Chapter Text
It was huge, and beautiful, and terrifying. It was bigger than Peter had been in alpha form and Stiles wasn’t sure if tigers were natural that big and this one had just escaped from somewhere; or if it was a supernatural sort of tiger. He probably shouldn’t have come out to the Hale house alone on a full moon to take pictures of the Alpha Pack’s symbol upon the door while everyone else was doing only God knows what only God knows where under Derek’s order.
“Nice kitty.”
Stiles slowly began inching backwards towards his jeep. It was only a few yards away.
“That’s a nice kitty. Just stay there while Stiles makes his escape.”
Its eyes began glowing red and Stiles instantly knew that this was not just some animal; but a were-tiger.
“Not that you’re a kitty or anything. I’m sure you’re really attractive when you’re a human too. Please don’t eat me.”
The tiger almost seemed like it was smiling. Of course that meant that it had pulled its teeth back from pointy, sharp looking teeth that rivaled that of any wolf.
“I’m so dead.”
He turned quickly and began the mad dash towards his jeep. Maybe he could make it. His hand rested on the handle and he opened the door before beginning to pull himself in. There was an intense pain in his leg and a sort of tugging that almost pulled him out of the jeep. He hung on with both arms and kicked back at the tiger’s face. It released him and he pulled himself into his vehicle before slamming and locking the door. His window exploded inward and a massive paw entered, nearly taking off his head as he started the jeep and floored it in reverse. He swung the jeep around at the last moment and began speeding out of the forest and towards safety.
His leg burned, except for where the blood dripped down and soaked his pants only to quickly cool in the chilly night air. The only thing that kept him conscious was the wind blowing in through the shattered window and hitting his face.
He wasn’t sure if the tears streaming down his face were voluntary; or if they were caused by the breeze stinging them.
He didn’t care. He just didn’t want to die. His father needed him. He couldn’t die. It would kill his father.
What should he do? Should he go to the hospital? What would he say? ‘Hey, I was bitten by a weretiger; can you give me a little help?’ They would get suspicious if the wound healed overnight. That was…if he survived. Should he go to Deaton? No. He remembered Scott telling him that Deaton was out of town to help with rescuing animals who had been displaced because of some huge storm down south. And if he were to die from the bite; he didn’t want it to be in his own house where his father could find him. God, no. It would destroy his father to be the one to find him.
That left only one option. He would go to Derek’s little hide away and crash in that crappy little train car. Derek would either be there or return. If Stiles was still alive; then Derek would know what to do.
***
The Train Depot was empty.
Stiles had been forced to shuffle into the building and had slid down the stairs on his ass because his leg wouldn’t support enough weight for him to make it down any other way.
He pulled back one of the doors to the train car and pulled himself inside; using the train’s features to help him make his way towards a makeshift bed at one end. He plopped down on the warn out mattress and blankets and removed his over shirt before ripping through the tears that the tiger’s teeth had caused in his jeans. Stiles groaned when he finally saw the full extent of the damage. He was pretty sure that he could see straight to the bone in some places. Tigers had much bigger teeth than wolves. Probably because they hunted alone in the wild.
“I’m so going to die.”
He shook his head slowly; trying to force away the thoughts of his father burying him beside his mother. He would not die. He needed to be strong for his father. He ripped up more of the leg of his pants before wrapping the over shirt tightly around the wound and tying it tightly. When he was done; he lay back against the old mattress let darkness over take him.
***
Derek, Isaac, Jackson, Erica, and Boyd looked down at the unmoving form of Stiles Stilinski.
“He smells ‘off’” Erica scrunched up her nose at the unfamiliar scent.
“He’s changing.” Derek stepped closer and reached down to the blood soaked shirt wrapped around the teen’s leg. Upon removing it; a half healed wound was revealed. It looked old though the blood on the shirt was much fresher than the injury appeared. Derek frowned at the size of the wound. It was larger than an alpha wolf’s bite, and Stiles didn’t smell like he was becoming a wolf.
“He’s not becoming a Kanima is he?” Jackson didn’t want to think of anyone becoming the sort of monster that he had been before Lydia had saved him.
“No. As the Kanima you didn’t really have a scent. Your scent was human and when you shifted there was no scent at all. Stiles has a scent.” Derek kneeled down beside the teen and rested a hand on his forehead. He was burning up and his skin was slick with sweat. Stiles was fighting the transformation. He would live, but he wouldn’t win the fight. The question was; what was Stiles becoming?
***
He felt like a fresh raw hell. His skin was covered in dried sweat and felt sticky. Then there was the dried flakey blood covering his leg…a leg that no longer burned but held the memory as a deep ache.
Stiles Stilinski slowly sat up with his eyes still closed tightly. When he opened his eyes; that would mean that it was all real. He needed to open his eyes.
Upon opening them he noticed that he wasn’t alone. Derek was lying on the hard plastic bench seats while Erica, Boyd, and Isaac were lying on the bed with him; though far enough away that he hadn’t felt them there. The shirt had been removed from his leg and though the skin was covered in rust colored flakes, it was unmarred. Stiles reached down slowly and ran his fingers over the skin before catching the scent of fresh coffee and what might possibly be bagels and cream cheese. The voices came next.
“What do I say to him?”
“I don’t know, McCall. He’s your best friend; not mine.”
“Well yea, but you’re the one that was something other than a werewolf. I don’t know what to say to him.”
“Neither do I.”
“I can hear you, you know.”
He had figured that the two were right outside of the train car when they had actually been on the ground floor rather than the basement where he and the other wolves resided. He could hear them trudging down the stairs now, and noticed how the wolves beside him were stirring while Derek was lying there with open eyes.
Stiles pulled himself up and moved to sit on the bench seats across from Derek. Derek shifted into a sitting position just as Jackson entered with a large bag of what smelled like warm bagels and Scott entered with two trays with what appeared to be coffee. Jackson sat next to Derek while Scott sat next to him. Isaac was the next to sit. He looked exhausted as he took a coffee from Scott and sat down at Derek’s feet. Erica and Boyd came to get their bagels and coffees but simply moved back to the bed.
Stiles stomach growled and Jackson handed over a hot bagel with cream cheese slathered inside. Stiles gratefully bit into it and began chewing away.
“Stiles, what happened last night?”
Stiles silently washed down the bite of bagel with some hot coffee before looking up at Derek with sad eyes. “I went out to your place to examine the mark that the Alpha Pack left. There was this huge tiger with glowing eyes. I was almost in the jeep when it grabbed my leg. I got free and I got the hell out of there. I couldn’t go to the hospital or Deaton and if I died I didn’t want my father to be the one to find me; so I came here.”
Derek’s eyes were huge. “A tiger?”
“If the stripes and figure were anything to go by. It was standing in the light from my headlights; so it was pretty easy to see. It was huge though, bigger than a normal tiger. I thought it might have escaped from some zoo or someone’s private collection until the eyes started to glow.” After Stiles finished his explanation, the room grew silent as they ate their breakfast and drank their coffee.
No one wanted to acknowledge that things were about to be very different now that Stiles was no longer the token human. Derek didn’t want to admit that he was terrified. After all, tigers are very different from wolves.