#pack mccall

[unthinkableinevitablehappyending]

I'm crying at this last scene look at my badass babies

[0letsimagine0]

[gorgeoussimplehousecat]

how 👏 are 👏 they 👏 going 👏 to 👏 get 👏 to 👏 the 👏 train 👏 station 👏 without 👏 getting 👏 all 👏 crispy 👏

[unthinkableinevitablehappyending]

STYDIA WALKING OUT OF THE JEEP DEREK MALIA LIAM THIS SHOW IS MAKING ME CRY MY FRIENDS MY PACK THEY'RE INVITING A BABY WOLF INTO THEIR PACK

[unthinkableinevitablehappyending]

I said you guys had one job don't die and what do Scott and Malia do??? Open the door that Lydia and Chris said not too and then accidentally set off the security system and release whatever that was

[gorgeoussimplehousecat]

scott sliding in front of his pack so they don't get disappeared i'm shook

[queenofmoons67]

Reforging Bonds - A Prequel to After

Notes: This happens during season 5b instead of after and is basically a prequel to everything else in this series (”The Strength of the Wolf is the Pack”).

When Theo kills Scott, all the pack bonds snap. Anchored in their alpha, threading through him to each other, with no one to take his place After the chimera tries to take his power they have no new alpha to transfer to - so they just snap. Such a simple sounding word, but to the McCall Pack it means everything. Everyone in it feels the bonds binding them vanish in some way, from actually feeling it happen in their minds for the weres to the inexplicable feeling that something is horribly wrong in the humans. And when Scott came back, the bonds didn’t. They have been broken, and so they must be reforged.

The first one to appear, of course, is with his mother. From the moment Scott opens his eyes, shooting up to see her there, watching him with wild, desperate eyes somehow mixed with hope, After bringing him into the world for the second time, the bond is there. How could it not be?

The second one starts small, like all tentative new things. It hadn’t been there Before, but there are some things a person cannot do for another without creating something lasting between them, and knowing they stayed by your side as you died, that they waited for your mother to arrive, and were there to greet you when you woke up and help take you home is one of them. The pack bond with Mason is unexpected, but it only grows stronger as he helps Scott and his mending pack rescue their own.

The third one had been in what can only be described as a baby stage Before. Scott anticipates it again, but hadn’t imagined it reforming quite so soon and before his bonds with Stiles and the others. But then Parrish shows up at the McCall house, at Scott’s Den, waking him from his slip into unconsciousness and showing obvious concern for his well-being and - Parrish rescued Lydia, who’s been part of Scott’s pack from before he was even an alpha - and his worried scent is all over Scott from where he shook him and all over Lydia from where he’s been training and guiding her - and Parrish’s bond sinks back between them.

The fourth bond is Lydia’s, slipping back into place as Scott and Parrish hurry her to the hospital, their worry and shared bond and the etches their old bond made in their minds through the years guiding it in as if it never left. Maybe it’s the circumstances, the pain hovering on both sides of it, the way the banshee is suddenly gone from the pack’s life soon after and their determination and will to get her back, but in the weeks After everything Lydia’s pack bond grows stronger than it ever was Before.

No bond appears at the hospital with Stiles, and Scott tries his best to understand. When his best friend pushes him, yells at him that he’ll heal and where was he and why didn’t he do something and why didn’t he do anything at all and why didn’t he trust him, Scott tries his best to understand. He doesn’t yell back, doesn’t say I’m not and I was dying and I was dead and why didn’t you trust me, doesn’t ask if his best friend and right hand still thinks of him as not human or if not human has changed to monster. Scott tries his best to understand, because that’s what an alpha does. That’s what a person does. And he can wait until Stiles is ready, can do his best to ignore Theo’s voice in his head whispering if and that’ll never happen and you’ve lost him forever. Scott can wait, and when Stiles is ready he knows he’ll feel whole again.

The fifth bond almost makes Scott sigh in relief as he steps back from hugging the still-bed-ridden, but now healing, Sheriff Stilinski. It’s a firm presence, on par in strength with his mother’s and Lydia’s, and it gives him hope. For what, he’s not sure.

The sixth one was unexpected Before, but now as welcome as all the others. All it takes is one phone call, the confirmation that the hunter will do anything the pack needs, and Chris Argent slides into place in a way that would make the man he once was stagger in disbelief.

Scott draws a small circle in the dust of a tunnel, and Stiles completes the McCall Pack symbol by drawing a bigger one around the other, and an itching that’s been at the back of Scott’s mind since they healed the Sheriff vanishes, replaced by a bond once stronger than any other the alpha knew. It isn’t now, but Scott knows it will be eventually. It’s his bond with his brother, how could it not be?

The eighth one is Kira, shooting into place like a lightning bolt as they kiss in the backseat of Stiles’ jeep, clutching each other as if, when they let go, the other will disappear again. Scott knows that somehow - the distance, his death, him coming back for her, her saying she loves him - their bond is stronger than ever Before. No matter how far either of them ever goes from the other, it won’t break again, no matter how much it stretches. Only death will ever have a chance at tearing them completely apart.

Liam’s bond, like Stiles, starts coming back as an itch Scott can’t scratch. It slowly grows stronger as the beta tries to make up for attacking and weakening his alpha to the point he was an easy kill, as the alpha finally gives into instinct and follows his beta to ensure he’s safe. When Scott reveals himself and they walk, side by side, shoulders occasionally brushing down the hall, pack scent spreading from alpha to beta, the bond clicks into existence with no fanfare but for the itch disappearing and Scott feeling as close to right as he’s felt since Before. It’s still weak, no where near as strong as a bond between alpha and beta should be, but Scott knows that’ll change with each moment they spend together, each conversation, each time they save each other.

The tenth and eleventh bond return one after another, Deaton’s with a giant hug and Malia’s with a look and smile shared between them, both softly snapping into place with a touch of wild spark lying underneath it all.

The twelfth one snaps into place with a single bite, Hayden’s bond molding into a space among all the others.

With all the new bonds, both reforged and recently created ones, one would think the Pack would feel whole. That won’t happen for awhile, though - not until others come home.

Note: You can find the entire series on AO3.

You can also find a complete list of all the fics’ summaries here on Tumblr.

[unthinkableinevitablehappyending]

I'M CRYING WHAT THE FUCK