Into the Flames → Liam Dunbar [2]

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Look, I wouldn't normally ask you for something like this, but I feel like you'd be a lot more understanding than Scott and Stiles."

It was the next the day, and they were about to meet with Michael Ryder. The whole morning, Liam had fluttered around the house trying to prepare for the day ahead. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Neither of them knew anything about the eldest Ryder except for that fact that he was hiding something.

No one knew of their endeavours of the day, and with a last minute decision, Addy had called Malia. She was the one person they could trust in the situation; the werecoyote knew what it was like to want to kill a family member. However, Addison wasn't planning to kill her father, but she was prepared to. If it came down to it, she wouldn't hesitate to follow through with her threat.

On most terms, Addy was all bark and no bite. But it was time to change that. She felt more invincible surviving Beast and the Dread Doctors. The change in her demeanour began slowly, but by the end of the night, everything would be different. The meeting that held the rest of the information she so desperately needed was less than three hours away.

It was to be at a neutral place. Mr. Ryder didn't know much of Addy and her friends, and they didn't trust him. The original plan was the three of them to meet at the preserve. The pack would be attending school considering that it was Tuesday, and Addy wasn't going to stand in the way of their education.

The disappearance of three fellow pack members would certainly raise suspicion, and by the end of second class, they would have multiple calls wondering where they were. Addy had been MIA all day yesterday, the only exception being Liam knowing where she was, and he didn't call anyone on her request.

"It's fine. I'd feel better if you guys had more backup in case something went wrong anyway." Malia, Liam, and Addy all stood at the edge of the preserve. They arrived half an hour early and had been standing there for ten minutes. Malia Tate was perfectly fine with missing her math class to spend the day in the woods to help a friend.

"To be honest, I feel better with you here, too," Addy admitted, tugging her two sweaters tighter around her torso. She was still frozen. Generally, she wouldn't like to confess that she needed help like that, but with the werecoyote by her side, she felt safer. Malia could be ruthless if need be; Addison admired that. They could hear a door slamming in the distance, and they all turned their attention to the parking lot. "That's him."

Michael Ryder had dark brown hair and the same brown eyes as his daughter. There was a twinge of nervousness hidden in them that Addy couldn't figure out. He easily spotted them in the trees, all of them standing up straight and ready to fight. Liam snarled as soon as he caught his scent. Whatever it was, he wasn't human, and that posed a threat.

Michael noticed how the boy calmed down as soon as Addy grabbed his hand. At that exact moment, he knew that his daughter had fallen in love. It was something that every father could tell, even if he had missed out on her entire life. He had a small amount of fatherly instinct in him, and that part of him wanted nothing more to push the short boy away from his daughter.

The introduction was awkward to say in the least. Liam barely muttered out a hello while Malia simply just stood there with a glare. Michael did his best to make things less awkward, but to no avail. Addy was just embarrassed by the whole situation. There was no reason to be embarrassed. She didn't care what her father thought of her friends. It wasn't like he could do anything about it.

Starting the conversation was even worse. After several minutes of small talk – or at least Michael asking questions about Liam and Malia, and Addy answering them all with absolute vagueness – they slowly started to get somewhere. He wasn't going to learn anything about her private life until she trusted him, and that was to be unlikely to ever happen.