Chapter 4

IN THE PRESERVE

"Remind me again why we are out here?" Erica complained to Boyd again even though she knew the answer. Derek had ordered the pack to run the borders pretty much full time since the morning after all the craziness, but seven days of vigilance was tough to maintain, especially when nothing was even the slightest out of the ordinary. She was almost hoping for something to attack them just to end the boredom!

Boyd didn't respond beyond a raised eyebrow that clearly replied 'you know why' and she huffed. He smirked as he turned them to head to the northern part of the preserve and added just enough speed that she had to react and her growl only increased his speed. She felt a rush as it suddenly shifted from running together to a chase and she had to admit that chasing after the silent beta was fun. She remembered the pack meeting the day after Stiles did his light show.

FLASHBACK TO THE LOFT

"Okay, we are going to need to be prepared for trespassers" Derek had said once they had all gathered for dinner. Stiles, the Sheriff, Melissa, and Chris were all absent, but the rest of the pack had gathered in the loft.

"Didn't we just stop them?" Scott asked looking confused. "I mean we stopped the Alpha Pack and the Darach only yesterday!" there was a hint of a whine but Erica saw agreement on most of the pack's faces except Derek and Peter.

"Yes we did, but that almost makes it worse" Derek had told the confused teens who all appeared lost except for Allison and Lydia.

"You think their defeat will have repercussions" Allison stated as she leaned forward, clearly understanding the situation. "By defeating two major foes, people will take notice."

"Not to mention Stiles' new power" Lydia added looking thoughtful. "Lizzie told us some things while we were creating the crime scene."

"What did she tell you?" Isaac asked the red head looking very uncomfortable.

Lydia paused and glanced at Peter who only nodded for her to continue. "She told us that Stiles'…transformation…would be felt, well, everywhere. Magical beings would have felt something and the more powerful ones would have felt it more strongly. She warned us that the Nemeton had been acting as a Beacon for the supernatural world, but with Stiles becoming what he has, well she compared it to the difference between a campfire and a lighthouse."

"So it's an even bigger beacon and we are about to be invaded?" Erica demanded in surprise looking around and seeing the concern on Derek, Peter, Allison, and Lydia's faces. "How bad is it going to get?"

"She couldn't say for certain" Peter said into the shocked silence. "Not all who would be drawn will be harmful or a threat, in fact the more secure our dear Stiles becomes in his power, the less the threat will be. There might be some who seek to test themselves or challenge him for the glory, but most magical creatures will recognize his power."

"She said it would be like it is with her when she is fully the Morgaine" Lydia added. "Beings recognize her and only the truly foolish or desperate would challenge her power, but inevitably some will. Especially since very few will truly understand what Stiles is. Some more ancient powers will remember the last Arcanist and may come to evaluate him for themselves."

"What kind of powers?" Jackson asked his girlfriend.

"She didn't know for certain, just that we should be on guard and prepared" Lydia said with a frown. She had pressed the other woman but Lizzie still managed to put Lydia more than a little off balance though she hated to admit it. Her new status was still uncertain but the overwhelming nature of the Queens and the Morgaine was enough to make even the formidable Ms. Martin pause.

"The fact is that we have a warning from someone we can trust that others will come for one reason or another and we need to be prepared" Derek said cutting off the side conversations. "While not everything that comes will be a threat, we still need to know what we are dealing with."

"Isn't Stilinski supposed to be able to sense them?" Jackson asked and several of the pack looked at him in surprise. "Didn't Lizzie say that he was sensing another pack this morning? I mean shouldn't he know if something comes?" he asked again and Lydia looked at him proudly.

"He will, eventually, but things are too chaotic right now" Lydia clarified. "Until things settle down and he learns about his new abilities, he could easily miss things."

"How long until then?" Isaac asked before anyone else.

"At least a year" Peter provided and smirked at the shocked looks of the rest of the pack. "I don't think you truly grasp how much everything has changed" he said shaking his head in disappointment.

"But why so long?" Scott asked, his concern for Stiles clear in his voice.

"His territory is not settled. Lizzie said that he currently has reached over a hundred miles in every direction, but she would not be surprised if he didn't expand several times that. The historical Merlin's territory encompassed all of Britain and Wales. That is nearly half the size of California, so figure something close to that."

Everyone looked stunned at that. "So if he keeps adding territory, then the people and things in those spaces…" Scott trails off looking nervously at Allison.

"They will feel it and have a sense of where it's coming from. Some packs or creatures may not appreciate it either" Derek tells them.

Everyone looks determined after that. The rest of the meeting is spent coming up with a patrol plan rotating among the pack. Derek immediately rules that couples, while being allowed to patrol together, are not going to be exclusive. He wants everyone to get experience patrolling with other pack members. Erica was disappointed but after some maneuvering she was with Boyd every fourth or fifth patrol, so it wasn't too bad.

RETURN TO PRESENT

"Okay fine" Erica finally admits as they stop at the top of a rise that looks over Beacon Hills. Boyd had managed to evade her while running patrol for the last couple of miles but he had stopped at the rise to admire the view. "I know why, but shouldn't we have sensed something? I mean there has been no trace of anything" she complains.

Boyd is about to respond when the wind shifts and all of sudden he smells something. Something he doesn't recognize but that makes the hairs on his body stand up. He is being watched! Glancing at Erica he can see that she is reacting the same and he catches her eyes and glances behind them. She turns around, inhaling deeply, but she shakes her head sharply. She didn't recognize it either. "You asked for something" Boyd whispers and smiles at the sudden flash of golden eyes from the she-wolf as she fully shifts into her beta form, Boyd following suit immediately after.

"This way!" she growls and takes off in the direction of the scent. Boyd races after but he is struggling to keep up. He realizes that she must have let him win earlier. While he was stronger than she was, it seems that the blonde was faster, maybe as fast as Isaac or Jackson, both of whom usually won the various races they did for training.

Erica however was focused. She feels her fellow Beta behind her, protecting her from that direction, and allowing her to direct all of her energy and attention to attempt to find out where that scent was coming from. She knows that she is moving quietly, they both were, but there was definitely something making noise ahead of her so she narrows in on that sound and accelerates.

The smell increases for a moment before the rhythm of its movements increase as well and it starts pulling away from them. She snarls. What the hell was this? She tries to push harder but she is nearing her limits when she senses Boyd moving off to the right. Understanding his plan instantly she moves left as they attempt to flank their prey.

Boyd ran as fast as he could. He had chosen the slightly easier path knowing he needed it to keep up while Erica was able to dodge the trees and roots faster than he could. He had picked up the noise as well, but it made no sense. One moment it sounded like one person running, the next it was two, and then back again. And the sound varied as well. He could hear the solid impact with the ground, but there was nothing else. No broken twigs or leaves, no sound that something running should have made. Even Erica and he were making more noises than it was right now. They had sacrificed silence for speed.

As he makes another turn, he finds himself dropping down a sharp incline as the ground dropped around him. He slows to find his footing and growls in inspiration. Rearing back he lets out a howl. Loud and long, as he calls to his pack. He hears Erica's howl in reply, but none of the rest. That's okay, he knows that they heard him and are coming, Derek for sure. Taking off again he tries to move to intercept their prey.

Erica had responded to Boyd's howl with a joyful one of her own before sprinting forward again. She caught a momentary glimpse of white before the sound she was tracking suddenly stopped. She frowns but realized that it probably was exhausted. Trying to outrun two wolves was not easily done. She hears Boyd moving as they both converge on the last location when she spots a flash of white in her peripheral vision. She slows to look again but doesn't see anything when she hears that rhythm again… but it's behind her!

Slamming to a stop she spins around and sure enough, the sound is now coming from where she just was and moving away, back towards the rise. Snarling she takes off just as Boyd bursts into view, confusion and frustration clear on his face. "How'd it get behind us?" he asks her but she just growls and takes off with him running after.

They run for several minutes before Boyd realizes that they are moving in a different direction. "We are heading towards the Hale house" he gets out and hears Erica's acknowledgement. He had seen a flash of white, almost like a light when they passed through a small clearing, but it was gone in an instant and Erica's growls of frustration only increases.

Another few minutes and suddenly a much louder and deeper roar shakes the trees in the Preserve. Derek! Erica and Boyd both smile and increase their speed but once again the sound disappears. It is only a few seconds before they burst into the open directly behind the house where Derek, Jackson, and Isaac are wolfed out and running towards them.

"What's wrong" the alpha demands as the two exhausted betas almost collapse to the ground. Peter comes up with Scott, Allison, and Lydia right behind him. Unlike the others, Peter was fully human though you could see the tension in his shoulders.

Erica gasps in air for a few seconds before she begins explaining what had happened. The two betas trade off on the explaining while the rest listen carefully.

"So you didn't see it?" Allison asks looking deeply into the woods, the arrow in her hand already firmly in the bow though it wasn't yet drawn.

"No. Only a couple flashes of light" Boyd tells her.

"I think it was white actually" Erica contradicts and the two of them began arguing but neither was 100% certain.

"What about tracks?" Isaac asks and Derek smiles. Ordering them into three teams, Derek sends Erica, Scott, Allison, and Peter one way while he took Boyd, Isaac, Jackson, and Lydia the other. They would look for tracks, scents, or anything else. Neither Derek nor Peter had ever heard of something that could go silent like that before.

They reconvened at the Hale House two hours later looking much worse for wear and thoroughly confused. There had been nothing. Not a single track or sign of anything moving in the woods. None of the wolves could detect any scents that shouldn't have been there and neither Erica nor Boyd could describe it other than 'sharp, crisp, and foresty' which did not go over well with Peter.

Deciding that without any kind of evidence, they couldn't make any assumptions, despite Jackson's assertion that they were basically on a snipe hunt. Peter had snorted at that and both he and Derek had shared a meaningful look. Sending young wolves on similar hunts had been a tradition in the Hale pack and both Peter and Laura had done it to Derek when they were kids. Derek sent everyone home to sleep but advised them to keep an eye out. It might have been nothing, but in Beacon Hills, those odds were never good.

BEACON HILLS SHERIFF'S OFFICE

Tara turned off the engine of her patrol car and sighed. The last week had been rough with the Feds here and causing all sorts of issues for the Sheriff, and adding to that the sliminess of Agent Rafael McCall and his constant efforts to undermine the Sheriff had the entire department on edge. She really doesn't get the man, how does he not see that rather than everyone respecting him, the entire department would cheerfully push him off a cliff and she is fairly certain that most of his fellow agents would do the same.

Shaking her head she grabs the box of pastries from Celeste's along with the extra coffees she had picked up for the station. One not so subtle sign that the deputies were done with the feds had been the rather passive aggressive coffee and food situation. Every day a different deputy had brought in something and after the first day, it was very clear that any food brought by the station was for Beacon Hills Sheriff's Office staff only. Of course Tara had made sure that the agents had gotten a taste on that first day and somehow none of them had figured out where Celeste's was so it was driving them crazy.

Of course, the fact that most of the agents realized that the tension between the two departments was due to McCall didn't hurt either.

Tara had also managed to convince the others to cover for the Sheriff so that Stiles wouldn't know he had been cheating. While she had gone along with the teen most of the time, she figured that Sheriff Stilinski deserved some exceptions during the week they have been having.

Walking in to the station she was caught off guard by the scene before her. The feds were packing up!! Looking around she spotted Parrish and Rodriguez standing off to the side. Moving over there she slid up next to them. "What's going on?" she asks Jordan and he smiles professionally before it becomes a real smile when he spots the coffee and pastries.

"It seems that there has been a number of sightings of the suspects. Someone passed them leaving Beacon Hills about a week ago, and they had just gotten several tips that they were in Los Angeles before another came in from a trucker who had just come up from San Diego. Agent Jones is worried that they are headed for the border.

"So they are moving their outpost?" she prompts and both of the men nod absently. "What about McCall?" she mutters and sees the smiles slip from their faces.

"It seems that Agent McCall is staying to help 'coordinate' things in case there is more information here about the case" Jordan says in a deadpan voice that makes Tara feels ill in her stomach. That man would continue to be a pain in their collective assess.

"Does the Sheriff know?" she asks quietly looking at the deputy. The last several days had been rough, especially after McCall had decided that some of the 'unsolved' cases might be related to their missing serial killers.

Jordan smiled with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "Yes. Apparently we got a rather reliable tip that both Blake and the blind guy were confirmed as being in Denver for several months before coming here. Appears to contradict Agent McCall's 'inspired' investigation. The Sheriff spoke with the district office and expressed his concerns about the diverted resources and time of his deputies chasing after old animal attacks while trying to find two serial killers.

Deputy Graeme felt a burst of pride for her boss. He had been quiet and nothing but cooperative since they had arrived, and he had still participated fully, especially with Agent Jones. Her respect for her boss goes up when she gets that the man was giving McCall all the rope he needed to hang himself and the man had ran with it. Hopefully his continued failure would finally get someone in that office to pull him from here.

Nodding to the two men she headed to the break room to drop off her load when speak of the devil she heard Agent McCall's voice.

"No sir" he said sounding significantly more professional than she had heard him. "I definitely think that using the hospital here would be the best decision. It's close and the department has experience with him so they will be motivated. I can stay and oversee the entire procedure. It would only be for a few days before he would be sent back. The facility is definitely well equipped and staffed to handle all aspects of the treatment."

Tara froze as she concentrated on the man's voice. Though he was trying to appear fully professional, she could hear the glee in his tone. He was up to something, something that did not bode well for the department, but what could he be doing that would involve the hospital?

She moved closer but McCall was walking and he moved far enough away that she lost the conversation and without being obvious about it she couldn't get close enough again. Instead she moved to let the Sheriff know what she heard. Maybe he would have some idea why the FBI would be involved in someone getting medical treatment.

IN STILES' CLEARING IN THE PRESERVE

Stiles scratched his nose trying to focus on his center but wasn't having too much luck with it. He had come out to the circle to see if he could sense anything that fit Erica and Boyd's encounter. Scott had informed him about it but he was skeptical that it actually was something. There was no trace, no scents, and no real sighting of whatever it was and there were not many things that could outrun a pair of wolves. Even Derek hadn't been able to detect anything, but he wasn't willing to write it off as a figment of their imagination. Derek's paranoia had been set on high since returning to Beacon Hills and it seemed whenever he tried to lower it, he got smacked in the face so Stiles had to admit that he had cause.

Stiles snorted as he thought about that, especially in light of the dinner at casa Stilinski. Derek had come over for dinner as invited and it was about as awkward as he had dreaded. His dad had been perfectly polite, dangerously so.

FLASHBACK TO THE STILINSKI HOUSE

"Hey" Stiles had said nervously when he opened the door and saw Derek standing there. He had been surprised by the Alpha's appearance. Instead of his trademark leather jacket, tight jeans, and t-shirt, he had dressed like a regular person. He was wearing soft Henley with thumbholes in a rich plum, dark enough for Derek but with enough color to confirm it wasn't black. A pair of dark jeans, respectably fitted and boots completed the outfit. He had lost the serial killer vibe but Stiles was certain that any number of Beacon Hills' housewives would definitely give this Derek a second and third look.

Derek had paused and looked at Stiles who blushed at the scrutiny. He would never admit that he had changed outfits about a dozen times and he had made certain that his father was sufficiently threatened with a new vegan lifestyle if the man embarrassed his son. The threat of a wheatless, sugarless, vegan carob cake was enough to make the tough Sheriff pale in horror. He had ended up with red chinos, white vans, and a black button up shirt that showed he was serious about this night. "You look…good" Derek finally manages and Stiles blushes again.

"Thanks" the young man replies before inviting the Alpha inside. They move to the living room just as the Sheriff steps back inside from the patio.

"I hope steak is okay" he says happily looking at his son who is definitely not pouting. Stiles had agreed to let his father pick the menu and despite him taking completely unfair advantage, Stiles had managed to get a salad and corn on the cob to go with the steaks and baked potatoes that the Sheriff had selected. "Rare?" he asked and ignored the eye roll from his son

"Medium Rare please" Derek said and handed a bag to the sheriff who looked a bit surprised but he took it and pulled out the bottle inside.

Noah's eyes widened when he saw the writing on the bottle. "Glenfiddich! A 21 Year single malt?" Noah looked up in surprise at the young man standing there. "This is very generous" he tells him.

"It was my father's favorite" Derek's voice was soft and there was a vulnerableness in his bearing that made the older man remember that terrible night when he arrived to find Beacon Hills' most prominent family dead and while the previous Sheriff had managed the scene, deputy Stilinski had spent some time trying to manage two distraught teens whose voices were already raw from grief.

"Thank you Derek" Noah said sincerely and he saw his son move closer to the Alpha, his hand tentatively reaching out to comfort the man so he turned to place the bottle in a safe place before heading back outside.

After the rather emotional beginning, the actual dinner wasn't that bad. The sheriff had asked Derek about his time in New York and both Derek and Stiles were still filling the man in on all the specific incidents in the last year or so. Derek had also shared information from his patrols and Noah had asked if he would be willing to help the deputies in the know with some training. Derek had agreed and Stiles had suggested letting Ally and Scott go first and then when they were a bit more used to it, then bring in Derek. Noah had agreed but everyone agreed that they wouldn't take any actions until the FBI was gone.

By the time dinner was over Stiles was about to snap from waiting for his father to say or do something that would embarrass him to no end, but that didn't actually happen. He said goodnight and left them alone downstairs though Stiles was certain his door was wide open so that he would hear anything.

"Sorry about that" Stiles had offered but Derek had shrugged it off.

"Actually, he handed it pretty well considering" Derek said looking more relaxed than he had all evening. "He could be angry about everything" he reminds the teen.

"According to dad he told you to do it" Stiles challenges and sees the discomfort on the Alpha's face.

"He didn't really understand…" Derek stared but Stiles cut him off with a snort.

"He may not have understood everything that happened that night, but he knew what he was asking. The fact was that there was only two options for him: getting a son-in-law or losing me forever. You saved me and that is a big deal to our family" Stiles' voice was strong and didn't waiver. He looked Derek in the eye and from anyone else the challenge there would have caused his wolf to react but this wasn't a member of the pack or some interloper, this was his mate and he had to accept the truth in his voice and steady heartbeat.

They stayed there for a few minutes before Derek stepped forward and leaned in slowly. Stiles got a smirk on his lips for only a moment before they encountered Derek's own, a quick and soft touch before he stepped back. "Your dad is listening" he whispered and saw the blush on the younger man's face.

Stiles smiled and his eyes glowed for a second as arcane symbols lit up around his hands. "Not anymore, he can't hear anything" he smirked.

The second kiss was longer and left the young man breathless and he would have been willing to do more but Derek pulled back and left slowly, walking to his car while Stiles watched from the porch. He finally drove off and the teen stepped back inside to find his father standing there looking confused.

"What?" Stiles asked innocently.

Noah Stilinski's eyes narrowed and he pointed to his ears and glared. Oops! The lecture he got on using his magic to sneak around with Derek was totally worth it though.