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The kiss had completely taken him by surprise, but Stiles could adapt. He flung his arms around Derek’s neck and clung to him, pressing his whole body flush, feeling Derek’s hands slip down his back and waist, holding him very close. A soft moan escaped him as his eyes closed and he allowed Derek’s frantic tongue to slip into his mouth.
Several long, but incredibly short, minutes passed as they explored each other’s mouths, tasting fear and anxiety mixed in with desperation and need. It took that whole time for Stiles’ brain to catch up with everything and he lightly bit Derek’s tongue to make it retreat out of his mouth. Then he pulled back enough to glare at Derek.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Stiles demanded, but Derek just shook his head and trailed kisses down Stiles’ neck.
“Um…” Scott muttered lightly as he cleared his throat.
“Leave them alone,” Allison’s voice whispered and Stiles thunked Derek’s shoulder.
“Cut it out! Kissing and making out will not make me happier with you!” he growled.
“It is kind of hot though,” Erica’s voice came from somewhere behind Derek. “So feel free to continue.”
Derek pulled away enough to look into Stiles’ eyes and he frowned. “Why are you upset?” he asked.
Stiles narrowed his eyes. “You really have to ask? Really?”
“Are we about to have another argument over communication right now?” Derek sighed, running his hands up Stiles’ back.
“If you don’t know why I’m upset with you, then probably yes,” Stiles said.
“Look,” Scott said gently, and Stiles was actually a little proud of him for even trying to enter the conversation at all. “I don’t really want to barge into a…” he cleared his throat. “Lover’s quarrel, but this Alpha battle thing, it sounds really important, and I for one would really like to know what it’s about.”
“See? Really important, awful agreement you made,” Stiles said, lightly poking Derek’s shoulder. “Without consulting me.”
“Stiles,” Derek said as he caught and held Stiles’ gaze. “If I hadn’t, we all would have died right here, and he’d have taken you off with him.”
The insistence in his voice sent a shiver through Stiles’ body and he pulled himself into Derek’s arms, placing his head on Derek’s shoulder. He didn’t want to think that Deucalion was strong enough to kill them all, but honestly all those alpha’s were scary as shit, and they hadn’t figured out how to get rid of them yet.
“You don’t know that,” he whispered as Derek’s hand stroked his back.
“I didn’t want to risk it,” Derek whispered back, lips pressing to Stiles’ head.
“Idiot.”
“Um… I’m still in the dark,” Scott said a moment later.
“Us too,” Isaac said, voice coming from some corner of the room.
The loft door closed with a bang, and Stiles slipped out of Derek’s arms to look towards it. Allison was standing next to it, turning to put her back against the metal as she looked at Derek.
“You need to explain this to all of us,” she said. “Because I can get some of it from my father but I’m not sure he want’s to know I’m getting involved in this stuff after I told him I wouldn’t.”
“Why are you here?” Derek asked. He slipped a hand down Stiles’ arm and clasped their hands together. Stiles wanted to smile at the gesture, and his lips did twitch up for a moment, but honestly he was still angry so he forced the smile down.
“Because Stiles is my friend,” Allison said with a shrug. A warmth went through Stiles and he gave her a wink. “And I don’t want any of my friends to get hurt again.” The text Stiles had sent out had been to both Scott and Allison and both of them showing up had been awesome. Apparently Allison had been following Deucalion and Scott had been on his way to the loft to ask Derek a question anyway, which was why they had appeared so quickly. Thank God every one of them was paranoid now.
“That’s so sweet of you,” Erica sneered and Allison looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“Well, if you didn’t appreciate the help at all, I don’t have to help you out next time. I’ll just help out Stiles and Scott,” Allison said.
Boyd was next to Erica and he put a hand up to clamp over Erica’s mouth before she could say anything else. Erica rolled her eyes at him and Stiles snickered. It must be difficult to speak around that huge hand and he thought maybe that was the only way that Erica could ever be shut up. She gave him a death glare and Stiles smiled sweetly at her.
“Fine,” Derek said with a sigh as he moved over to the couch, dragging Stiles with him as he did so. Stiles’ gaze was wrenched from Erica and he would complain, but it was honestly nicer to be close to Derek than to be having a staring contest with Erica. Derek sat on the couch and pulled Stiles into his lap.
“Since when do I sit in -” Stiles began, but Derek’s lips were pressed against his mouth again so he leaned into the kiss for a moment. Wiggling around so he was more comfortable, Stiles let the kiss come to its natural conclusion and pulled away with a smirk. “You just can’t wait to get your lips on mine, can you?” he asked.
There was a gagging noise behind him but he didn’t bother to look over at Erica. Derek shook his head, but there was a fond smile on his face that Stiles took as a win.
“You should take seats,” Derek said as he looked around to everyone. Isaac was the first to move, sitting next to them on the couch, one leg close to them but not quite touching Derek’s leg.
Erica and Boyd sat across from them on the ground and Scott sat on the coffee table. Allison stayed where she was, right by the door. She waved a hand at them so Derek knew to continue.
“I know this is going to come as a shock to everyone,” Stiles said. “But I don’t approve of any battle that might get you killed,” he finished, looking right at Derek. “And I certainly don’t think of myself as a prize.”
“You aren’t, not to me,” Derek said. “But Deucalion has called me out. Usually an Alpha Battle is done between the Alpha and someone contesting them for power over the pack. Like, if Isaac decided I wasn’t good enough to lead, he would challenge me and the person who won would be Alpha of the pack. In that example, it would be expected for Isaac to kill me to take the status.” A small whine came from Isaac and one of Derek’s hands reached out and lightly touched Isaac’s shoulder. “If I were to win, I would have the option of killing Isaac or of doing something else to show that he challenged me and lost. I could kick him out of the pack, or I could keep him around like a pet. There are Alpha’s who keep challengers as slaves, but it’s been a long time since that’s really happened.”
“This isn’t like that though,” Scott said. “This is one Alpha to another Alpha.”
“Right. In the case of an Alpha challenging another Alpha, that’s usually over territory. The challenging Alpha will cut their hand and with a spray of blood call out the Alpha they want to fight. The challenged Alpha has two choices. Either they can choose a place for the fight and set up the details, or they can refuse the fight and then a pack versus pack fight will begin. The pack fight will continue until only one pack remains standing.”
Erica growled and Stiles raised his eyebrows at her. “He thinks he can kill all of us?” she snapped.
“Bad news,” Stiles said with a wave of his hand. “He can. All of them can. That’s why we’ve all been trying to find some way of getting them out of here, remember?”
“It’s not only to the death. Sometimes the challenging Alpha will win over part of the pack without killing them. It’s until one pack remains, doesn’t have to be to the death exactly.” Derek shook his head. “The challenger will say what they want, the challenged will agree or not, and if they agree they counter with something they want in return.”
“So he wants your pack and Stiles,” Scott said. “And you said yes to his demands? You accepted Stiles as some kind of prize and you don’t know why he’s upset with you?”
“If I hadn’t accepted it would have led to all of us being slaughtered. This way I have two weeks to figure out some way of beating him,” Derek snapped, eyes flashing red.
Stiles watched the two of them for a few moments but considered what Derek was saying. It wasn’t easy for Derek to tell Scott anything, but maybe having been around Stiles lately was rubbing off and he realized that if he wanted Stiles, Stiles came complete with best friend.
“Do you think you’ll find it?” Stiles asked, turning his head to look Derek in the eyes. Being on his lap wasn’t horrible, and was starting to become kind of cozy.
“I have to,” Derek said. “Or I lose everything.” He looked away from Stiles and to Scott. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“You asked for his pack in return,” Scott crossed his arms. “What do you think you’re going to do with them?”
“I don’t know. I have to defeat Deucalion first.” His arms tightened around Stiles.
“You know where you’re going to do the fight,” Boyd spoke finally.
“Yes. There was a place for such fights on our property. It hasn’t been used for a long time, but I know it’s still there.” Derek shrugged. “It won’t be pleasant to clean it up, but none of this is very pleasant so…”
“We’ll help,” Boyd said as he looked down at Erica.
“Of course we will,” Erica agreed.
“All of us will,” Isaac said, finally moving the last inch so he was touching Derek.
Derek was looking between all his beta’s with an unreadable expression on his face, and Stiles felt a strange rush of pride that he couldn’t explain. He had felt like Derek wasn’t very good at the Alpha thing but maybe he was still learning. He hadn’t been an Alpha for very long, there must be a learning curve of some variety.
“Thanks,” Derek said.
“If you…” Scott frowned and took a deep breath. “Let me know if you need anything from me too.”
Derek looked over at Scott but didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally though, he gave Scott a sharp nod. He was probably still holding a grudge from when Scott tricked Derek into biting Gerard, and honestly Stiles wouldn’t blame him for that particular grudge. Scott had done a damn fine job of not telling anyone what the hell he was up to.
“If you need a neutral party for anything,” Allison started, but she clamped her mouth shut when all three beta’s looked over at her.
“There is nothing neutral here,” Erica snapped.
“You think you can be neutral?” Boyd asked.
Isaac just glared at her.
“Stop it,” Derek snapped before he looked right over at Allison. “I’ll consider it.”
“You have *got* to be kidding me Derek!” Erica said as she turned her gaze back to him. “This little bitch shot us all up with arrows, or have you forgotten about that?”
“She can’t stay neutral,” Isaac agreed. “She’s on her own side, or she’s on Stiles’ side, she just said so. Which means she’s ultimately on our side, not that I want her to be.”
“Watch what you’re saying,” Scott snarled. “She’s done nothing to you since she came back to Beacon Hills and she’s already proven that she can be an asset if you’d just give her the chance.”
“This is *not* something I’m going to debate with you,” Derek said as he looked around at all three of his beta’s. “This is something I, and I alone, have to make a decision on.”
“But Derek!” Erica started and he growled at her.
Silence rang out through the room for several tense moments before Derek nodded and looked at Stiles.
“Now that that is settled. Go out with me,” Derek said. “A second date.”
Stiles felt his heart speeding up and he took several deep breaths before shaking his head. “Are you nuts? You have this fight to plan, and you have to figure out how to defeat Deucalion and -” but he was interrupted again by a soft kiss from Derek.
“Go out with me,” Derek breathed onto his lips and Stiles felt a smile spread across his lips.
“You asshole,” he whispered. “You can’t just -” but Derek kissed him again.
“Go out with me. A picnic. I’ll bring the food, you pick the place, somewhere private.”
He’d never felt like the phrase butterflies in the stomach meant anything to him before, but now with Derek constantly kissing him, the thought of having some serious private time with him, plus the knowledge that everyone except maybe Allison could hear every word Derek was saying, Stiles understood. His stomach almost felt like it was fluttering in time to his heartbeat. There was a general lightheadedness, and a giggle escaped without permission.
“I can’t just-” and he full out laughed when Derek kissed him quiet again.
“You aren’t really answering my question,” Derek said and Stiles hit his arm.
“Fine!” he snapped out, grinning as he pulled away enough to look into Derek’s eyes. “Fine. I’ll pick you up. Saturday, since I had wanted to ask you out myself before but didn’t get to. Two o’clock, be ready here for me.”
“Okay.” Derek pulled away after another quick kiss. “I’ll be ready.”
“You do know there’s going to be more conversation, right?” Stiles asked with raised eyebrows.
“You never shut up, so I figure there’s bound to be,” Derek said with a smirk.
“Bastard.” But there was no heat behind the word because inside, Stiles was practically glowing with pleasure. A second date!