Chapter Text
Stiles was having a great time at college. He was in his senior year and passing all of his classes, and he was only three hours away if Beacon Hills needed him. Sometimes the pack came to visit, though in the four years he had been at Berkeley, Derek had never come up. Not that it bothered Stiles or anything. Nope. Scott was away at college too, so Derek was the only alpha in Beacon Hills, he needed to hold down the fort. They Skyped and texted all the time anyway, so why should it matter that he hardly ever saw Derek in person?
Anyway, Stiles had been hanging out with the same group of people at college since his sophomore year. They lived in a house together, and the best part of it was that it was normal. Obviously, sometimes Stiles had to leave in the middle of the night for some emergency back home that required him to act as emissary. Or, you know, use his powers. He even dealt with the occasional evil supernatural oddity in the city, but none of his friends had caught on.
At least, not until now. Stiles figured that his luck had lasted long enough when he was walking back to the house with two of the girls he lived with, Jen and Lauren. They were about halfway there when something twinged in Stiles. He thought about passing it off as indigestion- they had just eaten at a sketchy Mexican place, after all. But then he heard growling coming from an alleyway a few yards in front of them, and Stiles accepted the fact that it was his emissary senses warning him, not indigestion. That meant that there was some sort of supernatural oddity nearby, and judging by the growl that Stiles heard, it was probably werewolves.
“Stop, please!” A female voice called out desperately. “Help me!”
Stiles tensed, looking at Lauren and Jen. They looked back nervously.
“Should we call someone?” Lauren asked nervously.
Stiles shook his head. He hesitated, but then there was a terrified shriek from the girl in the alley, followed by male laughter.
Stiles hurried towards the alleyway, closely followed by his two friends. They reached the opening and looked in to see two large men hovering over a woman on the ground.
“You shouldn’t have hit me,” one leered. “You’re going to pay for that.”
“Hey!” Stiles called immediately, starting forward.
The two men glanced at him.
“Wait, no!” Jen hissed, grabbing his sleeve. “What are you doing?”
“They’ll crush you!” Lauren added.
Stiles shook Jen off and made sure his friends were behind him before casually crossing his arms and looking at the situation at the end of the alleyway.
“What’s going on here?”
One of the men sneered at him, and Stiles caught a flash of fangs. Definitely wolves, then. Good, they’ll know his name.
“Turn around, kid,” he sneered. “Nothing that concerns you.”
“Come on, let’s go,” Lauren urged. “We’ll call someone.”
Stiles tipped his head to the side, ignoring Lauren. “I don’t know about that. It sounds like you were threatening to hurt this nice young lady here. Now, I don’t like bullies, so I’m only giving you one chance to run.”
The other werewolf snickered at him. “What, you going to stop us?”
“If I have to.” Stiles shrugged.
The first wolf laughed outright, looking him up and down.
“Eyes,” the girl on the ground whimpered, the first words Stiles had heard her say. As soon as he had distracted the two wolves, she had scrambled backwards into the wall, pressing herself into a corner.
Stiles glanced at her sharply. “Red?”
She shook her head, trembling. “B-blue.”
Stiles nodded at her reassuringly before turning back to the wolves. They were looking at him calculatingly.
“Kid,” one started condescendingly. “You’re out of your depth here. I don’t think you understand exactly what you’re doing. Why don’t you turn around and forget you saw anything?”
“No, I know exactly what I’m doing,” he assured them with a lazy grin. “Really, I think you’re the ones out of your depth.”
Werewolf Two raised a mocking eyebrow. “Oh really? And why is that?”
Stiles loved being underestimated. He straightened to his full height, dropping his casual act and channeling Derek, turning his face into a mask of stony intimidation.
“Because,” he said coldly. “I’m Stiles Stilinski.”
Even in the dark alley, Stiles could see the blood drain from the men’s faces. Fear took over their whole bodies and they cowered, eyes taking in the way that Stiles was blocking the exit.
“We’ll go! Please, we’re going. We didn’t know. We wouldn’t have-” Werewolf One begged immediately as his entire demeanor changed.
“Do you have a pack?” Stiles interrupted his blubbering.
“N-no, it’s just us,” the second stammered, trying to hide behind the first.
Stiles raised an eyebrow. “Swear it.”
“We swear,” the second man gasped, almost sobbing.
“On what do you swear?” Stiles asked icily.
The first one gasped in a fearful breath. “On- on the-” he floundered. His eyes went wide. “We swear on the Nemeton! Please, we won’t hurt anyone else. We’ll move on.”
Stiles narrowed his eyes and glared. “This city is protected. Anyone tries anything and they’ll have me to deal with. Maybe I’ll even call in a few friends.” If possible, the werewolves seemed to panic even more at that. “So I suggest you leave before I change my mind, and spread the word. Don’t forget, I’ll be keeping an eye on you from now on. Don’t try anything like this again.”
They nodded pathetically, and the second Stiles stepped to the side they sprinted out of the alley.
Stiles stepped towards the girl shaking on the ground.
“Are you alright?” He asked gently.
She shot him a fearful glance. “What are you?”
“I’m a good guy,” he answered, then he realized that probably wasn’t all that reassuring when she shied away from him.
“They were afraid of you,” she accused. “Why would they be afraid of you?”
“I know you saw some confusing things. If you let me, I’ll explain. They’re afraid of me because I stop people like them. I have some friends I can call if you’re not comfortable with just me. They can be here in three hours. Some of them are women, if that would make it better,” he added, taking in her torn clothes with a grimace.
Slowly, the girl nodded. Some of the distrust left her eyes and she took Stiles’ offered hand.
“Did they hurt you?” He asked.
“M-my wrist,” she whispered.
Stiles looked at the way she was holding her arm in close to her body. “Okay. I’ll take a look at it, if you’d like me too. If not, we can go to the campus doctor and she can look. If you want her to examine you anyway…”
The girl shook her head. “Thank you,” she whispered, exhaling shakily.
Stiles nodded, giving her a slight smile. “I’m Stiles.”
“I heard,” she said with a small, tentative smile. “Lisa.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Jen said from behind him. “But what the actual fuck, Stiles?”
Stiles turned around sheepishly. He had sort of forgotten they were there.
“They were terrified of you!” Lauren cried. “Stiles, I’ve never seen you even swat a fly. What kind of reputation could you have? Are you a mob boss or something?”
Stiles snorted- he couldn’t help it. “No, I swear. We had a lot of gangs in Beacon Hills.” Sort of. “My dad was the sheriff, and I helped him with a lot of the cases. Word gets around in that community.”
Jen narrowed her eyes, but after a moment she nodded slowly. “Alright. Let’s get her somewhere safe.” Her gaze and tone both softened as she looked at the girl. “What did you say your name was?”