So so so sorry that I made you wait yet again for this, hopefully the next chapter should be quicker up. Fingers crossed.

Chapter 15

Derek woke up after several hours of broken sleep to find himself alone in the bed. At first he didn't think anything of it as this was how he woke up most mornings, unless Anna had had a nightmare and snuck in with him. It was only when he began his morning routine of stretching and rolling around the bed in his half-conscious state that he noticed a scent that, although familiar, he didn't normally associated with his bed.

It took him slightly longer than he would like to admit to place the smell but he could blame that on having only just woken up. However, once he realised that the scent belonged to Stiles, who was supposed to be sleeping next to him, he wasted no time in running out of his room and leaping down the stairs in one smooth jump only to crash in to the wall as he lost his balance in his haste to find the missing boy.

Quickly regaining his balance he continued his search and found himself heading towards the kitchen where he could hear the steady beating of 5 hearts. Once he had locked on to the sound he charged in to the kitchen and flung himself in the direction of the heartbeat he had easily identified as Stiles' by the slightly raised pulse. Ignoring the embarrassment and teasing he knew was more than likely to come later Derek buried his face in the younger boy's neck for a minute before sitting in the empty seat beside him. He then calmly reached for the jug of juice in the centre of the table and proceeded to act as though nothing had happened.

Stiles hadn't been expecting any show of affection from Derek this afternoon. In fact after what had happened the last time they'd had a 'moment' he'd expected Derek to completely ignore for at least a couple of hours if not for the rest of his forced stay with the family. Derek shoving his face, surprisingly gently, in to his neck, especially in front of every member of the Hale family (especially Laura who would most likely tease him mercilessly for the rest of his life for the PDA) was the last thing he had thought would happen when Derek joined them for lunch.

To her credit Laura was keeping it together quite well and only a small smile had crept its way on to her freshly painted red lips. The rest of the family were doing a good job pretending that their normally stoic son had not just semi-molested their house guest in the middle of a family lunch. In fact Stiles got the feeling that the Hales joint composure was the only thing stopping Derek from blushing a brilliant red and quickly fleeing to the safety of his bedroom. Instead the older teen was starring in to his glace of juice as though it held the answers of the universe and forcefully avoiding looking at the younger boy to his left as he realised what he had done.

After several moments of what had to be the most painful silence any of them had ever sat through Stiles awkwardly cleared his throat and looked towards the elder Hales expectantly.

"So I guess you have some explaining to do."

Taking his wife's hand James turned slightly in his seat so he could easily see everyone but Stiles was still directly in front of him and took a deep breath.

"This is going to take a while so get comfy."

And with that the painful silence was broken as each member of the Hale family (Pack? Whatever they were) gave their own input at various stages of the tale James told. He started right at the beginning, the beginning being the creation of the first werewolf, and continued all the way up to the present day and their constant fight for survival against hunters as they travelled across America before settling in Beacon Hills. Truthfully Stiles couldn't remember half of what he had been told once the Hale patriarch finished speaking but he hoped he would be able to remember the key parts.

He dragged himself out of his thoughts slowly to find he was being watched expectantly by everyone sat at the table excluding Anna who was too busy focusing on what appeared to be a drawing of a wolf riding a unicorn to pay attention to anything else.

"So basically," he paused as he tried to remember what he had just been told. "You're a family of furry things that like to run through the woods on full moons. You don't eat people only other fuzzies. Hunters often try to kill you but you have a treaty with the local ones so all is good on that front and you have like superpowers which are like totally awesome. Did I miss anything else of importance?"

He looked around at the family who were watching him with their own mixes of amusement, curiosity and surprise. How was it that this boy could not bat an eyelash at being surrounded by potentially dangerous creatures but get fixated by them having what he called 'superpowers'.

"Wait," the teen suddenly remembered something that had been said a couple of minutes ago. "What did you say the hunters surname was? Argent? Do they have a daughter about my age called Allison?"

"Yes actually. Do you know her?" Alice asked curiously.

"She's my best friend Scott's, I think I've told you about him? I must have done at some point, he's in all my good stories. Anyway, Allison, she's Scott's girlfriend." Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Sort of. Mr Argent ran some sort of gun business and Allison, although a complete Disney princess, was a wicked shot with a bow and arrow. It was a good job that there was a treaty between the two families because otherwise Stiles would be slightly scared for his safety right now. Mr Argent could be one scary motherfucker at times and he certainly wouldn't want to become his enemy just because of who he was friends with. But wait, if they have a treaty with the Argents then who were the hunters who attacked today?

As though he could read Stiles mind Derek answered his unspoken question.

"We don't think it was the Argents who attacked us today or at least not all of them. We think that a new group of hunters has moved in to the area and one of the Argents is feeding them information about us. We've had…problems, with some members of that family before and it wouldn't surprise me if they were up to the same old tricks again." Derek spoke with a frown marring his otherwise perfect face and Stiles fought himself for control of his hand as it urged to reach out and smooth the deep worry lines in the wolf's forehead. Trying to distract himself Stiles tried to find out more about their relationship with the Argents.

"What problems have you had with them in the past?" the teen questioned innocently, not realising the weight of his question. Laura and her parents looked towards Derek to answer the question knowing that it was up to him to tell Stiles what had happened. They all knew he still blamed himself for what had almost happened several years ago and they didn't think it fair to tell the story for him.

It took Derek a few minutes to gather his words but once he started to speak he found himself unable to stop. He told Stiles how he had thought he was in love with the older girl who had just moved in down the road from them. How he had fallen for her charm and beauty and was soon telling her things he had never told anyone, not even his family. He told him how one day when he was at school she had tried to burn down his house with his parents, baby sister and uncle still inside. It turned out that she was a hunter and thought all werewolves should be eradicated no matter who they were or what they had done.

Luckily the entire family was able to escape from the fire with little physical damage, the worst being the burn that covered one half of Peter's face, but the emotional damage ran a lot deeper. Anna had been the worst affected as she was only a small child at the time, it was the reason she found it hard to trust people.

When Derek finished speaking Stiles was speechless for possibly the first time in his life. He couldn't understand how one person could do something like that to another. He didn't know what he could say that wouldn't make him sound like a senseless idiot. Luckily, or maybe not, the front door suddenly flew open reviling a man who was the spitting image of Alice only more masculine. The other main difference other than gender was the large burn that spread from his right cheek bone down to the tip of his chin. This must be Uncle Peter.

"I think I've done something terrible." Were the first words out of the man's mouth quickly followed by
"I think I bit someone." And then after scanning the room and noticing Stiles.
"Who the hell is that?"

End Of Chapter

So that's it, what d'ya think? I actually quite like this chapter.

Rate and review and all that jazz and I will love you forever.