Chapter Text
When Stiles had only been in bed for maybe two hours his phone rang.
He looked at the display, ready to swipe the person away just to see it was his father, reluctantly answering it instead.
“What's up Daddy-o?” he asked without hiding his exhaustion.
“Good morning son, I am sorry if I woke you up but I have great news. A matchmake. visiting town. I just spoke to her and she said she'd love to add an alpha mage to her register.”
Stiles yawned, trying to figure out what to think about this.
He understood his father's wishes for him to find a sweet, loving omega and the whole schtick but he really just didn't see the point considering he probably was too weird for even the most caring omega to consider. After all, who would want an Alpha who wasn't planning on ever breeding? Stiles had no intentions of having kids.
Obviously he hadn't told his father that, not in all that clarity anyways, it would probably break the sheriff's heart.
“Dad...look I really don't think this is going to help me-”
“Stop it Stiles.”
His father had put on his authoritative voice and Stiles stopped talking.
“Look son, I really do understand you aren't comfortable with the situation and you are insecure about what it will mean for your future, but I felt the same way, really. I was afraid and skeptical and convinced I'd never find someone who would want me as their mate just the way I am but when I met your mother...”
Stiles could feel the love his father still had for his mate and some part of him did envy that kind of connection but still, it wasn't all that probable and trying to force it was a waste of time in his opinion. Still he probably would agree to meet the matchmaker in the end, John Stilinski was persistent that way.
“I understand what you are saying Dad. I just don't feel like it will be worth the effort.”
“Nonsense Stiles, it's just an afternoon of filling out a few papers and then all you have to do is wait for results. You will have offers in no time, Mages are very popular.”
Stiles was aware, although it was less about attraction and more about the usefulness of a Mage who was willing to do you favors, which – on principle – he wasn't.
“Stiles, why don't you just give it a try. I mean, the worst that can happen is for nothing to change, right?”
Well, he wasn't entirely wrong. “I guess I can do the papers stuff, it's not doing me any harm.”
“Great, I already asked when there is a free appointment and she said she can squeeze you in tomorrow afternoon.”
Of course he did. “Thanks Dad, now can I please go back to sleep?”
“Oh, yes, right, sure, sweet dreams son.”
“Thanks, have a great day Dad.”
“Thank you, I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Before this could end in a few back and forth of trying to figure out who would hang up Stiles simply did, hoping he didn't cut off his father in the midst of another goodbye.
With a groan he fell back into his pillows and it only took a few moments before he was already drifting back into sleep.
~*~
Peter and Laura were just training Derek to control his shift when faced with the dominance of an Alpha when Talia and Cora arrived, carrying groceries.
“Don't teach him too much Peter!” the woman yelled, glancing at them. “I don't need my son ending up alone like his uncle because he can't find his place.”
Peter shot his sister a hurt glance before showing a bitter smile. “No worries, the puppy is way too dependent to ever take after me in that regard.”
“Hey!” Derek protested but when Peter looked at him with the same bitter expression he promptly shut his mouth.
Laura laughed loudly “You are such a weird omega uncle Peter.”
Peter gave her a sweet although very sarcastic smile “You are such a basic Alpha.”
Talia came back from the house, without the groceries now and cut off any remark Laura might have had made by letting out a whistle, calling them in to prepare dinner together.
When Peter was contentedly chopping vegetables, everyone being busy with their tasks Talia threw him off with an unexpected information.
“You have an appointment tomorrow afternoon.”
“You who?” Cora asked with curiosity.
“I meant Peter.” Talia added and he sighed since he had hoped she didn't.
“An appointment for what exactly?” he asked then.
“A matchmaker, there's one in town and I decided, since it worked quite well for me you should try it out too.”
“You are joking, right?”
“Not in the slightest.”
He had stopped chopping carrots and looked at her back incredulously until she stopped pretending she didn't feel his annoyance with her and turned around to look at him expectantly while crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“Why would you think this was what I wanted?” he asked, challenging her decision.
“Why would you think this was about what you want.”
“I beg you pardon?” Was she fucking serious?
“I am the alpha of this pack Peter and you are an unmated omega over thirty. You know how badly that reflects on me.”
“It's my body Talia! My life! I don't intend to tie myself to some person I just met because they happen to produce the right pheromones for me to get wet! This whole Alpha-Omega thing is so antiquated in times when our biggest threat is to accidentally send a mail to the wrong person, I can't believe you would try to force me to submit to it!”
His sister pressed her lips together and stared at him while her kids stared at the two of them. “Look, I understand why you hate the system and I really hate to do this to you because you are my brother and I love you very much. But like I said, it reflects badly on me and eventually it might lead to someone challenging me for our land. Do you want that? Do you want some aggressive asshole alpha to get our territory because he felt he could take it from me? Because I seemed weak?
There are way more serious threats out there and you know that. Just show the damn town you are doing something! As long as they think I am sending you to find an Alpha they won't question me. But if you don't there will be a point where I'll have to let you go. Do you understand?”
He did, fully.
She felt forced to push him into this or to oust him from the pack to protect her children and her partners. He couldn't even really be mad at her, although he was a little bit hurt by it.
They had been each other’s only family and pack for quite a while after their parents died before Talia had chosen her first partner to have a child with.
There always had been a level of understanding between them. Talia understood why Peter only ever dated Betas or other Omegas, the same reason she only ever mated with Betas herself. With the shift and life in general there was no need to complicate life further by risking going in heat.
They both took suppressants against it too since he had hit puberty to prevent awkward situations.
Obviously they had talked about the issue of him being an unmated omega before but up until now she had always more or less respected his wish not to be mated. Her words suggested she actually still did so what had changed?
They had stared at each other while Talia waited for his answer patiently while Derek seemed to feel the tension in the room and whined lowly, clearly wishing to leave.
“What aren't you telling me Talia? Has someone said something?”
The Alpha furrowed her brows, obviously contemplating how much she should tell him.
After a few moments she sighed and uncrossed her arms, seeming more resigned than angry. “At the last Alpha conference Deucalion asked me how you are doing and if you have been mated yet...and obviously that isn't an outright confession but we both know that creep always wanted you to be his. If he decides to claim you, there isn't much I can do without putting the rest of the pack in danger.”
A feeling as if a hand was slowly tightening its grip around his chest settled into Peter and for a few moments he only could stare at his sister.
Deucalion. He hadn't seen that guy in almost seven years and still he could remember his presence and aura like it was yesterday he had to stay calm under his lewd gaze and confronted with his unwanted advances. The president of the werewolf council had clearly been impressed with him but Peter wasn't impressed with the president, not even a little.
He groaned in frustration after processing the information and let his head fall into his hands.
“When did you say the appointment was?” He asked with his voice muffled by his fingers.
Maybe he could just find an Alpha to date for show so Deucalion couldn't simply claim him without causing a scene.
After all, claiming wasn't technically legal anymore. 'Technically' being the relevant part of that sentence though.
~*~
When he entered his old school, where the whole matchmaker thing was set up Stiles steeled himself against the memories it held for him.
He had never liked school all that much, especially since he hadn't fit in with the conventional social structures.
The whole cafeteria was full of at least fifty people with sheets of paper they were filling out or brochures they were holding in their hands or reading.
A sweet young woman with bangs and all sorts of papers in her arms locked eyes with him and smiled widely.
“Hi, here for the matchmaking?”
“Uh...yeah.” He scratched his neck and took another glance around the room, trying not to think what utter bullshit this was.
“Great, alpha, beta or omega?”
He raised his brows in surprise, he hadn't even thought about the possibility of betas participating. “Alpha.”
She gave him a once over and tilted her head to the side.
“Huh, I guess you really can't always tell. Your name please.”
He sighed, trying to find his professional persona and gave her a halfhearted but charming smile.
“I guess not. It's Stilinski.”
After apparently checking him off a list she flicked through the papers she was holding and handed him a sheet with both sides full of things he had to fill out and two brochures like those others were reading already.
“You will need these. Just fill that one out, everything you might want to know about the program is in this brochure and the other one is an info paper about the rules you have to agree to, when you are done just wait until we come to you for the one on one with the matchmaker.”
He took everything and nodded, giving her another reluctant smile to assure her he had understood. “Thank you.”
She nodded him off and he shuffled to the side, giving the cafeteria another look, trying to find a place where he could be more or less to himself.
~*~
Peter had been staring at the admittedly quite simple question for a while now.
What are you looking for? [ ] Alpha [ ] Beta [ ] Both
The option of looking for another omega wasn't even present and it frustrated him a little bit, although choosing to look for an omega obviously would have defeated the purpose of finding someone to keep Deucalion off his ass.
Still, they didn't consider it a valid choice and he deeply judged them for it.
Annoyed with the whole concept he shoved the sheet aside and rested his head in his hand propped up on the table, observing the other participants.
There were some who seemed attractive enough, none of them were alphas he assumed.
Alphas were usually easy to spot.
They tended to demand attention and the submission of others even when they were only standing around or walking.
If you saw two people walking towards each other you could be quite certain the alpha would expect you to step aside so they can pass you.
He actually liked to defy such expectations.
Some alphas even went out of their way to force others to give them room.
Omegas on the other hand tended to unthinkingly make space, be considerate, try not to cause any ruffled feathers. Obviously not all of them, Peter didn't do it, but many, either out of instinct or conditioning tended to act just like that, just like 'nature' intended them to.
The absurdity! They were civilized people, even if nature had given them attributes for different roles when it came to reproduction, there was no need to base everything those people were allowed to do and be simply on that one difference. He should be as free as any alpha and any alpha should be allowed to be as insecure and loving and caring as any omega was expected to be.
As he observed the people in the room he realized someone seemed to be heading for the table he was sitting at on his own. For a moment he was confused why but then he realized this was one of the few tables where only one or two people were sitting so it made sense.
The guy, tall and lanky, almost scrawny didn't look bad.
He maneuvered through the people with a certain elegance, without ever touching anyone and had something Peter would almost call a shimmering aura – the guy apparently was a mage of some kind. The question that fact let arise was what an omega, or maybe beta mage was doing at this place. They were rare and most alphas would give an arm or leg for a mage as their mate.
He wasn't even unattractive in Peter's opinion, rather the opposite.
When the young man sat down across from Peter he could really admire his sharp features, plush lips and clear amber brown eyes with those long, dark lashes.
Even the moles his skin was sprinkled with only added to the endearing picture.
The guy gave Peter a genuine smile.
“Take a pictures so you can stare at it longer.”
Peter blinked and grinned apologetic. “I didn't mean to, I was just surprised to see a good looking mage at a matchmaker event.”
The guy blushed a little bit and grinned himself. “Oh, you can see auras, that explains it, sorry, I guess that's a fair question to ask oneself. Apparently, even we glorious mages can fail to find the right mate. Although I admittedly doubt this here will be the solution to my problem.”
Peter snorted and nodded in agreement while pretending to bring his attention back to his own sheet but instead giving the guy's sheet a quick glance.
Just right there in the top left corner where Peter's said 'Omega' his had written 'Alpha' on it.
Well that was a surprise.
The next moment Peter scolded himself for assuming the guy had to be an Omega or Beta because he wasn't parading around as if he owned the place. He himself would hate to be pigeonholed that way.
Instead of further stalking the guy he actually went back to filling out his form, choosing to check the box for 'Alpha' since that was what he had set out to find for himself.
~*~
The guy Stiles decided to sit with seemed nice enough and after their little bit of small talk he just went to filling out his sheet.
The first questions were easy, stuff like age, gender, sexual orientation, job and so on.
Then they became more specific.
Do you take suppressants?
How fast/strong do you react to Omegas in heat?
On a scale from 1-10, how intense is your rut?
Describe in three sentences what you are looking for in a partner:
Describe in three sentences what you consider your best qualities:
How many kids do you want to have?
Are there attributes which you can't accept in a partner?
Would you be able and willing to be the sole provider of you and your partner?
He shifted uncomfortably around while biting his lower lip and restlessly moving his legs.
How the hell should he know what he was looking for in an omega? He wasn't looking for an omega at all, at least not in the classic kind.
He wasn't all that far away from simply getting up and leaving when the guy on the other side of the table addressed him.
“Are you all right? You seem kinda bummed out...”
Looking up Stiles saw the man's face in more detail for the first time.
He felt like he had seen him before, maybe at town hall meetings or something, he seemed confident and calm, it was instantly soothing to see into those clear blue eyes while hearing the man's soft, although kinda cynical voice – as if everything was at least a little bit of a joke to him, not Stiles in particular, but life.
“Ehm...I guess I am realizing this really isn't going to work for me.”
The guy smiled and gave him a questioning look. “Why did you come here in the first place then? The whole thing is quite straightforward.”
“I promised my dad I’d do it...since I am failing to secure a partner without help...”
For this answer he got a nod but not much else before the man asked another question, or rather gave Stiles another perspective to look at what he had to do. “So really this is the easiest way to keep your dad from bothering you with that topic?”
“I guess...”
“So really doing this now is actually a little price to pay for your freedom from the topic later on?”
“Probably...”
“So then, I'd think it's best if you keep answering those stupid questions.”
Stiles smiled reluctantly and sighed before nodding. “You are right. Thanks....uh...I don't know your name...”
“Peter” said Peter and held out his hand over the table.
Stiles took his hand, shook it and smiled more confident.
“Thanks, Peter. You can call me Stiles.”
“Well, we are kinda sitting in the same boat I guess, so you are welcome.”
“So you can't find an omega either?”
The man laughed bitterly.
“Omegas aren't the issue. I actually need an alpha.”
~*~
Peter saw the young man called Stiles blush.
It was a beautiful sight as his cheeks started to glow in a healthy pink.
“I...sorry, I really shouldn't have assumed you were an alpha, I simply assumed it because of your confident appearance.”
“It's okay, I thought you were an Omega too in the beginning so I guess we are even.”
Stiles smiled sheepishly. “I guess so. Although, in your defense, I trained to not act obviously like an alpha.”
That sounded interesting, although a little bit strange. To Peter it often felt like the world belonged to alphas so why would anybody make an effort not to be recognized as the group with the most privileges?
“I hope you don't mind the question, but why?”
The younger man's smile widened. “I'm a social worker, I work a lot in conflict management and de-escalation. It's important to be able to stay calm and listen to the people involved without further scaring or enraging them.”
An alpha mage social worker.
So he probably had mostly omegas in his work environment.
Social services weren't a place where you found alphas all that often.
Not finding a partner with those odds was pretty weird.
Peter doubted Stiles' colleagues would mind him not being all that dominant, they would probably understand why it was a necessity. Was Stiles married to his work? Did he have weird fetishes?
Peter was pretty curious about the guy but also he didn't want to pry, at least not openly.
In case they got matched he didn't want Stiles to think of him as the rudely nosy type.
Instead he went with a more subtle approach.
“Must suck to pretend you are something you aren't.”
Stiles answered one of the questions he still had left before leaning back a little and smiling again.
Peter couldn't decide if it was kind of goofy or charming; somehow he ended up deciding it was both?
“It probably would be if I had been your regular cliché alpha before training, but I never was all that...macho. I had like bursts of anger and energy now and then but as a mage you have to learn to find your self control no matter the stress you are facing. I probably wouldn't have chosen to become a social worker if I hadn't always felt a little out of place in classic alpha positions. I most likely would have become a cop like my dad.”
A police alpha as father, that explained why the guy was here just to please his old man.
First Peter had thought Stiles was still quite dependent for a tween but now he understood.
The police force mostly attracted the most dominant and violent of alphas.
Although thanks to people like Peter they were forced to turn away those who were more violent than naturally dominant.
“You don't like cops?”
The question surprised Peter and brought his attention back to Stiles. “It's not that I don't like them...they just don't seem to like me all that much.”
~*~
So Peter really had some sort of tie to the police force?
“Are you a criminal?”
His question got him an annoyed look from the man but he seemed willing to answer. “Charming. If the police don't like me, I have to be one of the bad guys. No, I am a Therapist, I assess people's mental health and stability for the state, mostly in court or when an officer was forced to fire his weapon and such.”
First Stiles was simply surprised. “I wouldn't have thought a therapist has trouble finding a partner.”
Then he realized how rude that probably sounded and his cheeks started to glow deeply red, deeper than before. “I am very sorry-”
He wanted to say more but a woman yelled “Peter Hale” into the room and the man across from Stiles stood up and grabbed his stuff.
“Nice to meet you Stiles. And don't worry, I'm not offended.” He smiled confidently and walked to the exit while Stiles stared at his broad shoulders and strong back.
Just then he recognized the man's last name. Apparently he was part of the Hale family, his father had mentioned the local family of werewolves once or twice. He was curious if Peter was a werewolf too. It somehow would have suited the man; he had a slightly predatory aura.
~*~
When Peter had finished his interview with the oh so great “matchmaker” (who actually was just an old lady with antiquated opinions about relationships), he let his gaze wander over the slowly thinning crowd of people until he spotted the man he had met before. Stiles.
He weighed his options but in the end he decided to go with his gut. So he headed for Stiles' table and retrieved one of his cards out of his wallet before approaching the table where the mage was still sitting.
“Hey...Stiles was it, right?”
The young man looked up from his sheet and gave Peter a genuine smile as he recognized him.
“Yeah, it is. So you are done. Was it as bad as I think?”
Peter comically screwed up his face at the question. “True torment.”
“Well that certainly makes me feel better” Stiles said sarcastically, and raised one brow at Peter. “Why exactly did you say you are doing this?”
Peter felt a bit torn. Somehow, Stiles made him want to tell him everything. At the same time, Peter not only felt it wasn't any of Stiles' concern, but also, he just wasn't one to share that kind of thing. He liked keeping his information and knowledge to himself...usually.
“I need an alpha, that's pretty much it. On a somewhat related note though, I didn't come back here to keep sharing our misery but rather I wanted to give you this.”
He placed his card on top of the mage's sheet and smiled as invitingly as he could. “Maybe you’ll feel like giving me a call, whether or not we are actually 'matched' with each other.”
There it was again, that lovely blush on Stiles' cheeks. He smiled awkwardly and looked at the card, then back at Peter. “I...uh...I'm flattered, really. But just so you know, I am really bad at this.”
Peter wasn't sure if Stiles was trying to let him down gently or meant it the way he said it. He decided not to ask further at this point and instead raised his hands in faux surrender. “I just wanted to make my interest known. Call me or not... I won't hold it against you either way. Good luck in there.”
Then he winked and made his way out of the school building, again with Stiles staring at his back.