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"In exactly what lawless dystopia is it acceptable practice to walk into someone's private residence?"
"Told you he'd go on the attack – pay up" Peter watched open-mouthed as his nephew presented his eldest niece with a ten-dollar bill.
"Your mother would be extremely disappointed in the pair of you!"
"Derek owes her ten dollars as well!" Peter felt discomfited by Laura's intense stare. Normally, he could withstand any and all types of stand-offs (he wasn't the Pack's Left Hand for his looks) but he was struggling. Finally, he broke, unable to stand the charged silence.
"What exactly did your loud-mouth brother tell you?" Cora came in, presumably from the kitchen judging by the large mouthful she was chewing, snorting inelegantly at the extremely inaccurate description of her brother.
"What do you think he told us?"
"Like I'm going to fall for that." Peter folded his arms across his chest and tried to at least appear calm and relaxed. "Where are the terrible threesome?"
“Erica is spending some time with her mother; Boyd is doing something in the garage and Isaac is probably communing with his navel. Come on, Uncle Peter, spill!”
“Good God, this is why I have my own apartment – so I can maintain some semblance of privacy!” Cora finally managed to swallow her large mouthful, for which Peter was not grateful when she began to speak.
“So, it’s true – you’re giving Stilinski the ‘D’? After all the lectures you gave us on fraternising with McCall’s pack!”
“Must you be quite so vulgar?”
“It must be the truth – that’s why you’re avoiding the question!”
“Cora – give him a chance to answer.”
“Thank you, Derek, although obviously if you had maintained your silence as requested, I wouldn’t be facing this inquisition.”
“What’s the age gap, exactly? And would everyone be cool if I was dating someone Uncle Peter’s age? I smell some sexist hypocrisy!”
“Find someone prepared to put up with your atrocious manners and then perhaps we’ll consider whether we would object to any hypothetical age gap!” Seeing that none of them was prepared to back down, Peter squared his shoulders. “Stiles and I have been seeing each other exclusively for approximately 18 months.”
“Whoa! I thought it was just a sex thing but – “
“You’re serious – about him, I mean.” Derek’s face was blank and Peter couldn’t read anything from his body language. After walking in on Stiles atop Peter’s lap, Derek had done an about-face and left at speed. Judging by the reception he had received, Peter was sure that Derek had instantly informed his sisters and his mother what he had seen.
“Yes, I am. And yes, we are both aware of the difficulties that belonging to different packs represent.”
“Uncle Peter – please tell me you’re not going to join McCall’s pack?” Laura was understandably shocked – in normal circumstances, the younger partner would leave their pack. But Peter wasn’t sure that was an option with Stiles – he was ridiculously loyal to that overgrown puppy McCall.
“I don’t actually know. Stiles still has to finish college and decide what he wants to do and where he wants to do it. There is no immediate need to address this issue.”
The three of them simply stared at him in shock and Peter wondered if they would understand and support him. With Talia based in New York, Peter was the oldest Hale in Beacon Hills. Even though Laura and Derek were acting as joint heads of the Pack, Peter was the one with all of the experience. He was the one Talia expected to keep everything running smoothly while her children learned the ropes of caring for their territory. To leave the Pack at such a time was unthinkable.
“If it’s what you need to do – if it’s what you want – then, you have my support.” Coming from his normally monosyllabic nephew, that meant a lot and Peter smiled gratefully at Derek.
“Mom will shit a brick!”
“Laura!”
“Well, she will!” Peter couldn’t deny what Laura said was true – in all likelihood, once Talia realised the implications of the news she had received she would be high-tailing it back to Beacon Hills at speed. And none of them wanted that.
“I don’t see why McCall can’t just join us! And I don’t understand why you and Mom didn’t just make him! He might be an alpha, but he’s nowhere near as powerful or knowledgeable as Mom! Then we wouldn’t even need to be having this conversation!”
“Force is not always the answer, Cora. And despite our truce, do you really think Chris Argent will sit on the sidelines if there’s a turf-war?”
“Argent can suck my left tit!”
“What delightful imagery! Thank you for sharing that.” Peter moved to sit in his what was considered his armchair, pleased when the siblings followed suit and took up their normal positions around the room.
“So, what do we do? Because I know there’s no way you haven’t already put some thought into this.” Peter smiled at Laura – she did know him so well.
“Simple. We seduce McCall into wanting to be part of our Pack. No force, no turf-war.”
“Ew, no! I’m going nowhere near him!” Cora scowled in obvious disgust at the mere idea.
“I am not pimping you out, dear niece, even assuming McCall would be interested in you. Please do use the brains you were blessed with.”
“Then what are you talking about?”
“We start with the brains of the Pack – we start with Lydia!”