#sterekalphaemissary

[thedaughterofkings]

Favours

Written for the first day of Sterek Week ‘17: Alpha and Emissary! I hereby present to you 1.5k of werewolf speed dating :D It’s that time of year again: no, not Halloween. It’s the weekend of the Great North Atlantic Supernatural Mixer.

Or, as Erica likes to call it: speed dating for overpowered Alphas and snooty Emissaries.

Derek has been going since he became an Alpha, and each and every year he came home alone again, much to the disappointment of his pack. He’s not really feeling much hope for this year either.

The connection between Alpha and Emissary is the most important one in the pack. They have to be able to trust each other implicitly as neither can just order the other into submission for the pack structure to uphold. The Alpha Emissary relationship does not have to be romantic in nature, but it often tends to be, given how close they have to be to work together seamlessly as a team.

And Derek just hasn’t ever met anyone he had been able to even remotely imagine building that kind of relationship with. There have been a few Emissaries who approached him, drawn in by the weight that the Hale name still has in the supernatural world, or by the sweet call of money. Some were obviously just after a sexual relationship, attracted to Derek’s body and not interested at all in his mind or heart. It always takes all of Derek’s control to get through the weekend without starting a feud with an easily affronted Emissary. And never has he ever felt inclined to approach anyone himself.

But this year, a hint of a scent draws him in before he has even unpacked his bags. There’s a faint hint of cinnamon wafting through the hotel that leads him straight to the big conference room where the Mixer takes place. It’s already filling up, Alphas and their Betas either staking their claim on one corner of the room as their temporary territory, or prowling around the room, looking for an opportunity to demonstrate their strength. Derek always comes alone; Boyd is his second, but Derek needs him more back home to take care of things there than he needs his support here for posturing in front of conceited Emissaries.

The Emissaries have not yet arrived in full, usually the high powered, highly sought after ones come last, waiting for everyone else to arrive so that they can have their big entrance. Then they settle down around the room and hold court, letting the Alphas come to them. The less sought after Emissaries walk around the room to talk to prospective Alphas and possibly awake their interest. But even those usually wait until most Alphas have arrived.

But the scent Derek is following is definitely coming from them room already, and there’s no doubt that this is the scent of an Emissary, the cinnamon underlaid with the metallic tang of sparks upon a sword, the fiery taste of ash on his tongue. For their scent to be this strong and easily discernible, the Emissary has to be very strong, and that makes it just the more surprising that they are in the room already. The Alphas must be fairly salivating over the fresh blood - because Derek would remember if he’d had ever met that Emissary before.

Indeed there’s a small crowd in one corner of the room, Alphas and Betas shoving each other aside to get closer to the person in the middle, flexing and snarling and growling, claws and fangs readily on display. Derek rolls his eyes and keeps to the edges of the crowd at first, trying to catch a glimpse of the Emissary that has all the wolves in such a tizzy. But the mass of bodies is too thick and Derek can’t see more than a head of messy hair and long fingers running through it nervously.

The crowd gets thicker as more wolves join it and the spike of anxiety souring that sweet and spicy scent is enough to make him shoulder his way to the center of the mob, making judicious use of his elbows and claws when the flare of his eyes is not enough to move people aside. One young Alpha with an obvious need to prove himself tries to get in his way but a snarl and a feigned attack is enough to deter him.

And soon enough Derek is right at the front of the crowd, face to face with the one whose scent has drawn him in from the first hint. The Emissary is probably a couple of years younger than him, a hand’s width taller and much more slender, though the muscles along his exposed forearms are wiry under the copious tattoos that curl up his arms from his wrists to his elbows, colourful lines disappearing under his sleeves. Derek can't quite tell what symbols or images this Emissary has burnt into his skin, as they start moving dizzyingly if he stares at them too closely. It's a trick used by many Emissaries to hide which symbols give them special powers and strength, but with most you can look past the illusion with some concentration. But in this case the tattoos just get ever more indecipherable the longer Derek looks at them.

When Derek finally looks up at the face of the Emissary, the first thing he notices are the golden brown eyes, almost beta yellow, a little overwhelmed but also defiant, just waiting for the one stupid wolf that goes too far and asks to be taught a lesson. Then Derek's eyes dart along the series of moles splattered across the Emissary’s cheeks and he surprises himself when he wonders whether there are more moles hidden beneath those enticingly tight clothes and how long it would take to find them all. And then he sees those plump and pink lips and fervently hopes that one of the powers hidden beneath those ever shifting is not mindreading.

The satisfied smirk that curls those pretty lips upwards doesn't bode well for him, though.

Derek swallows and then gets himself together. He pushed himself to the front of the crowd for a reason and, no, it wasn't ogling the Emissary - even if he's very ogle worthy.

The Emissary raises an eyebrow as if to ask what Derek is waiting for, so Derek takes that last step forward that brings them face to face. He bares his neck and ignores the murmurs behind him. These young upstarts better watch and learn how you treat an Emissary properly. It certainly doesn't involve crowding them and salivating - at least not if you are serious about possibly building a pack relationship.

And for the first time ever, Derek is completely serious about approaching a prospective Emissary.

He raises his hands, palm up to present the vulnerable part of his wrists and formally says: “I am Derek Hale, Alpha of the Hale Pack from Beacon Hills. Do you grant me your favour?”

“My - favour?” The Emissary asks slowly and then seems to remember the traditional exchange. The Alpha is supposed to ask the Emissary for a favour; if it is given, that means negotiations - or as Erica calls them, dates - can go ahead. Over the last few decades it has also become acceptable for the Emissary to offer their favour to an Alpha of their choice. Finally, if both Alpha and Emissary come to an agreement, the Alpha will return the favour - not literally the favour given to them by the Emissary, but another gift, ideally symbolising the bonds now newly forged between the two.

“Right, my favour,” the Emissary mutters and leans down to grab something. Traditional favours are pieces of jewellery, flimsy in appearance but strengthened with spells and potions, but the favour this Emissary presents to Derek is a baseball bat.

“I, Stiles Stilinski, Emissary to none, grant you, Derek Hale, my favour, as a symbol of the protection I promise to give you and that I expect in return from you.” The Emissary, Stiles, winks at Derek and mouths ‘get it? Protection?’ and for a moment Derek seriously doubts his decision to pursue this particular Emissary, but then Stiles smiles and his scent hits Derek again, the cinnamon hot and spicy in Derek’s nose, warmed with mischief and joy.

Derek breathes in deeply and smiles back at Stiles, suddenly sure that this is the last time he’ll have to attend the Great North Atlantic Supernatural Mixer. He reaches out and accepts the bat Stiles is still holding out to him and with it the hope that this favour will eventually be returned and Alpha and Emissary become one.

[my other Sterekweek 2017 fics]

[melodramaticsalad]

Sterek Week: Day One (Emissary and Alphas)

Stiles Stilinski always noticed he had an animal magnetism to him ever since he was a child. He'd discovered that he could soothe animals with his touch and the sound of his voice and it came in handy. One day, when an injured werewolf is brought to the clinic his mother runs, Stiles is eager to help the werewolf in any way that he can. When he does, he ends up getting more than he bargained for, but he still does everything he can to help.

Accompanying ficlet here!

[satunamoon]

After a full day of training, all an alpha and a an emissary need is one night of tranquility one in the arms of the other.

( I used a ych, but unfortunately I do not remember the name of the artist whoIt made available, and this sketch was halfway through my sketches, I just took it for the Sterek week. >,< )

[fear-frost]

In My Corner written by @fear-frost; art by @beerwolves

“Did I know what?” Stiles snaps already inching his way towards his bedroom door. Derek beats him to it and crowds Stiles until his back hits the wall. “Don’t play games with me. Did. You. Know?” Derek snarls. Stiles matches the alpha’s red glare as he wracks his brain to figure out why Derek is asking him this question. Why does it matter if Stiles knew? Derek’s pissed - and rightly so, in Stiles’s personal opinion. Scott may have had the best of intentions, but using Derek’s own body against him like that and forcing him to bite Gerard? Stiles’s eyes widen and he softens his own glare, finally understanding. Derek wants to believe that Stiles wouldn’t have condoned Scott’s plan and he’s right - Stiles wouldn’t.

Written for Sterek Week 2017 Alpha & Emissary Day

Here on AO3

[boymeetswerewolf]

Sterek Week ‘17 // Alpha/Emissary

“An alpha needs an emissary, and an emissary has no purpose without an alpha.”

[nightlight9]

Sterek Week Day One: Alpha and Emissary

Title: Marked by Fate

AO3

———

Scott gets bit by a werewolf, and Stiles drives two towns over to get his first official tattoo. When he gets back, a bandage wrapped around the upper part of his arm, his dad sighs a little like he knows what’s coming and pours his son a cup of tea. Stiles appreciates that he doesn’t ask any questions. He already has to deal with Scott ‘but-werewolves-aren’t-real’ McCall.

The thing is, Stiles already knows what’s going on with his best friend. As soon as Scott showed up at the school ranting on about being bit by a wolf, only for the mark to disappear underneath the bandage, Stiles knew what had really happened. He’s known about werewolves for a very long time. After all, his fate had been inexplicably tied to a pack of them when he was just a kid.

When he was six years old, Stiles received his emissary mark, a looping E worn like a brand on the inside of his wrist that matched his mother’s. He was younger than many emissaries are when their power awakens, younger than even his mother was when she was marked, but Claudia took it in stride, began his training, and introduced him officially to the Hales.

He knew them in passing of course, had seen Talia Hale around town and even sitting in his living room (after all, his mother had been Talia’s emissary). But he had never met her officially, emissary-in-training to alpha werewolf. And he had never really had the chance to meet her family.

Laura was introduced to him first. As the oldest Hale child, she would eventually take over as the Hale pack alpha. And while nothing had been set in stone at that point, and even though it never would have been required of him, it was expected that Stiles would become Laura’s emissary after their parents stepped down. He had liked the idea of working with the same pack as his mother, and he got along with Laura’s funny and mischievous personality. As the years wore on, Stiles spent more and more time at the Hale house in the preserve, learning about an emissary’s role in a pack, and bonding with Laura and her younger brother Derek (who he looked up to and followed around like a puppy most of the time).

But then his mother died, and the Hale family burned in a fire. Stiles pushed his training to one side to deal with his grief, Laura and Derek left Beacon Hills, and that was the end of it.

Until Scott gets bit while they’re out in the woods looking for a body.

Even though it’s been years since Stiles has even thought about emissaries and magick, years since he’s covered his mark with a red wrist band, he knows without a doubt that he’ll do anything he can to help Scott. That’s what the tattoo is for, a physical embodiment of the Spark within him. Permanently inking the phases of the moon on the inside of his upper arm feels like the first step to finally moving on. It makes him feel whole after years in a void.

And practicing magick again in the mornings before school feels so natural, like finally being able to breathe after being trapped underwater. It reminds him of his mother, but in the best of ways, and he feels ready to face anything.

What he doesn’t expect is to come face to face with Derek Hale again. He is nothing like Stiles remembers. Whereas he used to be a quiet kid with a big heart, who laughed with his head thrown back and blushed easily when teased, now Derek is all edge. There’s a sharpness to him that is unnerving, and he acts like he’s never met Stiles at all. What’s worse is that Laura doesn’t seem to be with him. Stiles doesn’t have to dig around for the body to guess that she’s gone too.

Scott doesn’t want to work with Derek to hunt down the alpha who bit him. Hell, he hardly wants to deal with being a werewolf at all. But Derek knows more than either than them about what they’re facing. And Stiles doesn’t want to leave him alone.

He starts hanging around Stiles’ house instead of staying at the burned out shell that was once his family’s home. At first he shows up under the pretense of doing research but soon enough the nights start ending with them sitting side by side on the couch or in Stiles’ bedroom, finding an unnamed comfort in each other’s presence. They don’t talk about their past, but more than once Stiles catches Derek staring at his emissary mark, fingers twitching like he wants to reach out and trace the letter in the same way he used to when they were kids. Stiles likes those nights, likes knowing that in spite of everything Derek still seems to trust him, maybe not enough to address everything that’s happened, but enough to relax around him. And to Stiles, that means something big.

The first time John comes home to see Derek sitting at his dining table, he sighs, fixes the werewolf a peanut butter sandwich, and leaves them alone with a pat on the back and a prayer to Claudia to give him strength. It’s the first time that Stiles sees Derek smile, small and genuine. It’s reckless and it doesn’t make any sense, but the next day he gets his second tattoo, keeping the mark a secret from everyone but his father. John’s eyes get sad when he sees the ink, but then he smiles like he’s so proud, and Stiles thinks that everything will be alright after all.

It’s not until after everything with Peter and Kate is finished, after Derek becomes the alpha he was never supposed to be, that he talks to Stiles about the history they share.

They’re sitting side by side on the floor of his new loft, tired from painting all day, and tired from trying to brainstorm ways to get Scott to trust Derek as his alpha.

Derek gets quietl suddenly. Stiles presses their shoulders together. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Without responding, Derek reaches out a shaking hand and pulls Stiles’ wrist into his lap. He traces his emissary mark with the tip of his finger in reverence before looking up to meet Stiles’ bewildered gaze.

“Laura always expected to come back here,” he says softly between them. “She said that Beacon Hills was our home in spite of everything that had happened. She said there were things here that were ours to care for.” He looks down again to where his finger is skating over Stiles’ skin. “I’m sorry. For acting like I didn’t remember you. I-. When I first saw you, I saw everything that we had lost, everything that I wanted to avoid thinking about. So I tried to ignore you. That wasn’t fair to you though, and I’m sorry.”

He wants to say that it’s okay, but both of them would know that would be a lie. Instead Stiles says, “I understand,” which he does. As much as he wanted Derek to recognize him, he understands why he closed himself off from everything. Especially after Laura was killed.

They sit in silence for a long moment before Derek speaks again. “I always liked this mark. I liked how it looked on your skin, liked what it stood for. One of the earliest lessons we were taught was about how special emissaries are. I remember how proud my mom was when she told us that you had been marked. Laura was excited about it too. She was excited about what it might mean for her and the pack.”

Stiles turns his hand so that his fingers tangle together with Derek’s. Resting his thumb against Derek’s wrist, Siles can feel how quickly his heart is beating. “It was what I always wanted,” he says, watching how their hands clench together. “Mom used to joke, say that that was why I received my mark so early. She said that I wished it into being.”

Derek smiles. It’s a little sad, but the small quirk of his lips is genuine. “That sounds like something you would do.”

“And I liked the idea of being Laura’s emissary.” Derek flinches a little at the statement, but Stiles barrels on. It needs to be said, especially now that Derek is the alpha, now that they’re moving forward instead of hiding away. “I wanted to be a part of the Hale pack the same way my mother was. Even though I didn’t understand everything then, I knew that that was what I wanted.”

Ducking his head, Derek sighs out an apology. “I’m sorry. For everything that happened. For leaving after the fire even though you were hurting too.”

Stiles turns into him, gently knocking their heads together until Derek looks up. “You had to go,” he says. Really, it’s always been that simple. “It wasn’t a good idea that you stayed in Beacon Hills after everything had happened. I understood that, and I was never upset at you for it.”

Derek seems to relax after Stiles says that. He ducks his head again to stare at their hands. Stiles lets the silence drag out for a moment. It’s not uncomfortable, and as much as he doesn’t want to break it, there is something else that needs to be said. “Derek. I-. There’s something I would like to show you.”

When the werewolf nods, Stiles stands up and pulls Derek to his feet. Dropping his hand, Stiles takes a step back and plays with the hem of his shirt. “I got this before we figured out that it was Peter who bit Scott. It was true then, and it’s true now.”

Before Derek can ask any questions, Stiles pulls his shirt over his head. He hears Derek gasp in surprise, then watches as he steps forward, reaching out a shaking hand to hover over the tattoo inked over Stiles’ heart.

The triskelion looks sharp against Stiles’ pale skin. Derek gives in to the urge to touch it, running his fingers over each spiral. “Stiles.” His name is breath.

“I didn’t know that you were going to end up being the alpha, but it didn’t matter. Eleven years ago I got my emissary mark and bound myself to you and Laura. I was always meant to be the Hale emissary. Even if you were only ever going to be a beta, I knew that I was bound to you all the same.”

Derek’s fingers clench uselessly against Stiles’ chest. “I was never supposed to be the alpha, Stiles. I’m not-. I don’t know how to do this.”

He shrugs, lifts his hand, and curls their fingers together again. “We’ll figure it out. Alpha, beta, omega, it’s all a cycle. At the heart of it though, the werewolf is the same.” He squeezes Derek’s fingers. “You’re the same.”

“Alpha, beta, omega.” He pauses, meets Stiles’ gaze, eyes glowing red. “Past, present, future.”

Stiles smiles, his own eyes flare purple in response. “Yes. Exactly. We’re going to figure this out, Derek. Together.”

Finally, Derek smiles, big and bright, no hesitation. There is so much between them, so much unsaid. But what matters is just this. “Together.”

It sounds like a promise.

[strictly-chaotic]

Sterek Week 2017: Alpha & Emissary

Those who challenge the Hale Pack and find themselves lucky enough to hobble away, take with them stories of a seemingly small pack whom they thought easy to overtake, but were gravely mistaken.

Whispers and rumblings spread through distant packs of an Alpha whose wits are as sharp as his claws, strength that rivals most, and a fervid need to protect his territory, his pack, his family.  

Then there’s the anomaly: Stiles, an unconventional emissary who they call Little Red. Once thought to be just a boy with a spark, deftly honed his spark and discovered his ability to manipulate energies that would make a fair few mages pale.

Yes Derek, the cloak is necessary for protection and the bat channels and amplifies my spark. Plus it looks badass. *daily collective pack eye roll*

[welshwoman1988]

Through Your Eyes

Written for the first day of Sterek Week: Alpha and Emissary. There will be a second part for later in the week! Edit: The second part is here!

It goes without saying that Stiles was a little nervous.

Fine, maybe a lot nervous...

Okay, maybe he was teetering on the edge of completely fucking terrified, but given how important today was, could you really blame him?!?

Today marked an exact year, almost to the hour, since Stiles completed his Emissary training with Deaton.

Today was exactly a year since his Spark manifested at his seventeen birthday party by making all the lights go disco and multicolored.

Today was the first time Stiles would find himself in the Bonding Ceremony that all Emissaries went through after they finished training to find a potential Pack to counsel and follow.

It was the culmination of an entire year and the lifelong dream ever since Claudia Stilinski had taken his face in her hands and whispered, “Don’t be scared, darling. You have my gift, and that means I will never leave you.”

So, yeah, it was kind of a big deal.

"Stiles, you really need to-"

"If that sentence ends with 'relax' or 'breathe' or any of the five thousand other platitudes that I've been hearing all day, I swear to God..." Stiles cuts himself off when he can’t think of anything before dropping onto his bed and growling at the ceiling, “I don’t know what I’ll do, but you can be sure that it will be painful and lasting, mark my words!”

Scott McCall, Stiles’ best friend and current pain in his ass, scrunched his nose at the threat, but wisely kept his mouth shut as Stiles continued his mental battle with his stomach, arguing that puking all over his potential Alpha's shoes would be a terrible first impression.

Dropping his head between his knees, Stiles started a mental list of all the protective skills he knew, going alphabetically so that he would have to concentrate more, and by the time he made it to 'Ash, Wolfsbane' his heart no longer felt like it was going to beat out of his chest.

That, however, was too long for Scott, and he nearly set the whole house of cards tumbling when he opens his mouth to say, "You know, if this is freaking you out this bad, you don't have to do this. Didn't Deaton say something about this whole thing being some sort of formality, anyway?"

Stiles breathes deep, knowing that Scott is only trying to help, but still angry that he's making this seem so much smaller than it is because the boy doesn't listen unless it has to do with Allison's dimples or Isaac's cheekbones.

“No, Scott, Deaton didn’t say that this was a formality, he said that Emissaries did this to formally be welcomed to the Circle. I only told you this about a hundred times in the past week alone.”

Scott mutters something along the lines of Stiles not reminding him that often, before saying in a slightly louder voice, “Okay, so this is kind of a big deal-”

“’Kind of’ a big deal? ‘Kind of’ a big deal, Scotty? This is one of the most important moments of my life! This will not only show that I am a competent Emissary, but will also bind me to a Pack for the foreseeable future! What if I screw up and get them all killed?!? What if I never get Chosen at all? Deaton had to fight with me every step of the way, what if that means that I’m not really Emissary material? What if I become one of those cautionary tales? The one that Mentors tell all their Potentials; ‘make sure you study hard and follow every guide, otherwise you’ll end up like that Stilinski kid!’.”

Stiles knows he’s starting to get hysterical, but he can’t really see past the fear that has been boiling in his gut for the past few months, ever since this Ceremony became more of a certainty rather than a possibility.

“And then there’s the bit that really scares me; what if this Alpha makes me move halfway across the globe and I can never come home?!? I’m terrified that I’m going to be whisked away from home and never be allowed back, that the only news I’ll ever hear about you, or Melissa, or my dad is a letter saying one of you is critically injured, or sick, or even dead!”

Scott looks like he’s gearing up for another argument about how Stiles really shouldn’t be going through with this if it’s bothering him so much, but Stiles is more focused on the fact that his father has entered his room with that same expression he’s been wearing for the last couple of days now:

Pride, a whole lot of pride for completing something that had been so hard for him and meant so much, mixed with his own blend of worry that has Stiles moving to embrace his father before he can even give it much thought.

“I’m not leaving, you know that.”

“No, son, if your Alpha ends up needing to move or even is living-”

“If they really are my Alpha, then they know I’m not leaving you. And since you’re not moving-”

“Beacon Hills is my home. It’s where I married your mother and where I buried her.” Both Stilinskis take a breath at that, still needing a moment whenever Claudia is brought up…

It had been Claudia Stilinski that had passed on her gifts to Stiles, that told him all about her own Bonding with Talia Hale, said that it had been finding a best friend and sister all on the same day, and it had been Claudia that had seen the Potential in Stiles long before his seventeenth birthday.

John continues after a deep breath and a quick swipe of his hands over his face, “You are more than capable of leaving, Stiles, of moving somewhere else. I’ve said more than once that I would be happy if you saw more of the world than the little corner that you’ve lived in your whole life. We have planes and technology for a reason, kid.”

Stiles huffs, the old argument doing a lot more to settle his nerves than the mental categorizing and chatting with Scott had. “Well, who is going to watch your cholesterol if I’m not here to make sure you’re eating right and not sneaking donuts for every meal?”

John snorts out his own amusement as he pulls his son into a hug before gently steering him towards the stairs. “Ignoring that I am a grown man more than capable of taking care of himself, I highly doubt that the deputies, neighbors and cashiers that you have somehow managed to put under your thumb will let me get away with more than ‘regulated’ snacking. I’m more worried about this Alpha of yours and how they’re going to manage with all your interfering...”

“It’s not interfering, Dad! It’s counseling!”

“Somebody is going to need counseling when all of this is said and done, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not the kind you can give!”

Stiles immediately starts into a tirade about how much his father’s cholesterol has improved ever since his ‘interfering’, too focused on pointing out how well he’ll help his new Alpha to do more than follow his father out of the house and make their way to the where the Bonding Ceremony will be held.

Meanwhile, sitting in a hotel room that smelt too much of other people and the invasive funk of sex, Derek Hale was trying very hard to keep from panicking. This was the fourth Bonding Ceremony he had attended ever since he became an Alpha and the first time he had been in Beacon Hills since leaving more than ten years prior.

He had only been a Beta when he left, eager to see the world and meet other supernaturals, and hadn’t really expected to do more than feed his wanderlust before coming back to support his older sister Laura when she became Alpha.

Needless to say, all of that changed when he was halfway through his first year of college and was pulled from class to be told that nearly his entire family had been killed in a ‘freak house fire’.

Derek isn’t really sure how he made it back to his dorm room after that, or what Laura had told his roommate when she had shown up, but he does remember blinking his eyes and finding himself in his bed with his sister pressed all along his side, finally understanding what that gaping feeling in his chest that had been bothering him all day had been.

The days following the complete destruction of his entire world were a whirlwind of funeral and hospital preparations; while most of his family had perished amidst the flames, both his uncle Peter and younger sister Cora had managed to only suffer mild injuries before the fire department had arrived, unknowingly breaking the mountain ash barrier that had trapped the rest of the Hale Pack.

It was during this time that Derek had first met John Stilinski, a deputy police officer that hadn’t offered empty words or looked at Derek with any kind of pity. The man had simply clapped a hand on his shoulder and swore that he would find whoever set the fire, swearing that they would face the full force of the justice system.

While he had appreciated the man’s words, Derek wasn’t really inclined to stick around to see if there was any truth to them; everywhere he went, someone either just had to let them know how sorry they were that something like this had happened to such a beloved family, or whisper about how rich the Hales were and, with all the insurance that they received, Derek and Laura were practically millionaires now...

One day, it had all become too much and Derek had begged Laura for them to leave, to put all of the memories behind them and leave the scent of ashes to the earth beneath their feet.

Laura had been hesitant, not wanting to move Peter and Cora while they were still healing from the wolfsbane poisoning, but she had also agreed that they needed to leave if they were ever going to continue on with their lives.

The moving had been a long and tiring process, trying to make it to a new area without angering another Pack or fighting through the rumors that the Hale Pack were marked by Hunters, but they eventually make a home for themselves in New York. It’s a hubbub of traveling and shifting Packs, so no one bats an eye at two new lost souls...

It’s also in New York that Derek meets Vernon Boyd the Third, preferring to go by Boyd, and Erica Reyes, a blonde bombshell that said that he’d call her Erica ‘or else’. Derek had known almost without asking that he really didn’t want to find out what ‘or else’ meant...

Spending time with them eased the loneliness that Derek felt whenever Laura went back to Beacon Hill to look in on Peter and Cora; she had tried to have Derek join her whenever she left, but he had argued against it so fiercely that she eventually just gave up and only let him know whenever she was leaving.

It was during one of those visits that Derek’s life radically shifted for the second time:

Not one to really go out of his way to meet new people, Derek nonetheless let himself be ‘convinced’ to go out a few times with Erica and Boyd, supposedly to get him to loosen up a bit and maybe get the stick out of his ass (Erica’s words).

Walking down to the bar that they frequently visited-which Derek had thought was a bit stupid, considering that they couldn’t get drunk-a soft noise, something that Derek would never have heard if he wasn’t a werewolf, has him breaking from his friends and darting down an alleyway.

Isaac Lahey maintains that he had everything under control, that he was just waiting for the feral Alpha that was tearing into him to lower his guard, but Derek has a vivid memory of broken skin too bruised to heal and a throat too torn to even scream to really believe him. He never argues, however, because he can understand remembering something a certain way to keep certain demons from overtaking you…

As it is, Derek is acting before he can think about it and storming into the alleyway with an enraged roar. The next thing he knows is there’s an ex-Alpha’s blood on his claws, an overwhelming rush of power flowing through his veins, and his phone is blaring with Laura’s ringtone almost as loudly as his heart had been beating.

Laura had been easy enough to appease; she had felt the shifting power and had been terrified that something had happened to one of the few family members she had left, so hearing that he was now an Alpha was a lot better than learning that he was dead.

Dealing with Boyd and Erica, on the other hand…

As soon as Derek has Isaac calmed down and has called the police to deal with the body, Erica immediately starts in on him for running in half-cocked and nearly killing himself because he couldn’t wait for backup. Boyd merely sighs at him and goes over to Isaac’s side in an attempt to help calm the boy down.

Derek, still dealing with the influx of power twitching through his limbs and shaking now that the adrenaline rush was over, snaps at Erica with a flash of his new Alpha eyes. It nearly knocks him on his ass when she immediately dips her head in submission, albeit with a frustrated huff.

“Like anybody else would be our Alpha!”

That had been four years ago; four years of navigating his new status, of balancing being Alpha of his own Pack while being a Beta to his sister until his uncle and Cora wake from their comas, four years of being rejected again and again of an Emissary at the Bonding Ceremonies.

He almost hadn’t come this one, certain that the universe was telling him something with the constant disappointment, but Boyd-of all people-had convinced him to try one more time.

The younger man had joined him on one of his runs around the streets of New York, not really trying to talk, more just letting his presence say more than his words ever could. It was one of the things that Derek liked best about Boyd; he knew the importance of silence, and never tried to fill it will idle chatter.

It’s not until they make it back to the apartment that the four of them share that Boyd finally speaks.

“The Bonding Ceremonies are coming up.”

Derek had grunted in acknowledgement, not really wanting to think about another rejection in a week’s time.

“I haven’t heard you say anything about going this year.”

Another grunt.

“Derek…”

He had looked up then, thrown by the tone that Boyd’s voice had taken and more than a little unnerved by the look his Second was giving him when he met the other man’s gaze.

“Look, I know that you’re probably thinking that the reason that you’ve not found an Emissary yet is because you’re too ‘broken’ or whatever, but maybe it’s because the right one just hasn’t come around yet?”

Derek had opened his mouth to argue, to point out all the reasons he had failed as an Alpha, but Boyd had cut off his words with a heavy hand on his shoulder

(Alpha or not, Boyd was really freaking strong.)

“Derek, you took in two kids that had no idea how anyone could care for them, you became an Alpha by defending a complete stranger, and despite having your own troubles to work through, you’d drop everything if one of us made even the merest mention of needing anything. If anyone deserves an Emissary, it’s you.”

Boyd hadn’t said anything else about it, but his words had resounded through Derek’s brain whenever he had a spare moment to think, and he had found himself on a plane to Beacon Hills at the end of the week with a promise to Skype Erica every single day he was gone.

Swallowing hard, Derek makes a promise to himself that, even if he doesn’t manage to gain an Emissary by the end of these Ceremonies, he would focus more on his Pack and less on himself.

Nodding once, Derek pushes himself to his feet and makes his way to the Preserve that these Bonding Ceremonies will be starting in and, hopefully, to a brighter future.

[jmeelee]

The Druid and the Wolf by Jmeelee

5,384K II Explicit || Sterek Week 2017 || Alpha and Emissary

Queen Talia looked him up and down, scrutinized his tall, slender frame swallowed up by the speckled tunic of his clan, and seemed as skeptical of his abilities as his clansmen had been ever since his birth.  “He will help?” she asked, eyeing the rabbit blood still smeared on his hands.  “But he is a boy barely grown, and pale as the moon.”

“He is young,” the Seer granted, “but he is a man.  This is my son, Stiles, and The Great Fire of Life sparks in his blood.  He is destined for greatness, I have seen it.   Bring your children to our camp, and he will be of invaluable service to them.”

The Queen turned her head toward the setting sun and closed her eyes, resigned.  “They are here.”  

Wind off the sea slipped icy fingers through the trees and ran up his spine.  Stiles glanced around the clearing, searching for unfamiliar faces, but none could be found.

“No, Druid,” the Queen sighed, finally addressing Stiles.  He looked back to her.  “They are here.”  She lifted up her palms, and three wolves stepped forward.

[read on ao3]

[thecitrinefox]

Foundations

(8.4k fic for sterek week ‘17, day 1, alpha/emissary, warnings for brief language and violence)

“What the fuck.”

Derek thinks he’s probably seen this kid around town for years. He has vague recollections of seeing him at holiday parties or town events, fidgeting next to the Sheriff and his wife before she died. Maybe he got invited to one of Cora’s birthday parties at some point, since they’re in the same grade. Hell, the kid is a sophomore now like Cora and Derek is a senior, which means they’ve been going to the same school for over a year so chances are they’ve been somewhere in the school at the same time. But despite this, apparently they’ve never met because surely, surely if they’d ever spoken or touched, or looked into each other’s eyes, Derek would have noticed this.

This being the buzzing across his skin, the loud thump of his own heartbeat, in time with the rhythmic beating in the chest of the kid in front of him, each of their eyes wide with shock. Derek can’t quite get himself to drop the kid’s wrist where he’d grabbed it after bumping directly into him in the crowded hallway of the school’s math wing.

“What the fuck,” the kid hisses again, but doesn’t pull his arm away. Can’t seem to tear his eyes away either, and Derek thinks they have at least that in common. They’re crouched in the middle of the hallway, a textbook and notebook spilled haphazardly on the floor between them, and students awkwardly around them. Derek thinks a couple of people say something to them, telling them to move, but it sounds like it’s coming from miles away so he ignores it

“Are you okay?” Derek asks, because he doesn’t know what else to say, and the kid is staring at him like Derek is the one who’s done something wrong here.

“Am I okay?” the kid parrots, almost angrily. “Am I okay?? What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything, we just bumped into each other,” Derek points out.

“Then what the hell is…” the kid trails off, spastically waving his free hand between them instead of finishing his sentence.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Derek says. He jumps the same time as the kid does, when someone puts a hand on the kid’s shoulder. It’s one of his friends, Derek thinks vaguely, although he doesn’t know his name.

“We’re gonna be late for chemistry,” the friend says, and the kid jerks his wrist almost violently out of Derek’s hand, finally. They both look down at their own hands, and Derek thinks that he must’ve thought that letting go would get rid of that weird feeling too, but it hasn’t stopped, has gotten worse maybe. Derek picks up the books on the floor and hands them over and they both stand, awkwardly.

“We’ll continue this later,” the kid hisses even as his friend drags him off, and Derek wants to say ‘what this’, but even if he doesn’t know what this is, as the buzzing of his body increases the further away he gets, he thinks that maybe the kid is right and it’s not something they can ignore.

XX

He doesn’t see the kid for the rest of the day, although during lunch period he skips out on the cafeteria and instead tracks down last year’s yearbook in the library. Stiles Stilinski it says, and it’s weird, but could be weirder. His own parents gave his sisters rhyming names, so it’s not like the Hales are in a place to judge. The freshman year photo is goofy as all get out, and makes him kind of want to avoid him entirely, but clearly something happened, possibly of a supernatural nature and he thinks that these things tend to get worse, not better if ignored, so he should probably track this Stiles down and try to figure it out, or at least convince Stiles that there’s some kind of perfectly reasonable, not-supernatural reason for their electrifying first meeting.

XX

“I’m thinking this is just some sort of freak atmospheric thing,” Derek says. “Static electricity maybe? You said this hasn’t happened with anyone else?”

“Static electricity, really, that’s what you’re going with,” Stiles says, crossing his arms and looking unimpressed when Derek manages to corner him behind the gym after school the next day. “If it was static electricity it would’ve been a brief shock, then we’d be done, but I’ve felt like I was crawling out of my skin for the past twenty-four hours in a way that’s extreme even for me. And if it was atmospheric I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have happened to just us in the middle of a crowded school hallway. Do better.”

“Look I don’t know what it is, maybe it’ll wear off,” Derek says.

“Just admit you did some kind of freaky werewolf thing to me, okay,” Stiles says, leaning in and lowering his voice. Derek forces himself to stay still and not jerk back.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Derek says awkwardly. He’s usually pretty good at covering up any evidence of his being a werewolf, but then again he’s never been directly accused of it either.

“Look,” Stiles says. “Don’t you think we’re a little past the point of you playing dumb? Whatever this...thing is, it has something to do with your werewolf shit, okay. Everyone knows Beacon Hills is weird, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that the Hales are at the epicenter of it. At first I thought maybe you guys were mobsters or something, like some sort of organized crime family gone suburban...”

Derek scoffs.

“Don’t even,” Stiles warns. “You guys are crazy rich, super hot, and involved in everything. Your family is weirdly codependent and loyal, and even you have to admit that your uncle Peter is sketchy as shit.”

“Okay well you have a point there,” Derek admits, thinking about how Peter has been acting even more squirrelly than usual lately.

“So...werewolves,” Stiles prompts.

“Fine,” Derek says, feeling the situation spiraling desperately out of control. His heart rate is increasing, and even though Stiles looks calm he can hear it increase to match. “We’re werewolves, you got me.”

“Okay that’s great, but like I said I already knew that. Weirdo family that lives in the woods, reports of howling even though there are no wolves in California, years ago there were a bunch of suspicious animal attacks, it wasn’t that hard to narrow down once you knew what to look for,” Stiles says.

“Most people wouldn’t immediately jump to something that is widely known to be mythical like werewolves,” Derek says.

“Well I’m not most people,” Stiles says.

“I’m getting that,” Derek says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Okay what do you want to know.”

“What the hell is going on,” Stiles exclaims. “What was that, that...vibration or shock or whatever the hell you did to me when we collided. I’m pretty sure you can’t turn people into a werewolf just by touching, and besides I’m the same weak scrawny human I always was, but you did something.”

“That wasn’t me,” Derek says. He rolls his eyes when Stiles groans. “No really. I have no more idea what that was than you do. But I agree, something happened. Ever since we touched it’s like...”

“Like a constant buzzing that only goes away when we’re near?” Stiles says, looking away and blushing. “Like you can’t stop thinking about me? Like you can hear my heartbeat from across the school?”

“Yeah,” Derek says. “So wait, you feel it too? You can hear my heartbeat? That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Werewolves shouldn’t be possible,” Stiles snarks. “Do better. C’mon, man. I only realized werewolves were real like a year ago. I’ve been researching as much as I can, but I’m pretty sure at least seventy-five percent of what I come across has been bullshit and it’s not like I have someone I can just ask. Hey, what about your mom. I mean, she’s the Alpha right, I got that much at least after sorting through a lot of really questionable internet content. If she’s the leader of your pack she has to know what this is.”

“No,” Derek says firmly. “Whatever this is, I want to know more about it before we even think about going to my mom. She can be pretty...intense about stuff. And also...”

“You don’t want her finding out about your secret human girlfriend?” Stiles asks. “Yeah I know about Paige. And I know you guys think you’re being sneaky, but if I noticed, odds are other people have too. Although people are pretty unobservant, so who knows, maybe not.”

“Shit,” Derek says. “Look, it’s not like we’re completely banned from dating or being friends with humans, but it always makes things more complicated. Keeping what we are a secret is the most important thing we learn. I’m not sure how my mom would react to you knowing, and I’m not sure how to talk to her about it without telling her you’re feeling this stuff too. Besides, I know I said I didn’t do anything, but you’re human and I can’t help but feel like maybe this is my fault.”

“Okay well having been to your house for some of your mom’s fancy Christmas shindigs I know you guys have a freaking library in it. There has to be something in there that can help us,” Stiles says. “Like maybe on the shelves that have locked screens over them?”

“If my mom catches me stealing books I’m not supposed to be looking at, she’ll kill me,” Derek says.

“Well I’ve seen the way you guys sniff everything, there is literally no way I’m going to be able to sneak in and steal something, I’m guessing one of the many many werewolves who live in your goddamn mansion will smell a human from a mile away,” Stiles says. “Dude, you gotta work with me here. Do you want to figure this out or not.”

“I do,” Derek says. Right now his whole being is humming with a weird combination of excitement and content, but he knows as soon as he and Stiles split up that the weird buzzing, the headache, the loud thump of Stiles’ heartbeat even from a distance will spark up again and he knows they can’t live this way indefinitely.

“Okay, so try to find some kind of books that might help us figure this out. You don’t even have to read them, just bring them to me, I’m good at research,” Stiles says.

“I’m not an idiot, I can help research,” Derek says defensively. “I do well at school, and I do know a lot about supernatural creatures, I just haven’t learned about this.”

“Fine, okay,” Stiles says, holding his hands out placatingly. “So I have lacrosse practice right after school, and you have basketball tomorrow evening right. There should be like an hour or two between them, we can meet in one of the French classrooms, they never lock those cause there’s nothing to steal in them. If you can get some books on, I don’t know, weird werewolf magic or whatever then we can try to figure this out, okay? Maybe your mom, or heaven forbid, my dad, never even need to know about any of this, we can get rid of it on our own.”

“Okay,” Derek agrees grudgingly. It’s not like he has a better idea.

“And try to be sneakier about it than you are when you’re meeting up with Paige,” Stiles says with a smirk. “Unless you want everyone to think you’ve got two secret lovers.”

“Please don’t ever say that word again,” Derek says, turning and leaving without saying goodbye. He can hear Stiles chuckling at his own joke behind him and rolls his eyes. Of all the people to get some weird link to, it has to be Stiles. What did he do to deserve this.

XX

“Dude, you’re late,” Stiles grumps, his feet swinging and hitting the legs of the desk he’s sitting on.

“Sorry, I think Peter knows about Paige,” Derek says, dumping the heavy bag of books he’d managed to grab onto another desk. “He’s been creeping around the school and he keeps asking me weird questions. It took a while to shake him. I’m meeting her later tonight, but I think he thought I was going to meet her now, I don’t know he kept making vague insinuations about what I’m up to. He definitely knows something. I got the books though, and I don’t think anyone noticed.”

“Great, well hand ‘em over, we don’t have a lot of time,” Stiles says, hopping down and making gimme motions with his hands. Derek splits up the books, and they sit, beginning to flip through them. Stiles whips out a notebook and starts taking notes, which Derek ignores. He can’t imagine what his mom would say if she knew Derek was sharing this information with some random human, but somehow it feels right, the two of them sitting here and working together. The time flies by and before he knows it, his phone alarm is going off, letting him know he has to get to practice.

“I have to go,” Derek says. “I didn’t find anything useful. You?”

“Maybe,” Stiles says. Derek tries to take the books from him, but Stiles grabs one back, clutching it protectively to his chest.

“Stiles, my mom’s gonna notice if these books are missing,” Derek says, packing the others up.

“So put the others back,” Stiles says. “I think this one will be useful, just let me have it for the night and I’ll give it back tomorrow.”

Derek thinks for a moment. His mom really will kill him if she thinks he’s been stealing books from her library that he’s not supposed to touch in the first place, but he’s already running late for practice and he doesn’t have time to argue with Stiles. Plus they really do need to figure this out and between practice, family dinner and meeting up with Paige he won’t have time to read through the book himself.

“Fine,” Derek says. “But you have to give it back to me tomorrow, okay. And let me know if you find something.”

“Of course. I’ll see you tomorrow then. Same Bat-time, same Bat-place,” Stiles says with a grin.

“Ugh,” Derek says, half-heartedly as he rushes out the door.

XX

The next day when Derek gets to the classroom it’s empty. He sits on one of the desks, waiting, thinking about how he could be spending this time with Paige rather than waiting about for some random sophomore. She’s been patient with him, about his need to keep their relationship a secret. Sometimes he wonders if maybe she’s so patient about it because she’s embarrassed to be seen with him but he quickly squashes down that thought. She likes him, he knows she does. But he knows he doesn’t make it easy, and the more times he has to make excuses that he can’t see her the worse it’ll get, he thinks.

He’s just about to give up, and text her to see if maybe they can’t make out in his car for a while in the school parking lot before basketball practice when Stiles stumbles, wheezing into the room. Derek should’ve known Stiles was getting close when the tightness in his chest eased and his skin stopped crawling quite so much.

“Oh thank god, you’re here,” Stiles says, collapsing into one of the chairs. He fumbles at his bag and hands over the book, which Derek checks over and then puts in his own bag protectively. “Sorry, just took me a while to photocopy the whole thing. Lots of nickels, and man, those old texts just don’t copy well, lemme tell you.”

“Well?” Derek demands, feeling less and less patient by the second. “Did you find anything or didn’t you?”

“I mean, maybe?” Stiles hedges. “Okay, so I’ve only read the thing once, and it’s not like, super clear about everything, plus it’s kind of old timey so the language is strange....”

“Get on with it,” Derek grumbles.

“Okay, okay,” Stiles says. “So this book mostly focuses on Emissaries, you know what those are?”

“I’m a werewolf, not an idiot,” Derek says. It’s weirdly freeing to be able to say that kind of thing, and his chest loosens even further, despite himself. He tries to ignore the feeling. “Every pack or Alpha has their own Emissary, someone, generally a human, who can do magic and guide and help them when they need it. They keep the balance.”

“Right,” Stiles says, nodding. “Okay so this is like, totally crazy, and might be wrong, but so far the only time I’ve seen stuff in the books about some kind of weirdo meeting between a werewolf and a human is in the book about Emissaries. Apparently sometimes when an Alpha meets their Emissary they feel it physically. Because the Emissary’s spark doesn’t totally come online until they meet maybe? I don’t know it wasn’t totally clear, but it sounded kind of like what happened to us maybe?”

“I’m not an Alpha,” Derek points out. “And last I checked, you coudn’t do magic.”

“Look, I didn’t say it was definitely an Alpha-Emissary thing,” Stiles says. “Just that it was the closest thing I’d found and we should look into it more.”

“Fine,” Derek says, writing down his phone number and email address and handing it over. “Send me copies of the pages you copied. We’ll look into it. Anything else?”

“Other than your attitude problem? No,” Stiles says, although he smiles as he looks at the slip of paper, and immediately taking his phone out to add Derek’s number. Derek sighs, already regretting the decision. But it’s not like they can meet up every day, he knows it’ll be easier to just text. His phone buzzes, and he sighs heavily as he checks it.

HEY ALPHA

“I’m not an Alpha,” Derek says, walking out. “And you’re not an Emissary.”

XX

Derek may not be an Alpha, but the more they research and the more Stiles learns, the less convinced Derek is that Stiles isn’t an Emissary. They maybe meet face to face once or twice a week, but Stiles texts Derek constantly, making him realize that Stiles probably doesn’t have too many friends outside of Scott, who he mentions occasionally, and who Derek sees him with in hallways occasionally. Derek would try to keep their meetings to just text and email, but if they go too long without standing close to each other, hands brushing as Stiles gestures while talking, then they both get too irritable, too on edge. So they meet a couple times a week between practices to check in and to exchange books. So far Stiles has been like a sponge when it comes to soaking in information about the supernatural world, but despite their continued research they still haven’t come up with anything more convincing than an Alpha-Emissary bond. Stiles has an uncanny knack for understanding how magic works though, and while he hasn’t done anything too impressive yet, at least to Derek’s eyes, occasionally he can make sparks just from snapping his fingers, and has almost encyclopedic knowledge of herbs, stones and other materials that an Emissary might use. Derek thinks he’ll almost be disappointed when they inevitably find out the truth of what’s going on, that this was just some sort of freak occurrence, and the bond is broken.

Paige is beginning to realize something is up as well, Derek thinks. How, he’s not sure, because he was already keeping the werewolf thing a secret from her, so what’s one more thing? But Paige is sharp, and observant and actually a lot like Stiles, when Derek thinks about it, which he tries not to. He wonders if they’d get along if they ever met, or if they’d be so similar that their clever sarcastic natures would clash too much and they’d hate each other. Derek isn’t sure which situation would be worse, so mostly he’s just grateful that he’s managed to keep these two parts of his life separate.

He does feel a little guilty that Stiles knows about Paige, when Paige doesn’t know about Stiles, especially since Paige is his girlfriend. He tries to justify it to himself that he didn’t tell Stiles about Paige, Stiles figured it out, and also technically, if Stiles really is an Emissary, that falls under the category of Werewolf Stuff, and so really the Stiles secret is just another part of the original big werewolf secret he’s been keeping all his life.

It’s maybe a shitty way of justifying it, but Derek doesn’t know what else to do.

The autumn months fly by, and Peter is getting stranger by the day, Paige is beginning to get impatient with him, and even Derek’s mom is beginning to look at him like she’s trying to figure out what’s going on. He’s been pulling away from his family a little, he knows, and he knows it’s probably raised questions but he can’t outright lie to any of them, they’d be on him in a heartbeat. Still, talking to them like nothing is going on is becoming harder by the day. He’s beginning to think that maybe he should just tell his mom what’s been going on, and accept the consequences, but the longer he goes without telling her the worse it feels.

And then suddenly it’s December and the winter holidays are upon them and everyone is busy busy busy with the end of semester and holiday stuff, and Derek thinks maybe this will give him a brief reprieve from everything he’s been hiding. He knows Paige will be busy with her family, and he shouldn’t feel relief about that, but he does. He needs to get her some kind of present but he thinks maybe he can give it to her in January, once things settle down. Stiles has been bugging him for more books to read as well, more stuff to learn, but Derek can’t risk taking more from his mother’s library. He thinks maybe after the holidays are over if they can find a day to sneak off, he’ll drive Stiles to a bookstore he knows carries supernatural tomes a couple hours away and buy him a couple volumes of his choosing, ones that Stiles will be able to keep, not just hastily make crappy photocopies of or hurriedly rush through before Derek has to put it back.

After the holidays, he thinks. And then he’ll think about telling his mom. About Paige, about Stiles, about all of it. She’ll be mad, but she’ll know what to do. He knew things didn’t just go away when you tried to ignore them, and this experience is definitive proof. Not that Stiles agrees, of course, the less his dad knows about his problems the better, according to Stiles. Sometimes he’ll make jokes about being a burden, either to his dad or to Derek, and Derek thinks maybe they aren’t really jokes but also he doesn’t know what to say to that, so usually he just rolls his eyes and changes the subject. He guesses that Stiles thinks he’s a burden to Derek because he makes Derek spend time with him and steal books, and makes his heart feel anxious and his muscles buzz when they’re apart, but then what will Derek do, he thinks sometimes, when they do manage to fix this and all that goes away? When he and Stiles no longer have a reason to see each other?

It hasn’t happened yet, so he puts it out of his mind. Between school and research and Paige and his family’s Christmas preparations he just doesn’t have the time to dwell on that.

XX

The Hale’s Annual Holiday Party happens a couple days before Christmas this year. Winter break has started, and normally Derek loves these things, but Paige and Stiles are going to be there with their parents this year and Derek’s imagination has been going wild with all the ways that this could go wrong.

It’s fine at first. His family loves the holidays, so does the town and so as people filter in and the Hales get to let loose a little, and just be normal, everyone is in a good mood and it’s infectious. The tightness in Derek’s chest and the anxiety buzzing through his skin starts to ease, and he enjoys himself, right up until the Sheriff and his son show up and are re-introduced to everyone and Derek realizes just why that is. Paige, and her parents, show up less than ten minutes later, and even though Stiles’s presence has eased the physical tension he’d had, he can’t help but let the anxiety creep in as he tries not to watch either Paige or Stiles circulate the party.

Derek spends an hour ignoring both of them until all of a sudden he wonders if maybe his avoidance is suspicious in and of itself. He tracks down Stiles, idiotically finding him lingering by the punch bowl, underneath one of the plastic mistletoe’s that have been scattered about the place. To his relief he doesn’t even have to pick a fight, Stiles just launches into a rant about the poisonous qualities of mistletoe and the consent issues arising from from the kissing tradition associated with it which he’d apparently only really become aware of when he’d tried to kiss someone named Lydia under it a couple years ago and been slapped and had a drink thrown in his face. He’d only been trying to kiss her cheek, and they’d been about fourteen at the time, but still, it had left an impression. Derek is about halfway through his own rejoinder on how nobody has to kiss anybody they don’t want to, it’s just a decoration and since it’s plastic it’s unlikely to poison anyone, but then he sees Paige, trying to catch his eye from across the room, before disappearing out the back door. Derek looks around, but nobody seems to be paying them attention. Thankfully Stiles just rolls his eyes, then nods at the back door where Paige had disappeared before helping himself to more punch.

Derek goes.

Paige is waiting for him on one of the benches out in the garden. They don’t get much snow in California, even up north, but it’s cold, the ground hard and frozen, and Derek can see Paige’s breath as she shivers slightly.

“Sorry,” Derek says automatically as he sits down next to her. He thinks that this is the sort of situation where he should offer her his coat, but he’s only wearing a button-up shirt and he can’t give her that. Stupid, he thinks. He never plans stuff out like he should.

“Are you cheating on me?” Paige asks, bluntly.

“What?” Derek exclaims. He glances back at the house, but the party inside is slightly raucous at this point and he thinks nobody should be able to hear them out here, not even with werewolf hearing. “No, what?”

“Don’t act dumb, I know you’ve been sneaking around with the Sheriff’s son,” Paige says. She doesn’t even look that angry, but there’s a glint in her eye that defies Derek to contradict her. “I mean, if you’re having some kind of crisis here about Stiles being a boy, I get that, but I don’t understand why you’ve kept things going with me, it’s not like I’m a beard since nobody knows about us.”

“Oh god,” Derek says. “No, okay, I know how it looks, but I swear there’s nothing happening like that between me and Stiles. I would never cheat on you, you have to believe me. I’m not like that.”

“Okay so why are the two of you sneaking around?” Paige says, then pauses. “Is it a werewolf thing?”

Derek feels his jaw drop.

“What,” Paige says with a shrug. “You guys are really not as subtle about this stuff as you think you are.”

“Yeah but most people don’t see shifty behavior and immediately think werewolves,” Derek hisses, not even bothering to deny it. This is his life now, he thinks resigned. Hales have kept their secret for hundreds of years, and he’s been on this planet for less than eighteen years and yet Derek has already fucked it all up. God he’s the worst. Two humans figuring out his secret in less than six months, that’s gotta be some kind of record.

“Okay so what’s going on then? Stiles isn’t a werewolf, right? But he knows about you guys? Sometimes at school he stares at me, like he knows something I don’t, but I do know, so he has to know,” Paige says, grabbing Derek’s hand. “There’s always weird stuff going on in this town, are you guys like, detectives.”

“We’re not detectives, jeez,” Derek says, although he laces their fingers together, feeling a swell of relief to tell the truth, along with some kind of strange strange swell of something else, like he doesn’t quite want to tell her about Stiles, even though it’s not what she’d thought. “Something has been happening to Stiles. We’re trying to figure it out. It’s not a big deal, and it’s not really my story to tell.”

“Okay,” Paige agrees, although she seems disappointed. “But the werewolf thing is why you don’t want to tell your family about us, right.”

“Yeah,” Derek reassures her quickly. “I mean, that and they’re pretty nosy and overbearing, it’s the worst. Look, if you want me to, I’ll tell them about you. We can go in right now.”

“No, it’s okay,” Paige says, untangling their hands and standing up. “Let’s not rush into things. But you can talk to me about stuff, you know. I can keep your secrets.”

“Thanks,” Derek says, feeling unsure. Not about whether he can trust Paige, he thinks he can, but unsure about whether he wants to tell her about things. About Stiles. Whether he should tell his family about his girlfriend anyways, even if it complicates things. He thinks maybe he should want to, at least, but he doesn’t.

He stays outside while she goes back in to her parents. He can’t hear her voice once it’s swallowed up by the noise of the party, but he can track Stiles’ heartbeat as he moves about the house, then eventually leaves with his father. He’s feeling more and more tense as the distance between them increases that he almost misses it when Peter joins him in the garden.

“Interesting party,” Peter says. “Interesting guests.”

“Sure,” Derek says, although he isn’t sure about what Peter wants. He wonders how he could have ever hero-worshipped Peter as he’d done when he was younger. Too naive, maybe, to see the kinds of games his uncle was so fond of playing. Even now that he knows they’re there, he still can’t always evade their traps.

“Love is the most important thing in the world, most people think,” Peter says, gaze heavy on Derek’s face. “Most people would do anything for it, right.”

“I guess,” Derek agrees. “Excuse me.”

He walks inside, but feels Peter’s eyes on him for the rest of the night.

XX

“I have to say, the school wouldn’t have been my choice of romantic rendez-vous spots for New Years, but I’ll take it,” Derek says. It’s a week later, and he’d finally managed to slip away from his family’s New Year’s Eve celebration to meet Paige in the hall outside the music room at the school. He’s not sure why she’d texted him to meet here of all places, but after their last awkward encounter he thinks he should make an effort regardless.

“What do you mean it wouldn’t be your choice, Derek, you chose it,” Paige says. She’s dressed comfortably, like she’d been planning on an early night and not like she was here on a romantic date with her boyfriend.

“I didn’t choose it,” Derek says slowly. “Wait, you didn’t text me?”

“You texted me,” Paige huffs. “Wait, if you didn’t…”

Paige breaks off as a distant growl rumbles through the halls.

“Please tell me that this is just a prank, and that was somebody in your family just having some fun welcoming me to knowing about werewolves,” Paige says, grabbing Derek’s hand. He pulls her closer, placing his body between her and the noise from down the hall. He can hear the distant screech of claws being run over the metal of lockers, and he herds her with his body further down the hall.

“I really wish I could,” Derek says. “Run!”

Paige, thankfully, doesn’t hesitate. Derek doesn’t usually think of Beacon Hills High as being exceptionally large, but right now the hallways seem endless as they run down them. He can hear the strange werewolf behind them, gaining on them. It sounds large, steady, and Derek thinks it must be an Alpha. He doesn’t know what it wants with them, but clearly no Alpha would confront the son of Talia Hale alone at night if they didn’t mean some sort of ill will.

Derek is so pumped up with adrenaline, his claws and fangs coming out unbidden as he prepares for fight even as they choose the flight option, that he almost doesn’t notice it when the usual buzzing starts to dim again. It’s only when he hears Stiles’ heartbeat twin with his own that he realizes that he’s here at the school too.

“No,” Derek grits out. He’s beginning to realize they can’t outrun the Alpha behind them so he’s started considering his options for hiding Paige or fighting, but then there are claws raking down his back, and he tries to push Paige forward, but she falls too, a couple feet ahead of him.

“Run,” Derek shouts at her, even as he tries to turn and swipes his claws across the Alpha’s chest. The Alpha is even larger than Derek had realized, and barely even flinches, digging his own claws into Derek’s soft exposed belly. Derek screams, can’t help it, but the Alpha seems less interested in him, gripping his throat and tossing Derek to the side. Derek tries to catch his breath, struggling to sit up and before he knows it Paige is by his side, helping him up.

“You need to run,” Derek rasps at her as the Alpha moves towards them.

“You must be the girl,” the Alpha growls, and Derek feebly tries to push her behind him. He thinks maybe if he attacks the Alpha with all he’s got, he can distract it enough that Paige can get away, only the steady beat in his ears is getting louder and before Derek can move, the door behind the Alpha is swinging open and there’s Stiles. Derek can only look on in horror as Stiles hits the Alpha across the head with baseball bat. The Alpha is temporarily stunned, long enough for Paige to haul Derek up and help him move down the hall slightly, but then the Alpha is turning behind him and grabbing Stiles, his claws digging mercilessly into Stiles’ shoulder before tossing him aside too.

“No,” Derek shouts before he can help it. The Alpha is once again heading towards them and Derek tries to shield Paige, but Stiles is forcing himself up and reaching out, tossing something into the air and Derek has one brief moment where he thinks maybe Stiles is trying to douse the Alpha in wolfsbane, only then Stiles claps his hands together, one pale but strong, the other dripping with blood from his injured shoulder. It doesn’t seem to make a difference though, because the ash he’d thought was wolfsbane is actually mountain ash, something that becomes apparent when it sails past the Alpha’s head and lands in a perfect circle around Derek and Paige, protecting them.

I didn’t know he could do that, Derek thinks dumbly.

“Paige, whatever happens, you guys stay in the circle,” Stiles shouts at them, collapsing onto his knees. The Alpha slams a fist towards Derek’s face, and Paige flinches behind him, but the circle holds strong, and the Alpha’s fist stops half a foot away from them, the barrier sparking slightly as it’s hit.

“Stiles,” Derek shouts helplessly, putting his own hand out and hitting the barrier. The Alpha in front of him smirks, like he just gave something away.

“I was promised a new beta, and I’m gonna get one,” the hulking Alpha says, turning back towards Stiles.

“Oh god,” Derek hears Paige gasp behind him, but his whole body feels like it’s on fire now. He pounds against the barrier keeping him in as the Alpha walks down the hall, grabbing Stiles roughly by the arm and dragging him back in front of where Derek is trapped.

“If you touch him, I’ll kill you,” Derek screams. It feels like he’s burning up from the inside out, but the barrier almost feels like it has some give to it. Like he’s moving in slow motion, but he’s moving.

The Alpha slams Stiles down on the ground in front of them, a loud crack resounding through the hall as Stiles’ arm snaps and Stiles screams. Paige is crying behind him and Derek thinks he’s going mad at this point, beating wildly against the barrier.

“He’ll make a good beta, a good pet,” the Alpha says with a smirk. “If he survives of course. These kinds of turns often don’t.”

“Stay in the circle, Derek,” Stiles says, and there’s blood on his mouth and he’s crying, probably despite himself. “It’s not your fault, please, just…”

The Alpha opens his mouth, fangs glistening, and Derek can’t watch Stiles be hurt by this Alpha, can’t watch him get turned against his will by someone else, can’t watch him die if he rejects the bite, as it happens when someone with a strong will or conflicted nature gets bitten when they don’t want to be.

Derek looks down and meets Stiles’ eyes. Stiles looks calm, staring back, like he wouldn’t rather be anywhere than here, protecting Derek.

The mountain ash barrier snaps, Derek can feel it bend to his will in an instant and then he’s through, tackling the Alpha to the ground, several feet away from both Stiles and Paige. The fight is fast and mean, and Derek thinks he doesn’t care what happens to him, as long as Stiles and Paige are safe. The Alpha has a grip on his throat that he just barely manages to break away from and he takes a couple steps back to catch his breath, feeling furious and more wolflike than he ever has before, his eyes glowing. The Alpha looks up and falters.

“What…” the Alpha says, staring at him. “Not possible.”

“If you touch them I’ll kill you,” Derek growls, and he feels powerful, more powerful than he ever has, and he wonders if that’s what all this with Stiles was. Some kind of power they’d both tapped into without being able to access it. Well he can feel it now. He wonders if Stiles can feel it too.

Derek lunges at the Alpha, feeling invincible and the Alpha must see that in his expression because he turns and runs. For a second it feels like victory, then it just feels confusing.

“Derek!” Paige shouts, and Derek turns and jogs back to where Paige has managed to haul Stiles into the ash circle. He’s bleeding, his eyes unfocused, and Paige only looks marginally better, her face bruised, hands bloody where they’re pressed against Stiles’ chest.

“Call your mom,” Stiles says, weakly. Derek nods, because yes, his Alpha needs to know about this other Alpha who was on Hale territory, attacking their Pack. He leans his head back and howls, the reverberations deeper and louder than he’s used to.

“I meant like, call her on your cell phone, but okay,” Stiles jokes.

“Break the circle,” Derek commands.

“You break it,” Stiles replies childishly. “You did before, and how the fuck did you do that dude, I thought werewolves were kept out by that shit.”

“I...don’t know,” Derek admits. “Add that to the list of things we don’t know.”

“Ugh, I hate not knowing things,” Stiles says.

“Yeah I know,” Derek says. He reaches out his hand though, and finds he can wave away the mountain ash, creating a hole he can lurch through in order to touch Paige’s face, making sure she’s okay, before putting his hands on Stiles, trying to take as much pain as possible. His arms are lined with black, and he feels guilt roiling through him. Neither Stiles nor Paige would be here tonight if it wasn’t for him, he thinks. He may not have been the one to call them here, but they never would have even known about werewolves otherwise.

“Derek, your eyes,” Paige says, reaching a hand out to his face, before pulling it back.

“What?” Derek asks, glancing down at Stiles, who is also staring at him in wonder.

“They’re red,” Stiles says.

In the distance Derek can hear his Pack getting closer, the uneven sirens of police and ambulances not far behind them. Their reckoning is here.

XX

Derek ends up having to wear a bandage and a sling. He’d been covered in too much blood when the authorities had shown up, to reasonably pretend he hadn’t been injured, and while they’d managed to keep him from being seen by a doctor, thanks in part to an amiable nurse named Melissa, they’d still needed some visual representation that he’d been hurt and was healing like any other human, and so Derek had been convinced that wearing his arm in a sling for a while was the easiest way to do that.

Derek had thought that talking to the police (especially the Sheriff, Stiles’ father) would be the hardest part, but it turned out that other than omitting a couple salient details, telling the truth in their statements was the easiest way of this whole thing. Derek and Paige were secretly dating, yes. They had met up at the school to make out on New Years Eve, yes. They were violently attacked by some man, yes. They didn’t know him, no. They didn’t know why Stiles showed up, no, but Stiles was odd, wasn’t he. He turned up where he wasn’t wanted sometimes. They didn’t know what that man wanted from them, no. They thought he had a knife maybe, he was crazy, who knew why crazy people did things.

It was all pretty straight forward. Talia even said she thought maybe the Sheriff would be an asset, if he was in the know about werewolves, they’d have to think about it, and put it to a Pack vote.

Derek didn’t know how he felt about that.

Stiles had to spend some time in the hospital. He’d had a collapsed lung, and they’d had to put pins in to set some of the bones broken in his shoulder. While he was in surgery, after they’d made their statement to the police and they’d watched the Sheriff pace aimlessly and anxiously around the waiting room before being ushered out for coffee by Melissa, the nurse with knowing eyes, after Paige had been dragged out of the hospital by her parents who’d given Derek dark looks, that he thought he deserved, he finally turned towards his mother.

“This is all my fault,” Derek says, burying his face in his hands.

“Did you hurt Stiles?” Talia asks beside him. “Did you give Paige those bruises? Put that fear in her eyes?”

“No,” Derek says immediately. “I’d never hurt them. But I didn’t tell you I was dating Paige. I didn’t tell you something was going on with Stiles. If I’d told you this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Maybe,” Talia says. “Derek show me your eyes.”

“No,” Derek says, covering them with his hands. But Talia reaches out, turning his chin so he can’t look away. He finally opens his eyes, letting their true color shine through.

“A True Alpha isn’t something to be ashamed of,” Talia says after a moment. “It’s something to be celebrated.”

“You aren’t mad?” Derek asks, feeling small despite everything that had happened that night.

“I’m not going to tell you that I’m not upset that you hid all of this from me,” Talia says, releasing him and sitting back. “But part of that is on me. You didn’t feel safe coming to me with this. Either with your relationship or your bond with your Emissary. I guess I wasn’t expecting these things from you, but that’s no excuse. You should have felt comfortable coming to me with these things, and you didn’t. Derek, you’re so responsible most of the time, sometimes I forget how young you still are. I’m sorry I made you think you had to hide these things.”

“I should have told you,” Derek says. “I don’t understand why I am an Alpha, I messed everything up. Stiles and Paige almost died. I never wanted to be an Alpha in the first place.”

“The best Alphas never do,” Talia says with a sigh. “I think that’s why you got this power. You were willing to give up your life to protect them. That meant something.”

“Is Stiles really my Emissary? And how come we formed that bond before I was even an Alpha?” Derek asks.

“I don’t have all the answers,” Talia says, putting her arm around his shoulders. Derek leans against her. He may be an Alpha now, but Talia is still his mom. “I just know that this was meant to be. We’ll take it one day at a time from now on. And I promise you, whoever set this up with this Alpha will pay.”

“Now that I do believe,” Derek chuckles. He can hear Stiles’ heartbeat, steady even in surgery and listens, grateful he has this proof even across the hospital that Stiles might be okay.

XX

It’s two more days before Derek manages to talk to Stiles or Paige. Sheriff Stilinski has apparently been let in on their supernatural secret and taken it basically as well as they could have hoped for. Derek had thought maybe it would make the Sheriff hate him, but instead he finds the Sheriff slapping him on the shoulder and telling him he hopes that maybe he could use his supernatural powers to keep Stiles out of trouble.

“Honestly, of the two of you, I’m more worried about you in this whole magical partnership thing,” the Sheriff says, and Derek doesn’t really know what to say to that. For the first couple days Stiles is hopped up enough on pain medication that Derek can’t really talk to him. Instead he manages to sit down properly with Paige, now that everything is out in the open.

“Look, I like you, and I don’t even mind the werewolf thing,” Paige says, sitting on her living room couch with him, her parents lingering in the kitchen nearby. “But it seems like you have a lot of stuff to figure out now, and my parents will feel better if I’m somewhere safer than Beacon Hills. I can focus on my music, and you can learn to be an Alpha. Just not together. But I want to stay in touch, if that’s something you’d want. It’s okay if you don’t, but I figured, if you needed someone to talk to, who knows about werewolves but isn’t in your Pack, I could be that person.”

It’s well...it hurts. To put it bluntly. It’s Derek’s first real break-up and it hurts, but part of him thinks it should hurt more. But Paige is alive, and mostly unharmed, and Stiles is alive, and less unharmed but healing, and Derek thinks all things considered they got lucky. And if that means that Paige needs to go live her life, whole and healthy somewhere else, well, he can’t be too bitter about that. She kisses him on the cheek, and he flashes his eyes at her as he leaves and she just laughs, delightedly. She’s not afraid of him, not any part, and he thinks he’s glad to have her in his life, in whatever capacity he can have her.

It’s another day before the Sheriff lets Derek know that not only is Stiles finally properly awake, but he’s been complaining all day about Derek’s absence in his hospital room. It takes Derek most of the morning to convince himself to go visit, nervous even if he doesn’t quite know why.

“I cannot believe you,” Stiles complains as soon as Derek walks into the hospital room. “You guys told my fucking dad while I was too unconscious to argue with it?”

“Well telling the Sheriff that werewolves are real and that I’m the reason you got so hurt wasn’t my first choice,” Derek protests, dropping into the chair next to Stiles’ hospital bed. “But apparently becoming a True Alpha at seventeen doesn’t actually give you that many privileges. This is still my mom’s territory and it’s her choice I guess.”

“True Alpha, huh,” Stiles says, rolling his eyes as Derek flashes his red at him. “I’m sure that’s not going to go to your head at all. Whatever happened to that whole ‘Oh Stiles you can’t be an Emissary because I’m not an Alpha’ thing, huh.”

“Things changed,” Derek says, shrugging.

“Thanks, by the way,” Stiles says, looking away. “For, you know, uh, saving me.”

“I think you saved me first,” Derek points out. “And besides, who would do research for me, if you weren’t around anymore.”

“Oh is that why you’re keeping me around?” Stiles asks. “For research purposes? I thought maybe it was my badass mountain ash throwing skills.”

“Those weren’t too bad,” Derek admits, taking Stiles’ hand in his own. The unsettling buzzing from before is gone now, he thinks, now it’s more just a gentle hum of anticipation. “So does showing up and protecting me with mountain ash mean you’ll be my Emissary? It’s your choice.”

“Dude, I’m pretty sure I made my choice back when I hounded you into stealing your mom’s books for me,” Stiles scoffs. “Like I’d let anyone else look after you. You’d get yourself killed. Dumbass.”

“Of all the people I could have developed an Emissary link to,” Derek says fondly, pressing his cheek to Stiles’ hand. “What did I do to deserve you.”

“Must’ve done something really good in a past life,” Stiles says. “Since you’re not that impressive in this one.”

“Yeah, must’ve. Well in that case, Emissary, if you’re fully on board, looks like we’re in it for the long haul,” Derek says, relief and anticipation pouring through his body, the link between them humming happily.

“Can’t wait,” Stiles says with a smirk. “Alpha.”

[bitacrytic]

Favorite

Derek was reading on Stiles’ bed, one evening, while he waited for the emissary to arrive. Normally, he’d have received his report by now, but ever since Finstock had put Stiles on the line, Stiles always seemed to think it was okay to leave Derek waiting whenever he gave Stiles an assignment.

He pulled out his phone and stared at it with a frown on his face.

4:34 pm. No call, no text, no Stiles. And Derek was just supposed to lie here and wait for the silly boy to get back.

Well, he was supposed to be sitting… on the chair… in the sitting room downstairs, but Stiles’ bed was so comfy and Derek loved the smell of Stiles and teenager and hormones. He loved lying here and pretending that Stiles was not the asshat who was obsessed with a sport that he wasn’t even good at.

Turning over on the bed, Derek snuggled in. If he was going to wait, he didn’t think he needed to be uncomfortable to do it.

_____

Derek startled awake when he felt a weight drop on his whole body. Immediately going alert, his eyes flew open only to realize that Stiles was lying on top of him.

“Put the claws away, Sourwolf.” Stiles said, pouting into Derek’s neck.

“You’re home.” He said, raising his hand to pat Stiles on the head.

“I was late.” He raised his head to looked down at Derek. “I can give you the report.”

“Sssshhhhh!” Derek said, pressing Stiles’ head back into his neck. “You’re tired.”

“It’s just a report.” His voice sounded muffled.

“You can give it when you wake up.” Derek said, patting him on the head as Stiles began to relax into oblivion. He could see Stiles had had a long day. He was not about to keep his favorite pack mate up just for a report. Soon, Stiles’ breath was coming in even above Derek as Derek held on. “I’ll be here anyway.” He pecked Stiles on the head as his own eyes drifted back into sleep.

[anchorsandadderall]

How I Met Your Emissary

Written for Sterek Week

Day 1 Theme: Alpha & Emissary

It’s not the Betas aren’t grateful. Derek’s tactic of ‘leave money for pizza’ every time he’s away for the night makes him pretty much the best Alpha ever. But he and Stiles have been away at some sort retreat in the woods to learn something about balancing nature magic and the moon or… something. The point is, it’s day eight and not even Isaac can look at another slice of pizza.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Boyd asks, watching Isaac and Erica eagerly flip through one of Stiles’ cookbooks.

“We’ll pick an easy one,” Erica says, running her finger down a list of ingredients. “Is this one even in English?”

“I think that’s a Polish one.” Isaac flips through another one and grins. “Hey, this is one he did that thing in,” he says, laying it on the counter and pointing to a recipe. “He crossed out all the bad ingredients and wrote in healthy shit. I thought his dad burned all of these.”

“Maybe he saved one. Or just got another book and re-did it after he moved in here,” Erica shrugs. There’s actually an equal chance of either. “Here, this one is for spaghetti. That’s easy, right?”

Boyd shrugs. “As long as we use canned tomato sauce, yeah. It’s easy.”

“What other kind of tomato sauce is there?” Isaac asks, and Erica gives him a look of pity before she snatches the book away.

“Okay, so we need an onion, garlic, oregano, a pound of ground hamburger and…” Erica tilts her head, then flips the book on its side. “Are these runes?”

Boyd looks over her shoulder. Amid all the tiny, crammed in writing about using ground turkey and whole-wheat pasta, there’s a line of tiny runes written along the edge of the page. “Yeah. Stiles probably got bored while he was waiting for the water to boil or something.”

“He’s so weird.” Erica says so quite fondly because Stiles is their Emissary, whether he’s weird or not. But he’s weird. “All of them don’t write runes in their cookbooks, right?”

“Maybe.” Isaac sets a 5lb package of ground hamburger on the counter. “Maybe Emissaries are all like drummers, like how they tap a rhythm on everything because they can’t help it because they’re drummers?”

“I’m pretty sure Scott would have mentioned by now if Deaton wrote runes and spells all over his appointment sheets.” Erica rolls her eyes, wrinkling her nose. The runes make the paper smell like it's made from ancient trees. It makes her nose prickle. “It’s probably just a Stiles thing. Derek must find that annoying, finding these everywhere.”

“Nah. They’ve been through way too much shit together for him to care where Stiles doodles his new spells,” Isaac says. “You know how they met, right?” ...

Read the whole thing on AO3

[tabbytabbytabby]

Be My Emissary (1950 words) by tabbytabbytabby Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski Characters: Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Theo Raeken, Liam Dunbar, Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Lydia Martin Additional Tags: Getting Together, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Minor Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken, Sterek Week 2017, sterekalphaemissary Series: Part 1 of Sterek Week ‘17 Summary:

After Stiles complains about Deaton being unhelpful, Derek gives him an unexpected offer

[asagi-s-garden]

Title: Cloak And Wolf Rating: T Word Count: 21,757 Theme: Alpha & Emissary Summary: If someone were to ask Derek who he would choose as an emissary, the first person to come to mind likely wouldn't be a near stranger who sometimes used his woods for Wiccan prayers, likewise, if anyone were to ask Stiles if he was ever going to find an Alpha, he probably would reply with sarcasm and the skittish wolf in the woods who had trouble with communication probably wouldn't even be on his mind

....

And yet...

Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12502164

[bilienski]

The Beginning of The End

The Beginning of The End (5650 words) by Stilienski

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski Characters: Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd, Isaac Lahey, Talia Hale, Sheriff Stilinski  Additional Tags: Sterek Week 2017, sterekalphaemissary, Alpha Derek Hale, Emissary Stiles Stilinski, Attempt at Humor Series: Part 20 of Sterek ficlets

Summary:

When Derek Hale unexpectantly becomes the alpha heir of the Hale pack, he needs to take his socially awkward ass to Stiles Stilinski because apparently that annoying kid is supposed to be his emissary.

It doesn't exactly go down well.

[sterekweek-2024]

Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Relationship: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski Summary: They have been waiting for this day, moving towards it for such a long time. Finally Stiles would be formally asking to be Derek’s Emissary. That does not come without a little bit of anxiety from the human.