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Liam was not usually aggressive as people may think he is. The beta has control of his anger almost as flawlessly as Theo himself had it, only slipping here and there. But he was indeed often kind of angry and it was not because of his IED.
The pack often didn't notice the changes. When Liam's eyes would suddenly go cold like steel and the slight sourness of his scent. It wasn't anger, not really… It was fear.
Theo was right all those months ago when he told Liam that people only feel one emotion at a time. And Liam often got angry when he was afraid, because it was the emotion his brain could process quicker.
They didn’t seem to notice but when it was moments like when Stiles snapped at Liam for not having better control that the beta’s hands would shake and his claws would pierce the skin of his palms. Or when Scott reminded the beta of what he shouldn’t do. When Malia snapped and screamed even if she didn’t meant to.
They triggered him and it angered the chimera that they were so oblivious to it. How could they forget everything the beta had gone through? They all knew. They knew about Liam’s dad, about the screams, the broken bones, the bruises and cruel words. They knew about that particular nightmare Liam had every couple of months, about his dad finding him and Jenna, about Liam not being able to protect his mom, about being completely exposed and overpowered.
It was Liam’s trauma as a human that marked him more than what he had gone through as a supernatural. Maybe because he was a child, maybe because the supernatural trauma had to certain point, being easier to process to him. It’s easy to diminish the impact the supernatural trauma had on him when he had been used to how cruel the world was from a really young age.
Because the man that gave him life was never a good father.
And now, the beta had to learn to navigate life with a disorder and a supernatural side while keeping himself under control no matter what. The beta had PTSD for fucks sake, how could they be so stupid?
Some may say that Theo was being dramatic, but he wasn’t and the proof was right in front of him. Currently Scott and Stiles were lecturing Liam, and the signs were there, they were just too full of themselves to notice.
“Look at us, kid, we are talking to you!” Stiles groaned, his arms shutting up as Liam kept his gaze down. That was the first sign, Liam’s avoiding gaze.
“Liam, if you are having problems controlling your shift, we have to work on them, you can’t keep shifting like that.” Scott sighed, once again Liam had shifted and ran through the streets causing his neighbors to call to the station about a weird kid running half naked in the middle of the night.
“It was the full moon! Sometimes the pull is stronger than others and I was already stressed about class.” Liam tried to explain, he always tried to explain to them but he was ignored, like most of the time.
“Liam, you have to be more self conscious! We can’t have you running shifted on the full moon! We already had the hunters up our asses and we don’t need that again.” The human had his hands on his hips while he looked at Liam as if he was Stiles’ kid and he was grounding him. “I don’t want to chain you to a tree every full moon, Dunbar!”
“Don’t even try it.” Theo growled dangerously low, but didn’t move from his place against the wall, he had a full view of Liam from there and he was not about to move. He was keeping tabs on the beta's behavior.
“Stand down, mutt.”
“Stiles is kind of right, Liam. You need to stay in control.” Liam flinched at the disappointed tone that laced Scott’s words, his shoulder hitching up and his hands tightly gripping the couch cushion.
“Of course I’m right. He is a time bomb ready to explode, he is one silly insult from exploding—”
Theo cursed under his breath as he noticed Liam’s scent getting sour, fear overpowering his scent and quickly becoming anger. In a second, Liam’s eyes changed, no longer blue but glowing gold. Fangs filling his mouth and claws adorning the tip of his fingers. He moved, Stiles being his clear target, but Theo move faster, getting in between the wolf and the human.
“Liam, breathe.” The chimera pushed the beta back down on the couch, keeping his grip tightly on his shoulders while Liam growled at him, confused at the sudden intrusion of the chimera. “What three things can not long be hidden?" The beta looks up at him, confused by the conflicting actions around him. While Stiles was screaming about how out of control Liam was, Theo on the other hand was calm and collected, focused. It threw the wolf off, confusing him.
“What three things can not long be hidden? Come on, Liam, focus.” Liam’s golden eyes focused on Theo’s green eyes, anger and fear fighting to take the drivers seat in his mind.
“The s-sun, the moon, the t-truth.” The words came out of Liam’s lips in a growl and Theo moved his hands, now cupping the beta’s face.
“Again, slower.” His voice was firm, anchoring.
Liam let out a shaky breath through his fangs and nodded slowly. “The sun… the moon… the truth.”
“That’s it, good.” The chimera murmured, moving one of his hands and running his finger through the beta’s hair. He had noticed how touch helped getting Liam grounded quicker, as if he needed a tangible grounding point.
He waited, murmuring softly to the beta calming words. A string of ‘you are safe’ and ‘good, you are doing so good’ was all that was audible in the living room.
Stiles was too shocked to make any sound over his disbelief and Scott… Scott knew better than to intervene when Liam was trying to keep himself together. Slowly, the beta’s features shifted back to human, blunt teeth, short nails, blue eyes. The chimera gave him a small smile that was quickly mirrored by Liam. But calm is not a thing that lasts in their lives.
“What the actual fuck happened here?” Stiles screamed, eyes open wide and gesticulating wildly with his arms.
That pissed off Theo like he hasn’t been pissed off in a really long time. What happened? The pack are a bunch of idiots that didn’t know the difference in emotions even if they smacked them in the face.
“You happened, asshole!” The chimera snapped.
Both the alpha and the human looked taken aback by Theo’s outburst. The chimera wasn’t one to snap that way, he would use sarcasm or be snarky when he thought the pack were wrong or being stupid. He didn’t lose control of his emotions, so it was quite the shock when he did.
“Theo, it’s okay—”
“No, Liam. It’s not okay.” The chimera didn’t scream anymore, but his anger was clear and it wasn’t even for himself, it was for Liam.
“What do you mean, Theo?” Scott took the initiative though a bit hesitant, with a frown on his face.
Stiles threw his hands up in an exasperated gesture but kept quiet, because even if he was an asshole, Theo knew he cared, he was just too self centered sometimes to notice something outside Scott, Lydia, Malia and him. The separation— even if it wasn’t all that marked, it was still there.
“You are all triggering him—”
“No shit, Sherlock—”
“Not his anger, Stiles!” Theo didn’t like being interrupted, but he hated it even more knowing what Stiles was hinting at, Liam’s anger. “You are not triggering his anger, you are triggering his fear.”
“What?”
“Liam?” Both Stiles and Scott had a confused expression on their faces, looking between Liam and the coywolf as if somehow the answer would magically appear on their faces.
“Do you remember who Liam’s dad was? What he did to him and Jenna?” The chimera by instinct shifted, standing in front of Liam, hiding him from their sight as he spoke, irritation lacing every single one of his words.
Realization seemed to dawn on them, their stances shifting, their faces showing regret. Their scents… both Liam and his caught up with the shift in their scents, it was clouded with guilt.
“PTSD, right?” Stiles tried, his voice losing the prepotent, know it all tone and shifting, more calm, understanding.
“The screams… sometimes certain words.”
“Liam doesn’t process fear like you two do. When he is scared, he settles with an emotion he knows how to work through better, anger.”
On their faces, the chimera could see they were remembering every interaction, every moment they screamed, or said something hurtful to Liam, every moment when they had ignored the signals that were obviously there. It was painful to see Scott’s face crumble, he always wore his heart on his sleeve, always felt things more intensely than the rest of them. And Stiles, he was clearly struggling, a frown on his face and his fist clenched. He was the observant one, he was the one who completed riddles and made the plans. How did he not notice?
“Liam… we didn’t—”
“It wasn’t our intention to—”
“I know… I know you didn’t do it on purpose, and at the end you all only reacted.” Liam shrugged, grabbing the chimera by the waist and sofly moving him slightly to the side so he could look at his alpha and Stiles.
“We’ll do better… We all will.”
_________________________
“You didn’t have to do that, you know?”
The chimera sighed, turning from the stove to look at Liam sat with his elbows in the kitchen counter. Looked innocent, but Theo knew better than to fall for it.
“I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. You didn’t have to keep taking their comments just because they didn’t understand. It wasn’t fair.” The beta hummed low in his throat in acknowledgment and Theo turned back to the stove. He had told Jenna that she didn’t need to hurry home because he was taking care of dinner.
The blonde always thanked him, saying he came to her life to make it just a bit easier. Dinner was one of the things they either did together or took turns, and the human was grateful for it.
He was so focused on his task that he didn’t notice Liam moving till the beta was behind him, hands on the chimera’s hips and his forehead resting between Theo’s shoulder blades.
“Careful or I’ll start to think you care about me.” The words were soft, teasing but Theo knew better. He knew that Liam was pushing, like he had been before. But after the day they had and what Theo did, there was no hiding it anymore.
“And what if I do?” He murmured, voice measured and controlled. “It’s not like I’ve been hiding it.”
“You know I care too, right? About you?” Liam turned Theo to face him, blue eyes meeting green.
“Liam—” The chimera’s words were cut short by Liam’s lips. It was soft and sweet and Theo never thought it would happen, but here he was. He hesitantly kissed back, one off his hand coming up and cupping Liam’s jaw.
When the kiss ended, Liam let the chimera turn, letting him keep working on dinner but he didn’t pull back. Arms wrapped around the chimera’s waist and his chin on Theo’s shoulder.
“Huh… a protective boyfriend and homemade cooking? I can get used to that.”
“You are already used to it, dork, you just put a label on it.” The beta couldn’t help but laugh at his words, because he was indeed not wrong.
“Hey… I get kisses out of that label.”
“Dork.”
The chimera rolled his eyes but smiled at how happy and carefree Liam looked, how his scent was warm and sweet, like honey and a sunny day. Such a bold contrast from how sour it was just hours ago.
He will make sure, to do everything he can to keep Liam happy, to keep him smelling like happiness… even if he was called protective boyfriend.
It actually had a nice ring to it. Theo Raeken, protective boyfriend.