Stiles Stilinski was not someone who kept pets.
Sure, he'd had that boa constrictor when he was younger, but that was it. Most of the time, the guy could barely keep himself alive, let alone an animal.
So color Scott surprised when Deaton sent him to Stiles's address with a large order of pet supplies. Thinking it had to be a mistake, he set everything on the porch before opening the door and going inside.
"Hey, Stiles? You here? Deaton sent me over with a weird order in your name, and I wanted to...HOLY SHIT!"
Lounging on the couch in the middle of the room was a sleek, black wolf. The animal was licking its paw in a lazy fashion and only stopped when it noticed Scott was in the room, looking up at him with huge blue eyes. It leapt off the couch and made its way over to the boy, who shrieked before scrambling up to the top of a nearby bookcase.
"Don't you come any closer! I am not tasty enough to be food...STILES!!"
Stiles chose that moment to enter the room, wet from the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist.
"Scott? Why are you screaming so loudly?"
"Oh, you know, just practicing for the next Broadway musical...WHY IS THERE A WOLF IN YOUR HOUSE?"
"Wolf? What wolf?" he asked in a confused voice before looking at the giant beast pawing at Scott's feet. "Oh, you mean Petrus! He's my new dog!"
"You call that thing a dog?! It's trying to eat me!"
"Pfft, nonsense, he's harmless! Petrus, come!"
Petrus made a chuffing noise before walking away and wrapping himself around Stiles, who reached down to scratch the wolf's ears.
Scott slowly climbed down from the bookcase, giving the animal a wary glance, much to the other boy's amusement.
"Honestly, Scotty, I don't know what you're so afraid of. Aren't dogs supposed to be your super furry cousins or something?"
"I don't think that's how it works for werewolves, Stiles, and I still say that thing is not a dog! How did you even get your Dad to let it in the house?!"
"First of all, Petrus is a he, not an it…pronouns are important," Stiles said with a glare that could rival Derek Hale's in intensity, "second, Dad was all for me keeping my rescuer with me!"
"Rescuer? When did you need to be rescued?"
"Uh, hello...did you forget about me being kept in murder grandpa's basement last week? What am I saying? Of course, you did..."
Scott opened his mouth to argue when the wolf (because that's definitely what that thing was, no matter what Stiles said) started growling at him, causing him to quickly shut his mouth.
The truth is, he had forgotten. Between the plan he'd concocted with Deaton going wrong (mainly due to Gerard never showing up at the warehouse) and Allison disappearing soon after, he hadn't really spared a thought for the other boy. So really, he had no right to question Stiles on anything.
Still, he was curious...
"How on Earth did you get saved by a dog?"
"That's actually a cool story, which I'll be glad to tell you as soon as I get some pants on...Petrus! Fetch!"
Petrus refused to move until Stiles sighed, rolled his eyes, and bared his neck.
"Please?"
Satisfied, the animal trotted up the stairs towards the boy's room, coming back down with a perfectly folded pair of pants and shirt held between his teeth (and if Scott wasn't freaked out before, he definitely was now, because he'd never seen his friend fold anything in his life). Once dressed, Stiles flopped down onto the couch with Petrus fully stretched out across his lap.
Scott decided to sit in the armchair away from those (way too pointy for a dog) teeth that looked ready to take a chunk out of him at a moment's notice.
"You want to know how Petrus here rescued me, right?"
At the other boy's nod, Stiles continued.
"OK, so there I was in the basement, getting pounded on by the old man, and let me tell you, Gramps definitely packed a punch,when a bunch of people started shouting, and gunfire went off upstairs. Gerard threw me to the ground and turned around to go see what the commotion was...which is when this guy busted through the door, tackled the old bastard to the ground, and ripped out his throat. My Dad, who'd been the one firing the shots we heard, came down and got Erica and Boyd loose, then took us all outside and called for backup."
Stiles decided to leave out the fact that Petrus had been on two legs when he killed Gerard and that he'd also proceeded to rip the old man's heart out when he saw the damage that had been done to the boy.
Scott was never one to process details anyway. Speaking of which...
"THAT THING KILLED GERARD?!"
"That's the part of the story you're stuck on? Dude, Gerard was going to kill all of us down there. Petrus saved my life."
"Yeah, but..."
"No buts, Scott. Killing Gerard saved all of us, including Jackson, who went back to being a real boy afterwards," Stiles said as he wrapped his arms around the wolf's neck, nuzzling into the dark fur. As far as my Dad and I are concerned, he's a hero."
The smug look that Petrus gave Scott was far too intelligent for a normal animal.
It was unsettling...and vaguely terrifying.
Scott took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down enough to ask questions about the increasingly confusing situation he seemed to have found himself in.
"Ignoring the uhm...killing part of that story...how did Petrus know where to find you? How did your Dad find you?"
"Oh, well, Petrus followed my scent while Dad followed him."
"But how did he know which scent was yours in the first place? There's no way he has been around you long enough to recognize one human from another."
"How would you know?" Stiles shot back in an irritated tone, "You've had your head so far up Allison's ass for so long that you barely notice the rest of the world! You didn't even know I was kidnapped until your mom told you about it!"
"I had more important things going on at the time! Besides, it's not like you were really hu-"
Scott didn't get a chance to finish what he was saying as he suddenly leapt out of the chair and away from the jaws of an extremely angry Petrus.
"Stiles..." Scott said as he slowly backed away from the snarling beast, "I need you to call your dog off..."
"No, Scotty, I don't think I will...in fact, I think it's time you leave."
Scott continued to walk backwards slowly, keeping Petrus in his line of sight. When he reached the front door, he tried to flash his eyes in hopes of distracting the animal, only to get a shock as electric blue flashed back at him.
He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Stiles had been harboring a werewolf this whole time?! But that's impossible. None of the ones they knew could turn into an actual wolf!
Except...
Except for the one that was supposed to be dead...only Derek couldn't find any trace of the body when he went back to bury him...
Now Scott knows why.
"Ah fuck..."
Scott threw the door behind him open and ran out as fast as he could, with the other wolf right on his tail.
Stiles could hear the sound of screams and ripping fabric all the way in the living room. He tensed when everything suddenly went silent but visibly relaxed when an unharmed (and very naked) Peter Hale strolled through the doorway.
"Did you kill him?"
"Sadly no, but he definitely won't be able to sit down for the next day or so," Peter mused as he went through the package he'd brought in, only to hold up one of the items with a raised brow."A collar, Stiles? Really?"
"You said you'd wear one if it was pink..."
"Hmm, I suppose I did...those diamonds better be real, though. I absolutely refuse to be paraded around in cheap rhinestones."
"Of course not,you snob," Stiles chuckled before wrapping his arms around the older man's neck and pulling him into a deep kiss, "now go get some pants on before Dad gets home and claims we scarred him for life again."
"Yes, Dear."
*
Noah Stilinski was tired.
As he pulled into his driveway, he thought about all the strange things he'd dealt with over the past few weeks and wondered how his life ended up like this.
He knew Stiles had been keeping things from him and acting strange, but he thought it was just normal teenage stuff like dating or high school drama...maybe even drugs.
Drugs would have been a reasonable excuse.
He certainly hadn't expected lizard people, geriatric psychopaths, and a dog that turns into a fully grown man...who apparently is also a werewolf and his son's magically bonded life partner.
Which...craziness aside, Noah really likes Peter. He was a bit wary of the age gap at first, but when Stiles pointed out that he and Claudia had been the same ages when they started dating, he decided to let it go.
After all, the last thing he wanted to think about is the inherited nature of Stiles's Daddy kink.
Besides, Peter is the reason his boy is still alive, and that puts the man squarely in the Sheriff's good books regardless of any past issues.
One day, he might even be able to convince the wolf and his son to stop being such antagonistic little shits to everyone they meet.
Judging by the amount of blood and torn fabric on his porch, that day is clearly not happening anytime soon.
"Aw hell," Noah grumbled as he picked up what was clearly the back end of someone's pants before opening the front door, "Peter! Did you bite the mailman again?"
"First of all, he had it coming...however, today's derrière sample came from my failure of a Beta,Scott McCall."
"Scott? What was he doing here?"
"Deaton sent him over with the stuff I ordered, and he got nosey about the 'giant creature' in my living room," Stiles said with a roll of his eyes, " tried to convince him Peter's just a dog, but he got too hung up on the whole Gerard getting killed thing...then declared he'd had more important things to worry about than me being kidnapped."
"Naturally, I took offense to this and had to defend my Mate's honor."
"Uh-huh...and I'm sure it had nothing to do with Scott insinuating you were too dumb to tell one human from another..."
"Not entirely."
"Jesus, I'm not drunk enough for this," Noah sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose," Okay, so the wolf's out of the bag then. Do I need to prepare to help you two hide a body?"
"Admirable, but no...at most, my darling nephew may incite a bit of violence when he stops by to confirm my living status."
"Not in my house, he won't...Stiles, make sure that all of our guns are loaded with wolfsbane bullets."
"Uh, Dad...are you planning to kill Derek?"
"No," Noah said as he removed his gunbelt and flopped onto the couch with the other two, "but if he lays a hand on my son-in-law, I'll shoot enough wolfsbane into his ass that he'll wish I had."
Peter's eyes were practically sparkling at the Sheriff's declaration.
"I love the amount of violent tendencies you and your son have."
"Yeah, yeah, we're one big, happy murder family," Stiles said as he got up from the couch, "I'm going to make something overly cheesy and calorie-filled for dinner."
Peter made to get up and follow but paused at the stern look Stiles gave him while pointing at the couch.
"No! You nearly burned down the kitchen the last time you tried to help cook. You stay right there!"
"But Sweetheart..."
"No! Bad Creeperwolf! Sit! Stay!"
Stiles stomped off towards the kitchen, and Peter just sat there, completely flabbergasted at the boy's blatant use of dog commands.
"Just think," Noah said as he tried (and failed) to stifle a laugh, "that's who you're spending the rest of your life with."
Peter just shook his head fondly. Stiles could be a confusing, exasperating mess at times, but he had no regrets about being mated to him.
Especially when his boy looked so good while wearing a collar.