Lydia didn't know much about Liam, not really.
When Stiles texted her red alert scott just bit someone and not in the fun way, she didn't really know what to expect. Another hunk of muscle like Isaac or Derek or...well, or pretty much every other werewolf she knew? Okay, she was right about that. But he was so... young. So innocent looking, even though she'd seen the picture of his old coach's car. He seemed nice enough, though, once they got him to calm down a bit. And honestly, at this point, 'nice enough' put him ahead of 90% of Beacon Hills.
Aside from that, however, they didn't really have much in common. Liam mostly kept his distance, staying near Scott when he was with the pack, and Lydia was busy trying to find answers with her banshee powers. They weren't close, and she was fine with that.
Which was why she was surprised when he said to her, out of the blue, "Scott's motorbike is so cool. I wish I had a motorbike."
They were waiting outside the school for the rest of the pack to turn up, just the two of them. Kira had promised to join them in a few minutes, having left to talk with her dad. Stiles and Malia were finishing off a study session at his house. Scott, according to his last text, was coming from his house on the motorbike that Liam spoke so highly of. After a kind of awkward greeting, they had settled into a mostly awkward silence. Nothing Lydia couldn't have broken through - she was Lydia Martin, after all - and perhaps the old her would have, so intent on maintaining her status at the top of the social ladder (freshman support was often overlooked, but had its uses). But Lydia had no interest in making small talk, and it had seemed Liam didn't either, at least until his oddly laudatory opinion of Scott's transportation device.
She turned to look at him, only to discover his hands were in his pockets and he was staring off into the distance. Shy, then? She opened her mouth, about to reply, when his voice sounded again.
"He looks so good in that helmet. A lot of people look kind of stupid in helmets, but Scott really works it."
She stared at him. His lips hadn't moved.
He noticed her gaze and reddened a little. God, thought Lydia, he is such a freshman. "What?"
She studied him. If he was doing anything, he certainly didn't seem to realize he was. "Nothing," she replied, turning away.
As if on cue, she heard his voice again. "That was weird. I hope Scott gets here soon."
She whirled around to look at him again.
"What?"
She shook her head. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be hearing people's thoughts. She could barely deal with her own thoughts.
Fortunately, she was saved from responding by the familiar roar of a motorbike pulling up. As Scott pulled off his helmet, Liam's head perked up and he stepped toward the alpha, then stopped.
"Scott! He's here! Can I hug him? No, that's weird. Be cool, Liam. Just say hi. Don't smile too much. Come on. You can do it." As she suspected, his mouth hadn't moved at all. She was hearing his thoughts.
"Hey guys," said Scott, walking up to them. "How's it going?" Lydia listened intently for Scott's voice in her head as Liam began to tell Scott what he did that day, but came up empty.
"...but I remembered what you told me about staying calm and I pulled my claws back in before anyone could see!" Liam finished. Scott smiled at him.
"That's great! I'm proud of you," he said. That was all Lydia heard before Liam's brain went into overdrive.
"He's proud! Scott said he was proud! Of me! Scott! Proud!" It became a little jumbled after that.
After a few days, the shock of being able to tell what Liam was thinking wore off and she began to focus more on the content of his thoughts. He was...almost enamored with Scott, but Lydia didn't think it was romantic. Not when thoughts like, "Wow, Scott is so hot. He's literally the most attractive person I know. I can't believe he looks that good," were coupled with thoughts like, "Scott's so cool. He has a really hot girlfriend. I wish I was cool enough to have a girlfriend that hot."
It was cute. It really was. But it was also very, very annoying. Lydia couldn't spend five minutes around him without being overwhelmed with thoughts about how awesome Scott was. And while Lydia was also a big fan of Scott (although maybe not to quite the degree of his newest beta) she was getting a little tired of the constant stream of adulation.
For instance, one afternoon Malia dragged her to a lacrosse practice ("Since Kira's playing, I need someone else to tell me when to cheer," said the werecoyote insistently). Even in the stands, Liam's thoughts still echoed around in her head.
"That was a really nice catch Scott just made! I hope he thinks I'm good at lacrosse. What if he still holds that time I scored on him against me? Should I let Scott score on me? No, he wouldn't want that."
Thankfully, he was distracted by another player's shot. Well, not that distracted. "I hope Scott saw that save!"
"What's the problem?" asked Malia, drawing her back to reality.
"Uh, nothing." Lydia still hadn't figured out what to do. She didn't want to embarrass Liam; maybe she could tell Stiles and Deaton, and they could help stop it from happening. She still hadn't been able to hear anyone else's thoughts, thankfully.
Malia was having none of it. "I know you're lying. Tell me what's wrong."
Lydia debated it internally. She would have to tell people eventually. But she'd hate for Liam to know, and Malia didn't really have a filter. But the werecoyote had proven to be clever, and if she was going to enlist Stiles' help, chances were Malia would find out anyway.
"I can hear Liam's thoughts," she said. "No one else's, just Liam's. And I don't know why or how and it's really distracting."
"Do you think it's got something to do with your banshee powers?" asked Malia.
Lydia nodded. "It has to, right? But nothing like this has ever happened before."
Malia frowned. "Maybe it's Liam, then. He must be different than the rest of us in some way."
"I guess." Lydia sighed. "I'll talk to Deaton about it." Malia gave her a hopeful look. "After practice," she amended.
"So you're basically saying you don't know?"
Lydia, Malia, and Deaton stood in the veterinarian's office. Deaton had been happy to answer their questions when they got there, but it quickly became apparent that he didn't know much more than they did.
"I don't know anything for certain, no," he said, answering Malia's bluntly put question. "But I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that he just became a werewolf. He's been dealing with anger problems, correct?" Lydia nodded. "Becoming a werewolf could amplify something already strong. And you are a banshee. Even I don't know the full extent of your powers."
"His thoughts aren't angry, though."
Deaton paused. "It wouldn't matter, really. If I'm correct, it's just that he's not used to the power, and his brain is almost...overflowing. What does he think about? That might give us some clue about why this is happening."
Lydia considered her options. She still had no wish to embarrass Liam; he was just starting to fit in with the pack. "Nothing really," she answered. "School and stuff."
Deaton nodded. "Well, I'd advise you to wait a few days for his brain to get used to being a werewolf. If it's still going on, come back and we'll figure something out. But in my professional opinion, his thoughts will be out of your head within a week."
"What's he thinking about?" whispered Malia.
The pack was at Scott's house, going over ideas for who the Benefactor was. No one really had a clue, but it was somehow comforting to throw out ideas to each other; they were all on the list, save Stiles, and nothing brought people together like a constant threat of death.
What was Liam thinking about? Lydia had been trying to tune his thoughts out, but she took Malia's request as a cue to stop resisting. It hadn't really been working anyway.
"Man, this is a cool house. Of course it's a cool house, Scott lives here. Any house Scott lived in would be a cool house."
Lydia glanced at Malia, who was watching her intently. "He's admiring the house," she whispered back. "Honestly, his thoughts are mostly boring. He thinks about Scott a lot, I guess." She hadn't been meaning to spill the beans, but it wasn't really much of a reveal. Malia seemed unfazed by it, at least.
"Figures. He is Scott's beta." Lydia shrugged. Even so, it seemed to her that Liam was a little extreme.
"I can't believe someone is paying 25 million dollars to kill Scott. Why would anyone want to kill Scott? I would pay 25 million just for Scott to stay alive. Well, if I had 25 million."
Lydia rolled her eyes. It was going to be a long week.