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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩

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The weight that had previously sat on Meilani's chest was finally gone now that the dead pool had been cancelled. She was able to breathe better knowing that all her friends and everyone else on that list that was still alive can stay alive. It was like her airways had finally been cleared and Meilani could finally wake up in the morning without feeling like she was two seconds away from an anxiety attack. She was able to get through her day at work for Deaton without constantly worrying that Isaac would be taken while she was gone or that she'd get phone call from a panicked Liam that someone was in his house. She'd even stayed a whole extra hour at the clinic just to hold onto her normalcy again for a bit longer, letting Scott go home and get some sleep since he hadn't gotten much the night before.

When Meilani arrived back home a bit later than she'd originally intended, she saw Melissa stood in the darkened kitchen near the table. "Hi, Mom. Sorry I'm back so late since I promised to have dinner with you, but I closed up the animal clinic for Deaton and Stiles is coming to pick me up in a few minutes. I stayed to get a little extra . . . "

Meilani trailed off as Melissa shifted her position, revealing the gym bag that was filled with Derek and Peter's money that had been hiding under her bed. How Melissa even knew about it was beyond Meilani and she felt her heart drop into her stomach at the sight of it. 

Melissa turned away from the gym bag with a confused laugh. "How much more money did you need?"

Meilani blew out a shaky breath and approached her mom slowly, fiddling with the helmet in her hand nervously. "This is payment from the dead pool. I found it in Garett's locker."

Melissa nodded slowly as her face fell in recognition to whose money it really. "So this belongs to Derek? You're just keeping it safe for him in a gym bag underneath your bed?" Her eyes searched Meilani's guilt ridden face for any sort of indication as to why she kept the bag all this time. A thought that Meilani hated that she'd had because it was selfish of her to even have a passing thought about giving some to Melissa to help with their money troubles. It was completely out of character for Meilani and it made her feel sick just thinking about it. "Sweetheart, how long have you had it?"

"Too long," Meilani admitted to Melissa, grimacing at just how long she'd had the money. She knew she had to give it back to Derek because it was his and Peter's money. It wasn't hers to keep for this long.

"You have to give this back."

"I was going to."

"Do I want to know why you haven't yet?"

Meilani chewed on the inside of her lip as she stared at her mom for a moment. The woman that had given life to her and her built in best friend. The woman that wiped her tears whenever she was sad. The woman that tried to do whatever she could for Meilani after Rafe left because she knew how much his disappearance hurt. The woman that loved her and Scott endlessly and did so much for the both of them on a daily basis. "Because of you, Mom."

"Me?" Melissa asked in confusion and followed Meilani's drifting gaze over to the stack of bills that rested on the kitchen counter. She frowned when she caught onto why Meilani had fleeting thoughts about the amount of money that they had in front of them. "You mean because we've been struggling a little?"

"Mom, we're struggling a lot, even with Dad back," Meilani corrected, hating that she had to have this conversation with her mom. It was no secret that Melissa had been stressed lately and been taking every double shift at the hospital that she could get to get them by a little bit longer.

Melissa sighed softly and stepped closer to her daughter, cupping her face lovingly and offered her a sad smile. "Meilani, you can save people's lives, but you cannot save them from life. Life is full of struggle."

"But it doesn't have to be. How do you know how much just one of those stacks can do, Mom? One of those can get us a new roof instead of Dad having to climb up there himself. Another stack can pay for Stiles' MRI and another for his Eichen House bill," Meilani said, picking up a stack from the pile and holding it up for Melissa to see. "This could mean you don't have to work a double shift at the hospital anymore and actually get some sleep. I just . . . I love you, Mom. I hate seeing you break your back every day."

Melissa dropped her hands from Meilani's face and picked up another stack in the pile with a blood splatter on it. "And what about this one, sweetheart?"

Meilani puffed out her cheeks and nodded, knowing that Melissa had a point. She knew giving back the money was the right thing to do and that she couldn't keep any dollar of it. Hell, she'd even fought with Stiles over having to give it back, so she needed to stick to her own advice and give the money back to Derek.

No matter how tempting the thought was.

The next morning, Meilani walked back into Stiles' bedroom after having got dressed and brushed her teeth in the bathroom. She'd woken up extra early that morning and couldn't fall back asleep so she'd gotten dressed and said good morning to Noah who had been getting ready to leave when they passed each other in the hallway. Meilani and Stiles needed to be up early anyway because they had an early morning practice and Malia had already sent Meilani two text messages that she was getting ready for Meilani and Stiles to get her so she can go to her morning tutoring session for Math. She had a massive test coming up that could determine whether she goes to senior year in September with the rest of the pack. 

Meilani placed her dirty clothes in Stiles' hamper and huffed when she saw Stiles was still snoring in his bed, his alarm clock buzzing on the side table next to it. She walked over to the side table and turned off the annoying buzzing, crawling on top of the bed again to shake Stiles awake. "Babe, come on wake up. We've got an early morning practice for the big game tomorrow, remember?"

"Hi," Stiles greeted sleepily, not moving from his position on his back with his mouth hung open in sleep.

"Stiles, we also have to get Malia to school early so she can practice for her big test. You know, the one that determines if our friend can move onto the next year with all of us? I would like to graduate with all of our friends next year. Plus, I still need to go to Derek's to bring him the gym bag before we even go to school."

Stiles grumbled in his sleep and turned his back to Meilani, cuddling closer into his pillow.

Meilani growled lowly at her boyfriend, her red alpha eyes glowing for a moment in agitation until an idea struck her. If shaking and talking to Stiles wouldn't get him up, then she knew of one other thing that can get him up. Grabbing Stiles by his shoulder, she tugged him back onto his backside and pressed her lips to his. Stiles startled at the sudden action but quickly melted into the kiss, pressing his hand to the back of Meilani's head so she couldn't go anywhere. Their lips moved in sync for a few minutes, Stiles' other hand going to rest underneath Meilani's lacrosse t-shirt.

"Mmm, baby, what are you doing? I haven't even brushed my teeth yet," Stiles said, his hazel eyes slightly dilated from the mini-make out session Meilani had woken him up with. 

"You think I care?" Meilani mused, giggling when Stiles pulled her back in for another searing kiss. She squeaked slightly when Stiles moved her so she was straddled on his lap, his hands resting on the skin beneath her t-shirt as they moved up and down her sides. A slight groan sounded in the back of Stiles' throat when Meilani accidentally shifted and she pulled away with a small grimace. "Sorry."

Stiles tried to blink away the lust that now filled his hazel eyes and licked his lips, savoring the taste of Meilani's usual minty toothpaste and strawberry chapstick. "I hate you."

Meilani smiled softly down at her boyfriend and pressed another kiss to his lips before pulling away once again. "You know, you saved my life the other day. You were a hero."

"I was Batman?" Stiles inquired happily, a cute grin taking over his adorable face. The sight alone made Meilani's heart skip a beat and she swore that she could fall in love with the boy beneath her all over again anytime he smiled like that.

"Yes, Stiles, you were Batman," Meilani playfully rolled her eyes, brushing some of his brown hair back and away from his face. "Malia and Scott were like your two sidekicks."

"I can't take all the credit, though. Malia was the one who suggested checking that room in the lake house with the record player. I just found the chord in the wall," Stiles admitted, his thumbs rubbing Meilani's side gently. He reached one hand up to tug Meilani back down closer to his face. "Now, come back here because we still got five minutes."

Meilani squealed when Stiles flipped them over and he was on top, reattaching his lips to hers once again and settling between her legs.

After picking Malia up from her house two minutes late because Meilani and Stiles both had to take an extra minute in the bathroom covering up the marks on both of their necks, Meilani found herself in Derek's loft with the gym bag filled with money on his coffee table and Derek sat on the couch. She was shocked momentarily when Derek had taken the bag without so much as a question. "Derek, you . . . you don't wanna know why I took so long to give it back?"

Derek laughed lightly at Meilani's question and shifted his gaze from the money and over to Meilani. "Meilani, how much money do you and Scott make at the animal clinic?"

"A dollar or two over minimum wage."

"That's why. Everyone can be tempted by extra money when it's right in front of them. Even a True Alpha and even you who cries at the sight of a dead fly," Derek mused, earning himself a playful eye roll from the girl before him. "Besides, it's not even mine. It belongs to Peter."

"Where's your money?" Meilani asked with furrowed eyebrows.

Derek gestured to the space around them with a shrug. "You're standing on it."

Meilani glanced down to the floor beneath her where her white converses stood and her eyes snapped back to Derek's in astonishment. "Wait, there's another vault?"

"No, I own the building and I have my own bank accounts. All the money from the vault was Peter's. I think we would actually be better off if the best never came back."

Meilani eyed Derek for a moment as he stood up to zip the gym back up and she could smell the slight tension that came off him. He was still upset over not having his werewolf abilities anymore and the fact that Lydia had showed up the night before and screamed didn't help anything. They weren't sure what it meant, but Meilani knew they could save Derek and get whatever Kate did to him reversed. "I know Lydia was here last night, Derek. She called me. Deaton is still working on figuring out what Kate did to you. If anyone can find an answer, it's him."

Early morning practice had been extra brutal since Finstock wanted the team to be in their best shape for when the first game of the season came the next night. He wanted to win their first game to try keep the morale up for the team that they could have a good season and get another championship in the end. It was a nice thought and Meilani appreciated Finstock working them enough to get them ready, but she also would rather her team not be limping around the school cause Finstock had worked them too hard. They needed to be able to move to play well and she just hoped the boys loosened up enough to play. 

Meilani wanted to use her free period to work on some extra homework she'd had with Isaac while Stiles and Scott decided to go out to the lacrosse field and do a little bit of extra practicing. Even though Scott didn't play all that much with his asthma, but he still wanted to be able to play well enough for the short time that Finstock would give to him. Not like Scott would even be going to the big game because he had his first date with Kira that he wasn't going to miss out on.

However, before Meilani could make it close to the library to meet up with Isaac who waited for her, she heard the rapid heart beat near by and she could hear her beta in the work out room near the locker rooms along with Mason. When she focused hard enough, she could hear the struggle that Liam went through and she pushed her way into the work out room to see Liam pressed to the bench by the barbell. She ran over to Liam and lifted up the barbell with one hand, putting it back where it was supposed to be locked above Liam's head.

"Liam?" Mason asked in worry, standing behind Meilani as the girl squatted down in front of a choking and gasping Liam.

"I'm fine!"

"Li, if you don't want to be with us that's fine, but don't push away your friends, too. It's not right to Mason. He hasn't done anything," Meilani whispered, making sure to keep her voice low so that only Liam could hear her. She wanted Liam to trust her, but she knew it would take a while still for him to fully accept everything that was going on. 

Meilani got back to her full height and stepped back to leave Mason and Liam to themselves and talk out whatever tension was going on between them. She wanted to fix everyone's lives, but it was like Melissa said. Sometimes you can't save them from life itself and sometimes you had to struggle. Liam had to do this struggle on his own because Meilani couldn't fix a friendship for him since that was all up to him.

Meilani laid on her stomach on her bed later that night, her binder opened up in front of her with her textbook. The house was quiet save for Isaac's heart beat down the hall in his room where he got ready to leave for the first game of the season. Melissa was out at work and Scott had taken Kira to Derek's for their first date. Derek wasn't around and Meilani had helped her brother set up a bunch of hanging lights to make a romantic setting for him and Kira. He wanted their first date to be just right, especially after all of the stress Kira had been through with the dead pool and helping out Meilani. He just wanted one night where Kira could let loose and just be with him and Meilani would have been damned if she let her brother do it on his own. 

All of that planning was definitely more fun than the homework that currently surrounded Meilani and she wanted to slam her head through the wall. She groaned and pressed her forehead to the paper she had been writing her answers on, closing her eyes as her brain throbbed. She had been at it for an hour already and wished she had fought with Stiles more on letting her go to the game. He had told her that he thought she should stay home that night from the game and relax so she wouldn't have to worry about making sure the team won. He wanted her to have one night where she just worried about herself and he wasn't taking no for an answer either. He even claimed he'd have a good excuse to give Finstock on why she wasn't there and that he would watch over Liam for her.

A knock on her door startled her out of her thoughts and Meilani snapped her head up to see Isaac leant on her doorframe dressed in the same clothes he'd gone to school in and not his lacrosse stuff. She furrowed her eyebrows as she pushed herself up sit back on her heels. "Shouldn't you be on your way to to the game? Finstock will freak out if you're late."

"No, I have explosive diarrhea," Isaac replied, smiling in amusement at Meilani's utter confusion. "Stiles called me to make sure you didn't go to the game. So . . . no game for me either."

"Wait, Stiles called you and he didn't insult you?" Meilani teased, tossing her pencil onto her textbook. "Must be Opposite Day."

Isaac snorted and pushed off the doorframe, walking further into the room and dropping down onto the end of Meilani's bed with one leg tucked under him so he could face Meilani. "Definitely had to double check my caller ID to make sure it was really him. He's just being a worried boyfriend that's all."

"Clearly," Meilani said, narrowing her eyes at Isaac when she saw him hesitate for a moment as if he wanted to say something else but didn't know how. "Isaac, that's not why you came in here, is it?"

Isaac took a deep breath and fought against the urge to glance away from Meilani's face. Something had been plaguing his mind as of late and he knew he needed to get it off his chest before it became a bigger thing. Something that he'd been thinking about since Meilani's fake death and he'd been struggling with it ever since. "I just wanted to talk to you about the night . . . you know . . . died."

"Okay, what about it? Are you still feeling weak?" Meilani asked in concern, reaching forward to check Isaac over like a mother hen but he lightly gripped onto her hand before she could reach him. 

"Lans, no, I'm fine. My full strength came back not that long after you woke up," Isaac assured the girl, only relaxing her slightly because she was still tense about what Isaac wanted to talk about. "I just . . . it's about that thing I said to you when it was just us."

Meilani raked her brain for what Isaac had said to her that night since the whole thing was honestly kind of fuzzy now that she thought about it. She remembered being in her room with Isaac and that he wasn't happy about the plan. Her brain slowly caught up to her as she realized that Isaac had let the word love slip out when he was going off on his little rant about not wanting her to do it. She thought he hadn't realized he'd said it, but judging by the look on his face she knew that he knew exactly what he said. "You mean the . . .  love thing."

Isaac grimaced slightly at the reminder of his words and nodded, sighing quietly as his fingers tightened slightly in Meilani's. Their intertwined hands were suddenly the most fascinating thing in the world as he played with them instead of meeting Meilani's eyes. "Yeah, I shouldn't have said it, even if I do feel that way about you. You're with Stiles and that was a dick move for me to do. Stiles and I may go at each other's throats, but I would never overstep on your relationship. Or anyone's relationship for that matter. I just . . . don't want it to be weird between us or ruin anything between you and Stiles. I never even wanted to say anything in the first place, but the mate bond makes it harder than it used to be."

Meilani deflated slightly at the kicked puppy look that seemed to take over Isaac's face. She could feel the guilt blossoming in her stomach that she knew was coming from Isaac. Anyone with eyes could see how Isaac felt about Meilani, especially as of late since their mate bond blossomed. A part of Meilani hated that she had to hurt Isaac the way she was by not reciprocating his feelings, but she couldn't help the way she felt about Stiles. Much like Isaac couldn't help how he felt.

Before Meilani could open her mouth to tell Isaac that it was fine and they can move past it, a sound from downstairs alerted the two wolves. The two exchanged a wary look as they knew they were the only two in the house and Rafe wasn't expected to be home from San Francisco just yet. As if they had the same thought, Meilani and Isaac both scrambled off Meilani's bed at the same time and ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. Meilani suddenly stopped when she saw Kate Argent stood in her living room with a Berserker on either side of her, causing Isaac to crash into her back and he quickly placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her from toppling over.

Kate smirked at Meilani, her brown hair flowed down her back in beautiful waves and her face was a bluish-gray tint with glowing eyes and canines. Her eyes trailed from Meilani and up the arm of Isaac that still gripped onto Meilani's shoulder, her nose twitching slightly as she smelt the air. "Well, if it isn't the true alpha and her little mate. Too bad we'll have to break you two apart."

Without even so much as a signal, the two Berserkers surged forward towards Meilani and Isaac and the two shifted on sight before going after a Berserker each. Meilani growled as she threw her fist forward, but it was caught by the Berserker she fought off and she tried to swing around her other fist but that was also blocked. The Berserker shoved its hand forward and sent Meilani flying back into the wall behind her with a whine of pain. She could feel some blood trickle down her lips from where the Berserker had hit her. 

Kate charged at Meilani next and Meilani quickly got to her feet and kicked a foot out at the Argent. She ducked Meilani's leg and tried to hit her while she was down low but Meilani caught Kate's fist and elbowed the woman, causing her to double over. Meilani swiped her leg out to trip Kate onto her back, but Kate jumped up at the last second onto the small table behind her. Claws were slashed at Meilani's face and were dodged at the last second before Kate could come into contact with Meilani's cheek.

Meilani flipped herself off the table when Kate leapt down to try and put some distance between the two so she can try to find an advantage. As if Meilani were really going to let the woman get any sort of upper hand without putting up a fight. She dodged every punch and kick Kate could throw at her, getting her own punch or kick in at least once in their fight. The sound of Isaac's body dropping to the ground caught Meilani's attention and she saw him laid on the floor at the two Berserkers feet. The two Berserkers reached down to lift Isaac up to his knees, holding up by his arms. His hair was gripped by the Berserker on his right and he blood trickled down the side of his forehead from a gash near his hairline and a cut pooled with blood appeared on his lower lip.

Using Meilani's moment of distraction as an opportunity, Kate shoved her hand into Meilani's chest and sent her crashing into the book case in the corner of the room. Meilani crashed down to the hard wood floor with shelves and ceramic pieces that Melissa had collected over the years, broken bits of glass surrounding Meilani like a dangerous and glassy snow. Kate grabbed Meilani by the front of her shirt and held her up against the front of the bookcase, landing several punches to Meilani's face before she slamming her back against the bookcase and dropping her to the ground.

"What do you want from us?" Meilani breathed, propping herself up against the bookcase behind her as a shockwave of pain shot down her spine. 

"I want a little bit of insight, Meilani. The Argent family has been around for over four hundred years. A powerful, wealthy, aristocratic family of werewolf hunters. Yet somehow, in less than a year, this great family is decimated by a teenage girl. So my question is simple," Kate hissed, squatting down so she was eye level with Meilani. "What the hell is so special about Meilani McCall?"

Meilani narrowed her eyes dangerously at Kate, not showing any ounce of fear for the Argent woman. She wasn't scared of Kate and she sure as hell wouldn't be backing down to the likes of her either. "So you want me? Take me. Just me. You leave Isaac alone."

"No, you and Handsome are both coming. We're all going to church!"

"MEILANI! God, please let Meilani be okay." 

Meilani's eyes blinked open, not really remembering how she had even been knocked out in the first or for how long. Her eyes squinted as the moon filtered in through a circular window up above, her wrists and ankles tied to the dusty and chipped altar she'd been tied to as bones littered the floor below her. Wolfsbane rested on the altar around her to keep her strength low so she couldn't break free of the binds keeping her to the altar. She was in a massive room with a few pieces of left behind furniture that had been tipped over onto their sides. 

"Isaac, just stay strong and fight. You need to fight for Meilani."

Meilani furrowed her eyebrows as she heard Isaac's voice in her head but when she scanned the room she was tied in, she didn't see him anywhere in the room. He didn't even respond to her when she called out his name. How was she hearing Isaac's voice when he wasn't close enough for her to hear or close enough for him to hear her?

"Isaac?"

Isaac's head snapped up at the sound of Meilani's voice and he looked around for her, but didn't see her anywhere near the little prison he'd been thrown into that was littered with dead bones and vines everywhere. He tried to stick his face between the bars to see if she was in one of the other cells in the basement he'd been thrown into but he didn't see he anywhere. His hands slowly dropped back to his sides as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

"Isaac, am I going crazy or are you in my head right now?"

"If you're going crazy, then I definitely am, too."

Meilani collapsed back against the altar she was tied to and closed her eyes, trying to will her head to stop spinning from all the new thoughts that were now crammed inside her head. So . . . now she can hear Isaac's thoughts? As if her own thoughts didn't make her head pound enough, she had to have another person's thought in her head. Now she really felt insane and was about to call Eichen House on herself.

"Maybe . . . maybe it's from the whole mate bond thing. Derek said we were connected, right? Maybe that didn't just mean through emotions but mind, too."

"Doesn't make this any less weird."

"Yeah, but at least this way lets me know that you're okay and not dead."

Before Meilani could offer a response back to Isaac so they could try to work through  yet another quirk of their mate bond, the doors to the room she was in slammed open and in walked Kate. She was now in her normal human form and she stalked towards Meilani with a taunting smile.

"Tell me, Meilani. They ever teach you the myth of Artemis and Actaeon in school? No? I didn't think so," Kate hummed, tightening the straps around Meilani's ankles as if they weren't already tight enough as it was. "Well, Artemis was a goddess and Actaeon was a hunter that happened to see Artemis bathing naked one day. This did not make the goddess too happy. In fact, she was so angry, Artemis turned Actaeon into a deer and this sent his own hounds into a frenzy. He was actually torn apart by his own hunting dogs."

Meilani heard growls come from the two Berserkers that stood on either side of the altar at Meilani's feet, their weapons clutched tightly in their hands while Kate picked up a spare skull mask from the altar. She tried to fight against her binds, but it was no use because she didn't have her alpha strength at the moment. "What are you doing?"

Kate chuckled at Meilani's question and faked a smile in Meilani's direction. "I'm not gonna turn you into a deer, but you are about to become something unrecognizable to your friends and brother. They won't even know what they are fighting. Or killing."

"Meilani, are you okay? What's happening? You went quiet."

Meilani barely could hear Isaac's thoughts over her pounding heart in her ears as Kate circled the altar with the altar to stand by Meilani's head with the skull mask raised high in her hands. One of the Berserkers walked up to the altar to press his hand down on Meilani's chest to keep her from thrashing around so Kate wouldn't have trouble placing the mask around Meilani's head.

"Kate, no, no. Kate, don't!" Meilani screamed, trying to break free of the binds again and the Berserker even though she couldn't do anything. No matter what she did, she wouldn't be getting out of this one.

The last thing Meilani remembered before blacking out once again was her screams as they echoed off the walls of the church, unheard by everyone.

Including Isaac.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

THAT ENDING THOUGH, WHEW! The next chapter is the last one before we move onto Book 5. I am so so so excited to finish this off. It's about to be EPIC! 

And yes, Isaac will be abusing this new ability that he and Meilani have with each other any chance he gets. Mostly because it'll piss off Stiles ( when he finally finds out about it that is ). Thank you.