𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘉𝘌𝘈𝘚𝘛

"𝙄 — 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 . . . 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪."

To say the Beast was a strong being would be an understatement. Even with Meilani's true alpha strength and agility, she struggled as she went up against the creature. Alone. Probably a stupid decision on her part, but as usual, Meilani Marie McCall wasn't going to endanger her friends' lives. Just her own. Another stupid decision on her part considering that her and Isaac were literally connected, but she didn't necessarily have the time to think about that as she continued to follow the Beast throughout the halls of the high school, blood already smeared across her forehead and she could hear the distant yells from Isaac about whatever she was doing. 

Sometimes she really hated that Isaac was connected to her. 

Students continued to scream and run through the hallways, trying to put distance between them and the massive creature that brought terror down on the lacrosse game. Meilani had so many scents invading her senses at once, she couldn't even tell if her friends were still in the school somewhere. She'd heard Liam's agonized screams at some point a few minutes ago, followed by Stiles and Isaac's voices, but she hadn't heard anything else since and Meilani only hoped that every single one of her friends were able to stay safe.

Meilani skidded around the corner and noticed a short, blonde girl had fallen to the ground in her haste to get away from the Beast. Blood smeared along the right side of her face and terror and fear came off her body in thick waves. The girl's heart beat so quickly in her chest that Meilani was surprised it hadn't burst from the poor girl's chest yet. She helped the girl up to her feet once again and got her into a side classroom and out of the way of the Beast, whose growls could be heard getting nearer and nearer by the second. 

Swiftly closing the door behind herself, Meilani leant her back against the door and made sure to keep her body out of the view of the window on the door. She banged her head back against the door with a quiet sigh, chest heaving slightly from all the energy she'd been using for the past few minutes and she grimaced when she moved her body and her lacrosse jersey stuck to her skin in a gross fashion. The blood was hidden thanks to the color of the jersey but she was sure that the number on the back of jersey — six, aka her lucky number — had blood stained across it.

The door behind her suddenly shook when the Beast banged roughly against it. Meilani's eyes widened and she yelled at the blonde girl to escape out the window. Her strength struggled greatly against that of the Beast's, but she focused all her weight to keeping the door closed to give the blonde girl time to escape. Just as the girl's leg got out the window, the glass window above the door crashed in, raining glass shards down onto the true alpha causing her to cover her head with her hands to avoid any shards hitting her. She was barely given a moment to recover from the rain off glass before the Beast's claws plunged into Meilani's back and snapped her out of the classroom.

Meilani was flung across the hallway, sliding her along the tiled flooring and towards the direction of the library. With her strength depleting thanks to all her open wounds that still took time to heal, Meilani scrambled weakly to her feet and ran into the library, stumbling and collapsing against the top of the nearest table. Her breaths were labored as she squeezed her eyes shut to try and will her wounds to heal quicker so that she could get at least some of her strength back. She had to keep assuring Isaac she was fine in her head, though the two both knew she was anything but. However, that wouldn't stop her from keeping Isaac as far from the current situation as possible. She needed him to help get everyone else to safety and not be stuck by her side, possibly getting even more hurt if he tried to help her.

Meilani could handle the Beast.

Maybe.

Once the room stopped spinning, Meilani exhaled heavily and pushed herself back upright and rushed further into the library. What she didn't expect was to see two girls hidden behind the bookcase to her left and, when she took a closer look around her, half the lacrosse team along with their girlfriends were hidden behind a bookcase of table. The air in the room was thick with terror and Meilani nearly gagged on the intense staleness of the chemosignals, her brain working fast on what she could even do to help them. Her eyes had drifted up to the second level of the library and she chewed the inside of her lip, figuring that might be the best place for the group to hide until she could get the Beast to go away.

"Go upstairs," Meilani softly told the group around her who instantly kicked into gear and did as she said. 

The roaring of the Beast grew closer along with its heavy breathing as the group got up to safety. It burst in the double doors of the library, the Beast's shining white eyes intimidating as it roared loudly and causing the walls of the library to shake from its intensity. Meilani shifted at the sound and matched its roar with her own, red eyes flashing dangerously in the otherwise dark library. The only other light in the room coming from the moon that hung high in the air outside the floor to ceiling window behind Meilani.

Pushing off the floor, Meilani charged at the Beast without a second thought, wanting to take this massive beast down so she can get the kids in the library to safety. She had gotten all but two good slashes into the Beast before it raised its massive claw and whacked into her. The force of the hit sent Meilani soaring across the library and smashing into the bookcase on the first landing of the library, sending her scrawling to the ground with books raining down on top of her. She could hear the gasps come from the few students who were actually able to see what had happened and Meilani groaned, her face pressing the rough carpet of the landing she'd crashed onto. 

The Beast's claw gripped to her back once again and slid her back down the steps and onto the first floor of the library. It picked her up and threw her like a rag doll, sending her crashing into the small, circular coffee table to the right that was placed before two small chairs. She grunted as she rolled onto her stomach, pushing herself shakily back to her feet. Without thinking much of the aching pain that coursed through her whole body — along with the newly formed wound in her left shoulder where her shirt had ripped and left her skin stained — Meilani let out another room shaking roar at the Beast and jumped at it, slashing and clawing the best she could. 

The Beast had quickly gained control over the situation thanks to its massive claws and grabbed Meilani up, chucking her at the stairs and crashing her back into them with a harsh moan of pain from the true alpha as her bones cracked inside her skin. Meilani panted as she pushed herself back up to her elbows, blood dripping down the side of her face while the Beast stalked slowly towards her. She went to get up to try and fight him off again when she saw Isaac and Liam both leaping up high from behind the Beast. 

Quickly rolling out of the way, Meilani watched as the two boys knocked into the Beast's face with their fists and sending it stumbling to the side from the impact. The sound of a shotgun cocking alerted Meilani and she was shocked to see Braeden and Malia walk into the library, Braeden fully armed with her trusted shot gun. Leaping over the side of the steps, Meilani dropped to the library flooring next to Liam and Isaac. She crouched down besides Isaac and quickly checked him over when she saw how much blood covered him thanks to her wounds, though no wounds appeared on his skin, thankfully. He lightly whacked her hand away, assuring her that he was fine but he was going to kick her ass later for not calling him to help. 

Meilani huffed to herself, glancing over her shoulder as the sound gunshots continued to go off and the Beast escaped through the floor to ceiling window and back out into the night. With a grunt, Meilani helped both Liam and Isaac up before the trio stumbled over to where Braeden and Malia stood at the bottom of the steps, Braeden still clutching to her shotgun. 

"You didn't seriously think you'd have a chance against that thing, did you?" Braeden scolded Meilani who wiped at the blood along her forehead.

Meilani sighed and glanced wearily over to her friends, a certain scent lingering around her as she frowned. Part of her severely hoped that the scent that she caught was just a coincidence, but she was doubtful. "No, but I got its scent."

Not giving any of her friends time to react to what she'd said, Meilani turned sharply and took off out of the library with Isaac and Liam calling out after her. Her steps were still a bit staggered as her wounds still needed to heal and she still felt a bit lightheaded from all the blood loss. That didn't stop her from pushing forward towards the parking lot of the school, rushing out through the backdoor of the school with Isaac and Liam both hot on her trail.

"Lani, you need to slow down. You're hurt!" Isaac called after her, stepping out into the brisk air outside and following Meilani down the line of cars in the parking lot. "I would know because I'm kind of feeling it myself here!"

Meilani ignored her best friend's calls and stopped at the trunk of Mason's car and she didn't even need to look at Liam's direction to guess that he was heavily confused on why she stopped there. Taking a moment to plead to every single god out there that her hunch was wrong, Meilani puffed out her cheeks in a harsh breath and broke open the trunk of Mason's car. Inside the trunk were a pair of Mason's army green converses and, when Meilani picked them up and flipped them over, the soles of the shoes were drenched in fresh blood and Meilani's heart quite literally plummeted to her feet and she felt a wave of anxious nausea slam into her.'

Liam's breath hitched in his throat, eyes fixated directly onto the bloodied soles of his best friend's shoes. Isaac offered the boy a sympathetic look, patting Liam on the shoulder in a form of comfort. The whole thing looked a bit awkward as the two boys never showed each other any sort of affection as they were always butting heads.

When Meilani shut the trunk door with the bloodied shoe still in her hand, she gasped at the sight of Mason. Mason stood in the row before the one his car rested in, right between two cars and a confused expression crossing his features at the sight of Liam, Isaac and Meilani digging around inside of his car.

"Meilani? What — what are you doing to my car?"

Meilani could feel the tears spring to her eyes, hating that the sweetest boy she'd come to known was the Beast. The boy that had done nothing but help her and the pack since he found out about werewolves and the supernatural was a dark creature that had been causing nothing but chaos in the town. "I — it's . . . it's you."

Mason scoffed softly and his eyes shifted to Liam who looked like he was about thirty seconds from being sick right there in the parking lot. "What? Liam, what's she talking about?" He took a tentative step closer when Liam didn't so much as answer, head tilting to the side. "Liam?"

Before Liam, Isaac or Meilani could offer some sort of answer, Corey materialized from the side of the car he'd been morphing into to hide. He leapt forward and gripped to Mason's shoulders as if to grab him and run, causing the three wolves' eyes to widen and step forward.

"No, Corey, wait!" Meilani yelled, rushing forward just as Corey materialized him and Mason away. She wrapped her arms around air where Corey and Mason had just been stood and her head whipped this way and that as if the two boys were suddenly appear somewhere down the parking lot where she could get to them.

Mason was the Beast and now . . . he was gone.

( word count: 2.1k )

— just two chapters to go and then we will be on the sixth and final book, can ya'll believe that ???  cause i'm still not accepting of that fact just yet. however, enjoy this little filler-ish chapter seeing as how not much happened until the end. i also forgot how much i hate writing fight scenes until this chapter wound up being one and i hate it. 

— also, sorry for no stiles this chapter but . . . we had a bit of a chaotic moment here. meilani was living her best hero complex life and . . . it only ended in more angst. love that for our queen who needs a serious nap at this point. will she ever get that nap ??? definitely not.