Looks Can Be Deceiving

Chapter 4

Despite only being with Stiles for a short amount of time, his body is already responding to being so near an alpha, so much so that by the time he reaches his office, he’s sweating.

He tries as best he can to work through it, getting the top priority things done that he can. But by lunch time, he can’t stay any longer and decides that he’ll have to start his heat week earlier than planned. He doesn’t run into Stiles on his way out of the office, thankfully, and by the time he gets home, his brain is starting to cloud.

He undresses, in the hopes that a cool shower might help him enough to be able to eat something before his heat fully takes over, and when he goes to throw his pants in the hamper, Stiles’s card falls out. He picks it up, and the next thing he knows he’s dialing the number on the card. He blames the heat-daze, but really he should be blaming Stiles. It’s his fault he’s even having to deal with going into heat early.

When Stiles answers with a hello, Derek grits out, “This is your fault.”

There’s a brief silence on the other line. “Derek?” Stiles asks, his voice hesitant and worried.

“This is your fault,” Derek says again.

“Derek, are you okay?”

“No,” Derek answers bluntly.

“Shit,” Stiles mutters. “Okay, where are you? I’m sorry. Look, I’ll come wherever. I just finished up at Mahealani’s, in your building. Are you still here?”

“No. I’m at home.”

Stiles pauses. “Do you… If you want me to come help, I will. Do you want me to come over?”

Derek thinks about it, well as much as he can with his heat. He doesn’t really know Stiles, and despite his adamancy that his first time with an alpha be special, he kind of wouldn’t mind if it was with Stiles. He might not know him, but he’s imagined being with him plenty of times. And, who’s to say that it won’t be special or that he can’t get to know Stiles afterwards?

“Yes,” he finally says. “I’d like you to come over.”

“Anything you want, big guy,” Stiles says, a smile evident in his voice.

Derek rattles off his address, and Stiles tells him he’ll be there as soon as he can but he’ll need to pick up some supplies for them first. Before he hangs up he reassures Derek again, telling him everything will be alright and that he’ll take good care of him. The words settle something in his chest, and Derek hangs up pleased and excited to be with Stiles.

If he were in his right mind, he might regret giving Stiles his address, or at the least be angry with himself for being so willing to share his heat with someone he barely knows and who he thought was something else before he actually met him. Of course, with his heat coming on, he’s not in his right mind.