An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapter 5 of my Bitetime fic has posted! Happy Sunday, and for those in the US who celebrated yesterday, I hope you had a lovely day for fireworks and grilling. Me, I grilled a turkey and had Thanksgiving dinner with our friends at camp. And I did some words while it was raining early in the day! I have drafted through chapter 9 now, and am working on the final chapter before I do the final edit on the remaining chapters.
Thank you all so much for reading and commenting. You are lovely!
Chapters: 5/10
Characters: Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall, Lydia Martin, Danny Mahealani, Isaac Lahey, Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd, Cora Hale, Jackson Whittemore, Kali (Teen Wolf), Jennifer Blake, Ennis (Teen Wolf), Ethan (Teen Wolf), Aiden (Teen Wolf), Deucalion (Teen Wolf), Melissa McCall, Marin Morrell, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Mpreg, Panic Attacks, Temporary Character Death, Miscarriage, Implied/Referenced Death in Childbirth, Lawyer Stiles Stilinski, Police Officer Jackson Whittemore, Emissary Claudia Stilinski, Emissary Stiles Stilinski, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Alive Vernon Boyd & Erica Reyes, Alpha Derek Hale, Omega Stiles Stilinski, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Imprisonment, Werewolf Derek, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Lydia Martin/Danny Mahealani, Past Lydia Martin/Aiden, Past Danny Mahealani/Ethan - Freeform, Minor Isaac Lahey/Scott McCall, Minor Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes
Summary: Stiles had the perfect life: a rising star in law, on track to become partner before he's thirty, and a fling with one of the hottest dudes ever. Then the dude disappears, and Stiles finds out his omega heritage has tripped him up, leaving him with a troubled pregnancy and stuck on bed rest. But he's handling it! He's good on his own! Right up until something goes horribly, horribly wrong, and he has to figure out how to move forward and make everything right again.
They go their separate ways in the parking lot, but when Derek is waiting at Stiles’s door as soon as he gets home, he doesn’t argue. He just pushes the door open, motions for Derek to step inside, and follows him there.
“Have you decided to accept that I’m a werewolf?” Derek drops onto the couch, one arm along the back, and Stiles stands there, staring at him. He can imagine the changed features, the claws at the tips of his fingertips. He wonders how much changes, how far it goes, and what Derek would look like if he really got to see him in good light.
He shakes his head, tries to erase it from his mind for the moment. “It’s hard to argue with the evidence,” Stiles says dryly. “Either you’ve hired a fantastic special effects crew, gone to a lot of trouble to make me hallucinate, or it’s true. I’m going with the simplest choice.”
“Then sit down, because there’s more you need to know.” Derek touches the couch next to him, and Stiles sinks into it. He leaves space between them, not wanting to remember how good it feels to be pressed up against Derek. Nor does he want this to look like it’s easy, like everything’s shifting back the way it was months ago.
“Give me one minute.” Stiles pulls his phone out, sends a quick set of texts to Danny outlining what he needs him to get out of the hospital records and video archives, then sets the phone on the table where he can easily see any response. He pulls his feet up and sits cross-legged on the couch, sideways and facing Derek. “Okay, go.”
“Really? I’d thought that would just be a myth.” Stiles can’t help it; Derek looks so serious, and there is something too ridiculous about this situation for him to let it go. He waves a hand at Derek’s glare. “No, sorry, go on. Go on.”
“Packs have territory.” Derek keeps his words simple and firm, but Stiles can see the tension in his hands where they rest against his thighs. “My mother was an alpha when I was growing up. We had a large family and an even larger pack, and she was one of the most powerful and well-respected alphas in the state. People came to her for advice—both as wolves, and as humans.”
“Was she the head of some kind of werewolf council?” It sounds a little like a roleplaying game, with politics and power, but Stiles has to ask.
Derek shakes his head. “Not like that, no. We all knew where one territory ended and another began, and there were accords with neighboring packs. Kali was the alpha of a pack to the north of us, and Julia was her emissary.” He pauses, narrows his gaze. “An emissary is someone who is not a werewolf, but is part of the pack, as well as being part of the land around them. The emissary ties the pack to the land, and helps the pack maintain its humanity. They keep balance, and they have abilities which aid in that goal.”
All true, but it feels like Derek is leaving something out. Probably something important.
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