So this is something that I have had sitting in the wings for like three years. It was a prompt given to me, and I really wanted to do a whole story, but I only got as far as the first chapter. I don't foresee me going any further with this story, so I wanted to put it out there in to the universe. As with all my stories, this was to be a Derek/Stiles pairing, but I never got that far, so I tagged it as pre-relationship. If I ever have the ambition to come back to this I will continue, but for now, enjoy the tease I am giving you.

"But mom, I want to go too! Please!"

My mom squats down and places a kiss on my forehead. "Sorry sweetheart, but you can't tonight, we will be going out on a run after the pack meeting. Soon though, I promise."

"But I want to run with you guys too!" my voice is high and reedy, cracking every other word.

"Genim, you know you won't be able to keep up until you make the full shift. Now we know that it is coming soon, your eyes have started to flash, and that is always the first sign. So please be patient, and go to bed. Besides, you have school in the morning." She kisses my forehead again and then stands to kiss my dad too. "I should be back by midnight."

"Alright, say hello to everyone for us." Mom heads out the door and dad picks me up, and throws me over his shoulder. "As for you, it's past your bed time."

"Da-ad, I'm ten years old now, I'm too old for a bed time."

"Uh-hu, sure you are." He just laughs and carries my up to my bedroom and plops me down on the bed. He tucks me in and stands to cross the room. "Night, kiddo."

"Night dad." When the lights go off, I wait about five minutes before I reach over to my nightstand and pull out my flashlight and my book of wolf stories that mom wrote for me. My eyes are falling, but I love the stories too much to just stop reading in the middle of one.

The next thing I know, I am woken up to the sounds of howling way off in the distance. It sounds like some one is hurt. "Dad!"

He comes racing into my room. "I heard it too."

"Dad, someone's hurt." There is an itching under my skin and an ache in my chest. "Dad, my heart hurts." Tears spring up in my eyes and I don't know why. "Daddy, it hurts so bad." He wraps me up in his arms and carries me to his bedroom where he pulls the phone and starts calling people, all while running a hand through my hair. Eventually the burn in my chest is enough to pull me back to sleep.

That's when I bolt up in bed. My clothes are drenched in sweat and my throat is sore. "Stiles, Stiles, it's okay. I'm here. It was just a dream, kid. It was just a dream." Its then, that I can feel the tears streaming down my face and dad's arms wrapped around me from behind clutching me to his chest. Neither one of us say anything, I just take time to calm myself down.

Eventually, dad must sense that I am not going back to sleep any time soon, so he moves over to my dresser, pulls out a fresh t-shirt for me and after I change guides me downstairs to the kitchen. He starts fiddling with the stove and pulls out two mugs from the cabinet.

"It was the fire again, wasn't it." He asks, but doesn't make it a question. It's the only nightmare I've had consistently for the last six years.

"Yeah." I can't meet his eyes, I just stay focused on the table in front of me. Eventually there is a mug of steaming hot chocolate there and I robotically pick it up to take a long pull from it. It burns my mouth, but that heals over a few seconds after the damage is done. He doesn't say anything more, so that gives me time to think about the way my life has gone since that day.

There aren't words to describe the aftermath of the Hale house fire. It killed most of the Hale family. It killed my mom. She was only going out there that night because she wanted to let our Alpha, a woman named Talia, know that I was finally showing signs of the wolf. I was somewhat of a late bloomer, and mom thought that it might have skipped me. But then, two days before the normal monthly pack meeting, my eyes started shifting Beta gold. Dad was happy, but that was mostly because mom was ecstatic.

See, my dad is human, or rather, not a werewolf. While my mom was. She always told me stories of the things she used to do growing up and she wanted to be able to share that with me, but she never made me feel like just being a non-wolf would be any less.

In other words, it's my fault that my mom was there when the house burned down. It's my fault she died that night. Dad's never said that to me, and he never makes me feel that way, but sometimes when he is sitting alone reading the paper in the living room, he'll look up as if to say something to her, only to realize that she isn't there. It's that and a million other little things that tell me what the truth is.

And as if that wasn't enough, three of the four surviving members of the pack, because there were surviving members, left town and didn't say anything to us. That night when I felt the burn in my chest, that was most of my pack dying. Two days later, it was a thousand times worse; Dad couldn't touch me because it only made the fire burn brighter.

He had to pull me out of school and quit his job as a deputy sheriff, just so he could home school me and help to find an anchor. He had to get a job where he worked online for some data entry company and he wouldn't let me out of his sight for two years. Even after he got his job back and found someone that knew what I was to look after me at night when he was at work, I was still home schooled and it wasn't until two years ago that he let me go to high school. Now it's the start of Junior year, and he was elected to Sherriff of Beacon County. The public really likes a guy who is willing to quit his job so he can take care of his troubled kid after his wife died. I did try to help him out with that.

His schedule is a bit more chaotic, but he tries to be home for dinner every night even if he has to turn around and leave again right after.

Being an Omega is hard. I didn't make my first transformation until the second moon after the fire, and that was no walk in the park. Now, I hold onto my father and the memories of my mother to anchor me. Dad and I are kind of winging it though. He doesn't know much of how to be a wolf, and mom died before she could explain a lot of it to me. I know most of the basics, but I am kind of figuring it out as I go along. Last year, when I made the full shift into an actual wolf, it scared the shit out dad and I. I was mostly okay, just freaking out in my new form, but dad was near hysterics. He knew that it was a possibility for weres to achieve, but neither one of us thought that it would happen to me. Mom didn't even have the ability to do it. As far as I knew, only Talia did in our pack.

Over the next few months, dad stopped freaking so much and let me run out in the preserve so I could release some of the pent up energy the full moon brings me. Normally, I am okay just to sit around playing video games, or talking about mom with dad, but ever since I have been able to make the full shift, I just need to run. Dad took some pictures of me once when I was shifted. After doing a lot of research on wolves, I figured out that I most closely resemble a Grey Wolf, my fur is dark brown in color, much like my hair is normally, but I have a white/grey front paw on my right side, and a small patch on my left eye in the same color. Dad keeps up a constant stream of dog jokes, but I make just as many, so there really isn't anything mean about it.

Otherwise things in my life are pretty normal now. I mean as normal as they get for the werewolf son of the local Sherriff. I don't have many friends, in fact I really only have one, and even that is a strained friendship. Scott McCall is like a puppy, so there is no way I can't call him a friend, but he is also friends with the more popular crowd and was before I entered the scene. Let's just say that his friends and I don't get along all that well. He was the only one who talked to me the first day of high school that didn't treat me like I would loose it at any second. Now, I am the scapegoat loner who Jackson Whitemore loves to pick on. I guess I do have a few other friends, if you want to use that term loosely.

Isaac Lahey is a kid that I helped out freshmen year. The first time I sat next to him in homeroom, I knew that the kid was getting beaten on a regular basis. Dad was mad at me for sticking my nose in, but once it was proved that the kid's father was beating him and locking him in a chest freezer, well, he couldn't say much after that. Isaac is still pretty withdrawn and lives with a foster family. We hang out sometimes, and do projects together when we share classes, but we both have our secrets, and don't pry too much into each other's lives.

Erica Reyes is the second one in our loose friend group. She has epilepsy, and once when we were in English class, she started to seize and some asshole started to film it. So I decked him and then helped stabilize her best I could until the paramedics got there. I got a day of suspension for knocking the kid out cold, but no one messes with her any more. Dad wasn't happy about that either, but again, couldn't fault me for putting myself out there for someone else. He did ground me for a week though, and when you spend all of your time out running in the woods, or playing video games, that really blows. She, like Isaac, pretty much leaves me alone, but sometimes we eat lunch together and talk about our mutual love of Batman.

Vernon Boyd, or just Boyd, as he likes to be called, is the last member in our circle. He is a loner like me, doesn't say much, and doesn't do much either. I don't really know how we picked him up, but it happened somewhere along the way.

But none of them know my secret. Dad said that the fire didn't look like an accident, even though the reports all pointed in that direction. He said that some Hunters came to town a few months before it happened, and that they left very quickly afterward. I say capital 'H' hunters, because they are special brand that hunt werewolves and other supernatural creatures. We don't know the specifics, only that they were from an offshoot of the Argent clan, and they are not ones to be messed around with.

Dad doesn't like it, but I have started to do weekly patrols through the city to make sure that things are on the up and up. There are a few different supernatural's living here in Beacon Hills, but none of them cause too much trouble. In fact, Peter Hale is still here. He was burned pretty badly during the fire, and even with the wolf healing, I am not sure that he will ever make a full recovery. I used check in on him every now and then, just to see if there is any progress, but the last few years, his nurse has been making me leave before I'm there for more than a few minutes. Everyone in town knows that my mom was killed in the same fire as the rest of the Hales, but that doesn't seem to stop her.

"Son, you okay?" Dad pulls me out of my thoughts and I nod, not really wanting to say much of anything right now. "You need anything?"

"I-I think I could do with a run?" I don't want to sound weak, but I know that if I can wear myself out, then I can fall back asleep. It's a Friday night/early Saturday morning, so I don't have school to worry about. He has work in about three hours, but I think it might take a few laps to get me settled again. I can't say relaxed, because that isn't something I've felt since before mom died.

"Okay, just make sure to get some sleep when you get home. I don't want you sleeping all day long. You have school Monday whether you like it or not." His voice is stern, but his eyes show the weariness that happens every time I am woken with the nightmare.

"Sure thing Daddio." He rests a hand on my shoulder before heading back upstairs to get a few more hours sleep.

I go out to the back yard and walk into the shed dad built when I made the transformation into the wolf, so I would have a way of getting in and out without having to worry the neighbors. It's more of a small workroom, but it has enough space for me to shift and a spot for me to leave my clothes, and a medium size doggie door that I can slip out of.

Once I am in the woods and I let the wolf take over a bit, I am able to let some tension out of my limbs and let go a bit. I start up my usual path and start off on my circuit of the city.

Running as the wolf is always a more freeing aspect, and I am happy that I can lose myself in it a little without having to worry about more mundane problems. The wolf doesn't process things the way a human does, it is more instinctual and simple.

The main reason I started running patrols is because I know it's what my mom and the Hale pack did. They protected the city and it's inhabitants. I am young and only an Omega, but I do what I can. I have warded off a few wandering Omegas in the last year, but so far nothing bigger has come to town.

Almost as if my thoughts were acting against me, I feel the presence of an Alpha. It's been a feeling that has been steadily growing the last few days, but now it is full blown. Opening up my senses, I let myself feel for the power source that all Alphas appear to radiate, and start off in that direction. It takes me off my regular route and deeper into the preserve. I don't know what they want, but I have to see what they are doing here.

After about ten minutes of carefully jogging through the trees I hear a howl go up. It is one that is calling pack, but it sounds broken, hurt. Every instinct in me is pulling me towards it, and it is in the same direction that the Alpha's presence is in. Eventually it becomes too much to fight and I am racing through the underbrush to get to the wolf in need.

By the time I get there, I see Peter, walking. Its slow, but measured. Almost as if he is in a trance of some sort, but then the female turns and all of sudden I am hit with a face I never thought I would see again. Laura Hale. She's back, she must be the Alpha that I sensed. But then Peter is attacking her, and I act on reflex.

One leap and a giant pounce has me on Peter's back, teeth digging into his neck. It is enough to get him off Laura, and as I leap away, I shift so that I am better able to fight in my Beta form. I issue a low growl and Laura takes a defensive stance in-between us, making a triangle, but all my focus is on Peter. I knew something was wrong, I could almost feel it, but his nurse never let me sit there long enough to get a good sense of what it was.

He lunges again, and I am there fighting him off. I may only be sixteen years old, but Peter is still weak, and it doesn't take much for me to fend him off, and send him scurrying into the preserve. Then I turn and face Laura. There is surprise on her face and then her eyes scrunch up as if she is looking through dim light or fog. The surprise comes back, "Genim?"

I growl at the name that I haven't used since mom died. "It's Stiles now." I know that my eyes are flashing, but I can't help it. I never thought that I would be confronted with any of the living Hales again. It is just bringing up all of the feelings that my nightmare earlier tonight started. I can't deal with this right now. I shift back to the wolf and take off back into the trees. She is calling after me, and I can hear her footfalls, but in human or Beta form, there is no way she will be able to keep up with me. I am not as physically strong as my mother was, but I know that I am faster.

So I run all night until the sun is starts cresting the horizon.

Dad is gone when I get home, so I go straight up to my room and crash. My alarm goes off at noon and all the energy I have is just to turn it off and roll over, pulling the covers over my head. I don't fall back asleep, but my brain is going a thousand miles an hour trying to process everything that happened last night. The nightmare, Peter's attack, and Laura's return.

I didn't know what was going on with Peter's nurse and the fact that she wouldn't let me visit, but now it is coming together. If he was regenerating and didn't want anyone to know, then they would want to keep me far away from him. We were kind of pack once, so that bond is probably still there, even if remotely. I know I can feel it with Laura.

My hackles rise at the thought. Laura. I can't believe that she would come back here after all this time. What brought her back to Beacon Hills? Was it Peter? Did he attack her trying to get the Alpha power for himself? Would he really be willing to kill his own niece for it, one of his few remaining family members just to get it? I mean, if he has been healing slowly, then he would have been trapped in his own mind with a body that wouldn't work. That could drive a person to insanity. But he was moving just fine last night. I mean his movements were stilted and tense, like he hadn't exercised the muscles for a long time, but he was still able to move.

But Laura, she's back and she couldn't even drop a call to let us know. To come and visit. She probably thought that she could get in and out without anyone being the wiser. If I hadn't been in the woods last night, I might not have gotten to them in time to stop Peter from killing her. And if she's here, then where are Derek and Cora? They all left right after the fire and no one has seen or heard from them since.

So many emotions are welling up all at once and all I want is to escape them. So I quickly divest myself of clothing and slip into my wolf form. I won't sleep, but at least I won't be quite as emotional in this state.

Dad comes home about supper time, and I am curled up on the sofa with my head under one of his sweatshirts he left downstairs. The smell of home and him have helped me through the afternoon, and allowed me to prepare myself for the conversation that I know will happen when he sees me like this in the middle of the day.

I hear him come in the house and he pauses in the doorway, "Stiles? Are you okay son?" He walks over slowly and gently pulls back the sweatshirt. The whine that escapes my throat causes him to sit down and take slow careful strokes through my fur. "Come on kiddo, you can't tell me what's wrong like this. Go up stairs and get some clothes on then come back down here so we can talk." His voice leaves no room for argument, so I do as I am told. I may not have an Alpha, but dad's commanding voice is enough like one that I can't usually resist the urge to submit.

When I get back down, I hear him on the tail end of a phone call with the pizza place. He orders half meat lovers and half veggie. Placating me will do wonders to get me to talk, and the fact that he is willing enough to eat his vegetables tells me that I must be in a right state.

When he sees me he waves me over to the couch and pulls me into his arms allowing me to put my head on his shoulder like I did when I was younger and just wanted to snuggle. We haven't done this in a few years, and now I can't think of why we ever stopped. "What's wrong, kid? What has you so out of it?"

It takes me a moment to gather myself together but I just can't hold it in any longer. "On my run last night, I ran into some other wolves."

"Stiles?" Dad's voice is worried and his body is tensing up.

"It was Laura, dad. She's back in town. She's the Alpha and she's back. And Peter attacked her. I stopped him, but she recognized me, she said my name. Dad, I don't think I can go through that again. I know I can't, neither can you. I'm finally in a good place, I'm not going crazy every full moon, and I can handle myself around others without wolfing out. I can't deal with her showing up and leaving again. If she leaves…"

He grabs me with both arms and holds me tighter than what most humans would be able to stand, and pulls my head into the space between his shoulder and neck, letting me take in his scent. "You can. You are so strong, kid. I won't let anything happen to you. If she is back, then we will deal with it, whatever that means. But you have to tell me what you just said about Peter. I thought he was in the long term care wing at the hospital, that his burns were to severe even for a werewolf to heal from?"

"He should have been, I mean, that's what I thought. But I don't really know everything about this dad, you know that. He still seemed weak, like he isn't back all the way, but he was attacking Laura. I think he was trying to kill her. I stopped him and he ran off, but she saw me, she knows who I am. I can't dad, I just can't." I bury my head into his neck again and stop trying to fend off the tears that I have been fighting since last night. Dad just holds me and rocks me through it.

The doorbell rings, and the smell of pizza is enough to bring me out of whatever state I'm in, at least enough for dad to get up and pay the delivery guy and come back in the living room with two sodas and some paper towels. He turns on the TV to some sports game, but I don't care enough to pay any attention to it. I manage to scrape down one piece, but my throat feels like sandpaper, so I don't try to eat any more. After dad's done, he pulls me back to him and lets me rest on his shoulder while he continues to watch the game on a low volume.

We haven't sat like this since the years right after mom died, and it feels nice. I have my pack around me and I feel safe. Safe enough that I am able to fall asleep.

The next day dad has off so we sit around together watching old movies. We don't talk much, but we don't need to. The last few years I have been able to talk circles around him, and he mostly puts up with it, but he knows that I close myself off from others and that he is the only one I can really talk to. He may not know much about werewolves, but he tries his best to be supportive no matter what.

About seven that night I hear a car drive up the street that doesn't sound like anything that anyone owns on this block, let alone this street. I try to relax a bit, having been tensed since Friday night and I am just psyching myself out. But then the presence of an Alpha gets closer, and as soon as the car stops outside the house I can smell her. Dad sees me tense up. "Stiles, what is it?"

"She's here." My voice is quite, a whisper, but my heart is beating so fast that I think it might jump out of my chest. I stand up and start for the stairs. "I can't, I can't do it. Not again." Dad calls out my name, but I can't deal with it. I dash into his room and hide myself on what used to be mom's side by the bed.

The knock at the door has my dad's heart going a bit faster than normal, but he answers it with a terseness to his voice that I don't often hear. "What do you want?'

"Mr. Stilinski, I think we need to talk."

"Really, I think that we needed to talk six years ago, but that ship has long since sailed, now hasn't it." Even from up here I can feel the anger radiate from him.

"I know, I'm sorry. Do you think I could come in so we can do this more privately?" She sounds small and sad, but dad's heartbeat is still ticked a few notches too high. He is going to have a heart attack at this rate.

The door closes, but Laura's presence doesn't leave, so I guess that means he let her in. "Do you honestly think 'sorry' is enough? I know what you kids went through that night. I know because he went through it too. He went through it for three years. Three years, Laura! That's how long it took him to find an anchor and be able to control himself. Four years of home schooling and uncountable panic attacks before we could even think about sending him back to public school. Do you know what that's like?" Dad's voice raises with every word and by the end he is yelling so loud that I'm sure the neighbors can hear.

I start creeping out of the bedroom and to the top of the stairs so I can get a better judge of what is going on down there. The smell of guilt and sorrow are acrid and so strong it is almost washing out the scent of rage and anger that is coming from dad. Laura feels bad. Good. She should.

"No, it isn't. I honestly didn't know that Genim was a wolf, otherwise I never would have left him. I didn't know. I was scared, and I had to protect my pack-"

I've had enough now, Dad doesn't need this, and I am tired of withholding my fury at her. "Your pack! You had to protect your pack, what about us, Laura? What about the Human pack members that were still alive? What about me?"

"Genim, I-"

"My name is Stiles! Genim hasn't been here for the same number of years that you've been gone."

There are tears forming in her eyes and I can't help but take some sick sort of satisfaction from seeing them. "Stiles, I'm sorry. I didn't know, we had just lost our family, I was only-"

"Yes! Your family! Just like how I lost my mother in the same fire. I lost my pack too, Laura. You weren't the only one. I felt it. A fire in my chest, little did I know then that it was my heart that hurt, not my chest. That my heart burned with them because I felt their pain, just like you did. But it didn't stop there, no, not for me. Two days later it felt like everything I knew was shattered and I couldn't do anything about it. Dad couldn't comfort me in the wake of my mother's death, a funeral neither of us could go to, because I was so out of it with misery and pain that all I could do is writhe on the floor and watch my father cry because he couldn't do anything to stop it. Your pack was killed, Laura. Mine abandoned me. You have no idea what that feels like. What it still feels like. You are just standing there, hoping for forgiveness, and there is a part of me that wants nothing more than to submit to you and beg for you to never leave again. But then there is the other part of me that remembers what happened, and remembers the years of pain that I went through, they years of remembering how my father gave up the job he loved so that he could stay home and look after a son who was on the verge of losing control and going feral."

Dad gasps at my outburst. Shit. He didn't know that. I never wanted him to. "Stiles-" He reaches out to me, but I just take his hand and keep it by my side, never turning from Laura.

My voice is almost hoarse and gravely but I have more to say and I can't stop now. "No, you just left without looking back. It's been six years, Laura. Six years and you haven't called, not once. I know your pain was great, but so was ours. You left me to be an Omega. You left me with only my father as pack, and we have done just fine without you, so you need to do whatever it is you came here to do, and get the hell out of my territory." Not having anything more to say, and not being able to stand here for one more minute I turn to dad to silently let him know that I need to get out. He nods and I brush past Laura, who is standing still in what must be shock, yet carefully enough so as to not touch her, to get to the back door, where I race to the woods and start running.

Tears blur my vision and it takes me a long time to stop and clear them, but when I do and finally take in my surroundings, I can sense that there aren't the usual number of birds and other wildlife chatter. It's dark out and the forest is too quite. That's when I hear the footsteps and the twang of a crossbow. Biting back the scream that is building in my throat I turn and see three figures step out of the shadow and into the moon light twenty yards away. Hunters. Shit. I thought that they had all cleared out a long time ago. The others raise their guns but a dark blur knocks them to the ground and as the lead Hunter turns to face the new opponent, I take the opportunity to leave.

The sound of footfalls continue behind me and with my shoulder still bleeding, I'm not concentrating enough to out pace them, but if they are keeping up, that means it's another wolf. So I turn and brace myself ready to attack, but when the wolf comes closer, he slows and holds his hands up as if he is trying call peace. "Who are you and what do you want? This land is taken."

"I know, it belongs to my pack."

"Your pack, who do you-" I cut myself off as I take the guy's appearance. He is tall, same height as me, dark hair and eyes that match Laura's. "Derek." I relax my stance and take a few steps back. "This isn't your land anymore. You left and never re-staked the claim."

"So what, that makes it yours now?"

"Yes, I've been the one to hold it for the last six years. It's Stilinski territory now, don't like it, then leave. Don't let the branches hit you on your way out."

His eyes sharpen and squint at me much the same way Laura's did. "Genim?"

I let loose a growl. "Everyone needs to stop calling me that. My name is Stiles. This is my territory, so that means you and your pack need to leave. I've already told Laura that, so take a hint and get the hell out of a place where you're no longer welcome."

Reaching back, I pull out the crossbow bolt and throw it to the ground, then dash off back to the house. Dad has to know what is going on, that the Hunters are back in town. And the Hale pack needs to back the fuck off and leave before I really lose it and maul one of them.

By the time I get back to the house, Laura's car is gone and all the lights are off in the house, but dad is sitting on the back porch. I slowly walk over to him and sit down next to him on the steps, making sure to keep my bloody, now healed, shoulder, away from him. "She's gone?"

He knows that I know she is, but sometimes acting a little more 'human' in front of him, helps him calm down. "Yeah, she left not too long after you did. Stiles, why didn't you ever tell me? I could have done more."

"That's it though, dad. There was nothing more you could have done. You did everything and more. You moved heaven and earth just to keep me from losing myself. I couldn't tell you how close I actually came to giving in, telling you how weak I am."

"Son, you are far from weak, you and I both know that. And if you ever doubted yourself, just remember that you can do what few other wolves are capable of. But kid, I'm your father, it's what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to take care of you. Sometimes I think you forget who has what role in this father/son dynamic."

"I know, dad, I just didn't want to worry you with something that didn't even happen anyway. I'm sorry you had to find out that way. I just… I just couldn't listen to her anymore. I could hear your heartbeat, and I couldn't take it anymore."

He puts his hand on my uninjured shoulder and gives me a half smile. "You were pretty impressive in there. You had the whole glowy eyes and claws out thing going."

"I did?" That is news to me.

"Don't worry kid, I knew you were in control the whole time. But Laura was pretty shaken when she left."

"Good, she should be."

"Stiles-"

"No. She abandoned us and now it's time she paid for it."

"I think she has been paying for the last six years, son."

"What do you mean?"

"She didn't say much after you left, but from the sounds of it, things have been pretty rough for them too. The Hunters apparently followed them out of town and chased them across the U.S. They finally made it to New York, and have been living there for the past three years. Big cities are rough for a wolf, so many noises and scents all in once place. But it's easier to get lost in a crowd. She said they only came back because they got some reports of werewolf activity in the area and wanted to check it out."

"You mean those deer that were killed?"

"Yeah, she had a picture of one of them, the one with the spiral."

"But how do they know it is a werewolf?" And how had I not known that there was a random werewolf prowling through the preserve?

"She said that the spiral is the werewolf symbol for revenge. That whoever made it must be looking to start up trouble. The picture was sent to her without a return address, so she decided to come check it out. Derek and Cora refused to let her come alone, so they came with her."

"Yeah, I just ran into Derek." It comes out darkly and dad doesn't say anything. That allows me time to tell him the other bit. "I ran into him after some Hunters showed up."

"Hunters!?"

"Yeah, I guess they must have seen the same activity and came to check it out." Dad starts looking me over and finds the blood and hole in my shirt. Before he says anything, "I'm okay. There was no wolfsbane, and it's all healed. Promise."

"No more nightly runs."

"Dad!"

"No, not with them out there. You need to be careful. There is only so much I can do if you get shot. If we don't have the right wolfsbane then you will die. I'm not losing you, not to them."

I know that this is a battle that I wont' win, so I silently concede and we go back in the house.

He stays downstairs while I head up to my room, where I am pulled into a crushing hug. There is a mop of brown hair and the slight hint of claws on my back as the hug gets harder and harder. "Can't breath, Cora."

She pulls back a bit. "I never wanted to leave. I wanted to stay with you guys and I told them that we were being stupid. We still had a pack, and that we needed them, but Laura wouldn't listen to me and made me go with them. I tried to call you, but I never knew your number. Then we were running and by the time we settled and I looked you up, it had been years. I did call you once, but I couldn't say anything. I just hung up and then regretted it, but I couldn't call you back. Not after we left you. I'm so sorry." She doesn't let me say anything else, just pulls me back into a hug.

It doesn't take long for me to succumb and hug her back. "It's okay." We both hear the lie, but neither of us call me on it. Eventually, we pull away from each other.

"Stiles, I'm so sorry. Laura told me everything, I had no idea."

"None of you did. That's why my mom was at the house that night. To tell you all that I had showed the first signs and that I would be making my first transformation in the next year. Came a little early though. Second moon after you guys left."

"That was a bad one for us too. Hunters had us cornered in a motel down in Arizona. We barely made it out." Her voice is hushed and I know that I can't really blame her for the way I feel. No matter how much I may want to.

I don't say anything, because what is there to say really? I don't want to tell her about the years of pain I went through, and I certainly don't want to hear about hers either. So instead we sit leaning against my bed on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, in silence.

"I've never known you to be this quite before, didn't know you had it in you."

Her tone is light, obviously trying to make the mood a bit brighter. "A lot has changed in the last six years." It sounds more serious than I intended. "You just caught me on an off day." She smiles at that.

"I don't want to leave again. Not when I know we have pack here."

Sighing, I rub my hands down my face. "Cora, I haven't been pack for a long time now."

"To me you have been. You've always been pack, always will be."

I'm not sure who initiates the hug this time, but taking in her scent and letting it fall into place with the smell of home is pretty easy. "I won't make it easy for her if she decides to stay, you know that, right?"

"Yes, and neither will I, just try not to be too hard on her. It hasn't been sunshine and rainbows for us either. Just… give her a chance to prove that she cares."

"I might be able to do that. But only so long as you are staying. If you guys leave-"

"If she leaves, then she's going without me. Alpha or not, I'm not leaving home again." That is enough to make me stop and just let me lose myself to the feeling of having more than one pack member for the first time in a long time.

Thanks for reading! I know I haven't posted anything in a really long time. I finally got a new laptop, (two years later), and I am trying to work on a new story that I've had started for about as long as this one. It is completely AU and deals with the Alpha pack in a different way with an older Stiles and Derek, and other characters in varying ages. I am hopeful that I am able to keep focus and inspiration to write it, but I won't post anything until I am finished. That way this is the only teasing I give you, and I don't fall flat like I did on 'Not What I was Looking for'.

Thank you again for your continuing support! Until next time!