Stiles hates the beach. Hates it. With the fire of a thousand burning suns. Convenient, since burning is about the only thing he does at the beach. He’s all pale skin and freckles! Even with sunscreen, it takes about half an hour for him to start burning. Combined with the fact that he had a sort of bad – okay, awful – experience with water not too long ago, he isn’t thrilled when someone in the pack mentions going to the beach....

Xander, meet Kyle Prologue Xander was contemplative as the ‘Welcome to Sunnydale’ sign receded in the distance. He had never really expected to survive graduation. Instead, he had lead his classmates in a battle against the Mayor. He had lived, but several others had died. In the aftermath of graduation so many things had changed. Angel left, yet again breaking Buffy’s heart. Everyone in the gang had started to seriously consider their future, which is when Xander noticed that he didn’t have much of one....

Stiles found himself spending a lot of time with Derek. He would say that he didn’t know what changed, except that he did. It wasn’t surprising that he’d constantly seek out the one person able and willing to listen to him talk. It also helped both of them get much better at signing. There was a strange, unintended consequence: Derek was talking more. Turns out that he found it easier to communicate if he didn’t have to speak out loud....

Derek was almost to Beacon Hills when the bond to his alpha snapped. So. Some wolf killed his sister and alpha. Stole her spark. This wasn’t something Derek was willing to accept. It takes Derek a few days too long to situate himself. By the time he’s ready to get started, the police have already found half his sister’s body and the new alpha has bitten some kid. He doesn’t care much about the new beta beyond the fact that he might be a way to track the alpha....

1 Stiles almost groans when he spots the werewolf three rows away in his freshman English class. For the first time, it isn’t because he’s being forced to take freshman English. No. This groan is because there’s a werewolf sitting three rows away. He’d gone to college to get away from the supernatural. Okay. He can do this. There is no reason for the girl to pay him any attention. He’d taken at least ten showers in the past few days in the hopes of scrubbing the stench of werewolf off of him....

Prologue It wasn’t until the Great Pack Schism that Stiles realized that he didn’t understand werewolves nearly as well as he thought. It’s probably because he has two alphas to compare, when before he’d only had Peter and Derek to compare. And despite how not great Derek was at the whole alpha thing, he looked like a saint next to Peter. Then the whole alpha pack mess started, Scott is suddenly the True Alpha, and werewolves were choosing sides....

“How’s Stiles doing? He out of the hospital yet?” Parrish asks him. Noah is taken aback, because as far as he knows, Stiles isn’t in the hospital. He clears his throat, “Yeah, he’s doing better.” A vague answer because Noah doesn’t want to make it look like he doesn’t know. Especially if Stiles actually is in the hospital. Parrish smiles and nods. Noah goes straight to the hospital. He tracks down Melissa and before he can say anything, she asks, “Are you here to see Stiles?...

Stiles tells people that he ‘used’ to have panic attacks. As if it were past tense. It isn’t. He still has them. He just learned how to have them quietly so that he wouldn’t worry his dad anymore. After his mom died and his dad lost himself to grief for a while, Stiles didn’t want to add anything more to his dad’s plate. So after he’d been pushed into therapy, he pretended that they went away....

It was hard to miss that Derek was one of the most beautiful people Stiles had ever seen in real life. Which is saying something given the supernatural hotness he’s constantly surrounded by. But he’d never been attracted to Derek. Not until this exact moment. They’re at the loft and Derek is wearing one of his fairly ubiquitous v-neck shirts. Whatever. Same old same old. What’s new are the curls of hair peeking out from the collar....

Derek’s not even sure why he’s so nervous about picking up Stiles for prom. They’ve been boyfriends for almost the entire four years of high school. His parents love Stiles and, heck, the sheriff likes him. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s wearing a suit and he’s really not used to dressing up. He feels awkward and out of his element—even though his mom insists that he looks very handsome....