Chapter Text
Stiles spent the last period of the school year jiggling her leg and tapping her pencil. She caught her classmates’ glares and ignored them. She didn’t know if she’d be able to get out of her class in time.
The bell rung.
Stiles burst out of her seat, shoved her bag over her shoulder, and booked it. She made it to the school’s entrance and spotted who she was looking for.
“Isaac!” she shouted, sprinting to catch up to him.
He turned towards her, already looking mildly annoyed. “What?”
“I’m not trying to bother you,” she said, stopping several feet away from him and holding her hands up. “Just wanted to ask a question.”
Isaac didn't look any less annoyed, “Then ask it.”
“Where are Erica and Boyd?” she asked. “I haven’t seen them at school at all since everything went down.”
“They left,” Isaac said, then turned away and started walking.
“What do you mean they left?” she asked, following after him.
“It means they left,” he said. “Even before everything went down.”
“Before?” she asked, stopping. She then realized Isaac is still walking and caught up to him again. “They can’t have left before.”
“What would you even know about it?” Isaac asked, still not stopping.
“I saw them,” Stiles said.
Isaac finally stopped and turned back towards her. “When?”
“Just before everything went down.”
“Where?” he asked, taking a step towards her she wished she didn’t find so threatening.
Stiles glanced around them, at all the students trying to leave, celebrating the end of the school year. They weren’t paying attention to them, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still overhear them.
“At the Argent’s,” she said, keeping her voice down. “They weren’t exactly in a position to leave.”
Isaac grimaced, “We need to talk to Derek.”
“We?” she asked, gesturing between the both of them. “Don’t you mean you?”
This could be a pleasant surprise after how difficult it was to work with Derek and his group before. Or maybe a really unpleasant one.
“Nope, you’re coming,” he said and started walking again. “Where’s your obnoxious Jeep?”
“My Jeep is not obnoxious,” she retorted, following after him. “Aren’t you supposed to be following me?”
“No,” he said.
He ended up finding her Jeep without her help, and she wondered if he could smell her on it or something.
“Alright, so where exactly is Derek these days?” she asked as she unlocked the doors. “Please tell me he’s not back to hanging out at his old burnt out house.”
“Nope,” Isaac said, getting into the passenger seat. “We got a place near downtown.”
“Near downtown? Really?” she asked, surprised at the choice in locale. “Like away from the Preserve and nature and all that?”
“Yes,” he said, shooting her an annoyed look.
She resolved to try to be more quiet as she finished buckling in. Then she asked, “You got any directions to this place other than just near downtown?”
He gave her one word directions, but hey, if it worked, it worked. They arrived at some towering, old brick building in one of the more depressing areas of the city that hasn’t exactly recovered after the recession.
“This place?” she asked as she parked her Jeep. She wasn’t sure how comfortable she felt leaving it in the parking lot here. The whole area looked half abandoned.
“Yes,” he said tersely before getting out of the car and slamming the door shut.
“Okay,” she said, following him out. She made sure to lock her car before following Isaac into the building.
She remembered a lot of horror stories about werewolves and teen girls, but usually the girl didn’t know about the werewolves beforehand. Still, she kept her eyes peeled and her ears open. It didn’t seem like there was really anyone else in the building as they made their way up to the top floor.
Isaac led the way to this big metal sliding door that opened right as they approached, revealing Derek. He looked about as annoyed as Isaac had. “What are you doing here, Stiles?”
Stiles looked to Isaac to explain, but he returned an expectant look. She shifted on her feet and said, “I wanted to talk about Erica and Boyd. I hadn’t seen them in school, so.”
Derek didn’t look impressed.
“Isaac said they left before we finished dealing with the Kanima, except I saw them in the Argent house before that.”
Then Derek looked interested and also angry. “And you didn’t tell us earlier? Where exactly were they in the Argent house?”
“Scott said Allison said they got released, and the Argents were leaving so I thought they would be okay, but then they didn’t show up to school, and I thought they might not be okay, and Isaac said that they’d left—,”
“Stiles,” Derek interrupted. “Where were the Argents keeping them?”
And Stiles knew what he was really asking and sucked it up and told him. “In the basement. Strung up with live wires and their mouths taped shut.”
Derek looked murderous. He took several deep breaths then asked, “And what were you doing in the Argent house, Stiles? How were you able to see them?”
“No reason,” she said, and she knew she had said it too quickly. She willed herself not to move her hands at all, to not rub at her fading bruises.
Isaac tilted his head back as he looked her over. “You have bruises.”
“So?” she asked. “Everyone gets bruises. And I’m a pretty clumsy person, you know, and just human. Don’t heal as fast as werewolves do.”
Except now Derek’s looking at her closely, too. “You didn’t fight the kanima. You just drove your Jeep into it. You shouldn’t have any bruises.”
“Well, I do have bruises,” she said with a shrug. “It’s whatever.”
They looked at her, and she could tell they both knew she was lying.
“We stopped Isaac and Scott from looking for you so we could deal with the kanima,” Derek said, looking uncomfortable. “I’m sorry.”
“Who’s we?” she asked because it’s something other than her bruises to talk about. Or the fact that Derek just apologized to her of all things. She could contemplate that fact to death later.
Derek hesitates. “Me and Peter.”
“Wait, Peter?” she asked. “Like, your murderous uncle Peter? That we all killed and know died because you became Alpha, that Peter?”
“Yes, Stiles,” he said, moving back toward annoyed which was much more normal, “That Peter. Didn’t you see him after you hit the kanima with your Jeep?”
“He was there? I was a little busy with the whole—,” actually she didn’t want to talk about Jackson having his dick out while he turned into a werewolf, “Not the point, are we not concerned about the fact he’s not dead now? How’d that even happen?”
Derek glowered. “Yes, we’re concerned. He won’t tell me how he did it. Pretty sure it was some kind of ritual, but that’s not what we need to discuss right now. What happened to Erica and Boyd?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “They were still strung up the last I saw them. I don’t know what happened after that. I thought they went back to you until Isaac said they left.”
Derek didn’t say anything, just continued to glower. Even Isaac was going a little scowly, and he cast a glance over to Derek before looking down.
“Well, are you going to say anything?” Stiles asked.
“We’ll look into it,” Derek said and started turning away.
“What? That’s it?” she asked. “Isaac drags me out here and I tell you about them being in the Argent’s and all you’re going to say is you’ll look into it.”
Derek looked like he’s considering it then nodded. “Yes. It’s not your problem.”
Then he turned to walk back to the big metal door.
“Dude, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but anytime you have a problem it becomes Scott’s problem which makes it my problem,” she said, following him.
“Not this time,” Derek said. “Scott made it very clear that I’m not his Alpha.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” she asked. “If there’s something else out there attacking werewolves, don’t you think the rest of us should know about it?”
Derek turned back to face her. “It’s pack business. My pack, specifically. Which you aren’t a part of.”
Stiles stared at him, flabbergast for a moment, arms spread out as she tried to find something to say to that level of stupidity. “We’re all in the same city. Anything supernatural going on is going to end up affecting all of us. It’ll be way easier if you just tell us what’s going on. I’ve helped you out before.”
“Not this time, Stiles,” he said, shaking his head. “Go home.”
She didn’t leave, and played the one card she thought she might have. “Don’t you think you owe me one, you know, considering.”
Stiles didn’t pretend to know exactly how Derek’s moral compass worked, just that he has one, and this time, it was enough to make him give her an assessing look, even if he seemed extremely annoyed that he was doing it.
“There are alphas in the area that may have taken them,” Derek admitted.
“Alphas? As in plural, more than one?”
“Yes, that’s what the ‘s’ means, Stiles.”
“What are they here for and why would they take Erica and Boyd?” she asked. “You don’t think, do other werewolf packs attack each other, and like, mean to kill them?”
“They’re here because there’s a new Hale alpha here,” he said. “And I suspect they would have taken them just because they’re my betas. So really, it’s none of your business. You’re not part of my pack so they won’t have any interest in you.”
Stiles didn’t see that lasting. “Why do you think they would take them over doing anything else?”
“It’s not your business, Stiles,” Derek said. “Why do you even care?”
“Because I’m not stupid enough to think this won’t spread to the rest of us,” she said then ran her hand over her mouth because she was going to hate saying this part. “And I wasn’t able to get them out of the Argent house myself.”
And now she wanted to puke. Why couldn’t she at least have done that right? One thing, it was just one thing.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but Derek seemed to look a little sympathetic towards her.
“As far as we can tell, the alphas are recruiting,” he explained.
“They’re testing you, that’s why you think they’d be taken over anything else,” she said. “You think they want to see if you can get them back.”
Derek nodded. “Being a capable alpha means protecting your betas. If I can’t get them back, I won’t be good enough for them.”
“Let me guess, they don’t just want meat heads who can fight,” she said. “Which is why they didn’t start a fight or kill them.”
“No, according to Peter,” he said, tilting his head. “They prefer to escalate.”
“And kidnapping two betas is where they want to start?” she asked. “Yeah, there’s no way this wouldn’t have spread to the rest of us.”
If Stiles had thought there had been any kind of sympathy in Derek’s face, it certainly wasn’t there now.
“No, this stays with me and Isaac. I told you because I owe you, but I don’t owe Scott shit,” he said. “He made it very clear that I can’t work with him.”
Isaac stepped into place at Derek’s shoulder, not that Derek would need extra muscle for just little old human Stiles. It didn’t make sense.
“I thought we all worked together on the kanima and Gerard and we were past this,” she said, confused. She’d been there at the end. They’d all been there, working together.
“No,” he said. “Scott had his own plan. We’ll no longer be working with him.”
“You don’t think that’s a bad idea?” she asked, then gestured out towards the city beyond the building’s walls. “There’s alphas, plural of them, out there. That’s a little bit more than just one kanima. Shouldn’t we be working together on this?”
“No,” he said, and she swore there was a hint of growl in his voice. “We won’t. Scott chose to act on his own. He’ll get nothing from me.”
She gaped at him for a moment then asked, “What the hell am I supposed to do then?”
“Go home,” he said again. “This isn’t your problem.”
“You know what? Fine,” she said, throwing up her hands. “I’m gonna go home and sit on my ass and when it eventually blows up and you need help, I’ll tell you I told you so.”
Derek didn’t look impressed so she stomped away back to the stairs. She muttered to herself, “Probably have to end up saving your ass again. Better not fucking be in water this time.”
She got out to her Jeep and right as she was pulling the door shut, that was when it hit her that Derek and Isaac knew what happened. Maybe not the details, but they knew that Gerard took her and hurt her. That she couldn’t defend herself from an old man. Couldn’t help Erica and Boyd either. Probably would figure out the beating was a message to Scott if they haven’t already.
At least they didn’t know that it was a message Scott never received. He never asked her about the bruises. If he’d put two and two together on it, he’d never given her any indication of it.
She needed to get out of here. She shook herself, put her key into the ignition and peeled out of the building’s parking lot.