Chapter Text
“God Derek,” Stiles breathed out after she woke to find Derek not right beside her like he usually was but instead nestled in between the valley between her thighs giving her a more than pleasant wake up.
Derek took a brief pause in his ministrations to look up at her with a smirk, “You can call me either one.” Stiles laughed at him but responded by pushing his head back down so that he could finish what he started.
Ten minutes later when he had succeeded in making Stiles cum two times, Derek pulled his body up to cover her and placed a gentle kiss on her lips that made her see stars (again) at how completely and wholly she loved this man.
Derek pulled back and stared down at her with a soft smile, “Good morning babe.”
“Good morning Alpha,” his eyes flashed for a second like they always did when she used his honorific. He had a total power kink and she loved it almost as much as he did, “whatever did I do to warrant such a pleasant wake up call? Is this what you do for all the girls that sleep over?”
He laughed at her and kissed her again before replying, “I woke up and just couldn’t resist you. I think you’ll find that there are many, many things I do for you that I’ve never done for anyone else.” Well now her insides were mush, completely melted by the dopey romantic crap that no one would have believed Derek Hale was capable of before they saw him around Stiles. She maintained that they had just never seen him in a real relationship before but everyone was sure that this particular brand of romance was reserved all for Stiles.
“Well when you put it like that, it would be rude of me not to reciprocate,” she pushed Derek off of her and on to his back and started to kiss her way down his chest before he pulled her back up. She raised a brow at him in question.
“I, uh,” he looked a little embarrassed, “I’m already taken care of. The second time you came…” he trailed off and Stiles wanted to devour him. Despite them dating for four months and having done very kinky stuff to each other in the name of science, Derek still got embarrassed when talking about sex. Stiles supposed that it made sense considering before her he had never really had a healthy sex life with anyone and one-night stands didn’t really allow for a lot of bed talk. It was insane with Derek looking like he did, but that wasn’t something that he could really control and he was still a dork at heart.
“That is so fucking hot,” Stiles placed a not so gentle kiss on his lips and then started making her way to the bathroom, throwing a, “if you don’t get in here with me than I’ll just have to pretend you are and you’ll be forced to take care of yourself,” over her shoulder. She quickly shed her remaining clothes before hopping in the shower, pleased to find that she wasn’t alone for long.
After that, well there wasn’t a lot to discuss.
It wasn’t until they were drying off that Stiles checked her phone and saw what had probably woke Derek up. He was sensitive to any sort of alarm or ding from a phone and Stiles had a few messages from Lydia warning her to be presentable around 11 because she was calling a pack meeting at the house. Looking at the time, she realized that she had about ten minutes before Lydia arrived with the rest of the pack because they all knew to be perfectly punctual when Lydia called for a meeting.
“Lydia and the rest of the pack are coming over for an impromptu meeting in about ten minutes. She didn’t say for what but it’s Lydia,” that was all the explanation Derek needed before nodding and getting dressed as quickly as he could before going to the kitchen to put a pot of coffee on. It may be almost 11, but it was 11 on a Saturday so everyone besides Lydia and Jackson would still be in the early stages of their morning.
It wasn’t long before everyone arrived and made their way to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee before finding a place in the living room to hear what Lydia had to say.
“I understand that this is a little early for most of you so I’ll be as concise as possible: we can’t keep doing this alone and I have a solution,” Lydia was never one to mince words and everyone knew what the problem was. The pack was being stretched thin, with everyone off at college most of the time and juggling their studies with protecting an entire town and having a life and keeping their jobs. It was too much, and Allison still had a cut on her arm that was healing from pixie venom. It had almost been the end of her, but Stiles had found a spell to drain all of the venom and stop Allison from calcifying. None of them could look at statues the same knowing that any one of them could be an unfortunate victim of a pixie, “we need to start courting other packs and the best way to do so is to use Derek as bait.” Stiles’ heart did not plummet, no matter what her body thought.
“What?” thankfully it was Derek and not her that spoke because she was certain that her voice would have come out several octaves too high.
Lydia gave him a placating look that didn’t hide that she thought he was being slow, “You’re the Alpha and a Hale at that. Many packs would jump at the chance of marrying in and we’re going to use that to draw them in and get alliance agreements signed.” A terrible thought started forming in Stiles’ head but she pushed it back for now. Now was not the time to freak out. She slid a hand down the side of face and slid a glamour on so that the wolves could no longer smell her emotions. She liked her privacy to feel what she wanted thank you very much and the wolves had no sense of personal bubbles and thoughts. If they thought she was freaking out they would laugh at her and she wasn’t in a laughing mood.
“Marrying?” now it was Derek’s voice that was coming out a little too high and he reached out and grabbed Stiles’ hand a little to tight, “Why would I marry anyone? And why can’t any of you be the bait?” Scott shifted a little bit and frowned, showing that he was less than okay with the idea.
Lydia blinked slowing before replying, “You wouldn’t actually be marrying anyone. You just have to make them think that marriage is on the table. We can start with one pack and go from there. And none of us would be as appealing as you, not to mention that there is no way certain individuals could pull this off.” Her eyes shifted to Scott who only nodded in agreement.
“Who says that I can pull this off?” Derek’s grip got a little tighter and Stiles had to force herself not to let out any sounds of pain.
“You’re Derek Hale, bad boy extraordinaire. You just have to be distant and wear leather and maybe throw someone against a wall. That’s how you got Stiles, isn’t it?” Jackson smirked at everyone and got a few laughs.
Stiles laughed a moment after everyone, and if it was little bitter no one seemed to notice, “Well, he’s not wrong. Ten out of ten, would fall again,” she smiled at Derek to make it seem like she didn’t completely hate the idea. He started back at her and looked a little confused, searching her eyes for anything off. But Stiles ran with wolves, she knew how to keep her emotions locked down.
“See,” Lydia sounded a little too triumphant, “Stiles gets it. This is the best method we have and I already have a pack in mind. I’ve already contacted them and they’re sending the Alpha’s daughter in a week.” It was well known that if Stiles agreed to something than Derek wasn’t far behind. And it seemed like Stiles agreed. Didn’t she?
You don’t hate Lydia. You don’t hate Lydia. Stiles had to keep repeating it in her head before her spark decided to do something silly like set Lydia’s clothes on fire.
“Which pack?” Cora was the one to ask from the comfort of Isaac’s lap. Comfort that she had from knowing that it wasn’t her relationship that had to put on hold so that her boyfriend could woo someone else.
“The Thornwood pack. They’re originally from Ireland and they’re the real deal. They have connections that we can’t even dream of right now and just securing them would be enough to start with.” Cora and Derek nodded, knowing from their childhood the type of prestige the Thornwood pack had.
“How did you convince them then?” Isaac looked a little skeptical.
“I simply confirmed that some of the rumors about us were more than just rumors. We’re a bit of a legend.” There were some whoops and back hitting at that, everyone proud to still be standing after all that had been through.
Derek remained still and finally let go of Stiles’ hand to flex his own, “If we’re so legendary, why do we need to pretend to court anyone? Why can’t they align themselves without all of what you’re suggesting?”
“No one wants to bind themselves to people they aren’t invested in. We need to give the Thornwood’s a reason to tie themselves, even if that reason is a ruse.”
“It makes sense,” Cora said in the silence after, “and we wouldn’t have to worry so much about being called to protect them because they rarely get attacked.” Everyone started making sounds of agreement but Stiles knew that Derek was waiting on her. He wouldn’t make a decision if he thought she was against it, not something that relied to heavily on the two of them.
“Of course it makes sense, it was Lydia’s idea,” Stiles smirked at the girl in a way that didn’t betray how angry she was at the girl for just springing this on them, “And there is no way that the alpha’s daughter won’t want to tie herself to Derek. It helps that she’s his only girl so he’ll be more inclined to give her what she wants,” everyone looked at her in surprise, “I am an emissary guys, I do have to know these things. Actually, I’m surprised that you decided to make the call, Lydia, considering it’s normally the emissary’s job to foster alliances and act as the messenger between packs.”
“I thought about that, but I didn’t want to risk you giving anything away considering how invested you are in this. Besides, can you really tell me that you could call another pack asking someone else to come date Derek? You might have ruined it.” And there came the sympathetic looks from the pack that Stiles wanted nothing to do with.
“Ha, now Stilinski has to keep her hands off of Hale! It’s about time. Don’t worry, he’ll probably come back to you.” Despite the glare Lydia sent his way, Jackson continued to smirk at Stiles and she had to hold back her spark from doing anything that would make them think she really was as emotionally unstable as they were accusing her of.
Derek let out a growl of warning, but Stiles placed her hand on his to calm him down, “Cool. So as long as we all understand the plan, the first step is probably to start getting my scent out of Derek’s apartment and make sure that there’s nothing left that shows us in a relationship.” Lydia nodded in agreement like she had already thought of that, which she probably had.
“Stiles,” Derek gripped her hand back and looked at her questioningly again. “Are you sure about this?”
Stiles smiled at him but knew it didn’t reach her eyes, “I think it makes a lot of sense and I’d hate to cost the pack any sort of protection. The final vote is up to you as the Alpha though. You need to make the best decision for the pack, and I trust that you will.” Please choose me, please don’t do this to us. She was screaming in her head, but her glamour held strong and none of the wolves knew just how frantically her heart was beating.
He squeezed her hand and nodded once before speaking, “Alright. The pack does need alliances and I understand the plan. But we don’t need to start deep cleaning the house or changing anything until the day before.”
“Actually,” Lydia cut in, “We never know if she might show up early. I would. And you and Stiles need to start trying to make it seems like you aren’t completely gone on each other. Some separation will do you two some good anyways.” You do not hate Lydia. You do not hate Lydia.
Derek looked like he was about to protest so Stiles jumped in before he could, “Compromise. We’ll start tomorrow and we’ll all use tonight as a last hurrah before the charade begins. Let’s all go out to a club and have some fun knowing that we’re about to do something good for the pack.” Erica especially seemed to like the idea and everyone split up with the plan to meet at the club at 10.
Which left Stiles alone with Derek. He tried to talk to her but she was anything but ready for that conversation so she made an excuse before bolting out of the house and making a mental list of all of the places she needed to go. She had a plan. And she needed to be someone away from Derek when thinking about her plan made her cry.
Stiles knew she was being silly, maybe even having an overreaction, but it wasn’t everyday you realized that saving your pack meant giving up the one thing you loved most in the world. Maybe Lydia meant to start with a pretend courting, but Stiles knew that it wouldn’t be long before there was a pack that would only align with them with an actual courtship between Derek and one of their own. And Derek was the sort of alpha that cared about his pack’s safety before everything else. Even if he liked to pretend that Stiles came first, she knew that he had lost too much, given up too much, to not deserve the protected pack of his dreams that was stable in all aspects. The relief he had over finally having roots and no longer having to look over his shoulder would outweigh any sort of hurt he felt when he thought about the spastic human he used to love. Especially considering they hadn’t even used that word with each other yet.
Never would, Stiles supposed.
Hours later when 10 o’clock came around and the pack was meeting at the club Stiles knew that there was one thing she had to do before separating herself. It was petty and a violation, but she wanted everyone to understand just where she was coming from when she decided to leave.
She kissed Derek on the mouth and brushed away his concern by leading everyone over to the bar. She grasped Derek’s hand and placed a kiss on it while they were waiting for their drinks. She steered the conversation towards something light hearted but had no clue what she was actually saying because her mind was already a week into the future.
Well, not literally because that type of magic took a lot of her but she didn’t need magic to imagine what it would be like.
Their drinks arrived and Stiles threw her shot of tequila back before letting go of Derek’s hand and making her way onto the dance floor. Scoping it out, she found her chosen minions and used her spark to take control of them and Lydia, Cora, Boyd, and Allison. She made her chosen people make their way to her and cast a sticking charm on the rest of the pack so that they couldn’t move. Using powers of suggestion, she made those on the dance floor start dancing and flirting and found some nobody for her to partner with. She could feel everyone’s confusion and hurt through the pack bonds but pushed that away.
She was making a point.
A rude, awful point, but a point nonetheless.
After about fifteen minutes of grinding and flirting, Stiles released everyone and made her way back to the bar where the threw back the other shot she ordered and made her way out of the bar and to her jeep. She released the sticking charm as soon as she put her foot the gas and tried to pretend that she felt justified about what she just did.
It wasn’t long before the pack were all back at Derek’s loft looking for her. Looking for answers.
“What the hell was that, Stilinski?” Jackson was the first through the door. He made to advance on her but couldn’t get pass the wards she had placed around her. She had set them up to keep Derek away from her, sure that a single touch from him would have her crying like some pathetic girl who was breaking up with her boyfriend. Oh wait…
The rest of the pack circled around her and it looked like they had all found the edges of her wards. She pretended that she didn’t see the hurt look on Derek’s face.
“You can’t hold those up forever, Stiles. What was that?” an interrogation from Lydia was nothing to laugh at.
Looking around, Stiles noticed that all of the couples were holding on to each other a little more than normal, like something had just happened to make them feel insecure about their relationships.
“I was proving a point. You want Derek and I to pretend to not be in a relationship. You want Derek to court someone else. I get it, it’s smart. I am completely going along with it, but I needed to make sure you understand what you’re asking of me. What you went through tonight, what I made you go through, is nothing compared to the month or so long courtship I’m about to go through. So any jokes you want to make at my expense aren’t welcome.”
It was silent before Jackson scoffed, “Whatever Stilinski.” And there she was again, surrounded by sympathetic faces that she wanted far away from her.
“I understand why you did it but you had no right just taking advantage of all of us.” Lydia was right to be angry but Stiles didn’t care.
“I know, it’s almost like I thought of a plan that would be good for the pack and then went ahead without consulting anyone before springing it on all of you without warning. But that would be rude, wouldn’t it?” She said that it was a petty plan.
Lydia narrowed her eyes and was about to respond with something sure to be scathing before Derek took control of the situation. Look, it’s late and we have a lot to do so everyone needs to go home. Now.” His eyes flashed alpha red and everyone left without an argument.
Stiles was along with Derek again, only this time there was nowhere left for her to run.
She could feel his gaze on her but was determined to wait him out. After five minutes of silence Derek let out a loud sigh and she knew that she had won. If only she wanted the prize.
“I thought you agreed with the plan.” He sounded tired.
“I get the plan, I really do. Lydia is as spot on and pragmatic as usual and this probably is the best possible option,” Stiles took a deep breath and tried really hard not to let any of her sadness seep in through her words which would make the glamour that she had conjured around her useless, “but knowing it and wanting to watch it happen are two different things. I can’t watch you fawn over some other girl, you can’t ask that of me.”
“I’m not asking it.” Derek sounded mad now, which was good because relationships were easier to end when people were mad, “I didn’t even want to follow the stupid plan but you agreed and the pack agreed and Lydia already arranged everything. You and I both know that cancelling would be seen as an insult.”
“I know that. Like I said, I get it all, I really do. I just wanted to show you why I can’t stay here during the courtship.” Derek’s eyes widened and he tried to step closer than the wards allowed which meant he went nowhere because Stiles could craft a damn good ward when she wanted to.
“You can’t go!” he started flexing his hands again.
“You felt uncomfortable tonight right? Watching me with whoever that man was, it made you uncomfortable didn’t it? Maybe it made you a little mad, a little jealous, it may have even made you sad but in either case you weren’t happy. Do you really want to do that to me for a month?”
“I… no, but I need you Stiles. You’re my emissary this is literally your job.”
“It looks like Lydia has it under control. Anyways, it’s only a month, Derek. Just think of the reunion sex,” she smirked at him and was thankful for all of those moments she had spent practicing expressions in front of a mirror when she was in high school. She knew that with her glamour in place she could make the wolf think she really was as pragmatic about the situation as she said Lydia was.
His eyes flashed red again and she knew that she could easily convince him to spend the night doing something much more important than talking. So she dropped her wards, took of running towards the bedroom, and did exactly that.
And if she was a little more desperate than normal and focused on Derek’s pleasure a little too much wanting to make sure that it was more than great for him, Derek attributed it to her being emotional. He wasn’t exactly wrong, and it wasn’t his fault he didn’t know what break up sex felt like.