Chapter Text
Theo tapped his hands against the steering wheel to the beat of the music. Me! by Taylor Swift featuring Brandon Urie was an upbeat song and he couldn't help but sing along. As it came to the chorus he looked at his passenger. "It's a duet. Want to take Brandon's part?"
The passenger only glared. "Come on, it's a good song!" She still made no response, so he sang both parts himself. "You should really take advantage of this chance to have some fun. Once we arrive at our destination it's going to be work work work and you won't have a moment of peace."
She whimpered, and Theo could see tears in her eyes. "Can't you just let me go?"
Theo winced. "Nope. Sorry. My bosses need test subjects and they said you were uniquely qualified for this experiment. Besides, I did my time in the cages. I wouldn't go back to save my own mother. I don't even know you."
"Oh God," she wailed. Tears fell and her body shook with sobs. She pulled at the handcuffs holding her to the door of his truck.
Theo sighed. "Want me to knock you out? One little shot and you'll sleep the rest of the way."
"I want to go home!" she cried.
Taylor's You Need To Calm Down started and Theo smiled at the irony. He didn't think his passenger caught it. "Listen, I know you're scared, but I only get so much time out and about without the doctors breathing down my neck. I want to enjoy my music, so you can be quiet on your own, I can tape your mouth shut, or I can drug you. The choice is yours."
She cried harder. Theo pulled over and readied a syringe. Tape wouldn't be enough to muffle that noise. "Do you need to pee, because if you pee on my seats I won't try to make things easier on you later."
The tears stopped. She was suddenly calm as she nodded. Theo eyed her. "I know you think you can run, but I'm a survivor of the experiments. I'm stronger and faster than humanly possible." He made his eyes glow gold. "You will not get away."
"I can be quiet," she whispered.
Theo gave her the kind of smile most women only see on magazine covers. He put the syringe back in the case but left it filled. "Good. Do you have a favorite Taylor Swift song?"
---
People without one of The Gifts often asked Liam how he knew what he knew. He could never find the words to explain it. Even when he found others like himself none of them ever found a way to really make someone on the outside understand how it worked.
There was a definite difference between a dream and Dream, just as there was a difference between knowing something regular information and knowing something because you Knew it, and if you didn't have a Gift it was like trying to explain colors to a blind person. They might get a general idea based on some textures, but they would never understand the beauty of a rainbow or a perfect sunset.
He knew when he woke up it had been a Dream, just as he knew a new beginning was on its way. Things were going to change. He just had to figure out how. This wasn't a new feeling, but it was a rare one. He'd gotten it before he started at Beacon Hills High School, and met Allison, Lydia and The Pack. They had welcomed him and Mason like family. Psychics and werewolves, who knew they went together like peanut butter and jelly?
The only other time he'd felt it, he had told his girlfriend she was pregnant. She didn't believe him, but he Knew it, just as he Knew she would never be a mom to his child. He wasn't surprised when she left hours after the baby was born. His ex had her own problems and he wasn't going to judge her for handling them how she thought best. He was just happy he got to keep Clara.
There was a minor miracle and the bathroom was open. He got in the shower before someone else could stake a claim. The running water made it easier to focus. He thought of the Dream. A green eyed wolf in a spiked training collar was after his daughter, but not a wolf, a coywolf. The word just popped into his head. It felt right. He had to hold the coywolf back so it wouldn't take her.
As he rinsed the shampoo from his hair the door opened. A small brunette preteen slipped in and set about doing her business.
"Hey!" Liam complained loudly to be heard over the water. "Don't most twelve year old girls avoid the bathroom when their dad is showering?"
She shrugged, as she washed her hands. "They probably don't share a bathroom with a dozen people. And lucky for me my dad has taught me that nudity isn't shameful and not always about sex. Sometimes it's a thirteen to one bathroom ratio and sometimes it's just hot out."
Liam glared at the blurry image through the curtain. "I can't believe Stiles told you that story."
"I can't believe it happened more than once. There's a line out here, so you'll want to hurry." He couldn't see her smile, but he could hear it. She waved and slipped out the door.
Hurry, he did, and a minute later he wrapped a towel around his hips and opened the door to an angry werecoyote. "Sorry, all yours." She growled in response. "Oh, Malia, do you know what a coywolf is?"
"A coyote wolf hybrid." She slammed the door.
---
Five minutes later and fully dressed, Liam stepped into the busy kitchen. He took the milk from the fridge, poured a glass, passed the jug to Scott before the alpha could ask, and traded his glass for Clara's mug. She was too young to start on coffee, but that didn't stop her from trying to drink it every morning before school. The girl rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything as she drank her milk.
One would think being psychic, and knowing her as well as he did, he wouldn't be surprised by her, but somehow he always was. He did a double take at what his daughter wore. Today her outfit consisted of one of his t-shirts, a yellow one he got for free, but never wore because of its eye searing color, with an orange ribbon threaded several cuts to make it into belted dress. Under that she wore leggings she crocheted herself with bright colored rainbow yarn. The stitches were loose and uneven leaving a lot of large holes, through which he could see deep emerald tights. The finishing touch to the ensemble were purple rubber boots covered in rainbows and unicorns.
As a teen Liam had been desperate to fit in, but Clara seemed to delight in standing out. He knew she had friends, or more accurately there were girls that admired her uniqueness and tried to copy it. Clara enjoyed their company but always kept them at a distance. He also knew she didn't get bullied because the one time a boy had tried she used her own substantial Gift for Knowing things to blackmail the bully into submission. That had been an interesting parent teacher conference.
"Was my mom a shapeshifter?" Clara asked, around a mouth full of Cheerios.
"She was the lady in the lake that gave Arthur Excalibur, a water nymph. Don't talk with your mouth full." Liam took a drink of his coffee. It was made exactly how he liked it.
"You're going to have to tell me something eventually." She finished her cereal by drinking the milk.
"Am I though?" Liam gave her a shrug. The truth was he had no intention of telling his daughter anything about her mother. He didn't know what Hayden was running from, but it had her scared and Liam didn't want whatever that was falling back on them.
She didn't say anything else, just kissed his cheek and ran off to catch the school bus.
"What are you going to do if she Sees something about her mother?" Allison asked. She passed packed lunch boxes to Scott, who put them in back packs.
Liam shrugged. "If it was knowledge she could force she would have it. If she does eventually find out, I'll assume that means she is ready to have it."
---
The lab was underground in a maze of tunnels that stretched out for miles. Dread filled Theo's stomach every time he got close. Memories of dark, cold nights in his cage filled his mind. Phantom pains from the experiments creeped over his body.
Muscle memory took over as he led the new subject to her cage. He focused on staying calm, reminding himself he was on the outside of the cages. The Doctors could sense stress hormones. They could read the smallest twitch as a tell. He couldn't show them anything.
She tried to pull away, and his grip automatically tightened on her arm. "Show them no fear. Do as they say and don't fight," Theo whispered. He locked her in her cage.
The sound of approaching footsteps made Theo's heart race. He swallowed the terror and forced himself to take slow deep breaths. "She's cooperated so far. I'm going to get her an extra blanket," he said, his voice smoother and more confident than he felt.
The doctor nodded. Its heavy gas mask and helmet made it look like something out of a steampunk nightmare rather than a doctor. Its voice came distant and distorted. "Obedience is to be rewarded. When that is done, subjects 117 and 109 need to be disposed of."
Theo nodded. He walked away at a speed he had carefully calculated, slow enough to not appear frightened, but fast enough that he didn't look like he was slacking. It was autopilot for him at this point: get the blanket, get the restraints, take the subjects for disposal deep into the tunnels.
"How far do we have to walk down here?" the one with the shaved head asked. His all black eyes focused on Theo.
"Just a little farther," Theo replied, sounding bored. He wanted to make sure they were farther away than the doctors usually traveled, and they were close to a very specific tunnel he wanted. He watched the girtablilu chimera carefully.
It wasn't a matter of if he would attack, but when. They turned two more corners before the scorpion spines grew out. He was ready before the strike came. It wasn't a fight. Theo didn't even consider it a work out. He sidestepped the two fisted swing, reached out with his claws and tore out his throat to the spine. He was dead before he hit the ground.
The other test subject jumped back. Theo could smell his fear and the ozone smell that went along with his electrical abilities. "You going to start fighting now?" Theo asked skeptically.
"I don't want to die. I'll fight if I have to." The eel chimera held up his manicaled hands. Electricity crackled.
"How much do you want to live? Can you keep your mouth shut?"
"Who would believe me about a place like this?"
"A do-gooder wolf pack might, and if they did they would feel the need to try to shut it down. Can you imagine what they could make out of a full pack?"
The eel-man shuddered. "I won't tell anyone."
Theo nodded and removed the manicales. The guy was scared, but he feared the doctors more than anything. "Take the next two lefts then a right, go up the ladder. There's a road Eight miles to the north." He ran.
---
When running a business from your house it's important to set us a space for that business, especially if that business is focused around meeting people. Lydia, Allison and Liam converted the dining room into a comfortable place to meet clients. It was also full of candles, potted plants and a small fountain. Running water always helped Liam focus. There was also a shelf dedicated to the teas, soaps and salves Mason made and sold.
"I need help with this Dream I had last night." Liam sat at the table. Allison sat across from him and started shuffling her tarot deck. Lydia took a spot at the end of the table with her sketch pad and pen.
"Why do you want me here?" Mason asked, but also sat at the table. "I'm an herbalist, not a psychic."
"You're my best friend and you know me better than anyone. You'll have some insight." Liam told them about his Dream, the coywolf, his beautiful green eyes and the way the spiked collar dug into his neck.
"Are you sure the coywolf was a he?" Lydia's pen made scratching noises as it moved over the paper. Her eyes focused on Liam.
Liam laid out one of his cards. Unlike Allison, he used a deck of playing cards that a preschool Clara had scribbled all over with markers. The card was the king of hearts with a green blob and a purple heart drawn over the printed one. "Definitely had male energy."
Allison laid down the Three of Swords. "He's bringing death, or something worse."
"What's the significance of the collar?" Mason asked. He craned his neck to see Lydia's sketch.
"I think the collar is what makes him dangerous. Controlling him?" Allison looked to the others for confirmation.
Lydia nodded. She showed her drawing, a broken training collar, with dark liquid dripping from the prongs. "You have to hold the coywolf back until you can break the collar."
"That sounds really dangerous," Mason pointed out.
Liam looked at another scribbled on playing card, the ten of diamonds with all the diamonds connected by blue lines. "It is dangerous, but what's the alternative, let him take my daughter?"
"I don't know. Run?" Mason suggested.
"Wolves and coyotes are both trackers. He would chase," Allison said, still focused on her cards.
Stiles leaned his head in the room. "You guys taking clients right now or should I have this guy come back later?"
"Send him in," Liam said, immediately. The girls nodded. Mason pursed his lips.
Stiles led in a good looking man a couple inches shorter than himself. He wore jeans, a fitted black t-shirt, and stubble covered his jaw. Allison and Lydia looked him over then glanced at each other. "Stiles, you brought us a big bad wolf," the brunette said.
"He's not a wolf," Liam corrected. He focused on the man's eyes. They were green, the same green as the animal in his dream. "He's a coywolf."