It had taken Liam begging her to not kill anyone before the end of the day for her to go to their science glass peacefully. That, and the promise of a week's worth of coffee, but that was nothing new. The only way his coffee debt to her could actually be paid off would be gifting her a Starbucks for Christmas.

The final warning bell rang just as they were ducking through the door. "So our guidance councillor is actually a werewolf hunter," Mason hissed, looking between the two of them. They had both piled together everything they could potentially think of on Monroe and summed it up in the walk to class. "I'm never seeking guidance again."

"Am I allowed to hate her in peace now," Katherine grumbled at them.

Liam sighed tiredly. "Yeah, you can hate her in peace."

Since there were very few desks with two spaces available, Katherine sat next to a guy she didn't recognise while Liam did the same with another girl who was sitting in front of Mason and Corey. The guy repeatedly glanced over at her, then grabbed his things and stood up. She then noticed that the girl Liam had sat beside did the same thing, and were now both standing together at the side of the room.

Ms Finch, their biology teacher, had noticed before she could do anything. "Is there a problem?" She asked blankly, scanning the room.

"No, not with us two," Liam mumbled.

"I'll just partner up with him," Katherine hummed, grabbing her own things from the desk. She shot the guy who had left a look because two can play that game, then sat down beside Liam.

"If this behaviour continues," Ms Finch warned the class, "I'll be failing all of you in the next lab." No one said anything out loud, but it was clear that was preferable to some.

He anxiously grabbed her hand under the desk while him, Corey and Mason were hissing about things only getting worse, and how the entire lacrosse team was looking for Liam and blocking the exits out of the school.

"I could handle things," she told the three of them quietly, glancing at her bat that was sticking out of the zipper in Mason's backpack.

"No," they all said at once.

"What?" Katherine demanded, her voice raising a tone. "They want to see violent behaviour? I'll show them some fucking violent behaviour."

"That's not happening," Liam shook his head at her, though he squeezed her hand appreciatively.

"It could happen."

"It definitely won't."

For the entirety of the class they worked on questions to the lab they had done the previous day, though Katherine had already finished the work as she hadn't slept at all the night before. There was no point when all she saw was Brett's closed eyes and Lori's bloody hair whenever she closed her eyes.

The only dreams that would come would be nightmares. She'd had enough of those.

So when class had ended, Corey had used his abilities that earned him the name Mr Camo Pants to help Liam get through the hallways with the intention of escaping the lacrosse team and getting him outside to his car for the end of the day. She had unfortunately not been given her bat back, as they were all certain she was going to use it at the first chance she got, but she had been tasked with getting the students in the hallways out of the way.

It worked for a while until they came across a pair of boys with their arms crossed, standing in the middle of the hall while looking directly at them. No matter what hall they turned down they were met with the same fate. Katherine was ready to pummel them all into the floor, but what she wasn't ready for was the handful of mountain ash that was thrown onto Liam and Corey from behind them.

Instantly, the two were visible and everyone in the hallway had turned to look because they had genuinely appeared out of nowhere.

Gabe was beside her and shoved Liam to the floor before she was able to blink. She lunged for him, heart hammering away in her chest at the sheer panic she felt, only to have two arms grab her around the middle.

She was immediately screaming, thrashing around and grabbing at anything she could but a second person grabbed her hands and held them back, bending them at an angle so moving one made the other hurt. The first person that had grabbed her slammed a hand over her mouth to muffle any noise she made.

The two people followed after Gabe and Nolan, and she was forced to watch as they tossed him into a row of desks within an empty classroom.

She could see his chest heaving, see everything in him trying to control the rage and adrenaline flooding his body.

"Get up," Nolan spat at him, though he sounded a second away from shitting himself.

They're crazy, they're fucking crazy, she told herself, trying to keep her breathing under control the way Chris and Isaac had shown her in France. They're a bunch of crazy teenage boys who are scared, and are actually fucking dumb because why in the hell—

"Get up!" Nolan bellowed again.

Liam slowly pushed himself up on his arms, but Gabe pressed a foot to his lower back and shoved him back to the floor.

A crowd had formed in the doorway now, all of them laughing and oohing at what was going on. Both Mason and Corey had been blocked out of the classroom by them.

In a panic, Katherine bit down as hard as she could on the hand over her mouth in hopes of partially freeing herself. It worked. "Liam!" was the first thing that came out of her mouth. "Get the hell off of him! Liam!"

The bloody hand was pushed over her mouth again, this time with a ball of fabric stuffed in front of his skin.

At the sound of her panic Liam had turned to look at her just as Gabe grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and hauled him off the floor. He slammed him back into a chalkboard. "What're you trying to hide, Liam? Your eyes?" He scoffed. Liam stared back at him, and she was surprised to see the pretty blue she adored so much. But every line of his body screamed rage at the predicament she was in.

She tried thrashing around again and managed to land a kick to someone's kneecap that earned her a groan, but the second person only yanked on her arms. A pained whimper left her mouth, much to her dismay, but they seemed to hear it because she could see a grin in the corner of her eye.

Very calmly, so calmly she could've sworn he was a completely normal person, Liam rolled his shoulders and stared Nolan in the eye. "Get them the hell off of her," he said, his voice dangerously quiet.

"Or what?" Gabe taunted him, stepping back so he was closer to where she was.

Up close she could see that he was tall, all full lips and muscular arms. Likely the source of many freshman crushes. Still, he was hatable. Very hatable.

That hadn't changed.

Clearly unhappy with the way things had gone, Nolan stepped in front of Liam and punched him straight in the nose before he had the chance to respond.

Katherine tried screaming again, but opening her mouth only let the piece of cloth in further and she was beginning to gag at the feeling of it hitting the back of her throat.

That was when Gabe took his turn hitting Liam, punching him in almost the exact same place.

Tears of anger stung at her eyes now, and she tried her best to wriggle free as Nolan said, "you're just going to let us do this do you?" When nothing happened, he tried again. "You know you can take us. All you have to do is change."

She could see the blood dripping out of Liam's nose now, and could see that it had gotten in his mouth. Splotches of chalk dust were smeared across his face too from the board behind him.

He muttered something under his breath that only pissed the two boys off further, as they punched him down to the floor and took turns with the blows they landed until he was wincing up against the empty teachers desk.

"You're fighting it," Nolan scoffed at him. "But you can't do that forever."

Liam was snarling now, both in anger and in pain, and she saw a brief flash of gold that made her heart lurch.

You can't.

As much as I want you to whoop their asses you seriously can't, oh god—

"Do something!"

She immediately turned at the sound of Mason's frantic voice and followed his gaze to Ms Finch, who had stumbled to the front of the group.

Katherine was expecting the woman who had threatened everyone's grades not two hours earlier. She was more than bitter when she didn't get her. "Sometimes it's best to let them resolve things themselves."

That was when she decided that she would be getting the best grades out of this woman for the rest of the year, whether she prepared for them or not, because this was blackmail material. She'd like to see her try to explain this to the principal, who happened to be Lydia's mom, or even better yet, her own father.

Gabe grabbed Liam by the hair and slammed his face down into his knee, and Katherine couldn't contain the sob she let out when she heard bone crack.

From there, the blows were endless.

Gabe and Nolan utilised their fists, feet, elbows, anything they could use to inflict pain and Katherine could only watch so much before the panic set in.

They were going to kill him.

It didn't matter if he was a werewolf or a human or a fucking brick because that many blows to the head and chest could do more internal damage than she could process. Then, she realized, they wanted to.

Gabe and Nolan were so afraid of her boyfriend that they were willing to kill him if it meant proving their point. Proving that he was dangerous.

The panic set in, then, and she could barely keep her sobs from turning into screams as she watched each blow hit its mark. Liam was coughing blood by this point, though she wasn't sure of it was from internal injuries or just what had collected in his mouth.

"What the hell is going on here!"

Relief flooded through her at the sound of Coach Finstock's voice as he shoved himself between Gabe and Liam's sagging body.

The crowd watching went quiet, and she could see Corey had been just steps behind him in coming into the room.

"Back off!" Coach screamed at Gabe, grabbing both him and an already snivelling Nolan by the back of their shirts and shoving them towards the open door. "Get to the principal's office! Now!"

The hands holding onto her froze for a moment, like they genuinely couldn't process the fact that they had been caught. It took Corey yanking them off her for them to step back. All it took was one look for her to understand that she had absolutely no idea who they were. Had never met them in her life.

She was still sobbing and took that time to cling to Corey in hopes of pulling herself together, just for a moment.

After holding her breath for a moment, she turned around to face the first guy who had grabbed her. Without thinking it through, she punched him in the eye and then slammed his head over into his friends, and left both of them stumbling.

She then stepped back to stand with Corey, who held onto her tightly.

Coach began screaming at the remaining students, and Katherine took that opportunity to settle herself down on the floor. Tears were streaming from her eyes now, but she managed to hold back the sobs.

He wasn't moving.

Liam was laying there motionless with eyes open, staring blankly at the ceiling and it felt like she was sitting on that pavement in the middle of the night all over again. Her shaking hand reached out to him, hovering over his battered face in horror, and she allowed herself to sob in relief when those pretty blue eyes drifted to look over at her. "Oh thank god," she choked out, gently grabbing for his hand. "Oh god—"

The room had emptied completely by then, and it took all four of them to haul him off the floor as Corey couldn't showcase any of his strength, but they got him standing. With Mason and Corey both holding him up Katherine accepted the white gym towel the coach handed her and began gently trying to wipe off the blood.

"I can't believe you did that," Mason whispered, both in awe and horror.

Blood dripping from his face, he rested his head against Mason's shoulder. "Clarke Kent, right?"

"Yeah...Clarke Kent."

After taking that moment for himself Liam straightened up and slowly made his way over to her. Up close he looked even worse; bruises were already settling into place even though they would likely heal up within a few hours, and his nose looked a little bit crooked. "I tried," she forced herself to say to him, hating the way her voice cracked.

"I know, baby," he breathed, tugging her into his grasp. "I know."

Katherine clung to him, then, and the shaking that had previously been just in her hands spread through her entire body until he was the only thing holding her up. "I wanted to tear them apart," he whispered into her shoulder, fingers digging into her own. "I couldn't move and not decide to kill them, I'm sorry—"

It was her turn to choke out the "—I know," and gently held the back of his head in her hand. "I'm sorry because I w...I wanted you to hurt them, Liam," she admitted, closing her eyes from the shame of the words. "I wanted you to hurt them so they'd all just fuck off and leave us alone for the rest of however long we're both here because I just can't do this anymore, I can't."

Liam didn't say anything as she began sobbing then, only clung to her the way she did to him and carefully settled them down on the bloody floor. "I'm so tired of all of this," she whimpered. Talking hurt the back of her throat, but she couldn't stop. "I'm tired of hurting, of losing people, being so scared I can't sleep without the lights on or carrying my bat around. I know that they're afraid for their lives and they're going on the information Gerard is giving them but I want them all gone."

"If I could get rid of them without going to prison for the rest of my life, then I would for you, I promise," he choked out lowly, a shaking hand rising up to tangle into her hair. He pressed her forehead into her shoulder a little more. His other arm wrapped around her upper body and held her tightly.

For what felt like hours they sat there, holding onto each other to try and keep the pieces in place. She had no idea when Mason and Corey had left the room, but the former was waiting outside the doorway for them with a sad smile and a change of clothes for Liam.

The sun had set outside by the time they made it out to the parking lot, and Liam still needed a little bit of help walking. Mason had explained that Corey had gone to fill Scott and the others in on what had happened, and then went home because his parents had texted him, worrying.

"I know what you were doing," Mason said quietly as they hobbled over to his car.

"Trying not to shift," Liam grumbled in agreement.

"No," Mason corrected him in a tone that told him he was an idiot. "You took that beating because you think you deserve it, for what happened to Brett and Lori."

Just hearing their names sent a sharp jolt through her, but Liam's next words hurt more. "Maybe I do."

"Not true," she told him quietly.

Carefully, Mason grabbed his shoulders so he was forced to look at him. "You took a beating, but you didn't deserve it," he reiterated.

"I know I didn't kill them," Liam admitted, "a hunter did, and she has a name."

"She's also got new recruits," Mason nodded in agreement.

"Lots of little bitches," Katherine grumbled, rubbing the slight ache in her shoulder from the way she had been held. "Stupid little bitches."

"Yes," Mason rolled his eyes at her, "Nolan isn't the only one we have to worry about now."

"Gabe too," Liam nodded.

"No no, everyone," Mason corrected him. "Nolan didn't just want you to shift in front of everyone to show that you're a werewolf, he wanted to show everyone that you're the enemy."

"That we deserve to be hunted," Liam realized quietly.

The tremor rattled through her hands again, which he also noticed and gently grabbed a hold of them. He was much warmer than she was.

Katherine closed her eyes, realizing the weight that todays incident had carried. "This is going to be a shit show."