"Shit." I muttered, wiping a drop of blood from my finger from where the blade of my knife broke the skin.

There was a knock on my bedroom door so I shoved the knife under my duvet before calling for them to come in.

Liam walked inside. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Nothing. Taking a break from studying." I said.

"Are you bleeding?" He asked, sniffing at the air. His eyes narrowed in on the cut on my hand and he walked over, grabbing my wrist to get a closer look at it. "What happened?"

I shook my head and tried to pull my hand away. "It's nothing. I'm fine."

"You know you can't lie to me."

I rolled my eyes but pulled the knife out from under my blanket.

"Where did you get a butterfly knife?" He asked.

I scratched the back of my neck but didn't speak.

"Lauren."

"I got it from Argent. He gave me a few throwing knives, too." I explained, opening the drawer of my bedside table and pulling them out.

Liam's eyes went wide. "Do you even know how to use these?"

I nodded towards the old five subject notebook I had propped up on a shelf across the room. "See the hole in the middle?"

He nodded once.

"Just to the left." I said, pinching the blade of the knife between my thumb and forefinger before pulling back and throwing it towards my makeshift target.

The tip of the knife imbedded itself into the notebook barely a centimeter to the left of the hole I'd pointed out to Liam.

My brother turned back to look at me, his eyes wide. "Did Argent teach you that too?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Well, I have good aim to begin with. He just taught me how to hold it and stuff. It's really not that hard."

"Why did you even decide that you needed knives?" He asked.

"I said I was going to protect you. I figured having a weapon would make that a little bit easier. I wanted a gun but Argent wouldn't let me have one."

Liam ran his hand down his face. "I just – I don't know what to do with you."

"Just trust me."

He shook his head but smiled. "I already do. But right now, you need to put your knives away so we can go to the Sheriff's station."

My eyebrows drew together in confusion. "What's at the station?"

"They brought in two werewolves, arrested them for murder. And that girl Quinn has to talk to Stilinski since apparently she got shot by a deputy." He explained.

"Right. Well, I'm taking knives." I said.

"You can't."

I stood up from the bed, placed the throwing knives into their sheath, and slipping it into the waistband of my jeans, along with my folded up butterfly knife. "Liam, if there's a deputy trying to kill werewolves, then I'm taking my goddamn knives to the sheriff's station."

He folded his arms across his chest. "Are you going to stab a deputy?"

"If they try to kill you – or anyone else in the pack, for the matter – then yes, I am going to stab a deputy." I said, pulling my leather jacket from the closet and putting it on. "I'm not fucking around anymore, Liam."

My brother sighed heavily but relented. "Whatever. Let's just go."

I smiled and followed him out of the house. "Are Mason and Corey coming too?"

He shook his head. "No. They're probably at the library right now, trying to find out what came out of the Wild Hunt."

"Right, of course. I keep forgetting that something came out of the Wild Hunt because we have enough shit that we're trying to deal with already. And to be quite honest, dying seems a lot easier than going to war against hunters and dealing with some other thing that wants us all to die." I rambled as we got into the car.

"Lauren…"

"I know, I know. I don't want to die but I really have no fucking clue what we're doing or what's going on anymore. Beacon Hills – hell, the entirety of Beacon County – is a goddamn disaster. Why do we even live here? Oh, that's right! We don't live here, we almost die here. All the time. We have had too many near death experiences. And I'm so stressed that, I swear to god, I found a grey hair last week."

"Lauren…"

"WHAT?" I screeched.

He scratched his head. "Are you gonna drive or do you want me to do that?"

"I can drive." I said much more calmly.

"Then do it."

I narrowed my eyes at him before starting the car and pulling out onto the road. Since it was already so late, the roads were mostly empty, and we made it to the station just as Lydia's car was pulling into the lot.

We all went in together and headed straight for Stilinski's office to find out what was going on with the people that had been arrested.

After hearing what Stilinski had to say about the situation, I felt certain that the holding cell was the best place to keep the wolves. The rest of the pack, however, didn't seem to agree.

"I'm not letting them out. We've got two bodies covered in slash marks. They confessed to killing two people."

"Hunters." Scott argued.

"People, Scott. Self-defense or not, they're still here, the other guys are dead. And there's a process I have to follow." Stilinski said.

I nodded in agreement but didn't say anything.

Scott still didn't relent. "Yeah, but you know what's happening around here. It's not safe for them."

"This may actually be the safest place for them in Beacon Hills. At least I can protect them here."

I interjected before anyone else could. "Guys, come on. Stilinski is right. All we know is that they killed two hunters. What we don't know is if those hunters even killed anyone. These could be mostly innocent people who were murdered."

Lydia decided to speak up. "Would Stiles think that?"

And Malia joined in as well. "Especially if one of the deputies is working for Gerard?"

"I'm not buying that. I know these deputies like the back of my hand. I know their families, their kids, their brothers and sisters. I know who they are, and I trust them." Stilinski explained.

"You know who they were. There's something out there. Everyone's afraid. And it's getting worse." My brother had a point, even though I didn't want to believe that they did have a deputy on their side.

"Yeah, you can't protect two werewolves from hunters if they're already on the inside." Scott said.

Stilinski sighed and turned his attention to the girl sitting in the chair behind us. "It's Quinn, right?"

She nodded.

"You're sure it was a deputy who shot you? Absolutely, 100% sure?"

Her head bobbed again. "I saw flashing lights, a police car. I… I saw a badge, a gun, and then they shot me. They shot me in the head and that's all that I remember."

"There are a couple holes in her story." The sheriff pointed out.

"Maybe because there's a hole in her head."

Malia laughed at Lydia's words and even I had to bite my lip to stop myself from smirking. It was funny, in a really messed up way.

Everyone shot Malia a look, shocked by her reaction, which lead to her apologizing.

Scott shook his head before turning back to Stilinski. "Sheriff, we need to get Jiang and Tierney out of here before anyone realizes that they're here."

"And take them where, exactly?" I asked. "They killed people. We can't just let them back out into the world. What if they kill two more people? Or four? Or ten?"

"But if you keep them here they're…"

Stilinski cut Lydia off before she could finish. "Look, if there's a problem…"

Suddenly light flooded the station and I turned to peer out the window. The light was so bright that I could barely see but I was sure the floodlights were courtesy of Monroe and the rest of the hunters.

"It's Monroe." I whispered to Liam as we stepped out of the office.

Stilinski was getting ready to go outside to find out exactly what kind of situation we were going to be dealing with. And I planned to follow him out.

"They'll be armed to the teeth." Parrish warned.

"Which is why I won't be."

I watched as Stilinski removed his gun from its holster and placed it on the nearest desk.

"I'm going with you." Parrish said.

"No, you're gonna get some deputies, check the exits, and hope we're not completely surrounded. And keep an eye out. Let's make sure we're all on the same side here." The sheriff's tone was hushed.

"Sheriff…" I said as he turned to go outside.

He looked back at me. "What is it?"

"Let me go with you."

He shook his head. "Absolutely not. It's too dangerous."

I walked closer to him, my voice dropping. "Please. I know how dangerous it is but I also know Monroe better than you do. Not to mention that I can watch the rest of them while you focus on her. It can't hurt to have a second pair of eyes."

"Lauren, I don't know about this."

I lifted the hem of my shirt a few inches to show him the knives hidden in my waistband. "If you think I'm letting you go out there without any backup, then you're gonna have to lock me up in that cell with Jiang and Tierney. If anything happens, I'm ready to fight."

I think he could tell that I wasn't about to give up because he finally nodded. "Just stay behind me. And don't do anything unless you absolutely have to."

"Yes, sir." I nodded.

I followed him outside, both of our hands up in the air as we approached the spot where Monroe was standing between two cars.

"I'm gonna assume you've all got permits for these weapons." He spoke to the group of hunters who were all standing around, guns in hand.

They all cocked their guns in response and my right hand twitched, already wanting to grab one of the knives from my waistband.

"You know, this kind of situation is the whole reason we have a judicial system." He spoke to Monroe this time.

"Justice is about fairness. There's nothing fair about a werewolf versus a human." Her voice was always so condescending. It made me want to punch her.

"If you think it's fair to hand two kids over to a lynch mob, this is gonna be a pretty short conversation."

My eyes scanned the crowd before I decided to speak. "Do you really want to talk fairness, Tamora? In what world is an automatic weapon against an unarmed person fair? And justice? Justice would be throwing you in a goddamn cell for threatening law enforcement."

She ignored everything I said. "Do you know what a subduction zone is, Sheriff?"

"I thought you were a guidance counselor." He said.

I scoffed. "Not even that."

Again, I got no response, but he glanced at me from the corner of his eye before continuing. "You teaching geology now?"

"When tectonic plates are crushing together with enormous force, one of two things can happen. Either you release the pressure with a series of small quakes or… You get one devastating quake that levels an entire city. We need to release the pressure, Sheriff."

"'Release the pressure?'" I challenged. "You're talking about murdering two kids! Well… Two more kids."

"Right now, I am the only thing holding this mob back from storming the station." She glared at me. "And at some point, they're gonna stop listening to me."

"Do you want a bloodbath?" Stilinski asked.

"I'm trying to stop one. All you have to do is bring them out. I don't care if they're dead or alive."

I rolled my eyes and took a step towards her. Before I could take a second step, I noticed a laser sight pass through my line of sight. When I looked down, there was a red dot directly in the middle of my chest.

The man aiming his gun at me was probably in his forties and he looked vaguely familiar.

"Point that somewhere else or I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life in prison." Stilinski threatened.

I smirked and looked around at the crowd again. I spotted Gabe a few cars away from where we stood. I laughed when I spoke to him. "Did you pass along my message, Gabe?"

His nostrils flared and he looked away.

"A message?" Monroe inquired.

"I asked our friend to tell you that I'm the only monster you should be afraid of. Because if you try to touch a single member of my pack, especially my brother, I'll kill you myself. No fangs, no claws. I'll rip your fucking throat out with my bare hands."

Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second but she looked up Stilinski. "You have until midnight."

I started backing away, keeping an eye on the crowd, on where their guns were pointed. Even Stilinski didn't want to break eye contact.

In an act of defiance, I turned my back to them and strolled back towards the building with my head held high.

When we got back inside, Scott, Malia, Lydia, Liam, Theo, Quinn, Jiang, and Tierney were all about to leave through one of the exits at the back of the building.

"Nobody's going anywhere," Stilinski called.

"I can get through them." Lydia said.

I shook my head. "No. It's too risky."

"And we're not gonna fire the first shot. Now, get back from the door. All of you. Parrish, get these two back in their cell."

I watched Parrish grab Jiang and Tierney to escort them back to the holding area.

Scott stepped closer to us. "What happened?"

"She gave us till midnight." I said. "So, we don't really have much time. We have to figure out how to get Jiang and Tierney out or get the hunters to leave. Obviously, neither task is going to be easy. And I actually don't have a plan so…"

Within minutes, there were desks shoved up against the doors, deputies double checking how many bullets were in their clips, and a general sense of panic had fallen over the station.

Things went from bad to worse when suddenly the power cut out and the station grew dark. Without realizing it, I'd reached out to Theo who was standing next to me. My hand gripped the sleeve of his hoodie tightly and he looked down at me. He looked more confused than scared but there was a hint of fear in his eyes.

One of the deputies was wandering closer to the windows, she seemed almost disoriented. I felt like she wasn't even aware of what she was doing.

"How easy is it to cut the power to a sheriff's station?" Malia asked.

"Too easy."

When I turned to look at the other deputy who'd spoken, I was surprised to see her shove Nolan into the room. He slid onto the floor not far from where I was standing.

"Throw him out." Liam suggested.

The look of fear on Nolan's face almost made me feel bad for him. "No, you can't. Okay? Please don't. She'll know I screwed up."

"He's with them." I said quietly.

Scott looked over, silently warning me to stop talking.

Parrish turned to Stilinski for instructions on what to do with him.

Liam spoke first. "He's a liar and he's sick in the head."

"And now he's under arrest. Lock him up." Stilinski ordered.

Parrish pulled Nolan to his feet and walked him back to the same holding area that Jiang and Tierney were locked up in.

My brother and Theo disappeared into the bathroom shortly after. When Liam returned a few minutes later and joined me while I watched the camera feed of the cells, I could tell he was angry.

I was about to ask him what was wrong when I noticed that Nolan had managed to get out of his handcuffs and was approaching the cell.

"Shit, Liam, go." I rushed, pushing him towards the doorway.

Just as we stepped through the doorway, we noticed the vial of wolfsbane that Nolan was holding up, ready to smash in the cell.

My brother grabbed Nolan's wrist and slammed him up against the bars of the cell. I grabbed the arm that Liam didn't have ahold of and together, we dragged Nolan back out to where all of the deputies were.

"Wolfsbane." We told Scott.

"He was trying to kill them." Liam finished. "And Scott, there's something else you need to see."

They walked away again while I kept a firm grip on Nolan's arm. "Hey, Parrish? A hand?"

Parrish grabbed Nolan's other arm and we took him into another office, cuffing him to one of the desks in the room.

"Watch him, will you?" I asked the deputy that followed us in.

Minutes later, I was leaned up against a desk in the lobby, my head leaned up against Liam's shoulder. My eyes fell shut; they were burning on account of how tired I was. There was nothing that I wanted more than to curl up in my bed and go to sleep.

The sound of glass shattering caused Liam and I both to cringe and our eyes flickered around the room quickly.

We spotted an arrow lodged into the wall. Malia got to it first, pulling it from the wall. The arrow was pierced through a dark scrap of material. When Malia pulled it off, Liam took it from her hands and unfolded it.

My hand flew up to cover my mouth when I saw that it was a bloody piece of Brett's lacrosse jersey.

"This is Brett's number."

"They're trying to rattle us." Lydia said.

Theo wrapped his arm around my shoulders in an attempt to calm me down. "It's working."

Liam's eyes glowed but before I could do anything to help him, there was a scream from one of the offices. Everyone ran towards the door and I felt bile rise up in my throat when I saw the deputy who had been watching Nolan hanging from the ceiling.

"I… I didn't do anything. I… I didn't even say anything. He just got up and started putting the wire around his neck." Nolan stuttered.

Stilinski and Parrish moved to get the deputy down but I was slumped against the wall, unable to tear my eyes away from the dead body.

"Fifteen minutes. They're coming to kill us in 15 minutes. They're coming to kill us and no one's gonna help us. We're all dead. We're already dead."

I was barely hearing what the female deputy was saying but the sound of a gun being unholstered drew my attention.

Stilinski was calling out for her to put her gun away, but she wasn't listening to him. She lifted the gun, pointing it at her own head.

Without thinking, I lunged towards her. I grabbed her hand, pulling it so the barrel was pointed towards the ceiling instead of at her head. She tried to fight me for it, trying to aim it back at herself.

"Morrow, listen to me. It's going to be okay. You're not going to die tonight. We'll figure something out." I felt her wedding ring digging into my palm as I tried to wrestle the gun away. "Morrow, you don't have to do this. You're not going to die. You're going to go home to your husband tonight."

"We're already dead." She whimpered. With a particularly hard pull, she pointed the weapon towards herself and pulled the trigger.

The bullet went directly through her chin and through the top of her head. My ears were ringing from the sound of the gunshot and blood had splattered everywhere.

The wall behind her was covered and I was acutely aware of something hot dripping down my face. I looked down to see my shirt covered in crimson, a chunk of something laying on my chest. Brain matter, I assumed.

Deputy Marrow's hand slipped from my grip as I turned to look at Scott, unsure of what to do. I wanted to scream but I couldn't figure out how.

"Oh my god."

I turned towards the sound of my brother's voice, tears instantly pouring down my face, mixing with the blood and causing more of it to run down my neck.

Liam rushed towards me, his hands curling around my arms and guiding me out of the room. I didn't know where he was taking me; I just followed him, babbling about blood and brain matter.

"Ren, hey, can you hear me?" He asked, his voice filled with concern. "Hey, Lauren, are you hurt? You're not hurt, are you?"

I only managed to shake my head.

"Not my blood." I muttered, more to myself than to him.

Liam lifted me up, setting me down next to the sink in one of the station's bathrooms.

"Lauren, I'm going to clean you up, okay? Is that alright?"

I finally met my brother's eyes and I was surprised to see that he was crying. I reached out to brush tears from his face but stopped when I saw blood on my hands. "Not my blood."

He nodded. "You're right. It's not your blood. You're not hurt. You're going to be just fine, yeah?"

He scrambled to grab paper towels and wet them in the sink. He grabbed my right wrist and used the paper towels to wipe blood from my skin before doing the same thing to my other hand.

Once my hands were clean, I let them fall to my lap.

"Ren, close your eyes for me. I'm going to wash your face, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

My eyelids fell shut and I felt him gently running wet paper towels across my face, wiping away all of the blood he could.

"I can taste it." I whispered, feeling tears slide from the corners of my eyes.

Liam's hands were shaking as he wiped at my skin and I heard him call out to Theo, panic in his voice.

I heard footsteps coming into the room.

"Is she okay?"

Liam didn't answer the question. "I need a bottle or a cup or something so she can rinse her mouth out. There's blood in her mouth."

The footsteps receded but returned within seconds.

Liam was still focused on cleaning my face but he stopped for a moment. Then I heard Theo's voice.

"Lauren, hey, I'm going to give you some water to rinse out your mouth." He said quietly and I opened my mouth, feeling a ceramic coffee mug at my lips.

Cool water poured into my mouth and I swished it around before opening my eyes and turning to spit into the sink next to me.

Theo gave me more so that I could rinse a second time before setting the mug down.

He reached out, grabbing ahold of one of my hands while Liam got back to work on my face.

"I just wanna go home." I whispered, watching the doorway as Scott entered the room.

"I know. We're going to get you home soon." He promised me before speaking to Theo. "Hey, man, I need your help with something."

Theo nodded before dropping my hand and following the alpha out of the room.

"Liam?" I whispered.

"Yeah?"

I choked back a sob. "Thank you."

He tried to smile but he couldn't. "You're welcome, Ren."

"No one used to call me that until they heard you saying it all the time."

"I remember. You used to hate it when we were little."

I nodded. "Yeah. It kind of grew on me, I guess."

"Do you remember when we were like 6 and you always called me Lia because you wanted a sister?" He asked.

A smile did flicker across his face then and I returned it. "Yeah. But it's different now. You're cooler than a sister, I think."

Liam dropped a handful of wet, bloody paper towels into the trash before looking me over. "And you're all clean now."

I slid from the countertop and gave my brother a tight hug. He kept one of his arms wrapped around me and guided me back to the lobby.

Scott and Theo were zipping up two body bags that were laying in the middle of the floor.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Theo explained to me that they were going to take out the bodies of the deputies and try to tell Monroe that they were Jiang and Tierney. I didn't think it would work but I didn't want to tell them that. It was the only plan anyone had.

Liam left my side to go talk to Parrish and I felt myself awkwardly pulling at the hem of my tshirt and pretending that I couldn't notice all of the people that were staring at me.

Liam grabbed my hand and second later, pulled me back towards the cells.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Just trust me." He responded.

He grabbed ahold of Nolan and shoved him into the cell first.

"What are you doing?" Nolan shouted.

My brother guided me into the cell next, sliding the door shut, and answering Nolan's question. "I'm saving your life, dumbass. Keep your head down."

"What the hell is going on?"

I looked over at Nolan before sitting down on the bench in the cell. "I don't know. But I trust my brother."

He sat beside me, leaving plenty of space between us. "Are you okay?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Right. Stupid question. I just… I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"If you don't shut up right now, I swear to god, I'll beat the shit out of you." I warned.

"But I…"

"No. Shut the fuck up. You're asking if there's anything you can do? Are you stupid? There are a million things that you could do. The first – and in my opinion, most important – you could stop listening to everything Monroe tells you. You call my brother a monster yet you were the one in here earlier ready to kill two people." I scoffed. "People around here are terrified and Monroe and the rest of them – the rest of you – are only making it worse. Two deputies killed themselves because those motherfuckers outside are actively terrorizing people."

I stood up and began pacing through the cell. Nolan's eyes were on me the whole time.

"They're terrorizing people, threatening them to the point where they're committing suicide. And I know that you had to sit there and watch that deputy string himself up from the goddamn rafters, but you didn't end up with brain matter splattered all over your face like I did. I'm standing here, and I still don't understand how this happened. And Liam was in the bathroom cleaning my face and… And there was a part of me that wanted to be dead too. Because I don't know how I'm supposed to get over this."

"Lauren…" He said, standing up and moving towards me.

I shook my head. "Don't. Don't come near me. Because I know how I probably look right now. I'm yelling at you, full of my usual attitude. I seem normal, right? But this is far from fucking normal. I'm going to be going to therapy for the rest of my life so that I can try to cope with the fact that a woman shot herself in the face while I was trying to pry the gun from her hands. And I'm shocked that I'm even able to stand here and talk to you because I feel like I should be curled up in the corner waiting for someone to put me out of my misery."

Before I could say more, Parrish came into the room, using his keycard to unlock the cell door and slide it open. He told Nolan to leave and the boy ran out of the cell as fast as he could. But I hesitated, keeping close to the back of the cell.

Parrish held his arm out to me. "Come on, it's all over. We're gonna get you home."

I nodded and grabbed his hand, letting him guide me to the front of the station.

The entire pack was lined up by the open doors. I could see Jiang and Tierney being escorted into a transport van. There were deputies outside, ready to lead us out safely.

I let go of Parrish's hand and ran over to Liam and Theo. As we walked outside, I did my best to position myself between the two of them and the hunters just in case anyone wanted to try to take a shot at them.

Liam and I walked to my car and I handed him the keys, not trusting myself to drive. I stared out the window most of the way home.

I was feeling increasingly weak the closer we got to home. "Li, I don't feel so good."

"Are you going to be sick?" He asked.

I shook my head. "I don't think so. I just feel like I'm going to pass out."

"You're exhausted and upset. Just take some deep breaths, okay? We're almost home."

I nodded and followed his instructions, leaning my head against the back of the seat and trying to breathe deeply. But I could feel my heart hammering in my chest. I was sure that if it got any faster, I would have a heart attack.

"Lauren, you need to calm down. Your heart is beating way too fast." Liam said, his eyes flickering between me and the road several times.

My hands were trembling violently and, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to catch my breath. I wasn't sure if I'd ever really stopped crying, but I could feel tears dripping from my face and soaking into my tshirt.

"I tried to stop her. When I saw her aim the gun at herself, I just… I didn't even think about it. I know I could've gotten hurt, but I didn't want her to do that. She was just so scared; she thought we were all going to die anyway. And I wanted to save her, but I couldn't. I couldn't save her."

We pulled up to the house then. I noticed that dad's car was missing from the driveway, he'd probably gotten a call from the hospital. It was disappointing because I could've really used a hug from him.

"You can't save everyone, Lauren."

I nodded. "I know that. But I should've been able to save her. Morrow should not have died today."

"No one should've." He sighed.

I got out of the car, leaning against the side for a moment before following my brother into the house. I felt like I was dead on my feet, so Liam helped me upstairs to my bedroom.

"I think I'm going to go take a shower and have a good cry. So, I'll see you in the morning." I said, pulling off my leather jacket and draping it over the back of my desk chair.

"Lauren, wait."

I turned to face Liam. "What?"

"I have to leave."

My eyebrows pulled together. "What? Where are you going?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Scott's dad told us we need to leave town. It's better this way."

"When? Do I need to start packing now?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, Lauren, not you. You have to stay. You'll be safer here. If you're here, the hunters should leave you alone. You're human, they don't want to hurt you. But if you come with us… If you come with us, you could get hurt, you could die."

"You're an idiot. Do you think I'm just going to stick around here – going to school, prepping for soccer tryouts, going to dances – while you're on the run from a bunch of assholes with guns? No, no, that's not happening."

Liam groaned. "God damn it, Lauren. Would you listen to me for once in your life?"

"You're really going to leave me here? After what just happened, you're going to leave me here to deal with it alone?" I challenged.

"Mason is staying, too. You guys will take care of each other, you always did." He paused to take a deep breath. "Listen, why don't you go get cleaned up while I pack?"

He immediately turned and walked out, heading down the hall to his room.

I ran after him, swearing under my breath the whole way.

"If you think I'm not going to follow you then you really are an idiot." I hissed.

He was dumping out the contents of his lacrosse bag out and filling it back up with clothes. "Ren, I really don't have time to argue with you about this. You can't come. End of story."

I shook my head. "I can't stay here with just Mason. I love him dearly, you know that, but I just… I need you and I need Scott and Malia and Lydia. I don't even have Stiles because he's off on the opposite side of the country. What are we supposed to do if something happens? What if they come after us anyway?"

"They won't. Besides, Stilinski and Parrish promised to look after you while we're away."

"And how long is that going to be, exactly? A week? A few months? What if it's never safe for you to come back?" I asked, my hands landing on my hips.

Liam threw his phone charger into his bag before zipping it shut. "I don't care how long I have to stay away as long as it keeps you safe."

I was glaring at him, tears threatening my eyes again. "I can't believe you're running away."

He lifted his bag, slinging the strap over his shoulder before stepping towards me. He pulled me into a tight hug, his chin resting on top of my head. "I'm sorry, Lauren. I'm so sorry. But I have to do this."

I was furious, but I hugged him back as tight as I possibly could. "Even if you can't tell me where you're going, please call when you can so that I know you're safe. Jesus, Liam, I don't know what I'm gonna do without you."

"You'll be just fine. You've never really needed anyone, have you?"

I wiped tears from my face and looked up at him. "Please, just be careful. If this really is the only option, then run. Run as fast as you can, get as far away from here as possible."

He nodded. "You need to be careful, too. Stop trying to fight everyone. We'll come back as soon as it's safe."

"I love you. I hate you but I love you so much."

His phone chimed from his pocket and he didn't have to check it to know. "That's probably Scott. He's probably here to pick me up. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

I nodded. "I'll miss you."

Liam pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I'll miss you, too. I love you."

And with that, he walked out.

I was left standing in the middle of his bedroom, trying to not start sobbing uncontrollably.

After what had to be ten minutes, I finally mustered up the strength to move and I went to take my shower before putting my pajamas on and crawling into Liam's empty bed.

My alarm didn't wake me up that morning; instead, I was greeted by my mother's face hovering over me.

"Sweetheart, where's your brother?" She asked when I sat up in his bed.

I formulated a lie within a few seconds. "He has a math test today. Mason was going to meet him at the library before school and help him do some last minute studying."

"Why are you sleeping in here?"

"I wasn't feeling well last night. Liam said I could sleep in here so that he could help me in case I got sick."

My mother pressed the back of her hand to my forehead. "You do feel a bit warm. Do you want to stay home today? You look like you could use the rest."

I nodded. "Yeah, I think that would good."

She smoothed down a few pieces of my hair and smiled at me. "Alright, I'll call you in. Your dad and I both have to work today but if you need anything, don't hesitate to call one of us."

I smiled. "Thanks, mom. Have a good day at work."

She left the room a moment later and I curled up in a ball, burying my face in the pillow. I managed to fall asleep again rather quickly, breathing in my brother's scent.

I was woken up just a few hours later. I opened my eyes, expecting to see my mother again, but instead, Mason was gently shaking my shoulders.

"Mason? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm going to the animal clinic. Corey is here. I thought you might want to come, see what he has to say about Liam." He explained.

I quickly got out of bed. "Yeah, yeah, okay. Just give me a minute to go get dressed."

"I already brought you some clothes." He said, handing me a pair of sweats and a hoodie. "I went in your room to find you first and when you weren't there, I figured you would be here. So I got clothes for you to cut down on time."

I took them from him and kicked off the pair of shorts I was wearing. "That's smart."

"You're not even going to wait for me to leave to change?"

"I'm wearing underwear. It's no different from you seeing me in a bikini. Besides, I'm not quite your type, am I?" I almost laughed while pulling the pair of sweats onto my legs.

He smirked. "Fair enough."

I tied the drawstring and grabbed my hoodie, pulling it on while I rushed down the stairs, Mason just a few steps behind me.

I slipped on a pair of shoes that I'd left by the front door and we were off.

My leg was shaking nervously during the whole drive to the clinic. When we pulled up, Mason ran inside just ahead of me.

Corey was leaning in the doorway to the exam room.

"You told me you were leaving!" Mason breathed.

"I had to." His boyfriend responded.

The look of relief on Mason's face was indescribable. "You lied."

"We all did."

My brother's voice came from inside the exam room and we walked around the corner, seeing the whole pack in the room.

I ran over to Liam, flinging my arms around his neck. "So, this was the plan all along? To let us think you were leaving us?"

"Sorry." Scott said. "My dad had to believe we left Beacon Hills. Everyone has to believe it."

"Then what happens next? We fight back now, right?" Mason asked.

Scott smirked. "What did you think we were gonna do? Run?"