For a moment Deaton hesitated, but then nodded.

"Can you fix it?" his dad asked.

"There is nothing to fix," Deaton replied turning and looking at everyone in the room in turn, "what is happening here is not an aberration. It is unprecedented, but it is a natural cycle."

"The why is it killing my son?" his dad demanded and Stiles thought that was pretty strong wording until neither Scott nor Deaton disagreed.

"Beacon Hills is awakening," Deaton said, "and not only do we have a true alpha," he looked significantly at Scott, "but now we also have a white wolf."

"What's a white wolf?" Stiles asked, because if he was asking questions he didn't have to think about the whole death part.

Deaton gave him one of those 'all my attention is on you and I can see into your soul' kind of looks.

"You are," Deaton said.

That didn't make any sense at all.

"Have you been sniffing mistletoe?" he asked and Deaton actually smiled.

"What does it mean?" Scott asked the sensible question.

"A white wolf is a human who runs with wolves, a kind of emissary, but linked to the pack at a far more basic level and with far more extensive powers; the ultimate of which is the ability to become a wolf without ever being a werewolf."

Stiles opened his mouth to respond to that, but he honestly had no idea what to say.

"If Stiles is one of these white wolves, why is he sick?" Scott asked.

"Because he has yet to find a ground."

Stiles looked at Scott: "I thought you said Scott was grounding me?"

"And he is, to some extent," Deaton replied, "because he is your alpha, however the connection is fragile, it only works while he is touching you."

"But why me?" he asked. "Why did this happen, I never asked for it?"

"The white wolf you see when you sleep is the personification of the power," Deaton said. "When you sacrificed yourself for your father you must have attracted attention. The closer the white wolf came to you in the other place, the more the power awoke in you, but the transition from one to the other is draining your reserves. The only way to stop it is to assimilate the magic into yourself properly."

"And, just in the aim of full disclosure, if I wanted to do that how would I?"

"You need to find your ground within the pack. The amount of power a white wolf can command is truly impressive, but nature does not like such imbalance. To be able to wield such power a white wolf must be bound to a pack, an individual within the pack to be precise. The individual also gains in power from the connection and the pack gains in strength. Usually it would be the alpha, but you two do not have the right connection."

Stiles was pretty sure he didn't like the word 'bound'.

"But we're like brothers," he said and he honestly couldn't think of a closer connection he had to any of his friends.

"And that would be the problem," Deaton said and looked just a little apologetic, "the bond is usually that of mates."

Part of Stiles was ridiculously relieved that Scott wasn't his match after that revelation, because 'eeeew' he and Scott did not have that kind of relationship. However, then he processed the implications.

"But none of them like me like that," is what he blurted out.

Before Lydia had kissed him that idea would have filled him with joy, but, frankly, what the whole kissing incident had done was wake him up to the fact all his fantasies were just that; fantasies. He loved Lydia, a lot, but not, so much, like that anymore.

"And they're all involved with other people," he pointed out.

"And he's only sixteen," his dad pointed out.

"I'm seventeen in eight days," he protested and tried to sit up, before realising he just didn't have the strength for it.

All the fight went out of him as he sagged back against the pillows.

"Unfortunately, the situation does not seem to be concerned with the ages of those involved," Deaton replied. "Scott is far too young to be a true alpha under normal circumstance, but Beacon Hills is very far from normal. There is also nothing to say there could not be three people in a mating bond."

Stiles wasn't sure whether to be outraged or really turned on by that idea, but he didn't have much energy to react anyway, so it didn't actually matter.

"I cannot believe you suggested a three way with my dad in the room," is what he decided to say.

"I can't believe you suggested a three way to my sixteen year old son," his dad said and seemed somewhat stuck on that last point.

"I am sorry," Deaton said and didn't really sound it, "but this situation needs to be resolved. Stiles saw another wolf while on the other side, that is the visual representation of his balance within the pack. He must find out who it is and bond with them or he will eventually die. Scott can keep him grounded and allow him to recover some of his strength, but that solution will not last forever for obvious reasons."

"Love you, buddy," Stiles said to Scott, "but I'm not holding hands with you for the rest of my life."

Then something else occurred to him.

"If I'm seeing a wolf does that mean the one I'm supposed to find is a wolf, or is that just because they're part of a wolf pack?" he asked.

"I am not sure," Deaton replied.

"And how am I supposed to know which one to pick?"

"Once you are feeling better I suggest you follow your instincts," Deaton said. "You should already be sensing the draw, but it is possible you are simply too exhausted."

It was all a bit much to deal with and he was so damn tired. There were so many questions he needed to ask, like 'why me?' several hundred more times before it started to make sense.

"And what if I don't want this?" he decided to simply be direct about it. "What if I say no? How do I get rid of it?"

Deaton actually looked shocked at that question, as if someone refusing such power had never crossed his mind.

"I don't know," Deaton replied. "Stiles, this is not something that just happens, you were chosen for a reason."

"And maybe I don't want to be chosen," he replied, because, hell this thing had almost killed him and he was so not the person to have a ridiculous amount of power; his impulse control was terrible.

The universe seemed to like taking his life and turning everything about it inside out and he was sick of it.

"Then that is something you need to take up with the white wolf you have been seeing," Deaton said, "but not yet; you are far too weak. What you need right now is rest."

At least that was one thing Stiles could agree on.

"Scott, do you mind not letting go for a while?" he asked in lieu of anything more sensible to say.

"Sure," Scott said.

"Cool," he decided, "then I'm going to go back to sleep and maybe this will make more sense when I wake up."

It was amazing what he could manage when he needed to and when no one argued with him he drifted right off.