What Could Have Been [Thiam Rewrites]

Chapter 17: Puzzle Pieces

A/N: This chapter contains spice and smut. Please be cautious if that's not your preference. If you'd rather avoid it all together, it's toward the end of the chapter. If that is your thing, enjoy! This is my first ever time writing MM smut and the first time anyone but my best friends have read it, so please be kind.

A/N: Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I've been on vacation with family friends, so writing has been slow. Enjoy!

Liam

"Right now, you answer to the moon," Derek was telling a scrawny pair of boys and a short, mousy girl who couldn't have been more than fourteen. Apparently they'd all been bitten on a camping trip a few weeks ago. After the girl's parents threw her out for aggressive behavior, they all banded together and ran away. A few days ago, Deucalion found them cornered by hunters and brought them here where they could be safe and learn to control their powers. "It controls your mind and your body, but only if you let it."

"You say that like it's easy," the girl snapped.

"Kody," the blonde, taller of the two boys scolded. "He's just trying to help."

Kody bared her teeth at him.

Derek glanced over his shoulder at where Liam, Theo, and Isaac were watching. He cocked a single brow at Liam, quietly inviting him to join them.

He'd done this a handful of times when they were present for training sessions with the new recruits. Liam had been confused at first because he was the last person that should be talking to anyone about control, but Derek had argued the opposite. "You're the best person because you know what it's like to constantly fight for control," he'd said.

"You're right," Liam told her, pushing off the wall and joining them in the center of the training room. "Control isn't easy, and a lot of how you take to your new powers is based on how you reacted to stress before you were bitten. If you were the kind of person that thinks before they act, then you'll likely be similar as a werewolf. Calmer than, say, someone who was already prone to anger," Liam tipped his chin at Kody.

Kody loosed a growl, her eyes glowing and her claws and fangs slipping out. She was no real threat, and even though Liam knew it and Theo knew it, Liam could hear the slight uptick in Theo's heart beat from across the room. Almost as if protecting him was a primal, unconscious instinct.

"I'll show you who's prone to anger!" Kody growled as she charged. Liam casually stepped aside, letting her slam headfirst into a padded wall.

Whirling, Kody braced her back against the wall, chest heaving.

"Being prone to anger isn't a bad thing," Liam said calmly. "It means you'll be strong. Probably a lot stronger than your friends, but that also means you have to be careful. You could easily hurt the people you love if you're not careful."

"I would never hurt my friends," Kody snapped. "You don't know anything about me."

"I believe that you don't want to hurt them, but that doesn't mean you won't if you lose control," Liam said. "And you're right. I don't know much about you, but I could scent your rage even before I walked into the training room, and that is something I know a lot about. I was diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder a few years before I was bitten."

The girl's expression softened at that, but her wolf-form stayed. She gazed at her hands, at the claws protruding from her finger tips, and Liam sensed her frustration at not being able to shift back.

"Being a werewolf can be overwhelming at first," Liam said gently. "Your senses are overloaded with a ton of new information, and it can be triggering. You have to learn how to drown out the noise."