Chapter Eight- Erica

We found Jackson in a clearing in the middle of the woods. He was turning in circles wildly, looking past us while searching for Lydia. He was obviously frustrated, making a noise that was a weird combination of screaming, growling, howling, and being on the verge of crying. I stood frozen as he ignored us and a single tear slid down his cheek.

To get to the clearing, we had followed the scent of Jackson, Lydia, and the Alphas mixed together. It was easy now to understand my fellow Beta's frustration. The Alpha's had somehow filled the clearing and the surrounding area with a knot of their smell and it was impossible to figure out which one was the correct path. Peter joined us silently then, appearing next to me. Our entire pack was shocked, and the older man was the only one who seemed to be able to speak. "Jackson, you need to calm down to we can all talk about this. You are the only one who knows what happened and we can't find Lydia without knowing the reason they took her originally."

Jackson stopped his sporadic pacing and pointed an accusing finger at Derek. "This is your fault! They wanted her to get to you!"

Derek tried not to let the news effect him, but you could see his shoulders fall if you watched carefully. "What do you mean?"

"They said we can't have Lydia until you join with them," the boy leaned against a tree and slowly let himself fall into a sitting position. "They said that if you don't, they'll just come back. Who knows what they're going to do to her?"

"We won't let them do anything," Boyd spoke up, his voice filled with determination. "We'll find her."

"Not tonight," Peter said. We all looked at him angrily as Jackson let out a sob. How could we not go to find Lydia? "We won't find her if we go tonight. We already have two wolves that are unstable and the trail ends here. We can come back first thing in the morning and search. If they move around at any point, we'll be able to find their scent."

I stared at him in astonishment. She might only be a human, but Lydia was important to us just like Stiles was. If we didn't find her, the Alphas could, at the very least, seriously injure her. If they bit her she could have to go to the hospital again. Jackson continued to tremble at the base of the tree as Scott and Isaac went to speak to him.

"Derek, what do you think?" Boyd asked him.

Our Alpha was lost in thought for a couple of minutes before whispering, "Peter's right. We can't go."

"But we have heightened senses right now!" I tried to argue.

"That might be true, but that's what hurts us," Derek explained. "We smell so many different paths that they are taking over. Tomorrow we will be able to differentiate between which paths were made first and the ones that weren't."

I huffed and turned to Boyd, who tried to smile. It was nothing more than a stiff grin that someone would give for a school picture, and it didn't help. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close. "Try not to worry Erica," he muttered so only I could hear. "We'll find her."

I stole a glance at Jackson's broken form and felt sick at the sight. My only thought was how I would react if they had taken Boyd, or what my boyfriend would do if it was me. He certainly wouldn't give up until I was in his arms again. But looking at Jackson, it was very clear that he wouldn't be able to continue. He was too worked up and bordering on hysterical.

Boyd stalked over to Jackson and threw him over his shoulder without warning. Jackson let out a grunt of air and bounced as my boyfriend began to walk away. "Where are you going?" Derek stood in front of Boyd.

"I'm bringing him home. If we don't, then he'll stay here in the forest until he finds her." Boyd stepped around the bigger man, who let him go.

I made a motion to follow, but Peter's hand on my shoulder told me that I needed to stay. Isaac and Scott were still kneeling next to the tree whispering to each other when they were called over. "We need a plan," Derek said.

Peter nodded. "This is chaos. It'll be almost impossible to track her down, no matter what we do. It seems that all of the Alphas ran around this area to confuse us. I searched around and they separated and got back together multiple times. They really don't want us to find them."

"Then what can we do?" Scott wondered aloud.

"We'll follow every path we can," Derek said bluntly.

Nothing was to be said after that. We walked together out of the trees. The daunting task in front of all of us made me panic a bit. All I could think about was if we would reach Lydia in time. It surprised me to realize that I considered her a friend so quickly.

When I had to stay with her the night before, I had found myself actually enjoying her company. Lydia told me about how Jackson had first asked her out, and that he had had to ask Danny for advice. She also told me about when they first met, and that she had never been happier then when Jackson had come back to her after being the Kanima.

That night, I found myself opening up to her, telling her how Boyd and I first kissed and how we just fell together after that. It was the night after we had tried to find my new friend at Scott's house and he had to take care of me when I was paralyzed. He told me the story of his dad and why he was alone before joining the pack, which led to the real reason he took the bite. When I was feeling better I leaned up and my lips met his. We had been together ever since. Neither one of us thought that Derek would be happy about it, so we kept our relationship secret for as long as possible. I was never happier then I was with him.

All of this only made me want to find her even more.

Notes: Okay guys, not that many today. (: Just the usual. Thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it, and please review. Lots of love sent your way!

-Megan