Human is Just a Word 40/?
Chapter 40
Derek had, very successfully, avoided to think about Kate for a while now. Sure, there was an age difference between him and Stiles but almost eighteen wasn't fifteen, right?
Stiles and his father had both been sure that Derek would take advantage of Stiles but he hadn't. Derek would never do that. And for sure he didn't intend to kill Stiles' whole family.
So when Megan just threw her name with all the implications in his face, Derek saw red. Literally.
He felt his face shifting and he knew his eyes were glowing and his first instinct was to throw himself at Megan and roar her into submission.
He had enough self-control to turn around and leave, though. His skin was itching and too tight and he needed to run. He threw off his clothes and slipped into his fur without even realizing.
Behind him he heard Stiles calling his name but by now he'd already crossed the backyard and was about to disappear behind the tree line. Derek shook his head and run. His paws hit the forest floor with heavy thumps, the trees just a blurry mess around him.
Derek ran.
His thoughts melted away in the steady movement of his legs. It was so much easier to just be in his animal form.
Hours went by.
Somehow he had looped around and when Derek came to, he wasn't that far from the farm house. The forest around him was familiar and there was the scent of Laura's pack lingering all around him. It wasn't his pack any longer but the scent was still comforting.
For a moment he just stood there, chest heaving and tongue lolling, and listened to his surroundings. He half-expected to sense Laura or maybe Stephen somewhere close by but he was alone. He and Stephen had always been close but since he was also Megan's father, Derek wasn't surprised that he hadn't come after him. Slowly he trotted back to the house.
It was afternoon by now and the pack was doing whatever they usually did on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The first thing Derek noticed when he came closer, was Stiles playing with Jeremy in the sandbox. Miranda was sitting on the edge of the wooden frame around the sand with Stacy in her lap.
On the porch Loreen was sunbathing in a lawn chair with Stephen and Ellen in their wolf form next to her. The twins were playing on the swings and it looked almost too peaceful to interrupt. Derek was tempted to just disappear between the trees again but of course Stiles had noticed him. He was looking over with an inviting tilt of his head and Derek couldn't say no to that.
Slowly he made his way over to the sandbox, where Jeremy greeted him with a high-pitched squeal and then Derek had his face full of sand.
Laughing Stiles brushed it off his nose while he scolded Jeremy for throwing sand at Derek. He wasn't sure if Jeremy understood what Stiles was trying to tell him because the next second another shovel of sand hit Derek in the face.
He growled and tried to snag the plastic shovel out of Jeremy's hand with his teeth. But the boy didn't let go of it without a fight and then they were in the middle of a tug-o-war over the shovel. Jeremy leaned his whole body into it but he didn't stand a chance against a fully grown wolf. Derek played along just to suddenly let go of the shovel. As expected Jeremy landed on his butt with a stunned expression on his face. He blinked up at Derek and for a second he didn't look sure if he wanted to laugh or cry.
"Again!" He declared and scrambled to his feet, offering the end of the shovel to Derek for the next round. "Again, again, again."
"That's totally your own fault." Stiles told him and since he had become uninteresting as a playmate, he sat down next to Miranda. A moment later he had the baby in his arms again.
The played like that for a while, Jeremy could go on like this for hours, falling on his butt over and over again with a giggle, but in the end Miranda took pity on him and distracted her son with the idea of mud cakes. Derek and Stiles fled before the had to eat them.
Back in his room Derek shifted and reached for his clothes waiting for him on the bed. Stiles must have put them there.
"Are you okay?" Stiles asked from where he was leaning against the door frame, watching him. Derek could hear other people in the house but up here they were alone. At least they had some privacy, he didn't want to face the others just yet.
"I'm fine." He assured him and stepped in his jeans. "It was just ..." He didn't know how to finish the sentence. He had never talked to Stiles about Kate.
"A low blow." Stiles finished for him and came over to sling his arms around him from behind, his chin resting on Derek's shoulder. "I know. And believe me, I gave her a piece of my mind for bringing up Kate like that."
Derek went very still. Among the pack Kate had never been a secret, everybody knew but they didn't really talk about her anymore. She was dead and Derek was over it. Mostly. But Stiles didn't know.
"Did Laura?" He cleared his throat. He wasn't ready to talk about her now and for sure not here, far from his own territory and pack. "Did she tell you about Kate?" Because Stiles was Stiles, he always had questions.
"No." He shook his head, tickling Derek's ear with his spiky hair. "And before you feel the need to explain." He took a deep breath. "My dad's the sheriff and the fire has been the biggest case in Beacon Hills since forever. I've read the file. I know that Kate started the fire. I know that as soon as Peter was able again, he went on a rampage to kill her and everybody who helped her. My dad managed to save my chemistry teacher, I'm still not sure if he deserves it or not, but in the end Peter killed Kate. Case closed." He paused and Derek knew that wasn't all. "My dad always thought that she had a contact inside the Hale pack. Somebody she used to gain information." There was another pause and Stiles' grip around his middle tightened.
Derek's breath hitched and he didn't know what to say. How could he even start to explain what had happened back then?
"How old were you?" Stiles whispered into his skin. He was still there, still holing on to him. He had said used not helped. He wasn't blaming him.
"Fifteen." Derek choked out.
Stiles kissed him behind the ear, not saying anything.
"I loved her." The words were broken shards of glass in his throat. "I thought she loved me too."
"You're not her." Stiles reminded him. "You're nothing like her. You would never hurt me. I knew that right from the beginning. You will never hurt me."
Derek clasped his hands around Stiles' forearms across his belly and held on tight.
"I love you." Stiles said and bit down on the meat of his neck. Derek felt the words washing over him but the teeth sinking into his neck, into the claiming spot, anchored him, made him believe that this was real, that Stiles truly meant it.
He couldn't make himself say it, couldn't tell Stiles how much he loved him. His throat was too dry, he was choking on words so he just leaned into Stiles, into the bite, and hoped that it was enough.
Somehow Stiles understood werewolves, understood what a bite like this meant. Derek hoped that he would also understand the things he couldn't tell him.
"You know that I want you." Stiles continued after a long moment. "But if you want to wait until I'm eighteen I would understand."
"No, it's not like that." Derek cleared his throat. Age was just a number, Stiles wouldn't change that much over the span of a few months. "Just, let's not rush it, okay?"
"Okay." Stiles snuggled closer, his body a warm line against his back.
Derek didn't know how long they stood like that.
"Laura wants to see you later." Stiles finally broke the silence. "I think she wants to apologize."
Derek nodded. One of her pack members had insulted another alpha. Of course he would accept the apology but first Laura had to formally say it. This was pack politics at its finest. Derek let out a sigh, his life had been easier before he had become an alpha.
"We talked about Peter, Laura and I." Stiles continued, his chin now resting on Derek's shoulder again. "To say that she was shocked is an understatement."
"Is she going to do something?" At one point he would have to talk to her about Peter himself. From alpha to alpha. On their own they were both too weak to confront Peter but together they might stand a chance.
"She wants to visit him." Stiles answered. "Maybe set him straight. I'm not sure if that will do any good but if somebody can talk some sense into him, it's Laura. She's scary." He lowered his voice for the last part as if he feared that Laura would pop up right behind him.
Derek shook his head with a quite laugh.
"Ready to face the others again?" Stiles asked and handed him his shirt.
"I think so." He put it on and then went in search for his boots. "What about you? Is everybody nice to you?" Or are there others who share Megan's opinion, was the question he didn't ask.
"They were all falling over themselves to assure me how much they liked me and how happy they are for us." Stiles told him and Derek wished he had been there to see it. Stiles had bathed in that attention, he was sure of that.
On their way downstairs Laura caught up with them and drew him into a hug before he could even open his mouth to tell her that she didn't need to worry about him.
"Do you have a moment?" She asked when they parted. She threw a glance at Stiles, telling him that this was something between the two alphas. When Stiles just waved them off and told them that he would go and see if he could help with dinner, she couldn't hide her surprise. She clearly hadn't expected that Stiles understood what she'd been telling him with one glance. A wolf would have understood immediately and a human grown up in a pack as well, but Stiles was neither.
"He is something." She watched him going down the stairs.
"He is."
Derek followed her to her office, this was something official after all. At the moment they weren't siblings, they were alphas. More specific, Derek was an alpha from another pack, visiting her, and there were rules in place to prevent bloodshed. Not insulting each other was one of those rules.
In Laura's office somebody was already waiting for them and Derek knew it was Megan before Laura even opened the door.
Megan was way more meek than he would have expected from the rebellious teenager and she apologized to Derek without much fuss and promised to not step out of line again. Derek accepted her apology and with that Laura let her off as well.
"She's a teenager." Laura said when the official part was over and they could be siblings again. "I assure you, she only said it to piss off her parents, me and the world in general. Nobody thinks that you're anything like Kate." She stood in front of him now and suddenly she was his big sister again, the one who had all the answers and always knew what to do. "I see how Stiles looks at you and how you look at him. I know you didn't ask for the bond but you're mates, things like that don't care about age. I know you will take good care of your mate." She bumped her shoulder into his. "And he of you. You should have seen him earlier, he came up with some very creative threats. I think Megan is still in shock."
Chapter 41
Masterpost