A/N: Many thanks to my awesome new beta AWaywardHunter for helping me with chapter and not fleeing given the amount of chapters I've already written ... In my profile you'll find a link to the fanfic page on this one - where you find graphic chapter headers and summaries of past chapters in case you feel like freshen up your memories

Weregrrrl13 Glad you could enjoy the snuggling time, you'll find out more about Yoon and Peter's connection and how much they know about this in later chapters.

Chapter 9 Secrets

Two things came immediately to mind when Lydia woke up: she had not dreamt of the dark tomb with the icky stench and she was alone. At least the room was pleasantly warm, encouraging her to free her arms from under the covers. While her wrist was still purple and blue where it had been bruised the day before, it at least did not hurt anymore.

In the soft morning light everything that happened last night seemed even more surreal. Yet she was here, sleeping in one of the guest rooms with the definite signs that she had not slept alone. Oddly enough, Peter hadn't tried anything. He'd even been right that his presence would keep that nightmarish creature from reaching out to her.

Lydia felt like lying around in bed for a while. She was glad that she was alone as it allowed her to relax a while. No matter how nice it had been to fall asleep last night, having Peter around always put her on the defence. Something about the way he framed things sounded so rational but she always needed to remember that this was because he misrepresented important details.

Looking at the empty tea cup by her bed side, she realised how thirsty she actually was and how nice it would be to have someone around to bring her something to drink. Since her throat still felt a tiny bit sore she began contemplating getting up to make herself another cup. Before she made up her mind, she heard the doorbell ringing.

Perhaps it was Aiden. He had said he'd come by around 10. Only her sleep pattern was so severely out of sync that it felt earlier than that. One look at the ancient alarm clock on the nightstand confirmed that it was ten minutes after their agreed time.

"Yes, yes," she muttered to herself as the doorbell rang a second and third time.

Dressed in her robe and slippers she hurried down. Luckily hearing her approach had made him stop his ringing after three more loud noisy rings. Still not fully awake she opened the door for Aiden.

"Hey, morning," Lydia greeted him with a kiss to the cheek.

"Morning," Aiden replied.

Seeing the way he looked at her and the way his nostrils moved, Lydia knew instantly that he smelled Peter on her. Something she might have thought about if she had like five more minutes to think about her plans for the day. Then again, Aiden had never been in the same room with Peter, maybe if she fled into the shower now, she could make something up and have him forget about this.

"I overslept, why don't you sit down for like 20 minutes while I get ready."

While the time frame was very optimistic, Lydia knew she had to hurry. Her room was probably still a mess, she mustn't let Aiden see that. The problem was that he was nearly always in her room when he would come over. The thought that her parents made idle conversation with the guys she brought over was terrifying. Last year Lydia had not necessarily wanted them to notice how the faces kept changing throughout summer break.

So as soon as she was upstairs, she locked her door. There she saw what had happened to her bed covers and sheets. Peter had folded them and put them beside her bed, so that most of the blood on them and the floor was not visible anymore. As soon as she had gotten rid of Aiden later on, she needed to clean that up - maybe throw them away. The real problem was the carpet, maybe she needed to call someone professional to do it.

As she couldn't do anything at that moment, she hurried past her bed, pinned up her hair and got into the shower. It had to be a new record in showering for her, the third time in the last twenty-four hours. There was no time to use body-milk or take proper care of her hair. After maybe two minutes, she heard a loud knock on her door.

Aiden called her name through the door, knowing he could hear her, she told him to wait downstairs, that she would be ready soon. That mustn't have been a good enough answer as she heard a cracking noise and realised that he had somehow broken the lock. She turned off the shower and took a deep breath. It had to be the blood; for a werewolf it was most likely noticeable even through the closed door.

'Damn it,' she thought.

Not bothering with a towel she slipped back into her robe and came out of the bathroom. Seeing him bend over the covers, sniffing at the blood splatter and then turn to her made her knees feel weak. Aiden was upset, just like the time when Cora had drawn the sign into the glass of the door, when she had lured him away from his brother. That had not turned out that great.

"Lydia - what happened here?"

He tried to keep calm but the aggression still swung through his voice. Lydia wanted to say nothing happened, nothing at all, but he probably could tell it was not her blood and even then he would want to know where it came from. Somehow she could not bring herself to say anything.

Aiden came closer, he took her hand as if he as handling a raw egg. Then he saw the bruises on her wrist. It was not hard to guess what he was making out of all this.

"It's not what you think," Lydia said.

"Tell me." While he kept his voice low, it was clear that he demanded an answer. It seemed useless to keep Peter showing up a secret, she would need to get the others in the loop anyway. If Peter was right they were completely on the wrong track with those killings.

"It was Peter, he came by last night …"

"What?" he interrupted her. "Derek's uncle - the one that we suspect might be involved?"

Lydia tried to evade his furious gaze, it was somewhat hard to concentrate, thinking about how prone he was to solve things violently.

"What did he do to you?"

"Nothing!"

She tried feverishly to come up with a good explanation but found none and Aiden had already formed his own theory. Squeezing her hand a bit tighter, he asked the question she'd rather avoid answering.

"He raped you, didn't he?"

"No!" she protested but part of her knew that maybe not last night but when it came to the night of the ritual, that was an entirely accurate description of what had happened. "No, he didn't, but when he showed up … I hit him with a bottle - that's all."

Aiden let go of her hand and paced back and forth for a moment. "Lydia you're not a violent person, there had to be a reason for you..." He paused and paced a few heartbeats. "I am going to find that bastard and I am going to rip his head off."

With that he stormed out of her room. She tried to get him to stop but he was not willing to listen. Lydia had seen the rage in his eyes, the red glow appearing. He was not going to take her word for it, especially since she had been lying at least partially. There was no way to explain the ritual and last night, it just did not fit together. Besides, Lydia was pretty sure Aiden would not take kindly to her spending the night in the arms of another man.

Again she felt her hands tremble uncontrollably. It seemed like every time Peter came into her life, she'd spend half of the time as a shaking mess. Yet, she knew she needed to stop Aiden, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. If he actually found Peter, things were bound to get really ugly. She thought about calling Ethan but figured that with her being so upset, he would be inclined to go along with Aiden given what they thought had happened.

Hoping that Stiles would listen to her and knowing that he could get Scott to talk sense into the Twins, she called his cell phone. After two rings, Stiles picked up and sounded very glad that she was calling.

"Hey Lydia, how are you?"

"Hey Stiles," she said back.

Her slightly teary voice gave her current state away and Stiles noticed.

"What's wrong, Lydia - did you find another body?"

"No, I'm at my place … look I can't explain everything but can you get Scott to talk to Aiden? He thinks that last night something happened with Peter."

There was a distinct pause on the other end of the line, then Stiles was back on track working his shock into one of his silly comments. "Did something happen with Peter? You know he's basically a zombie, right? Necrophilia is wrong."

Lydia felt the blood drain from her cheeks. "I assure you he is not a zombie! Anyway nothing of the sort happened." Stiles had sounded worried under his casual attitude but the way he'd put it made her feel so uncomfortable.

She really wished he could ask about what happened like a normal person. It was no surprise, that the urge to keep what happened on her birthday a secret rose in her chest. It might not be necrophilia but she was sure Stiles and the others had a few things to say about bestiality. Lydia felt herself sniffing as she fought back tears. This was so humiliating, she would rather be back at the cabin for round two then have to explain what happened there.

"But Aiden thinks so, because Peter's blood is all over my room after I smacked him with a bottle."

"Whoa, I have clearly underestimated your level of badassery. So, you went all River Tam on him and knocked him on his ass?"

Lydia remained silent, not just because she did not know what stupid fictional characters Stiles was talking about, but it was something she would rather not remember in great detail. There certainly had been nothing glorious or badass about cracking his skull open. Even though Peter was deserving of some payback for what he had put her through.

"Does no one appreciate the Sci-Fi genre anymore?" Stiles complained then his voice got serious for a moment. "I hope afterwards he tucked his tail between his legs and ran away? - Seriously, he didn't hurt you, did he?"

The honest worry in his voice calmed her down a bit, she had to remember she was basically alright. That was the whole point, Aiden blew this into preposterous proportions. Lydia knew she needed to put a stop to it before it all blew up.

"No, he didn't - but .. Aiden didn't believe me. I'm afraid someone's going to get hurt or killed. Please, get Scott to stop him."

"I don't know - if Aiden wants to take on Peter for good, that might not be a bad thing."

"What if he kills him?" Lydia pointed out.

"I can live with that."

Taken aback, she realised she needed to approach this differently. There was a coldness about Stiles as he said it, that made her believe he was dead serious about it. It had always seemed as if he took what Peter did to her harder than she did.

"I might not, what if he keeps spooking around in my head?"

There was a sigh and then silence on the other end of the line, until Stiles finally gave in. "Yeah, I'll talk to Scott."

Agreeing that they would tell her as soon as they had found Aiden and calmed him down, Lydia hung up and sat down on her bed. Looking around her room, she felt like it was nothing but memories. Redecorating had helped for awhile but she would have to pick a new room soon. Especially after last night.

Lydia knew she should get dressed but instead she walked down to the kitchen and made herself another cup of tea. Even though she knew it was too early for a call back, she had her cell in the pocket of her purple robe. Putting a few cookies on a plate she sat at one of the high chairs at the tall counter and and sipped on the hot drink but couldn't bring herself to eat any of the cookies. Not because of the allergies she was supposed to have that meant she could not eat them, but because she just did not feel hungry at all.

For some reason she really wished she was back just a few hours when she fell asleep in Peter's arms and strangely enough felt absolutely safe and content. Which was the opposite of what she felt now, exposed and utterly distressed. It would not be long and she would need to explain to her friends why she had kept them in the dark about what Peter had been doing.

While the truth about the ritual certainly would make them understand, it was the one detail she would keep to herself. It was about half an hour before noon when she heard someone unlocking the front door. It could not be her parents, they were gone for a whole week, that left just one person with a key. Lydia walked to the living room.

"Allison," Lydia began. If her friend came over then it was because someone had told her, and the look on her face indicated it had not been Stiles. This pitying look on Allison's face was worse than Aiden's anger. "It must be pretty important if you couldn't even wait to use the doorbell," Lydia continued snidely.

The mere thought of having the same conversation with her left her feeling bitter. Not just because Allison had come inside her house unasked but also because she was upset that Aiden had spread the story. Even if it had been true, that was not for him to tell. It was bad enough that Peter took liberties with her, she had no need for her friends to do the same.

"Ethan came by, he told us what happened. I needed to know that you're okay," Allison flinched, not happy with her choice of words, "I mean okay given the circumstances … I just want you to know we're here for you . If you need to talk, if you need someone to take you to the hospital ..."

"I was not raped!" Lydia yelled.

It might not be the absolute truth but the moment she saw Allison look at her, she knew she would stick to that story. Even given the nature of the ritual, her total lack of consent, it certainly did not warrant that look. What happened last year all those weeks before her birthday had been way worse and her friends had barely even noticed.

"Okay, if you weren't trying to defend yourself - why is his blood all over your bedroom?"

"I hit him with a bottle, I was mad at him so I hit too hard … there was blood everywhere."

Allison's eyes widened as she mentioned the bottle. "Is that when he hurt your wrist?"

Her friend pointed at the purple and blue bruises on her wrist which was sticking out of her robe. Lydia had to admit it did look rather awful. Allison's assumption was not that unreasonable which was why it had been impossible to convince Aiden. It just looked bad.

"No, that wasn't him," Lydia said resisting the urge to hide her wrist by pulling down the sleeve of her robe. "Peter wasn't even mad about the blow. He came by to see what I had dreamt, because believe it or not, he wants to figure out who is behind these killings as well."

"He might just act like this, so we don't think he's involved," Allison shook her head. "You don't actually trust him, do you?"

"Of course I don't trust him. He knows things though. He said whatever does the killings - both of them, it's not someone who is still alive," Lydia sighed. "Either way, I don't want him or the Twins getting hurt. There has to be a better solution. Which is why I asked Stiles to get Scott to intervene, 'cause I know that he prefers reasonable solutions, too."
Taking all the information in, her friend sat down on the couch. Lydia walked over and sat down next to her. "You, too, would rather see him dead, regardless of whether he actually has anything to do with the killings …"

"I know my aunt murdered a lot of innocent people - but she was my aunt and he killed her," Allison said bitterly.

"If he can help us figure this out before more people get killed …"

Her suggestion clearly did not appeal to Allison. Not that Lydia could blame her, if someone had sprung the idea of working with Peter on her out of the blue, especially after the last she had heard of him doing was unspeakable things to a close friend, she would have said never ever. Unlike Allison, ignoring Peter was not really an option. Them ignoring each other was a small reprieve as best. Their connection was not as strong when they were apart but last night had shown her that it was still there. Even worse, it was not even something that would be resolved by death.

"I think he's probably influencing you - to make you believe that you need his help. When in fact he probably just wants to know how much we know already." The ice in Allison's voice was even scarier than before with Stiles. Her friend's face seemed so hardened and withdrawn. Lydia couldn't help but think that even though she was not a werewolf or anything else supernatural, that Allison could beat any of them in the being scary department. "You didn't tell him anything, did you?"

Lydia sighed, she at least told him that he was a suspect. "What could I possibly tell him? It's not like you all patrolling the woods is so hard to notice." Allison was right about one thing, Lydia knew she was inclined to believe that Peter was not involved in the recent killings, just as her friend was hoping he was.

"If we find out he is involved, it will probably be necessary to take him out. It's not like we can arrest him and prove him guilty in a court of law - at least not without exposing and endangering all the other werewolves."

"Why would he suddenly run around and kill a bunch of innocent, random strangers?"

"Obviously following Miss Blake's example, if she can power up by murdering people, he might try to do the same."

Lydia was creeped out by Allison more and more by the minute. It was like the mere suggestion that Peter was innocent for a change was upsetting her. While her arguments were rational and - given her lack of information on Peter - plausible, there was something in Allison's voice that sounded everything but rational. It was like she was picking and choosing bits of what she knew to justify something she knew was wrong.

"Maybe, but I doubt that he needs to do it this way … if at all."

Allison turned her head, eyeing her suspiciously. "What do you mean by that?"

Suddenly she felt the need to put some distance between herself and Allison. Standing up and walking up and down behind the couch, Lydia begins to explain, how Peter showed up in her room. Not last night but days ago, when everyone thought she would be safer at home. How he had lied about Derek needing help but that she had long since figured out that it had been Deucalion. That he needed her for some exorcism which she now believed may have been Peter stealing Deucalion's powers.

"I have the feeling, that if Aiden and Ethan confront him, it might be them who get seriously hurt."

Allison just gaped at her, almost as if she couldn't believe that Lydia didn't say anything. It stung, to have her friend look at her that way, but Lydia knew she should have mentioned all of this to them already. There was also this sudden distrust. It became even more obvious, and Allison looked upset and increasingly more withdrawn, as as she continued talking. She tried to point out that during the night of the second murder Peter had obviously been out of town to set up the ritual at the cabin. Being at two places at once, was certainly not a trick he could pull off.

Lydia knew that her friend was going to scoff at this story and was proven right before she even finished her explanation.

"He's clearly warped his way into your mind, again."

Allison was not mad at her but how dismissive she acted towards Lydia's concerns and arguments was even worse than that. It was like suddenly she was reduced to being Peter's puppet in the eyes of her friend. That was just not the case.

"I know very well, he's not helping out of the kindness of his heart, that he's after something, but it could not hurt to listen what he says."

That was really all there was to say, given that nobody was listening. Allison just crossed her arms and looked at her. So Lydia told her that she was going up to get dressed and her friend was welcome to go home or stay, this was going to take a while. Then she went back to her room and decided to get dressed properly. Taking a long hot shower, the fourth one, this time washing her hair as well.

She used her body lotion, picked out some really fancy clothes, that were borderline appropriate for a regular day and finished it all off with matching makeup. When she came out of the bathroom, her high-heeled boots clicking on the hard tiles, Lydia heard voices. Opening the door she listened downstairs.

It was the Twins, Scott and Stiles being greeted by Allison.

"Where is Lydia? Is she … " Aiden paused. ".. doing okay?"

"Apart from Peter messing with her mind again, she seems to be doing great," Allison pointed out sounding incredibly hostile. "He has Lydia convinced that he is innocent of the killings and wants to help us. But that's not even the worst thing."

"Please, don't say this was not the first time he did this …" Stiles said his voice sounding both shocked and angry, no doubt he had also taken to believe Aiden's assumption.

"Lydia denied that any rape took place, no what she told me is even worse. It seems that on the night of her birthday she wasn't out with her parents at all - Peter took her for a ride and used her for some sort of ritual to drain Deucalion of his powers."
"What?" Scott suddenly said. "Why didn't she say anything?"

"Probably because Peter has some Jedi-mind-control thing going on with her … I vote for finding a fail safe way to get him dead permanently," Stiles replied. "Body and spirit … Deaton has to know something that will get him out of her head."

Hearing her friends talk made that unhappy feeling inside her grew even stronger. It was not that she wanted them to just take her word for it that Peter was innocent of the killings, however they could at least listen to her reasoning. Lydia knew if anything pointed to him being involved she would change her position. They were the ones operating on personal dislike and incorrect assumptions.

After taking one deep breath, she gathered her courage and opened her door. As confident as she was able to, she walked down the stairs ready to face her friends. They instantly went silent when she approached.

"Keep on talking, maybe if you get your fantasies about what happened out of your system, you'll eventually be ready to listen to what actually happened."

As she had expected nobody said anything, they just looked at her. Although Stiles was mostly staring at the spot where her boots ended over her knees leaving a small space of skin exposed before her thighs were covered by the short skirt she was wearing.

"Now that you are listening." Lydia paused for a moment, hoping that the werewolves would realise that what she was about to say was the truth. "There was no raping or sex of any kind going on last night."

When she mentioned the sex of any kind, she was basically glaring at Stiles.

"I think she's telling the truth," Scott said with an eye towards the twins. Aiden still looked so angry but gave a shrug back as if he meant to say 'whatever'. Stiles looked even a bit relieved but still edgy, while Allison did not even look at Scott. With a sigh their true alpha turned to her. "That still doesn't explain why you whacked him with a bottle."

Lydia shrugged and this time she looked at Aiden. "Maybe I just don't take kindly to guys entering my bedroom unasked."

Maybe she should have told everyone right then at her birthday party what had happened. Looking at all of them right at that moment, she knew why she had not. Somehow she needed space to figure things out, she couldn't do that with all of them hovering around. Especially not when they acted like this. At least her lashing out had granted her some much needed silence. Until Stiles started to ramble on.

"It's a solid, no nonsense policy with bottle-breaking consequences that I think we can all get behind." He did try to sound cool about it, but Lydia was able to hear just a touch of hurt, when he continued to ask: "And, just to be clear, there's no scenario in which the Lord of the Creepers would be asked, right?"

Lydia just looked at him, her first thought what a ridiculous thing this was to ask. As if she ever would. It was only after he went on, that she wondered if that was true.

"I have to wonder what kind of pheromones or 'Let's fuck'-style Hallmark cards you're giving out for him to think creeping around your bedroom was a-okay."

"I've told him that I can't remember my dreams, he gave me advice on how to remember them. He just came by to see if I had by now…"

That bit information was clearly not what anyone had expected and Lydia literally could see the information sink in. At least with Scott and Stiles, Aiden was silent but his face was darkened by anger and frustration. Ethan was clearly focused on keeping him calm, whispering something into his ear.

Allison was absolutely adamant about her position though. "So he tries to figure out what you know before we do, you honestly think that proves he's innocent?"

Lydia sighed in frustration. "I can tell that whatever the thing in the dark crypt I keep dreaming about is, it's not Peter. It's something much worse and way more powerful."

"So you have been able to remember?" Scott asked.

Nodding she tried to explain more. "The problem is, there was no light in my dream. I managed to introduce a bit of it but … I've tried for the past days, but all I have to show for it is this." With that she raised her bruised wrist. "You might continue to believe that it was Peter, but trust me even when he was firmly embedded in my dreams, he was never able to actually physically hurt me."

"Oh my god," Stiles said, clasping his hands over his mouth. Clearly, shocked he then waved one hand as if he was clawing at something, "are you telling us we're dealing with a Freddy-Krueger-style dream monster?"

She shrugged, the entity was creepy and probably powerful but she doubted that it could go after anyone inside their dreams. At least if Peter's explanation of why it could harm her was correct and he had seemed like he knew what he was talking about. "I don't think so," she said slowly, "but it's certainly able to hurt me."
"That still doesn't explain why you reeked of him when you opened the door for me."

Aiden's comment got everyone to turn around and stare at her, most of the looks were accompanied by raised eyebrows and questioning expressions. Ethan, Aiden and Allison looked more accusingly. Lydia raised her head up high and then replied. "Because having him around stopped that thing from actually hurting me, so he stayed over to make sure I wasn't harmed."

Then she threw up her hands and walked upstairs. She was almost at the top of the stairs, when she heard Stiles calling her back but she kept on walking and then threw the door to her room shut. Only that with the broken lock it sprang immediately again.

"Wow, he has her under deep. How about we vote?" Allison said after the slam. "Who's in favour of all of us finding him and making sure he'll regret going after her again? Raise your hands."

There was a moment of silence, Lydia just knew that everyone but Scott and maybe Ethan was holding up his hand. Sure enough, she heard Scott sigh and add: "It's not that easy."

"Isn't it?" Stiles asked his tone drifting from insolence to plain smugness. "We voted - four to one - off with his head!"

Lydia groaned and walked into the bathroom just so she would not have to listen to the debate downstairs. The possibility that the others might be right and that maybe Peter was influencing her was not something she could ignore. If she hated anything, it was not being able to trust her own mind. Until talking to Allison she had at least been sure that she was in control of her own thoughts.

She had to believe that she still was, since she was not trusting Peter. Then again she could not ignore that her inclination to believe he wasn't involved with the killings was based on circumstantial evidence and instinct. Given that it was strange that her instinct would tell her that he was innocent, that might indicate he was influencing her. Then again, if he was innocent, it would just make her instinct right.

"Come on - Lydia," she said to her reflection in the mirror. "You just need more information. There's no way to figure it out now, just keep your eyes open."

When she came back to open the door, she heard that they were still arguing.

"Alright, Scott, we'll do it your way. Isaac and I will head out to the cabin and see what's left of Deucalion, you and Stiles have a chat with Peter and the Twins stay put to protect Lydia."
Allison did not sound happy, but from her comment it seemed she expected Deucalion to be dead. It would make sense in a way and yet she again had this feeling that they were wrong.

It was a reaction that did not necessarily boost her confidence. She had no way of telling how much of this was her own gut instinct and how much might be undetected influence from Peter. After all he had told her that she saved a life and that might be just her wishful thinking that this was the positive outcome of that night.

Yet, she was pretty tight lipped when Allison came upstairs to ask her about the cabin and where she might find it. Neither of them brought the mind-control issue up again. There was tension between them, Lydia was sure it was better not to say anything that would cause further conflict. Once they knew more about what was going on and what Peter's true intentions were, they could try to sort it out. But Lydia did her best, listed all the road signs and turns she had seen along the way.

"And just in case Deucalion is still alive, be careful."

"If you are right, then he might be alive but won't exactly be a match to a hunter and another beta," Allison said and with a somewhat annoyed smile walked downstairs again.

A/N: Next chapter will be feature Twins/Lydia action and I hope you'll like it.