Derek was running. His quick feet easily finding a path through the trees. He felt his pack members running alongside him. The wolves close by, the humans only a bit behind.

Stiles had been right, it was trolls.

Trolls. 5 of them. Not the smartest creatures, but they were savagely territorial. And apparently they had decided Beacon Hills would be their new territory. Derek had felt the loss of the land they had claimed already. The more land they claimed, the larger they got. They were made from the dirt and decay of the forest. Their giant bodies smelled like the forest floor beneath their feet. The creatures didn’t care where they thrashed their arms around. They just wanted more territory.

They moved silently among the trees, their feet moving with the earth, as the earth. But they left distraction in their wake. If they didn’t stop them now, there definitely would be a death in the near future.

They had decided to go after them the night before the full moon. The wolves were at their strongest without losing control. The trolls were unaffected.

Also it was on a Friday, and his whole damn pack was in highschool. Derek couldn’t have them missing anymore school. It made him look bad.

So, here they were. Running after a group of trolls through the forest of Beacon Hills.

The wolves took them down, and the humans followed behind with a sleeping concoction Lydia and Stiles had made. It should keep them unconscious long enough to find a way to ship them somewhere else. Scott refused to kill them.. and Derek didn’t want to admit that he didn’t know how to kill them anyway.

Trolls were weird. They didn’t even bleed when you cut them. They also didn’t have a heartbeat. What were you supposed to do with that?

He stopped as he watched Jackson and Boyd take the fourth one down. They had to practically tear its head off to do so, but the thing was alive.

He listened for the slither of the ground, the only sound they made for the wolves to follow. There was only one more left, it shouldn’t be that hard. He closed his eyes, focused on his hearing. Boyd and Jackson were panting beside him. Scott and Erica were running, about 50 feet to his left.

Isaac and Allison were whispering to each other in the trees. Derek had chosen them as his eyes in the sky, it had been useful. And it reassured him and Lydia and Stiles had backup if they needed it.

He heard Lydia tell Stiles she could finish with the third one in her own. He should start on the fourth before it recovered. He heard Stiles as he began to head their way, crashing through the undergrowth.

He heard the tell tale slither of moving dirt.

He moved towards its before realizing where it was coming from.

“Stiles, go back!” Isaac shouted from the tree tops.

Stiles kept walking forward, but he did look up, “what?”

Derek pushed himself faster. He could see him now, and the massive pile of moving dirt heading right at him.

“Go back!” Isaac and Allison both shouted.

“Stiles, get down!” Derek shouted.

Stiles stopped walking. He looked around in confusion, “what? I can’t-“

He was cut off but a clump of dirt slapping him in the back, sending him ten feet through the air to crash in a bush.

Derek roared in anger, leaping through the air to tackle the monster before it could reach Stiles again. He tore its arm clean off before he felt the earth shake beside him, and another wolf joined his roar. Isaac had joined him from the trees.

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Together they got the troll to the ground. This time Derek did tear its head off. He didn’t care if it was alive or dead though, it had hurt a member of his pack.

As soon as Derek was sure the thing wouldn’t be moving again, he turned to check on Stiles. Scott was already there, lifting Stiles unconscious body off the floor.

“He’s heartbeats strong so he should be fine. We should take him to my mom though, make sure it’s not a concussion or something worse.” Scott said, already heading out of the woods.

Derek nodded, he sent Isaac and Allison with him. There wasn’t much left to do here anyway.

—

Once Lydia had declared all the trolls unconscious for the foreseeable future, the rest of the pack piled into their cars to head to the McCall house. Derek tried not to worry, Scott said Stiles would be fine. But he and Stiles didn’t really have a bond. All he could feel was that Stiles was alive, and in pain. The concern he felt radiating through Scott was stronger.

He growled in frustration as he neared the house. He was mad at Stiles for refusing to bond with him. He was mad at the idiot for not listening to his pack. Why had he just stood there? What was wrong with him?

By the time he got to the house, his teeth were bared and his eyes were red.

He slammed into the house without knocking. Scott came running out of the living room looking alarmed.

“Woah, Derek, calm down!”

Derek snarled, he couldn’t calm down, “where is he?”

“He’s fine! My moms just finished looking over him, he’s on the couch, he’s fine!”

Scott tried to block his way through, but Derek shoved him away. Isaac scrambled out of his way as soon as he saw Derek storm into the room. Allison stood her ground from her spot behind the couch, but she didn’t say anything to stop him either.

Derek stopped a foot away from Stiles, glaring down at the boy on the couch. Stiles sat up, rubbing a hand on his head and looking confused.

“What the hell was that?” Derek spat at him.

“Derek?”

Derek growled, eyes glowing red.

“What was that, Stiles? Why didn’t you go back? Why didn’t you drop down?”

Stiles flailed his arms, “how was I supposed to know the thing was right behind me!”

“Because we told you! We yelled at you to get out of the way!” Derek shouted, hands balling into fists to stop himself from grabbing the injured kid.

“I couldn’t understand what you were all saying, you all yelled at me at the same time!”

Derek growled deep in his chest, that was a pathetic excuse. “You don’t listen, you never listen to your packmates!”

“But I-“

“Enough. I don’t want your excuses. I won’t have someone like you in my pack, Stiles. Either you learn to listen, or you’re out. You clearly don’t care what happens to the rest of the pack when you’re too busy goofing off to pay attention!”

Stiles leaned back, blinking at him. “You’re kicking me out of the pack because I can’t hear?”

“Because you don’t listen!”

Stiles shot to his feet so fast Derek had to take a step back to get out of his way. Derek was surprised to see tears in his eyes, he didn’t think Stiles cared enough about the pack for tears.

“Fuck you, Derek Hale.” Stiles seethed, watery eyes glaring at him, before he was turning and stomping out of the room. The front door slammed shut behind him, shaking the whole house.

The house was quiet for a second. Derek sucked in a breath, trying to calm himself down. Suddenly something was pushing against him.

Scott. Scott kept pushing until Derek grabbed his wrists, “Scott, stop.”

Scott yanked his arms away, glaring at him. “What the fuck was that, Derek? How could you do that to Stiles?!”

Derek took one last calming breath. “He did it to himself.”

“What?” Scott spluttered, looking furious. “Jesus, Derek, I thought you were better than this.” He gave Derek one last shove, before running out of the house after Stiles.

“That was pretty harsh, Derek.” Jackson said from his right. Jackson thought he was being harsh.

Derek turned to see that the whole pack was crowded in his room, all of them staring at him like he was a monster.

“What? He needs to learn to listen. He’s going to get himself killed.”

“But telling him to learn to listen? That’s pretty fucked up, Derek, even for you.” Erica said.

Derek frowned, starting to feel uneasy, “why? He can learn. All of you learned.”

“Yeah, but telling Stiles to hear more is like telling you to be more human. It’s impossible for you to do it, and it’s not fair.” Isaac said with a shrug.

Alright, now he was just confused. Which made him more mad.

“He can learn, or he can leave. I won’t have a disobedient human in my pack.”

“Disobedient?” Lydia chimes in, “Stiles was the one who found everything on the trolls. He’s not disobedient, Derek, you just have to learn how to talk to him.” Lydia was looking at him like he was a moron.

Derek furrowed his brow, “he knows how to talk, what do you mean? I talk to him like I talk to everyone else.”

Lydia rolled her eyes, “Stiles is hard of hearing Derek, you can’t just talk at him like you do with everyone else.”

Derek froze. “What?”

The pack all looked at each other uncomfortably. Other than Lydia, who now looked annoyed.

“You didn’t notice he reads lips half the time? He has trouble in crowds? Usually needs a physical touch to get his attention?”

“Uh, I-“

“For god's sake, Derek, this is your pack! How do you not know this?”

Derek floundered, he didn’t know.

“Stiles is not out of the pack,” Lydia continued, “this is your mistake, you go fix it.”

Lydia shot him one final glare, before turning on her heel and leaving the house. The rest of the pack followed after her, all of them shooting Derek disappointed looks.