Forest for the Trees – 9 – Hazel *Complete*

Reading Time:
34 Minutes

Chapter Nine:

The staccato beep of an incoming text woke Stiles and for a second he expected to find himself laid out on the couch in his dad’s office, waiting for Derek to return from the preserve.  It felt like no time had passed since he’d finished his report about the fuckery with the Hale wards and the Nemeton within them.  And yet, it felt like he and Derek had been bunking in his childhood home for months avoiding the pack and waiting on word from the Council.

Stiles stumbled out of the queen-sized bed that his dad had wedged into what had once been his childhood bedroom as soon as he’d left for school.  He’d thought it ridiculous at the time, having figured that there was no real reason to replace his old twin for him to use when he visited Beacon Hills every couple months.  After having spent the last three nights sharing it with Derek he was not only glad for his father’s uncanny foresight, but so grateful that he had already planned the steak dinner he was going to make his dad as a thank you.

He met his wolf’s gaze as he made it into the kitchen, not surprised to see the man on the phone despite the time.  Wordlessly, he poured himself some coffee and got out his phone to see who had messaged him at fuck’oclock AM on a Wednesday.  He expected something from Professor Alden.  Knowing his former advisor had a cousin on the Council of Mages and unashamed of making use of such a connection, Stiles had called him as soon as he could get away with that Sunday morning.  Which, under the circumstances, had been pretty damn early.

Not only had that garnered him the second opinion he’d really really wanted before bothering three of the most highly placed magical users in the world, but it had also netted them a backdoor contact that had kept them up to date on the Council’s actions in the ensuing clusterfuck.  Because as far as the professor could tell, Stiles was bang on about the ward loop shenanigans and the magical mucky-mucks had gone full blown conniption upon receiving the case files and Stiles’ own report.

But the message wasn’t from the professor telling them the latest globe-trotting escapades of a pissed off Telluric Mage and his magical entourage.  It was his father, passing along the official, official notification he had received that morning from the Magical Order that representatives of the various councils would be descending on Beacon Hills imminently.

He was still staring at a phone screen that had darkened with inactivity when Derek joined him at the table.

“Holly says there have been a few comments about Epigraphy having shorter hours this week, but other than that, no one in the pack seems to suspect anything.  No one has noticed that I’ve only been at the station and not gone on any patrols.”

“And your apartment?”  He set his phone down and figured the news could wait for him to at least finish his coffee.

“She and April went by yesterday to check and nothing is out of place.  They didn’t smell anyone either.”

“There’s no real reason for them to think I’m not at home since I can come and go from the apartment to the store without going outside.  Maybe they think you’ve been staying with me.  We probably could have gotten away with doing that.  Us being here is a bit over the top.”

Derek shrugged and finished his own coffee, bringing the pot over and refilling both mugs.  “You know I agree.  But your dad was worried about their reaction when they find out that Council reps will be coming and we don’t know how far in advance they’ll be notified.”

“I’m going to guess, day of,” Stiles lifted his phone and gave it a little wiggle.

“Did the professor hear something from his cousin?”

“No, my dad heard something from the Magical Order.”

The mug paused halfway as Derek went to set it down.  It finally made it to the table with a bit more of a thunk than normal.  “The Order sent the sheriff official notification?”

Stiles nodded and drank half his mug in one long gulp.  “He got the call about two hours ago.  They’ll be here today around five or six.”

Derek rubbed a hand over his mouth.  “Is it just me, or has this moved really quickly?  I mean, you called the professor first thing Sunday, he immediately called his cousin who called a meeting of the Council of Mages as soon as he finished reading the case file you sent the professor.  The Council of Mages and the Druidic Circle were in Greece in what, twenty-four hours to meet in person with the Magical Order?”

Stiles finished his coffee, setting the mug on the table and spinning it gently across the scarred surface.  “Pretty close.  Though, personally I’m more impressed that they got to Peru yesterday to talk with the Shifter Council and the Board of Emissaries and are already on their way here.”

“Do we know who’s coming?” Derek asked, his finger tracing over the gouge Stiles had left in the tabletop when he was ten.

“Uh,” Stiles opened his text conversation with Professor Alden and scrolled up, “a Telluric Mage, a Druid, and an Alpha.”  He set his phone back down.  “I don’t know anything about them personally other than the fact that the Druid they sent doesn’t know Marin’s father very well.”

“Small mercies.  The mage isn’t your professor’s cousin, right?”

“No.”  Stiles pushed himself up from the table and brought the coffee pot back over, determined to have more caffeine than was wise.  “He’s a Runic Mage, so this isn’t really his area.  Besides, I actually did an internship with him at one point, so he wouldn’t have been sent anyway.”

They sat at the table, drinking coffee in silence for several minutes.  When they were done, they went about making breakfast without discussion.  They lingered over the meal, knowing that they’d both be staying at the house that day just in case Talia had already gotten notification as well.  If Talia ordered Derek to talk, he’d have a hard time resisting unless he broke with the pack completely and Stiles figured he wasn’t ready to do that.  Not even with their suspicions that she’d already acted contrary to her duty to the Nemeton.

“They’ll want to talk to us both when they arrive, right?”

Stiles moved into the living room and let his head fall back against the couch, then turned and cuddled into his boyfriend’s side as soon as Derek joined him.  “I’d be shocked if they didn’t.  Though I don’t know if they’ll want to talk to us first or not.  They’ll no doubt meet with your mom and Deaton, and based on what Professor Alden said, they’ll probably check out the preserve.  They’ll definitely be checking the Nemeton.  But again, the timing is…” he swept his free hand out in a wide circle in front of them.

Derek wrapped an arm around his shoulders and just sighed.  “Then we’ll just have to wait and see.”

The wait before the arrival of the representatives was both less and more nerve wracking than the actual seeing of the representatives.

Derek kept himself mostly occupied for the day by concentrating on Stiles’ nerves rather than his own.  Or at least on keeping Stiles distracted so he didn’t spiral mentally.  It worked well enough that it was time to head to the station before he even realized it.  Which was an impressive feat as far as he was concerned since Stiles had narrated a countdown sporadically throughout the day.

Not five minutes after they got there, take-out in hand for Noah’s break, the representatives filed in.  They all looked to be about sixty, though with magic and alpha healing factored in they could have been as much as eighty for all he knew.  He stood back with Stiles as the sheriff greeted them and went through his spiel about case files and physical evidence.  Only one of the three seemed to be paying a lot of attention to that part.

The other two zero’d in on him and Stiles without any prompting.  For a second, Derek wished he’d gone ahead and worn his uniform despite it being his day off.  Except then Stiles would be the only person there who was in street clothes and as used to that as the sheriff’s son surely was, Derek felt uncomfortable visually separating himself from his boyfriend.

He stepped forward as the reps approached, moving at a bit of an angle so that he ended up closer to Stiles when he did so.  The woman – who had to be the alpha – responded by arching a single delicate brow as they all came to a stop.  Derek stood straighter but forced his inner wolf not to respond.  It was harder than normal in some ways, but easier in others.

Every other time he’d met an unknown alpha he’d had a brief moment where he’d been tempted to expose his throat.  Peter said that was because his mother didn’t properly maintain her bonds and never actually went to the trouble of earning her pack’s respect.  Whatever the reason, when Carmen Rivera, alpha of Spain’s guardian pack, introduced herself with a rather regal nod, that instant’s reaction was completely absent.  It threw him off-stride for a second that he was neither threatened nor comforted by the presence of a strong alpha in his space.

He did his best to keep his feelings off his face and instead returned her nod with a measured one of his own.  There was the faintest hint of amusement in her scent, but he tuned it out in favor of watching the way the two magicals were greeting Stiles.  The druid displayed the stoicism that Derek had long associated with druids but seemed to watch Stiles with more interest than appeared to be warranted.

The mage looked gregarious enough to make Derek automatically uncomfortable.  But that observation was a background thing because all the little things were standing out so much.  The way his face changed when it was confirmed who Stiles was.  The near deference when the older man asked to speak to Stiles about his perceptions of the recent events.  The seriousness with which he listened as Stiles started to explain the first time he’d been summoned to the preserve by the Nemeton.

He didn’t see the majority of that or any other part of the mages’ conversation because they went into the sheriff’s office to talk while the alpha led him into the little used conference room at the back of the station for their own ‘conversation.’

He’d known it was coming.  It was in fact the part of this whole thing that he’d been the most nervous about.  Because he knew the kind of questions Alpha Rivera was bound to ask and he didn’t want to answer them.  The first half of the interview went just as he’d expected and he forced himself to be as honest as possible and not squirm in his seat as he described aspects of the Hale pack’s dynamics and the interactions he had witnessed between his mother, her emissary, and her right and left hands.

Discussing the roles himself and his siblings played in the maintenance and protection of the territory was no better.  It wasn’t until they’d moved on to the current case that he began to relax.  Derek did his best to treat it like any other report he’d given to the sheriff over the last few years.  Facts.  Evidence.  A straight forward description of the evenings he’d been drawn into the preserve to find the sites of ritual sacrifices.  No real emotion, no personal opinion.

Alpha Rivera listened with very little reaction, though the way she pursed her lips when he talked about his mother, sister, or Deaton gave him the impression that if the circumstances were different that she’d have rather a lot to say.

“And your wolf?  How would you say that part of you reacted to the magical stimulus that you presume to be the Nemeton?”

“The first time, I was here, at the end of a double shift.  I thought that I was just tired and restless.  I wanted to move, to run.  The next thing I knew I was struggling to hold back the shift and I had to leave.  I didn’t know where I was going until I was driving away, then I just knew I had to be in the preserve.”

She nodded slowly, elegant hands folded on the table in front of her.  “When you say you had the urge to run, would you categorize it as running free, running after something?”

Derek touched the wildness of his wolf inside himself, thought back to that night and how it had felt to pace from his desk to the breakroom, his fangs itching to descend.  “I think… it was more running towards something.  Not so much that I had to get out the station but that I had to be in the preserve, though it wasn’t really that clear at the time so I could be reading into it too much.”

“Your wolf seems to be rather close to the surface, is that normal for you?”

Derek blinked.  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

She just looked at him for a moment.  “Many shifters have a type of aura, a sense of wild energy, even magnetism that they project to those around them with the ability to detect it.  Yours is quite pronounced.”

He leaned back slightly, again touching his wolf, trying to see if he could feel anything off or different.  “I don’t know.  I’ve never noticed anything like that.  Maybe it’s the stress of the situation.  I do feel a little on edge with things up in air.”

“Perhaps.  Have any other members of your pack responded differently to you in times of stress?”

They meandered back through some of the ground they’d already covered when she was asking about the dynamics among pack members.  She still seemed to be fishing for something in particular an hour later when they finally wrapped up the interview.  He wanted to ask what it was she had been looking for, but he refrained from doing so as she stood, brushing her hands lightly over the pressed pants suite she was wearing with the kind of poise Laura tried and failed to emulate on a daily basis.

Alpha Rivera looked just as poised when they left the room and met up with the other representatives at the front doors.  “Very well.  Thank you both for meeting with us.  We will confer amongst ourselves this evening and will proceed from there in the morning.”

Druid Campbell hummed, then spoke with an accent somehow at odds with his otherwise expressionless demeanor.  “I should like to take a tour of the preserve first thing, if a guide might be arranged for me?”

Noah smiled, and turned to Holly where she was manning the front desk while Vick was on his lunch.  “Deputy Arryn is on shift in the morning and is very familiar with the preserve and this case.”  He waited for her to nod in agreement before continuing.  “She can go with you if that works.”

The Scotsman hummed again and seemed to consider the topic settled.  The mage took that opportunity to thank Stiles again for his time and let them all know that he was looking forward to speaking again the next day.  Once farewells were exchanged to varying degrees, the representatives left.

Derek, Stiles, Noah, and Holly all seemed to exhale at the same time once the door closed behind the three.  “Well,” the sheriff said, clapping his hands together a little more loudly than Derek thought was called for.  “That’s it for tonight.  Arryn, why don’t you head home as soon as Vick gets back, I’ll cover the last half hour for you.”

“Oh, no sir that’s not necessary, I-”

“You’re going to have a long and probably stressful morning, go home and relax while you can.”  Noah waved off her denial with a smile and started to immediately shoo Derek and Stiles towards the door as well.  “Same for you.  Go brood and pace at the house and I’ll see you there soon.”

Stiles shook his head at his father, but seemed more than willing to go along with the man’s plan, pulling Derek towards the car as soon as they exited the station.  Since he figured they’d be having a rather long and stressful morning as well, he didn’t protest.

He didn’t protest when Stiles pulled leftovers out of the fridge to heat for dinner.  He didn’t protest when they retired to the bedroom immediately after eating.  But he couldn’t keep his macabre curiosity to himself.  “Did Mage Simon have any theories about why?”

Stiles paused as he pulled a t-shirt over his head, then finished the motion and sat on the edge of the bed.  “That they changed the ward loop?” he confirmed.

Derek nodded, though he was tempted to just drop the subject entirely.

“Normally, the alpha is linked to the Nemeton, and the emissary is linked to the wards, right?”  Stiles didn’t wait for him to respond, as if he wanted to get the exchange over with as quickly as Derek did.  “The link between alpha and nexus is fed by the alpha’s devotion to the land, and when that is weak, it draws from the power of the alpha spark.”

Derek took a deep breath, because if his mother was willing to endanger the wards and the Nemeton they protected, he could only imagine how flimsy her devotion was.  Which meant the loop was using her spark.  “So she didn’t want any of her power being used by anyone or anything but her.”

Stiles inclined his head and looked away.  “Pretty sure we can all guess why shady Deaton went along with linking himself directly to a powerful telluric nexus that could, theoretically, be tapped for magical workings.  Though really, if he’d been fully in service of the territory he’d have already been able to use some of the Nemeton’s power to perform magical tasks which benefited the pack or the territory itself.”

The offense and rage that built in his chest actually made his head hurt.  Derek dug his thumb and forefinger into his eyes when they started to burn.  “So, just plain greed.”  Stiles didn’t agree aloud, but he didn’t really have to as he went back to putting on his pajamas.

Derek turned down the bed, almost too exhausted to remember to start the youtube playlist already queued up on the ipad.

Minutes later, laying in the sheriff’s guest bed for the fourth night in a row with Stiles held close and an old episode of Time Team playing in the background, Derek couldn’t help but ask one more thing.  “What kind of druid needs a guide to show him around a forest?”

Stiles tensed briefly at the sudden sound of his voice, then cuddled closer with a laugh.  “He doesn’t want a guide.  He wants a member of the pack with him to gauge how her presence impacts the ambient magic of the territory where it’s the strongest.  Just like the other reps don’t actually need us to meet up with them in the morning, they just want to have us at hand.  They probably plan to make it so they need a ride or something so that Mage Simon can observe our impact on the main ley line from the Nemeton.”

Stiles wrapped his arms tighter around his chest and Derek responded by rubbing lightly up and down his back.  “Absolutely none of them missed the significance of us being called to the Nemeton’s aide.  Just like they’ll no doubt insist on inspecting the bond that Talia should have with the nexus when they meet.”

He listened to the archeologists on the show discuss geophysics and trench sizes for a few minutes.  “You think we already have some kind of bond to the Nemeton.  Both of us.”

Stiles turned his head, propping his chin on his chest and looking at him with an expression half way between amused and uncertain.  “You don’t?”

Derek rubbed his mage’s back until Stiles settled back against him without answering the question.  Because they both knew the answer.  He just really didn’t want to think about what it meant.

—  —

Derek exchanged a smile with Stiles as he drove them and their two passengers towards the preserve.  The alpha and mage had barely even attempted to act like they didn’t have ulterior motives.  Ostensibly, it was to pick up Holly and bring the reps to meet up with the druid who had driven himself and the deputy out there a few hours before.  None of them were trying to pretend it hadn’t been planned.

In fact, based on Stiles’ predictions the night before, they’d taken the jeep to the station that morning since it would have been a little inappropriate to ask the reps to ride in the back of the cruiser.  The only thing that had come close to surprising anyone was the fact that Stiles had so easily handed over the keys to Roscoe when they’d left.  He was sure that Alpha Rivera at least had noticed the other deputies’ reactions, but he knew that Stiles was well aware of his wolf’s need for some semblance of control over the situation they found themselves in so he’d only felt a little bad about asking to drive.

As if aware of the train of his thoughts, Stiles reached over and placed his hand briefly over Derek’s on the gear shift as they turned into the parking lot.  He very pointedly did not look back to see what kind of reaction their passengers had to the silent exchange.  Instead, he simply parked the jeep and got out to sit with the others while they waited.

They all four situated themselves on the nearby picnic table as the alpha checked her watch.  “Druid Campbell said they would meet us here at 10:30, so they should only be a few minutes.”  She tucked a strand of perfectly styled hair behind her ear with a glance to the cheerful mage beside her.

“Perhaps you both might indulge me while we wait.”  Mage Simon didn’t even bother coming up with an excuse, just grinned at them both while he waited for them to move to his bench and take seats beside him.  “Excellent!  Now, technically I could do this without your participation if I went to the Nemeton and asked her nicely, but where’s the fun in that?”

Stiles laughed, and held out a hand.  Just as the Frenchman was about to take it, Holly and the druid made their way into the parking lot from the footpath.  They of course, had been expected, so Simon went ahead and grasped the younger mage’s hand.  But again, he was interrupted.  This time it was someone completely unexpected and from the other direction.

Derek watched his uncle’s flashy sports car pull into the lot and park right beside the jeep.  Stiles moved closer to him, whispering under his breath.  “Were we expecting Uncle Asshole?”

Peter closed the car door, glaring over at Stiles briefly before turning his attention to the three council representatives as they met up at the picnic table.  Alpha Rivera stepped out front, eyeing the beta with clear judgement.  “Peter Hale, Left Hand to Tahlia Hale.”

Peter raised his chin, almost in challenge.  “Peter Hale, Left Hand of the Hale Pack, at your service.”  The tone was the kind of polite that was anything but polite.

Derek narrowed his eyes at his uncle.  “Peter,” he said, the warning obvious in his own voice.

Peter turned, holding his gaze for a moment before his subtly hostile posture relaxed into his normal semi-insolent stance.

Derek could feel the representatives watching them both.  He started to ask what the hell his uncle was doing there, but then two more cars pulled into the lot in quick succession.  By the time his mother, father, older sister, and his mother’s emissary had exited their vehicles, Derek was on his feet.

In seconds, the different groups were facing each other.  Talia stood in front of course, with her heir just a step back on her right, their father in the place of Right Hand and Peter in the place of Left.  Deaton slowly ambled over and stood behind them all.

Derek stood next to the picnic table, Holly on one side, slightly behind and Stiles right beside him.  He inched forward, then took one step to the side placing himself a little in front of him.  Between Stiles and his alpha.  While he did so, the Alpha, Mage, and Druid representing the Council of Mages and the Magical Order arranged themselves.  They stood side by side, none behind the other, though Alpha Rivera seemed to take the lead in addressing the situation.

“Alpha Talia Hale of the Hale Pack of Beacon Hills.  You were told that we would speak with you tomorrow.”

Talia adopted as diplomatic an expression as she had ever managed, though Derek had always thought she looked slightly condescending when she did so.  “It is standard procedure for the territory alpha to be informed of the activity of a visiting shifter or magical when they’re given permission to enter that territory.”

The representatives remained unmoved, faces serious and in Derek’s opinion, rather unimpressed.

“Official representatives of a ruling council or the Magical Order are not required to obtain any kind of permissions nor report their movements to any local persons.  And as Alpha Rivera stated, Talia Hale, you were informed of our meeting tomorrow and that schedule has not changed,” Druid Campbell intoned, Scottish burr at odds with his expressionless mask.

Talia took a visible breath, her chemosignals rich with irritation and the smoky scent he’d always associated with his mother when she felt her superiority in one way or another was being overlooked.  “As the Alpha for the guardian pack of Beacon Hills, I would have expected to be included in the decision for representatives to enter my territory.  If I had been consulted I could have prevented you all from wasting your time based on the word of a disgruntled beta with no standing in the Hale Pack hierarchy.”

As if that statement closed the matter, Talia turned to pin her older son with a glare.  “This type of nonsense should be beneath you, Derek.  I can’t believe you would act out like this merely because your little sorcerer wasn’t accepted by your alpha.  Isn’t it enough that your poor taste in bed warmers has cost this pack a connection to a valuable magical asset?  Now you have to create trouble for the rest of us with magical authorities far above your station?”

Derek swallowed back his shock at the outright vitriol his mother was throwing at him.  As much as he’d always known he was far from her favorite, this level of disdain was a little overwhelming.  If it had been solely aimed at him he probably would have ignored it like he always tried to do with his mother’s behavior towards anyone other than Laura.

But Stiles was already stepping forward, probably ready to tell her where she could stuff her opinion.  “Listen, lady-”

His mother fixed his boyfriend with a red-eyed glare.  “As for you, if you think I’m going to allow you to stay in my territory when you cause this kind of trouble, you’re in for a rude awakening.”

Derek took a step himself, to make sure he stayed between his mother and Stiles.  “Mom-”

She ignored him with the same dismissive arrogance she had most of his life.  “Go back to the pack house, Derek.  We’ll be discussing your behavior later.”

Derek took a deep breath, pushing aside the fading instinct to follow his alpha’s orders.  “I’m here at the request of Alpha Rivera.  If you want to talk about anything, it will have to wait until the Order representatives no longer need my help.”

Talia’s red eyes widened, her expression darkening and her posture going rigid.  His father shifted on his feet.  Laura moved closer to their mother with a look of shock and anger.

He obviously wasn’t the only one who could sense the dangerous undercurrent to the exchange, since he could see both Holly and Peter moving in his peripheral vision.  Since his wolf remained focused on the Hale alpha, he ignored how his uncle was now between him and Laura and spared only a second to be thankful that Holly had placed herself at Stiles’ back.

Derek could feel everything spiraling out of control and knew that he’d as good as broken from the Hale pack.  His family would have to choose sides now.  Not that he had any doubts as to who his father and sister would choose.  His eyes started to burn as though tears were building sharply behind them.  Then, before he could try to blink away the burning sensation, his mother was lunging at him and his eyes burned even more harshly.

A red haze seemed to fall over everything in sight as he braced and pushed his mother back away, the sting of claws ripping down his arm almost unnoticed.  He held his hands up to throw off another attack.  Laura leapt forward only to be intercepted by Peter.  Holly shoved Stiles behind her.

And without thought, Derek roared.

Stiles felt the sound reverberate through his chest, and wasn’t all that surprised when most of the wolves around them immediately assumed some sort of submissive stance.  Even Talia and the alpha rep staggered back a step.

Peter seemed to recover first, moving to subdue Laura as the roar’s echo continued to lay heavy over both groups.  The three representatives stepped up next, taking places beside Derek while Holly stood and took up position between himself and Derek.  His wolf looked back at him with wide, red eyes.

Stiles grinned rather smugly, he knew.  “Looking good, Alpha.”

Derek stared.  “What?”

Alpha Rivera nodded regally and spoke even more formally than she normally did.  “The Alpha Council recognizes the ascension of True Alpha Derek Hale of Beacon Hills.”  The way the wolves around them took a step back and glanced repeatedly between Rivera and Derek told Stiles that the statement meant more than was obvious.

What was obvious, however, was the thrumming sensation that started in his feet and worked up his body.  Stiles reached out to Derek without thinking.  The instant their hands clasped, the feeling sharpened, then rippled out from them in a wave he would probably have been able to see if he’d been using his magesight.  Because that was abso-fucking-lutly magic.  “Damn.”

This time it was the mage rep who stepped towards them with a serious look on his usually jovial face.  “Archmagus Stilinski, the Council of Mages and the Magical Order recognizes your custodianship of the Nemeton of Beacon Hills.”

“Uh, thanks?”  He knew what the words meant, the bond between a mage acting as emissary of a guardian pack and their Nemeton had certainly been covered in the private tuition he’d received from Professor Alden.  But his brain struggled to apply them to himself and his current circumstances.

As he struggled to mentally reboot, there was a furious exclamation nearby.

“True Alpha?  Archmage?  What did you do!”

The wolves around him scrambled, but they weren’t apparently prepared for Talia Hale to launch herself at him.  Because the next thing he knew a wolfed-out alpha was coming at him.  It took him a second in the aftermath to recognize the sound that followed as a gunshot.

Stiles barely got a glance at the red stain on Talia’s shoulder as she fell back with a roar and Derek pulled him out of the way.  He went from starring at an enraged alpha apparently out for his blood to pressed up against Derek’s chest as he spun them to place himself between Stiles and his mother.  From the sounds of things at least one wolf had tackled Talia to the ground.

When he finally talked Derek into letting him go, Deputy Parrish was pinning Brendan Hale to the pavement, Holly was restraining Laura, and Peter and his dad were forcing a cuffed and still bleeding Talia into the sheriff’s cruiser.  “Oh good, dad got my text.”

Derek and the reps all turned to him at the words.  He wasn’t sure if it was what he said, or the disturbingly calm way he’d said it.  Everything was a little off for a few heartbeats before the sights and sounds snapped back into focus.  He staggered, vaguely aware of an odd, almost apologetic touch at the periphery of his magical senses.  “Whoa.”

He turned and stared into the preserve as Derek and Mage Simon walked him over to the picnic bench and sat him down.  “Dude.  Is that the Nemeton?”

Marcel Simon, Telluric Mage and representative of the Council of Mages and the Magical Order, met his gaze with a grin.  “Your bond is strong, oui?”

Stiles grasped Derek’s hand, still staring at the trees as if, if he focused hard enough he’d be able to see the giant telluric nexus he seemed to have fully bonded with in the heat of the moment right after Derek got his red eyes.  “That’s good, right?”

He looked briefly at the other mage, then turned fully to Derek.  The magical who was bonded to the Nemeton of the territory was automatically considered the emissary of the Nemeton’s guardian pack.  And Derek spontaneously becoming an alpha almost in the same moment hardly left the tree’s choice of guardian alpha up for debate.  Derek held his gaze for a moment, then smiled as he flashed red eyes.

“It’s great.”

He imagined the mantel of emissary settling heavily on his shoulders.  “Oh.  Good.  Great.  Super.”  Stiles looked around, watching Laura and her father hustled into a cruiser by Parrish and Holly.  He took in Peter talking seriously with Alpha Rivera and Druid Campbell.  “Hey, where’s Deaton?”

Derek took a deep breath, rubbing one hand over his face.  “He slipped away while we were dealing with my mom’s apparent psychotic break.  Druid Campbell is going to track him down.”

“Awesome.  Fabulous.”  He took a second to let his thoughts fall into some sort of comprehensible order in his head.  “He’s taking the shady motherfucker with him when he goes, right?”

“Oui.  Druid Deaton will answer for his actions before the Druidic Circle on Anglesey.”  Mage Simon muttered under his breath in French for a moment, then grinned at him.

Stiles nodded.  Looked out at the forest again, and turned back to the other mage.  “So, bonds and stuff.  Any chance you’ll be in town long enough to go over the whole territory ward ritual and all that?  Pretty sure that’s been fucked up long enough and I’m a little short on practical experience here.”

“But of course!”  Simon grinned wider.  “It would be my pleasure to assist you in your preparations, Archmagus Stilinski.”

Stiles was pretty sure if he nodded any more his head would fall off.  But that might be the exhaustion talking.  Turns out spontaneous bonds with powerful telluric nexuses – nexi? – were kind of tiring.  He looked yet again at the path that disappeared into the depths of the preserve, promising silently that he’d make things right.  There was a brush against his mind, and he narrowed his eyes.

His Nemeton was kinda chatty, apparently.  Well, that was fine but if he was going to have conversations with a giant magical tree on a regular basis then she was going to have to have a name.  Maybe a dryad?  Did he know any names for tree nymphs or whatever?  Nymph.  Nymphadora.  Tonks.  Can I call you Tonks?  This time the brush was a little more distinct and had a palpable undertone of amusement.  Great.  That’s settled.

A throat cleared in front of him, drawing his attention away from his thoughts.  Blinking, Stiles focused on the entourage he’d somehow assembled while he was lost in leafy conversation.  Derek, Simon, and Rivera were all there, looking at him expectantly.  “What’s up?”  He looked around the parking lot, noting that they were the only ones still there.  “The party broke up already?”

Derek sighed, reaching out to help him to his feet.  “Yes, Stiles.”

“The sheriff and Deputies Arryn and Parrish have taken Alpha Talia Hale, her Right Hand, and her Heir, to the sheriff’s station,” clarified Alpha Rivera.

“Okay.  That’s good, right?  Does that mean the investigation stuff is done or do you still need to talk with the magical miscreants?  Do we have to do anything to like register or whatever for territory alpha-emissary status-es?”  He tripped over the plural form of the word, but shook it off quickly and waited for answers.  He got three, all of the others speaking simultaneously.

“Our records will require an official interview and bond check with the former alpha of this territory,” said Mage Simon.

“Your registration as alpha and emissary of the new guardian pack of Beacon Hills will be handled on your behalf, though we will need signatures from you both before we depart,” said Alpha Rivera.

“Yes, Stiles, that’s good,” Derek promised, looking more overwhelmed than anything else.

Stiles blinked, repeating the statements in his head a few times until he had them all straight.  “Well, that’s helpful.”  He tilted his head to the side as he thought some more about the immediate logistics since thinking about anything else was threatening to make him have some kind of tantrum in relief.  Was that a thing?  Was it still considered a tantrum in those circumstances, or would there be another term for it?  He shook his head and focused on Derek.

“We should probably head to the station, my dad’s going to need our statements and shit.” He started walking to the cars, not letting go of his wolf’s hand as he did so.

Derek followed along with a sigh, only exchanging a few words with the representatives before they got into the jeep and headed back to town.  Stiles slumped in the passenger seat, wiggling his butt to get comfortable.  This was probably only the second time he’d been in Roscoe without being behind the wheel since his father had given him the old jeep at sixteen.

Slightly weirded out at the thought, Stiles rolled his head to the side and watched Derek drive.  “Hey, do you think that if your mom goes to jail and stuff that Laura and the other minions will stick around?”

Derek seemed to freeze, then turned to look quickly over at him before facing the road once again.  “I, I don’t know.  I never really thought about how the rest of the pack would react to someone else as alpha.”  He grew quiet, driving a little slower than normal as his face flickered through several grumpy expressions.

As they re-entered town, they stopped at a red light and Derek stared straight ahead at the car in front of them.  “Laura has grown up knowing she’d be the next alpha.  I don’t think she’ll do well with the thought that being in charge of the pack is no longer in her future.”  He slowly accelerated as the light changed, still concentrating on the road in front of them.

“Dad and Uncle Porter worship the ground mom walks on so I can’t see them ever admitting that she did anything to lose the position, let alone go to jail.  The only other alpha they’d ever accept is probably Laura.”

There was silence in the jeep as they continued on their way to the station.  Neither one of them had to say aloud that if Talia was convicted of attacking someone unprovoked, that her sentence would almost certainly include the stripping of her alpha spark.  That she was aiming for a human while in beta shift would only make matters worse.  And with the number of witnesses, including at least one uninvolved deputy and the sheriff himself, both wearing bodycams…  Well, her charges were sure to be air tight.

They’d almost reached their destination when Derek spoke again, picking up from his original question as if it had just been asked.  “Laura’s husband’s birth pack would almost certainly welcome them, and she’d have a higher status there since Andrew is so closely related to Deucalion and Deucalion doesn’t have a set heir since his cousin died last year.”

Stiles let out a breath.  “Your dad’s from that chick’s pack up in Oregon, right?  The scary one?”

“Kali.”

“Yeah.”

“He is, but he might follow Laura.  Uncle Porter and his wife will certainly leave.  Kristin can’t stand me or Peter since the whole,” he waved one hand, the other still gripping the steering wheel tightly.  Stiles just nodded, and asked another question right away so Derek wouldn’t have to explain.  He’d looked up Ennis.  He knew all about Kristin’s birth pack and her crush on the crazy dude that had become alpha and gotten his psycho ass killed by Peter.

“Does that mean they’ll take Summer with them?  ‘Cause she’s kinda my favorite and that would suck.”

Derek huffed a small laugh, his knuckles finally getting a little color back in them as he shifted his hands on the wheel.  “I don’t know.  Maybe.  I think she’ll argue pretty hard to stay in town for that.  I know either Aunt Dahlia and Uncle Trent or April and Holly, or even Leo and Britney would take her in if she needs it.”

“Isn’t Britney like best friends with Laura?”

“Yeah.  But there’s no way Leo will go too far from April and his parents and with custody of little Mallory to consider, I don’t think Britney’d be willing to leave him.”

Stiles nodded a couple times, trying to think of something else to talk about.  “Oh, hey.  Maybe Eric and his wife will finally go through with moving back now.”

Derek blinked, eyes wide.  “Maybe,” he admitted with a small smile.

He drummed on his knees while Derek parked and turned off the jeep.  They both sat for several minutes, listening to the engine tick as it cooled down.  Just as Stiles was preparing to crack a lame joke about overtime pay and a nap on his dad’s office sofa, Derek spoke up quietly.

“How do we know I’ll make a good alpha?  Mom’s the only example I’ve ever had and that’s obviously…”

Stiles placed a hand on his boyfriend’s leg across the gearshift.  “Dude, you’re going to rock the whole alpha thing.  Tonks loves you!  She chose you for a reason.”

Derek turned his head slowly, looking adorably confused.  “Tonks?”

“Well, we can’t just call her Tree or Nemeton all the time.  That’s rude.  She’s a lady and she deserves respect.”

“Tonks?” he repeated, sounding far more incredulous than Stiles thought was warranted.

“She likes it!”  When Derek just kept staring, Stiles waved both hands around to clear the conversational tangent.  “Point is, you’re a fucking True Alpha and that means you earned those ruby reds.  A real True Alpha has to not only be genetically predisposed to receive an alpha spark – meaning your shifter magical-ness is in tune with Tonks’ telluric currents  – but also meet the magical mystical super special requirements to build your own spark.  You ascended today, but you’ve been transforming your inherent spark for years, dude.  You’ve got this.”

Derek rubbed both hands over his face, muttering into them as he did so.  “Don’t call me dude.”

Stiles playfully shoved at his shoulder, frowning when the guy didn’t so much as budge.  “Okay, sourwolf, stop picking on yourself here.  We can go over the whole list of shit you’ve obviously done to build up your alpha spark, I’ll even put together a powerpoint detailing your True Alpha-ness, but for now, let’s just get in there and deal with the paperwork.”

He moved as if to lean forward and kiss his wolf’s furrowed brow, but coughed as the seatbelt jerked him to a stop.  “Damn it!” Stiles fumbled with the latch until he’d fought his way free of the interfering belt.

Derek reached out and pulled him in with a soft laugh.  They exchanged a few chaste kisses before Derek leaned back in his seat and took a deep breath.  Stiles hustled free of Roscoe’s rapidly heating interior and walked around to open the driver’s door.

Derek stepped out, locking the door absently.  They stood, side by side, neither moving to actually go inside.  “At least we don’t have to bunk with my pops tonight.  Maybe you could come over and we’ll do spaghetti again and chill with a movie or something.  Or a game.  We could play trivia pursuit.  I’d totally kick your ass at trivia pursuit.”

His boyfriend and alpha looked over, shaking his head and smiling.  Stiles shrugged.  “If you’re intimidated by my trivia supremacy, we can just do the movie, I don’t mind.”  Derek laughed again and Stiles smiled back.  “Dinner and a movie it is, alpha my alpha.  Just a quiet night in with Phee.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Derek said, heading resolutely out of the parking lot.

“Ohh, bondage.  Kinky.”

Holly opened the station door at that moment and choked on a laugh.  Derek sighed and trudged in behind her.  Stiles grinned, darting forward to grab Derek’s hand, laughing when his wolf sighed again.

Yep, he and Derek were totally going to rock this tree guardian gig.  A soft whisper of affection said Tonks agreed.

End