"They have. Party's at two," Erica chimed in as Stiles started down the hall. Boyd made a slight noise of something that could have been disappointment, but it was hard to tell before they started following their packmate down the hallway.
"Hey, Stiles, wait up!" Boyd finally boomed out.
"If you feel comfortable with it. And of course." The father of his mate wanted to speak with him and Derek knew that Stiles could easily dominate any conversation he was in. This was about something else.
And thankfully, John didn't make him wait long. "First, there's pack status and then there's orientation. Stiles is an omega, but that's only his orientation. Because he's not a wolf, he's not a beta in the pack. The more betas an alpha has, the stronger they are. When my mom was alive, I was her beta, as was almost everyone else in our family with the exception of my father, who was a human. She was grooming Laura to be alpha when she stepped down before-" before the fire. He cleared his throat.
"Stiles isn't a wolf. Whatever pack he's in - his alpha doesn't gain power because of him." On Scott, he paused for a second. "Stiles wants Scott to join our pack. And it's ours, because he's my mate. It's understood that if for some reason, I'm unavailable, he knows what I would want best. Even as a human, he's on equal ground with me."
Another deep breath. "That's more of a biological purpose. He's the mate of an alpha, capable of having children. His actual purpose - everyone in a pack has a place. Everything is about making a pack stronger. Omegas as an orientation are - they're the soul of a pack. Like I told Stiles, they take a pack from being a pack and make it into a family. They're -- I never thought I'd have one, but then Stiles --" And he stopped, the words jamming up in his throat, but he was fairly sure that John understood what he was trying to say.