Five times Derek growled at stiles

Part 2

d at Stiles, his hand on Stiles' lower back pushing him forward towards the house.

"What? What's wrong?" Stiles was running with his face craned around and his eyes on Derek, who was transforming. Stiles tripped and fell, Derek growled gripped his shoulder, claws breaking the skin, and lifted him pushing him towards the house.

"Lock yourself downstairs and do not come out for any reason Stiles. Go."

"But..."

"Go!" It was the first order Derek had ever given that Stiles truly felt compelled to follow which could also have something to do with the unfamiliar howl he could hear in the distance.

Stiles ran inside and down to the werewolf proof room Derek had shown him in the basement; safe if anything went down.

/

Derek had sent everyone home after another day of painting the downstairs rooms but had asked Stiles to stay. He had explained there were some things that the younger man needed to know about. He had lead Stiles downstairs into the basement. Before any of the wolves, and Stiles, were invited out to help the basement had been completed and they had never come down, thinking there was nothing here. The room at the back of the basement looked uninteresting.

Derek had growled at Stiles' running commentary about being taken down to the basement to the killing floor, and tied up down there, asked if Derek needed help moving the body, if this was where the alpha was growing the pot to fund the whole rebuild. Stiles did not stop talking until Derek had opened the boring wooden door cutting the basement in half and stood aside. Stiles noticed that the front and back of the door looked like wood but the centre was definitely metal, probably solid.

"Oh God, you have a panic room?" Stiles had walked in.

"It's werewolf proof, we can lock any of us up in here. Or you."

"Me?" Stiles turned around from looking at the little bed in the corner, little fridge and sink in the other, the shower and toilet behind another door. It was all sturdy, all bolted down, all designed to put up a bit of a fight against a werewolf.

"If one of us goes rabid, if something happens you come down here and lock yourself in, there is a satellite phone in the metal box up there." Derek pointed at the roof to the right of the door. "There is enough food to get you through for a while and the walls are reinforced. Something happens do not do something stupid, get yourself down here and lock yourself in tight so the rest of us can handle it."

"Derek I am not useless. I can help."

"I know you are not useless. But you are also human and if it comes down to it get yourself in here."

"Fine." Stiles had walked out then, annoyed at always being the weak, useless member of the pack, hell not even a proper member of the pack – the only non-werewolf, and even though he didn't want to be turned he still felt like he was less because he was not one. Derek had built a room because he was so useless in a fight he needed to be protected, Stiles was so mad he ignored Derek's voice calling to him as he walked upstairs and drove away still seething.

/

Stiles could hear snarling, howling and the occasional growl from within the panic room. The floor shook as the two wolves outside tried to kill each other. The whole thing made no sense. Since Derek had taken over they had seen only one other werewolf, an old friend of Derek's dad come to check out the pack. Derek had said it was an observation of power, to see if the pack was strong and cohesive. Scott had been confused but Stiles got it. If the pack wasn't strong, wasn't a team, then another pack could come in and take them over. Stiles hadn't been worried about any of it, he just shrugged and said Derek was strong enough to show he was the man and asked if there were any particular things that they should or should not do. Derek had told him that Stiles was not allowed to be there, that he had to stay away from the house for a week before the man arrived and was not to step foot in the woods for the entire visit. It was the second time in a week that Derek had made Stiles feel useless; he couldn't even be around to be seen as part of the pack. Stiles had just nodded and left them to the conversation about customs of another pack leader visiting. He made them all lunch, tried not to be offended, tried to justify it all to himself, he was not a werewolf, not a werewolf member of the pack so he had no place there. It was really only Derek's acceptance that allowed him to be a part of everything, part of the pack. He needed to stop assuming that he was in any way a part of the deeper bond that the werewolves shared.