Archive of Our Own ^beta

Peter had heard of soul mates of course, but they were extremely rare and the chances of finding your mate had the same odds of being struck by lightening three times consecutively in the same field. That is to say finding your soul mate was not something most people did, even if Hollywood liked to capitalize on the ‘what ifs’. So when Peter had agreed to go into town with Talia and little Derek and Laura he hadn’t expected the trip to be exciting in any way.

He feels a tug on his sleeve as they all wait for coffee and Peter can’t wait to get away from all the smells and noises that were giving him one hell of a headache. In hindsight he had no idea why he turned when he felt the pull on his sleeve but he does, finding a small child that was only a little younger than Derek standing there looking at him curiously. “You’re a werewolf,” the child announces.

Peter raises an eyebrow, “yes I am. You’re not,” he says back.

The child nods, “I’m a human,” he confirms, “so is it true that werewolves get unibrows during the full moon?” he asks, eyes alight with curiosity.

“Oh my god!” the child’s mother blurts, “I am so sorry!” she tells Peter when she seems to notice her child asking harmless questions. She goes to pull the child back and Peter growls, not even realizing what he’s doing until the store seems to stop for a moment and Talia’s hand is on his shoulder holding him back.

“Let go of me, I’m fine,” Peter snaps, trying to shake her grip but she’s far too strong for that. Her nails bite into his skin and he can feel her power as the alpha.

“Out,” she tells him, commands him actually, and he has little choice but to go. He looks over his shoulder as he slips out the door though and the child is staring back at him, big brown eyes wide with curiosity and questions that Peter itches to answer, which is strange because he hates children and questions in equal parts. Talia gives him a look though and he lets go of the door grudgingly and lets it close on the child and his confused mother before finding his way to the forest so he could run home. He had a sudden excess of energy and he needed to work it off fast or he’d risk an involuntary transition, something he hasn’t had happen for years since he found his anchor. Odd.

By the time Talia has returned home he had worked out what happened, what that meant for him and that child. That child. Peter couldn’t help but think that the universe needed to work on that impeccable timing Hollywood was always pushing because this was not impeccable timing.

“You have to go,” Talia tells him, cutting directly to the chase.

“Excuse me?” he asks, not understanding exactly what she was saying here.

“You have to go,” she repeats, “they don’t want you anywhere near their child and to be honest I understand wh-“ she might have continued but Peter snarls at her loudly. Talia growls back, her eyes glowing red for a sharp moment before the red fades back to brown and Peter stops growling. His teeth were still bared though and he had no intention on putting them away. Humans might have been stupid enough to mistake it for a smile.

“I managed to get you some access, but its limited and I had to lie to do it so put your teeth away and listen to me,” Talia snaps. Peter pulls his lips down some but his teeth are still highly visible. Talia knew him well though, she had eighteen years of experience with him and she damn well knew this was the best she was about to get. “I told them that it would cause you pain to be away from your soul mate-”

“That isn’t a lie,” Peter points out.

Talia bares her teeth at him just a little and he wisely shuts his mouth. “I’m not an idiot Peter, I know that. But I told them it would cause Stiles, that’s his name, pain too. I told them that having contact would help minimize or even alleviate the pain completely, which is true also, but only for you. So be grateful I managed to get this much for you because they were adamant on zero contact ever thanks to your little display.”

She’s unimpressed with him obviously, but werewolves were notorious for being territorial of things they considered theirs. Land, for example, was a good example and the reason why various werewolf and human governments made efforts to keep them in their own areas and to minimize omegas. Mixing alphas together tended to result in hordes of omegas and they tended to go feral and no one wanted that. Peter always thought he’d prefer a life packless because he lacked a lot of those pack instincts that everyone else had but Talia would never release him from her pack even if she truly wanted to. Her own family and pack instincts were strong and she’d never abandon one of her own the way Peter would.

“It was hardly as if I could help it, I barely knew what I was doing.” As if he’d stake a claim on any child ever if the circumstances were not so extreme. He knew he had a reputation around here, he was sure those humans had heard it. Humans gossiped more than werewolves ever did and that was plain sad. Werewolves were always in each other’s business but humans turned gossip into a spectator sport.

“Exactly, Peter, it scared them and it should. You’re hardly predictable though I didn’t tell them that. So you’re going to go to New York to Columbia like you planned to and you’re going to do something with yourself elsewhere until your soul mate is of age and he doesn’t have to worry about parental restrictions anymore. Got that?” Talia asks but they both know that there was no real question there. He was expected to go along with all of this.

“And if I refuse?” he asks.

“Then you’re out of my hands, that was the deal that I made,” Talia says and Peter snarls at her. People pretended like Talia was a ray of sunshine that his presence threatened to block out but the truth was that Talia was as manipulative as he was. He was to follow her instructions or he was essentially subject to death. Known omegas were either assigned a new pack or killed and no one would be stupid enough to mess with Talia.

“Pack your bags, Peter.”

With a final snarl at her he turns on his heel to half listen to what she said. He wasn’t leaving without seeing Stiles- what kind of name even was that- one last time.

*

Ten Years Later

Stiles barely had a memory of when he met Peter for the first time and he really, really hopped that his mind was fooling him in telling him that he asked Peter if werewolves grew unibrows during the full moon. They did, he saw Derek Hale hulk out once and it was awesome and he totally had a unibrow. Or he would have if the hair was still on that weird looking eyebrow ridge over his eyes. But if his memory was serving him right his first words to his soul mate were hella embarrassing and given that he was a literal child his interactions with Peter hardly got better. Actually they sort of took a nosedive for a long time after his mom died and he still remembered waking up to tapping on his window two months after she died and finding Peter there. He hadn’t stayed long but he left a little wolf trinket behind that helped sometimes, even now.

“Stilinski, what are you day dreaming about?” Coach snaps, drawing his attention back to class.

“Hot older werewolves,” he blurts, earning a laugh from the class. “I mean come on, who hasn’t thought about it?”

“I haven’t,” Coach says very seriously.

“Neither have I,” some stuck up girl from the front of the classroom says.

Scott snorts, “yeah, but that’s because you’re a crazy religious person and you haven’t seen Derek Hale,” he says and he looks surprised when the class laughs, indicating that he obviously hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Stiles was totally having a conversation with him about Derek Hale later because seriously, he probably wasn’t allowed to find his soul mate’s nephew attractive but he was only human and he had working eyes so that was impossible. “Just saying,” Scott mumbles, shrinking in his seat when the Coach glares at him too. Snotty Religious Nut sticks her nose in the air and Stiles decides he’s going to shove as many pro-werewolf flyers as he can into her locker for the next forever just because bigotry was not for him. And also because it would be hilarious.

“Stilinski,” Coach snaps again, “come answer this question on the board,” he tells him, holding out a piece of chalk. Stiles looks over the problem and grins, knowing the answer already as he lopes up to the front of the room, takes the chalk, and starts writing on the board. When he finishes the question he goes back to his seat and bows a little as the class starts laughing.

Coach looks at the board just as Scott’s laughter reaches critical level and rolls his eyes. “There is nothing funny about a penis on the chalk board, it’s a regular part of your anatomy! Why are you all laughing- Jesus McCall, go to the damn nurse before that penis kills you,” he says, cracking Stiles up as he reaches for Scott to try and help him with his inhaler.

Eventually Coach gives up trying to organize the class and releases them from the class so they can be someone else’s problem and thankfully by then Scott was no longer having an asthma attack. “Dude, that was hilarious,” Scott says, still snickering.

“Nah, the real humor was Coach’s reaction, not the actual penis. But I will take credit for being a comedic genius,” Stiles says happily, fishing his phone out of his pocket as it buzzes. He has a few texts from Peter and his smile goes a little goofy. Mostly they were texts quoting student essays in his Werewolf Studies class that he wasn’t fond of with some scathing commentary but those kinds of things always made Stiles’ day because they were so Peter.

Scott gives him a look because he didn’t like Peter whatsoever and Stiles rolls his eyes at him. “Don’t roll your eyes at me, he’s creepy! He’s like so many years older than you!” Scott says.

Stiles rolls his eyes again, “I’m so glad you’re capable of basic math, Scott. And we’re both aware of the odd age difference contrary to popular belief. Now let me be because Peter is sending me sassy essay comments and it’s hilarious,” Stiles says. Peter was now weeping for his job because his students were dumber than stumps and it was going to get him fired. Stiles was sure he would be fine, he was just a hard marker and everyone in his class failed his expectations. He sends a few sassy texts of his own, correcting the information in the texts Peter sent him.

“Okay but I still think it’s weird,” Scott says.

“Only because you don’t understand wolf mates. It’s not weird to us, well, it’s a little weird to me but that’s mostly all the werewolf rules and stuff but you get used to it,” he says. Talia had been pretty awesome in integrating him into the whole werewolf culture and whatnot. It turned out he had an entire role to fill in their pack though she hadn’t specified what it was. She said that he would find out when Peter came back and settled into his own role in the pack and that Stiles’ role would extend from Peter’s. Mates, he was told, were compliments to each other and he’d know where he fit once Peter was back for him to fit with. In the meantime he spent regular weekends with Talia and the pack, bonding with them all though Talia liked him best and he bonded with her the easiest. This was a good thing according to Cora because she’s the alpha. Being on her bad side wouldn’t be very good but Peter said he was on Talia’s bad side more than her good side.

That was probably because he’s Peter though and he’s a bit of a pain in the ass. Stiles loved him anyways, or at least he was pretty sure he did but he knew if he told anyone that he’d get told he was too young and inexperienced or whatever. He had no idea how Peter felt about him and every time he thought he had figured it out he hadn’t.

“I think everyone thinks that Peter is way too old for you,” Scott says. Which yes, minus Talia that was true but they just didn’t get it. He knew they were all looking out for him but Talia was the only one who seemed to see that Peter’s charm didn’t fool him. She told him once that he was better at seeing through his charm than even she was and she looked impressed about it so that had to count for something.

“Well I think that I don’t care. Did you get paid because I totally want curly fries and I’m brocus pocus so you’re paying,” Stiles says, jabbing Scott in the side with his finger.

Scott yelps and informs Stiles that he’s a terrible friend but he’s the one supplying the ride so Scott could suck it up. He relents eventually and Stiles jumps for joy, literally, because he was totally going to get those curly fries.

Peter texts him back as they leave, informing Stiles that he was better informed in regards to werewolf culture than even half the werewolves in his class, which he cited as a reason why werewolves were going extinct. Stiles attributed that to hate crimes, though.

*

Talia looks over the body and sighs, looking away to John. “You ever seen anything like this before?” he asks, eyebrow raised. She knew what he was thinking and despite his being right she didn’t appreciate it. Humans were capable of tearing each other in half too, this one just happened to be caused by a werewolf.

“No, but it was definitely a werewolf that did this. I can smell them,” she says.

John sighs, “any ideas on which werewolf it is?”

“If that’s an insinuation that it was one of mine it most certainly was not,” she says in a harsh tone.

“That wasn’t what I meant. I meant that you’re powerful or so Stiles tells me, you’d have more knowledge of werewolf politics than I would so you’d know if there were any omegas lingering around or… whatever else would drive a werewolf to do this,” he says, loosely gesturing to the body.

Talia looks back to the body and looks around, sniffing the air before shaking her head. “You aren’t wrong but the only thing I can tell you is that this was a direct challenge to my pack, most likely a challenge to me specifically. If you want more I have a plan but you aren’t going to like it,” she warns him.

John frowns at her, “what makes you think this was a challenge to you?” he asks.

“The fact that this took place on my land. Don’t look at me like that John, you asked my opinion on werewolf politics and I’m giving it to you. If this person had another agenda they wouldn’t have killed here, they would have killed this poor person literally anywhere else. I think they were relying on small town mentalities, for people to pull out the pitch forks on us.” They didn’t count on the sheriff of the town being understanding, to a point, for the sake of his own kid. And despite the small area everyone else here was pretty accepting of them all. The only one they didn’t like was Peter but that had more to do with his mischief making than his being a werewolf.

“Great. So why challenge you? Aside from the alpha thing obviously. Would there be another reason or is that enough?” he asks.

“Both. Beacon Hills is a powerful area for our kind and I’m from a long line of wolves that can make full transformations. Challenging me on my own land and winning would theoretically give them that power too so I suppose it’s best to keep your options open,” she says. And she’d have to keep her senses sharp. She should have noticed this long before this poor human died but she’s gotten too comfortable here. For once she was kicking herself for not listening to Peter.

“So that plan of yours, what is it?” John asks after a long moment, “because right now I have no idea where the other half of this person is and I’m going to need that if only for the family.”

Talia nods, understanding. Humans found family important, but werewolves had real connections through blood, not just common genetic traits. Where you were in the family determined your role in the pack, it was important in a way that it wasn’t for humans. But she knew what it would mean to the family to have the whole body.

“I’ll look for it myself and maybe have Laura help,” she says. Laura was next in line to be the alpha, it would be good for her to take responsibility but Talia hardly wanted to drag her daughter into this. But Laura would have to deal with it eventually so it made no sense to shelter her as much as she wanted to. “My plan though, is Peter.”

John gives her a sharp look and she sighs, “I understand you’re worried about your son and I understand that, I do, but Peter is an expert tracker and he’s even better at finding evidence and determining motive. Strategically he’s a genius. If you want the person who did this caught Peter is easily your best chance,” she says firmly but gently. Nothing she said was false, actually she somewhat downplayed Peter’s abilities. Peter has always been good at locating enemies and making sure they didn’t come back and Talia chose not to ask questions about it. She knew she probably wouldn’t want to hear the answers to her questions anyways.

“You can’t just sniff this person out yourself? You have a whole pack,” John says but Talia shakes her head.

“None of us, even put together, are even remotely as good as Peter is. Even for a werewolf he has an extremely sensitive nose and he’s highly intelligent. Trust me this isn’t something I suggest lightly but my territory is in danger and so is the rest of this town, I need Peter back here,” she tells him. If this was going to become more of an issue she just might ignore the sheriff anyways. She had her family to think about and whether he knew it or not that included his son. She was rather fond of Stiles- he reminded her of a more moral Peter with his intelligence and curiosity.

John thinks about this for far longer than Talia would like but he sighs eventually, “Stiles is turning eighteen in a few weeks anyways and he’s out of my hands. Might as well have this happen sooner than later,” he mumbles.

“Peter has been waiting ten years, he can wait a few more weeks,” Talia says in a way that suggests that that is exactly what he will do, but John isn’t familiar enough with werewolf cues to know that. Stiles would have known though, he was the first human she’s ever met that managed to pick up on the subtle voice changes and even respond to them appropriately. Whenever he chose to be turned he would be one hell of an addition to her pack. Hell, even human he was formidable.

*

Peter doesn’t tell Stiles that he’s going to be back in town out of curiosity. He’s had ten years to study soul mates and he’d consider himself an expert on them now. He wanted to know how strong his bond with Stiles was even with the separation. They had kept a constant communication flow that Peter had eventually found tedious to keep up once the ‘enamored’ stage wore off. He hated children, including Stiles as a child, but since his mother’s death he’s steadily gotten less painful to talk to.

Now Stiles was usually the most stimulating person in his life and even his texts were lively and full of curiosity and random facts. Getting texts about some weird thing at three in the morning is not something he expected to enjoy, not with his hearing so sensitive that any alert on his phone instantly woke him, but they never failed to make him smile these days. It didn’t help that his idiot students were painful to deal with. Or maybe it was Stiles’ thinking style that drew Peter in. He’s always been drawn to intelligence but people rarely gave him a run for his money, not the way Stiles did.

He had been rather pleased when Stiles talked his father into allowing for web communication even of Peter couldn’t stand webcams. The awful quality always made his eyes feel weird afterwards because they were trying too hard to focus a grainy image, but it had been worth it to see Stiles think in real time rather than just words on paper or text. He had the attention span of a gnat but Peter appreciated it nonetheless. He also appreciated Stiles’ maturity for his age. Dealing with college students all the time has taught him that young people were total idiots, even if a number of his students were his age or close to it. It hardly made them mature and while Stiles was naïve still he was mature, and Peter saw something else there, something sharp in those brown eyes of his. It was attractive and Peter wanted more of it but no, he still had to wait a few weeks as per Talia’s orders. He’d been waiting ten years, she said, what was a few more weeks? Agony, of course, but Talia hardly cared about that.

His phone buzzes as Talia walks up to him on the side of the road where the other half of the body had been found and he finds a texts from Stiles.

Are you in town? I swear you’re here

He raises an eyebrow. Interesting news, but he’d have to deal with that later. “Peter, thank god. I need you to solve this quickly because I am not having this,” Talia says, looking unimpressed. He doesn’t blame her, a direct challenge on her territory like this could invite all kinds of unwanted attention from all the wrong people and that would be messy work for him. Talia was a good alpha but she was a terrible enforcer unless pressed and by then whatever Peter was going to do was probably tame in comparison to Talia. There was a reason people didn’t assume Peter was her only protection.

“Lead the way,” he tells her even though he already knew where he was going. He had smelled the blood as soon as he stepped out of his car. Talia gives him a look because she probably knew this but she does lead the way for him. It doesn’t take long to find the body, but not before the smell of cinnamon, butter, and Sunday mornings hits him first. There was another scent there too but that was irrelevant to him at the moment.

He looks over to Talia and she gives him a subtle nod, confirming his suspicions that Stiles had been in the area recently too. Within the last few hours by his guess, but given his attunement to Stiles’ scent his estimation could be way off. He chooses to save that for questioning Stiles later and he lets his nose lead him to the body.

“What was that, the look you shared just now?” John asks, giving Peter and Talia a look.

“This was an alpha,” Peter says, drawing a surprised ‘what’ from both John and especially Talia. John becomes distracted with Talia’s shock like Peter figured he would and Talia shakes her head.

“I would have smelled that,” she says, “my nose is hardly that bad.”

“It isn’t,” Peter confirms, “but this alpha doesn’t have a pack so you’d smell an omega if you smelled anything at all.”

Talia’s lips curl up instinctively and John frowns, looking between the two. “Why has that ruffled her feathers so much?” John asks Peter specifically.

“Raised her hackles,” Peter corrects, “and because packless alphas are significantly more dangerous than omegas because alphas can’t smell them coming like they can when they have a pack. I’d guess this one has been around long enough to know Talia can’t smell them.” Or that’s what he’s guessing. It was what he would do and given the deliberate nature of this murder he didn’t thin this person was disorganized by any means.

“I thought alphas got power from their pack, how could an alpha still be an alpha without a pack?” John asks.

“You can’t, which is why I’m being challenged. Except we’re hardly fighting on a level playing field considering I can’t smell anything useful,” Talia snarls.

“Thankfully you have another nose,” Peter says smoothly. “But I have to wonder how long this one has been without a pack- they aren’t usually this organized and deliberate. They’re more interested in obtaining a pack, not setting up a challenge. We might want to consider the possibility that this alpha intentionally killed their last pack.” It would explain the obvious mental stability that packless alphas didn’t usually have.

Talia lets out a loud snarl that has John ducking for a moment before he realizes it came from Talia but Peter remains indifferent. “Alphas that kill their packs are the ultimate taboo in our culture. It’s the ultimate betrayal and misuse and abuse of power- it’s an offense that would be viewed similarly to how humans view pedophilia. Unforgivable and disgusting, alphas who kill their packs are pariahs. This one, if its true that they killed their pack to absorb their power, just might be after Talia’s pack too and trust me this person absorbing her power alone would be a bigger mess than this,” Peter says, gesturing to the half a body on the ground. That would only be the beginning. John nods at Peter’s explanation, looking less confused about what just happened and Peter is grateful. Looks like the sheriff was already smarter than ninety percent of his first year class.

“We need clarification on this now, Peter,” Talia tells him, eyes flashing and teeth bared still.

“Of course,” he agrees easily. After he goes to find Stiles, not that he would tell Talia that.

*

The sheriff was busy with that body so it hadn’t been difficult to determine that no one was home and school should be letting out soon. Stiles should be home soon and he had just enough patience to wait for him at the front door. He’s been waiting for ten years for Stiles to grow up so he could come back to his home and Talia was wrong in assuming he had the patience to wait a few more weeks. He highly doubted there would be an earthshattering moment in which Stiles was suddenly more mature now than he would be at this present moment, making him somehow more prepared to deal with Peter.

Realistically that earthshattering moment would happen a few years from now, likely when he was in college. Being a university professor for the last four years while he finished his PhD thesis has taught him plenty about the maturity process. The good news was that Stiles was already ahead of the game in that way. Most university students he’s met fell into two categories- one, they had difficult lives and scrambled to get where they were and they took their education and life in general seriously. Or two, they had coasted through life and had not preparation for leaving home and they were generally painful to be around. Stiles fell into the rare third category in which he has suffered some but had a good life in general, but his father had done a good job preparing him for the world.

Peter figured he had a large role in why Stiles was as mature as he was because he figured John spent a lot of time telling Stiles about the Big Bad Wolf. He’s always hated that story. Little Red was a total dunce for not realizing her grandmother was a full-blown werewolf and not her actual grandmother but somehow the wolf was the bad guy. Peter had no doubt that John spent a lot of time with Stiles giving him the skills to avoid exploitation from someone older than him so he could avoid being as naïve as Little Red. Peter didn’t mind, it meant Stiles was intelligent in ways that most weren’t and he has always liked a challenge.

When Stiles finally arrives home Peter hears the jeep before he sees it. It sounded like it was about to need new break pads but he keeps that to himself, it wasn’t relevant at the moment anyways. The jeep pulls into the laneway and Stiles sits there for a moment playing air drums to whatever god awful pop song was playing in the vehicle for a long minute before he looks up, sensing Peter’s eyes on him and he jumps, flailing around before he gains control of his limbs. Peter smiles to himself, shaking his head. Clumsy humans with ADHD were amusing when startled, especially if they were Stiles.

Stiles sits there for a few seconds before getting his shit together and getting out of the jeep in the strangest way Peter has ever witnessed. Usually people stepped out of their vehicles but Stiles chose to slide out like some kind of overgrown child. Peter got the distinct feeling that he was going to have to get used to the strange ways Stiles did things.

“Peter?” Stiles asks, walking up to the door.

“No, I’m simply a figment of your imagination,” he quips back and Stiles grins, picking up his pace.

“I knew you were in town! I had this… I don’t know, this feeling,” he says as he hops up the stairs and with no hesitation throws himself at Peter.

He makes a surprised noise and for a moment he isn’t sure how t react. Humans were generally wary of him, on edge because they could sense that he was a predator. Stiles clearly had no reservations about Peter and he hadn’t anticipated that, especially since he was sure there was no shortage of people in Stiles’ life warning him about Peter for a number of different reasons. His age and species being the top of the list. He relaxes eventually though, lulled into a calmer state by Stiles’ scent. Peter has always loved the smell of cinnamon, it reminded him of when he was a child and his father would make him and Talia pancakes on Sundays. It was one of the few memories from his childhood that he still appreciated as an adult.

“The feeling is generally linked to a low grade psychic connection mates can have that doesn’t tend to exist with humans. Supernatural creatures have better senses so they tend to feel all those extra feelings that humans like to glorify in bad romance films. I’m surprised you noticed,” he says. Impressive to say the least, especially since Stiles was young too. Typically age played a large role in how much a person could sense too. Stiles had the odds stacked against him and still somehow came out exceptional but Peter had no doubt he would. He was Peter’s soul mate after all and Peter hardly accepted mediocrity.

“Mmhm, and fun fact: when kanimas meet their soul mates they leak some kind of goo out their ass. Yeah, I stole a bestiary one time because I was bored and Talia wasn’t answering my werewolf questions and neither way my dad or Melissa and I had to get the answers from somewhere. I think I still have it around somewhere to prove Scott wrong when he says stupid shit about werewolves,” Stiles babbles really.

Peter raises an eyebrow, “you defend werewolves from human misinformation? My hero,” he says, earning a snort from Stiles.

“Joke all you want, but people are total idiots when it comes to anything supernatural and I don’t listen to arguments that aren’t based on facts. Seriously, one time Scott tried to tell me that wolf packs were like cults. I mean I know he’s a bit of an idiot but come on,” Stiles says, rolling his eyes.

“I’ve had the same thing presented to me as an actual argument. He did not like it when I pointed out that large gatherings of people organized around zealously defending what they thought was theirs to the point of destroying others more closely resembled organized religion than wolf packs,” Peter says. That student had obviously dropped his course but it was amusing to smack down the student who inevitably joined to try and argue how ‘dangerous’ werewolves were. There was always at least one every year and Peter always enjoyed making an ass out of them. It helped that most people that took Werewolf Studies were werewolves so they already knew those arguments hardly held a match to lived reality. Wolf packs were families, essentially, but with a deeper connection than a fickle blood relation. Peter hardly saw humans attacking other human families for being cults that were looking to destroy anything that didn’t conform to that model even when that argument could be made with a good dose of truth to it.

Stiles throws back his head and laughs, “oh my god that would have been so awesome to see! And I mean even when werewolves do scrap it out over territory it’s almost always because someone attacked first. You guys tend to keep to yourselves. I mean its humans that are super invasive and kill off anything that they don’t like, and like for dumb reasons too. Seriously, humans are super overdramatic about everything. According to the history of all species we’re easily the most dangerous and the most vicious so all that hoopla about supernatural creatures being a threat is total crap according to actual historical evidence. Also, loved you book, super sassy and ultra informative,” Stiles says, ending his rant awkwardly.

He can see Stiles questioning himself, wondering if he had spoken too much but Peter hadn’t minded, oddly enough. Usually he didn’t like people who chattered too much, they were irritating to him, but Stiles at least knew what he was talking about. “By all means, continue. I had no idea you looked into more than just the history of werewolves,” he says, “or that you read my book.” That was something he would have preferred to know about given that there was an entire section dedicated Stiles not that he was ever mentioned by name, even that mess of a Polish name that was technically his first name.

This perks Stiles up and he steps back from Peter much to his annoyance, fishing his keys out of his pocket to let himself into his house. “Oh, yeah, I… well you know about the ADHD so I kind of have a short attention span. It’s hard to focus but when I find something I find interesting I can look into it for hours. Given the whole ‘soul mate is a werewolf’ thing I got interested in werewolf things, which led to reading about emissaries, which led into reading about druids and other human-like magical creatures, which read to reading about all the other non-human species that are available. There’s enough that even when my brain shorts out on me I can just jump to another creature. My teachers hate it because they can’t argue with someone who knows more than them because I win,” Stiles tells him, grinning and dropping his keys accidentally.

Peter smiles and shakes his head, leaning over and twisting the knob, releasing it with a ‘pop’. Stiles stares at it for a long moment and frowns, “okay if werewolves can do that why aren’t you guys a much larger percentage of people who commit petty theft?” he asks.

“We rather dislike how the prison system treats us,” Peter says easily.

Stiles shrugs, “fair enough. Contrary to popular belief though it’s actually druids that commit the most petty theft, especially in areas with a large number of flora species because they need stuff for spells. Humans steal the most meds though, and werewolves have a thing for pillows. Don’t ask, I broke a few laws to find those numbers,” Stiles tells him and Peter laughs, wondering what the hell Stiles read to find out werewolves were stealing pillows of all things. Likely for scenting purposes if they weren’t new, but if they were Peter had no idea what wolves were doing with them.

*

Stiles totally hadn’t expected Peter to call him on being near that dead body that in his defense he accidentally found the night before. He tells Peter that he’s a teenage boy, he was supposed to be curious about dead stuff and that he didn’t touch anything. Obviously because that would be gross. Scott, however, was totally convinced that he was bit by a werewolf but Stiles had informed him that even if Cora had bitten him he was A- trespassing on her territory and B- wasn’t an alpha so it wouldn’t matter anyways. He’d just be a bit sore for a few days. And besides, this morning he didn’t even have a bite, which totally proved that he tripped and fell on his face and blamed werewolves for his inability to run away from the leaves shaking that freaked him out to begin with. Scott swore that he had a bite the night before but obviously he was being dramatic and seeing things that weren’t there.

Peter sticks around for awhile, probably thinking he was being subtle about the sniffing thing. Stiles informs him that Talia had warned him about the sniffing thing before and that he had read a lot about werewolf scenting anyways. Plus there was that whole section in Peter’s book that explained werewolves and scents and what they all meant. Stiles had had to cross reference a lot of stuff but Peter’s resource list at the back had been helpful, and the sources from those sources were also useful. Essentially all things stinky had some kind of importance to werewolves and Stiles was cool with that. He already saw a lot of it with Talia and the rest of the pack whenever they were around each other.

Humans though, Peter explained, tended to be accepting until they saw the thing in practice. Like people who claimed not to be homophobic but didn’t ever want to see a gay couple kiss. The analogy was accurate enough, Stiles supposed, or it would have been if Stiles hadn’t already had a lot of exposure to werewolves and their habits thanks to Talia. His dad hadn’t been so cool with that at first but Talia had pointed out that throwing Stiles to the literal wolves when he was eighteen with no real knowledge of them was stupid at best and dangerous at worst. Stiles had been curious anyways and eventually his dad relented and let him spend the occasional weekend afternoon with Talia. By the time he was fifteen he spent entire weekends there if for no other reason than Talia needing some extra help with the gardens and such.

His dad had eventually thawed to Talia but he remained frosty to Peter despite Stiles’ obvious affection for him. Stiles wasn’t a moron, he knew why, but he liked to think he wasn’t as naïve as everyone thought he was. More than that he knew Peter well, very well according to Talia. She once admitted to him that Peter scared her sometimes because he was unpredictable but controlled and combined with his charm it was hard to see. She told him that sometimes when she was around him she could feel herself forgetting that Peter had that dangerous edge but Stiles never lost sight of it. It was something she noticed when Stiles was around sixteen and his dad had allowed video calls at that point. Peter was charming and a smooth talker but Stiles could spot a lie from a mile away and he called him on it too.

Talia told him that that wasn’t the norm, that most people had no idea that Peter way lying and those that did weren’t usually brave enough to call him on it. Stiles had no problem with that though because he wasn’t fond of being lied to and within a year Peter learned not to lie to Stiles on camera because he’d notice nine times out of ten, and the tenth time he’d catch eventually when Peter slipped up and forgot he lied about a detail that only Stiles would even remember. The benefits of ADHD, he supposed, was that his brain sometimes gave him an instant recall of some random comment someone could have made years before if for no other reason than he noticed that the tone they used being weird or something because his brain was always picking up on strange details like that. Or maybe that was just him, who knows. It was useful either way.

By the time Peter leaves Stiles decides that Peter in person was far more enjoyable than Peter on screen.

*

“I’m telling you that I got bit by a werewolf,” Scott tells him for the millionth time that day.

“No you didn’t, you’re just freaking out because you can smell tacos across the school which, FYI, so can I. You don’t have super senses,” Stiles tells him. Scott was his best friend and he loved him dearly but sometimes he was a total idiot.

“This morning I think silver burnt me,” Scott says, eyes wide.

“That’s a myth you dunce, the ‘silver hurts werewolves’ thing was actually a mistranslation of a text stating that a family with the last name ‘Argent’ was responsible for killing a crap ton of supernatural creatures, not just werewolves. They were hunters, and they’re last name means silver. So you’re still over reacting,” Stiles tells him. He swore that everyone knew that already but whatever, apparently not.

“I can totally smell Peter on you,” Scott says, deciding this was further evidence of his being a werewolf.

“Because he wears cologne, Scott. Lydia! Come here for a second,” he calls, waving his hand at her. She considers just walking away the way she used to but she ends up coming over to see what he wanted. After that time they were paired together for a chemistry project she thought he was less of a clingy loser looking for her affections and more like the only person in the school who actually noticed how intelligent she was and spent years trying to get her attention because he wanted a good conversation, damnit.

“You smell good, are you wearing cologne?” she asks, giving him an appraising look.

“Nope, it’s my soul mate’s cologne. But thanks for proving to Scott here that he is not a werewolf,” Stiles says. He gives Scott a pointed look and Scott looks hilariously unimpressed with the whole thing.

“Hm. Well I’m not a good example of someone without super senses because I’m a banshee and we have sensitive noses. Guess that explains why I hated the smell of Jackson’s gym bag so much,” she says primly though the sadness was still there. Stiles, personally, was ecstatic that Jackson was gone but he and Lydia had been together for years so he understood why she was upset even if she could totally do better.

“Yeah, pretty sure you hated Jackson’s gym bag because his stanky jockstrap was in it but okay, sure. Why didn’t you scream though, when that guy died? Isn’t everyone supposed to hear a banshee’s screams?” That’s what the bestiary said anyways, but maybe it got a detail wrong. Lydia would know more than he would.

Lydia raises an eyebrow at him but she doesn’t ask how he knew that. “Usually yes, but since I’ve hardly been around death all I got was a horrible feeling that something was going to go wrong that day. According to my mother the next time someone dies there will be screams. I’m not looking forward to it,” she says.

“Me either,” Scott mumbles, earning a smack from Stiles.

“Well seems how I’m pretty sure this whole banshee thing was sprung on you I’d advise you talk to Deaton. He’s a druid and an emissary so he knows about these things,” Stiles tells her. That was who Stiles stole the bestiary from after Scott started working there.

Scott looks shocked with this bit of information, crooked jaw hanging slack. “What?” he asks.

“He has cots in his back rooms, humans don’t go to the vet dumbass. Who would be sleeping on those, the cats he treats? Obviously not because they stay in their little kitty cages that make them sad. That’s were the werewolves go when things go wrong. Come on, how have you not noticed all his little homemade concoctions that he gives to the animals?” Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, as usual.

“I thought those were just medication!” Scott says, eyes wide as he takes in this new information.

Lydia rolls her eyes, looking exactly the way Stiles felt. “Well thanks for that, Stiles. And if you know anything else about banshees I’d happily take that information. I have to go to math now though so I’ll see you later,” she says, waving as she goes.

“You should ask her out,” Scott says, drawing Stiles’ attention back to him.

“What?” he asks, surprised. “Uh, no. And even if I was interested there’s the little problem with her not being over Jackson and me having a soul mate that hardly seems like the sharing type,” Stiles reminds him.

“Well Lydia is age appropriate and not a creeper who totally bit me,” Scott mumbles.

“Oh my god Scott, Peter did not bite you and even if he did he isn’t an alpha so you wouldn’t even be a werewolf so drop it. And he’s not that creepy,” Stiles adds. Mostly he was unnerving and intense, but Stiles got told that he was that way too sometimes.

*

Talia instructs him to trace back every area that alpha has been to and Peter is happy enough to comply. He had planned on doing that anyways to get a general sense of what was going on here.

Unsurprisingly the scent was all over town but what surprised him most was that the scent was the strongest by the house and just far enough out that hearing the wolf around would be difficult and seeing them would be next to impossible. How Talia, Cora, Laura, or even Derek hadn’t smelled anything Peter had no idea until he smelled the trees. Hmm.

“Talia, come here,” Peter says in a tone that barely registered above a normal volume. He sniffs around for any more clues but he finds little else other than a werewolf who spent a lot of time watching his family who also knew how to deter other werewolves from the area they were watching from.

“Is that wolfsbane?” Talia asks as she approaches.

“On the trees? Yes. I doubt it was this strong in when they first showed up here, that would draw attention, but eventually you’d get used to your nose itching a bit when you were outside,” Peter says. Intelligent. Talia had said that Stiles was helping more with the gardens too, probably because being outside and downwind from wolfsbane was irritating her senses and she attributed it to something else or didn’t notice.

“How did you get behind those trees, my eyes are watering from here,” Talia says.

“I came up from behind the property,” Peter says, “they would have had to find a way in here too if they wanted to watch us.” That was bad news considering that murder was absolutely deliberate in a whole new kind of way.

“This property is warded, how the hell did they get in here?” Talia snaps.

“The wards are broken obviously, or someone invited them in,” Peter says.

“I doubt anyone here has done that,” Talia snaps, clearly irritated.

“Don’t be so sure. For all you know you invited them in by accident thinking they were delivering mail or doing some other unassuming job,” he says.

Talia tilts her head to the side, “what makes you think that?” she asks.

He shrugs, “it’s what I would do if I wanted to get onto a property without breaking the wards and tipping people off. In this day and age it would be easy and just a dash of wolfsbane on the shirt would deter you from smelling them and from spending too much time questioning your presence.” Very intelligent indeed.

“That would also bother them though, why out yourself through that? If this alpha is without a pack they don’t have time for this,” Talia says.

“Maybe they do. Maybe they’re already mentally unstable but it doesn’t show in the usual disorganization. My guess is that they were turned,” Peter says. It would make more sense than being a born wolf. A born wolf would know ways around being noticed by werewolves that weren’t tactics used by the police force and hunters, this one clearly didn’t.

Talia raises an eyebrow, “a turned alpha werewolf is very rare. Alphahood runs in families, it’s not something that’s just bestowed on someone.”

“It is if you kill an alpha. The alpha that turned them maybe- there’s that old myth that if you kill the alpha that bit you you’ll turn human again. Clearly it didn’t work,” Peter says.

Talia considers his words for a long moment, “that’s far fetched at best,” she warns.

“But it fits with the evidence. Think about it Talia, why use tactics that work just as much against them as it does us? If this person wanted to mask their scent they’d know that water distils their scent and if they rolled around in something with a strong smell the chances of us picking up on it are slim. I would but I’m an exception and I wasn’t around at the time. Using a weapon to keep us from smelling them when that weapon also hurts them is senseless, redundant, and speaks to the mind of a person who doesn’t know how to be a werewolf even if they know a lot about them. I’m not wrong, Talia.” This wouldn’t make sense otherwise and she knew it.

“And if this is all to deliberately throw us off?” Talia asks.

“Then the scent wouldn’t be this strong. They’d leave the wolfsbane and go rather than sitting here for hours at a time subjecting themself to it as well,” Peter points out.

Talia considers this for a long moment before sighing. “I think you’re right and we’re going to have to go to John about this. Come on, I know you’ve been dying to see Stiles since you came back from his place,” she says. Peter raises an eyebrow but says nothing, knowing that his scent gave him away. No sense in arguing something Talia knew was fact.

*

John doesn’t look happy about this at all and Peter doesn’t blame him. “Is… is my son in danger? I don’t know much about pack dynamics but I’m assuming that your invested interest in him over the years indicates some kind of importance to you as a pack,” he says.

Talia nods, “I would say he’s in danger yes, but he isn’t with the rest of us. That makes him both easier and harder to target depending on what this person’s goal is. Peter, did you smell anything around here?” she asks.

He shakes his head, “which is curious, might I add, given that I’ve caught this person’s scent all over town except for this part of the neighborhood. Makes me suspicious.”

“Maybe they didn’t need to watch us, or they’ve been watching Stiles elsewhere. We run on a pretty tight routine, stalking us is hardly necessary and Stiles is easy enough to find at school if they really wanted information on him,” John points out. Peter can smell how worried he is about his son but he didn’t need to worry much about that. Stiles smelled like all sorts of supernatural creatures. Whether he knew it or not most of his school was something that wasn’t human and he was particularly close to another werewolf. That could be why there was a lack of a scent around, maybe they didn’t want to mess with the other wolf. But then that made no sense, who was scared of a teen wolf? No one with a brain, they were highly unpredictable at that age, which really only made them a threat to humans and other things that tore easily.

“Possibly, yes. There could also be something about Stiles that makes him less… disposable to this particular alpha,” Peter says and looks to Talia. She explains their theory and John frowns but he takes it in, nodding along when necessary.

When Talia was finished he leans back and sighs, “so you think Stiles may be in danger, but it’s also possible that is isn’t a target because he’s human?” he asks.

“Essentially but don’t count on that to save him,” Peter says, earning a look from Talia. What, it was hardly his fault it was true.

*

Stiles stares at Scott on the top of the lockers. “Okay, so I may have been a little bit wrong about you not being a werewolf but I think we should let bygones be bygones and I’m gunna just… run for my life,” Stiles says as he inches closer to the door, Scott stalking him the whole way. Stiles spins on his heel and takes off, hoping to hell that he was able to at least find a door he could distract Scott with while he tried to climb out a window or something.

Students stare at Stiles for a hot second before they notice Scott on his heels, “turns out he was totally right about being a werewolf and he wasn’t being dramatic, run!” Stiles yells as he takes off around another corner.

“Duck!” someone yells and Stiles throws himself on the floor without thinking. In hindsight that was stupid when he was about to be werewolf food but thankfully Peter has his back.

Stiles only gets a flash of his nails before he slams his hand into Scott’s chest and slams him down on the ground. Stiles almost laughs at the comical way Scott’s legs fly out from underneath of him but he was bit more concerned with not being eaten by his best friend. Scott snarls at Peter but Peter snarls right back. Scott’s lips droop a little and he almost looks like he’s pouting or maybe he was confused, it was hard to tell when Stiles was distracted by how much Scott resembled a Klingon.

Scott gives another experimental growl and Peter snarls at him again with more force this time. He isn’t sure Scott knows how to react to that at first but eventually his wolfy features melt away and he was Scott again. “Dude, thank god because I totally thought you were going to literally chew my ass,” Stiles says, crawling over to Scott. Peter stares at him like he’s nuts as he retracts his claws from Scott’s chest.

“You stabbed me!” Scott accuses, rubbing his already healed chest. That was awesome.

“You tried to kill me,” Stiles points out, “I think you deserved that a little bit.”

“Be lucky I didn’t rip your head off,” Peter says as if that was any better.

Stiles opens his mouth to say something, shuts it, and then decides that he will say something actually. “I’d prefer if you didn’t rip Scott’s head off. I like him,” Stiles says, holding out his hand to help Scott off the ground.

“You realize he just almost murdered you, right?” Peter asks, squinting at him.

“Oh relax, he couldn’t help hulking out, he doesn’t have one of those anchor-y things yet. If he tries to murder me after he finds one of those then we’re going to have a talk on how to be a good friend,” Stiles says, giving Scott a look.

“Sorry I almost killed you,” Scott mumbles, looking like a kicked puppy. Stiles had no idea if that was offensive now or if it was cool to think that because he’s always through Scott looked like a human chocolate lab. He’ll as for the protocol later.

“When were you going to tell me Scott was bit by a werewolf?” Peter asks him, voice sharp.

“He told me I was being dramatic!” Scott accuses, glaring at Stiles, “I told you I got bit!”

“He told me Cora bit him then changed his story and said you did it. Sue me for thinking this was some nonsense,” Stiles says, throwing his hands up.

Peter sighs, “oh I forgot how dramatic teenagers were. Find, Scott, come with me. Stiles, go home before I nearly have another heart attack thinking you’re about to get eaten by a werewolf,” Peter tells him.

“I wouldn’t eat Stiles!” Scott says, offended on his own behalf.

“You almost did just eat me dude, it’s cool because you didn’t really expect to go all wolfy and stuff but you would totally eat me,” Stiles says and Peter glares at him. “Okay fine I’m going,” he says, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t want to go anywhere with you!” Scott says to Peter as Stiles leaves. Peter says something back but Stiles doesn’t hear it. When he turns to look back Scott looks a little paler than he had two seconds ago and Peter still looks largely unimpressed.

*

Stiles is reading his father’s files on the murder case while trying to make sure no one notices him doing it when Lydia walks in. She looks panicked and pale and when she spots Stiles she makes a beeline for him, “I think someone else is going to die tonight,” she says.

Her eyes are wide and she’s clearly afraid but Stiles hardly knew what to do. “Uh…” is all he gets out before Lydia opens her mouth and screams. Stiles jumps, not expecting that, but what he expects less is the deputies dropping like flies all around him as Lydia’s pitch gets higher.

“Holy shit,” he says when she finally runs out of breath, “that was loud.”

Lydia looks annoyed, “someone just died, Stiles,” she tells him. “And how come you aren’t passed out? Banshees tend to knock people out, that’s what Deaton said when I asked him questions last night,” she says.

He shrugs, “maybe it has something to do with my soul mate being a werewolf,” he says, shrugging.

“Werewolves get knocked out too, I asked. So again why aren’t you passed out?” She squints at him a little and he doesn’t know what to make of it.

“No clue. Do you by any chance know who died?” That would be useful in trying to determine if there was an emerging pattern or something here.

Lydia shakes her head, “all I get is a feeling and a scream,” she says.

“Great,” Stiles mumbles, getting the distinct feeling that Lydia agreed with his frustration.

*

Peter is surprised when John tells him to sniff around his house, literally, but he supposed he’s been useful to the case thus far and with a randomly bitten teen that was too close to Stiles for comfort and a second dead body he must be feeling the heat. He’s more surprised, however, when he gets to Stiles’ room and smells hints of himself but… not. It takes him a moment to locate a red sweater thrown haphazardly on Stiles’ chair that looks familiar and he raises an eyebrow. He’d have to thank Talia for this later but for now he had to got tell John that it appeared that no one had been around of in his house, at least not that he can smell.

*

Stiles manages to talk his father into letting him see Peter out of his supervision but a house of werewolves hardly gave them privacy, or at least that’s what Stiles argued. In reality werewolves were pretty much expert at ignoring each other but it gave him some time to spend actual time with Peter.

“I want you to stay away from Scott,” Peter says, effectively ruining the moment when he arrives.

Stiles laughs, “not happening, dude. I’m not abandoning Scott when he arguably needs me more than ever.” So he was pretty sure he was at least a little in love with Peter, that didn’t mean it was cool to just ditch Scott.

Peter rolls his eyes, “I’m assuming you haven’t read much on bitten werewolves, then. I get that you want to help your friend but we have no idea what kind of psycho bit him and when a beta is under the control of a bad alpha they’re more unpredictable and given that Scott currently has no idea how to control his shift that makes him all kinds of dangerous. If you want to be there for him fine, just as long as he can’t rip your throat out when you’re doing it.”

Right, that research on bitten werewolves was coming back and so was his knowledge on Peter’s general personality. ‘You’re going to use Scott as bait to lure the alpha out so you can kill it,” he says. It isn’t a question and he can tell that it surprises Peter.

“It’s the easiest way to solve this, Stiles. Scott is a lot more durable than he used to be, he’ll mostly likely be fine,” Peter tells him in a crap attempt at reassuring him.

“Mostly likely, that doesn’t guarantee anything and I know you, in this equation Scott’s the disposable one.” He didn’t care about Scott or his health, just his pack and his mate. Peter’s plan would work out just fine if he intended to lose at least one of those things.

*

Peter hadn’t expected his plan to go over well with Stiles but he hadn’t expected to be all but rejected over it either. He had miscalculated how important Scott was to Stiles stupidly. Just because he preferred a solitary life didn’t mean everyone else did and Stiles was far more a pack animal than Peter has ever been even though he’s technically the pack animal.

That didn’t mean he had any desire to lose that pack and they all liked Stiles more than him. Talia had use for him and that was why he was around but the only one who actually liked him was Derek. That suited Peter just fine because he liked Derek too, they were both solitary creatures stuck in a pack mentality. They understood each other in ways the rest of the pack didn’t, even Talia despite all her trying.

He leaves Stiles be though, letting him work through his emotions in peace while he made something to eat. Food was the best way to solve any conflict between werewolves, at least if they were willing to eat the food. Werewolves were picky about who they let feed them because food was a trust thing for them. Being able to care for your pack was also important too, but the trust thing was the goal here. As much as it pained him to admit it he loved Stiles, he probably had since he met him but now that he wasn’t an annoying child Peter actually felt the connection that was supposed to be there. Stiles was smart, and witty, and he wasn’t easily fooled. Peter had never met anyone who saw through his act as easily as Stiles did and it was oddly thrilling. He’s never been forced to tell the truth so much and surprisingly he was enjoying it.

When he returns with food Stiles hesitates to take it but eventually he reaches out to take his plate and Peter smiles softly. That was a good first step for certain but he doesn’t say anything, just sits on the other end of the couch Stiles was currently perched on and waits. When Stiles doesn’t say anything for most of the movie he was currently watching Peter decides to speak up. “I never intended to kill Scott,” he says. Stiles was right in guessing that he cared very little of Scott died but he didn’t intend on harming the teen outright. Not caring if he died and actively not preventing his death were two totally different things.

“Are you saying that because you know you couldn’t get away with it without losing me or because you never intended to kill Scott?” Stiles asks, turning a hard stare to Peter.

It was unnerving to have so much power behind a single glance, especially considering Stiles’ age. “I’ve lied to you, or at least I’ve never gotten away with it,” Peter points out. Even when Stiles was a child, a young child, he could easily determine when Peter was lying to him and at that point they were communicating via letters. That was talent, especially when Peter was well known for his ability to charm people into a false sense of security.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Stiles says, head tilted to the side. Peter wonders if someone lied about his age somewhere along the way because almost-eighteen year olds were not this intelligent or mature.

“Scott should be able to survive whatever it thrown at him and as a bitten werewolf he had strengths that born werewolves don’t have. Being a bit more durable is one of those perks and I was counting on that in case he got stuck in a fight. He’ll also be quite aggressive and if I can aim that away from me that’ll be beneficial for him too. I anticipate him being hurt, but I never planned for him to die.” He wouldn’t care if he did, though, but he doesn’t tell Stiles that. Scott was not his priority and he never would be.

Stiles looks him over for a long time before he speaks again. “Why use Scott as bait at all? Why not use Talia or something? She’d be able to handle all this better,” Stiles points out.

“Maybe, but I’m counting on pack instincts and that isn’t going to work with Talia. Scott will be able to call the alpha to him if he’s hurt, it would feel compelled to go in a way that wouldn’t exist with Talia. He’s the easiest way out of this,” Peter tells him.

Stiles squints at him, “so you plan on hurting him, then?”

“No, Jesus, he can fake pain, Stiles. I’m hoping I can teach him to partially shift on the fly so he can do it without making a full transformation and giving me two werewolves to contend with, one of which I don’t much want to kill.”

“I’d be easier to kill Scott,” Stiles says.

“And messier. I might think he’s disposable and I don’t care if he dies but his death would make things far more complicated and that’s before I even consider you. It’s best to keep Scott alive and not turn the entire town against my pack because of that one time I killed a defenseless teen despite Scott being far from defenseless.” Bitten werewolves, until they could control themselves, were stronger and more vicious than born wolves. They were a right pain in the ass is what they were. Not that born wolves couldn’t fare well despite bitten wolves being generally stronger and more vicious- they were also completely inexperienced and they weren’t usually well educated on werewolf abilities. Even if they were they rarely retained the brain power that would give them the ability to beat a born wolf in a fight if it came to that. Usually it didn’t, as seen with Scott the last time he managed a full shift and almost ate Stiles. Thankfully for Scott there was a murderer running around and that meant he got far less media attention and therefore avoided a lot of problems that way.

“I thought you thought this alpha killed its pack to get stronger, why would it bite Scott then?” Stiles asks and that was the question of the day.

Unfortunately Peter already thought he had the answer to that. “Because whoever this is didn’t want human blood on their hands, so they chose someone who would be by your side without fail to do it for them.” And so far Stiles was playing right into this asshole’s plan.

*

Scott liked being bait as much as Stiles liked him being bait but the dumbass was all noble and whatever so he agreed to Peter’s plan. Stiles had employed Lydia’s help in determining which plan wouldn’t get Scott killed because of the banshee thing, much to Peter’s annoyance. Banshees were loud, he reasoned, and he didn’t like listening to them scream. Lydia promptly told him she liked her screams as much as he did and told him to stuff it. Stiles had laughed and Scott had been pleased that Stiles wasn’t prepared to just go along with whatever Peter said. Why he ever thought Stiles would do that Stiles had no idea. He’s never been the type to bow to any kind of authority figure much to his father’s annoyance. If he wasn’t the sheriff’s kid he’d probably have a pretty long criminal record considering all those times he broke into random places or did other illegal things because he was curious. Scott too, probably. He had no idea what Melissa liked him so much considering how often he and Scott landed in the sheriff’s office getting scolded about doing illegal things again.

In his defense he’s gotten a lot better at avoiding getting caught now that he knew the system far better than he should and his willingness to break the law despite his father being the local head of law enforcement should have been a clue to Scott. Sometimes Stiles thought people thought he was a lot dumber than he actually was.

They make their plans though and Stiles does his best to ensure his best friend’s death was not imminent until they had a final plan. “Any weird feelings about this?” Stiles asks Lydia. She shakes her head and they decide to proceed.

*

Stiles didn’t like this plan and he had insisted on coming along until Talia finally agreed to escort him. She was good backup for Peter anyways and Stiles had a gun loaded with wolfsbane that Peter had asked him if he even knew how to use. That was just offensive considering his father was a sheriff, of course he knew how to use a gun. Scott hadn’t liked it either and Stiles saw the look on Peter’s face, the one that told Stiles that he realized he wasn’t going to with this battle but Scott might. He didn’t because Scott was terrible at arguing and he’s always been a people pleaser, so all Stiles had to do to get him to drop it was feign being upset with him.

Peter obviously thought Scott was weak for it if his annoyed look was any indication but he doesn’t actively say anything about it so ha. He does, however, try his best to teach Scott how to partially transform and fake being in pain to lure the alpha out of hiding with minimal success. Scott, Peter claims, is a complete dunce but Stiles just thinks that he’s a bad teacher and that Scott was an equally bad student. It was hardly like the two were willing to listen to each other and most of the time their lessons ended with them snarling at each other over Stiles while he and Lydia rolled their eyes at them.

They finally decide to go ahead with the plan when Scott falls asleep one night and nearly kills Stiles under alpha influence, or he would have had he made it past Peter. Stiles had no idea any of it had even happened until he work up in the morning and heard about it and all Lydia got that night was a bad feeling.

*

“Convenient,” Stiles mumbles as he and Talia settle into their spot to watch this disaster of a plan pan out from afar.

Talia frowns, “if I was upwind that alpha would likely smell me and take off before we could do anything about it,” she points out.

“That, and humans don’t run up hill fast, meaning I can’t jump into the fray without ample warning that I’m coming,” he says. Smart, he thinks, because there was another very obvious excuse to obscure Peter’s real reason. Stiles doubted this alpha could outrun both Peter and Stiles even with Scott working against them.

“That too,” Talia admits easily enough. Funny that Stiles never knew her to be a very sly or sneaky person but she seemed to be entirely that way when dealing with anything Peter related. He didn’t mind because he had always wondered how Talia got her pretty fearsome reputation if the lack of people willing to mess with her was any indication. Now he knew why, though he has never met someone so willing to admit that they could be underhanded. Peter liked to talk around his own ability to manipulate people not that it had much of an effect on Stiles. He knew Peter’s tells far too well for him to be able to get away with much.

They watch as Peter does his best to try and instruct Scott on what he was supposed to do but it doesn’t seem to be going well. Within a half an hour Stiles knew that Peter had to be seriously considering actually smacking Scott into howling when Stiles sighs. He’s never had a long attention span and the novelty of the situation was wearing off. “How would you get Scott to do this?” Talia finally asks.

“Not call him stupid every other second for a start. Feed him some line about saving lives or whatever, he’s too nice for his own good,” Stiles says. “And without sarcasm,” he adds when he remembers that it’s Peter who has to deliver the speech. Something told him that Peter delivering a speech on heroism would miss the mark just a little.

“Yeah, Peter’s never going to get this done,” Talia mumbles more to herself than Stiles but h’s inclined to agree.

“Jesus Christ, Scott, just howl in pain a little. It’s like faking sick to your mother except with the added benefit of potentially stopping a murderer, it isn’t that difficult,” Stiles says just above his normal voice volume. Werewolf hearing, a curse and a blessing according to Scott.

In the slight distance Stiles can see Scott still a little as he listens to Stiles’ words and then finally, finally, he manages to half ass fake a whimper. “Scott, that was pitiful and you’re never going to convince your mother your sick and you’re going to have to suffer through Harris’ class,” Stiles tells him. He didn’t need Talia’s laugh to know Scott just made a noise of disgust, but Stiles’ encouragement works far better than Peter’s. Probably because Stiles’ sarcasm came across in a joking tone rather than a condescending one.

“You’re good at this, you should have been the one to teach him,” Talia says. She snorts at whatever either Scott of Peter says in response but sadly Stiles had normal ears.

“Nah, Scott just hates Peter so he’d never listen to him but Peter is just as stubborn as Scott and he wouldn’t listen to me and now he knows I’m right and he looks like an idiot,” Stiles chirps, still somewhat annoyed with Peter for this whole thing. He understood what Peter went with this plan but he should have at least been smart enough to listen to Stiles. He suspected that Peter didn’t listen because Scott irritated him so much though, not because he had no desire to hear Stiles out. He seemed to listen just fine to everything else he had to say.

*

When Scott finally manages to fake pain things go quickly. Truthfully Stiles didn’t remember much, just that the alpha showed up, Scott ended up knocked out at some point he thinks, and that’s when the alpha noticed Talia. From there he was a little hazy on the details.

*

Scott’s head hurts and he kind of feels like he lost a limb or five but he had no idea why given that Stiles, against all odds, was alive. Peter though, he looked half like he wanted to rage at someone or something and half like he was about to fall into a deep pit of depression. “He was just trying to help,” Scott tells him softly.

He hardly expects Peter so snarl at him and he jumps, forgetting that he could technically fight back with some kind of efficacy now. Peter goes to open his mouth but Talia puts her hand on his shoulder so all he does is snarl at Scott again, but quieter this time. “Scott,” Talia says, “come with me.” He follows her but only because he doesn’t want to be stuck with Peter for longer than he needed to be.

“I was just trying to make him feel better,” Scott mumbles. Stiles… he’d only been doing what he could. He couldn’t remember that well because at the moment he had just woken up from being passed out and he had this weird compulsion to do what his alpha wanted but he remembered all the snarling and growling and Talia’s red eyes stood out to him. He remembered feeling the shift, one that wasn’t his own, and that was where Stiles stepped in he thinks.

He had tried, and failed, to shoot the other alpha given that he was within range but somehow, Scott wasn’t sure on the details, the other alpha got ahold of the gun and Stiles had ended up shot. From there Talia… well, Scott could have gone without ever having those details permanently burnt into his brain. He thought Peter was scary but Talia was terrifying. Scott had no desire to mess with that woman ever.

Talia sighs and shakes her head, “self sacrifice isn’t a trait that Peter admires. Actually it’s a trait he actively despises. He would have preferred Stiles drop the gun to run away.”

“Pretty sure that alpha would have chased him and even if that didn’t happen running away isn’t exactly Stiles’ style,” Scott says. Sticking around wasn’t usually his style either but he had been stuck in the middle of a fight with a couple of alpha werewolves and he’s only human. Shooting one of them, preferably not the one he liked, was his best shot no pun intended. Scott knew how Stiles thought and he knew Stiles wouldn’t have perceived any other options. Had he had the opportunity to sneak off and regroup to make a less dangerous plan he probably would have because Stiles is smart and he wasn’t the type to do anything without a backup plan. That was kind of Scott’s thing, which was probably why Stiles landed in his dad’s office so often as a kid.

Eventually Scott learned to listen to Stiles because he was better at the whole being sneaky thing and Stiles learned to fight Scott on doing something stupid immediately. But this wasn’t the kind of thing Stiles could have planned any better for so he did what was easiest at the time and he paid for it too. So, incidentally, did the other alpha.

“Stiles wouldn’t have been hurt if I could help it,” Talia says with a hard edge to her voice and Scott swears he sees her eyes flash red for a moment. If Stiles wasn’t currently half dead in a hospital bed he would have asked him what that meant but that wasn’t an option right now. “Now… I know this isn’t the best time,” Talia says, her voice much softer now, “but technically you’re an omega now.”

Scott’s eyes go wide because even he knew what that meant. “What?” he asks for lack of a better option.

Talia offers him a small smile, “relax Scott, I have no desire to see you tossed in prison or killed so I thought I’d offer you a place in my pack. You’re already close to Stiles and despite your differences with Peter… well, he’s the least favorite of the pack anyways. I doubt that would cause much trouble with everyone else,” she says.

“Fuck off,” Peter tells her from down the hall but she and Scott can hear him clearly. They could also hear Stiles’ heartbeat easily too, which the sheriff had been rather thankful for when Stiles was in surgery. No one told him about those brief few moments when Stiles’ heartbeat stopped for a moment but Scott was pretty sure no one had to tell him given how absolutely terrified he smelled in that moment.

“It’s true Peter, you’re not very likable. You’ve accepted it now shush. And Scott, let me know what you decide,” Talia tells him.

“Can you do that?” Scott asks. Stiles would know about the laws and stuff but he never took an interest in the supernatural like he did and he felt like an ass for mostly tuning out Stiles when he talked about it now.

“I’d have to have a reason to take you in and a connection with you, but those two requirements are easy to meet here. I could have made an argument to have you in my pack when you were still human and I would have had a decent case but now I have a good chance of actually making a claim for you and winning. You should be fine,” Talia says.

Scott frowns at the requirements, “if an alpha has to have a reason and a connection to an omega to claim that omega what happens if they’re bitten and abandoned or some other extreme situation? That’s just a weird way to set things up,” he says.

Talia sighs, “you’re not stupid despite Peter’s claims, Scott. You know why it’s difficult to adopt omegas.”

“I beg to differ on his intelligence,” Peter says, choosing then to butt into their conversation. Scott tells him to mind his own business.

*

When Stiles wakes up Lydia is standing over him looking unimpressed. “I got all your homework for the last week and I told your boyfriend to stuff it,” she says, launching right into things.

Stiles can’t help but think that he wanted a couple moments to gather his bearings first but alright. “Uh, thanks? And why’d you tell Peter off? Where is he?” Stiles asks. He hadn’t noticed it before but he could feel Peter’s presence. It felt sort of like Peter was emitting some kind of frequency and Stiles was picking up on it but it was a new thing so he had no idea if that was normal after a near death experience. He figured things would show more on Peter’s end than his but alright. It was hardly like he did research into human soul mates, those were boring and actual information was extremely difficult to come by given how much was mixed in with Hollywood bullshit.

“You’re welcome. Harris wants your work by the end of the week and it’s Thursday but don’t worry, you can copy off mine. You’re the only one in the school who’s smart enough to be able to pull that off without immediately being busted for cheating anyways. I checked. And your boyfriend called me useless for not predicting you getting hurt, which is not what banshees even do. Plus you told me to feel Scott’s future out, not yours or anyone else’s. I thought it was Scott that died when I screamed,” Lydia says and she pales a little at that.

Stiles found that a little weird considering she usually didn’t seem to care about Scott but he figured people were freaked out whenever someone they knew got hurt. “Thanks. And Peter’s just upset that I got hurt, not that he should be such an ass. I think that might be his natural state though,” he says and frowns. Okay, he much be out of it still because that was definitely Peter’s natural state but whatever.

*

He wakes up again and this time his father is sleeping on one side of him and Peter is on the other side looking down at him. Stiles jumps in surprise because Peter’s eyes are glowing the way cats and dogs eyes do and he wasn’t expecting it. His dad shuffles and blinks a few times, “Stiles? What’s going on?” he slurs out.

“Nothing. Just Peter’s glow-y eyes freaked me out,” he says, “go back to sleep.” He can see the sheriff consider staying awake to talk to him but he tells him he’s fine and to go back to sleep again and he listens. He’s snoring within minutes and Stiles relaxes a little, feeling better that he was at least resisting being a burden to one person for a moment.

“That was a stupid thing you did,” Peter tells him eventually.

Stiles has to think hard about what it was he did but eventually he remembers. “She was coming right at me, what else was I supposed to do? I couldn’t run and I wasn’t about to fight, shooting her was all I had left,” he says. “Who even was that?” He had no idea if they even knew who the alpha was but Lydia had told him he was out for the better part of a week though she reported that he woke up a few times before. He had no memory of that though so he didn’t count it.

Peter sighs softly, “I know. But this was why I didn’t want you around,” he says. “And the alpha was a woman named Kate Argent. She used to be a hunter and a skilled one too- she’s worked for several government agencies finding omegas and killing them. From what I gather the last time she was sent out she ran into a particularly powerful alpha and she got bit. The details are somewhat stingy but from the sounds of it she came back and killed the alpha, possibly to test that old wives tale about killing the alpha who turned you making you human again, or maybe it was for revenge. Either way she killed the rest of her newly acquired pack and somehow she caught wind of the Hale pack and decided we were next. I don’t think she expected you though,” Peter says.

That was… a lot. “Argent, isn’t that-”

“The family that’s well known enough for killing werewolves that people think silver causes harm to us? Yes,” Peter says. Huh, weird.

“Did I manage to shoot her at least?” Stiles asks. Talia had been formidable, but Stiles hadn’t been sure if she could have gotten to Kate to stop her from eating him and he had a clear shot. It made sense to take it.

Peter laughs softly, “no, alpha werewolves are far faster than humans even without special training.”

Stiles sighs, “damnit,” he mumbles as his vision starts to fade away, pulling him back towards unconsciousness.

He swears he hears Peter tell him never to do that again but he couldn’t be sure.

*

Stiles’ eighteenth birthday is way less eventful than usual given that he was being discharged from the hospital at that time, but the next time he goes over to the Hale house they’re all waiting for him with Scott and a birthday cake. Scott tells him proudly that he planned the whole thing while Peter rolled his eyes behind him, meaning that everything was Scott’s idea but everyone else did the work but Stiles appreciates it nonetheless.

Peter buys him a new game system, Scott buys him a bunch of games that Scott wanted more than Stiles, Derek barely scowls at him, and Cora tells him he smells weird. Talia gives him paperwork and Peter also gives him a key to his apartment and shares a piece of birthday cake with him, which turns out to be a mistake when Stiles shoves it in his face and cackles. He’s always wanted to do that to someone and Peter was a fool for thinking he’d escape it. He’d never be able to get away with it again but once was more than enough when Derek Hale was witnessed by many eyes laughing so hard that pop came out of his nose.

Derek, Scott, and Stiles end up playing several rounds of racing games that Stiles wins every time because he apparently had better hand-eye coordination than two werewolves and he snorts. “Werewolves? More like failwolves,” he says, earning a more emo than usual grumpy look than usual from Derek. “Don’t be such a sourwolf,” Stiles tells him.

Behind them Peter laughs absurdly hard, claiming that ‘failwolf’ was now going to be a new grade for his classes. Scott grumpily tells Stiles that he can’t just add ‘wolf’ to every insult he had for them and Stiles takes that as a challenge.

*

Stiles sort of anticipated things being really weird after being shot- he was so not happy that Kate managed to snatch that gun from him and pull the damn trigger before Talia ripped her head off. Possibly literally, Stiles didn’t ask for details. He did not, however, expect to start waking up in graveyards.

“By all means, continue waking the dead,” Peter tells him, scaring the hell out of him.

“Jesus Peter, make some noise. I’m only human,” he reminds him. Usually Peter was pretty good at that. “Wait, what?” he asks when his brain catches up with the ‘wake the dead’ thing.”

Peter sighs and perches on a gravestone, “I probably should have noticed when Cora commented on your smell but I smell my soul mate more than I do anything else on you and Talia thought that the strange smell you took on was the residual affects of being in pain and traumatized. Some people never go back to the way they smelled before so it made sense. Then your dreams started, which your father wrongly attributed to PSTD, and then the grave yard thing,” Peter says, giving Stiles an entirely unnecessary recap of his own life but he was dramatic and Stiles knew he was building to something. “Are you immune to Lydia’s screams by any chance?” he asks.

Stiles frowns, unsure what that had to do with what sounded like necromancy but alright. Peter was the expert here. “Yeah I guess. I mean when Kate killed off that second person she screamed and the whole precinct passed out except for me. I thought maybe it was because she knew me or something so her screams were like… less loud.” When he said that out loud he realized he sounded like a total moron, but in his defense he had a rather loud reminder of another murder happening at that moment.

“How far away from you was she?” Peter asks.

“Maybe two feet, is there a point to this? Because I’d really like to not wake up in graveyards so if you’re dramatic buildup is going to lead to a solution cut to the chase,” Stiles tells him.

Peter sighs, “you have no appreciation for suspense. Banshees, at least at that proximity, actually kill people when they scream. The only thing that’s immune to a banshee scream is a spark,” Peter tells him.

Stiles stares at him blankly but Peter neglects to continue. “The fuck is a spark?” he finally asks when Peter is obviously holding to his suspense building exercise.

“A spark is a kind of magical being similar to a witch or a druid, except they’re extremely rare- nearly extinct actually- and they’re magic only appears after some kind of stressor moment in their lives. Hence the name ‘spark’. Looks like having a near-death experience has triggered your magic, Stiles.” Peter looks impressed though with himself or Stiles Stiles had no clue and Peter’s explanation only made him more confused than before.

“How come those weren’t in any of the bestiaries I’ve read? I’ve read like five cover to cover,” he says. He thought he knew every supernatural creature that was out there but he guessed not. Also he was still pissed that vampires were totally fake because he had a secret thing for vampires.

“They’ve been on the brink for centuries, there are only maybe seven sparks born every century. Bestiaries stopped including them a long, long time ago. If they’re included now they’re a footnote in either the witch or druid section,” Peter tells him.

O…kay. “So uh, is this thing like… genetic or?” He wasn’t sure how this was supposed to work and if this thing was genetic someone might want to warn his dad before things got extra weird.

Peter rolls his eyes at him, “you’re smarter than that, Stiles. All supernatural gifts are genetic. Sparks in particular tend to be passed through the mother’s line, so it’s possible though unlikely that your mother was a spark too, but she certainly carried the gene. I suspect that’s why you keep waking up on her grave,” Peter says.

Stiles looks behind him and frowns, only just now realizing that Peter was right. Huh. He never really visited on his own, hardly compelled to spend any kind of time at his mother’s grave because he didn’t much care for a reminder of the worst time in his life. “So uh, what you said about waking the dead…”

“You haven’t done anything to disturb her grave, or anyone else’s here for that matter. The most you’ve managed is rattling a few bones, but that’s certainly impressive for anyone. Necromancy is difficult to channel and even more difficult to actually wield. You have a natural affinity for it and don’t look so horrified. Most necromancers stick to bringing plants back from the brink. That, and studying life and death cycles. There are several other ethical applications of that particular gift but for all you know that’s just what you were drawn to first, you could also be drawn to blood magic or blood bonds, which would also explain your presence at your mother’s grave,” Peter says.

He thinks he’s being assuring, Stiles is sure, but that all sounded god damn terrifying.

*

Contrary to popular belief Stiles actually put a lot of thought into Columbia and not just because Peter taught there. He had been considering Yale pretty strongly but Lydia decided on Columbia and he couldn’t just leave her when they had bonded so well over being strangely connected to dead things. They were both pretty horrified by their powers but at least together they figured out how to prevent deaths so that was nice. And the whole bringing plants back from the dead thing was cool when Scott got himself a fancy new girlfriend and Allison was not good with plants even though she loved them. Scott was just upset that he couldn’t take the plants suffering away like he could with animals because he was a pure soul and Allison was damn mean to those plants even if it was an accident.

Peter, also contrary to popular belief, gave him plenty of space when it came to his decision making for housing too. He had ended up choosing to live with Peter because in the end that was easier than explaining his whole necromancer deal to roommates who liked taxidermy. Lydia had made the mistake of opting for the roommate thing and she had a large taxidermy collection. Stiles knew his luck and he was not explaining why the taxidermy came to life and took a bite out of someone. Peter had found his reasoning hilarious but he had been happy to have Stiles and truthfully Stiles had been set on that decision for some time, he just hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself because that was kind of a big thing.

Classes, those were at least easy and Lydia had promised him one elective that they were going to take together so long as he suffered through physics with her. She hadn’t been impressed when he had taken Peter’s class in a completely shocking turn of events.

Lydia snorts when one of their classmates figures out that Stiles is Peter’s soul mate and suggests Stiles would have an easier time in the class. “You don’t know Peter very well, do you?” she asks. Stiles rolls his eyes, annoyed that Peter would make it that obvious in day one but he guessed they were all bound to find out eventually and someone would suggest Peter was marking Stiles’ work easier.

The TA at the front of the room looks up with wide eyes, “I wouldn’t worry too much. The more he likes you the harder he grades you. I feel so bad for you,” he says, looking absolutely haunted as he says it.

“Jesus Peter, what did you do to him?” Stiles asks.

“Made him an award winning Masters student is what I did, but I wouldn’t fret random forgettable student. Someone else grades his work after I do to make sure it’s fairly marked. And the TA is right, if I like you I push you, not coddle you. I pity pass people I never want to see again, not people I think have an actual future in being useful to society,” Peter says in a tone that suggests that discussion is both over and that he thought that student was the kind of student he’d pity pass. Stiles was impressed with Peter’s ability to do that with only a few words and he kind of wanted to learn his secrets.

The rest of the class consists of Stiles rolling his eyes at his classmate’s stupidity and referring them to the class readings that told them all those annoying werewolf myths were false while Peter grins. Lydia doesn’t even bother taking notes because even she was amused with Stiles using actual quotes from the text books and dropping at least four other sources every time someone said something that was false. Peter actually laughs out loud when Stiles asks if class readings were mythical creatures that people didn’t know how to locate.