Alpha Yours, Omega Mine

Alpha Yours, Omega Mine: Chapter #8 - Empty?

 POV: Derek

Derek was so restless with every minute that passed after Stiles had left Alpha Yours. When his shift ended, it took everything in him not to go after them.

Erica came downstairs and noticed him still sitting at the front desk. "Mr. Hale?"

Derek looked up and let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. "Yes, Ms. Reyes?"

She walked over to the desk and shook her head. "Derek, you do realize that you can call me Erica, right? But that's not important right now. I wanted to ask what you thought about Alpha Ryan?"

Derek barely managed to contain the growl he was dying to let out at the mere mention of the other alpha's name, but he wasn't able to stop his eyes from flashing crimson red.

Erica tilted her head and then nodded. "That's how I felt too. I figured something didn't sit right with you when I received your text."

Derek nodded and took deep breaths until his eyes went back to normal. "Yes. Nothing about him sits right with me. I almost stopped them, but I was fixing a wire to one of the cameras and by the time I got back up here, they were already getting into the car."

Erica watched Derek's demeanor as he spoke. "Well why didn't you?"

At her boss's quirked brow, Erica said, "Why didn't you stop them?"

The boss looked down and cleared his throat. "I simply didn't trust my judgment considering I could be biased or paranoid." Derek didn't want to talk about it anymore after giving his reply. It just made his heart hurt more when he realized how desperately he wished he could change his answer.

The camera thing didn't sit well with him at all, and he wondered if it was connected to Stiles in some way. He didn't voice this theory though, especially without any proof behind it. Also, as far as the omega was concerned, Derek believed any and all feelings were one sided at this point. He didn't exactly have proof that the camera wire tampering was actually connected. Neither he nor Erica said much else except to bid each other goodbye in the underground parking garage.

Derek decided to take a longer route home this evening than the usual one. He needed some time to think. He didn't know how long he drove, too lost in his thoughts to pay much attention to the passage of time but eventually, he found himself pulling up to his loft. When he checked the clock on his dash, he realized he had arrived home after what was probably two or three hours longer than it normally took him.

As he walked inside after parking, he looked around his loft feeling unmoored and bereft. Shaking his head at his melancholy mood, he grabbed a microwave dinner, and stuck it in the microwave. While it heated up, he grabbed a coke and took a seat on his couch. Once he retrieved the heated meal, he relaxed further into the sofa.

He turned on the TV in the hopes that he could get out of his head for a while just like he had while he drove. However, Derek soon found that he, in fact, couldn't get out of his head. It seemed an impossible feat. No matter how hard he tried, the only thing that was in his mind and playing on a loop was...Stiles. Mate. Stiles. Soulmate. Stiles. Stiles. STILES.

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During the week that Stiles was staying with Alpha Ryan, Derek grew more and more anxious, especially when Stiles missed the mid-week check in with the company. Erica had sent Derek a text informing him of this fact, and it took all of Derek's willpower not to go over there and carry Stiles far away.

He spent hours trying to distract himself by cleaning his loft until it looked like no one had ever lived there. He got groceries and stocked his entire kitchen with everything he could think of. He went for his usual morning runs, but then began adding in an afternoon run. Pretty soon he even took evening runs and that meant that he was running three times a day.

When Stiles still had not checked in by Thursday, Derek ran to the preserve. As soon as he got there, there was no more fighting it and he shifted. He threw himself into the tall grass, biting back a snarl and a howl. Derek was one of only a handful of born wolves that could still fully shift into a wolf, and he rarely did so but his wolf was itching to get out and run.

Derek's wolf rolled around in the grass, growling happily, and almost purring. That alone let Derek know that it had been too long since he had done this. He spent the afternoon there and, for a brief period of time, he was able to let his fears about Stiles slip to the back of his mind.

When he shifted back and made his way back to his loft, however, that changed. As he stepped into the loft, a loft that he had now called home for a few years, he felt like he'd been punched in the gut.

Tears swelled in aventurine eyes, taking him by surprise. Derek rarely cried. He couldn't even remember the last time he had actually done so, but as he looked around the loft, he couldn't hold back his tears. He realized that this was home, but Derek wanted and needed more than an empty loft to come home to. He wanted a mate and all that it entailed.

He looked at his unused fireplace that could be roaring while he and his mate cuddled on the couch in the dead of winter. He looked at his kitchen that he had stocked with enough food to last him a year or more. His eyes flicked to his bedroom that housed a queen bed that was big enough for two. His head shifted to look toward his bathroom that contained a full shower where he could draw a bubble bath. Without meaning to, Derek had essentially gone all out to make his home ready for a mate, a mate he did not have, and it was like a knife to the gut to acknowledge that fact.

As he scanned the entirety of his home, he knew that it would never be home without a mate. It would never be home without his mate. Never would it ever be home without...Stiles. His wolf chimed in with the name and for the first time since discovering the connection he had felt with Stiles, Derek agreed with his wolf. Stiles was what he needed for this loft to be a home.