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As soon as the final school bell had rung, I found myself wandering to the parking lot where I knew Liam would be, along with his usual crew. The moment I spotted the familiar face, my long legs picked up pace.
"Hey guys," I spoke, a wide smile etched across my face as I looked at the people in front of me. Nolan gave me a shy smile, while Mason said a 'hi' and Corey sent a friendly nod my way.
"Hi, Briar," Liam responded, an adorable grin overcoming him.
"So, should we get going? I was thinking I could drive us and we could get some food real quick before anything else," I explained, putting a hand in the back pocket of my blue jeans.
"You guys are hanging out tonight? Liam, did you forget that it's—"
"We know it's a full moon, Mason. Don't worry, it's nothing I can't handle," I said, making sure to give him a genuine smile.
"Okay, let's go, Bri. I'll see you guys later!" Liam exclaimed, taking my wrist in his hand and walking away, taking me along.
"Liam, my car is the other way," I informed him. He immediately changed directions, a hint of red touching his cheeks.
"Is there anything you're craving specifically?" I asked once we had settled into the car and fastened our seat-belts.
"Whatever you want is good with me," Liam replied, his blue eyes meeting my brown ones. I let out a small laugh.
"I knew you were gonna say that. If I'm choosing the food, you choose the music," I reasoned, handing the boy in the passenger seat my auxiliary cord. Liam nodded and pondered for a moment before putting on 'Hypocrite' by Cage the Elephant.
"This is a good song," I spoke, yet again smiling. It seemed like I was doing a lot of that today. After a few more songs by various artists, we arrived at our destination. "I figured pizza would be good, considering it's your favorite food, even though it's super basic," I laughed, recalling one of our first real conversations in which we'd started to get to know each other.
"Pizza is perfect."
Once we'd ordered a small pepperoni pizza for the two of us to share and two medium sized drinks, we took a seat in the dimly lit, green leather booth across from each other. I took a sip of my strawberry lemonade and looked at Liam, who couldn't seem to keep his eyes in one spot for more than three seconds.
"Hey, Liam, calm down. You don't need to be nervous, it's not like we haven't hung out before," I said softly.
"I know, it's just all those other times we hung out it was as friends, now this is like... an actual date," He explained, rubbing the back of his neck and looking down.
"That's true, but if you think about it, we've hung out a decent amount of times and now I asked you out, so you must be doing something right. Just be yourself," I reassured him. My words seemed to ease him a bit, things going smoothly after that. We spoke about school, our friends, and our interests as we ate in the almost barren pizza parlor before I noticed the time.
"Liam, it's getting late. What do you usually do on nights like these?" I questioned, beginning to clean up the mess in front of me.
"It depends. Sometimes I go to the lake house Lydia's family owns, since it's kind of away from everything. That might be the best place to go tonight," Liam explained, helping me take care of the mess as he did so. After we'd gotten our things, I drove while Liam navigated us to the Martin's lake house.
"You go ahead in, I'm just going to call Mason and let him know where we are in case he needs anything," The blue-eyed boy spoke. I nodded in response but when I tried to open the door, it didn't budge.
"Hey, Liam? The door is locked," I informed him as soon as I saw he was pff the phone.
"Damn, I forgot that we locked it last time we were here. Okay, we'll just go out to the boathouse, that should work," Liam replied, although he sounded hesitant. Seeing that the moon was peeking out from the clouds, he began to rush all his movements, panting slightly as he sat down next to a support beam, handing me chains.
"Liam, if you want to keep this under control, you need to relax. Stop worrying, it's only going to hurt you."
"Okay, I will... as soon as you chain me up," He responded, shaking the chains, making a clanking sound as pieces of metal hit each other.
"I'm not going to chain you up, you aren't an animal. Okay, I mean you kind of are... I just mean, I'm not afraid of what you can do, and you shouldn't be either. You aren't a monster, and as soon as you accept this fate and stop trying to suppress it, you'll be able to control it," I said slowly, choosing my words carefully. In response, the werewolf only nodded, whispering under his breath. "What are you saying?"
"The sun, the moon, the truth."
"What is that, Buddha?" I wondered, knowing the phrase sounded familiar.
"Yes. It's something that's supposed to help keep me human," Liam explained through heavy breaths.
"Okay, forget about that. You can't keep using other people's words to try and control this. Everybody is different, and just because that works for somebody else, doesn't mean you have to make it work for you. It's okay to be different, Liam."
"So you want me to find an anchor?" He asked me, his eyes glowing golden.
"No, not necessarily. I don't want you to have something to keep you human, I want you to embrace your werewolf side. It is who you are, don't be afraid of who you are," I told him, grabbing his hands in mine. I watched as long, dark claws replaced his fingernails and hair cover his pale skin. However, just as I began to see Liam shift, he went back to normal. Opening his eyes and looking at me, I saw the vibrant yellow color fade from his eyes back to his normal cerulean shade.
After a few deep breaths, Liam spoke, "Were you scared at all?"
I shook my head and responded with, "No, I didn't see a reason to be. Why, were you?"
"Are you kidding me? I was terrified. It felt like I was going to snap any second," He replied, running a hand through his already messy hair.
"But you didn't, and I knew you wouldn't from the start."
"How could you have been so sure?" The beta asked me. Letting out a light giggle, I shook my head.
