Chapter Text
THUD! THUD!
Leaning against the kitchen counter, Derek Stilinski-Hale stared at the ceiling of the kitchen for a moment before going back to sipping his coffee while reading his I-Pad promptly ignoring the frantic running around and swearing coming from above. He was checking the weather and finalizing a few details for a meeting he had later in the afternoon once his husband was off work as the Alphas of Beacon Hills. The meeting shouldn’t be too pressing or lengthy, but with their lives, meeting out in the Preserve should always be handled with a grain of salt.
The serene darkness of the early morning was trampled to oblivion as rampant running scurried about upstairs of the house, down the stairs and coming to an abrupt stop as his 19-year-old sons, Ethan and Aiden, crashed into each other as they attempted to not look guilty for causing a ruckus as their Papa leveled an even glare at them.
Derek took a moment to scan the twins. Ethan was dressed in khakis and an olive green short sleeve Henley underneath his black motorcycle jacket while Aiden had on dark blue jeans and a white v-neck with his brown leather jacket to top it off. They had their backpacks strapped to their backs and their lacrosse sticks poking out the bottom. Derek only raised an eyebrow. “Coach calling you two in early?”
Ethan and Aiden took this as a sign of approval. Or at least not one of reprimand. No need to get punished on their first day of their senior year.
The twins made quick work of throwing together a breakfast relatively quickly. Aiden popped open the fridge and yanked out the orange juice and milk while Ethan was pulling out two glasses from the cupboard and then going to the bread basket to rummage out four blueberry almond muffins Stiles had made in the morning. Ethan slid a cup and two muffins to his brother on the opposite side of the island counter as Aiden slid over the milk. Derek watched his sons as they both took a huge bite out of the enormous muffins while they poured their respective drinks into their cups in perfect sync. It was these moments that were amusing to see the twins living up to the whole twin mythos, at least until Ethan choked and cough a spray of muffins all over the island counter. Derek gently, but quickly, put down his I-pad and smacked his son on the back. “Would you slow down already before you kill yourself? What in the world has you two going bonkers this morning?”
Aiden drank down his orange juice and almost slammed the cup down too hard. “Sorry Papa, can’t talk! Coach called an emergency meeting for us bout the team! Come on dumbass!” Aiden grabbed the back of Ethan’s bag and dragged him outside while his twin still coughed and gave his Papa a confused look before the garage door closed on his face. A moment later and the sound of the twins’ motorcycles were gunning away.
“Did the terrors leave?”
Derek looked over to see Liam, his 16-year-old son looking decidedly grumpy and disheveled, standing in hallway to the kitchen. He padded into the kitchen bleary eyed before he face planted into Derek’s chest. After a moment, a grunt from his torso had Derek smiling as he put down the coffee to the side with the I-pad before he wrapped his arms around his son who just sighed in the embrace as Derek bent forward and nuzzled his face into his youngest son’s hair, scenting with warmth and affection. The blond Beta was on the shorter side compared to the rest of the family, but he still did have some time to grow yet. He was certainly filling out more than either Aiden or Ethan were at his age. Derek chuckled as he felt arms slowly wrap around his waist before Liam looked up at him. “Mornin’ Papa.”
“Morning pup.”
Liam buried his face into Derek’s chest again. “Papa…”
Laughing softly and rubbing Liam’s head, Derek felt contentment wash over him. “Still not sorry.” That was a lie, in a way. The days passed and his pups were growing up. Ethan and Aiden both were already finalizing their decisions on where they were going for college soon and his youngest was on the cusp of being that decision as well in a few years. Derek ached that he didn’t have more time with his sons.
Liam huffed into his chest once but his arms still hugged him tight. Derek returned the squeeze before lifting his face away from the blonde head. “Dad left blueberry almond muffins this morning. Did you want those or I could whip up something else?” Another non-verbal grunt had Derek chuckling as he pulled Liam’s face away. “I’m going to need some sort of talking, son.”
“Muffins are fine. What’s that?”
Derek looked over to the island counter and noticed two bags sitting suspiciously where Ethan and Aiden had been sitting. He let Liam go and looked inside. Clothes. A whiff confirmed clean clothes and Derek smirked as he shook his head. “You’re brothers left their fresh clothes for after lacrosse. Bring it to them?”
“Ugh.” Liam flopped into the chair of the kitchen table. “Do I have to?”
“I didn’t ask you to give them a kidney.” Derek had ambled over and collected Ethan and Aiden’s mess at the island counter before getting Liam breakfast. The young wolf grumped a moment before he bit into the muffins placed in front of him and hummed with his mouth full. After a moment, Liam nodded to Derek in another non-verbal cue he had learned over the years from his son. “How is it Dad can get you to agree to anything even when he isn’t here?”
“Because you aren’t the crazy parent.” Liam happily munched on his muffin some as he glanced at his Papa.
Derek quirked an eyebrow. “Ok, so how does the muffin relate to crazy?”
“A reminder of Tato’s crazy cooking skills and the inherent threats of being on a diet like Dzadiku until I graduate. I still remember what happened to you two years ago.”
Raised eyebrows and a thoughtful frown had Derek being reminded of the one time where his mate had followed through with a threat of only cooking green food for a solid month for the Alpha Wolf. It was one of the most miserable experiences of Derek’s life especially since Stiles still cooked normally for their sons and told (bribed) the rest of Beacon Hills to not serve Derek anything other than a pre-approved menu and list of green food. To the last restaurant and store, no one was sympathetic to the wolf. “Well, don’t forget: I want all three of you home after practice tonight. We have pack duties to attend to and your dad and I want you guys there to be part of it.”
Liam munched on the muffin a moment. “Diplomatic stuff I’m guessing?”
Derek smiled. “Right. Dad and I think it best to have you guys there as assurance to the other party of our peaceful intentions. Remind your brothers when you drop off their stuff.”
The young wolf nodded along. Shouldn’t be too hard.
<~~~~~>
SCREEEECCCHHHH!
Liam Stilinski-Hale looked up to see a cherry red Corvette swing sharply around the corner of the Beacon Hills High School Parking Lot. The young wolf raised an eyebrow at the blatant posturing in the expensive car and the flashy color that he was unfamiliar with. Turning back to scrounge around in the backseat of the old and battered blue Jeep, Liam tried to find his brothers’ bag of clean clothes they had forgotten at the house this morning when they ran out of the house after Coach Finstock called them for an “emergency” meeting before this evenings Lacrosse tryouts. Dad cackled from Papa’s phone just as the latter informed the former of Ethan and Aiden ran around pell-mell trying to scramble for all their gear and school stuff. Liam snickered as he had pulled up to school just as his brothers flooded his phone in desperate pleas of bring them the clean clothes they had left sitting at the kitchen counter.
The scent of an unfamiliar wolf had Liam pulling his head out of the Jeep and scanning the entire parking lot for a moment before his eyes locked on the cherry red Corvette. The cherry red Corvette that was hurtling at break neck speed towards him! Liam leapt into the inside of the jeep as the Corvette wailed to a stop in the empty parking spot next to the jeep. Liam glared from backseat as the driver glanced at him and actually smirked behind the overly expensive and gaudy sunglasses. His hair was faded on the sides but had a mess of blonde curls on top. His clothes looked exceedingly expensive, which Liam once again figured was posturing.
Liam hoped out of the jeep as the new wolf killed the engine and stepped out as well. Obnoxiously, Liam found he was much shorter than this new wolf, which really just had his hackles rising. The new wolf took off his sunglasses and once again gave Liam that stupid smirk. “Hi, I’m Brett Talbot. My “family” just moved into town and today’s my first day. Can you show me where the office is? I need to check in and all that crap.”
Eyes narrowing, Liam took a deep breath through his nose and held it, mouthing the Pillars to himself to sooth his wolf. It wouldn’t do well for him to get into a scuffle on the first day of school as well. First day of high school at that, especially when he has the shadows of his older brothers to deal with. The young wolf looked the newcomer up in the eye and growled, “I’ll take you there after I drop something off at the locker rooms to the lacrosse coach.”
Brett preened. “Awesome! I needed to stop by there too! I’m going to tryout tonight as well. I’m a shoe in really. I heard this year the team is being headed by two co-captain wolves, should be a cake walk for me.”
Liam scowled once again. “Don’t be too sure of that.” Turning back to finally snatch the recently located bag, Liam slammed the jeep shut and proceeded to briskly walk into the school, Brett easily loping along given his ridiculously long legs to Liam’s quickened pace. He should have just blown off Brett, rather than have to listen how not-so-humble he was about his pack and all his good points. Taking a moment to break into the monologue that was Brett Talbot’s Amazing Talents of Jegna, Liam pointed down a hall they passed. “Office is down that way.”
Brett nodded to Liam and began a new discourse, but Liam tuned out the blowhard for a few minutes before they made it to the locker rooms. He turned to the shorter wolf and smirked again. “Thanks for showing me the way. I didn’t catch your name before.”
Liam almost rolled his eyes. “I never tossed it. It’s Liam Stilinski-“
Brett laughed, cutting Liam off. “What kind of name is “Stilinski” supposed to be? There’s no pack like that in town. My parents researched this town before we moved and there aren’t any wolves that go by that name.”
Giving Brett a flat stare, Liam swept into the locker room without a word. The place was empty, which meant Coach and his brothers were probably in Coach’s classroom instead of his office. Liam plopped the bundle on Coach’s desk and began to turn towards the classroom door before he was hitched up by the scruff of his shirt and thrown across the room into the open showers. A breath escaped as Liam’s back made contact with the tile, but that only lasted a minute before a clawed hand at his throat. Brett’s face came into view, fangs long and a growl rumbling in his throat. “I didn’t give you permission to leave, mutt.”
Liam grabbed at the fingers around his throat as he hissed through his own fangs. “Let me go or you will pay for this.”
Brett laughed in Liam’s face before he slammed the young wolf against the tiles, slightly dazing him and then hurling Liam across the room into the other wall lined with lockers where he bounced off and landed in a pile. The young wolf groaned slightly as Brett smirked and hissed low, “Know your place, you little shit.”
The curly blond wolf strode out of the locker room and down the hallway he had just come from, making his way to the office. He was on an awesome high at this point. His parents had decided that they were going to take over the Beacon Hills territory from the tiny, currently entitled Hale pack. The Hale in question of this territory, not the ones in New York where the pack originated from, was a relatively young Alpha that only had eight wolves helping him hold the territory. Granted, the Hales actually allowed a few other packs to settle in their territory, but they wouldn’t be concerned with defending the land rights and such. The Talbot Pack counted thirty wolves strong; this rich and beautiful land was ripe for the picking from the miniscule and weak Hales.
Brett entered the office and was met by a woman with rather short, fiery orange hair sitting at the receptionist desk. She smiled softly as Brett walked up to her. “Good morning, how can I help you?
Adopting a soft smile, Brett adjusted the bag on his shoulder. “I’m new here so I need my schedule and maybe someone to help me get around?”
The receptionist gives him a knowing nod before she begins to type a few things into her computer. Brett notices the nameplate with “V. Argent” on it before her voice pulls back his attention. “I’m assuming your Brett? The only other new students are girls this year.”
“That’s me!”
“Excellent, let me print this out for you and I’ll page someone to be your guide for the day.” She looked over a list that was hanging off the wall behind her before pulling up the P.A. system. “Coach Finstock, can you send Garrett to the front office please? Thank you.” She turned to Brett and gestured towards an ugly set of couches nearby. “Go ahead and have a seat over there and it should just be a moment and here, you can look this over before Garrett arrives.”
“Thank you!” Brett smiled as he sank into the cushions. They might have been ugly, but they were quite comfy.
About five minutes passed before whom Brett assumed was Garrett walked in. The young man walked up to the receptionist. “Hi, Mrs. Argent, what’s up?”
“New student for you to take around. He’s got most of your classes so shouldn’t be too hard to get him acquainted with the school.”
“Got it, Mrs. Argent.” The handsome blond boy smiled and extended a hand. “Hi, Garrett.”
“Brett.”
“Nice to meet ya. Beacon Hills is pretty laid back for the most part. Aside from certain…staff, it’s pretty chill.”
Brett nodded. “My folks looked things up before moving here. Shouldn’t be too much of a transition.”
Garrett beckoned for Brett to follow him out the office and into the school hallway. Student traffic was picking up considerably although Brett towered over a majority of the academic population. The day passed and it was pretty much what he expected out of the school. Brett and Garrett struck a reasonably easy friendship.
Garrett was slipping off his school clothes and getting into more rugged and well-worn workout clothes with Brett doing much the same in the locker room. “Man, I’m glad you’re trying out for lacrosse. We’ll need someone with your size after the seniors leave this year.”
Brett smirked as he noticed a few other lacrosse prospects looked over at a shirtless Brett and just started packing up as he quickly pulled on a tank. “Should be pretty easy if there are this many spineless guys here.”
The smirk slid from Garrett’s face as he and Brett walked out of the locker room and onto the field. “You should lose that high horse you’re sitting on. The captains don’t allow that kind of attitude on the team. Anyone acts like that, they don’t make the team or they get kicked out. The captains have the Coach’s ear when it comes to this kind of thing.”
Brett snorted. “Like they’ll leave me off the team. I’m a wolf after all, I’m going to be so much better than any other prospect they see. Hell, there was some little mutt this morning that got disrespectful with me when he showed me the locker rooms so I put him in his place. Bet the kid whined all the way home.”
Garrett actually stopped between the bleachers and grabbed Brett. “THAT WAS YOU?! Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! I’ve been with you all day! I’ve probably got your scent on me! FUCKFUCKFUCK!”
Wide eyes took in the freaked out teen. “What the hell-“
Garrett yanked out of Brett’s reach. “Get away from me!” Brett watched as Garrett sprinted away towards the crowd of people on the field.
Brett scowled as he made his way to the center of the field as well. This was certainly not what he expected out of his friend Garrett. He had been warm and inviting the entire day. Now it seemed he was distancing himself. Whatever, he was obviously another joke of a jock if that was his attitude. A shrill whistle broke through Brett’s train of thoughts.
Coach Finstock was in a bright orange shirt and blue athletic pants as he paraded in front of the assembled mass of men. “Alright you little princesses! Welcome to tiny version of Hell! Today, you will be trying out for the prestigious honor of being part of MY state championship team! Those of you who were on the team last year I’ve decided to be lenient and spare you all the necessity that is trying out so go stand over there. You’ll be helping run drills and such instead of being judged.” A collective sighed rose as a few of the guys shuffled out of the crowd as the Coach turned back to the rest. “As for you all, you will be in the personal care of my two co-captains for the rest of the evening. Me, I’m going to be circling and watching, like a vulture! Ready to pick out anyone that isn’t making the scruff I expect out of championship material!”
A voice had everyone in the crowd turning to their left. “Coach, vultures are carrion cleaners, they don’t actually dive bomb and hunt. They eat things already dead.” Standing near the goal stood one the co-captains and keystone to the team, dressed with a red practice jersey on.
The other twin sat on the ground stretching his limbs in a closed straddle position, his face glancing up at the group from the ground between his own out stretched legs. “And we were the ones that convinced you to just try out the newbies because we’d be here all night with how many sign ups we had. Remember? When you called us this morning for that ‘emergency’ meeting we had to have before the ass crack of dawn?”
“Besides,” the twins now speaking in stereo, “we both know you’re not helping with drills because you can’t keep up with us.”
Coach silently glared at the twins, who smirked back at him before he turned back to the crowd before him. “Those two jokers are your Captains but don’t actually listen to them. Just listen to me and you’ll be fine.”
“We can hear you and-”
“-are not above purposefully-”
“-sabotaging our chance-”
“-for another state title.”
The coach watched all the new prospects in the crowd bounce their eyes from twin to twin as they spoke in that weird speaking together thing. “You both know I hate it when you do that.”
Brett for his part smirked from the back of the crowd as the twins smiled wide at getting the coach’s goat, at least until he heard another, familiar voice pipe up. “You should try living with them, Coach.”
Coach Finstock turned sympathetic eyes towards the front of prospects. “I can only imagine what you go through kid having those two as older brothers.”
Two voice in stereo cried out, “Hey!”
Brett still couldn’t see who spoke, but he knows he heard that voice before. “Eh, papa still scares us and dad would literally throw is in a cell if we put a toe out of line. It’s not as bad as you’re probably thinking.”
“Remind me again which ones you guys refer to as ‘dad’ and ‘papa’.”
“Dad is the one you had as a student way back, papa isn’t from Beacon Hills.”
Coach nodded once. “Got it.” Turning to his captains again, he started barking orders. “Ok, you two get things rolling. I’m going for an Arnold Palmer.”
With that, Coach Finstock strolled off to the bleachers, leaving the crowd of wannabe lacrosse players staring as the co-captains sauntered their way to the crowd. Both were long limbed and brawny, fierce countenance and arms crossed; there was an almost audible gulp from the group as the twins stood before the young men. The twin in blue took a slight step forward. “Ok guys, Second string defenders! I want you guys near the bleachers. Second string attackers! Near the south side goal! Second string midfield! North side goal! You guys will be running the drills at each location.”
The twin in red stepped next to his brother. “First string, same positions, same locations! You’re job will be to evaluate anyone you think has merit to be on the team. Send them to us here in the middle and we’ll evaluate further. You know what to look for by now.”
The returning players all dashed to their designated positions around the field as the twins turned to the group. Brett smugly nodded at the command the co-captains had with the team. He approved of these twos. The twin in red pointed to someone at the front of the group. “Dlaczego stoisz tam?”
"Ponieważ nie jestem oficjalnie częścią zespołu, głupi."
Brett scowled not understanding the conversation, but the co-captain just shook his head. “Wiesz, już rozmawiałem z trenerem o tobie. Powiedział, że nie masz do wypróbowania, biorąc pod uwagę, byłeś w praktyce z nami przez te wszystkie lata i wiemy, jak dobrze grasz.”
“Nie widzę, że jest bardzo fair w stosunku do innych potencjalnych graczy.
The twin in blue rolled his eyes but then reached out and apparently rubbed the speaker’s head affectionately. “Dobrze, cokolwiek powiesz braciszka.”
“Hey! Stop messing with my hair!”
The twins laughed before dividing everyone up into three groups and sending them off to different locations on the field. At least everyone but Brett, who stayed behind in the middle of the field with the twin captains. The one in blue jersey assessed him a moment before asking with a raised eyebrow, “Something we can help you with?”
Brett grinned. “You don’t really want me to try out do you?”
The twins shared a glance. “And why wouldn’t we?”
The grin held its place on Brett’s face. “I’m sure you guys could smell me. I’m a wolf, I’m gonna be ten times better than everyone out there.”
Both twins narrowed their eyes in unison as the twin in red spoke up. “Being a wolf doesn’t automatically make you a good athlete.”
The twin in blue nodded. “Or automatically better than humans.”
A snort had all three turning to the side. Brett’s eyes fell on the young wolf he had dealt with in the earlier in the morning. A snarl escaped his lips as he realized the voice he heard earlier talking to the twins was none other than this welp. “What are you doing here, you mangy mutt? Didn’t I put you in your place already?”
Two deep growls had Brett turning back to the co-captains and he was met with cool blue eyes boring into him, fangs gnashing and claws at the ready. “You did what to him?”
Brett flinched and took a step back while the young wolf smirked. The young wolf, whose name he had totally forgotten after leaving him in the locker room, stepped in front of the twins. His blond spiked hair reached the twins’ shoulders as he crossed his arms and had a shit-eating grin framed with cool blue eyes as well. “So jackass, I’d like to introduce my big brothers, Ethan and Aiden Stilinski-Hale.”
The blood drained from his face as Brett swallowed down the panic rising in his throat. “Stilinski-Hale?”
The littlest wolf shrugged. “Dad and papa hyphenated.”