After everything they’ve been through together, all Derek wants is for his pack to be connected with strong, thriving, pack bonds.  And for the most part, its working. The pack is growing, healing, happy.

He just needs to figure out why Stiles hates him so much. 

“So you’re telling me we have no idea what this is?”  Derek asked.

The pack was all gathered at Derek’s loft.  All sitting around the living room.  Scott, Stiles and Erica had claimed the couch, all of them reading through books on random mythical creatures.  Allison, Lydia and Isaac had each made their own nests on the floor with pillows and blankets.  Lydia and Allison were reading through the bestiary, Isaac was surfing the web for anything useful.  Boyd and Jackson had both taken the chairs.  Neither of them seemed keen to research, and Derek was pretty sure Jackson was playing on his phone behind the book he had propped up in his lap.  

Derek had called a pack meeting to figure out what was happening in Beacon Hills.  Although apparently he was the only one convinced something was going on at all.  Derek paced around the concrete floors of his loft, he was too restless to sit.  They had all been here for just over an hour, and he was sure they would at least have a theory by now. 

The whole pack gave a unanimous sigh at Derek’s words, except for Stiles, who kept flipping through the book on his lap, head bent down and totally ignoring Derek.  

“We still aren’t sure this is anything,” Lydia said from her nest of blankets on the floor. “There’s only been a few disturbances to go off of, why are you so sure something is wrong?”  

Everyone turned to Derek, who glared back at them all.  They all knew about the ‘disturbances’ happening on the outskirts of town recently.  Trees were being found crashed on the side of the road, even though there had been no storms recently.  Hikers were reporting strange noises coming from the woods.  Local farmers said that their livestock were going missing.  The latest news was from a woman driving into town whose car had smashed into something. The theory was a moose, considering how totalled her car was, but Derek found that hard to believe.  When was the last time someone had seen a moose around Beacon Hills? The woman hadn’t been able to give a statement on what she had hit due to memory loss from the crash.  So that lead was a dead end. 

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

On top of all of this, Derek just had an uneasy feeling.  Like something was encroaching into his territory.  Something that wanted to take it away.  He knew he was the only one who felt it because he was the Alpha, and this was Hale land.  But still, surely one member of his pack would believe him? 

“It’s something,” Derek growled, wishing again that there was another adult in this pack with him.  All these damn teenagers, they didn’t take anything seriously. 

Isaac rolled his eyes, “well you aren’t giving us much to go on.  Something in the woods that makes strange noises and eats livestock? That could be anything. It could be a coyote.”  He closed the screen to the laptop, clearly giving up for the night. 

“Coyotes don’t ruin your car when you hit them,” Derek pointed out.  

“I thought she ran into a moose?” Scott asked, sounding confused.  

“That’s just what the official report says.”  

“Whatever,” Jackson said, sitting up from where he had lounged in his chair.  He did, in fact, have his phone out and on.  Derek glared at him as the young beta threw his book on the table.  “Why are we all even here?  Research is Lydia and Stilinski’s job, it’s not like any of the rest of us know what we’re doing anyway.”  

There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the pack, and Derek growled as he watched them all begin to put their books and laptops away.  Except, again, Stiles, who was still too engrossed in the book he was reading to notice that the people around him were having a conversation. 

“Relax Derek, Jackson had a point.  Everyone here is pretty useless aside from Stiles and myself. I’ll keep looking through the bestiary, Stiles can keep reading through the books.  We’ll get back to you in a day or two if we find something, right Stiles?”  She turned to look at the boy on the couch, frowning when she realized he was still reading, “Stiles!” she called out to him louder.  

Stiles didn’t look up at his name, Scott had to nudge him to get his attention.  Derek rolled his eyes when the boy looked up and then glanced around at them all in confusion.  “Are we giving up?” He asked. 

“Stiles,” Lydia repeated, tapping his foot as she spoke, “you and I are going to keep researching on our own.  You stick with the books, I’ll read the bestiary.  We’ll check in with each other tomorrow, sound good?”  

Stiles nodded, closing his book and standing up with everyone else, “great idea, Lyds.  I don’t even know why everyone else is here. They all kind of suck at research.”  

“Yes, Lydia and Jackson have already pointed that out.  Which you would know, if you bothered to pay attention to your packmates.”  Derek grumbled. If he was honest he was mostly embarrassed that everyone but him knew who should be researching.  But he didn’t have to be honest, Stiles was annoying without the added embarrassment. 

Scott shot him a glare, but Stiles waved him off.  “Don’t worry sourwolf, we’ll figure out what’s lurking on your precious land.”  

Derek growled again, but before he could think of a retort all the teenagers had stumbled out of the loft.  Except Isaac, who had stumbled up to his room.  Typically leaving Derek with all the clean up. Derek grumbled as he gathered up the blankets, pop cans, and bags of chips.  

Damn teenagers.