The Triskelion Tattoo, a teen wolf fanfic

Teen Wolf || Sterek || Teen Wolf || The Triskelion Tattoo || Teen Wolf || Sterek || Teen Wolf

Title: The Triskelion Tattoo – Writer's Pride Month Bingo 2024

Warnings: m/m, fluff, Pack Feels, Pack Mom Stiles, mates, possessiveness, m/f

Main Pairing: Sterek

Side Pairings: Scott/Allison, Boyd/Erica, Jackson/Lydia

Teen Wolf Characters: Mieczysław 'Stiles' Stilinski, Derek Hale, Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd III, Isaac Lahey, Lydia Martin, Jackson Whittemore, Scott McCall, Allison Argent

Writer's Pride Month Bingo Prompt: challenges

Summary: One of the challenges of being a human among wolves was that he didn't feel the pack bonds the way the wolves do. To show that he was part of the pack, Stiles gets a tattoo of the triskelion. Derek had never displayed better self-control than when he sees his symbol on Stiles.

The Triskelion Tattoo

Writer's Pride Month Bingo 2024

Stiles actually loved being part of the pack. Not something he had expected at all, especially considering that he main reason he had come to Derek and asked – near begged, really – that him and Scott could join the pack had been Scott. Scott, who could not become an omega. Stiles could not let his best friend become a feral loner, that would not stand. So Stiles shoved what little pride he had all the way down and went to Derek and tried, one last time. Because he knew this would be the last time; after what had happened with Gerard, Stiles was fairly sure Derek would simply rip his and Scott's throats out with his teeth just for daring to ask. However, in the aftermath of all of that, Boyd and Erica had returned to the pack, once them and Stiles had escaped the Argent basement, and a freshly properly turned Jackson had also joined the pack, which of course meant that Lydia had also joined the pack. And that left Stiles and Scott alone.

What had kept Scott from becoming feral so far had been his little makeshift pack… and that no longer existed. Lydia and Jackson were now part of the Hale Pack, Scott and Allison had been broken up and Allison had gone to spend the summer in Paris with her dad. And Stiles knew he wasn't enough to be a pack, especially since he was a human. So he had to do whatever he could to help his best friend, and that meant convincing the local Alpha to allow them in.

Easier than anticipated, actually. Which had been a huge surprise. Especially with Jackson and Lydia joining the pack, Stiles had fully expected to be scoffed at. In Jackson, he had a strong beta, one he actually turned himself too, and in Lydia, he had the smart human who could do research, so he didn't even have need for Stiles anymore. Instead, Derek had a glaring match with Scott that went on to an uncomfortable length, before he growled, causing Scott to bare his throat on instinct, and with a sharp nod, Derek had accepted them. Just like that. Still sounded weird and wrong.

And that was how Stiles ended up in a pack of werewolves. Honestly, he didn't know what to expect. All his life, it had only been him and Scott, a two people show. The closest he could have estimated was being part of a team, and let's be real, that had never really worked out for Stiles either. He was the bench warmer, still got shoved around by certain team mates. Still, it was what he had imagined a human equivalent of pack would be – the captain, the 'Alpha' so to speak, the team-mates, the betas, a group of people thrown together and banding together for the same cause.

It was so much more intense to be part of the pack. Because all the wolves had instincts to go along with it. A huge part of it was scenting, which had freaked him out just a tiny bit – rubbing against each other, excessive touching. The first time Jackson had scented him, honestly, Stiles couldn't tell which of the two had been more mortified by that. But the wolves all knew that Stiles was pack, so they wanted him to smell like pack, smell like them. It was instinctual, for them all. And it had also weirdly enough been a huge relief to Stiles, who up to that point had kind of thought he was just the add-on to Scott, that Derek had said he was pack just to appease Scott. Having all the betas rub their faces against his and against his neck, scenting him because they knew and could feel that he was pack, was incredibly, weirdly reassuring. And that was kind of the problem, wasn't it?

Stiles was a human running with wolves. The wolves all had the instincts, and sure, Stiles tried to mimic their behavior, scented them whenever they were closer (which had delighted the puppies the first couple times he did it), copied their behaviors among each other as much as he could. But they also felt the pack-bond. He'd asked Scott about it at one point, when they were part of the pack for a week or two, and Scott had tried to describe what the pack-bond felt like but bless his heart, he hadn't really found the words. He could just tell Stiles that he felt every single pack-member in his heart. That sounded nice. For the first time, Stiles found himself ever so slightly envious of the wolves. Not enough to actually want the bite, but he would have liked that feeling.

Half the time, Stiles felt like he stood on the outside, looking in. Even though the wolves did everything to make him feel like pack, to involve him in pack-stuff. The pack meetings, even those that were all about training and pack-runs, Stiles would sit by cross-legged and do research on his laptop or read one of the many books from his much-beloved Hale Library that had found its way into the recently rebuilt Hale House. Puppy piles – even though Derek would glare at him when he called them that and correct him saying it was a 'pack pile' – were an absolute delight, just group cuddling. He'd kind of tried to integrate himself even more by cooking for the pack. On nights of the full moon, or meetings where the wolves went on a run, Stiles would use that time to cook up a feast for the pack, since those were the instances he felt most left-out. Both Lydia and Allison would help him in the kitchen with prep-work and such, now that Allison was also part of the pack – even though it had taken a few months into the school year, once him and Scott rekindled their relationship (because of course they did, they were so meant to be, Stiles knew that), and after Allison had apologized to the pack for her hand in everything.

The pack sitting together and eating the food he had cooked, it was probably when he felt the most like he was pack. He had brought them together, he had cooked this meal, he had done something for the pack. The first time he'd done this, he had been met by adorably startled and curious wolves who looked more like puppy-dogs sniffing the air, including their almighty Alpha. Afterward, Derek had rested his hand in the back of Stiles' neck, praised his cooking and told him he'd done good. Which should not have made him feel as hot and bothered as it did.

And so, cooking for the pack became a tradition for Stiles. All too soon, the pups – betas, he could hear Derek growl annoyed, but quite frankly, when it came to food, they were big begging puppies – were looking forward to Friday night pack meetings specifically for his food. They'd pester him throughout the week about what he would cook and would try to make requests. They were not above trying to bribe him either, to get what they wanted. Usually, he took the quests into consideration, sometimes went with whatever on the list he felt most like doing, other times rewarding good behavior – Scott got a B in biology, so he got the requested lasagna – but he did keep track of these things to not accidentally favor anyone over the others. He loved it, loved that the pack seemed to genuinely love his cooking. It made him most feel like he belonged.

And yet still, there was something missing. He couldn't have that bond, couldn't feel it. And though wolves, both his pack as well as any other wolves who might come across him (or Lydia or Allison, for that matter), would know that he was part of the Hale Pack since they all scented him. It just wasn't enough, not for Stiles, because he couldn't feel it, he needed… he needed something to make the pack-bond more graspable for himself. This was all about him.

So he made a decision, a reckless ridiculous decision that would probably get him grounded by his dad when he found out and may or may not get him growled at by their Alpha, he genuinely could not predict whether Derek would appreciate the thought behind it or take offense to it.

Which was exactly why he didn't tell anyone when he went to a tattoo parlor to get the triskelion tattooed on his body, because if he told any pack member, he knew it'd get back to Derek and it was a 50/50 gamble whether Derek would approve or disapprove and though this was the symbol of Derek's pack – no, of Derek's family – and he probably should be considerate of Derek's feelings on the matter, he found himself being utterly selfish. He wanted it, no, he needed it, he needed that physical proof that he was part of this pack, that this was where he belonged.

The problem was the healing time of the tattoo, making sure nobody saw it. Well, thankfully enough the only times pack members saw him without his shirt was in the locker room for lacrosse and it was easy enough to just turn his back on them and get changed without them seeing. He only wanted to show them once it was properly healed.

/break\

Derek had never understood the concept of mates, not really. He thought it was just love and a childish part of him had even thought that one could control love. When he'd fallen for Paige, he thought that was it, because it was the first time he experienced love. Now, he knew that couldn't even compare to what a true mate could make him feel like.

The thing about mates was that it wasn't love at first sight like in a fairy tale. It built, slowly. Trust, helping each other, protecting each other, fighting side by side with each other. Those were the foundation of a mate-bond and the more the people involved trusted each other, relied on each other, the better they fought side by side, the stronger that foundation, the stronger the call inside his heart that this was his mate, until it became undeniable.

By the time Stiles came and dragged a more or less unwilling Scott to the half standing Hale House that Derek and his betas had been in the middle of rebuilding back then, the call was so loud it was nearly deafening. He hadn't seen Stiles since the Gerard take-down. He'd been too busy with his betas, Boyd and Erica returned to him after having been tortured by the hunters, Jackson freshly turned and in need of learning control, Lydia a stubborn human who didn't obey as naturally as a wolf, the idea of rebuilding the Hale House together with his pack. All of that had kept him busy and the sting of betrayal about what Scott had done, how Scott had used him, it made it easy for him to avoid Scott and Stiles, because there was no avoiding Scott without avoiding Stiles.

And then, all of a sudden, Stiles stood in front of him again. Stiles, who had been willing to chop off his arm to save his life, regardless of how much the human clearly did not want to do it, Stiles, who had kept Derek afloat in the pool and saved his life again, Stiles, who had protected his pups, Stiles who had been tortured alongside Boyd and Erica and without whom the two might not have been able to escape to return to him. Stiles, who was… undeniably his mate.

Stiles had asked him, if he and Scott could join the pack. Stiles had looked him in the eyes, not backing down, even when Derek growled and flashed his eyes red, not wanting Scott on his territory. Stiles had asked to be part of Derek's pack. Derek's mate wanted to be part of Derek's pack. And if Scott was what it took, then Derek would accept that. In that moment, Stiles could have asked anything of Derek as a condition and Derek would have done it.

Much to his surprise, Scott was more or less well-behaved. This time, it wasn't a pretense, this time, a real pack-bond formed and once Scott could feel that, toward his Alpha and toward the other betas, the wolf seemed to finally get it. So Derek didn't have to regret giving Scott another chance.

The real surprise however was Stiles. Stiles, who would sit by when Derek trained the betas and do research. Stiles, whose eyes lit up when Derek showed him the library in the Hale House and when Derek had told him he could read all the books in here. Stiles, who, unprompted, started cooking for the pack, feeding Derek and his betas. And he was good too, it had been years since Derek last had home-cooked meals this good. It was the larger implication of it though. Cooking for the pack, bringing them all together around the table, that was part of what the Alpha's mate did.

After Stiles started cooking for the pack, Derek found himself watching out more for other things. Stiles helped the betas with their homework, together with Lydia he was running a tutoring group in the Hale House every Wednesday afternoon. The betas started going to Stiles with their personal problems. When Boyd and Erica had a fight, because Erica didn't know if Boyd felt as deeply for her as she did for him since Boyd wasn't as outspoken, especially about his feelings, as Erica was. When Isaac had nightmares about his abuse. When Scott and Jackson got into another fight. Stiles was tending to the pack's emotional needs in a way that so undeniably was Alpha mate behavior.

And Derek knew that his betas were, at least to a certain degree, reacting to his own feeling. Even if he hadn't claimed Stiles, Stiles was his mate, was the Alpha mate, and a sense of that conveyed through the pack-bond even if none of them understood it or knew what it meant, they could feel that Stiles was important, that they could and should go to him with these matters. The fact that Stiles let them, accepted that role even with eagerness, was what baffled Derek.

"Does anyone know why Stiles is so fidgety today?" Isaac asked concerned.

They were on their way back home after the pack-run, having exhausted themselves so much that they were walking at leisure the rest of the way. Derek furrowed his brows at Isaac's words.

"It's Stilinski. He's always fidgety," Jackson huffed. "We'd have to start worrying if he actually stands still for more than five minutes at a time."

Yet his words lacked the bite they would have had just half a year ago. Derek suppressed the smallest smile. The betas were finally settled into the pack-bonds and feeling each other like that, it had done wonders particularly to Jackson. Derek knew about the boy's issues, his feelings of inadequacy. The pack-bonds, that constant sense of reassurance of there being someone who had his back, no questions asked, who would not abandon him even if he let them down, it had helped balance the boy out immensely. Stiles liked to joke that Derek really knew how to pick them, but… it was true. Derek had picked the most damaged kids he could find, the ones he saw himself in, and tried to give them something they so desperately craved. Because the bite was a gift, so he needed to pick betas who would actually see it that way.

"He's not wrong with that," Boyd chuckled softly, one arm wrapped around Erica's shoulders.

"No, I think Isaac's right," Scott frowned. "Like, he smelt anxious all morning."

Derek turned toward Scott. "What do you mean? Did something happen?"

"No, I mean, I don't know," Scott shrugged. "I might have the most experience with Stiles but I actually do not know what is going on in his head. With Stiles, it's… hard to tell."

"What does that mean?" Erica tilted her head. "You gotta know what makes him anxious."

Scott scoffed at that. "Stiles had issues before the supernatural came barreling into our lives. It was already hard to tell what triggered his anxiety even before there was a feral Alpha trying to kill us or hunters trying to kill us or – you get where I'm going with this?"

"Well, there's no active threat right now, so that can't be it, right?" Isaac looked around the pack for confirmation. "Or do you think he found a new threat?"

"Feels like one of those things Stiles would have told us before we went on our run. He does know how to prioritize these things," Erica argued, one eyebrow raised. "And what do you mean he had issues before this? I mean, I know pretty much all of us go to him with our issues, he knows more about each of us than our actual parents, but I never… heard him talk about his issues."

Derek faltered ever so slightly. The pack relied on the Alpha mate. The Alpha mate should rely on the Alpha. Derek should know this, should know if something was wrong with his mate.

"I mean," Scott faltered a little, until both Erica and Jackson elbowed him. "Ouch! I just, his mom. My parents got divorced, that's why I only have my mom. But Stiles' mom… she died. And that's… Sometimes, something will trigger him, scent of hospital or something super random that just links to a memory of her dying, and it messes with him a lot. Or his dad, like, the sheriff getting hurt on the job. Those were always stress factors for Stiles, before all of this, but now there's a whole new layer of issues and things that might make him anxious. So, I don't know."

The pack god very quiet at that. Derek hadn't known. There was only a fifty-fifty chance there, between death and divorce, but he hadn't for sure. How did Stiles listen to all of them sharing their grief with him and he just bottled his own up?

"We should really make him talk more," Isaac whispered.

"That's a sentence nobody's ever said about Stilinski," Jackson huffed out a laugh even as his face was a grimace between guilt and compassion. "Yeah, we really should."

When they finally reached the Hale House again, all the betas headed straight for Stiles, Jackson and Scott even foregoing their own mates, leaving Lydia and Allison just standing there. Stiles yelped surprised as he found himself at the center of a giant pack hug.

"Is your dad alright?" Erica asked immediately.

"Are you alright?" Isaac wanted to know while nosing Stiles' neck.

"Did something happen, like… like one of your triggers?" Scott stumbled over the word 'triggers'.

"Wha…" Stiles flailed as much as the wolves rubbing against him allowed. "Derek! Control your rabid puppies! What is going on here? Why are we squishing the breakable human and what is with all these weird questions? Wait. Did… Did you hear something, did something happen to dad—?"

Stiles' heart-rate picked up alarmingly and Derek shook his head. "No. No, nothing happened. The betas just got concerned about you during our run, since you've apparently been… more fidgety and more anxious than normal. They talked themselves into worries."

Slowly, Stiles' heart-beat went back to a normal rhythm as he took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, rule number one: Do not do that to me. I already am on a regular worry level of 8 out of 10 when it comes to my dad, so if you say stuff like that, it's… not good."

"Sorry," Erica brushed her cheek against his in apology. "We just… didn't know, so…"

Sighing, Stiles smoothed down her curls. "Okay. If something happens to my dad, I promise I'll send you guys a quick message in the pack group-chat, yeah? Pack's all about communication and all that stuff, right? I'm… I'm gonna let you guys know if something is wrong, okay?"

"Then tell us what's wrong right now," Jackson demanded. "Because Derek's right. We, well, they worried because you've been behaving weird all day."

Stiles snorted at the way Jackson still wasn't ready to admit he cared about Stiles, even while he was actively scent-marking Stiles. He grinned and ruffled Jackson's hair and if Derek wasn't so worried about his mate, he would be grinning himself at the display.

"Stiles," Derek's voice had the slightest growl to it. "He's right."

For a moment, Stiles tensed and that told Derek that Stiles was actively hiding something. He narrowed his eyes at the human. If Stiles was hiding an injury or something along those lines, he was personally going to tie Stiles to the bed and not let him out of sight again.

"Okay, now even we can tell that something's up," Lydia commented dryly.

"Can everyone get off the Stiles first?" Stiles requested. "Because otherwise dinner is gonna burn."

"Don't deflect with food," Boyd warned, even as the betas all obeyed.

And, not for the first time, Derek wondered if Stiles was aware of the command he wielded over the betas. That they weren't just listening to his orders out of friendship but because he outranked them. The betas all took a step back, still tensely watching their human. Allison went to Scott, taking his hand to anchor him. As much as Derek had internally objected to the idea of letting an Argent into his pack, he knew she was Scott's mate and Scott had been part of his pack at that point. He could not separate mates. Lydia came to stand next to Jackson, holding onto his arm. Both humans knew that in tense situations, their mates needed their anchors.

What did a wolf do whose anchor was the very reason why he would need to be anchored? Derek's fingers dug into his biceps as he stared at Stiles. Stiles couldn't calm him down while simultaneously being the source of Derek's concerns, so all Derek could do was wait.

"Stiles," Isaac's voice was a mix between a whine and a growl.

"I'm just checking the food to make sure it doesn't burn! Gee, what is it with you guys? You can literally visually see me, you can see I am not majorly hurt or in distress or in danger. Calm down."

"You know exactly that emotional distress and hurt is just as bad," Allison argued softly.

Stiles paused and sighed, finally putting the spoon down. "You guys are awful. I'm not emotionally hurt or distressed, nothing happened, I'm not on the shallow end of an anxiety attack, nothing triggered me. Heck, it's not even a bad thing! It was supposed to be a good surprise! I was just being nervous about showing you guys something, which I wanted to do after dinner!"

"Oh," Scott sighed in relief. "Okay. Well. Now you can just show us right now, dude."

Stiles turned around to face them all and he made a show of rolling his eyes at them. A surprise? Derek perked up ever so slightly. So far, Stiles' surprises for the pack had always been good. The first time he had cooked for them, whenever he tried out some new obscure recipe that he had dug out, when he found something of interest to the pack in his research.

"Okay, so, it is supposed to be a good surprise, but honestly, unsure how our glorious Alpha is gonna take it," Stiles paused, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. "I just. And please don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes, I struggle with… feeling like pack."

Saying 'don't take this the wrong way' to a pack of werewolves did not work. All the betas, predictably, whined at that and took a step toward Stiles with the full intention of scent-marking him all over again. Derek's fingers dug harder into his biceps, knowing he was about to break skin with his claws as his wolf howled at him in anger – how could his mate not feel like pack?

"That's not about you guys," Stiles sighed. "You're doing a splendid job making me feel part of the pack, all that scent-marking and cuddling and involving me in all the pack-activities that wouldn't, you know, be physically impossible to me. That's entirely about me. And I don't know how Lydia and Allison feel about that, and maybe I should have talked to them about it, but to me, it… sometimes, it bothers me, that you guys all have this inherent pack-bond that you can feel and that I don't have because I'm human, and it does make me feel… like I'm missing something."

Derek's eyes landed on Lydia and Allison for a moment to see their reactions. Both girls looked at the floor with different expressions on their faces. Mh. This hadn't… occurred to Derek. He did everything with them that he would do with his werewolf pack members and he had thought that would be enough. He didn't know what to do to make them feel more like pack.

"So, I came up with my own solution for that," Stiles looked up again, looked at the pack and then looked at Derek with the faintest blush that Derek didn't know what to do with.

When Stiles grabbed the hem of his shirt, Derek froze. What was happening. Why was Stiles now slowly taking off his shirt in the middle of the kitchen. Derek had had that fantasy a couple of times, when Derek would get to ravish Stiles before dinner, bend him over the counter-top that Stiles so often had declared he loved, just so Derek could make Stiles admit that he loved Derek more than he loved this damn kitchen (and what was his life that Derek was jealous of his own kitchen), but usually the pack wasn't with them, so this couldn't be one of those. The shirt came off and Stiles balled it in his hand and Derek, Derek had stopped breathing altogether.

On Stiles' chest, right over his heart, sat a triskelion. An Alpha-red triskelion. Over his mate's heart was his mark. Stiles bore the Hale symbol. Stiles bore his symbol, on his skin. Over his heart.

"Holy shit, you got a tattoo," Scott whispered in awe. "Your dad's gonna kill you."

"Yeah, no, aware of that, please do not tell him," Stiles huffed out a laugh at that. "I just… I know you guys can feel that I'm pack, but I need to feel it too. So, I… got this."

He rested a hand just beneath the tattoo. Derek's brain, finally caught up with what was happening, was struggling with what to do. His inner wolf was snarling at him, angry that Derek wasn't at his mate's side yet, wasn't touching his mate yet. He could also feel his inner wolf's tail wagging to an embarrassing degree, very, very glad that Stiles could not see that.

"Everyone out," Derek growled out. "Right now."

"You're not gonna give him a hard time about doing something nice," Scott growled.

Always the only one willing to challenge the Alpha. Derek flashed his eyes and he could see tensions rising, knew that Scott was about to do something dangerous, and even Allison's hand on his arm didn't stay Scott from protecting Stiles. Protecting Stiles from Derek. The mere notion of that, that someone from his own pack would have to protect his mate from him, made him want to force Scott down in submission and remind the beta of his place.

"Enough," Stiles spoke with force – the force of an Alpha voice, causing all betas to tense. "Scott, you heard your Alpha. Get out. Don't look at me like a kicked puppy. Derek's not going to hurt me. You know that, so stop disrespecting your Alpha. Out, now."

Derek was pretty sure he had never been more turned on in his life than seeing Stiles command the betas with absolute authority. All of them cleared out of the kitchen, leaving Derek and Stiles on their own. There was a tenseness to Stiles' body, but there was no fear, and Derek was relieved to see his mate knew he wouldn't hurt him. Within a second, Derek stood right in front of Stiles, crowding him against the counter. Stiles swallowed hard, looking up at him.

"Okay, so, I know I should have asked you first, I know this symbol means a lot to you, it's not just your pack's symbol, it's your family's symbol, and maybe I didn't have a right to do this, and this is a shitty apology because I'm not entirely sorry, since I did it knowing you may not approve, but it just… it felt right, it felt like the only thing to do for me, so I-"

"You're mine," Derek growled, deep and dark and primal.

"Part of your pack, yep, Alpha, that's why I did that."

"No," Derek's eyes flashed red. "Of course you're pack, Stiles. Of course. But you are mine."

"I'm not…" Stiles wallowed hard, his heart jumping. "I don't know what to do with that."

"God, Stiles," Derek groaned and leaned forward, burying his face in Stiles' neck, which was willingly and without a second's reluctance bared to him because his mate trusted him. "You have no idea what you do to me. And now you… you marked yourself, with my mark, do you… do you not see what you're doing to me? Taking care of the pack and me, with food and emotional support, the way an Alpha's mate does. Putting my mark on your heart like a mate mark."

"Oh," Stiles made a small noise. "Shit. I didn't, I'm sorry, I didn't know, I just-"

"No," Derek growled, his hands on either side of Stiles, clinging onto the counter. "You… You say that you don't feel it, but you are instinctively responding to your role in the pack. You are the Alpha mate. You're my mate. I just… didn't know… how to tell you. I spent so much time thinking you're only in my pack for Scott's sake, but the longer you've been here, the stronger our bond grew and you started… taking on the role of the Alpha mate, and every time you act like that, it drives my inner wolf absolutely wild and with every day, it becomes harder to not just pin you against the wall and kiss you until you're panting breathlessly."

"Oh," Stiles gasped out forcefully. "So you didn't send the puppies away because you were about to politely tell me to fuck off, you did it because you… want to… kiss me..."

Derek growled his confirmation, nosing at Stiles' neck, one of his hands wandering up Stiles' chest to rest atop the tattoo, atop his mark on his mate. Stiles shuddered at the bare-skin contact.

"Well then, fucking do it already," Stiles groaned out.

That was a command Derek was more than happy to follow. He pulled away enough so he could press his lips against Stiles, kissing him with all the hunger, passion and love he had for his mate.

~*~ The End ~*~

Author's note: I made a tumblr post a couple days ago about how much it'd drive Derek insane if Stiles got a triskelion tattoo to mark himself as pack. Obviously, that post was a set-up for "I'm so gonna write that", so here we are ;D