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It was late at night, but of course, Theo was awake. He was almost always awake. Usually, it wasn’t a shuffle of footsteps and the smell of two wolves that kept him up though. The first wolf was Scott, whom he knew immediately when his car door opened. The second wolf, though, was unfamiliar. It wasn’t like it was when he was first introduced to the other pack members. Those were familiar, not ones he could place immediately, but ones that he’d smelled on Scott before. This one was brand new, someone who had never been around Scott. But, still, they were in Scott’s house so there must have been a reason.
As he lay there, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars Melissa had placed on his ceiling, he thought about all the things he’d missed out on while with the Dread Doctors. In comparison to Scott he was still a child, he’d never graduated from primary school, never had a girlfriend or a boyfriend, never kissed someone, never held hands, never even had a school crush. But at the same time, he was more of an adult than Scott would ever become. He’d held up under torture at the same time that Scott was probably learning his state capitals. He’d traveled the world and learned more languages than he could count on one hand.
Theo had the upper hand in almost every situation, but he never used it. That was why he continued to lay in his bed, even as he heard a struggle in the bathroom and the sound of duct tape unwinding.
The bedroom door opened without warning, something Scott never did.
“Hey Scott I got- oh. Theo.” Stiles lanky frame filled the doorway. “Sorry… Scott’s usually in here this time of night.”
Theo nodded. “I know.”
“Okay,” Stiled blew out a breath, “well, do you know where Scott is right now?”
“I think I heard him in the bathroom. I’m not exactly sure.”
Stiles rolled his eyes. “You have fucking werewolf hearing. Even as a chimera, you should know where he is in the house.”
“Okay, well I don’t use it to spy on my friends. Go find him yourself, and get out of my room.”
“You know it’s not your room right? It’s Scott’s guest room.”
Scott’s voice came from down the hall. “Stiles, leave Theo alone, I’m in my own room.”
“I don’t get why you feel it’s okay to leave a murderer alone in your house,” Stiles made sure to stare down Theo as he spoke, “but sure, whatever.”
Theo hadn’t lied, he didn’t usually use his hearing to spy on anyone. But Stiles just talked so loud. He barely had to use it to figure out what the pair were saying through the thin wall.
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. Got it?
Scott kidnapped someone?
Liam... What happened to you... what I did to you... which I had to do to save you? It's going to change you…
Scott never was good at starting a conversation.
Unless it kills you
And Stiles wasn’t good at having them in general.
Theo got out of bed and started to walk toward the boys’ shared bathroom to run interference, but it looked like the kid held his own. The kid ran down the hall and right into Theo.
“Theo! Stop him!” he heard Scott say.
He hadn’t put on his alpha voice, but even if he had it wouldn't have worked on him. Sure, he considered Scott to be his alpha, but as a chimera he would never have the same bond with an alpha as a real werewolf.
“Don’t run, I’ll explain things to you and then you can leave after.” He got off the floor, standing in front of the blue-eyed boy. “You’re not going to kidnap someone. Especially not when I’m in the house.”
“Theo I’m sorry, I didn’t have a choice.” Scott ran a hand over his face. “I bit him.”
A shock went through Theo. “You bit him?”
“He bit me!”
“God, you two are so- let me talk to him and then let him go home. You’ll see him at school, you can check up on him when you guys are there.”
Stiles' heart was hammering away as he spoke, but never faltered. “Theo is a murderer and a manipulator. You think that he is the best one to explain this to Liam?”
Liam
“Stiles? Shut. Up. Theo, Stiles will only be here ten minutes longer.”
Theo led Liam into his room–the McCall guest room–and allowed him to sit on the bed while Theo himself sat on the floor.
“Okay so this is going to sound kind of crazy but I’m going to need you to just stick with me for a second.”
Liam’s blue eyes pierced through Theo’s hazel eyes. They were filled with unasked questions.
“You know about werewolves right?” He received a nod. “Well Scott is a werewolf, and he’s an alpha. So his bite is going to turn you into a werewolf too, and you’ll be his beta part of the pack.”
“Are you part of the pack?” Liam asked.
“Um, kinda. Stiles doesn’t like me.”
“Is it because you killed someone?” Theo liked Liam, even if his lack of filter would get him killed one day.
“That’s a story for another day for when you officially join the pack. Anyways, you’re gonna have to learn to control the shift and your enhanced senses.”
Liam was small, not only in height but also in muscle and fat. He was thin, and despite being an athlete, had little visible muscle on his body. However, that would change quickly, as it did for Scott.
***
The bite had healed, which meant that Liam would survive. He would join the pack, and Theo could talk to him again. He hadn’t told Scott, but he hoped that Liam would come around to being a werewolf more.
“Theo, I’m ready to go to bed, do you want me to stay in here tonight?”
He did. He really did. “No, thanks.” But he’ll have to grow up sooner or later.
***
“Failure. Subject 1, remove Subject 43.”
"Remove? You mean like, kill her?”
He received silence in return. They had given him no weapons, only locked them in a room together. He watched the girl bleed mercury. She couldn’t have been older than eleven, the same age as Theo. Her eyes never made contact with his. Not even as he drove his shaking claws into her soft stomach. He could feel the blood seeping through his fingers and staining the cracks of his palms. It was a feeling he’d eventually grow to know intimately. He stopped, though the girl was still alive. He couldn't stand the feeling anymore.
"You don’t have to stop.”
He knew what she meant. He couldn't stop, or else the Doctors would deem him a failure too. So, he slashed his claws across her chest and pulled out her still-beating heart. He assumed it was painless, he would learn that it wasn’t painless like he had thought.
Theo woke up, his own hand laid on his chest, his claws half shifted out. It had poked holes in his shirt but hadn’t yet broken the skin. This meant that he also had not woken Scott up. He silently slipped on some Converse and a light jacket since it was still dark, and walked out into the night air.
He walked with no destination in mind, his feet carrying him on the map he’d memorized weeks ago. A familiar figure seemed to be walking a similar path to him.
“Corey?”
The figure froze and then disappeared. He could still see the footprints though, since there was a light dusting of snow on the sidewalk that wasn’t there when he’d started walking.
“Corey, wait!”
The other chimera was fast, but with far more years of experience and endurance, Theo was faster. He grappled at the space that Corey would be taking up in front of him and held his ground. The younger chimera put up a struggle, but quickly admitted his defeat. He became visible, and with him, the rope burned on his wrists.
Corey was panting. “Theo? I thought that you- You didn’t come back in time and so they told me you had failed.”
Theo shook his head, tears in his eyes. He should have known that if he’d defected they would have moved on to Corey. He never should have left, not without him. “No, I’m sorry. I found a way out, and you could too if you wanted. I’m staying with an old friend of mine, he wouldn’t mind.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah.”
Corey looked younger than he was curled up in Theo’s bed. He was under the plush blanket Theo had slept with every night since the McCalls found him, as well as the shirt Theo had been wearing that night.
“Scott?”
Scott stirred. “Hm?”
“Can I sleep in here?”
That made Scott more alert. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. We can talk about it tomorrow, but can I sleep in here?”
Scott opened the covers and Theo was enveloped in the warmth. On the ceiling of Scott’s room were the same glowing stars as on his own.