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The hunters are only slightly worse than calculus , Liam decides. He should be out at one am on a Saturday, getting drunk and making stupid decisions. Mason and Corey are out having fun, his friends being much smarter than him and taking their gen ed math classes as early as possible. Unlike Liam, who put it off until now, to deal with during his junior year. Every derivative problem pushes him further towards dropping out of college and living in his parents’ basement.
His more important project has taken the backseat, keeping an eye on the hunters in the area for the active packs near his university. The alpha wasn’t too fond of him when he, Corey and Mason got to town (apparently for being a tiny town, the Beacon Hills pack is very well known), but he’s warmed up to them since the three became especially good at tracking hunters. Liam’s drawn to protecting supernaturals, no matter how many hours away from Beacon Hills and his pack he is.
“No cyber-stalking hunters until you finish your calc.” “Mason, I'm never going to finish this.”
Liam groans, stretching back in his chair to crack his back. Their dorm is dark, save for Corey’s red LEDs on the wall and the soft glow of Liam’s laptop, open on the math website he’s on hour six of struggling through. There’s a ‘9+’ notification dot on his email, the app he’s been itching to click on since he started. It could be notifications from his professors reminding the class of upcoming assignments, or it could be about the hunters.
Mason’s chastising voice in the back of his head sighs as he opens his email in a new tab, scrolling through the long list of unread mail. Graded assignments, upcoming test, Theo Raeken, group project- wait.
Theo?
He can’t help getting a little pissed. Theo bailed four years ago with no contact and now he’s emailing???
Out of spite, he wants to leave it unread for a while, to make the chimera suffer. Out of curiosity, he opens it anyway and his anger vanishes in a second. The message isn’t from Theo. There’s a link underneath one single sentence: “Look who we found.”
A lump grows in the back of his throat. The link opens a video, playing without him clicking a button. His heart skips a beat at the sight of Theo, at the boy who saved him so many times then left without explanation. It took him so long to get over the chimera. And just seeing him once sets his pulse on fire. Not just because he’s there.
But because he’s kneeling on the ground in front of the camera, hands strung up to the ceiling, head lolling between them, chin dropped to his chest. His entire body is bloody, bruised and soaking wet, water dripping from his unkempt hair. He tugs at the cuff around his left hand, rattling the chain above it. A familiar voice off camera sends shivers up Liam’s own spine when he says, “Stop moving. ” And Theo does it, head raising to the sound. “Good boy,” the voice rumbles. “You want to say hello to Liam?”
Theo’s gaze darts to the camera lenses, eyes darkening. “I miss you littlewolf.”
Mocking laughs echo around the room. The background looks somewhat like a hospital, white stucco walls and white and grey tile floor underneath Theo’s knees. The fluorescent lights in the video light up Liam’s own room. He doesn’t realize he’s leaning further over his laptop, watching Theo’s eyes even though he knows this is a video. The chimera can’t see him back.
“Would you like to tell Liam how long you’ve been with us?” the man asks.
His head droops forward again. “Four weeks, as of today.”
“And why are we doing this now?”
“A day for each person of yours I’ve killed and,” he lets out a broken breath. “Liam I’m so so sorry.”
“Save your bleeding heart sobbing for the end.” A figure crosses the screen, dressed in all black with dark gloves, and Liam’s entire body goes slack when he sees the man, knows why he recognized his voice. It’s this town’s alpha. The alpha smiles coldly at the camera. “Surprised?” He laces a gloved hand through Theo’s hair, yanking his head back with a tired groan. “You’re going to look at him, so he can see your life end,” the alpha snarls, tugging harder to drag a pitiful whimper from Theo’s lips. “Little puppy cries so pretty, don’t you Theo?”
Liam doesn’t hear whatever soft whisper Theo makes, but the alpha shoves his head forward, entire body sagging against the chains around his wrists. The chimera keeps his head up enough, eyes angled at the camera. That look is what drove Liam crazy. He knows that.
“Now,” the alpha continues on. “What can you tell your old ally about why you’re here?” His hand presses against Theo’s forehead, pulling so his back and head is against the alpha’s body. A growl looses from Liam’s throat. “Start with what happens if you miss anything .”
The chimera shudders when the alpha, still towering over him, slides a hand down to the back of his neck. “With every point I miss, they’ll take wolfsbane off the stake to kill me so I take longer to die.” His jaw clenches. “When I left Beacon Hills, I lost control of my shift and… did things I’m not proud of. I came back when it started getting bad, when you were home on break, and it felt so much better.” He tilts his head back into the alpha’s thigh, tears welling in his eyes he’s trying not to let fall. “I followed you back to school and I’ve been here this whole time.”
Liam’s eyes widen. His first semester of college, he lost control of his own shift nearly every day, missed classes for hours at a time to sit in a burning shower trying to burn the feelings out of his body. After winter break, his wolf calmed down, grounded so he could focus again. He and Mason always assumed it was because of stress from moving and being apart from his pack.
Watching tears slide down Theo’s cheeks as he closes his eyes tells another story.
“You’re my anchor, Liam,” he says. “I never wanted you to know I was here because I know you didn’t want to see me. I just needed to be near you.”
“Touching,” the alpha rolls his eyes, hand around Theo’s neck dropping to his shoulder. “Why are you with me?”
“I kept getting in your way of killing new werewolves in your town.”
The alpha smiles, so much more haunting than Liam’s ever seen from him. To think, he looked forward to their weekly meetings, to talk about supernatural happenings in town and how his pack was doing. “And how many of mine did you take the lives of last month?”
Theo’s throat bobs. “Nine.”
Liam sinks back into his chair. He spent hours searching for the killer of nine werewolves last month for the alpha, with no avail. He was looking for hunters, when he should’ve been looking for the hazel-eyed chimera who’s been near him this entire time. The chimera he spent years looking for in every new face he sees.
“And why did you do that?”
“You sent them to… to kill Liam,” his voice cracks.
Watching Theo is the only thing keeping Liam’s anger from boiling over. He wants to throw his computer or scream, but that would mean tearing his gaze away from the chimera, kneeling at the feet of a man he’s trusted for the better part of three years.
When the alpha finally pulls away from Theo, stepping around the chimera to somewhere off camera, Liam unclenches his fists, where fingernails marks linger on his palms. He stares down at the marks, only looking back up when the alpha comes back on screen, a sharpened piece of wood in one hand. Theo balks at the sight, chains keeping him held fast to the spot. The alpha takes his place back behind the chimera, crouching so he can whisper something right in his ear, something Theo flinches back from. He smiles at his reaction, resting a hand on the side of Theo’s neck.
“Now Liam, remember this,” the alpha says. “Stop messing with things that don’t concern you, or this awaits you and your actual friends.” His voice drops to a low rumble. “Now I could bite this little mongrel and claim him as my own, then send him back to you. If he doesn’t run away again and stays like he really wants to, you’ll still both know who he belongs to, and it isn’t you. ” Theo jerks away at the touch against the side of his face. “How fun it would be,” he purrs. “But he’s more trouble than his entertainment is worth.”
When he stands, one hand goes underneath Theo’s chin, forcing him to look up at the alpha at his full height. “Just do it.”
The alpha smiles down at him. “So eager to die?”
“Fuck you,” Theo spits out. “Just kill me, you coward. ”
Theo, no, he silently begs. His claws are out, so close to tearing his desk apart.
“I would’ve drawn this part out,” the alpha returns. “But you’re not worth my time.”
Liam can’t tell if the gasp is from him or Theo as the stake goes through Theo’s back, tip punching through the front of the chimera’s shirt. Blood spurts onto the white floor. This is a video, not happening in front of him, yet he can still feel the pain, the grief. The groan spilling from Theo’s mouth as the alpha twists the stake makes Liam nauseous.
The raspy breathing and pained whimpers are short lived. The minute after Theo is stabbed is agonizingly long, but not long enough when he watches the chimera draw his last breaths, eyes fluttering closed. A cry rips out of Liam’s heart, breaking into uncontrollable sobbing. He barely can see through his tears, can’t hear what the alpha says through the ringing in his ears.
Another person comes on screen, snapping one of the chains holding Theo up, his left arm dropping limply to his side. The other follows. When the second person disappears, the alpha looks up, neutral expression on his face. He releases his hand and Theo’s body hits the ground.
Red pools all around him.
And the video ends.
Liam can’t stop crying.
Mason and Corey find him half an hour later when they get back to the dorm, curled with his knees into his chest on the chair, whole body shaking with the sobs that can no longer come out with how tired he is. Every part of his being aches, barely able to move when his best friend tries to coax him to something more comfortable.
It takes a long time to explain what he saw, refusing to show them the video. Theo doesn’t deserve to be strung up and manhandled by a man like that, then put on a screen so the entire world can watch him suffer and die.
Liam doesn’t sleep well that night. He doubts he ever will again.
Four days after watching Theo die, not leaving his room for anything, Liam is woken by Mason shouting his name from the other side of their room. He opens his eyes to the light on, all three other people by the door.
Three?
He only has two roommates.
“Liam.”
He knows that voice, those eyes, that face. The dorm is small enough to cross in a few steps, for Liam to catch Theo as he stumbles forward, pressing his face into his pajama shirt. His entire body is drenched in blood, shirt ripped to high hell, skin ice cold and covered in bruises. Liam clutches him as tight as he can, Theo grasping at his biceps to keep himself somewhat upright, from knowing both of them over.
He forgets Mason and Corey are still there until the latter rests a hand on Theo’s arm gently, drawing out some of his pain. No one speaks, no one asks how he’s alive or how he got into their dorm in the middle of the night. When the chimera leans into Liam’s touch, his mind blanks out every question he’s so desperate to ask.
Both are crying, refusing to let the other go. Even when Liam gets to the ground, Theo on his lap with his arms around his neck, badly shaking, Liam doesn’t let go. He hasn’t felt this close to another person in four years.
He’s never letting Theo go again.