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Liam was not having a good day. First he had to redo his English homework because apparently it wasn't good enough, then Coach made them run suicide laps on the field for the whole of lacrosse practice because someone stole his whistle and now, when all he wanted to do was wallow in self pity on the floor of his bedroom, his AC wasn't working.
And they were currently in the middle of a heatwave.
Despite his wolf powers being a good thing in pretty much every other aspect of his life unfortunately that did not extend to keeping cool in the summer, if anything that particular affliction made him feel the heat even more.
As soon as he stepped through his front door and made the horrifying discovery that the inside of his house was no cooler than the outside, Liam kicked off his shoes and hightailed it to his bedroom where he could have his temper tantrum without being treated like a ticking time bomb. His desk shook with the impact of him throwing his shirt and backpack against it, wobbling precariously but thankfully (for Liam's blood pressure) stabilising.
Since he was home alone (for once) he didn't hesitate to strip off his jeans and socks either so he only had his boxers on that were already damp with sweat just from the effort of removing his clothes. Knowing he wasn't in the right state of mind to even consider redoing his homework now, Liam lowered himself to the floor and led on his back on the carpet, hoping by some miracle he could either sleep through the heat or start cooling down.
He didn't mean to fall asleep without answering Theo's increasingly frantic messages, it was just the warmth of his room made for quite nice napping conditions. How was he supposed to know that Theo had messaged him asking for a text once he got home so he knew the younger wolf hadn't passed out from heatstroke somewhere?
"We really have to stop meeting like this. Look at the state of you Li, can't leave you alone for five minutes and you're trying to kill yourself and give me a heart attack."
Liam sniffed at the voice interrupting his dreams before resettling, convinced his imagination was playing a trick on him in his heat induced delirium. Thankfully it felt as if he might have stopped sweating even though his face felt like it was on fire.
"Liam Dunbar!"
At this Liam snorted himself awake, the sudden alertness causing a rather uncomfortable rolling in his stomach.
"What?"
"Open your eyes Liam." The voice instructed. Even though the bright light made the rolling in his stomach even worse he was relieved to find the disembodied voice actually belonged to Theo, who was knelt over him, shirtless, with a very unimpressed look on his face. "I'm going to kill you myself Dunbar."
"What?" He repeated dumbly.
Theo rolled his eyes at the state of his wolf. See what happens when he's left alone for five minutes, can't last two seconds without me. "Can you sit or are you gonna throw up?"
Liam balked. "Leaning towards the second option."
Theo shook his head in exasperation and walked off, muttering to himself as he went. "The first beta of a True Alpha, Alpha of his own pack and in advanced placement classes in High School and the dumbass has heat stroke from lying in his fucking bedroom."
"T?"
The chimera whirled around at how weak Liam's voice sounded. "What's the matter, you gonna puke?"
"I really don't feel well. Are you leaving me? If you are can you call Mason? I don't feel well Theo."
And goddamn if Liam calling him 'T' wasn't cause for concern then the weakly whispered plea certainly was.
"I'm not leaving you little wolf, just need some supplies, that's all. We'll get you back to normal in no time."
"That's rich coming from you." The younger wolf muttered, for some reason forgetting that Theo could hear every word.
"Don't kid yourself, you love that I'm not normal."
"In your dreams Raeken." Liam dropped himself back onto the floor and lowered his eyelids, a throbbing headache taking route behind his eyes making it difficult to keep himself propped on his elbows.
"Do not go back to sleep Liam."
"Just 5 minutes."
"Li, I'll be right there just stay awake." Theo called desperately from the bathroom, fighting with the packaging on the Aspirin.
"So tired, I'm so hot. Can you turn the light out when you're done?"
"You mean the sun?"
"Yeah just turn it off please."
"Jesus Christ Li, you are seriously fucked up right now. More than me which is saying something."
"Hmm." The younger wolf hummed, happily sinking into the peace and quiet the darkness clouding his mind was offering. Only to be rudely reawakened by Theo hauling him up over his shoulder and practically running out of the house.
"What the fuck are you doing, asshole?"
"I've never said this before, but you're too hot. We need to cool you down and there's only one way to do it quickly." The older boy headed straight for the backgarden and into the preserve, making a beeline for the lake he knew was hidden between the trees.
"Theo put me down, I'm gonna puke."
"Just a little longer, we're nearly there."
"Nearly where?"
"The lake in the preserve. You need to cool off in the water and then shift, fully shift into your wolf."
"But I can't do that, I don't fully shift." Liam argued, he couldn't believe Theo had made it his super fixation to worm his way into every aspect of the younger wolf's life yet he didn't know he couldn't fully shift.
Mercifully they came to a gradual stop, the sound of swishing water filling Liam's ears.
"You can, if you have the right teacher. You're welcome by the way."
With no sense of decorum the chimera promptly dropped to his knees and dunked the both of them under the water, no warning whatsoever.
Liam resurfaced first (since Theo reluctantly had to let him go when he started kicking his feet around) and gasped as he tried to catch his breath, brushing his hair off his face with his fingers and looking around for the other boy so he could murder him.
Theo came up right beside him, also brushing his hair out and letting out a whoop at the change in temperature. He found himself knocked back under the water when Liam promptly punched him in the face.
"What the hell?" The werewolf shouted.
"I think I should be the one saying that, the hell kind of 'thank you' is that supposed to be?" Theo asked, extremely disgruntled with the blood streaming out of his nose.
"You can't just drop me in a lake, what if I couldn't swim? You'd be straight back in the nuthouse for manslaughter."
"I was holding onto you, of course you weren't going to drown. Idiot."
Liam's eyes flashed yellow. "Oh I'm the idiot? I'm not the one who-"
"Okay, time for you to shift."
Liam roared and tackled the chimera into the water.
.
"I think I'll have to keep you shifted all the time, you're much nicer like this." Theo twisted some of the dark brown fur between his fingers, smoothing it back down to lie flat against the lithe wolf currently led over his lap. The wolf merely grunted but didn't move.
"Your colour's similar to mine, just a bit lighter. My wolf is black, nicer fur than yours," Liam snorted and went to bite Theo's leg when a hand wrapped under his neck, effectively holding his jaw shut and wrenched his face up to look at the other boy, "it is your first shift so I guess that's to be expected."
When the look in the wolf's eyes looked slightly less murderous Theo let go of his chin, lowering his head back down to rest on his knee and leaning back on one of his hands to support himself while keeping a hand running through Liam's fur.
"It's easier in a full shift. To deal with things. Not so many complicated emotions to try and understand, no one asking you to explain how you feel and why you feel that way. It's part of why you get so angry, everyone wants an explanation from you, a reason why certain things get under your skin so much." The wolf whined and tried to bury his nose under his paw; Theo tsked at him when he tried to move off his lap again.
"Stay there little wolf, you'll feel better the more skin to skin contact you have as a wolf, especially on your first shift."
After a bit more fussing he finally settled, letting Theo play gently with his ear.
"You don't have to hide from me Li, I love every part of you. Even when you're a pain in my ass and try to die on your bedroom floor."
Theo got the distinct impression Liam was valiantly trying to frown in his wolf form.
"Don't give me that look, if I hadn't been there you'd be a werewolf steak by now."
Once again Liam turned his head away, looking out over the lake he had nearly been drowned in. While he'd never say it to Theo, he was right. Being a wolf made all the complex thoughts and emotions simple, plus he didn't have to talk. Mason was his best friend, he'd die for him without hesitation, but he also had the tendency to ask a lot of questions about a lot of things even Liam didn't fully understand about being wolf. And then he'd ask more questions off the back of those questions.
He was sure Corey put him up to it sometimes, the chameleon knew Liam didn't completely trust him around Mason and he could get his own back by goading Mason into asking him borderline inappropriate questions about turning into a werewolf, specifically where-
"You're beautiful like this."
Theo's murmuring stopped his spiral.
"I mean you're beautiful anyway, a real pretty boy," Liam chuffed, unimpressed by his choice of words but mollified by a long stroke all the way down his back to his tail, "but when you're all relaxed and sleepy on me, s'like something out of a story book."
Why were his words starting to slur?
"You're such a good wolf Li, such a good Alpha for me. Y'smell so good like this."
Liam stayed very still as he felt the pets get lazier and lazier before they stopped altogether. Very begrudgingly Theo's legs shifted out from under him and Liam watched as the other boy stood up, wavering about on his feet as he began undoing his jeans to tug them off along with his boxers.
"I need to shift Li, I'm gonna shift so I can be a wolf with you. Hang on, I'm coming back."
Liam hadn't realised he'd started whining when Theo's touch had disappeared. Before he knew it a black wolf was in Theo's place looking a lot less woozy than his human form had.
Holy shit. He knew Theo was a big wolf when he fully shifted, but being a wolf at the same time really put it in perspective. Liam's head was barely reaching the other wolf's shoulders. Not that this seemed to bother the black wolf who was padding over to him to lick over his face and ears, looking entirely too pleased with himself when Liam just stayed still and let him.
With a quiet grumble Theo turned away and started walking out of the preserve, looking back after a couple of steps to make sure Liam was following him. When he saw that he was, he waited until they were in line with each other and pressed their sides together as they walked, leaning over every once in a while to sniff at the brown wolf's neck and rub his head into the fur there.
Liam didn't know where they were going, or what Theo was doing, but it relaxed him every time he did it so he kept his warning growls to a minimum as he followed Theo to wherever he was taking him.
It wasn't long before he recognised the building in front of them, they were back at his house.
.
"Dude I swear to God if you've broken your phone again I am not lying to your parents for you, this is gonna be the third time in two months." Mason's voice echoed through the seemingly empty Dunbar household as he burst through the front door. "Liam?"
"Someone's here, I can hear a heartbeat." Corey told his boyfriend, gesturing with a nod of his head that they should check upstairs.
The two went quickly up the stairs and headed for Liam's bedroom where Corey could hear the heartbeat come from, flinging the door open and nearly screaming when a very unhappy growl came from the bed.
"It's Theo." Corey said, wrapping an arm around Mason's waist to try and comfort his boyfriend who's own heartrate was currently through the roof.
"That is Theo?" Mason pointed at the very large, very unhappy black wolf glaring at them from Liam's bed. His sleek black fur slightly disturbed by the air blowing at him from a fan across the room.
"Yep, and he does not look happy so I think we should go."
"But what about, you know," Mason tried to give Corey a look that meant should I ask if he knows where Liam is without saying it directly, but the blank look on his boyfriend's face said it hadn't worked, " L-i-a-m."
The wolf snorted, mocking them.
"Mase, he can still understand us as a wolf."
"You couldn't have told me that before?" He muttered to the chameleon, shaking his head as he turned to look at the wolf, "do you know where Liam is? I haven't heard from him since he got back from school."
The wolf gave no sign that he'd heard them, just continued to stare without blinking.
"Well that's helpful."
"Mason, look."
Corey took his boyfriend's hand and led him slowly round the side of the bed, careful not to make any sudden movements as yellow eyes continued to track them.
It was only from the side that Mason could see what he was talking about. Two tails were curled around each other, one dark brown and the other black, and Theo's body was resting at an angle that they could now see it looked like he had something underneath him.
"Uh, Liam?"
A disgruntled furry brown head popped out from between Theo's front paws, looking ridiculously similar to the human version of Liam being woken up from a good nap. The brown wolf huffed as if to say what do you want?
"Liam? Since when can you turn into a freaking wolf?"
Both pairs of eyes were now looking totally unimpressed with his question.
"I mean obviously you're a werewolf but like, since when could you fully shift? And why didn't you tell me? This is so awesome! Does Scott know-"
A warning growl sounded in the room cutting Mason off mid ramble. Liam had lowered his head to rest on his own front paws that were between Theo's, looking every bit like a bad dog being told off.
"If I can mention the elephant in the room, when exactly did you two get so close?"
To make it absolutely clear they wanted to be left alone (since Liam's two idiots clearly weren't getting it) Theo rolled back over so his body fully covered the beta beneath him and plopped his head down right on top of Liam's, effectively covering him from head to tail.
"I think that's our cue." Corey rolled his eyes at the overt display of possession, pulling Mason by his hand back out of the room.
"Wh-but what if Liam's been drugged? What if he's being suffocated? What if-"
"Mason," Corey stopped them at the bottom of the stairs to cup his face in his hands, "You know Liam. I know Liam. If he was in anyway uncomfortable with what's happening up there, he wouldn't be there in the first place. And if we want to live to see tomorrow with all of our limbs in tact, we need to leave now."
Mason reluctantly nodded at his boyfriend's words, following him out the front door and telling him about some new movie coming out that he wanted to see.
Back upstairs the black wolf lifted his head off of the one below him, giving brown ears a territorial lick to feel the shiver run down his smaller body. They'd been led together like this since they got home, Theo had only changed back briefly to set up the fan and make sure his Liam drank some water but after that he'd gone right back to being his wolf.
A little whine sounded from his wolf, so unexpected it seemed like it had surprised Theo and Liam. Soft purrs started up in his chest, the vibrations settling the brown wolf to close his eyes again. After one last lick across the back of Liam's neck, Theo burrowed his face into the side of that neck and closed his eyes as well, nothing but content radiating off him to send both wolves into a well deserved sleep.