The doors of the jeep slammed shut with two loud bangs, seconds after the other. Heart pounding, I nearly ran to the back of the vehicle, hands desperately gripping at the lacrosse hoodie, the one that was my only lifeline to finding Liam. My eyes narrowed in on the the woods surrounding us in every direction as far as my eyes could see. They fluttered shut when I couldn't see any signs of what direction Liam was in. However, his scent led the three of us to the Beacon Hills Preserve, bringing us closer to wherever Garrett hid him.
Liam was here somewhere. I just knew it.
After taking a few deep breaths, I calmed my heart down to block the loud noise in my ears, focusing on all of the sounds around us; the sound of Isaac and Stiles' shoes crunching down on the dead leaves beneath them as they walked toward me, small animals hidden in bushes and trees, fallen leaves, water flowing in a small creek, rustling of tree branches above our heads.
"Anything?" Stiles asked after a few minutes of silence.
A sigh tumbled off of my lips as I opened my eyes, shaking my head. "No," I answered him, deflated. The dark hoodie in my grasp caught my attention as I glanced down at the dirt clinging to my shoes, frowning at the only piece I had to find Liam, and hoping I was able to find him before the wolfsbane reached his heart. "Here." I tossed the material to Isaac. "I've got a lock on his scent, and you need to get it, too."
Isaac easily caught the jacket in one hand. His ocean blue eyes lingered on mine, hesitating before he brought the hoodie to his nose, inhaling Liam's scent. Once he locked in on the familiar scent, his head snapped to the left, in the same direction I believed would lead us to my beta, the one who I first hated, and now, feared for his life because I cared for him more than I ever thought I would.
"His scent goes that way," Isaac bobbed his head in the air, gesturing in the direction we needed to go in.
I nodded once, agreeing with him. "Let's go."
Before I could move an inch to break into a sprint, the ringtone to my cell phone rang from my back pocket of my jeans, most likely another desperate call from Scott of an apology spewing from his lips in attempt to make it up to me for hiding Liam's disappearance from me for so long. My eyes automatically rolled, a light scoff striking off of my tongue as I reached for the ringing device. Without looking at the screen, already knowing who it was, I opened the back of the jeep, tossed my phone inside without a care of where it landed or knowing I'd have to search for it later.
None of that mattered in that moment. All I cared about was finding Liam. Alive.
Stiles glimpsed at the back of the jeep, grimacing when the window slammed shut with an unnecessary force. "What if he found Liam?" He asked, hesitantly, afraid to upset me any more than I already was.
"Then he'll call you," I deadpanned. "I don't want to talk to him right now and he knows that. You would think he'd take the hint after the fifth time I ignored his call."
Without another word, I took off in a slow jog in the direction Isaac and I determined was the way Liam's scent went in, solely focused on finding him instead of Scott's weak apologies. The only reason he was sorry now was because he realized just how in the wrong he was about hiding this from me, assuming he could do this on his own, forgetting both of us were the Alphas of our newly formed pack. Liam was our beta, not just his. I deserved to know about his disappearance as soon as Scott found out. If he had just told me in the first place, there was a major possibility I could have found Liam already after searching for him for over two hours, but Scott chose to be selfish and dumb instead, risking the life of our beta.
Liam's scent lead me further into the Beacon Hills Preserve. I let every guard down for my animal instinct take over, allowing me to see perfectly through the sheet of darkness of the woods and hear every sound my supernatural hearing allowed me to. Animals hid from our racing figures, some watching us from above our heads or on the ground behind trees and bushes. A few dead leaves detached from the branches they were attached to, crinkling all the way down until it landed on the woodsy floor.
I abruptly stopped running without a warning to Stiles or Isaac, confused when the scent began to fade. "Liam?" I screamed his name into the open air of the Preserve, desperately.
Stiles accidentally bumped into my shoulder from his poor attempt to stop so suddenly. His hand gently pressed to the small of my back, eyes intently scanning my face. "Can you hear him?"
"No..." I whispered, fearfully.
The fear of Liam dying flooded through my mind. The blood flowing through my veins ran cold at the imminent danger quickly approaching him as the wolfsbane reaching his heart. The lump forming in my throat became hard to swallow at the thought. The rapid beating of my heart swarmed in my ears at a deafening sound, anxiety seeping into every crevice of my mind that it could find.
What if we didn't get to Liam in time? What if he wasn't answering because he was--
"We're gonna find him, Chloe," Isaac reassured me. The lacrosse hoodie was held in his right hand, down by his leg.
Swallowing my panic, I sharply turned around to face the two of them, a determined look shining in my eyes. I would not let this fear suppress the hope I still had deep within me. I waved my hand in the air, gesturing around as I struggled to think of the right words to say. "Alright, tell me what's in these woods. It's stupid for us to run around, like chickens with their heads cut off, searching for his scent, when we are trying to figure out where Garrett would take him." I ticked off fingers as I said, "We have the Hale house, Nemeton-- what else is there?"
"Are there any other abandoned houses in here?" Isaac crossed his arms over his chest, while still holding the jacket, and peered down at Stiles for an answer.
Stiles ran his fingers through his disheveled hair, glancing down to the right, thinking back on his knowledge about this part of Beacon Hills. After a few seconds of silence, he shook his head. "No, there was an old, abandoned house about a quarter of a mile from the Hale house, but the city tore it down over two years ago. There's nothing left except..." Stiles trailed off as his eyes drifted off to the side as a look of realization spread across his facial features.
A brief moment of hope flashed through my body. Hopeful, I stepped closer to him, praying something bubbled to the surface of his wonderful mind that could help find Liam.
His widened eyes darted to mine with a matching look in them. "There's an old well that was built behind the house, but when they tore the house down, the city realized it would cost too much to fill the hole up, so they just left it."
A small breath of relief fell off of the tip of my tongue at his words. An idea came to my mind, causing me to snap my fingers in the air between us, nodding my head. "If Garrett stabbed Liam with a blade laced with wolfsbane and didn't want him to get away--"
"-- then a deep well in the middle of the woods would be a smart place to hide him while he got Scott's help to get Violet back!" Stiles added, hurriedly.
"You said it was a quarter of a mile past the Hale house, right?" Isaac questioned in a serious tone.
Stiles nodded. "Yeah, if you two run there, you could get there within minutes."
Potential relief rushed through my body at the thought of finding Liam and saving him before anything deadly happened to him. I lunged forward, hands grasping at the sides of Stiles' cheeks and brought our faces together in a swift motion, pressing my lips against his for a quick second before I abruptly pulled back, grinning. A dazed look masked on his face, lips partially parted, eyes shut, taken aback by my sudden actions.
"God, I love you!" I exclaimed before I broke out in a fast paced run, determined to discover the well within a few minutes.
The wind pushed my hair back over my shoulders, a few strands blowing across my eyes. I pushed myself to run faster, remembering the direction Stiles told me to go in. This was the one lead we had on finding Liam. A loud, pained roar filled the night sky of the Preserves. I tripped over my feet, almost tumbling to the dirt, heart pounding in my chest at the way the noise rippled through the air.
I gasped for a breath, gazing at the open, wooded area in front of me. "Liam?" I breathed.
The pain laced in the growl tugged at my heartstrings. There was no doubt in my mind that the roar belonged to my beta, which meant he was still alive, but the amount of pain he sounded like he was in worried me, deeply. Without a second thought, I raced through the trees, headed directly in the direction the roar came from.
The Hale house passed by in quick blur. Stiles' directions and Liam's roar rang through my head as I pushed myself to run faster. Soon enough, Liam's scent hit me hard. Once I had a lock on him again, I followed its direction instead of running aimlessly.
After a few minutes of running, I broke through the line of trees, landing myself in a small, open clearing with a small well in the center of it. I gasped out in relief, darting to the bricked well, hearing noises of pain and frustration down inside of it.
Liam weakly struggled to climb up the side of the well. His fingers claw at the rough rock wall, nearly slipping with every second that passed. A large stab wound was seen on his chest, sliced through his tank top, oozing a yellow puss. One of his hands slipped off of the wall and placed all of his weight on his other arm.
My eyes widened in fear as I saw all of this happen once I threw my upper torso over the top of the well, peering down at my injured beta. As the strength in his other hand went out, it slipped off of the rock it had been holding onto, and he began to fall back. My own hand dived into the well, fingers latching around Liam's forearm to grab onto him before he could fall to the bottom of the well.
Surprised, Liam's head snapped up at the feeling of someone holding him up. His blue eyes were filled with frustrated and panicked tears, a breath of sigh flew off of his parted lips when he saw it was me.
"Come on, Liam." I urged him. I dug the heels of my feet against the side of the well while kept my other hand on the side of the well, afraid of losing my grip and both of us falling to the bottom. I leaned back as much as I could, holding onto his arm with all of my strength, refusing to drop him.
He began to crawl out of the inside of the well. His entire body was coated with sweat and water, but the hold I had on his arm did not let that get in my way. The two of us worked together to get him out of the well, both equally struggling. Liam struggled to stand up on his own once he landed on solid ground.
"It's okay," I whispered to him on the verge of crying. I wrapped my arms around his back to help hold him up until both of Liam's arms snaked around my lower torso, hiding his head into my stomach, silently crying. The action sent us to the ground with a soft thud. "It's okay, Liam. You're safe. I found you."
His shoulders shook from the wave of tears flooding through his body. The sound of footsteps approaching made me look up from his curled up figure to see Isaac running over to the two of us with a relieved look on his face. I stared up at my brother with happy smile on my face laced with fear and the feeling of my heart breaking. Liam clung onto me, like he thought he was truly going to die in that well.
"I'll call Deaton." Isaac fished for his phone in his pocket.
A wave of hatred washed through my body as I saw Scott break through the clearing of the trees. He slowed down to a stop about fifteen feet away, gawking in relief at Liam glued to my side, softly sobbing into my shirt. Scott's eyes flickered to meet mine and his face paled when he saw I furious I was. My jaw clenched in irritation.
"Oh, thank God," Stiles breathed, stepping out of the trees, spotting Liam and I on the ground, safe. He bent over, hands resting on the tops of his knees, breathing heavily, like he tried to keep up with Isaac's supernatural pace.
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This chapter was originally going to be a lot longer, but I've been trying to perfect a certain part and I decided to just push it into the next chapter instead of waiting to upload this one. I figured you guys would want a chapter now instead of waiting who knows how long for me to perfect this one scene I've been working on.
Let's just say that Chloe is pretty pissed about Scott not telling her right away about Liam, and she has every right to be.
I love how Liam and Chloe went from hating each other to be close to each other like this. I just think it's so sweet and really shows the connection an Alpha and a beta has.
Question: How do you think Chloe will react in the next chapter?
So, yeah!