The Spark Within

Chapter 3

Derek and Stiles quickly make their way back to Derek's loft, hands entwined as they run, following the ever increasing howls from the Pack which show no signs of abating.

The Pack are obviously not merely laying in wait for them back at Derek's home, as indicated by the pounding of feet approaching from the other direction.

Ethan is the first to come into sight, skidding to a halt before them, "Derek, Stiles…thank fuck you're ok! We've been going out of our minds" he says, as Isaac, Erica, Boyd and Scott finally catch up to him.

Isaac approaches them somewhat in a rush and launches himself at his Alpha, causing Derek to drop Stiles' hand in order to clutch at the younger man, who buries himself into Derek's chest, breaths hitching in distress. "Der Derek, Derek" he sobs out on a whine, rubbing his face into his Alphas throat to scent and reassure himself. Derek and Stiles share a bewildered yet concerned gaze, as Derek cradles Isaac's head to him, scent marking him in return to soothe his obvious distress.

"Isaac, Isaac hey pup it's ok, I'm right here, what's wrong? What's going on?" Derek speaks softly, worry evident in his voice at what dangers the Pack may be now facing. Isaac however, is not up to talking, clearly whatever has happened has traumatised the boy past explanation. Derek looks to Stiles who shrugs, as they shift their gazes to the rest of the watching Pack.

"Will someone please tell us what's going on?... Scott?" Derek asks, gaze focusing in on Scott in apparent expectation. Scott scowls, still not really happy to obey Derek in any request, no matter how relevant or valid that request may be. Stiles clears his throat as he watches Scott glare at Derek and rolls his eyes, he is so over his friends' issues with their Alpha. "Scott! You're Alpha asked you a question" he says pointedly, sending an annoyed glare his friends way. Scott surprisingly seems taken aback by Stiles somewhat harsher than usual comment and cocks his head slightly puzzled, considering Stiles, clearly still not expecting Stiles to side with Derek over anything, no matter how reasonable. "Scott! For fucks sake!" Stiles shouts, eyes glittering somewhat in anger.

Scott baulks and surprisingly lowers his eyes in a submissive gesture. Derek hones in on this quickly, surprised to see the strong willed younger Alpha submit to anyone, let alone the best friend he so often takes for granted and is more used to having at his own beck and call.

Isaac whimpers against Derek's chest so Derek cards his fingers through the boy's curly hair soothing him, as Stiles steps closer to rub his own hand up Isaac's back in a calming gesture.

After a forceful nudge to his back from Erica, Scott finally speaks. "We uh, well we were all hanging out on the lacrosse field getting some extra practice in and just generally messing around, when we all felt this kinda like forced silence fall over our minds sorta blinding us momentarily so that we all kind of staggered into one another. It seemed to disappear as quickly as it arrived, but then was followed up with this humming, kind of a thrumming constant buzz through our minds.

We thought it was just the wolves affected at first but Danny and Lydia both confirmed they felt the same affects too. We tried to reach out with our minds along the Pack bond to see if we could feel you, to sense if you were affected too wherever you were. We thought that by doing that we could figure out if it was something specifically located to where we were or something that was affecting the Pack as a whole. That's uh, well that's when Lydia realised we couldn't sense Stiles along the Pack bonds anymore.

We tried phoning Stiles but we got no answer, we assumed he was still alive and was maybe trapped in a mountain ash circle or something, that was all we could come up with to explain why we could no longer feel him. Lydia hadn't screamed his name or felt his death so we didn't even contemplate anything like that had happened at first, but then…" Scott pauses, looking at Isaac sadly and biting his lip.