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Derek is fully wolfed out and merely happily rummaging through the spacious woods that belong to the Hale territorium when the unacquainted and fascinating scent first hits his nose.
The big black wolf immediately stops his attempts to find game to scare up and whisks his snout from the ground and high in the air. He takes in a lung full of crisp air and sucks the scent in through his proficient nose.
The scent is weak but intoxicating: A unique mix of elder and freshly cut grass that Derek has never smelled before. It is a good scent. His wolf agrees enthusiastically.
It is only when he unconsciously strolls closer to the source of it that he registers that there is a faint heartbeat attached to the scent.
Derek bristles and goes stiff all over as he tries to identify the scent, which is much more potent and definitely not human now that he is closer to its occupant.
In his mind the thoughts are tumbling all over eachother: There is an intruder! A strange male wolf is trying to trespass the border of their territorium!
Derek's heedful ears twitch as he strains to listen for movements of the stranger. But the other wolf doesn't seem to be moving. Derek tilts his head to the side in confusion and growls. Why is he not running or moving? He must be sensing that another wolf is coming closer to chase him away. Is it a trap?
Slowly Derek leaves the thick raspberry bushes that were seperating him from the other wolf and approaches. There under an oak tree just along the border of their land he spots the wolf. He is laying on the leafy ground, breathing wetly and not moving much.
Derek is only a few metres away now and can smell the coppery scent of blood and hurt on the other being. It makes him cringe and bristle in sympathy. The wolf is much smaller and skinnier than Derek and his white fur is mottled and coloured in a way Derek has never seen before.
The small wolf fascinates him and since there doesn't seem to be anyone else around Derek cautiously walks over to nudge him with his nose.
The wolf groans quietly and opens his eyes slowly. He blinks owlishy at Derek with whiskey brown eyes that seem to bore right into his heart and make his stomach drop.
Surprisingly he doesn't seem to be scared or worried at all at the sight of another wolf. Instead he is completely out of it and barely conscious, Derek registers. His dull eyes fall closed again after few seconds.
The fur of the small wolf is rather long and clotted with dirt and blood, which is ozing from several deep wounds in his chest. Wounds of an alpha Derek discovers as he inspects them to find out about the severity of the wolfs injuries.
It instinctively makes Derek flinch and whine. He has been there before and knows that it hurts like hell when those heal. And it especially bothers him to see this already wispy wolf hurting so badly. His wolf is instantly overprotective and agitated without any logical reason.
He nudges the other wolf again and begins to lick at his snout, but he doesn't wake up again.
Derek whimpers as panic rises in his chest. This wolf is close to dying as it seems, his heartbeat getting weaker and irregular. Another small scared sound leaves Dereks mouth before he begins to howl loudly and desperately for his pack. He howls until he hears Laura responds with a howl of her own and knows that help is coming.
Then he lays down next to the foreigner and carefully licks the bloody bites and cuts to soothe and heal them. But all of his nudging and licking is not enough the bring the stranger back to consciousness for more than a few miliseconds where he groans terribly and rolls his eyes back into his skull.
Derek scoots closer and draws some of the pain through the body contact they have. It comforts the stranger and lessens the panic rising in Derek's chest. It also comforts him to have the small wolf tucked into his side and shielded from possible danger.
He strains his ears to listen for his pack and breathes a sigh of relief when he hears the soft sound of paws hitting the forest floor.
A minute later Laura and his mom arrive at the scene. Talia changes back into her human skin while Laura circles Derek and the other wolf warily.
After quickly assessing the situation Talia sends her to search for other scents in the area.
"Derek! What is going on? Are you ok? Who is that wolf?" She asks with worry in her voice.
Derek lets out a high whine and nudges at her leg without losing the skin on skin contact with the stranger. They don't have time for questions! The other wolf is dying!
His mother senses his distress and starts to caress her sons head and ears while she inspects the strangers wounds.
"It's okay, Derek. Everything will be okay. Cora and Deaton are on their way with the car."
She stops for a second and the shakily adds:"It sounded as if you were hurt. So they are bringing stuff. We can use it to help your little friend here."
They sit there quietly caressing each other and the hurt wolf until they hear the car. Laura shifts and runs over to the little street next to the forest where the car stopped and shows the doctor and her sister the way to the scene of accident.
"What happened?" Deaton asks, immediately registering the seriousness of the situation and getting to work.
Cora and Laura quickly carry the doctors equipment and a foldable stretcher over to him and place it on the ground.
"I don't know." Talia answers. "We found them like that. Derek is ok, only distressed. His little friend however is not."
"I can see that. Do you want to take him back to the house? I can only do the essentials out here."
Talia hesitates but the angry growl Derek lets out lets her nod her head in approval.
"Yeah we will. I don't think he is a threat anyway."
The doctor nods and starts to poke at the stranger with several needles and instruments.
Derek snarls at him but slowly and hesistantly retreats a few centimetres to give the proffesional access to the worst wounds.
After Deaton is done with attaching the small wolf to a drip and injecting medicine into him they all help to load him onto the stretcher and put him on the backseat of the car. Derek jumps into the car too and sits in the leg area before leaning his head against the wolfs soft belly.
Laura snorts at his odd behaviour but everyone moves quickly to get the wolf back to the Hale house. Cora and Deaton slip in the front seats while Talia runs back and orders Laura to continue her search for other intruders and strange scents.
----
Back at the Hale's house they carry the still unconscious wolf into a guest room and lay him down on the bed.
Derek changes back into his human form, and leaves his new friend alone reculantely to put some clothes on. When he comes back a big part of the Hale family is standing outside the guest room and curiously asking a lot of questions, which Derek doesn't have answers to.
During the wolfs medical treatment Derek finally gets to tell Deaton and Talia how he found the stranger and that there was nothing that seemed dangerous or weird around him. He sits on the bed petting the fur of his new friend and tries to supress growls and snarls as Talia helps Deaton clean and cover the wounds. They stop as Talia discovers something on the wolf's neck.
"He is freshly bitten!" She exclaims.
Deaton sighs. "Well... He certainly has a hard time in front of him then! Healing these wounds and adapting to the changes in his body will cost him a lot of his strenght. We either need to find the alpha and pack he came from or adopt him to teach him how to control it."
Talia nods. "I already sent out Laura to find out where he came from. Hope she brings new information when she comes back."
"I'm done." Deaton says a minute later and gets up. "He should heal just fine but it might take him a bit to wake up. Watch him closely! I will come by tomorrow."
"Thank you, Alan." Talia says and leads him out of the door.
They leave Derek alone with the wolf and a minute later Deatons car leaves the property. Dereks mother comes back after a few minutes.
She sits down next to him, pets hair and kisses his temple.
"I'm very proud of you, Der. You reacted perfectly. Without your help he would have died." She whispers.
Derek whimpers and instinctively scoots closer to the wolf, who is stable now but still badly messed up.
"He is going to be fine in no time. Don't worry." She assures him quickly.
"You like him, don't you?" She asks with a smile.
Derek roughly nods his head. "He smells good. I don't know why but I feel the need to protect him. I can barely control it." He grumpily admits.
His mother smiles. "That's ok. Trust your instincts."
"I'll go and cook some soup. He will need something hot to get his strength back up once he wakes up. Can you watch him for a bit?" She adds.
Derek nods and scoots further onto the bed where the wolf is curled up and sleeping off the drugs the doctor gave him.
After a minute curls up next to him and begins to pet his fur. Concentrating on the small wolfs heartbeat and the feeling of his soft fur on his fingers as he slowly falls asleep too.
---
Derek wakes up to voices, whining and growling. A lot of growling. He opens his eyes slowly only to find the bed in front of him empty. The noises are coming from the living room. It is the small wolf he registers and jumps up to find out what is happening.
"Derek! He is trying to change back but it is hurting him because of his wounds!" Talia calls out frantically.
The wolf is sitting in a corner of the room. Every few seconds a ripple goes through him as he starts the changing process. But every time he stops the shift and starts whining loudly.
Talia tries to go near him, but it only sends the wolf snarling and into panic mode.
Derek shoos his mother away and sits down on the floor, slowly scooting closer with every passing second. The wolf eyes him suspiciously but ends up jumping into Dereks lap, huffing and whining loudly.
Derek buries his head into the wolfs fur and lets out a small rumble. Slowly the other wolf calms down and falls back asleep.
Derek carefully lifts him up and moves them back into the bedroom where they cuddle up to eachother and fall asleep.
Later that night Laura comes back and reports that the rogue alpha who bit the small wolf is dead so that they will not be able to tell who he is until he changes back into human form.
The stranger stays in his wolf form and heals for almost two weeks and they slowly work out a routine: Derek is woken up from the wolf licking his face gently. He feeds him with small pieces of meat and rice while he eats and holds him close to his chest when Deaton comes to examine him. They cuddle in front of the TV, take slow walks around the Hales garden and fall asleep cuddling eachother in their wolf forms.
Derek begins to talk to the stranger - with words but also with quiet growls and other wolfy signals. He seems to pick up fast and so Derek makes a point in shifting back and forth between human and wolf to show him how it is done and that it doesn't hurt.
That effort pays off when Derek wakes up cuddling a human body one morning.
He comes to slowly and registers that the man in front of him is very much awake but choosing to lay still.
His skin is like his fur: pale with lots of moles littering it. He has messy brown hair and his eyes are still whiskey brown but much more fierce and less dim than when he was close to dying. They go back and forth betweem blue and brown as he fights over control.
"Oh. Uhm. You are awake." Derek stutters as he sits up. The boy is naked just like Derek. They are tangled up in a blanket which the other man is holding onto very tightly.
"How are you?" He asks carefully.
"Good. I'm a wolf now, right? Or did I hallucinate that?" The boy answers.
"Yeah you are. A werewolf. Do you remember anything? Your name?" Derek asks. He deliberately doesn't talk about the boys wolf side any further. The humans of Beacon Hills know that werewolfs exist and that sometimes humans get turned. And he wants to give to boy time to adjust to the fact that he now is one of them.
"I'm ... Stiles." The boy mutters with his raspy voice.
"Do you know who bit you?" Derek asks.
"No. But he hurt me and left me alone afterwards." Stiles blurts out a second later.
Derek hugs him closer on instinct. They stay silent for a few heartbeats before Stiles speaks up again.
"Where am I?"
"On Hale property. Near Beacon Hills. I found you near the little street in the forest two weeks ago."
"Oh. That is not too far from home... Can I..."
"Mhmm?" Derek murmurs concentrating more and more on the fact that the naked limbs of Stiles are completely interwined with his.
"Could I call my dad? He must be worried sick." Stiles asks.
"Of course. Let's get up." Derek shakes himself out of his stupor and crawls out of the bed.
It is a bit awkward but Derek is used to being naked near others. Stiles is blushing prettily though.
Derek throws him some of his clothes and gets dressed himself.
They walk into the kitchen. Dereks wolf rumbling at the sight and smell of Stiles in his clothes. He forces the animal to be quiet.
His mother is already awake and scrambling eggs.
"Oh. Good morning." She greets them with a bright smile. "And you are?"
"My name is Stiles." The young man answers.
"Nice. Hello Stiles. You managed to shift back!" She comments.
"Yeah. I woke up as a human. Must have happened while I was asleep."
He clears his throat.
"Thank you for saving me and letting me stay here, Mrs Hale. I don't know how to make it up to you."
"Aww. Call me Talia, love. You don't have to make it up to us. Derek found you and you needed our help. So we helped. End of the story. Don't worry about it."
She goes in to hug him.
"What a handsome young man you are!" She says excitedly while putting eggs and toast in front of them. "I was really curious about what you would look like."
Stiles blushes adorably.
"Thank you." He mumbles and starts eating.
Afterwards Derek leads him to their phone and goes back into the kitchen while Stiles calls home.
Derek sits down next to his mother to chat with her while he waits for his friend to return.
Stiles comes back five minutes later, wet eyes and rubbing at them furiously.
Derek jumps up from his chair immediately.
"Everything ok?" He asks. Almost going in for a hug. The urge to soothe and protect Stiles almost overwhelming.
"Yeah. Dad will come and pick me up tonight after his shift ends." Stiles sniffles.
Dereks heart clenches at the thought but he hides it behind a smile.
"Good. Do you .... Do you want me to teach you how to control your wolf and shift in the mean time?"
"Yeah. I think that would be good." Stiles nods.
They spent the afternoon outside, wrestling, play fighting and running. The younger man gets to test out how far he can jump, how fast he can sprint and how strong he is - in his wolf form as well as in his human form.
They get back to the house hours later and shower while waiting for dinner.
"You need a pack. Every wolf does. They are group animals." Talia states during the meal.
"Do you want to enter ours for the time being?" She asks
"Like a test period?" Stiles hesitates.
"Yes. Just to help you out."
"I would love to. Thank you so much." Stiles agrees.
"Can we like not tell my dad that I'm a werewolf, yet?" He adds a minute later.
"Yeah sure." Derek says and everyone agrees.
A car pulls up at the house not much later.
They let the sheriff in and tell him the story how they found Stiles passed out in the woods. Though they leave out the furry part and the injuries.
"Thank you so much for letting my son stay. I can not thank you enough." The Sheriff says, his eyes wet.
"Thank you so much for everything. When will I see you again?" Stiles asks Derek quietly during his fathers little speech.
"You could come around next weekend. We have a barbeque planned for Coras birthday." Derek whispers.
"I will be there. Thank you."
They exchange phone numbers before the cruiser with the two Stilinski men drives away.
----
Over the next days Derek feels like a giant hole has been ripped into his heart. He just misses the other man desperately.
The only thing that helps him is the texting that he and Stiles start. They message back and forth for hours.
Derek lasts only 2 days before asking Stiles to meet up.
'I just finished my shift and am in town. Do you want to get ice cream after school? I could pick you up.'
Stiles agrees.
They spend the afternoon together and after that it is like a dam broke. Derek slips into Stiles room every day after his afternoon shift or picks Stiles up from school to do something. They meet up to go to the cinema and to eat curly fries. He gets to meet Stiles' best friend Scott and some of Stiles' other friends.
Stiles ends up sleeping over at Dereks' a few times and they spent hours in the forest teaching Stiles how to deal with his new instincts.
At the end of the week they celebrate Cora's birthday with a big party. As promised Stiles comes over as well and spends the whole night getting to know the rest of the pack. He always stays close to Derek and drinks a few wolfsbane-laced beers. By the end of the night he is giggling and plastered to Derek's side.
Derek brings him up to his room around midnight to sleep off the alcohol.
"Derek! Derek. I think I like you. I like a lot." Stiles giggles into his friends neck.
Derek blinks stupidly.
"My wolf loves you, too." Stiles mumbles. "I always have the urge to touch you. Always! Please let me!
Derek blushes.
"Can I kiss you?" Stiles asks, crowding Derek against a wall.
"Yeah." Derek manages to whisper weakly,
They kiss and begin to move towards the bed.
"Stop. Stop. Stiles. Let's talk about this in the morning yeah? When you are sober. I don't want to take advantage." Derek manages to say after getting a grip on himself.
"Ok ok, sourwolf!" Stiles pouts.
They cuddle up and fall asleep before they fully hit the mattress.
---
Derek is woken up by kisses. Lots and lots of kisses.
"Stiles!" He gasps, a groan leaving his mouth.
"I still want you! And I'm completely sober!" Stiles grins.
"I have to explain first! It is just our wolves that are connected. We are mates. But that doesn't mean that you have to stay with me if you don't want to. You could still..."
"But I don't want to! I want YOU!" Stiles whispers.
"Good. That's good. Because I think I might be in love with you." Derek slowly admits.
"Me too, Derek. I love you!"
"Hmmm yes. Everything else can wait. Please just kiss me!"
And that Stiles does!