He was the bad guy.
He had always known that and had played the part very well. He helped kill Boyd, he killed his own pack and maimed a few other werewolves on the way. Ethan was the exception.
He thought he was the only exception.
Her words cut through him like sharp claws, it tore him open and he couldn't understand why. He was good at bad. Bad was all he knew. And yet something sparked that day. A word and emotion he wasn't quite adhered to.
Weak.
He was used to exhausting power to get what he wanted, but she was different, she didn't care about that. She was like Scott who cared about the people, a new foreign concept to him.
It was frankly terrifying for him to be so vulnerable.
And yet he found himself wanting to be better, to be the good guy. Was he even capable of such a feat? His past was dripping with red. But with her lipstick being the very same shade, maybe it was worth changing.
Looking down at the sword embedded into his stomach to seeing her running towards him, tears in her eyes made something in him find solace.
He asks her for forgiveness.
She holds him to her, desperate to hold on.
He tells her how she makes him want to be the good guy for her.
She chokes on her cries, stroking his hair, her lips pressing kisses to his forehead. She whimpers that he is the good guy.
She pleads with him to not leave her.
And when he sees the longing in her eyes, it gives him the power to heal and fight on for her.
She gives him that.
Power.