Chapter Text
Later on, Peter would tell him that it was human love - that simple yet undeniable act, the strongest thing humans are capable of - which had saved Liam´s life. Stiles would never guess Peter to be a sentimental fool.
Well, what was he supposed to do when the kid appeared at Stiles ´doorstep, all bloody and barely standing? Stiles practically saw red, overwhelming need to protect pushing everything else aside. That kid was his responsibility at some deep instinctual level.
Stiles felt like someone electrized him. Like he had a million hands, out of sudden, and those were crawling like ants down the streets, pushing unknown danger far away. He took a deep breath, suddenly feeling heavy; Liam whined, kneeling, but it sounded relieved more than anything else, as far as Stiles could tell. His eyes flashed gold before he looked down in submission to Stiles and the older one did not even bat an eye, supporting the kid´s weight, pulling him inside.
"Sorry,” slurred Liam. Stiles did not bother to ask what he was sorry for since the kid practically passed out shortly after.
He called the Hales. There was no doubt in his mind that they knew what was going on.
Peter sounded amused more than anything else, but he and Derek appeared in front of Stiles flat in a matter of minutes even though they had no car with them and walking distance between their homes was a good thirty minutes.
Derek went straight to Liam, worried, barely audible whines escaping his month, hands touching hair, cheeks and torso, where the wounds, already healed, left a bloody trail.
Stiles could not bring himself to tell Derek to leave the kid alone. There was nothing inappropriate about those touches, at least to Stiles - but anybody else would try to do the same to Liam, Stiles would have their balls.
"What happened to him?" Stiles demanded.
“Almost the same as the others who got caught by the murderers in this town. Harpies are not funny business.´
"Peter," Derek hissed in a warning, distressed more than anything else. Peter flashed his eyes on his nephew, snapping, "if you think he´s stupid enough to not realizing something is off, you truly do not deserve him.”
Before realizing what's going on, Stiles instinctively bared his teeth at Peter, angry at his harsh treatment of Derek, who visibly flinched at the display. Lights in the flat flicked on and off and both men looked at him in something close to awe while he sat beside Liam, not bothering to fight his need to be close to the kid anymore.
He should be freaking out. Strange behaviour, golden eyes and many other things with no explanation. He should be afraid of the Hales, hell, even Liam.
He just could not bring himself to do so.
"Explain that mess to me. Now."
*** **** ***
Freaking Scott Mccall. And all of them huddled around the phone, like children asking strict parents for forgiveness.
“Send him back as soon as he´s healed enough. Derek, accompany him?”
It was almost funny - in Stiles' mind, Scott was almost an evil-like hated enemy, someone taking away something important from him. But at that moment, the other boy sounded just tired to the bone and worried.
“There´s no reason for Derek to go with him. Harpies´re gone,” Peter reminded him.
“He´s the youngest, the weakest and evidently not fully in control of his instincts. Him coming for Stiles is proof enough we can´t leave him alone now.”
“As you wish, Alpha.” That sentence was said mockingly - Peter evidently was far from satisfied by the situation and he blamed Scott for the results. Scott was at least clever enough to ignore the mocking. Derek just sighed, not joining the conversation verbally - much much later Stiles would find out that Derek respected old fashioned traditions and rules in pack, which were usually ignored with exception of two strange pack meeting for a first time - if not asked directly, do not interrupt conversation of pack members with higher ranks than yours.
“ Stiles, they´ll tell you the bare minimum you need to know. It's dangerous, so listen to them. For now, he is just a human in our world, nothing else.” It was clear that the second part was a silent order to the Hales. Keep him in the dark as much as possible. Derek´s crestfallen expression confirmed Stiles´ suspicion - Peter put palm on Derek´s nape in silent comfort while stales held his wrist, just to ground him.
“Yes, Alpha,” Stiles growled back. The title was acknowledgment of Scott´s power over them, the one he still did not understand. But also the resilience - he would not play by only human rules anymore - there is alpha and pack and so much more and Scott Mccal would not take that away from him anymore.
*** *** ***
Apparently, Liam was as good as a pup of the pack, as Derek explained, his voice dripping of fond exasperation. The pup basically lived in Stiles ´ pocket, short-tempered and desperate for affection, as all of them in the group seemed to be, but Liam had the luxury of age which still allowed him to let himself to be smothered by parental tendencies of Stiles´ with no shame.
Wolves build strong emotional connections and as a youngest, Liam had a hard time to control those instincts. Nobody could really blame him for needing Stiles.
"Be glad there is only him at your door and not Isaac, too. You and Scott basically co-parented them the last two years, with Liam creating a stronger bond with you and Isaac doing the same with Scott," Derek added after the first protective streak towards the pup of the pack was sated.
“Scott´s your alpha. That's why you obey him.” That's why they refused to tell him the truth about his own past.
“”Without alpha, we would be omegas. We'd be as good as dead,” Peter explained, his voice sour and serious for once.
“You won't tell me what happened to me without his permission.”
“We're sorry. You need to understand that's not our choice to make,” Derek pleaded, putting hand at Stiles´ shoulder carefully, ready to be shrugged off.
Stiles did not do that. He was almost burning in disdain, but not towards the Hales.
How did Scott dare to put all of them through this?
“Wake the pup up in an hour or so. I´ll have a supper ready,” Peter said, disappearing in Stiles´s kitchen, letting both his nephew and Stiles be - while the youngest was resting on sofa, both Derek and Stiles sat at the carpet, leaning their backs and heads the way to have a direct contact with the boy. At the same time, they were almost plastered against each other, shoulder to toe, fingers intertwined, resting on Derek´s thigh.
It was about comfort. Both of them needed it to be able to rest.
Sounds of Peter fumbling in the kitchen sounded almost like a lullaby to Stiles. The three of them were safe like this, even though Stiles did not understand too many things to make a sound judgement about anything at that point.
*** *** ***
Hale´s flat was almost solemn with only Stiles and Peter there - a lot of utensils and books and dust dancing in the sunlight.
Peter did not let Derek and Liam go without properly scenting them, even though there were going just to run some errands before heading back to Bacon Hills. There was no way that Stiles and Peter would let them travel without food and snacks and checking out the car - why Liam run the distance worth of day and half in car was beyond them all. Stiles hugged both, barely ignoring the instinct to keep them close, even knowing they would say proper goodbye before they would go - the pup clearly earning to stay and Derek, so obedient and almost pliant that frustrated Stiles and worried him at the same time.
“What do you think that Derek studied at university?” Peter asked, out of the blue.
“Something with literature,” he said, without hesitation, with a recent memory full of pictures of Derek sitting somewhere with some book, talking so passionately about poetry or stories in general - it was almost the sole topic in which he opposed Stiles and managed to stay relaxed, almost playful.
“No. It was the economy in New York. His last alpha, his sister asked him to after the fire. Something useful, she said, and he listened.”
“He hated it.” Stiles guessed.
“He did. But he graduated in economics because his alpha asked. Derek´s exceptional beta, obedient to the fault. A lot of bad things happened to him to the point he decided to let his instincts overwhelm his human part. And his wolf just wants to obey his alpha.”
It's easier to live when you hand all decisions to someone else,” observed Stiles, his voice soft, ache inside his chest much stronger that it has a right to be after such a vague explanation. The thing was, it never stopped to amaze him how much burden people could put on each other's shoulders and claiming doing so in the name of love, thinking that what they do is fair, that the other should take it as a proof of their own feelings. Derek taking whatever any alpha - or even Peter - told him to take. Scott taking Stiles´ decisions away from him, putting him under the burden of not knowing, to protect him, out of love.
It scared the living shit out of Stiles.
Next thing, he asked carefully, almost warry of the answer, "what´re you to Derek?"
Peter did not answer at first, since there was no easy explanation - with obedience of Derek´s, with their almost constant touches, with trauma and their not exactly human nature.
"Last remaining family. Older, stronger. At Scott´s absence, he decided to act as I´m the alpha." Because Derek would not be able to live without clear authority beside him and because Peter always adored power a bit too much.
But he was doing his best for both Derek and Stiles and he was rather good with them. That much was clear at least.
“There's only one thing he's ready to disobey his alpha or me for,” the older man continued, putting a mug in Stiles´ hand. Stiles leaned back, against Peter standing behind him, earning for comfort of somebody older, calmer, more centered than him and Derek.
“What's that?” he murmured.
“You. He´d oppose me if I tried to claim you as mine.”
To that, Stiles only shivered, in anticipation and fear both. He did not tell Peter his next thought.
You can´t know that for sure.
But one thing was clear - both of them wanted Derek to be something more than just little obedient soldier.