The ride through the woods was awkward to say the least. Neither spoke, neither knew what to say. Stiles was still trying to process the fact that Lydia Martin kissed him, he could still feel the hot sweetness on his lips, remembering how she grabbed his face, taking charge, eagerly kissing him, desperately, even. He wanted to say something, anything, but all coherent thought left him. He didn't have to look to his side to know that the kiss was the furthest thing from Lydia's mind. She was frowning, her nails digging into the vinyl of his jeeps door. So many things were spinning around her head, involving Jackson, where he was, was he hurt, scared? Guilt was radiating off of her and Stiles guzzled air, breathed deeply through his nose not to let on how hurt he was.
When the two reached the cleared opening that lead to the Hale house, Stiles quickly turned on his high beams, the woods freaked him out at night, nothing good ever happened there. The pair could still hear the sound of bombing fireworks shooting into the sky, but neither had seen any color since they left the highway. They were alone, consumed in the darkness, not knowing what to say about the situation. "He's going to be fine, Lydia. Don't you worry." Stiles tried to sound soft, but mostly just came off bitter. She looked up at him, she didn't want to be so annoyed by Stiles right now, not after what just happened, what she initiated, but she couldn't control the need to roll her eyes. "This is all my fault." She muttered above a whisper while looking out at the pitch darkness. "Yes, Lydia. This is all your fault. You kiss me and poof! Jackson goes missing." He spat at her, driving as careful as possible. She glared at him. "You think it's a coincidence?" He sighed. "Yeah, I do." "It's not." She insisted and Stiles knew it was hard for her not to stick out her tongue or pout at him. "Fine." He hissed. "Fine." She mocked right back. He tried to focus on the drive, one wrong turn they'd hit a tree. His jeep was one of the biggest and he secretly thought that the pack made this so narrow just to screw with him. He saw the porch and the dull, eery glare off the dark windows of the Hale house. There was a soft yellow light coming from inside one of the front rooms and the two got out of the jeep, walking up the steps.
Once inside, Lydia grabbed Stiles' arm, knowing right where they would be and entered the large room seeing everyone looking very worried. It didn't ease Lydia's nerves. "What's going on? Where is Jackson?" Stiles rolled his eyes at her side and Erica scoffed. "Hi to you too." The blonde changed out of her festive shirt and was bathed in a blackness that Stiles knew was mostly for her mood. She cocked an eyebrow at him, signaling that he really did get around. Stiles licked his lips, seeing Scott glaring at him, his voice didn't sound off on the phone, but here, in person, Stiles didn't need superpowers to feel the hostility his best friend was emitting.
"You," Derek pointed at Lydia. "You haven't seen Jackson at all?" Lydia rubbed her lips together, looking up at the alpha. "No, not since this afternoon. He was pretty mad and-" Derek stormed away from her, cutting off Lydia's explanation. She glared at him. "He isn't at his house, he isn't at Danny's, he isn't at the school or the gym.." Derek started losing his patients. "Where else would he go?" He was still talking to Lydia, but she wasn't at all a fan of his temper or his attitude. She simply looked away. "Y-you said something about a personal trainer?" Stiles spoke quietly. "Yes!" Her eyes widened "Jackson has a trainer that he sees every day, his name is Lionel and I have a really, bad feeling about him." "Uh oh.." A voice lifted from the shadows, Stiles and Lydia immediately turned in the direction, not seeing him before. Peter Hale stepped out, his hair slicked back, his blue eyes looking a little worried. Lydia shivered and subconsciously moved towards Stiles a little more.
"What is it?" Derek demanded, coldly looking at his uncle. The older man smiled curtly at Derek and walked into the center of the room, basking in the attention. "Maybe there's some things I should get off my chest." Peter suggested, tossing his hand in the air causally. Derek gritted his teeth but kept any comment to himself. "Sounds fabulous." Stiles muttered under his breath, then cursed silently, remembering who he was with. Peter smiled at him. "Okay, so I may have forgot to mention a couple of things when you asked me about an alpha pack, Derek." Peter began. "An alpha packs goal is to find something that is lost." "We know that." Scott rolled his eyes. "Yes, but no one has figured out what they would be after!" Peter glared at Scott, annoyance in his tone. His eyes immediately softened and he walked in a slow circle, eying each person in the room. "No one but you, Stiles." Peter Hale looked encouragingly at the fidgeting sixteen year old. Stiles' brows furrowed and his mouth fell open in that dormant way that made people think he wasn't listening. "M-m-me?" He sputtered out. "Yes, you thought they were looking for someone, you were right." The room stayed silent, everyone trying to process. "Wait, then that means..." Stiles started already catching Peter's bright gaze, nodding at him. "They were after Jackson? Why?" Issac finished, completely perplexed. "Because he was the kanima?" Boyd shrugged. "Because he's an asshole." Erica sneered. Lydia glared at her but Stiles couldn't hold his chuckle.
"Because his eyes are blue." A voice from the darkness answered, footsteps followed, stepping between Stiles and Lydia with crossed arms. Scott's eyes widened at the sight of her. "That's correct, Allison." Peter's voice softened in the same way that it did when he would talk to Lydia, it made her shiver. She hadn't seen her best friend in months, could she still call the girl that? Allison didn't look at her, she didn't look at anybody but Peter. "What is the significance of blue eyes?" Erica asked, breaking the intense silence. "He was born a werwolf." Scott figured, jumping to the same conclusion as his best friend, who decided to keep his thoughts to himself. "That's it, isn't it? Derek-" The teen turned to face the alpha. "Your eyes were blue when you were a beta, and you said you were born like this. The rest of us, we have yellow eyes, because we were turned. Jackson must have been born a werwolf." Scott decided, even though he had just made the most sense he would probably ever make, out of anything, he looked confused as ever. "But Derek turned him." Issac insisted, "He bit Jackson and then he became the kanima." "That doesn't mean he wasn't always a wolf." Allison shook her head, trying to reason. Peter had kept his opinions to himself, just laced his hands in front of him and let the teenagers battle it out.
"You knew this. Jackson was never going to turn back into that thing!" Lydia accused. Everyone stopped, watching them. "I had to make you believe that he'd lose himself again." "But why?" Stiles spoke, coming to Lydia's side, wanting the answers just as badly as she did. Peter turned his back on them, again walking to the middle of the floor, captivating everyone's attention. "Alphas look for other alphas." He spoke like it was obvious. "No." Derek shook his head. "I would have known." Peter rose a brow at his nephew. "You can't find your way out of a paper bag these days, and frankly, everyone here knows it." Derek glared but let his anger simmer. "Jackson would never know, his parents died in a car crash, yes?" He asked his audience. "If either one of them was an alpha, the title would go down to their next of kin since it was a very un homicidal death." Peter's whole disposition told the teens that he really didn't see how any of this was such a shock, and that he could think of at least twenty other things that were far more important right now. That angered Stiles.
"Why do they want Jackson?" Came one question. "Why do they look for alphas?" Asked another. Peter Hale rubbed his temple, secretly thrilled with how much they were relying on him. Stiles sensed that. He hated that. "How do you know so much about all this?" He found himself asking, glaring at the ex alpha, the man that created Lydia's every nightmare. To say Stiles hated Peter Hale was an understatement. He didn't care if he was the only one that knew a damn thing, Stiles would take his chances. He didn't like him, nor did he trust him. It was frustrating to Stiles that no one else seemed to see that. "Stiles!" Scott warned, sensing something Stiles couldn't? It didn't matter. "No, Scott, I want to know. What makes you such an expert, Peter?" Peter Hale smiled at Stiles, it was in that one glance that the sixteen year old understood everything.
"You know because you ran from them." Derek spoke up, his strong jaw set in a scowl, his green eyes blazing with memories that finally connected together. "When you came back to us, before the fire, you were running from someone." Peter smiled at his nephew but said nothing. "Got yourself into trouble with a pack of alphas, Uncle?" Derek rose a brow and Peter could do nothing else but laugh. All eyes in the room were on him, he was cornered. "Clever, clever, clever, clever." Peter started mumbling, shifting his weight from one boot to the other. "It was all your fault Derek." Peter began, not looking up to meet anyone's gaze. "You poured your heart out to a girl who's only purpose in this world was to kill our kind." Derek's breathing hitched, Allison's eyes started to glaze. "You told her every damn thing about us, our family. Oh-" Peter's eyes met Derek's. "You think I didn't know?" Derek looked away. "I had to do something, save us, at whatever cost." Peter Hale turned his back to the group, staring out a dusty old window. Lydia wondered if he was fantasizing about the past, the way the house looked before it was set ablaze, before all these horrible things happened, like what he showed her in a dream.
"I heard of this mythical alpha pack and legend goes that if you kill a member, you become even greater, stronger than any average alpha. You aren't limited to just your pack, you can control others." Peter's voice was masked with a smile. It churned Stiles' stomach. "It was what was needed to stop what was happening." He quickly turned back to the group, his eyes only on his nephew. "Well, legend didn't tell me how hard it was going to be." He rolled his eyes. "Needless to say, I only made them angry, and they've been hunting me ever since." Peter muttered. "So they're after you?" Boyd asked, "Not Jackson?" "No, they thought I died in the fire." Derek's head immediately turned, not being able to meet Peter's eye. The shame of that night all those years ago weighing him down, and having an Argent right there in his home just felt wrong. But Derek knew he couldn't hold that against Allison, she was looking just as fragile as Derek felt at the moment. In the glow of the lanterns she looked just like Kate. His anger weakened for a moment.
"So Jackson's parents were part of an alpha pack, and now Jackson is like next in line? So they just want to take him with them?" Scott asked, his voice slow, trying to sift over every word. "Well I say we just let them have him." Stiles spoke loudly. "I'm sick of saving his unappreciative ass." Stiles grunted with the contact of Lydia's arm in his stomach. "Ow." He croaked while receiving a glare from the strawberry blonde. "He can't just leave, Beacon Hills is his home, he belongs here." Stiles tried to pretend that those words didn't bother him so much. He tried not to take them so personally. "It's a lot more complicated than that, Lydia." Peter drawled. "Well we need to do something." She crossed her arms. "That still doesn't explain why you wanted Lydia to not break up with Jackson, what's the difference if he stays or goes?" Allison challenged.
Peter sighed, rather tired from all the interrogating and sat on the arm of the couch. "Alpha packs are strong. Stronger than any other werwolf. They are dangerous. If Jackson joins them, he still is connected to this pack, because of Derek. He could learn to control all of us. I thought that it be a little less complicated if his girlfriend could give him a reason to stay. Apparently not." Peter spat. "Hey!" Stiles growled, standing in front of Lydia, shielding her. Peter laughed, turning to everyone else. "See what I mean? This one is always getting in the way." He ticked. Stiles had heard enough. "So what you're saying is we either try and keep Jackson from joining that new pack, or we let him go and give him the power to control us?" Peter stood, rubbing his temple. "If Jackson joins that pack, I am not saying that he will just control you, I am saying that it will give him and them, the power to reek havoc over all of Beacon Hills." "Everyone?" Issac asked skeptically. Peter nodded. "Afraid so. But they already have him, the damage is done." He stretched. "I say we cut our losses and get the hell out of here." He started walking to the door. No one followed.
Derek gritted his teeth. "So we find him, he's only been missing for a few hours, nothing could have happened in that time." The alpha declared. "They probably already skipped town." Boyd weakly added. "No, I can feel it, they're here still." Erica disagreed, concentrating on something. "I can feel it too." Scott nodded. "So what? We're going to go gallivanting through town looking for him? It's fourth of July, in case anyone forgot, everyone's around." Stiles groaned. "Oh, and if we find him? Then what? These are alphas we're talking about! They are way stronger than us." He was not thrilled with the fact that everyone wanted to save Jackson, he really wanted to take Peter's offer. Grab his dad, move away. But that would have just made Stiles a coward, and the look on everyone's faces made him sure that if he left, right now, he would never get the nightmare of them out of his mind. He tried not to think of everyone ignoring him. Was it their adrenaline or their stupidity? Stiles wasn't sure.
"They have been in town for months, they have planned this." Derek insisted. "They've been watching us, haven't they?" Lydia asked. "I could feel it, I knew it. He just wouldn't listen to me." Lydia sighed. "They're not going to hurt him, Lydia. They want him to join them." Scott smiled at her. She nodded. There was a loud crash as Derek took out blueprints and maps of Beacon Hills out of a closet no one knew was there. The group hovered over the papers, trying desperately to pin point a location the alphas would be in. The group worked all through the night, it would take some time, but they would save Jackson, they would save Beacon Hills, and they would do it, together.