to get on with their training?"

Everyone shot up from the table, eager to be moving around instead of sitting in place. Sighing Derek saw that there was still one granola bar, one apple, one Gatorade, one water and a quarter of the cheese and crackers still on the table. Stiles didn't eat.

"So, I want you three," he pointed at Lydia, Boyd and Isaac, "to run ten laps around the perimeter as fast as possible"

The three selected grumbled as they tromped outside to start their instructed runs. It was something Derek has assigned them before but not something they enjoyed.

"What about me?" Stiles demanded as he glared up at Derek, "I though I was part of the pack. Shouldn't I be running?"

Derek sighed again, "You are Stiles and you will be running I just want to check your back first."

Derek knew that Stiles back had to be hurting him with as bad as it was last night.

"Fine" Stiles sighed as he waited for the others to leave before removing his shirt and turned around.

After he'd finished checking Stiles, and assuring himself that everything was fine, Derek moved closer to the boy and had to ask, "Why didn't you eat any of the snacks?"

"What," Stiles asked confused.

"The food I put out," Derek explained, 'Why didn't you eat it?"

"I did" Stiles replied, "Isaac's the only one who didn't touch the food"

Wait… Derek froze, "Isaac didn't eat?"

"Well…" Stiles didn't want to get Isaac in trouble, "He said he wasn't hungry"

Derek sighed, so maybe he misjudged Stiles, "Sorry, just wanted to make sure you were alright. Go on and start your laps."

Stiles nodded and headed for the door.

Derek went to the table and cleaned up. Maybe Isaac just wasn't hungry, could still be full from lunch – yeah, that was it, he had been full from lunch. Nodding to himself and feeling much better Derek went out to conduct the rest of training.

Isaac was about ready to collapse by the time training was over and he'd still had to do a ten-mile sprint before he'd been allowed to stop because he'd been the one to loose against Boyd. It didn't matter than Stiles lost to Erica because Stiles didn't have to do the laps since he was 'only human after all' but Isaac didn't receive the same leeway.

As he trudged up to the house he saw Derek and Stiles working on the railing of the porch. When Derek saw him he snapped that he should, "Get to work on the roof, it's supposed to rain soon and I don't want the house getting wet"

"Sure" Isaac agreed quickly. He did not want to piss off Derek.

He gathered his supplies, climbed up onto the roof and had to pause for a moment to remind himself that if he fell he would live. It would be painful but he'd live. Didn't make his fear of heights any better though.

It took three hours to finish the roof on his own. By the time he had everything put away and walked into the kitchen Stiles and Derek were cleaning up dishes from what smelled as though it would have been a decent dinner. Obviously dinner wasn't for people who couldn't get their chores done on time.

Without making a sound Isaac slipped past the happily chatting pair and headed to the basement for a quick shower.

"Did you hear something?" Derek asked Stiles as he dried the last plate.

"No," Stiles replied, "Why?"

"No reason. Hey so, how about a movie?"

Stiles paused, "I have to get home,"

"No" Derek snapped.

"Yes" Stiles snapped back.

"Stiles," Derek sighed, "It's not safe for you there, I have plenty of room here"

"I can't just leave my Dad," Stiles argued.

"He's beating you,"

"He hits me about six times once a week"

"He shouldn't be hitting you at all! And he starves you"

"There's food in the house five days out of the week and I have a credit card that he pays off if I want to go out"

Derek was frustrated; this was completely unbelievable. Isaac had never argued about moving away from his father. Though in all fairness the man had been dead when Isaac moved in – and the boy had no other options.

Regardless of the simplicity with Isaac, Stiles was being a real pain about this. "You can't stay with him"

"Why not?" Stiles challenged.

"Because he's hurting you"

"He hurt me last night," Stiles sighed, "He's not gonna do it again for at least a week"

"How can you know that?"

"Because that's the way it's been for the past year. He gets drunk on Thursday's after work and then comes home and hits me a few times before passing out on his bed. The next day he acts as though it never happened and then we spend the weekend together as he tries to make it up to me."

Derek closed his eyes and tried to think through his options. He could force Stiles to stay but that would almost definitely have the opposite result. A compromise it would have to be, "Fine, how about you come here after school every day and I'll drive you back to your place after the Sheriff has fallen asleep."

"How about I come here on training days and spend the night on Thursdays?" Stiles bartered.

That was the best he was gonna get... for now, "Fine"

"Great," Stiles clapped his hands and grabbed his bag; "I'll see you on Monday then."

"Monday?" Derek asked.

"You always have practice on Monday's, Tuesday's and Thursdays" Stiles reasoned, "Except for today which was just because you were trying to lure me here"

Sighing Derek relented, "Alright. I'll see you on Monday then. But if something happens you had better call me, or come over. Agreed?"

"Agreed"

With that Stiles left the Hale House and headed home. Happy that he finally had a place he could go on Thursday nights where he would be safe.

Isaac wanted nothing more than to pass out and try to get some type of rest but with Derek's new push towards good grades he knew better than to sleep when he had so much work to catch up on.

School hadn't seemed all that important before, when they were being threatened by the Kenema and then with the rebuilding of the Hale House but apparently that had all changed now that Stiles was part of the pack.

He didn't want to get into trouble with Derek. As both guardian and alpha the man had the right to discipline Isaac as he saw fit. Isaac did not want to be punished by Derek Hale.

The one time he'd complained about being sore during training Derek had broken his arm. And then there was the time he'd beat up a couple of guys to get Stiles and Scott tickets to a rave, Derek had been pissed and Isaac had been in pain for a week after that lesson.

Never again was he going to give Derek a reason to punish him.

With that desire coursing through his veins Isaac dropped down onto his blanket and pulled out his textbooks. At least he had the weekend to get caught up.

Derek put the dishes away and headed for his room. He was exhausted, it had been a busy day and tomorrow he needed to get some shopping done. Stiles' room needed more than just a bed in it.