Five times Derek growled at stiles

Part 6

"Stiles!" Stiles knew the voice and it was not coming from Scott even as his best friend reached out and touched him. Stiles looked down to see what Scott was doing to find his abdomen wet with blood...the drips hitting the floor beneath him.

"Stiles!" Derek's scream was the last thing Stiles heard as he hit the ground.

/\/\/\

Joshua slid his memory card into the computer while the camera battery was recharging.

The photos started coming up and he clicked on the first one so that he could start adding to his notes. His father had always told him that the most important thing about hunting was to know your target; their strengths, weaknesses, habits, and preferences. Joshua had been tracking this man for a month and he was certain that he was dealing with a werewolf.

Joshua looked at the two timetables he'd hacked into the university servers to download. He knew when both would be out of the house and the best time to test them. He was certain they were werewolves but he had to know before he could move his plan along. He flicked through the rest of the pictures, he couldn't be sure if the younger of the two men, Stiles, was the other's, Derek's, mate or not. Joshua kept catching him with other people, one woman in particular, who he seemed to be either involved with or who he simply spent a lot of time flirting with. In Joshua's experience werewolves were possessive and territorial of their partners but he hadn't seen Derek possessive enough for Stiles to be his mate and yet there was definitely an air of relationship about the two of them as well. There were too many questions about these two and Joshua hated unanswered questions.

Joshua made himself something to drink and set himself to planning their first meeting.

/\/\/\

Joshua checked the hallway again before he knocked. The apartment wasn't normal student housing, close by but too expensive for most students so he was fairly certain none of the other tenants would be around during the middle of a work day. He waited patiently even as his fingers itched to reach into his pocket and grab his water pistol. The younger of the two men came to the door first and Joshua stared at him.

"Hello?" The possible werewolf, Stiles, asked.

"Are you Stiles Stilinski?" Joshua asked focussing on the man in front of him and trying to keep an eye on the space behind him. They should both be there but the older man hadn't come out.

"Yes." That was all Joshua needed to know, he could hear Stiles continuing as he pulled the water pistol out of his pocket and shot...the man spat the water out, glared at him, questioned his intentions but he didn't growl or howl and he didn't react like a werewolf. Joshua frowned and began questioning his research when Derek appeared.

"Derek Hale?" Joshua asked just to be sure even though his face matched all the surveillance photographs and Joshua had been following him for a month. Stiles reached out for Derek but the older man said yes before the human was able to stop him and Joshua shot him as Stiles was able to warn him.

Derek reacted as expected; he was definitely a werewolf. Joshua's research was right. Though it did pose the question of what a werewolf was doing with a human who wasn't treated as an omega and wasn't family. Joshua had never seen a human who was simply a member of a werewolf pack. He needed to do more research, he needed to watch them more carefully, and he really needed to work out what was going on in this little pack.

The door slammed in front of him but Joshua wasn't paying attention anymore. He tucked his water pistol back into his pocket and left the building. He had work to do.

Joshua made it home after going through his usual anti-tracking routine and pulled up the documents he was keeping on Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski. He typed HUMAN in red next to Stiles' name but didn't close the document. He would not harm the human however there was obviously more to this relationship – he knew what Derek was and chose to live with him. Joshua wrote WEREWOLF next to Derek's name and found all the files he could on humans in werewolf packs. He had not been able to find information on Derek's pack yet but now that he knew that Derek was definitely a werewolf he could watch him and find out everything he would need to know to put a stop to the werewolf pack. He needed to take down the whole pack, simply cutting off the metaphorical head by killing the alpha wasn't enough. Another would take Derek's place and if he was liked then the pack would attempt to hunt Joshua down.