Chapter Text
Liam was exhausted as he pulled Theo’s truck to a stop outside the McCall-Argent home. There were several other cars already parked in the driveway, including Roscoe. That was good. Scott was already home. Not that Liam had any doubt that the Alpha would be there. Something was off with his pack. Something was off with his brother. That alone was enough to incentivize Scott. The fact that Mason was also seemingly affected by this.. whatever was going on just added to the chaos.
So no, Liam wasn't at all surprised to see the other cars in the driveway, including Mason’s. They left roughly about the same time but Theo fell asleep shortly after getting in the truck. Given that the chimera had barely slept more than a few hours since all of this began, Liam wasn't about to interrupt him now. So he took the long way to the pack meeting to give Theo more time and he was loath to move him even after they parked. He was well aware of the curious looks they were getting through the window. But he wasn't moving until Theo woke up on his own… whenever that would be.
He didn't know how long he was sitting there, ignoring the continuous stares through the window and the buzzing of his phone on his lap. His entire focus was on Theo's soft breathing. He stared at the profile of his boyfriend's face. It was the only part visible as most of it was smashed up against the window. His breathing was deep and even. It was the best sleep he had in days and Liam was not about to let anything disturb him. He finally tore his gaze away from Theo, instead choosing to stare out at the darkness around them, listening to Theo’s breathing beside him. Suddenly, the soft breaths hitched slightly and Liam knew he was waking up. He turned his head to the side in time to see the chimera blinking heavy-lidded eyes sleepily in his direction. He yawned and it was evident the older man wished he was still asleep. Liam also wished he could give him even more time.
“We're here? Why didn't you wake me?” Theo murmured, slowly pushing himself upright. His movements were lethargic and spoke to just how much he needed that rest.
“I didn't have the heart to wake you up,” Liam answered, his fingers rising to brush against the dark bruise-like skin already forming under Theo's eyes. He sighed softly as Theo leaned into the touch. His eyes fluttering shut for a brief moment before focusing on him again. “You needed the rest. Hell, you need a lot more than just that quick little nap.”
“Well, that's why we're back, right?” Theo asked, a ghost of his familiar smirk tugging on his lips. “To figure this whole thing out so I can go back to sleeping without worrying about shifting and running into cemeteries or dreaming about random strangers dying all around me.”
Liam tugged the all too willing Theo into his arms, kissing the older man's temple as his beautiful chimera melted into the embrace. Though he was trying to be flippant about the situation, Liam knew Theo was genuinely scared. Hell, Liam was genuinely scared for him to be honest.
Theo had nightmares. It was just a thing that happened. They all knew it and helped to the extent that they could. But for the past three days, the nightmares were different. Theo always remembered what he dreamt about because it was what happened to him. But this time was different. He would wake up screaming but when asked what it was he saw, Theo couldn't remember anything. He just felt an overwhelming sense of panic, fear, and dread. And while it was upsetting nothing about it screamed Problem until one morning when Mason admitted he was also having bad dreams. Bad dreams that seemed weirdly similar to Theo’s.
To make it even more terrifying, that very same night Theo full-shifted in his sleep and ran from their apartment. Liam, Corey, and Mason finally found him in a cemetery not far from where they lived. He had shifted back to human form while he was still asleep. He couldn't remember shifting or anything really until Liam woke him up. When it happened a second time, they realized that they officially had a Problem. After reaching that conclusion, they told Scott. Scott then immediately declared they would be heading home for summer vacation a bit earlier than anticipated. Liam only hoped they could figure it out because he wasn't sure that Theo could take much more of this. It was starting to wear him down and it hadn't even been a week.
“Ready to go in?” Liam asked softly.
“Nope,” Theo admitted, nuzzling further under Liam's chin. Liam rubbed his back lightly. “But if we don't, I think my dad might actually shoot you.”
Liam snorted. It turned into a full laugh as he caught sight of Chris standing at the window not even pretending he wasn't spying on them. He shook his head and reluctantly pulled away from Theo. Together they made their way inside where Theo was promptly pulled into an examination/interrogation/comfort session by Melissa, Deaton, and Dean. Mason was already sitting on the sofa/makeshift examination area looking just as exhausted and confused as Theo. Liam's heart lurched at the sight. Jenna immediately crossed the room to hug her son.
“Hey, baby.”
Liam leaned fully into his mother's embrace. Jenna was petite but proved more than a few times that she was willing to carry the burden of her child’s troubles. He sighed, settling against her even more. She held him tighter in response. He loved her so much.
“Hey, Mom.”
“So how’s he doing? For real? Not the usual crap he's going to tell everyone.”
“Oh, same old same old, really. Repressing everything and trying to pretend he's not scared out of his mind.”
“Typical. And how are you doing?” Jenna asked, leaning back to look at her son through the same eyes he inherited from her.
“Oh, you know the same old same old, really. Repress everything and try to pretend I'm not scared out of my mind.”
“That's my boy!” Jenna smiled, stretching up to kiss his forehead. She bopped him on his chin as her smile turned wistful.“You're going to get him through this. You always do. You're going to get them both through this. You and Mason have been fighting together since you were kids. You won't lose him either.”
Liam nodded, fighting hard to keep his emotions under check. It was bad enough that this was happening to Theo but why did it have to involve Mason too? Why couldn't they just be normal for a bit? Yes, they were supernatural creatures but didn't they deserve to be normal young adults too? They had just celebrated Theo’s twenty-first birthday barely a few days before all of this started going down. They should still be on a high but now… now they were tense and gathered together with the hopes that they could pull a last-minute miracle out of their asses again.
When this was all over, Liam was totally taking the Puppy Pack away for some much needed R&R. That's not to say that the older members of the pack weren't in need of a break but Liam was only an unofficial alpha but to so many. And he was going to get them a break if it killed him. But he was really hoping it didn't.
After a quick brainstorming session that yielded no further information or leads, they decided to break for the evening. What followed was a significantly more subdued than usual pack night but not by much. Though they were respectful of Mason and Theo who immediately knocked out after eating, it was still the McCall pack. Liam had a theory that they couldn't have more than two of them in a room without noise and chaos following. It was comforting in its unpredictable predictability.
What wasn't comforting was waking up only an hour after he curled around Theo's sleep warm body to an empty bed. Somehow in the one damn hour that Liam was asleep, Theo left again. And judging by the clothes strewn haphazardly on the floor, he left on four legs. Again. Before Liam could sound the alarm, Corey was in the doorway pulling a sweatshirt on while also shoving his feet in his sneakers.
“Okay, so Mason is gone. And apparently so are Lydia and Jordan,” he reported. Liam raised an eyebrow. “Derek called. Said that they both took off about an hour ago and wanted to know if Theo was here. I didn't get a chance to even check before I saw that Mason was gone. So it's Mason, Theo, and our Death Omens.”
Liam felt a chill down his spine. They all casually referred to Lydia and Jordan as Team Death Omen. The banshee and the hellhound. The full extent of their abilities was still unknown to them all. Mason was a genetic chimera Druid in training with magical powers and constantly tapped into things even they couldn't understand. But the fact that they were missing alongside Theo made Liam pause. Though he wasn't around when Lydia first discovered her banshee side, Scott told them how she struggled to understand what she was. The times she would go to sleep and end up somewhere else. The dreams she would have. It all echoed Theo's current situation but it was also impossible.
For starters, there were no male banshees. And even if there were his powers would have emerged far earlier than twenty-one. And then there was the fact that Theo wasn't supernatural at all. He was a normal kid until the dread doctors experimented on him. Then again, all they had to go on for that was Theo. And he was barely eight years old when the Dread Doctors took him. He wouldn't know. And they kept him away from it all. They scared him away from ever looking into his own file, his own genetic makeup.
“Liam? Are you okay?” Corey asked. Liam blinked and realized that Scott and Alec had joined them in the time he had been zoned out. “Liam?”
“I… Scott? Do we have the Dread Doctors’ journals? From the time they had Theo specifically.”
Scott's face darkened. “No, but I know someone who can get them. Is there any particular reason we're going there?”
“Remember what you told me about Lydia? When she was first waking up as a banshee? This is almost the same, Scott.”
“But there are no male Banshees. At least, I don't think there are.” Scott's face twisted comically as his brain no doubt tried to process that one.
But Liam knew he was taking it seriously. He could see the minute it registered for him. The weight he had been carrying since the night before when they told him about the Problem seemed to double at that moment. It wasn’t just the weight of an Alpha. It was the weight of an older brother who felt powerless when it came to helping. Still, Scott was an Alpha through and through. He visibly swallowed and pushed back the negativity and concern. He stood up taller and put a grounding hand on Alec’s shoulder.
“Okay, that’s something to continue to explore but right now we need to find them. It’s pointless to try and figure out what’s happening when we don’t even know where they are.”
“They’re in the woods,” Chris said suddenly causing all of them to jump. He rolled his eyes and held up his phone. “According to the tracker I gave Theo, they’re approaching the Nemeton.”
“I’m sorry, the tracker you ‘gave’ Theo,” Alec’s brow furrowed. He pointed at Theo’s scattered clothing. “Dad, he left on four legs. And even if he’s shifted back, he’s butt ass naked. There’s no way he’s holding some kind of tracker. Short of embedding it in his skin… wait… Dad did... did you tag my brother?!”
“No, I didn’t tag your brother aka my son,” Chris scoffed, rolling his eyes at Alec’s dramatics. “I slipped it in the tea he had before he went to bed.”
“And you think it’s better that he swallowed it?!”
“It’s me! Did you really think I wasn’t going to do something like this? You told me my kid ran off on four legs and you found him sleeping naked and confused in a cemetery and only by luck. Of course, I was going to find a way to track him. And look, it worked. Instead of splitting up and searching the whole town, we know where he is. You’re welcome!”
“You are a terrifying man,” Scott finally said. “But I’m so glad you’re on our side.” He grinned at Chris with a sly smirk. “Dad.”
It was a fairly new thing that Scott had been trying out for the past few months or so. While he had not given up on his biological father, it was beyond obvious that Chris was more of a father to him than his own. He had proven that he would be there for the children he called his own. After watching Chris mercilessly track down and handle some hunters who made the mistake of thinking they could send him a message through Alec and Theo, Scott was more than willing to accept that truth.
As he typically did when Scott called him that, Chris flustered a bit before shoving it all back and walking away. Scott snorted and followed him down the stairs with an openly giggling Alec trailing behind. Liam was set to follow when he noticed Corey lingering. His face was pensive and a frown pulled at his lips.
“Core?”
“They're going to be okay, right? Mason, he's… I love him. But I know this isn't… its Theo, isn't it? Something is happening to him. He's changing.”
“Yeah,” Liam sighed. “I don't know how but it's him. He's… more than we thought he was. But we're going to figure this out. He's going to be okay.”
“You know this?” Corey asked, lips quirking. Liam grinned.
“Yeah, I know this. We're not going to let him be anything other than okay.”
He started to walk away again when he noticed Corey still wasn't moving. “Corey?”
“It's just that… it was something Hayden said when she first came back. You know when she was being all crazy?” Liam snickered and nodded. “The first time she saw Theo shift, she said that he looked different. And she was right. He's… changed. His full shift form is different.”
Liam bit his lip. As much as he did recognize Theo as the wolf that chased him the night he told Mason everything, Corey and Hayden both had a point. The chimeras knew Theo's other form better. So if they both said he was different then he was different. Liam wondered if it was all connected. With a sinking feeling in his gut, he realizes it probably was.
“First things first, we need to find them and then we can worry about everything else later.”
“Yeah, you're right,” Corey said, exhaling heavily. “To the Nemeton!”
“To the Nemeton!”
Liam honestly didn't know what he was expecting when he and the others finally reached the tree that stayed screwing with their lives. But whatever he was expecting paled in comparison to reality. Reality found Lydia sitting on the stump of the Nemeton with a full hellhound mode Jordan behind her, Mason beside her and a shifted Theo on her lap. It wasn't too odd until they noticed that Theo's eyes were open and glowing a solid white. Mason's were the same. Jordan’s eyes were full of flames while Lydia's were closed. Liam didn't know if that made him feel better or worse. They were breathing just fine and their heartbeats were steady. They seemed to be unharmed. Just apparently jacked into some kind shared vision. That was… fine.
“This isn't creepy and ominous at all,” Brett drawled from where he was leaning up against a tree. Lori was beside him watching the scene with wide eyes. “And this is officially way beyond my pay grade.”
“Figures that all our geniuses are up there!” Alec gripped as he slouched next to Lori. She patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. “Are they okay?”
“Yeah,” Melissa answered once she was done giving them all a cursory exam. None of them responded to any external stimuli, each lost to whatever it was that was making their eyes glow. “They’re not in pain or anything. They’re in some kind of trance.”
“This whole thing is just getting creepier,” Liam muttered. Scott snorted beside him in agreement. Liam glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. The alpha looked worried, his eyes moving over the four inert members of his pack but his eyes landed on Theo the longest.
“So what are we supposed to do? Just sit here and wait for them to snap out of it?” Isaac asked, tilting his head to the side. “How long is that supposed to take?”
The answer ended up being two hours. In the end, it was only Chris, Melissa, Scott, Liam, Corey, and Isaac left in the clearing around the Nemeton when suddenly Lydia screamed. Having been around the banshee for years, Liam was well versed in her screams. But this one… this one rattled the woods around her and was echoed by a deep howl that came from Theo. The six members of the pack left behind scrambled to their friends.
“What the hell was that?!” Liam asked, looking desperately to an equally confused Scott. “She’s never done that before.”
“Mason?” Corey’s voice stopped whatever response Scott was going to attempt to make. The chimera was staring at his boyfriend with a frown on his face. Liam figured out why a moment later. The druid in training was murmuring something under his breath. Liam shook his head to clear the ringing left from Lydia’s scream away to focus on it.
“Concordia,” Scott murmured, also clueing in. “What the hell is a Concordia?”
“Not what but where.”
They all turned to see Deaton and his sister emerging from the woods. Liam really wanted to know if it was a Druid thing that allowed them to just appear mysteriously while spouting as much cryptic stuff as possible. If so, he was not looking forward to when Mason learned that. Then again, Mason was sitting on an all-powerful tree stump apparently tapped into some kind of four-way shared death omen vision and repeating the name of an apparent place over and over. So maybe he was already mysterious and cryptic enough.
“Okay then, where is Concordia?” Scott asked, seeming slightly disgruntled. Liam grinned. Nice to know he wasn’t the only one that was over Deaton’s cryptic crap even after all these years. Okay, especially after all these years.
“Concordia is a small town about three hours from here,” Morrell answered, face blank as always. “You won't find it on any map. They are a notoriously closed off but special community not unlike what Beacon Hills is becoming. A home for the strange and unusual. The supernaturally strange and unusual.”
“And you're just mentioning this place now?” Melissa asked.
“They've never been particularly welcoming to outsiders. The people there were born there. They don't allow for outside interference. They won't even let Druids in.”
“I always thought it was just a rumor,” Chris spoke up next. “I guess that's kind of the point. It kept the hunters away.”
“I guess we could learn a thing from them after all,” Liam muttered. Scott nodded. “But why now? What are they all reacting to?”
“I don't know,” Morrell said, her mask slipping just a bit. “But I'll get someone to look into it. They don’t like outsiders but I know someone who can get in easily enough to see what’s going on there.”
“Don't bother,” a shaky voice interrupted. They turned to see Lydia shaking off her trance. Her previously closed eyes were open and red-rimmed. Jordan had his hands on her shoulders offering comfort he seemed to need himself.
“Lydia? What's going on? Why shouldn't we bother?” Scott asked, taking a step towards them. Lydia's hands flexed over Theo’s head which was still resting on her lap. Liam could feel the sadness coming from his boyfriend who had yet to even look like he was ready to shift back. Scott’s step faltered. “Lydia?”
“The people… the whole town…” she trailed off, shaking her head.
“It was a vision,” Mason finally answered, voice numb and flat. “The nightmares we had, the… all of it. It was a vision.”
“Is that why you screamed?” Melissa asked. Lydia nodded. “So I'm guessing it was a bad one? Like someone is going to die bad?”
“More like a lot of someones are going to die,” Lydia exhaled shakily. Her fingers tightened briefly in Theo's fur. Theo whimpered, closing his eyes. “And they're not going to die. They're already dead.”
“How many?”
“All of them. The whole town.”
Liam let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Their previously defeated positions took on a whole new meaning with those three words. Scott was shaking his head, seemingly unaware that he was doing it in the first place.
“How can that…. who would do that?” Scott's voice was mixed between confusion, horror, and rage. His eyes flared red.
“Monroe. It was Monroe.”