Chapter Text
While it could be argued that it was Scott’s bite that changed Liam’s life, Liam himself will disagree. The bite had changed his body, sure, but it took a while for the rest of him to catch up. It’s at that moment, Scott standing over him with blood red eyes in the middle of the woods, which begins the changes in him as a person.
Once Liam has calmed down, they sit down together under the full moon and Scott begins to explain. He begins with his own transformation, gets caught up in a tangent about alphas, betas and omegas along the way, and ends with the death of the man who bit him. The way he talks about Peter Hale – who actually came back from the dead shortly after he was killed – makes Liam grateful that he was bitten as a last resort and wasn’t then abandoned by his alpha.
Liam will never admit it but he’s glad he’s not alone in this, that he has this older boy looking out for him. It helps of course that Liam has wanted to be friends with Scott since the moment he first laid eyes on him.
---
When Liam first tells Mason his plans to try out for the lacrosse team, his best friend makes a point of introducing him to most of the players. The one who stands out, of course, is the team captain, the only player Mason refuses to approach, even in the middle of a crowded hallway. Instead, he simply points him out.
“That’s Scott McCall,” Mason murmurs, elbowing Liam in the side. “He’s been Captain since he was a sophomore.”
Liam curiously follows his subtle gesturing. There’s a group of five students – either juniors or seniors by the looks of them – heading down the hallway in their general direction. Of the three girls, one is strawberry blond, one of them distinctly Asian in appearance, and the other a tall brunette. Of the two boys, one of them is lanky, waving his arms madly as he tells the other boy a joke. It’s the second of the two that catches Liam’s attention.
He’s the same height as his friend but with shoulders almost twice as wide, his biceps far more pronounced. He has a head of black hair cut in a way that makes his cheekbones stand out attractively. His mouth is curled up in amusement as his friend talks, dodging away from his wild movements with practiced ease.
Liam knows just from looking at him that this must be Scott McCall. He can’t imagine the flailing boy beside him would be anything but a complete disaster on the lacrosse field.
He turns out to be right about both.
That first training season, he wants nothing more than to impress McCall. Before, that is, he sees the older boy completely miss the net every time he throws a ball. Not even his clear skills in defence counteract his throws enough to make him captain, let alone to justify some of the other player’s praises of their captains skill.
In hospital with a possibly broken leg, he decides trying to impress the older boy was one of the stupidest things he’s ever done.
---
When Liam’s first full moon is over, he and Scott return to the boathouse where Kira is waiting anxiously for their return. When she sees them both in one piece, she doesn’t hang around for long, saying something about Lydia and the party going on back at the house.
Looking at the window he broke and Scott’s determination that they never hurt anyone makes Liam far too embarrassed to tell him the truth. Not about what he did and certainly not about his I.E.D..
Liam spends the whole weekend trying to keep himself calm enough to not wolf out at a few simple words from his mum. Scott calls twice on both days and the two of them check in with each other via text every hour or so. Liam’s never had someone so concerned about him and while the constant monitoring is annoying it’s also kind of reassuring.
It’s not until Monday morning after a work out with Mason spent trying to blow off steam that he finally snaps. Hearing that they’ll be playing his old school is bad enough. Having some random guy who looks far too old to be in high school break his lacrosse stick is the last straw. Before he consciously thinks about it, he’s leaping at him, claws out and teeth bared.
Scott’s voice reaches him as though from far away but he still turns to look at him almost immediately. Seeing his expression makes Liam calm down on instinct.
“You’re right,” the man says. “He is angry.”
Liam tenses again only for the man to let him go. Finding out Scott hadn’t let this man – whoever the hell he is – actually break his stick makes his angry words die in his throat. Instead, he turns to glare at the older man until the bell rings and Scott orders him to class.
He tries his best to remain calm and be civil to his old school friend only to let it get the better of him at the last minute. He can feel blood pooling in his palm from where his claws are digging into painfully into his palm when Scott is suddenly there, pulling him away. Stilinski is saying something but it’s lost to the pounding in Liam’s head.
Then Scott’s pulling him away and the next thing he’s aware of is freezing cold water being poured all over him. It takes a long few minutes for him to calm down enough to get them to stop.
Then Liam’s sitting on the floor and telling them the truth about getting kicked out of Devenford Prep. Stilinski, as usual, is a total ass about the whole thing but Scott crouches down in front of him the same way he did out in the forest. He’s confessing to having I.E.D. before he can change his mind.
Then Scott’s asking him to bail out of the game and that’s the last thing Liam wants.
“I can do this,” he tells the older boy earnestly. “Especially if you’re there.”
Stilinski reacts like he’s surrounded by idiots but both Scott and Liam are ignoring him. Then Scott’s telling him about some guy who died after delivering a keg to Lydia’s party and Liam hesitates. His new friendship with Garrett isn’t worth lying to Scott, though, so he tells him all he knows about the other boy.
Liam spends the rest of the day up to the game avoiding everyone except Scott and his Pack. He’s silent in the locker room as the other players shout and throw things at each other, reacting only when Scott places a hand on the back of his neck.
“Come on,” he says, urging him outside and towards the field. Liam sees Mason on the sideline but hesitates until Scott releases his hold on Liam’s neck, pushing him slightly in Mason’s direction.
Liam doesn’t understand why Scott would want him near Mason when he’s still clearly angry until Mason has him laughing despite that. Liam thinks back to Scott’s stories about his own first few weeks as a werewolf and wonders if this is what he meant by Stilinski always being there for him. Despite being an inconsiderate ass most of the time, Liam supposes he can be funny on occasion.
Both older boys are there to stop him from attacking his old teammates. Not minutes later, Liam’s colliding with Brett and both of them end up groaning on ground. Liam’s arm hurts even more than his leg did when Scott and Stilinski broke it. Scott pushes it back into place and then worries that he might have been cut by Garrett.
It’s not until Stilinski gets off the phone with Malia that they realise it wasn’t Liam he was aiming for after all. Liam finds his Alpha just moments after Stilinski does, still standing over Violet’s unconscious form. Scott asks him to help get Brett out of there and is on the phone a moment later calling someone else for help.
By the time Liam and Stilinski get Brett out the back way, the guy who broke his lacrosse stick is waiting for them by Stilinski’s jeep. The two of them disappear with Brett to someone they apparently think will help. Liam returns to Scott just in time to see the first of the police cars arriving. Liam sheds his lacrosse gear and then goes looking for Kira when Scott asks him to.
When Liam comes back, he finds Scott talking to a tall man in a suit, an FBI badge hanging from his hip. Liam hesitates when he realises this is his Alpha’s dad, having heard snippets of the story surrounding Scott’s relationship with him.
When the Sheriff and one of the deputies brings Violet out of the locker room, Liam’s insides twist at the look she shoots at Scott on the way passed. Then they’re finding out that both Violet and Garrett are on the FBI’s list of known professional killers and Liam’s even more freaked out than before.
Despite his reservations, Liam goes running with Mason the next morning. He wishes he hadn’t when he wakes up to find himself at the bottom of a well. He’s almost given up hope of anyone – of Scott – finding him when suddenly he’s there, pulling him out of the well and straight into a warm hug.
When Liam can stand mostly on his own, Scott helps him to the nearest road where they find a car idling, waiting for them. A tall man with a beard – not Derek Hale – steps out of the car to great them.
“We’ve got to get him to Deaton,” Scott says. The other man simply nods, waiting until Scott has gotten situated in the back seat before helping him lie Liam down across the back seat, his head in Scott’s lap.
Liam feels himself drifting, the feeling of the car’s movement and Scott running a hand through his hair calming him. Soon, though, he’s shivering uncontrollably and he’s very clearly feeling the effects of the wolfsbane. When they reach their destination, Scott carries him inside, laying him down on a cold, hard table.
Liam is conscious enough to feel Scott move his mostly numb arms to get his shirt off and then there’s a sharp pain in his chest. His body continues to shake, a small whimper escaping, until he feels what he’s sure is Scott’s hand brush his forehead. As the pain leaves and the shaking stops, he falls into darkness.