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Derek couldn’t take it anymore. He knew being a werewolf meant privacy was virtually non-existent- though his family did like to give the illusion of it sometimes- but everyone was just always there and in his business! He hadn’t gotten to experience life on his own and figure out who he was on his own- not in relation to family and pack.
So when it came time for college he moved to New York and never looked back. It had gotten even worse right before he moved. His mother and alpha had announced that she was running for mayor of Beacon Hills, so not only was his family constantly around, but the people from town would always stop him and talk to him- reporters wanted a statement from him about his thoughts on his mother’s candidacy and how he thought the election would pan out.
He was just done with it all, so he felt little guilt that his family interactions were through phone calls and video chats. It was fine, he still had a pack, so he wasn’t an omega at risk of going feral or anything.
However, five years after he left, Laura argued differently.
“The pack bonds are strained,” She said when she surprised him by barging into his New York apartment, “I know you can feel it. You need in person contact with the pack or it’s going to fade completely. Just come home for the holidays, then you can get back to avoiding us.”
“I’m not avoiding you, I just needed space.” Derek tried to explain.
“Five years of space?” Laura asked, “I get it. We have a big family and the rest of the pack is always around. But not coming home for at least Christmas is ridiculous. Even normal humans need personal connection. We accepted your excuses when you were in school, but you’ve graduated now. We’re worried about you.”
“And I get that, but I’m fine!” Derek insisted.
Laura crossed her arms, “Ok, then show me your claws. Just your claws.”
Derek rolled his eyes, but held his arms out in front of him and focused on making his claws come out. However, when they did reveal themselves, he felt his face go into a beta shift as well.
“That’s what I thought. You’re coming home for Christmas and I would advise a summer full moon run, but that can be discussed between you and mom. Our flight leaves tomorrow. I already called your work, so all you have to do is pack.”
Twenty-four hours later Derek was getting off a plane in San Francisco and then getting in his sister’s camero to drive the rest of the way to Beacon Hills. The pack gave him a warm welcome once they arrived and he’s forced into a puppy pile in the living room instead of being able to retreat to his old room like he’d wanted.
At some point he must have fallen asleep because he woke up feeling too warm. He opened his eyes to see Laura on one side, Cora on top of him, and his mother on the other side. Other pack members were around as well.
Talia woke up shortly after he did and gave him a small smile, “You can go up to your room now. The Christmas party is tonight, so we’re going to be prepping all day. And remember, it’s semi-formal.”
Derek returned the smile and nodded before attempting to extract himself from the grips of his family. With his mother gone, he had one side free to exit from, but Cora and Laura’s grips were tight, and Laura’s three year old son- Henry- was holding his legs and he didn’t want to disturb the child. It was their first time meeting in person and he didn’t want to leave a bad impression on the kid, so after minimal struggling, he settled in and waited for everyone else to wake up.
As much as he loathed to admit it, it was nice being back. He wouldn’t want to move back home, but visiting every once and a while wouldn’t be as much of a hardship as he thought it would be.
Eventually everyone got up; Laura went to help mom in the kitchen, Cora was tasked with wrangling the kids, and everyone else was decorating and cleaning for the party. Derek didn’t know what the big deal was since it was only ever pack, but he just shrugged it off and went to get ready.
He heard people arriving, but he stayed in his room a little longer- relishing the sense of peace before the chaos he knew was awaiting him downstairs.
Eventually, his uncle Peter came to get him, “Laura told me she got you to come. Everyone’s here, you can’t hide out forever.”
He grunted and followed Peter down stairs. He greeted several pack members who were not there to welcome him the day before. They each made sure to run their hands up and down his arm, back, or neck in order to mark him as pack and he did the same in return. Having the scent of pack on and around him was comforting and grounding in a way he hadn’t noticed he was missing.
However, then he smelt something out of place. It wasn’t a bad smell- on the contrary, it was really, really nice- but it wasn’t pack and it was distracting. He tried to subtly figure out where the smell was coming from and eventually he settled on a young man near the buffet table.
He looked the man up and down. He didn’t look familiar at all. His mom had bitten three new betas while he was gone, but she had shown him pictures of them and he was not one of them.
“That’s Stiles,” Peter said, “He’s with Cora.”
“What the hell is a Stiles?” Derek then let his focus go from just the young man- Stiles- and looked at what was around him and noticed he was talking to Cora. The two seemed close- exchanging light touches and laughing at what the other was saying.
He looked at Stiles again. He didn’t care how good looking he was or how good he smelled or how distracting his long fingers and doe eyes were, Stiles was not good enough for his little sister.
Derek found his mom mingling with some pack members who lived up in Washington and only visited for holidays and big events.
“What is he doing here?” Derek asked, not caring how rude he was being.
“Why is who here, dear?” Talia asked.
“That guy with Cora. Stiles.”
“Stiles? He’s been coming for years,” Talia explained, “And not just Christmas. He comes to the house almost every major holiday. His dad works a lot and I would hate for him to be alone. Even though he’s not officially pack, it does feel like he’s a part of it sometimes. I would offer him a place in it if he knew about werewolves.”
Derek left that conversation. He didn’t want to hear any more and he knew his mom would be no help in getting the intruder out and if the alpha wasn’t going to do anything about it then no one would.
He went into the kitchen and got a wolfsbane beer out of the fridge. There was no way he was staying sober for this.
“Looks like we had the same idea.” Came a voice from behind him.
He turned around and saw it was Stiles. Derek moved out of the way and Stiles got a beer, but it was a normal beer. He hadn’t even realized there were two kinds, and it kind of bothered him that they specifically bought it to accommodate this guy (his dad was 30 years sober and the other humans in the pack were under 21).
“I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. I’m Stiles.” Stiles held out his hand for a handshake. Derek just stared at it and didn’t respond.
“So did the Hales pseudo adopt you, too?” Stiles asked, “I think it was about five years ago that I was invited for the first time. Although back then it was because my dad’s the sheriff and Talia wanted the connection for her mayoral run. But then I really hit it off with the family and with my dad working a lot, I’m alone a lot and I guess it’s nice not to have to be alone on the holidays anymore. The Hales always invite me and make me feel included. So I guess what I’m saying is welcome to the family?”
“I grew up here,” Derek said, “This is my family.”
Stiles’ face brightened with understanding, “You must be Derek! Cora didn’t tell me you were actually coming this year!”
And there it was again. The reminder that this guy was dating his sister.
He shoved Stiles into a nearby wall, “Stay away from Cora.” And then he stormed out.
“What the hell?” He heard Stiles mutter.
But that didn’t matter. Derek was back upstairs in his room and away from the party- away from Stiles.
The solitude didn’t last for long, though. Soon Cora came bursting into the room.
“What the hell did you say to Stiles?” She yelled.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Like hell it doesn’t matter. He’s my best friend and you tell him to stay away from me?”
Derek scoffed, “Best friend. Is that what you’re calling it these days?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know he’s your boyfriend.”
“He’s my- is that what this is about?” She asked.
“Yeah. He’s not good enough for you.”
Cora started laughing at that. When she finally calmed down she said, “Dude, no need to get so defensive. Stiles and I aren’t dating. He’s single and he’s bi, so you can stop being upset that I ‘got to him first’ or whatever.”
Derek felt his face heating up, “That’s not what this is.”
“Sure it’s not,” She said, “Just come down when you’re ready, and you owe Stiles an apology. Oh, and who told you Stiles and I were dating? And how did you not pick up on the lie?”
“It was Peter. You know how good he is at wording things just right.”
“Well, I’m going to go kick his ass and remember, you are going to apologize to Stiles. And ask him out.”
“I’m not going to ask him out!” Derek called down the hallway after her.
When he did finally make it downstairs, it was clear people were pretending they hadn’t heard the entire argument, but they were interested to see what was going to happen next. This was exactly why Derek left in the first place.
He sighed, but made his way through the crowd until he found Stiles in one of the back rooms playing a game with Henry- the sight brought a smile to his face.
“Henry, I think your dad was looking for you. He’s in the living room.” Derek said.
“Ok!” The boy said and then he ran out of the room, leaving Derek and Stiles alone.
“I wanted to apologize for earlier,” Derek said, “My uncle gave me the wrong impression about your relationship with Cora. But even then I was out of line.”
“Which uncle?” Stiles asked, “Wait, don’t answer that. It was totally Peter. He’s such a drama queen, but prefers to make others be dramatic instead of being in the center of the drama. I both hate and respect that guy.”
“It’s fun when he’s doing it to other people, but not so much when you’re the center of his little prank.” Derek admitted, “But like I said, I’m sorry for how I reacted.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Stiles said, “I probably would have reacted the same way, too, if I came home and thought my sister was dating a complete stranger. Or, well I would if I had a sister. I’m an only child. I think I might have mentioned that earlier.”
Derek fought back a smile, “I think it was implied.”
The two of them spent the rest of the night in that back room talking. Derek didn’t ask him out, but Stiles was at the Hale house every day for the rest of Derek’s visit.
When he got back to New York he started talking to his boss about the possibility for a transfer to California. Their closest branch was in San Francisco, so they came to an arrangement when Derek would be remote and only go into the San Francisco office for big meetings.
He found a nice apartment just outside Beacon Hills. It was an old industrial loft just on the other side of the preserve. This way he got his privacy, but it was much easier to spend time with his family and the rest of the pack.
Upon returning to Beacon Hills, he sought out Stiles and finally asked for that date.
“Dude, are you serious?” Stiles asked.
Derek rolled his eyes, “Don’t call me dude. And yes I’m serious. I moved to the other side of the country- that’s how serious I am.”
“Oh, wow, you’re right. You did do that,” Stiles said, “Yes! One hundred percent totally yes! I would totally love to go out with you du-Derek.”
“You were going to call me ‘dude’ again, weren’t you?”
“Nope.”
“Why do I want to go out with you again?”
“Because of my irresistible charm?” Stiles suggested.
“Your charm is very resistible.”
“But you haven’t been able to resist it so far.”
“What do you mean? I hated you when we first met.” Derek said.
“All I remember are longing stares from across the room, being pushed against the wall with our bodies real close, and then you spending the rest of the night with me. Seems like I was irresistible even then.”
Derek rolled his eyes. Yeah, this guy was pretty irresistible considering how good looking he was and how good he smelled and how distracting his long fingers and doe eyes were. Derek was glad he made it home for Christmas last year and he was looking forward to many more Christmases with Stiles at his side. And who knows, maybe next year he would know he was the human in a den of wolves.