Sterek Stories - A Collection - I

Anchor - Derek's story

Author's note: I wanted to tell Derek's side of the story of how a certain werefox kept finding its way to his bed. This is exactly that.

Anchor - Derek's story

Derek hasn't seen much of Stiles in the past week. Usually the boy is over at the house more often than not. It's almost a habit for the Alpha to walk in and find Stiles sitting at the kitchen table, doing his homework or leafing through old books that survived the fire. Sometimes he's alone, sometimes the other teens are with him.

Today, his phone rings when he is about to let himself in. His one hand is on the key in the lock, the other brings his phone to his ear. The bag of groceries sits on the mat, next to his feet. He registers the words on the mat. 'Wipe your paws'. A housewarming gift from Stiles.

"Derek, it's Stiles," says Scott on the other end of the line. Why do all his phone calls have to be about Stiles these days?

Scott doesn't wait for Derek to ask what's up. "Coach made us do cross country, you know, in that part of the Preserve behind the school? Stiles... well, Stiles tripped. Tumbled down a bank of leaves. And then he was gone."

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Derek has already turned his back on the door, ready to take off into the Preserve.

"We found his clothes." We meaning the other packmates on the lacrosse team. "I think he changed and ran off."

"Did anybody see?"

Derek can hear Scott shake his head. "We were alone at the time. Coach thinks Stiles went home sick."

"I told Coach he got the shits," Isaac supplies in the background. "He didn't ask any further questions."

Derek is shrugging out of his jacket, ready to change and run off in search of Stiles. "How long ago?"

"About an hour, an hour and a half," Scott answers. Yet before Derek can yell at him for waiting so long to call him, the kid tells him they'd already searched the woods. "We're pretty sure he went to the house. His tracks lead in that direction. And Lydia checked his home, he's not there."

Derek tilts his head up to scent the air. When he walks around the house to the kitchen windows on the side, he picks up a clear, fresh scent.

"You're at home, right?" Scott asks over the phone. "Have you seen him yet?"

Derek watches the messy tracks in the flowerbed beneath the open kitchen window. "I just got home, but he's here. He let himself in through the window."

Inside, there's a track of dirty paws leading from the kitchen to the living room. It circles the armchair in the corner - Derek's spot - before it disappears upstairs. From outside his bedroom he can hear a human heartbeat with a familiar cadence. Stiles is fast asleep.
Derek goes downstairs again to put away his groceries and mop up the muddy paw prints. He sends Scott a text: "Stiles is okay. Bring his clothes."

Scott and Isaac arrive a little later, carrying a plastic bag with Stiles' clothes. There's two sets: his gym clothes with some brown leaves folded up between them and Stiles' normal clothes, probably taken from the locker room. They also brought his backpack. Derek puts the gym clothes in the washing machine for a short cycle, since they smell and look like someone rolled around on the forest floor in them.
He takes the rest of the clothes upstairs, pausing in front of his room. He focuses on the heartbeat inside, making sure Stiles is still asleep. He opens the door quietly, fervently hoping that Stiles at least had the presence of mind to get underneath the covers. Derek is not sure if he can handle the sight of Stiles naked in his bed.
There's muddy paw prints all the way to the bed and dark smears on his sheets. The washing machine will take care of that later. Stiles is curled up deep underneath the covers, his face mostly hidden in Derek's pillow. It's not hard to guess what lured the fox here; the animal was focused on his Alpha's scent and went looking for the spot where it was the strongest. With Derek not present, the animal settled for the second best: his Alpha's bed.