Whilst Malia took on the role of a surrogate mother to Liam, nothing could replace the comfort of his actual mother being at his side, particularly when the young werewolf came upon an unfamiliar situation.
Sadly, in such a situation as Liam now found himself being presented with, he had no mother to guide him but a little-known father Liam knew next to nothing about. Before then, Liam could not even remember what the man looked like and now he realized that Gabriel was a very tall man at around six feet with dark hair and dark eyes paired with a light tan.
He felt an instant bubble of jealousy.
The blonde werewolf stood at a tiny five foot four, taking after his slight mother. More than anything, Liam wished for a couple more inches to pull him up to at least five foot eight before he stopped growing. Alas, he'd still be at least four inches shorter than this towering monstrosity. To be perfectly honest, the man reminded Liam of a slightly slighter version of the Abomination, the six foot two senior who had spent his previous senior year beating the crap out of all lacrosse teams who dared to come within ten feet of him.
Rumour was it had taken a werewolf standing at around five foot nine to take him down and that was only with the help of one Scott McCall, the werewolf king of strength himself.
In all honesty, Liam felt tiny in comparison to his alpha. And oh yes, Scott was his. The kind and gentle alpha, the one that sometimes appeared at his window to soothe him following a particularly bad nightmare, belonged to the pack. He was Malia's mentor and Kira's boyfriend, Stiles' twin and Liam's older brother, Lydia's trusted friend.
Whilst different to all, he still held the same placating position, alpha. Scott had explained the whole thing once, said that the other wolves, coyotes, kitsune, humans and banshees saw him in such a way because of the aura of power he unwittingly produced- his beating heart screamed alpha and pack at them in a ringing voice that might never stop.
Quite simply, they wanted to trust the alpha with all their hearts.
Gabriel was making small talk at Liam as the trees of the Beacon Hills Preserve flew by the car window. He was saying something about whatever case he'd been on recently, something about a bank robbery and hostage situation that ended up really, really complicated. Liam honestly didn't care.
Criminology had never really been his thing and Liam had always preferred to steer clear of any non-supernatural trouble that might end up heading his direction. The car didn't count. Ever. And that counted as supernatural because Brett was a werewolf and by the time he was in very serious trouble over it- about to have the crap beaten out of him trouble -Liam was one, too. Honestly, Scott biting him had probably saved his life in more ways than one.
"... And can you believe those guys?" Gabriel was saying in his too-loud voice, the sound ringing painfully in Liam's heightened ears. "Didn't think they'd get caught for the whole thing even when the first instigator got a bullet through the heart! They're monsters I tell you, Liam, monsters. Don't you ever join up with that sort of people or you might find that it's me on your tail with a loaded hand gun." Liam grimaced at the whole thing, more than just slightly horrified that his own birth father had just threatened to kill him in one way or another. Assassins set on him by a psychotic man in a coma, one of whom had no mouth, was one thing but someone blood related to him was a completely different thing. And to be perfectly honest, Liam wasn't scared of him.
Things like Kate, the Berserkers and the Mute tended to have that affect you.
They were approaching their destination, Liam could tell. Gabriel had begun this little shift-dance thing on his seat, moving just enough that the seat squeaked and Liam could detect the noise without seeming a little off. Of course, he was a little off but no one needed to know that. The older man's hands had begun to grasp at the steering wheel very tightly, enough so that he looked like a panicking first time driver.
Or Malia.
The werecoyote certainly knew how to look very tense when behind the wheel but Liam also couldn't blame her for that. Had he been in such a car crash and was just relearning how to drive, he was sure that he'd be very tense and unsure as well, possibly even panicking and almost running over some Sophomore.
Straining his ears, Liam could now begin to make out what seemed to be the wisps of a conversation far off. One voice sounded a good bit like Gabriel's whilst the other seemed more familiar and calming as a whole. His 'uncle' and 'cousin', the petite werewolf reasoned. He really didn't care. It didn't make sense that someone related to Gabriel could be anything but a jerk with no sense for another's feelings. Even from a very young age, Liam could remember his stepfather, Will, comforting his kind, sweet mother over Gabriel having left them.
"Maybe it's for the better," he'd reason gently. "Maybe this is how God meant it to be."
Will had always had religious undertones in his life and as had Sara.
The uncomfortable pair pulled up at the Preserve, Liam hopping out of the car gratefully, hands shoved into the pockets of his denim jacket as he moved to the back of his car where he'd shoved his precious lacrosse gear earlier. He had probably brought way too much gear but, then again, there had never been such a thing in the Geyer-Dunbar home. He had his crosse, pads, helmet and various little hoops that he could Velcro to trees and cheerfully aim for whilst he tried to avoid decapitating his father with one of them.
Liam had no doubt his strength could pull it off.
It was only then that the slightly sweet scent hit him. Home, like nearly-done cookies and leather, mixed with something more wolfish and primal with an obvious tang of tension and irritation. Chemo signals, Liam reminded himself in Stiles words. But damn, whatever soap that was it was good.
The pack puppy whirled as he slung the duffel sports bag over his shoulder to gaze at the trio that now seemed to be awkwardly chatting.
"Scott?"