Chapter Text
The sun was bright, light slanting through the windows of Scott’s apartment. Allison was sat on the single sofa that was positioned diagonally, out of place for any orientation. Lydia was sitting cross legged on a wheeled desk-chair looking bored by all this. Scott was standing in front of Stiles looking pained.
And Stiles was whining.
“But why does it have to be me!?”
“Because you’re the only single human of the pack. We went over this Stiles.” Scott provided for the umpteenth time with his puppy-dog-eyes that for once weren’t working.
Except however many times he could repeat it wouldn’t make this matter acceptable to Stiles. No matter how many times he was reminded that this was a temporary thing that would end in a few months at most, being auctioned off as an alpha wolf’s human mate was a big fucking deal.
“There’s Allison!” he stretched his neck to look at the girl in plea.
“He won’t mate me Stiles.” Allison provided. At least she looked sympathetic over Stiles’ head under the axe. “Satomi said so herself. I tried asking my dad but he went all cryptic on me about why that might be. All he said was that our families have history; the unpleasant kind.”
“History. Right. Of course.” he flailed because of course he was the only possible bait. The only reason he was even considering the request –if you could call it that because Satomi didn’t exactly request anything– was because it came from a friend and a mentor, someone their pack trusted and had leaned upon multitudes of time in the past only for the other to always come through.
“At least meet him. One meeting, that’s all I’m asking.”
“It doesn’t work that way Scott.” Lydia intoned, eyes still glued to her phone.
“She’s right Scotty. You don’t just call a pack alpha almost 2000 miles to a place just for a meeting. All that’s going to do is make it harder to say no.” Stiles said but knew at the same time that saying no wasn’t a real option here, not without straining their relationship with Satomi and her pack. What made it more complicated was the fact that Satomi really wasn’t the kind to conjure up matters like these, the kind that involved changed hierarchies and pack politics, if this came from her...it meant this was important to her and this was considered to surely be the best solution for all parties involved.
Stiles should probably lay out all the facts here. The McCall pack was preceded in its position as the official pack of Beacon Hills by the Hale pack, one that would probably be written about in history as one of the strongest and most glorious ones now only with one survivor left standing; Derek Hale. From what Stiles could gather from research –that at least broke 17 laws– Derek and Laura, the former’s elder sister, had managed to escape the fire that burned down the lineage by a hair, leaving town after to probably heal emotionally and physically from the trauma.
From what Deaton could share, surprisingly open about this matter unlike his usually more cryptic ways, Laura as the alpha had finally begun a pack for them after too many years in the man's opinion, with three bitten wolves but had been attacked by hunters only a week in, leaving an out of place alpha behind in the name of Derek. “Their bond as a pack will not survive, and to rectify that they must associate with another. What better choice than here?” Deaton had raised his eyes in that weird way as he asked.
“Associate? You mean become a part of right?” Stiles had wondered aloud.
“Association is different from amalgamation Mr.Stilinski.” Stiles had scrunched his nose in distaste at the formal name. “Association allows a bond without them needing to become part of the McCall pack. That will allow the Hale name to exist, which otherwise would vanish if Derek has to give up his alpha position.”
“So this association,” Kira had begun asking. “-what does it require and why is Stiles needed?”
“Associations allow packs to co-exist, even with different alphas in the same territory but require harmony. Authentic harmony. Either that or a bond that bounds them into harmony.”
Stiles still didn’t know how that conversation had boiled down to Deaton agreeing with auctioning Stiles as the alpha’s mate to be the best idea in form of a solution as well but it had. Stiles had spent all following nights adhered to his computer desk, trying to look up what he was signing up for, when he was not wandering around from his own town to the next to find books or accounts of previously lived mate-pairs.
To say he found underwhelming amount of information would be an understatement. Mates were apparently a semi-rare thing, there was still stuff to read but bonds between humans and werewolves, humans and alphas that too, were virtually non-existent.
“I’ll do it then. Not much choice left.” Scott spoke with drawn brows and a nervous edge. Not that Stiles would ever let his best-friend do such a thing but the offer made his heart warm.
“Mate bonds are more permanent for wolves, Satomi told us that, I can confirm. It’ll hurt like a bitch for it to fade. Not to mention the triggering of your competitive alpha mojos.” Stiles spoke on a sigh, plopping down on the florescent pink bean bag behind him.
“I don’t know what else to-“ Scott’s words were interrupted by the ringing of his phone, the caller ID making him wince. “It’s Satomi.”
“Two calls in three days. Must be a record.” Allison chimed looking interested.
“Tell her I’ll meet him.” Stiles relented on a deep breath, trying to keep his anxiousness at bay, the sound of Scott’s voice greeting Satomi on the phone a dull buzz in the background after.