Work Text:
“The Hale Alpha of Beacon Hills is a scary man,” one supernatural creature said to another. “I heard he took down an Alpha pack.”
“I heard he killed Kate Argent after she shot him fatally,” the other supernatural creature replied. “I heard he was able to take down the Wild Hunt, too.”
“Fuck. How the hell did he manage to do that?!”
“I don’t know. All I know is that he’s a monster.”
It had only been a couple days since Stiles was bitten, and he was already getting the hang of this whole werewolf shtick. He didn’t know what the hell was up with Scott those first few weeks, being a werewolf was great! He could already control his strength, his hearing, and he also was getting the hang of identifying scents.
Who knew that embarrassment on his Alpha smelled so sweet?
Anywho, one of the things he realized he was doing better than his packmates was listening to his instincts. As a human, he already took his instincts into account more often than a typical highschooler should. It saved not only him, but also his wolfy companions multiple times, and he was rarely steered wrong.
So when his instincts told him to hug his Alpha so damn tight, he listened.
His packmates fell into a hush, and Derek himself stood stock still, as if Stiles would bite his head off if he moved a quarter of an inch. Still, Stiles hugged him. Hugged him tighter, even. He buried his nose into the crook of Derek’s neck, sighing in relief as the scent of his Alpha and warmcomfortsafe flooded his senses.
After a short moment, his Alpha relaxed into his hold before hugging him back, just as tightly. Even tighter, because he was an Alpha. Stiles let out a huff of amusement and a bit of pain as Derek held him even closer, a rumble coming out of his throat as Derek dragged his nose up the line of Stiles’s pale throat.
Scenting, his mind piped in helpfully. Making us smell like Alpha, his wolf said. For protection from other packs.
Derek was the one who let go first, though his scent gave off small wafts of reluctance. Stiles sighed as he let his arms drop, but kept his face in Derek’s neck. He heard Derek give a small huff of laughter, rubbing his hand across Stiles’s neck in such a comforting way that Stiles let out a little whine at the loss of contact once Derek stopped.
His Alpha grabbed him by his shoulders and helped him stand completely upright, his face completely neutral but his eyes and scents showing how happy he was from just that one gesture. Derek ruffled Stiles’s hair, and human Stiles would’ve complained that Derek was messing it up. Werewolf Stiles pushed into Derek’s hand, not unlike a dog begging for pets. Oh man, I should try this on Derek one day, he thought as said Alpha walked off to do Alpha things, presumably.
“Uh, dude?” Scott asked, staring at him as if he just ate shit off the ground or something. The others were also looking at him weirdly. He just stared at them, tilting his head in question. It looked like none of them knew what to say, but Scott found his words faster than the others. “What was that about?”
“Instincts, dude.” Stiles waved him off. “Told me to hug him, so I did. And now I’m one happy puppy.”
“We’re not dogs,” Jackson growled at him. Man, was he easy to rile up. Stiles stuck his tongue out at him, managing to catch the pillow that was thrown his way thanks to his new instincts. He loved being a werewolf.
“Certainly not with that attitude.”
Isaac glared at him, but Stiles knew that he cried whenever the small puppy at school was comforted by the older cat that dropped by sometimes, so he’d never think Isaac was terrifying ever again. “You’re not supposed to do the dog jokes now.”
“I can do whatever I want,” Stiles grinned at him cheekily. “I’m a werewolf, I can make all the dog jokes to my fellow lycanthropes all I want.”
The rest of the pack rolled their eyes, Scott looked at him as if he’d just proposed to Derek freakin’ Hale with a ring pop, and eventually they went back to doing whatever they were doing. The rest of the day was pretty normal by their standards. The beta trio talked amongst themselves like they were separate from the rest of the pack, Jackson and Lydia did what the rich bitches of the school did (which was talk to each other while condescendingly fixing their hair and checking their nails), and Allison stayed with Scott. Derek was still the sourest wolf to ever sourwolf, but a few soft glances towards Stiles left him wondering about what happened earlier.
It was pretty obvious that Derek needed that, and if Stiles were completely honest, he couldn’t ever recall seeing Derek be vulnerable in front of his pack. There was the scare with Boyd nearly dying because of Kali, but that was incredibly brief and the emotions were all over the place, so completely understandable. Aside from that, Derek was all growls, throwing against walls, the sourest wolf to ever sourwolf. It was almost like Derek hadn’t allowed himself to be vulnerable in front of his pack, never showed them that he needed comfort just as much as they did.
Well, that won’t do, Stiles thought to himself as he laid in bed that night. Derek had the shittiest luck out of all of them — his sister was killed by his uncle, who he had to kill to stop from going on a rampage, then his dead uncle used him to resurrect himself, and Scott used him to bite Gerard fucking Argent because of a stupid plan that the Alpha wasn’t even told about. Add in two of his betas leaving, Isaac slowly drifting away from him, and Scott and Stiles being the little shits that they were...
That’s not even adding in what Kate Argent did to him. Christ, Stiles wouldn’t have been surprised if Derek had decided that all humans were evil and went on a Psycho Peter Murder Spree, but he didn’t. He decided to help a bunch of idiot teens survive, joined forces with the family that killed his own to stop a bigger threat, and try to be the Alpha that everyone could depend on.
Even if he himself couldn’t depend on anyone, Stiles thought, a strange sadness trying to overcome him, but the bond to his Alpha exuded comfort and god. Derek Hale, trying to comfort a distressed pack member through the pack bond. With that, Stiles had decided what he was going to do from now on. Derek Hale deserves nice things, and by god I will give them to him.
Stiles started doing little things for Derek.
He started bringing him hot chocolate instead of the bitter black coffee he always insisted on drinking but didn’t actually like. He started praising Derek more whenever he did something right, and he toned down the nagging whenever his Alpha fucked up. The most important thing, Stiles thought, was that he started casually touching Derek as well.
It was just little gestures — the brush of hands whenever they passed by each other, a little shoulder nudge whenever they stood next to one another, a pat on the back whenever they did something successfully. Apparently, it wasn’t obvious enough for anyone but Derek and Scott to notice, but Scott was always too focused on Allison, so.
Anyway.
Derek was the only one who noticed, and while he didn’t reciprocate all the time, he did ruffle Stiles’s hair sometimes, or put an arm around his shoulders for a brief side-hug occasionally. It was the little things, sure, but Derek was also noticeably less ‘throw you into a few walls’ than before, which the betas sure loved to gossip about. Derek also sometimes initiated contact, which surprised the hell out of Stiles for a brief moment, before immediately going in for a tackle hug.
(The bastard didn’t even move back from the impact, Stiles noted with part annoyance but also part contentedness because Derek had caught him in his arms and they were now just hugging. He could even hear Derek’s snort of amusement, and he could feel the slight twitch of Derek’s lips against his neck. Derek freakin’ Hale giving him an almost smile? All was right in the world.)
Stiles had decided that Derek Hale deserved nice things, and so he gave and gave and gave. It was pretty weird, since up until this point, Stiles hadn’t even considered Derek ‘I’m gonna rip your throat out with my teeth’ Hale as one of his people, but. Well.
“Hey, Mr. Alpha man!” Stiles greeted cheerily as soon as Derek walked through the door of the loft. “Get your comfiest sweater, we’re marathoning Star Wars!”
Derek let out a resigned sigh, but Stiles could smell just how happy his Alpha was. Derek shook his head and went off to change into his favorite sweater (it was the one with thumbholes, which Stiles thought was very cute of him!) . Anyway. Back on track, Stiles never thought he’d want to prioritize Derek Hale’s happiness.
Just seeing the tiniest smile on the face of a man that had suffered so damn much that he couldn’t even will himself to hope for anything more than ‘not dead’. Than ‘not alone’. Well, it made Stiles feel good, and the scent of Derek's happiness was so damn intoxicating, Stiles wanted to make sure that Derek was happy for as long as possible.
So he made another declaration: protect Derek Hale’s smile for as long as possible.
A few more years passed, and the teenaged members of the pack graduated highschool. Some of them got their degrees, some of them started working immediately, some of them took a gap year to find themselves, but in the end, most of the pack came back to Beacon Hills to be with their Alpha.
Derek had been loosening up with Stiles’s plans to make him happy. He smiled more, he laughed more, and even started joking around with the rest of the pack. The first time he did it was met with shocked silence from most of the pack members, but also with the ugliest giggle-snort Stiles had ever heard coming from his own damn mouth.
Stiles had also realized that his relationship with Derek had changed over the years. He couldn’t just describe it as Alpha and Beta, nor as just friendship. To be honest, he didn’t like to think about the possibility of starting a romantic relationship with Derek, what with all his traumas, so he shied away from any sort of gesture that seemed vaguely romantic.
It took Derek actually confronting him and talking to him about his feelings for that to be resolved, and welp. That was that, he supposed. So now they were apparently mated, and since he was the Alpha Mate, it meant he was higher on the hierarchy than everyone else except for Derek, which was pretty funny.
Derek told him that while they were in a romantic relationship now, they didn’t have to be mates, but Stiles just gave him a look and Derek had explained what mates were, what it’d mean for him to be the Alpha Mate, and what his duties would be. Upon finding out that he’d pretty much just keep doing the same thing but also be Derek’s strength, the one he could depend on when shit hit the fan, he immediately told Derek that he wanted to be with him no in every way, shape, and form.
(To be fair, he wanted that either way. He just felt like Derek could use someone to depend on, because that man was still wary about depending on his pack, especially since he first used them as soldiers. They might’ve been a family now, but they were a huge mess way back when.)
And so, Stiles became the Alpha Mate. He helped his pack grow to be a cohesive one, took care of the people who slowly became his, and life was good. Scott and Allison left for college and just never came back, but the beta trio started interacting with the rest of the pack, Jackson and Lydia stopped the whole rich bitch act, and Stiles felt like he could breathe.
Life was great! At least, until a rival pack came around.
The Andersen pack was a larger pack than the Hale pack as it was. Originally hailing from Nevada, they simply had an issue of too many alphas because apparently, some two-bit alphas wanted to know what it’d be like to overtake one of the biggest packs in Nevada. (“Or something like that,” the alpha laughed. Derek’s brow furrowed.)
Either way, the Andersen pack had decided to move across the US to find suitable land to establish their little sub-packs.
Derek was not happy when alpha Andersen had proposed Derek giving away his ancestral land to a bunch of strangers, and Stiles did the best he could to comfort Derek. He put an arm around his Mate’s shoulders, letting out a similar sigh of relief as Derek’s shoulders loosened from their rigid state. He shared a look with Derek, who scrunched his eyebrows further in response, to which he could only hold him closer.
Alpha Andersen had twirled her hair and continued making heart-eyes at Derek, all the while continuing to talk about how he should just merge their territories and get mated and. Ugh. Well, whatever. Stiles was alright with being ignored by people he didn’t care about.
“Sorry, I already have a mate,” Derek smiled softly at Stiles, leaning in for a kiss that he was happy to reciprocate.
The other alpha suddenly turned to look at Stiles, as if only now noticing he was there. She eyed him up, but it was different from how she eyed Derek as soon as she entered. She eyed them both like they were prey, but unlike how she eyed Derek like he was a meal she couldn’t wait to feast on, she eyed Stiles like he was an annoying pest that she had to get rid of. Stiles raised a brow at her, causing her to huff.
“I see,” she said neutrally, but disapproval was coming off of her in waves. The negotiations continued a bit more stiltedly after that, but in the end, the Andersen alpha was forced to leave the territory with nothing.
And it was quiet for a few weeks. Derek and Stiles had joked about it with the pack for a while, Erica even laughing because even Scott could see the mating bites on their necks, too high to be hidden under their shirts. Eventually, they forgot about it, and that was their mistake.
Because almost two months later, the Andersen pack attacked Beacon Hills. It was nearly one-sided, they surrounded the pack and forced them to either leave or die. Derek was forced to stay behind and mate with the Andersen alpha, and as much as the pack had wanted to fight, both they and Derek knew that there was nothing they could do.
Not yet, at the very least.
You see, Stiles went on a fishing trip with his father and was due to return to civilization in a few days. So once Stiles had finally gotten a signal for his phone and was met with multiple texts regarding the taking over of Beacon Hills, he might’ve accidentally crushed his phone. Of course, that was after he read that Derek was being held hostage in his own territory, being forced to mate with the Andersen alpha, etcetera.
All he could hear anyway was the blood rushing through his ears and his wolf howling to get revenge for his mate. Which he would do, in due time. First, he needed to collect the pack. His dad looked at him weird when he asked if they could stop by a few places first, but understood that it was a pack matter once he noticed how Stiles’s eyes were glowing, his normally active body unusually still.
First stop was at the out-of-town garage where he kept one of the vans that could fit the pack comfortably, because there was no way they’d fit in his dad’s old car. He told his dad to wash up if he was going back to Beacon Hills, but it’d be preferred if he stayed out of town while Stiles was busy cleaning up. His dad shot him a look that he was used to seeing, the look that said Stiles. Are you serious right now? Shaking his head to hide his grin, he allowed his dad to send Parrish a message about the situation and let him know that he’d be gone for a few more days.
“What’s next, Alpha?” his dad asked as he tapped his fingers on the window.
“I’m not the Alpha,” Stiles responded, though he already knew what his dad would respond. His dad huffed a laugh.
“Only in name, son.”
Well. People were terrified about crossing the Beacon Hills pack for a reason.
The rest of the pack was gathered within two days. They took half a day’s rest after that, because despite Stiles’s insistence that they be well-rested for what’s to come, the fact that their territory, and more importantly, their Alpha was in danger meant that they couldn’t be still.
So Stiles laid out their plans, what their roles were, asked for opinions on things that could warrant opinions, and then another day later, they were at the edge of the Beacon Hills territory. The pack was anxious, obviously. They could all die, their Alpha could be forced to break the mate bond, and their Alpha’s Mate would go crazy and be put down by either the enemy pack or hunters. Stiles saw this and sent calming feelings through the pack bond, smiling lightly at the extra calming feelings being sent their way from their Alpha all the way in their territory.
“How are you so calm?” Jackson asked as they all walked into what was considered enemy territory. For now.
“Because Derek’s calm,” Stiles responded, and he saw the look of realization in the pack’s eyes as they all finally noticed just how calm their Alpha was, even recognizing the tinge of smugness coming from him. “He’s calm because he knows that we can do this. And soon, the Andersen pack will learn that you never mess with the Hale territory.”
Five sets of feral grins were aimed at him, while his dad shook his head and radioed in to let the officers know that they were entering the Beacon Hills territory now. Their allies were in position, the Alpha of the Ito pack already in the territory itself and having already took out a few members of the enemy pack. Stiles returned their grins, and they pushed onward into the territory to take back what was theirs.
In the end, the Andersen pack was too complacent, and that was their mistake.
Thanks to Stiles and his contacts, Lydia was able to learn how to hide most of their scents that the enemy pack didn’t even see them coming. It was laughably easy to get rid of the betas that had settled into their home, and it was even more laughable how Alpha Andersen didn’t even realize that there was a threat until Stiles had his claws at her throat, the betas holding her up after Jackson paralyzed her with his kanima tail.
Isaac had held up their bleeding Alpha, and all Stiles could think of was how he wished he could make this pathetic excuse of an alpha suffer more. Derek smiled at him softly and reached a hand out to cup his neck. Stiles’s body relaxed and his eyes closed. Derek rumbled happily. “Aren’t you going to kill her?”
“You giving me permission, Alpha?” Stiles asked in response. He had a feeling, but.. .
Derek snorted loudly. Wait, no. The entire pack snorted at the same time, and even his dad? What the hell. Derek’s wounds healed slowly due to being inflicted by an Alpha, and all Stiles could do was reach out to try to take some of his pain. Derek was in a lot of pain, but didn’t seem like it outwardly.
Goddamn stoic bastard.
Derek raised his eyebrow as he noticed how dark Stiles’s arm was from taking his pain, and Stiles managed to think through the immense amount of pain to realize that he also didn’t look like he was in pain. He felt himself blush at Derek’s ridiculous smirk, the bastard even leaned in closer to show more of his stupid smirk.
Goddamn smug asshole.
“You’re an Alpha in everything except title,” Derek responded as he leaned back into Isaac’s arms.
Jackson, the bastard, who was leaning against the wall next to Lydia, tilted his head in faux condescension and talked to him in a voice that implied he was very, very stupid. “You already boss us around anyways. S’not like there’d be much of a difference.”
Erica snorted, but after a bit, she looked at him with a look that was way too soft to belong to his blonde bombshell. “You also take care of us like Derek does whenever he thinks no one’s looking.”
Derek blushed and lowered his head, the rest of the pack grinning at him. In the end, Boyd, the second of their pack tilted his head and smiled at Stiles. “It’s your choice if you also want to become an Alpha, but we all see you as one just as much as Derek is.”
“It’d be cool to say that both my dads are Alphas,” Isaac said too nonchalantly.
Stiles shook his head and laughed, noting that Andersen was starting to regain movement in her fingers. He laughed wholeheartedly, straightening up in the warmth of his pack’s affection. “Alright, twist my arm, why don’t ya.”
In the end, the bigger Andersen pack was sent the head of their alpha prospect, and while they did retaliate, the Beacon Hills pack was more than ready to protect what was theirs. Soon enough, the Andersen pack was wiped out by a pack with no more than seven members, and the supernatural community stirred. Rumors about the terrifying pack that lived in the ashes of the Hale territory rose, and to be weary about entering their territory, because the pack would annihilate anyone that showed even a glimpse of hostility towards them.
The pack had a laugh about those rumors, and so did the allies they’ve made across the years. Satomi joked that she wouldn’t stand a chance against the Hale pack’s Alpha Mate, and while not true even in the slightest, it made Stiles feel pride that one of the stronger Alphas near their territory respected him enough to acknowledge how terrifying he could be whenever his pack’s in danger.
A pair of warm arms were wrapped around his chest and holding him tightly against the body they belonged to, and Stiles sighed in contentment as the warmth spread through him. Derek kissed the back of Stiles’s neck, smiling softly. “What’re you thinking about?”
Stiles took a moment to think about how happy Derek was, how happy his pack was, and how happy Stiles himself was that the people he cared about were happy and safe. “Just thinkin’ about how much more times I get to make you happy, Alpha.”
Derek pinched his side, causing him to let out a yelp. Embarrassment and that gooey soppy lovey feeling radiated from Derek, Erica and Isaac complaining about taking their love somewhere else so it didn’t stench up the pack house. Derek and Stiles let out some more of the warm feelings through the bond, getting back warmth from everyone in the pack. Even Jackson and Lydia, who were on a trip to New York for some research Lydia wanted to do, sent back warmth and happiness and safety, even if it was mixed with a bit of confusion from their end.
His Alpha sighed, holding him tighter. “Sap.”
“Your sap,” Stiles immediately replied.
“Yours,” Derek said back instinctively.
“Yours,” Stiles replied, just as instinctively.
“The Beacon Hills Alpha is terrifying,” one supernatural creature said to another. “But the one you should watch out for is the Alpha’s Mate, because he's the real monster.”