Chapter Text
“Stiles. How nice of you to join us” Peter says, smiling up at him. Stiles would appreciate his cordial tone a little more if he weren’t being held three feet off the ground with a clawed hand in a vice-like grip around his throat.
“Peter, let him down” Cora barks from her crouched position by the bed. Her eyes are a warm, golden yellow and Stiles would be more relieved to see her alive if she were a little more proactive about helping him out here. Peter winks at him before dropping him like a stone to the ground. Remarkable, how he shifts from predator to harmless little louse when it suits him.
“Cora, glad to see your looking good as new” Stiles chokes out on a wheeze, clutching at his throat where it is flushed red from Peter’s grip. Careful to keep one eye focused on Peter, Stiles shuffles over to the bed. He should frankly be more surprised to see an ashen, comatose Derek Hale lying prone on the sheets because really, what is his life now? He really needs to start re-evaluating his choices in friends.
“I tried calling but no one answered. I thought the alphas might have…” Stiles trails off as he imagines finding just their bodies left to decay in the loft, and shakes himself a little trying to displace the picture. Cora resumes her seat at her brother’s side and softly pets the side of his face. Stiles hadn’t particularly imagined her as the gentle nursemaid type but he figures if he and Scott had gone through as much as this pair has in the last few weeks, he would be permanently glued to his best friend’s side. With like industrial strength super glue. If that’s even a thing that exists.
“Derek is too weak to fight. Kali could come any second and we need to get both him and Cora as far away from-
“Except she’s dead” Stiles interrupts, and even Peter looks baffled. “Jennifer is dead. Deaton and Morell are taking care of her body, something about balances of power and honesty I wasn’t really paying very close attention. Deucalion, Kali, for sure one of the twins, all dead. These are things you would know if you would keep a damn phone on and check it once in awhile” he grounds out in a frustrated grumble.
Cora gapes at him, her eyes tracking down to the bandages around his arm and the stiff, closed off way he is holding himself. His ribs are throbbing, despite the heavy and not at all recommended dose of ibuprofen he had taken that morning. While the pain has lessened some, it hasn’t managed to relieve the bone deep exhaustion. He had slept hard and blissfully dreamless until he had been startled awake by the vibrating of his cell phone beneath his pillow where it wouldn’t wake his dad when his alarm went off. He snuck out of the house soon after getting dressed, hoping his dad would be dead to the world for another couple of hours while he checked on Derek and Cora.
“Convenient then, that Alan was available to handle such a ritual. No one else is concerned he may choose to take her power for himself instead of rendering the tree dormant?” Peter drawls, his arms crossed as he inspects Stiles like a rabbit with its broken leg trapped in a snare. Stiles instinctively curls further in.
I don’t think Deaton is particularly interested in power gained from human sacrifice” Stiles bites back and Peter’s eyes flicker and narrow in response.
“Deaton advised our mother once Peter, he has earned our respect” Cora asserts, glaring at her uncle.
“Temptation is an ugly thing-
“Hard as it likely is for you to understand, some of us aren’t opportunistic sociopaths who-
Stile’s glib response is cut short by a snarling growl and a former alpha werewolf shoving up into his space. Peter’s threatening posture is just enough to send Stiles careening over his mental breaking point and its clear he’s caught the wolf by surprise when he shoves his hands into his chest and growls right back, as much as his human vocal chords are able to mimic at least. Peter’s eyes flash blue and he shifts back half a step, reassessing in a way that almost looks impressed.
“Why is it the only human worth biting refuses the honor when it’s offered?” Peter tilts his head inquiringly, as he smirks at Stiles’ attempt to puff himself up into something more threatening. Stiles refuses to answer but shifts backwards and over to the other side of the bed; so sue him if he feels more comfortable with at least one werewolf between him and Peter. Cora catches his eyes as he sits and lifts her eyebrow in a fashion so similar to her brother it leaves Stiles feeling suddenly inexplicably fond. Well, and admittedly a little miffed that such wordless expression of derision and disdain don’t come as naturally to his own facial features.
“And what’s with sourwolf here?” Stiles asks, carefully unaffected by the corpse- like skin two inches from his own.
“He healed me. He took too much though, pushed himself too far. The kind of power it takes to bring someone back like that Stiles, it’s huge. He won’t be an Alpha anymore” Cora murmurs, her head bowed with what Stiles would probably guess is something like guilt. Self-sacrificing and brooding silence are apparently traits not exclusive to Derek.
“So what, he’s a beta now? An omega?” Stiles asks, still a little thrown.
“When he wakes up…if he wakes up…he’ll be a beta again. You know, like before you burned me alive and he slashed my throat” Peter comments, still watching them from the windows and leaning against the table like he’s posing for a GQ cover shoot. Stiles rolls his eyes at the exaggerated nonchalance.
“How long has he been out?”Stiles asks.
“About fourteen hours. I’ve been watching him this whole time but he hasn’t so much as twitched” Cora replies, her brow furrowing with undisguised worry.
“Well is there some way you can help him heal?” Stiles questions.
“It doesn’t work like that. We can take pain away but we can’t impel the body to repair itself. He used a lot of energy giving me the kind of power an alpha uses to heal faster. Now he doesn’t have that resilience either and isn’t healing so much as he is drained” she responds.
“Then I guess we wait” Stiles sighs, and walks over to the couch to check in with the Scott and the others.