Work Text:
Teen Wolf || Stetopher || The Ranch of the Abandoned || Stetopher || Teen Wolf
Title: The Ranch of the Abandoned – Stiles Summer Stories 2025
TW Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Jeff Davis and MTV. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.
Tags: m/m/m, polyamory, Erica Lives, Boyd Lives, Stiles Leaves Beacon Hills, Spark Stiles, Pack Feels, post-Nogitsune, hurt/comfort, fluff, m/f
Main Pairing: Chris/Peter/Stiles
Teen Wolf Characters: Mieczysław 'Stiles' Stilinski, Chris Argent | Valet, Peter Hale, Allison Argent | Valet, Laura Hale, Cora Hale, Derek Hale, Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd, Isaac Lahey, Noah Stilinski
Writer’s Month 2025 Prompt : abandoned + ranch
Summary: After the Hale Fire, the four surviving Hales leave Beacon Hills together. They move to a small ranch, build a new life and rebuild their pack. They hire a live-in nurse for Peter, Chris Valet. Chris is trying to move past his own trauma and guilt. Maybe they can do it together. When a rogue, feral Alpha tears through Beacon Hills, it kickstarts events that come to affect the Hale Pack too, in the form of new packmates, seeking a fresh start of their own.
The Ranch of the Abandoned
Stiles Summer Stories 2025
They’d been driving for an hour in silence before Derek spoke up. “Where are we going?”
He couldn’t look at his sister. His Alpha. That still felt wrong to think. Three weeks ago, their mother had still been their Alpha and Laura was just his annoying big sister who wouldn’t shut up about college and how much she was not going to miss any of them when she left for Julliard in the fall. New York might have as well been on another planet to Derek and he hated the city just for that. But now everything had changed. They had changed.
“I can’t stay in that town, Der,” Laura whispered. “Everyone looks at us with pity. If I have another casserole handed to me by a well-intentioned former co-worker of… of any of them… I will rip someone’s face off. Every time I walk along the tree lines, I want to run in our forest. But then I come across the… and it’s… gone. Our home is gone. There is only a charred skeleton where our home is supposed to be and I can’t keep being there.”
Derek swallowed hard, guilt and grief mixing into a by now familiar cocktail of suffering. “But where are we going now?”
Her hands gripped the steering wheel even tighter. It was getting late, the trees lining the street were casting long shadows. Though they’d been driving for a while, these were still their trees. Still Hale land, Derek could feel it in his bones. He’d always known the territory was big. He remembered, when he’d been little, grandpa Logan had taken him to the cliffs overseeing Beacon Hills and he’d done the whole The Lion King spiel – Derek had seen the movie in theater with grandpa and grandma and he had been absolutely obsessed. Everything the sun touches. At nine years old, Derek hadn’t wholly comprehended that just yet, the same as Simba, he supposed. He’d never questioned just how big the Hale territory was. He was fifteen, to him the whole world was high school. Or at least he’d thought so. Basketball, Paige, being popular. Losing Paige had shifted his priority but this? Losing nearly all of their family? His world had shattered.
“I can’t stay in this town where everyone looks at us with pity and I can’t live in uncle Peter’s penthouse. I don’t understand how he could tolerate living in town at all, but so high up and removed from nature,” Laura glared ahead at the street, before she straightened. “But I’m the… I’m the Hale Alpha now. I have to honor our family’s legacy, protect our territory.”
“Where are we going?” Derek asked for a third time, a little frustrated now.
“The abandoned Hale Ranch,” Laura finally replied.
“The what?” Derek turned to fully look at his sister’s profile.
“The Hale territory stretches through the preserve, up the mountains, all the way over to the neighboring town of Silver Lake. Our… great-great-something built a farm there. Back when the family was really big, like twelve kids all with their spouses and own kids big, there were a lot of… a lot of places the Hales owned. Most were abandoned or sold. But the farm, it… didn’t stay abandoned all this time. Uncle James rebuilt it twenty years ago or so.”
“Uncle who?” Derek frowned confused.
They didn’t have an uncle named James. Their mom had two brothers, Aaron and Peter. Now… Now uncle Aaron was dead and uncle Peter was in a coma. Laura heaved a sigh and shot him a sideways glance that was filled with the same judgment their mother used to conjure up.
“Mom’s uncle. He was like… uncle Peter’s uncle Peter?” Laura looked mournful for a moment. “You know, the way we always could go to Peter and the way your always follow Peter around like a lost puppy. Mom, Peter and Aaron’s uncle James was that for them. After he found a mate and had pups of his own, he moved out of the Hale House but didn’t turn his back on the territory. He dug out the family history and found the farm and he kinda fell in love with it. Remodeled it with his mate, lived there. Uncle Peter and uncle Aaron used to spend their summers as teenagers there.”
Derek frowned at that. He’d never heard any of this before. Why not? He was Peter’s favorite.
“James and his family were killed by hunters,” Laura whispered lowly. “And the farm’s been abandoned since then. I thought… I don’t know. It’s the only other place that still belongs to our family but isn’t in Beacon Hills. And maybe… maybe being in a place that holds fond memories could help Peter wake up? We’ll remodel the farm house, built a room for him on the first floor that’ll be accessible and fitting for a hospital bed and… and whatever else we need.”
Her voice wavered toward the end and Derek could tell by the tenseness in her muscles that she didn’t know what she was doing either. She was only eighteen. Only three years older than Derek. And suddenly, she was Alpha. Suddenly, she was responsible for the small remands of their family. Cora, bundled up in a fluffy blanket on the backseat, stirred, woken by their conversation.
“Okay,” Derek whispered and nodded. “We’ll rebuild. Together.”
A watery smile stretched over Laura’s lips as she reached a hand out to take his. “Together.”
/break\
Rebuilding a farm was actually a lot of work. Thankfully, uncle James had done a thorough job when he had taken over the farm, but the house had still been abandoned for too many years to not need repairs, plus they had to remodel for Peter. Laura wasn’t going to let him stay at a hospital. He’d heal faster with pack (and she needed him to heal. She needed an adult at her side. She couldn’t do this alone. She wasn’t meant to be the Alpha yet. She was meant to go to college, gather life experience, come back stronger and in like twenty years, when her mom was ready to retire, Talia was supposed to pass the Alpha spark onto her. That was how it was supposed to be).
They prioritized the living spaces in the rebuild, Peter’s room downstairs, the living room right next to his bedroom, where the three siblings would be camping out until the bedrooms were done, bathroom, then the kitchen. Everything else still had time. Once Peter’s room, the living room and the first of the bathrooms was done, the next item got checked off Laura’s to-do-list.
“Everything is still in renovations,” Laura waved around vaguely. “We only recently moved in, we’re in the middle of turning this into a… into a livable space.”
“It looks good,” the man behind her assured her.
Laura offered a thin smile. “So, Mister Valet. You’re a trained nurse? And you’d be okay with… living here? We would… We could convert the outhouse, where farm hands used to live, so you would have your own personal space, away from the farm house?”
“That sounds good to me,” Chris Valet nodded. “And yes. I… quit the family business and reoriented myself. I became a nurse to help others. But I won’t come alone, I have a daughter.”
“That’s perfectly fine,” Laura smiled, strained and exhausted.
It was a problem, of course. Taking one human in would be a problem, but two? Still, they needed the help. He desperately needed a nurse, someone who could take care of Peter. Someone to take a load off of Laura, because she was so overwhelmed.
/break\
Money helped with things and money was the one thing they had. They could hire the best, they could hire additional help, they could get expedited shipping on everything. The farm house was good, they got all the furniture they needed. The smaller house where farm hands used to live was converted into a regular home for Chris and his daughter Allison. Laura, Derek and Cora officially got to move upstairs into proper bedrooms a week ago.
“You’d love it, you know,” Laura whispered, staring out the window. “It… It’s beautiful. I did my best to restore the farm house the way your uncle James had rebuilt it. The… The stables aren’t usable yet, but we’re also not a real ranch. Right now, this is just… a home. Well, ‘just’. We have a home again. After crashing at your place and then camping out in the living room, this house is finally a proper home and it’s… nothing like the old Hale House while also being… exactly that.”
Did that make sense? She didn’t know if it made sense. She was so exhausted. Rubbing her face with shaking hands, she turned to look at Peter. Still burned. Not really healing. Not waking up. She sobbed softly and leaned forward, resting her face on his uninjured shoulder and crying.
“Please, I need you to wake up, uncle Peter, I can’t do this on my own,” Laura begged. “I’m just eighteen, I only just graduated, I’m supposed to worry about… about college and boys. You got me a fake ID so I could party in New York and make bad decisions, because I’m still young and need to make them, before I get back home. That’s what you said. That college is for getting away from the family and from the pack and for making bad decisions and learning. I’m not… I’m not leaving and I can’t afford to make bad decisions. Cora and Derek rely on me and I don’t know what to do.”
She frantically rubbed her eyes, hating the tears, hating how weak she felt. She hadn’t cried in front of Cora and Derek since the funeral, keeping forced smiles and optimism in place because she didn’t want to scare them. But she was scared herself. She wasn’t meant to be an Alpha. Not yet.
“Cora wakes up screaming and crying every night, she has such strong nightmares about the… about the fire,” Laura continued, voice cracking. “And Derek, I know he feels guilty for it, he thinks it’s his fault and I can’t… I can’t tell him that it’s not because I know a part of me blames him and I know that’s messed up, I know he’s only fifteen and I know he’s a victim, but… but… I can’t help but be mad at him for it too. Why would he share our secrets with this woman? I know I should be able to tell him that it’s not his fault, I know I should be strong for him, but… but it’s messy and wrong and fucked up and I’m just… I’m just so angry and so exhausted and so… broken…”
She was the Alpha now, but she was still recovering from all the broken pack-bonds. Her and Derek hadn’t been at the house, so they couldn’t comfort Cora about her trauma either, not really, because they didn’t share it. They had no idea what she’d been through. And Derek… She knew , on a rational level, she knew that he was a victim, that he was only fifteen. But he was also a born Hale wolf, he should know better than to share their family secrets with outsiders. An angry, nasty part inside her hated that he had been so weak, thought their family would still be alive if he’d been stronger. Why couldn’t he be stronger? Why didn’t mom notice? She’d been the Alpha and their mother and she didn’t notice an adult woman preying on Derek. Why… Why? Just why.
/break\
The Valets made things better. Chris was a good nurse, he was gentle and soft with Peter. The first two weeks or so, Laura made sure to use her werewolf senses to listen in. She wanted to make sure that the human they didn’t know would treat their uncle right. Chris talked to Peter, would tell him whatever he was going to do next, to prepare Peter for it and to not just do things to the man like he wasn’t even there. Sometimes, he’d simply talk to Peter. Tell him about something Allison and Cora had done at school, or when he made progress with Derek.
Because when Chris wasn’t taking care of Peter, he tried to coax Derek out of his shell. He’d try to make Derek talk, or he would talk about things that might interest Derek. It helped, slowly, Derek seemed to grow attached to the man, opened up. He was still so far from the cocky, bright boy he used to be before – before the fire, before Kate, before Paige – but he was opening up.
And Cora found a friend for life in Allison. The two girls were energetic, didn’t take any shit from anyone. They’d gotten into a fight or two at school together and it led to them swearing a blood oath to stick together like sisters. After all the family they’d lost, Laura was glad that Cora found someone she could rely on, someone she trusted.
Things were slowly getting better. They were slowly developing a routine in their little family and the Valets became an integral part of it. With Chris, Laura finally had an adult in the house. Chris helped her with the things she struggled with, after he found her crying over taxes one night. He’d help her with budgeting, with staying on top of the bills, even with Derek and Cora’s school stuff – the first parent-teacher night Laura had to attend seemed like a nightmare, but Chris was right there. He helped her with what questions to ask and how to deal with it all.
It was late at night, about eight months into Chris and Allison staying at the farm with them, that Laura walked out onto the front porch, where Chris was sitting in the Hollywood swing they had gotten because Allison and Cora absolutely refused to leave the store if they didn’t buy it.
“Hey, kid,” Chris smiled at her. “Rough day?”
“Every day has been rough,” Laura chuckled dryly and plopped down next to him.
She was technically his employer. She shouldn’t let him call her kid. But… she was. Oh, sure, technically and legally, she was a grown adult, close to nineteen now, but a number didn’t really make an adult. Sighing softly, she leaned against his shoulder. He gave a soft chuckle and wrapped an arm around her, drawing her closer. He smelt like Old Spice and gun oil, because he hunted – he’d gone out and hunted them fresh meat a couple times and they would prepare it together and have a barbecue in the yard and it felt nearly normal, like family.
“Thank you,” Laura whispered softly. “You don’t have to do half the things you do around here. I need you to know that… that I really appreciate it. That I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“It’s okay, kid,” Chris whispered back, rubbing her arm. “You’re good. You’re good kids, all three of you, you didn’t deserve what happened to you. I’ll help you best I can. It’s the least I can do.”
Laura didn’t understand why he thought that, but she would forever be grateful for it.
/break\
There were Argents in his home. For months, Peter struggled, tried to fight his body, tried to wake up so he could warn them, he needed to protect his family from the Argents, he couldn’t let them burn again, couldn’t lose them too, couldn’t--
And then the Argent didn’t do anything. His touch was gentle and kind as he took care of Peter, his voice low and deep as he talked to Peter, ran everything he did by Peter before doing it. His voice was filled with grief and guilt as he revealed the truth to Peter, bit by bit, over weeks.
“I lied to your niece. I’m not… My name wasn’t always Chris Valet. I know I shouldn’t have lied, especially after what my sister did to your family. But technically, I did change my name, legally. I left. I left the hunter life behind years ago, when my wife died.”
Days passed before the Argent next brought her up again. “Her name was Victoria. She was a hunter too. Our marriage was arranged, but… I did cherish her, respect her. And our daughter… Allison is the light of my life, you know? She was bitten by an Alpha during a hunt and she… she chose to die, instead of turning. That was… When I had to tell my daughter that her mom was dead and when Allison cried in my arms, not understanding, that was when I knew I had to leave. I couldn’t keep doing this to my daughter. I couldn’t risk her losing me too. I couldn’t… live by a code that would rather see us dead than keep fighting.”
Peter didn’t want to hear any of this. He didn’t want to know about the tragic backstory of the Argent who had invaded his home, was deceiving his nieces and nephew. What did he care. So the hunter’s wife chose death? Good. One less hunter out there, then.
“He used to beat me,” Chris told him one night while changing Peter’s bandages. “My father. Gerard. Tried to beat the queer out of me. Tried to toughen me up. He was never kind and never gentle. I swore I’d never be like him. I’d never put Allison through that kind of childhood.”
At one point, Peter started to wonder if the man had ever shared these things with anyone before. If the comatose guy he was taking care of was a convenient quiet conversation partner. A confessional for the sins of the past and the suffering that had led them to the present.
“Derek got a summer job,” Chris announced cheerfully. “He’s very proud of it. He’ll want to tell you himself, so act surprised. I’m proud of him too. He finally started going to town. He hasn’t really made friends yet, but… It’s a start, I think.”
It was a start. Peter was proud. Derek came to sit by his side and talk to him too. Most of what Derek said was about Chris. The things Chris taught him, did with him. Things Damon would have done with his son, things Peter would have done with Derek, the things Derek would have been too embarrassed or awkward to do with his dad. Because Peter used to be the cool uncle. Now Peter was the man they kept in a room next to the living room, where they’d sit and talk to him and he couldn’t even answer. Couldn’t even move. His life was a radio show he had to listen to.
“Laura and I signed Cora and Allison up for dance class. They’ve been marathoning Barbie movies and now they want to do ballet. Laura doesn’t think they’ll stick with it. I think they’ll stick with it out of pure spite,” Chris chuckled fondly. “They’re like sisters, you know.”
An Argent, like a sister to a Hale. Ridiculous. Peter needed to wake up, needed to warn them. They were doing what Kate had done, worming their way in. Making the Hales weak. And then they’d strike a match and burn it all to the ground, leaving nothing but ash and pain behind.
“I never told you why I came here, did I?” Chris whispered somberly one night, about half a year must have passed since the fire, and finally Peter would learn the truth. “I came to repent.”
No. No, that wasn’t it. The Argent kept lying. He was here to manipulate, to kill, to destroy.
“I became a nurse so I could help. It was… when I heard about what my sister had done, and that it left one member of the family alive but severely injured, I thought this was my way of… of trying to repay a debt I owe for all I have done in the past, and for all my sister has done to your family.”
Ridiculous. Why was he lying. Peter couldn’t even respond, there was no point in lying to him.
“I know that’s messed up. That I looked at you as… some kind of community service,” Chris laughed, but it was forced and hollow. “You know, I didn’t realize it, not until months into staying here, but… Even after I left the family behind, even when I told myself that werewolves have humanity in them too, I didn’t… fully believe it. I still carried a lot of my family’s bigotry. And I only realized when I lived here and when I… when I saw, first hand, that… you are people, you’re as human as anyone else. Cora refuses to eat her broccoli and she thinks boys are stupid, Derek gets flustered and can’t talk like a normal person in front of a girl he likes, Laura loves her family dearly even while she is working herself to the bone for them.”
“You were meant to help me ease my conscience,” Chris whispered ruefully. “And instead… you made me love you. These kids, I love them, Peter. I love them a lot. I’d rather die than let anything happen to any of them. They are the family I always… wished I could have.”
There was no lie in his words. His heartbeat was steady. It showed signs of pain, yes, but it didn’t give away any lie. He was serious. Genuine. And Peter didn’t know what to do with that.
/break\
Allison was potentially the coolest girl in the world. Laura clearly wasn’t, she was a boring adult. She’d been a boring teenager, but now it was even worse, because she was supposed to be Cora’s sister and instead, she acted more like Cora’s mom and Cora hated that.
“I have to tell you a secret,” Cora whispered eagerly.
It was autumn, they’d been living in Silver Lake for nine months now. Chris and Allison belonged to their family. Which meant they belonged to their pack. Which meant they should know the truth. Cora wasn’t stupid or naive, she knew Laura and Derek would disagree. Which was why she went over their heads. She was going to tell Allison the truth and then they’d have to tell Chris and then Chris and Allison could officially, properly join their pack.
“Holy Barbie, your eyes are glowing,” Allison gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth.
“I’m a werewolf,” Cora sat up in the tent, showing off her beta-shift. “And so are Laura and Derek and uncle Peter. And I think you and your dad should be part of our pack.”
Allison reached out, her mouth in an o, her fingers gentle as she traced Cora’s face. “Will I be a werewolf too then? Do you howl at the moon? Can you turn into a wolf?”
Cora wiggled her nose when Allison tickled her. “We do sometimes howl at the moon, but that’s like a choice, you know? I… can’t turn into a wolf yet. But Laura can. And I dunno if you would become a werewolf. You can, if you wanna? You’ll have to talk to Laura about it.”
The two girls were camping out back, having put up a tent. Far enough from the house so Cora could talk to Allison without Laura and Derek hearing them or stopping her.
/break\
Chris stared baffled at the kids in front of him. The Hales were like family to him at this point, but he didn’t know if they could come back from this. ‘This’ being Cora and Allison having run into the house, talking a mile a minute about werewolves and then grabbing his hands and pulling him to the house. The girls were stumbling over each other as they kept talking a mile a minute. By the time they reached Derek and Laura, the two of them stared wide-eyed at Chris.
“I can explain,” Laura blurted out, looking panicked.
Sighing, Chris rubbed his face and looked at the tiny werewolf in beta-shift. “Why don’t you girls go upstairs to Cora’s room and play some, while I talk to Laura and Derek?”
“Do you have any special powers?” Allison asked while the two ran upstairs.
“Yes! I’ll show you!” Cora sounded excited, holding onto Allison’s hand.
Laura looked devastated and Derek looked angsty. Which was his usual expression, but there was a special edge to it tonight. Chris rubbed his face again. This was not how he imagined this conversation to happen. Then again, he had spent the past nine months trying to avoid it.
“I knew,” Chris admitted slowly, looking at the two teens in front of him. “I knew about you being werewolves. I… It’s why I came here. Why I applied for the job.”
“What?” Laura looked at him in confusion.
Chris leaned back and regarded them with soft eyes. “Kate is… my sister. When I heard what she had… done to your family, I… I came to… I was trying to help, to make up – no, nothing I would do could possibly make up for the loss you suffered – but I wanted… If I’m being honest, I wanted to make myself feel better, at first.”
“You’re…” Laura looked betrayed and then angry and then she was in beta-shift, with red eyes. “You’re an Argent. You lied. You… W… What do you want?”
“To help,” Chris held her eyes, didn’t back down and tried to look as non-threatening as possible. “I came here for selfish reasons. To make myself feel better about myself. To prove to myself that I moved away from my family’s legacy. But… that wasn’t… genuine. Now it is. It became genuine, because of you. Because I care about you kids so much. I love you kids. I never meant to, but I do.”
The look on Laura’s face shifted into confused hope, because the werewolves could hear he was telling the truth. He offered them a small, pained smile.
“I understand if you want me gone,” Chris averted his eyes. “I’m sorry for deceiving you. I’m sorry for… for using you to make myself feel better. But I never lied to you about the important things. I care deeply about you, every advise I gave you I meant, every meal we shared and every time I comforted you, I… I love you kids. I’ll respect if you want me gone, but I need you to know that I love you and that I never meant to hurt you.”
Laura rubbed her face with shaking hands and stared at him in devastation. “I… I need… I need time. I need… You need to leave, this house, right now.”
Chris nodded, even as his heart broke. He got up and called Allison downstairs.
/break\
Chris took Allison on a ‘fun camping trip’ for three weeks. That gave the Hales time to think about what they wanted. He’d promised that if they wanted him gone, he would pack and leave. Laura cried at Peter’s bedside for three hours, because the person she wanted to talk about this was Chris. Chris had become her person to talk to. And she couldn’t. She startled when there were fingers in her hair. Sitting up, she stared wide-eyed at her uncle. He blinked weakly.
“U… Uncle Peter,” Laura sobbed and threw herself at him.
“Careful, pup,” Peter coughed, his voice rough from the coma. “I’m still weak.”
“But you’re awake,” Laura gasped, clinging tightly onto him.
Peter offered her a weak smile. He was still scarred and he didn’t have the strength to squeeze her in the hug, but he was awake. She knew that being with his pack would help him heal. She knew he’d wake up again. She buried her face in his neck and sobbed.
“We have a lot to talk about, niece.”
/break\
When Chris and Allison returned to the Hale Ranch, things had changed. He sent Allison to her room in their little house and then he went to the big house. He was left stunned silent when he entered the living room and saw Peter sitting between Laura and Derek, awake. When being beckoned over, he sat down opposite them, unable to tear his eyes away from Peter.
“Are you… You’re…” Chris didn’t know how to say it.
“Awake, yes,” Peter smiled and tilted his head. “And I had a lot to tell to my niece.”
Chris frowned confused. Was he going to die here…? Because he knew who Peter Hale was. The feared, vicious Left Hand of the Hale Pack. A threat to his family would never live past his claws.
“I was unable to move and react, but I heard everything any of you told me in these past months,” Peter spoke slowly. “I remember everything that you told me. Everything you admitted when you knew Derek and Laura weren’t there to hear you.”
Chris winced and rubbed his face. “I am… sorry for dumping all of that on you.”
Peter huffed amused and shook his head. “I wanted to hate you. I wanted to tear out your throat for weeks. But… at one point, I started… believing you. What would be the point of playing pretend with a comatose man, and for nine months, at that.”
“We want you to stay,” Laura offered after a moment. “We… Cora is right. Cora told your daughter because she thinks of Allison as a sister and to her, family needs to be pack. To be pack, Allison needed to know about werewolves. We… Cora did what me and Derek wanted too, but she didn’t have the same things holding her back. You and Allison have become part of our life, of our family… of our pack. We want you to stay, because we want you to be pack.”
Chris stared at the Hales in bafflement. “What. You want me to stay… and to be pack?”
“I’m awake, but I would still need… help,” Peter admitted, a mild sneer on his face. “We want you to stay. And perhaps… you have made yourself pack, in these past months.”
Chris nodded, because he had no idea what else to say. He just stared at the Hales.
/break\
There were Argents in his home. There were Argents in his pack. And Peter… didn’t want to tear their throats out. Quite the opposite, actually. Chris still tended to him, was still gentle with him, but now Peter could answer when Chris talked to him. Barbed with the man.
Allison was… a child. Somehow, Peter had expected hunters to always be hunters, even when small. But Allison was this bright-eyed, dimpled little princess who had refused to take off her purple tutu last week, wearing it every single day, together with a matching tiara. One time, when Peter had a bad pain day and spent it in bed, Allison decided to sit with him and watched the Barbie: Fairytopia trilogy with him. She was wearing attachable fairy wings. The latest of these movies had just come out and Allison was absolutely obsessed. Where Cora was more of a mermaid Barbie girl, Allison was more of a fairy Barbie girl. Peter hated that he found himself leaning more toward horse girl Barbie personally, because at this point, he had seen enough Barbie movies to have formed his own opinion. This was a special brand of torture, actually.
“Cora and I have a dance performance next month,” Allison said, halfway through the movie. “It’s not the Nutcracker, which is a big disappointment, but it’s still fun. Will you come, uncle Peter?”
For a very long moment, Peter just stared at the girl. On a logical level, it made sense. Laura, Derek and Cora always called him uncle Peter, so the girl just copied what she heard him be referred to. It was still shocking to hear. She twisted to look up at him expectantly.
“Yes,” Peter smiled and then continued with the French braid he was currently giving her. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, dear girl.”
/break\
The one year anniversary of the fire was hard. The four Hales were quiet and didn’t do much that day. Chris cooked and forced them to eat at least a little. Even Allison picked up on the mood and stayed more quiet. But somehow, life went on. Things got better.
Chris started working at the local hospital, when Peter didn’t need him much anymore. Which was better, because having a member of the pack be an employee to the family was creating a strange dynamic. Now, Chris and Allison were just pack.
Cora and Allison continued ballet, though Cora with less enthusiasm and more out of spite. Cora was eleven when she dropped it and instead started jujitsu class. It suited her much better. Allison was twelve when she started archery, but she didn’t stop ballet.
When he was seventeen, Derek started dating a girl from his class. It wasn’t some big True Love story, but Chris and Peter were proud of him for putting himself out there again. For doing something normal and allowing himself to have fun.
At twenty-one, Laura went to college. Silver Lake University had a good business program. She wanted to actually get the ranch running. Turn it into a proper ranch, not just their home.
It was three and a half years after the fire that things for Chris and Peter changed. They shared their first kiss. It had been a bad day for Peter. He’d gone out grocery shopping with Derek and Chris when a kid commented on his scars, called him a monster behind his back. Peter remained quiet all the way back home and then retreated to his bedroom.
“Kids can be cruel,” Chris offered as he entered and sat down next to him. “And wrong.”
Peter’s lips twisted into the shadow of a smile. “Please, Christopher. I don’t need you to spare my feelings. I know what I look like. I know what the fire left me with.”
“Scars,” Chris shrugged. “I have a lot of them too. Not… as visible as yours. But I still know what they are. Reminders of what you overcame. You survived, Peter.”
“I survived and I bear the mark of it on my face,” Peter sneered at the man. “I used to be beautiful. Girls would giggle and blush when looking at me.”
“You’re still beautiful,” Chris frowned and sat down next to him.
“Please don’t try to spare my feelings,” Peter sighed. “I don’t need your pity.”
Chris reached out to cup Peter’s face, his fingers gently rubbing over the scarred skin on his cheek. “I’m not sparing your feelings. Your scars don’t make you ugly, Peter. You’re beautiful. I could get lost in your eyes for hours. You have a beautiful smile. I want to… I want to kiss you.”
All Peter could do was stare at him. “Are you… serious?”
He got his answer in the form of a kiss. And then everything changed, because suddenly, the Argent who had become Chris and then became pack had become something else again. He became love.
/break\
It was six years after the fire that their pack gained its next new members. Its first new wolves. Derek found them in the woods. Three scared teenagers, messed up and wide-eyed. They were Cora and Ally’s age, so Derek herded them toward the ranch.
“I found them,” Derek announced gruffly once he found the rest of his pack.
Laura frowned, her arms crossed over her chest. “Where do you come from? Who are you?”
She was flanked by Chris and Peter, by her Right Hand and her Left Hand, while Cora and Allison stood behind the couch, watching. Derek took a spot between his pack and the three wolves.
“I’m Boyd. These are Erica and Isaac. We… We’re from Beacon Hills.”
“There are wolves in Beacon Hills?” Cora asked surprised.
“There are,” Isaac huffed and turned to look away from them.
“There was a feral Alpha and he kinda tore through the town?” Erica took over, gesturing a little. “He turned us and two others, Scott and Jackson. Well, Jackson didn’t turn into a proper werewolf at first, he turned into a lizard. It was kind of a mess. And then there were hunters – Argents. They came to town hunting the feral Alpha and then… and then hunting us.”
She leaned against Boyd, who wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders. “Gerard took us. Us and… and another… pack-mate of us. He tortured us.”
“We decided to leave,” Isaac replied softly. “What Kate and Gerard kept doing to us… is… this was a lot. We just… We needed to get away. We need a fresh start.”
Three werewolves who had been hurt by the Argents. Derek searched his sister’s face, but he already knew her answer. That day, they gained three new pack-mates.
/break\
Erica, Boyd and Isaac integrated well into their pack and into the ranch. That way, they didn’t need to hire someone external, especially not a human. With the wolves from their pack, they got the ranch running. They bought horses, chickens, planted vegetables, just because they could. Life at the Hale Ranch was good. Their pack was strong. Peter was… happy.
That was when the Stilinskis came. Peter and Chris were sitting out on the Hollywood swing at the porch, watching Erica, Cora and Allison with the horses when the baby-blue Jeep pulled onto the property. Chris took Peter’s hand and instinctively got up to get in front of Peter.
“I do not need your protection, Christopher,” Peter heaved a sigh, though it was fond.
His hunter was protective of them all. The Jeep came to a rattling halt and before the door even opened, Erica came running up to it. As soon as the driver got out, Erica jumped them.
“Batman!” Erica yelped, arms around his shoulders and legs around his waist.
“Jesus fuck, Catwoman get off me, I am still in fact human and do not have werewolf strength!”
“Are you calling me fat? Did you just call me fat?” Erica gasped.
“I am calling you the-weight-of-an-eighteen-year-old-woman,” the boy gasped. “Please let go.”
Erica got off him with a huff and pulled him into a tight hug. “I missed you. I can’t believe you actually came. I didn’t think you would ever leave Beacon Hills.”
“Erica, dear,” Peter called out cautiously. “Want to introduce us to your friend?”
Erica pulled away from the boy and grinned at Peter and Chris. “This is Stiles!”
In front of them stood a boy with long limbs, full lips, messy hair and bright, near golden eyes. Tilting his head, Peter looked from the boy over to Chris. Over the past two years that the beta trio had been with them, they’d heard a lot about Stiles. The human who ran with wolves. The boy with the magic who’d protected his pack. The boy who had been captured and tortured alongside Erica and Boyd. The one who had killed the feral Alpha, so the Alpha spark had been able to transfer to the Alpha’s first turned beta – Stiles’ best friend Scott. Oh, the trio had told them everything that had happened in Beacon Hills. Peter would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious about Stiles.
“I didn’t know you invited your friend over,” Chris offered carefully.
“Uhm…” Erica grew more unsure. “He kinda called and said he needed a place to crash and I offered? I probably shoulda run this by Alpha first, huh?”
“I thought you had,” Stiles turned to stare at Erica. “Seriously, you made me drive here and it’s not even a sure thing we can stay here? Damn, Catwoman.”
“I want you here,” Erica shrugged unapologetic. “It’ll be fine.”
“I don’t care either way, I need a bathroom and then a coffee.”
Everyone turned toward the man getting out of the passenger side. It took Peter a moment to place the man, but he did recognize him. Sheriff Stilinski. Stiles. Stilinski.
“I’m calling Laura,” Cora called out. “She will rip you a new one, Erica.”
Peter heaved a sigh and regarded the two Stilinskis, before turning toward his mate. Chris was now spotting a polite smile. Might as well be hospitable for now. Until their Alpha made a decision. They knew what the boy had been through at the hands of the Argents, after all. And Christopher still carried a lot of guilt for all his family had done. Peter took his hand and squeezed gently.
“What they do is not on you, my love,” Peter whispered, before kissing Chris softly.
“Did. Past tense,” Stiles supplied as he walked past them. “They’re dead. You’re welcome.”
Peter stood stunned, staring at this boy’s back. Barely eighteen but with a weight on his shoulders that showed. A wary tenseness, and blood on his hands. Peter found himself even more intrigued.
/break\
Stiles refused to leave, over and over again. Until he didn’t. Until everything was too much. Until he had to give up. Because he felt like he was given up on. Scott chose others over him over and over again, but when he chose Theo over Stiles, that was when things ended. Graduation was on the horizon and with it, a chance to escape. He’d always found reasons to stay. The pack. His dad. School. The Nemeton. Someone had to keep protecting the town.
But his attempts weren’t appreciated. And things got much more tense after the possession. Sometimes, they still looked at him like he was the demon. Sometimes, he still looked at himself like he was the demon. Theo didn’t improve that. He saw the rift between Stiles and Scott and he drove a wedge in there. Drove them apart, until Stiles gave up fighting for it.
That was the problem. He’d spent all this time fighting for something that nobody else seemed to care about. He worked himself to the bone for the pack, for Scott, while Scott kept having other priorities. Never him. Only after the possession did he realize that he should be a priority. But once the possession was broken, everyone acted like it never happened. Like now Stiles should be fixed. The trauma was still there. He still remembered everything the demon had done. Remembered what it’d felt like. Remembered Aiden’s death. Remembered driving a sword through Scott.
The breaking point was reached when Theo sent Donovan after him and when Scott didn’t believe him, thought that Stiles should have done better, been better, instead of killing. Like he had a choice there. Stiles broke down, told his dad everything, cried, begged to leave.
Noah filed for early retirement, they packed up, sold the house and after graduation, they left.
They didn’t know where to at first, but Stiles always stayed in contact with Erica, Boyd and Isaac, even after they left Beacon Hills. They talked about their new pack, the Hales. The ranch of the abandoned, as Erica called it. Where the broken and abandoned found a new home. The Hales, the two Argents, the three betas. Broken and abandoned seemed to describe Stiles well. He thought it’d be a good place to start. To live with them for at least a little while, until they knew what to do.
Alpha Laura Hale was polite but wary. Understandable. She was the Alpha, she needed to protect her pack. The Right Hand and the Left Hand kept watching Stiles closely, which was also fair. They were also hot as sin, so Stiles didn’t mind the shadowing.
His dad seemed to be getting along with Chris and Peter alright too. Stiles kind of hit it off with Derek – well, the Sourwolf wouldn’t call it that, Stiles knew, but he also knew the big grump liked him, even if he wouldn’t admit it. And it was amazing to reconnect with Erica, Boyd and Isaac. Cora scared him a little bit, but Allison was a badass goddess, actually.
/break\
Stiles was another lost soul for the ranch. Chris watched him carefully at first, wanting to assess whether he was a threat to the pack. The boy wasn’t that cut out for physical labor, because he wasn’t strong and he also was a bit of a flailing disaster, but he still pulled his weight. He put wards up around the farm, made potions out of what the farm had to offer, and gave them to the pack.
“He was possessed,” Noah whispered one night as the two men sat together on the porch.
Stiles was out by the stables, performing a ritual with the aid of Allison and Erica. He was glowing. Quite literally. He was beautiful, even though Chris tried not to think that. Knew he shouldn’t.
“Erica told us about that,” Chris replied, eyes softening. “Though your son only told them after.”
“He didn’t want to be the reason they were forced to come back to Beacon Hills,” Noah sighed. “He never wants to burden anyone. He takes care of others, doesn’t want to make others take care of him. You know how hard that makes parenting him?”
“I can imagine,” Chris chuckled amused before growing more serious. “Is he okay now?”
“If you mean ‘Is the demon gone or is he still a danger?’ then yes, he’s okay now. No demon, no danger,” Noah’s face darkened. “If you mean ‘Has he recovered from the trauma?’ then no… No, he hasn’t. He still has nightmares, doesn’t sleep often, he’s… always cold. On bad days, he struggles with… with reality. He doesn’t know if he’s awake or asleep.”
“I can’t help with the mental problems, but I can try and help with the physical,” Chris offered. “I am a nurse. I helped Peter in his recovery. I can try and help Stiles too.”
/break\
It had been foolish of Chris to offer to help Stiles, because the man had already been drawn to the Spark. Actually helping him only made Chris grow even fonder. Peter knew that, could see it in every interaction. While Chris helped Stiles with the physical aspects of recovery, Peter offered to help with the mental. He may not know the exact struggle Stiles faced, but he knew trauma, he knew losing control of one’s body, knew what it felt like to be stuck in his body, to be forced to listen without being able to interact. He knew what it felt like to be betrayed by his body. And as he shared this with Stiles and bonded with the boy over trauma, he grew attached too.
“Sh, it’s okay, you’re okay, you’re safe,” Peter whispered gently.
Stiles had woken up screaming again and Peter was right at his side. He was tuned into Stiles’ heartbeat, knew what uptick meant an oncoming nightmare, and he would make his way over right away so he would be there when Stiles needed him. Usually, Chris followed him, because he wanted to be there for Stiles just as much. They pulled the boy into a hug from either side.
“You guys do know this is weird, right?” Stiles asked when he was calmed down. “Like, I get the puppy-piles. I get Laura’s fussing, because she’s now my Alpha, I guess. Dad, of course. But you two don’t need to get up in the middle of the night to hug it better."
“We don’t need to,” Chris agreed and smoothed down Stiles’ hair before pressing a kiss against Stiles’ temple. “But we want to, Stiles. You know, your dad told me before, when you hadn’t been at the ranch for long, that you struggle with letting others take care of you.”
“Traitor,” Stiles muttered with a pout.
Peter huffed out a laugh and buried his nose in the boy’s hair. “We will take care of you until you finally accept it and realize that you’re worth being taken care of. And every day after.”
“Every day after, huh?” Stiles looked up at them. “That sounds like a proposal.”
He laughed it off, tired and exhausted, but both Chris and Peter just looked at him completely smitten. Until the laugh died in Stiles’ throat. His cheeks turned red and his brows furrowed in confusion as he looked between the two.
“Wait…” Stiles trailed off for a moment, unsure. “Are… uh… For real?”
“You’re worth being taken care of, darling,” Peter whispered gently. “I struggled with that too, until Christopher made me accept it. We want to take care of you.”
Because Peter loved to banter with Stiles, he loved the boy’s wicked mind, he loved how well Stiles had come to fit into their pack. Seeing Chris take care of Stiles should have made Peter jealous, but it didn’t. Instead, his wolf was pleased to see them both together.
“Stay,” Peter requested in a soft voice, his lips ghosting along Stiles’ throat. “Don’t just until you figure out where to go. This could be your home. We could be your home.”
Stiles’ heartbeat rocketed at that and he stared at him wide eyed and with his mouth hanging open. It was too tempting not to, so Peter kissed him. Their kiss was slow and soft and Stiles still tasted a bit like tears, but it was no less beautiful. When their kiss broke, Stiles curled against Chris and received a kiss from the nurse too, a deep and gentle kiss.
“You’re ours now,” Peter declared with a wicked smirk. “Which means you have to let us take care of you now. That’s the rules, you know? Christopher set these rules.”
“It’s true,” Chris offered a grin of his own, pulling Stiles closer. “That’s the rules.”
Stiles huffed softly. “Well, usually, I am quite a rule-breaker. But maybe… I’ll try these.”
~*~ The End ~*~