Peter's stayed here longer than he's stayed anywhere since Hemlock Grove. He hadn't meant to, he'd just intended to pause here, and keep moving on. But there was something about Derek, a bond in how they'd both been born as what they were, born with wolf in their blood, a whispered growl and teeth and instinct in their head. They balance each other in ways that are both silent and not, unsaid and spoken in the way that Peter never hesitates to tease Derek, playful and snarky but with a deep current of something he doesn't let himself see.

He can sense Derek's concern, and it just makes him nuzzle more into the Alpha's shoulder, into the way that he wraps an arm around Peter's shoulder. There's that question, and Peter's hurt and lonely and so his answer is easy and honest, where it might not have been otherwise.

"I lost someone." He bites his lip, but somehow the words come tumbling out anyway. "You know how your first changes can be really intense? Have you ever run across wolves when you're shifted and you're just on edge and lonely and you don't really mean for anything to happen but, uhm, but then- then you're stuck on his knot for an hour and you're not mates but it's just nice to have someone want you?"

Peter starts talking fast at the words stuck on his knot and the words slur together a little. He kind of curls into him, hiding in Derek's body. Yeah, okay, answer is almost certainly no, but there it stands.