The Hunt For a Pack [A Teen Wolf Thiam Fanfic]

Picking A Location

Theo had eventually returned to the Hale house and deleted the non-fight with Liam from his mind. He didn't want to think about it, and the Rockies pack hadn't asked about it, either. Ben had just thanked him for the couple of t-shirts he'd given him and had moved on. He didn't want to think about whatever bullshit had taken place with Liam, and he was thankful for the distraction of the upcoming pack welcome party slash bonfire. The plan of having it at Lydia's lake house had fallen through as Lydia didn't want several likely intoxicated supernaturals in her beautiful and very breakable home. Isaac had spoken positively about his pack, but Lydia had still disagreed. No one could fault her, though. Parties between two packs of supernaturals didn't exactly turn out well. So, instead of that, they had decided to go with Paul's idea after all and celebrate at an abandoned house.

Theo, Ben and Isaac had wandered throughout Beacon Hills looking for something that would meet the expectations that Megan and Serena had set. They needed a house that had a large enough yard to accommodate the large group of party-goers. But also, ideally, something not in a 'sketchy' neighbourhood. Not that there were many neighbourhoods in the small town at all. Megan didn't want the non-pack to feel any more nervous than they likely would already. Luckily enough, after about 20 minutes of walking through the town, they found a house that fit their requirements. It was an old house scheduled to be demolished which had no doubt been used to harbour some sort of supernatural being.

"What do we think about this one?" Theo asked, leaning on the blue fence.

"Well, the windows and doors are boarded up, but we can probably figure out a way in." Isaac shrugged. Ben, who had shifted to appear like a large black dog, wagged his tail. Isaac chuckled and leaned down to scratch Ben behind the ears. Ben curved his doggy lips into what looked like a smile and licked Isaac's hand. Theo smiled and patted Ben's furry head.

"It's hard to tell if he's got more hair like this or not." Theo joked. Ben's eyes shot up, and glared at him.

"Yeah, he's got some thick-ass hair." Isaac agreed while Ben let out a low growl. The two men laughed.

"So, you think this house will work?" Theo asked, sneaking another glance at the two-story home seemingly built in the late 1950s.

"Yeah, it should work." Isaac said before giving Ben one last scratch and standing upright.

"Wanna hop the fence and check out the yard?" Theo asked.

"Sure." Isaac said, dropping Ben's leash. Ben, with hardly any effort, made the jump and landed on four paws on the other side of the fence. He gave a big grin and leaned back on his hind paws as though he was bowing. "Show off!" Isaac exclaimed. Ben gave a slight nod before heading towards the backyard. Isaac rolled his eyes, took a look around and climbed the fence in quick succession. He stood on two legs and waved Theo over. Theo grinned and did a running start before jumping clean over the fence, landing two feet in front of Isaac. "Jeez, what're you a gymnast?" Isaac joked.

"Maybe." Theo said, looking at his nails before dramatically dusting them off on his shirt. Isaac gave him a small shove before taking off into the yard. Theo grinned and followed. Ben was lying at the steps to the back door, his head resting on his paws. The yard was empty, aside from the tree, the leaves on the ground and conveniently a sunk-in fire pit. The leaves crunched under Theo's boots with every step he took. "Not bad, eh?" Theo said.

"Not bad at all. Should work pretty well." Isaac nodded, walking towards the back door. "I think we can probably get these boards off pretty easily." He said, inspecting them.

"And we can probably break the fence if we wanted to, so Stiles, Mason and them don't have to jump it." Theo added.

"Alright, cool. I'll text Meg that we found a place." Isaac said, pulling out his phone. Theo nodded and sat next to Ben on the steps. Ben rested his head in Theo's lap, and Theo stroked the dark fur there. He looked at the yard again. The house's fence was tall enough that the neighbour would be unlikely to see anything, which was good. He looked at the tree, which they could hang string lights from its branches to light the yard. The yard was also big enough they could probably set up a few tables as well. They could put some picnic chairs around the fire pit as well. Perhaps even place the speakers in the tree. Theo grinned at the idea of it all, and he found he was actually looking forward to it a bit.

"Alright. Cool. We'll be back in a few. Love you." Isaac spoke into the phone. Theo stretched his back and noticed that Ben had fallen asleep in his lap from Theo absentmindedly petting his head. Theo gave a fond smile before moving slowly to get up. Ben's head shot up right away at the sound of movement.

"Sorry, B." Theo said to him. Ben got up and stretched out. Ben gave a small whine as he yawned.

"Alright, boys. We'll probably be back tomorrow, and the party's the day after." Isaac said. "So now, we gotta get out of here." Ben took off at that and jumped the fence like it was an obstacle course at an agility competition. Isaac shook his head fondly, and the two of them followed him.

***

"So, you looking forward to seeing your old pack?" Theo asked from the passenger seat of Isaac's '92 Ford F-150 light blue truck, Ben at his feet.

"I'm not sure, honestly. It's kinda weird to be back, y'know?" He asked.

"Trust me, I know." Theo replied. "I left when I was ten and came back at eighteen."

"Right. I left at seventeen and got back at twenty-five. So, about the same amount of time, then." Theo nodded. "I'm sure your memories from back then were a lot different than when you came back."

Theo shrugged. "My memories from back then are a bit fuzzy. Like looking at something from a great distance. Mostly it's just my hell and post-hell memories that are intact now."

"Hell?" Isaac side-eyed him.

"Yeah. Your buddy Scott thought it would be better than killing me." He looked down. He didn't like talking about it, but he did feel safe telling Isaac about it.

"Damn," Isaac swore under his breath. "That's awful man, I'm sorry."

"I did deserve it. I tried to kill Scott, remember?"

"You don't deserve that. Not even Peter deserves that."

"I'm worse than Peter." Theo argued, still not meeting his glance. Ben growled, and Theo looked down at him.

"Obviously, Ben disagrees with that sentiment," Isaac said. "And so do I. Peter killed his niece for power and bit Scott without his permission. But Scott forgave him, so why not you?" Isaac asked.

"You barely even now me."

"I practically used to be you. And I made shitty decisions, but I got forgiven, and I worked through them and forgave myself."

"What did you go to therapy or something?"

"Yeah. Maybe you should too."