Chapter 33: Over the Edge

Stiles blinked, staring around at the Hale family sitting room. Claudia Stilinski, young and healthy, sat cross-legged on the floor, a book that looked exactly like the one tucked into his pack flipped open before her. Her ring gleamed liquid silver on her ring finger. She beckoned him forward, patting the spot across from her. "Come here, Stiles. Sit with me. I haven't gotten the chance to talk with you since you were eleven. I've missed so much of your life."

Frowning, Stiles lowered himself stiffly down in front of her, his eyes burning with the tears he was attempting to swallow down. "Where are we? I was... I was just finishing the second task for the Triwizard Tournament, and... and Allison found a body, and... Mom, where are we?"

Claudia glanced around the space, tilting her head towards the softly flickering fire. "I guess you could say that we're in an 'inbetween' place. We're not in the place spirits go when they move on, but we're also not on the plane your body currently resides on. Kind of like limbo without the ill conceived notions."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "It's just where my soul is seated for the time being. I can't go onto your plane, but I can pull you onto mine, and I finally built up enough magic to begin doing that. We've got a lot to talk about, Stiles, and I've got so much to teach you as you take your rightful place as the Hale pack emissary, and also as Hale pack alpha apparently." She smiled knowingly as heat crawled up from beneath Stiles' collar. She laughed good-naturedly. "I was young once too, Stiles. I understand the things teenagers do, but I also know that what you have with your alpha is something that is hard won and few people manage to grasp onto it in their lifetime. You boys make Talia and myself so proud."

Stiles bit at his lips, the tears gathering along his lashes. "Thank you," he whispered, "We were, or at least, I was sure that I would be a disappointment. I'm always messing up"

Claudia shook her head, cupping his cheek with her smaller hands. When had he grown so much larger than her? When had he had the time between the pack and Kate and Peter and all this emissary business? "You're learning," she told him gently, "And without a teacher, at that. Everyone makes mistakes, especially while they're learning. Even more so, you've been made an alpha when sharing an alpha's responsibilities is not common in werewolf packs. In packs of wolves, yes, there are mated pairs, but for werewolves, there is usually only one alpha. That's just another special trait specific to our species. I'm going to teach you everything I know, Stiles."

Stiles frowned. "Species? We're not human?"

"We're partly human. It's been millennium since there were any of us who were full blooded."

"What's the other half of us?"

Claudia shrugged, and Stiles could only manage to gape at her. "Any records of us were lost when our blood began to be diluted even though our magic was never diluted. Whatever we are, we no longer have a name."

"Are there more of us?"

"I would assume so, but if there are, I've never met them."

Stiles was silent for a moment, chewing at his bottom lip and staring at the lust spell the book was open to. Finally, he looked back to her. "I've... I've really missed you, Mom. So much has happened that I've wanted to tell you about. I love Dad, and I can talk to him about anything, but there are things... there are things I don't think he'll understand... or take very well. Like that fact that I'm an alpha, I don't think he's going to take that very well."

Claudia patted his cheek affectionately. "He'll take it better than you imagine, I promise. Also, I should probably tell you that you have some werefox in you, probably from your father's side. Look out for a sudden shift on a full moon."

Stiles gaped. "You're joking, right?"

She turned her eyes to the ceiling, pondering the question for a moment. "Possibly. There's really no way of telling. Now, for your first lesson. 'How to Seduce your Werewolf Boyfriend 101'."

"Mom!"

…..

"Stiles!"

Stiles startled. He stood at the edge of the Forbidden Forest facing the stands, watching as a group of teachers levitated Ms. Blake's body from between the trees. They'd draped a sheet over her charred remains, but there was no mistaking what was beneath the drape. He still wasn't positive how he knew that body that used to be alive, that used to hold a soul, was Ms. Blake. He wasn't even sure how he'd gotten here. Last he remembered was his mother teaching him how to dispel the remnants of summoning an anti-patronus.

'Mark my words, you're ghost will come for you, Stiles. You'll want to be able to put them to rest when they do,' she'd told him.

Both Professor Argents had their arms wrapped around Allison's trembling shoulders, guiding her from the forest. She broke from them, moving towards the pack where they were huddled in a circle. She had a bow and sheath of arrows thrown over her shoulder, a silver pendant gleaming between her collar bones. Kira clutched a ornately carved box to her chest.

The cry, strangled and feverish, sounded over the dull chatter of the students who had been charmed to their seats, "Stiles!"

Derek. Derek. Derek!

Stiles bolted for the pack, wriggling his way to the middle where Cora was holding Derek's arms behind his back. He struggled against her hold,Claudia's ring bumping against his breast bone, his eyes a bloody red that terrified Stiles. "Stiles! Cora, let go of me! I have to save Stiles! Stiles!" Derek shouted, his voice more like that of a wounded animal than of an enraged boyfriend. He was blind to everything around him.

"Stiles, do something! I can't hold him much longer!" Cora gritted out, yelping as Derek jerked at her arm with all the force he could muster. If he'd done that to Stiles, his arm would have been gone, or in the very least, dislocated.

Stiles dropped down in front of Derek, his knees on either side of his hips. Cora released his arms. "Derek, I'm right here. See me," he pleaded quietly, gathering his magic in his palms. It was less compliant than when he wore his mother's ring, but it came all the same. Gently, he cupped Derek's face in his palms, releasing his magic across his skin. "See me."

Derek inhaled sharply, the red of his eyes fading back to the infuriating mixture of every-eye-color-know-to-man hazel. "Stiles?" He glanced around at the pack staring worriedly down at them, his eyebrows pulling together. "Where are we? I thought... We were in the Forbidden Forest and you were being attacked by Dementors. There were... so many... Fuck, are you alright?!" He ran his hands over Stiles' body, searching for any visible wounds.

"I'm fine, Derek. I'm fine. Just a little drained," he told him truthfully. Derek pushed close, stealing his lips even as Stiles leaned back in surprise.

"Sheriff, Sheriff, Sheriff!" Lydia hissed frantically.

Stiles and Derek scrambled away from each other just in time for the Sheriff to burst through the group, his breath coming in hard bursts. He was already speeding through his words as he pushed between Malia and Liam, Melissa close behind him. "Stiles, are you alright? Deaton told me to look at the scene before finding you, but I told him to go fuck himself. It still took me a long time to get here and I..." He trailed off, glancing between the repressed laughter of the teens around him and Derek and Stiles' flaming faces. "Am I interrupting something?"

Jumping to his feet, Stiles jerked Derek up. "No! No, nothing at all! Thanks for telling Deaton to fly a kite, Dad. I really needed you here right now." He threw his arms around the Sheriff, staring wide-eyed at Scott over his shoulder. He laughed as Melissa dragged Derek down into a hug.

"We were worried about you. I didn't know that the Headmaster had taken you for the trial," she told him, tapping his cheek in that way that mothers do when their proud of their children.

Derek frowned, a crease forming between his brows. "Thank you, Madame McCall," he murmured, pulling her back in for another hug. When they pulled apart, he was staring at nothing in particular with eyes that nearly bugged out of his head.

Stiles accepted a hug from Melissa, watching as she pulled Allison and Kira against her chest before saying, "I think we should start clearing out, and we should probably go clean up." Allison and Kira nodded, their eyes drooping in exhaustion, "Dad, can you look after Calcifer for the night?" The Sheriff nodded.

As Melissa, the Sheriff and Calcifer bustled off, disappearing into the Forbidden Forest for the Sheriff to do an investigation of the scene, Stiles beckoned the pack back around him. "Head on back," he told Kira and Allison, "We'll see you at dinner. I need these guys to do something for me real quick." They nodded, and disappeared into the crowd of students.

His voice dropping to a snarl and his eyes flashing crimson, he said, "Someone find me Peter and Kate. This has to stop. Now."

The pack reeled back, staring at him with surprise and trepidation. "Stiles," Lydia started, but Stiles cut her off curtly.

"That wasn't a suggestion. I'm not going to let them continue killing people. Eventually, they'll come after us, and I will not see another of my pack mates die."

Reluctantly, they nodded, splitting off into pairs. Derek slipped his hand around Stiles' waist, pressing a kiss to his neck. "If there weren't so many people around..."

"You, sir, have a problem if me giving orders turns you on."

"I don't think it's a problem at all."

"Also, what was that look on your face when you hugged Mama McCall?"

"That's not my secret to tell." Releasing his waist, Derek followed after Scott and Isaac.

…..

Peter chuckled delightedly as he was led through the forest towards where Stiles waited, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his eyes burning with crimson light. "So, the little human, or whatever you are, is an alpha. How lovely. Tell me, Derek, how was that fuck? I want to hear all the details."

Revulsion shivered down Stiles' spine, and he snapped before Derek could, "Shut the fuck up, Peter, no one wants to hear what you have to say."

"Oh, I'm sure there are a few people who like to hear my words." He glanced around curiously as Malia and Ethan dragged Kate forward to stand beside him. She was kicking and screaming and throwing obscenities in every direction. "Oh, what a lovely surprise. I didn't know I was being joined by the hideous Kate Argent. How are you doing?" She spat in his face. "I'll take that as poorly. So, great alpha, to what do we owe this delight?"

"You've both been killing not only our friends and family, but spilling innocent blood as well, and I will not stand for that. I'm not going to kill you, that's not the kind of person I am, at least not right now," Stiles said, glaring at them.

"They were monsters, just like all of you. You all deserve to be killed," Kate snarled through clenched teeth, only straining against her captor's hands.

Stiles inhaled a deep, calming breath. "I will give you both one last chance. If there is even one more murder, even the mentions of an attempt, I will not hesitate to kill the both of you."

Peter raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? That's all. You dragged us all the way out here to give us a slap on the wrist?" He frowned as Boyd and Isaac dragged him towards a stump, laying his arms flat against it.

A wicked, blood thirsty smile pulled up the corners of Stiles' mouth. "I didn't say that, now did I?" He drew his wand from his back pocket as Scott turned I face away.

"What then?"

Without warning, Stiles neatly severed Peter's right hand from his arm at the wrist. "Which of your fingers do you like best, Kate?" he asked sweetly as Malia and Liam dragged her forward.

So... yeah... I don't have an explanation for this last part. It just is... Also, we've only got about six chapters left before I wrap this story up.