Chapter Text
Two Years Later
Two years is not a very long time. In fact, it goes by in the span of a blink and suddenly you have no fucking clue how you got where you are.
That's not entirely true. Derek had a pretty good idea how he got where he was, but that didn't make it any less believable.
A new house stood on the Hale land now. Derek had decided against trying to build a copy of his old house and instead just went with something open and spacious that suited his own tastes. He had been worried at first that having a pack of young werewolves running through the place would take it's toll and that he'd be chasing everyone around with coasters and reminding them to take their shoes off in the house like some manic housewife, but apparently there was nothing like building something with your own two hands to make you respect and care for it. The entire pack had put time, sweat, and tears into building the new house and Derek loved that his pack shared his pride in the home they'd made for themselves.
The house had room for every member of the pack, but currently the only permanent residents were Erica and Boyd, Isaac, and himself. Danny and Scott spent almost enough time at the house to consider it their permanent residence, but both of them stayed in the dorms at their respective schools once college started up for them.
After more than a little “gentle” pressure from his pack, Derek ended up back in school himself. Before Laura died, he'd actually been taking classes for nursing. The pack had been... more than a little surprised to hear that. Oddly enough, it had been Peter that made Derek decide to go to school for nursing in the first place.
Derek had always taken healing for granted, being a werewolf. He’d never really spent time in a hospital or a doctor’s office until then. Sometimes the humans in his family would get sick, but it had never been much more than a cold, flu, maybe a sinus infection. They’d been pretty lucky, all things considered. Then he saw his uncle in that hospital (back before their was any bitterness between them) barely clinging to life, and his world tilted on its axis a little.
Laura and Derek spent a lot of time in the hospital at first, clinging desperately to the only family they had left. Derek watched the doctors and nurses with rapt attention, asking them question after question until they likely wanted to kick him out. They never did though. Some of them were nicer than others and would talk to him a little when they had time. Eventually Laura decided they had to move on when it became evident that Peter wasn’t going anywhere, but the seed had already been planted. After he graduated high school, he enrolled in a local college and started working on his degree before Laura went missing and he found himself back in Beacon Hills.
After Derek told the pack, they went into full mission mode. They started looking for local schools with a nursing program and helped him fill out applications and find out if he could transfer any of his old credits. Somehow the idea of starting over like that had never really occurred to Derek until then, but he had run out of excuses to keep putting off his life. The pack was stable, he had a real home, and he had enough money left over after building the house that he wouldn't have to take out any student loans.
Of course, the first time the pack saw him in the scrubs he had to wear to his clinicals, they nearly passed out with laughter. Danny had convinced him not to strangle his betas by telling him the nurse getup was actually pretty hot, but it was a damn close thing.
After two years of being with the pack, Danny asked Derek for the bite. After the chaos of turning Isaac, Erica, and Boyd within only a couple weeks, Derek was a little gun shy, but he knew this was different. This was how it was supposed to work. Derek insisted that they wait until the full moon and do it with the whole pack present, the way his family would have done it. The risk of Danny rejecting the bite was far less than it might have been due to him having already been accepted into the pack as a human. The bonds he'd already made with the pack and with Derek would strengthen him for the bite and lessened the chances of it killing him.
The full moon was the traditional time to bite a new werewolf as the moon's power would help the new werewolf heal and transition quickly. The downside was that it was basically the werewolf equivalent of teaching someone to swim by tossing them in the deep end. Derek had been spending most of his time lately teaching Danny the basics of control and preparing him for the full moon. Having the whole pack there to keep him in line would help, but Derek wanted to be ready for anything so he was also drilling the pack on what to do if the worst happened and Danny lost control. Derek, Isaac, Scott, Erica, and Boyd would be responsible for keeping close to Danny while Peter and Jackson would make sure their human mates stayed safe. Of course, they made sure to keep that last discussion out of the earshot of said humans. Lydia and Stiles both knew well enough to stick to the one werewolf per human buddy system, but that didn't mean they would react favorably to talk of them needing their boyfriends to protect them.
Lydia and Stiles were intent on making the full moon ceremony perfect. They'd been researching the old traditions and ceremonies and going over plans. For Stiles, a lot of this research consisted of grilling Peter for information which of course meant the information was slow to come thanks to... distractions.
Peter and Stiles had remained surprisingly solid over the last couple years. After Stiles graduated high school, Derek and Scott helped him tell his dad about werewolves and his involvement with the pack. This included an explanation as to why Peter was neither dead nor a half burnt vegetable. The revelation that Stiles and Peter were a couple didn't come till later. Stiles had been putting it off as long as possible, but after their relationship survived his first semester of college, he figured it was time. The sheriff took the news about werewolves existing a lot better than he took the news of his son dating one of them... not to mention one of them that was closer to his own age than his son's.
Stiles and Peter broke up for all of a week after the sheriff's epic meltdown and spent the entire time making everyone within a mile radius fucking miserable. Derek didn't know the details of how they got back together (and he was fairly certain he didn't want to), but one day Stiles told his dad to put on his big boy pants and deal with the fact that his son was a grown man and could have a relationship with anyone he wanted. The sheriff still wasn't a particularly big fan of Peter's to this day, but he seemed to begrudgingly accept that Peter wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Still didn't stop him from making group gatherings insanely tense and hysterically awkward whenever he was around, though.
It did help a little that Peter was always on his best behavior whenever Stiles's dad was around. Derek had half expected him to make inappropriate jokes and generally try to push the sheriff's buttons, but he supposed he should have known better. Of the things he'd learned about his uncle through his and Stiles's relationship, the fact that Peter was completely whipped had been first and foremost. They still bickered and gave each other shit, but it was pretty much common knowledge that Peter had a weak spot about a mile wide when it came to Stiles. Peter knew that the sheriff's opinion of him could make or break their relationship and that he'd have to maintain civility if he didn't want to lose Stiles again. If that meant playing the part of the perfect gentleman when the sheriff was around, then so be it.
The sheriff was pretty well aware that Peter's act was mostly bullshit, but he seemed content to accept the gesture. The sheriff had, at one point, taken Derek aside for a very awkward conversation that ended in Derek assuring him that while Peter was definitely a douche bag, he cared about Stiles and would genuinely rather eat rusty nails than hurt him. It was a little difficult for Derek to say it, but he honestly believed it to be true. The sheriff seemed to accept it and stopped carrying wolfsbane bullets whenever he came around to visit, much to Peter and Stiles's relief... and ok, everyone else's too.
With that behind them, Peter and Stiles had plenty of time and energy to devote to nauseating the entire pack. No one could really say their relationship was normal, but you couldn't deny the fact that they worked surprisingly well together. The first time they had a fight the whole pack was nearly wolfed out, convinced that it would end in violence. They weren't exactly wrong. Stiles ended up shoving Peter against a wall and practically mauling his face with something only a velociraptor could rightfully consider a kiss. By the time Peter had picked Stiles up and started carrying him up to the room they'd claimed in Derek's house, the pack had made the quick (and wise) decision to take an impromptu trip to the movies.
The conversation in the car on the way to the theater had consisted of the betas begging Derek to ban Stiles and Peter from having sex in the house. He told them he couldn't really do that unless he banned everyone from having sex in the house (which would have likely caused a mutiny). Jackson had brought up the excellent point that their sex life was so much grosser than everyone else's (and Derek wouldn't argue with that, he'd been scarred by overhearing their “dirty talk” once already), but the motion was shot down in the end.
To this day, Derek doubted that decision.
Luckily the two of them kept their sexcapades confined to Peter's apartment except in “emergency situations”. Stiles had clarified that situations that fell into the realm of sex emergencies included (but were not limited to): makeup sex, one of them doing something “awesome”, Peter wearing “that stupid shirt”, and the Mets winning a game.
Derek had since learned which “stupid shirt” Stiles was talking about and no longer allowed Peter in the house if he was wearing it. A man could only stand so much.
When they weren't being disgusting, the two of them could be surprisingly helpful. Truth be told, it was a little intimidating to watch them work together on something. They'd start bouncing ideas off each other in an effort to work out some puzzle or another and they'd do this terrifying thing where they'd start talking really fast and completing each other's thoughts in weird partial sentences. Lydia was usually the only one who could keep up or even translate when they started doing that (on occasions when she hadn't come to the same conclusion a step ahead of them).
Currently they had put their usefulness toward Danny's biting ceremony. Peter was able to fill in the blanks on the Hale packs own traditions as no one had been bitten into their pack while Derek was alive. The last person bitten into the Hale pack had been a cousin's husband, but that was before Derek's time.
Peter had been been strangely unhelpful at first, shutting down whenever Derek asked him. Stiles ended up explaining to Derek that Peter's wife had been planning to take the bite herself if their child turned out to be a werewolf (apparently carrying a werewolf baby to term was about the best guarantee you could get that someone would take to the bite), but obviously they never got past the planning stage. Eventually Peter eased up and starting sharing, no doubt after some coaxing on Stiles's part.
Derek had been strangely irritated and almost jealous at first to learn that Stiles knew things about his uncle, and by extension his family, that he didn't, but he'd come to terms with that too. He and Peter's relationship had stabilized over time, but they both accepted the fact that they would never really be close. There were things Derek didn't know about Peter and plenty of things Peter didn't know about Derek. Having Stiles to bridge the gap between them had given them a chance to learn things about each other they likely never would have otherwise. Maybe things would change in the future, but the for time being that was enough.
The full moon they'd planned to do the ceremony on arrived with no last minute break downs or catastrophes, much to Derek's relief. The first order of the day was a huge barbecue that Stiles and Lydia had set up. They'd invited the sheriff, Melissa McCall, and even Allison, though they would all be leaving before the sun went down. It wasn't any different than your average barbecue, other than maybe having a bit more meat than was usually reasonable for a group their size. Danny actually looked a little green at the pile of rare steak and ribs Isaac dropped in front of him.
“Eat up, buddy. Trust me, you're gonna need the fuel later.” Isaac said with a wink. Danny just shook his head, but started cutting into one of the steaks all the same. Derek sat by him the whole time, mostly to avoid the terrifying scene that was Stiles tearing into a plate of ribs. How he managed to shovel down that much food without taking a single breath, Derek didn't know. Sometimes Derek thought Stiles was a more intimidating carnivore than any of the actual werewolves. They'd talked about Stiles taking the bite before, but he'd insisted on tabling the discussion until he was through with college. Derek didn't think college was Stiles's real reason for putting the decision off, but he wasn't going to push. That was a decision he would have to make all on his own.
Danny was a ball of nervous energy by the time the sun set. He was obviously trying his best to appear calm and relaxed, but the pack stayed close; constantly giving him reassuring touches and leaning into him. Derek would have been lying if he said he wasn't a little nervous himself. This was his chance to do this the right way. This was his chance to turn someone with ample preparation instead of the agitated rush to build a pack back when he had the threat of an Alpha pack over his head and no clue what he was doing. Not to mention, as much as he had faith that Danny would take to the bite, there was always the chance he wouldn't. Just thinking about it had Derek walking over to put his arm around Danny, reassuring him with the presence of his Alpha and reassuring himself with the physical contact.
As the moon started to rise, the pack made their way out to a clearing far out in the preserve. By now, the betas had full control of themselves during the full moon so the only thing they had to worry about was Danny. They all gathered in a circle and most of the betas stripped down to the bare minimum amount of clothing they usually wore during the full moon, including Danny.
The ceremony was honestly very simple. Some packs went all out while others didn't make much of a fanfare about giving the bite at all. Derek, like his family before him, stuck to the basics. He wanted to make it special, but a big elaborate ritual wasn't really his style. All the betas shifted and waited patiently for Derek to begin.
“Danny, do you accept this pack as your own? As your family and your kin?” Derek asked. Erica had joked that the questions asked during the ceremony made it sound like Danny was getting married to the pack, but Derek had argued that it wasn't that far from the truth.
“Yes.”
“Do you accept the gift of your Alpha's bite and all the power and responsibility that comes with it?” (Derek shot a quick glare at Stiles to ensure he wouldn't make the same lame Spiderman joke he'd made the first time he heard that question.)
“Yes.”
At Danny's acceptance, Derek stepped forward and finally shifted like the rest of his pack. He nodded to Danny to make sure he was ready and Danny swallowed and took a deep breath before nodding back. Derek didn't draw it out. He bit Danny on his side, the same place he'd bitten all of his other betas. Danny gasped, but surprisingly didn't scream. No one would have blamed him if he had. Getting the bite was far from painless.
The moment Derek pulled away, Scott and Jackson were behind Danny, helping him down to the ground. The pack quickly moved in to touch and comfort him. With the full moon shining and his pack surrounding him, all Danny had to do now was wait.
As expected, the full moon accelerated the process and the moment they noticed Danny's bite starting to slowly close, the entire pack let out a sigh of relief and a rush of nervous laughter. Derek hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath. He'd been expecting the other shoe to drop for a while now and Danny's turning going wrong would have been one hell of a drop. As the wound started to heal, Danny's eyes were already starting to flash a bright golden yellow.
Derek grabbed Danny's hands and helped him to his feet. He could hear the race of Danny's heart, but he hadn't lost control yet. He squeezed Derek's hands a little tighter as his features began to shift into his beta form for the first time.
“You ready to run?” Derek asked. Danny let out an affirmative growl and the pack shouted with glee. This was the part they'd been looking forward to. The whole pack would run together for Danny's first full moon. Lydia hopped up on Jackson's back and Stiles ran alongside Peter, a safe distance from Danny, until they were sure he was in control.
Derek took off at a run and lead them all out into the forest. He let himself soak up the feeling. His pack was behind him, whole and healthy and strong and it made him feel stronger too. He knew that he appreciated this moment all the more for the pain he'd been through. He had something he never thought he'd have again. He had a family.
Derek let out a howl that shook the trees and felt something course through his body; a rush of power that he'd never felt before. As easy as letting out a breath, Derek felt his body shift, his jaw extending and his torso elongating as he dropped to all fours. He felt the itch and tingle of fur shooting down his body and with a kick, managed to get out of the shorts he'd been wearing. His pack had stopped in their tracks behind them and he looked back at them with glowing red eyes to see them staring in awe. He had no idea how he'd done it, but after accepting that he just might not have an Alpha form, Derek had finally found it.
Derek let out another howl and his pack returned it, even the humans, as they took off into the forest once again.
FIN