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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳

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CHAPTER WARNING:

BEFORE WE BEGIN THIS CHAPTER, I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE A WARNING THAT THERE WILL BE MENTIONS OF DARK THEMES SUCH AS SUICIDE AND DARK THOUGHTS. IF IT IS TRIGGERING FOR YOU, YOU CAN SKIP OVER THIS CHAPTER.

Meilani stepped off the bus and glanced around her at the motel they had stopped at for the night. It was the type you'd see in horror films where the manager was a psycho and stabbed the pretty girl in the steaming shower. Or maybe Meilani had just seen American Psycho too many to count on her two hands. "I've seen worse."

"Where have you seen worse?" Stiles remarked, shifting Meilani's bag on his shoulder. She had healed almost completely ever since Allison had stitched her back up at the rest stop. However, Stiles still insisted that he'd carry her bag for her so she wouldn't put any strain on her injured side.

Before Meilani could offer a response, Coach Finstock blew his whistle and Meilani, Boyd and Isaac flinched at the ear splitting sound. These were the times that Meilani seriously hated her enhanced hearing. "Listen up. The meet's been pushed till tomorrow. This is the closet motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgement when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves. You'll be pairing up so choose wisely."

Scott nudged his twin in the side and shot her a grin. "Womb mates turned room mates? We can drag Stiles along, too."

Meilani giggled at her twin's dumb joke, but nodded anyway as Scott took their room key from Coach Finstock as he yelled about there being no "sexual perversions" from anyone who decided to have a room with the opposite gender. He didn't care if the opposite genders roomed together, he just didn't want to hear any of their "teenage hormonal tendencies" while he tried to sleep.

"Lydia?" Allison called, turning around to face Lydia who still stood where the bus previously had been parked. She looked warily around at the motel, her face going white as a sheet. 

"I don't like this place."

"I don't think the people who own this place like this place," Scott commented, his own eyes scanning the sketchy area. "It's only for one night, Lyd."

Lydia let out a shaky breath as she continued the eye place. "A lot can happen in one night."

"As ominous as that statement is, I'm going to my room to lay down," Meilani said after a long moment of tense silence. "Lydia, I'll make sure to double check our shower for any psycho killers."

Scott and Stiles chuckled to themselves and followed after Meilani towards their room number of 213. The inside was as you'd expect it to be, unflattering and the colors looking like a mix of snot and vomit. It was only for one night though and Meilani would get used to the overwhelming stench of cleaning supplies that tried to cover up the horrible odor that penetrated from the floors and walls. Another downside to her being a werewolf.

"Alright, so I have four," Stiles announced, collapsing back on what Meilani assumed would now be their bed for the night and dropping the two bags onto the side of it.

"You have four?" Meilani asked, eyebrows shooting up with an amused laugh. "How do you have four suspects?"

"Yeah, it was originally ten. Well, nine technically, I guess. I had Derek on there twice," Stiles explained, causing Meilani to flinch slightly at the fallen alpha. Even after the conversation with Scott on the bus, Meilani still felt a stir in her stomach any time she thought about Derek's death.

"So, who's number one? Harris?" Scott inquired.

Stiles placed his hands together on his stomach as Meilani laid next to him and Scott laid on his own bed next to Stiles and Meilani's. "Just because he's missing doesn't mean he's dead, Scott."

Scott scoffed softly and shook his head. "So if he's not dead, our chemistry teacher is out secretly committing human sacrifices."

Stiles was silent for a long moment as he thought over Scott's statement. "Yeah, I guess that just sounded way better in my head."

"Well, what if it's somebody else from school?" Meilani suggested, trying to piece together anyone from the school that could be a perp. "Like, you remember Matt? We didn't know that he was out killing people with Jackson."

"Excuse me?" Stiles shot up in the bed, shooting Meilani an incredulous look. "I'm sorry, what? I - yes, we did, Meilani. I called that from day one actually."

Meilani propped herself up on her elbows along with Scott while Stiles shot to his feet. "Well, we never really seriously thought that it was Matt, Stiles."

Stiles looked like he was insulted by Meilani's response as his face fell. "Wha- I was serious. I was quite serious, actually. Deadly serious. Neither one of you listened to me!"

"Who were the other three?" Scott chimed in before Stiles could go on another rant about how no one ever listened to him.

"Derek's sister, Cora. No knows anything about her and she's Derek's sister. Next, your guys' boss."

"Our boss?" Scott repeated, sounding like he didn't believe it for one second.

"Yeah, your boss. I don't really like the whole Obi-Wan thing he's got going on, you know? It freaks me out," Stiles informed, furrowing his eyebrows when Scott looked lost on Stiles' Star Wars reference. "Oh, my God. Have you still not seen Star Wars, Scott?"

Scott smiled sheepishly at his best friend and twin as they both looked at him in shock. With how obsessed Stiles had been over the franchise for the whole time they've been best friends and Meilani always going on about Leia Skywalker, they both figured Scott would have at least watched them. "I swear, if we make it back, I will watch the movies."

"Just makes me crazy," Stiles mumbled, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Who's the last one?" Meilani sighed, deciding to get back on the actual topic they needed to be on.

"Lydia," Stiles replied reluctantly, taking a seat beside Meilani on the bed once again. "She was totally controlled by Peter and she had no idea, so..."

The trio all let out a harmonious sigh and collapsed back on the bed together, all of their minds racing over the whole thing. Meilani seriously could never catch a break.

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After laying in comfortable silence for a while, Meilani decided to use the bathroom and freshen up a bit since they had been stuck on a bus all day while the boys ran out to get snacks from the vending machine. She had just splashed some water over her face when she thought there had been something in her eye. Moving closer to the bathroom mirror, Meilani tugged underneath her eye to see what she had missed when her eyes suddenly went alpha red.

Meilani gasped and stumbled back from the mirror, her mind racing over how that could have happened. She wasn't alpha and knew for a fact that she hadn't killed any sort of alpha recently to even get the alpha status. To make matters worse, Meilani felt something begin to bubble in the bit of her stomach and felt her head begin to go foggy. Almost like she had taken some kind of drug and didn't even know it. Horrible and sadistic thoughts raced across her mind and Meilani slowly lost her grip on reality as the room around her began to go red in her vision.

As if her feet had a mind of their own, they moved out of her room and made her way over to Lydia and Allison's door that had been left unlocked. One glance into the room showed no sign of Lydia and the sound running water could be heard, followed by Allison's shout for Lydia to see if they had any fresh towels. Meilani slowly walked over to the bathroom door, pushing it open slowly and stepping inside to see Allison using the shower curtain as a protective shield over her naked and wet body.

"Mei? What are you doing in here?" Allison asked in confusion, a bad feeling settling in her stomach at Meilani's vacant expression. 

"I came looking for you," Meilani replied monotonously. 

Allison furrowed her eyebrows and tugged the curtain around her naked form even more, only letting her head be visible. "Yeah, you found me naked."

Meilani shrugged and took a step closer to the Argent girl who only stepped back a step away from the wolf girl. "Nothing I haven't seen before."

Allison's eyes bounced between both of Meilani's vacant ones in worry and concern. What had made Meilani disconnect from her body like this out of nowhere? "Mei, are you sure you're okay?"

As if a breeze blew by, Meilani's mind cleared and she blinked a few times, seeing she was now in Allison's bathroom and not her own back in her own room. She tried to rack her brain for why she stood in the bathroom with Allison when the girl tried to shower in peace. "I... um... sorry, I don't even remember. I'll see you later."

Meilani backed out of Allison and Lydia's room slowly before she made her way back to her own room where she was sure the boys were and worried about where she had been. What in the hell was going on around here? First, Meilani suddenly has alpha red eyes and now she was showing up in Allison's room out of nowhere with no recollection of even stepping inside in the first place.

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Meilani had been left on her own since she had returned from Allison and Lydia's room. Something she was kind of glad about because then she wouldn't have to explain where she'd been to Scott and Stiles. She still had no idea what had happened in the few minutes she'd been in the bathroom to make her completely disconnect from her body and its functions. It was almost like she had been hypnotized and the sound of Allison's continuous voice had snapped Meilani out of her trance-like state.

The sound of her phone ringing next to her snapped Meilani out of her thoughts and she picked it up to see it was Melissa. She placed the phone to her ear and took a seat on her and Stiles' bed. "Hi, mom. You okay?"

"Meilani?"

Meilani's whole body froze over when she heard Melissa sob on the other end. She could hear her mother's rapid heart beat through the phone and she couldn't even do anything about it. She was too far away from Beacon Hills to do anything. "Mom, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, he just came in the house. I tried to stop him. I'm sorry."

"What? Mom, who are you talking about? Where are you?"

"Outside. Look outside."

Meilani's head snapped over to the window where the curtains were still drawn back to let in the moonlight from outside. She pushed herself off the bed and ran over to the window, her blood freezing over when she saw Deucalion hold Melissa by the throat just below in the parking lot.

"Meilani? Can you hear me?" Deucalion taunted, a sinister smile taking over his features.

"What do you want?" Meilani demanded, feeling her heart rate pick up the longer she saw Melissa in Deucalion's grip.

"Isn't it obvious? You're an alpha now, Meilani."

Meilani shook her head, feeling her mouth go dry at just the thought of being an alpha. "No, I'm not. I'm not. Derek is still alive and I haven't killed another alpha. Derek could - "

"He's dead," Deucalion cut Meilani off mid-sentence. "You know he is, so now I'm coming for you. You and everyone you love. I'm coming for all of them."

Meilani cried out when Deucalion grew out his claws, slashing Melissa across the throat. She watched in horror as her mother's dead body collapsed to the ground at Deucalion's feet, her phone tumbling to the side.

"Babe, you okay?"

Meilani spun around to see Scott and Stiles stood at the entrance to the room, both wearing worried expressions at Meilani's distressed form. Her chest heaved up and down as her eyes slowly trailed back over to the window to see Deucalion and Melissa were no longer stood outside the window, no sign of blood in sight. One glance down to her phone showed her lock screen of her and Stiles in their lacrosse uniforms, Stiles pressing a kiss to Meilani's cheek as she beamed up at the camera. Her hazel eyes shining beautifully in the bright sunlight up above.

"What the hell..." Meilani breathed to herself, not seeing a single call from Melissa except the one text she sent to Meilani in response to them getting to the motel for the night.

"Stiles and I will be right back, okay? Just stay here," Scott said, kissing the side of his twin's head before the two boys ran out of the motel room, phones in both of their hands.

Meilani dropped down onto the bed next to her and squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face in her hands. Was she finally going crazy?

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Meilani felt herself slipping further and further into the darkness. All that ran across her minds were the dark thoughts she had usually been good at pushing away. She was the cause of everyone's problems. Ever since she had become a werewolf, Meilani had become nothing but a burden to everyone around her. It was her fault Derek had died the other night. It was her fault Peter Hale almost killed her mother. It was her fault that her and Scott had a strained relationship for a few months because she couldn't handle telling him she was a werewolf. 

Everything was just her fault and everyone would probably be all the more better off without her around. Scott and Stiles would be devastated, of course, but they could move on without her. Stiles could find another girl to make him happy and one who wouldn't constantly make him worry and be dragged into constant drama. Scott could be an only child and take care of Melissa without the added stress of Meilani's werewolf-ness.

The voice in her head echoed over and over that she should just end it all and make everyone's lives better. She knew there was a flare in the bus along with an extra bottle of gasoline in case the bus ran out in the middle of a road with no gas station in sight. It would be the best way to go because it'd hopefully be painless and instant.

In a trance, Meilani removed herself from her and Stiles' bed and walked out of the motel room. She descended the stairs just outside her room that lead down to the parking lot and searched for the yellow school bus that stood out amongst the other normal cars in the lot. The yellow of the bus was almost like a beacon of light for Meilani as she made her way over to it and climbed on the bus in search of the flare and gasoline. They had both been stored in the bottom compartment on the bus and she grabbed the both of them before she stepped off the bus.

Meilani made sure to stay a good few feet away from the bus so she wouldn't burn it down along with her body. She sniffled as she grabbed the bottle of gasoline and poured the contents over her head, creating a pool at her feet. She ripped the clear lid off the top of the flare and swiped the cap along the tip to ignite the flame on the top.

However, before Meilani could drop the flare at her feet and end her suffering, a voice called out through the fog in her head. It was kind of distorted and sounded like it was underwater, but Meilani knew Stiles and Scott's voices from anywhere. She slowly lifted her head to look up at Scott, Stiles, Allison and Lydia. The four of them stared at Meilani in horror and sadness as they all realized what she was about to do before they had showed up in the parking lot.

"There's no hope," Meilani cried, gripping the flare tighter in her hand.

"Baby, what are you talking about?" Stiles asked, stepping closer to his girlfriend as his own eyes welled with tears. The sight before him was absolutely terrifying and just the thought of his girlfriend committing suicide was enough to drench his cheeks with fresh tears. "There's always hope."

"Not for me. Not for Derek."

Scott shook his head and stepped up next to Stiles, his own tears flowing from his eyes at his twin's distressed state. He could feel her pain just by looking at her and it tore his heart to pieces seeing her so broken. All he wanted to do was hold Meilani in his arms and protect her from whatever plagued her mind. "Derek wasn't your fault, Mei. You know he wasn't your fault."

"Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt because of me. People keep getting killed," Meilani said, voice cracking with emotion and hurt.

"Baby, listen to me, okay? This isn't you, alright? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Now - "

"What if it isn't?" Meilani argued, cutting off her boyfriend mid-sentence. "What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else? It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that? You, Scott and I, we were - were all nothing." She took a moment to try and calm herself down because she cried too hard and her breathing too erratic for her words to really be understood properly. "We weren't popular. I was barely even that good at lacrosse. I was good, but not like how I am now. We weren't important. We were no one. Maybe I should just be no one again. No one at all." 

Scott took a stumbling step forwards with his arms out as Meilani raised her arm to drop the flare at her feet. "Mei, listen to Stiles and I, okay? You aren't no one. Okay? You're someone. You're - "

"You're our best friend," Stiles sniffled, slowly walking closer to Meilani with Scott at his side. "Sure, you're Scott's twin and my girlfriend, but you're also our best friend. The one person that we love with her whole being. We need you, baby. Meilani, you're my entire world and I dream about the day I can make you mine forever and have little Stiles and Meilanis running around."

"So..." Scott trailed off, taking the final step into the gasoline that pooled at his twin's feet with Stiles. "So if you're gonna do this, then..."

"Then you're just gonna have to take us with you," Stiles finished for Scott, wrapping his hand around the flare while Scott placed his hand over both Stiles and Meilani's. "Alright?"

Meilani shook as more sobs overtook her body and Stiles and Scott eventually pried the flare out of Meilani's shaking hand. She watched as Scott tossed the flare just outside of the gasoline puddle around the trio's feet. At that moment, a gust of wind decided to blow by and rolled the flare right onto the gasoline puddle that Scott, Stiles and Meilani still stood in, immediately igniting the puddle.

"No!" Lydia and Allison screamed in unison, quickly pushing all three out of the puddle and away from the flames that erupted from the gasoline. The group all fell to the ground and were all safe from the deathly flames before them. 

Meilani allowed Stiles to bring her into his lap and hold her close to his chest, rocking her back and forth as she let out the rest of her tears and sorrows. Scott had eventually joined in and made it into a group hug with Allison and Lydia joining in a second later. None of them caring that the gasoline in Meilani's clothes soaked into their own. 

The only thing they cared about was Meilani and that she was still breathing.

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The next morning, the group were awoken by Coach Finstock who climbed onto the bus to announce the meet was cancelled and they were to head back to Beacon Hills. Meilani had taken a quick shower back in the motel room and then was rushed back to the yellow school bus to sleep. The boys, Allison and Lydia didn't trust being inside of the motel any longer and even got Boyd and Isaac to sleep on the bus with them also so they wouldn't be affected by whatever took over the motel.

Meilani pushed herself up in her seat where she had slept on Stiles' chest the whole night. She stretched out the kink in her neck just as Ethan dropped into the empty seat next to Scott in front of Meilani and Stiles. Allison and Lydia had shared a row next to Meilani and Stiles while Isaac and Boyd passed out in the last row on either side.

"I don't know what happened last night, but I'm pretty sure you guys saved my life," Ethan said, eyes bouncing between Stiles and Scott. Apparently, Ethan had nearly pushed a chainsaw through his stomach before Scott and Stiles wrenched it out of his hands. He then went to use his claws but once again had been stopped by Scott and Stiles before Ethan had stumbled back, slapping his hand onto the heat of the lantern in the room. The only light in the whole room. Heat was the answer to snapping Ethan, Boyd and Isaac out of their own trances. "So I'm gonna give you something, Meilani."

Meilani furrowed her eyebrows and exchanged a look with both Scott and Stiles, Ethan's nice act throwing all of them off a bit. "Uh... okay?"

"We're pretty sure Derek is still alive, but he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen. Either he joins our pack..."

"And kills his own..." Meilani realized, torn between feeling relieved that Derek was still alive or dread that now they had even more drama to worry about when they got back to Beacon Hills.

"Or Kali goes after him and we kill him. That's the way it works."

"You know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric, just FYI," Stiles remarked as Ethan removed himself from the seat and went to sit back down next to Danny.

Coach had began to make his way towards the back of the bus where Ethan had sat next to Danny. "Hey, Ethan, can I - "

Lydia cut off Coach Finstock as she leapt out of her seat and removed the whistle from around his neck. He allowed her to take it, but demanded it back as he continued towards Ethan. She brought the whistle to her lips while she cupped the top with her other hand, dropping back into her seat that was next to Meilani. She blew into her cupped hand and slowly removed it to reveal a purple dusting.

Wolfsbane.

"So every time the coach blew the whistle on the bus, Meilani, Isaac, Boyd - "

"And Ethan," Lydia added with a nod.

"We all inhaled it," Meilani noted, eyes widening at the realization.

"You were all poisoned by it," Allison whispered, staring down at the black whistle.

Stiles chewed on his lip in deep thought, tugging a hand through his hair. "So that's how the Darach got in their heads. That's how he did it." Without taking more than second to think on it, he snatched the whistle out of Lydia's hand and chucked it out the open bus window next to him.

"Hey, hey, hey! Stilinski!" Coach barked, face red in annoyance that he had lost his whistle because of Stiles.

Meilani scoffed to herself and slouched back against her seat. This whole time it had been wolfsbane to make her, Isaac, Boyd and Ethan to go crazy. She hadn't even known she inhaled any of it. It was odd that she hadn't seen any purple dust blow out of Coach's whistle, especially with the amount of times he blew it when Stiles tried to convince him to pull over at the closest rest stop so they could stitch Meilani back up.

She was just glad that it was over and they were headed back to Beacon Hills where Melissa was still alive and so was Derek.

At least, Meilani hoped Derek was alive.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

Whoa, this chapter was heavy to write. It broke my heart having to write Meilani have such dark and depressing thoughts about herself and how everyone viewed her. Thankfully, all is well now and her and the other wolves are now safe. 

Also, Meilani is an alpha now??? 👀👀👀 more to come on that