What Could Have Been [Thiam Rewrites]

Chapter 15: Crimson Haze

"What're you doing here?" Liam whispered, pulling him inside by the elbow.

"The new apartment smells weird," Theo said with a shrug. "Mind if I crash here with you tonight?"

Liam studied him, and Theo stared right back. His hair was still damp from a shower and he was wearing a white tank top that showed off the muscles in his shoulders and chest and a pair of running shorts. It was casual. It shouldn't have been anything major, but this was what the apartment was missing. The cozy, homey feeling he got in the pit of his stomach when he was just hanging out with Liam.

"You couldn't sleep, could you?" Liam asked.

He scoffed. "That's absurd. I'm the best at sleeping, I don't know what you're talking about."

Liam leaned forward and lightly pressed his lips to Theo's. Then he shoved him onto the bed. "Uh, huh, let me just go say goodnight to my parents so they don't try and barge in here later." Theo opened his mouth, but Liam continued, "Don't worry, I won't tell them you're here."

Theo kicked his shoes off and flopped onto the mattress, breathing in Liam's scent. The bed was smaller than the one they'd shared at the safe house, but he didn't mind. Sleeping with their limbs tangled and their hearts close together was quite possibly Theo's favorite thing.

When Liam returned, locking the door this time, he tipped Theo's chin up to his and stroked his hair away from his face before kissed him again, deeper and sweeter than before.

Scratch that. This was Theo's favorite thing. Sharing a bed was a close second.

Liam gently pushed him further onto the bed and climbed in beside him. Exhaustion was weighing on him, dragging him into sleep, but Theo fought it long enough to rest his head against Liam's chest and calibrate the heart in his chest to the steady beat of Liam's own.

He fell asleep with Liam's fingers in his hair and his arms wrapped tightly around him.

Liam

Both of his parents were working, and with no lacrosse games or pack business underway, Liam had invited Mason, Corey, and Theo over to study. All of them except Theo jumped with Liam strode out of his bedroom as a wolf. He leapt up onto the couch, curling up with his tail tucked under his chin.

"How're you going to explain the long white dog hairs to your mom?" Theo asked with an eye roll. He had barely bothered to look up from his homework.

Mason and Corey though, were still gaping at him.

"Since when—?"

"A few months back," Theo answered for him. Several dozen questions later, Mason and Corey returned to studying.

Theo propped his feet up on the couch beside him, and Liam scrunched up his wolf nose. If he thought his sense of smell as a werewolf was a curse, it was ten time worse as an actual wolf. Liam huffed and leapt down again, hoping he hadn't already left behind a ton of hair.

He rubbed his side against Theo's legs and growled softly until Theo's hand dropped between his shoulder blades. One of the absolute best perks about being a wolf was demanding scratches. His tail moved of its own accord as he shifted to rubbing his ears between his fingers. It was absolute bliss.

"Ya know, when I said you should practice shifting, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind," Theo said, and even though he'd said it like a joke, there was a slight edge to his voice that Liam knew meant he was worried. Liam wasn't sure why, though. Shifting in the house was as safe as he could get.

Unable to speak, Liam let out an "awhooo" in protest. The few times that Liam and Theo had shifted in the forest, Theo had been too paranoid for either of them to enjoy it. So Liam had resorted to shifting at random inside the house, in Theo's truck, at the safe house while Derek, Theo, and Isaac worked. Even Derek had let out a rare chuckle when he brought them the correct-sized wrench in his mouth and dropped it at their feet.