Chapter Text
The full moon shone bright in the sky on the outskirts of the Beacon Hills preserve. The Hale pack celebration was already long over. The early hours of the morning brought with it crickets chirping and fresh dew on the grass. A slight breeze blew through the August air, rustling leaves and keeping fog from forming over the ground. It was a perfect night.
“Are we going in?” a soft voice asked, impatience coloring her tone. Long nails scraped the earth beneath her feet, but she didn’t seem to notice. The towering man beside her placed a calming hand on her arm, and she snarled at him. He didn’t retract it.
“Patience,” the man in front of them sighed. “It’s not yet time. Can you feel the magic in the air? It’s strong. Two mages, at least. We can’t take them by force.”
“Then why are we here?” the woman demanded.
“We are here to convince Talia Hale that we don’t need force to gain what we want. She won’t refuse us, if she knows what’s good for her,” the man answered easily. He shifted his cane in front of him, but he did not step forward. It was as if there was an invisible line he was avoiding.
“Why do you need us, if we’re not using force?” the first man asked, frowning deeply. His fist clenched angrily, though it was clear he wouldn’t strike his leader. Red eyes flashed for one split second.
“I always need you, Ennis,” the leader said with a vicious smile. “Kali is my eyes, and you are my strength. I am your wisdom. Together, we are strong.”
It seemed to be what they needed to hear. Ennis and Kali calmed, claws retracting and fists unclenching. “How long do we wait?” Kali asked.
“Not much longer,” Deucalion promised, reaching up to adjust his glasses. “No, she will see the light soon enough.”
Across town, Stiles should have been asleep. He had his first day of freshman year the very next morning, and he needed to be ready for it. Sure, school was a breeze since it was his second time through, but he still needed to pay attention. He was rusty. It had been years. At fifteen years old, Stiles was both the same as he had been the first time he’d done this, and vastly different. His personality hadn’t changed at all; he was still the sarcastic little ball of fire that he’d always been. No, what had changed was the people he’d surrounded himself with.
From: Lyds
We should be sleeping, not discussing the properties of mandrake root.
To: Lyds
Yeah, but this is way better than any dream I might have.
From: Lyds
Just because you’re having awkward dreams about a wolf I won’t name, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be sleeping.
To: Lyds
I regret confiding in you. Goodnight, Lydia.
From: Lyds
No you don’t. Sweet dreams, Stiles.
He sighed as he reached over to plug his phone in, then laid back on his bed. He was fifteen now. He was allowed to wallow in his crush on a certain Sourwolf that would not be named. Derek had changed a lot from the wolf he’d known in his reality. His Derek had lost nearly everyone he’d ever loved, and it had made him angry and bitter. It had taken Stiles years to get him to trust him, and he’d just finally managed to maybe call him a friend when he’d made the decision to come back in time and save the Hale family from dying a gruesome death.
This Derek was nothing like his Derek. This Derek hadn’t lost anyone. Instead, he’d grown up with his entire family supporting him. Kate Argent hadn’t managed to get her claws in him, and no fire had been set. The battle between the Argents and the Hales had been epic- and mercifully brief. Now, Derek had his family and a vastly extended pack that was stronger than ever. He was happy all the time, and he was a joy to be around. Stiles was finding it very hard not to fall in love.
Derek was also heading to New York next week, to start his second year of college. His sister, Laura, had just finished up her last summer of classes before she was graduating and officially moving back home. They would all be flying out for her graduation ceremony in a few weeks. Her shiny new psychology degree would come in handy in Beacon Hills; even though peace had been abundant, it was still a town full of drama. Normal, human drama. Derek, meanwhile, was going for a teaching degree. He was planning to be a teacher at the middle school when he graduated.
Stiles knew all of this because over the last few years, he’d become the Hale siblings’ official confidant. He wasn’t sure how it happened, really. It started with Cora, right after he’d brought her father back from the dead. The very next day, she’d dragged him out into the forest to tell him all about the secret crush she’d harbored on Isaac since she’d met him. Not even two days later, Laura told him that she’d applied and been accepted into a college in New York. She was scared to tell her mother and be ordered to stay home with the pack. (Somehow, he’d managed to convince her to give her mother a chance to prove her wrong. Talia, of course, was delighted that Laura was going to go to such a prestigious school.) Derek himself had approached him two weeks later to talk about Paige. They both pretended that Stiles didn’t already know everything about what happened, and their friendship grew stronger for it.
Now, Stiles knew about the time that Derek had taken wolfsbane out of Peter’s private stock to get drunk with his friends in college. He knew that Graham was going to propose to Laura right after her graduation in a few weeks. He knew that Natalie was considering telling her mother that she was very definitely bisexual (and maybe exclusively interested in girls, she wasn’t sure yet). And he knew that Laura was pretty sure she was pregnant- her second scare in the last six months.
Stiles, on the other hand, didn’t have anyone that he felt he could fully confide in. He couldn’t tell any of the Hales about his feelings for Derek, because none of them would be able to keep it from him. He’d told Lydia, because he trusted her to know when it was okay to tease him for it without giving it all away to everyone else. He could not, however, tell Lydia about his concern on her growing power. In this reality, nothing had happened to trigger her banshee powers. She shouldn’t have been able to access that particular magic, and yet… her powers were getting stronger every day. Alan had told them both that they were almost ready to move onto the next stage of learning, but Stiles worried that it would send Lydia down the wrong path. He’d seen what being a banshee had done to her. Would it be different now that the Hales were around to keep the peace? Somehow, he doubted it.
He couldn’t tell anyone about his growing sense of unease, either. They all watched him every day as he carved new runes into the trees around the Hale property, and none of them said a word or asked any questions. Sometimes, Danny would join him and add his power into the runes as well, but even he didn’t understand why they were doing it. To everyone else, the threat was gone.
Maybe it was because this was when everything started in his reality. Freshman year was when Scott got his bite and all of the death and destruction started. Was that what he was worried about? He didn’t think so. Peter was perfectly sane and happy in this reality. He had his daughter, Faye, to keep him anchored. There was no chance of Peter suddenly going crazy and biting Scott, for two reasons. Peter was not an alpha, and he wouldn’t become one. Talia was stronger than ever, and Laura was drawing very near to inheriting her own alpha power.
Scott, on the other hand, had chosen a different path entirely. Talia had offered him the bite on the same day that she’d offered it to Boyd. Both boys had turned her down, much to Stiles’ surprise. Instead, Boyd was studying the practical uses of herbs and elixirs with Alan, and Scott was learning as much about the medical field as he could from both Alan and Melissa. Boyd didn’t want to use magic, but he wanted to be able to help in an emergency. He was getting really good at mixing up concoctions on the fly to stun enemies long enough for a wolf to take advantage, or to trigger advanced werewolf healing even faster. Scott, on the other hand, wanted to be the one to patch up his family if they got hurt. He was a lot like his mother, and Stiles was proud of him for it.
Boyd, Scott, and Danny were the only humans left of Stiles’ old pack. Erica had taken to being a wolf with the grace she’d always been capable of. Talia had told Stiles more than once that she was a natural. It was as if she was born to be a wolf. Isaac was having a bit more trouble with control, and he’d been talking a lot with Laura about his anger towards his father and how to overcome it.
Jackson was the most impressive, though. Since he’d been brought into the fray early on, and no secrets had been kept from him, he did not become the kanima. There was no giant lizard terrorizing the town, and no murderous Argent to control him. Instead, Jackson became quite possibly the most loyal member of the Hale pack. With Laura and Talia’s help, he was able to overcome the anger he felt towards his biological and adoptive parents, and he was much happier for it.
As he laid there reminiscing, Stiles wasn’t really surprised to hear his alarm going off. No sleep, for the third night in a row. He sat up with a sigh, grabbing his phone to send his customary ‘good morning’ text to the Hale pack group chat that they’d set up just under a year ago. (None of the adults had been interested, but the teenagers used it on a daily basis for communication- even when they were side by side.)
From: Red
Good morning, boys and girls!
From: Sourwolf
Of course, you’re the first one up.
From: Scotty
First day of freshman year! We’re all up!
From: Tink
Ugh, make it stop. I’ve got another half hour on my alarm!
From: Lyds
Rise and shine, sweetie. We’ve got to get there early.
From: Tink
WHYYYY?
From: Scotty
She wants to impress the teachers.
From: Wolfie
Morning! I’ll be by to pick you boys up in an hour. Be ready!
From: Red
Can’t wait!
Shoving his phone into the pocket of his jeans, he grabbed a new sharpie from the desk in the corner of the room. A quick rune under his sleeve, where it wouldn’t be seen, and all of his tiredness melted away. He’d be able to maintain it all day, and then hopefully get some sleep that night. It worked better than coffee. He just couldn’t let anyone catch him doing it. He’d promised his mother that he wouldn’t use any magic outside of his lessons with Deaton and protecting his pack.
“Alan says that frivolous magic will lead you down a dark path. I just want you to be safe, Mieczyslaw,” she’d said. He’d taken one look at the worried expression on her face before caving. Of course, what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. It’s not like he did it very often, after all.
She was waiting for him downstairs, coffee already brewing. She always seemed to know when he’d gotten little to no sleep, though he was completely sure it wasn’t because she’d heard him. He’d warded his room against werewolf senses before she’d even accepted the bite. That was the one set of runes he kept active at all times, no matter what.
“How did you sleep?” she asked, offering him a plate of eggs and toast. His father must have already gone to work, judging by the empty mug and plate in the sink.
“Fine,” he replied casually, keeping his heart as steady as possible. He was mastering the art of lying to wolves surprisingly easily. Laura had been teaching him, and she was a master at it after so many years of having to use the skill for herself. She liked to brag that Talia had only ever caught her in the act of lying twice.
“That’s good. I’m glad to hear it,” she smiled. It didn’t quite meet her eyes, and neither of them mentioned the lie. It was a charade that happened nearly every morning, now. “Laura is driving you to school, right?”
“Yeah, she texted a little while ago. She’ll be here in a little bit. I think she’s going to pick up Scott and Isaac on the way,” Stiles agreed, giving his first real smile of the morning. Claudia nodded, pouring the finished coffee into her travel mug.
“You’re going to the Hale house after school?” she asked, turning her attention back to him. He made sure to take a big bite while she was looking, so she wouldn’t be worried that he wasn’t eating. (He got caught magic-ing away his food one time, and she hadn’t trusted him to eat ever since.)
“As far as I know. Jackson is going to drive us, I think. Laura has some last minute Skype meeting with her councilor to make sure she’s got all the credits she needs for her graduation, and she won’t be done in time to get us,” Stiles told her.
“I’m surprised Derek didn’t volunteer,” Claudia replied casually, smiling into her mug when Stiles choked on his bite.
“Mom,” he groaned, dropping his head into his hands.
“What? I’m just saying!” she laughed, walking forward to grab her purse off of the opposite counter. “I’ve got to get to work, sweetie. I’ll meet you at the Hale house this afternoon, and maybe we can get dinner at the diner with your dad tonight.”
“I’d like that,” Stiles agreed, grinning. The blush hadn’t quite faded from his cheeks, but he didn’t really care. It felt so good to be able to have this, he couldn’t stay annoyed or upset with his mother. She pressed a kiss to his forehead on her way by, and then she was gone.
Laura pulled into his driveway and honked twice just as he was finishing his breakfast. He dropped his plate into the sink quickly and barely remembered to grab his bag in his rush to get outside. He was ridiculously co-dependent with his pack. Thankfully, they were all just as ridiculous. Laura pulled him into a one-armed hug when he climbed into the passenger seat, and Isaac leaned forward to pat his shoulder as soon as she released him. He knew he’d be smelling like both of them for the rest of the day, and it didn’t make him nearly as annoyed as it would have in a different life.
“Took your time,” Laura teased, pulling back onto the road. “These two were waiting for me on their porch.”
Isaac had been living with the McCall’s since Melissa had finally agreed to officially adopt him two years ago. She didn’t try to become his mother, and he never tried to push her away. It was always nice to watch the three of them interact, because they were so good as a family. (Stiles couldn’t help but compare everything to the way it was in his own time. Alan had promised him that over time that urge would fade, but… Stiles was starting to doubt it.)
“Yeah, well, they’re big on sucking up,” Stiles countered, sending a wink to Scott over his shoulder. Scott reached forward to shove his shoulder playfully.
“Speak for yourself,” he teased. “I’ve never seen you run that fast before. Someone was eager to see his favorite Hale.”
“Oh no, I’m not his favorite Hale,” Laura grinned. “His favorite Hale is at home pretending to be asleep because he doesn’t know how to function without spending the whole day with his shadow now that he's had a full summer of unlimited access. You guys are awful.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Stiles protested, trying not to blush again. Both wolves in the car could hear that he was lying, and they both laughed. Even Scott, who could guess what had happened after spending so much time around the wolves, was laughing at him. “I hate you all.”
“No, you don’t,” Isaac reminded him.
“No, I don’t,” Stiles sighed, smiling despite himself. He wouldn’t trade this for anything. Of course, his good mood wasn’t destined to laugh. Pulling into the school parking lot, he saw the one person that could ruin everything he’d worked so hard for.
Allison Argent was climbing out of her father’s car, bag over her shoulder and smile on her face.