Werefox

Chapter Four

 Stiles woke up with a gasp, lurching forwards from where he was lying down before practically falling back down with a groan of pain, staring angrily at his chest as it flashed with pain.

After it subsided, he glanced around, taking in his surroundings. He was on a bed, one of the most comfortable ones he had ever felt; sometime while he was out, someone had put a soft red shirt on him.

He assumed he was in the alpha's room, as it smelled significantly of the man's distinct warm scent.

Stiles sat up, hearing the faint noise of conversation below him, deciding that he should probably go down and thank them, then probably get out of their hair (fur?), as he had troubled them enough.

It took him a few minutes to pull him up and out of bed, and he wondered if he should really go down there at the moment, but he pushed those thoughts aside, deciding he would definitely not be able to leave at that moment, slowly making his way down the tight spiral staircase, sort of glad for the close railings as he could lean on both of them.

He finally made it down the stairs, realizing the conversation he heard wasn't the wolves but a movie playing on a large TV in front of several couches they set up in front of a large wall of windows that told Stiles that it was nighttime.

They hadn't actually taken notice of him yet, so he cleared his throat awkwardly, because he wasn't sure if he could make it to the center of the room where they were all lounging without any support of a railing or wall.

That got them to realize that the fox was finally awake, the alpha quickly standing up from where he was sitting on a plush chair by himself, seeing Stiles' wobbly figure leaning on the rail, his skin slightly pale, taking up a soft grip on the boy's arm and leading him to where he was previously sat, and the alpha instead leaned against the back of the couch where the majority of them sat.

"Are you feeling better?" Isaac asked, breaking the brief silence and making them all feel better, as he was the one who "knew" the boy the best. Stiles cleared his throat, knowing it was still sore and scratchy from misuse, and nodded.

"Yeah, thank you." His voice was hoarse, and he played with his fingers. "Thank you for getting me out."
"Were they hunters?" The Scott boy asked, and Stiles nodded, glad they had a question that he could definitely answer.

"Yeah, they've been after my pack for a few years." Stiles said, frowning at his use of the wrong tense.

"Where's the rest of your pack?" The young boy leaning against the older boy asked, making the bigger one frown at him and mutter something in an annoyed tone as he saw Stiles flinch.

"I'm the last one." Stiles said, trying to stop from lacing his voice with pain but failing. He took a deep breath, looking up as the boy muttered a flustered apology. "What are all your names? Are you all werewolves?"
They looked relieved as he drove the topic towards something much less- well, depressing, the short-haired brunette the first to speak.

"My name is Malia." She began. "I'm a werecoyote, not a werewolf." Stiles nodded, glancing around at the others.

"I'm Theo," The boy who had scolded the younger one spoke next. "This is Liam." Stiles assumed they were together with the way they looked at each other, and the way Liam was sitting on top of Theo's lap.

"My name is Allison." The other brunette girl said, her voice sounded pretty happy, Stiles thought. "I'm not a werewolf, I'm just human."

"I'm Lydia." The strawberry blonde girl next to her said, her voice as confident as the way she carried herself. "I'm a Banshee."

"A Banshee?" Stiles repeated slowly. His mother had told him of people like her, but he had never actually met one of them. She nodded, her eyes flickering to the next person on the couch.

"You're Scott." Stiles said, glancing to the next person, remembering him as the person who helped the doctor out. "Isaac. And Derek." The other two nodded, and Stiles leaned back into the couch, unsure of what to say at the moment.

"Do you want to watch a movie?" Scott offered, gesturing to the paused video on the screen. Stiles looked at it curiously, though he knew what a movie was, he hadn't seen one in ages.

"What's it called?" Stiles asked slowly, not recognizing the frozen picture from what was being displayed on the screen.

"Star Wars." Scott's face broke out into a grin, as if the two words were his favorite thing in the world, but Stiles just frowned.

"I don't think I've ever heard of it." Stiles shrugged, and the other boy making a surprised sound as Isaac grabbed the remote from his hand, pressing play.

"What do you mean you've-" Scott began, his voice breaking off in disbelief. Stiles laughed, actually laughed for the first time since he had been with his pack, making many of them smile, the lilting sound filling up the loft with its pleasant sound.

After the remainder of the movie and about an hour of listening to Allison and Lydia attempting and failing to explain to Stiles that the order of the Star Wars movies meant that the first movie was actually the forth, Derek sent the rest of the pack home, claiming that the boy needed to rest after noticing his head slip off of where it was resting on his fist multiple times, coughs racking his body every so often.

Derek helped Stiles back up to his room, insisting that the injured boy take his bed, as it was much more comfortable than the couch downstairs despite the latter saying that he would be just fine on the couch.

"Why are you helping me so much?" Stiles asked after he finally laid down in the bed, the intoxicating scent of the alpha making him so much more tired than he felt, but continuing his question as he saw Derek look at him unsurely. "You're a wolf, and I'm a fox. We don't match."

"My pack prides itself in helping everyone we meet, even if we aren't predisposed to like them as wolves." Derek said after a moment of calculating his response, giving Stiles a blanket and smiling softly as he muttered a thank you.

"You're a good alpha." Stiles' voice slurred slightly, as he couldn't stay awake any longer, his brown eyes slipping shut as Derek stepped back, watching the fox for a moment before going back downstairs, although he felt a strange feeling as he left the boy alone upstairs.