Chapter 2- The King and The Beast

The king raises a questioning yet threatening brow at Hood. "Hardly stupid for me to question my allegiances young one."

"I am not that young!" Stiles all but pouts and the king moves his exasperated look from Hood to Phoenix.

Phoenix is smirking inward and lifts his head taking in the king's look. "Oh Derek, do show that you are more grateful, at least towards your true love." He snickers and Derek frowns.

"True…wait what…Lids?" Stiles jerks around and looks at Lydia who is rolling her eyes. "You know how this works Hood…looks like you have found your wolf."

"Parrish." King Derek growls out. "Please restore the palace while I get more information out of them."

Phoenix Parrish nods and reaches up and touches the keystone of the arch leading into the throne room. It glows and the outer walls quickly repair themselves. As the rest of the room revitalizes Parrish walks past Beauty with a soft smile, lightly grazing her arm as he moves outside to fix their defenses quickly. King Derek sits back down on the throne in a grand motion.

Stiles shifts back a bit and looks at him, taking in his completely black outfit only highlight with brief wisps of red and blue in the piping of his vest and cloak. The king locks his unearthly hazel eyes on Hood's amber eyes, then flickers then red and Hood's breath catches in his throat.

"So." The king starts looking and motioning towards Gen and Beauty to come in closer. "How old are our heroes?"

"I'm twenty milord as is Hood." Beauty says as she steps in with complete confidence. Giving the age of her appearance but given their world appearance age and actually age were very different. "Genie is nineteen."

"Am I to assume those are you real names?" Derek lets his eyes sweep over the room behind them as everything finished repairing leaving only bones tarnishing its former glory.

"Lydia of the House of Maurice. I go by Martin or Beauty for protection purposed against the dark ones. "

"Maurice you say. Do any other member of your family live?" He shifts towards her.

"My grandmother Belle, I like to assume she is still alive but it has been decades since I have seen her. Ever since the Blood Bad Wolf took her and imprisoned her. He has imprisoned many of our families." She drags her hand of the locket again and Derek smiles softly.

"Don't worry we shall see her returned…is that not right Parrish." They all turn to see the Phoenix standing in the hall with glowing eyes. He blinks a couple times and nods his head before turning and moving through the hall, further into the palace. Derek then turns and looks at Isaac. "And who are you?"

"Isaac or Genie, sire, I have no family name but I was taken in by the House of Argent when my abusive father passed." Isaac stops talking at the king growls slightly at the mention of the name but then continues on slowly. "I was raised alongside Allison Argent daughter of Chris." The tension the king was feeling eased at the mention of Chris. "Allison and I have been fighting for years to get our father back and find a way to restore Merveilles."

"Chris was always the smartest of his line. It is not surprising that he would see the error or his family ways. Now you." He turns his head quickly to Hood.

"Hood."

"You're actually name."

"Stiles."

Derek growls at Stiles and he smiles. "It is not a difficult request for one to answer. You should know your own name."

"It isn't a difficult question but my name is difficult to pronounce so everyone either calls me Hood or Stiles, of the House of Stilinski."

"John's son? Cornet's grandson?"

"Yes but my name came from my mother's side from her father." Derek gave him questioning eyes. "My mother has passed and as for my father, I do not know. He managed to get us to the sands of Colli Anialwch before he was arrested. I do not feel he is dead."

"The sands of Colli Anialwch, is that were you have been hiding?" Derek leans forward and takes Stiles' hand lightly, feeling that the young man needed comfort. He rubs his thumb across the back of Stiles' hand and Stiles smiles at him with a blush rises on his cheeks.

"Yes that is where the rest of our group is hiding out. We don't know how much longer they will be save there. The dark ones are getting braver traveling out further, they're bound to find our caves." Lydia says.

"Then I suppose we should retrieve them." Derek says as if it were easy.

"But how?" Isaac asks.

"There is more than one way to get the sands of Colli Anialwch. But we need to awaken another to help secure the palace whilst you retrieve your friends."

"According to our research, if luck prevails there is one people here that each of our group can link with and awaken." Lydia states as she looks towards more bones.

"That might be true and Parrish shall be able to tell if there is a connection." As if on cue Parrish reenters the throne room and places another deformed corpse upon a talk. Derek looks if over and smirks. "Good a powerful ally that one will be…who shall do the honors Parrish?"

"Curls." He smiles as he looks at Isaac.

"I knew it would be Gen." Beauty states and Parrish walks up and stands in front of her looking down at her.

"You know why you know? Because…" He reaches out and lovingly touches the locket. "You're connected to me, and what I know you know. That's how you knew to push Stiles to kiss Derek." Lydia smirks instead of being shocked like a normal person. "You touched me in the fireplace and awakened our link."

Lydia smiles and then looks at Isaac. "Well you heard the man go kiss the bones."

"I don't see how this is fair, how come you don't have to kiss any bones?" Isaac grumbles but is moving over to the bones.

"She lives an enchanted life or haven't you figured that out by now." Stiles grumbles and Derek looks up at him lightly pulling his hand to move Stiles closer to him.

"It will be worth it in the long run, trust in that." Stiles swallows hard and bites his lower lip as Derek gives him a look that could only be described as hungry.

Isaac sighs and moves over to the bones. Strumming his fingers over her bare abs as debates the consequences of what he is about to do. He leans down and looks over the elongated muzzle and into the empty eye sockets. Isaac bring his hand forward and traces his fingers along the teeth, looking back over his shoulder at Parrish and Derek.

"Who is it?" He turns and looks back down at the body, letting his hands float above the bones.

"Just kiss it Isaac and find out. Did Stiles question when we made him kiss the bones? And look at who he is linked with." Lydia comments with a sigh.

Stiles looks back at Derek at the mention of the man and he is just sitting calmly in the throne. Watching Isaac but clearly his thoughts are beyond this simple happening, is lap looks inviting and Stiles has the sudden urge to sit upon it, so he does. Derek gives him a silently questioning brow but just slowly wraps his arms around Stiles waist.

He knew the King was a wolf and wolves were very tactile creatures, so Stiles was counting this as a win towards their connection. Stiles tries to keep the thoughts down in his mind that remember him the King has been so long without contact that he might just settle. Hood can feel a rumbling coming from the chest behind him and Derek narrows his eyes at him tucking him in closer.

Isaac finally leans forward and presses his lips to the skull as Derek and Stiles have their little exchange. He moves back as it starts to transform the way Derek did, only this wolf is shorter with darker skin. The jaw comes in crooked and the hair lush and black. Isaac leans in and watches as the eyes fill in and big brown puppy dog eyes are staring up at him.

The previous corpse licks their own lips wetting them looking at Isaac. "Hi…I'm Scott."

"Hi Scott I'm Isaac." He says softly.