A/N: So, this is my first Teen Wolf story (one-shot, whatever), so be gentle with me, okay? Thank you. Also, I don't own any of the characters or anything like that. In addition, this story will contain hints of m/m, so if you don't like such things, then don't read this. If you do read it, tell me what you think. This story is set at the beginning of Night School, at the part where Stiles goes out and picks up the wrench thing. Enjoy!

One Thing

The alpha coming up behind him and stabbing him in the back, literally, caught him off guard. Blood spurted and spilled from his mouth and he was in shock. So much so that he didn't even flinch when he was thrown against the brick wall of the school. He didn't move, he couldn't move; he just…laid there and allowed his body to heal. It didn't take long, which he was thankful for because he could hear everything going on.

He could hear the alpha's heartbeat, Scott's, and Stiles'. Thundering loudly in his ears as he healed. He could also hear Scott and Stiles talking, thinking out loud the ways to keep the alpha at bay. It was when Stiles heartbeat began beating even more wildly than before that he actually tuned in and listened.

"You can't go out there, man!"

Scott tried to keep Stiles from going outside, but the boy didn't listen. Derek listened as Stiles opened the door and made his way over to the wrench he had dropped. He listened as Stiles picked it up and as the boy's eyes met those of the alpha. Hearing the growl of the alpha as it charged after him, Derek decided that he had had enough time to heal. There was no way he'd let the alpha attack Stiles. No fucking way.

So he got up, feeling less than one hundred percent, and tackled the alpha, Scott's and Stiles' running footsteps growing small and smaller as they ran away from the mad beast. Although he tried like hell to keep the alpha occupied, he was overwhelmed and tossed aside like a rag doll yet again. Derek refused to give up though. He knew what the alpha was after, but even with that knowledge in mind, his instincts told him that he kept going after him for another reason. One that had more to do with Stiles than with stopping the alpha from forcing Scott to change and kill his friends, his current pack so to speak.

They worried him, the….stirrings he developed when Stiles unceremoniously entered his life. When he first met the young teen, he had felt a strange sort of urge towards the boy. At first, he didn't know what was going on, but by the time he had been shot by the wolfs bane bullet and Stiles had, for the most part, saved his life, he had a pretty good guess. His father had told him when he was little and had started training to control his wolf about the concept of mates among their kind. It was something he hadn't really believed it until he met Stiles. After being shot by that bullet, he finally understood what his father had been talking about. That strange urge he felt for Stiles when he first met him was his wolf being pulled towards its mate.

Mate…

Just the thought of having one made him cringe, yet it also made him feel lighter, more so than ever before, especially after the fire... But he had finally come to terms with it. Sort of. A better way to put it would be that he was getting comfortable with the notion that he had a mate, and Stiles was that mate. And that is what made him continue going after the alpha until he no longer could. In the distance, he heard the police sirens and knew that, for now, he'd have to leave. Derek knew that he'd see the alpha again, as well as Scott and Stiles. It was only a matter of time.