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Lydia is nowhere to be found, no one has seen or heard of her for the past 24 hours. That's just fucking great . Everyone in the pack has been ordered to meet up at Derek's loft to deal with the situation. Most of the pack were there already. The only ones who were missing were Boyd and Isaac, who at the moment were out in the streets trying to track down Lydia's scent.
Stiles, who was one of the first ones to show up, immediately started to ask millions of questions at that very moment since arriving but didn't give time for anyone who arrived soon after to answer when he followed up with a million more. He did not even realize that he hadn't taken a breath in between questions until Scott rested his hand on his shoulder and was able to take a breath.
"We don't know anything yet, Stiles," he answered, pretty much the answer to all the questions he had already asked and was going to ask.
"What do you mean ' you don't know anything? '" Stiles slapped the hand right of him and began to pace back and forth, the last thing he wanted right now was to be either touched or comforted. There's no time to do any of that. "Standing around here isn't going to help us find Lydia sooner, so why the hell are we even here and not looking for her?!"
Derek, who was leaning against the wall next to his younger sibling, Cora, didn't react to the angry teenager's outburst. He kept his arms crossed in front of him keeping an eye on Stiles and his actions.
"The Alphas could be hiding her anywhere, Stiles," Derek responded as he stood off from the wall and walked towards the group who stood what was almost a circle. Still focused on Stiles, he continued, "We need to look for a trail to find the exact location of where she is being kept. We can't just all run around the town looking for her, that could take a lot longer. Boyd and Isaac will let us know if they found anything."
" For fuck's sake ," Stiles cursed under his breath and continued to pace around running his hand through his now longer hair.
The click of the gate was heard, and the door opened as Boyd and Isaac had walked in from their own search they had done. Scott was first to run over to Isaac's side before anyone else even had the chance to react, but they soon approached them seconds later.
Except for Peter, who sat in his usual place on the steps of the spiral stairs, acting as if he couldn't care less about the current situation but still keeping a watchful eye on everybody.
"Hey, anything?" Scott dared to ask.
From the look on both of their faces, everyone already knew the answer before they even spoke.
"We tried to track her from her scent, but we weren't able to find any leads," Isaac spoke up and Boyd just shrugged his shoulders and nodded.
Stiles immediately then walked over in a threatening, stalking manner, "What the hell do you mean ' you weren't able to? '"
Isaac took a step back away from Stiles, not liking the way Stiles was approaching him one bit. Scott took a step forward blocking Stiles' path before he had the chance to get into the beta's face.
“You’re freaking werewolves! That’s what you do!”
Scott, more than anyone, knows how much Stiles cares about Lydia, the kid has been crazy over her since elementary school, she was all he ever talked about. Even though Lydia made it very clear that she doesn't have those same feelings for him, that won't ever change anything. Now knowing that their rival pack has a hold of her has to be hell for him. Scott will help him in any way he can, even if Lydia or anyone else doesn't know, Scott considers her as part of his own pack. Lydia is one of his friends, probably not the closest, but he could assure that she is definitely a friend of his.
"It's like her scent was blocked, from the moment she walked out from school, her scent just ...vanishes."
Stiles curses under his breath and slammed his fist on the table next to him hard enough to make the table vibrate from the bang, causing everyone in the room to flinch at his sudden reaction. They watched him as he continued his routine of pacing around the room.
Allison sighs out heart-broken, she hates the fact that her best friend is missing and not being able to do anything at the moment. Some part of her knew she was to blame. Allison was suspicious when Lydia had let her know that she was going to hang out with her other friends. Especially at the fact that she wasn't invited, which stung a little at first. Allison thought they were drifting apart when she told Lydia to stay away from Aiden. Ever since then, Lydia had kept her distance, saying she doesn't need anybody to watch over her as if she was some poor, defenseless child.
Even though the thought of following her had crossed Allison's mind, but she didn't want to make things worse between them and decided to give her space, she really regrets her decision now. It wasn't until Scott had called her saying that the Alphas had Lydia, she instantly dropped everything and made her way to Derek's loft where everyone had met up.
"I knew I should have followed her," she muttered under her breath but said it loud and clear enough to be heard by everybody in the room. Scott wrapped an arm around her shoulder giving her the comfort and she leaned into the embrace for a moment.
"Then why didn't you?" a surprising remark from Stiles. Everyone looked at him, not expecting Stiles to talk back to anyone in such a tone, (except Derek, basically any and all Hale family members who just keep popping up like daisies) but never to Allison.
"What?" Allison asked, dumbfounded.
"Just like you said right? Maybe if you had followed Lydia, maybe if you could have talked her out of seeing that dick, none of this would've happened."
Allison looked at him with a shocked expression but felt something burning inside her causing anger to overwhelm her. "Are you trying to say this is my fault?"
"You said so yourself Allison, so I guess, yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying."
Scott then put himself in between them, hating the fact that Stiles was treating Allison like some kind of criminal. "Whoa, dude. Watch the way you speak to her." He placed a hand on his chest once again, pushing him away. "It's nobody's fault."
"Get your hands off me," he growled, swiping away Scott's hand.
Scott tried to gently push Stiles to get him to back off, but Stiles pushed him and unexpectedly pinned Scott against the wall with his arm right against his neck.
Scott looked bewildered at Stiles and his sudden loss of air. Stiles was breathing heavily and looked like he was on the verge of tears. He had a dark look in his eye, he looked as if he were possessed. It was almost as if Stiles wasn’t Stiles anymore.
Stiles snapped out of whatever trance he was in and realized how he was holding Scott and released his hold against him immediately. Everyone in the room was dead silent, the only thing heard was Stiles heavy breathing. He looked around the room and everyone was staring at him in shock. They looked scared.
He was scared too, he felt himself shaking and it was getting difficult to breathe normally.
“I- I-I’m s-s-sorry,” he managed to stutter out. He couldn’t be here any longer, everyone was staring at him as if he were a ticking time bomb. He ran out of the building not bothering to see anyone following.
Scott was about to go after his best friend but felt a hand stop him from going any further.
“Don’t,” Derek said, “Let him clear his head.”
Scott wanted to argue that he needed to be with his best friend. In the middle of their commotion, no one realizes that someone in the group has left unnoticed.
Stiles felt himself having a panic attack. His chest felt like it was constricting his lungs and his heart was beating hard against his chest, making it hard for him to breathe. He had to calm himself somehow and made his way out of the loft and walked towards his jeep. He knocked against the car and leaned himself down to ground trying to even out his breathing as best as he could. With everything that happened, it just made it difficult to concentrate but he tried to push through and began to count in his head.
1.. inhale
2.. exhale
3.. inhale
4.. exhale
He began to count even slower to time his breathing and it seemed that his body was starting to calm itself
8…. inhale
9…. exhale
10… breathe
“Such a shame you even have to deal with that.”
Stiles looked up and saw Peter standing before him with that punchable, snarky look of his. It just reminded him how much he hates this guy.
“What do you want?” He muttered.
“From you? Nothing. It’s more about you want, or in this case need,” Peter replied.
Stiles was really in no mood to deal with Peter right now before he could blow him off
he just continued to ramble.
“I know you wanna help that little girlfriend of yours right now, but honestly in this state of yours, you're useless. Don’t you regret not taking up my offer in the bite?”
Stiles was taken aback when he saw where the conversation was heading. “The bite? The bite that could most likely kill me?”
“It could have, yes. But then again it couldn’t have,” Peter retorted. “I mean think about it, if it didn’t kill you, you could have been a werewolf, and if you were a werewolf now, you could be looking for Lydia yourself. And not here having a breakdown of being pathetic.”
Stiles scoffed, Peter was always annoying and wished this guy stayed in his grave where he belonged. But you know what? Maybe Peter had a point.
What use was he? Here he was having a stupid panic attack because that’s the only thing he was good for, panicking. If he were a werewolf right now, he could have been a useful member of the pack, he wouldn’t have to stay on the sidelines and be out there tracking Lydia’s scent. Being able to rescue her. Be strong and confident like Scott.
“But of course, you’ve made your choice to stay as a pathetic, weak human,” Peter added.
Oh god, if Stiles were a werewolf he could be able to kill Peter himself.
“You know what? Screw you, Peter!” Stiles snapped and picked himself up from the ground to stand face to face to this jerk. “Yes, I am human. But I’m way more useful to this pack than you’ll ever be! What do you do, huh? Besides being the narcissistic asshole?”
Peter was clearly taken aback by Stiles's remark and continued to listen to the insults with a sour face.
“That’s right, nothing! You may think you're hot stuff but think about it. Say when we do find Lydia and we were to have to fight the alphas and you are in trouble, who's going to help you?
Derek? No, because you may be his uncle, but Derek doesn’t even like you and wouldn’t hesitate to leave you to die. And so would anyone else in the pack.
I may be the weakest one in the pack, but at least I have a pack that cares for me and I could count on, and that’s all I want and need to find Lydia.”
Stiles was out of breath by the time he finished his lecture and Peter was certainly stunned and looked pissed. And for a second, his blood ran cold when Peter gave him his murderous look, holy shit . Stiles totally forgot who he was talking to.
He was expecting Peter to rip out his throat then and there, but eventually, Peter chuckled.
“It’s such a shame, you would have been a strong and gifted werewolf, Stiles,” and with that Peter walked away, disappearing into the darkness of the night.
Stiles finally let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and felt his knees go weak under him. He leaned against his jeep staring into space.
Holy shit , Stiles could have sworn he had stared death right in the face.
It took a while to calm himself down again, but it got him to think. Peter, is wrong. Stiles made the right choice in declining the bite, he didn’t need to be a werewolf to be useful. He’s smart, quick to think, even under pressure. That’s all he needed to save Lydia, and right now he needs to come with a plan. Determined, he headed back inside Derek’s loft.