Til The Dawn [Midnights #1] ✓

chapter 18

"All right," Derek started, throwing the wrapper of his sandwich away. "You keep eating. I'll talk."

Stiles nodded once with curly fries still hanging out of his mouth, and then he looked to Scott to see if he was even paying attention. More often than not lately, he wasn't, which made him nervous. The only time that they'd hung out around Derek, he'd been their coach, and he didn't really take kindly to being ignored. Even if there was a good reason, like Scott's existential crisis.

"At some point, you'll need to walk me through exactly what's happened in the last few days, but that can wait," Derek offered. "No matter how you became a werewolf, and we need to figure that out too, you're one now and that's not the most pressing issue. First, we need to make sure you can handle this."

Scott tensed visibly beside Stiles and he reached out to touch his arm. "I get that this is hard for you, but you gotta stop freaking out every time someone says werewolf, okay? You've gotta get used to it at some point."

"Yeah," Scott said, swallowing hard and nodding. "Yeah, okay. I'll try."

He went back to staying focused on his sandwich again, clearly working to stay calm like he promised.

"Look, Scott. I know this is terrifying. It always is when you're bitten and not born," Derek commented.

"Born?" Stiles asked.

Derek nodded. "A werewolf's bite can turn a person. A scratch too, if it's deep enough. But werewolves can also be born to other werewolves. It's simple genetics. My family's been werewolves a long time, so I was born one."

"What do the eyes mean?" Stiles questioned, motioning toward Derek's face. "Scott's are, like, dark yellow or gold. Yours were blue earlier."

"You know, Stiles, I have a whole speech ready here, and you're kinda jumping ahead."

Stiles shrugged and shoved more of his curly fries into his mouth. "I have a natural curiosity. I just can't help myself."

Scott swallowed beside him. "It's okay. I was wondering that too, actually."

Derek ran his hand through his hair and then put his palms flat on the table. Stiles couldn't help it as he got nervous. He was rarely around people whose intentions he couldn't figure out, and with Derek that was always a problem. He kept most of himself hidden. A huge portion, it turned out.

"Okay, fine, we'll skip ahead," Derek conceded. "Eyes. Alphas, like my Uncle Peter, have red eyes. Betas have blue eyes. All other wolves have the yellow eyes." He put a finger up as Stiles opened his mouth again. "Before you ask, Stiles, the colors don't do anything except signify rank. Alphas are stronger than Betas, and Betas are stronger than all other werewolves."

"How do you become an Alpha or a Beta?" Stiles jumped in before Derek could stop him again.

"Born werewolves can be Alphas by blood. But anyone can become an Alpha if they kill one. But I don't recommend that. They're very hard to kill, and it's generally frowned on."

Stiles chuckled, but he couldn't tell if Derek was making a joke or not. His tone made it impossible to tell.

"We'll talk more about rules between werewolves later," he said. "But Betas are designated by the Alpha of a pack. If the Alpha dies for any reason, the Beta automatically becomes the Alpha, unless he was killed by an Omega. Then it sort of skips the Beta."

"And an Omega is the lone wolf, right? That's what you said earlier," Stiles pointed out.

"Yeah. It's not safe to be an Omega. That's why you really need to join our pack, Scott. I just have to talk to Peter first. It's technically his decision, since he's the Alpha."