**I am so glad you all seem to be enjoying this story. This is just the first I the series I created. the next Story will be posted after this one and its Malia and Stiles. this one is about half way through. Hope you like the chapter. **

SONG: And when my world is caving…Baby, you're my safe haven…when I'm with you…I stop looking for heaven… 'Cause I found a piece of it wrapped up in you're presence ~ Safe Haven by Ruth B.

Chapter 12

Scott:

Liam and I hopped off the bike as soon as I parked in the school lot to meet Isaac and Stiles around back. They were already waiting for us. Isaac smiling at his phone, probably Allison, and Stiles staring off into space.

"Hey guys." I greeted. Isaac nodded, putting his phone away. Stiles gave a half smile.

"What did Derek have to say?" Isaac asked.

"Later. Let's do this first. I need to get Liam home soon."

Stiles pulled out a janitors key ring and flipped through the keys.

"Did you steal the janitors keys?" Liam asked.

"I prefer the term borrowed." Stiles answered, finding the right key. He fit it in the lock and turned.

"How did you even get them and when?" I asked.

"Two words, Scott. Plausible deniability."

We laughed as the door swung open. I move in first and headed straight for the locker, it was taped off, but the door had been removed. Moving closer I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes. I caught a few different feelings off the scent, and it matched the one in Lydia's room exactly.

"Liam, come here." I called him. He came to stand next to me. "Close your eyes and inhale deeply. What do you smell, besides blood?"

He took a deep breath and crinkled his nose.

"I don't know. I can't get past the blood."

"You have to tap into your other senses. It takes practice but try and focus. You have to give into your instincts on this but no changing. Focus, and try again."

He took a deep breath and shook himself out then inhaled again. He opened his eyes, yellow, and looked at me.

"Is that him?"

"What do you smell?" I nodded asking.

"It smells spicy and sour. Like anger and jealousy or something bitter."

"Good, that's good. That's exactly what it is. Anything else."

"I don't know… maybe. But it's too faint. I can't place it. But it kind of makes me think of… sex."

"Wait, you can smell sex? How do you know what sex smells like? I swear to God if I am the only virgin in this group, I'm going to slit my throat." Stiles grumbled.

"you're not." Isaac told him. We all turned to him. He shrugged but looked embarrassed.

"Wait, really?" Stiles asked.

"it's not like I had a lot of opportunity living with my dad and now I live with Scott, and, of course, Argent as an arsenal at his disposal. When would I have time."

"Dude, that sucks. It's okay we can form our own group. Call it virgin buddies or something we'll work on that. Liam you in? Scott is definitely out." Stiles went on.

"let's get back to the matter at hand please." I sighed.

The last thing I want, or Isaac wanted, was a reminder that the only and last person I had sex with was Allison.

"Okay Liam, what you smell is lust. Its slightly different from actual sex, it's not as potent. Now keep focusing and tell me if you smell that scent anywhere else."

"Yeah, it's not… strong? But it's been here recently, like maybe in the last few hours I guess."

"Yep. Follow it, tell us where it leads. We will follow you."

"You want me to lead?"

"Yes, I want you to lead us."

"But I don't know what I'm doing?"

"And that's why we are doing this. You need practice. And remember we are right here. Isaac and I can smell the same thing you smell. If you get off track, we can redirect you. So, tell us where we are going?"

He sighed heavily but nodded. He started taking shallow sniffs in the air, but I stopped him.

"Remember to focus your senses. The more you practice the more second nature it will become. But for now, deep inhale and take the time to center yourself, let the scent register. Let the scent guide you to where it's going."

"Okay." He said and tried again, eyes closing and deep inhales.

"I wish I had you to teach me this stuff when I was bitten." Isaac muttered.

"It took a lot of practice to be able to do it. I had Stiles helping me."

"Derek didn't show you how to do this?" Stiles asked as we followed slowly behind Liam.

"Kind of but he was more worried about showing us how to fight than track at the time. Maybe if he had showed us how to track better, we would have all survived."

Stiles and I grimaced and the memory of Erica and Boyd. Derek had been alpha at the time and had desperately started turning teens to build his pack to add strength to face the alpha pack that had come after all of us. Unfortunately, we lost both Boyd and Erica in the whole situation, but we did find Derek's sister, Cora.

We followed after Liam, staying a comfortable distance behind so as not to confuse his senses and only had to redirect him a couple of times before he stopped at the stairs.

"Its leading downstairs. The locker room, maybe?"

"Yeah, I think so." I agreed and we all jogged down the stairs following the scent right to the boys locker room door. We piled in and stopped.

"Damn, I was afraid of that." I sighed.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"They have cleaned in here since it was last used. All I smell is cleaning products. Let's spread out, maybe one of the lockers has it. Liam you take the middle row, Isaac the last. We'll meet at the end."

They nodded and went off. I went to each locker and sniffed but got nothing but a lung full of foulness.

"Ugh, boys are gross." Liam stated. I had to agree. But we kept going.

"Found it." Isaac called. We met him at the middle locker in the last row and all sniffed. It was definitely the scent covered up by chemicals but still strong. But it was empty.

"You think that whoever it was came in and cleaned out their stuff from here?" Liam asked.

"Yeah, I think they did and just today. I wonder if they did it because they didn't want to leave evidence or if they know about the supernatural and thought we might try to track them. They tried to clean it with chemicals, but it was sloppy. There are parts of it that still hold his scent. But we still don't know who it is."

"If they have a locker here then that means it's a student. So, they should have an actual locker upstairs as well." Stiles reasoned.

"That's true. We could go try there." Isaac offered.

"Yeah, but there are hundreds of lockers. We would be here for hours and its already going on…ten. I need to get him home."

"Want me to stay and try to sniff it out?"

"If you come home late on a school night my mother will kill you and if you even attempt to go to Allison's, Argent will kill you, and probably enjoy it."

"You make good points. So tomorrow then?"

"Yeah tomorrow."

Lydia:

My phone ringing woke me from sleep. It was almost pitch black in the room. I must have slept straight through the day. Fumbling, I grabbed my phone from under my hip, it must have fallen out of my pocket. Without looking I hit connect.

"Hello?" I croaked.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Scott responded.

"You didn't. I mean you did but I needed to get up anyway."

"Did you sleep the whole time?"

"Yeah, I guess I did. Where are you?"

"Home. It's a bit late, I had to come home. How are you feeling?"

I took a minute to prop myself up trying to formulate an answer.

"I don't know. I feel… all over the place."

"that's understandable."

"I don't like this feeling Scott. I don't like feeling helpless. I don't like feeling scared. I hate that I am constantly looking over my shoulder. That every loud sound makes me want to just… shrink in on my myself. I feel so weak." I admitted in frustration.

"You are not weak. You are anything but weak, Lydia. This person, whoever they are, are the weak ones. The cowards."

"I just keep thinking, what did I do or not do for him to come after me. Why is he doing this? What did I do?" my voice cracked as my eyes stung. I briskly rubbed at them.

"Nothing. You did nothing to deserve this. This is not your fault."

"But what if it is? Remember what I was like before last year? I was so selfish and shallow. I was a self-absorbed brat who only cared about things if they affected me. I judged people, snubbed them just because they didn't live up to some stupid meaningless standard that I didn't even live up to myself. What if this guy asked me out or even just wanted to be friendly and I was cruel to him? Or I embarrassed him or something? I was so heartless last year. Maybe this is my fault."

"No, it's not. You don't owe anyone your time or attention. And everyone goes through changes, especially in high school. Maybe you did turn him down or said something mean at one point, who cares. That doesn't give him the right to terrorize you. And you were never heartless, Lydia. You always had a heart, a beautiful one. Maybe you kept it locked away, maybe you only chose to show it to a select few. That's your right. This is not your fault." He repeated.

"I don't like this, Scott."

"I don't either."

"I'm just so tired of this. All of it. It's so overwhelming. I need a break from visions and premonitions and stalkers and crazy people."

"Have you met our friends? I think that last one is out of our control." He chuckled.

"True, but that's a special kind of crazy. I can handle that." I giggled.

"Why didn't you tell me about the notes. I could feel your fear, but you never said a word."

"I didn't want to bother you. You have so much going on, between trying to track down Liam, to saving him, to changing him and guiding him. I didn't want to add to that. And… I just didn't want to believe it was really happening. I wanted to think I was just reading too much into them or something. I don't know. I guess I wanted my head in the sand moment."

"You of all people are never a bother. We all had a lot going on with that vision. We were all working on it. And Liam is doing great. He's taking to this very well. But Lydia, I want you to bother me. Anytime, for any reason. Even if you are just having a stressful night or you're freaking out over a test or something. Bother me, I need you too. I don't ever want you to deal with things like this on your own."

"You can't be available 24/7."

"Not for everyone no, but for our friends yes. For you absolutely. Just promise me you won't try to handle things like this on your own. I need you safe Lydia and I need you sane."

"Okay, I promise."

"Thank you." He sighed then groaned.

"you, okay?"

"Yeah, just pushed myself, a lot, today."

"What's the plan?"

"We went back to the school tonight to see if we could get a scent. We did but it led us to an empty locker in the boys locker room. We think he's a student. We are going back tomorrow night and seeing if we can catch the scent again from is regular locker. I don't think you should go to school tomorrow, at least."

"I wasn't planning on it. I don't think I'm going back this week at all if I can help it."

"Good. Give me some time to figure this out. I'm going to catch this guy, and I'm going to make him pay, dearly."

"Scott, don't do anything you are going to regret."

"Trust me, I won't regret what I do to him." He said darkly.

"Just be careful, please. I don't want you to get hurt. I couldn't take that."

"I will." He promised. "it's late and I unfortunately have school tomorrow."

"I'm sure you will survive."

"I'm sure I will. But I'll be by tomorrow after I get off work, okay?"

"Okay, I would like that. I… feel safer with you near me." I admitted softly.

"And I feel better about your safety with me near you. Have a good night, Lydia."

"Sweet dreams, Scott."

I went to place my phone on the nightstand when I saw I had one unread message: UNKNOWN. I didn't check it. Just set it down and made my way down the hall to the kitchen. Mr. Argent and Allison were sitting at the table together.

"You're up. How are you feeling?" Allison asked.

"A bit better, definitely better sleep but I still feel just drained." I said taking a seat with them.

"Are you hungry?" Mr. Argent asked.

"Starving. I haven't been eating much lately."

"We ordered Chinese, that sound good?"

"That sounds amazing. But I can get it."

"No, you sit. I'll get it." He said getting up. I watched him pull out containers and a plate and start spooning food onto it. My stomach growled at just the sight.

"Did you want an update on what is happening?" Allison asked pulling my attention away from mouthwatering food.

"Actually, I just talked to Scott, he let me know. He said he would stop by tomorrow after he gets off work if that's okay."

"that's fine. Actually, I was going to ask him and Isaac to stay over tomorrow. I have to go out of town for the night for a business meeting and I don't want to leave you girls here alone." Mr. Argent said, coming back to the table and setting a plate and silverware in front of me.

"Thank you. And are you sure? About them staying over I mean."

"Yeah dad, are you sure?" Allison asked with a quirked brow. He looked at her.

"Yes, Allison, I'm sure. I want you two protected, that overrides any other feelings about your boyfriend and ex-boyfriend staying here with you girls. And yes, I am aware that you can take care of yourself, but extra muscle never hurts. Besides, I think Lydia would feel better with Scott here." He said nonchalantly. I blushed and shoved a forkful of rice in my mouth.

"I'm sure she will." Allison grinned cheekily. I kicked her under the table.

"Shut up." I whisper-shouted at her. Mr. Argent chuckled.

"I'm going to bed. Good night girls. I'll see you in the morning."

"Oh, Mr. Argent, I was thinking of just staying here tomorrow and not go to school."

"It's already taken care of. I talked to your mother. She thinks its best that you stay out the rest of the week. Allison is staying with you."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Good night girls."

"Night dad."

"Night."

"And how was Scott when you talked to him?" Allison asked.

"Tired. He said he pushed himself too hard today."

"He probably did. He's hell bent on finding this guy. I just hope the guy will still be in one piece after a run in with him."

"Me too. I'm actually worried that he will lose himself going after him."

"I would be to but…" she paused trying to find words. "Do you know what Scott's anchor is? What he uses to gain control when the wolf takes over?"

"No."

"He once told me that when we were dating it was me. I pulled him back from the edge because he loved me. Then when we broke up it was him. He had to pull himself back. But do you know what it is now? You."

"What?"

"It's you Lydia. Isaac told me."

"I swear that boy couldn't hold water let alone a secret." I rolled my eyes.

"I know, right. But he told me that twice yesterday Scott lost control and went wolf. Full on red eyes, fangs, claws, and growling. And both times it was the thought of you that pulled him back, that made him human again."

"When?"

"The first time was right after the locker incident. After he could get you calmed enough to go with me the guys went to the locker room, and they heard him whisper your name as a mantra to calm down. The second time was here after your panic attack. Stiles actually figured it out and forced him to think of you to calm down."

"Stiles did?" I asked. She nodded and I winced.

"that's not the point. The point is this. You two anchor each, you bring each other back in balance. So, I am not worried because I know that if he ever starts to lose it, you will bring him back to himself."

I thought about that as I finished my dinner. I brought him balance. I brought him back to himself. Me. That was a head rush but also warmed me from the inside out. I was his anchor, but it seemed like I was also his burden as well. I didn't want to be his burden. I want to be…

"Allison?" I started getting up to put my plate in the sink.

"Yeah."

"You know self-defense, right?"

"Yeah, when I was training to be a hunter, they taught us to fight."

"Can you teach me? I know I won't catch on to it all, but I don't want Scott to have to fight all my battles for me. I want to be able to take care of myself as well."

"Yeah, I can teach you. Want to start tomorrow?"

"Yeah, might as well. we will be here all day."

"Okay. Sounds like a plan. Now I'm going to go call Isaac. Night Lydia."

"Night."

I went back to my room but wasn't tired enough to sleep. I pulled out my sketch pad from my bag and a pencil and started a new drawing. My phone rang and I looked at it long enough to see it was unknown again. I turned it off and went back to sketching an image already set in my mind. Anchor.