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                “Scotty, my dude, my bro of bros, what are you doing here?”

                Scott shifted from foot to foot as he grinned up at Stiles sheepishly. “I wanted to hang out and game. Do you not want to?”

                Stiles sighed before he held the door open far enough for Scott to slip into his house. “I told you, dude, that I was going to be busy today. I have to start looking for an alpha to share heat week with. You know that.”

                Scott ran his hand through his hair before shrugging his shoulders. “I think my instincts are out of whack because heat week is coming.”

                Stiles raised one eyebrow as he leaned against the wall to frown at Scott. “We’ve talked about this, too. Remember? We’re not mates. We’re not sharing heat week. So I have to find someone else. I was lucky to make it through last year without an alpha.”

                “Can’t we just hang out today, Stiles? I really want to spend time with you.”

                Sighing, Stiles pushed off the wall. “Fine. Let’s play some video games and let our minds be numb for a while. Whatever.”

                “Awesome!” Scott beamed as he turned back to the door. “I’ll get Allison from the car. She’s looking forward to spending time together.”

                “Allison? Hey, Scott! What do you mean Allison is here?”

                Stiles stumbled out the door in time to see Scott help Allison out of the front seat of his mom’s car. They spoke quietly together for a few seconds until Allison looked up at him and smiled.

                Sighing again, Stiles resigned himself to a night that included Allison once again. She was cool for a beta. He didn’t mind her at all. The problem was that Scott kept bringing her over into Stiles’s space for them to all hang out. Scott kept claiming it was because he thought she might be his mate and wanted her to get along with Stiles since they were best friends. Stiles didn’t know how else to tell him that he was cool with that if it was somewhere besides Stiles’s house. Being blunt about it wasn’t working.

                “Hey, Stiles.”

                “Hello again, Allison. Welcome to my humble abode. Please come in and make yourself comfortable.” Stiles dipped his body into a short but quirky bow that made Allison laugh. “What sort of movie marathon are you interested in having this fine afternoon?”

                “I thought we were going to play some games?” Scott said as he pulled Allison into his lap on the couch.

                Stiles scoffed as he grabbed the remote for the television. “You are hopeless at games when Allison is here, dude. Let’s just watch something and eat snacks or whatever.”

                “Do you need any help grabbing things, Stiles?”

                “Naw,” Stiles said as he shook his head and moved back toward the kitchen. “You guys pick the movies and I’ll get the snacks.”

                Stiles stopped in the middle of his kitchen to suck in a deep breath before he moved to grab chips, chocolate, and drinks. He reminded himself, as he gathered everything into his arms, that watching a movie with them meant that he would probably have time to scroll through the list of profiles of available alphas. He could start looking at them and make note of which ones to go back and look at again when he was alone.

                There was still time for him to get everything situated before heat week started. Granted, not a lot of time and he was sure that the best alphas were probably already partnered up, but he’d be fine with just a decent one. It wasn’t like he was looking to mate them. He just wanted to get through the week.

                With that thought in mind, Stiles marched back into the living room to find that Scott and Allison had not picked a movie but were once again whispering to each other. “Are we not watching something?”

                Scott sat up straight before smiling. “Of course, we are. Just debating on what to watch.”

                Allison rolled her eyes but pointed to a random case on the coffee table. “That looks interesting.”

                Stiles looked from one to the other for a moment before sighing. Scott was wearing his guilty face and Allison had just pointed at a case that contained multiple science fiction movies. “A marathon it is then.”

                With the snacks handed out and the movie playing, Stiles snuggled into his side of the couch and pulled out his phone. He needed to pull up the database and start looking. He had only a couple of weeks to go and was already getting antsy. He needed to find someone and let his dad meet them.

                Once he was on the site, he was sad to see that the number of available alphas had dropped significantly since the last time he’d looked. Still, he filtered out the ones that were left to see only the list of alphas that said they’d be interested in helping a male omega for a single heat.

                That whittled the number down even further.

                “Stiles?” Allison asked with a soft voice. “You smell a bit distressed. Are you okay?”

                With a sigh, Stiles looked over to find Scott and Allison already looking at him. “I put it off too long. I don’t have many alphas to choose from. I might have to expand my area of search and travel a bit farther than I want to.”

                A rumble started up in Scott’s chest but stopped when Allison smacked him.

                “That sounds rough, Stiles. Scott said that you hadn’t found anyone to share your heat with, yet.”

                Stiles scoffed but didn’t point out that part of the reason that he hadn’t was because of Scott’s interference. “I’ll find someone.”

                “We, ah,” Allison started and then stopped again. She gathered herself before turning to face Stiles without getting off of Scott’s lap. “We actually wanted to talk to you about that.”

                “About what?” Stiles asked as he looked up from his phone once more.

                “About your heat, dude.”

                Stiles blinked several times before he focused on Allison and Scott again. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine. I’ll find someone.”

                “What if,” Allison cut herself off as she bit at her lip. “What if you didn’t try to find someone?”

                “That would be a very bad idea for my health. My tests came back positive at my last check-up. I will have a real heat this year and not just a puppy one. I have to share it or seek medical help.”

                Scott shifted but didn’t meet Stiles’s eyes. “We know. She knows. That’s not what she meant.”

                Stiles furrowed his brows as he looked at Allison and Scott. “Okay, what did you mean?”

                “You know that I’m a beta, Stiles. If you wanted to share your heat with us, we could. Scott won’t be torn between us and you wouldn’t see me as competition.”

                “What?”

                Scott nodded but still didn’t look at Stiles. “And then I could calm down because it wouldn’t feel like another alpha was trying to encroach on you or whatever.”

                Stiles blinked a few times. He opened and closed his mouth before he got off the couch and paced several steps away. He turned around to point at them before shaking his head and turning back around. He just couldn’t process it.

                Sucking in another breath, Stiles turned back to Scott and Allison. On the television screen, he could see a giant spider attacking a village. “You’re telling me that you want to both have sex with me?”

                “What?”

                “Stiles, think about this.”

                Stiles held up his hand to cut Allison off. “I am very flattered that you both want a piece of this but what?”

                Scott held onto Allison without meeting Stiles’s gaze. “You said that you weren’t looking forward to finding someone for just the week. You said that you were feeling a little antsy about some stranger touching you.”

                “Well yeah! But I didn’t mean that I wanted you to do it instead!”

                Allison wanted to get up and soothe Stiles but knew she needed to stay where she was in order to keep Scott calm. “It’s a suggestion, Stiles. If you can’t find anyone else that you’d trust, we’d be willing to let you join us.”

                Stiles slumped into a crouch in the middle of the room. He cradled his head in his hands as he tried to understand what they were saying. “You are trying to tell me that if I don’t find anyone else then I can rely on the two of you to see me through this heat, right? You’re telling me that you’re willing to… to… to bed me if that’s what it comes to, right?”

                “Yes.”

                Allison sounded very firm in her response. Stiles didn’t know if that helped or not. “Okay. I need to process this. I need to go away and be alone for a bit. I am going to go upstairs. Please see yourselves out.”

                “Stiles!”

                Stiles didn’t stop when Scott called for him. He went straight up to his room and crawled into his bed. He wrapped his blankets around himself and shuddered as he took a deep breath.

                “Stiles?”

                “I asked you to leave, Scott.”

                Scott shuffled into his room and hesitated for only a second before he climbed into the bed to lay on top of Stiles. Years of being the one to calm his best friend let him do so without worry. “We didn’t mean to drop that on you.”

                “You’ve been thinking about asking me for a while?”

                “Yes. But we didn’t want it to be weird. It’s not going to be weird. It’s not a sex thing.”

                Stiles didn’t try to get Scott’s weight off of him. Instead, he tucked his face into his blankets and sucked in the scent of himself, his dad, and Scott. His pack. “But it will be.”

                “Think about it, Stiles. Do you really want to have to travel to put yourself in a situation with someone that you can’t trust? Wouldn’t you rather stay close to home with people you know?”

                Stiles bit back a small whine at that. He did want that. He just didn’t know if he wanted it more than he wanted things to not change between him and Scott. “Let me think about it, buddy. I’ll look at the alphas in the area and then let you know what I decide. Give me time. The time I want and not the amount of time that you want. Don’t come back here until I tell you, got it?”

                Scott grumbled but agreed. “Fine, but I’m sure you’ll see that I’m better than any of those assholes on that stupid site.”

                Stiles rolled his eyes and shifted enough to get Scott to fall off of him. “Goodbye, Scott.”

                He didn’t move until long after he heard Scott and Allison leave.

XXX

                “Are you sure this is what you want?”

                Stiles stared down at their kitchen table and shrugged. “No? But I don’t think I have much of a choice at this point. I won’t go to the hospital. I don’t want to risk that happening.”

                His dad sighed before running a hand through his hair. “I told you that you were putting it off for too long.”

                “And I told you that every time I’ve sat down to do it Scott shows up.”

                John sighed again as he looked down at his son. “Are you sure that he wasn’t doing it on purpose?”

                “Scott? I don’t think he’s smart enough to be so conniving.”

                John chuckled. “That’s true. He’s too earnest for his own good.”

                Stiles nodded as he fiddled with his fingers. “They made a good point. I would rather spend it with them than with strangers. I wanted to find someone and spend some time getting to know them to see if we’d be compatible. I feel like all the time slipped away.”

                “Well,” John said as he got up from the table. He stopped to place a hand on the back of Stiles’s neck. “Now you know for next time. No lollygagging.”

                Stiles let out a wet chuckle as he let his dad’s grip soothe him. “No one even says that anymore, Pops.”

                “I say it,” John said softly before squeezing Stiles once more. “I want you to talk to Melissa. I want her to be there at their cabin. It isn’t that I don’t trust them to take care of you, but I’ve seen enough horror stories to know that having three during heat week doesn’t always go well. And she has access to one of those shots that are supposed to help omegas.”

                “That’s going to be such an awkward conversation, but I’ll have it with her,” Stiles promised. He didn’t move away from his dad even as the older beta moved to get food out of the fridge. “You’ll take care of yourself while I’m gone, right?”

                John sighed again for a completely different reason. “I am perfectly capable of looking after myself.”

                Stiles didn’t bother to try and hide his grin. “Sure, old man.”

XXX

                Melissa unlocked the cabin before stepping to the side to let Scott and Allison head in first. The week hadn’t even officially started yet and she was ready to shove them upstairs in the bedroom and lock the door behind them.

                She turned back to watch as Stiles got out of the car. “You doing okay?”

                “Hmm?” Stiles turned to look at Melissa after he’d pulled out his bag. “Yeah? I’m fine.”

                “Are your symptoms kicking in yet?”

                Stiles leaned into the hand that she pressed to his forehead. “Yes, I’m going from too hot to too cold. I’ve probably got a day or so before I become too out of it though. Need any help getting things set up?”

                Melissa wrinkled her nose as she stepped into the cabin. It was one that she’d bought when she moved to the area and needed a safe place to share heat week with her mate. Then he’d left her and she’d kept the place so that Scott could use it someday.

                The sound of giggling and the bed creaking from upstairs made both Melissa and Stiles roll their eyes. She sighed as she turned to the omega. “I guess I’ll be listening to music on my earbuds as much as possible.”

                “I really do appreciate you coming out here with us. And bringing what you brought.”

                Melissa smiled as she wrapped one of her arms around Stiles’s shoulders. She glanced at the stairs but knew that the two that had already gone up them couldn’t hear her. “I know how you feel about this situation. I’ll do whatever you need me to do in order to make you feel more comfortable, okay? Even if that means using what you asked me to bring.”

                Stiles nodded as he leaned into the hold. “Maybe we could put some stuff away and cuddle for a while. I don’t want to go up there and see whatever it is that they’re doing.”

                “Are you sure you’re going to be okay with joining them when the time comes?”

                Stiles sighed but didn’t open his eyes. He liked how safe he felt with Melissa. “I think by that time it won’t matter. I’ll need it so I’ll let them do whatever. All I know for sure is that we’re not doing this next year.”

                Melissa tutted but shuffled them further into the cabin so she could get some stuff put down. Then she pulled Stiles to sit next to her on the couch. She cuddled him as he fell into a light doze. She didn’t say anything to her son when he came down much later to snag a bottle of water and head right back up the stairs without even looking at them.

XXX

                Melissa ran her hand through Stiles’s hair to push it back from his face. It was already sticking to his sweaty skin. “Stiles? Can you hear me?”

                Stiles moaned as he pushed into Melissa’s hands. “Cold.”

                “I know, Stiles. I know you’re cold. I’m going to help you upstairs now, okay? I’ll get Scott and Allison to help you. You’ll be okay.”

                Stiles moaned as he was made to sit up. He did his best to coordinate his limbs as Melissa led him up the stairs and to the only room on the upper level of the cabin.

                “Scott!”

                It took a few minutes but Scott appeared at the door. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and his hair was a mess. He stood there blinking sleep out of his eyes for a few seconds before he focused on his mother and Stiles. “What?”

                Melissa frowned as she looked at her son. “Stiles is too hot to stay with me now. He needs an alpha. You said you’d take care of him.”

                Scott frowned back for a second before his gaze shifted to Stiles. “He’s in heat?”

                Melissa nodded. “You need to help him, remember?”

                “Scott,” Allison called from the bed. “Bring Stiles in. He can snuggle with us.”

                Scott grinned as he reached out to take Stiles from his mother. “Come on, Stiles. Let’s get you to bed.”

                Stiles sank into Scott’s embrace as he was helped to the bed. He crawled forward and dropped once he was in the middle of the bed. Allison helped move him until they were comfortable. Scott crawled in on his other side after shutting the door on his mother.

                Stiles sighed as Scott and Allison wrapped their arms around him to hold him between them. He was still too hot but being next to them helped him relax enough to sleep.

                Several hours later, Stiles woke with the need to pee. He was cold and thirsty so he struggled out of their hold and made his way to the bathroom that connected to the room. He pissed, washed his hands, and then drank some water from the tap.

                Looking at himself in the mirror, Stiles noted how feverish he looked. His heat wasn’t fully on him, though that was probably because no one had touched him outside of snuggling. He knew it was only a matter of time until that changed and couldn’t decide if he wanted to remember it or not.

                Sighing at himself, Stiles drank some more water even if he didn’t want it before heading back out into the room. Scott had shifted over in his sleep so that he was pressed against Allison.

                Stiles was freezing. He wanted to crawl back between them and steal their warmth. Instead, he crawled in behind Scott and tried to snuggle up to his back.

XXX

                Stiles let out a whimper as he woke up to the bed moving beneath him. He turned his head to see Scott fucking Allison next to him. She was on her back with her legs wrapped tight around his waist. Stiles could smell their pheromones.

                He could smell Scott. He could smell the alpha.

                Whining, Stiles rolled onto his stomach. He tried to get his knees under himself to present but as he was pushing up, Allison’s hand hit him.

                Stiles cried out as he was pushed again and again until he fell off the bed. He hit the floor hard and didn’t have the strength to get up. Laying on his side, Stiles listened as the two in the bed fucked.

                He thought, when they were done, that one of them would help him back up onto the bed. When nothing happened for a few minutes, he let out a whine.

                When that didn’t get him the reaction that he wanted, he whined again.

                “Shut him up, Scott. He’s ruining my afterglow.”

                Scott chuckled as he got up from the bed. He went into the bathroom before coming back out to where Stiles was lying on the floor. “What’s the matter, Stiles? Why are you being so noisy?”

                “Please,” Stiles moaned. He didn’t have the strength to move. “You said you’d help me.”

                Scott looked up at Allison before smiling back at Stiles. “We are helping you and you’re helping us. Maybe you’ll feel better if you get yourself off.”

                “I can’t. It won’t be enough. Please, you have to help me.”

                “Oh, just help him, Scott,” Allison said as she threw herself back against the pillows. “Make him fuck himself or something. Make him think you’re doing it so he can relax. We need him relaxed.”

                Scott looked from Allison to Stiles before getting down onto the ground. “Come on, Stiles. You have to help yourself. I can’t do it all for you.”

                Stiles let himself be maneuvered over onto his stomach. He whined as Scott pulled his shorts down. “Please.”

                Scott huffed as he grabbed Stiles’s hand and twisted it down and around until he could force two of Stiles’s fingers into his hole. “You aren’t as wet as I thought you’d be.”

                Stiles couldn’t form the words to say that that was because his alpha wasn’t taking care of him. All he could do was lay there with his fingers inside of himself and cry.

                “I don’t think this is working.”

                Allison looked over the edge of the bed. “You might have to help him get started. My aunt said that some omegas just need a push and then they’re fine.”

                “This better work,” Scott muttered as he wrapped his fingers around Stiles’s wrist to get him to start moving his fingers in and out of himself. “You’re aunt better have been right about omegas helping betas get pregnant. This is so weird. It’s Stiles.”

                Allison laughed as she laid back down on the bed. “Get him off and then get up here and fuck me again. I’m sure I’ll get pregnant if I get your knot again.”

                Scott growled as he moved Stiles’s wrist faster. “Come on, buddy. Fuck yourself.”

                “Scott,” Stiles groaned. “You have to help me. I can’t.”

                “Yes, you can. You’ll be fine. Listen to me. Listen to the alpha. Use your fingers and come.”

                Stiles tried to pull away. He was too weak. He tried to shift in order to get Scott off of him. He was too dry and having his fingers inside of himself was hurting him. “No, no, stop.”

                Scott growled again before letting Stiles go and shoving him down onto the ground and pinning him. “Fine! If you don’t want my help then figure it out for yourself.”

                Stiles pressed his face into the floor as Scott got off of him. He listened for a second as Scott climbed onto the bed and said something to Allison. She responded and they laughed before he could hear them kissing and the tell-tale sounds of them fucking.

                Moaning, Stiles tried to get up. He managed to move enough to get his shorts back in place but he couldn’t get to his hands and knees.

                What he wanted to do was collapse on the floor and let go, but his instincts were screaming at him that he wasn’t safe. He had to go. He had to get somewhere safe.

                Slowly, one agonizing move at a time, Stiles crawled across the floor to the door. He was frustrated with himself when he couldn’t just open it. The amount of effort it took him to raise up enough to reach the handle and turn it was humiliating.

                But he got the door open. He got the door open and he managed to get out onto the landing.

                The stairs were daunting but he wasn’t about to stop. He had to get away. He had to get somewhere safe. So he slid down the first stair. He thought he had himself braced enough to try for the second stair but his arm gave out.

                With a cry, Stiles slid down the stairs and into the wall at the bottom.

                “Stiles!”

                Whimpering, Stiles pressed into Melissa as she rushed to help him sit up. “The shot. I need the shot.”

                Melissa pushed his hair back from his eyes before nodding. “Okay. It’s okay. I’m here. I’ve got it. Fuck, I knew this was a bad idea. I’ll get it. You’ll be okay, Stiles.”

                Stiles whined as Melissa left him slumped against the wall.

                She grabbed the medical bag that she’d brought with her and pulled out a syringe. “I’m so glad we talked about this when Scott and Allison weren’t around. I’m so sorry that we have to use it, Stiles.”

                Stiles groaned as the needle was inserted into his thigh. “Thanks.”

                Melissa hushed him as she cleaned the spot and then heaved him up to get him to the couch. “What happened?”

                “He wouldn’t fuck me,” Stiles stuttered out. “Tried to get me to use my fingers on myself but I was too dry.”

                Melissa growled as she held Stiles in her arms. Seeing him stuttering and slurring because of his heat and mistreatment left her wanting to march up the stairs and beat some sense into her idiotic son. “I’m so sorry, Stiles. I knew this was a bad fucking idea. I should have said no.”

                Slowly, Stiles was able to stop shaking. “The shot won’t be enough, will it?”

                Tightening her hold, Melissa shook her head. “I don’t know. I couldn’t get permission to bring two. I tried, Stiles. I talked to the doctors at the hospital but they said with Scott here that even if you rejected him this should be enough.”

                “They wanted me coherent enough to acknowledge that I need to be fucked and let him do it.”

                Melissa squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. “I think that’s what he was saying, yes.”

                “I heard Allison tell him not to fuck me. They just want me here because they want her to get pregnant.”

                Melissa did growl at that. “That stupid boy! I have taught him about sex ed, Stiles! I know I did! I know you know I did because you were there! He should know that it doesn’t matter if an omega is present or not! I’m a beta and his stupid alpha father got me pregnant just fine!”

                Stiles smiled weakly as Melissa held him tighter. “I think Allison got inside his head and scrambled him up.”

                “I can’t put all the blame on her,” Melissa said darkly.

                Slowly, Stiles pushed until he was sitting on his own. He took the bottle of water that Melissa handed him but refused the snacks. “I can’t stay here.”

                “If we leave now, you should be fine to make it to the hospital.”

                Stiles shook his head as he looked down at the water. “They’ll just have one of the alphas that are part of the staff take care of me. I’ve heard the stories, Melissa. I don’t want that. I don’t want my dad to have to go through that either.”

                Melissa frowned but didn’t try to change his mind. Stiles was coherent enough to make his own decisions. “You have about a day before you go back under, Stiles. What are you thinking?”

                “There are other cabins out here,” Stiles said as he rolled the bottle between his palms. He didn’t feel like he had any sort of strength returning to him, but he did feel better than he had. The shot was working. “My best bet might be to try a few and see if anyone answers and is willing.”

                “That’s risky.”

                “But at least it will be my choice. As you said, I’m coherent enough now for the next day or so to find someone else. Besides, I need you to stay here and make sure they don’t get the idea to come after me. If we both disappear then I don’t know what Scott with do.”

                Melissa couldn’t argue with that. Scott was an alpha who didn’t always have the best control when he was angry. “Then you need to go, Stiles. You have to go as soon as you can so that you don’t waste any time. I think if you head down the hill then you’ll find a few places. I haven’t done much exploring out here recently, but I remember some being that way.”

                Stiles sighed as he drank more of his water. “Thanks, Melissa.”

                With her eyes glued to him, Melissa watched as Stiles finished the water and got to his feet. “If you can’t find anyone then come back. I’ll force him if I have to.”

                Stiles grimaced but turned to hug Melissa. “This is my choice. I won’t come back.”

                Melissa nodded as she let Stiles go. “I love you.”

                Stiles smiled as he slipped on his shoes and grabbed his small bag and jacket. “I love you, too. Stay safe.”

                Melissa sniffled as she hugged herself. “I should be saying that to you.”

                Stiles shook his head and left without looking back.

                Melissa crossed her arms over her chest and turned to face the stairs. She was sure it was only a matter of time before her idiotic son came down them. She’d be ready for him.

XXX

                Stiles stumbled through the trees. He’d debated only briefly about sticking to the road or making his way off the path before he decided to just head through the trees. He didn’t have time to waste using the road. That and he didn’t want to make it easy for Scott to track him if the alpha ever even noticed he was gone.

                Through sheer dumb luck, Stiles managed to stay on his feet in the dark and keep moving. He caught a whiff of a mated pair that made him skirt the area where a cabin was probably sitting. They smelled quite content and were giving out strong fuck off vibes to outsiders. He couldn’t have forced himself to seek them out if he’d wanted to. His instincts were already too in control.

                The next place he randomly found was abandoned. Stiles tried the door and found it locked. He didn’t try to force his way inside. There was no point. He had to find a place where someone was home.

                Sweating and tired, Stiles moved on. He wanted to stop and sleep but knew he couldn’t. If he stopped then he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get back up. So he kept moving and prayed that his dad wouldn’t be the one to find his body out in the woods.

                The shift of the wind brought Stiles a scent that had him stumbling. He whipped his head around to take deep breaths. He wasn’t imagining it. There was an unmated alpha in the woods.

                Stiles whimpered as he turned to follow the scent. With every step he managed to take, his body pushed out his own scent. He needed to tempt the alpha in return. He wouldn’t make it if he couldn’t.

                Stiles didn’t know how long he’d been walking when a growl ripped through the air. Whimpering, he dropped to his knees and bared his neck.

                “What are you doing?”

                The voice was deep and confused but very much in control. Shivers went racing down Stiles’s spine as he stayed kneeling. “Please. I need help.”

                “Do you have any idea what you smell like?”

                Stiles whined as he tilted his head to the side. “I don’t have much time. Please, you have to help me.”

                The man who stepped out of the darkness in front of him made Stiles’s jaw drop. He knew the alpha if only from a distance. “Hale.”

                Derek growled again. “Stilinski. What are you doing out here?”

                Stiles couldn’t make himself get out of his submissive stance. He found, as he kneeled before Derek Hale, that he didn’t really want to. “I’m trying to find a partner for my heat.”

                Derek gazed down at Stiles for a moment before sighing. “I’ll take you back to where you belong. Then I’ll give your alpha a piece of my mind so he won’t let you go wandering again. Come on, get up.”

                Stiles didn’t move. “You don’t understand. Scott was supposed to help me but he won’t.”

                “What do you mean he won’t?”

                Those were Derek’s teeth. Those were his fangs. While Scott was an alpha, he was still only human. Derek Hale was an alpha werewolf. Stiles felt mortified when the first bit of slick he’s produced since his heat started wetted the inside of his shorts. “I mean he and his beta girlfriend asked me to join them if I couldn’t find anyone else and I agreed. Then they fucked a lot next to me and made it clear that they wouldn’t be helping me at all.”

                Derek clenched his hands into fists to keep himself steady. “What kind of fucking idiot is he?”

                Stiles moaned as he laughed. “The same kind that I am, I guess. I knew I should have said no. Everything about it didn’t feel right. Now look at me. I’m going to die and my dad is never going to forgive me.”

                Sighing, Derek stepped forward to finally rest his hand against the side of Stiles’s bared neck. “Come on, I’ll take you back to my cabin. You can’t stay out here.”

                “Derek,” Stiles said with a moan. “If you aren’t going to help me then you have to let me go.”

                The growl that instantly built in his chest surprised Derek. “Let’s get you back to my place and talk options. We’ll figure it out, Stiles. I won’t let you die. I’m not an asshole.”

                Stiles nodded. “You’re going to have to help me. Melissa gave me a booster shot to keep me awake long enough to try and find someone else but I think all my walking has made it burn faster than I thought it would. I don’t think I can use my legs right now.”

                Derek huffed as he stepped forward to scoop Stiles up into his arms. He disliked how light the omega felt. “We’ll go back to my cabin, you’ll eat something, and then we’ll talk.”

                “Can’t,” Stiles panted out. “Can’t eat anything solid. Haven’t had anything in days. Just broth or something. I don’t want to puke.”

                Derek forced himself to keep his hold gentle as he snarled. “I’m going to find your best friend and fucking murder him.”

                Stiles laughed weakly against Derek’s shoulder. “Don’t. Don’t go to jail because of him. Not worth it.”

                “Your dad is the Sheriff, Stiles. He would help me hide the body.”

                “Don’t make me laugh. I won’t have the energy to talk to you when we get back.”

                Derek shifted his hold on Stiles to make sure he could rest more comfortably. “Close your eyes, Stiles. We’ll be walking for a bit. Take a nap. You’ll be fine.”

                For the first time in days, Stiles thought that might just be true.

XXX

                Derek tucked Stiles into his bed before he stepped back to just look at him. The omega had always snagged his attention. Something about him always made Derek look. Now that he had him there, Derek was starting to understand why.

                With a growl, Derek forced himself to step back and turn away. Stiles was exhausted and would most likely sleep for the rest of the night. When he woke up, Derek would coax him into drinking something with protein and electrolytes.

                He will take care of him. Derek didn’t doubt himself.

                But he does want to know what happened.

                After making sure that Stiles was covered in not only the things that he’d had in his bag but also Derek’s blankets, he left the omega to sleep.

                Derek didn’t fully shift. He hadn’t wanted to take the time. He could run just as fast on two legs and the distance couldn’t be that great.

                Derek looked back one last time before he took off into the woods. It wasn’t difficult to find where he met Stiles and follow the omega’s scent back to the cabin he’d been in.

                Shifting back, Derek knocked. He stepped back when the door was barely opened. “I mean no harm.”

                “Why are you here?”

                The woman is an older beta. She has to be Scott’s mom. “I came to ask you about Stiles.”

                That got the door opened a little more.

                “What about Stiles?”

                “I found him in the woods. I just want to make sure I understand what’s happening.”

                Melissa stepped out of the house with a glance behind her before she pulled the door shut. “They told him they would help him through his heat since he didn’t find anyone. But they were lying. I couldn’t believe it myself until Scott came down an hour ago for more water and didn’t ask about Stiles. I had to ask him how Stiles was doing and Scott shrugged and said he wasn’t up there but that that was fine because he thinks their plan worked.”

                Derek ground the question out between his clenched teeth. “What plan?”

                Melissa swallowed hard. “Stiles told me he heard them say they just wanted him to make sure that Scott’s beta mate gets pregnant.”

                Derek snarled at that. “Stiles said he couldn’t come back. I understand what he meant by that now.”

                “Please, take care of him. We should have never let him get into this situation, but he was terrified of the hospital. There are too many cases of rape that go unnoticed or are simply swept under the rug. Scott said he’d help him.”

                Derek forced himself to take two steps away from the house before he turned back to Melissa. “Your son better be ready to face consequences when this is over.”

                “Make sure Stiles survives to press charges and he can do whatever he wants to Scott.”

                Derek nodded before he turned away from the house. The first few steps were hard to take. He wanted to go inside and drag the alpha in there out by his ankles. He wanted to challenge Scott and force him to acknowledge that he no longer had any claim over Stiles.

                The omega was supposed to be spending his heat with Scott and smelled almost nothing like the alpha that Derek scented when the door was opened. The first thing Scott should have done was scent Stiles to make sure he knew he was safe. Stiles barely smelled of anyone except himself. His omega brain was probably screaming at him that he wasn’t safe.

                That thought had Derek running again. He wasn’t supposed to be gone for long. He didn’t want Stiles to wake up and think he was abandoned and try and leave.

                He didn’t want Stiles to find someone else.

                Derek howled as he took off through the woods. His pack, far off in the distance, returned his call. If he needed anything, they’d be there for him.

                Sweaty and out of breath, Derek leaned against the door to his cabin. Stiles’s scent wafted through the air to him. The omega hadn’t gone anywhere. That fact alone helped him relax quite a bit.

                Forcing himself under control, Derek opened the door and stepped inside his cabin. He checked on Stiles and smiled at the sight of the omega still asleep in the little nest that Derek had built him before he left.

                Derek pushed his hair back from his face as he turned to the kitchen. His cabin was all one large room. He didn’t need to stay next to the bed to be able to see Stiles. Only the bathroom had its own separate space.

                Rumbling to himself, Derek prepared the drink that he’d promised Stiles. He mixed in a powder that was supposed to be good for alphas and omegas during heat week. Derek always had some with him when he sequestered himself away.

                Part of him wanted to mix several glasses and make Stiles drink them all but too much at once would mean that he’d just piss out the extras before his body had time to absorb the nutrients. With that in mind, Derek made one large cup and carried it over to place it on the little table next to his bed.

                Stiles slept on as Derek pulled a chair up to sit near the bed. He didn’t want to come across as creepy by watching Stiles sleep, but he also couldn’t make himself leave the omega alone. Stiles had asked him for help. Derek was going to be there when he needed it.

                The omega’s scent only grew stronger as he slept. The longer Derek sat and waited the further he pierced his claws into his legs. Keeping his hands to himself was not an easy task. Not with Stiles smelling so fucking good.

                The sun was back high in the sky by the time Stiles began to stir. Derek held himself back from moving when the omega stretched and let out a slight whine as he did so.

                Stiles blinked his eyes open and turned his head to bury his nose further into the blanket he was snuggled under. He took several breaths before his brain caught up. “Derek?”

                Barely shifting on his chair, Derek rolled his tongue in his mouth before he felt like he was able to speak without growling too much. “I’m right here.”

                Stiles shifted in the bed until he was facing Derek. “What time is it?”

                “Almost noon.”

                “What’re you doing?”

                Derek sucked in a deep breath as he let his eyes shift from Stiles’s face to his neck. “I’m waiting for you to wake up. I told you that you’d eat something and then we’d talk. That was the deal.”

                The growl in Derek’s voice sent shivers racing down Stiles’s spine. The man that he was talking to was without a doubt an alpha. The way he spoke made it clear that Stiles would not be able to argue or fight with what Derek said. He was in charge and Stiles would listen.

                Fuck. Stiles was getting wet again.

                Shifting, Stiles clenched his thighs together and cleared his throat. “I told you, I can’t eat anything.”

                “Here.”

                Stiles almost dropped the cup that Derek handed him in his lap. “Derek, this is too much. I won’t be able to drink it all.”

                “Take sips. We’ll talk while you drink it.”

                Stiles wanted to whimper. He wanted to please this alpha so he lifted the cup and took a sip. Then he lifted it to his lips and took a longer one.

                “Slow down, Stiles.”

                Stiles dropped the cup from his lips and blinked at Derek as he licked them. “I was thirstier than I thought.”

                “And you can drink more,” Derek rumbled. “After you take a small break. If we’re going to do this then I want to be completely honest with you. After I tucked you into my bed, I followed your scent trail back to the cabin you came from.”

                Stiles almost spilled his drink as he sat up in Derek’s bed. “You what!”

                “Calm down,” Derek growled.

                Stiles meekly leaned back against the pillows and took another small swallow of his drink. “Why did you do that?”

                Derek sighed as he clenched his claws back into his thighs. “I want to understand what sort of situation you are in. So I went to talk with the beta you said gave you the shot. Melissa was relieved to know that I had found you and that I was going to help you.”

                Staring down at the cup, Stiles licked his lips again. “And Scott?”

                “Is a dead man once Heat Week is over.”

                Stiles smiled a bit at that but didn’t lift his gaze from the cup as he took another sip. “You didn’t see him then?”

                Derek shifted on his chair but did not release the hold his claws had on his thighs. “No, I didn’t see him. Melissa came outside to speak to me for a few minutes and then I came back here. She did tell me that he knows that you’re gone.”

                Stiles ducked his head. “He didn’t cause her any trouble, did he?”

                “He did not try to come after you. If anything, he seemed pleased, according to Melissa, because he said that his plan to get the beta he had upstairs pregnant probably worked.”

                A whine ripped out of Stiles’s throat. He almost dumped the cup as he slumped into the bed. Only Derek’s steady hand kept him from spilling it. Stiles blinked at the feeling of Derek’s skin on his. He lifted his head enough to look at the alpha’s hand. “Why are you bloody?”

                Derek snarled as he stayed leaned over the bed. “Because you smell really fucking good, Stiles. And I am trying to have a conversation with you.”

                Stiles lifted his gaze to meet Derek’s and swallowed hard. “That’s your blood?”

                “Look at my other hand, Stiles.”

                Stiles let his gaze follow the line of his arm to Derek’s body then to his shoulder to follow his other arm. He whimpered at the sight of Derek’s claws digging into his thigh. “Derek.”

                “Hold your cup steady and take another drink.”

                Stiles rushed to comply. He bit back a whine as Derek took his hand off of him and sat back in his chair. He lifted the cup and swallowed more down. He made sure not to take too much and make the alpha watching him angry.

                Derek rumbled as he settled back in his chair. “Good. Now. Do you feel up to calling your father and letting him know where you are?”

                Stiles swallowed another gulp before whining again. “I don’t think I can drink anymore right now, Derek.”

                Silently, Derek took the cup from Stiles and looked it in. He rumbled in approval at seeing that at least half of it was gone. He decided not to comment on the fact that he’d given Stiles the largest cup that he had.

                Clenching his empty hands into the blankets that pooled in his lap, Stiles fought back a series of whimpers. Derek was making it really hard for him to concentrate. “I think so. My cell phone is in my bag.”

                Derek didn’t get up to get it for him. “I want to clarify what you’re going to say to him.”

                Stiles did whimper at that. “I’m going to tell him that it didn’t work out with Scott and that I ran into you and now I’m here.”

                Snarling, Derek leaned forward but didn’t get out of his chair. “If you are sure that you want me to, Stiles, I will see you through your heat. I will take care of you. But I want you to tell your father why you left that unworthy alpha.”

                “Derek,” Stiles whimpered.

                “No,” Derek snarled out. “You will tell him everything. I will help you either way, Stiles. So be good for me and tell him.”

                Stiles whined as he tipped his head back to bare his throat. “I’ll be so good for you.”

                Derek slowly got to his feet. He took the short steps that would put him within reach of Stiles’s bag. He snagged it and brought it back to the omega in his bed. As he handed it over, Derek leaned in to run his nose along the line of Stiles’s exposed throat. “I know you’re going to be good for me, Stiles. So take out your phone and call your dad.”

                Stiles tore into his bag as he looked for his phone. He focused on his task and not on the way Derek was splayed out in his chair. He’d been sitting so rigidly before. Now he looked indecent. “My phone. Find my phone. Where is my phone?”

                Derek bit back a smile as he watched Stiles rummage through his bag and pull out his phone. Now that he was sure that he wasn’t going to have to fight himself to let Stiles leave if the omega changed his mind, he let himself relax. “Slow down, Stiles. You have time.”

                “You have time,” Stiles snarked back as he finally found his phone. He powered it on and waited as it loaded. He pointedly ignored Derek lounging next to him as he stared at the startup screen. Once it was on, he quickly pulled up his dad’s contact and then hesitated to press call. “What if he’s mad?”

                Derek slid forward to press the tips of his fingers to the side of Stiles’s leg. He didn’t worry about the blood on them since he was still touching his blanket. “He’s going to be mad, Stiles. He’s going to be furious, but he won’t be mad at you. No one is mad at you.”

                Stiles whimpered but nodded as he pressed call. He didn’t bother to pick his phone up and instead put it on speakerphone as it rang.

                “Hello? Stiles? Are you okay? Why are you calling me?”

                Sucking in another shaky breath, Stiles looked up and met Derek’s gaze. “Hey, Pops.”

                “What’s going on, Stiles?”

                Stiles rubbed Derek’s blanket between his fingers as he tried to steady his breathing. “I’m okay, Dad. I’ll be okay. I just wanted to let you know that the plan changed.”

                “Where are you?”

                Stiles whimpered as he met Derek’s eyes again. “I had to leave Scott’s. He wouldn’t… They lied to me, Dad. They said they’d take care of me and then they wouldn’t touch me. Melissa gave me the emergency shot she had and it was enough to buy me time to find someone else.”

                “Where are you, Stiles?”

                Whining, Stiles slid his phone away from him. He pulled Derek’s blankets up around him and slumped back into their nest. “I can’t. Derek, please!”

                Rumbling, Derek moved from his chair to the edge of the bed. He slid onto the covers without getting too close to where Stiles was hiding. Carefully, he placed his hand against Stiles’s covered shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll talk to him.”

                Stiles shuddered in response and shifted closer to Derek.

                Derek picked up the phone so that he could make sure the sheriff would hear him. “Hello, sir. This is Derek Hale.”

                “Hale? How did you end up with Stiles?”

                “Quite by accident. I scented him out in the woods and found him wandering around. Scott refused to help him and Melissa had to let him go. He’s lucky that I was out here at my place.”

                “Yeah, no shit. What do you mean Scott refused to help him?”

                Derek kept his hand steady on Stiles’s trembling shoulder. He would not let the omega feel as though he’d done something wrong. “I confirmed with Melissa after I got Stiles here. Apparently, Scott and his beta only invited Stiles to share heat week with them because they wanted the beta to get pregnant.”

                “What the fuck does that have to do with Stiles?”

                “Some families teach their kids that if an omega in heat is in the room then the beta’s body will work harder to beat the competition.”

                “That makes no fucking sense. Scott should know better than to believe that shit. I know Melissa gave him and Stiles the talk when they both presented.”

                Derek sighed as he shifted slightly on the bed. He smiled a little when he realized that his movement caused Stiles to move closer to him. “I only know that Melissa confirmed it. Scott noticed that Stiles was gone and didn’t seem to care.”

                “That fucking little prick. I’m going to kill him.”

                Derek smiled at that, too. His teeth were much larger than a human’s. “If he’s still alive when I’m done with him, sir, I’ll help.”

                “You’re going to take care of Stiles the right way, Hale, got it? You don’t get to mate him because you didn’t discuss it first. Stiles can’t consent to that. I’m barely okay with letting him stay with you as it is, but I trust you and your family to do the right thing.”

                Derek straightened up at that. “Of course, sir. I’ll take care of him. No bites. Not the mating kind, anyway. I won’t be able to contact you for a while, but as soon as Stiles feels up to it, we’ll call you again.”

                “Thank you, Derek. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to know that he’s with you. Can I talk to him again?”

                “He’s right here, Sheriff. He never went away. He’s just worried that you’ll be mad at him. He can hear you.”

                “Stiles, buddy, can you let me know you can hear me?”

                Stiles pulled the blanket away from his face and made a chirruping whining noise.

                “Thanks, buddy. I was worried about you but you did such a good job, Stiles. You got yourself out of a bad situation and found someone to help you. You are such a good kid.”

                “I’m good?” Stiles asked through a whine. “I did good?”

                “You did really good. Derek is going to take care of you, Stiles. Call me when you’re feeling better, okay? I love you.”

                “Love you, too.”

                Derek moved to end the call but hesitated a moment. “Sheriff?”

                “Yeah?”

                “You should probably call Melissa. She seemed pretty upset by everything. She said if Stiles wants to press charges then she’ll help him. I don’t know what you’d need to do that, but I think she’d be willing to help you.”

                “Thanks for letting me know, Derek. Take care of my kid. I don’t want to have to bury two bodies.”

                Derek agreed before hanging up Stiles’s phone. He powered it back off before setting it on the table next to the cup. “Do you want another drink?”

                Stiles shook his head as he looked up at Derek. “I need to pee.”

                Nodding his head toward the bathroom, Derek didn’t take his eyes off the omega. “Bathroom is through there.”

                Slowly, Stiles got up and inched out of the bed. He was relieved that he could stand and walk on his own. He didn’t feel steady, but he could still manage to shuffle to the bathroom. The entire way, he felt Derek’s eyes on his back.

                Stiles sucked in a slow breath as he shut the bathroom door behind him. He wasn’t sure what to think about everything that had happened. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to think about it. Thinking about it wouldn’t change what had happened. He needed to deal with everything moving forward.

                And moving forward meant Derek Hale.

                Stiles peed since he actually needed to. And then washed his hands as he looked at himself in the little mirror above the sink. “What the fuck are you doing here with Derek Hale? He’s way out of your league, Stilinski. He’s like every omega’s wet dream. There’s no way you’re this lucky. You have to be dying on that floor and this is just your brain’s way of being nice to you before you die. Derek Hale. No fucking way. Jesus. Get yourself together and go out there.”

                Stiles whimpered as he shifted in front of the sink. “God, I hope he likes desperate omegas because I don’t think I could be any wetter.”

                A snarl sounded from outside the bathroom, causing Stiles to scramble for the door. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take so long.”

                Derek made himself sit back on the bed as Stiles stumbled out of the bathroom. He’d been pleasantly surprised to hear the omega talk to himself, but he was only so patient. “Come here, Stiles.”

                Whimpering, Stiles made his way back to the bed. “I think I’m pretty close to going under again, Derek.”

                “Then we need to talk about what you want.”

                Stiles swallowed as he crawled into the alpha’s bed. “What do you mean?”

                “I mean,” Derek said as he forced himself to not pounce. “I would like to know what you want from me. Would you like me to blow you? Do you want me to eat you out? Do you want me to just fuck and knot you a few times until your heat breaks but otherwise not touch you or do you want me to pin you under me and keep you there until you resurface?”

                Stiles had to swallow a mouthful of drool. He moaned as he arched his back and exposed his throat. “Fuck. I want everything. Anything. Fuck, Derek. I’ve never done any of that. I want it so bad. I want you so bad.”

                Growling, Derek moved until he had Stiles laid out beneath him. He tucked his face into Stiles’s neck while making sure the omega did the same to him. Sharing scents was always important when sharing heats. “I’m going to be the first one to taste you, Stiles? I’m going to be the first one to fuck you? No other alpha or beta has gotten to see you, yet?”

                Stiles moaned into Derek’s neck. “No one has touched me but me. Even back with Sc-Scott. I needed it but he wouldn’t. He made me put my own fingers in. He didn’t touch me at all.”

                “You’re telling me,” Derek snarled into Stiles’s skin. “That that fucking stupid piece of shit alpha had you exposed and willing and wouldn’t touch you? He doesn’t deserve a knot. What kind of alpha feeds their omega their own fingers? I’m going to take such good care of you, Stiles.”

                “Please,” Stiles keened as he struggled to get his arms out from under Derek to wrap them around his neck and shoulders. “Please take care of me!”

                Derek pulled back enough to let Stiles do what he wanted. Then he took the omega by the chin and forced him to look at him. “I’m going to kiss you now, Stiles. And I want you to know before I do that this is a long time coming. I heard you, while you were in the bathroom. I heard you say that I’m out of your league but you’re wrong. I haven’t approached you before this because I’m not worthy of you. Having you here, beneath me. I’m the lucky one. Do you understand?”

                Stiles made a noise that was somewhere close to a sob as he shook his head and pulled Derek down by his shoulders. “Derek, please.”

                Growling, Derek ducked down to press their mouths together. As far as first kisses went, it wasn’t a good one. It was sloppy and wet because Stiles couldn’t stop panting. Derek wasn’t deterred in the slightest. If anything, he was spurred on by the chance to lick out Stiles’s mouth.

                He groaned as he kept Stiles pinned beneath him. The alpha was beyond pleased when the omega went pliant beneath him. “So fucking good for me, aren’t you, Stiles? Such a good little omega. I’m going to make you feel so good. You’ll never want another alpha.”

                Stiles felt tears slide down the sides of his face as Derek’s words registered in his brain. He was having a harder time thinking with every second Derek was touching him. “I’ll be so good, alpha. So good for you.”

                “You are good, Stiles. So good for me. I’m going to keep kissing you for a while. When you’re ready, we’ll take our clothes off, okay? There’s no rush. I’ve got you and I won’t let you go until you’re sated.”

                Stiles keened again as Derek licked back into his mouth. He shifted enough to get one of his legs out from underneath Derek so he could wrap it around the alpha’s hips and keep him pinned. Stiles was exactly where he wanted to be. There was no fucking chance he was going to let this alpha get away from him.

                Derek rumbled into the kiss as Stiles touched him. The omega explored his back and sides with his hands. Derek moaned when his hair was tugged and only pulled away when it was clear that Stiles was trying to get his shirt off.

                Derek sat up and tugged his shirt off over his head before reaching for Stiles’s shirt. “Do you want this to come off now?”

                Stiles lifted one of his hands to run it over Derek’s chest to tweak a nipple. The low growl the alpha gave him had him shivering. “Yes. I want you to take it off.”

                Not looking away, Derek pulled Stiles’s shirt off over his head. “Such a pretty omega. Look at all this perfect skin. I’m going to mark it up.”

                Stiles moaned as he pulled Derek back down onto him. There was so much skin touching skin that he could barely keep himself together. “If you keep talking like that I’m going to come in my shorts, Derek.”

                “I want you to come,” Derek groaned against Stiles’s neck. “I want you to come as many times as I can make you. I want to see you come apart. I want to see you crumble under my hands. Did you come for him? Did you come for that worthless fucking alpha when he made you take your own fingers?”

                “No!” Stiles shouted as Derek bit down on his shoulder before he soothed the spot with his tongue. “No. I was too dry. It hurt. He was hurting me and didn’t like that I cried so he left to go fuck his mate. I managed to get away while he was busy.”

                Derek snarled as he rested his fangs against Stiles’s chest. He forced himself to stay where he was while every instinct he had was pushing him to go find Scott and rend him limb from limb. “I will kill him, Stiles. I will make him suffer for being so cruel to you. You were crying, baby? You were crying because he was being so mean to you and he didn’t care? I will end him. I won’t make you cry. I’ll take good care of you.”

                Stiles pet down Derek’s head and back several times as the alpha calmed down against him. Despite having fangs pressed to his skin, Stiles was never afraid. He kept up his motions until the fangs disappeared and soft kisses were pressed to his chest instead. “I’m okay now, alpha. I’m here with you. I know you’ll take care of me. I’ll never let him near me again.”

                Derek lifted his head to look up at Stiles. “I’ll kill him if he tries.”

                Shuddering at the absolute promise in Derek’s gaze and words, Stiles slipped his fingers into the alpha’s hair and tugged. “Derek.”

                “Baby,” Derek cut in as he sat up over Stiles. He stared down at him with concern as he rubbed at Stiles’s chest and neck. The more he scent marked the omega, the calmer he felt. “Baby, you said he hurt you. Do you want me to look? Do you want me to check to see if he did anything that might have made you bleed?”

                Stiles whimpered as he looked up at Derek. He had to bite down on his lip hard to clear his head. “Do you want to check or do you want to look?”

                Derek smirked as he leaned down to press a kiss to his lips. “I want to check first, omega. Then I want to look.”

                Moaning, Stiles nodded as Derek trailed more kisses down the side of his neck. “You can. You can check and look. I don’t mind if it’s you.”

                Derek stopped to suck a mark into Stiles’s skin before he lifted his head again. “Thank you, baby. I’ll make sure you feel so good. Thank you for letting me see.”

                Stiles cried out as Derek got out of bed. “Where are you going?”

                Still smirking, Derek pushed his jeans down over his hips and let them fall to the floor. “I’m getting ready, Stiles. I don’t want these clothes between us. I want to feel your skin against mine. Don’t you want that?”

                Stiles nodded and scrambled to push his shorts down his legs. He was stopped by Derek’s hands. “What?”

                “That’s for me to do, Stiles. I want to take them off. Wait for me, okay?”

                Nodding again, Stiles settled back against the bed and watched as Derek pushed off his briefs and stepped out of them. He swallowed hard as he let his eyes roam down Derek’s chest to where his large cock was hard and jutting out from his hips. “Alpha, that’s not going to fit.”

                Derek couldn’t help but chuckle. “Roll over, omega. Present for me. I’m going to slide those cute little shorts down off your pert little ass and check. I think it’ll fit. I think I can play with your sloppy little hole long enough to make it fit.”

                Stiles almost got tangled in his own limbs as he moved to get on his hands and knees and present as Derek told him to. He let out several breathy little noises as Derek’s large palm started at his shoulders and followed the arch of his back down to his hips. “Alpha, please!”

                Derek moaned as he climbed up onto the bed behind Stiles. He took a moment to shake his head in disbelief. There is no way that lesser alpha had seen this. No alpha would have been able to resist such a perfect omega. “Did you do this for him?”

                Stiles whined in confusion as Derek’s fingers dug into his hips. “What?”

                Through his fangs, Derek snarled. “Did you present for him? Did you get on your hands and knees and stick your perfect ass out and ask for a good fuck?”

                “No!” Stiles keened as Derek slapped his palm against his side. “I didn’t! Only you! I’ve only ever presented for you.”

                Derek growled as he leaned over Stiles to press his teeth to the back of his neck. He’d promised he wouldn’t mate him but that didn’t mean that the temptation wasn’t there. The temptation was there and he wanted this omega to know. “No one else.”

                “No one!” Stiles cried as Derek sucked more marks into the back of his shoulders. “No one but you. I swear!”

                “Good,” Derek whispered as he sat back up. Slowly, as if making sure that he wouldn’t spook Stiles, he slipped his fingers under the band of his shorts. Once he’d prepared himself for what he might find, Derek dragged them down Stiles’s thighs until they got caught by his knees.

                Derek didn’t bother getting them off all the way as he bit back another growl at the sight of Stiles’s pert ass. His omega was so pretty.

                Derek palmed his cheeks and squeezed before he spread them open to look at Stiles’s wet hole.

                His omega was pretty everywhere.

                “Look at you,” Derek cooed. “So wet and eager for your alpha. You didn’t get wet for that other alpha because he was worthless. Not even good for his knot. But you’re soaked for me. You know I’ll take such good care of you. You know I’ll make you feel so good.”

                “Derek. Oh, fuck. Derek, please.”

                Derek rumbled deep in his chest as he slid his grip so one of his thumbs could rub against Stiles’s pretty little hole. “Such a good omega, getting so wet for me. I could drink your slick, there’s so much of it. I want to taste it, Stiles. Tell me I can.”

                Stiles dropped his head as he shifted to drop onto his arms. Derek’s hold on him kept his ass up in the air, though he didn’t mind in the slightest. “You can! You can taste me. I want you to, alpha. Please.”

                Derek hummed as he pressed open-mouth kisses along the base of his spine. He didn’t want to be too greedy and dive right in. Stiles deserved to be taken care of. Somewhere, in the part of his mind that could still think outside of what was happening, Derek knew he had to make this good for his omega. He had to make it so good that Stiles wouldn’t want anyone else.

                Moaning as he finally got the taste of Stiles’s slick on his tongue, Derek sucked more kisses between the omega’s thighs and cheeks. “You taste so good, Stiles. Look at all this slick. You made so much for me.”

                Stiles screamed when Derek’s mouth finally found his hole and sucked. He thrashed in the alpha’s strong grip as he was held down and made to take Derek’s sucking kisses and licks. He cried into his arms again when he felt Derek’s tongue push against his rim until it finally gave and let him enter.

                Derek lost himself in the taste of Stiles. He licked his slick from the back of his thighs and his little sac. He sucked on his hole and drove his tongue in, again and again, to get him to gush. It wasn’t until he used one of his hands to reach under Stiles to wrap his fingers around his cock that the omega came with another scream.

                Pleased, Derek continued to clean up his mess with his tongue until Stiles moaned that he was too sensitive. At that, Derek shifted them to get Stiles’s shorts the rest of the way off his legs and then pulled the omega over to hold him to his chest.

                Stiles snuggled into Derek’s hold as his eyes began to droop. “Derek?”

                “Yeah?”

                “Thanks.”

                Derek huffed out a short laugh. “I feel like I should be thanking you.”

                Stiles paused at that before he shifted his thigh. He smirked at the sound of Derek’s breath catching. “I can literally feel that I haven’t done anything to earn your thanks yet.”

                Derek shook his head before pressing a kiss to Stiles’s head. “You’re letting me take care of you and that’s the best part. We’re going to nap now, Stiles. When we wake up, we’re both going to drink some more from your cup and then I’m going to suck your cock and stretch your little hole until it’s gaping. Only then will I fuck you and knot you.”

                Stiles whimpered as he pressed his face to Derek’s chest. If he’d had more energy he would have smacked the alpha for saying such crude things.

XXX

                Derek didn’t relent. He fucked three of his fingers in and out of Stiles’s hole while the omega came in his mouth with a shout. He made sure to swallow every drop and lick Stiles clean before he finally let him fall out of his mouth. “Come on, Stiles. Relax for me. That’s it. Ease up on my fingers. Let me see how your pretty hole is doing.”

                Stiles whimpered as he let his legs fall back open. He hadn’t meant to clench them around Derek’s shoulders and head when he came. It’d felt so good he couldn’t help himself. “Derek, alpha, please. I’m ready. Let me be good for you.”

                Derek watched his fingers slide out and then back into Stiles’s slick hole. “You are good for me, Stiles. Look at you. This is your first time having someone else touch you and you’re opening up so beautifully for me. I’m going to fuck you so good.”

                “Then do it,” Stiles whined. “Stop teasing and fuck me.”

                Derek sucked another bruise on the inside of Stiles’s thigh before he pushed himself up. He reluctantly pulled his fingers out of Stiles’s hole but sucked them into his mouth to chase the taste of his slick. He caught Stiles’s eye and smirked as he pulled his fingers out before pressing them to Stiles’s lips. “Try it. See why I love it so much.”

                Stiles whimpered but obediently opened his mouth to allow Derek to press his wet fingers down on his tongue.

                Derek moaned as Stiles sucked at his fingers. “Good boy, Stiles. Such a good boy for me. I’m going to fuck you now. Do you want to do it like this or do you want to turn over?”

                Stiles gasped as Derek pulled his fingers out of his mouth. “Like this. I want to kiss you. Don’t you want me like this?”

                “We have plenty of time to try other positions,” Derek reassured him. “We can do it like this for your first time. Fuck, Stiles. Look at you. Spreading your legs wide open for me. This is your first time taking a cock and it’ll be your first time taking a knot and you’re already such a slut.”

                “Only for you,” Stiles said as he wrapped his arms around Derek’s neck to pull the alpha down close enough to kiss him. “No other alpha. Only you.”

                Derek caught himself in his hand and pressed the head of his cock to Stiles’s stretched hole. “Only me,” he said as he pushed in.

                Stiles cried out as Derek pressed into him. He threw his head back and dug his nails into Derek’s skin but never asked him to stop. So Derek kept pushing.

                “You feel so good around me, Stiles. So tight and perfect. Maybe I should just leave my cock in you even after my knot goes down.”

                Stiles didn’t manage to make any sounds besides his little whimpers as Derek slid deep inside of him. It wasn’t until the alpha was all the way inside that Stiles even realized that Derek was still muttering absolute filth against his neck. “Alpha?”

                Derek picked his head up to look at his omega.

                “Kiss me?” Stiles asked him quietly.

                Derek growled before taking Stiles’s face into his hands and pressing kiss after kiss to his lips. He licked at his mouth and sucked on his tongue for so long that Stiles had to shift to remind Derek that he was meant to be doing more than just fucking his omega’s mouth.

                Derek pulled back to rest their foreheads together as he tentatively rolled his hips. When Stiles made a breathless sound that held no hints of pain, he did it again.

                “Derek, that feels so good.”

                Setting a rhythm, Derek rolled his hips until he felt Stiles’s cock getting hard between their stomachs once more. Then he snapped his hips forward and really let his omega feel him nice and deep. “Are you ready, Stiles?”

                Stiles let out another cry when Derek thrust deep inside of him again. “Yes, please, Derek. I’m ready. Please fuck me. Please knot me.”

                Derek growled as he pressed Stiles down into the bed. He covered the omega’s body with his and fucked his hips down at a brutal pace while tilting his head to catch Stiles’s mouth with his. Sucking on his tongue, Derek growled as he felt his knot start to grow.

                Stiles moaned as he licked at Derek’s too-long teeth. He managed to get his hands out from underneath Derek’s bulk so he could dig his fingers into the alpha’s back and pull him down harder. “Come on, alpha,” he panted as he turned his head away to let Derek suck bruising kisses down his neck. “Give me your knot. I want it.”

                “Need it,” Derek corrected. “You need it. A good omega like you always needs a knot.”

                “Yes,” Stiles keened. “I need it so give it to me.”

                Derek hiked one of Stiles’s legs out and around his hip to give him better leverage to fuck into his omega as deep as he could. His knot tugged against Stiles’s rim every time he pulled back and thrust in, but it wasn’t big enough to tie them together.

                “Knot me, alpha. Want your come. Want your knot and your teeth.”

                Derek snarled against Stiles’s throat. “No.”

                Stiles whined at that and tossed his head back further to bare his throat more. “Alpha.”

                “No,” Derek grunted out again as he pressed his teeth against Stiles’s pretty neck. “You can have my knot and you can have my come but not my teeth.”

                “I want them,” Stiles wailed as he bucked his hips up in time with Derek’s hard thrusts. “Give them to me!”

                In order to resist temptation, Derek sat up. He kept his hands on Stiles’s shoulders to hold the omega against the bed as he continued to pump his cock in and out of his omega’s tight hole. “No teeth. Not this time.”

                Stiles whined but stayed lying against the pillows as Derek’s hands slid down his body to grasp his hips. He moaned at the bruising grip of his alpha’s fingers. He wanted as many marks as he would give him. “Derek, please.”

                “Come one more time first, omega.”

                Stiles whimpered but reached down to take his leaking cock into his hand. He barely had to squeeze himself before he was coming with a cry between them.

                Derek grunted as Stiles got tighter around him. He tightened his grip on Stiles’s waist before forcing his knot in through his tight rim one last time before it was too big to be pulled back out. His hips moved in a few abortive thrusts as if his brain was making sure he was good and stuck before he collapsed down on top of Stiles once more.

                He was only roused from his post-orgasm stupor by the breathy little moans slipping from Stiles’s lips. “Stiles?”

                Stiles sucked in another short breath before releasing it in a whine. “So much. There’s so much. I’m so full.”

                Derek picked his head up without taking his weight off of his omega. “Stiles?”

                “So good. It’s so good.”

                Rumbling in contentment, Derek dropped his head back down to press his nose against Stiles’s throat. He was pleased when the only scent he could pick up on the omega’s skin was his own.

                “Alpha,” Stiles gasped breathlessly as Derek’s cock continued to keep him sated. “More. I want more.”

XXX

                Derek kept one eye on the bed and the other on the cup he was filling with water. Almost all of his instincts were screaming at him to get back into their little nest and cover his omega before something happened to him. The rest of him was firmly reminding him that it had been too long since Stiles had anything nutritious put in his body.

                Once the omega was out of heat, Derek was going to feed him all the food he could possibly want. And next time – if there was a next time – Derek would make sure that Stiles didn’t have to stick to liquids. He would make sure that the omega was eating healthy snacks throughout his heat.

                A noise from the bed had Derek snapping his head over to watch as Stiles shifted in his sleep. From the deep breaths he could hear him taking, Derek knew that Stiles was unconsciously searching for him. He’d done the same thing whenever Derek wasn’t actually touching him for longer than a few minutes.

                Turning his attention back to the cup, Derek got out another packet of powder mix and dumped it in the cup before swirling the water with a straw to mix it. He didn’t bother with ice, partly because Stiles wouldn’t react well to anything that cold while his body was a few degrees too hot, and partly because he didn’t want to take the time to get some out of the freezer.

                Derek carried the cup carefully back to the bed before setting it on the nightstand and climbing back into their nest. He pulled Stiles into his lap before nosing at his neck. “Stiles.”

                Stiles snuffled as he turned his head to take in Derek’s scent but otherwise stayed asleep.

                Grumbling, the alpha shifted his hold until he had Stiles sitting in his lap with the omega’s back to his chest. “Stiles, wake up, baby.”

                 Stiles made another sound low in his throat. “What?”

                Without loosening his hold on Stiles, Derek reached over to the nightstand to pick up the cup he’d just prepared. “You have to drink this, Stiles. Be good for me.”

                “I am good for you,” Stiles slurred.

                “Yes,” Derek agreed as he jostled the sleepy boy in his arms. “You are good for me. That’s why you’re going to take some more sips of this.”

                Stiles whined but allowed Derek to press the straw to his lips and sucked in a few sips before Derek pulled the straw away from his mouth. Stiles made a noise in confusion as he blinked open his eyes. “I was drinking that.”

                Derek chuckled as he moved the cup to take a few drinks of his own out of the straw. “Not too fast, Stiles. You don’t want to get sick.”

                Stiles huffed but waited until Derek took another drink before he chased the straw with his lips. He made a pleased noise when Derek let him have it. He sucked down another mouthful before he leaned his head back against Derek’s shoulder and licked his lips.

                “Stiles?”

                Stiles hummed in response to his alpha calling his name. He was ready to slip back asleep.

                Derek jostled the omega in his lap until Stiles opened his eyes again. “Hey, are you coherent?”

                “Enough,” Stiles mumbled. “Why?”

                Derek kept one arm around Stiles as he leaned to put the mostly empty cup back on the nightstand. “Are you sore or are you doing okay?”

                “You’ve only knotted me twice, Derek. I’m fine.”

                Chuckling, Derek ran his nose along Stiles’s exposed neck. “Do you want to sleep for a while, omega? Or do you want it a third time?”

                Stiles huffed but didn’t open his eyes again. He could feel Derek’s cock against his thigh. The alpha was soft but Stiles knew it wouldn’t take much to get him hard again. “Sleep now. Sex later.”

                Derek laughed as he turned them sideways and laid them down with Stiles still tucked against his chest. “I’m going to remind you about that when you wake me up in a couple of hours so I can fuck you full of my come again.”

                “Kay,” Stiles mumbled as he slipped back into sleep.

XXX

                Derek’s fingers dug harder and harder into Stiles’s slim hips as he drove his cock deep inside his sloppy hole. “Such a desperate omega. Whining and presenting while your alpha is sleeping. Begging to get fucked by anything just so you aren’t empty anymore.”

                Stiles cried out against his arms as he pressed his face down and lifted his hips just enough to press into Derek’s hold. “Not anything. Just your cock. Alpha, please.”

                Derek growled as he held Stiles still and made the omega feel every roll of his hips. “You just couldn’t wait for me to wake up, could you, Stiles? You had to stick your greedy little fingers into your own sloppy hole. But it wasn’t enough, was it?”

                Sobbing, Stiles frantically shook his head. “No! It wasn’t enough. Need your knot. I wanted your knot.”

                “I’ll give it to you,” Derek snarled as his hips stuttered and his knot swelled. He managed a few more thrusts before Stiles’s body wouldn’t relinquish it. Still baring his teeth, Derek leaned down to bite at Stiles’s shoulders without breaking the skin. “Do you want to come?”

                “Please, alpha!”

                “I don’t think I should let you. You weren’t being very good.”

                “I’ll be good. Please, I’ll be so good for you.”

                Derek hummed as he ran one of his hands down Stiles’s trembling chest and stomach. He let his fingers graze against the omega’s cock before he finally took it into his hand. Grinding his hips forward, Derek pumped Stiles’s cock a few times until the omega was coming with a cry.

                Pulling his hand out from under Stiles, Derek licked the omega’s come from his fingers. “You’re right, Stiles. You are good.”

                Stiles huffed out half a keen as he slowly collapsed onto the bed. Derek’s weight settled over him as he stretched out his legs and turned his head to the side. He whined a little as Derek began sucking more marks into the back of his neck and along his shoulders.

                “You’re going to keep being good for me, aren’t you, Stiles?” Derek asked between biting kisses. “You’re going to stay here in my bed and spread your legs whenever I want. You’re going to hang off my knot and beg me for more.”

                “Yes,” Stiles moaned.

                “And when your heat is over and you’re sitting here in our nest fat with my come?”

                Stiles stayed pliant under Derek’s touches. “I’ll still be good. Still be yours.”

                Derek rumbled as he tucked his face into Stiles’s nape. “Good.”

XXX

                “Derek,” Stiles hissed as he tried to scoot his way to the edge of the bed. “Let me up. I have to pee.”

                Derek huffed as he turned onto his side with his back to Stiles.

                Stiles returned the huff with one of his own as he finally managed to escape Derek’s hold. He wasn’t steady on his feet as he got out of bed, but he managed to make his way to the bathroom by using the wall for support.

                Once he was done, Stiles shuffled to the sink to wash his hands. He blinked in surprise at his reflection for a moment before rolling his eyes. His neck and shoulders were covered in bruises. Derek hadn’t broken his skin, but he’d definitely used his teeth.

                Ignoring the way the sight of them made heat pool in his gut, Stiles looked into his own eyes in the mirror. He didn’t feel any different, besides being sore, now that he’d shared a heat with an alpha.

                It wasn’t over, not for another day or so, but he already felt like he was more lucid than he had been since Melissa put him in bed with Scott and Allison.

                That thought pulled him up short. Stiles stared at himself again and tried to imagine how he would be feeling if the bruises and the soreness were from two mouths and two pairs of hands instead of just one.

                There was not a doubt in his mind that he would have felt changed if it had been Scott and Allison who had taken his virginity. He couldn’t imagine them holding him like Derek had and did. He couldn’t imagine them feeding him nutrients through a straw and telling him how good he was being. He didn’t want to imagine them at all.

                With his brain working just a little bit better than it had a few days ago, Stiles stared at himself in the mirror and felt part of him crumble as he gained a sense of clarity.

                Scott had lied. They were never going to help him. They would have let him suffer for days, probably still on the floor, until he finally died from the chemical overload in his body. Melissa wouldn’t have known until it was far too late. His dad would have been devastated. He would have never gotten to meet Derek.

                He made a low distressed noise at just the thought.

                A thump sounded from outside the bathroom just before he caught the sound of steps coming toward him. Stiles didn’t have time to react before the door was thrown open and Derek was crowding into the small space to drape himself over Stiles’s back.

                “Stiles?” Derek slurred as he nosed along the omega’s neck. “You okay?”

                Stiles sucked in a harsh breath as he realized how rigid he was holding himself. “Derek?”

                “Yeah, baby?”

                Stiles made another cut-off noise as he started to turn in Derek’s arms. He was pleased when the alpha let him. “Take me back to bed?”

                Derek didn’t hesitate to wrap his large hands around Stiles’s thighs and hoist him high enough to carry him out of the bathroom. He tipped his head to the side so the omega could tuck his face against his neck as he walked them back to the bed. “Do you need anything, Stiles?”

                Aware of the state of his own body, Stiles lifted his head to look at Derek. He was pleased to see that he’d marked the alpha just as much as the alpha had marked him. “I just want you to hold me.”

                “I can do that,” Derek assured him as he set him on the bed. “Facing me or away?”

                “Facing,” Stiles admitted quietly as he allowed Derek to maneuver him back into their nest. “I don’t want the rest of the world to exist just yet.”

                Derek rumbled in the way that he knew Stiles liked as he tightened his arms around Stiles to hold him against his chest. “I’ll hold you for as long as you’ll let me, Stiles.”

                Pressing his face against Derek’s chest, Stiles let everything else fade out.

XXX

                “One more time, Derek,” Stiles gasped as he lifted himself up before he dropped his weight back down. “Give me your knot one more time.”

                Derek groaned as he kept his hands on Stiles’s hips. “Look at you, taking what you need from me. Beautiful omega, perfect omega.”

                Stiles tipped his head back as his thighs burned with the effort of lifting his body again and again.

                Derek hadn’t woken up fast enough so Stiles had pushed him onto his back and climbed on top of him to get what he really wanted from the alpha.

                “I want your knot, alpha. Give it to me.”

                “Take it,” Derek moaned. “Roll your hips and take it.”

                Stiles keened as he felt Derek start to get larger inside of him. He dropped his weight one last time and rolled his hips as his alpha told him to. He kept rolling his hips as he felt Derek’s knot lock them together once more. “Come on, alpha, I want to come.”

                “So come,” Derek grunted. “Come on my knot now that you have it, greedy omega.”

                Stiles wrapped his hand around his cock as he continued to rock on Derek’s knot. He worked himself over before digging his thumb into the slit. With a hiss of breath between his lips, he came. All over Derek’s chest.

                Derek kept his hands wrapped around Stiles’s hips as he held the omega steady above him. Stiles was perfect. He was perfect and the haze was almost gone from his eyes. His heat was almost over. Their time at Derek’s cabin was almost over.

                Stiles hummed as he leaned down to share sloppy kisses with Derek. He shifted until he could lay more comfortably on the alpha while they waited for his knot to go down. Stiles bit at Derek’s lip before he pulled away enough to look the alpha in the eyes. “I think that might have been the last time I needed that this heat.”

                Derek blinked a few times as he stared up at Stiles. He wasn’t sure what his face was doing, but it had to have told Stiles something since the omega was quick to run his fingers through Derek’s hair and tug.

                “I’m going to need a day of cuddles if not more, alpha. You can’t get rid of me just yet.”

                “Don’t want to,” Derek grunted as Stiles yanked at his hair again. “Told you.”

                Stiles smiled softly as he dropped just enough to rub the tip of his nose to Derek’s. “Told me what?”

                “Gonna keep you.”

                Stiles froze at that before he pushed back up to see Derek’s face again. “Derek? Are you knot-drunk talking or real talking?”

                Derek huffed as he wrapped one of his hands around Stiles’s nape and pulled him down until he was lying on his chest. “I’m not knot-drunk.”

                “Well!” Stiles pouted. “You weren’t talking in full sentences. How was I supposed to know?”

                Derek huffed again but kept Stiles pinned against him. “Stiles.”

                Grinning, Stiles snuggled further into Derek’s hold. “I think we have quite a bit to talk about now that I’m not gagging for it.”

                Lifting an eyebrow, Derek pointedly rolled his hips. He smirked as Stiles’s breath caught. “Aren’t you?”

                “Shut up. That’s not what I meant.”

                Derek chuckled as he adjusted his hold without letting Stiles go. “Yes, I suppose we’ll have to talk.”

                “You said you’d be completely honest with me.” At Derek’s questioning noise, Stiles let out a huff. “When I woke up here in your bed that first time and you made me drink water while you clawed your legs bloody.”

                Frowning, Derek kept his eyes closed. “It wasn’t water. Or it wasn’t just water. But yes, I said that.”

                Stiles bit at his lip for a minute before he released it and sighed. “Then can we keep being honest with each other?”

                “Do you think I haven’t been?”

                “No,” Stiles said quickly in denial. “I mean I want to say something and I want you to know that I’m being honest.”

                Derek blinked up at the ceiling as he let his brain process Stiles’s words. “Okay.”

                Gathering his courage, Stiles took a minute to get his thoughts in order. He considered sitting up so he could meet Derek’s gaze but realized rather quickly that he didn’t have that much courage. And all that he had was going into just speaking. “I don’t want this to end with a thank you and a gruff your welcome. I don’t want our time together to end with you dropping me off at my dad’s house and saying you’ll call but then you don’t.”

                Derek tried to keep the joy building in his chest from bubbling over. “You don’t want us to say goodbye.”

                “I really don’t,” Stiles said softly. “This week may not have gone the way I originally thought it would, thank the heavens for that, but I wouldn’t have changed anything about it. Especially the bits that came after I met you.”

                A low growl started to build in the back of Derek’s throat at the reference to that piece of shit alpha. His voice came out low and dangerous when he finally had enough control to speak. “I was being honest when I told you that I’d kill him, Stiles.”

                “Scott’s not a bad person, Derek. He’s just stupid.”

                “His stupidity almost cost you your life. If you hadn’t gotten away then you could have gone catatonic. Your body might have been alive but your brain would have fried. Every person alive knows this about omegas. And I refuse to believe that you would have agreed to be anywhere near him during heat week if you thought he was too stupid to know that.”

                Derek had a point. Stiles acknowledged that even if it was a bit reluctantly. “I was being stupid, too. I was nervous about finding an alpha and too scared to go to the hospital. It was an offer that was too good to be true.”

                Running his fingers idly around Stiles’s back as the omega fell silent, Derek squeezed his eyes shut before relaxing them again. “I know you feel foolish right now for believing him, but you aren’t the only one to ever be tricked.”

                Stiles blinked his eyes open in shock. He knew that Derek could feel how still his body went but he tried to play it off by taking small breaths. “Derek?”

                Purposely keeping his touches light, Derek continued to let his fingers run across Stiles’s skin. It helped that he had the omega in his arms and on his chest. “I was out here alone, Stiles. Have you had time to wonder why yet?”

                “I honestly haven’t thought about it. Alphas can handle heat week without a partner. Ruts aren’t as dangerous to your health as heat is to mine.”

                “True,” Derek agreed. “But there’s a reason I was out here by myself and not with someone else.”

                Stiles stayed still and quiet in order to let Derek gather himself. He didn’t want to pressure the alpha to tell him anything he didn’t want to say.

                “A few years ago, I met a woman that was older than me and smelled like an omega. She approached me and introduced herself at the grocery store. She said she had seen me around town a few times and wanted to know if I’d be interested in meeting with her to see if we’d be compatible.”

                Derek tightly closed his eyes but kept his fingers light. He never wanted to touch Stiles out of frustration or anger. Not when the omega had put so much trust in him to keep him safe. “I was young and insecure and agreed because no other omega had ever approached me despite the fact that I had a profile and had already spent a couple of heat weeks alone.”

                Stiles made sure to keep his breathing even as he listened to Derek. He made an encouraging sound when the alpha stopped speaking to gather himself but otherwise stayed quiet.

                Sucking in another breath, Derek opened his eyes again. He stared up at the ceiling without seeing it as he shared his past. “We got along really well. By the time the next heat week was approaching, I was sure that we could spend it together without a problem. So I agreed. I agreed to go with her to her family’s cabin since that’s where she said she’d feel the most comfortable even though my brain was telling me that I should be within my own territory. I agreed to leave my phone behind since she didn’t want us to be disturbed while I was taking care of her.”

                With every self-deprecating word, Stiles only wanted to hug Derek and never let him go. It was clear, from the tone of his voice and the way he snapped out the words, that he thought his past self stupid. “Derek?”

                “She wasn’t an omega.”

                “What?”

                Derek didn’t let Stiles sit up. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to keep talking if he let Stiles sit up and see him “She’d been wearing hormones the whole time I knew her. She was a beta. She’d seen my profile in the database and decided to stalk me. I’d said I was only interested in omegas and so she lied.”

                “Oh, my God.”

                Derek took a shuddering breath before he continued. “I didn’t know until we were already at her family’s cabin and her dad was there. They managed to lock me in a room and told me that if I didn’t do what they wanted then they’d kill me and my family.”

                Stiles dug his fingers into Derek’s chest. He almost felt bad about the tight grip he had on him. “What did they want you to do?”

                The whispered question gave Derek the strength to answer. “Alpha wolves are different from alpha humans. They wanted me to bite her dad to turn him. He was slowly dying of cancer. They promised me all sorts of things if I’d do it. When I refused, they started threatening me. They talked about hunting down my pack and slowly killing everyone in it. They talked about finding omegas that were already in heat and making them present for me so I could fuck them during my rut. The beta woman even offered to suck my cock in front of her dad if I’d agree to drop my fangs and give him the bite.”

                Stiles listened to every word in mortification. His anger built more and more as Derek spoke. “They did all of that to you while you were in a rut? Jesus, Derek, how did you come out of that with any sanity?”

                The chuckle that slipped past his lips was anything but humorous. “I learned pretty quickly that pain keeps my head clear. I dug my claws into my thighs and ignored them. Then when they got physical, they kept my head clear for me.”

                “How did you get away?”

                “The week ended and my mom realized that I hadn’t contacted her to let her know how it went and when I’d be home. So she went looking for me.”

                “Please tell me,” Stiles said as he lifted his head to look at Derek, pleased to find that Derek had released his hold on him enough to let him. “That your mom kicked some ass.”

                Derek smiled at that before he met Stiles’s fiery gaze. “She did. She called your dad to arrest them.”

                “Hell yeah,” Stiles cheered before he dropped his head back to Derek’s shoulder. “My dad is the best.”

                “He’s pretty cool,” Derek agreed. “He helped me press charges and set up a restraining order. No Argents are allowed anywhere near me or mine.”

                “Argent?”

                “Yes.”

                Stiles sat up quickly. Too quickly considering they were still tethered together by Derek’s knot. They both hissed before Stiles settled into a comfortable position on top of Derek once more. “But that’s Allison’s name. Allison Argent.”

                “Who is Allison?”

                “Scott’s beta girlfriend.”

                The snarl that lifted Derek’s lips and flashed his teeth had Stiles clenching down without meaning to. He was mortified to realize that the sight of Derek’s anger had him getting wet again. “Fuck.”

                Derek sat up and wrapped his arms around Stiles to prevent the omega from falling back due to his quick movements. “I’ll kill them both.”

                Looping his arms around Derek’s neck, Stiles ground his hips down on Derek’s knot. “Can’t. You can’t go to jail. My dad would not let me visit you.”

                “Your dad would help me.”

                Stiles laughed as he slid his fingers into the hair at the nape of Derek’s neck and tugged. “Because he’s so cool?”

                “Because they almost killed you.”

                Stiles couldn’t argue against that. “She said her aunt told her that betas get pregnant when omegas in heat are around. She told him that if he got me started, I’d take care of myself. That I’d fuck myself on my fingers and be fine.”

                Derek’s growl grew steadily louder and louder as he held Stiles tighter and tighter. “I hope she’s not pregnant. We can’t allow that sort of stupidity to breed.”

                Stiles laughed weakly as he allowed Derek to cradle him in his arms. His laughter turned to light sobs as he processed everything. “They really would have let me die. They would have fucked in the bed right next to my dead body. Even now, I don’t know if Scott would have noticed or cared. He’s been my best friend since preschool. I don’t understand.”

                Derek held Stiles until they both started to calm down. He didn’t move to let the omega go, even when they both felt his knot deflate enough to let his cock slip out. Instead, Derek kept Stiles on his lap and safe in his arms. “Some things never make sense. I used to ask myself why they targeted me specifically. I never got an answer besides Kate saying she thought I was a cute puppy. You might never get an answer from them either, but you will get justice.”

                “You can’t murder them, Derek.”

                Huffing, Derek turned to press a few kisses along Stiles’s jawline. “I meant legal justice. Melissa said she’d do anything to help you press charges. Your dad was supposed to call her to talk with her about it. Do you remember that phone call?”

                Stiles hummed as he tilted his head to give Derek better access to the underside of his jaw. “I think so. My dad said he was glad I was with you. Said he trusted you.”

                Derek paused at that. “He did.”

                “I do, too,” Stiles admitted softly as he dropped his chin to meet Derek’s eyes. “I trust you, too. I’m glad I’m with you.”

                Using the hold he had on Stiles, Derek pulled until he could twist and put Stiles between him and the bed. Stiles let out a huff as his back hit, but Derek ignored it and the look of exasperation on the omega’s face. “Stiles, you have to know that I’ve never been more thankful for something in my life. When I smelled you out in the woods, I almost fully shifted to get to you before anyone else.”

                “I smelled that good?” Stiles asked with a grin.

                “I knew it was you,” Derek admitted quietly. He shifted his gaze to the side and wouldn’t meet Stiles’s eyes as he continued. “I knew your scent before you were out in the woods. I’ve seen you around town quite a bit but never had the courage to talk to you.”

                Stiles blinked several times before he lifted his head to thunk it back against the bed hard enough to have Derek’s gaze snap to his out of concern. “You have to be fucking kidding me! How did I not notice? Derek! You can ask my dad when we see him. I’ve been not so secretly obsessed with you for like two years.”

                Derek’s mouth dropped open as he stared down at Stiles. “What?”

                “You were at the station once when I stopped by to give my dad his lunch! You were all scowls and sourness but you stopped to pick up Joyce’s pen when it rolled off her desk without her noticing. You gruffed out a response when she thanked you but your ears turned red.”

                Derek was absolutely sure that his ears were red. “I remember that but I don’t remember you being there. And trust me, by that point, if I had scented you or seen you I would have been overly aware of you.”

                Stiles crowed before he wrapped Derek in a tight hug. “Are you trying to tell me you liked me first? That you’ve liked me longer than I’ve liked you?”

                “Uh,” Derek said uncertainly as he let Stiles practically yell in his ear. He’d let Stiles do just about anything. “Maybe?”

                “No takebacks, Derek!”

                “The first time I saw you, Stiles, was the first time I went to the police station to sign some paperwork after I was released from the hospital. You were sleeping on your dad’s couch. He told me not to mind you and that as long as we talked quietly then we wouldn’t disturb you. He told me that you hadn’t been sleeping well so he didn’t want to wake you.”

                Stiles stilled at that. He kept his hold on Derek and took a shuddering breath. “That would have been around the anniversary of my mother’s death.”

                “I’m so sorry, Stiles.”

                “But why would the sight of me sleeping on my dad’s couch make you interested in me?”

                Derek laughed before he pressed a kiss on Stiles’s cheek. “That meeting made me aware of you. Once I saw you there, I felt like I was seeing you everywhere. You had so much energy and joy that I couldn’t help but want to make sure you stayed safe and happy.”

                Stiles cooed as he rubbed his cheek against Derek’s. “You did a really good job of that this week.”

                Hesitating for only a second, Derek reminded himself that he and Stiles agreed to be honest with each other. “Would you let me do it for more than this week?”

                Stiles turned his head to look at the side of Derek’s face. “What?”

                Derek avoided his gaze as he swallowed hard. “I would like to take you out on a date, Stiles. When we get back.”

                “Oh, man,” Stiles whispered. “I have to start eating solid foods again as fast as possible.”

                The bark of laughter that Derek let out surprised them both. The alpha groaned as Stiles started giggling but joined in when the omega started pressing kisses against his cheek and chin while still giggling. “Come on, we should get up, clean up, and find some food.”

XXX

                Stiles hesitated at the door of the cabin. He had managed to convince Derek that he needed another day to recuperate. He’d managed to eat and keep down crackers and toast, which was quite the feat considering he hadn’t eaten solid food in over a week.

                They’d even called his dad to let him know that they were coming back.

                And yet, Stiles couldn’t seem to get himself to lift his hand and open the door.

                Derek pressed up against his back but didn’t move to open the door for him. “Stiles?”

                “If we go out then we have to deal with the rest of the world. I don’t know if I’m ready.”

                Pressing his nose to the side of Stiles’s neck, Derek breathed in their combined scent. “I know what you mean. But the world is ready to come in if we don’t go out.”

                Sighing, Stiles lifted his hand and let it rest on the doorknob without moving to actually open the door. “Maybe we can talk someone into bringing us food regularly so we can just stay here together.”

                “And do what?”

                “Fuck.”

                “Stiles.”

                “The way you growl my name does nothing to make me change my mind.”

                Derek sighed as he lifted his hand to put it on top of Stiles’s on the doorknob. “We can do this together.”

                Stiles leaned back into Derek’s chest. “And once we’re out there?”

                “We’ll keep doing things together.”

                He still wasn’t sure, but Stiles let their linked fingers twist the handle and open the door. “Where are we going first?”

                “Your house,” Derek said as he led Stiles to his truck. “I’m sure your dad wants to check you over for himself. And my house is too overwhelming. All my brothers and sisters will want to clamber all over you.”

                Stiles chuckled as he kept his fingers tangled with Derek’s until he had to get into his seat. He smiled when Derek took his hand back in his once he had the truck started. “You want me to meet them?”

                “Absolutely. Just not today.”

                Stiles nodded. He smiled every time his scent got a little too anxious and Derek squeezed his hand in response.

XXX

                “Stiles!”

                “Hey, Pops. You remember Derek.”

                John held out his hand and shook Derek’s when the alpha took it. “Good to see you again, Derek.”

                “Likewise, Sheriff.”

                Stiles looked between the two of them before he huffed and dragged Derek further into their house. “Come on, Dad. Let’s not put on too much of a show for the neighbors. Mrs. Hadley is already nosy enough as it is.”

                Sighing, John shut the door before following Stiles and Derek into the living room. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, Stiles.”

                “Derek took good care of me.”

                John took one look at the way Derek was preening before he sighed again. “And are you planning to let Derek go anytime soon?”

                “No. Why should I?”

                John shook his head. Stiles was too much like himself sometimes. “I’m sure his mother is going to be wondering where he is soon. That and you and I should have a talk without him here.”

                “I do have to call my mom,” Derek added when he noticed Stiles gearing up to say something. “I texted her earlier that I had something to tell her and she’s been texting me nonstop ever since. I don’t want her to worry.”

                Stiles bit his lip before he ducked his head. “You’re leaving?”

                Derek bit back a smile as he tugged Stiles into his arms to hold him. “I have to. I have to go see my mom and my family. You have to stay here and talk to your dad. I have your number. You have mine. You can call me if you need anything.”

                “Yeah, okay,” Stiles said softly against Derek’s shoulder.

                “Stiles?”

                “Yeah?”

                Derek pulled back so he could meet Stiles’s eyes. “Anything.”

                Stiles smiled weakly at that before he nodded and let Derek go. “Will you call me? After you talk with your mom. I want to know what she thinks.”

                Derek did smile at that. He lifted Stiles’s hand to press a chaste kiss to the inside of his wrist where his scent was strong. “I’ll talk to you tonight.”

                John cleared his throat. He honestly hadn’t meant to startle his son or Derek but couldn’t find it within himself to be too sorry. “He’ll be fine, Derek. I’m not planning to go anywhere until tomorrow and Stiles has no reason to leave the house, either. We’ll both be here, safe and sound, for the whole night.”

                Derek flushed but nodded to John before smiling once more at Stiles.

                It took every ounce of control he had to not whine as Derek left. Stiles felt it building in the back of his throat but held it back. He was well aware that one little peep would have Derek spinning on his heels to rush back to his side.

                Part of him wanted to be so selfish. Part of him wanted to keep Derek next to him. The other part of him also wanted Derek but knew that Derek had to go. He wasn’t leaving Stiles. Not really. They were just separating for a time.

                A short time.

                “Stiles?”

                Turning to his dad, Stiles managed a wobbly smile before he started crying. He sagged into his dad’s hug when he felt his strong arms hold him up. “I was so scared, Dad. I was so scared that I’d never get to see you again.”

                “I don’t know what he was thinking, Stiles. I talked to him before you guys left and he swore to me that he’d make sure you were taken care of.”

                “Apparently,” Stiles said as he sniffled against his dad’s chest. “He thought that meant making sure I took care of myself.”

                “I have half a mind to let Hale kill him.”

                Stiles laughed wetly at that. “He kept telling me that you would help him hide the body whenever I told him that I didn’t want him to go to jail.”

                “Well,” Sheriff Stilinski said as he ruffled his only son’s hair. “He’s not wrong.”

XXX

                Everything about his room felt off. Stiles had lived in the same house for as long as he could remember. He’d had his room for just as long. He knew where everything was and how everything should be and yet it was all wrong.

                It took him far longer to realize what the problem was than it should have.

                The scent was wrong. The things were in the right places. He knew because he’d touched them again and again as he paced. It was the smell that was off.

                After he figured that out, it was easy for Stiles to put the pieces together. His room and his bed didn’t smell like Derek.

                They smelled like Scott.

                Before heat week, that would have been fine. Before heat week, Stiles would have thought it odd that his room didn’t smell like his best friend.

                Pacing another loop through his room, Stiles touched the pens on his desk and the back of his chair before moving to a book on his shelf and the handle to his closet. No matter how many times he touched them, he couldn’t get the scent of Scott out.

                Frustrated, Stiles sank down on the edge of his bed and gripped his hair with his hands. His knees bounced as he stared down at his floor and held his breath for ten seconds before letting it out.

                The talk he’d had with his dad had gone about the way he had expected it to go. His dad was furious and wanted Stiles to press charges. Another officer would have to take his statement, but Stiles knew them all and was fine with that. He just didn’t want to do it until he had a chance to talk to Scott.

                Derek wasn’t wrong when he said that Stiles might never understand why Scott did what he did, but he still wanted to hear if Scott understood what he’d almost done to Stiles. He wanted to hear from Scott what his reasoning was.

                Stiles would never forgive him. That wasn’t even a possibility. He just wanted to know.

                His phone ringing tore Stiles out of his thoughts. He snatched it up off his bed and almost whined at the sight of Derek’s name on the screen. “Derek.”

                “What’s wrong?”

                Stiles bit his lip and hesitated.

                “Stiles? I said anything.”

                “Everything smells wrong,” Stiles wailed as he shot back to his feet. He couldn’t even get into his bed even though he’d already ripped all the blankets and sheets and pillows off his mattress. “My room doesn’t smell like you. It smells like Scott!”

                Derek’s growl had him freezing in the middle of his room.

                “I’m going to come over, Stiles. I’m getting my keys and leaving now. I’m going to come over and we’ll fix that, okay? We’ll find whatever you don’t want and throw it out. Whatever you do want, I’ll scent mark it so it smells like me instead of him.”

                Stiles started his pacing again as he ran a hand through his hair. “You’re coming back?”

                “Right now,” Derek assured him. “Can you hear my truck? I’m already pulling out to head down my driveway. I’ll be there in less than fifteen minutes.”

                Stopping at his window, Stiles wrapped his arm around himself as he looked out at the night. “I couldn’t figure out at first what was wrong. I kept checking everything again and again. I couldn’t even sit on my bed with my blankets and sheets still on it.”

                “Your bed smells like him?”

                Stiles whimpered and lifted his chin even though Derek couldn’t see him. “He was like my brother. We were brothers and now I can’t even stand his scent.”

                “Breathe, baby. I’m almost there. Take a breath for me.”

                He didn’t realize it until Derek said it, but Stiles was holding his breath. “Everything smells like him. I feel like I can’t.”

                “I’ll scent anything you want me to, Stiles. I’ll scent your whole house if that’s what you want.”

                “I just want to tuck my face against your shoulder again and feel your chest rumble because you’re happy to be holding me. I want to lay in my bed and feel your bulk against my back and know that I’m safe. I want to feel safe.”

                Derek growled through the phone. “I’m in your driveway, baby. Come open the door for me.”

                Stiles perked up as he turned to hurry out of his room and down the stairs.

                “Stiles? What are you doing?”

                “Derek’s here!” Stiles yelled back at his dad. “He’s going to make everything stop smelling like Scott!”

                Derek already had his arms spread by the time Stiles got the door open. He didn’t hesitate to throw himself against the alpha’s chest and tuck his face into his neck and breathe in deep.

                Wrapping his arms around Stiles, Derek walked the omega backward carefully until they were far enough in the house that he could shut the door. “You’re okay, Stiles. I’m here. We’ll figure it out and take care of it, okay? Take some breaths. When you’re ready, we’ll get started.”

                Stiles whimpered as he clenched his hands into Derek’s shirt. His forgotten phone landed on the floor with a thud as he dropped it to get a better hold of Derek. “Sorry. I’m sorry. Give me another minute, please. Fuck, it got so bad.”

                “You should have called me,” Derek whispered as he rubbed his hands up and down Stiles’s back to spread his scent. “I told you that I’d do anything for you.”

                Without lifting his smashed face from Derek’s neck, Stiles shook his head. “I was trying to give you time to talk to your mom and your family. I was trying to not be so needy.”

                “I don’t mind it when you’re needy.”

                Stiles pinched Derek’s side and laughed when the alpha jerked. “My dad is in the kitchen, Derek.”

                Grinning, Derek didn’t bother to let Stiles know that his dad was no longer in the kitchen. “Are you ready to get started?”

                Reluctantly, Stiles pulled back from Derek’s neck to meet his gaze. He didn’t loosen his hold on his shirt or step back out of his arms. There was no way he was ready to do that. “You’re really okay doing this for me?”

                “You aren’t asking me to do anything I don’t already want to do. Of course, I want to mark up your house and make it stink of me. I want any other alpha that even walks down the sidewalk out front to know that you’re mine.”

                “Really?”

                Derek tipped his head down to rest his forehead against Stiles’s. He kept his hands at a respectable height on Stiles’s waist since the Sheriff was standing not three feet away. “I want you to do the same for me,” Derek murmured. “I want you to come to my house and roll in my bed. I want you to touch all my things and make it clear that I’m yours like you’re mine.”

                Stiles whimpered as he lifted his chin to press a quick kiss to Derek’s lips. “I want that, too.”

                Reluctantly, Derek pulled away from Stiles. “Then let’s get started. Which room do you want to begin with?”

                John crossed his arms over his chest before he cleared his throat. He didn’t bother to bite back his smirk when both boys jumped and looked over at him. “Why don’t you start with sorting out anything in Stiles’s room that can be washed? Then you can start marking what’s left. I’ll do the same down here. It’s been a while since we had the couch cleaned. Anything that we find that actually belongs to Scott should be put in the kitchen to be returned to Melissa.”

                Stiles nodded as he wrapped his hand around Derek’s wrist and started tugging him to the stairs. “Come on, alpha. Let’s go to my room.”

                “And leave the door open!” Sheriff Stilinski called after them.

                “Too late for that, Pops! Derek’s already gotten handsy with me!”

                Derek groaned as his ears burned. “Stiles.”

                Smirking, Stiles pulled Derek into his room. “You have and he thinks he’s funny. I’m the funny one.”

                Sighing, Derek pulled Stiles into his arm and pressed a couple of chaste kisses across the bridge of his nose. “Are you doing better?”

                “Having you here really helps,” Stiles said with a slight smile. He pulled away without stepping out of Derek’s space to face the wreck his room had become. “It doesn’t usually look like this.”

                Clenching his teeth for a moment, Derek sucked in a few deep breaths through his nose before he was able to put his feelings aside and focus on Stiles. “Why does your bedding smell like Scott?”

                “We used to do homework in here,” Stiles said with a shrug. “We’d chill on my bed or at my desk. I never thought anything of it because he was my brother. It wasn’t until I came up here to shower and get cleaned up that I realized just how much my room smelled like him. It almost doesn’t smell like it’s mine.”

                “We’ll change that,” Derek promised as he bent to pick up the large pile of blankets and pillows that were scattered around the floor. “I’ll make it smell like us. We’ll get him out of here.”

                Stiles grinned as Derek chucked the bedding out into the hall. “My washing machine is going to get a workout tonight.”

                “If there weren’t so many other scents at the laundromat then I’d say we should just take everything there and use their industrial washer.”

                Looking up from his desk, Stiles watched as Derek closed his eyes and breathed in deep through his nose. “My washing machine will work just fine even if it will take longer. I’d much rather be here with you than somewhere else with a lot of other people.”

                Derek hummed but continued to scent the air. Slowly yet surely, he uncovered other pieces of clothing that contained Scott’s scent. They joined the pile of bedding out in the hallway. “I think that’s all of it.”

                “I can still smell him.”

                Derek nodded as he looked at Stiles’s room. “Stiles, this really isn’t normal. I’m an alpha with siblings but I don’t scent mark their rooms like Scott did to yours.”

                Stiles crossed his arms over his chest but nodded. “I’m realizing that now. I never thought of it before but he’s everywhere in here. You might be at it for a while. I’ll carry some stuff downstairs to the laundry room while you do your thing.”

                Derek watched Stiles go before he began rubbing his wrists against different things in Stiles’s room that couldn’t be so easily cleaned. He felt weird scent marking the computer desk, but he wanted to make sure he got rid of the inferior alpha’s stench.

                When Stiles returned, he leaned against the doorframe and watched as Derek carefully went over every inch of his room. “Got it?”

                “I think so,” Derek muttered as he closed his eyes to breathe in deep again. “Come here. Let’s lay on your bed for a while and see if we notice anything else.”

                Despite not having any sheets on his bed, Stiles tugged Derek down onto the mattress. He made a few happy noises in the back of his throat as the alpha wrapped his arms around him to hold him tight. “Thank you. For coming over and doing all of this.”

                Derek nosed at the side of Stiles’s head. He made the rumbling noise that he knew Stiles liked and kept his hold firm until he felt the omega finally relax. “I called you earlier because I missed you.”

                “I missed you, too,” Stiles whispered.

                “My mom wasn’t pleased to hear what happened but only because she is mad that that happened to you.”

                “Did she agree to be your alibi?”

                “She reminded me where we keep our shovels.”

                Stiles laughed at that before he turned in Derek’s arms to look into his eyes. “I want to talk to him first. I want to hear what he has to say for himself. I’m going to press charges. My dad made that very clear earlier. But I want to try and understand. I know you said that some things will just never make sense, but it’s Scott. I want to know.”

                “Then I only ask that you let me be there.”

                Stiles nodded before he furrowed his brows. “I want you there. Of course, I want you there. But do you want to be there to support me or because you think he’ll do something?”

                “Both.”

                “He wouldn’t hurt me.”

                Derek made sure that Stiles could see how serious he was before he spoke. “He already has.”

XXX

                Stiles laughed as Derek playfully tackled him down onto the couch. “Derek, come on! My dad will be home in like an hour. We have to start making supper.”

                “I texted your dad earlier and told him to bring home pizza. We don’t have to do anything but cuddle until he gets here.”

                “He can’t have pizza!”

                Derek laughed as he pinned Stiles beneath him. “Be a good boy and stay here under me. I want to keep you safe for a while.”

                “It isn’t your fault that I tripped earlier and got bruised when I fell. I’m okay.”

                Derek grumbled but didn’t let Stiles get up. Granted, Stiles wasn’t trying all that hard to get away from him. He knew what the omega was capable of doing if he didn’t want to be held.

                The doorbell ringing made both of them freeze.

                Slowly, Derek lifted his head to look over the back of the couch at where the front door was. “Were you expecting someone?”

                Stiles stared up at Derek with wide eyes but shook his head. “No. You’re already here and my dad wouldn’t ring the bell.”

                Derek tipped his head back further and breathed in deep before a growl erupted from his throat. “I’m going to kill him.”

                Stiles automatically wrapped his arms and legs around Derek. He’d done it before to prevent the alpha from leaving him alone on the couch or the bed but this was different. Derek wasn’t playfully letting Stiles hold him in place. He was standing like Stiles’s weight around him would do nothing to slow him down.

                Biting back a moan at the strength his alpha had, Stiles dug his fingers into Derek’s hair and made the alpha look at him. “Who is it?”

                “Stiles,” Derek growled in warning.

                Stiles refused to let Derek pull him off of him. “Is that fucking Scott at my front door, Derek? Tell me now!”

                “Yes,” Derek snarled. His teeth were too long and he knew he was about to start sporting his claws. “I can hear a car running and some soft music playing. I can hear his heartbeat and smell his stupid fucking scent. What the fuck is he doing here?”

                Stiles opened and closed his mouth a few times before shaking his head. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I didn’t invite him over. In fact, I told Melissa to keep him away. It hasn’t even been a week since my heat ended. I don’t want to see him yet.”

                Derek snapped his head up when the doorbell sounded again. “I’ll get rid of him.”

                “Derek.”

                “I mean,” Derek gritted out through his teeth, “that I’ll tell him to leave. Stay here.”

                Stiles thought about it for a moment. He thought about standing anxiously in the middle of his living room while Derek told Scott to leave. He thought about rushing up the stairs and diving into his bed that smelled wonderfully of him and Derek while Derek scared the piss out of Scott.

                In the end, he didn’t think he could handle the situation without having some sort of contact with his alpha. “I’ll stay behind you.”

                Derek growled again but relented as Stiles tucked himself into his back. “You’ll stay there.”

                “Yes, alpha. I don’t want to see him.”

                They moved awkwardly through the house to the front door. Stiles kept his face pressed against the center of Derek’s back and listened to his heartbeat and the sounds of his growls.

                “Ready?”

                Stiles nodded but didn’t attempt to speak.

                Derek swung the door open. He knew his face was twisted in a scowl and was pleased when the boy on the porch turned and took a surprised step back. His scent went from being smug to being scared instantly. “Go away.”

                “Who are you?” The inferior alpha demanded.

                Derek scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest in a way that made his muscles bulge. He didn’t miss the way the puny alpha’s eyes caught the movement or the way he backed up another step. “Leave.”

                “I’m here to see Stiles! You can’t tell me to go. I don’t even know who you are.”

                A girl got out of the car in the driveway but didn’t step closer to them when Derek snarled at her. “If you’re the Argent then by law you cannot come closer to me.”

                Scott moved to stand between the snarling alpha and his mate. “What the fuck is with you, man? Where is Stiles? I’m going to call the Sheriff!”

                “Do it,” Derek goaded. “Tell him that you’re here. See what he has to say to you.”

                Stiles, from where he was tucked into Derek’s back out of sight, tugged on his alpha’s shirt.

                Not relaxing his stance at all, Derek glared hard at the other alpha. “Leave.”

                “I don’t know who you are that you think you can tell me what to do here!?” Scott growled. “Stiles is my omega! He’s in my pack! Get out of my fucking way before I call the police.”

                Derek was certain that his eyes flashed. His claws slid out of his fingers and his fangs dropped. His face shifted and his ears got pointier. Stiles had laughed when he’d shown him his half shift just the day before. He’d laughed and then kissed Derek’s ear before sucking on his tongue until Derek tackled him down onto the bed.

                Stiles hadn’t been afraid of him.

                Scott was.

                Derek all but roared at him. “Leave.”

                Scott stumbled back off the porch. “What the fuck!? Stiles! Stiles, can you hear me? Are you okay in there?”

                Biting his tongue so he wouldn’t make a sound, Stiles tugged at the back of Derek’s shirt again.

                “I’m going to call the Sheriff,” Scott shouted as he backed up another step. “I’m going to call everyone! You can’t keep Stiles in there.”

                Derek dropped his arms before holding out one of his hands to the side. “I’ll do you one better,” he said, “I’ll call the Sheriff for you.”

                Then, in a much quieter voice, Derek said, “Give me your phone, baby.”

                Scott watched with an open mouth as a slim hand slid out from behind the monster in the doorway to drop a cell phone in the enraged alpha’s palm. “Stiles.”

                “Thank you, baby,” Derek murmured through his long teeth. “Stay tucked in close.”

                Stiles pressed his face harder against Derek’s back to do what he asked.

                Derek unlocked Stiles’s phone and hit his contact for his dad. The phone rang twice before it was answered.

                “Hey, buddy. I swear I got a vegetarian pizza for me. Don’t worry.”

                “Sheriff,” Derek growled out. “I’m calling you to inform you that you have a trespasser.”

                Scott made some sort of outraged noise but fell silent when he caught sight of the glare on the alpha before him.

                “What?”

                “Two of them,” Derek said. “An Argent and a fucking worthless piece of shit alpha.”

                “What!?”

                Derek’s glare sharpened as Scott took a step forward. “He just showed up yelling to see Stiles after I answered the door and told him to leave.”

                “Can he hear me?”

                “You’re on speakerphone,” Derek told him.

                “If you’re there when I get there, Scott. I will arrest you.”

                “What!” Scott yelped as he backed up another step. “Sheriff! I’m not doing anything wrong! This guy is crazy! I think he hurt Stiles!”

                “Get off my property and keep away from my son!”

                Derek bared his teeth as Scott backed up another step. “You heard him. Go.”

                Scott motioned for Allison to get back in his mom’s car as he moved back to it. “Stiles! I know you can hear me! I’ll get you out, buddy! You’ll be okay!”

                Stiles whimpered at that as he pressed against Derek and tugged harder at his shirt.

                “I’ll be there shortly, Derek. I’m trusting you to keep him safe.”

                “Of course, Sheriff.”

                Stiles went boneless as Derek stepped back and shut the door. The alpha caught him before he hit the floor and lifted him up into his arms. “Alpha.”

                “He won’t touch you,” Derek told him. “I won’t let him touch you.”

                Stiles tucked his face into Derek’s neck as he felt them start up the stairs. “Why did he come here? Why did he show up? I don’t understand. He hasn’t tried to text or call me all week. I don’t know what he wants.”

                “I don’t either, baby, but I know what I want. I want to keep you safe. I’ll do whatever you need me to do to keep you safe.”

                “He said he was going to come back. He said he was going to take me away from you.”

                “Never,” Derek growled as he set Stiles in his bed and then crawled in to lay on top of him. “I’ll never let him take you. Do you want to be mine?”

                “I am yours,” Stiles keened as he pulled Derek down on top of him. “I am yours.”

                “Then he can’t have you. You chose me.”

XXX

                “Thanks for doing this for me, Melissa. I know this can’t be easy for you.”

                Melissa smiled as she stepped up to the exam table that Stiles was sitting on. She used her hand to push his hair back from his face to meet his gaze. “You’re my kid, too, Stiles. Maybe not by blood, but you became mine a long time ago. I’m here for you. Scott has to face the consequences of his actions. I know your father is gathering all the details of what happened. This exam will only help with your case.”

                Stiles shifted on the table and nodded. “Do you know how much longer we have to wait for the results?”

                Smiling, Melissa tapped her hand against one of Stiles’s knees. “Blood tests take time but I rushed the results for you. Are you nervous?”

                Playing with his fingers, Stiles avoided her gaze for a moment before he found the courage to look up. “Do you think I might be pregnant?”

                “Oh, honey.” Melissa wrapped her arms around Stiles to pull him into a tight hug. “Do you want to be?”

                “I don’t know,” Stiles whispered. “Maybe?”

                “I doubt it, Stiles. It was your first real heat and you were under a lot of stress. You might have to go through a few more before your body is ready for a baby.”

                Something in Stiles unclenched at that. He wanted children with Derek. Eventually. Just, he wanted time with his alpha before they started their own pack. “You think so?”

                “The tests will confirm it,” Melissa said as she pulled back to look into Stiles’s eyes again. “But your scent hasn’t changed and you haven’t been displaying any hormonal signs. I’m not usually wrong about these things.”

                Stiles smiled at that and squeezed Melissa’s hand when she picked his up. “I don’t think I’m ready for pups just yet.”

                Melissa returned his smile as a knock sounded on the door. She squeezed his hand one last time before stepping away from him to open it. “There’s your results.”

                Stiles swallowed hard as he watched Melissa take a few pieces of paper from someone outside the room. They talked for a second before Melissa shut the door and turned to him. “Well?”

                “Not pregnant.”

                Stiles sagged in relief. “Good.”

                Smiling, Melissa looked over the results again. “Some of your hormone levels are too high. That’s probably from being in heat and not getting help in the beginning. It’ll take some time for them to even out. You’ll probably find that you’re having a hard time being away from your alpha. That’s normal in these sorts of circumstances. Nothing here appears to be permanent.”

                Rubbing at his eyes, Stiles fought back some tears. It was wonderful to hear that he was going to be okay. “You’ll send the results to my dad so he can add them to my file?”

                “Of course.”

                Nodding again, Stiles got off the table. He was so glad that he hadn’t had to put on one of their hospital gowns. “You’ll give Scott the bag of stuff I found at my place that belongs to him? Derek wanted to just trash it all but my dad said it was probably better to give it back so Scott can’t try to blame anything on me."

                “I’ll give it to him.”

                Stiles winced at the dark tone of Melissa’s voice. He did not envy Scott whenever the alpha had gotten into trouble with his mother. “Thanks, Melissa. I appreciate it.”

                “Let me know if you need anything else, got it?”

                Stiles hugged her before taking his copy of his results out into the lobby. He grinned as he caught sight of Derek sitting in one of the little chairs in the waiting room. “Ready?”

                Derek returned his smile as he got to his feet. “I’ve never liked hospitals.”

                “Me either,” Stiles said as he wrapped his arm around Derek’s waist to start them on their way out. “They smell wrong.”

                “Exactly.”

                Still grinning, Stiles held up his papers in front of Derek as they walked out the front doors. “You didn’t get me pregnant this time, alpha, though it wasn’t from lack of trying.”

                Derek tripped but saved himself from falling by tightening his grip on his laughing omega. “Stiles!”

                Stiles was still giggling when they reached his Jeep. “I’m sorry. Your face. Derek, dude.”

                “Don’t call me dude.”

                Stiles shook his head as he smiled to himself. He didn’t start his Jeep as he sat there in the parking lot. “Melissa said my hormones are still off. Because I was left alone for too long at the start of my heat, everything got wonky. She said it’ll probably take a few heats before everything goes back to normal. I most likely won’t be able to get pregnant until then.”

                Derek took Stiles’s hand in his and lifted it to press a kiss to his knuckles before flipping his hand to kiss against his palm. “You okay?”

                “She said I’ll probably be extra clingy and needy until everything goes back to normal.”

                “Baby,” Derek said as he tried to fight back a grin. “Your dad has assured me multiple times this week that you are acting quite normal already. I like that you want to be close to me. I want to be close to you, too.”

                Smirking, Stiles took his hand back and started his Jeep. “Then let’s go back to my place and get really close to each other before my dad comes home.”

XXX

                Stiles sat on the steps and looked up at Derek standing in the entryway of his house. “I don’t think I’m ready.”

                “You probably won’t ever be. I wasn’t.”

                His knee jerked up and down as he bounced his foot and bit at his nails. “What if he didn’t know?”

                “Then he’s an idiot that never deserved to be your friend.”

                “What if he did know?” Stiles asked in a quieter voice.

                “Then murder is still an option.”

                Sighing, Stiles pushed himself to his feet before trapping his alpha’s face between his palms and forcing him to look at him. “No. You don’t get to kill anyone. I’m not showing up at a prison for my heats.”

                Derek smirked but kept his mouth shut. The sound of a car approaching had him shifting to take Stiles’s hips into his hands. “He’s here.”

                “You sure?”

                A car door shut, breaking up the silent night happening outside the front door.

                “Yes.”

                Sighing again, Stiles grabbed Derek’s hands and moved them from his hips to drape his arms over his shoulders. He wasn’t too much shorter than the alpha, but he liked the way he felt when he could press his back against Derek's chest and feel the alpha's bulk holding him. “Stay like this?”

                Derek rested his chin on Stiles’s shoulder. “I won’t go anywhere.”

                The doorbell rang.

                Stiles shook out his hands before he stepped up to the door and opened it. Scott’s angry face was closer than he expected and he moved back half a step only to be stopped by Derek against his back.

                “Dude!” Scott hissed as he backed up at the sight of Derek draped over Stiles. “What the fuck is this? Why did you have my mom bring me some of my stuff? What the fuck?”

                Stiles gathered his courage and took comfort in Derek’s presence against his back. “I wanted to make sure you got your stuff back. You aren’t welcome here anymore, Scott.”

                Snarling, Scott shook the trash bag of his things as he took a small step forward. “Like hell I’m not! Who the fuck is this guy, Stiles? Why is he here? I don’t want him here!”

                The fact that Derek didn’t do anything but rub his fingers against Stiles’s chest where they dangled had him squaring himself. His alpha trusted him to be strong against this lesser alpha. Stiles could be brave. “You don’t get to have a say in who I spend time with. Not anymore.”

                “I’m your alpha, Stiles. Get away from him.”

                Derek tightened his grip but smiled lazily at the pup pretending to be an alpha before them. He let Stiles respond.

                Stiles scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest, trapping Derek’s fingers against him. “No, you’re not. You never were. You just liked to play pretend at having a pack. I don’t belong to you, Scott. The fact that you think I’m yours and then you treated me the way you did during heat week makes me hopeful that you never have a pack.”

                Scott snarled as he threw his bag of stuff down onto the porch. “How I treated you! I took you with us and let you be there! I even tried to help you! You’re the one that ran away, Stiles! You’re the one that is too much of a whore to stay where you’re put!”

                Stiles opened and closed his mouth several times as he tried to process Scott’s words. “I’m an omega, Scott.”

                “Since when does being an omega make you a slut?”

                “When I go into heat, I have to be helped by a partner in order to balance the hormones in my system. If I don’t get help, my body will start to shut down. I could go catatonic and never wake up. My body temperature will literally melt my brain.”

                “Yeah, everyone knows that, Stiles,” Scott scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down his nose at his omega and the alpha behind him. “But I was right there releasing my pheromones. If you had just used your fingers on yourself and gotten off then you would have been fine.”

                Stiles dropped his chin to look down at the ground. Hearing this was almost worse than not knowing. Almost. “It doesn’t work like that, Scott. You didn’t touch me. You didn’t let me touch you. It isn’t completely about the sex. It’s the exchanging of scents and the way being held or cuddled with releases the right chemicals to balance me out. It’s a mating drive. Smelling your pheromones from a distance and touching myself wouldn’t have saved me.”

                “You’re just making excuses for leaving to whore yourself out. But it’s fine, Stiles. I forgive you. The plan worked. Allison is pregnant.”

                “What?”

                “Yeah, man! I’m going to be a father!”

                Stiles felt so hopeless at that moment. If he didn’t have Derek already holding him then he would have ended up in tears on the ground. “What plan, Scott?”

                They’d talked about it before Scott had shown up. Stiles had his phone recording everything in his pocket. He’d felt guilty about it until Scott actually started to spew nonsense.

                Scott rolled his eyes as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He uncrossed his arms to wave one of his hands through the air. “Allison and I went to her dad and asked him for permission to mate. He said we couldn’t unless she got pregnant during heat week. So we had to make sure that she did.”

                “What does that have to do with me?” Stiles asked weakly. He knew. He knew what Scott was going to say but needed him to say it. Needed to hear it so he could let their friendship finish dying.

                “Having an omega present always helps with getting betas pregnant. Duh.”

                Stiles tipped his head back to rest against Derek. He pressed his cheek against Derek’s as he let his eyes slide shut. “Who told you that?”

                “Allison,” Scott said proudly. “She told me her Aunt Kate told her that it always helped her.”

                Derek made sure he kept his body loose as he held Stiles. This wasn’t about him. This was about supporting his omega.

                “How many of those omegas died, Scott?”

                “None of them.” Scott denied. “Stiles, no one died. Come on, you’re fine.”

                “Actually,” Stiles said as he opened his eyes again. “I’m not fine. I had a checkup earlier this week. My hormone levels are off so severely that it’ll take several heats to get them back to normal. I can’t currently get pregnant because of them. Hopefully, when the time comes, we won’t have problems with that.”

                Derek nuzzled against the side of Stiles’s face. He’d already reassured his mate that he was more than okay with trying again and again until Stiles was full of pups. His omega had smacked him for that right before sucking his cock.

                “And what?” Scott growled. “You’re trying to blame that on me?”

                Stiles stepped back and was pleased when Derek moved with him with ease. He grabbed the door and held it halfway shut. He was tired of their conversation and had heard enough. “You said you would help me and then didn’t, Scott. You almost killed me. Your mom saved my life. My alpha saved my life. You need to go.”

                “Stiles, come on! You’re fine!”

                “Go and don’t come back.”

                Stiles shook in Derek’s arms when he shut the door but he didn’t cry.

XXX

                “You ready?”

                Stiles looked out the windshield of Derek’s truck and up at the big house. “Not really. What if they don’t like me?”

                Derek shook his head but smiled as he met Stiles’s gaze. “They already love you.”

                “Derek, your family has never met me! They don’t know me! And I’ve never been around so many people in one pack.”

                Reaching out, Derek took Stiles’s hand in his so the omega couldn’t keep worrying at the hem of his shirt “They already love you, Stiles.”

                “What if someone asks me about the trial? I don’t want to come off cold because I can’t talk about it.”

                Derek squeezed his hand. “They’ve all been told not to ask you about it. So if they do, they deserve to be shut down.”

                “What if your mom doesn’t like me and tells you to dump me?”

                “She won’t do that. She already loves you.”

                Stiles groaned as he turned to face Derek. “Why are you so certain that they all love me already? I’ve never met them!”

                Grinning, Derek pulled Stiles in to press a few kisses to his face and lips. “Because I love you.”

                Stiles jerked back but didn’t go far. He looked into Derek’s eyes before grinning. “I love you, too.”

                “I know. Let’s go introduce you to my pack.”

                Stiles couldn’t help but walk across the driveway with a pep in his step. His alpha loved him. Everything else, he figured, could work itself out.