Ethan's memories of his parents were little more than vague shadows. Sometimes he was fairly sure he could recall his mother's face or his father's voice, but he could never be entirely certain how many missing details had been filled in by his imagination, save for the handful of fragments Aiden was able to corroborate. They didn't really talk about it anymore; it hardly mattered. That past was unreachable. The torment that had followed completely eclipsed any contentment they might have experienced in their first few years of life.
In their pack's eyes, the children of those who had been weak and foolish enough to fall prey to hunters could have no conceivable use other than as punching bags. For years Ethan had known nothing but abuse; the object of constant contempt and scorn. Everyone around him was an assailant. Everyone except Aiden.
He never would have survived without his brother. When Ethan was in danger of collapsing under the weight of fear and despair that oppressed him, Aiden helped him turn it into anger. Aiden took the brunt of the beatings whenever he could. Aiden led the small acts of revenge that Ethan would never have dared undertake alone; little victories that had, at the time, meant everything. And when they were alone Aiden would whisper of all the ways they would enact their true vengeance one day, when they found the strength, so vehemently that Ethan almost believed it was possible.
And then Deucalion arrived, like the answer to a prayer. If it had been up to Ethan to decide whether they should ally themselves with him, the decision would probably never have been made. He wasn't entirely sure, even then, that the rewards would outweigh the cost in the end. There were so many factors to be considered. But Aiden knew exactly what he wanted, whatever the price, and where Aiden led, Ethan followed.
With Deucalion's help, they unlocked the power they so desperately craved, and it was exhilarating. It had been far easier than Ethan expected to destroy those who had been slowly but surely destroying them. It was strange, when he and his brother combined. It was difficult to be sure where his own thoughts ended and Aiden's began. So, when the massacre was over, he was a little surprised to realise how much of the bloodlust, the satisfaction, was his own.
Deucalion had given them everything. What he had rescued them from could barely be called life. They were eternally indebted to him, and had no second thoughts about joining his pack. At least, not at first. Then Beacon Hills had happened.
The mission seemed so straightforward; get close to two of the humans that orbited the local pack, find out which one's important. Deucalion didn't give them much more detail than that, but they assumed that he'd told them as much as they needed to know. It was nothing they hadn't done before.
What no one had counted on was how pure, how genuinely good hearted Danny would be. How he would awaken something in Ethan; an idea that he could be something better than he was. How he would make Ethan want to be better.
And it wasn't just Danny. There was something about Scott, about Stiles, about all of them. Something that made Ethan feel that changing what these people were might be a terrible travesty. That Stiles, Allison and Lydia had saved his life when they had no reason to, when they had every reason not to, was outside the realm of everything Ethan had previously experienced. It was as if he'd lived in the same house all of his life, when suddenly a door had been unlocked, revealing a room he'd never even known existed before. The old rules could no longer apply.
He knew Aiden didn't feel the same way. His brother was perpetually on the defensive, viewing everyone outside their partnership as a potential threat. He was loyal to Deucalion only because the more powerful alpha had benefited them in the past and likely would in the future; He was constantly on the lookout for the first sign of a potential betrayal. Ethan, on the other hand, found himself truly trusting someone other than his brother for the first time in his life. Danny was the most honest, unguarded person he had ever known. Somehow, this time, Ethan had courage that his brother did not.
Ethan had always felt that his brother was much stronger than he could ever be. Aiden had always been the one protecting him, he was the reason they had both made it this far. But now, looking back, it occurred to Ethan that he had his own strengths, and that these had also played a part in helping them survive. Aiden may have had the courage to exact revenge on their old pack, but Ethan's strategy had made it possible. Aiden had the bravery to take risks when they needed to, but Ethan had the intelligence to recognise when the danger too far outweighed the reward. They balanced each other; light and dark, fire and water, yin and yang.
Aiden's strengths may have been the driving force behind their survival thus far, but now the face of their world was mutating rapidly. The rules had changed. Ethan was beginning to suspect that, before too long, his abilities might be called on instead. That perhaps it had already started. And that perhaps, very soon, Aiden could be the one needing his guidance to navigate the alien realm their world was evolving into.