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Chapter Text

"The sun...the moon...the truth...the sun...the...moon...the truth...the sun...the s-sun..."

The medium-blond boy bit his lower lip convulsively, while the wet, chin-length strands of hair fell into his bent-over face. The last bit of control, his mantra, simply wouldn't work. He felt the sharpened gaze of his yellow-gold glowing eyes, the unignorable burn of the sharp claws on his bent shins, and perceived the impulsive growl that slid fiercely up his bone-dry throat. The heightened senses, which were supposed to drive the human body to peak performance, had the exact opposite effect on Liam. The boy had always struggled with anger issues, had been expelled from several schools because of it, and was on the verge of going astray. The move to Beacon Hills wasn't just due to his stepfather taking a relevant position at the local hospital; no, it was the problem case's only and last chance. It also triggered a journey back in time to his unpleasant past. A part of our protagonist's rather short life that he would have preferred to lay knee-deep in rubble and ashes forever.

With a sigh, the back of his now soaking wet head hit the damp white tiles of the shower. Actually, it all started quite promisingly. Liam was one of the few serious candidates for the high school lacrosse team. Even at his first tryout, he caught almost every ball and was the fastest of the lot. The slightly short, then 15-year-old finally smiled for the first time in a long time, the early autumn wind tickling his neck. He had finally found something he loved, something he could do without thinking about it, something that gave him back that weightless, light feeling without thinking about his inner demons. Rebellious as he was, he knew no bounds and even took on the much taller team captain of the previous season. Liam never differentiated between stronger and weaker players. To him, they were all the same. People who hurt him bitterly with their words every day, and that was exactly what he didn't want to be anymore. He wanted to show everyone who he was today and that he wouldn't take any more shit. He would defeat every single one on this damned field, grab the captain's armband, and everyone would become the 5'4" blue-eyed sensation.

And as the glittering threads of fate, coiled like a snake around him, would have it, everything finally turned out well for him as his nimble, slender body moved through the two players who were two heads taller and vigorously added to his points. He clicked his tongue almost arrogantly and extended the bat exaggeratedly far towards his back when a whistle sounded. Skeptically he looked at the coach who was treating him like a wildly hopping Duracell bunny, who was demanding that he actually play against the older duo again. And even though there was a tiny hint of misgiving, the youngster swallowed it and positioned himself almost perfectly for the trained eye. Fighting for self-control, his intense eyes flashed an almost turquoise color as his small right foot sank into the ground and rolled off the wet grass with a squelching sound. Liam almost felt wings, no, he actually felt it, he was flying, flying over the scene, over the school, over the grief-stricken place where he really didn't want to be. For a brief moment, his fixed eyes closed, the tension released from his young, toned body, and as his clasped hands briefly shifted position, knowing he was doing exactly the right thing, he suddenly felt no ground beneath him. Startled, he opened his eyes wide, his dark pupils racing in circles, and he raised his bat, outstretched upwards, into the air.

"Wham!"

"Ahhh!" The force caught him completely off guard, as he saw only the celestial blue above him, miles of expanse without any idea where it ended. White, fluffy images dancing their choreography in various shapes, inviting Liam to stand and join them. The panting, sweaty boy nodded weakly and cautiously leaned forward. Even though it sounded completely irrational at the time, he truly believed he was touching the clouds with his earth-smeared fingertips. "Just a little bit more," he whispered, his feet stretched into the air surprisingly touching the dusty ground, when suddenly "crack"

Whimpering, the 15-year-old teenager held his right knee. The pain was so intense that he thought his last hour had come. The adrenaline that had just given him the strength to bravely overcome every obstacle without any inhibition had led to meter-high walls that Liam probably never could have overcome. Dejectedly, the little boy swallowed the tears that welled up as two generous shadows suddenly almost completely covered him and pulled him upwards. "We're taking him to the hospital."

Hospital? Fear hung like mischief on his neck. Almost dazed, he let himself be dragged along without will. The panic struck too hard. Panic that led to aggression and represented everything Liam never wanted to be again. "What did we say, Liam?"
His foster father's reproachful gaze caused his medium-blond hair to droop. "I-I...t-it." Tears ran down the porcelain-looking face, while the large, blue, round eyes bravely sought out the almost black ones in front of him. The loud sigh, which could easily have come from a full-grown bear, caused goosebumps to spread across the boy's entire body. This was more than uncomfortable for him, because he hated appearing so weak, even if it wasn't in front of a complete stranger. No, it was his stepfather, the person who supported him and took him in when no one else would. "I just want to help you, Liam. Have you overdone it again?" Even though he was trying so hard to show his father the respect he deserved, he was simply no longer capable of it. He still blamed himself too much for what happened at his old school a few months ago. That he, of all people, found him, the person who was now so lovingly stroking his shaggy, short hair, who found him shivering in front of his former lacrosse coach's badly damaged SUV. With exactly the same look he was giving him now. It was simply too much for the insecure boy, full of self-doubt, who had now tucked his bare face protectively against his arms. "Hey, are you thinking about that again?"

Liam enjoyed the warmth that was being handed to him like a silver platter, and he would be lying if he didn't admit that he was enjoying this moment to the fullest. But young Dunbar simply couldn't and didn't want to answer the question just posed. He preferred to remain rigid in one position, leaning slightly against the comfortably warm chest and listening to the regular beating of his heart, hoping it would beat by his side forever. Because in the end, he was the only one left, and that terrified him. "Put this here, I'll book you in for an X-ray in the meantime." His medium-blond head jerked up in shock as a cooling pad was pressed against his knee. He inhaled sharply, his gaze almost following the man in the white coat. Liam swallowed, unwilling to be left here completely alone. He had reached a point where he couldn't get out on his own, and instead of listening to the cries within, the experienced doctor misinterpreted the situation. "Everything will be fine," Dr. Geyer said with an encouraging smile before stepping through the door. He was completely oblivious to his charge's cramped, outstretched hands, nor to the loud roar that sounded exactly like a wolf. But the boy must have simply imagined it. He carefully leaned back against the fluffy pillow and let his eyelids flutter shut. Very slowly, he began to feel a sense of calm. Minimal and steady, his breathing became calmer and more regular, and his pounding heart regained its standardized rhythm. With a sigh, the clenched fingers loosened from the backs of his knees, and something like advancing exhaustion spread through the stream of people standing there. Liam increasingly felt he could let go, stepped onto the cloud that would float him into a peaceful world full of light and contentment, and when the desired destination shone so close on the horizon, every element still carved from perfection shattered into a thousand pieces.

"Help!!! Please help me!"

To be so close to death, to see the Grim Reaper's sickle raining down on him. He would never have expected such devastating news in his younger years. Now, as the event approached its second anniversary, he often wondered why he had hobbled up there in the first place. His injured knee had barely allowed him to stand upright, the sharp pain of the knife brought tears to his eyes, and the enormous northwest bend of the unusually cool wind made him tremble. Completely defenseless, he stood on the roof, hugging his shivering body tightly. Then everything happened so incredibly quickly. Still shivering, he felt warm breaths on the sensitive hairs on the back of his neck, which counteracted this with incredible speed, and the next moment he was flying in a high arc through the air. It must have been a miracle that he was still able to grasp the sharp corner of the roof with his left hand, but it was probably just a way to buy some time, because each of his fingers was coming loose bit by bit...

"Help!!!"

Liam cried like he'd never cried before, staring into the glowing red eyes of a demon. Yes, that's exactly how the young comic book fanatic always imagined her. With greedily bared fangs, a gigantic, massive stature covered throughout with black, bristling fur, and the rumble of thunder spewing from his blood-stained mouth. That he himself had now become just such a monster; nothing worse could have happened to his turquoise eyes. As if in a trance, the warming drops from the showerhead had long since turned into freezing ice, he twisted his left forearm halfway around. That's where she had been. The wound, which had long since disappeared, yet was still constantly felt by the distracted young werewolf. The bite that had saved his life and simultaneously maneuvered him into a world he never wanted to be. Never again had he felt such pain, as if something were tearing him apart from within and simultaneously repairing him. Almost in a daze, he made indefinable thumping noises as his gaze repeatedly met that of the demon. But contrary to his expectations, there stood no monster, but a completely normal boy, not much older than he was, staring at him remorsefully with his dark brown, almost black eyes. Liam's mouth fell open. He knew this person. The short black hair, perfectly styled, lying on his head, the muscular, sculpted body, and the striking tattoo in the form of two black bands on his left upper arm. "Liam? Are you okay?"

"No, absolutely not! You bit me!"

The 15-year-old couldn't yet comprehend what this bite would mean for him at that moment, but the fact that he was able to run away without much effort despite his injured foot amazed him. He ran, gaining speed with every step he took, his senses heightening tenfold or more? Who knew? Liam had nothing to compare it to. He only knew that it probably wasn't normal to yearn for every color reflection of a dewdrop on that blade of grass. To hear the trampling of the red ants on the existing soil so loudly, and to smell the tiny peanut that was probably still stuck in the fly of his left trouser leg so intensely. The boy was simply overwhelmed when he stopped at his front door, drenched in sweat. How he even got here remained as mysterious to him as everything else, but he simply lacked the energy for it. What had just seemed so easy to him suddenly felt like tons of additional ballast. So the teenager dragged himself with great difficulty up the squeaky black wooden stairs and turned straight to the left to collapse into his unmade bed. His heart was beating far too fast, causing an annoying buzzing in his ear canals that prevented him from getting much-needed sleep for a long time. When he finally found some peace, he would wake up in a panic every hour, his glowing red eyes practically behind him. But that was nothing compared to what would await him the next day. The bite on his left arm seemed as if it had never been there. Even Liam briefly hoped it had all been a bad dream. But that didn't seem to be the case, as Scott McCall stood in his way with his familiar remorseful look.

"The bite is a gift."

"From now on, we are brothers."

"What?! What are you talking about?" There was incomprehension in the blue, round eyes as they fixed on the much taller, black-haired man. The fact that he had to stand practically on tiptoe and even be listened to was supposed to intimidate him, as usual, but this made-up nonsense made him so aggressive that he clenched his trembling hands into fists. He dug his fingernails deep into the untouched flesh; it hurt so unusually badly that his rage only came to the forefront. He knew that he was at the point of finally losing control, exactly what the doctor who diagnosed him back then had predicted. Impulse control disorder, or ICS for short, is a barely researched disorder of the central nervous system. The few people who suffer from it quickly become enraged, which in the worst cases leads to outbursts of violence. In the worst case scenario, the affected person is so out of control that they completely lose control without even having a chance to stop it themselves, and the shaking boy was at exactly that point, all because he wasn't taking his medication. But it made him so incredibly tired, so tired, and everything the seventh-grader loved was simply no longer possible. So he carelessly threw the half-full blue and white package into the trash and gave himself control, which was definitely backfiring.
"I-I...I have to get out of here."

The white walls of the school hallway seemed to warp, while his black pupils twitched like those of a predator. He stumbled forward awkwardly, his breathing much too rapid, and the more he gasped for air, the less he felt like he could breathe properly. His entire small, delicate body trembled uncontrollably, and when he finally pushed open the heavy blue metal door with all his strength, he could only just cling to the nearest sink. As if through a milky veil, he looked pleadingly into the mirror. Everything was so far away, even his silhouette was difficult to define. Again and again, he closed his unusually burning eyes for brief moments, but even when that didn't work, he lost himself and hurled his right fist forward demandingly. But just before the fragile glass, the overwhelmed teenager stopped, suddenly met with yellow-gold eyes. Liam swallowed, leaning forward very carefully. He flinched in shock at the sensation of the delicate, little snub nose meeting the cold mirror. So close he had come, and yet nothing changed about this image, these eyes, they were his. Too much, suddenly everything was too much and the wall he had built himself, brick by brick, was about to collapse. His medium-blond hair flew back with full force, sending a howl from his throat that sprang from the depths of his soul. The sound that shook a sense of deja vu within him, without him being able to say when or where. The usually innocent-looking boy allowed himself to be guided too easily by his abysmal hatred. Bones pushed themselves painfully aside, his incisors grew long and pointed, leaving him no choice but to open his snarling mouth wide. Pure burning heat and an unstoppable urge for destruction fueled him; he would grab anyone, anyone who had caused him so much pain and slowly tear them to pieces in the air. With firm, massive steps, he turned around, the locked blue door intently in his sights. His feet began to shuffle joyfully across the yellowed tiles and for the moment he decided to jump up with a high-pitched howl.

"Liam!!!" The dominant tone bound the beast in chains and allowed the adrenaline-pumping boy to breathe properly for the first time. He looked around uncertainly, fixated on everything that lay before him. There they were again, the glowing red eyes that he once again couldn't escape, like a bond that was forever connected, even until the death of each one. "Let me help you, Liam!" It sounded clear and eager through the young man's ears as he looked up at those speaking, completely captivated, and finally, in his confused, emotionally charged mind, understood what Scott meant. The bite wasn't a gift; it was a burden he was confronted with every day, and it was hard for him not to break completely. Even though he completely collapsed in that moment, pounding his still-clenched fists against the steel-hard chest of his teammate, he never blamed Scott for it. No, it was more like it had always been his alone. "Shhh, we'll get through this, I promise you!" The warm hands gently wrapped around his, and his turquoise eyes, once again, recognized what he had actually done. His palms were bloodshot. The older man gently but firmly pulled him back to the sink and washed away every trace, no matter how bad. So he did exactly what the now grown-up man was doing, watching in fascination as the last red traces flowed down the drain. As if none of this had ever happened and he could start over, just as he did every day when he slid dejectedly onto the cold, sticky shower floor.

Scott McCall probably never committed a crime; rather, he became like a big brother to him, a brother Liam had always wanted, and yet, as so often happens, a person was never satisfied with what he had in front of him. Whether the boy could still count himself as a Beta, he didn't know, like so many things the still-green-behind-the-ears puppy had demonstrated early on, when he finally left the safety of his Alpha and allowed himself to be influenced by the half-truths of a chimera to the point where he was almost capable of doing what he solemnly promised Scott he would never do: Take an innocent life, the life of his then-savior, best friend, brother, and Alpha.

Being a werewolf means responsibility. Responsibility for oneself and for surviving for those weaker than one. But could Liam Dunbar even do that? With his senses heightened by countless percent, which his illness also brought to the fore much faster than usual?

Never be taken by illness again. That's what they said, and yes, Liam had never felt fitter and healthier, physically speaking, but mentally...

"It's a constant process, little Beta. You have to allow your emotions, otherwise they'll eat you up inside, and you don't want that, do you?"

Damn it! Why was he thinking about that fateful car ride now, of all times, when he was completely dazed, staring into the smiling face of the driver. The jerk who had radically knocked him out, a whopping five times, and was now so incredibly close, until their...

"Liam? Are you still asleep, you lazybones? Hurry up, school's calling!"

"Off, off, off!!!" As if stung by a tarantula, he jumped up and tried to turn off the faucet with his dripping, wet hands. Whether his wild cursing, which echoed through the entire bathroom, was referring to his failed attempts or the tormenting memory that suddenly popped up, one could argue however one wanted, but for Liam, it was...
"Liam?"

"I-I'll be right there, Dad!"

...probably the latter....

Chapter Text

What is a Chimera?
A chimera is a creation from two different, incompatible DNAs. Thus, a normal human can never be a chimera, unless a part of their body does not originate from their own body.

Young Dunbar boredly chewed on his sandwich. His breakfast today consisted only of a mouthful of stale water, which he had just managed to pour down his bone-dry throat before diving headfirst into the school bus, which, to his dismay, was overly punctual. Yes, you heard right, Liam was recently taking the bus again because his car had, for indefinable reasons, made acquaintance with a tree. At least, that's the white lie the novice driver had hammered into his stepfather. But something completely different had actually happened. Something to do with an accordion-shaped silver hood and torn leather seats, whose rips looked like impressions from superhuman claws. The medium-blond boy swallowed. Luckily, his stepfather hadn't looked at the destroyed car more closely, because what on earth was he supposed to tell him in response to the rather significant questions?
No matter what he might have stammered out, Liam would have fallen short and involuntarily revealed things that could be life-threatening for anyone not involved. And the little Beta wanted to prevent that at all costs. "Hey, buddy?"

Coughing, the addressed boy pounded on his athletic chest. The tentatively bitten piece of white bread, which tasted unusually strongly of cardboard, was stuck somewhere between his throat and esophagus, causing him to gag noisily multiple times. He wildly thumped his white sneakers' rubber soles, tears formed in his turquoise eyes, and as the helpless boy thought he was about to faint, the saving object slid directly in front of his cute little upturned nose. "W-water," he croaked almost voicelessly, before his demanding mouth pressed against the opening of the 0.5-liter PET bottle and gulped down the entire remaining contents. Heaven, this must be untouched paradise. He felt freedom, unresisting freedom, as even the last remaining drop tickled his irritated throat. Completely relaxed, he leaned back and took another deep breath before the empty plastic was rapidly placed on the dull natural wood of the table. A superhuman being, almost ending its existence due to a breadcrumb. Somehow pure irony, yet at the same time almost impossible to surpass in sheer stupidity. Even if his mood had until now resembled an old, scraped-off piece of chewing gum stuck under the seats, he managed a slight, gentle smile before the chocolate-brown eyes of his best friend scrutinized him suspiciously again. "You okay again? Good!"

Mason hadn't actually waited for a proper answer from him; his enormous, hard right fist was already directly on Liam's skull. "OW!!!"
Whimpering, he held his throbbing head. Even though the high school student had been a werewolf for quite some time, Liam felt pain like any normal human, which was probably also not entirely his best friend's fault, as he really had an enormous punch. Pouting, the confused-looking boy then pulled his lower lip forward, expecting a reasonable explanation, which promptly followed, just not necessarily as the young Beta had expected. "Oh-ho, such a quick reaction, I didn't expect that at all from you, you walking sleeping pill. What's wrong with you, you idiot?"

The familiar turquoise eyes widened as he thoughtfully scratched his protruding lower lip with his incisors. He hadn't realized that he was showing it so obviously that even Mason had caught wind of it. Well, okay, Mason was his best friend, the calm in his restless mind, who knew absolutely everything about him, and by that, Liam really meant everything. Including fangs, glowing eyes, and wolf howls, and to his surprise, he took it all very calmly. In fact, he was practically bursting with enthusiasm and wanted to know everything and be involved everywhere, which greatly annoyed the werewolf in training, because unlike him, Mason was a perfectly normal human, and humans simply didn't have this miraculous self-healing that werewolves among them did. "Come on, Liam, spit it out already!"

"It's n-nothing... r-really." Liam was already annoyed with himself for his uncertain, stumbling tones before they had even fully left his mouth, because that's when his counterpart really seemed to get worked up, which was evident by how his dark eyebrows uncharacteristically warped and moved towards his hairline. Completely annoyed, he finally let his almost untouched sandwich fall forward. He had never felt hungry anyway; it merely served as a distraction, which had worked wonderfully, as the dark pair of eyes in front of him were fixed directly on his disheveled head, trying to penetrate it. Sulkily, he rolled his eyes at the realization and then let them wander exhaustedly.

The cafeteria was empty of people when they entered; you could have even heard mosquitoes cough if you had the desire. But the little Beta wasn't ready for that either; he actually didn't want to think about anything, to close his eyes and be somewhere else, if it weren't for the persistent, annoyed humming in front of him, which finally made him answer, albeit reluctantly. "I just haven't slept much, that's all." That wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the complete truth either.

"You've been doing that quite often lately." Wait? Wait? How did his better half know about this without him ever mentioning it? Okay, he had just run into the meter-high glass door of the south wing exit yesterday, and if he weren't supernatural, his face would probably resemble a minefield now. But that could also have had something to do with his extreme clumsiness, which he never shed even after years of hypersensitive abilities. His gaze skeptically remained on Mason, who grinned knowingly. "Mrs. Adams' class, remember?"

"Oh no!" Desperately, he let his medium-blond hair flop forward onto the all-too-familiar wood, which didn't exactly make a quiet sound; it probably would have woken sleeping dogs, but Liam didn't care at all right now, because of course he remembered. It was last Wednesday. The first two lessons were always his favorites, because history just came easily to him. He absorbed every word like a sponge and delved into worlds he had never dared to dream of. But perhaps that was also the problem. The whole thing led to a disastrous situation, where he lay loudly snoring half on his open book. The resulting drool trails were still clearly visible between pages 304 and 305 and would probably accompany him for the entire school year. Dejectedly, he mumbled to himself, while his upturned nose squeezed against the tabletop. "I'm so done for." He was certainly done for; this sin had not gone unnoticed and was one of the reasons why he was one of the last to leave the high school building every day now, as the house dragon had given him a month of detention. The fact that Mason was so kind as to wait for him was something young Dunbar really appreciated. Usually, at least, unless it mutated into an intense questioning session, as it did today, where he became the main topic. "Chin up, little one, it'll be fine."

"Hey! You're not exactly a giant either, Mason," the young werewolf said, no less grumpily than the last few words he had contributed to the conversation. But at least he was understandable again now, as the blond shot up surprisingly quickly to stare at his buddy in disbelief. How could he take it all so calmly? This would completely throw off his grades, taking them way down. For a moment, his full mouth remained wide open when suddenly a flat left hand encouragingly stroked his tense back. "But definitely bigger, and now tell me, is it because of Hayden..."

"Here you are." Dark brown hair and eyes, anxious yet friendly demeanor, and always a lovable smile on his not necessarily unattractive face, but definitely supernatural. Corey Bryant was something between a werewolf and a human with superpowers, but neither completely. It was just hard to explain, but the ability to make himself invisible was something Liam was quite envious of. Just as he was envious of the time his classmate spent with his best friend, which wasn't exactly abnormal for a committed couple, but it somehow bothered the lonely Beta. A feeling he didn't usually know from himself and that made him ponder, as he watched the two exchange small, tender kisses. The blond smiled sadly. This feeling of having someone you trusted one hundred percent, who was always by your side, and who loved you deeply and passionately with every facet of their being – that must be indescribable. Wait? He stopped his movement abruptly. Maybe that was it? This continuous mood, which currently lay over him like a shadow? The underlying cause that prevented him from sleeping at night and even denied him much-needed nourishment? So Mason wasn't entirely wrong with his conclusion, except for the question of who made his thumping heart jump around in squares.

"Should I pick you up?"

"What? Uh, no thanks, I have something to do." Startled, Liam flinched, having been so deep in thought again that only the last syllables reached him, preventing him from standing out even more negatively. He couldn't afford that now, as his actual goal of appearing as normal as ever still had the highest priority. Therefore, he bit his outspoken tongue not too gently, for the sad gaze, of course, did not escape the little Beta as he slung his black backpack over his left shoulder and slowly stood up. He actually had the feeling that this conversation was not yet over, for Mason's facial expression spoke volumes, but apparently something fundamental was holding his best friend back, which, to Liam's regret, he couldn't figure out, no matter how much he racked his sweet, shaggy head. But perhaps it was better not to think about it anymore now, to put on a rather distant smile, and head for the adjacent library. Which was, of course, just a pretext to disappear as quickly as possible, for the two lovers wouldn't follow him so quickly; the considerate friend was quite sure of that.
"We missed you at the last pack meeting!"

Liam could have kicked himself in the butt if it had been possible. That the fastest way to the bus stop was the student parking lot was well known to everyone here by now, and the 17-year-old also knew how to deal with this information perfectly. He never met anyone here who wanted to get him. Because the first college year for his friends was in full swing at the same time, and otherwise, young Dunbar wasn't exactly popular, which didn't particularly bother him either. So how was he supposed to know that the dented blue Jeep, patched with numerous gray duct tape, was now standing directly in front of him and had probably only been waiting for his presence? "H-hello, Scott, you here?"

"Get in!" Contradiction was definitely not tolerated as the young Beta guiltily let his tense shoulders droop and crawled through the open passenger door. He didn't spare his Alpha more than a sideways glance; Scott leaned calmly but with a less strict gaze directly beside the door, letting his broad arm muscles flex in the bent position. Liam had already known back then that ignoring any calls and messages would cause problems. Sighing, he leaned back and let his gaze sweep across the entire car. Traces full of nostalgia crawled into his sensitive nose, making it tingle continuously.

What hadn't they all experienced in this half-collapsing vehicle? He, Scott, and... "Stiles," he let the name slide softly through his gritted teeth, while the familiar roar of the diesel engine made the frame vibrate. About two years ago, he could have cursed both of them with a deathly stare. One acted rashly without thinking, and the other thought without acting. Individuals who were fundamentally as different as the sun and moon, light and dark, human and werewolf, and yet one attracted the other, and only with the union of both components was every goal, no matter how strange, crowned with success. Yes, the little Beta missed Stiles, in whose car he was currently acting as a passenger, very much indeed.

"So?" The pleasant silence, it was apparently definitively over, as he felt the piercing brown eyes on his neck. His fingers fumbled nervously at the worn spots on his light blue jeans. Also a testament to his I.K.S. which had already cost him some of his favorite pieces, which he still grieved for. But now, at this moment, Liam was completely clear, almost calm, though slightly nervous, as he resolutely turned his medium-blond head halfway to the left to face his Alpha. "So what?"

Yes, what anyway? Why was his mentor, who was now like an older brother to him, even here? Where they hadn't exactly parted emotionlessly? Thoughtfully, the younger boy bit his now bone-dry lower lip. The teenager still remembered all too clearly the violent closing of the ancient black hardshell suitcase, brand "damaged family heirloom," which ended up springing open again. What was all the talk about "transfer of responsibility" and "I'm putting Beacon Hills in your care now" if he couldn't even keep still for a month? Clearly, the elder's trust, he didn't seem to have meant it seriously at all.

"Good grief, Liam, do we really want to have this discussion?" Completely surprised, the boy flinched, his innocent, delicate forehead drawing into unusually deep lines of skepticism. Of course they did. It had always been that Liam sat in the back seat and attracted attention with some completely out-of-context word thrown in. One thing led to another, and in the end, when no one had a counter-argument, they ended up in a completely different place. Like cheesecake. Why creamy, wonderfully fragrant cheesecake? Because Stiles loved it more than anything. The Beta's gaze wistfully went outside. Another moment when he missed the hyperactive whirlwind, because he would have at least given him a chance.

"You don't trust me."
"Liam, what..."
"You don't trust me."

The defiant teenager saw no reason to listen to him for another minute, wildly gesticulating and cutting Scott off. No matter what loyal puppy dog eyes he would put on now, and let's be honest, McCall could do that better than anyone. For his companion, the matter was quite clear, so he finally turned his gaze away, hoping to be completely somewhere else now. But the sudden, frustration-filled smack on the steering wheel made him forget his plan for a brief moment. He was fully aware of who was breaking the silence so loudly, over and over again the dull creaking sound entered his ears, until it suddenly fell silent and the Alpha's true feelings were finally, directly and completely unembellished spoken. "That from your mouth, Liam? Who's shutting themselves off from whom here? You know exactly what a similar situation led to last time." As if the teenager could ever forget that. Guilt still plagued him today like a never-healing gaping wound that only grew bigger day by day. He had to blink uncontrollably, as the rising emotions threatened to overwhelm him. But he would never admit that. Not here and now, and precisely from this endeavor between guilt and misunderstandings, his trembling hands rose directly in front of his delicate, disappointed face.

Blood, thick red blood ran over his pale palms. Whether now as a symbol of his betrayal, because a small, naive pup let himself be infected by the enemy. Or with the intuition, which didn't necessarily have to be of supernatural origin, to wander completely in the dark? It hurt the insecure boy more than enough, for he had believed until recently that he was finally being taken seriously.

Liam felt the heated flare of his eyes without even looking in the rearview mirror. His heart raced its fastest race in a long time, and when his closely clipped fingernails suddenly turned into murderous claws, he had no choice but to panic and yell.

"Stop, stop right now!"

Glowing golden-yellow eyes met Scott completely unprepared. The screech of the tires was the only sound heard until the blue Jeep steamed to a halt. Liam didn't have the slightest time to look for his black backpack. As fast as possible, he tore open the passenger door and lunged out. Probably just in time, he jumped from tree to tree, without yet giving in to the urge to bite his Alpha's muscular throat. The little Beta shuddered at this thought, while his inhuman steps slowed. It had been so long since the beast in him took control. So how did it happen now? Just when it seemed that well-deserved peace had finally returned to Beacon Hills? The dew-kissed grass made the boy's rubber soles squeak as he leaned exhaustedly against the railing of the mossy bridge. Something told him he had been here before. On an equally cool late summer night, under a clear sky, and with the familiar scent of sadness, or was it suffering?

"I thought you finally had your aggression problems under control, little pup!"

Chapter Text

His breathing was deep and steady, as his broad shoulder blades painfully registered the hard, massive bark of the over 30-year-old tree. His medium-long, medium-blonde hair was pulled low across his otherwise free forehead, obscuring his intense blue eyes. A realization he would usually have shrugged off with a smile, capable as he was of so much more. But right now, he didn't feel like the strong Beta of the true Alpha Scott McCall, who could unleash powers that could cost an entire crowd their lives in seconds. Right now, he was a soaking wet, weak 17-year-old boy who couldn't believe who he was seeing.

"Hey, little pup."

Liam's eyes flickered from golden-yellow to turquoise-blue second by second, as if they couldn't decide what they wanted. But perhaps it was precisely this feeling that Liam couldn't place, as he unconsciously pressed himself even harder into the uneven background, causing significant scratches on his upper cervical spine area. Familiar warm lines distinctly traced down his pronounced spine, gathering at the hem of his faded blue jeans. Yet nothing could matter less to him right now, and that wasn't due to the realization that, within seconds, his rapid self-healing had almost restored him. It was because of the tingling sensation on his cheeks.

He startled, squeezing his eyes shut, but it was no use. The aroma of his scent practically tore him in two, with no way to stop it. The young wolf gasped repeatedly, trying to catch his breath, but the desperately sought relief simply wouldn't come. "Liam?" His voice was like the first rays of sunlight hitting him, tickling his sensitive, pale skin. "Please, look at me!" The inexperienced Beta arched his back, growling, trying to resist the command. But he stood no chance; his sounds were still purely human, and his inner wolf had completely vanished, so he sighed in surrender, letting his eyelids flutter open. But what greeted him there overshadowed everything that had come before, and that wasn't due to knowing from the start who stood directly before him, but because of the eyes that stared back greedily. For these, these were blood-red...

"No!!!" the gasping boy screamed loudly as his body shot upright as if on its own. His grey sleep shirt clung to his trembling, completely sweaty body, while his dishevelled medium-blonde head spun confusedly in all directions. His room was in its usual nocturnal darkness, the mountain of all kinds of textiles next to his bed already reaching utopian proportions, and the half-moon shining through the unlocked window confirmed that it was still the middle of the night. "Oh, great, not again." The words came out scratchily from his bone-dry throat, as the exhausted teenager threw himself back into the crumpled pillows. Once again, the desperately needed sleep had not lasted long, and once again, it had been him who prevented it. But this time, something seemed different. The young Beta could have sworn he could perceive his unmistakable scent directly with his superhuman sense of smell, feel a single, delicate touch make his whole body pulsate so much that it stole Liam's breath. A feeling you wouldn't wish on anyone, not even your worst enemy. When the diaphragm sent out twitching alarm signals, the lungs burned, and the suffering person clutched at their throbbing throat.

His turquoise eyes widened unhealthily, while the rest of his body, in a battle for survival, thrashed wildly. The sagging springs of the mattress creaked, rising dust motes flew into the air, and in the middle stood a young girl, almost a woman. Her long black hair was completely dishevelled on her head, her familiar green-blue eyes stared intensely blankly into his face, her expression taking on sadistic features before she leaned over him, imparting something...

"You'd better watch out, little pup!"

This time Liam screamed himself back into reality in full daylight. It took him a few minutes to collect himself before he realized again why his sleep had ended so abruptly. Almost frantically, he jumped up to get to the opposite side of his room. The medium-sized wall mirror in the light wooden frame, the tired teenager usually tried to ignore daily, but today, curiosity practically drove him straight to it. Exploratively, he ran his numb fingertips over his entire neck. "I could have sworn it was here," he muttered thoughtfully as he twisted and turned the touched body part, but what he hoped for was gone without a trace. "I must be going crazy," he said dejectedly, his longish medium-blonde hair falling far into his forehead. It wasn't surprising. With the enormous sleep deprivation the young Beta had endured for months, and even though he had many advantages as a werewolf over a normal human, he too was slowly reaching his limits. His hearing and vision were now quite impaired, he moved slower, and generally felt exhausted and tired. Another reason to avoid Scott's presence, although that would be a rather difficult undertaking, as he just discovered on the glowing display he now purposefully picked up.

Pack meeting, today at 5:00 PM.
Be on time! S.

"I desperately need a shower," and he certainly did. Liam's entire body was completely drenched in sweat, and the shock of what he had experienced was still so deep in his bones that he felt like he would collapse under the heavy burden. Lost in thought, he rummaged through the wardrobe for the first thing his nervously moving fingers found, before the small young werewolf resignedly dragged himself to the adjoining bathroom. One thing, however, wouldn't let him go. It was quite odd to jump from dream to dream, if not impossible? Reality was so called into question by his senses, which were still electrified, that the dreamer believed he would never wake up again, and then that name, by which she addressed him. Only one person called him that, which allowed for only one conclusion for the blood-smeared Dunbar. None of this could be a coincidence, and he would move heaven and earth to investigate the matter.
As expected, the young Dunbar spent a relatively long time in the shower, enjoying the warm drops of water trickling over his emaciated body. It was Saturday, and his stepfather had temporarily filled in for a colleague at the hospital, so no one else could disturb him, well, except perhaps the realization of what still awaited him today.
He knew very well that the scene he had caused yesterday in Stiles' former medium-blue Jeep, which now belonged to Scott, would be a topic of discussion. Frustrated, he formed his damp hands into fists, which then began to tremble. How was he supposed to explain his not-insignificant outburst of rage, and why he hadn't reacted at all to his Alpha's panicked calls?

"It's all your fault." The honest words of his heart echoed through the entire bathroom as the soaking wet boy finally brought himself to turn off the faucet and step out of the shower. Lost in thought, he grabbed one of the oversized colorful towels that completely enveloped him. Liam was quite sure he hadn't dreamed it, while he stood breathless on that very bridge. The monument that all his friends knew, where an innocent girl had died, though not as claimed. For the culprit remained, to this day, her own younger brother. The blonde wet mop of hair shook like a dog's before he repeatedly looked into his room's wall mirror and, for the first time in a long time, examined himself intensely.

Worry lines lay on his young face, his turquoise irises stood out against the intensely dark shadows beneath his eyes, and his otherwise rosy cheeks looked almost sunken and pale. The young Beta froze; he hadn't even realized what a sight he presented, and now he no longer wondered about the worried glances the others constantly threw his way. So he had no choice but to attend the meeting. Even though his uncertainty grew as he stared at his phone. "Shit! Is it that late already? Damn!"
As fast as possible, he grabbed a hoodie that lay as if ready for him on his desk chair. Liam found it very strange where it had suddenly come from and it wasn't even his right size, but there was absolutely no time left for the young wolf to worry about such trifles. It was now 4:30 PM, and his car was still at his trusted mechanic, so he rather reluctantly decided to take his bike. As if cycling for his young, innocent life, he pedaled, and the bike clattered betrayingly. To his bad luck, the McCall house was directly opposite his, which he had never cursed more intensely than now. Liam only saw his surroundings through a milky film; at the same time, he was soaking wet with sweat and trembling like an aspen leaf. His entire organism seemed to want to make it clear to him that the excessive exertion was absolutely not good for him, and when he finally spotted the house, he simply dropped the bike powerlessly to the side and lay there.

Completely exhausted, he gasped to himself, blinking and with limbs widely outstretched, watching the sky, which began to spin like laundry in a washing machine's spin cycle. It took a few silent moments until his weakened body stirred again and awkwardly made its way to the porch. He tried his best to disguise his recent collapse, which would likely be an impossible task. Because he wasn't the only one there with supernatural powers and a very sensitive nose, and that bothered him deeply. "Well, then, to battle," he said only seconds later, before, with a weakly pronounced grip, he turned the knob of the white wooden door and pushed it open.

„Liam has gone out of control. It would probably be a bad time to inform him about Hayden's death."

"What did you just say? What about Hayden?" The young Beta stared at his Alpha in disbelief, hoping childishly that he had misheard. But that was more wishful thinking, for the remorseful look in the dark brown eyes showed him something completely different. Even though Liam hadn't expected it, the whole thing affected him deeply. After all, he had once loved the spirited girl with the full, curly black hair, pronounced cheeks, and almond-shaped dark eyes above all else, before she broke his small, sensitive heart and disappeared forever. Thus, something stirred within him when the young werewolf realized that she would never return, never again. Rather, the teenager felt like he would explode on the spot as he unconsciously began to tremble.

"Liam, please sit down first, you're completely exhausted." Even though he had pulled the black hood of his hoodie deep into his face, Scott seemed to be able to recognize more of his condition than the young Dunbar would have liked, and to his sorrow, he was now so dizzy that standing steadfastly in front of the entire pack became a pointless endeavor, as he stumbled helplessly backward. "Hey, slow down, little pup." Completely stiff, Liam, feeling like he was in an electric current, collided with the pleasantly smelling person behind him. So he hadn't imagined it after all. The words that had struck him on that early Friday evening on that very bridge, as his medium-blonde hair had turned around in shock and no one stood behind him. Resigned and trembling, the teenager had gone home in the pouring rain, stiff with cold and unspeakable grief that still widely enveloped him.
Exhaling, the smaller of the two closed his too-heavy eyes for a brief moment. He would have loved nothing more than to give in to his desire and lean exhaustedly against the protective, muscular chest. But his inhuman sense of hearing, which had played the worst tricks on him at impossible times for weeks, was now fully present and allowed him to grasp every soft whisper, which definitely wasn't meant for his cute ears. "Bring him here, Theo!"
The feeling of the Chimera's heated breath visibly falling upon him. The careful touches of his hands, whose warmth immediately transferred to him, it was simply heavenly, and yet he felt the betrayal too deeply in his bones, tearing himself away with a growl and whirling wildly.

"What? No!!!" Tears formed in his just-reopened eyes as the hood involuntarily slid back, revealing what Liam desperately wanted to hide. Completely exposed, that's how he felt, as the glances of his supposed friends pierced him painfully like deeply drawn needle pricks.
Helplessly, the youngest in the group hugged himself. Never had he felt so alone, although that wasn't entirely true; there was a time he was sure the sun would never shine for him again. The day Liam lost his biological parents and forever locked his emotions in the darkest corner of his bleeding heart. That this probably activated the fuse that led to his outbursts of rage? How could a crying boy have known back then? The only thing the little, then light-blonde brat with intense, wide eyes wanted back then was for it to stop. This unbearable pain that wouldn't let him breathe, and he even managed for a while to transform the sobbing personality into an almost arrogant person for whom nothing in life became more important than to secure victory. That precisely this drive would lead him to discord with himself was probably another way fate was giving him the middle finger. From the beginning, he never accepted the wolf within him. The superhuman being that showed him what he felt with every throbbing phase. Completely switched on and ready to explode at the slightest tremor. This had been Liam's experience for years, and now he had reached a point where he simply couldn't go on anymore.

Without another word, he turned around, thick tears streaming down his pale, tormented face. He wanted to scream his pain out loud, while his weakening feet could barely carry him down the stairs. But more than a whispering whimper, he simply couldn't manage. Truly everything had conspired against him. Lastly, even himself. With careful, gentle steps, he crept forward. The freshly mown grass squeaked audibly under his soles as he reached out with stretching, aching hands for the handlebars of his bicycle. "Do you really think that's a good idea? You can barely stand, little one." With a resigned sigh, his turquoise soul-bearers closed, while the rest of him just stood there dumbly. Couldn't Theo just leave him alone, as the tempting Chimera always did? Theo Raeken, the supposed Werecoyote who came to Beacon Hills for only one reason.

"I came for a pack.
I came for the Werecoyote whose first instinct is to kill.
I came for the Banshee, the girl who is surrounded by death.
I came for the dark Kitsune.
The Beta with the temper tantrums.
I came for Void Stiles.
That's the pack I wanted.
Unfortunately, it doesn't include Scott."

Just the last sentence formed by his synapses made him feel unwell. That false rat had been after Scott's pack from the beginning, and as mistrust of him grew, Scott had become the actual target, to kill him and become the true Alpha. Which almost happened due to Liam's naivety. The discomfort in the trembling human grew, as he turned around, gripped by rage, with his last reserves of strength.

"Why do you care? Who do you think you are? Why do you think you constantly have to protect me? Why..."
The arrogant smirk greeted him as always, and Liam caught himself for a brief moment wishing he had left him to rot in that hole with his undead sister. The image of the greedy, blood-soaked hands mercilessly pulling the screaming false Alpha into the dripping hole, the then 16-year-old had never been able to forget it. Just as he, not even half a year later, opened that very hellhole to let that bastard back to the saving surface. Liam had been more than unsure then if he was doing the right thing. But there was something in the dirt-smeared face as the broad arms pressed him against the wall that changed his mind and, consequently, gave the walking plague a new life. Theo was dependent on the pup, whether he liked it or not, and Liam took on this burden, regardless of what would change between the two. But all that was history now, the sword finally destroyed, and Theo free. So why were they standing here? Gasping while their breath formed small clouds on the surface and the older one's green-blue eyes shone knowingly, as if they had direct connections to the stars? The young Beta was more than confused and furrowed his brow. Because something about this image triggered an alarm. He just couldn't remember what and where. This color or these eyes or these... "family."
A splash like on muddy ground. On freshly excavated earth, where the occupant freed himself and, with an empty gaze, completely absorbed the fresh, living being. "No!!!" The scream of the sunken boy was so loud that it even briefly shook the high, massive wall of the Werecoyote, alias Chimera. For it was he who screamed, the only one he would always turn back for, and the first one for whom he went down on his knees and pulled him protectively close.

"Liam? What's wrong?"
It was rare for him to address him like that. But in that moment, it was probably the only way to bring the screaming boy back into his world, only to lose him again shortly after. But not without Liam pleadingly giving Theo the answer he desperately wanted to hear. Even if it broke his heart...

"I'm scared."

Chapter Text

Life is Pain,
I wake up every morning and I'm in pain,
I go to work in pain.
You know how many times I've wanted to just give up?
How many times I've thought about ending it?

It was bright again when the turquoise eyes carefully opened the next time. Liam blinked away the remnants of sleep, which for a long time had been quite restful and without terrifying nightmares that deeply scratched at his wounded soul. No, the young wolf felt truly comfortable in his own skin for the first time, and he let his body know it, stretching extensively with loud humming sounds at that moment.

"Awake again? Your father is at a conference, by the way, and won't be back until the end of next week. He asked me to say hello and remind you of your obligations. Whoever gets drunk can clean up the mess later. Those were his exact words."

"Uh w-what?" came out of the teenager's mouth, more than confused, while an enormous yawn made any further conversation impossible. But that would have been quite difficult anyway, considering who was leaning against his bedroom doorframe. It was none other than Theo, and that very realization made his heart flutter nervously like a small bird moving high into the air for the first time. "Don't look at me like a lost whimpering puppy, little one! It wasn't easy to sneak you in here unnoticed. How was I supposed to know that your father would get up just when I was dragging you up the inhumanly steep stairs, hanging by the ropes? Did you know you're quite heavy for your size?" Apparently, the chimera had completely misinterpreted his behavior, and Liam was deeply grateful for that, as he himself didn't know exactly why his body reacted so differently when Theo was near. As if every important function in his body would instantly fail.

"Hello, Earth to the little Beta! Are you even listening to me?" Nearly hissing, all of the younger boy's hairs stood on end as he felt the mattress beside him treacherously sink. Theo's seductive scent was suddenly everywhere, clouding the young wolf's senses so much that he shook his head in disbelief. Did Theo even know what he was doing to him right now? Apparently not, judging by how calmly the epitome of a man had relaxed beside him and sharply pulled up the corners of his mouth. Or did he? Because the chimera was by no means stupid; that had been sufficiently evident in the recent past, and the way the brunette, whose hair was now a bit shorter again, snuggled against him almost lasciviously, seemed like pure harassment. "You're wearing my hoodie!" It wasn't a question, but rather a statement, as the older of the two leaned down to the smaller one. Liam wrinkled his cute button nose with pleasure, which had greatly intensified the aroma that the taller boy inevitably exuded.
Nevertheless, his gaze remained fixed on his hands, which unconsciously played with the hem of the aforementioned textile. It was somehow uncomfortable for him to be so exposed, and yet he simply put on this piece of clothing, even though he knew it wasn't his.

"It was suddenly there."

That's exactly how the young Beta remembered it. So it didn't seem to be a problem, at least not for him, because Theo apparently saw it completely differently as he very gently placed his warm hands on the pale face of the youth...

"Oh? Was it? Like that one?"

...and pressed his bold lips against Liam's. A complete knockout with not the slightest possibility of escape. The same feeling as a few months ago. In the chimera's car, when Liam wasn't fully awake but not asleep either. His entire jaw ached enormously, as if he had met a 3.5-ton truck that hit him head-on and mercilessly dragged him along. But no, it had been the chimera's hard right hand, 5 times in total, and even if he had done it with good intentions, his smirk seemed almost sarcastic as the brunette leaned over to him and surprisingly kissed him completely out of the blue. And this time too, the surprising feeling changed to a completely different one. A rush of enormous satisfaction, cozy warmth, and an addictive scent. The insecure teenager simply couldn't talk his way out of it anymore; he loved this mouth on his, the delicate nibbling on his pulsating, voluminous lower lip, while the tip of his tongue almost cheekily fought its way into his oral cavity.

The younger boy gasped, overwhelmed, which made the fight between the two really get going. The nimble muscles skillfully circled each other, while a deep, fervent growl came from the inconspicuous puppy. The cold, demanding hands greedily encircled the broad, heated neck and pulled it close. That he was the one lying underneath seemed to not matter to him at all. He simply enjoyed the radiating warmth that enveloped his chilled body, the aroma of fresh pine needles and sweet honey, and the nimble hands that, as if by magic, fought their way under the culprit of it all. Liam sighed in relaxation, as his fingers wandered into Theo's hair and almost took possession of every spot. They were so wonderfully fluffy and soft. A feeling that the young Beta could certainly get used to. Spraying endorphins that triggered an unprecedented feeling of well-being and almost made the young werewolf purr, while he completely surrendered to the wild tongue play. A game in which Theo took the lead from the beginning, and even though that was one of the things that usually drove Liam up the wall, he let the brunette with the quite handsome muscles have his way today. Thinking became increasingly difficult for the younger one. Birds chirped merrily in his head, and his parched throat scratched so intensely that the smaller one suddenly jumped up and began to cough wildly. Liam gasped for air again and again, holding his throat with a pained, distorted face. This state lasted unusually long, and when he was finally relieved, he fell back into the pillow, completely exhausted.

"Here for you!"

The bubbling, refreshing liquid in front of his cute button nose was probably the most eagerly desired thing the younger boy could have wished for at that moment, as he greedily reached out his hands for it and croaked, "T-thank you." Well, except perhaps for their coming together, which was just getting serious, and if Liam hadn't involuntarily ended the endeavor, who knew where they would be right now? Stark naked, while the sexy chimera growled something into his ear and dominantly pressed his twitching thighs apart with his sinewy hands. The medium-blonde head shook vehemently, having taken on a not insignificant light red color, which the person standing in front of him probably didn't notice only because the teenager's long blonde strands fell deep into his face. He exhaled in relief at this realization. How else was he supposed to explain himself? The young Beta didn't even know what this was between them, and did Liam even want them to become something like that for each other? Oh man, this seemed quite complicated and led to enormous pain in his brain walls, making logical conclusions increasingly difficult for him. At the moment, at least, the mood was completely ruined, and Theo seemed genuinely concerned for the first time as he treacherously met the younger boy's gaze while the latter was carefully placing the now empty glass on the desk beside him, and yet the tormenting silence between the two of them bothered him so much that he simply couldn't bear it anymore and spoke up. "Why are you looking at me like that, Theo? It's perfectly normal to choke sometimes." That's how it was, wasn't it? Every normal person's throat scratched sometimes, so why worry about it, the smaller one gestured dismissively in his mind, and yet there was someone in the room who saw it completely differently, who grabbed the puppy's free hand and pulled it up. "Actually, no, Liam, not at all. You're a werewolf and..."

Should Liam be happy about being interrupted by an annoying ringtone that certainly didn't come from his phone? Hmm, maybe, at least it seemed to be about him, and the curious boy definitely didn't want to miss that. "What's up? Yes, he's with me. I don't know if that's a good idea."

Actually, the annoying know-it-all was with him, or rather, still here. Speaking of which, or rather, Liam thinking about it, as he stretched even closer to the microphone on tiptoes. What had actually happened yesterday? In front of Scott's house, on the wet lawn, near his bike, pursued by the wisecracker who unfortunately could kiss incredibly well and was now losing every spark of sarcasm from his attractive face?

"What is it?" Silence, it was actually only momentary suspended breaths that stopped the flow of speech, but for the young Beta it felt like too much, as he didn't understand what this meant. Restlessly, he drove his angular incisors into his full lower lip and hoped for answers, no matter how small, like crumbly pieces of bread.

"Okay, see you soon!" The exhaustion in his bones passed as quickly as it came when Theo touched the red receiver icon and calmly put away his phone, but without losing a single word about the call he had just made. A good plan, if not almost perfect, and yet Liam would certainly not let that happen to him. So it happened that he almost yelled at the chimera, while his cramping fingers dug into the stiff neck muscles of the brown-haired boy.

„Tell me now! What did he say?"

But as unpredictable as Theo Raeken's ways were, the little Dunbar was inevitably finding that out again. He received nothing more than a slightly changed smirk and gentle caresses of his messy, elongated hair before he turned away with the next words and left the room.
"Get ready! We have to go to Scott."

<<<————-

"Isaac who?" The young werewolf couldn't deny that the two had gotten closer, again. But apparently so close that they simultaneously asked the Alpha the urgent question, was almost unusual. Which the rest of the pack probably saw the same way, as their gazes seemed almost confusing. Although not all members even found it necessary to appear in person. A very important part was missing. His best friend Mason and his steady better half, chimera Corey.

"I would have explained it to you a long time ago if you'd just let me finish." These words came out of Scott's mouth unintentionally roughly. The person whose patience was almost boundless, unless it personally affected the roots of his existence, and the way he behaved, nervously pacing through the living room as if his life depended on it, that's exactly what had happened. Which Theo probably also suspected when they subtly looked into each other's eyes.
"Isaac went to high school with us. Shortly after me, he was turned by Derek, who was still an Alpha back then. After Allison's death, he disappeared without a trace. But he is and remains a part of my pack."

That the words "Allison" hurt him to the core was immediately apparent to anyone, even without the aid of superhuman powers, and even though he was very happy with Malia today, this woman seemed to never completely disappear from his life. Liam swallowed, his Adam's apple visibly pressing through his throat. Even though he hadn't had the chance to meet her personally, he had heard of her. Rather, who hadn't? Allison Argent, the youngest daughter of one of the oldest hunter families, who specialized in completely eradicating their species, and this very person had been Scott's first great love. How fates sometimes intertwined.

At these thoughts, the young wolf sighed deeply, his hands retreating into the overly long sleeves of the black hoodie. Yes, he was still wearing Theo's garment, and he was quite happy about it, as the cold he felt shook him enormously. His light brows furrowed in confusion. Where did this feeling come from? Or was the cause completely different? Just the fact that he learned that Scott must have had another Beta before him, or still did, stung his sensitive heart so painfully that he had difficulty not screaming in shock right then and there. Clearly, he was jealous of a person he didn't even know. But that only worsened the insecure teenager's misery. For he compared himself to the stranger from the very first second and imagined the worst scenarios, how much better he must be as a Beta. Liam shook his head to keep from completely losing it and drifted through the entire room.

At the raised counter, in her familiar usual spot, sat Malia, and as always, she was doing Malia-typical things, like staring at Theo, dripping with malice, even though he had proven useful in the recent past and had repeatedly saved parts of the pack from certain death. The two would probably never become friends in this life, but perhaps in the next? Could supernatural beings even be reborn? Why was he even thinking about such things? The here and now was important. Like Malia, for example, who seemed to have finally calmed down and was now staring at the half-withered houseplant, or Scott, who was making what felt like the nth attempt to finally be heard, as well as Theo, who was especially important. Liam almost choked on his own spit, had he seriously just thought that? Feeling guilty, he looked down, almost feeling the chimera's gaze on his neck, as the distinctly dark voice made him shiver. "And you're telling us this because..."

"Because Isaac is also in great danger."
And just like that, every attempt by the young baby wolf to appear completely inconspicuous failed. For all eyes were suddenly on him, and the looks he received were neither normal nor friendly; no, they seemed almost panicked. Liam wrinkled his forehead in annoyance. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me, Scott, and why is everyone in this damn room looking at me as if I'm about to drop dead? Just tell me the damn truth!" The last words the young Dunbar almost screamed out, but unlike usual, his body remained completely normal. No sharp fangs shooting through his jaw, sharp claws digging bloodily into his palms, or golden-yellow eyes illuminating the room. Liam stood shocked and breathing rapidly, what was going on here?

"Liam, listen to me! This whole thing isn't easy to explain. What happened to Hayden, it also affected Isaac. It seems like a harmless cold, but that's why Deaton is so worried. We are supernatural and live by completely different rules. For us, there are no illnesses, injuries heal in seconds. But this is something completely different. If it affects you, you have no chance to resist it. Deaton is trying everything to find the cause of it all, but until then, we have to be on our guard. That's why tell me one thing, Liam..."

The larger Alpha almost rushed at him, ready for a fight, to pull him close with a firm grip on his tense shoulders.
"...do you feel any changes? Does anything hurt?" Liam seemed completely overwhelmed at first and needed a few seconds to breathe life into his almost numb limbs. He shook his head vehemently, his long uncombed hair falling far into his face, and yet he saw his Alpha's relief even then, which brought his bad conscience to the fore not long after. But what else could I have done? Scott was so close, his dark brown eyes shimmering with worry. He just couldn't help it, even though he knew it was wrong. He recognized his body's signals himself. The constant fatigue, the feeling of illness that made him dizzy, the lack of control over his supernatural senses, and now this coughing fit this morning. It could all be a pure coincidence, but let's face it, coincidences didn't exist in Beacon Hills, even if he often wished they did.
"Okay, good, but I still want you to come to the animal clinic tomorrow. Deaton will take your blood. Better safe than sorry."

So he had about 24 hours to either find a good excuse or collect a heavy bag full of emotional disappointments. Liam sighed and nodded his head as the warm feeling on his shoulders disappeared. So it was starting again, the town was once again on high alert, and he was once again right in the middle of it. Sometimes the dreamy teenager thought back to the time when he worried about when the next lacrosse game was scheduled and what annoying homework was still waiting to be done. Not that the boy didn't have those thoughts anymore today, but there was so much else going on in his little head that it often became too much for him and he just wanted to disappear. Here and now. Vanished like a colorful party popper.

"Are you coming, little puppy?" The warm, soft hand in his, he gladly took it as Theo led him determinedly but almost lovingly to the passenger side of his truck. He didn't have to turn around to know that this gesture had not gone unnoticed; Liam just knew it, and even though he was usually the type of person who racked his brain over everything and everyone, he remained relatively calm now. Because his problems lay much deeper, and he had no idea how he was going to maneuver his way out of them.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Long moments of nibbling on his lower lip and nervously tangled fingers were needed until the young Beta felt ready to break the uncomfortable silence and stare at the chimera with his familiar big turquoise eyes, questioning him. The latter remained almost emotionless as always, and yet the regular drumming of his fingertips on old leather made the smaller one know exactly that Theo was hesitating. He almost believed he wouldn't get an answer to his question from the driver, until it suddenly shot out, right between them. "What would that have accomplished, Liam? I mean, no matter what I said, you would have done the exact opposite, just like you always do. If I take one step forward, you take two back. As if everything is just a game to you."

Was he really angry with him? Mr. I-don't-show-emotions-and-don't-let-anyone-get-close-to-me, was actually showing something like emotions? "I-I... s-so" Liam tried to answer almost senselessly, but he was more like a fish on dry land, gasping with its mouth wide open, while the person next to him still didn't look at him. A storm raged inside the boy, a catastrophe that couldn't be stopped. Until the very end, he believed at least the chimera would understand him, after all they had been through together. God, they had kissed, twice, and now he wouldn't even look him in the face?

With crossed arms, he snorted and pressed himself into the backrest of the passenger seat. His gaze stubbornly slid forward onto the road. For today, he had had enough; all he longed for now was a warm shower, a cozy bed, and lots of sleep. If he got it. A slight shiver ran down Liam's spine at the thought, as the image of the girl stood directly in front of him. Her disheveled, damp black hair almost completely hid her face; only the sadistic grin remained the same as she joyfully beckoned him with her right index finger and shrieked...

"Run, little puppy, run as fast as you can!"

Chapter Text

It was a good half-year ago when a diversion brought two different teenagers together. The small Beta came up with the brilliant idea of using the abandoned Hill Valley Zoo outside Beacon Hills and its hidden underground passages to mislead the all-too-willing hunters. Unaware of what would still transpire between the two squabblers.

"This isn't working." The smaller of the two sat sullenly in front of the rock ledge, staring down hopefully. He had been completely sure the plan would work, so sure that he convinced everyone in the pack, including Malia, to give them this chance. Them? Oh yes, he wasn't alone here, because none other than Theo "Chimera" Raeken sat right behind him, not letting him out of his sight for a single second, for whatever reason.

"Do you think they left?"
Heaven, why the hell did this jerk have to smell so good, and the fact that he was leaning against Liam's right ear wasn't helping the young Beta one bit. He had to keep his senses, take a deep breath, and...
"They absolutely mustn't track Scott."
His greenish-blue eyes were rattling, Liam saw that clearly when he turned to Theo. The latter was tensing up, taking a deep breath and yelling: "Isn't that right?"
"Why are you yelling?" the still-shocked boy whispered back at him. Did he want to kill them? Yes, definitely. The guy was completely insane. Apparently, he had gotten something in the dirt hole while he was having a family reunion.

"Do you have a problem?
Oh, that's right, you always have a problem!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Okay, until now it might have been funny, but now? If they weren't careful, they'd soon be impaled on stakes, less than five meters from here, and that wasn't funny even in Count Dracula's time, and Liam didn't want to try it either.

"Shut up!" Okay, that was definitely enough, and the small Beta made the Chimera feel it by recoiling and making such a grimace that the Dread Doctors would turn in their graves and "Ahhhh!!!" The steel-hard fist, which made bones crack, landed squarely on Liam's crinkled button nose, and the sheer pain that followed made him realize how serious this was.

"Did you see that, Scott? The little Beta can't even take a harmless punch."

With that, the last dams broke, innocent turquoise turned aggressive golden-yellow, and the little baby wolf was suddenly very big. Growling, he lunged forward, the bloodthirsty maw of a wild animal wide open, and the sharp claws dug into everything they found. The young Beta forgot which way was up and down, heard multiple cracks and loud cursing, and a few moments later, saw his opponent's bloody nose, and what could Liam say about it, he loved the feeling of having properly punched Theo Raeken in the face. If it weren't for one single thing, his favorite burgundy long-sleeved shirt made of 100% cotton, and now with two huge holes.

„You ripped my t-shirt."

Oh yes, the young Beta was extremely pissed off, and he was, and even though he knew the reason why the Chimera acted like that, he still felt this unbearable rage in his pulsating veins, and it wanted out, right now!!!
"Yeah, you broke my nose, twice. It healed, you broke it again. Twice!" Didn't they say good things come in threes? Yes, they did, and since Theo was standing right there, willingly presenting his wounded face... the boy couldn't help but follow the reflex and raise his nimble fist again. But this time, yes, this time with such a force of emotion that the older one slid down the rock ledge, howling.

"Three times!"

"Liam!!! Hey, open your eyes, Liam!!!"
Liam, was that who they were calling for? If so, why did it feel so strange to hear it from his mouth? Hadn't he called him something completely different from the start...
"Woah! Why do I think the little one is tougher than he looks?"

"Only if we let him off the leash."
There he stood, in the forest, the first leaves of the trees scattered widely on the dewy grass. In front of him, he recognized a boy with the sweetest smile he had ever seen, and yet something seemed off. His aura, it was as dark as night, gloomy clouds flowed through his not-much-larger body and fought for freedom in the place where flourishing life should originate: the loudly beating, pulsating heart.

"Look, little pup. See what happened where your eyes first met. The place where my life ended so tormentingly."
Liam flinched in shock. An icy cold spread across his entire skin. He gasped helplessly for air as his throat constricted. Small dark dots suddenly appeared before his turquoise eyes, and just as he thought he was falling into welcoming unconsciousness, he was suddenly waist-deep in water.
"T-Theo! Theo, please help me!" The whimpering little girl with the familiar greenish-blue eyes weakly stretched her right hand upwards. She was wearing nothing but a knee-length white lace nightgown and was trembling all over. The young Beta didn't understand why she didn't just climb out. The river wasn't deep at this point; with just a few steps, she would be on the safe bank. He looked down at her with pity. Her long black hair clung to her, completely wet, her breathing was frantic and far too fast, and her demanding fingers, greedily spread, were covered in abrasions. The young wolf's eyes widened enormously. He gradually understood. She wasn't helplessly surrendering to her fate but couldn't get out of the freezing water alone.

Yes, Liam felt it too. This night was unusually cold. His breath misted in front of his curved button nose. The numb feeling of falling asleep limbs spread further and further, and when he couldn't bear it himself anymore, he ran. The drops of water flew high into the air and fell back almost simultaneously, as intensely palpable as the tears that were running down his delicate face at that moment. For every attempt to reach the girl was hopeless.
"T-Theo," the girl croaked again, this time sounding much weaker, her almost empty gaze constantly directed upwards.

The young Beta had to follow this, whether he wanted to or not, something drove him directly to the rotten bridge, which awakened a déjà vu in him, making his breath catch. There he stood, the slightly younger boy with short dark brown hair, greenish-blue eyes, grinning maliciously downwards, without even blinking. Liam felt sick. Helplessly, he wrapped his shivering body in his arms, stiff with cold, and the same incredulous thought repeated in his head. Theo would let his own sister die here.

"Theo!!!"

Pure, piercing pain greeted the teenager as he sat up panicking, completely unprepared. The familiar smell of biting disinfectant stung his nose, making him snort and groan. With a half-dazed gaze, he looked around. He was definitely in a bed, but it was absolutely not his own. Everything seemed so white and sterile, and as Liam, stunned, raised his too-heavy left arm, he slowly began to understand what was happening.

"Liam!!! Shhh! It's all right. Come on, lie back down!"
It was his Alpha's voice that gradually gave him some sense of security. Sighing, he lowered his exhausted body back into the pillow provided for him, while his tired eyes darted to the older man, whose dark brown eyes reflected pure concern.

"W-what happened?" His voice was unusually quiet and weak, as if he hadn't spoken a word in a very long time. His throat hurt hellishly, he was burning hot, and there wasn't a single spot that didn't vibrate back with the slightest movement. The young Beta resignedly let his eyes flutter open and closed. He was suddenly so incredibly tired.

"You had an accident, Liam, I'll tell you everything else later. Now, get some proper rest first."
Oh yes, sleep, just close his eyes and think of nothing. Not of the last moments that had gripped him like a whirlpool and dragged him along. The truck that smelled of pine needles and honey, and the beautiful blue-green that finally gave him his full attention again. "Theo, what about Theo?" His breath came in gasps, while his cramping fingers helplessly clutched Scott's bare forearms. Yes, he had been completely sure. He had felt the Chimera close by his side until suddenly everything turned as black as the starless night. The small Beta began to whimper, tormented, while his longing gaze fell upon the Alpha. He felt it deep in his broken heart, which beat uncontrollably and erratically against his chest, something must have happened.

"He's fine, Liam. Calm down. Everything is fine."

Warm palms caressed his tear-streaked cheeks, while Scott pulled him closer and closer. "Liam!" he heard his name called in a dark growl, fiery red eyes meeting his. Eyes against which the Beta had no chance, for they belonged to the person who had made him what he was today.

A weak werewolf who longed for nothing more than to be protected and gladly accepted the broad, warm chest offered to him. Before the throbbing exhaustion completely tore him from the present...

"Theo! Theo, watch out!!!"

The only thought Liam had in that moment was Theo. He barely had time to weigh the consequences of his spontaneous intervention when his trembling hands grasped the steering wheel and pulled it frantically towards him.

"Liam! What are you doing, you idiot?"

These words sounded so different, so unusually anxious, unlike what the young wolf was used to from the Chimera, while suddenly everything around him spun. Panicked, he spread his hands and feet to regain his footing, with the overhead handle on the passenger side becoming his saving anchor, so as not to go down mercilessly. His turquoise eyes would have loved to close themselves to the truth, but he forced himself to fixate on a certain point. The largest tree he could recognize in the short moment of being upright.

"1...2...3" he whispered the rollovers with. His entire stomach began to rebel, the burning bile slowly but steadily rose, and while he fought for control with clenched teeth, the car came to an abrupt stop. The small Dunbar forcefully blew the held breath out of his mouth, the persistent dizziness still gripping him so much that he had great difficulty keeping his fluttering eyelids open. Slowly, he cautiously felt his way forward with his bare palms. Everything seemed so blurred, and even the superhuman ability of a werewolf, which could now lead him out of the misery, completely failed him.

"Damn...damn...damn!!!" he cursed himself, because it had been him who acted rashly. He had listened to the illusion of the eerie, gloomy-looking girl, although he was slowly realizing that it must have been more appearance than reality. Yet for the confused teenager, everything seemed so real. "I must be going crazy."
"Oh yes, and you will, little pup!"

Liam wanted to scream as the bony, cold hand wrapped around his exposed neck and forcibly pulled him from the car. He flew in a high arc into the air and landed none too gently on the hard, stony asphalt, which knocked the last bit of air out of his lungs. The small Beta felt like his skull would split in two as he painstakingly regained his vision and discovered a brown tuft of fluffy hair.

"T-Theo.." he whimpered, as his aching arms reached out for the unconscious one. He immediately recognized the distinctive bloody gash above his forehead and wanted to be with him as quickly as possible, to gently hold him close, to breathe in the distinctive scent of fresh pine needles and sweet honey, and to ward off all evil from him. "I-I'll b-be there i-in a moment."

Liam almost rasped to himself. Slowly, he was running out of air, and the fact that he apparently hadn't remained completely unharmed in the accident was betrayed by his ribs, which painfully pressed towards his right lung. The younger coughed agonizingly, remaining still with his last crawling movement. Completely exhausted and with a blurred gaze, he looked forward and recognized something that made him smile, Theo's warm fingers, they touched his.

"Ah, ah, ah, not so fast. The fun is just beginning."

"No!!! Leave him alone!"
In complete fear, Liam tried to sit up, but he couldn't move an inch. As if someone was violently holding him down, and even though the young Beta was gradually understanding the connections. The innocent teenager should lie here. He should watch as the uncanny creature, who had once been an equally innocent little girl, set about her former brother. Almost greedily, the sharp nails pressed into the gaping wound, absorbed the dripping blood, and brought it to her pale mouth. With full enjoyment, she smelled the iron-rich liquid before putting her finger in her mouth.

"Hmm, just as I remember you, little brother."

"Stop it right now!!!" Where his strength came from, Liam didn't know. But suddenly, the golden-yellow glow of his eyes returned to the surface. The sharp claws broke through his cuticles, and his pointed teeth flashed clearly, ready to snap at any moment. Still slightly shaky, the young werewolf stood on all fours, ignoring the terrible pain that rolled over him in waves, and lunged forward. But what he lunged at was nothing but pure emptiness, with her undeniable voice echoing in his ears again and again...

"Your time is running out, young werewolf. So choose wisely."

...before everything around him fell silent.
"Do you condone it?" The next thing Liam perceived was the know-it-all tone of the Werecoyote, who was drumming her heels against the PVC floor in annoyance. The teenager grumbled irritatedly, pressing his cute button nose back into the pillow, which felt unusually warm and smelled heavenly. A state that briefly made the medium-blonde head ponder, but was quickly forgotten due to his tiredness.

"What is it?" His light brows twitched briefly. So Scott was here too? Well, why wouldn't he be, after what had happened earlier. For this foolish thought, Liam would have loved to slap himself, yet he remained rigid, enjoying the sudden warmth that enveloped him, and intently followed the conversation, hoping to learn more. At least as long as the two still believed he was sleeping peacefully.

"Well, that! I don't like what's developing between them. You know what he's done, what he's capable of."

The Beta's turquoise eyes expertly rolled. Hadn't they chewed on this topic long enough? It was slowly becoming ridiculous. Theo belonged to them. In their pack. That fury could hop in a pentagon, screaming loudly, it wouldn't change a thing. The mischievously smiling Chimera had probably proven that enough, having saved the clumsy junior wolf from inevitable death several times already.

"Was, he was capable of." Ha! Struck right on the head until the chickadees chirped their circles. Liam knew he could rely on Scott. The Alpha recognized Theo's true core precisely. He saw the change that happened to him when he broke out of the hellmouth his sister had violently dragged him into. Yes, he was a completely different person now, he was... the young wolf unconsciously tugged at the soft fabric under his fingers. Yes, what was he anyway, and why was Liam so urgently taking his side, which only existed in his confused thoughts and no one else would ever hear? He really must be sick, quite clearly.

"You're incorrigible, Scott. You'll see, he'll bring misfortune upon all of us, and your junior too." Junior? That's not what Malia had called him now, was it? The medium-blonde, hurt boy snorted sulkily, while the annoyed clacking of heels moved further and further away and completely faded.

"Malia! Hey, wait!"

Liam sighed resignedly, slowly rolling onto his back and looking at the white ceiling, which was rather a difficult undertaking, as every slightest movement caused undeniable pain. He grimaced with agony. A fact that increasingly worried him. What seemed nothing unusual for a human was immensely so for a werewolf.
"Your time is running out, young werewolf. So choose wisely."

The young Dunbar swallowed. Had she meant that? Did it mean she was responsible for it? For Hayden's death? The virus that also affected Isaac and now seemed to cling to him? "How is that even possible?"

"Can't a guy get some sleep around here?" The medium-blonde head turned left too quickly, causing him to groan vehemently, before he directed his restlessly circling eyes to the familiar blue-green. "Hi!" The fact that Theo was lying right next to him immensely relieved Liam, as he had believed he had lost him forever. Euphorically, he would have loved to pull him into his bandaged arms and press his fine nose against his neck to inhale his irresistible scent even more, if it weren't for the realization hitting him frontally like a board to the forehead. How long had the Chimera been lying here anyway?

"What are you wracking your cute head about again, Puppy?" Theo said these words as emotionally as he very rarely did, while his full lips met his reddish cheek. So briefly that Liam barely felt it, but it was there and made his small, sore heart beat loudly. Demanding, he stretched out his hands to the brown-haired one, and the latter immediately understood and, not much later, protectively pulled him into his warm, muscular arms. Liam didn't want to admit it, he had tried so hard to ignore it until now, but he simply couldn't anymore, seemed to almost melt as the older one's gentle hands ran along his battered body. He sighed contentedly, his ruffled head buried snugly in the crook of the neck of the one lying next to him. Scott's young, unreasonable Beta was about to make the biggest mistake in a long time. Letting someone very specific deep into his heart.

But would that really be a good idea?

Chapter Text

Theo: "I'm not dying for you!"
Little Puppy: "I'm not dying for you, either!
But I will fight with you!"
Theo: "Okay! It's fine!"

The words from the safe elevator, only they both could hear them, yet each knew they were a lie. Because each of them would throw themselves in front of the wildly flying machine gun bullets, offering themselves as prey to the hunters, to save the other. But neither of them would truly admit it...

<<<————-

"We should talk, Liam! Do you remember what you said to me?" If anyone knew how to destroy the crackling, hair-raising, electrifying atmosphere, it was certainly Theo. Because right at the moment Liam was fighting the battle of his life, panic devouring him so much that he thought he was completely losing himself, the chimera made him jump back. The felt fear still clung to his bones, which was why the smaller one clung even tighter to the muscular body. His fine pug nose pressed against the bare skin of Theo's neck, taking in every gram of the irresistible scent, for it calmed him. Liam didn't know why Theo had such an effect on him, yet he didn't want to do without it anymore. For too long he had walked around like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at the slightest tremor. But now, for the first time, the young Beta felt balanced and safe, which was only confirmed by his soft smacking noises near Theo's ear.

„Hey, you little sweet tooth, don't fall asleep again, I'm waiting for an answer!"

"I-I..." Groaning, Liam propped himself up on Theo's muscular chest with his elbows, his turquoise eyes scrutinizing the brown-haired man intensely, wanting to weigh how best to begin. For the chimera, there was a red flag, and the young Dunbar was currently waving it high in the air. His incisors pressed firmly into his lower lip, his short fingers absentmindedly drew shapeless circles on the warm chest, while the young wolf's blue-green eyes only confirmed that he should finally continue.

"W-what did you see, Theo?"

And yet, this proved to be extremely difficult, the teenager's uncertainty about doing the right thing leading to indistinct stammering.

"What are you talking about?" As Liam expected, Theo didn't understand him at all. A dullness that was otherwise uncharacteristic of the chimera, it suddenly appeared, just when it was so hard for the little Beta to find the right words. He felt more and more thrown back. Gasping, he took another breath, his fingers gripping the soft fabric of Theo's shirt almost violently.

"On the street. In the car. There was..."

"There was absolutely nothing. You idiot almost shot yourself down. Do you understand how close that was?" It all happened so fast that Liam cried out in surprise. The surprisingly harsh grip around his battered body made him sharply inhale, but it stopped abruptly as their noses almost touched. "You're not healing properly and..."

"Shhhht..." the little puppy hummed over the chimera's lips, though he couldn't stop a slight lift of the corners of his mouth. For gradually, even the sometimes somewhat clueless teenager understood what had led to the enormous emotional outburst. Theo finally let him look through the wall, perhaps only a tiny crack, but certainly powerful enough to reveal what was reflected in those intense green-blue eyes at that moment. There was fear in them, a fear that probably had more to do with Liam than the young Dunbar could ever have believed before. With careful movements, his cold hands rested on the prominent face, his short thumbs slowly tracing the delicate stubble of his beard, while Liam covered the last millimeters and, for a brief moment, placed his lips on Theo's. They had probably kissed before, but this one was different, full of emotion and uninhibited by any resistance. Perhaps this was the moment they needed, and the turquoise-eyed boy finally got the urgently needed answers that Theo had denied him for so long.
Far too soon, they pulled apart again, but their eyes couldn't leave each other. As if one magically attracted the other. Liam swallowed, he would have loved to stay here now, to stop time and forget everything else forever. But he knew, as he felt the gentle caresses on his back, that time was running out. With every slight flutter of his eyelids, it suddenly stood there, holding his small, fragile heart in its hands, squeezing it tighter and tighter. With the cramping feeling in his chest, suffocating at any moment. The young Beta leaned down again and whispered something breathily into Theo's ears, hoping he would finally understand.

"Have you ever thought about why?"

"What do you want to tell me, Puppy? What's on your mind?" This time it was Theo who placed his hands on the little Beta's cheeks. This time he pulled him closer, his heated breath constantly blowing on Liam's face, and it was one of those moments when Liam once again realized how beautiful the brown-haired man was. His fluffy soft hair stood completely disheveled in all directions, his blue-green eyes glowed as intensely as the dew-fresh grass on a sunny autumn morning, while his perfectly curved nose crinkled every few minutes, and his deep red cherry mouth twisted thoughtfully several times, inviting uninhibited nibbling. Liam sighed, how much he could lose himself in the sight, run his fingers through Theo's slightly scratchy beard stubble, while his greedy, yearning lips did completely different things. Things that suddenly took center stage with a red warning vest, making it so hard for him to address the inevitable topic.

"Y-your s-sister... Theo..."

"What about her?" The change in mood was so enormous that a cold shiver ran down Liam's spine, mercifully sparing only the spots where Theo's warm hands rested, for they had suddenly gone completely still.

„The n-nightmare... the a-accident... so..." the younger one briefly paused, searching for words that he suddenly so desperately lacked. He took a deep breath of the biting, disinfectant-laced room scent before finally finding the courage to tell the older boy the whole truth. "...Tara... I know how unbelievable this sounds, but she seems to be the trigger, the virus... the reason I'm so weak..."

"W-what n-no!!!" The little Beta watched, incredulous, as Theo turned away from him and abruptly stood up. Immediate coldness crept through the sheets, gripping his injured body and making every fiber tremble distinctly. He knew it would be difficult, but this difficult? What reason was there for it? Didn't everyone actually know the truth, which was so unbelievable that the Beacon Hills Department completely swept it under the rug?

"Stop it, Liam! Don't dig in places that will give way beneath you and mercilessly swallow you without a trace of a bad conscience."

It was a rather difficult undertaking to move his stiff bones upright. But the young wolf wanted to answer. It didn't matter if his hospital gown exposed more than he intended. He desperately held onto the edge of the bed with his fingers and let his much too heavy legs dangle towards the floor, when something caught his eye. It was shapeless, white, and itched like hell. His big blue eyes blinked incredulously.

Was that a cast? How was that possible? Okay, he was indeed healing slower, he had even realized that himself by now, or rather felt it fully, but breaking something that really needed to be stabilized? As a supernatural being? That truly worried him and led to the question that probably only he would ask the chimera. Because anyone else would personally rip Theo's head off in response.

"What really happened?"

"Hey... I'm fine, okay?" Lies and deceit, and yet Liam allowed Theo to take his cramping hands in his and give him such a sugary sweet smile that the little hormone-driven teenager couldn't help but smile and agree, "Okay," even though it was anything but okay. The sand of time rushed past his ears as Theo's warm, addictive lips took possession of him. How he hated Theo for that very reason in such situations. Because the chimera knew exactly how to wrap him around his finger, and he did it more than enough.

"Hey buddy, what are you up to, we... oh, are we interrupting?" The tingling on his lips lingered for a long time, even after Liam's hands were already his own again and the stormy hugs of his friends made him groan. But he aroused little pity in his best friend, who probably had completely different plans.

"Well, well, you're into guys, Liam? No wonder with Theo. He's really hot. Come on, tell me! How long has this been going on?"

"I-I... uh... w-what?" The excessive information overload led to complete bewilderment in the teenager, his thoughts still with someone else entirely. With the human or chimera or werecoyote who smelled intensely of tart pine needles and sweet, sticky honey. Letting out greedy, growling sounds through his brightly flashing white teeth, while repeatedly stealing seductive kisses from him and, with his bold, abnormally warm hands, venturing into places that sent Liam into completely different spheres.

"Now let him breathe, honey!"
Honey? Oh, right, Corey was in on it too, which wasn't surprising, as the two lovers were rarely seen without each other. Gradually, the fog of tangible sensations that tingled all over his body cleared. Agitated, he ran his hand through his medium-blonde hair, which lay forward, while next to him he felt the tell-tale signs of a sinking mattress.

"So you're together."

"What?!!! No!!! We're not. What gave you such a ridiculous idea?" Liam sounded anything but convincing, which was probably betrayed by the unusually tomato-red color on his otherwise sickly face. The heat rose to his roots and flooded regions of his mind, making him truly realize what had just happened. "Shit..."

"Well, it didn't look like shit to me. You almost devoured each other just now. So don't try to talk your way out of it, Liam." Mason had a certain annoying quality, which was getting excited about things that didn't concern him at all. So it was this time, as his chocolate-brown eyes widened abnormally and his prominent eyebrows furrowed in waves. The young wolf sighed resignedly, unconsciously letting his tense shoulders droop. For deep down, something else entirely bothered the teenager, something he, atypically for him, addressed a few minutes later.
"Doesn't that bother you at all? It's Theo, Theo Raeken, who almost made me kill Scott, who manipulatively and cunningly fought his way into our midst and almost destroyed the entire pack."

"Hey Li, hold your breath! You're turning all red," Mason let his best friend know with his infamous toothpaste smile, who then absentmindedly touched his cheeks.
Was that so? Was his body unconsciously betraying him, without him even realizing it? Apparently so. Yes, the glowing skin, which even warmed his palms, clearly revealed it. The feeling he was gritting his teeth to ignore from his loudly pounding chest.

"I think that's due to something completely different, Mason." Corey's judgment of people had always been spectacular. Perhaps only because his special gift gave him enough opportunities to study the person in front of him precisely with every acquired movement. You only saw him if he wanted you to. Yes, Mason's steady boyfriend was also supernatural. A chimera just like Theo, and yet completely different. Ugh... why was he thinking about that seductive werecoyote again? His distinct muscular back, that lascivious smirk, and those impertinent remarks?

"Humans feel one emotion after another, Liam!"
Oh, really? Or had Theo, aka arrogant asshole with ridiculousness syndrome, not taken him seriously again in the car back then? Because if so? Why couldn't he categorize what he was feeling right now? Completely scattered, like the seeds of a blown dandelion, it tingled in his stomach. Resignedly, he looked around the brightly lit room, shaking his exploding head back and forth, when he suddenly realized something. Where was he?

"Buddy? Hey, what's wrong?"

Liam barely registered Mason as his dilated pupils stared at the empty spot where they last saw Theo, and he could kick himself for not noticing it sooner. There was no trace of the chimera whatsoever. Once again, he had disappeared without a single word, leaving the little Dunbar to fend for himself, after he had motionless taken the key to his heart. Liam suddenly felt completely empty and powerless. Exhausted, he leaned against Mason. The person who was still sitting next to him, and for that he was more than grateful, as his twitching eyelids almost involuntarily closed.

„It's pretty complicated."

Isn't that what they said? Well, actually, this form was usually used to answer a structured, standardized multiple-choice question with as few follow-up questions as possible. But a true and honest answer wasn't obtained that way. How could it be, when the one it concerned wasn't even clear about it himself?

<<<————-

When it's completely dark. The clear night, making bare, unprotected skin shiver. The shining stars, making gloomy shadows seem much larger. That's when it happens. The experienced finds a tiny loophole and mercilessly expands it until the self can no longer distinguish reality from fiction...

The cold metal floor caused an icy chill that crept into the smallest bone of the lying figure. Startled, he ripped his eyes open. The enlarged green-blue flickered, while his flat hands pressed frantically against the hatch.

"Thump... Thump... Thump"
"Thump... Thump... Thump"

He pounded against it second by second. His strongly beating heart painfully pressed against his chest, as if wanting to violently free itself.

"Theo..." an eerie whisper... barely understandable, yet he understood every syllable.

"Theo..." a decaying clatter and suddenly he fell forward, directly onto the sterile-looking floor. Everything smelled enormously strong of alcohol, high-proof with a hint of lemon. "Disinfectant?" His brown hair restlessly moved back and forth. Where was he? What was he doing here? Just now, he had been standing opposite Scott's pack, while the earth behind him opened up trembling and...

"Theo..." as if in slow motion, he looked back. Recognized the girl who was once his only sister. Greedy and power-hungry, she crawled towards him, with a gaping wound from chest to stomach. Blood flowed over the shiny floor, like a pathfinder to him. His green-blue eyes, the color she also wore, were fixed, and she hurled full hatred at him, while it screamed and ripped him off his feet. He had never felt more pain than when he felt her. The otherwise delicate small hand, boring through him and taking what belonged to her, and for him, it was okay. Actually, he was even relieved. Relieved to finally do the right thing, as the last weak breath left his blood-soaked lips.

"Theo..."

Again the place, again the feeling of cool metal and again the panicked blows to free himself. But this time he had a different plan. This time he would find the exit. Never again did he want to experience the feeling of losing his heart alive, while the greedy, bony fingers bored into his chest. That the muscle beating inside him did not originally belong to him, the one running for his too-young life vehemently ignored. Seized by rising adrenaline, he ran across the clinic. Routinely towards the incoming light of the glass front. Yes, he knew this place. Perhaps even better than many others, as a child he was plagued by an extremely advanced form of asthma that almost cost him his life. With squealing soles on the PVC floor, he came to a stop, how fates sometimes played out. What if it had been different? Where would he be now?

"Theo..."

"Tara, no!!!" The saving door, it was so close yet so far. His heart no longer his own, and the last thing he felt was the hard impact of his body on the cold, hard floor.

"Theo..."

His strategy was crap... convoluted, if you considered it. Running away was pointless. She would always find him in the end, and that's what she did again and again, and each time she ripped the heart out of him. Without batting an eyelid, lifeless like a doll with no understanding or feeling. Theo swallowed the ton-heavy lump. Was he the reason for it? Had he made her like that? Even if the differences between them gradually became abyss-deep, he admittedly sought her protective, delicate hand when he broke down in tears. The small, wounded boy, without batting an eyelid, ruthlessly threw his own sister to the horror doctors to devour. Gradually, Theo understood. All of this was his personal hell, and he deserved every single gram of it, from the bottom of his soul.

From that moment on, he stood still. Didn't scream, didn't squirm, he even stopped blinking and literally waited for her, and she would come, he was sure of that.

"It's okay, you don't have to stop!"

He cried unrestrainedly as Tara stood before him repeatedly. But whoever thought he was grieving for himself was completely wrong. No, it was her, his older sister, from whom he took everything and who now demanded everything back, and Theo would grant it to her, for as long as it would last, even for eternity. Very briefly, however, there was a feeling, a very slight glimpse of common ground, which immediately vanished as his ribs cracked and the muscle stopped beating...

In the end, they remained connected, though completely differently than is usual for siblings. The hunter became the hunted, without the slightest possibility of forgiveness...

Chapter Text

"Liam, come on! We're not far ahead."
"What the hell are you doing?!"

The blue glowing siren was visible for miles in the darkness. Autumn brown leaves whirled restlessly through the air, and two teenagers stood panting, facing each other. A sight that could have been accepted. If these were two normal people, and this was what they were frantically running from, or rather, what were they asking about?

"No! Don't turn it off!" Briefly, the person addressed was pushed with his shoulder blades against the aging ambulance but managed to regain his footing and pushed Theo back the same way. The Beta snorted; he wasn't a small child anymore, and this insolent chimera should finally understand that. And, if you looked closer, the brunette was only here because of him anyway. Thus, only a single false step, and he would let him rot. This time, truly forever.

"Do you want to lure them all here? Every single one?" The younger boy's turquoise eyes skillfully rolled. How stupid could a single person be? "That's exactly what I want. If they're here, it means they won't get Scott." Of course, that had been his plan from the start; why else had he pulled Theo out of the department's cell? To smoke a peace pipe?

"Do you care if they get you?" His light eyebrows skeptically rose. Could one really hear a hint of concern from the inscrutable werecoyote? Probably not. He probably just needed to make him understand where he stood.

„In the end, they'll get all of us." Yes, that was exactly it, and he breathed those exact words, panting, into the slightly taller boy's insolent face, but the desired reaction failed to materialize. Instead, Theo seemed to be just warming up, which must have been due to the lonely damnation, definitely!

"You! They'll get you first! That's why I'm with you. Because while the Ghost Riders wrap a whip around your neck or shoot a hole in your head, I'll be running the other way. As long as it helps me, I'm on your side."

There he was again. The old Theo Raeken, who would do anything to save his own treacherous neck, only this time the cards weren't playing into his hands. This time, he was dependent on completely deferring to the little pup, and that he didn't like it at all was immediately visible in the green-blue eyes that gleamed brightly at Liam.

But unlike half a year ago, he wasn't swayed by the trick. This time, as he rolled his black sneakers, he gained so much momentum that Theo almost fell against the adjacent entrance door, while Liam pressed his trembling palms against Theo's muscular chest.

"Trust me! I know!“

At least he thought he knew. But with every minute he spent with the annoying know-it-all, the uncertainty grew. Because something seemed to have happened to Theo Raeken in the excavated pit of damnation.

His forehead was sweaty as Theo, bewildered, brushed a flat right hand across it. His heart was pounding, while his dark blue wool sweater clung damply to his trembling upper body. Panicked, his dark brown hair bowed towards his chest, inspecting every tiny spot to be absolutely sure.

But yes, everything was fine, his entire body seemed almost unharmed, at least physically. Mentally, however, his mind was still battling with what he had experienced. It had felt far too realistic just now. The pure, tearing pain, the warm, pulsating blood flowing through the gaping wound, and that insane dark whispering of his name...

"Theo..."

"Wah!!!" The scream was so violent that his body truly fell backward. The wet, damp grass touched his sensitive bare neck, while his hands protectively covered his naming upper body. He literally felt how the too-fast beating muscle pressed almost painfully against his ribs. As if to signal that he shouldn't be here.

„It's okay, you don't have to stop!" he whispered, slowly closing his blue-gray eyes. Still lying flat on the ground, he deeply inhaled the cool, fresh air through his delicate nose. The familiar smell of fresh wood, juicy green grass, and muddy earth made him smile. He was still here in the wilderness, could hear, taste, and smell. Yes, definitely smell, because there was something else, an aroma that lingered faintly on himself. A scent of vanilla, vanilla blossom with fruity strawberry.

"Hey, are you alright?" Dark brown, loyal eyes, full black hair, and a prominent nose. Scott, true Alpha of the only pack in Beacon Hills, steady boyfriend of the werecoyote Malia, who would devour him skin and hair, and mentor of his youngest Beta, Liam. Sighing, he extended his dirt-stained right hand towards him as he helped him regain his footing. He would have loved to shake the ruffled brunette's head for this kindness, but that was just Scott. He always saw the good in everyone until he was convinced of the radical opposite, which had definitely been the case with Theo. That's why the utterly confused chimera asked one thing, while the scent of the little pup continued to fight its way through his senses. Why was the Alpha suddenly so kind to him?

"Is something wrong with the little one?" The fact that he asked this counter-question, instead of letting Scott answer, probably revealed a lot about Theo's emotional state. Yes, he definitely couldn't deny that he liked Liam. Even back then, he deliberately sought his closeness, albeit for a completely different reason than now, but the little baby wolf had definitely piqued his interest. Back then, however, he stood out more for his unreasonable behavior, his childlike wide eyes, and his untamed rage, which had now been exchanged for his undeniable attractiveness, perfectly toned body, and seductive scent. In short, the little young wolf was hot as hell, and Theo would have had no problem at all with Liam's enormous energy, which he wasted on his senseless outbursts, being expended in his bed. At this thought, the coyote lasciviously licked his full lips. But there was definitely more, something Theo couldn't describe, or rather didn't want to. Because if he did, he would have to admit to himself that he could feel, and that was simply impossible. Not after what had happened.

"That's what I was about to ask you. Why aren't you with him?" Did he appear to be much more of an open book than he himself realized? Why had he reacted that way, just leaving the patient's room so casually? Actually, Theo only wanted to think for a moment. That he would suddenly find himself in the forest was neither planned nor good for his general condition. Unconsciously, he dug his fingers into his grass-stained jeans, while the image of his dead sister continually haunted him.

„You don't understand."

"Maybe you're right, Theo. Maybe I don't understand. But maybe I'm not the one who needs to understand." Okay, now the brunette didn't understand anything anymore. Was Scott giving him a free pass to approach his baby beta? The person he guarded like the apple of his eye? He was the werewolf who personally turned him, albeit unwillingly. Therefore, he wanted to know exactly, questioning what he just heard with a counter-question.

„W-what do you mean?"

"Go to him, Theo!" Okay, that was direct and completely untypical for Scott, so Theo first looked for a discarded tree trunk to let it all sink in. "Why all this? You hate me, Scott. I killed you, wanted to kill Liam." Indeed, if it hadn't been for Liam, he would probably still be rotting in hell, while Tara violently and more than painfully reclaimed her heart, again and again. So why was the Alpha of the pack suddenly changing his mind?

"But you didn't." What Scott said literally vibrated in Theo's ears as he turned to his right, confused. The taller man had surprisingly sat down beside him and looked intensely into his eyes with a mixture of compassion and encouragement, and even though the chimera would have loved to nod in agreement, he decided otherwise. One could compare it to every step taken to move away.

„Yeah, but only because he chickened out like a scared little pup." The naive teenager definitely thwarted his plans, and yes, thanks to Liam, he had almost been strangled by one of the Ghost Riders, and the hunters had almost turned him into a living piece of Swiss cheese. But to feel something like anger because of that? Not at all, rather concern as to why the hell Liam wasn't healing properly.

"Is that really the reason, or are you just telling yourself that? Why is it so important to you that nothing happens to him? Why do you constantly save his life, and why does the boy seem to be the only one whose presence you can tolerate? Think about it!"

Point for Scott, rather a complete coupon book, considering the arguments he confronted him with, and Theo's subsequent silence only showed how right he was. Yes, he thoroughly enjoyed being close to Liam, and yes, no matter what he tried, he just couldn't keep away from the young, attractive Beta anymore. Why had he returned here, once again? Why did he take the initiative when the pup began to weaken and collapsed before his eyes? Quite simply, because he felt more for him, and even if his mouth corners betrayingly turned upwards at this admission, Theo simply hated himself too much for it, so much so that his unusually cool hands cramped into fists, before they were taken into his by the empathetic Alpha.

"Whatever you're going to do now, Theo, don't wait too long! Because I have a feeling you'll regret it otherwise."

"See you tomorrow, buddy, and keep your feet still."

Mason ended the last word almost sternly, which was truly unusual for him, before waving and closing the door. And yes, Liam's best friend wasn't entirely wrong with his assumption, because the young wolf was indeed thinking about how he could leave this room unnoticed. Only two things made this endeavor simply impossible. Firstly, he was still wearing that plaster-like thing on his right foot, and secondly, the head nurse herself was responsible for him, who was none other than Melissa McCall, Scott McCall's mother.

"I'm going to go crazy here."

Completely frustrated, little Dunbar ran his cool fingertips through his longer, medium-blonde hair. Actually, he didn't feel bad at all at the moment; some wounds had even healed. For example, the fracture between ribs 6 and 7, or the numerous abrasions on his arms and hands. So why couldn't he just be discharged? Because there were truly more important things to do. The virus, for example, that was plaguing the Betas. Liam's strange problems that felt so unbelievably real, and the crazy idiot who abandoned him again after completely clouding his mind. Dreamily, his quick tongue tip ran over his pouting lips. The lips that yearned for his. It was barely possible for the boy to think of anything else. Yet he would be lying if there weren't enough obligations that he was currently expertly avoiding.

Not only had his schoolmates generously paid him a sick visit, they were also the ones who empathetically delivered the missed class material, and if he had been a bit quicker on his feet at the moment, their underwear would now be on their heads while they wore them. Resignedly, his turquoise eyes looked at the stack of homework lying within reach to the left of his bed. Liam gradually had to decide. Next year was his final year, and by then he should ideally know what he wanted to do. But that was precisely his problem; he simply didn't know. After all, most of what he had devoted his full attention to in the last two years was playing lacrosse and ridding Beacon Hills of the supernatural, together with Scott's pack. Provided they caused trouble. Thus, he had hardly any time for school or for his future.

His stepfather always saw him in medicine, as his successor, but no, with his aggression problems that he still couldn't control, he would probably kill someone, and his hobby, history, he liked most as a school subject, but he couldn't do anything with it. So the whole thing was such a difficult undertaking that Liam desperately buried his entire face in the crumpled pillow.

„I'll probably fail anyway." The probability of this was really not bad at all, because his grades had been rapidly declining for quite some time, and to such an extent that if it continued, he would have to repeat the year. At the thought, he pressed himself even deeper into the rustling fabric. He hadn't really told anyone about his poor performance, or rather, he had missed bringing it up. And now that he couldn't get himself out of the noose, which was tightening even more around his delicate neck, the little young wolf didn't dare to speak up anymore.

"It's enough to drive you crazy," came muffled from what felt like half a meter of indistinct fabric. It certainly was, and not only that, because even if he desperately wanted to now, someone else was in his spinning head...

A few minutes earlier...

"Chin up, kid! It'll sort itself out."
Sort itself out? Mason was talking as if it was the most normal thing in the world that they were talking about Theo Fucking Raeken, Public Enemy Number One. And one shouldn't completely disregard the fact that Liam was officially gay or bi or something in between, which actually shouldn't be a big deal, but Liam and Mason had a long-standing male friendship, almost a brotherhood, so the little young wolf had hoped for a different reaction. After all, before there was only Hayden, and she was definitely female, even if chimera female.

"You're not surprised at all?"

"Should I be? Actually, it was obvious, Liam." A little startled by what was said, Liam interrupted the comfortable closeness with his friend by leaning his back against the upper bed frame. He bit firmly into his lower lip with his flashing incisors, making it throb. Was it perhaps more obvious than he himself realized? Because Liam actually found Theo incredibly annoying and would have loved to tear him apart for his insolent mouth. So when did pure hatred, felt in every sensitive nerve, turn into something like affection? He thoughtfully leaned his pounding medium-blonde head back as something touched his shoulders.

„Even if he's a damn asshole who doesn't deserve to live, there's no denying that he's changed, and it's because of you, buddy."

"M-me?" Disbelief, or rather obtuseness, lay in his shimmering turquoise eyes, while Liam, as expected, again abused his mouth as living chewing gum. It was a fact that Mason never lied to him. But that would also mean that there was more than just silly, immature games they had been playing for months? "Why else would he have risked his life to pull you into the safe elevator under constant fire? Why does he keep coming back to Beacon Hills, even though he repeatedly swore he would never set foot here again voluntarily?"

His radiant turquoise eyes shimmered betrayingly. The little young wolf hadn't seen it that way at all. Actually, he himself had been so busy avoiding the annoying chimera that he hadn't noticed anything else around him. He denied his own feelings too much, out of fear of being hurt again. His damp, nervous fingers nervously brushed over the white duvet spread over him as he uncertainly spoke again.

„D-does that mean?"

"Of course it does, you idiot. Theo is practically undressing you with his eyes, and you're too stupid to even notice? Oh man, what did I do to deserve so much obtuseness?" His intensely dark eyes then rolled theatrically, making Liam slowly feel quite fooled. "Hey!!! T-that's not fair... I mean, how would I know... oh, what do I know?"

"Exactly, Liam, what do you know? And to finally clear up that question, it would be important for you two to talk." Mason's confirming nod probably only helped himself, because Liam had probably never felt so misunderstood. As if everything in the world could be changed with a snap of the fingers. But that wasn't the case, and the young Dunbar's frustration grew enormously as he snarled and blew his heated breath into his best friend's cheekily grinning face.

"Oh really? And how exactly did you imagine that, Mr. Smarty Pants? Something like: 'Hey Theo, I have a question, are you into me?' His fingers intensified into far-waving exclamation marks, he waited for confirmation of how right he was and how wrong Mason was with his useless tips. But the constant grin would not be himself if he indulged Liam's incredulous excuses. In some ways, the grumbling little one was still an inexperienced pup and had to be led on a leash to the actual goal. And the spirited human gladly took on that task.

"That would be a start."

Chapter Text

„You should have left me in that cell."

Actually, the chimera probably said these words more to himself than to the small, unreasonable Beta, who had nothing better to do than get himself from one dangerous situation to another, and much to his chagrin, Theo was right in the thick of it. How did it come to this? Basically, at first, it had been a game of blackmail between the two of them. Because the innocent-looking pup had a lot going on behind his pointy ears, or rather, Theo's dwindling life hinged on a specific fact. The sword the little one swung around, and with just one precise movement towards the ground, sealed his fate permanently. But it turned out differently. Liam shattered it right before his stunned blue-green eyes, and after so long, he was finally a free man. The counterfeit fifty-dollar bill could have simply turned around and fled. So why was he standing here now? In the morgue of Beacon Hills Hospital? Well, he didn't really know himself. Only one thing became increasingly clear to him: this damned place brought things to the surface that would have preferred to stay buried deep.

"Even better, buried in the ground."

Theo paused briefly. So it had been heard after all. What was he babbling about? Of course, the little pup could hear him. But he was by no means prepared for his answer. His pupils deliberately widened as he scrutinised Liam. When had this kid become so brave? The chimera remembered times when he stood protectively behind that miserable nuisance Stiles Stilinski, Scott the Alpha's best friend, and still nothing more than a simple human. But now the 17-year-old was acting completely on his own. Yes, certainly not with the best ideas, but he was definitely holding his own, and this realization made the brown-haired man smile as he sought proximity to him, because what the little one was capable of, he had been for a long time.

„Oh really?"

"Yes, really."

It came out of his sweet mouth, hard and without batting an eyelid, while his turquoise eyes stared almost fixedly up at him. This scene Liam presented was actually quite sweet, if he wasn't directly rubbing salt into the gaping wound. With a few deliberate steps, the chimera stood before the pup, his nimble fingers sliding under the cute chin as if by instinct, blowing his displeasure directly at the smaller boy, hoping Liam would finally shut his impudent mouth. "What do you think I was doing down there? Hanging out with my dead sister? Reliving our childhood memories?"

"I thought you were rotting down there."

Brave as ever, with toes unconsciously trying to stretch upwards, these words came from his sassy mouth, and of course, Theo noticed this attempt and it reminded him of so much more. Things from the few happy days of his messed-up childhood, and that was exactly what he didn't want right now, stubbornly preferring to vehemently avert his gaze and close the newly formed hole in his meter-high wall that enveloped him.

"For once, Liam was right."

What he didn't consider, however, was that every moment he spent with the annoying little one affected the stability of his structure, because some of the stones were already shaking restlessly.
Quite exhausted, his index and ring fingers rubbed his tired blue-green eyes. It had been too long since they had found some rest, and the past few hours did not help. Instead, he preferred to drive an old, half-rusted light blue jeep through the darkness, hoping time would finally pass. Oh yes, you guessed it right. Theo wasn't in the charcoal-colored pickup that once belonged to his father, but in the hyperactive Stiles' car, which he gave to Scott when he went to the FBI, and which Scott generously lent him until his own was fully back in his possession.

„Fully" was almost funny, because what of it was actually still usable, only the Holy Spirit or the rip-offs at the only local car workshop probably knew.

"Hah, I could pull his cute little ears for that."

Who he meant was, of course, completely clear. The clumsy little pup had suddenly grabbed the steering wheel, out of nowhere, while driving at full speed. Theo couldn't remember all the details, but he did remember the pickup suddenly lifting off the freshly paved road. After that, everything became quite blurry. He didn't even know how much time had passed when he woke up quite dazed in the hospital. But apparently enough that his scratches and wounds had completely disappeared, and only his light grey shirt left evidence of them. One of the advantages of being a supernatural creature, defying normal laws, yet his rising joy was limited as he tried to sneak out of the emergency room. Where the hell had Liam gone?

"Theo! Theo, watch out!!!"

The panicked-sounding words still rang in his ears as he moved through the adjoining corridor, which was hardly used. An advantage the chimera certainly praised, but even if it had been the other way around, he knew how to move. He had spent too much time with the Dread Doctors, and without this ability, he probably wouldn't be among the living anymore. Although Theo had died more often than one might think, and the person who was now walking through the door in front of him with a worried look actually had no business being here according to normal physics. But for a true Alpha, clocks probably ran completely differently. Did this also apply to his self-created Beta? Probably not.
It smelled of sweet, fruity vanilla as he simply followed his inner voice. An ability the chimera still had to get used to. Superhuman senses like hearing the smallest louse from miles away and detecting the most hypersensitive scent under the most complex materials—for Theo, it was all pure routine. But to listen to his innermost self? To feel his heart suddenly beat twice as fast when those turquoise eyes looked into his? How his stomach began to rumble and sing when those delicate fingers stroked his stubble, and what magical reaction a small, first, tender touch of their lips triggered on his entire being? The shiver made him feel cold for weeks, without finding a plausible explanation for it. All factors that couldn't be scientifically explained, yet they happened. It was all so terrifyingly new, and yet Theo began to like it, so much so that he now felt it when something seemed wrong with the pup, and while at first he still told himself how annoying it was to constantly play guardian to this irritating child, he actually preferred doing nothing else in the world right now.

It happened as if long predetermined: Theo lay down next to the sleeping little wolf. His sweaty, elongated hair fell deep into his still-childlike face, his severe wounds were inches thick with bandages, and his otherwise attractive, muscular body appeared delicate and weak. Somewhat overwhelmed, the chimera thoughtfully bit his intensely red lower lip. Was what he was doing here right? Until now, he had tended to walk in the shadows. But if he now reached out his muscular arms towards the shining sun, he would be so flooded with light that he could no longer hide from anything or anyone. Both had their advantages and disadvantages, and whether the cunning chimera wanted to or not, he had to decide. But even the foresightful coyote didn't expect this to happen faster than he thought. For hardly a tiny moment later, when his eyelid briefly closed and opened, the delicate, sweetly scented body lay intimately close to his own.

However, Theo's dark brown mop of hair had once again been overthinking things and doing things he would later regret. Precisely for this reason, his body now stood still, sighing heavily. His worn Converse shoes were directly between the glass door and the marbled surface, with every movement causing uncontrolled twitching of the doors. Overcoming the threshold would have been effortless even for a frail human. But for the supernatural chimera, it seemed almost impossible, even in his wolf form. His heart pounded abnormally heavily in his chest, and though his feet moved, he couldn't shake the feeling that the clinic hallway was only lengthening with each step. An endless tunnel, narrow in circumference, that seemed to constrict further and further. Theo swallowed heavily as isolated drops of sweat ran down his temples. All of this, he had to be imagining it. Like the flickering LED lights above him, which gradually went out, and the shadows that suddenly emerged from the darkness, slowly rising, involuntarily brought to life, as they turned to the coyote and grinned almost sadistically with blood-stained, sharp fangs.

"Liam!!!"

He screamed his name so desperately that he thought he would suffocate on the spot from the constricting feeling in his chest. His usually cool blue-green eyes were now in warm liquid gold, while his teeth grew rapidly and sharply. A trembling roar almost escaped his wide-open mouth, while one thought wouldn't leave him alone. He had to get to him quickly, before it was too late.

"Beginning? Pah! What nonsense!"

He rolled his eyes, looking up at the dark ceiling, where the remaining swaying leaves of the nearby tree were reflected by the streetlights. Liam didn't know what time it was or what day was about to break; he had lost all sense of time. Mason's fragmented conversations echoed too much in his chaotic thoughts, spinning like a washing machine on the spin cycle, never coming to a stop.

„As if he, of all people, would be waiting for me."

Most likely, he would laugh at him, clutching his stomach while lying curled up on the floor. After all, we're talking about none other than Theo, the living sarcasm Reaken. Nothing he did did he truly take seriously, and if he did, it wasn't without some ulterior motive to benefit him. But how it fit together that he constantly placed Liam under his protective shield, the confused young wolf understood even less than the hot kisses they exchanged.

But could Theo even love? What compelled a small, innocent boy to such an act? What happened to him in the decaying dirt hole from which he returned so completely changed?

"Where's my sister?"

The little werewolf had already seen a variety of facial expressions from Theo, at least half of which were fabricated and lies, but one like this? His green-blue eyes rigidly enlarged, making it seem as if they had lost all life. His mouth wide open on his dirty face, as he violently pressed Liam's neck against the steaming sewer pipes. That even frightened the inexperienced pup, who was actually holding the reins in his trembling hands, and even if he should have felt nothing but pure hatred for the chimera, in that moment, there was something like pity in the air, even if only a tiny bit. At first, he believed the older boy actually wanted to kill him?

"Y-You k-killed her, d-don't you r-remember?" the trapped boy gasped, sweat beading on his sensitive back. Was it wrong to rub salt in the wound in this situation? Basically, yes, and yet also no. For movement returned to his pupils, while his forehead pressed deep against Liam's chest, and even though they weren't alone in that moment and Hayden perceived every tiny movement with her supernatural eyes, he couldn't resist the urge to wrap his tingling arms around him. His heart pounded in his throat as the intoxicating body odor tickled the Beta's upright, upturned nose. In that moment, the little pup already knew. The fateful sword—he had to destroy it.

"You really shouldn't have done that." A feeling of unbearable bloodlust and a putrid smell hit him, while something pressed him so heavily into the pillows that all oxygen was squeezed from his lungs. "Because of you, little wolf, my desire for revenge was completely thwarted." From a milky consistency, outlines and shapes suddenly emerged, from which grew dark, long black hair, empty blue-green eyes, and a sadistic, snarling grin.

"Tara..." Liam gasped almost wordlessly as the cold, bony fingers brushed his pure, pale face. An incredible cold made him tremble. He wanted to push her away, run out of the room, and seek refuge in his arms. Just as it always was. So obvious that the young wolf only now realized it, and yet he was helplessly at the mercy of Theo's sister, who possessed an incredible strength, causing every single bone in the whimpering boy's skeleton to ache. "But you know what? I won't let you do this to me, not a half-child like you are."

What did she mean? What was she planning? Before Liam could even process the questions he had asked himself, he felt an unprecedented pain that made him scream violently. Not even his first transformation into a werewolf had been so intense, as if someone were tearing him apart alive. With his last strength, he lifted his head and looked down at himself. The young wolf expected the worst, while he struggled not to lose consciousness with the persisting symptoms. Everything seemed normal, were it not for the strange right arm plunged deep into his chest. "I warned you, little pup, but you wouldn't listen and let him into your heart."

So it was true after all! It had all been real from the beginning. The recurring nightmares that prevented him from getting ample sleep. The continuous weakness that coursed through his aching body, and the accident he experienced a few hours ago, which she had probably caused. Everything, absolutely everything, was her fault, and apparently, she was far from finished with her insane plans, as the little young wolf roared almost in agony. His entire body trembled from the icy cold that suddenly enveloped his small, frantically beating heart and squeezed it tightly. "It's actually too bad. You have a lot of potential in you."

Completely dazed, he perceived his surroundings, while gasping, he threw his head back. Liam was fully aware of what was about to happen. His far too short life, which he had never truly enjoyed, was about to be extinguished. Like the flickering wick of an average candle, and the only thing he was capable of now was simply to surrender. The young wolf gasped, struggling with overlapping shortness of breath, weakly looking at the approaching white wall, where he discovered something that briefly restored his will to live. The glowing yellow switch, which was actually described as a heart alarm, was right in front of him; he just had to reach out his fingers for it. But no matter how hard he tried, gently moving his palms over the wrinkled sheet, he remained helpless, until his eyelids finally closed and everything around him turned black.

"Liam? Hey, don't do anything stupid!"
Pleasantly warm, fragrant pine needles soaked in sticky honey. It flooded every tiny cell of the young wolf, yet life refused to return to him. The chilling cold gnawed too deeply through him, and he felt the sadistic grin directly in his ear canals. As much as Liam wanted it, he was trapped between here and now, with no way to find his way back on his own, which saddened him so much that thick tears ran down his chalk-white face.

"Liam!!!" Growling signals, full of power and darkness, so that the motionless body trembled and every free hair stood on end. The scent of freshly fallen pine needles on autumn-wet ground with that certain touch of sticky sweetness, it made him tear open his leaden eyelids. Glowing yellow, sharp claws on each of his cheeks, and pointed teeth. It wasn't a human holding him in those muscular arms, no, it was the chimera. The creature who always saved him from the inevitable, and probably did so this time too.

„T-Theo," no more than a whisper escaped his bluish lips, before they were completely taken over. So intense and greedy that Liam almost forgot to breathe. Demanding, yet with so much feeling, that the young wolf couldn't help but secretly grin into the nourishing kiss. It was over. They were reunited, and finally, everything would be alright. At least, he believed it until that moment. When a tearing sensation suddenly spread within him, making his small body tremble and cough, so that the reddish elixir of life slipped through his snow-white teeth, the unreasonable pup knew that nothing was alright.
"It's too late, brother. You sealed his fate by stealing his heart."

The whimpering body fearfully pressed against the larger one, while the turquoise-blue gaze fell one last time on the face of the insane figure, before it vanished into the dark, monstrous shadows as quickly as it had appeared. Liam sighed carefully, his throbbing head pressing against Theo's muscular chest. He should have been relieved, yet he knew that the game had only just begun, and who would truly emerge as the glorious victor was written in the stars.

Chapter Text

It was the day a small, reckless boy stood on the roof of Beacon Hills hospital and saw things not meant for his turquoise eyes. Before he knew it, he was in the middle of it all, his left forearm had a gaping, bleeding wound, and the bloodthirsty, towering creature with fiery red eyes turned out to be Scott, Scott McCall. The still-captain of the Beacon High school lacrosse team, whose position he would have loved to arrogantly steal, and whose unusually razor-sharp teeth had bitten him—bitten him! This was just the beginning of the mess...

"What are you even doing with him?" Two troublemakers who had been best friends from the very first minute, with the human being the brains of the operation—at least when his brain was functioning properly. Today, however, shock was knee-deep on Stiles' lanky, hyperactive body.

"He's upstairs."

"And doing what?"

It was relatively atypical for Scott to bring a person he barely knew home, especially in this case, Liam Dunbar. The 15-year-old overachiever had so thoroughly outplayed them all at lacrosse practice that it had led to this accident and the consequences they now had to deal with together. Or rather, Stiles Stilinski, who still didn't quite understand what his best friend was trying to tell him.

"Uh, just lying around!"

"Lying around" was a complete understatement in this case; the little brat was more like lying in the tub, tied up and gagged, whimpering to himself, while Stiles just rolled his dark button-eyes and pulled the shower curtain all the way shut again. What else was he supposed to do? This was kidnapping. Yes, "kid"—the little guy was still wet behind the ears and now, on top of everything, a werewolf. Scott had really screwed this one up.

"Liam? We're going to take the tape off your mouth. If you scream, it goes right back on. If you talk quietly, it stays off. Understood?"

At least a plan had been formed. The boy was tied to an old, rickety chair in Scott's bedroom and nodded eagerly, wanting to finally get the tape off his mouth, which was itching like hell.

"Okay," Stiles said more to himself. Because even if he wouldn't admit it, he had no idea where this was all going. It was worth a try, though. So he pulled the tape off the whimpering Liam's lips and began to explain. "Okay, Liam, tonight you saw a lot of confusing things, and more confusing things are going to happen because of the confusing things that happened tonight. Do you understand that?"

"Not really."

"Good, that's good." Better than him screaming in a panic and the neighbors calling the police, which would mean the chief of police showing up, who was none other than his dad, and then Stiles would have to explain why the hell he was involved in another kidnapping. Yes, another one—back when Jackson... oh, never mind.

"Um, I didn't get it either." Scott's helpless, flailing-like-a-fish-out-of-water look was definitely nothing new, and the fact that Stiles kept wondering how Scott could be an Alpha, despite being almost unimaginably slow on the uptake, had become a regular occurrence. Yet, he would have definitely liked more support from his best friend. After all, Scott was the one who bit him.

"Maybe you should tell him..."

"Tell me what?" Oh, great, the kid was getting a taste of it. Stiles just hoped this would go well. Keeping his distance, he looked back and forth between the two of them, ready to intervene if necessary. Which it definitely would be.

"Liam... what happened to you... what I did to you? What I had to do to save you. It's going to change you."
"Unless it kills you. Ask yourself which is better."

Better to be direct and get straight to the point—at least, that's what the only human in the room thought. There was no time for beating around the bush. The next full moon was practically knocking on the door, and everyone knew what that meant. Well, everyone except Liam, of course.

"What?" The amber eyes looked skeptically down as they inspected the childlike stammering more closely. Had he been a little too harsh? Yes, definitely. He heard a heartbreaking sob that made Stiles a little uncertain.

„Uh-oh, is he crying?"

"Liam, it's okay. You'll be fine. You're not going to die." The fact that Scott was taking over was definitely his plan. Because Scott had zero experience when it came to children, and Liam was still just a kid. The hyperactive smart-aleck was only there to lay the facts on the table, which no one else was doing.

"Probably not."

"Stop it!" What? Had Scott really just asked him to shut up? It was a fact, after all, so it had to be made clear. Well, maybe he should rephrase it a little differently. He took a deep breath before giving the questioning Liam the answers he deserved.

"Okay, maybe."

"Would you just agree with me for once?" What? Why should Stiles confirm his best friend's wild stammering? They had both seen with their own eyes often enough where all this could lead, and Stiles' options were the milder ones. He pouted, pulling his lower lip forward before following the wild gesticulating hand movements and groaning in defeat.

"Liam, are you okay?" Of course, the kid was okay. Maybe a little panicked, or tearful, but he was alive, had color in his face, and was growling darkly at him as he bent down and ripped off the tape... "...Okay, before we apologize, but yes, we're really sorry..." and the chair came crashing down on them.

"Liam, what the hell is your problem?"

"Thump!!!" Another hit, this time a full-force blow to the stomach, which sent his gallbladder on a trip and made him choke in agony. The kid definitely had a punch and would pay for it.

"Get him!"

"Ahhhhhh!!!"

The rubber soles scraped loudly on the old wooden floor as they tackled and fell, punching wildly. All the way down the stairs. As quickly as possible, Stiles grabbed everything he could get his hands on. "I got him! I got him! I got him!" He almost euphorically shouted to his friends through the front door until he realized what he was holding with his cramped fingers.

It was Scott's leg!

"Your plan sucked just as much."

Hey, you shouldn't be so unfair to him. It was supposed to be foolproof, if his best friend hadn't been the biggest fool of all. So they would try their luck again tomorrow, and if that didn't work, then the day after. Anything was better than asking that aggressive, emo-like Sourwolf for help. Stiles would never do that willingly.

These times felt so incredibly distant to Liam now that he felt like he had aged twenty years. But it had been no more than two, since the pubescent teenager with ingrained temper tantrums had become the Beta of the True Alpha. The only one of his kind, bitten by Scott himself and now destined for death. On two healthy legs, he carefully got out of the passenger side of the light blue Jeep. Thanks to Theo, the broken leg was now a thing of the past, and even though he hadn't liked the thought of him taking on all his pain at first, Liam was glad to have some routine back. If you could even call it that.

In short, he felt like he was on a platter as he entered the animal clinic, slightly battered. His friends didn't even have to say anything; their looks alone were enough, and when a soft "Liam" reached his ears from the background, he lost every ounce of self-control. The tousled, dark brown hair was, as always, wild on his very intelligent head, the gray shirt he was wearing looked three sizes too big, as usual, and the intense, dark button eyes twinkled tellingly.

"Stiles?" It was more of a question than a statement that Liam hesitantly made as he pressed himself into the waiting body. "W-what are you doing here?" He already knew the answer, of course, but the young wolf couldn't quite understand. Stiles' college was in Washington D.C., so not exactly around the corner, and as an FBI aspirant, one should probably stay on track rather than leave the state for every pointless little thing.

"You don't think I'm just going to sit around when the world is about to end again, do you? So, please fill me in. Are there any new findings?"

"Not really. According to the analysis of Isaac's blood, no poisoning or bacterial pathogen could be found. Even the database with all recorded diseases doesn't get us much further. It must be something else." Surely it was something completely different. A vengeful spirit, driven by an unfairly caused death and the resulting years of rage. But how the virus and its direct attachment to him fit together—that just wouldn't get into the little wolf's head. He resignedly let his tense shoulders slump as someone grabbed them.

"I'm counting on you now, Liam. Theo told us what happened." It was Deaton, who suddenly spoke directly to him after laying out the facts with his matter-of-fact medical expertise. The practicing veterinarian of Beacon Hills, who had likely had almost every kind of creature on his treatment table, and that didn't stop at the creatures one supposedly only found in deeply buried horror books. Deaton was pretty much their human database, who had saved their wolfish butts what felt like hundreds of times, even if it was just to keep things from the regular mortals.

"A heart attack at your young age is quite unusual, especially when you consider that you're basically supposed to be immune to something like that. That's why a blood sample would be very desirable for me. You don't object to that, do you, Liam?"

What? A heart attack? Was this a joke? Tara had almost ripped him apart with her razor-sharp, ice-cold, greedy hands and almost torn his frantically beating heart out of him alive. And if Liam just fluttered his turquoise eyes shut for a second, he saw her right in front of him with her sadistic grin, while in her hands, the blood-soaked scythe of death loomed. The young wolf shook his head in disbelief, the far-too-long medium blonde strands falling deep into his face. All of this was just as real as the stinging prick of the syringe that was mercilessly boring into the vein of his right arm. Liam was sure he had almost died earlier; his fluttering muscle had stopped for a few seconds, and if it hadn't been for Theo, he probably wouldn't be sitting here so calmly, his short legs dangling in the air, while the chimera stood deep in the shadows, purposefully averting his gaze from him. He almost stopped all movement, plagued by a very bad suspicion. Any actual connection to Tara and the events seemed to have been completely concealed by Theo.

"Good! I think I should have the results by tomorrow. Let's hope for the best, and you, young man, could really use a good night's sleep." The young wolf hated it when people did that, but you just couldn't be mad at the charming veterinarian with his positive attitude, who always saw the good in everything. Not even when his broad right hand, which was more like a genuine bear's paw, was just ruffling the little bit of structure out of Liam's medium blonde hair. So he annoyedly blew the falling masterpiece off his crinkled pug nose as Scott stood in front of him and examined him thoroughly. "Deaton's right, we should really call it a day."

The Beta wanted to protest; after all, he had spent the last few hours lying around uselessly. Well, except for the remarkable near-death experience, which had gone completely differently and had probably cost more energy than the young wolf was aware of, Liam couldn't stop a loud, heartfelt yawn. "Come on, kid, I'll drive you home." The familiar, warming hand on his back made him look up. It was Scott; he had felt it before their eyes even met. Was it because of the special bond between Alpha and Beta? Maybe. Whatever it was, Liam was glad about it, and for what felt like weeks, something of the stubborn, nerve-hardened tension released and let the boy sigh in relief, while he was in the process of agreeing to Scott with a hesitant nod. But as so often, things turned out completely differently.

"I'll do it." The growl sent an immediate shudder down his small, delicate body. Yes, Liam knew who triggered this enormous reaction in him, and even if he had wanted to, he just couldn't resist the enormous attraction. His subconscious's wiggling jerk-finger giggled at his bewildered face and made him angrily puff out his colorless cheeks, while his legs, which had turned to pudding, were already making their way uncertainly forward.

"You miserable bastard, you're doing it again!"
It was simmering so immensely in the younger one that he didn't even dare to look away from the moving scenery that was whizzing by the passenger window far too quickly. "Can you please tell me what your problem is this time, Liam? You really need to work on your anger issues!" Theo whistled it right over the steering wheel, which belonged to Stiles' Jeep, while he even increased the speed. To an outsider, this might have sounded like a relaxed conversational opening, but not to Liam; he felt exactly that the chimera was lying. So intensely that this time he wouldn't let go. "Don't you dare change the subject, you idiot! What was that about just now?" An organ was raging in the young wolf that he was in danger of being consumed by, and instead of Theo stopping the impending catastrophe, he was pouring salt into the wound, by the ton. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Oh, of course, Mr. Raeken is innocence personified, as always. That's why he has his sister on his conscience, who is quite coincidentally after my life." Liam didn't really want to be so direct. He knew exactly how much that topic bothered Theo, but maybe it was the only way to finally lure the moth to the light. The hope briefly flared up, but died within seconds as the screeching tires brought the car to an abrupt stop.

"I think Scott was right. You desperately need sleep, little pup, your wild, childish imagination is playing tricks on you again and..."

"Damn it, Theo! Look at me!" If he hadn't felt so much anger for the older one, who knows if Liam would have been so brave as to grab the dark brown mop of hair with the help of his emotion-adorned, trembling hands and pull it close to him. If the young wolf thought about it more closely, he couldn't even say when he had last seen the chimera's attractive face in this state. Little sweet wrinkles that settled under the shimmering green-blue and the narrow nose that crinkled in time. Oh yes, Liam loved it when the older one did that, and the fact that he was bending down so close to him was the bonus he was only too happy to claim.

„I swear if you keep looking at me with that puppy dog look, I can't guarantee anything." The surprising change of mood, which went from awkward silence to erotic crackling in a matter of seconds, made Liam unconsciously gasp for air. But he was happy to endure the chimera's close physical contact. He enjoyed the scent of woody-warm and sticky-sweet so much that the lovesick pup almost jumped the last few millimeters and growled onto his pulsating rosy lips: "Then don't!"

Theo's stubble scratched vehemently against the teenager's delicate fuzz and led to that tiny moment of weakness where Liam just let himself fall, with the awareness that he would be caught at any time. And this time, it was the same. The chimera's broad, muscle-defined arms wrapped tightly around the smaller one, and his fluttering heart almost doubled its rhythm. The muscle that had just recently completely stopped functioning was now adapting so rapidly to the other that the Beta felt he was becoming one with him. Liam began to grin, gently touching Theo's nose with his own. All the bad things seemed to bounce off him. Right now, there were just the two of them, no matter what tomorrow would hold for them. Now he only wanted one thing. To feel the perfectly shaped, voluminous lips on his, to take in the precocious, pointed tongue, and to groan and beg for more.
"You should go inside, Liam."

The turquoise eyes carefully fluttered wide open. Had he understood correctly? Theo wanted him to go? In this erotic, yearning-for-more moment? Definitely not. His eyes, which were eagerly shimmering and seeking his proximity, were saying something completely different.

"Go now!" He said it so uncharacteristically softly that he had the hardest time understanding anything at all, but maybe it was also due to the impact of the lustfully anticipated counterpart that finally touched his, but unfortunately in a completely different way than hoped. The well-formed mouth, to his surprise, landed on the Beta's bare forehead.

The tingling that this act brought with it, the unknown reaction from Theo, or only just now realizing where they were—it was probably a combination of everything at once that triggered the perplexity in the young werewolf, making it difficult to react. Completely overwhelmed, he purposefully bit his protruding lower lip. Just yesterday, Liam thought he was a step further. He had seen it in the first image that presented itself to him when he found his way back to his body like a floating molecule, and now? Everything was suddenly back to square one. A state that the young Beta simply couldn't allow. For the first time, he was simply too selfish for that. He needed Theo like he needed the oxygen that filled his flattened lungs, and he wanted him by his side. Just his mere presence, the tickling of his beard on his sensitive, colorless facial skin, was almost enough to make everything more bearable. Liam's hands reached out for him demandingly, wanting to take the soft, warming hands in his, but this careful attempt was shattered like his uncertain heart.

"Liam!!!"

There it was, the moment when the collapsed wall went up twice as high! When the eyes that reflected the true soul suddenly appeared golden yellow, and the little pup could no longer find his way back alone.

Quite clearly, the bright, inviting door that had just been so open slammed shut right in front of his prominent pug nose. But would a brand new one open for him?

Chapter Text

When did it even begin? The start of a friendship born from never-ending hatred? Liam figured it started on that frustrating drive home. Just thinking about it now made his heart beat to a completely different rhythm, a change the little wolf pup hadn't wanted to acknowledge at the time. The day Liam's plan almost failed, if not for Theo...

It hurt like hell. The small beta groaned, clutching his throbbing jaw. The slightest touch of his soft fingertips sent a flash of lightning through him, making him see black for a moment. Considering Liam was a werewolf who healed completely in a matter of seconds, he must have been knocked out by something far less supernatural.

"I knocked you out!"

There was his answer to an unasked question. He watched Theo's green-blue eyes flash with a mischievous glint, and he seemed to be having a blast. "How many times?" It was more of a statement than a question; he felt like he’d had a direct encounter with a jackhammer. The comparison wasn't ridiculous at all, considering who was sitting next to him, helping him solve this mess with a charming smirk.

"Five times."
Liam rolled his turquoise eyes with a flourish. "Oh, my God, someone’s in a good mood." A state of mind that had completely abandoned him as he slowly began to remember what he had almost done.

„I almost killed him, didn't I?"

So that's how it had come to this. His IED (Intermittent Explosive Disorder) had always been a serious problem, affecting his entire life. But now, as a werewolf, he seemed to have lost all inhibition, the most important boundary not to cross.

"Keep people alive!"

"Yeah, almost. But you broke your hands trying not to."

"Well, that's something."

The young beta barely believed what he was saying, lost in thought. The darkness of the car's interior concealed the telltale signs of his expression—or so he thought, not quite trusting the Chimera’s keen observational skills.

"On your next plan, find a place that doesn't trigger murderous rage."

"I couldn't have predicted that."

Theo’s know-it-all attitude made the younger one dig his nails into the seat so hard it left noticeable marks, as if a wild animal had clawed at it. Liam scoffed at the thought. It was more like him—untamed, temperamental, and capable of almost anything when he lost control. He was a menace to anyone who had anything to do with him, even if that person was currently the most hated Chimera.

"Whether you wanted to or not, you chose the place. You had the plan, and I was supposed to help you."

"If I ever needed your help, I’d be angry enough to kill you myself."

Theo had forced his way into the situation. Why? For what reason? Only he knew. Theo didn’t talk much about himself. You knew almost nothing about him, except for the bits of completely trivial information he'd throw out. But did they even contain a shred of truth? The young beta was far from certain. His skepticism made him mess up his neatly slicked-back hair with his wildly twitching hands. He was on the verge of losing control again. The rage inside him was bubbling so intensely that the little bubbles of control loss were already gathering in his sensitive soul. It took all of Liam's effort not to give in, as a promising victim was not too far away.

"You brought me here because that thing from the Wild Hunt influences you, too. You have to get this under control before you completely lose it."

Someone wanted to die, it seemed. Someone whose time should have long since expired. Oh, yes, Liam was having murderous thoughts as he leaned far over the driver's seat, huffing out his displeasure, until he suddenly paused amid the mixture of oxygen particles—the crucial element needed not to die. The scent of intensely fresh pine needles falling softly onto the damp earth, soaked in the sweetness of honey.

"T-The Anuk-Ite influences fear, not anger."

The small beta had the hardest time forming a coherent sentence, his senses so muddled by the inhaled scent. An aroma he had never truly noticed before and of which he couldn't get enough now. And the fact that the Chimera was constantly closing the distance confused and thrilled the young wolf in equal measure, making him want to scream with euphoria.

"Humans feel one emotion after another, Liam, which is why you get angry when you're afraid. That's why you almost tore Nolan's head off."

That biting red ant deserved nothing less. The one who probably never had the guts to attack Liam himself. This pathetic wannabe hunter would do anything to fit in, forgetting what his insane desire had caused. In essence, the innocent boy was becoming a murderer himself. He could, anyway, and that was probably what made the little wolf pup sink his prominent fangs deep into his defined lower lip. Because so far, Nolan had only acted verbally, even if his level was rock-bottom.

"Don't repay in kind. Isn't it said, 'If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also'?"

That Theo of all people was quoting this was as surreal as the warm, soft fingers seeking the proximity of his own. The Chimera carefully brushed the fallen lashes from Liam's face, continuing down to his full, gasping lips, stroking them for a brief moment before finally closing the last, barely noticeable gap and claiming what he believed had always belonged to him. But he would never openly admit that. There were far more important things to worry about now. The delicate feeling of the counter-pressure on his mouth, for example, and even if he only felt it for a very short moment, that was all Theo needed right now.
The warm sunbeams on his bare, exposed skin caught on his well-defined shoulders, circled around his prominently protruding vertebrae, and finally stopped just above the beta's bare butt, where they almost illuminated the stroking hand that certainly wasn't his.

A pleasant tingle ran sensually over the young wolf's perfectly formed body, making him sigh in relaxation for the first time in a long time, but only loud enough to be sure he hadn’t been heard. The mop of medium-blonde hair burrowed even deeper into his lover's inviting neck.

„I know you're awake, little pup." The deep, almost growling chuckle next to his left ear made the hair on his neck stand on end. Every single nerve, no matter how insignificant, reported for duty, making Liam tremble as he cautiously lifted his overly heavy head. There they were, the eyes he most wanted to get lost in. A mix of a stormy, turbulent ocean and a mysterious, deeply rooted forest. The small button nose came very close to this vision, pressing against its counterpart, while his lips opened and closed carefully, giving a voice to something that had already sat on a throne in his mind.

"I love..."

Everything in front of him dissolved into a mass of undefined colors, nothing distinct, but still present, until one pigment overpowered all others. Red! Blood red!!! It flowed unstoppably over the muscular chest, smelling of pine needles and honey, eclipsing everything that had come before, and making the little beta cry out heartbreakingly, "Theo!!! Please, stay with me!" It was his heart that was missing, the beating muscle that now lay completely lifeless in his trembling hands for an inexplicable reason, before a whisper that went straight through his skin made time stand still.

"Just look, little pup, it's your fault! You killed him!"

"No!!!" Liam screamed out all his fears as his trembling body straightened with inhuman speed. His heart was racing, and he was having trouble catching his breath. Everything around him was spinning like a surprise roller coaster ride full of loops, and it took him far too long to realize where he was.

"J-just a dream. I-it was j-just a dream."

The young wolf kept stuttering it to himself as his surroundings finally returned to normal. The bed he was lying on made its familiar creaking sound. The white bedroom door, unusually scratched, was wide open as usual, and the chair right next to his disheveled medium-blonde head was, as always, functioning as an oversized clothes rack. Liam sighed heartbreakingly, as sweat poured out of almost every pore in drops.

"Everything's fine," he lied to his exhausted, chalk-white face. Because it wasn't at all. The dream felt so real that he would have bet his soul he had actually experienced it, and his battered state, which every pulsating limb in him was calling out, felt anything but imagined. Liam was now asking himself what was reality and what was fiction. With a groaning gasp, the young wolf stood up and dragged himself more or less into the adjoining bathroom. He could remember how Theo had practically forced him to leave Stiles's Jeep, and even though the little beta usually never did what others wanted, a habit he'd had his whole life, he knew that just one more word would have been too much right then. He didn't even have the strength to look back, and when the unmistakable texture of his mattress greeted his huffing button nose, the young wolf wanted nothing more than to finally close his tired eyes. Who could have known what worlds his subconscious would still lead him to? He felt the lump that had just formed in his throat, while his bare feet continued the last few inches to the sink with a soft patting sound. Until the very end, his turquoise eyes tried to resist the urge to look into the mirror hanging in front of him, and yet the tempting curiosity of a teenager, still at his core, won out, wanting to see the unvarnished truth.

The pale, gaunt face, with dark shadows and turquoise irises, and the torn corners of his thoughtfully gnawed, pouting lips. Liam tilted his disheveled head slightly as his freezing hands clawed at the white ceramic in front of him. He had changed without even realizing it, and if you didn't know better, you'd think you were looking at a completely normal person. A basic thought the young Dunbar would have done almost anything for—at least until now—because something was telling him that this very realization should make him question everything inside.

"Something's not right here!"

"I'm really impressed with you, little pup. Most people would have taken a lot longer to realize it, or probably never understood it at all."

Taking a sharp intake of air, he turned towards the cold that was making the hair on his sensitive neck stand up. Any place he could have run through with superhuman speed with his eyes closed instantly disappeared, turning into a oppressive, dark gloom. So crushing that the young wolf could have howled with grief, if he was even still able to, because being so close to her again violently pushed him back into what he had just been through, which terrified him so much that he couldn't stop the bitter tears that rolled from his eyelashes. A reaction that must have pleased Tara immensely as she almost manicly caught the moisture with her bony, icy fingers.

„Did he really think he could protect you by dropping you like a sack of mealy potatoes?"

She smiled at him so sweetly that sweat ran down Liam's still clammy back. His sensitive button nose picked up the biting smell of something rotten, which made his empty stomach cramp. A feeling of something that definitely didn't belong here tormented his entire body and made him gag. His turquoise eyes widened at such a speed that his pupils were trembling and darting back and forth. No matter where he was right now, it was never his home. Had he even ever walked through the familiar picturesque door that always only let you through on the second try?

The young wolf furrowed his brow thoughtfully, while his sensitive palms rested on his rumbling stomach. He had heard the familiar stuttering of the diesel engine, which got quieter with every melancholic sigh. He was also pretty sure he had strolled to the front door, but what happened after that, the little beta wasn't so sure. He believed something his brain told him he had experienced, but did it really happen?

"The answer is no! Everything you see here is a complete fabrication and bears my initials. Isn't that wonderful?"

She started dancing. Her long, disheveled black hair flew high into the air as she hummed her way around.
Liam watched her every step with twitching, bright eyes, his expression aggressive. His cold hands began to tremble and formed into rock-hard fists in a matter of seconds.

„If that's the case, you won't mind if I change that."

He growled it deep from his throat; you could have sworn the shadows receded for a moment. Where did this courage suddenly come from? Liam didn't know, but something inside him let his untamed monster step out. The creature that lived within him finally seemed to be back. His blue eyes now sparked, changing to a golden yellow, his slender body trembled, his prominent teeth became sharp and pointed, and as the whimpering pup from a moment ago swung for the first blow, his sharp claws shot out. Liam had a perfect vision of splitting this insane, manic-obsessed woman in two. His alpha would probably not be thrilled, as preserving life was the highest tribute. But first, this creature hadn't been alive for a good decade, and second, all the good in her was completely gone. Therefore, the young wolf felt no guilt at all as he followed up with a second strike.

But success wouldn't come. There was barely any resistance, like hitting cool water uncontrollably. No matter how many times you tried, you never had a chance of hitting it. The boy was close to despair as his targeted hits became more and more uneven and abruptly stopped due to a sudden lack of energy. The roaring beast disappeared at the push of a button, leaving behind a small, weak boy who was pitifully gasping for air.

„Forget it, little wolf, I have you completely under control, and you'll be the one to lure him here."

His bare feet struggled for contact as the binding cold wrapped itself around his heart. The feeling of a hand closing tightly around his beating muscle felt so close again, so real, and when the weak beta wanted to scream, nothing came out of his wide-open mouth except his shadow. The nasty, grinning part of him that became completely independent and locked Liam in an inner cage. Without any way of ever seeing the saving light again on his own...

"Are you really sure, bro?" The human bit his prominent lower lip, nervously hopping from one lanky leg to the other. A slight haze kept the early autumn sun low under the clouds of the just-begun day. Why were these two clowns out at this hour? Well, there was a not-so-unimportant reason, the reason that turned Mieczyslaw Stilinski, aka Stiles, and Scott McCall into self-sacrificing, mother-hen-like guardians. Their small, inexperienced pup, who had a not-insignificant tendency to get into trouble, and since he unexpectedly didn't show up at the clinic at the specified time and his cell phone had been without power for weeks, it was more of a duty than a favor to show up at this ungodly hour. At least, that's how Scott saw it. Stiles, however, was, as mentioned, unusually nervous.

"Are those doubts coming from your loudmouth?" The Alpha Wolf clearly enjoyed teasing his best friend like this, as you could see from his extra-wide grin that stretched from one cheek to the other. Because it was always the outspoken boy who had the last word. A thing that could be really annoying and yet at the same time the black-haired boy missed so unspeakably now that their paths were going in completely different directions. That's why the little time they had right now was so precious, even if the reason for it was lying several hundred meters in front of them, and Scott wanted to take him in his broad arms as soon as possible. He didn't know where the feeling that was overpowering him right now came from, but it was definitely there and not to be ignored. Because this wasn't about just anyone; it was about Liam. As if bitten by a tarantula, the wolf's extra-wide steps sped up and were only interrupted by his chaotic friend, who was tugging on his black hoodie.

„Well, what if..." he stammered, while his delicate human index fingers were squeezed together over and over again. Scott sighed, shaking his head, before breaking through the displayed misery with a wave of his hand. He had finally had enough. He wanted clear words and answers, and he wanted them now!

"What if what?"

As if he had been caught peeping in the girls' locker room, Stiles turned tomato-red before blinking with his hazel eyes and explaining what was holding him back, a manner that surprised Scott more than anything. "Well, you know, knick-knack."

"Knick-knack? Oh... ohhhh." It was a veritable flood of emotions that overwhelmed the Alpha. From raised dark eyebrows to a wrinkled, prominent nose, to a wide-open mouth, because it was slowly clicking for him, too, albeit very, very slowly. "But Stiles, do you really think there's something going on? Okay, they're friends now, but that kind of friends?"

"Scott, are you stupid, or are you just pretending to be? You can smell the pheromones between them from a mile away. I thought yesterday that Theo was going to mount the little guy right in front of us, with how greedily and droolingly he was staring at him."

Scott probably appreciated his best friend's honesty, but it didn't have to be that honest. Liam was like a little brother to him, and he certainly didn't want to think about his sex life, or rather, he shouldn't be thinking about anyone's sex life except maybe his own. Besides, Liam wasn't even gay. Not that he would treat him any differently or ignore him because of it. The werewolf wasn't living in the Stone Age and was completely relaxed about the whole thing; after all, he had practically begged Theo to go to his protégé. But that something would happen so quickly between them was definitely too fast for Scott, too. He wistfully placed his broad hands on his muscular chest. Liam had just been a pup.

"Face it, buddy, our baby is growing up, and... did you hear that?" A thump that was too dull to register as a danger but still so distinct that even human ears registered it, filled the early morning silence, and even if it could have just been an object that suddenly fell down, it came from the building in front of them. The house where Liam was staying and hadn't responded to any of their pathetic attempts...

Chapter Text

The young Dunbar used to be fascinated by the brightly glowing, almost orange celestial body, especially when it rose in its full glory to chase away the dark night.

But from the day of his transformation, he cursed that hellish thing. Already barely controllable due to his aggression problems, the young werewolf turned into an uncontrollable weapon. A being who would stop for no one, driven by the bloodthirsty thought of tearing a lovely, delicate throat to shreds with his sharp teeth. For he was no longer an innocent, slightly arrogant teenager, he was a...

"Liam... wait... stop!"

The words came from the Alpha's lips in a gasping rush as he tried to shield his shocked face from the biting attacks that would pass through him like a sharp knife through soft butter. It would have been easy for him to defend himself—after all, he was the true Alpha—but he didn't. Scott McCall bore the damn guilt for the misery that turned a frightened 15-year-old boy into a werewolf driven by violence.

"What have you done to me? It's your fault... It's your fault... it's your..."

An endless, soul-piercing scream made Liam stagger back. He pressed his palms painfully to his ears. The sounds were so shrill he thought his sensitive eardrums would burst. The Beta whimpered as the first tears of anguish ran down his contorted face. Yes, this was him, a Beta of something he didn't want to be, something he didn't understand at all, and which made him ask the childlike, naive question.

"What happened to me?"

"The same thing that happened to me!"

Was this all a game to Scott? Why did he speak in riddles that only he himself could answer? A feeling of being misunderstood crawled up the ladder of his thoughts, chasing away every state that had existed before. Liam's hands clenched convulsively into the damp forest floor, while Scott knelt before him. But even though he wasn't alone in this moment, where he was on the verge of breaking, the frightened boy had probably never felt so alone.

„I can't tell him... m-my s-stepfather. I can't bring him more bad news."

"Not again?"

Scott didn't understand what Liam was trying to tell him, but something was gnawing at him like a woodworm on a freshly felled tree. He saw it as his job to take care of the kid, even if his short temper would make it anything but easy. His strongly beating heart simply told him he was doing the right thing, regardless of the bite he gave him.

"I got kicked out of school, and I deserved it. The way he looked at me, in front of my former lacrosse coach's destroyed car. He could have been angry, could have yelled at me. I would have been okay with anything, but he did nothing at all, just looked deep into my eyes. With that dark, intense brown that only reflected one emotion. Pure disappointment."

The young wolf could no longer withstand the emotions that were four times stronger, and he started to cry bitterly. The day before yesterday, he thought he was finally leaving the wrong path behind. But then everything changed. His stubborn ambition cornered him so much that he couldn't get himself out of the noose tightening around his scrawny neck, and before he finally opened his turquoise eyes wide, it was already done, and he was no longer what he was supposed to be.

"Liam. It's okay!"

Scott said it as softly and calmly as possible, even though he was in a state of complete turmoil himself. For him, it had always been most important to keep people alive. But Liam could have died on the roof of the hospital, and even if that was the initial reason for what he did, he was now the reason the kid was in danger again. Who knew who he might run into in this state? The Alpha felt sick at the thought and tentatively tried to put his muscular arms around the trembling boy, who, however, didn't allow it at all. Instead, he buried himself in his own self-pity and cried out apathetically.

"I can't see myself like this.... like..." at which point he interrupted himself a moment later and helplessly hiccuped. Yes, what was he? No one had ever prepared him for something like this, explained that it was even possible to become like this, or was it the beginning of the end, and it would ultimately kill him, as the hyperactive Stiles emphasized? Hopelessly, his unruly, medium-blonde hair lifted, and he looked into the velvety dark brown that suddenly seemed so different. Almost accusatory, as he raised his voice.

"Like a monster?" But the question was probably more for himself than for the confused boy, who didn't look away from the older one for a second. He realized by now what a bottomless pit he had just opened. Because the person in front of him briefly showed him his own small world of negative vibrations, before he slowly sat up and spoke to his Beta with deep red eyes:

„You are not a monster! You are a werewolf, like me!"

But it wasn't that statement that made Liam tentatively nod with his mouth wide open, but the feeling of not being alone. Scott seemed to have more in common with him than he had previously thought, and that involved more than just a wolf-like creature howling at the bright full moon at night. No, this was much more profound and caused the inexperienced young wolf to reach out for the offered hand and allow himself to be tentatively pulled into the warming arms. It was a feeling of brotherhood that had never been there before, which brought a slight smile to his face. The pair of turquoise eyes briefly looked back to the spot where he had just been resting in a dejected crouch and, in that moment, as protective hands were placed on his tense back, he hoped never to have to feel that way again.

He would learn soon enough how completely wrong he was.
The slam on the steering wheel was as inhuman as the speed at which he was hurtling down the country road. At that moment, Theo actually believed he was doing the right thing—no, he knew it instantly, as he drove off stubbornly without a wistful look back. That uncertainty would fight its way back twice as intensely at the next intersection was something even the chimera couldn't have expected.

„Calm down! It's better this way," he told himself, as his right foot slowly lifted from the gas pedal. He was now miles away from Beacon Hills, from the annoying little pups, and from his tormenting past. Yes, he had seen her. At first, he thought it was an illusion when Liam grabbed the screaming steering wheel. He himself had not exactly hit his head lightly and therefore believed he had imagined everything. The experience of walking through the Hellmouth, he could never completely put it away. Fragments kept appearing, of Tara greedily digging her hands into his chest, tearing out his heart, which was not originally his, over and over again.

Only Liam's presence held it back. Every small moment of protectively holding the little wolf in his arms let in the light where otherwise only the dark, death-bringing shadows resided. Yes, Theo seemed very certain. His life span had actually long expired, and therefore something permanently clung to him, which was supposed to make him understand where he really belonged.

A trail he was probably, without knowing it, transferring to Liam. The chimera sighed and ran a hand through his short, shaggy brown hair. He didn't understand how it was possible, but yes, he saw Tara bending far over him, her hands clutching his weakly beating heart, wanting to do what she had done to him for so long. But in contrast to Theo, the little baby wolf was completely innocent, and he would do anything to ensure he lived. The fixed thought, which he had always carried deep within him, but which only became so intensely solidified when Liam brought him back. He wanted the kid to be happy, to jump into his arms laughing, and for his tempting lips to touch his own.

"Damn it!" His fists hit the steering wheel again so hard he thought he had broken both wrists at the same time. But they remained mobile, and the throbbing would disappear in a few minutes, just like all of his injuries—except for a very specific one: that of his heart. Because what had started as a kind of game for Theo had now become completely serious. The drive back from the Hill Valley Zoo grounds, he thought about his true feelings for the first time, while the little pup was still fast asleep. He had to knock him out, even though he would have loved to see the wimp Nolan cry like a pathetic baby, but he did what he considered necessary. Thus, the lesser evil was to knock Liam out. Because in the end, the young werewolf would never be able to forgive himself for this.

He grinned, looking at the passenger seat, where something was slowly stirring. The cute button nose began to wrinkle, while soft smacking sounds could be heard from the pouting mouth. In these moments, the brave Beta looked like the insecure 17-year-old teenager he really was. Completely inexperienced with countless unanswered questions and not burdened by having taken a life. Whether that person was innocent or not. For Theo, only one thing was important: he wanted to protect the childlike side of him, even if it cost him his life. Because Liam was everything Theo lost so early, and that must have been why the short-tempered Beta attracted him so much.

Theo Raeken had long since come to terms with everyone condemning him, not least because of the earliest events in Beacon Hills, or the death of his sister, a year older, whom he had deliberately let drown. No, he himself was the problem, having become a book with seven seals. But who could have blamed the now young adult? After all, no one really knew what had broken little Theo in his earliest childhood, except for Tara. But she would probably never be in a position to answer the now so necessary question. Theo had lied blatantly back then, when he proved to Stiles with the doe-eyed look of a chimera that he had never intentionally taken a life. But that wasn't entirely true, if you interpreted it the way the then 9-year-old did.

Because his sister had injured her leg so badly, she must have been standing in the ice-cold water under the bridge for hours. So who could have proven to him that Tara wouldn't have died even if he had offered her a helping hand? Right, no one, not even himself. So he did what she had done to him all those years. He just looked at her expressionlessly and ignored the tormenting screams that reflected her fight for survival as if they were his own, something he never truly let go of. Especially in the years with the Dread Doctors, where he lived behind bars like a guinea pig, his youthful mind began to race.

The faded scars on his skin, he saw them so clearly through his blue-green eyes, as if they had just been violently inflicted on him, and contrary to expectations, they did not come from the insane scientists who now functioned more like machines themselves, but from the people he had to thank for his very existence.

"Theo, you are a complete failure."

Failure! What a great meaning this word would come to have for little Theo, he couldn't have guessed at that moment, as the fully extended fist dug knee-deep into his stomach. But where a boy would normally collapse with a loud scream, the youngest Raeken remained as motionless as possible, because if there was one thing he wasn't, it was stupid. Theo learned much faster than others and understood things that should have been incomprehensible for his age. He knew how to completely shut off his emotions, only to use them when they brought him the greatest benefit. Which didn't mean he felt nothing.

The wall could be as massive and high as it was, but in the impenetrable interior, a storm was raging, constantly stirring up every fate he had experienced, and at some point, even the most defenseless individual would suddenly turn around and take the striking hand into his own. At this point, they found him. Scientists who had long lost all humanity. Where did they suddenly come from? No one knew for sure, but like so many things, it was the small town of Beacon Hills that magically attracted them to create the ultimate evil. Living machines that had no chance of survival without strange, green-glowing fluids and expressionless, colorless masks.

Beings who only remained here for one thing: to drive away pain and terror. But every insidious evil needed pure good at its origin, and even though no one would have thought it possible, on that evening it was the little 9-year-old injured boy who walked right into their arms. The whimpering and begging plea had lured them to him, for his most fervent wish was almost impossible to overlook.

„Please, make it stop!"

"Pitter... Patter." The moisture hit the worn black leather with unusual force, and even though the chimera had just believed, despite his superhuman hearing, that he had imagined these sounds, the repeated action turned it into pure truth, even though Theo didn't want to accept it, as he numbly wiped the tormenting moisture from his tense face with gritted teeth. Unbelievable but true, he was crying. The described monster, who ruthlessly took innocent lives just to reach a certain goal, finally showed his true nature after a long time.

A young man limping through his self-built labyrinth riddled with countless traps, without even guessing where the saving exit was. Resigned, he pulled the corners of his mouth up slightly. What irony to be standing right back where it all began.

"We can make it stop, Theo Raeken."

"W-who are you?"

"That is of no consequence now. Let the walls fall, boy!" The distorted voice, the rattling breath, which could only have been artificially created, while the rusty, lead-smelling mask made the little trembling human gag. Factors that all pointed to turning around as quickly as possible and running, as far as the tormented child's feet could carry him. So why didn't Theo do it? For the very reason that the kicked one, instead of disappearing, turned to his tormentor and sought their proximity with a false grin. It was time to finally strike back.

Yes, back then, Theo decided his own fate by choosing what he considered to be the easy path, with childlike belief. The inexperienced child probably realized far too late that this was more an illusion than reality. Because what the Dread Doctors were best at was manipulating. The small, harmless mosquito became the death-bringing insect that caused Ebola.

A brief flicker of golden-yellow, the sign of a Beta wolf, into the bright, almost icy blue. Which revealed much more than the chimera would ever want to admit. Feeling remorse was the real reason for the eye color change. A realization that Stiles Stilinski, self-proclaimed professional detective of Beacon Hills, at least when it came to tracking down rotten things that stank to high heaven, recognized immediately, and yet it played into the hands of his former fourth-grade classmate. His eyes remained as bright yellow as the liquid honey of a maple tree. But now, on this night, something happened to the chimera that brought the harsh reality to the surface as he looked intently into the rear-view mirror of Stiles's Jeep. Because suddenly, his soul-bearers changed to the color of freezing ice.

"So it's finally starting."

The body that had just been resting was now startled, with every nerve contracting, while his dark pupils twitched and danced. His gaze was still focused on himself—at least, he was firmly convinced that only his reflection was there. But when his concentration shifted to what was behind him, he saw the familiar blue-green, the black bristly long hair, and the smile dripping with greed, before it vanished from nothing as quickly as it had come.

„T-that can't be me... I-I... I did the right thing, didn't I?"

Did he? Honoring his sudden protective instinct. For Theo himself, it was probably the most logical conclusion to get the kid out of the line of fire. But was it the right way? What if the evil had counted on exactly that and would then attack when the last annoying obstacle cleared the direct path?

"This is such a damn piece of shit! Start, damn it!"

He only now realized that Stiles's dented light-blue Jeep was standing completely silently on the desolate country road, as the brilliant blue gave way to the tearful green again, and his trembling hands kept turning the creaking ignition. A slight rumble, an uncontrolled jolt, and then complete silence again. Theo didn't know how many times he tried, because he had given up counting by now. The more he got entangled in it, the less he would be able to control himself. The quirk that he sarcastically always attributed to the pups was suddenly transferring to himself, and if a miracle didn't happen right now, even in the form of an incredible, imaginative sparkle, he would tear this junk car into its individual parts.
But it didn't come to that.

Because something unexpected happened that Theo hadn't seen coming. Because when his phone suddenly rang shrilly, the old diesel engine started rattling at the same time. Was there a connection? He would find out soon, as he pressed the speaker very close to his right ear and, as calmly as possible at that moment, answered the call...

Chapter Text

There was a time, when Theo showed his true face with an almost unimaginable cruelty, and it was at this very moment that he came to a place where he was probably least expected. He came to a person who had never trusted him from the start, and yet, he was here now. The actual reason for this was something only the first Chimera knew. It couldn't possibly be remorse, could it?

With a trembling body, the hyperactive boy sat on the bottom step of the stairs he had been running down for as long as he could remember. The door was wide open, with the last rays of the summer sun probably tickling his tear-streaked face. Stiles clutched helplessly at his best friend’s black shirt. The person he thought he had lost for good, and it was less about their falling out, though Scott had mercilessly made it clear which side he truly stood on. The thought still shook the scrawny boy to his core. How could the person he would personally go to bat for believe he would intentionally kill someone? The person who had targeted his father from the beginning and was now targeting him?

Although Stiles wasn't exactly a muscular powerhouse like every other supernatural creature in the vicinity, his mind worked at full speed, making his messy brown head glow. The revenge-thirsty Chimera named Donovan would never have come after him alone. Even if he saw his father as the root of all evil, in his eyes, he was still the reason for his nascent police career. Donovan must have been led by someone, someone who also almost killed Scott. Actually, his best friend had been clinically dead, but somehow he survived and was now upstairs in Stiles's family home, waiting, just as the human was. Both of them knew for sure that he would come. The heavy feeling that settled around their too-quickly beating hearts was the last thing they needed to confirm it. All they could do was hope that Theo wouldn't notice.

"Yeah, now we all tell the truth."

With a smugness, he crossed the threshold, a meter-high shadow falling on the flinching human. There he stood, Theo Raeken, an alleged classmate from the fourth grade who had suddenly disappeared after his sister Tara's tragic accident and just as suddenly reappeared completely changed. Not only was his demeanor entirely different, but there was nothing left of the shy little boy who preferred to keep to himself, just as there was nothing left of his human state. Stiles snorted suspiciously to himself, his tear-filled amber eyes fixated on the sight before him. An unusually muscular stature, sharp, penetrating green-blue eyes, and a distinct, cocky growl with every breath. The thing in front of him was no longer a teenager, the thing in front of the insecure human was just as superhuman as the being who stood less than a meter away from him and must never be discovered by the Chimera.
Therefore, the scent-filled piece of clothing he practically shoved down the throat of the evil one was the only solution to maintain this facade. Because Stiles knew the fake werewolf well enough by now to realize that he had already picked up the trail of the truth.

"You killed my best friend!"

Bingo! Stiles had Theo's full attention. Even though he was feeding him a complete lie, Theo surprisingly bought it. At least, that's what he assumed; whether it was really true remained to be seen.

„Let's be honest, Stiles! Is he really still your best friend?"

Not long ago, the cocky human, whose heart was more on his tongue than deep in his chest, would have answered that unnecessary question with a simple yes. But now, things were completely different. Stiles had no idea how to answer, and he probably did exactly what played into Theo's hands. He sidetracked, focusing on the real problem that was bothering him, why they were playing this whole game, and why Scott McCall, the true Alpha of the pack to which the human still belonged, let him, completely unarmed, get near the unpredictable Chimera. They needed answers, and as fast as possible.

"Not if my dad dies."

Because that was about to happen, even though Melissa wanted him to believe something completely different. Which brought them back to how bright Stiles's messy little head was, and yet he clasped his cramping hands together, hoping for a miracle.

„I didn't want him to die when I told you where to find him."

A look of disbelief was in the amber eyes that stared into the shrewd green-blue ones. Did Theo really expect gratitude from him now? Because he found his father more dead than alive due to a tip from this asshole? It certainly seemed that way as Stiles vented his frustration.

"Then why is his body gradually shutting down while all the toxins are poisoning him? Isn't that a choice?"

"I'm not the bad guy, Stiles! I'm just a realist. I'm a survivor. If you knew the things I know."

"Yeah, well, what exactly do you know?"

Yeah, what? Why didn't he continue, and why was he staring at his face with an expression that almost seemed pitiful? To everyone's regret, he had shown his talent for being a genuine actor for long enough. But now, he didn't need to wear this charade on his fake face anymore. Everyone knew what he was capable of without even twitching an extremely long eyelash.

"I know what's coming. I know what the Dread Doctors created, and I know what Parrish is. Lydia found out. I saw it in her memories."

"Right after you drove her out of her mind."
In the truest sense of the word. Okay, Stiles knew by now that Lydia often seemed a little strange, especially when her Banshee abilities were active. After all, she saw death; she didn't cause it herself, but she could feel every detail, right down to a broken fingernail, and no one would willingly do that. The fact that she had now completely lost her mind thanks to Theo's actions happened at the worst possible time, and it hurt Stiles to the bottom of his soul because Lydia was still his first great love, a love he would probably never get returned.

"Collateral damage. If she's right about Parrish, things are going to get a lot worse here."

"I don't care!"

What? What was he babbling about? This was about Lydia, the girl he had been in love with since they first met in first grade, and about Parrish, whom he had known as his father's loving and responsible colleague, and finally about his Dad himself, who was fighting for his life at this very moment, and this walking encyclopedia had nothing more to say about it? Helplessly, he ran his cold hands over his now sweaty forehead. He could practically feel it, the bitter end was getting closer and closer, and he was right in the middle of it.

"You should, because if your father survives, he won't be Sheriff of anything anymore."

"What's going on?"

Stiles was finally fed up with beating around the bush. He wanted answers, all the facts laid out on the cleared table, not to pick up crumbly bread clumps from the dirty floor that didn't get him anywhere. He couldn't say exactly where the sudden burst of energy came from, but with an awkward step, he was surprisingly quickly in front of Theo, the person he shouldn't trust, and yet the Chimera was the only one here at that moment, if you ignored the hidden Scott, and was telling him things—whether truths or not—that weren't meant for his ears. At least, not if they were working against each other. For a brief moment, the human had hope of turning everything around for the better, even if it was just for a millisecond.

Because shortly after, the root of all evil suddenly turned around with a smirk, wanting to disappear as quickly as he came. But Stiles Stilinski wouldn't allow that. It didn't matter that he was dealing with a superhuman being who could split him in two with a single blink.

„Hey, tell me!" he yelled at the shorter boy demandingly, while reaching aggressively for his right shoulder. After that, everything happened too fast. Stiles fell backward. A stabbing pain spread from his cracking neck to the remaining regions of his scrawny body, and all he heard through a dull, thick fog was a name...

"Stiles? Get up, Stiles!"

"S-Scott?"

Stiles whispered his best friend's name when he finally managed to stay in the present. He shook his messy head multiple times until he was so dizzy that he leaned against the front door for support, which then creaked and gave way. His amber eyes widened as the realization grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled him along mercilessly. Scott must have acted rashly again and seemed to have entered the little, foolish puppy's house completely clueless, and alone!!! Without him!!! A brief pout came to Stiles's face, which he couldn't stop. Wasn't it enough that he had to pick him up? Well, yes, he used to do that constantly, but back then, he still had his beloved "baby," which often let him down but still started up in the worst danger zones. His old lady, his first car, which he had reluctantly given to Scott.

But contrary to expectations, he didn't treat the light blue, rusty Jeep with the same devotion as he did. Okay, Stiles also used very few methods to keep his baby running, double-sided tape, for example, but he never lost the car. Unlike with his best friend, the car was suddenly completely untraceable. Of course, Stiles hadn't let it go and had certainly bombarded him with questions until the Alpha's eyes flashed a telltale red. But the skeptical human still didn't get any real answers.

Only one thing seemed clear to him: Scott must have lent his baby to someone. Someone? More like a very specific person. A dripping with sarcasm, almost perfectly created body, whose hands, trembling with every muscle, were knee-deep in his best friend's bleeding chest, while his glowing golden-yellow eyes lit up with greed. The thought shook Stiles mercilessly. He had almost lost everything he stood for to the abyss of evil that was Theo Raeken, and through which his life had been turned upside down, and he had learned about things that a normal person should never see.

Maybe it was his differently-thinking subconscious that made him jump back to that scene, just before the Chimera brutally but deservedly slid into the abyss of hell, where he was greeted with a welcome party with his dead sister.
But as it always was, fate once again made decisions that were none of its business. The "asshole finger" shot out of Stiles's relatively large hand on its own to show his displeasure. It was clear from the beginning that their baby wolf would get weak and collapse like a painstakingly built house of cards.

But the fact that Scott was giving this murderous individual a chance again was beyond stupid. Sighing, Stiles ran his hands over his cold, wet forehead. He couldn't change the misery now anyway, but he could make sure that Liam didn't completely fall into a spiral. Because the fact that the two were attached like sticky gummy bears didn't suit him at all. So the human tried to concentrate on his remaining senses, which were anything but supernatural. He felt his way forward with his splayed fingers. It was probably still relatively early, but not so early that one could blame the unusual darkness inside on it. Although his blinking eyes slowly got used to the condition, climbing the steep stairs was pure torture.

He was now cursing himself for having chosen this path. But something was driving him there, and he would be damned if he didn't follow that feeling. That was the most important thing he had learned over the last few years—to listen to his gut feeling, even though his training had taught him completely different virtues. "5...6...7" he counted the steps breathlessly, which was completely idiotic because Stiles didn't know the beginning or the end, but it was a childish habit that still helped him to calm down and stay clear-headed. The shrewdness that led him out of the insurmountable labyrinth before anyone else. His hobbyhorse, on which he now had to concentrate, imagining the gears squeaking as they began to move, while he felt the level ground under his black rubber soles.

"Waaah!!!"

He had barely anything to complain about with his slender body when his prominent shoulder blades suddenly drilled into the wall that had been behind him. He exhaled the little oxygen he had left loudly, while his still irritated eyes widened unhealthily. There he stood, an FBI candidate who had maneuvered himself out of the way in the first tricky situation and was basically the threatening knife pressing into a tense back. He swallowed dryly, forcing the scared human not to blink. He wanted to see who was threatening him, who was going to give him the final, ill-fated blow. He had to memorize every little detail because maybe it would be of use to him. He strained to see into the darkness, which seemed endless. Not a single spark of light brought any relief. His optic nerve was now twitching in intervals, so intent was he on seeing something. Be it a lock of hair, the unusual colorful tattoo on the right upper arm, or the blood-soaked red pupils that were moving closer and closer to him.

„Scott?"

"Stiles?"

"Are you serious, bro?"

Even though the situation didn't deserve a bit of sarcasm, it was exactly what led the human to expertly roll his amber eyes. After all, they were talking about a werewolf who asked this question. The one who, with his Alpha power, was almost painfully pressing him against the rough wall and showed no signs of stopping. His outstretched thin arms flailed wildly, while Stiles's famous big mouth was running at full speed again.

"No, the Easter Bunny. Of course, it's me, you idiot. Your best friend, who played taxi for you while you gambled away my beloved car, and now let me go, you arrogant, growling dog!"

"Hey, I didn't gamble it away!"

In Scott's changing facial expression, one could easily see how much the whole thing seemed to bother him, as he raised his broad hands in a placating gesture. On the one hand, he did this to smooth things over between him and Stiles, since he had just returned to Beacon Hills after a long time, and on the other hand, the situation was completely different.

„Sorry, bro, but my senses were messed up. I thought you were something else."

"Yeah, sure, Scott, that's what I'd say too. Do you know that you're a damn W-e-r-e-w-o-l-f?"

With wiggling air quotes, Stiles emphasized the half-yelled word of his best friend's current state with his nimble index and middle fingers, just as they froze in mid-air.

„W-wait, what did you just say?"

Actually, Stiles didn't even have to ask that question. He understood every frantic syllable his best friend babbled clearly and distinctly, and yet his brain was trying to play tricks on him. Because it wasn't that Scott claimed to have suspected someone else; no, his wording only allowed for one conclusion: something else was here. Something that even made an Alpha break out in a cold sweat before the normal human once again acted before thinking about the fatal consequences for himself. Because this wasn't about him now, but about...

"L-Liam!!!"

"You should come, Theo, and it's urgent!"

The Chimera almost dropped the now soaking wet smartphone from his right sweaty hand as Scott's demand ended so abruptly. His throat felt dusty and dry, and no matter what the young, overwhelmed man tried, he couldn't get a proper sound out. But maybe that was better. Because nothing was probably worse than letting Scott McCall understand his true feelings. After all, it was he who had found him completely broken a few days ago in the forest. At the fateful bridge that had led his young, inexperienced life in a completely wrong direction. Sometimes you are just one decision away from a completely new life? But hadn't the Chimera, who until now had known nothing but the bloodthirsty pursuit of power, already lost that game?

"Theo? Hey, are you still there?"

"How bad is it?"

Almost frozen cold, without any feeling in his male voice, he gave Scott his answer with a snort through the speaker, while the first thick tears welled up. The blue-green eyes flickered betrayingly several times, and he almost painfully bit his full lower lip. He actually knew the answer. Nobody knew it better than he did. Because in the end, he had been the cause, and yet he wasn't even close to being prepared to hear it come from Scott's mouth.

„Deaton gives him a few hours at most."

"I-I'll be there soon!"

Scratchy and hoarse, Theo just managed to form these last words before he hung up overeagerly. He aggressively turned the ignition key to the right, and to his astonishment, Stiles's old vehicle purred like a cuddling kitten. He shook his head in disbelief. Fate had already decided for him. All he could do was hope to still be able to change Liam's mind. Because Theo saw that as his task. From the moment the little puppy looked at him with poison, he knew it.

That kid would be his downfall one day.

Chapter Text

There was a moment, after Theo escaped his dead sister's greedy, maniacal grasp, when he thought he was going to lose his life all over again. How he'd maneuvered himself into this situation? Well, the chimera didn't really know that himself. The last thing he remembered was fighting off sleep behind the wheel of his charcoal-gray pickup until his exhausted body finally gave in, and he pulled into the nearest parking spot on the side of a secluded country road. Theo had been so tired he'd barely managed to turn off the engine before the encroaching blackness completely overwhelmed him.

Furious, inhuman screams were the next thing to assault the chimera's hypersensitive ears, before he opened his blue-green eyes in annoyance. Even though he was essentially a superhuman being, every bone in his body ached, making him feel the urgent need to stretch. But all he could manage was a quick twitch of his wrists. He scrunched his face skeptically as he tried again. That attempt was also fruitless. That's when everything became clear, as he keenly focused on his surroundings. He was, once again, knee-deep in a world of shit. He had no idea who the two figures next to him were, and Theo couldn't care less. But it was abundantly clear to the now fuming coyote that they were a significant part of this mess. Even if the messed-up truth was completely different, to the chimera it was simply a fact, and nothing and no one could change that.

He didn't know how much time had passed since he woke up, but it was probably enough time to analyze everyone involved in detail. Next to him stood a female and a male young werewolf, most likely around Liam's age and just as rash, as it turned out moments later when they tried to provoke the human in front of them with their ridiculous threats. This was just as successful as walking through the creaking door across the way while whistling loudly. Theo, on the other hand, had a completely different strategy. He would vehemently play dumb; that had always worked best for him.

"No death. No pain. I'll tell you everything you want to know!" Well, that went completely wrong. The sudden jolt of electricity that briefly shook every fiber of his body was anything but pleasant. "I have no questions." This pathetic bastard. Every human could be bought, and this piece of trash even more so. Theo had seen this kind of generic face enough times before, or maybe he knew it too well? Because something told him he had seen this ugly mug before.

"Okay. Maybe you have some unfinished business with these two losers? But I'm not with them."

"I-I don't know who t-they are, or w-what they d-did, or or... what your problem is. I'm not a part of it," Theo stammered soberly, helplessly rattling his now aching wrists. He used to do that all the time as a kid, making those garbled statements when he was so overwhelmed he didn't know what to do with himself. But he thought he had long since overcome that habit, at least until now, and before he could even decide to stop it, the choice was violently taken away from him as a gush of cold water hit him right in the face.

"That wasn't nice," the now shivering chimera snorted, his Argus eyes keenly fixed on the red knob of the dial that the stinking individual was grinningly turning up. The guy was like a filthy, disgusting cockroach that you just couldn't catch, no matter how many times you stomped on it. But to rebel against the human now would probably be the stupidest thing he could do, because whether Theo liked it or not, this asshole had the upper hand.

"Do it now!" Theo couldn't react that fast—or rather, how could he react at all, tied up as he was—when the next electric shock shook him hard. But this time it was much more violent, and he couldn't suppress a loud, gut-wrenching scream. His stomach literally turned as he wearily turned his expressive face to the right. "How about you let me talk?" What he really meant was, wait until my hands, where my claws are now sharply extending, are mine again. But since the snarling girl seemed to be reasonable, he turned his head back to his actual target and started to have a proper conversation. "You obviously have us here for a reason."

He screamed again, because once more, razor-sharp electrical currents shot through him, making him drop his head forward minutes later, gasping for breath. And even as the almost unbearable pain gradually faded, he kept shaking. It was so intense that the next words left his bone-dry mouth in choppy fragments. "If you... if you tell me what you want..." It was no longer a coherent sentence; the supernatural chimera was slowly reaching his limits. But Theo would never admit that, especially now that the thick fog in his thoughts was finally dissolving.

The next electric shock sent his nerves into a frenzy. He gasped, taking in the desperately needed oxygen that was tragically leaving him with every jolt. "Damn it! I'm trying to help you," Theo said, his face contorted in pain, unable to look away from his tormentor. No matter how empathetic his words might sound to a stranger, was he really doing that? Wasn't he trying to help himself instead? Or even using the losers whimpering weakly beside him without any mercy for his own means, even if this step should have been well-considered on his part? By now, he wasn't even trying to fight against the stabbing attacks anymore—at least that's what it felt like with every new shock—as his legs gave way more and more and his buckling knees did the rest, but the fury kept him upright. He angrily conveyed this to the gasping girl right next to him. "What the hell did you two do?" The thought that he might have been involved in this himself, even by a tiny spark, must have been floating around in his sharp mind, but it never occurred to him.

"Alright...how...can...can you maybe..." He was shaking again, gasping, so intensely that he was starting to lose his mind. His vision was getting more and more blurry until he was no longer sure if he hadn't already fallen into the blessed relief of unconsciousness. But if that was the case, could he do this?

"Stop it! Stop it!" Could he scream, while the last bit of oxygen left his lungs with a wheeze? "Good!"

Why "good"? Nothing was good. It was so depressing that he just sighed heavily, while the real culprits of the whole mess became vehemently clear to him. The two relatively freshly-hatched pups who had put not only themselves but also him in mortal danger. If we get out of here alive...I'll kill you myself. Most people who knew Theo knew he was capable of that, and it was slowly dawning on these two, who hadn't yet had that pleasure, that the chimera was not kidding. Even though he had actually planned to completely rethink the rest of his life, he now gave all his negative energy a target. Although in this case it was two foolish teenagers who reminded him so much of a certain young werewolf, throwing his previously planned path overboard.

"And then I'll..." Yeah, what would he do then? The inspiration flared up before his blue-green eyes like the glowing cable tie holding him there, and it brought Theo back a little bit of hope. Now all he had to do was make the plan he had just spontaneously concocted work.
"So...that's all you got? Because I'm not impressed." The fake chuckle that came from him made the human's face fall completely as he moved closer and closer to the cunning chimera.

This was something Theo had hoped for, because now he had the man's full attention, and he would use it. "What did they do? Give you permission to shock us a little, but not to cause any real harm? They don't trust you, Schrader! Yeah, that's right. I remember you." The supernatural creature was still breathing heavily, but the satisfaction of seeing this pathetic maggot so perplexed lessened his pain, if only for a short time, according to his conclusion. Because knowing his enemy down to the core didn't make it any easier in this moment. "Weird little sadist from the Oak House. Did they fire you? Or did you get out of there before they realized you're another psychopath? You should've been locked up with the other freaks!" Theo grinned at him with every sadistically dripping word, but he couldn't completely suppress a slight shiver that went through his entire battered body. Where on earth did he get all this secret information that was suppressed in that lunatic asylum of damnation until it mixed with the dried bloodstains on the greasy floor?

"No, they fired you, didn't they? Did they catch you trying to stick needles back into helpless patients? Or did they catch you trying to tape them with something else?"
Because he had experienced all of that himself.
One last time. One single time when his skin felt like it was burning alive, his heart stopped for a second before starting to beat at triple speed. The maximum of what was bearable had long been exceeded, every fiber was slowly starting to go numb, whistling sounds penetrated his hearing, and his wrists were on fire. Flames that he had summoned and was now using with his last ounce of strength. His eyelids instantly flickered shut before the power of the Golden eclipsed everything else. The shocked face of his adversary, Schrader—Theo couldn't imagine anything more beautiful as he lured him closer with a gasp, only as far as the spraying sparks allowed, but far enough to do what he had been striving for from the very beginning. "It looks like..."

"...I'm the winner!"
And he was. You must have heard the roar all over town as the cable ties sliced through like butter, and the next moment the oblivious human fell to the floor. Theo stood over him unsteadily. The whole thing had taken a bigger toll on him than he cared to admit, and his seething murderous rage, just under his glowing skin, had almost made him rip Schrader's head off. But he didn't. Instead, he tied him up where he himself had been suffering moments ago and left him to himself.

Where did the mercy suddenly come from? Well, that was probably the question Theo put in first place in terms of urgency as he calmly zipped up his beige sweatshirt. He would get his answers. But for that, he had to get out of here as fast as possible. To a place he had never wanted to set foot in again, and yet it always magically drew him back.

Beacon Hills

Why he couldn't stop the sudden smile that was spreading across his chapped lips just at the name was probably because of the person he couldn't get out of his head. Person? He hadn't been that for a long time, at least not to him. To him, he was the most annoying, clumsy pup with massive potential for aggression he knew. Which didn't mean he didn't like that aspect of him.
He loved this boy.

"Come on, Stiles!"

"What do you think I'm doing? This thing has a 6-speed transmission." With a mix of 'Are you serious, bro?' and 'Say one more thing and I'm getting out,' the hyperactive Stiles looked at Scott through the rearview mirror. And yet, he couldn't be mad at his best friend, whose dark eyes reflected so much concern that it literally took the know-it-all human's breath away.

The trouble with the gear stick, which simply wouldn't go into reverse. Or the third pedal, whose function Stiles absolutely didn't understand, was completely irrelevant. Dammit, he only drove automatic, and all they had wanted to do was wake up the little pup, who was squirming wildly with a crumpled face, kissing the wooden floor with his cute little button nose. They never would have thought it would end like this.

"He's freezing cold!" Scott's hands gently stroked the now-grown medium-blond hair, so carefully as if he was afraid of breaking something. But was that so bad? Until a moment ago, Liam had shown no signs of life, his breathing was shallow, his normally intense turquoise eyes were hidden deep beneath closed lids, and his usually slightly tanned skin looked grayish. Stiles bit down hard on his pushed-out lower lip as he started driving with a jolt. He didn't understand what had happened; yesterday everything seemed to be fine. He remembered the long, tight hug, where the young wolf's small, warm body had pressed against his. Of course, Stiles wouldn't be Stiles if he hadn't noticed certain factors that disturbed the normal state. For example, how much leeway the human suddenly had as he wrapped his rather slender arms around the pup in a storm of a hug. The dark shadows under the eyes that usually looked for curiosity, plus his entire behavior, which seemed completely absent. As if his young, action-seeking mind had long since disappeared.

But Liam had been involved in a damn car accident, which, in his opinion, could only have been caused by that know-it-all asshole. Scott probably thought he had to lecture him—while he was almost suffocating from a lack of air just to catch his flight to Beacon Hills on time—that it was completely different. But Scott was already blinded by his good nature again. Theo 'fucking' Chimera Reaken brought nothing but trouble. You could see that now. Where was he, when they found Liam almost lifeless on the cold, black-and-white tiled floor of the bathroom? Right, gone! As so often, and even if this realization couldn't really make Stiles happier, it was the small, clumsy young wolf whose wildly beating heart would be hurt by all this. Mr. Quick-witted sighed and ran a hand through his messy brown hair as they stopped at the red light. He had to admit one thing: Hayden's disappearance had not gone unnoticed by Liam, and even though the human didn't know exactly what had happened between them, he did notice that their surrogate son had changed unwillingly.

Stiles still remembered well enough how the boy was when their destinies mixed and a hot-tempered teen became a walking powder keg. During that time, there was practically no day when the human didn't try to smooth things over. Because let's be honest, Scott was probably the true Alpha, but without his best friend's clever conclusions, he was practically useless. A tormentingly annoying task that even tested Stiles's patience, and now it was a character trait that he suddenly missed yearningly. Just for a moment, he saw it flare up yesterday in Deaton's office, when two supernatural individuals keenly stared at each other. The otherwise cool-tempered room suddenly contained a seething heat, like stabbing flames that rose to the ceiling. Just a brief look between the two, and Stiles knew. Their beta had fallen in love again, which was actually one of the most wonderful things one could experience. A strong physical and spiritual attraction that two destined souls shared with each other. A bond that no outsider would ever understand. The more the human thought about these aspects while his widened pupils focused on the glowing red light, the scales fell from his eyes. But why did it have to be him of all people? The person Stiles had never truly trusted and was right about. The supposed werewolf who turned out to be a chimera and was in cahoots with the Dread Doctors. There was no feeling more satisfying than knowing Theo was miles deep in some rotten hole, on the other hand, Liam probably wouldn't have been alive for a long time if Theo hadn't wrapped himself around him like a golden, shimmering shell upon his return.

Why did the arrogant creature act so unusually different only with Liam? His entire being turning 180 degrees so suddenly? Stiles chalked it up to Theo's perfectly rehearsed acting skills combined with the knowledge that the little young wolf held the keys to the rest of his life. Well, he used to hold them, so that argument had become practically useless. But the extremely annoying chimera remained, even if not in the direct line of sight, he was close enough that nothing bad would ever happen to the pup, like a promise he imposed on himself and bet his own life on. So why the hell wasn't Theo here now?

"Stiles?"

The young adult flinched in shock, prematurely kissing the hard leather of the steering wheel with his wrinkled forehead. Cursing, he held the now painfully throbbing spot with his free hand, while he heard his name called out again, so panicked that he could only turn his bruised head.

"Stiles?"

The dark brown of Scott's eyes held an unusual moisture, while his muscular arms wrapped around the sleeping-looking body. Not even the thinnest sheet of paper would have found a space in between. At first, Stiles thought his best friend was trying to convey that he was protecting his beta with everything he had, which was true. But in that moment, as the Alpha's lips moved helplessly, he saw something else entirely. He saw the naked, panicked fear that Scott was trying to compensate for with his action so that the werewolf in him wouldn't completely lose it, as the red in his irises glowed uncontrollably.

"What if Liam..."

"No! Don't say it! Don't even think about it, you hear me?" Stiles knew what Scott wanted to tell him, and it would have been a huge mistake if he hadn't already thought about that ending himself, but the human would never say it out loud. He'd rather turn back to the steering wheel and press the gas pedal a little too impulsively, causing the tires to start smoking as they continued their journey with a relatively rough start. Not a word came from either of them again. Only if you listened very closely, you could hear a quiet murmur. A whisper that matched the sound of the engine and, in the silent moments, revealed a very specific name.

"...Theo..."

Chapter Text

"The worst part about being strong is,
that no one ever asks if you're okay..."

The rustling of the brown-covered leaves was loud in the young wolf's sensitive ears as his steps quickened. Large, solid tree trunks became small, thin, creaking twigs; the meter-high, lush green grass of the fields suddenly seemed like a tiny blade of grass, and the few adjacent houses could have found their place in a miniature museum. Not long ago, the 15-year-old teenager still believed he was one of the very fast ones, but now, thinking about it, that human way of thinking seemed almost laughable. He had never encountered this kind of speed, where even the tides were thrown into disarray. Panting, he took in the fresh oxygen, drew it rapidly through his heaving lungs, and exhaled it straight back into the same moment.

He blissfully closed his piercing turquoise eyes for a brief moment and let the cool incoming wind tickle the tip of his nose. This was exactly what he needed. Something that could keep up with his untamed rage. At that moment, he didn't care at all that Mason was screaming for him in desperation, slowly losing his breath. Yes, he could hear him from here, because unlike his best friend, who was, after all, a normal human, completely different laws applied to him—laws that far surpassed those of a human. Liam's energy reserves weren't even properly depleted; wounds healed within minutes, while his senses sharpened so much that he thought he could hear the smallest ant scuttling across the ground, pushing a ball ten times its size in front of it. The young wolf's eyelids flickered open, and the expression in his eyes had completely changed.

The initial euphoria was now tinged with unbearable worry and self-doubt, and the concern of constantly lying to Mason. The two of them usually told each other everything, except for the tiny detail that Liam was no longer just a human, and that was what was tearing him apart. It wasn't just his current condition that he struggled with every day. No, it was also his best friend's shimmering, chocolate-brown eyes, which widened suspiciously as they scrutinized the insecure teenager with almost no distance. The young wolf didn't need his superhuman abilities to know that Mason suspected something. Maybe even more than what was good for him.

The very quality Liam had always admired in him—eagerly and impulsively exploring unusual and strange things on his own—could, in this case, not only cost him his otherwise stable bones but, in the worst-case scenario, his young, foolish life. The panting creature's dark sneaker soles rolled more and more slowly over the asphalt until he suddenly stood completely still. Even though it had been on his nervous, twitching tongue so many times, he just couldn't bring himself to say it over his loudly beating heart. What if Mason suddenly despised him? What if he screamed and ran away from him, or attacked him with something silver?

The boy sighed in agony, running his hands through his short, cropped, medium-blond hair. Questions upon questions, for which he would only get answers if he was finally completely honest with Mason. "I guess I have no other choice, I have to tell him," he mumbled through gritted teeth. The heat that had built up in his muscular body began to get cold as he looked around, confused. He didn't know how long he had been standing there, but it was definitely too long. But something was stopping him from simply ending his jog carelessly. It sounded like an engine, constantly accelerating, its roar getting louder and louder in his sensitive ears. Liam frowned. Even though his hearing was almost always reliable, why, for heaven's sake, would a car be here on the isolated footpath of the Beacon Hills city park?

„I must be going crazy."

Yes, definitely. This could only be a mistake of his superhuman senses, which, like a blaring siren, announced the impending disaster not far ahead, although there was no sign of it. His medium-blond hair flew around as he shook his head. Sometimes he wished he could just switch these abilities off, casually pat his taut shoulders with the back of his hand, turn around, and leave. That's exactly what Liam did. He stood in the dust of the stirred-up soil and was about to lift the first rubber sole—which felt almost cemented to the ground—when something hit him from behind with full force.

The flailing pup was thrown back several meters, far too surprised to brace for the impact. He heard a tell-tale crack on the left side of his ribs, and while parts of his face burned slightly, he seemed to have hit his head on the asphalt. But none of that was a problem; as a werewolf, it would only take a few minutes for him to be completely healed. The reason he was lying here, unable to properly get up, gave him more to think about. He looked ahead with an overwhelmed expression, protectively holding his throbbing ribs with his free hands.

"Hello, Liam!"

The slender blond boy, who was not much older than Liam himself, got out of the black pickup with a completely monotonous and emotionless expression and moved tormentingly slowly toward him as if he had all the time in the world. Liam frowned. He knew him, of course he did. He was the one who had almost demandingly sought his attention, and even though Scott had warned him, it was secretly the wish to be popular for once in his life that made him smile honestly on the lacrosse field back then. It was only now, as his turquoise eyes narrowed and fixated on the flashing object in his supposed friend's hands, that it dawned on him that his Alpha might have been completely right about Garrett.

„You know, I actually had something special planned for you. But since you literally jumped in front of my car, I couldn't wait any longer. That must be a sign, don't you think? And now hold still! We don't want to stab too deep."

"W-what?"

Liam didn't understand what was suddenly happening as he helplessly tried to slide backward. Small, sharp stones dug into his back, making him sharply inhale the dusty air. Could it really be Garrett who was after his life? Not just his life, but every supernatural creature's life was in danger. And it was right now, when Liam could be the one to do something about it, that he himself had become a target, crawling helplessly over rubble and scree, with something razor-sharp digging into his chest and making him scream. His eyes briefly began to glow golden-yellow before his field of vision narrowed more and more until everything around the young, frightened teenager went completely black.

"Plink... Plash..."

Drops on a hot stone, or on a completely soaked body, were what breathed something like life back into the lifeless body of the young wolf. He slowly opened his turquoise eyes, which began to burn painfully from the contact with the dim light. Liam reflexively moved a few steps back, his stiff back hitting hard rock. He groaned in surprise as he took a good look around for the first time. He was standing waist-deep in cold water, surrounded by old, smooth, moss-covered walls, and above him was a tiny little hole through which the light of the almost full moon shone down on him, but couldn't reach him, so deep was the ground he was standing on. His young heart began to beat frantically as he tried to use his bare fingers to climb out.

But something stopped him: the deep, agonizing pain in his chest, which spread further and further to his pulsating bones. He pressed his palms against it, horrified. The cut wasn't very big, two or three centimeters at most, and yet it felt as if someone was slowly flaying him alive. Liam gasped in shock. Was this what it felt like? To be poisoned? For life to slowly but steadily drain out of you, leaving nothing but the rotting sludge he was staring at with moist, tear-filled eyes?

"H-help! Please, somebody help me!"

With trembling, unusually blue-tinged lips, the young wolf screamed desperately upward, hoping someone would hear him. He was so incredibly cold; his muscles were vibrating twice as strongly as usual until he suddenly felt almost nothing at all. Completely numb and motionless, as if every existing limb was slowly dying.

"No...no...no," he roared with the last of his strength, his forearms loudly hitting the surface of the cool water. Liam focused, a practiced skill Scott had taught him to keep his aggression in check. But now he didn't use it for that; instead, he converted it into the energy needed to climb up. His fingertips ached as they dug into the sharp-edged surface, but the young wolf had no other choice but to brace himself almost brutally against it. At the slightest deviation in pressure, he would slide back toward the bottom, and Liam knew that was the one thing that absolutely could not happen, as it would finally seal his fate.

Piece by piece... Centimeter by centimeter... One frantic gasp of breath after another. Liam thought he was imagining things, but it actually seemed to be working, and the luminous exit, surrounded by a broken-out grate, finally came closer to his sniffing nose. As strange as it sounded, Liam felt sick. As if he'd been hit by a 3.5-ton truck, dragged along, and then just left to die alone. He began to cough agonizingly, and a multitude of his bronchial tubes painfully contracted. The little pup thought it must have been several years since he had felt this way. So vulnerable, exhausted, and human. Yes, human. Every fiber of his body burned, his knees shook, and the grip that had been so secure just moments ago slowly began to slip. The young wolf looked pleadingly toward the sky, which was completely cloudless today, allowing every single star to shine brightly, especially the plate-sized moon.

The orb was just a tiny bit away from shining in its full glory, and yet it was precisely this fragile boundary that transformed the boy, gasping for air, into a terrifying monster. The claws on his delicate fingers, which usually extended completely automatically, didn't move a centimeter. The loud roar that sounded like a mythical mountain giant sounded more like a whimpering, lonely puppy, and the sharp, threatening teeth that grew over his throbbing lower lip remained completely normal. Shiny white and perfectly straight, human.

"Whooaaahhh!!!"

The boy's pent-up frustration sought an outlet, so he made himself known with everything he had left. He didn't know how it suddenly worked, but his eyes, which had been turquoise just moments before, flickered golden-yellow as a short but incredibly intense roar left his burning throat, making the adjacent walls shake. He closed his eyelids, exhausted and panting, as his frail human state slowly returned. He hoped so much that someone had heard him, because he was slowly losing his grip. He was only one meter away from his crucial goal, but it seemed insurmountable to him as his rubber soles repeatedly slipped on the slick, protruding stones, and his right hand finally gave up. He fearfully opened his teary eyes one last time, while the moist fingertips of his left hand slowly let go, one after the other. Until the young wolf suddenly grasped at nothing and fell uncontrollably into the depths.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

Liam screamed in fear. Fear of not knowing if he would be lucky enough to survive this ordeal again, and if so, would he even be able to climb back up again? Longing to yell out his frustration in search of help, in the hope that someone would finally hear him? If anyone even heard him, the odds were more like 100,000,000,000 to 1 that he would ever find his way out of here again. Dead or alive.

„Dead or alive,"

Liam repeated these words very softly, internally torn. He fell to the ground, almost lifeless. Even though he longed for it, the little pup knew for sure that no one, absolutely no one, would be able to help him now, which was perhaps the best solution for everything, because he secretly only caused problems for everyone. If he finally disappeared, he would have done something meaningful in his life, even if his own life would end so agonizingly. He closed his eyes, smiling sadly at the thought. How fates sometimes played with each other.

"Got you!"

He almost thought he had imagined it when a firm, determined grip took hold of his left wrist and pulled him up with a single, natural jerk. With legs like jelly, he continued the last bumpy steps on his own until he found a place on the outer wall of the disused well. Liam didn't have to look up to know who was kneeling in front of him, gently stroking his cooled upper arms and protectively pulling him close.

"You're okay, Liam! You're okay!"

Yes, he was. The Beta knew it as he looked up, panting, into his Alpha's chocolate-brown eyes, which signaled blind trust. No matter how exhausted he felt right now and how barely he could keep his eyes open, Scott would never leave him helpless. Scott wasn't just the werewolf who had made him what he was with a harmless bite. The Alpha was like a big brother to him, his family, and they would never abandon him. The sickly exhausted pup was more than sure of that as his flickering eyelids finally closed and his protruding snub nose brushed against his rescuer's muscular chest.
<<<————-

"You're okay, Liam! You're okay!"

The Alpha whispered these words into his seemingly sleeping ward's left ear as he carefully carried him, held close, to Deaton's animal clinic. Yes, he chose those words with full intention. The same words he had spoken before, when he was finally able to hold Liam in his arms again after a long, fruitless search. When he thought he had lost his little, unreasonable Beta with the heightened aggression potential forever. But the little baby wolf, just 15 years old, surprised him again and again, even if it was by screaming out his torment at a frequency only he could hear. Did Liam even know what he was doing at that moment? That was unlikely, because the very special bond between Alpha and Beta had existed from the beginning, even if their path to growing together had been quite bumpy.

An expression that could almost be considered a gross understatement. Rather, they were separated by chasms as deep as the Mariana Trench, which even the full use of the Alpha's superhuman strength could not have overcome. And even though Scott thought he would never again say his name in a sentence about Liam, he did so with the power of his far-roaming thoughts. Thanks to Theo Raeken, their bond had been solidified, even if the devil in person was the one who first made it so one of them was almost a murderer and the other lost his innocent life. In the end, however, they worked together, hand in hand, and have done so ever since.

That constant feeling of having a connection, no matter how careful and quiet, must have been one of the reasons why Scott, along with the hyperactive but brilliant Stiles Stilinski, stood in front of Liam's house in the misty dawn. The musty smell had immediately caught his attention, but he couldn't properly classify it. The present enveloped him, too oppressive and grim. His otherwise reliable senses were paralyzed, so much so that he almost mistook his best friend for the bloodthirsty culprit. "Blood," the thick, pulsating elixir of life that flowed through all his veins—he sensed it throughout the house, but the cause of it remained hidden from him. He wandered around helplessly, his best friend protected directly behind his back, while the concentration of the thick red substance increased so much that the human behind him began to gag loudly. With a pained, distorted face, Stiles covered his mouth and nose with his protective hands, while the Alpha stood in front of him, snarling with bared, sharp-edged teeth and glowing deep red eyes. The werewolf didn't see the enemy coming, but he knew they were there. A reason to shield the weaker of the two.

"Keep People alive!!!"

A constant law deeply ingrained within him, which clearly distinguished him from all other Alphas. A Beta or Omega usually gained the power of an Alpha by killing one, thereby transferring all knowledge and extraordinary strength to them. But Scott McCall was never keen on taking that path. It was perfectly fine with him to remain a Beta forever. He would never have considered intentionally killing someone; his fights went to the extreme only in cases of absolute emergency. Power dynamics that involved innocent third parties and sought to end their short human existence. An argument that forced the young Beta wolf to do things that would otherwise never have happened. The pure strength of his honest and loving character and the sheer willpower to go only so far as to protect the defenseless were what turned his eyes from golden yellow to purplish red.

A true Alpha was born, a being who would become well known beyond the country's borders and would use his newly acquired powers only for good. At the thought, Scott bit down deep on his nervously trembling lower lip. There was one thing, though, that still filled him with guilt today. But in that moment, he only saw the helpless, struggling boy screaming for his life, and Scott didn't think for a single moment when the defenseless teenager lost his grip on the hospital roof and bit him with gusto. A wound that was hardly worth mentioning, and yet it would completely change the life of that young person.

"Scott? Someone's there, Scott!"

Like a predator's reflex, he wrapped his arms around Stiles' slender body and pulled him so close that not even a single sheet of normal white paper could have fit between them. Yes, something was there, and even though his senses were still not doing what they were supposed to, Scott couldn't ignore the heartbeat that was far too slow, the usual warmth of a living being which had almost completely disappeared here, and the unique scent of the sweetness of freshly picked strawberries and creamy vanilla ice cream.

"Liam! Everything's going to be okay, little guy, you hear me?"

The Alpha talked to him at random as he safely cradled him in his lap. It was a position Scott didn't change until this very moment, and even now, standing in Deaton's treatment room with the still-sleeping, slender body in his arms, he made no move to let go of the young wolf. For him, it was the only gesture he could personally make for his ward. To give warmth to the cooled body, which he hoped would reach Liam, no matter where he was or what was happening to him.

„Put him down there, Scott!"

With an uncertain look at his former boss, the Alpha moved hesitantly. The stainless steel table was much colder than the young teenager could possibly be, and it definitely wouldn't do him any good. Nevertheless, with an encouraging nod from Deaton, he did the only logical thing. His warm, broad hands found the soft, medium-blond hair of his Beta and buried themselves firmly in it.

„How long has he been like this?"

"I-I... uh..." A mixture of complete overwhelm and pure fear seemed to be literally etched on Scott's distorted face. His nimble hands suddenly stood still as he watched the supposed veterinarian routinely open the sleeping boy's eyelids and shine a small, narrow light into them. "Hmm..." This expression kept coming to the Alpha's ears, but he didn't get an explanation. It felt like a seething volcano just before its long-awaited eruption inside him. The hands lying rigidly on the metal table suddenly grew sharp-edged claws from his fingers. „Damn it, Deaton, tell me, what's wrong with him? When will he finally wake up?"

„I don't think he's able to anymore."

"W-what do you mean?" The shock of what he heard made the anger disappear as quickly as it had come. Scott's dark brown eyes widened enormously as he received information that was by no means what he had so longed for. After all, they were here with Deaton. The practicing veterinarian of Beacon Hills, who knew more about the supernatural than all of them put together. The one who always found a way to patch them back up, no matter how difficult the journey, and now he was just standing there, resigned? He couldn't believe it. He closed the small distance to his longtime companion and good friend with such quick steps that a normal person would hardly have been able to see it with their bare eyes, because he now wanted to hear the whole truth. After repeated hesitation, Deaton finally told him...

"I've analyzed Liam's blood test results, and what I found is actually completely impossible..."

Chapter Text

It's getting dark in this little heart of mine....

“Theo…Theo…Raeken…Failure…Theo…Raeken…”

It was humming softly, almost whispering, through his electrically charged ears, so soft that one was tempted to skillfully ignore it, yet timed with such a willing intensity that it permanently and fiercely struck his pulsing auditory nerve. The young man with the nearly piercing blue-green eyes couldn’t help but give in, tightly sealing the work of his soul.

“I—I’m… I’m not a failure!” It sounded far more uncertain than it should have coming from the chimera’s chewed lips, and yet Theo himself didn’t have the slightest chance of shutting out what happened from his mind's eye. It truly pelted him, like the heavy rain of a predicted storm that still caught you ice-cold when you stepped out the door in just a T-shirt and shorts.

„I’m an atheist!”

Less than a year ago, Theo had uttered these words with complete conviction and a smirk, while trying to push his toned arms through the cell bars. He seemed completely relaxed and composed, his gaze fixed on the blue eyes of Sheriff Stiles, though occasionally a very small twitch went to his pups. His pups? Apparently, he had truly been underground for too long, encased by tons of heavy debris and ash, to allow such lines of thought. A person who believed in nothing but himself. Which was probably the greatest delusion in the entire story, because the agnostic himself vehemently denied the existence of any supernatural beings. Things that fundamentally could not be rationally explained and perceived could therefore not exist. But what was the situation when, by doing so, you wiped yourself off the map? An individual created from several components: part coyote, part werewolf, part organic essence of his sister, and a diminished, stunted part human? The part that should really only be so small, yet was screaming the loudest to be heard. His cramped fingers could not dig into his sensitive palms fast enough before he truly realized how he was lying to himself.

“A complete failure, we learned from you. The sign of a true failure is making the same mistake over and over again.”
Wasn't it rather human to make mistakes, and even when you made them to learn from them, didn't it seem at all stupid to keep doing them? Why not? A small nine-year-old boy believed until the very end that he was triggering the right outcome. He clung to the last bit of support, which actually brought pure darkness and tried to swallow him piece by piece. But perhaps it was precisely this desire that drew him back to Beacon Hills. From an endless, restless search to belong and finally call a pack his own. A naive delusion into which Theo desperately interpreted the solution to all evil, one that would free him from his tormenting demons. But he was already far too deep in the noose of intrigues, lies, and manipulations. The fear of becoming the helpless victim of the Dread Doctors who once made him into what he was today prevented him from thinking clearly. Only when the miles-wide fog in front of him slowly cleared did Theo recognize what was truly important.

If only he had met Scott sooner. There was probably a good reason why this Beta in particular became the true Alpha without ever having taken an innocent life. Theo went through all the scenarios again; they ran past him like a flick book as he frantically held onto the abyss. With every tiny snag between paper and skin that stopped the visual film, he slid further down, screaming, while repeatedly shouting his name:

„Scott, help me! Help me, Scott!”

Yes, there was a reason why Scott McCall gloriously claimed victory, while he himself fell mercilessly into the hellmouth, firmly embraced by bony hands whose raven-black, death-flattering fingernails painfully dug into his exposed back. Willpower could move mountains. But not the megalomania of a lying, hissing serpent named Chimera, who preferred to bite down again with her sharp, venom-dripping teeth in the exact same spot, risking being poisoned by it herself.

A superhuman being who would do everything to protect the people he loved from the bottom of his soul, who would even trade his own young life for it without blinking, was met with nothing but head-shaking incomprehension from Theo. Because the chimera had never been allowed to experience anything that surpassed the craving for power, until an unexpected yet welcome second life was granted to him, while his stunned, marked gaze met the radiant, profound turquoise of that unreasonable pup.

He felt the change immediately, which he initially believed was merely the result of relief at having escaped his cold-blooded, murderous sister once more, whose brutality-exuding limbs had been digging into his trembling ribcage just moments ago. But the longer he spent time with the infuriated young wolf, fighting side-by-side against the newly emerging opponents, the almost-lost, strongly beating heart betrayed Theo that he was deceiving himself so extremely, even while the world seemed intent on slowly breaking apart.

His small, newly formed existence. From the blank white of a sheet of paper, where line by line, wild, black-lined images were created, but not willing to fully take hold. The luminous radiance of colors was missing for this, as multifaceted and varied as the rainbow, twinkling like the stars in the night sky, and as breathtaking as the turquoise of his eyes.

“Puppy!”

It was as if Liam was standing directly in front of him, as Theo simultaneously slammed on the brake and the clutch with full force. His entire body was thrown so far forward that he abruptly tore open his blue-green eyes, which began to twitch frantically. Beneath him, the engine pulsed, the irregular vibration transferring to his palms, which were still tightly gripping the steering wheel.

„E-everything… is… f-fine… t-that… w-was… j-just… a…”

A dream? Memories merging and manifesting realization like a film in Theo’s inscrutable mind? Or was it some kind of warning that he was about to slide into? Whatever it was, it showed more of the human-alias-chimera than he probably cared for himself. His stone-carved poker face began to crumble, and all because of this small, unreasonable pup. Yes, Theo Raeken had something in tow that made him want to smash his undeniably attractive face against the milky windshield. A not insignificant flaw that nearly thwarted his perfectionist plans.

Just because, for once in his life, he wasn't just thinking about himself. A weak spot in the system that had almost cost him his perfectly styled brunette hair multiple times. Yet it had been clear to him from the start that he would only help this grumbling wild thing until the chance for a never-returning escape arose. But there was one thing he hadn't considered in the matter. That his egoistic heart had completely different plans for him, loudly laughing and giving him the asshole finger.

“What are you doing to me, little one?”

Theo was well aware that he wouldn’t get an answer from the clumsy baby wolf who couldn’t even take a normal step before triggering the next mechanism of a medium-sized disaster. After all, he himself was the one who had loudly demanded his release from his protective bubble. No, it practically burst into a thousand tiny glitter particles that were now annoyingly clinging all over his muscular body. And yet, he didn't ask this question silently as he absentmindedly wiped his warm palms over the now-fogged, damp windshield. What had happened to him after his sister, whom he believed to be dead and consumed by revenge…

“Theo…”

“No… no… no.” Protectively, he wrapped his trembling arms tightly around the heart thumping in his chest. It felt like it violently wanted to jump out of him and seek protection in the childish hands that already belonged to him, but were too far away to save it from the impending danger. Yes, Theo felt her right next to him as the strength to keep his wide-open eyes open faded. The ice-coldness immediately transferred to him, the bony, lifeless fingers brushing his twitching neck and the bluish lips nearly pressing against his left ear.

„Don't be such a wimp, little brother. Aren’t you happy to see me? Oh, that breaks my heart, if I had one.”

She almost effusively threw her arms around his neck, from which he immediately knew that every heart-warming gesture was completely fabricated and a lie. Quite the opposite, Tara was playing with him, like a fly buzzing for its life, which, no matter what it tried, would never find its way out of the sticky trap on its own. The cunning spirit seemed to know this exactly, as she giggled incessantly while her scratching, sharp fingers circled the throbbing spot of his heart.
“Go on! That’s what you desperately want!” Even Theo was slowly losing his patience. His personal thread of patience was only a shadow of its former self and was giving off warning creaking sounds that were meant to convey only one thing. Soon, very soon even, it would tear apart. Whether that would be a positive development remained to be seen.

“Look at me, Theo!”

Tara growled, demanding his full attention. Her just-demanding fingers sought contact with the rosy skin of her brother’s warming cheeks, as she pulled him close. That’s how she wanted him. Submissive and helpless right before her eyes, and she seemed to be having success with her tactic. Even if Theo's statements reflected something completely different. But that was probably what he had always been best at, obscuring the truths, while he frantically tried to plug the gaping, bleeding wounds of his restless mind.

“Why would I? As if I could ever forget your cesspool of a face.”

But Tara only smirked as she opened her lifeless, mud-filled mouth wide. “Too bad… truly a shame about the little one, don’t you think?” Every single word was so laced with the smell of decay that it would make any bystander not only turn grass-green but also push the safely secured bile from their cramping stomach into their constricting throat. But that was not what made the chimera freeze, stunned and marked, but rather her final statement, with which she definitively lured him into the laid-out trap.

“What do you mean? What the hell did you do, Tara?”

“Nothing!” She giggled, spinning around. Her medium-length black hair, marked by decay, flew through the air before the spirit shifted from one visible spot to another. Tara thoroughly enjoyed spinning the threads that were meant to lead to the actual goal, and it wouldn't be long now, as she was forcefully pulling the last ends together.

“Essentially, you're the one who caused it. I’m simply putting the damage caused back on the right track, as if nothing ever happened.”
“Don’t tell me you… i-impossible.”
Oh yes, Theo knew his cunning sister all too well. Perhaps the sudden stay in her new home, full of the worst memories and murderous hauntings, had led him to look deeper into her soul than he actually wanted. A plan that sounded so idiotic that it was impossible to take seriously, and that was probably one of the biggest mistakes Theo Christopher Raeken could ever make, paired with not having taken the trembling bluish hand seeking help into his own back then.

“Nothing is impossible, little brother. You’ll find that out soon enough!”

How right she was, the chimera felt deep within his aching ribcage, where the throbbing muscle was beating far too slowly and kept whispering a name to him in his mind…

“Liam…”

“H-helloooooo?”

It echoed as Liam cautiously fluttered his eyelids open, which wasn’t easy at all, as they felt as if they had exchanged their function with tons of heavy sandbags. But eventually, the strong will won against the young wolf’s initial weakness, and the oversized dark pupils rapidly contracted to pinhead-sized points. Exceptional confusion paired with frantic breaths that made his frail chest tremble were the first reactions received from the 17-year-old teenager, because one thing immediately became clear to Liam as the turquoise of his eyes cautiously scanned the surroundings. He had no idea where he was. He remembered the pure black that completely enveloped him before all energy left his weakened body, trading for the pure colorless nothingness.

White so bright that looking directly at it burned into the retina, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that one could maintain that gaze. Liam’s breath caught, which had just been shooting out of him far too quickly and regularly. Almost panicked, he looked down, his jaw clenching so painfully that his face contorted in a grimace. No matter how much it hurt, he would ignore it until the Beta finally had certainty. Direct answers to the stinging scratches on the throbbing surface of his stomach, which became so permanent that the teenager could barely stand on his feet and desperately wanted to press his outstretched palms against the flawless wall.

“Liam?”

But he found no support, instead falling right through it into the worried female voice that Liam unbelievably loved and at the same time inflicted the worst emotional pain. He tightly squeezed his twitching eyelids shut, which he hadn't been able to open wide enough moments ago. But now he knew where he was. Not at the end of the tunnel, where the saving light protectively took him into its warm arms, and not at the beginning of the end, where no living person ever turned back. No, this was by no means real. Rather, a chain of lived experiences mixed with the sand of sleep. A nightmare! Liam Eugene Dunbar’s very personal nightmare.

“Are you alright, darling?”

“Y-you can’t be real. No… no… no.”

Liam still allowed no light into the darkness, while pressing his hands tightly to his ears and shaking his head so wildly that his medium-blonde hair lifted far into the air. He repeated these words again and again, hoping to finally wake up from the dream image that was probably nothing more than a confused fiction. But his plea was not heard. The rolling tears that seeped through his closed eyelids seemed just as real as the dark, disgruntled voice of his father, which still made him shudder today, as the now 17-year-old remembered it as if it were only yesterday.

„Are you starting that again?”

Only now did Liam slowly dare to no longer shut his eyes from the present, which he had so urgently tried to do with all means and ways, in his opinion. At least, that's how it felt to the inexperienced young wolf right now, as he emerged from the whole thing even more weakened than he could ever remember. His far too heavy head bowed low, and he immediately noticed his tensely lying knuckles on the light, tattered jeans. He fixed his gaze on the spectacle in amazement and thoughtfully pulled his pouting lower lip between his meeting front teeth. Smaller, childish hands, with distinctive abrasions on the strongly protruding knuckles, which were still lightly bleeding and caused a burning sensation on the sensitive pale skin with every tension in his frail body, which Liam immediately recognized, as it had been etched into his long-term memory since earliest childhood.
The reason why they had even ended up here and exchanged no more words than absolutely necessary. One of the biggest mistakes, Liam realized retrospectively, was more than painful.

On the day when his emotions consisted of the steam from a boiling-over kettle and whistled out of him. Thus, he no longer recognized who was actually standing in front of him. The unbearable rage let his wildly flailing hands glide forward, and before the infuriated boy could take a proper breath, he heard a suspicious crack.
This time, however, it wasn't the cheeky, crinkled button nose of the arrogant, somewhat too loud-mouthed Raeken; this time, his enormous punching power, which he had always possessed, landed on the bleeding nose of his supposed best friend and schoolmate, Connor. But even though premeditated violence never seemed to be the solution, this black-haired whipper-snapper, with his piercing blue eyes, deserved no different. It was thanks to his actions that everyone now truly labeled him a miserable freak. Sighing, the short-haired blonde head leaned against the cold glass pane of the car door, where he could perceive his silhouette in the corner of his eye. The current Beta swallowed; he was really here, in the childish, frail body, with short, light-blonde hair and sad, almost colorless eyes, which sent an enormous shiver down his spine, because what was to follow was what frightened him the most, and he didn't know how to stop it.

“I’m talking to you, young man. It would be nice of you to give me at least one answer that produces more than the meaningless nod of a donkey.”

Liam abruptly spun around, his gaze directed at his driving father. The lump in his throat grew steadily while his nails scratched the cotton fabric of his light jeans so hard that he thought he would soon grasp the bare skin underneath. This scenario, the snorting words that were yelled at him while the bright red pickup truck sped much too fast along the country road, the 17-year-old teenager had often played through what he could have changed.

He would gladly give in to the urge right now, to lunge forward with outstretched arms and grab the steering wheel. Even if there was a risk of causing a much bigger accident that could even kill Liam, he would accept it. Because he wanted to tell him so much, apologize for so much, or simply lie in his strong, protective arms, demanding love. Instead, however, something forced him to murmur the same terms to himself as he had done once before. Almost exactly 7 years ago, on a poorly lit road with an uneven surface and a storm that California had probably very rarely experienced.

“Yes, Dad…”

“Plish… splash…”

The raindrops literally dug into the car’s sheet metal, the visibility blurring more and more into a milky mess. No matter what the small, scared boy on the far too big black leather seat tried, he couldn't make a single movement to stop the disaster he saw coming right before his turquoise eyes. His outstretched fingers felt like lead; seconds seemed like hours and days like weeks.

Gasping, he restlessly felt the moist oxygen flowing through him, which brought him no relief, and when he finally believed he was suffocating, he looked into the familiar turquoise, the color he wore himself, having been given it by him in the cradle. His father, his first and true role model, and the last known face etched in wrinkles that he perceived before the deadly water pressed through the interior and turned everything around him into pure darkness. Only one thing haunted his mind for filled weeks afterward. They were the last words he said to him, and which he probably still didn't quite understand today…

“Wake up, my son!”

Chapter Text

"Everyone wants to be someone's sun
to light up someone's life,
but why not be someone's moon to brighten in the darkest hour."

Panicked, pounding noises. Hands that were probably waving close to his famously prominent snub nose, yet not a single wisp of oxygen was wafting against the pale, childlike skin. Everything sounded so muffled and lifeless; tiny, barely recognizable bubbles rose toward the melancholic turquoise and dissolved into nothing.

Confused, Liam squeezed his eyes shut to dispel the negative illusion, which could only have sprung from his dreamy monster world with growling hairy creatures, yellow visors, and drooling, foul mouths. But none of that happened. Instead, the blonde boy felt an unbearable tightness inside his too-fast beating chest, so intense that he thought he was back in the East Wing of Beacon Hills Hospital. Marked with oversized bandages and the severely restricting cast on his right foot, which offered him almost no freedom of movement, while the gloomy lifelessness bore down on him. With pointed, razor-sharp claws that effortlessly dug into him, intent on snatching the one organ that was no longer his own.

The bitterly weeping heart, whose blood-smeared tears reached the surface, was searching only for one person. The person from whom Liam received the moniker "Pup." The one who pushed him away like a gentle autumn wind pushes a feather, yet left behind the persistent memory of his intense, all-encompassing blue-green eyes. A state of artificial, partial sleep combined with an altered state of consciousness, desperately seeking salvation with screaming, trembling, outstretched arms...

“Liam!!!”

Until the familiar reprimand called him back, and the environment he had just imagined gurgled away as if down a drain. "D-dad?" Liam loudly formed his question in the electrifying synapses, but speaking it out failed. Instead, one of nature's most enormous forces showed the desperate boy whose territory he had entered uninvited. His turquoise eyes bulged unusually wide as he frantically clutched his constricted, twitching throat. The feeling of torn fibers made him whimper significantly, and just as the 17-year-old teenager, trapped in the small, childlike body of his memory, thought he would be ripped in two forever—a state that until now the pathetic, bouncing muscle had claimed all to itself, yet was impossible to stop—all visible light was suddenly extinguished.

Deep, penetrating blackness, which didn't even allow the purest structure, enveloped the body now marked by exhaustion. Like a rope abruptly pulling taut, it dragged Liam down involuntarily, into the hole of damnation that had effectively opened beneath him, where he swooped down weakly with tightly closed eyelids. Only his hearing seemed to be still fully functional, signaling a constant sensation: the perception of rapidly approaching air masses, whose enormous rushing increasingly tormented him and chased only one thought through his hissing nerve strands like an echo.

The moment had come... Liam Eugene Dunbar would die, and this time for good...

It was the round, glowing sphere that first grazed Liam's fluttering turquoise eyes as the young wolf woke up completely confused. Unexpectedly, his breath was coming too fast, and he protectively clutched his trembling, delicate chest with finger bones stiffened by the cold... "Badum... Badum... Badum..." Racing with regular skips, yet so pulsating that the glowing heat shot into his head. A continuous humming that could only mean one thing. He was alive, hell yes!!! He had personally stepped through the swamp of blood-soaked damnation, stark naked and shivering, and had shoved a magnificent middle finger with a rotten aftertaste directly into the collapsing face of Mrs. Gross-Hair. Like a miserable, pus-filled zit that collapsed with an almost silent "plop," leaving nothing but a pathetic pile of stinking carbon dioxide. And even if he could barely contain the joy of his youthful, grinning recklessness while the Beta spun around, whistling wildly, there was that small, crumbly piece of sanity arguing through the curvy landscape of euphoria. This whole thing, their days-long rendezvous of the nightshades, served with spoiled food, was happening far too easily.

“T-Theo...”

“No... no... no!!!" he shouted, frustrated, across his bluish lips, his unusually too-bright voice gradually dying with each pathetic repetition of his unsuccessful cry for help. Why his otherwise wonderfully rosy pout was gradually losing its so-prominent color? That was quickly explained—or perhaps not. Because if the inexperienced young wolf fully committed to this play and took the path that the glowing neon green wanted to tempt him onto, then he was choosing to admit that he still hadn't reached the saving light. Quite the opposite, he couldn't even glimpse the blinding, brightly shining sparkle that would make his cute snub nose wrinkle.

“P-please h-help m-me!!!”

Frozen in motion, only the medium-blonde head turned toward the source of the noise, the overly long front strands falling deep into his tense face, for Liam was quite aware of what awaited him there. A scene he had already experienced, not too long ago, when he thought he was saving Theo's life with his overzealous action. That his black pickup would overturn was just as unplanned as fully alerting the no-longer-living family ghost, yet that is exactly what happened. The overwhelmed Baby Wolf found himself waist-deep in the ice-cold water, no more than two steps away from the vengeful, black-haired sea monster.

Liam shook incomprehensibly, whether from the ever-more-prominent cold that slowly but steadily was freezing every one of his blood-soaked veins, or from his mood swing, which occurred as rapidly as the weather on an April day. Because he had been here before. He felt the pain of the small, crying black-haired girl who, completely hypothermic, stretched her semi-numb hands upward, while bitter tears ran whimpering from her blue-green eyes. The same eyes that simultaneously crossed the bridge emotionlessly. The white upper incisors pressed too hard into the freezing flesh of Liam's lower lip.

„How often could a single person endure this feeling?" he asked himself as the images simultaneously flashed in his moist turquoise eyes, popping up inside his mind like a jumbled game of Memory, with no possibility of emerging as the chlorine-rich victor. Go!!! Flee quickly, like a tornado sweeping across the entire land and dragging every vile creature with it. Liam would have loved to use his lanky legs for what they were intended, but every attempt failed, even the smallest ones. Instead, he stood there, forced to wait, while his fingers ceased their task without his permission. Every functional movement felt completely wrong, as if they didn't belong to him. The little Beta swallowed; if he didn't come up with something ideal soon, that would be it. Not that this concluding thought process hadn't already occurred numerous times, but the fear was simply even worse than the preceding scenes. Even though the young wolf was sure he was only witnessing a memory, where neither young Theo nor the dying girl Tara could hear him.

Sighing, Liam ran a hand through his wet, sticking-up medium-blonde hair; the numb surface of his skin caused inevitable pain that made the teenager sharply draw in the air. He didn't understand why he felt? Why his empathy evoked emotions that made him shed rolling tears? None of this was real. Wait... what had he just said, while his brain was busy making every insignificant nerve shiver? Surprisingly, he opened his eyes wide; the turquoise reflected the sparkle of the stars, as the cold night was crystal clear. But of course, all of this arose from their wild, sickly search for revenge. So what if Liam used exactly that to his advantage? The young wolf almost grinned euphorically to himself, his prominent snub nose tilting far upward. For the first time in a long time, he felt something like confidence. Though ponderously, yet powerfully, he took a few steps forward in the ice-cold water, taking a deep breath, the cool, tempered air surprising him more than he liked, and he shouted something back at it, coughing.

„W-What are y-you trying to a-achieve, T-Tara? H-He won’t c-come and s-save y-you!”

No... Liam wasn't at all sure if he would be heard, because the same section was playing out again and again in front of him, like a speck of dust that had practically burned itself onto the playful layer of a DVD, jumping back to the beginning at the same intervals, until suddenly everything completely stopped and a sizzling flash struck right in front of him. The Beta screamed bloody murder, losing his footing from his panicked movement and completely submerging for a brief moment. It felt like pure frozen ice completely impaling his naked, sensitive skin. He thrashed wildly with his arms, no longer having the slightest orientation. But he just couldn't make it to the surface. The saving surface was right above him, yet his fighting spirit abandoned him. The much-needed air bubbles pushed themselves out, bouncing through his snub nose and mouth, and just as the young wolf was willing to finally exchange the turquoise for the lifeless night blue, something yanked him violently upward.

Liam gasped in fright as he looked into the intense blue-green. The most wonderful color he had ever seen, and at the same time, it was the hue that scared him the most. Because it wasn't Theo standing in front of him, the one the Beta longed for so much. Whose scratchy stubble would brush his pale facial skin as their mouths met greedily. Here stood the small, whimpering girl, whose shaggy, long-haired black mop had spun around 360°, while she blew something dark and reeking of putrefaction onto his startled face...

“Maybe not me, but you, little cute pup.”

“Liam?”

The little Beta flinched in fright, a sharp, electrifying pain from his shoulder blade to the little finger bone of his right arm making him sharply inhale the air saturated with musty dampness. Confused, he stirred his head, his eyelids fluttering open and closed several times before something became clear to him. He knew this place. The continuous cold wind that caused an involuntary shiver in his exhausted body. The regular splashing of oversized drops hitting echoing rock, and the inhuman emissions of life-sustaining oxygen that could only come from a machine.

Yes, Liam Dunbar remembered exactly. He had just turned 16 back then and was in what you might call a relationship for the very first time. Because the reasons why he and Hayden became a couple were anything but normal. They weren't normal. He was a Beta werewolf with excessive aggression potential, and she was a Chimera, artificially created by the Dread Doctors, who were currently holding her right here. If you looked closely, they were actually interested in Hayden. He, on the other hand, quite by chance, stepped with his too-short, nimble feet into the tightening trap that still painfully pressed against him. But what was he supposed to do?

He loved this girl. The classmate who actually couldn't stand him to hell and back and made his life difficult from then on. At the time, however, it was nothing more than a harmless accident. She was, you see, still blaming him for becoming the laughingstock of the entire school in the 6th-grade yearbook. Just because of a slightly demolished nose and a prominent, oversized black eye. Yet, it was she who got caught up in the fight he had with Connor—all big talk and nothing behind it. No one had forced her to have to prove herself again. Thus, Liam's rash right hand landed in her screaming face, and as if that wasn't bad enough, the problems were just beginning. From doctored gum on his seat to bloody noses and tearful turquoise eyes.

But perhaps it was precisely this trait that the young wolf admired about her. The willpower to see her thing through completely, no matter how melancholic the path would become. Most likely, the insecure Beta needed exactly that outstretched hand, which he never wanted to let go of, even if it meant eternal damnation for him? At least, that was the teenager's belief exactly one year ago. Now, however, Liam didn't even dare turn his short, medium-blonde head toward her. Instead, he focused on the steps that were getting closer and closer, the shadow that stretched through the insurmountable grate, and that wonderful, mysterious blue-green that willfully drilled into his radiant turquoise.

Wait, those eyes? The lascivious smirk and the perfectly trained body, recognizable to the smallest detail through the gray, cramped shirt? Liam was completely sure, it could only be him. The Werecoyote alias Chimera, for whom his strongly beating heart almost consumed itself, and who made sure to conjure a slight smile onto his cherry-red mouth, even in the swamp of complete sadness, if only for a felt second. A time frame where his eyelashes briefly met the next time he blinked, because the injured pup knew what was about to happen, and the thought alone made him feel such a suffocating tightness that he loudly whimpered and stretched his uninjured arm out to him.

“Wait, Theo!!!”

Sparks that hit the damp ground, hissing like countless lightning bolts, and struck the body rattling the grate with double the force. As quickly as Liam hobbled forward, it felt like slow motion how each of his cramping fingers slowly released, his hamstrings gave way, and the big mouth that otherwise couldn't be beaten hit the hard rock with a dull sound, his brunette head striking the stone.

“Theo? Are you okay?” These words came almost whispering from the young wolf's trembling lips, while his glassy, rolling eyes looked over the lying Theo. Although he actually knew that the Chimera hadn't suffered a single scratch, it was extremely difficult for Liam to draw the desperately needed oxygen through his wrinkling, prominent nose; his movement was too stiff, and his stance was powerless. His throat painfully constricted, his trembling legs gave way, and before Liam knew it, his bony kneecaps struck the brutal hardness of the echoing floor. The enormous force pulsated through his entire skeleton, transmitting also to the nerves that shook uncontrollably and made it barely possible for the 16-year-old teenager to reach into the danger he had just experienced with his almost numb palms.

Oh yes, the unreasonable pup knew exactly what that felt like, he had personally made the acquaintance of sudden near-death that made the bells of the heaven's gate ring, and Liam would actually rate himself as intelligent enough not to make the same mistake again, even if he visibly didn't wear reading glasses on his cute snub nose. But it was Theo lying in front of him, the person he had actually viewed skeptically just a moment ago. He had acted almost hostilely toward him, which in the end seemed not even a tiny footstep away from the unfiltered truth. Because his noisily rumbling, muscular stomach could do more than just disputably call for the next meal. In fact, this organ had almost psychic traits, which the young wolf, to his regret, used far too little.

“Y-yes... Yes... all... good.”

There it was again. The sporadic fluttering that drove away the all-encompassing cold around him in seconds, leaving behind a soothing warmth. He sighed audibly, drawing Theo's intoxicating scent of fresh pine needles with a tiny hint of golden yellow honey intensely through his airways. How much he would lose himself in it now, simply standing still in that very spot without any movement, and grasping every slightest characteristic that was so enormously important to him with his restlessly patterning pupils. Theo was probably a lot younger than the young wolf's confused thoughts suggested, but even then, his mysterious character was magically attractive. With gelled, high-rising brunette hair, a face as smoothly shaved as a child's, and the radiant green of his eyes, which turned out to be the urgently sought-after beacon out of the darkness. Liam smiled slightly; why had he not noticed that back then?

“Liam?”

“C-can you get h-help?” He didn't want to say that at all. Much rather, he wanted to give in to the pressing feeling of throwing himself sobbing into his muscular arms. To squeeze his sniffling snub nose near his pulsating carotid artery and blissfully enjoy the circling movement of the skillfully performing fingers over his pronounced spine. The little Baby Wolf bit compassionately into his prominent pink lower lip, while he protectively wrapped one arm around himself. Why the hell did one always recognize too late what was right for them? How could he have let the faded blue Jeep and the restlessly stuttering diesel engine pass by, completely opposite him? Because secretly, Liam had long known which side he belonged to. To the place where the delicate small hand fit perfectly into the protective larger one. Where velvety forest green magically attracted the unruly turquoise blue, and dark shadows vanished through bright light. Instead, the once 16-year-old teenager was forced to act like a one-to-one perfected puppet of himself, where the nylon threads strained noisily to the extreme. So it happened that the confused Beta stood exactly in the same spot as 12 months ago. Where Theo conveyed that he should seek a protective distance, and even though he resisted with short, flailing feet and hands clenched into fists, he moved without intervention to the side that he considered absolutely right back then... Hayden.

“I am the help.”

But his gaze remained on him, while the humming of the generators pulsed more and more muffledly in his ear canals, and the insurmountable obstacle slid open almost by itself. Yes, Theo was the help. A very special one that seemed to exist only for him alone. The young wolf smiled tiredly, his eyes, reddened from enormous fatigue, barely able to let the present in. Although, was it even the present? Certainly not. Even though the warm, strong arms that protectively pressed him to the seductively smelling chest felt indescribable. So unique that he willingly succumbed to the current of exhaustion and listened to the familiar beat of his heart, as someone called his name, growling verbally so that his sensitive neck hairs shot up rapidly...

“LIAM!!!”