Chapter 14
Lydia woke to her own screams and a pain unlike anything she had ever experienced. She knew what it meant, she could feel it. It was a feeling she had experienced only once before and had hoped to never feel again. Try as she might she couldn’t avoid what it meant, the consequences were too dire. Stiles was dying.
“Lydia?” A sleepy voice next to her asked. Lydia had let Malia sleep over since she knew she hated going home and had slept a lot at the Stilinski’s, plus she didn’t really want to be alone either. In truth, Lydia had been just as surprised by her offer as Malia had looked when she accepted it. The two girls may act civil towards each other, but Lydia knew there was tension there. So she wasn’t sure why she invited Malia over, maybe because they had bonded a bit that day or maybe because Malia was pack and she was hurting for the same reason as Lydia and it didn’t make sense for them to be alone. Regardless, she was there and Lydia had just woken her up with her screaming.
“It’s fine, just a nightmare. Sorry, I woke you.” Malia sat fully up looking at Lydia with an annoyingly concerned expression.
“Just a nightmare?”
“Yes just a nightmare, I’m just going to get a glass of water” Lydia abruptly stood up. She knew Malia could tell that she was lying, but she couldn’t say it out loud yet. She would tell the pack tomorrow morning, not that the information would change anything. Knowing would only cause them more pain, not help them find him sooner, but still they deserved to know what she knew.
She walked downstairs to get some water, but instead was distracted by her keys on the counter. Knowing she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep that night she felt the need to go for a drive. It was almost 5am and she figured she could go grab some bagels and coffee for the pack, maybe by the time she had finished it would be an appropriate hour to go over to Derek’s.
Lydia opened the door of her house and found Malia leaning against her car.
“Malia” Lydia sighed, “I told you I was fine, now go back to sleep.”
“You think I was asleep? I don’t think I slept more than 20 minutes the entire night.”
“I’m going to get food and coffee for the pack and then head over to the loft. Do you wanna join?” Lydia asked, resigned to the fact that the girl was not going to leave her alone.
“Yes please, anything to distract myself from my thoughts.” The two girls got in the car and drove in silence for a while, then Malia began talking,
“When Stiles and I first went public in school everyone was less than pleased.”
“How do you know?”
“I love being a werecoyote most of the time, but sometimes it's more of a curse than a blessing. Especially when it means I can hear every little piece of gossip whispered about me.” Lydia couldn’t imagine it. She knew people talked about her, teenagers were not nearly as sneaky as they thought they were, but she would never want to hear exactly what they were saying.
“What did they say?”
“Some said I wasn’t pretty enough to be with Stiles or that Stiles wasn’t hot enough to be with me. I didn’t care so much about these because I know we are both attractive people and I think there are a lot of factors other than looks that are more important.” Lydia glanced over to see the girl looking at her hands and twisting them together. She wondered if Malia had picked up that nervous habit from Stiles or if she did it naturally.
“What talk did you care about?”
“Some people said I wasn’t good enough to Stiles, which was true. I mean I’m trying to be good enough for him, but I was worried that might not be enough.”
“Malia, you have to know that isn’t true. First of all you might be a little rough around the edges but you are a good person. And Second the fact that you are trying means that you are good enough. Bad people don’t try to be better, they are okay with being bad.” Lydia hoped she had explained it in a way that Malia could understand. She looked over and saw the girl give her a small smile.
“Thank you, there was one other thing that bothered me at the time, but now I know was silly.”
“What was it?”
“People said that Stiles could never fully love me because he had loved you for so long and part of him would always love you.”
“Malia that's…” Lydia tried to interject, but Malia pushed on.
“No, no it’s okay. Stiles explained it to me a bit and I figured some stuff out on my own. Stiles said that he loved you before he had gotten to know you, he knew what kind of person you used to be and loved you because of it, but he still didn’t really know you.”
“And after he had gotten to know me he didn’t like me anymore?”
“No, he just realized that he had to take you off the pedestal and once he did he realized that you may never love him in the same way and that maybe the two of you worked better as friends than you ever would in a relationship.”
“And then he met you.”
“Yes and it all happened so fast, and he told me that once everything had settled he realized that he loved you in a different way now.”
“Like he loves Scott.” Lydia guessed, like a friend or maybe even a sister.
“I think you are in your own special category, you were his first love and will always be his first love.”
“Does that make you nervous?” Lydia asked not out of spite but out of genuine curiosity as she put the car into park. They had arrived at the store, but she wanted to finish the conversation before they got out. Malia didn’t seem to notice as she continued to stare at her hands, struggling to find the right words.
“No, that’s why I’m telling you all of this. I know things can sometimes be tense around us, possibly because of my lack of tact or because of Stiles. But I just want to let you know that I completely understand that you and Stiles have a unique bond and that I am not threatened by it.”
“Really?” Lydia could not believe how understanding Malia was being.
“Yes, I don’t want yours and Stiles' friendship to change.” Looking back at it Lydia realized that maybe she had been a bit jealous of Malia, not of the fact that she was dating Stiles, but of the fact that she was now Stiles’ number one priority. It was incredibly selfish, but she had just lost two important people when Malia showed up to take a third away. Stiles would still be in her life, but Malia would always be his first priority where it used to be Lydia. Lydia saw now how petty that had been. Stiles was an incredibly loving person and he had room in his heart for both of them. He would still be there for Lydia no matter what.
“Thank you, Malia, that is incredibly understanding of you.” Lydia reached over and squeezed her hand. Malia gave her a genuine smile this time and then looked out the window.
“Uh Lydia, where are we?”
“The store, what…” But Lydia trailed off as she looked, really looked out the window. She had thought they were parked at the store, but they were instead parked in a parking lot next to a huge factory.
“Lydia is this…?”
“It’s where they are keeping Stiles," Lydia said turning the car back on and quickly reversing “We have to get out of here before anyone sees us.”
“You did it Lydia, you found him.”
“Now let’s hope we can rescue him in time,” Lydia said, trying to ignore the pain exploding through her body, she knew Stiles didn’t have much more time.
*****
Liam woke to his phone buzzing. He was immediately awake as he looked at a text from Scott.
Lydia found Stiles, come to the loft ASAP
“Mason get up! They know where Stiles is” Liam shouted. His best friend stirred on the floor,
“What? How?”
“Lydia found him.”
“But if Lydia found him then…”
“Yeah, it means he’s close to death” Liam finished the sentence for Mason. “Hence why I am shouting at you to get up with such fervor.” The two boys immediately got up and started dressing. Liam was so grateful that Mason finally knew what was happening. Keeping the secret from him had almost destroyed their friendship. Now it was stronger than ever before and Liam always had someone to talk about the supernatural with. He had finally broken down and told everything to Mason when Scott had come to him and explained how valuable Stiles’ friendship was to him.
“You should tell him, he saw the berserker with Lydia, he knows something is up.”
“What if telling him puts him in danger? Or what if he is disgusted at the thought of having a werewolf as a best friend?”
“He won’t be, Mason is a good guy and a good friend, he wouldn’t push you away for something like that. Besides you need your friends, I would’ve been lost without Stiles.”
“But that’s different, Stiles came up with the werewolf theory before you did.”
“Yeah and I was incredibly cruel to him, but he still stood by me and helped me out. I almost killed him when I lost control, but Stiles still stood by me.”
“If you are trying to say that Mason will stand by me I get it, but it’s still putting him in danger.”
“Stiles is a human, and yes he has been put in danger, but he has survived. And he has been invaluable to me in the process and not just because he is super smart and clever and figures things out. He has been valuable to me because having all of this, werewolf powers, a pack, everything, wouldn’t mean as much if I didn’t have my best friend to share them with.”
“Alright, I’ll tell Mason.”
And tell him he had, and he hadn’t regretted it for a second. Mason had already figured out that there were supernatural beings and he knew Liam had been acting strangely so he hadn’t been too surprised when Liam had told him.
Liam was brought out of his thoughts with another text from Scott.
Isaac will pick you up in 5
Liam had to stifle a groan. Did it have to be him? Liam just couldn’t shake the feeling of uneasiness whenever he was around Isaac. Mason didn’t understand Liam’s feelings as he and Isaac had really hit it off. The only one who seemed to understand had been Malia, but recently she had been spending more time around Isaac. When he questioned her about it she told him that she had made a promise to Stiles to give Isaac a fair chance.
Maybe it was time that Liam followed suit. Scott and Stiles both trusted him and Liam trusted Scott and Stiles above all else. Isaac may be a stranger who was absent for the whole Benefactor/Kate debacle, but he was here now and Liam owed it to Scott and Stiles to give him a chance.
Isaac pulled up in Mrs. McCall’s car and the two boys hopped in. Isaac sped out of the driveway and down the road at breakneck speeds.
“Whoa dude relax, you are going to get us killed,” Liam said tensely, then he noticed how tightly Isaacs hands were gripping the steering wheel, he heard his heart racing and smelled the fear. “Isaac, it’s going to be okay, we will make it to Stiles on time.” Liam softened his tone. Isaac slowed down slightly and took a deep breath.
“Lydia said she woke up screaming with excruciating pain, that was Stiles’ pain she was feeling. He’s dying.” Isaac’s voice shook.
“At least we know where he is, and I know we will get to him on time. What is a group of silly hunters against our fierce pack?” To Liam’s relief a small smile appeared on Isaac’s lips.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so rude to you man” Isaac said softly “It’s just that, I had nothing in life until I was bitten by Derek, and even then Derek cared more about having a werewolf than he did having me. Scott was the first person to really seem to care about what happened to me, at least since my brother died. Being a part of Scott’s pack was the first thing in a while to really feel right. I was the first werewolf to join you know, so I guess I was a bit territorial and jealous of you.”
“Why would you be jealous?”
“Because Scott bit you, I may be his beta, but you have a special bond with him being his bitten beta.”
“I do?”
“Yes, and I know I hadn’t been around and had no right to be so possessive, but I was and I apologize for that.”
“It’s alright, I think I was threatened by you as well, a strange werewolf whom Scott trusted and who had been a part of the pack for longer than I had.”
“I guess we both got off on the wrong foot,” Isaac admitted and Liam smiled at him.
“About damn time,” Mason said from the back and they both laughed.
“Now let’s go get Stiles,” Isaac said as he pressed down the gas pedal, this time Liam didn’t mention it.
- N x
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