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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦

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Meilani ran through preserve alongside Derek as her ears stayed trained on where Boyd could be. Her and Derek had been chasing Boyd for what felt like hours and Meilani had to save two kids from him before he could kill them. Fireflies had distracted Boyd long enough for Meilani to grab the two kids and run off before he could notice. It would be difficult to tackle Boyd separately so Meilani had met Derek at the trail in the preserve and they ran off together to track down Boyd. 

Derek froze next to a symbol drawn into the mud and stared down at it, the scent of nerves could be smelt in the air. That didn't bode well for them. "We're not the only ones that decided to stick together."

Meilani slowly rose to her feet from where she had landed bent on her knees from the break in the large tree behind her and Derek. "Is that gonna make it easier or harder to catch them?"

"I don't know," Derek mumbled, eyes scanning the wooded area around them.

"Derek..." Meilani breathed, glancing up at Derek as he turned to face her. He had been surprisingly compliant the past few hours and actually listened when she spoke. It was an odd occurrence, but one that Meilani appreciated. "I saw Boyd try to rip two little kids apart. Are they gonna do that to everyone they find?"

"Everyone and anyone."

As if that already didn't send a chill down Meilani's spine, screams heard in the distance along with Isaac's growl. Derek and Meilani barely blinked before they were both running off in the direction all the commotion came from and Meilani burst through the thicket of trees to see Isaac and another wolf squared off. Before Cora could go and attack Isaac back, Meilani rushed forward and jump kicked the wolf down to the ground.

Derek cornered the Cora on the other side and she took off in the opposite direction, both Derek and Isaac chasing after her. Meilani had turned to see that she was in the middle of a small campsite and a girl that couldn't be much older than her was stood near the tent and fire. The smell fright and worry was strong in the air and Meilani held her hands up in defense to show she wasn't going to bring harm to the girl.

"Are you okay?" Meilani asked, taking slow steps towards the girl so she wouldn't become even more spooked than she already was. She smiled softly when the girl gave a small nod in response. "You need to get out of here, okay? Get out of the woods. Get out of here as fast as you can."

Without waiting for the girl to respond, Meilani ran off after Derek and Isaac and thankfully found them not too long after. Though, the duo had lost the wolf and were both conversing quietly about where they could go next to find her. Lord only knew what terror could become of the town that night if they didn't find her or Boyd.

Meilani went to say something to the boys when her phone began to buzz in her back pocket and she took it out to see Stiles' name flash across her phone. She sighed and placed her phone to her ear. "Babe, I can't - "

"Lani, we have a problem."

"Another one?" Meilani whined, earning the attention of the alpha and beta in front of her. She couldn't handle any more problems right now. Sooner or later she was going to combust from the weight of all the stress.

"Lydia called me not too long ago. We've got another dead body on our hands at the pool and I'm pretty sure it's because of Boyd and Cora. The poor guy's throat was ripped out and blood is just everywhere. It's like the freaking Shining over here. Two little twin girls come out of the woods, start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised."

Meilani squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed a hand over her face, letting out a heavy breath that she hadn't even realized she was holding. "Can you get a little closer and make sure it was them?"

"Make sure it was them? Babe, who else is going around ripping throats out?"

"Please just do it, huh?"

"You are so fucking lucky I love you, Meilani McCall."

With that, he hung up to inspect the body and would text Meilani the details afterwards. The body count was rising and Meilani, Derek and Isaac couldn't stop it fast enough.

"It doesn't make any sense. The public pool is on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there."

"Derek, they killed someone," Meilani informed.

"How are they moving so fast? They can't be that fast on foot!" Derek ranted.

"Derek, they killed someone! Some totally innocent kid is dead... and it's our fault," Meilani said louder this time. All she wanted to do was save innocent people, but she could barely do that even with the help of Derek and Isaac. It was like they could never win no matter what they did.

Derek shook his head and frowned deeply. "No, it's my fault."

"We need help."

"We have Isaac."

"Isaac, don't take this the wrong way when I say it, but we need real help. They're too fast for us. For all of us. They're too strong, too rabid."

"We have to catch them."

Isaac scoffed and slapped a hand to his side, the thick scarf wrapped around his neck blowing slightly in the nighttime breeze. Meilani wasn't even really sure why Isaac needed the scarf because it wasn't that cold and Meilani, Derek and Isaac typically ran hot to begin with because of being a werewolf. "What happens when we do? We just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up?"

Derek was quiet for a long moment and a war showed visibly on his face. It was like he was weighing out their options and didn't like the outcome of the one they would have to do. "Maybe killing them would be easier."

"Killing them isn't the right thing to do," Meilani argued.

"What if it's the only thing to do? If we can't even catch them, what else do we do?"

Meilani shrugged and crossed her arms, not wanting to kill anyone. They had lost way too many people already. "Find someone who knows what they're doing."

"Who?"

"Find someone who knows how to hunt werewolves."

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Meilani had eventually found Chris Argent's scent near the local grocery store. She had tried texting Allison to see if she could tell her where he was, but she hadn't gotten a response. The air between them was still a bit off since Meilani had finally come clean about Mrs. Argent trying to kill her while the duo were still at the bank. It was something that Meilani didn't want Allison to know at all, not wanting the last memory of the woman being that she tried to kill her best friend - er, ex best friend? 

Chris had suddenly turned and pointed a gun at Meilani, who stumbled back a bit at the sight of the weapon. Once he realized it was Meilani, Chris sighed and flexed his hand on the handle of the gun. She was definitely the last person Chris wanted to see.

"Uh... hi," Meilani smiled sheepishly at Chris and rocked back on her heels. "So... funny story. Uh, Derek's sister and Boyd may or may not have been kept inside a vault for four months without seeing the full moon. It kind of made them both go crazy and are currently running around Beacon Hills killing people. We were kind of hoping that you could help us track her down."

"Why would I care about anyone related to Derek?" Chris asked, keeping the gun raised at Meilani. "And second, I don't know this kid Boyd. I don't even know his last name."

"Boyd is his last name actually."

"What's his first name?"

"Vernon," Meilani replied and her eyes flickered to the gun still pointed at her chest. "Just curious, why are you still pointing the gun at me?"

Chris tilted his head as he thought out his answer. "Well, there's probably still some part of me that wants to shoot you."

Meilani nodded her head, knowing she probably did deserve it at some point. Not like it was necessarily her fault that any of this happened. "I get that."

Chris groaned and dropped his gun, putting it into the waistband of his jeans. "Meilani, I watched my father brainwash my daughter... almost turn her into a killer. That world - your world decimated mine. My wife, sister, father, my entire family. Why would I ever step foot in that again?"

"Because people are going to die and you know how to catch Boyd and Cora without killing them."

"I'm sorry. I can't help you," Chris denied, turning away from Meilani to walk back towards his car.

"Uh... do you think you could do me, like... one  little, tiny favor?" Meilani asked, pinching her fingers together to show a small space between them. Maybe if she got Chris to take her to the pool crime scene, then he'd get pushed in the right direction to help her find Cora and Boyd. Like Meilani, Chris didn't want innocent people to die. So if he saw an innocent kid dead, then it would be a good persuasion to help her out.

Luckily, Chris had agreed to drive her towards the public pool and Derek and Isaac followed in Derek's truck behind them. It wasn't too far from the grocery store and they had made it within ten minutes to see Noah stood at the back of an ambulance with a deputy and young woman next to a gurney with a black tarp over it. Meilani could smell the lingering scent of blood that must still be near the pool where they killed him.

Chris stared at the scene with horror on his face and Meilani smiled to herself when she realized her plan must have worked. His heart beat rapidly in his chest and Meilani could practically smell the worry wafting off him in waves. 

"Thanks for the ride, Chris," Meilani said and went to step out of the car when Chris stopped her.

"They did this? Boyd and..."

"Cora," Meilani filled in for Chris when he trailed off at Derek's sister's name. "Yes."

Chris was silent for a moment before he turned to look at Meilani with a calculating gaze. "Where was the last place you saw them?"

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Derek, Meilani and Isaac met Chris in the middle of the preserve a half hour later after Chris had ran home to drop off his groceries and grab a duffle bag full of whatever he needed. Chris had tossed the duffle onto the ground and squatted near the symbol that Derek and Meilani had seen earlier. "You're tracking them by print?"

"Trying to," Meilani replied.

"Well, then, you've been wasting your time. There's only one creature on Earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man. If you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this is Boyd's footprint and these - " 

"Are Cora's," Isaac finished for Chris, pointing to the other prints in the mud nearby.

"Nope. They're yours," Chris corrected and Isaac leant off the tree trunk he made himself comfortable on. "You trampled over Cora's as soon as you walked over here. Listen, I know the three of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in. They put the pedal to the floor where you three have barely hit the speed limit."

Derek huffed and crossed his arms. He had expressed his distaste for needing to work with Chris on this whole thing. Hell, Derek would have taken Peter over Chris any day and the fact they had to listen to Chris clearly did not sit well with Derek. "So what do we do?"

"Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred miles by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two miles, which means we can draw them to us... or into a trap," Chris explained, tossing a rope trap over to Meilani. "Full moon gives us an advantage. They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared." He tossed both Isaac and Derek heat signature googles.

Derek smirked and flashed his red Alpha eyes at Chris. "Thanks, but I got my own."

Chris merely rolled his eyes at Derek and caught the googles when Derek tossed them back to him. "Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on that human side. It's suppressed, but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive."

Chris lead the three over to the edge of the cliff where it looked out onto the city. All the lights were on and the stars above shone brightly. If they didn't need to hunt down Boyd and Cora, Meilani would take a minute and actually enjoy the beautiful sight in front of her. It was sad how little she got to do that now. "When was the last time you saw your sister?"

"Nine years. I thought she died in the fire."

"Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?"Chris inquired and only received a head shake in response. He glanced at Meilani over his shoulder and rose an eyebrow. "Meilani, how confident are you in your skills?"

Meilani scoffed softly and glanced away from Chris and back out to the view in front of her. "Honestly, most of the time, I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell."

"Alright, the problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of Beacon Hills."

"They're not gonna kill everything they see, are they?" Isaac asked.

"No, but there is an important difference to recognize. Wolves hunt for food. At a certain point, they get full, but Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. Who knows when that need gets satiated?"

"We can't kill them," Meilani stressed, really not wanting to have to go down that path. If they can catch Boyd and Cora, Derek can retrain them to control their urges during the full moon. Boyd and Cora wouldn't have to be threats to society any longer. 

"What if we can't catch them?"

Chris stared off into the distance, his eyes not necessarily focused on anything as his mind raced through all the knowledge he had on hunting. "Then maybe we just need to contain them. There's no one in the school at night, is there?"

Derek furrowed his eyebrows and glanced from Meilani and over to Chris. "You want to trap them inside?"

Chris nodded and chewed on his thumbnail in deep thought. "If there's somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside."

"What about the boiler room? It's just one big steel door," Isaac suggested.

"You're sure the school's empty?"

"It has to be. There can't be anyone there this late, right?" Meilani answered, not knowing who could possibly be there. Even the janitors would be gone at this time of night. It was nearing midnight now and there was no possible way the janitors could be there still. The high school didn't have security guards so there shouldn't be a soul there.

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After running off in separate directions, Derek, Meilani, Chris and Isaac placed devices that looked like tracking beacons along the preserve that lead towards the high school. They released a high-pitched frequency that only werewolves could hear and Meilani thought she was going to go deaf by the time she was done placing the devices around and turning them on. She tried to focus more on the running than the ringing in her ears. 

Once they were finished with that, Meilani and Isaac met up outside the high school and ripped open the side doors to the school near the lacrosse field. The inside of the school was dark save for the bits of light that filtered in through the windows from the moonlight. Once they were sure the coast was clear, Isaac and Meilani split up with Isaac running to the other side of the school and Meilani going back over to Chris who had just showed up to place another device down.

"Do you see that?" Chris asked, staring up above him.

"Uh... yeah. That's a little thing people call a firefly," Meilani mused, glancing up at the little lightning bug that flew around above Chris and Meilani's heads. She turned her gaze over to Chris when he grew tense next to her. "Chris, what is it?"

"It's uh - it's very unusual. The, uh, California fireflies aren't bioluminescent. They don't glow."

Meilani's eyes flickered back over to the firefly whose tail blinked every few seconds. As she thought about it, she realized that Chris was right. The only time she had really seen an actual firefly light up was when the McCalls used to do their yearly family trips to New York City when Meilani's father was still around. Her father would take her and Scott to the middle of Central Park and they would catch the fireflies together in a small jar before they would let them go so they wouldn't die.

"Does that mean something?"

A distant howl in the distance alerted Meilani and Chris. Boyd and Cora had finally arrived and they moved fast. The duo hopped into Chris' car that was parked to the side and they drove over to where Isaac had ran off to. Thankfully, the two made it in time to find Boyd and Cora stood in front of Isaac who had flashed his yellow eyes at them, prepared to fight. 

However, when the head lights shone over Isaac, Cora and Boyd they rushed towards the open double doors that Derek had opened before placing himself just inside the hallway. The two didn't even run into the school and instead jumped up onto the roof, running across the length of it. 

Meilani scrambled out of the car and skid to a stop next to Isaac, watching Boyd and Cora disappear to the other side of the roof. "They're not going inside the school. They're going over it."

At that point, Derek had run out and Meilani, Chris and Isaac had ran up to join him to see what he wanted to do. 

"The red doors. Someone has to get them open," Chris instructed and Derek was the first one to run off to do just that. 

"Someone has to run them in," Meilani said.

Chris held up his taser that sparked blue electricity through it. "I'll do it."

Isaac shook his head and pushed down Chris' arm. "No. I'm faster."

"Guess that leaves us," Meilani noted and took off in the direction of the red doors that Derek had got open. She hid up on the steps in the hallway while Chris hid around the corner in the next hallway and Derek took place in the middle of the hallway to stop Cora and Boyd from going too far.

They barely waited five minutes before Cora and Boyd had burst through the doors and Isaac shut it behind them, locking it with a massive lock they had found in the janitor's closet. Derek flung Cora to the ground at Boyd's feet when she leapt forward to attack him. Boyd growled at Derek who grew out his claws and flashed his red eyes. Meilani had jumped down from her hiding spot while Chris stepped around the corner, turning on his taser once again.

"Come and get us," Derek growled and took off down the hall towards the door that would lead to the boiler room. He threw the door open and checked over his shoulder a few times to make sure Meilani was behind him with Cora and Boyd. The two pushed into the boiler room and Meilani's eyes glowed yellow so she could see in the darkness. 

Meilani grabbed the two fire extinguishers by her feet and handed one to Derek. Once Boyd and Cora had stepped foot down the steps into the boiler room, Derek and Meilani pulled the triggers on their respective extinguishers and the white foam burst out of the nozzles, causing Boyd and Cora to fall to the ground at the force. As soon as Boyd and Cora were down long enough to let Derek and Meilani run out, Derek had shut the large steel door behind him and clamped down the steel rod that went across the door.

Boyd and Cora had rammed their sides against the door a few times while Derek pushed his weight against the door to give it that extra hold. After a minute, the bangs finally subsided and it went quiet on the other side of the door.

Meilani leant back against the wall behind her and breathed heavily. "Did that actually just work?"

Derek breathed out a laugh and he seemed just as shocked as Meilani. "It worked."

Meilani slowly walked over to the door while Derek stepped back, dropping himself down to the ground to take a much needed breather. She closed her eyes and tried to listen on the other side of the door for Boyd and Cora's heart beats. Boyd and Cora's heart beats could be heard on the other side... along with one other. "Der, I hear three heart beats on the other side."

Derek slowly pushed himself to his feet and stood next to Meilani, focusing on his hearing to find the third heart beat. Something that barely took a second because it was just as loud as Boyd and Cora's. He shook his head and walked over to the steps, gripping onto the metal rails on either side.

"Derek, what are you doing?"

"Close the door behind me and keep it shut," Derek instructed, keeping his back towards Meilani. 

Meilani's eyes widened and she spun Derek around to face her, wondering if he had lost his mind. "You go in there alone, and you're either gonna kill them, or they kill you."

Derek stared at Meilani for a long moment as if he were trying to think about his next words properly. "That's why I'm going in alone." 

Without giving Meilani a second to respond, Derek threw open the boiler room door again and rushed inside with Meilani shutting the door behind him. She didn't like the fact that Derek wanted to go in there alone with back up because if something were to happen to him, she wouldn't know it. Meilani braced her hands on the door and closed her eyes, focusing on all four heart beats there were now inside the boiler room. So long as she heard that fourth heart beat, she would be fine. 

"Meilani!" The door at the top of the steps flew open and Isaac stood in the doorway, the sunlight hitting him. Sunlight. 

Meilani threw open the door and was inside the room before Isaac could finish saying that the sun was now up. She threw herself down the stairs and stopped in the middle of the room when she noticed Derek on his knees with Cora and Boyd on either side of him. His t-shirt had multiple large holes in it and claw marks littered his chest and stomach, some blood still leaking out of them from where Boyd and Cora had scratched him.

Derek panted as he slowly raised his head to look up at Meilani and Isaac who had just ran into the room and stopped next to her. "There's a teacher. I'll take care of her. Get them out of here."

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After getting Boyd and Cora back to Derek's loft so they could heal and wake up, Meilani had ran off to the hospital where Stiles and Scott were. The girl Heather's body had been found dead and she had the same injuries as the guy from a few hours ago. They both had a gash on the side of their heads, a strangle mark and a slit across their throats that was either from a knife or single claw. Meilani couldn't really tell and Melissa said the medical examiner wasn't exactly what cut across their throats either.

"So, Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?" Meilani asked, watching as Stiles pulled the sheet back over Heather's body. She felt bad that her boyfriend had lost a childhood friend and she hated to see the deep frown etched onto his face that had apparently been there the past few hours the boys had been at the hospital with Melissa.

"You're gonna wish they did," Scott sighed and tugged a hand through his hair that stuck up in multiple directions, making Meilani assume had been doing that for a while.

"Why?"

Stiles heaved a heavy sigh and leant his hands on the end of the metal examination table that Heather laid on. "Well, we're not exactly sure yet. The other other girl who was out in the woods, Emily? Eventually they're gonna find her. She's one of them. Emily, Heather... that guy Lydia found at the pool. All three were virgins... and they're all gonna have the same three injuries - strangled, throat slashed, head bashed in. It's called The Threefold Death."

Meilani felt her head pound with all the new information she had been given and her brain tried to process it all at once. "So if these aren't random killings, then what are they?"

"Sacrifices. Human sacrifices."

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

WE ARE FINALLY BACK, BABY! This pack of alphas are definitely going to be way more of a challenge and problem than Meilani and Derek originally thought. The fun part is: their troubles have only JUST begun.