The Secret by OKDeanna
Six months. Fourteen hours. Twenty-six minutes. Thirteen seconds.
That’s how long it took to bring Derek Hale back to life. But no one else knows that. No one else knows the ritual he found. The ritual he performed. No one else knows the time and energy it took to dispel the Nogitsune’s magic and release the wolf from Bardo. No one else knows the nightmares he’ll have to face now that the ritual is done, over, and he likes it that way.
He likes that no one was around to see him save his friend, his… person. He doesn’t need to share that with anyone. He did what he had to do and now he’s done it. He can go back to his life and let Derek, and Eli, get on with theirs.
Maybe one day he’ll regret the choices he made to get here. But he probably won’t. Out of all of them, Derek deserves to live the life he wants, to find the happiness he craves, and so does his son.
Pushing away from the large valley oak he’d hidden behind, Special Agent Stiles Stilinski carefully makes his way through the woods and back to the car he’d hidden just off the highway. Thankfully, no one was around to see him, and he’d been far enough away from where Derek resurrected that he knew none of the wolves would have smelled him there.
Maybe one day they’ll all realize the time he’d stolen from them to fix the mess they’d made of Derek’s life, of Eli’s life, or maybe they won’t. But either way, Stiles doesn’t care.
Derek was back where he belonged, and that’s the only thing that truly matters.
Beacon Hills needed a real Alpha to protect it, and Scott had proven it isn’t him. That it will never be him. Not when he would so willingly sacrifice everything—and everyone—to save a girl who’d been dead for years.
Shaking his head, Stiles pulled open his car door and climbed inside. Minutes later, he was on the highway and on his way out of town, knowing with absolute certainty that no one in Beacon Hills would even think to consider he’d been there to help them when only one of them had thought enough to call him.
He still didn’t know how Derek got his secure number, but he was grateful that the werewolf had. Without it, Stiles might not have been around to save his life, and that was something he didn’t ever want to experience again.
There was a reason Derek was the king on his chessboard, and maybe someday, once everything settled down, he would tell him what it is… or rather, what he hoped it could be. But that was for another day, or maybe just another life.
Also on Ao3 (f-locked)
