Mutual Anchors || Liam Dunbar [1]

Chapter 63 |Civilized people|

Liam's POV:

I watch Valeria, leaning against the kitchen counter, while we are in Lydia's lake house. In that house, where we often went through transformations.

Lydia thought it would be a good idea if she threw a big party that is the last one before they will go to college. Tomorrow, Stiles is the only one leaving, but it won't be long before the others leave.

And so here we are.

I watch Valeria as much in love as I have for months, but I don't do anything because she has some complicated relationship with Theo where they fight all the time and if they don't fight, I don't want to know what they're doing.

Valeria's been through a lot of bad things lately, and that's why I'm trying to be there for her. Even just as a friend.

At the time, I was very surprised to find out that Valeria had become an Alpha. That's really the last thing I expected to happen.

I think Valeria has a knack for it, but I know very well that she never wanted to. I see Stiles and Scott talking to her, giving her a thousand lectures about now being up to her to protect Beacon Hills.

In fact, I feel rather sorry for Valeria that such a burden has fallen on her.

"Don't you at least want to pretend to be a normal teenager who came here to get drunk?" Lydia sits down with me and hands me a red cup of beer. She looks in the direction I'm looking in and I quickly swerve my gaze to the ground. "Oh, you're doing it again."

"What?" I ask her, confused.

"You're staring at Valeria with those loving eyes," Lydia shrugs, and I'm startled that the werewolf might hear it, but she's there now arguing with Stiles about something.

"I don't stare."

"Oh, yeah," Malia sits next to me, having just walked away from one of the guys she was kissing earlier in this day. I didn't miss the way Scott was looking at her for a moment, too, and the whole thing is starting to mess with my head, because I'm not sure if the two of them happen to be having an affair. "You stare at her all the time. She's with Theo, so find another girl, right?"

"I don't want another one," I answer honestly, then frown. "And I don't want to discuss it with her friends."

"We won't tell her," Lydia pats me on the shoulder. "We're your friends, too, after all."

"There's a lot of girls here for you to hang out with. Even only for today," Malia says, pointing out the many girls who roam the house.

No sooner do I look at them than I turn my gaze to the ground again. "I'm not interested."

"That's quite depressing," Lydia tells Malia. "He'd rather be alone."

"It's romantic," Malia pats me on the head and I swerve.