Chapter Six: Past Tradition and Truth
Author's Note: I didn't realize this was still in code, I am so sorry. I am hoping this will fix it.
Derek watched as Ricky and Stiles slept on, he enjoyed watching their faces when they weren't drawn in stress. Stiles was still tucked down between his two mates and Ricky was wrapped around Stiles' other side. Derek wondered how Ricky could be so loving and strong with Stiles when he was just as exhausted from the drama his family was bringing about. Derek's wolf growled and shifted beneath the surface of his skin, trying to push through and make some kind of statement to everyone to stop hurting his mates. They were his to protect, they still belonged to their parents but Ricky and Stiles were his responsibility to protect, and they were his joy as well. Derek needed everything else to just stop!
With that thought Derek leaned over and pressed his lips to Stiles' forehead and then pressed a kiss into Ricky's knuckles before he got up and out of the bed. He slipped on a shirt and socks, since he was already wearing soft pajama bottoms. He slipped out of his bedroom and walked downstairs, scenting the beginning scents of cooking meat and the aroma of fresh cut fruit, strawberries and melon. He walked into the kitchen to find Laura cooking, she was the resident shopper and chef at home, able to cook for great groups of wolves and people and it was not a position that Derek ever wanted though it was considered one of great importance within a pack family.
"Hey there, thank you for your service Den Mama," Derek said as he sat down at the island. Laura looked up and smiled as she continued cooking meat and eggs at the stove. Derek helped himself to a piece of melon and placed it on his tongue, tasting the flavors and moaning. Living on the campus made getting organic fruit much more difficult so this was a treat he didn't get very often.
"How is Ricky and Stiles doing after last night?" Laura asked gently.
Derek shrugged, "Stiles went to bed crying his eyes out and Ricky looks like death warmed over. I don't like this at all."
Laura reached over and took Derek's hand gently for a moment, "I know Der, but its something that you're going to have to deal with. You can't always keep them from hurt and harm but you're doing a great job little brother."
Derek smiled at his older sister, it was strange that an alpha could be so much more like an omega or a beta but Laura had always been the strong support his mother and Derek always seemed to need. It was why the Den Mama position worked so well for her, she could be an integral part of the household without needing to becoming the enforcer which Peter gladly served as in the Hale pack, under the radar of course but then the legality of Were society was quite different then that of human society.
"I know I can't put them in a bubble and protect them from anything in the world that would attempt to hurt them but this is family that's hurting them this time. Maybe we should just forget about this holiday and just go back to campus."
Laura shook her head and exclaimed just as Derek was finished speaking, "No Derek! Mom has been so excited about this time with you and your mates, you are the first of us to mate and she desperately needs to be a part of your relationship."
Derek sighed, knowing his sister was right and if he took Stiles and Ricky away from all this they would never forgive Derek. He could still feel his wolf scratching at the surface. Rolling his shoulders, attempting to rid himself of the discomfort, Laura jiggled his hand and Derek looked up at her.
"Why don't you go for a jog, get rid of all this tension and let the rest of the house wake up?"
Derek sighed and nodded; it was a good idea to release some of the extra energy swimming around inside, just making him so much more frustrated with the situation. So he took a bit of toast from his sister and wandered quietly back to his room and grabbed his running gear before leaving, only stopping to check in that his mates were still sleeping before he changed in another of the upstairs bathrooms and tied his running shoes before taking off out the back door. He didn't pay any attention to the world outside of the path he took through the surrounding woods, just grateful for the freedom of the air sifting through his thick hair, past his ears in a slight whistle and the freshness of the wind as he moved. It was wonderful to be here within the trees that he grew up in before the fire. He'd spent hours with his father in these woods, learning what herbs and plants were good for him and which were not. He'd spent many countless days fighting and turning, so his shift would be effortless and painless with his uncle Peter. And his mother, Talia had spent much of her free time in private lessons with each of her children, teaching them the beauty of being a good and strong alpha, how to be someone her betas and pack could trust, both human and were because before the fire there had been others who were mated to humans, whose children were human. His family may have escaped but the Hale home fire was only the last attack on the Hale clan family before Derek and his remaining parent and siblings moved away. It was the crappy part of being a well known pack in a small town.
Derek kept running as he wondered about the cousins and uncles and aunts he lost in all the hunter attacks that came before the house fire. Even then, inside the Hale house wasn't just Derek's family, they just happened to be lucky enough to escape the house then also escape the wolfsbane bullets and arrows set loose.
Derek felt the howling of his wolf under the surface, crying out for the loss of his father, but also the visiting family they'd been hosting. Mostly made up of turned wolves and humans they weren't able to keep themselves alive and Talia had done what she could but was desperate after the loss of her husband to keep her children safe.
And now they were growing again, with Derek's mates and Talia must be terrified and excited all at the same time. With that thought, Derek stumbled to a stop and he heaved in a few deep breaths and shook off the deep and disturbing thoughts before something hit him from behind and took him to the ground. Derek flipped quickly, with a growl and faced off, his teeth elongating and his claws escaping at the tips of his fingers before he realized it was Shelby looking anxious and pained from their collision.
"Sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention. I didn't mean to interfere with your run, I was just getting away for a little while this morning. I run every day."
Derek smiled as nicely as he could, he still didn't know everything that happened last night only that this woman hurt both his mates in the span of a single day. He nodded and turned away to continue his path into the woods but Shelby reached out and touched his arm. Derek snapped his head back around and snarled, "What?" his eyes flashed red as well before he pulled his wolf back under the surface once more.
Shelby held her hands up and away from the angry alpha, her hands open and palms laid out before him then she tilted her neck in submission. The show of her neck might have brought his wolf under control but it just pissed Derek off even more, "What Shelby? What more do you want from me? I have watched you deny my family and my pack, my love for your son and our damn Bond as well! What?"
Shelby dropped her arms and her shoulders did as well in defeat and her eyes shimmered with tears, Derek didn't feel any sympathy for her though. "I didn't mean to do those things, not really. I just worry so much for my son. I have always hoped that growing up beta, he would have the chance to do all that he wants and fall in love later in life like I did with Braeden because it's all we know and all we crave. The power of the Soul Bond is more crutch than blessing to me, something that removes choice from love."
"Do you imagine love is about choice?" Derek said with a bitter laugh.
Shelby scoffed, "No, but I imagine that my boy is deeply troubled with the fact that his wolf is in more control than his human mind and heart, there is nothing more disturbing to a beta than that, we have the control that alphas and omegas fight for. And now this Bond has stolen one of the few things that are powerfully good about being a beta with this three-way bond. I do not say these things to prove to you that it is wrong, Garrick loves you and Stiles and there is nothing I can do but accept and love him. I am asking for you to understand that I love my son and I am asking you to please know that need I have to protect him."
Derek growled at her, "It is no longer your responsibility, your honor to do so. I love your son, you have been told this more frequently than should be necessary but I am his alpha and his mate. It is my honor and privilege to protect him from harm and you are doing harm to him!" Derek shouted, his voice bouncing off the nearby trees.
Shelby flinched in response and Derek rolled the anger and resentment out of his shoulders once more, finding his teeth elongated again. She sighed heavily and swiped the moisture from just beneath her eyes before it slipped from the home in her lashes. Derek watched and waited, wondering if she was going to continue this vein of conversation. "I know I hurt him, I know I hurt Stiles and I hurt you as well. I know this is no longer my point in the world, the moment my son mated and Claimed you and Stiles was the moment he was no longer mine to protect. I guess I somehow thought that if I still had an opinion then I would still matter to him. I know what strong alpha packs are like, how mates of an alpha no longer belong to the family they were born into, they belong to their alpha's pack."
Derek frowned, "You turned betas really need to get out more, its true that Stiles and Ricky belong in my pack but Ricky has the right to always be a part of your family and I would never take him from you, I do demand that you stop hurting him with your opinions."
Shelby nodded, "He asked the same last night. I will apologize to Stiles today if he will speak to me."
Derek took a menacing step forward but pulled back a little, "Don't hurt him again, or I will rip out your throat—with my teeth," Derek whispered though the words shifted through the air easily to the woman who nodded.
She took a deep breath and nodded, "I would deeply appreciate another chance with you and your family as well."
Derek nodded and looked around him, "Would you like to run together for a little while?" he asked.
Shelby smiled, "I would be pleased to do so."
They took off in the same direction, each of them trying to run faster than the other before slowing down when one got to far ahead. Derek found himself smiling at the older woman's tenacity and strength, especially for a turned wolf. Soon they were turning back towards the house and walking up the back porch, drenched in sweat and laughing at the antics they shared. He found the strong scent of breakfast still in the kitchen and walked towards the kitchen when Shelby veered off towards the rooms upstairs. Derek found his mother and his Uncle Peter in the kitchen and another, slightly younger red head there as well.
Derek frowned when she caught sight of him and walked over to hold her hand out, wrist up in deference but Derek just waved to her since he understood better than most that he didn't like when other people touched his mates. She was cheerful and her smile was toothy and her wolf was showing just a little when she spoke, "Hey you must be Derek. I'm Carmen Waters, I'm your uncle's mate."
Derek smiled, "Welcome to the crazy Hale family." Derek shifted his gaze to his uncle, "Have fun with the whole entrapment of mating thing."
Carmen frowned at Derek then turned just in time to see Peter's face turn crimson in a blush before he slipped a finger across his throat in a universal 'you're dead' motion but smiled at his new omega, "Ignore him my beautiful sweet Carmen."
"Oh no, I think I won't ignore him," Carmen said as she crossed her hands over her chest and tapped a foot in a way that clearly demanded an answer and it better be truthful if Peter wished to retain function of his balls.
"I may have said some unfair and unkind things to Derek when he took his omega as a mate, as well as a beta. You shall meet them later. I only wish to move beyond it but I may have referred to the Soul Bond in terms close to that of a prison or biological imperative with no meaning other then whelping strong weres."
Carmen glared at her mate, "And that is all he was to his mate? That's all I am to you?" she demanded sharply and Derek just turned and watched his uncle flounder and his mother tried not to laugh in the face of her brother's struggle. "Well my work here is done, have my mates been down yet?" Derek asked.
Talia shook her head, "Actually surprised, they asked for some food to be brought up to them. I made you a plate as well." Derek took the plate and eating utensils before he turned and walked upstairs, already digging into the sausage links on the plate, normally they would be eating some sort of meat like venison or deer that hadn't been changed by machines and the like but he didn't mind, they were feeding a lot of wolves for the weeks they were together.
He nudged open the door and found Stiles curled up against the headboard with a full plate of food on a tray in front of him. Stiles' head was pressed into his kneecaps gently and Ricky was pacing the floor next to the bed. Both his mates looked over when he opened the door and Derek scented the anxiety in the room and felt in the back of his mind where the bond resided as their relief overwhelmed the more negative vibes in the room.
"Why didn't you go downstairs and have breakfast with everyone?" Derek asked them both gently as he put down his food and grabbed his clothes before he walked over to the bed to press a kiss into Stiles' temple when the omega jerked him close, almost upending the food into the bedspread, only because of his faster reflexes was he able to keep the food from flying all over the surface of their sheets and blankets, not to mention Stiles and Derek.
"What's going on here?" Derek asked as he pressed Stiles in close to his side, rubbing a hand up and down Stiles' bare arm.
"Stiles had a panic attack when he woke up, something he heard or because you weren't here. I don't know but I couldn't calm him by myself, where were you?" Ricky demanded, stressed anger coloring his tone.
Derek sighed; holding his hand out and Ricky moved around the bed and shoved his head under the alpha's shoulder. It was probably just as uncomfortable for Ricky as it was for Derek but he really didn't care when the subtle shiver that Ricky and Stiles were both giving evened out and calmed under Derek's hands.
"I'm sorry, I went for a jog and ran into Shelby. We talked and cleared the air a little. I should have been here for you both. I'm so sorry, please forgive me?" he asked.
Stiles jerked his head in a nod and Ricky followed suit, both of them tilting their face to suck in a few deep breaths of Derek's scent before Stiles laughed, "You reek Der, go shower or something."
Derek chuckled and Ricky laughed, throwing his head back and the tension in the room released. He hugged his mates tightly, pulled the plate of food closer to Stiles and pressed a bit of warm bacon against his omega's lips and the smaller man took it and started chewing with a goofy smile before he pushed Derek away from him. Ricky got up with Derek and the alpha turned to the beta and kissed the other man on the lips, "You did good Gari."
The beta shrugged and turned slightly away but Derek gripped his chin gently, "You didn't fail him Garrick, sometimes it's about the both of us. That's all this was, you stayed with him and kept him safe. You did good."
Ricky smiled, "I believe you Der."
Derek grinned, kissed Ricky one more time before the beta shoved him away, "Go shower then we'll go rejoin the rest of the family for the family Christmas drama."
"Done," Derek said and walked away with a smile still plastered on his lips.