The Long Way Home

Chapter 4

"You can sense the phases of the moon?" Stiles asked after they had resumed their walk. Once they had pulled apart from each other and regained their composure, Derek had helped the younger man up from their little hiding place and made sure Stiles had himself under control for the moment.

Derek made sure to take the paths less traveled by other wildlife, such as deer, elk, and or moose. He knew that hunters would still be able to track them with their years of experience, but he was damn sure going to make it difficult before they ended up in any sort of confrontation.

"All born wolves can, some bitten can if they work on it, but it's not as accurate." Derek provided.

"Does that mean you can tell if the moon is going to be different?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, remember last month was a lunar eclipse, blood moon, and supermoon. This month also happens to be a supermoon, the biggest so far this year, and there's going to be one next month too." Stiles explained with ease.

"We can't really tell till the moon gets closer to being full, but even then, it's hard to tell how the moon will affect us." The wolf said as he remembers last month, that particular full moon hadn't been fun, all his beta's had pretty much went bat shit, scattering themselves throughout the preserve and the town, it took the help of Stiles, the Argents, and Lydia, to wrangle them all to one house, where they promptly passed out after instigating a pack wrestle in the middle of Stiles' living room, there had been a lot of questions that morning from the sheriff. Derek was just happy that he didn't have to be present for, because that would've raised even further questions that he wasn't to keen on answering after a night like that.

"Since this one is stronger than before, is their anything we should worry about?" Stiles asked as he stepped over a fallen branch.

"No, I might be a little more temperamental then usual beforehand."

Stiles snorted, Derek was always temperamental, he didn't even think the wolf ever stopped being temperamental. "What about during?"

"I'm not sure, the pull will be stronger than before, I'm not sure how much, but it may give us an advantage."

"It's possible." Stiles said as he thought it over, tilting his head from one side to the other. "It's also possible you might fly off the handle with the pack so far away and with all the danger we're in."

The wolf didn't bother to answer, he'd been through supermoons before, but he'd had Laura then and it'd been easy to lose himself with her by his side. Now, he wasn't sure what was going to happen when the moon came.

They walked for a few more minutes, before Derek froze, his body going ridged, the teen stopped right beside him, straining his ears for any kind of sound besides natural wildlife.

"Run!" Derek yelled.

Without any hesitation Stiles broke out into a sprint, Derek running slightly behind, on his left.

Even though Stiles couldn't hear anything from their pursuers, he'd always trust Derek's senses-even more than Scott's. So, he ran, ignoring the building pain, and trying to focus on the path ahead so he didn't trip and end up slowing them down further. Derek had pulled ahead of him, acting as a guide for him, always making sure to steer him away from obstacles that would normally trip him up.

Everything was going fine until Stiles caught something shinning in a tree up ahead, making him slow down, he wasn't sure if Derek had caught it himself; it became clear he hadn't when he kept charging forward.

"Derek!" He chocked out between frantic gasps. "Wait!"

The wolf stopped abruptly, but it was too late, the sound of a cord being snapped rang through the air, followed by the sound of a nylon rope being yanked through what sounded like a pully. Stiles pushed his body harder then he'd ever done before, picking up the pace he'd lost moments ago, and dove for Derek just as the trap sprung.