One month later.

Isaac was humming softly, as he strolled through the house, flipping through the mail. Derek had finally helped him officially transfer his address to the Hale manor and he smiled as he saw the first piece of mail sent to him at this address. It was junk mail, of course, and they'd spelt his name wrong, but he finally felt like he had a home. Somewhere he belonged. He heard footsteps upstairs and automatically headed up the steps to the usable wing of the house. Derek had put a roof over his head - The least he could do was take the guy up his mail.

Isaac paused outside Derek's room as he heard muffled sounds, smiling as he recognised Lydia's voice. She'd become a regular fixture around the house, ever since one day a few weeks ago, when he'd pounced on her, nearly ripping her throat out when he'd found her creeping round the house alone. Turned out she was "just breaking in to do some plastering", holding up DIY supplies like he should have known that. He'd felt so bad about jumping on her that he'd stayed around to help her, plastering and painting the parts of the wall she couldn't reach and taking over fixing the floorboards when she'd proclaimed she was "bored of this now." Isaac had assumed Derek would fly off the handle when he found the young beta and the red-head he was sure he didn't like sitting on his bed, drinking tea and admiring their handy work, but Lydia immediately bounced over to him, smiling brightly.

"Surprise! I wanted to surprise you. Are you surprised?"

"You did all this?" He asked, staring around the room, that was now even better than it had been. She'd replastered the walls and repainted over the harsh white with a very, very pale blue colour. His bed now matched with what he assumed were probably 1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets and a simple striped blue rug had been set at a jaunty angle on the floor. She followed his gaze down to it and sighed, clearly not satisfied.

"I know, I know. You're right. I hate area rugs too. But," she crouched down, flipping the rug back revealing the now very uneven floorboards.

"Someone's not a carpenter, apparently." She nodded her head in Isaac's direction. "Oh yeah. Isaac helped, by the way... A bit." She added, smoothing the rug back down.

Isaac flinched back as Derek strode quickly over to him, learning from years of seeing his father do the same thing. Derek's expression was unreadable as he looked down at the beta who was still sprawled on his bed. Suddenly, his hand gripped his shoulder, awkwardly patting him.

"Thanks."

Lydia cleared her throat loudly from behind him, and he turned his attention back to her. "And thank you, too." He said, pointedly, glancing at Isaac

before planting a soft kiss on the top of her head.

Isaac could only stare, dumbfounded. They didn't even know each other, did they? He had a newfound respect for his Alpha. He was more complicated than he had initially thought. Maybe this had been going on in secret for weeks? Months even? Lydia smirked at his confused expression, before flouncing out of the room.

"I'm making lunch, boys. And so help you God, Derek, if I get into this kitchen and find out you've bought white bread again," she called out after

her.

She paused at the bottom of the steps, just in time to hear:

"We can trust you, right?"

"Yeah... I wont say anything."

Since that day, Lydia had become a regular fixture around the house and Isaac had actually really enjoyed having her around. He could usually tell when she was there cause there'd be a pot of earl grey brewing and the whole house would fill with the scent of bergamot, which could still never quite mask her particular cherry scent. Derek was completely different with her around aswell. Isaac would sometimes gulp when she made a joke that seemed to go too far, holding his breath for the wolf-out he assumed was coming. Instead, Derek had taken to laughing. He actually laughed. Isaac could hardly believe it. He'd even started cracking his own jokes, revealing a sharp wit and deadpan delivery that he seemed to save for Lydia alone. They were like some strange little family unit, with Lydia the mother, cooking and cleaning and fussing over their clothes, Derek the father, reading the paper at breakfast and occasionally giving him a friendly pat on the back and Isaac the child, simply happy to have found a place where he fit in. That's why he thought nothing of it when he heard Lydia's voice ringing from Derek's room.

"Are you sure this is really necessary?"

"I just don't want to take any chances."

Isaac strode into the doorway, not looking up from the pile of mail.

"Hey Derek, I have your m-" He stopped dead, taking in the scene before him.

Derek was lying on his bed, wearing boxers and a wifebeater, hand and ankle cuffs securing his arms and legs to the corners of the bed, while Lydia was bent over, securing the last restraint, wearing nothing but one of Derek's shirts. His face flitted from his Alpha, housemate and primary caregiver lying spread-eagled, to the sight of Lydia's bare ass checks peeking out from the bottom of the shirt. She straightened abruptly, both of them turning to stare at Isaac, who's mouth was still hanging open. They all just stared at each other for a moment before Lydia fixed her usual, brilliant smile on her face and took a few steps towards him.

"Hey, Isaac," she said as if there were nothing strange about the scene he'd walked in on.

"Erm... hey?" His wide eyes couldn't decide what to focus on. Looking anywhere in the vicinity of Derek seemed like a no-no, but little Lydia, with her messed up hair and a shirt that barely covered her seemed like an equally dangerous choice. She stopped directly in front of him and leaned in close, meaning he couldn't help but sniff her, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by Derek who growled very softly. He soon understood why. She smelt like coconut and bergamot and sex. It was intoxicating. Lydia continued to lean dangerously close to him, unaware of what their werewolf noses were picking up on, and began talking to him in a conspiratorial stage whisper.

"It's exactly what it looks like. Someone read 50 Shades of Grey last night and just wouldn't let it go till-"

"Lydia!" Derek snapped at her, cutting her off, making Isaac jump. Lydia, though, simply rolled her eyes.

"Ok, ok. It's the full moon tonight and as a new alpha, Derek finds it harder to control himself. He doesn't want to take any chances." She spun around, giving Derek a look to check he agreed. He nodded once, indicating he approved.

"Okay." Isaac sounded out slowly, glancing between them both as they looked at him expectantly. "Well here's your mail," he said, dropping it on the nearest surface. "And..." He puffed out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. "I'm going to leave now."

He turned and walked as fast as he could down the hall.

"Wait!" Derek called after him, making him pause on the stairs. "Are you going out running tonight?"

"Yeah," he shouted back.

"Be home by dawn!" Lydia trilled. "We've got school tomorrow!"

"And be careful!" Derek added.

The last words Derek's werewolf hearing picked up on were "so messed up" and "scarred for life", before the door slammed and Isaac was running through the words, Derek laughing softly to himself.

Lydia came and sat down next to him on the bed, still staring forlornly in the direction of the doorway where Isaac had just been.

"Are we terrible parents?" she sighed, dramatically.

He chuckled at her.

"Possibly."

"Oh, they grow up so fast," she said, wiping a fake tear from under her eye.

He reached the arm he could still move the most over to her and patted her knee with mock sincerity. She looked down at this hand with fake horror.

"Oops. That'll need tightening. God forbid you break free and ravish me."

"God forbid." He agreed, winking slyly at her.

So there it is! Truly finished now. I know this is really fluffy and I was worried he might be a little out of character in this last bit, but I don't think he could stay the same brooding, silent loner we've come to know and love if he had little Lydia coaxing him out of his shell. I reckon regular sex would cheer him up a little bit. :)

Also, thanks to DoubleDee068 who initially mentioned Isaac catching them a coupla chapters ago. It gave me the idea for this last little epilogue and I decided that Isaac would be the perfect extra character to be able to give a new take on their changing relationship. Also, I just love Isaac. I just want to cuddle him. I might try to weave Isaac into my next story? Hmm.. I'll have to have a think.

Once again, thank you for sticking with me to the end of this little story. I seriously love all of your reviews! If you liked this story, don't forget to add me to your alerts to make sure you don't miss out on any future stories I may write.

xxx