Til The Dawn [Midnights #1] ✓

chapter 62

Stiles stood in the living room between the Alpha and the Beta, never more confused and alarmed than he was in that moment.

They were standing inches apart, staring at each other. Hard. And breathing pretty heavily too. None of which made any fucking sense. And it had been like that since Stiles had walked his happy little human butt inside, prepared to explain what he'd uncovered regarding the entity that shared the halls of their high school and occasionally enjoyed murdering teachers as a hobby. Things he had assumed both Derek and Peter would find very interesting indeed.

But he was so goddamn wrong.

Stiles, 0. The Universe, 1,202,142.

They were fighting. That was pretty goddamn obvious. For starters, they were both sharing that slightly constipated look that all the Hales wore when they were pissed the fuck off. And it usually told everyone in a five mile radius to stay out of their way, but Stiles wasn't very smart. And he was right in the middle of the world's grumpiest werewolves, for some unknown reason, as they looked like they were about to rip each other's faces off.

And Kate was no help. She was just standing on the other side of them, looking terrified.

"Seriously?" Stiles started. "No one's going to tell me what's going on? I could hear you screaming outside." He put his hands on his hips in exasperation. "I mean, I couldn't hear what you were screaming exactly, but still," he mumbled.

"Go ahead, Alpha," Derek replied menacingly.

Peter scoffed. "You're really not gonna let this go, are you? You're being ridiculous, Derek."

Stiles threw his hands up. "What exactly is the problem?" He turned to Derek. "You don't like Peter being Alpha all the sudden? Is that it? You wanna be Alpha?"

"No, I just don't think it's fair that we can't find our Alpha when we need him," he contradicted, inching closer to Peter. "Like, oh, I don't know... when your teacher was murdered." With each word, Derek raised his voice. And with each octave he reached, Peter stood steadfast, not even flinching. "Or how about when Jackson was sniffing around way too close for comfort? And then you all landed in a detention which nearly got you killed." Another step, another inch. "Who fixed that, huh? Oh, right. That was me."

Stiles forgot just how tall Derek really was until he was like this, towering over everybody else. And that shit was unnerving as hell. Like he never quite stood up to his full height unless he was trying to be intimidating.

Mission fucking accomplished.

"And anytime I ask him where he's been or who he's been with, he has no answer," Derek continued.

"Not fucking true," Peter contended. "You just don't like my answer. Not the same thing, Derek."

Peter's eyes flashed red for a millisecond and Derek put his hand across Stiles' chest, pushing him back a little. But all Stiles could find himself doing was rolling his eyes because angry or not, Peter was always in control. He wasn't going to hurt anybody. Peter was right. Derek was being ridiculous.

"You're acting like a goddamn child right now," Peter accused. "Might this have something to do with a certain someone reappearing in our lives?"

Peter didn't look at Kate when he said it, but that comment wasn't even thinly veiled. He was talking about her. And for the first time since she'd waltzed back into Beacon Hills, Stiles felt vindicated in his strange and seemingly unjustified hatred toward her. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who got a bad taste in their mouth around her.

"She always did have a habit of bringing out the worst in you," Peter contended.

"Whoa, dude. What the..." Stiles ping-ponged back to Peter. "Did you just growl?" Peter shrugged his shoulders as an answer. "I thought we liked Kate."