All Hale the King (Sterek)(Hale Twins)

A better Derek

Gage opened the door to the pack house. He stepped inside and waited for the barrage of questions. What he didn't expect was to be met with silence.

"Hey, guys," Stiles grinned, his tone as chipper as usual. He gave nothing away of the past hour's events; the only evidence was the cut on Stiles' head which couldn't be seen under the chestnut strands.

"What did you guys do? I got a call from my mom a few minutes ago, the succubus victims all woke up." Scott looked from his best friend to the alpha.

"Gage killed her," Stiles answered with a nonchalant shrug. He smiled at the twin. 

"That was quick work, you guys weren't even gone two hours," Allison crossed her arms. 

"I'm sorry, should that have taken longer?" Stiles snarked, looking to the huntress. The packs attitude towards Gage was beginning to really bother him. It should have been obvious by now that Gage wasn't Derek.

"Derek usually assessed the situation first before making a snap decision." Scott frowned slightly at Stiles.

"Yeah, well Derek was a shit alpha. Gage actually listens to Stiles so obviously something was handled properly, for once," Malia snapped.

"Derek wasn't a shit alpha, he did everything he could to protect this pack," Isaac argued. It was obvious he didn't like when anyone bad mouthed Derek, despite everything, Derek was still the one who turned him, and he would always remain loyal.

 "I didn't have anything to do with this. I just tagged along. Gage handled it, all on his own," Stiles said as he shrugged out of his jacket.

"Is that blood?" Liam asked noticing the red stain on Stiles' hood.

"The succubus threw me into a tree," Stiles shrugged, "Nothing serious." 

Gage looked at Stiles with curious eyes. He managed to tell the lie effortlessly, his heart didn't skip or sputter. 

Lydia frowned, "That's it." 

The pack turned to the strawberry blonde with confused looks.

"Whenever Derek was alpha, his number one priority was protecting everyone, not handling the problem. By the time he had everyone safe the threat was gone again. Derek couldn't actually handle the threat because he didn't allow others to get hurt. Stiles would never have gotten hurt if it had been Derek with him, but the succubus would also still be alive. Derek wasn't a shit alpha, he was a different alpha," Lydia explained.

Malia snorted, "Sounds like he had his priorities wrong."

"What is your problem? You didn't even have an emotional attachment to Derek, why do you hate him so much?" Stiles snapped. He didn't know why he was feelings so irritable about the topic, usually he could ignore it.

"You're not even a werewolf, why did you have such an emotional attachment to Derek? You shouldn't have given two shits about him. Yet you still defend him," Malia snapped back.

"Because, I trusted him. I don't do that easily," Stiles answered harshly.

"You sure trusted Gage easily," Malia sneered.

"Look, you don't have to like him, but he's done nothing wrong and he's an actual alpha who wants to help us, so show a little respect." Stiles snapped once more before stepping past her and further into the house. 

The pack gaped after Stiles. He wasn't one to lash out and yet he'd done so multiple times to the pack since Gage had shown up. He had only acted like that for the week or two right after Derek had left. It seemed Gage being there had stirred up some of that animosity.