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“Where is he?” the desperate call echoes throughout the first floor of the Geyer-Dunbar home almost as soon as Liam’s mom, Tara, opens the front door. Liam’s fingers twitch against the fluffy blue blanket keeping the baby in his arms safe and warm.“Mrs. Geyer, this is Brett,” Deputy Parrish’s voice announces. “Baby’s uncle.” Liam is staring at the piece of cream colored wall that keeps the living room apart from the entry way— blocking him from seeing what must be a truly panicked look on his former enemy’s face— his arms unconsciously bringing the soundly sleeping infant in his arms closer to his chest.“Oh, honey, come inside,” Tara coos, her always kind voice comforting and warm. “My son has your nephew in the living room.” Liam watches as his mom leads both Deputy Parrish and Brett Talbot into the living room. Brett stills when he sees Liam, his anguished gaze flickering between the boy he’d relentlessly bullied once upon a time and his infant nephew being cradled in the boy’s arms.“Liam,” Brett croaks. The alpha doesn’t seem surprised by his presence though, no doubt he’d picked up on Liam’s scent lingering in the air the moment Tara had swung open the front door.“Hey,” Liam murmurs, moving to stand up off the couch and doing his best not to jostle the baby in his arms too much. Tara’s eyebrows furrow as she glances between both boys, obviously puzzled.“Oh, do you boys know each other?” she inquires.Brett moves forward, his gaze now fixed and focused on his nephew. He stops a few feet away from Liam and gives him this look— and Liam’s not sure he’s reading the look correctly but it seems to him that Brett is asking him for permission to hold his nephew.“I think they went to school together,” Deputy Parrish offers to Tara helpfully. “Devenford Preparatory Academy.”Liam realizes that even though he’s gotten to his feet and has acknowledged Brett’s presence, his tight hold on the infant hasn’t eased up any. He’s refused to let go of the baby for hours. His mom had only held the little boy long enough for Liam to peel away his soiled clothing and jump in the shower to wipe away the blood staining his skin. As soon as he’d had a clean outfit back on, he’d quickly taken the baby back and let his mom guide him through the process of cleaning up the infant.His dad had run out for supplies in the meantime. Upon his return, Tara had helped Liam put a clean diaper on the kid and had warmed up some baby formula for him, but Liam had been the one holding the baby close the entire time— as close to his chest as possible at all times, refusing to let him go, like he’s scared the baby will disappear if he lets go for even a second.“I’m sorry,” Liam utters, eyebrows furrowing as he stares down at the sleeping infants face. He’s not sure what he’s apologizing for, not sure if he’s apologizing for Lori or for his apparent failure to offer up the baby to Brett— which is ridiculous and Liam tries to tell himself that he really needs to hand the kid over because Brett’s his uncle and has obviously been worried to death.“I-Is he okay?” Brett stammers. Liam looks up— all the way up because Brett’s so freaking tall, like at least a good foot taller than Liam— and for the first time in his life he sees Brett— Brett Talbot, the poster boy for alphas everywhere—without any of his walls up. There’s no faux charm, no sneering malice, there’s just Brett and the naked sorrow in his eyes. Liam nods, because he’s not sure he trusts himself not to cry if he opens his mouth.Brett takes a step closer then and Liam mirrors him, taking two strides forward to meet the other boy in the middle of the living room. One of Brett’s arms rises up toward the infant slowly before he runs his incredibly large hand over the top of the baby’s head, where it’s peaking out from the blanket, gently smoothing the thin hairs that are growing there down. Liam stares up into Brett’s eyes as the alpha stares down at the infant. It’s clear Brett’s grieving, and underneath that raging, yet at the same time he’s happy— or grateful, maybe— that his nephew is okay.“I’ll be right outside, Brett,” Deputy Parrish calls. “Let me know when you’re ready to go.” Liam’s intense study of Brett’s eyes is interrupted by the sound of the hellhound being led back to the front door by Tara.“Go?” Liam asks. “Go where?” Brett looks like he fights to drag his gaze off the baby but he meets Liam’s gaze and all at once that underlying rage seems to break past a floodgate. Brett’s eyes harden and his jaw clenches. As an omega, Liam supposes the sight of an angry alpha should frighten him— and it’s strange because Liam has been afraid of Brett before, has cowered and run from Brett before— but he’s not scared, not now, because he knows Brett must feel like a part of him has just been ripped out.“I have to go,” Brett tells him. “I have to see.” Liam’s eyes widen, his chest constricting at the thought of what Brett’s going to see, what Liam had seen. The baby squirms for a second and releases a soft little sound before he settles once more into Liam’s warm embrace. Brett glances down at the infant once more then takes a step away. He starts to turn away and Liam doesn’t know why one of his hands abruptly shoots out to grab ahold of Brett’s bicep. He makes sure his other arm stays securely around the baby in his hold as he looks up at Brett. Now he’s frightened. But not frightened of the alpha, Liam realizes. He’s scared for Brett.“She—” Liam chokes around the words in his throat, has to swallow them down when he realizes he’s not brave enough to utter them out loud yet and thinks of new ones to say. “Be careful.” Brett eyes him for what feels like a long time before he nods, just slightly, and drops his gaze down to where Liam’s got a hand tightly wound around his bicep. Liam releases him immediately, his skin flushing against his wishes, and returns his hand to its previous task of holding the baby close. Brett’s clear blue gaze— irises as blue as the midday sky itself— returns to Liam’s own.“Take care of him,” he says— it’s obviously a question but Brett asks like he already knows the answer to it— and Liam finds himself automatically nodding. Brett does turn away then and Liam realizes his mom has been standing under the living room entryway the entire time, watching them. Brett pauses once more as he stops just beside Tara— towering over her because she’s even shorter than Liam— and looks back over his shoulder.“His name is Billy,” Brett reveals, and then he turns the corner and disappears behind that stupid cream-colored piece of wall. Liam hears him open the door and tell Deputy Parrish he’s ready to go. The front door closes softly behind him and Liam stands where he is, holding the baby—Billy, he tells himself— close as he hears the engine of the deputy’s squad car turn over and peel away from the curb just outside Liam’s house. Liam realizes slowly, he never did let Brett take the baby from him.An hour later, Liam’s moved up to his bedroom. He’s placed the still sleeping Billy down square in the middle of his bed and made a wall of pillows around the edges of his mattress— Tara had said it wasn’t necessary to use so many pillows but Liam had done it anyway, not willing to take the risk of the baby rolling off— and he’s now sitting at his desk. The small lamp perched at the corner of the desk is the only light in the room, illuminating the desktop where he’s quietly doing his chemistry homework. Liam hates chemistry. He can’t bring himself to give a shit about atoms, compounds, or ions right now.His phone vibrates, bringing him out of his focus and distracting him from his oncoming headache. He reaches over and glances at the screen. It’s Scott, his alpha. Not his alpha alpha, he doesn’t have one of those, at least not yet. No, his pack alpha. Liam presses the green button to answer the call and holds the phone to his ear.“Scott,” he greets, glancing over at the spot on his bed where Billy is slumbering away peacefully— it’s such a drastic change from a few hours ago when the infant had been covered in mud and blood and wailing at the top of his little lungs.“Liam,” Scott says, in that soft tone of voice he always uses when talking to his beta— like he thinks Liam’s a little kid who can’t look after himself. “Are you okay?” Liam doesn’t really know the answer to that question himself. He drags his gaze off of Billy and back to his homework.“I will be,” he admits to his alpha. He wonders who had put in the call to Scott, the Sheriff most likely.“Derek called me,” Scott reveals and Liam’s actually genuinely surprised by that. “Told me what happened. He’s out with Parrish and the Sheriff looking for it, this rogue alpha.” Liam’s gaze moves to his bedroom window. He can see one of the lampposts down the street flickering on and off.“Yeah,” he whispers. “Brett’s probably out there with them.” He hears Scott sigh over the phone and can practically see his alpha’s face scrunching up forlornly.“He is,” Scott divulges. “Corey is too. I told him to leave Mason at home but he’s your best friend, you know how he is, never listens.” Liam feels one corner of his lips twitch up, despite himself. He doesn’t know what to say in response to that. Scott doesn’t seem to know what to say either. It’s clear he’s called to check up on Liam, to try and comfort his beta, but Scott’s never really been good at the whole comforting alpha thing, so the silence between them stretches on and on until Scott sighs once more.“Try to get some sleep,” he orders gently. “Derek and the others will watch out for Talbot.” He hangs up; probably knowing it’s easier than to wait for Liam’s response. Liam sets his phone back down quietly. He can’t help smiling softly for a quick second. Maybe Scott knows what he’s doing after all. With a soft exhale, Liam pushes away his homework and turns off the lamp on his desk. He creeps over to his bed and slowly moves the pillow to Billy’s left up to the headboard before gently settling himself atop the bed and beside the infant.For a moment, he’s terrified he might roll over in his sleep and crush the tiny child but he’s so incredibly exhausted that the frightening thoughts are quickly engulfed by sleep and he slowly slips from consciousness. He must not hear it when his mom tiptoes into his room in the middle of the night for the first time to change Billy’s diaper, or for the second time when she feeds Billy his bottle, or the third time when she stretches out two comforters and a pillow on Liam’s bedroom floor and coaxes Billy’s giant alpha of an uncle to the floor atop the blankets so he can hopefully get a couple hours worth of sleep.
It’s early in the morning and like clockwork; Liam is out for a run in the preserve. It’s a quiet Saturday morning, there’s only a few months left before the end of his junior year, and Liam’s out trying to clear his head. His parents had been nagging at him again, his mom wanting him to start filling out college applications and his dad wanting him to focus on lacrosse. So Liam had slipped out of the house with the excuse of going for a run on his lips.
Scott, Malia, and Lydia are all off at college now. Lydia’s at Georgetown University in order to be close to Stiles, who’s at Quantico, while Scott and Malia are off at the same community college in Southern California. Theo had disappeared off to God knows where after Scott and the others had left town. So now it’s just Liam and Corey and Mason. They’re barely a pack so thankfully Beacon Hills has been pretty quiet lately.
Which is why Liam’s nearly floored when he scents blood on the breeze, werewolf blood, and a whole lot of it. He’s frozen in place for a few minutes, scared of what he’s going to find if he follows his instincts like he wants to. After warring internally with himself for another moment, he does what he always does, which is make rash decisions anyway and rush headlong into trouble. He quickly follows the scent deeper into the woods and then stumbles upon a horrifying sight.
There’s a girl, a werewolf, she’s lying against a tree, caked in mud and blood from head to toe and wheezing quietly. Liam approaches her slowly, his eyes wide as he takes in all the claw marks. She’s bleeding profusely. Liam’s not an idiot, despite what Corey would have him believe. She’s obviously dying. Liam crumples to his knees beside her form. He reaches out to her and somehow, she still has the strength to flinch away from him, cradling a blood-soaked bundle of blankets in her arms.
“I’m gonna help you,” Liam promises. He meets her tormented blue eyes with his own azure gaze and tries his hardest not to cry in front of her. It’s clear she knows she’s dying as well. He reaches out again, cradles a pale blood-splattered cheek in the palm of his hand, and tries to take her pain. Immediately, he’s doubled over and holding in a roar of agony. She’s suffering so much and he can’t do anything for her aside from lessening the pain a tiny amount.
His eyes glow beta-gold as he refuses to let go of her cheek, refuses to let the girl go without some sort of comfort. She’s slipping away fast. Her soft wheezing is slowing down and Liam wants to scream at her not to move when she seems to use the last bit of her strength to slide the bloodied bundle in her arms toward him. She groans a few broken words— and later Liam will decipher them as, “Take him. Please. Take care of him.”— then chokes on her own blood and slowly, painfully, slips away.
Liam lets out a quiet sob, finally allowing his tears to trickle freely as he moves to catch the bundle of bloodied blankets in her arms. Liam’s not sure what he’s holding at first, is distracted by the sight of a tattoo on the girls forearm; stacked rocks. Liam chokes back another sob as his eyes widen. She’d been part of Satomi’s pack, before the alpha woman’s death. Liam’s gaze returns to the girls face, now still and peaceful in death, and studies it intensely. He recognizes her then, Brett’s sister.
“Lori,” he whispers. The bundle in his arms seems to respond to the whisper of the girl’s name as it moves and Liam freezes for a moment, watching the fabric squirm in his arms before he slowly roots out one of the corners and unwraps the blanket. It’s a baby, a living breathing human child, dirty and stained by his mother’s blood. Liam remembers vaguely that Lori had been pregnant when the hunters had tried to kill them all. Liam stares down at the infant, watches as the tiny face scrunches up after a moment. Then the baby opens it’s mouth and starts to wail like somehow it knows it’s just lost its mother.
Liam wakes up wailing too.