Payment (revised)

Chapter 30

This chapter was written to the song Way Down We Go by KALEO, and its pretty bad ass to listen to it when reading the ch as well lol, this might be my new favorite chapter!!! Hope you enjoy!!!

edited: 5/14/20

edited: 9/6/23

Theo Racken. How did one go about describing Theo Racken?

He was new blood.

He didn't have connections like Derek did. He didn't have the years upon years of family heritage that had established Derek's throne. He didn't have the reputation Derek's family had created for him from slaughter and bloodshed.

Theo's father had been a farmer from upstate New York. He had provided adequately for his family, and had given them all he could. Growing up, Theo had lived a sheltered life, he had been protected from the dangers Derek had played with as a child. Instead of guns and knives he had pigs and horses. Instead of having to prove his worth every day in the ring, he had been shown kindness and love in his failings. He had lived the life those from Derek's world had wished for only in their wildest dreams. Theo had it all, which is why Derek felt no sympathy for him when he threw it all away.

Things changed for Theo when his mother had gotten sick.

Theo's father had moved them to New York City when things started going bad. It was a last ditch effort on his part to help his sick wife. There was a tumor in her brain that none of the local doctors had been able to help with, not even removing it would stop the damage it had already procured. Theo's father had spent what was left of their savings on securing the best doctors in the city for her, then sold their farm in order to afford an appointment.

Theo's parents had loved him, they had loved their boy with their whole hearts. They would have done anything for him. It was why his father had been so desperate to get help, he didn't want his son growing up without a mother. But Theo's mother had died all the same, and the older Theo grew the more he blamed his father. That blame drove Theo mad. If his father had kept them on the farm, if he hadn't moved his mother to an entirely new city, she would have lived.

So he thought.

This was part of the reason why Derek so rarely worked with Theo, he was unstable. Anger had warped his brain, and he attracted people of the same breed.

Derek had seen the way Theo's crew had eyed his packmates like they were meals, licking their fingers as they imagined sucking on the marrow of his friends bones. It was beyond what he was comfortable being associated with, and Derek tried to keep as far away from it as possible.

A month after his mother's death Theo shot his father point blank.

He had built himself what he thought to be an empire since then. Theo owned a speakeasy, it was considered to be home to his group's headquarters. Derek considered it to be an infestation, but he usually kept that to himself.

Now that Theo had all but issued war with Derek, he didn't feel the need to keep his mouth shut.

Derek spit on the semen and blood splattered pavement at the back entrance to Theo's bar, adding to the unpleasant fluids. He didn't give a shit about keeping in Theo's good graces. Theo had been given an option, and he had chosen wrong. Derek and his pack were here to deal out the repercussions.

Derek was death incarnate; he made sure to jog the memories of those who needed reminding. Theo had made it on to that unseemly list.

Derek's pack surrounded Theo's domain.

As Stiles had assured Erica, as soon as the news that Boyd was being held as bait got out, the pack was armed and prepped in an instant. Despite their exhaustion at just having got home from their own missions, they were ready. Derek wouldn't forget the tears that had sparkled in Erica's eyes at seeing her friends stand with her, as they always would.