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Stiles is way more observant and intelligent than people give him credit for. He might be partly to blame for that by hiding behind flailing limbs and rambling words. His ADHD can take the blame for the rest, although it’s surprisingly easy to exaggerate things and fake your way through a psychological evaluation in order to get pills to help you concentrate. He does need the Adderall, but probably not the strength and dosage that were prescribed. He is more than thankful for having it this past year with all of the werewolf drama. This brings us back to the point that Stiles sees and knows more than anyone thinks he does.
When Scott was bitten, Stiles spent days researching everything there was to know about werewolves. After meeting Dr. Deaton, Stiles devoured the extensive library the man had. When Lydia translated pages from the Argent’s bestiary, Stiles taught himself Archaic Latin and finished the bestiary himself. He didn’t tell anyone he has an eidetic memory, because Stiles tries to include everyone in everything and that means making Lydia feel useful. His crush on her was also a mask that he hid his bisexuality behind.
His bisexuality combined with his memory and now extensive knowledge of werewolves made for an interesting discovery while learning about werewolf mating and mates. He had noticed after Jackson’s werewolf resurrection that his and Derek’s companionship had changed. There were a lot less threats and wall slamming, and a lot more requests and causal touches. At the time, Stiles had attributed it to learning of Boyd and Erica’s abandonment and his need to change his attitude at being an Alpha.
The murder/sacrifices started again in the fall, along with the revelation of the Alpha pack, and Erica’s murder. Looking back, he should have seen his role in the pack dynamic sooner. He is Derek’s mate, the Alpha Mate, the glue that binds the pack together and offers emotional stability. He would have noticed more quickly, if not for Scott’s insistence that he wasn’t in Derek’s pack and Derek’s inability to express his emotions. Although, Stiles believes that his age has something to do with Derek’s silence on the matter considering what Stiles knew about Kate Argent and the fire. The point is, he now knows his place in the pack and after the events at the motel he realizes just how important that role is.
When they get back from the cross-country meet and Ethan reveals that Derek is most likely alive, Stiles rushes over to the loft to check on Derek and reassure the pack that their Alpha is indeed alive. He pounds up the stairs and throws the door open calling out to Derek, only to stop dead in his tracks. He sees a rather gloriously naked Derek lying underneath the rumpled sheets of his bed and the back of a woman with bed mussed hair who has obviously frozen in place in her attempt to cover herself. Derek is staring at him with wide, startled eyes at being caught in such a position as he slowly begins to sit up. The woman finishes putting on the t-shirt that she had previously been holding against her chest.
“Stiles, what are you doing here?” Derek manages to get out though his voice sounds rough with either sleep or sex. Stiles finds it quite sexy before the reality of the situation comes crashing down on him when the woman turns around and looks sheepishly up at him.
“Miss Blake?!” Stiles exclaims. “Good morning, Mr. Stilinski.” She says timidly back at him.
Stiles anger and heartbeat shoot up and his vision gets a decidedly red tint. He levels an unimpressed glare in her direction as he says, “Seeing as I have just caught you in bed with Derek, whom less than 24 hours ago was assumed dead, I think we can drop the formality of the student-teacher relationship.” Stiles eyes shift to Derek briefly and he pauses to enjoy Derek’s wince before he focuses his anger to Derek completely. “Care to explain what’s going on here?”
Derek seems to have recovered enough from the initial shock to look furious and his eyes flash red and his teeth elongate, “That is none of your business, now get out!” Derek tries to put the Alpha inflection in his voice.
Stiles briefly panics as he sees Derek wolf out slightly and he chances a glance at Miss Blake and notices she’s almost entirely unaffected by what she’s seeing. It’s at that moment when his brain registers two things: First, it seems that Derek has decided to share the werewolf secret with someone without the pack’s consent, possibly opening them up to a new threat; and second, Derek had sex with his English teacher and essentially cheated on his mate!
The absolute fury that courses through Stiles at that moment feels like an electrical current sparking throughout his body. He is practically vibrating with rage and shuts his eyes momentarily to center himself and sort through the words in his mind that are scorching to be released. His eyes open and snap to Derek as everything takes on an orange haze, like someone put a filter on the world. Derek looks stunned as his wolf features clear instantly. He slowly raises his hands in an innocent gesture and stutters slightly as he says, “S..St..Stiles… This is not what you think it is.” Stiles can’t process the emotions he can suddenly feel coming from Derek at the moment and instead unleashes all of the pent up rage and fury in the most uncharacteristic way possible.
His body goes deadly still as he begins to speak in an almost quiet tone with a sub-vocal growl to his words, “From what I can see, my Alpha decided to share his supernatural secret with an outsider before consulting his pack and potentially putting them in danger; in addition to committing adultery.” Derek expected flailing and yelling from Stiles, but the way he was holding himself perfectly still and the icy venom in his tone of voice combined with his glowing orange eyes had him unable to speak. Derek knew that orange eyes on a werewolf meant an Alpha’s Mate, and had seen them on his father.
That was when the last part of the sentence registered as Stiles cut his eyes to Miss Blake, who had finished putting her clothes on as he said, “Jennifer,” Miss Blake startles at the use of her first name and she raises her gaze to Stiles. “I imagine that Derek did not tell you that he was spoken for. It is for this reason that I am giving you the opportunity to leave here and never come back. You will not speak of this encounter or of werewolves to anyone. The members of my pack are to be treated as is appropriate for normal student-teacher relationships and if you see Derek around town you will ignore his existence. It would be in your best interest not to test these restrictions as I now have a pack of Alpha werewolves who owe me a favor for saving one of their members’ lives.” Miss Blake nods quickly, looking thoroughly frightened and rushes to gather her things as she makes her way towards the door under Stiles’ unwavering glare.
As the door shut, Stiles returned his focus to Derek. Derek was still staring at him wide-eyed but guilty like he just completed the puzzle of Stiles words and the implications of his actions. Stiles felt bad for putting that guilt on Derek, but all he had been through in the past 24 hours had numbed that feeling. He was done smothering his feelings and placating Derek while he worked through his issues. Obviously that approach was turning out to be a repeat of history and Stiles would be damned if he was going to let Derek destroy things again. This was not only Stiles’ pack, but Stiles’ friends whose lives were on the line now. It was time for Derek to have a reality check, Stilinski style.
After a moment, Derek lowered his eyes looking defeated and asked, “How long have you known?” Stiles cocked an incredulous eyebrow, and responded in the same icy tone he used to address Ms. Blake, “I really don’t think you should be the one asking that question. But since you asked, I’ve known about pack dynamics since Scott was turned and I’ve known about my status in the pack since the pool incident with the Kanima.” Stiles wanted to add, ‘Perhaps if you had opened up more and told me things, I could’ve talked Erica and Boyd out of leaving.’ But he knew Derek was feeling guilty enough at the moment and didn’t need to be reminded of yet another failure. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to tell him about the last 24 hours in the motel, but since everyone was still alive he thought it was allowable.
Derek didn’t acknowledge that revelation so Stiles continued, “I think the better question is how long have you known? I’m operating under the assumption that Ms. Blake is a recent development and that there was consent from both parties, because if I find out otherwise I will have my wolves tear her apart.” Stiles voice echoed around the apartment with the ferocity and absolute certainty of his statement. He paused for a moment to gauge Derek’s reaction and allow him the opportunity to confirm or deny his assumptions.
Derek raised his head to face Stiles but avoided eye contact as he said, “I’ve known since the time Kate shot me in the arm and you took me to the clinic. I could tell that you would have cut my arm off even if you didn’t want to, just to save my life. I haven’t said anything about it because you are underage and it would be illegal for us to be in any kind of relationship. I was waiting until you were older to tell you that I had feelings for you, not to mention that I wanted you as a mate. I was giving you the choice to live your life outside of werewolves instead of permanently binding you to me by being my mate.” Derek looked at Stiles at that point, his face set in a scowl that let Stiles know he fully believed what he was saying. “This was the first time I had even had Jennifer over to the loft and I had only seen her twice before. She already knew about werewolves when she witnessed the night that we rescued Cora and Boyd.”
Stiles eyes widened slightly at Derek’s confession and the orange tint faded, then they narrowed at the flimsy excuses of why Derek had kept his feelings to himself. The orange tint flared again at the mention of Ms. Blake. “First of all Derek, you weren’t giving me any kind of choice by withholding your feelings from me. You were taking the choice from me. I know your reasons why you wouldn’t want to date someone who is underage; I know how Kate used you, and I know the guilt you carry even though it’s not your fault. She took advantage of your teenage hormones, she pretended to care about you, and she set the fire that killed your family. There was no way for you to know that she was evil.” Stiles exhaled and his eyes faded back to amber and his tone softened. “I don’t blame you and I’m positive your family doesn’t blame you. You have a good heart, Derek. I’ve known that for quite some time now. It’s still a lame excuse though, since we both know that werewolves mate for life and that there would be no one else for me or you no matter what age we are.”
Stiles deflated a little and his mind spun wildly as he contemplated why he felt he needed to reassure Derek when he just caught him in bed with someone else. And just like that, his anger snapped him back to the current situation and his eyes bled orange again. “Second, I want you to realize that even though I believe that you have a good heart, your betrayal of me as your potential mate hurts. If we were in the courtship process, I would be fully in my rights as an Alpha Mate to take your pack from you and force you from the territory to live as a rogue alpha. I am not going to do that though since we have only now openly recognized my position in the pack. I also do not want to permanently bind you to me if you truly want someone else, so when the pack arrives in a few minutes I will officially announce my intention to claim you as a mate. If you choose to return that intention then we can start the courtship process. If not, we can go our separate ways. Is that agreeable?”
Derek nods, flashes his red eyes, and tries to hide a smirk but looks slightly relieved. “You said the pack is coming here?” He asks looking like a confused puppy. His nostrils flare as if he’s trying to scent the pack before they arrive and his eyes widen in slight horror as he picks up the lingering scent of sex.
It’s Stiles’ turn to smirk as he realizes what Derek smells. “Oh, yeah… They’re going to realize what you were doing while I was saving their lives and they thought you were dead. That’s the final thing I want to mention before we attempt to air this place out and I burn those sheets.” His face gets serious again and he waits for Derek to give him his full attention. “I will let them tell you their stories of ‘Hotel Hell’ when they get here, but you need to know that the Darach targeted the wolves using hallucinogenic wolfsbane so they would kill themselves. Allison, Lydia and I saved Boyd, Isaac, Scott and Ethan before they could follow through with it. They will need your emotional support especially since they think you died. And yes, I saved Ethan’s life which is why he and the Alpha pack are in my debt for the time being.”
Stiles waited for that information to sink in. Derek nodded again even though he looked like he wanted to ask more questions. Stiles cut him off before he could; “Now I would suggest that you shower and open a few windows on your way to the bathroom and I’ll set your sheets on fire.” Stiles had a manic, but gleeful smile on his face. “There is a washing machine in the building, you know. I don’t have to buy new sheets.” Derek deadpanned as he climbed out of bed forgetting or not caring that he was naked.
Stiles throat ran dry as he took in the carved-from-stone body in front of him. He gaped for a moment and could feel his pants start to tighten before Derek’s words registered. Derek smirked again as he could tell the effect he was having on Stiles and started walking around opening each window.
Stiles regained his composure once Derek was out of his line of sight and said, “I don’t want to see those sheets ever again. I don’t want a reminder of that woman left in this loft.” He started pulling the sheets off the bed and if he happened to notice a bra bundled up in the mix, he wasn’t saying anything. He glanced over his shoulder as Derek neared the bathroom and said, “Oh, and Derek? If you decide to return my intentions there will be no one else in your bed except me. Otherwise, I will have Dr. Deaton neuter you using wolfsbane laced utensils.” Stiles smiled brightly as he turned back around and piled the sheets in a metal trashcan. He popped out onto the balcony and set the trashcan next to the barbeque grill, squirted some lighter fluid and threw a pack of matches into the can, and watched as the flames erupted. He was still smiling and humming along to a tune in his head when he went back inside to grab his phone and text the pack. He looked up to see Derek frozen in the bathroom door, still naked, with a look of horror on his face.
Stiles laughed brightly and said, “I’d hate to see your face if I told you what I’d do to the other person.” He chuckled again as his phone buzzed in his hand. He looked at the message and then waved the phone at Derek, “The pack will be here in a few minutes, go shower! I’ll bring you something to change into.”
He and Derek still needed to have a long conversation about trust and the pack’s future if Derek actually returned his intentions. But for now, if Stiles set out a certain orange and blue striped shirt that happened to be in his bag, only he and Derek would get the joke, and that would be a good enough place for this relationship to start.