"That book hasn't been opened in... I don't know how long, because nobody could." That book had never been talked about much, it had been there and that was it. Though the curtain has always been a curious thing to him, even when he had been little. Talia had explained it with a 'It belonged to others before us and we're to keep it safe.’ It had been kept very safe at least. So safe it had been forgotten.

The pages were yellowed, made out of very rough old paper, like parchments. But it didn't turn to dust at least. "That's not a language I can read." And he could read many languages.

"What?" Stiles blinked questioningly as he looked up at Derek, a puzzled expression on his face. Because for one, the clearly magical book opened for him without any resistance. And second... "I can read it..." he glimpsed down on the page where it opened. Sure, there were quite a few runes he spotted in the slightly faded text, but the words made sense to him, so he had no idea what Derek was talking about.

"'Herein is the detailed history of the known different kind of Nemetons around the world. Some written down from the legends I have heard about, some from my own observations and research during my many travels over the years. These mysterious trees of power have clearly fascinated many with magical abilities, so it is not a surprise that my own awe and fascination only grew while conducting my thorough research which aimed to understand these trees better and to provide guidance to future darachs and the power they could unlock and wield for the greater good...'" Stiles read out loud fluently as if it was plain English.

Excitement roared up in Stiles, making his heart beat erratically and fast, cheeks coloring and eyes glowing a bit brighter. His magic was swirling with more purpose, constantly in connection with the book as the rest was floating around them in a nearly visible golden haze.

"Derek..." the mage looked up at his mate from the book. "This is exactly what we were looking for!"

It made no sense how Stiles could read it when it seemed like gibberish to Derek. Especially since the human knew some Gaelic and could read a lot of runes but other than that, English was his only language. His Spanish was abhorrent, much to the Hale's hilarity because Stiles made it his own little language instead. Yet, this book seemed to be its own little language too, one made for Stiles. No wonder it had senses like magic, it was completely magic.

"Your magic seems to agree with you," Derek said dryly as the ember golden haze was thick around the Spark. He peeked at the pages again but it was still not something he understood, couldn't even pick anything familiar out of. Something about the book made him not want to touch it, there was something repelling about it and he wasn't that eager to take it back to the loft. They needed to, it was a big book but it had to go back into the vault at some point because that wasn't going to remain in their home.

"My mother couldn't even recall when the last time somebody had opened it." And neither Talia nor Peter had been the youngest of wolves. They were no Satomi but it came surprisingly close. Peter had hidden it well, always making it seem like he wasn't that much older than Derek, which had been a complete lie. The alpha couldn't remember seeing Peter younger as he was now, always the same look even when Derek had been a little boy. "I'm not touching it, it feels wrong."

Probably because it had magic of somebody else, and he was completely used to Stiles' energy his magic created.

"That's interesting... I mean that it hasn't been opened for such a long time..." Stiles murmured, running his fingers through the lines then flicking along the pages, fascinated and probably already too immersed in the book. But he looked up when Derek said it felt wrong.

"Wrong? What do you mean? It doesn't feel exactly... wrong to me. Sure, it is obviously powerful, makes my fingertips prickle from its energy, but for me it's... not like... wrong wrong like a cursed object would be. It's kinda... calling for my magic to connect?" Stiles tried to explain how he felt about the book while squinting a bit to see his magic swirling around it and connecting with it. Like it was powering the book to reveal its secrets to him. "Maybe I can read it because of me being a Spark... and if it feels wrong to you then maybe it's because of the darkness in me reacting to it? I don't know yet..." he mused while glimpsing back down on a drawing of the Nemeton in Ireland, the branches on the picture seemingly moving to an invisible wind. Like the pictures in Harry Potter. It was mind-blowing to say the least and Stiles was utterly fascinated and hungry to learn everything the book might have in store for him...

"Not wrong as in a darkness, same as your darkness doesn't feel wrong to me." Stiles wasn't Jennifer. With her there was this dark presence connected to her, but Derek hadn't been able to see it because she had somehow hidden it from them. And he hadn't known her. Stiles he knew inside and out, their souls were touching on a weekly basis or more often. The darkness there wasn't evil, it was more like this potential to be evil. "It's more like a wrongness, like mountain ash, where I'm not supposed to touch." Derek explained. "We sense mountain ash long before we touch it."

Maybe it was the magic of others but then Stiles wouldn't want to connect with it. It clearly wasn't meant for him, since he couldn't even read it while his mate was entranced by it. It would be good if Stiles was going to write it down at some point, like they had the bestiary translated as well. And not only by Morell since she hadn't been truthful in the translation she had given to Allison. If this book was so important, they were going to have to make sure the information was there when they needed it, when generations which didn't have a Spark after them needed it.

"Ah, I see..." Stiles hummed to Derek's explanation. "It might feel wrong to you then like it would feel wrong to anyone who isn't supposed to open and read it, I guess," he murmured. "It's a clever little spell to keep people away from learning whatever is written down in it. I think that 'defense mechanism' might be there for a reason. Which... only makes me want to read every page all that more!" he chuckled shortly.

"I guess the need for you to have offspring is only made clearer. One of them needs to be a Spark for books like these." A Spark was inherited, so it could be passed on. But they could also get a whole team of kids and have it skipped to the grandchildren. In the Hale generation there had to have been a Spark to write a book like that, so hopefully they were going to uncover the secrets.

"Is there a name of the writer?"

"Wow... I never thought about having kids in order to pass down my Spark..." Stiles' eyes widened for a split second then his look softened. "Imagine that... a mini me unwittingly levitating toys!" he said, nearly melting on the spot from that mental image. And it only made him want it to happen more in the future.

With a small hopeful sigh he shook his head and concentrated on Derek's question. Flipping the book to the first page, he noticed a name in the left bottom on the inside of the black cover. It was imprinted with golden letters.

"It says that the book was written by a Cormac Hale from 1895 to 1905... So this means... at some point there WAS at least one Spark in your family too!" Stiles exclaimed all excited again because it meant more research!

"Do you think there are books here about the Hale family members?" he looked up at his mate again, amber eyes glistening hopefully and full of curiosity. "We should look into this Cormac Hale too if we can, to find out more about his life."

This town wasn't that old, it had some history but it wasn't ancient. "Must be around the time the town was founded, a little before the world wars happened." It made sense, Cormac must have been part of the family which had settled here from Ireland to be near the Nemeton. Before it had been cut down in World War II. Beacon Hills had been founded by the Hale family, everybody who had looked into the history of the town knew that but they had never been part of a council or been mayor. They were there to protect the town and had gathered a fortune by selling land to new homeowners. These days, Derek had very little claim to anything of the town, though he secretly owned a few buildings and the preserve was still in his family's name. In name only, it was a nature preservation and couldn't be sold or used, it was his to protect its rights. To protect the Nemeton.

"We have books yeah but..." Stiles was going to find out everything about the old money and what he owned. Maybe it was high time to unveil secrets which hadn't meant to be secrets in the first place. "You're going to find out some things." Derek's knowledge into the family's history was limited, he had been into learning about all the supernatural. It was Laura's task to be alpha and she had to learn all that history. He was Alpha now, though, and probably about time he knew. He had looked into the last book, updated it regarding his family's deaths, the status of those alive and of course added Elizabeth Laura Hale to the ranks. His pack needed to be updated, as well as Stiles's relation to Derek.

"We always had humans in our pack, but none had the Spark, I think. We had female alphas only and all of them were able to have the shape of a wolf. Hales always had to be able to speak many languages so we were tutored from an early age though none of us knew why. And those who married would always take an outsider from another culture to add in to ours. My grandfather was Italian and he took on the Hale name." Nobody had ever hyphenated as Derek was going to but he didn't care, he wanted this to be equal, these were new times. With a male alpha for a change.

Stiles lightly frowned. "Well, that's the purpose of research, to find things out. Or do you mean secrets about your family's past that are a bit iffy? I'm fine with that if that's the case. Your whole line's life is about survival and protection. It won't influence the way I feel about you or your ancestors," he reassured Derek. "Besides, what's in the past is in the past, I guess? Usually," he shrugged, thinking over what Derek just said.

"Hm, then with mating and marrying me you continued that tradition and brought my exotic Polish blood into the bloodline," he grinned. "Not to mention a strong Spark," he wiggled his brows. "I think I'm quite a catch, don't you agree?" he asked as he closed the book, putting a hand on his hip.

"We are also the start of a new generation. And if our daughter will inherit your alpha spark one day, we'll have to make her ready. And not just her but our possible future kids too. Because we know now how quickly circumstances can change..." he said on a gentler tone, meaning the sudden death of a big chunk of the Hale family then also Laura. "I want our kids to be prepared and strong. In full knowledge not just about the werewolf way but the Spark way too. Because it is likely that one day I'll pass down a bit of my Spark to one of our kids. It's our responsibility to teach them everything we know so they can survive in this badshit crazy town," he said, finally putting the book down on the edge of a table and stepped to Derek to take hold of his hands. A strand of his magic though stayed connected to the book behind him. "Our kids will be forces to be reckoned with. As a pack and individually too."

"Everything about my family was a little iffy," Derek remarked with a soft huff of laughter. It wasn't something he was worried about, a lot of the secrets he didn't even know himself so he understood Stiles' reasoning to not have their generation of Hales make the mistakes the previous ones had. Though it hadn't been on purpose, both Cora and Derek had been too young to fully learn what it all meant, they were kept children for as long as possible. Unfortunately, that didn't last for long since after the fire, there hadn't been time to be a child. "I don't think Beth will inherit my spark."

She was a hybrid, not a full wolf, the inheritance wouldn't go to the first born, it would go to the one ready for it. If the death was a kill by a beta, it would go to him, and if it was something else, whichever the strongest pack bond it could find. Isaac wasn't strong anymore so it might go to Cora if she was close enough. Might. It was something Derek didn't think about. Whatever happened, happened. The Hale spark had been lost once before, when he had healed Cora. What he had now was a stolen spark from an alpha he had been forced to kill. It didn't belong to the Hales, and if it got lost, so be it. They'd find a way, even their kids. They were going to be resourceful because they were going to be raised by Derek and Stiles.

"Our kids, huh? Sounds like you're planning on having a lot of kids." And Derek was all for it, the more the merrier, a big family was strong. Tugging on the joined hands, he pulled his mate closer to briefly press his face against Stiles' neck. "How about five?"

Stiles wanted to ask why Derek thought it wasn't going to be Beth but then he remembered she was a hybrid just when his mate thought about that. But what suddenly drew his attention more was Derek's hot breath on his neck and that question.

Inhaling his mate deeply, he lightly squeezed the hands in his. "Five?! Well, only if I don't have to give birth to all of them! Do you have any idea what that would do to this awesome body?" he let one hand go to motion at his slim yet toned build. "Nu-huh!" Not that they didn't know it was impossible. But Stiles liked to time after time tease Derek with it just to annoy him a bit. "But maybe if youuuu did it..."

Toned arms wrapped around the werewolf as Stiles nuzzled against Derek. "Initially I was thinking about two more kids after Beth, but... I'm not opposed to have more," he murmured. "A big Hale-Stilinski family would be nice, indeed..." For one, since Derek was used to have many relatives, and because Stiles never had that but always longed for it. "Beth would love to have many siblings too," he added, chuckling softly from remembering how often she brought up the topic.

Beth was notorious with her wish for a little baby. So much that they had to try and explain to a toddler why daddies didn't have babies, mommies did. Which only lead to the uncomfortable topic of Lydia, where their little girl was crying because she missed her mommy. It was hard for the two men to not put Lydia in a negative light, but for Beth they restrained themselves and tried to shield Beth from the heartache which came from abandonment as long as possible.

Derek didn't have an exact number of kids he wanted, a big family sure, but it didn't matter to him if it were three or five or more. Planning something like that would only lead to trouble, and why even go there? There was a surrogate they liked, so it wasn't that far in the future. However the Hale had wanted to focus on the wedding first, and all the things they keep having to deal with. Right now it wasn't even something they would do, but they liked talking about it, that was all. A low chuckle was drawn out of him.

"Sure, I'll get fat and round with babies for you. Would ten kids be enough? Or maybe twelve. I had twin siblings, it runs in the family. So we could get there sooner than we think."

Stiles chuckled and tilted his head to the side as he imagined Derek with a round belly. "Well, you carrying twins would be a sight to behold! Big bad grumpy pregnant alpha... God, I bet you'd be even grumpier than usual and snarl at anyone who came too close to you. I'd love that," he grinned, sliding his hands around Derek's neck to hug him close, loving how the big hands automatically slid around him too.

"I also love how we can talk about planning a big family even in the middle of dealing with immediate danger. It's grounding," Stiles added, his smile softening. "By the way, two, five, ten or twelve, I don't care as long as they are healthy, happy, loved and safe. And our pack will definitely need some more cubs to run around and drive us up the wall. My dad has no idea what he's in for. He sometimes nagged me about grandkids. He'll have his hands full, that's for sure," Stiles giggled then leaned in for a soft, long kiss. "We'll get there, I promise. After we dealt with all this shit and had our wedding," he spoke softly, gazing into the beloved green eyes, his own irises still shimmering amber, but not as strongly as before.

There was no rush for Derek to have all these kids, not as long as there was danger. The whole risk of him going insane was gone, the wall did its job and though there were bad days, it was manageable. But as long as they couldn't even fight one alpha without one of them nearly dying, or die since he had been technically dead for a brief moment, children would get hurt, like Beth had. And that wasn't going to happen.

"And speaking of my dad... We should continue looking through the things here and sneak out the other entrance with the stuff we want to take and go to either test what you can do now with the protective runes or go to the house to visit Beth and go through the stuff in the attic too," he suggested, though made no move to loosen his embrace and step back from his mate.

"We'll go to the house first, I don't want Beth to sleep by the time we get there." The house, not home. Stiles had gotten used to calling the loft home now, which meant he was growing up. There had been a few tantrums when Stiles thought Noah was going to change his old bedroom into a gym when the older man had announced to make some changes to the house. Some things were hard to let go of and Derek got that, but the room was still a teenager's room, some changes would actually be good. Like a new carpet that didn't smell like a platoon of boys had gotten off on it.

"Who knows what's there in the attic, it could be important for our research." And sure, that was important but Derek longed to see their girl and for them to spend a little time with her that wasn't through a phone or video call. She was having the best care with the Sheriff and deputy and Melissa, the two males were pack. But it wasn't the same of course.

"Alright. I want to see and spend some time with our daughter too, you know," Stiles said, feeling the need of a father and alpha to be with his cub stronger in Derek with each day. It was no wonder, though. Elizabeth had the strongest pack tie to Derek besides Stiles because she was his flesh and blood kid and he's been raising her alone pretty much from the moment she was prematurely born. Not to mention that she was dragged to Hell too. She'd lived through already so much despite her very young age.

"We go see our daughter then," he caressed Derek's nape. "Just give me like ten minutes to finish checking things out, but I think we had hit jackpot with Cormac's strange book," he shrugged and stole a soft kiss before he was finally able to pull back from Derek. It's been a little while since they were this close and it was getting a bit harder each time to step out of his wolf's orbit.

True to his words, Stiles did go around in the vault and picked out a few more books, crystals and talismans before he deemed their first round a success. Picking up the box they managed to fill up, he raised a brow at Derek. "So... front or back door?" he asked, grinning suggestively, but firstly he meant if they wanted to get back to the car in the open and probably tipping off Zepar and/or his spies where they were going or not.

"I know you want to see Beth, it's why I suggested it." This was the second time Stiles wanted to point it out and he didn't want to ignore it. Beth was both their daughter and he not once thought she wasn't as important to his mate as she was to Derek. And he wasn't going to make Stiles go up to the attic to look at things by himself why Derek took all the time with Beth. Yes, she was his offspring and he had the first time with her alone but Stiles had grown to be her parent just as much and was as important to the little girl. She ran to him too and not just Derek.

Having said that, Derek pulled away from Stiles so they could look into the last few things they needed. Like the books of the Hale family, becauase they could be important. Stiles had added a few more things too and then the wolf took the boxes from the human because they were heavy. "Back door." Rolling his eyes at the suggestive grin, he only then realized what he said. Looked like their bodies were healed fully and their minds were getting there if Stiles could think about sex again. "We're leaving the car where it is." They were going to have to catch a ride with somebody or walk the way to the Stilinski house.

Derek thought about it, yeah, they'd probably try to flag down cars to catch a ride. He didn't want to call a cab, because that might be something their stalkers would pick up on. And by the time they would have secured an Uber, they'd be at the house already. "We're going to come for it later. It'll take a while for them to realize we're no longer in the vault so once we're in the school we have to be very quiet. Take the backdoor there too, not talk until we're far away."

Sure they knew the Sheriff's house by now but leading them to it didn't seem like the wisest thing to do. And they'd be hard to shake if they had to go test out these new wards to come up with a fighting plan.

"Oh god no! I'll have to be silent for that long?!" Stiles rolled his eyes and sighed over-dramatically before switching to a big smile. "Think I'll survive," he whispered at the end, holding an index-finger to his mouth to signal that it was time to quiet down. To himself or the wolf, it remained a mystery because before Derek could use his claws to open the door to the empty school, careful with the boxes the wolf was holding in one hand for now, Stiles pulled him in by his shirt for one last kiss.

In less than three minutes they were silently walking through the school. It was always so strange for Stiles to go back here. Especially when it was empty like this. Luckily now it was only because it was the weekend and not because they were hunting some supernatural creature. No, now they were evading one... Still, it was funny that so many times they had ended up back there. It took some while for them to learn that it was because the school was built on a supernatural hot spot – where the telluric currents converged. There were a few such spots in town and the Nemeton was situated on one itself too. Now Stiles could feel it better too. It was a steady, ancient flow deep beneath their legs. Maybe if he called forth some of his magic and squinted, he'd see them just like how he could see the bonds he had to Derek or the ones the alpha had to each individual in their pack.

But this time Stiles made sure that he didn't use any magic and tried to lock it up as much as possible since they didn't want their peeping toms to know that they were on the move and Stiles suspected that Zepar might be able to sense magical surges like that. So yeah... it was just them sneaking through the school, only a broken lock left after them and then using all the shortcuts Stiles could think of (Derek suspiciously familiar with most of them – the stalker!), they soon arrived to the Stilinski house in one piece and what's more important: not feeling watched or followed.

Derek had gotten used to being back in his old high school after so long. It often felt like he was spending most of his time at Beacon Hills High. More than when he had been a kid going there, because of teens he was attempting to keep safe under his watch, and nobody ever had stopped him. Sure at first he had a young enough face to pass for a senior who simply looked older but after that, he had been starting to look far too old to be going there. And yet, kids had accepted him. Sure they had stared and gossiped and he had lost count of the many times girls had attempted to flirt with him. This school was part of their lives, Beth was going to go here when she was old enough for it. Some day.

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