Chapter Text
“I’m done.”
Derek looked up at Stiles from his spot at the kitchen counter. The loft was in pieces from the last monster of the week and the only place that seemed to have survived was the stainless-steel island and one of the barstools. Which he’d claimed, because it was still his loft dammit.
Scott had been ranting for the last ten minutes at Stiles because he’d killed the harpy that had been stealing babies instead of letting it go. The True Alpha was, in his humble opinion, a true idiot, Stiles did what was necessary and Scott’s black and white view of the world had just pushed his last button.
“What?” Scott sputtered.
Stiles looked up through a fall of messy brown hair and sighed from his spot against the refrigerator. “I said, I’m done. I’m tired of always having to defend myself to you Scott. She was eating babies. I mean, eating them! And you wanted to just, let her go. No. That’s so many levels of bullshit I just can’t anymore. So, this is me drawing a line in the sand. You either get over yourself and start accepting the world is not black and white or I walk, because I’m tired of getting shit on after every battle.”
The entire pack seemed to hold their breath. The others looked at Scott while Derek kept his eyes on Stiles. He agreed with the teen, but he was also a Beta again and he needed an Alpha to keep him from going feral. God, he wished Stiles was the Alpha instead of Scott.
“Then leave.” Scott snarled. “You don’t want to listen to your Alpha, then leave.”
Stiles laughed darkly, eyes flickering a bright amber for a moment. Derek sucked in a sharp breath, the sent of ozone and static electricity faint, but there in the teen’s scent.
“Fine.” He said, pushing himself off the refrigerator and stalking towards the front door.
“And Scott,” he called as he yanked the sliding door open, his eyes flickering again when he looked over his shoulder, “you were never my Alpha.”
Amber eyes met Derek’s for a heart-stopping minute before the door crashed shut. Derek couldn’t stop the small whine he gave even if he’d tried.
The window slid open to Stiles’ bedroom around 3am. What was it with werewolves and un-godly visiting hours?
“Derek I swear… Peter?”
“Hello, sweetheart.” The older man said as he unfurled himself from the window frame. Stiles blinked, rubbing away the sleep and looking around his room.
“Am I having a nightmare? Because you coming in my window at o’dark-thirty is kinda terrifying.”
Peter rolled his eyes before spinning Stiles’ desk chair around to sit on it backwards.
“No, you’re not having a nightmare. I came to check-up on you.”
“Check-up on me.” Stiles repeated warily.
“Yes, after Scott’s little outburst tonight I wanted to make sure you were okay. Is that so difficult to believe?”
Stiles raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Yes, yes it is, because for the last year all you’ve done is find new and inventive ways of fucking with us, so forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical.”
Peter hummed non-committedly and then sighed. “Alright, fine, I admit I may have been a bit…difficult, in the beginning.”
Stiles snorted and Peter glared at him.
“But the last month things have changed.”
“Because Derek’s no longer an Alpha?”
Peter pursed his lips, starring at the wall for a few minutes before he finally blew out a breath. “Fine, yes, that’s a big part of it.”
“If I can’t have it no one can, huh? Mature, Petey, real mature.”
“Look,” Peter snapped, eyes narrowed and just the hint of fang, “I admit I hated Derek and Laura for leaving me to rot here by myself and that killing her was some twisted form of revenge, but I wasn’t exactly in my right mind after everything either.”
Stiles blew out a breath, yeah, he knew all that and he kinda agreed it was a shit thing for Laura to do. He didn’t blame Derek though, after Kate and the fire, Derek wouldn’t have been functioning enough to go against a newly turned Alpha to say anything.
“However,” Peter continued after taking a deep cleansing breath, “however, I now know that it wasn’t Derek’s fault, at least about that.”
“If you try and blame Kate on him, so help me, Peter.” Stiles warned, voice as low and gravelly as any wolves. His eyes flashed and the lights flickered once.
Peter sat back, eyes narrowed and head tilted to the side as he assessed just how pissed Stiles was. “Actually, no, I don’t blame him for letting that bitch burn us out. I blame him for not snapping McCall’s neck when he kicked you out.”
The lights stopped flickering and Stiles’ eyes went back to their normal whiskey brown.
“Wait, what?”
“It’s been months since the nogitsune.” Stiles flinched at the name but Peter kept talking. “Months since you managed to pull a hat-trick and save Allison and Aiden. Derek managed to save Erica and Boyd, hell, we even got Cora back and we managed to burn that bitch and her family out once and for all. None of which would have been possible without you, yet all McCall does is knock you down again and again. So, yes, I’m pissed as hell at my idiot nephew for not standing up for you and putting that idiot in his place.”
“Oh.”
Peter gave him a shit-eating grin. “Yes, oh. Well, that and not claiming you, but I know how fucking stupid he can be.”
Peter shrugged like he’d just said water was wet, like everyone in the world knew the two were mates. Hell, Stiles hadn’t even known until Mexico when he thought he’d go out of his freaking mind until they found him and brought him back. That entire thing had been a hell of an eye-opener for the teen. He’d realized Derek was his mate, that the self-sacrificing idiot was probably never going to tell him, and that Kate was still alive. He’d dealt with one of the issues, but not the others.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he could do, given that, and God, did he hate to admit this even to himself, but Peter was probably correct. Derek had never spoken out against Scott, except to growl when the words got a little too biting. The older man would probably never claim him because at the end of the day, he was sure Derek didn’t want him. It was something Stiles was still trying to come to terms with.
Thank God he didn’t have to lie to his dad anymore though. That was the only good thing that came out of the clusterfuck that was his life this past year. After the nogitsune, and definitely after Mexico, he’d said fuck it and sat his dad down and told him everything. He’d been grounded for a month afterwards and his dad had finished a bottle of Scotch, but they were finally back to a relatively stable relationship.
And now this.
“What are you thinking, Little Red?” Peter asked softly.
Stiles looked up in confusion. He hadn’t realized his scent had turned acrid as he’d been thinking. He ground the palms of his hands into his eyes and flopped back on his bed, arms splayed out like a cross.
“I really am alone now, aren’t I?”
Peter stood and walked the four feet to the bed before sitting on the edge. “No. Not if…not if you don’t want to be.”
Stiles rolled his head to look at the man. For once his face was open and his eyes were sincere.
“What are you saying, Peter?”
Peter looked at the window, swallowed, and turned back to the teen. “Since Void your magic has grown and I don’t know if you realize it, but your eyes have started flashing amber.”
Stiles frowned. “And? Deaton said I had a spark, I…”
“Not a spark.” Peter cut in. “The Spark. With a capital S.”
“And?”
“And Sparks are rare, Stiles. They are one of the most powerful magic users out there. Anything more and you’d basically be a Fae.”
A scrunched-up nose told Peter all he needed to know about how the teen felt about that comparison. They’d gotten into a few fights with the Fae over the past year, those guys were assholes.
“What I mean is, you have more magic than Deaton, more magic than any of the witches or warlocks or mages we’ve fought. You just need to be trained. Your eyes say the same thing.”
“So, I’m a wizard, Harry, that’s what you’re telling me?”
“I’m telling you that you could be an Alpha if you wanted.”
Stiles snapped to attention, staring at the other man. “Wait, what? How do you get Alpha from Spark?”
“Like I said, you have basically unlimited magical power. You were already treating the Pack like a bunch of puppies- that’s why your eyes were starting to change. If you wanted to, if you had the intent to,” and yeah, Stiles caught the emphasis on the word, “you could very easily become an Alpha-Spark.”
Honey-gold eyes blinked at him slowly and Peter could see the gears turning as Stiles went through all the ramifications of what Peter had told him. After a few minutes Stiles licked his lips and nodded to himself.
“If I did this…what would that mean for the Pack?”
“An Alpha-Spark is so rare I doubt Scott would have the faintest idea you even were one.”
“And the pups?”
Peter shrugged, “Depends on if there is a pack bond between you or not.”
“A bond…and Derek? Would he feel it?”
Peter sighed softly, “I honestly don’t know. He’s…for all he’s a born wolf he’s kind of stupid about these types of things. He might feel it, but not understand it.”
“And even if he did he might not give a damn,” Stiles huffed out, depression making his scent sour again. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You told me all this for a reason, Peter. How does this effect you? Are you saying you want me as your Alpha?” He narrowed his eyes, “You aren’t planning on killing me are you?”
Peter would have been offended if he hadn’t seen Stiles’ lips twitch. He snagged a pillow and smacked Stiles in the face. “Brat, I should, but no.”
“No what? No, you don’t want me as your Alpha or no you’re aren’t planning on killing me?”
“No, I’m not planning on killing you, yet,” he growled, snapping his teeth at the teen who just laughed at him and hugged the pillow to his chest.
“Okay, so does that mean you want me as your Alpha?”
Peter sighed softly and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I’ve wanted you as Pack since the beginning, Stiles. I wanted you as my Beta when I was crazy and out of my mind, but you are not a Beta. Not by a long-shot.” He glanced down at the teen; his face solemn. “You are the very definition of Alpha and I would be damn proud to be your Beta.”
Stiles sucked in a sharp breath. Peter was telling the truth. Fuck him, was he really going to do this? But what were his options, really? Leave things alone and let Scott get everyone killed? Let Peter stay border-line homicidal because he had no connections with the Pack? Let Derek…no. Don’t go there, this wasn’t about Derek, this was about him and what he could do for his town. For his dad and God, yes, even Peter. If he could become an Alpha and train his Spark he could protect everyone. He could make up for everything Void did and maybe even fix that damn tree. He couldn’t do it now, he knew that, but as an Alpha…
Peter’s breath got stuck behind his teeth as Stiles stared at him, his eyes flickering a bright amber until they solidified, the color more rust than gold, just this side of Alpha-red. It was both warm and welcoming, and hard and dangerous and it fit the Spark’s personality perfectly.
He made a whining sound in the back of his throat when Stiles reached out to wrap his hand around Peter’s neck, staring the beta right in the eye. The bond flared hot and fast, snapping into place with enough force to make the older man collapse beside his Alpha.
Stiles pushed and prodded until they were laying on the bed properly. He curled defensibly around the shaking wolf and ran long fingers through the short brown hair soothingly. Stiles hadn’t been sure it would work, but at the same time, he knew it would. That’s how his magic worked after all- the power of belief- like the freaking Force or Tinkerbell.
So, he believed in himself. He believed in his magic and he believed in Peter. Now he just had to figure out what the hell he was going to do about it all.
But that could wait until tomorrow. For now, he had a Beta to soothe and a trig test in two and a half hours. Sometimes, he really hated being a teenager.
-tbc-