Liam could remember his fifteenth birthday, when his Mom had brought a cake out into the quiet room, candles casting an eerie glow on Mason and his parents faces. Remembered the way he'd looked around the almost empty room thinking about the school he'd just gotten kicked out of, the friends he'd lost when he'd taken a crowbar to the coach's car. Remembered how lonely he was, how much he hated himself, the IED label that had been slapped onto him that left his Mom casting nervous glances every time he so much died in a game he was playing, waiting for the explosion. He remembered being lonely, lost, wanting something to change, anything. So he'd feel normal again. He remembered the way the pills he'd taken earlier still left his mouth tasting chalky and his limbs slow and hollow, the way he felt like he was floating along, a storm cloud pushed by the wind, unable to really do anything but wait for the lightning to burst out and the thunder to crack, terrifying everyone, for the rain and the wind to do it's damage.

He remembered the way his Mom had looked at him with a small smile, still nervous but getting better, no doubt thanks to the sedated haze in his eyes that his medication left. How she'd said "Make a wish." And despite being too old for wishing on a birthday candle he tried it, one last attempt, one pathetic, desperate plea, he'd shut his eyes and blew out the candles in a single blow, one thought running around his head 'I wish for everything to change'.

And it had. The change he'd been dreaming of had been no more nervous glances, it had been getting into a new school, getting on first line in lacrosse, it had been of his IED vanishing and the medication to stop rattling inside of him.

Then Scott bit him and he got his wish. Everything had changed, every single part of him. Everything but his anger, That still sat there burning inside him, eating away, waiting for him to let it loose. But now it was worse, more dangerous. It had fangs and claws and a blood lust, it had enemies to aim it at and situations where he was told he had to use it. To take strength from it.

He wasn't sure how many times in the next year he'd thought back to the birthday wish, he knew it wasn't that that triggered everything, that even though werewolves and the wild hunt and dread doctors and berserker were real, wishes weren't, wishes were child's play, they were something that never came true and if they did... if they did they came around wrong, they twisted your hopes until you were suffocating on your words.

You're not a monster, you're a werewolf, like me.

If wishes were real he'd have woken up back in his hospital bed before the wendigo had taken him, before Scott bit him.

Liam sucked in a rattling breath, blood dripping down his arm.

Everything had changed.

It was done, the hunters were gone, the anuk-ite was dead.

So why did he still feel hunted, why could he still feel the thrum of anger beneath his skin that made his claws itch to reach out from beneath his skin and tear into something else.

"You okay?" Scott asked. Liam nodded, eyes moving to the body of the anuk-ite reminding himself that the blood on the walls wasn't from anything he did. It was from them, his friends, his pack, Scott's arm was still dripping crimson even as he moved to check on everyone else.

They'd won. Liam had got his wish and everything had changed.

So why the hell didn't it feel like it? He hadn't taken his meds in over a year so why did he feel so tired, so drawn out that he was sure he could sleep for a week. Why had his parents started casting nervous glances once more, why had he stopped laughing again?

"You coming?" Liam's head jerked away from the anuk-ite to Theo, leaning back against the wall watching Liam with a blank face, his clothes were torn and bloody. His skin still knitting itself back together, the keys to his car swung around his finger in quick loops, Once, twice. Liam looked around the room. Everyone else was gone. "Scott needed to get Stiles to Melissa, idiot twisted his ankle." Theo's lips quirked in a smile. "I said I could give you a lift home."

"Right." Liam hummed. It made sense for Scott to leave him, the threat was gone, his best friend was hurt. Of course he was going to leave Liam when all he'd been doing for what felt like hours was staring at the dead body of the latest bad guy.

Liam jumped as Theo's hand was suddenly clamping around his wrist and yanking him into a walk. He didn't talk as Theo lead him back to his car, nor as he climbed in and the older boy started the truck and the engine rumbled beneath them like thunder.

"You okay?" Theo asked, pulling out of the high school parking lot. Liam wanted to say yes, they'd won, of course he was okay.

"I'm tired." Liam said instead.

"Poor little Beta, did the fight knock you out? Don't worry, you'll be back to your regular bed time now that-"

"No." Liam said, shaking his head with a sudden ferocity. "I'm tired." He stressed. "I'm...I'm sixteen, I shouldn't be this tired, should I?" Theo blinked owlishly, eyes shifting from the road, to Liam and back again.

"This feels like the kind of conversation you should maybe have with someone el-" Theo started, but Liam wasn't listening.

"This isn't what I meant!" He hissed hysterically. "I didn't want this! I just wanted to stop being so angry and instead I become a werewolf. We just killed someone and-"

"Something." Theo corrected. "It was a monster it wasn't-"

"We're monsters too!" Liam said, desperate for someone to understand. "Maybe we're fighting on the right side but we're still...We still killed it, we still scare people. I don't want people to be scared of me. I don't want to have to fight anymore. I don't want to have to be talked down from killing people when I get angry, I don't want the fate of this town resting on my shoulders! My girlfriend left and my friends almost died and people did die and I just-" Liam sucked in a breath. "It's like ever since I found out about my IED the hits just keep coming and I'm tired of it. I want something to change for the better but every time I think something's going right-" He thought of Brett and Lori, of how close they'd been to getting out alive, of how he thought he'd saved them for a second.

Scott would be gone soon, and Stiles, and Malia and Lydia. He'd be alone again. He'd be dealing with everything that goes wrong in Beacon Hills alone. No back up, no Alpha to come up with the plans, no Theo to keep him from killing people. "I know I need to be here, I know that I should be here, that it's my responsibility to help but I just..I need a break.." Liam said, voice cracking as he wiped at the blood on his hands. It did little more than smear it further up his wrist. How long would it be until he was forced to fight again? He would, of course he would. But would the blood on his hands still be inconsequential, would it be a villains? Or would it be someone innocent, someone who'd managed to get on the wrong end of one of his episodes.

"Then have a break." Theo said calmly. Like Liam hadn't just spent the entire ride to his house ranting like a mad man after at least twenty minutes of silently staring at a dead body.

"I can't!" Liam sighed, dropping his head against the dashboard. "No one gets a break in beacon hills." Theo's fingers drummed against the steering wheel, once, twice.

"Then leave." Theo said softly.

"I can't just-"

"I don't mean forever." Theo scoffed. "You're still in school, idiot, you have to come back eventually. But you could always get out of town for a while, no one's coming for your pack right now, Scott has Argent, and the Hale's and Stilinski to keep the town safe for a while. If you wanted a break, now's probably the best time." Liam stayed silent, he could feel Theo's gaze burning into the side of his head and with the thought of leaving. Of running out of town and having some time without having to worry about anything, without anyone knowing what he is or people looking scared when he turns up. Of being normal. The anger in his veins ebbed away, settling deep below leaving him feeling at peace for a moment before reality started picking at the edges of his fantasy, whispering in his ear reasons he should stay in beacon hills, wait for the next thing to go wrong. Theo tutted. "You said you wanted something to change. Sorry to break it to you but if you want change you have to do something. So do it. Pack a bag, say sayonara to Scott and-"

"Drive." Liam said, voice sounding oddly dissonant as he finally looked up and caught Theo's stare.

"What?"

"You're right." Liam said. "For once." Theo rolled his eyes. "If I want change I gotta do something, so drive."

"See what I was saying wasn't I'll be your chauffeur it was more buy a bus tic-"

"I can't go in there." Liam said. Theo's eyes flickered towards Liam's house, Liam knew the light in the living room would be on. His Mom and Dad would be waiting for him to come home, he'd sneak in so he could change and then have to re-enter like he hadn't just saved the town again. He'd pretend everything was fine, he'd go back to lacrosse and wait for the next disaster and he'd feel the same chains tying him down as he did when Theo had dragged him out of the school. As he'd done for months.

He remembered saying Theo was his responsibility and yet, somehow, the only person he felt like he didn't have a responsibility to was Theo. Theo who could leave at any moment, who didn't have friends or family tying him down. Who somehow kept Liam's anger in check even while pissing him off.

If he went inside, the sense of duty that the bubble of Theo's car and octave of his voice seemed to fade away would come rushing back. A holiday would be a far off dream again. Unlike the tangible thing he'd felt moments ago when he'd thought of doing it, of leaving. Reality was trying to push against it, to make him look to see the stupid yellow glow of his living room window but he was tired and he thought maybe Theo was too.

Liam was jerked from his thoughts as the car begun to move again, peeling away from the curb and sliding off down the dark streets. His eyes moved to Theo, focused on the road his fingers still tapping, once, twice.

"I expect to be paid for being the chauffeur." Theo said.

The ride was silent, Liam's body curled tight waiting for something to happen, for the other shoe to drop. Theo's fingers kept moving against the wheel and then the sign flashed in the headlights.

"You are now leaving beacon hills." Liam read. The car crept the last few meters past the sign, as if Theo were waiting for something to drag them back in. The hum of the engine beneath him and Theo letting out a soft sigh as he relaxed into his seat.

And then it was gone, slipping behind them. Liam's shoulders drooped instantly. His mind shutting into a quiet he was sure he hadn't heard in years.

"We have now left Beacon hills." Theo said, voice quiet. Liam felt a small smile slipping onto his face. "Where too?" Theo asked.

"I always wanted to see the grand canyon." Liam said tentatively. Theo didn't look at him but his lips tipped up in a smile, his foot pressed down on the gas and the car hurtled forwards, tearing down the road until the back of the sign disappeared from the wing mirror.