Chapter 05: A full moons brings the howls of hunters
Stiles IV
Stiles doesn't see his dad until the next day, he's sitting at the dining table with papers scattered around a coffee cup he's holding with his left-hand as his right-hand puts down notes. Stiles had used the rest of his day trying to get into contact with Scott- to no avail, there had been radio silence, - looking through the grimoires on dark magic, practising some magic exercises (pushing and floating increasingly heavier items), searching for magical ingredients, and scouring the internet for myths about werewolves. He had learned more about werewolves the previous day -fake and not- than he had thought he would ever have known in his life. Even though he'd live well into his thousands unless he ends up murdered by a hunter. He had researched legends from King Lycaeon being cursed into becoming a werewolf when he had fed Zeus the flesh of his son, to werewolves being the descendants of Hati, the son of Fenrir, who chases the moon until Ragnarok.
"Hey, dad."
Stilinski looks up, startled, and spills coffee over some of his papers. "Stiles," He says, rattled and moves to wipe away his spilt drink, "I didn't notice you."
"I noticed," Stiles tells him with a wide gesture to the spilt coffee and hands him a towel to suck up the coffee, some of the papers are ruined beyond recognition but Stiles sees a flash of Laura's face before the paper is shoved away with the rest. "When were you going to tell me?" He's almost embarrassed by how hurt he sounds as he says the words.
His dad squints up at him confused. "Did I forget something again? This damn bite. Yesterday I forgot I'd written the report on that vampire that attacked you and Derek and ended up writing it twice."
"Yeah I guess you could say that." Stiles snaps, somewhere in the back of his mind he realises that his dad isn't deflecting but doesn't get what he's talking about. He ignores that part in anger. "Hunters! and you didn't even tell me! I suspected- of course I did!- but I didn't know for sure! What if I did something non-human and they noticed? - like running too fast, or if my eyes glowed? I'd be hunted down! How am I supposed to save you- protect you if you keep things from me!?"
"I was protecting you," Stilinski says slowly, and carefully moves to his feet, as if afraid of spooking a scared animal. Or enrage a furious fox. "And it's not your damned job to take care of me, Stiles, I'm over 600 years old, it's my job to take care of you, I'm the-"
"No," Stiles says, and his voice rises, cracking with the fury he suddenly feels. "I don't want excuses dad, I went to Vlad's bar and he said that this isn't the first-time hunters where in Beacon Hills. You put me at risk- you put yourself at risk! Hunters can't be trusted with following the rules! Beacon Hills is supposed to be safe from them!" I was sitting in front of one yesterday and I didn't even know!
Dad looks at him sadly and says, "Stiles, your eyes."
Stiles snaps his mouth shut and clenches his teeth, "Don't change the subject!"
Dad says nothing and reaches out to him, to give Stiles a hug. Stiles backs away holding his hands up.
Stilinski begins to open his mouth, his face set in worry, he looks old and tired. Stiles interrupts him. "You weren't going to tell me, so when were you? In a hundred years? In a thousand? Never? You would never have told me- even though-" Stiles chokes on his words and turns, running out and hastily slipping on his shoes and jacket as he runs, ignoring how Stilinski calls after him.
Hiding from your problems Stiles? His brain whispers as he slams the door to his jeep and drives out the driveway. "Shut up." he says out loud and focuses on getting his eyes to stop glowing, it's still early morning so it's still dark enough that they would be noticed.
He drives until he's outside the burnt building of the Hale house, Derek is already standing outside on the porch with his arm crossed and an expression of annoyance.
"What are you doing here Stiles?"
Stiles jumps from his jeep and jogs up to Derek, stopping below the steps to the porch. The middle step is ruined so he doesn't go farther, who knows if the others can take his weight. "What's your phone number." He doesn't meet his eyes. He can't, not after yesterday.
They say the eyes are the window to one's soul.
If Stiles looks him in the eyes Derek will find out, he saw his sister naked.
Then he'd be dead.
"I don't have one," Derek says, "What are you doing here?"
"Getting fresh air," Stiles says and carefully sits down on the first but whole burnt step, he shows Derek his own phone, wiggling it in his face. "And your number-that you don't have. How the hell am I supposed to contact you? Howl at the moon?" He asks with annoyance.
"You're not."
"What are you doing tomorrow?" Stiles asks instead because he does know one thing about werewolves, and that is that the full moon for pack-less omegas are horrifying, and Derek is just that, pack-less. Stiles would like to be there for him during it, to be nice- the good deed of the month. It might be fun, just Stiles, Derek, and his-
-And Stiles is annoyed again. You can't even run from your problems, they just keep coming back like lice.
"You're angry today." Derek observes.
"No shit Sherlock, what gave it away? The lack of rainbows and general cuteness over my head? Or is it just me who can see them?" Stiles says, his voice flat. "Seriously though what are you going to do on the full moon?"
Derek huffs. "I'm going to be right here."
"With hunters around? Just if you didn't know." Stiles asks and looks at his phone when it quacks, he changed Scott's text tone the previous evening out of spite. He doesn't read the message, letting it back into his pocket.
"Of course I know," Derek rolls his eyes and shoulders. "The Argent's are werewolf hunters, I would recognise them everywhere."
Stiles stares, Argents, he shudders and swallows. Their reputation certainly precedes them. "You knew. Was I the only one not aware of dangerous hunters in Beacon Hills?"
"You didn't know," Derek says like it is the most idiotic thing he's heard his whole life. "She was in two pieces. Hunters do that to lure the rest of the pack into a slaughter. How could you not know that?"
"Yeah, sorry for apparently being a sheltered brat." Stiles says darkly.
Derek, as if sensing the sensitive subject changes it. "Why do you want to know what I'd be doing tomorrow?"
"Oh yeah. I wanted to know if you wanted me and dad there- or just- you know, me and not my dad? I don't know how it works with werewolves, but with the slight pull the moon has on Kitsune, family or friends are good to be with." Stiles says awkwardly because the full moon is something special for most supernaturals, but werewolves, in particular, has a deep connection to it as their powers are derived from the moon. Werewolves have deep pack bonds that help them with control of the moon's influence, a pack makes werewolves content, less prone to violence, stronger, and happier. It was why the then Hale pack had been so strong. It might have been average in size, but the bonds they had with each other, and the magic of Beacon Hills had made them one of the stronger packs in North America.
Derek stares at him silently, like he can't believe Stiles would ask him that, and a strange happy feeling comes from him as he moves his head very lightly.
"That's a yes?"
Derek's eyes narrow. "Yes."
"Awesome dude! What do werewolves normally do? Do you need a stick for playing fetch?"
Stiles might have deserved to be kicked from the step he was sitting on for that one.
They had been out the whole day, showing Derek's scent off in hopes that the Alpha would come to them. But the alpha never came, and they found no clues. While they walk aimlessly among the trees and shrubbery, Derek made Stiles read his - not his, his mom's grimoires, so Stiles would, to quote: 'be quiet so that Derek can concentrate on not killing him.' it was really as good a reason as any.
Derek tenses just a bit beside Stiles as they walk through a small clearing and the moonlight hits him.
"Do you play or fight?" Stiles asks.
Derek looks at him impressive control, "We played games, chase after each other, fight. Things like that. After- after the fire, Laura and I would stay with uncle Peter and play chess. He wouldn't participate of course, but it was what he would do in the full moon." there's pain in his voice as he talks about his lost family.
Stiles frowns, "Really? That seems passive, not what I'd expect from werewolves."
"Well," Derek says and steps into the shadow of a tree, away from the moonlight, "Peter always had the best control of all of us, even better than my mother. I remember my mother saying that he would have been the alpha if he'd been born five years earlier."
"Why? Isn't it always the oldest?"
"He did his first full shift at three, at least according to Peter. It was enough for my grandfather to want to pass over my mother for the title, but he died when uncle Peter was six, so the title went to my mother."
That reminded Stiles too much of The Lion King for him to be comfortable, "And he never felt he was passed over? Abandoned?"
"No, why would he?" Derek asks, completely baffled by the thought.
"Oh well," Stiles says with a shrug, passing the information into the back of his mind, "What do you do for the full moons then?"
"I fight." he says shortly and breaks a pretty large branch of a three they pass. He throws the broken branch away and continues. Stiles stares at the branch with confusion.
Why did he break the branch?
Some werewolf anger management?
Stiles shakes off his confusion and says; "… That's very stereotypical angry werewolf of you. All claws and argh!" he claws his fingers and roars into the sky.
"It's what most werewolves prefer." Derek mutters, insulted.
"I rest my case." Stiles says smugly.
"Fine. What do you do then Stiles? Since we're sharing so much." Derek drawls.
Stiles thinks it over, sometimes he's just home playing games with Scott or something similar, nothing like werewolves, but a few full moons are more difficult than others. "I like playing with my dad and just sitting."
"Sitting?" Derek asks in disbelief and raises a dubious but amused eyebrow.
Yeah, laugh it off asshole.
"Yeah sitting, meditating, being petted." Stiles lists off.
"That's degrading." Derek snaps with disgust.
"Hey, don't knock it till you try it." Stiles snarls. Petting is nice if the one petting him is someone he trusts.
Derek winces, "Still, sitting isn't like you."
"Hah no, I've got horrendous control, gotta sit still or I'll end up eating bunnies for weeks."
"…" Derek stares at him in silence.
"It's happened." Stiles insists and points at him with the grimoire.
"The full moon doesn't affect Kitsune like that." Derek says and steals the grimoire right from Stiles' hands and looks at the page. His face flips in confusion and annoyance.
"It does, it's different from werewolves," he explains and tugs the grimoire into his armpit when Derek hands it back, "You guys get angry, we become more like what kitsune was before we became humanoid, more or less mischievous and like a fox depending on who you are."
Derek snorts, "That's stupid."
"And being rage filled and wanting to kill is better?"
"Yes." He says confidently, ripping yet another branch.
Stiles looks at his phone, the moon is about to peak for werewolves, "No it's not, that's a potential for murder."
Derek glances at him with blue glowing eyes and snorts rudely.
"Snort all you want, you know I'm right."
"What about Scott McCall?"
Stiles frowns, "What about him?"
"Isn't he part of your pack?"
"Kitsune doesn't have packs Derek, I thought you knew. Being an all-knowing sourwolf and all."
"And you're dodging the question." Derek says and steps in front of Stiles' path, he tries to step around, but then Derek is there again.
"What do you want?" Stiles demands, pushing past Derek before he can be stopped again.
"We're sharing Stiles, remember?" Derek mocks and pulls him up in the air by the hook of his backpack, "Having a heart to heart."
"Fine!" Stiles snarls, agitated, as Derek turns him so they're glowing eye to glowing eye. "He doesn't want to see me! He's freaking out because werewolves exist and suddenly his best friend is some immortal kitsune! Which by the way he relates to sexy kitsune in video games!"
Derek hums, "I think I can see it," He says, suddenly serious, "You're just missing the ears and tails."
Stiles can't do anything but gape pathetically as he stares at Derek. I can't fucking believe he said that! His mind screams at him as it breaks with the image of Derek sitting by a computer looking at sexy anime fox-girls. "I- I- I uh- Um-" he manages to squeeze out. His mind is blank, that almost never happens, now more than ever, but almost never.
Stiles wanted this conversation gone yesterday.
Derek drops him like a sack of potatoes, and says nothing, continuing on.
Stiles picks himself and his grimoire from the ground. "Yep, you're the good old sourwolf Derek, bodily hurting me every chance you have. That's abuse you know?" Stiles tugs the grimoire over his head and into his backpack. "How about we play? Tag maybe? I do that with dad a lot. Or am I too cute and small so you'll think I'm prey and try to kill me?"
He scoffs. "No."
"Hey, can you hold my backpack? I'm too small to carry it as a fox. If you shift I think you can still carry it if I strap it on you the right way- don't look at me like that, I know what I'm doing. I've done it before." Derek looks at him and rips the backpack from him without a word, and tugs it on with more force than necessary and walks faster.
"Aren't you gonna shift?" Stiles asks invasively, it had bothered him for some time. That Derek didn't shift. Werewolves in their wolf form have stronger senses that could help in finding the Alpha. But he never shifts, like he can't.
"Oh my god- You can't shift." Stiles realises with horror, Derek's family was famous because every werewolf member could transform, and that if they had kids with someone outside the pack those kids would have a 50 percent chance they would get the natural ability too.
The Hales are the reason five percent of all werewolves, born or bitten, can transform.
Derek growls, and his eyes flash. "It doesn't matter." he says but it clearly does from the face he makes as he turns away from Stiles like he somehow feels lessened.
"Of course it matters Derek! I know you can do it- it was always made into some stupid big deal when another Hale kid shifted the first time." Derek keeps his gaze away from Stiles as claws grow from his fingertips. Dismissing him as he takes off, away from Stiles.
Faster than Stiles cam follow.
So Stiles shifts down and the world becomes bigger as he shrinks down on four paws. He yips and runs to catch up with Derek.
Derek looks down at him and raises an eyebrow. "You're smaller than I thought you'd be. Definitely prey material." He says patronising.
Stiles gives his best dull 'Ha-ha-ha, how funny,' look and nips lightly at Derek's trousers before speeding off into the trees.
Derek is faster than him and swoops Stiles up within four minutes. "You're small and slow," he says, mocking Stiles with all the weaknesses he's never going to overcome. Stiles' heart beats quickly when Derek puts a hand on his head and feels around his fur, petting him with his claws. Stiles has a brief moment of panic, but they trail over his fur and skin with soft and pleasant strokes."Soft… " he says as his eyes glow dully as his face begins shifting. Stiles stares as the eyebrows disappear, hair sprouts from the sides of his head, the shape of this nose changes, and his teeth elongate into points.
Then it's all gone, Derek's normal face is all that's left, and his hand disappears from his head as Stiles is dropped to the ground. It's a rough landing- he's not a freaking cat!- but Stiles makes due.
Derek nudges him with his foot, looking down at Stiles like Stiles does when he sees a dog or a cat and wants to play with it. Stiles barks in protest I'm not a pet!
But Derek's already jogging away. He gestures quickly for Stiles to follow him, he narrows his eyes as he takes in at the retreating back. He really wants to chase him. To hunt him, like the serial killers that cats are. To give in to nature and let the fox part of him have mindless fun- but he can't.
Stiles chases after Derek with a goal in mind, to be faster, maybe to ambush him, but definitely to have some fun.
Just not kitsune fun.
Derek slows down as time goes on until he's almost down on all fours, crawling through the shrubbery. They're closer when Stiles smells it.
A deer. Straight ahead. Derek has led them around so the breeze is facing them, letting them smell the deer but leaving it woefully unaware of them.
Derek's mouth opens just slightly as they spot it ruffling through dead and decaying leaves. Stiles looks at Derek and the very eager and murderous expression on his face and decides he's going to have to act now or never.
Stiles barks loudly and the deer's head springs, it's heart pounding as it leaps from their direction. Derek snarls, his eyes go wild, glowing dangerously and he lets his appearance shift into his beta form as he takes after it on all four- not before swatting Stiles away like a fly in anger- and it looks ridiculous. Stiles almost forgets to catch up with Derek and attempt to draw his attention as he watches the way he's running. He'll admit that Derek is going faster than before, but it looks so fucking ridiculous he has to catch his breath in an attempt to not pass out from laughter.
Stiles can't catch up so when he spots the deer turning he does so as well to intersect Derek. Instead of stopping or being distracted, he scoops up Stiles like ice cream- Stiles really needs to tell people not to manhandle him.
"Get it towards me." Derek says gruffly and with an expression that tells him Derek will take no deserters from his plan back alive, he throws Stiles out from his arms.
Stiles blinks when he lands, he really doesn't want to be accessory to animal murder. But Derek is a werewolf and Stiles isn't going to deny him on the full moon. So he chases after the deer. It doesn't notice him as he catches up, annoyed, Stiles shrieks at the animal and uses a substantial portion of his energy to lay an illusion of his dad's hulking fox form onto himself. The deer skitters away from the large illusionary body and runs in the wrong direction, it's going towards where he feels Derek lurking. Stiles chases it again, cutting off its path at an angle and the deer steers away from him and away from Derek.
The moment stretches as he watches it run away, hopping over obstacles and slamming right into Derek who isn't where he was before. Stiles shuts his eyes closed, he doesn't see it, but the sound of the deer's cries and the feeling of its panic, pain, suffering, and eventual acceptance, is enough for Stiles to know Derek killed it. Werewolves are weird.
And deadly.
Stiles trots up to the werewolf when the deer is dead, he looks up at Derek who stares calmly at his kill, his eyes fading back to his normal hue. The deer has deep scratches along its body, showing muscle, blood, and insides that are slumping out one rift, Stiles' stomach clenches.
He looks up at Derek again, away from the blood, and gives the best unimpressed look he can manage while a fox. It's a preserve damn it! Don't go killing deer!
Derek can't hear him, and shrugs Stiles' look off him as he bends to collect the deer. Its blood soaks into his clothes- and Stiles' backpack!
Stiles yelps and jumps to try and get his point across- he has grimoires in that backpack!
Derek seems to get the meaning behind his wild jumping and snapping at the straps hanging from the backpack. "your backpack isn't waterproof?" he asks, like it's Stiles fault for not having a blood proof backpack.
He shakes his head, and Derek mumbles nice things about Stiles to himself and pulls the deer off his back again. He shifts the backpack to sit in the front and lifts the deer back up over his shoulders.
And walks.
If Stiles could do telepathy like his dad, Derek would have known exactly how he feels about his stupid murderous werewolf instincts.
He gnaws on his ankles instead.
Revenge.
That's how Stilinski finds them a good half hour later, Derek trekking around with a dead animal on his shoulders, Stiles' backpack on his stomach, and Stiles hanging from his ankle as he walks.
Stiles is stuck at this point.
"I see you guys are having fun." Stilinski says after a few seconds of staring.
Derek stops and Stiles finally has his chance to remove himself from what has become a bloody situation. Derek glances down at him with a smug expression as his face returns to normal, his eyebrows reappearing. In that moment, Stiles desperately wants to know where they go. Maybe his skin absorbs them.
"This is a preserve Derek," Stilinski tells him sternly as he wanders over to sniff at the deer. "I don't know how your family did it, but I prefer for the animals here not to be hunted."
Stiles yips to gain Derek's attention and grins widely at him, rubbing it in Derek's face. He should have listed to Stiles.
Stiles knows best.
"Shut up." Derek says, and looks away from them, he is definitely embarrassed now. Looking at Derek and his dad now it's weird to see how Derek is dwarfed by his dad's big Kitsune form. Makes him less scary.
Stiles hums, leaving the two to discuss the dead deer with each other. Stilinski throws a glance at him, they'll talk later.
Stiles doesn't want to talk about his dad lying to him for years.
Instead of thinking about the upcoming conversation, he lets his mind wander, just focusing on whatever it wants. He's easily distracted by anything that moves as the movement catches the attention of his eyes. Stiles has always been more focused in his spirit form- like his natural body cannot contain all it means to be a Kitsune. His focus isn't great as a fox, but it is marginally better than overwise. But sometimes it's good to let the added focus go.
Dad calls out to him but Stiles ignores them and catches a leaf blowing in the wind with his teeth. An owl hoots above him and a rabbit scurries away as it sees him, afraid he'd give chase. Stiles runs, but not at the bunny, looking at everything around him and he finds himself at peace.
After catching his twenty-seventh leaf (he's been counting, last full moon he did a hundred and fifty-eight) he stumbles on a phone lying in the leaves, its blue cover stands out and grabs for his attention like a buzzing fly. It's laying face up with a star decorated cover covering up the screen, it's probably dead from morning dew, but Stiles hurries over to it anyway. He fiddles with the cover and manages to hook a claw up under the magnet and gets the clasp off to open it. It has a button on the bottom and Stiles carefully presses on it. The screen lights up and on the lock screen is a picture of Derek and a dark-haired woman who is definitely Laura.
He'd gotten very acquainted with her appearance.
Derek looks happy, there's a somewhat goofy smile on his face as he looks into the camera. At his and the girls chest area is a pop-up informing of a media message from a person named Lahey.
Who is that? Stiles wonder as he stares at the screen, at the top is a row of icons indicating missed calls and messages from a variety of programs. The battery is at 7%.
He hurries to put the cover back in place before he scoops the phone up into his mouth. He looks at the trees for moss and Stiles quickly finds north with a small circle around. He runs back to find Derek and his dad, Stiles knows the general direction, but he'd run too far away for him to smell or hear them.
Stiles hears the footsteps first, followed by the twang of a bow. Stiles stops in his tracks. Leaves fly around him. He huddles down to the ground. Keeping low. The rustling of leaves as he slowly creeps forward are like trumpets in his ears loud and revealing.
A fly buzzes by a meter away. Stiles flinches and spots a red dot on a tree to his right. The mist lets him trace the laser to its source. A pair of hunters are walking right towards him. There's a rifle with a laser scope in the arms of one while the other is carrying a crossbow. Stiles squints his eyes shut to block out the purple glow and carefully lays over the phone. Keeping the bright blue cover hidden with dark fur. The hunters steps by him, their footsteps like gunshots. The hunters are past him when a pained howl can be heard - that's definitely Derek, what the hell are they doing?!- and the one closest to Stiles steps in the direction of the howl.
Towards Stiles.
"Vic?" one of them says.
He can almost feel the red light on his fur as the other hunter takes a step towards him. 'Vic's' steps are heavier than the others, less graceful.
His skin crawls as it gets hard to breathe.
"A dead fox?" Vic mumbles. The voice is feminine, a woman then. Stiles holds his breath, if she thinks he's dead Stiles is safe. His heartbeat is something he can't do anything about, but hunters can't hear heartbeats. The hunter walks closer and nudges Stiles with her boot. The rifle shifts weight, "Get up." she commands harshly.
Of course he can't hide from hunters they're professional killers.
She shifts over him. Stiles begs to every God and kitsune he can think of, for her to dismiss him, to leave. To not kill him. A hand clamps down on his neck and rips him from the ground. He snaps the phone into his mouth and trashes in her hold. He wants to snap at the hunter but that would only make him drop the phone. His eyes flash open and he catches sight of red hair and icy blue eyes.
There's the muzzle of a gun in his face. Stiles flinches, curling into himself. Keeping the panic inside, pressing it down deep. If he panics and lashes out, he'll be dead.
"What kind of kitsune are you? I've never seen a silver-fox kitsune," there's fascination in her voice, like he's some exotic animal she's just found. "What about you Chris?"
"No," Chris says. "But most of my experience with kitsune is with possession. No fox-form."
"It's holding something," Vic says and red flashes for his closed eyes, they must be pointing a flashlight at him. She shifts her grip on him and demands, "Let go of the phone."
Stiles growls at her.
"I think that means no." Chris says with humour as he steps around Vic and Stiles.
Yes, it does so leave me alone assholes. Stiles thinks and shifts a bit trying to a potentially good angle for biting her arm.
"Are you approved by the Guardian kitsune?" Vic asks and Stiles nods hurriedly.
There's a small beeping from somewhere below him in their direction. The gun muzzle touches his head briefly, making cold rush down his back, before disappearing. "If you move I will shoot you."
"Vic!" the man hisses.
She ignores him and seem to take Stiles' stillness as a yes and takes out her phone. "Yes?" her voice is crisp and professional. "I see. Stay and I'll come to you. Looks like I'll be taking you to the Guardian then." she addresses Stiles at the end.
Uncaring of Stiles still being held at arm's length she moves through the forest. As she walks Stiles opens his eyes and looks over at Chris, the man looks at him immediately, his glowing eyes probably drawing his attention in. Stiles stares at the hunter the whole way, and Chris stares right back. He kind of looks familiar.
Vic brings them to a collection of hunters standing around his dad and Derek, he can't really see them from the angle he's at, but their smell, and the smell of blood, is impossible to miss. The other hunters - why are there so many? Part as Vic and Chris comes through.
"Is this one yours?" Vic asks and holds Stiles up, so he can see his dad and Derek. Derek is standing with an arrow in hand and a bleeding mess on his side, that's where the blood came from. He's glaring death and growling at a hunter around Derek's own age with bright red hair who's standing nervously a few meters from Derek - right out of claw range, fiddling with his crossbow. Dad is scanning the crowd as the woman shows him off and his face freezes when his attention is called and he spots Stiles.
Stilinski rises to his full height, his back straight, and snarls, his eyes darting from Stiles to the gun in Vic's other hand. The hunters flinch and Stilinski's ears perk with satisfaction as he slowly walks over to tower over the woman.
She doesn't flinch, "So he is one of yours?" she asks despite Stilinski's gleaming teeth being less than a meter from her face.
"Hand him over," The words are sharp as they enter the minds of everyone around, "Or is this how hunters do things now? Threatening innocent supernaturals? What happened to your code? I remember when your kind began using it, it was quite relaxing not to be hunted every hour of my day, but it seems that it's gone out of fashion again. What a pity, Marie Jeanne Argent must be rolling in her grave."
Ah. That would make Chris, Kate's famous brother with balls of diamonds.
"Everyone stand down." Vic says and like magic, all the hunters point's their weapons to the ground, away from Derek and Stilinski. She bends down and sets Stiles down on his ass.
Stiles hauls ass towards Stilinski and trips halfway there as he misses a root peeking out. He smashes chin first into the ground and the screen of the phone cracks as the pressure becomes a bit too much.
The hunter grunts around him laugh mockingly.
Stiles lashes out with fury, dropping the phone, and with one of his newer magic exercises, forces four of them to fall over backwards with a strong push.
Then there are weapons in his face again and Dad is standing over him, growling as Derek watches the hunter he'd been threatening crawl to his feet. Derek looks pleased. Good for him, he's not the one getting the guns in his face.
He better thank Stiles for that later.
Or he'll get pranked.
"Stand down," Vic repeats and the hunters hesitates. "I said stand down!" she snarls then, fury crossing her face, "or do you want to start a supernatural incident!? Anyone who doesn't stand down right now will be punished, that's not a threat, that's a promise!"
The hunters step back like good little grunts and begin gathering around Vic, and Chris, who looks amused at the whole thing as he glances around at his subordinates.
"Guardian," Vic says in the same commanding tone. "control your subjects, if your small kitsune there had done that outside Beacon Hills we would be guilt free if we decided to put it down. I suggest you teach it how the world works."
Stiles grumbles in the back of his throat. Of course, he knew that he wasn't stupid. But Stiles didn't attack them, so they can't. Threatening power drunk assholes.
Stilinski stands over Stiles, silent as he watches Vic for something. "he knows the rules Victoria, if I remember correctly, self-defence isn't punishable outside Beacon Hills either."
Victoria huffs. "Control your subjects and we won't have a problem," she gestures to the side and the hunters begin to leave. "We're hunting the Alpha, don't get in our way." she leaves last, with Chris who glances back at them.
"Stiles.' Stilinski says, displeased.
Stiles shrugs and points a paw towards himself and snarls, snapping his jaw angrily at the air.
"I get that you were angry, I was too. So just try a little harder next time?' there's a definite plea in his voice, Stiles nods. He will. He didn't even plan on shoving those hunters, it just happened- he was angry. And he's already regretting doing it. But in the moment I was just good to get some petty revenge.
Stiles looks at Stilinski for a few seconds, telling him he's serious, and glances down at the phone whose cover has deep bite marks. He must have bit too hard.
"Where did you find that?" Derek sounds furious as he snatches the phone from the ground. "it's cracked." he tells them as he looks at the screen.
'That's Laura's phone?' dad asks and peers over Derek's shoulder. 'We couldn't find it, but we can get the data out, see if there's anything on it.'
Stiles thinks he should shift back to human, but he really doesn't want to. It's like he can't, like how you can't not eat chocolate when it's placed before you. He pushes leaves away at his feet and begins writing in the revealed dirt. There was a media from Lahey.
Dad looks at Derek who pulls his shoulders, "I don't know who it is. Last time I saw La- Laura- she'd just gotten a package. I didn't see her again after that."
'Okay, we can work with that, no matter how little it is.' Stilinski says irritated at the lack of information leading up to Laura's murder. 'put the phone in the backpack, I'll take it to the station tomorrow, and get the data.'
Stiles is about to run off after a leaf when their conversation begins to bore him, but is stopped when teeth close in on him and he's pulled up by his dad.
Derek, the ass, attempts to hide a smirk as Stiles struggles.
He can walk himself. Thank you very much!
A/N: Thank you to everyone who's shown support for the story! Thank you so much! I'm not all that happy with this chapter (and I ended up cutting a lot of it from it) but I hope you guys liked it!