What Could Have Been [Thiam Rewrites]

Chapter 16: Surprises

Notes: Thank you all so much for over 1,000 views! I'm blown away by the support this fic has received, and I'm so grateful! 

I apologize in advance that I originally intended for this chapter to have spice, but I've fully flushed out the plot for this post season-6 era of the fic, and I needed to include some more pressing plot things first. Spice is coming soon! 

TW: violence and very, very light spice.

Theo

Today was the literal worst. Nothing had gone horribly wrong, but he'd spent the entire day in a funk that he couldn't shake. After school, he'd driven to the safehouse and nearly gotten his truck stuck in the mud on the way there. The sky had opened up at lunch, and everything was soaked, but at least it was warm enough that at least the roads weren't freezing over.

Derek and Isaac had left him all alone to finish up at the safe house for the day, which meant he got stuck putting all the tools away and locking everything up. Even with the hood over his head, the few seconds he spent locking the door and running to his truck had him soaked.

His phone chimed with a quick text:

Little Wolf

Drive safe in the rain. See you soon 😘

Theo grinned and started up his truck. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.

Except a light on his dashboard lit up, letting him know he had 10 miles to E. And the only station for miles was in the opposite direction of Beacon Hills. He had to go just outside of the county line if he wanted to get a few gallons of fuel.

Theo turned onto the paved road. The rain roared down around him, muffling his music, and mud flung from the tires up against the mud flaps. Lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the trees in the distance and the "You're Leaving Beacon Hills" sign. The gas station was only a mile away now. One glance at his phone told him what he already suspected—he didn't have cell service—so if he ran out of gas here, he'd probably have to run home in wolf form and hope no hunters were around.

Isaac had been spending more time away, which was great because it gave Theo and Liam more alone time, but when Theo finally asked him about it last week, he confessed that he'd been helping Scott. Apparently the hunters had been turning their attention to the true alpha now that he was at college all by himself.

Theo didn't trust it like the rest of them did. The hunters might be avoiding Beacon Hills for now, but they wouldn't forever.

The gas station appeared in the distance as his truck flashed "5 miles to E." Breathing a sigh of relief, Theo ran inside to pay for a few gallons of gas in cash. The attendant was handing him his change when, he caught a noise through the rain pounding on the aluminum roof coming from outside the station—three heartbeats.

Listening closer, he heard voices. "Technically we're outside Beacon Hills," one of them hissed. "He's fair game."

Hunters.

Theo clenched his jaw and accepted the change. "Is there a back exit?" he asked.

The attendant nodded toward a door beside the bathrooms. "Everything okay? Do I need to call someone?"

Theo tried for a smile. "No, nothing like that. Just a friendly prank." The attendant eyed him but returned to her work. The back exit lead straight into the forest, and Theo called on his wolf senses. He didn't quite shift, but he borrowed some of his wolf abilities to help him travel through the dense forest with the deadly silence of a predator.