PROLOGUE

Now – Fall 2014

It has been four years since he first saw her brilliantly bright hazel eyes and beautiful strawberry blonde hair. She had been so small, so young, and so different than she is now. Her potential was obvious from the start. There was a power hidden in her - it rolled off of her in waves. It was intoxicating.

Peter Hale is the type of man who, no matter what, gets what he wants. He is also a very patient man. When Peter sets his eyes on something he does whatever he has to do, even if it means waiting years to make Lydia Martin his.

The first time that Peter saw Lydia was in his Introduction to the Dramatic Arts class her freshman year at Beacon Hills High School. The class is designed for freshman, those 14 to 15 year olds who thought the class would be a breeze, an easy-A. Peter didn't fault them for their logic. When he was in high school, Peter had thought the exact same thing. Though for him it became more than just an easy-A. Dramatic arts went from being something at which Peter was extremely good to what could have been a promising career.

The death of his brother-in-law, however, brought an end to his possible career in acting. Peter gave up everything he had built to be there for his family, his pack. It was something he couldn't regret doing, because if he had never gone on the run with Talia and her children, he would never have come back to Beacon Hills and would never have met Lydia.

Being on the run was something Peter put out of his mind once they settled down in Beacon Hills twelve years ago. It was five years of his life where he had to keep his nieces and nephew's fears at bay while keeping them and his sister, his alpha, alive.

Beacon Hills was always a coming home point for the Hale Pack. His family practically built the city, so no matter how long or how far the pack got from Beacon Hills the Hale Pack would find its way back.

The last time the pack had been in Beacon Hills was when Peter was 16-years-old. Talia had just turned 20. That was when Talia met Edmund Aesir.

Edmund was a young beta, the son of some distant relation to the Hale Pack through an old pact No one really knew anymore, it had been so long. Edmund's father was dying and wanted his last surviving son to marry into a strong pack, to be happy and create a strong pack of his own even if it meant the end of the Aesir name. Talia was the logical choice for this arrangement, her being the next in line to be the alpha of the Hale Pack.

Talia was smitten with Edmund even before she knew that she was to marry him, making it was a good match, a good marriage. After the wedding, the Hale alpha at the time, Peter and Talia's aunt, decided that the Hale would move to the Aesir Pack's territory and make it their own. So they moved from Beacon Hills, California to Catskill, New York.

Peter only stayed in Catskill until he graduated high school, moving to New York City for college. He was 22-years-old when Edmund died, a semester away from graduating with his bachelor's degree. It took Peter five years to finish that last semester, and another two years for him to turn that degree into one for teaching.

That was 12 years ago. In the fourteen years since, all of Talia's children have graduated high school; Laura even graduated college while Derek and Cora are still attending the local Community College. In the last 12 years, Peter met Lydia Martin.

That first encounter was four years ago. Four years of waiting, four years of him being patient. Four years that Peter and Lydia had to make up for lost time.

Then – Fall 2010

It was a very cold and dreary September day, the wind blowing the leaves off the branches. The dreary mood engulfed the students as they arrived for the first day of the new school year.

"Of course it's windy on the first day of school," Stiles groaned.

"It is rather chilly," Scott agreed as he zipped up his hoodie, Scott's hood already covering his head to keep his ears warm.

"Oh, Scotty boy…" Stiles groaned, letting out a large white puff of air into the chilly air. "I thought you were excited for the first day of high school."

"I am," Scott said, speeding up his walk to catch up with Stiles who was nearly to the front steps of Beacon Hills High School. "But it's too cold to be as excited as we were yesterday."

"Yesterday was amazing and you know it! Also, the weather shouldn't affect your excitement about being a high schooler," Stiles said as he pulled open the door to the school as wide as he could in a flailing motion, almost knocking himself over in the process.

Scott made his own flailing attempt to steady Stiles from falling. The students who were walking behind him waltzed forward and toward the door Stiles was holding wide open. The two students who walked through were ones that Scott recognized, Lydia Martin and Jackson Whittemore.

Lydia Martin was a stark contrast to how she was the year previous. In middle school, she wore bulky glasses that covered nearly half her face and she wore her hair in a long braid more often than not. Now, she had her hair in a cascade of curls that framed her face, which was now free of glasses. Lydia had always been cute, but now she was gorgeous.

Stiles saw this new-and-improved Lydia and literally began to drool. He'd had a crush on her since third grade, but the way she looked now went straight to his dick and he wouldn't even care if he got a boner right now, it'd be so worth it.

"Hello, Lydia. You're looking extremely gorgeous today," Stiles says, surprised he didn't speed through the words making them unidentifiable. It wouldn't have been the first time when it came to Lydia Martin.

Jackson sidled up to Lydia, blocking Lydia from Stiles' and Scott's view of her. He swung his arm around her shoulders and smiled smugly in their direction.

"At least some people know who they should hold doors open for," he said, turning to Lydia who only flipped her strawberry blonde curls over her shoulder as she continued to walk into the building, ignoring everyone around her.

"That was," Stiles said, leaning into the hallway to watch Lydia and Jackson as they walked away from them, "eye opening."

"Dude, you are literally drooling," Scott said, his head tilted to the side as he looked at his best friend's face.

"I'm surprised I don't have a raging boner right now, honestly."

"And that is the way to start high school, huh?" Scott said as he placed his arm over his best friend's shoulder as they walked into Beacon Hills High School for the first time.