ROMAN HOLIDAY

"Theo! Wait up."

He swivels around, both thumbs hooked under the straps of his backpack. He recognises the voice easily, but doesn't comprehend it at once. Why isn't she with Liam?

Hayden closes the gap between the two of them in six long strides. She doesn't say anything right off the bat, but Theo can tell that there's something buzzing in her mind.

"You're uncharacteristically quiet."

"And you're characteristically snarky."

He snorts, and decides to give her a little bit of time. He wonders if he's in trouble. If Scott and Liam are finally coming to kill him, to end this shitstorm that he has stirred up. If Hayden's just doing her good deed of the day by warning him. Then again, why should she? After all, she's always been chummier with the other pack— Theo is almost certain that Hayden knows more about Malia Tate's eating habits than her own school timetable.

To his surprise, a deliberate sigh escapes the younger girl's lips. He has never heard her sigh before.

"Must be serious. You look like you're getting crow's feet. What are you, sixteen?" Theo chuckles, knowing full well that he's pissing her off. A freshman careens past them with a paper bag in hand and a custom-painted skateboard in the other. It looks almost identical to the one Theo has, the only difference being the colour of the base. He only just realises how much he misses skateboarding.

Hayden aims a punch at his shoulder, but the intended impact of it falters as her fist connects with his stiff bicep. If anything, she looks perturbed now.

"I wanted to ask— well, I..." She begins, her knuckles turning white from gripping her books so tightly. Hayden draws in a deep breath and squeezes her eyes shut.

"Do you even care about us?"

The inquiry is so abrupt that Theo halts in his steps. The smirk fades from his expression like paint down a wet canvas. His lips are set in an impossibly thin line, and he can feel the girl beside him stiffen. Her heart rate picks up like a helicopter's blades as the pilot revs the engine. Oh God— she's scared.

Of him.

Theo doesn't know what to say. He's not the kind of guy who often finds himself at a loss for words, but there he is; completely shellshocked and rigid in his worn combat boots. He wants to laugh, but he can't. His features refuse to cooperate and the boy just ends up contorting an expression that makes him look like he's having a stroke. Honestly? He doesn't know how to answer her.

For the first time in his existence, Theo Raeken doesn't have the answer.

He raises a hand to his forehead, and begins kneading his temple. Hayden is still very much on edge, because she doesn't know how he'll react. Has she gone too far? Should she have followed him at all? Why isn't he saying anything?

"Walk with me."

Those three words are succinct, and she follows after him without hesitation. No matter what happens, he is still her alpha. He's the one who brought her back. He's the one who pleaded with the Dread Doctors to let her live. Whatever his ulterior motives may be, Theo's the one who saved her in the first place. And she has to remember that.

They don't speak for a good fifteen minutes, but instead find themselves enjoying each other's company. It's a rare thing for Hayden. She's usually either gallivanting around town with Liam and Mason or working her butt off at the club for her sister. There hasn't been much time for speculation at all. It occurs to her, now, that she hasn't given the whole Chimera thing a lot of thought. What the hell is she going to do? Any notion of a normal life (whatever the fuck that is) is completely and utterly out the window.

At least she's not alone. She has Tracy. Corey. Josh. The pack that Theo thinks she's been neglecting.

"You know what's funny?"

Hayden snaps out of her reverie, startled by the sudden intrusion of Theo's voice. Glad that he's finally responding, she shakes her head.

"You guys weren't part of the plan. I wanted to come to Beacon Hills and herd as many rebels as I could. Maybe take down Scott McCall along the way, you know? And look what happened with that." There's something new and intangible in the tone of his voice, and Hayden can't seem to put a finger on it. She's always known Theo as the one who's headstrong and ardent. A little psychopathic, maybe, but he has never tried to hurt them. That has to count for something, right? This Theo, however— he's different. It feels like he has peeled back a layer of his armour, and she's teetering on the edge of something far beyond the both of them.

Theo runs a hand through his hair. "I was supposed to do that, and leave. I never wanted to hurt anybody. Astonishing, right? Yeah, well. I wanted Scott's pack for my own. I wanted the girl who could take down a legion with her voice alone. I wanted the fox who could swallow an entire building's worth of electricity and still come out alive. I wanted the boy whose mind was darker than mine. I wanted the werecoyote who walked away from the hurricane in her head."

Hayden's jaw twitches, and the annoyance flashing in her eyes betray the smooth tone of her voice. "We're something, too."

"I know you are. I'm getting to that."

They're strolling down the cobbled road leading to the animal clinic now. Theo knows without question that he's simply dropping Hayden off, and that Liam's standing sentry in front of the clinic doors with his arms crossed. He's got about six and a half minutes to get his point across.

"When the Dread Doctors told me that they were going to experiment on kids like you, I was skeptical. I didn't know if a bunch of sixteen-year-old's would be enough to construct a pack worth working on, but I went along with it. Besides, Stiles hates me. It took me a while, but I reconciled with the fact that I was chasing paper clouds by trying to break up Scott's pack. So I made my own. I bargained with the Doctors, and they let me revive you.

I lacked foresight, alright? I failed to see so many things. Malia was never going to trust me completely. Lydia detests me. You and I both know that the only reason why Scott's still standing is because of his pack, and the trust that they have with each other. I realised that I didn't want Stiles' tolerance or Kira's sword. I wanted trust."

"I trust you."

Theo's breath hitches in his throat. "You don't have to lie to me, Hayden. I know you'd rather be with them."

The broad stops. "That's not true. Tracy, Corey and Josh are like family now. And you might not believe it, but you are too."

Vexed, the older boy steps back.

"I manipulated your boyfriend into trying to kill his own alpha. And guess what? He almost did. I've made your life a living hell by bringing you—"

He's cut short, because she's suddenly got her arms around him and they're in such close proximity that he forgets what he was saying in the first place. It takes him almost a minute before he reciprocates this gesture of affection by enclosing her completely in his embrace. He can't help thinking that she smells like lavender, fresh laundry and unspent hope.

"Do you remember that night when Corey and I showed up at your doorstep, drenched and scared out of our wits? It was thundering, and we had no idea how to control our anger. It was a week after you resurrected us. We wanted to kill everything we saw." Her words are coming in whispers, each syllable a new sound of comfort in his ear.

"You let us in and told us to watch reruns of Friends while you ordered pizza. You wrapped us up in towels, built a fort of pillows and blankets around us and sat with us until the sun came up. We notice these things, Theo. We remember these things. I don't know Scott. I don't know Stiles. I don't know Lydia. I don't know any of them. But I know you.

You prefer sleeping at twelve thirty because you get tired at twelve and you need exactly thirty minutes to mull the day over. You never have eggs in the morning because it upsets your stomach. You always fall asleep in Chemistry because you already know half the goddamned things they're teaching. You're in AP Biology because you actually like the subject.

You know Josh doesn't like lettuce in his burgers, so you pick out every single bit of it from his share whenever you get food for us. You took the effort to memorise our hopes and dreams and it scares me that we're the ones trying to get under your skin all the time."

He presses his face into the crook of her shoulder, and they stay like this for what seems like an eternity. Then, as if to spite them, Hayden's phone begins to ring. She doesn't need to pick it up to know that it's a very overwrought Liam calling. A deliberate sigh leaves her baby pink lips, and she presses a kiss to his cheek.

"We make quite a team, Raeken. Don't you dare forget it." She extricates herself from him, and begins to walk towards the animal clinic. Her Timberlands are a startling splash of color against the monochrome pavement.

"I'm fine, Li. Had to stay back for a couple of minutes because some stupid kid broke his test tube and there was hydrochloric acid everywhere."

*

Theo runs a shaky hand through his tousled, sunkissed hair. "Fucking hell."

The broad-shouldered male sticks both hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, and begins to retrace his steps. Towards home. Towards where it all began.

It's a particularly blustery day, and Theo finds himself reaching for his phone just so he can remind Tracy that she has to close the windows before she gets into bed.