Chapter Text
Several days later found Theo back at Scott’s house, the leaves on the trees starting to fall into small piles on the alpha’s front lawn. The end of summer was fast approaching, the fresh graduates getting everything ready to load up and head out in only a scant few weeks’ time. People were starting to look somber, faces downtrodden and scents soured. The parents, in particular, were starting to get quiet, a distinct mustiness in their eyes that was both sad and proud at the same time.
Even he wasn’t immune to the emotions in the air. Bits of sadness had crept up on him, squeezing his chest like hands closing too tight around him. Change shouldn’t scare him, at least not in the way that it terrified everyone else. He was literally created to adapt, shaped in a way that he was seemingly always ready to shift and pivot at a moment’s notice. He was only alive now because he knew how to do that, and did it better than anyone else. Not only was he a chimera, the first chimera. If anyone knew how to handle change and come out on the other side alive, it was him.
A gentle touch to his arm had him stiffening, but the tension quickly melted away when he realized who it was. He sagged into the warmth next to him without really looking. He didn’t really need to at this point to know that it was Liam standing at his shoulder offering his own as support and Theo was helpless to say no. It was never a word he had been terribly good at when it came to the blue-eyed idiot next to him and he heavily doubted that would change with any amount of time.
The sound of people entering the room had him stepping away from Liam on instinct, the motion unfortunately creating a cold spot where his boyfriend used to be. He could feel the palpable hurt radiating off of Liam without even having to look and he forced himself to keep his focus straight ahead. Secrecy probably wasn’t the best option for them, considering his history with keeping secrets from the pack, but sue him for trying to be careful. He had enough of his own trust issues interfering already, the last thing he wanted or needed is Malia or Stiles throwing in their own biased opinions of him and where he stands in the pack. Everyone and their mother already knew exactly where that duo would like to put Theo and his budding relationship with Liam was fragile as it was even without the input of everyone around them.
He put yet another step of space between them and crossed his arms, effectively creating a barrier between him and the rest of the room as he tried his damndest to hold himself together through sheer force of will alone. It had never really worked that well in the past, but hey, he’s learning to hope and trust so maybe, just this once, everything would work out slightly in his favor. Slightly, that’s all he needed. Well technically, he could use a whole lot more than slightly, but that was all he would let himself try for as his first shot.
“You okay?”
Theo looked up and watched as Alec slid in next to him, his eyes alight with concern. He huffed and turned his own gaze away, resuming his task of surveying the house.
“Yeah, fine.”
“Why does it sound like you’re just saying that?”
Theo’s gaze snapped upward and he glared at the taller wolf next to him.
“Maybe because I said the words out loud, y’know that action called speaking?”
“Again, sarcasm works against you when you’re trying to pretend you’re telling the truth.”
“He’s just cranky because Scott interrupted his beauty sleep. Didn’t you know chimeras need a total of twelve hours in order to not be pathological assholes?”
Theo looked at Liam sharply and winced internally. Yeah, he was definitely getting peeved with Theo’s insistence on hiding this. That, or he was equally as cranky from lack of sleep, considering they had been woken up at the same time this morning courtesy of Liam’s obnoxious alarm.
He turned his head back to the ground and glanced back at him, really trying his best to be subtle about it. The stiff, hard set to Liam’s jaw meant that this was definitely going to require a fair bit of cuddling and groveling later on to smooth everything over.
With every minute that passed, more people began to pour into the room, most notably the two resident Hales. Peter gave him an odd, cryptic smile and Theo couldn’t help but shift uncomfortably. There was something in that look that had him slightly unsettled. On instinct, he shifted himself in a way that allowed him to plant himself between the older wolf and Liam, purposely angling his body to cover the younger almost entirely. Logically, he did know that Peter wouldn’t hurt him and didn’t mean Liam any obvious harm either, but that didn’t mean that it was any easier to just turn off the part of his brain that registered the man as a threat.
When Peter didn’t back off, Theo felt a snarl spread across his face before he could stop himself, only to freeze as Peter’s head tilted, assessing the situation. The part of him screaming that the man in front of him was an apex predator got infinitely louder in that split second, only to go entirely silent when the grin slowly morphed into a look of triumph. Confusion had Theo tilting his head in response. What on Earth would Peter have to be so damn proud of? He hadn’t done anything lately that was even remotely warranting that look, at least not to his knowledge.
“Finally figured that out, did you?”
Theo’s brows furrowed in even deeper confusion. Figure out what? What the hell was he talking about? The only thing he’d figured out lately was the statue curse, but that couldn’t be what he was talking abou- Wait.
“You bastard!”
All of the heads in the room snapped to look at him and then followed his gaze directly over to Peter, who looked all too much like the wolf that ate the canary and then proceeded to parade around in sheep’s clothing. Nobody had the time or opportunity to get in his way as he crossed the room quickly and then pinned Peter to the wall, his head colliding with the surface hard enough for it to crack.
“Why?” he grit out, his eyes hard and brows angry.
“Honestly? I was bored. And the moping on both of your parts was getting egregious.”
Theo’s arm leaned even more into Peter’s throat, choking him slightly. He had half a mind to just rip into the guy physically rather than restraining himself to words, Melissa’s house be damned. He could deal with the disappointed daggers and clean up, so long as he was successfully able to take a chunk out of Peter and his fucking ego.
A gentle hand placed itself onto his shoulder and it instantly filled him with a warmth that spilled all the way down his arm and it was soft and strong enough to tamp down the white-hot coals feeding the too-hot flames of his anger into something manageable. A loud, overly-animal growl ricocheted throughout his chest with a vengeance, both animals more than a little bit sad that they couldn’t get in even one lick without being reminded that they were supposed to be better than this now. They’re supposed to walk the high roads and lashing out with claws and fangs was no longer a viable reaction to shit like this.
He stepped back after a moment, only preening a little bit at the sight of the once-great Peter Hale falling to his knees before reaching up to rub at his throat in the aftermath of Theo’s actions.
“Anyone care to fill in the rest of the class?”
Theo stared at Peter as he took a step back and gestured to the rest of the pack, effectively leaving him the floor to speak. The annoyed eyeroll that preceded the wolf getting to his feet and straightening out his clothing is all too predictable, though that doesn’t change how much he really wanted to punch that irritating little smirk off of his smug face.
“Well, our dear Theodore and Eu—”
A pair of matching snarling growls echoed throughout the room from both him and Liam, even Brett joining in from behind him.
“Liam, have had quite the not-so-secret thing for one another for some time, and I decided that it would be prudent, before they go their separate ways, to make the mutual nature of it a little less hidden,” he said, his head lifted and his voice smooth, not an ounce of guilt costing his words.
“That’s a little messed up…” Mason said from behind them, his brows knitted together in concern.
“A little?!” Theo exclaimed, his scent still bitter with anger.
“It’s Peter, there’s a little allowance for insane things given that his brain spawned the fucking deadpool,” said Malia.
“I feel like that shouldn’t give him as much leash as you think it does,” Scott chimed, his facial expression torn.
“May I interject?”
“I’d rather you didn’t, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop you,” Scott replied.
“Perhaps it wasn’t my best plan overall, but did you die? Did anyone?” Peter looked around dramatically, practically daring anyone to refute the statement. “Then thank me.”
“Why would we thank you?” Theo growled, his fists balled up tight at his sides.
“Because you now get to fuck like rabbits before your little golden retriever heads off to the big city.”
The urge to lunge across the room at the former-alpha welled up in his chest, but he had to stop himself when Liam did the same thing. Theo rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the beta’s chest tightly, hauling the thrashing body back before he could actually cause any harm. He grit his teeth and frowned because, despite being on the crass side, Peter wasn’t wrong. He did, in fact, do both him and Liam a favor with this stunt.
“At least it wasn’t murder,” was mumbled by someone as he got Liam out of the room, effectively excusing them from the meeting.
Eventually they made their way outside, Theo still holding Liam close to his chest. For a moment, panic threatened to well up in his chest at their position. It was too close, too much like something that people who were more than friends would do, and he even started to let go before he remembered that he was allowed to do this now. He didn’t have to be scared or embarrassed about people seeing them be close or the assumptions that they could draw.
He melted into Liam’s embrace, his head ducking down to snag a deep inhale of Liam’s scent. All he wanted to do was enjoy the contact while he still had him close, while he was still here. The tension in Liam’s body shifted, stiffening for just a moment before giving way entirely to something much softer and less rigid.
“He’s a dick.”
Theo chuckled a little, nodding into Liam’s shoulder. “Yeah, but he meant well. I think.”
“This time.”
He pressed a gentle kiss to Liam’s head and nudged his nose at the soft hair, memorizing the sensation for the moments when Liam was at college and not in his arms like this. It wasn’t going to be easy managing long-distance, but it also was hardly the most difficult thing that Theo had ever done. If he could survive everything he’d been through in his life, he could survive this, especially since he now had people around him that were willing to help.
Peter was a dick, that was for sure, but just this once, the big, bad wolf did a good thing.
