Liam opened his eyes, feeling disoriented. The last thing he remembers is being asleep in his bed. He's still struggling with his shift. He thought maybe if he just went to bed, he could forget about the full moon altogether. There's no escaping the moon, though. Still doesn't explain what he's doing out here, in the middle of the woods. He looks down, noticing a coldness around his middle. The metal makes a linking sound as he struggles against it. His fingers pulled on the thick chain, his claws digging into it, making a scraping noise. This is when he notices he's in full shift and lets out a growl.

Liam grunts and tries to break the chains, but they're tied tight to the tree with him in the middle. His growling gets louder, drawing the other two teenagers' attention.

"Looks like we've got company," Stiles sniggers.

"Is this really necessary?" Liam roars out, feeling beyond irritated.

A unison "Yes!" can be heard near the blue jeep, sitting by the creek.

"Guys, I feel fine," Liam tells them, desperately. He's tired of being tied up every month. "The full moon is hardly affecting me now."

"How can you say that while you look like you're going to rip my head off?" Stiles asks the enraged beta werewolf.

"Come a little closer and say that," Liam growls at the older boy.

"Liam," Scott speaks up softly, "we're not trying to hurt you, so you can stop resisting."

Liam does calm down a bit, but he's still snarling. Stiles looks disgusted at the small amount of drool coming out of the corner of Liam's mouth. He's like a rabid dog, Stiles thinks.

The moon is still high in the sky when Liam comes down. He thought he had gotten better and wouldn't need his Alpha's help anymore. It makes him feel like a wild animal every time they have to chain him up. He's quite certain he knows what triggered him, and on this day in particular. Brett had visited him earlier. He was dreading it, but knew he had to do something.

It's been 3 months since they started hooking up again. He thought he had learned his lesson after the last time, but no dice. Of course, Brett didn't change. Back at Devenford Prep, he thought Brett had always hated him. He wasn't fond of him either. That was until he kissed him in the locker room. And then just kept kissing him. Liam was still very much in the closet. He didn't think he was into guys until Brett. He was fine with nobody knowing about them, preferred it really. What he wasn't fine with was how Brett treated him at school, especially on the field. Nobody on the team liked Liam because of how hot-headed he was. Brett loved it. He loved his fiery temper. Until Liam made the fatal mistake and trashed his coach's car, ultimately getting himself expelled. Liam and Brett didn't leave on good terms.

Then the extraordinary happened. Liam was turned into a werewolf shortly after moving to Beacon Hills. What he didn't know was that Brett was also a werewolf. A born wolf, he says. He and his sister, Lori, were born werewolves. Guess the common dynamic brought them closer.

Brett has accepted that he's bisexual, but he still doesn't treat Liam the same as he does when they're alone. In fact, he doesn't even want anybody to know they're friends, let alone hooking up on the daily. It must be Liam. He's seen Brett, always flirting and touching girls and guys alike. He gets a cold shoulder any time he tries to even say just hi to the guy. He's no stranger to the silent treatment either.

Lori's seen it. She knows about Liam. Seen him at their house, knows what goes on behind Brett's bedroom door. She tells him to give him time. He doesn't mention he's been giving her brother a year of his time and nothing has changed.

So earlier today, when Brett had snuck into his room through his window, like he so often does because doors are too good for werewolves or something; Liam planned on ending this for good this time. He should've known breaking up with Brett Talbot would be a challenge. They had never gone so far as to have sex, but they did other things. And other things is what they did as Liam tried to tell him he needed to stop sneaking into his room. He told him it was over and Brett laughed in his face. It was when Liam started getting angry that Brett knew he was serious. He could smell the rage all over him. Brett knew Liam wouldn't hurt him, but it was a full moon that night and Brett knew he should probably listen to the boy before he lost his head. He prefers his head on his shoulders. Brett left with a silent promise that he'd be seeing Liam again after he simmered down.

It was nearing midnight and the boys still had Liam chained up. A storm was quickly gathering overhead as the two older boys talked quietly amongst themselves. Lightning strikes through the sky when Liam hears the words come out of Stiles' mouth he's been anticipating for the last few hours.

"Think it's been long enough?" Stiles asks Scott.

Liam groans out a "Yes!", not going unnoticed by the other two. He's been desperate to get off this tree. Desperate to show Scott, his Alpha, he can control himself.

Stiles turns to look at him, irritation written all over his face. "Hey! Trying to have an adult conversation over here."

Liam rolls his eyes. Stiles is always trying to milk the fact that he's older.

"Alright, you're two years older than me, and I'm fine," he says with determination. "Just let me go." The further away from this place, the better he'll be. He swears it. This will be the last time he's held down by chains.

"It's not that we don't trust you," Scott is saying, holding the key to unlock Liam from his confinement.

"It's that I don't trust you," Stiles says immediately following Scott. Stiles doesn't trust anyone, so he's not too devastated about it.

"But after that last full moon..." Scott continues saying.

"It was one slip up!" Liam tells them seriously, lowering his voice. He didn't want to bring it up.

"A slip up?" Stiles starts, unconvinced. "A dozen calls to the Sheriff's department about a monstrous dog boy running around the streets of Beacon Hills, naked. That's a slip up?"

Scott looks at Liam, his brow lifted curiously. "... Why were you naked?"

"It was really hot out that night, okay?" Liam tells them, sheepishly. He'd want more than anything not to have this conversation. He wasn't lying, it was hot out that night. Brett just happened to be hotter. And he'd rather not have that conversation with his Alpha and chosen best friend. "Let me go."

"You sure you're okay?" Scott asks his beta, caring for the younger teen.

"It won't happen again."

"You're in complete and total control?"

"Yeah, complete and total."

"Okay," Scott nods, obviously believing Liam, and the chains come off.

Once the two older teenagers leave Liam alone, the Beta looks down at his hands. There are bloody fingernail indents on his palms, already completely healed. So, he wasn't in complete and total control.

Stiles drove down the winding stretch of the Beacon Hills backroads. They were heading to the hospital to pick up Malia and drop off Liam. All the seniors were heading to the high school, but they wouldn't tell Liam what for. It was this super secret thing that only seniors could know about and they refuse to tell Liam what it is, no matter how much he asks. They never tell him anything.

Liam, for the most part, kept his earbuds in, but noise still slips through.

"Is it a party?" Liam asks, eager to know where the two seniors are headed.

Stiles is resilient, though. "It is not a party."

Liam sighs, defeated. "Then what's at midnight?"

"Your bedtime."

Liam gives him an annoyed glare. Stiles is always treating him like a little kid. It's a two-year difference, but you can't tell Stiles otherwise.

"Why aren't the girls going?"

Stiles, at this point, is exasperated with Liam. "They're meeting us there, okay? Just stop asking questions, alright? It's a senior thing. You'll know when you're a senior."

The sucky thing about being a sophomore when all your friends are seniors is that at the end of the day, you're still just a sophomore.

"You guys having trouble with your phones?" Scott speaks up after fiddling with his phone for the last 10 minutes. Then, coincidentally, Stiles' car breaks down. Stiles loves his car, but she's old. She may break down here and there, but it's nothing the old roll of duct tape can't fix.

"Oh, what the hell," Stiles mutters as his car rolls to a stop.

"You out of gas?" Liam asks, wondering why they're stopping.

"No, it's electrical. Probably the alternator again," Stiles tells him, like he's supposed to know what all that means. Stiles and Scott get out of the car, leaving Liam alone inside. Liam doesn't know how long this is supposed to take, so he figures he'll just pass the time with some music. He's still feeling a little on edge, and Stiles definitely isn't helping.

Liam is just putting an earbud in when he sees a bright light from the corner of his eye. He takes an earbud out of his ear and turns his head, but doesn't see anything there but the empty road. Liam turns his head to look at the other two boys outside, concern clearly etched all over his face.

"Guys..." Liam calls for them, hesitantly. He turns his head back just in time to see a flash of lightning hit really close to the jeep. It was so close Liam could smell the hot fumes. It was so strong he almost thought it might have hit the car, but surely Stiles would have noticed. "Guys!" He calls them again, urgently this time.

"Yeah, give us a second, please," Stiles says back, impatiently.

"Liam, stay in the car, okay?" Scott says like the good Alpha he is.

Liam's heart is racing like crazy. He's trying not to let his fangs show. A bolt of lightning hits a couple of feet from Scott and Stiles, scaring them both.

After the car turns on, Liam sticks his head out of the window, nervous. He'd really rather get out of there before the next bolt hit the jeep.

"Can we go now?"

It was a quiet ride to the hospital. Liam kept his music playing, trying to concentrate on not shifting. He could still hear the two other boys make quiet conversation over the storm but mostly tuned them out. Once they arrived, Malia was excited to see Stiles. She was waiting with her father, Henry, who was a little tense about sending his daughter off in the night with three high school boys. He felt the need to remind Stiles that he owns a gun.

Once in the car, all three boys turned to Malia, expectedly.

"What?" Malia asks them, not up for any games.

"Did you find out yet?" Stiles asks her, impatiently, eager to find out, too. The look on Malia's face shows she knows exactly what Stiles is talking about.

"Find out what?" Liam asks, wanting to know, too. He's always the last to know everything.

"They're gonna email me," Malia replies to Stiles.

"Is this about summer school?" Liam guesses.

Malia looks at Stiles, incredulously. "You told him?"

Stiles looks caught out and doesn't know how to reply. Liam doesn't want to get Stiles in trouble, but just seems to dig himself deeper.

"Oh, no! All they said was you had to go to summer school 'cause the principal said your test scores weren't good enough and you might have to repeat Junior year." Liam shrugs. Malia looks at Stiles again, miffed, before looking out the rain-smudged window.

"We should have left him chained to the tree," Stiles says nonchalantly.

Liam looks saddened by this and looks to his Alpha. Scott tries to reassure him, but every time he tries to help, he ends up making things worse. Maybe Stiles is right. They should've left him chained to the tree.