Basket (C)Ace

Trust

A/N: Hello all! Thank you for your patience and for still reading <33 I love you all.

A brief warning, this chapter delves--vaguely--into self-depreciation, hints at self-sabotage, and overall--just be warned that Theo's an idiot. As always, take care <33

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Theo tapped his thumb against his steering wheel as he sat at the red light, resisting the urge to glance up at the rearview mirror to see the two teens sitting quietly in his back seat. They weren't talking, but he didn't need to see them to know why. Their chemosignals were so strong he had to roll down his window and breathe in fresh air just to keep from suffocating in the smell. Nolan, as per usual, reeked of anxiety. It wafted off of him like a stench, horrid and often rancid, and it made Theo sick to his stomach—mostly because he knew that the smell was only so bad because that was how Nolan truly felt. Alec's chemosignals were—different. He smelled of anxiety, too, but also—something else. Something almost sugary sweet. If he didn't know any better, Theo would guess it was infatuation.

Theo didn't know how he got himself into this situation: stuck in his truck—the back seats still stained with blood—with two teens he barely even knew, driving down to meet someone he'd only met once, to be the delivery boy for Scott and the pack—who had adamantly refused to tell Theo what he was picking up in the first place. Really, this whole thing went against everything Theo believed; he hated people in his car, the one thing he had that was truly his. He hated dealing with new people: they were too unpredictable, too much of a wildcard, too much of a liability. And, most importantly, he absolutely hated the idea that he had no idea what he was getting himself into. It went against everything the Dread Doctors had taught him, went against every 'supernatural spy' instinct he had as Liam so obnoxiously liked to call it.

When Scott first brought up the trip to Theo, Theo's immediate instinct was to laugh in the true alpha's face. Say 'no chance' and walk away—give him no room to debate. Every time the pack asked—or, really, demanded—his help, it always went sideways. He was always the bait, always the first one left behind, always the one blamed when things went wrong. And while he couldn't hold that against them, he also couldn't keep doing that to himself.

Yet when Liam looked at him with those big blue puppy dog eyes and whispered, "I can go with you, if you want," Theo knew he didn't stand a chance.

Liam sat in the passenger seat by his side, his arm relaxed on the middle console, his head tilted toward Theo. Theo could feel Liam's eyes on him, studying his face and his nervous hands.

"Hey," Liam whispered, so low Theo wasn't sure even Alec could pick it up with his supernatural hearing. He reached his hand out, his fingers brushing against Theo's elbow. "It's going to be okay."

Theo flexed his fingers against the steering wheel, barely managing to suppress the shiver that threatened to course through his body at Liam's touch. "I never said it wouldn't be," Theo murmured back, equally as quiet.

Liam didn't bother to reply, just continued to bore a hole into the side of Theo's head with his steely blue eyes.

Theo let out a low sigh, flicking on his right turn signal. "I don't trust him."

"Do you trust me?"

Theo glanced at Liam—at that soft, pleading expression on his face—and then looked to the side to check the road before turning right. He tried not to think about the warmth in his chest, or the pounding of his—Tara's—heart as he looked back to the front windshield. "Always," he breathed out.

"Then trust that I won't let anything happen to you," Liam said, more firmly. "I already almost lost you once. I'm not going to let that happen again."

Air rushed out of Theo's lungs, the words impacting with his chest, his–Tara's–heart. Tara's heart was pounding a saccato in his ribcage, Tara's voice sing-songing in his head, you love him, you love him, you love him. He tapped his thumbs against the steering wheel as he stared out ahead, desperately trying to gather what little control he still had of his powers to get his heartbeat back to normal.