Author's Note: I know I haven't touched this one in a while but I had an idea. This will be the last chapter of this story but it's connected to my other story Running with Wolves which there will be more of soon I hope. I own nothing.

9. One Month Later

Derek was calling another pack meeting. The Alpha pack was in town, all of them could smell it but none of them had done anything. There had been no new murders, nothing. It was almost worse than if they had done something, at least then they could have figured out what they wanted. But no, nothing. Erica was practically living at Casa de Stilinski as Stiles liked to call it. Boyd was over nearly as often. The two of them had latched onto her and there was no separating them now. But they didn't treat her like a weaker pack member, they treated her as an equal, and more. She took care of them, of all of them, slipping so effortlessly into the role of pack mother Derek didn't think she'd even realized she was doing it, much less what it was doing to his wolf. Scott had pulled his head out of his ass and realized he couldn't do this alone but he still insisted that he wasn't a member of the pack, they could all smell that he was lying to himself. But he was also advancing much faster than he should have been.

Lydia was doing well. Now that her connection with Peter had been broken, and she'd gotten to use him as target practice after Sheriff Stilinski taught her how to shoot, she was much calmer. However, the voices and visions still came and went. Isaac was a model Beta, doing what he was asked when he was asked, but he too had latched onto Stiles as the pack mother. He mostly just saw her at school, but he was protective of her, most of her bullies had backed off now that she had more friends than just Scott. Isaac had broken Greenburgs nose last week when he'd implied that they were only hanging out with Stiles cause she was an easy score. Derek bought Isaac a new computer after that incident, and made him swear not to tell the others that's why he did it. Peter was creeping at the edges of the pack but had yet to prove himself an asset or threat. Derek was reserving judgment for the moment.

Then there was Stiles. She'd been spending a hell of a lot of time at Deaton's, he was training her to use her powers. This process had been expedited a few weeks ago when Stiles finally worked up the courage to go through her mother's old hope chest with her father. They'd found a lot of old photos and clothes and at the bottom of the chest a very old leather bound book. Stiles carried it with her almost everywhere now. When she wasn't talking she was reading. And she was advancing fast, her powers seemed to grow daily. The bell rang and Derek pulled himself to his feet to open the loft door.

Erica bounced in in one of Stiles' shirts, it had the Avengers on it. Boyd wasn't far behind her, he wasn't wearing Stile's clothes but he smelled like he'd slept in her room again with Erica. It made Derek's wolf howl with jealousy, but he refused to say anything. Lydia flounced in on Jackson's arm, a scowl on her face, she was still reluctant about this whole pack thing. Scott and Isaac arrived next, right before Peter slunk in. Derek glanced at Erica.

"Where's Stiles?" Erica shrugged and pointed at Scott.

"He was with her last." They all glanced at Scott but before he could answer there was the sound of loud familiar footsteps. They all relaxed slightly as Stiles pulled the door open with a clatter.

"Sorry! I know I'm late. I was working with Deaton. But check out what I learned!" She waved her hand at the counter that held the snacks and drinks for the meeting. A coke bottle began to glow and floated over to her. She grinned and twirled the top off of it as Scott applauded.

"Bet Deaton was happy. Levitation is pretty far into the book huh?" Stiles shrugged taking a swig of the soda.

"I mean chapter six but not too bad. And it didn't explode this time." Erica giggled before pulling Stiles onto the sofa. Derek noticed her scent marking him and grinning at him from the crook of Stiles' neck a shit eating grin on her face. It was like she could hear his wolf growling at her, begging him to do the same thing to the girl, so she smelled more like him than anyone else. Erica's eyes flashed gold and he almost growled at her. She knew exactly what she was doing, little shit.

Stiles had, without any prompting, taken over training Erica and Boyd. Both now had the shift under control, turning it on and off with ease. Boyd was trying out for the Lacrosse team when school started back up. Jackson was grudgingly helping Stiles train for first line. Everything was going relatively smoothly. They just had to find out what the Alpha pack wanted. Derek pulled his attention away from Stiles and turned back to the map on the desk.

"Alright, we're searching the southeast corner tonight." He handed out assignments. Stiles frowned when she didn't get one, but he gave her a look and she stayed surprisingly quiet until the other wolves, save Peter had left.

"The fuck Derek? Are you still on about this whole fragile human bullshit! Cause I could probably actually kick your little werewolfy ass now." Her eyes flashed purple as if to prove her point. His wolf growled happily, a Mate should challenge the Alpha, make them better. Derek squashed that word. He refused to accept that Stiles was his Mate. No. She was too young, too good for him. He sighed.

"No, your skills are needed here. Deaton said you were working on scrying. I want you to see if you can scry for the alphas. It's a long shot since you don't have anything of theirs or even know what they look like but it could work, you're good at long shots." Stiles' smile lit up the room. Soon he had her set up in the middle of the room with a map of Beacon Hills and the surrounding area. Her eyes were closed and she was glowing slightly purple as she let her mind drift into the crystal that was hovering over the map. Peter stood and carefully made his way over to Derek. He was smiling slightly.

"You can head out. I can keep an eye on her." Derek's eyes flashed red and Peter almost balked. Then his grin turned shit eating.

"Ah so that's why you don't want her out with the others." Derek growled and Peter chuckled, ignoring it.

"You always were attached to her. I guess it makes sense." He leaned closer as the crystal swung lazily over the map, Stiles didn't seem to be able to hear them.

"You better do something about it before someone else does Derek. She's a precious commodity, we can't afford to lose her." Derek's eyes narrowed at him as Peter shoved his hands in his pockets and sauntered out of the loft. Stiles still hadn't moved but the crystal was swinging in smaller and smaller circles as she magically searched Beacon Hills for the threat to their pack. He liked the way that sounded, their pack. He shook himself. He needed to focus, and not on her. Not yet anyway. He shook his head slightly, it figured that Stiles would be the thing that kept him thinking past tomorrow. God his life was complicated.