The Mother of Beacon Hills

47

Adorable-ness overload at the end of this chapter.

-Time Skip-

(3rd P.O.V.)

Liam and Mason play a video game in Liam's bedroom, both in sweats and a random tee, but wide awake. All kinds of weird noises come from their mouths as they give the game their all, but Liam prevails as the winner.

"Dude, how did you get so good?" Mason laughs. "You been practicing? Or did you suddenly just get superhuman reflexes?"

"Uh..." Liam freezes momentarily. "Practicing."

"If I hear any clapping, I'm calling Dad up here." Isaac says, suddenly appearing in the doorway and leaning on the frame.

"Isaac! Gross!" Liam cringes, looking at his fellow beta.

"What? There's nothing wrong with being gay. Just don't have sex in a house full of werewolves." The curly-haired teen shrugs.

"You mean werewolves and D-Der." Liam stops himself when he says Derek's name, stopping himself from saying what he's scared to say.

Isaac catches the stutter and sighs, stepping inside the bedroom with the freshmen, closing the door behind him, and clicking on the desk fan to prevent Lyrica from overhearing. He sits on the ground in front of Liam, looking him sternly in the eye.

"You can call him 'Dad', ya know." Isaac smiles. "I know you think it's wrong because of everything that just happened with your parents. I went through the same thing. I started calling Mom, 'Mom' like the day after they adopted me. I had daddy issues, to say the least, so it took awhile for me to call Dad 'Dad'. But they weren't adamant that I call them that after the first time, either. They didn't freak out when I did. They were surprised and happy. They're waiting for the approval papers to come in the mail to say that they officially adopted you. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but they had to change your last name in the files. Mom and Dad didn't want to force you to be a Hale, but the government disagreed."

"So-So my name is going to be Liam Hale?" The blond boy frowns.

"Yeah. But they'll let you go by Dunbar as long as you want." Isaac shrugs, rising back to his feet. "I only switched to Hale right off the bat because the Laheys are beyond fucked. Think about it, Liam."

With that, Isaac leaves the bedroom, heading down the hall to his own. After a little while, Mason leaves and Liam crawls into his bed.

He reaches out to turn off his bedside lamp, but hesitates with his thumb on the switch. After a moment of thinking, he leaves the light on and turns to lay on his back. Liam sits up and looks around the dark corners of his room, reassuring himself that there's nothing there before laying back down and clicking the lamp off. He lifts the blankets up to his chin and closes his eyes, trying to find sleep. He opens his eyes when the floor creaks and low snarling fills the silence. His breathing accelerates as footsteps sound and a shadow covers his room from the moonlight spilling in from the window, curtains open to see the rainy night sky. The creature snarls again and Liam begins panting in fear, trying to hide in his blankets.

"You're not there." He says out loud, more to himself than the berserker in his bedroom. "You're not there." The creature looms over him, and Liam bolts up and flicks the light on, eyes darting around his room in terror.

There's a soft knock on his bedroom door and his head flies to the side, eyes wide as he stares at the door. The door slowly opens, glowing blue eyes illuminating the dark hallway and causing the teen to nearly collapse in relief.

"Liam?" Lyrica gently asks, stepping into the room, leaving the door open a crack behind her. "You alright, Buddy? I felt your fear."

"Y-Yeah." He lies, scooting over a little on his bed so Lyrica can sit on the edge.