𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘

𝘚𝘌𝘉𝘈𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘌𝘕 𝘝𝘈𝘓𝘌𝘛

"𝙒𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙖 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙢. 𝙄 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙞𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙛 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤."

Meilani blinked her eyes open the next morning, the sun beaming directly into her ears and causing her to huff, rolling over onto her stomach to bury her face into the pillow. The night prior she had been forced into bed by Isaac, Scott and Stiles. They had Liam, Hayden, Malia and Braeden all out in search for Mason. Meilani was the last person that should have been out there with her wounds still healing from her fight with the Beast — or did she just call it Mason now since she knew it was him?

Stiles had all but pushed her shoulders down every time she tried to get up and go out to look for Mason. No matter how many times she'd groan and moan about needing to be out there to help instead of stuck in her bed, Stiles didn't waver and took turns with Scott with staying with Meilani while Isaac and Kira stayed downstairs and tried to help figure out what they could do while they waited for Mason to be found. If there was anything else they could do to even look for him in the first place. They had all these werewolves ( and werecoyote ) and they still couldn't find the kid. It only increased the worry bubbling in Meilani's belly.

That night Meilani had fallen asleep with her head pressed to Stiles' chest, his hands running through her hair gently as he pressed kisses to the top of her head. Things between them had gone back to how they were so suddenly and quickly that it was almost like the couple had never had their fight in the first place. It was as if they had been together the whole time through this whole thing and nothing bad had come between them. 

If only things stayed that way.

After checking her side to see that all of her gashes had healed up and no blood remained, Meilani pushed herself out of her bed to get dressed and head out to continue her search for Mason. She'd thrown on a strewn pair of army pants that clung to her body, a black hoodie and her jean jacket over it before she slipped on a random pair of black converses she'd had thrown around near her bed. She picked up her bike helmet that rested on her desk and jogged down the steps only to hear Stiles' voice in the kitchen along with the heart beats of her pack. All of them seemed to be in a meeting that didn't include her and she hated the slight annoyance that blossomed in her chest at the thought of it.

"My dad has an APB out . . . "

"For a five foot eight sixteen year old?" Kira asked skeptically, sounding like she couldn't see how this would work out. Especially with Mason transitioning between his normal teenage self and his evil wolf counterpart quite frequently as of late.

"I recommended nine-foot tall rampaging werewolf," Stiles responded, scrunching up his nose at the thought.

Liam exhaled heavily and shook his head, leaning his arms on the breakfast counter in the middle of the kitchen where he sat on the stool. "It still might not be him." There was a brief pause in the conversation as the pack all offered him sympathetic looks that his best friend struggled currently. "But . . . Hayden's at the school looking."

"I can keep checking the woods," Malia offered to the pack surrounding the McCall kitchen like it was some sort of meeting place. Which, honestly, at this point it was starting to feel that way and Meilani and Scott might as well get a sign for the kitchen that said so.

"My mom can check all the hospitals in the county," Meilani chimed in, walking in from the living room and announcing her presence to her pack that all snapped their gazes up at her sudden appearance. She ignored the pointed looks she got from Isaac, Stiles and Scott about being out of bed even though she was healed. It was clear that her three boys wanted her to try and rest and relax as much as she could. Clearly, the three boys forgot who they were dealing with in the first place. "We can find Mason and we figure out a way to save him. I will die trying if I have to."

Lydia pursed her lips for a moment, her own concerned gaze lingering on Meilani to which the true alpha nodded her head to let the strawberry blonde know she was okay. "Right, okay. Where else could we look?"

Meilani felt her foot brush against something that seemingly wasn't there and scoffed to herself. Her hand whipped out and gripped the air and tugging Corey out from where he'd blended himself in with the brown cabinet behind her. "I don't  know. Let's ask Corey, shall we?"

Corey's eyes widened as Meilani gripped tight to the front of his hoodie and kept him close to her so he couldn't run off like he had the last time. He audibly gulped at the sight of Meilani's intense and heated gaze on him and he held his hands up in defense. "It — it wasn't my fault! They took him and — and I couldn't do anything. They took him!"

"Who, Corey?" Meilani growled, grip only tightening on his hoodie as she shot him a look that said he better give up all the information he had or else.

"The Dread Doctors."

Okay, Meilani will admit that she has done many reckless thing since she's become a werewolf. Many things that has gotten on the receiving end of many lectures from Stiles ( and sometimes even Isaac ) about how she needed to take a moment and breathe. That she had to remember that not everyone can be saved and she had to go through things rationally. One of the many reasons he liked to think he was around for: giving Meilani the rational decisions to get through things. 

Meilani was incredibly smart on both the streets and in school, but sometimes she got ahead of herself. However, she still survived the past two and a half years of being a werewolf and Meilani was more than sure she could make it through this next thing with her head still on her shoulders.

Well, that was until she dragged Liam along with her to the boys' locker room at school to seek the help of Theo and Tracy. Yeah . . . this one might get her in a bath of wolfsbane from Stiles, Scott and Isaac if they knew where she was currently. Hence why she dragged her beta with her and not one of the boys who were off outside during their free period while Meilani made some excuse about needing to find Liam for something. 

"I told you that we'd end up on the same side," Theo mocked, smirking at Liam and Meilani as he crossed his arms across his chest.

Liam offered Theo a fake smile and tilted his head to the side, his hands gripping to the straps of his backpack. "How about I sucker punch you in the balls to remind that we are most definitely not on the same side?"

Theo chuckled softly at Liam's words and Meilani rolled her lips into her mouth herself because it was actually quite humorous to her. Especially with the way that Liam stood slightly in front of Meilani as if he were trying to protect her from Theo. It was all rather endearing, really. "I love this kid."

"I don't," Tracy quipped, leaning back against the lockers behind her as she narrowed her gaze darkly at Liam who offered her the same look right back.

"Look, Theo, I know you're not on our side, okay? You said you wanted to help Lydia, but you left Eichen with something else, didn't you?" Meilani accused, crossing her own arms across her chest as her eyes trailed along Theo's frame in distaste. She knew that the boy was more than capable of lying perfectly to her so she had to look through other tells other than his heartbeat.

"You mean the mask?" Theo asked, even though all the occupants of the locker room knew exactly what Meilani meant. It was almost like he was taunting her at this point and an amused grin took over his face. "Are you worried about that, sweetheart?"

Liam growled at the pet name and Meilani shot her hand out, tugging Liam back next to her and ignoring Theo's words that clearly tried to make her uncomfortable. As if he could distract her from her current plan. "Did you put it on, Theo? Who did you see?"

Theo shook his head and shrugged lazily. "Not Mason if that's what you're thinking."

"What does that mean? Does it mean the Beast isn't him?" Liam asked, hope flooding his tone at the thought of his best friend actually being okay and not in danger like they once thought.

"It probably means he's a lost cause," Tracey piped in, sounding annoyed that she even stood in the locker room with the true alpha and beta at the moment. 

"We all want the same thing. We want Mason back," Theo spoke, earning Liam and Meilani's attention again before either one could lay into Tracey. 

Meilani scoffed and rolled her eyes at Theo. "Yeah, but there's a difference between you and us, Theo. We actually want him back alive."

Theo stepped closer and Meilani stood her ground, even when Theo stood a mere few inches from her, stood toe to toe with her. She could see the way Liam tensed next to her, as if preparing to fight Theo if he had to. Liam still tried to make up for practically killing Meilani and if that meant going up against Theo, he'd do it ten times over if he had to. "Well, I'm open to compromise, sweetheart. You still have the map with all the telluric currents on it? Bring it to the operating theater in two hours."

Meilani narrowed her gaze but slowly relented, tugging Liams hood and hauling him out of the locker room after her so they could get out of Theo's presence. Just the sight of his face alone made Meilani want to punch him and she had to get out of there before she did something irrational. She shut the door behind her as she and Liam exited and puffed out her cheeks, mentally pushing the annoyance and tension from her body.

"How desperate are we?" Liam inquired, turning to Meilani with furrowed eyebrows.

"Incredibly."

After telling the pack about her plan that she was now sure was working (  so far ), they all split up to do what they needed to. Stiles, Scott and Lydia ran off to talk to Noah about what else he could do, Malia and Braeden went back to the McCall residence to keep watch there and Isaac stayed back at the high school with Hayden and Corey to see if Mason ever showed up there. It was better to have two enhanced noses sniffing about the school than have him accompany Meilani and Liam to the theater where Theo lead them into a dark and dreary room. It honestly looked like the sight out of some asylum horror film and Meilani tentatively stepped over a puddle in the concrete flooring.

"They called him Der Soldat. That's German for the soldier," Theo explained to Meilani and Liam, turning away from where he looked at an empty glass containment chamber. "I'm pretty sure he fought in World War II. He was a Nazi and an alpha werewolf. The Dread Doctors were using him to prolong their lives. They have been doing it for decades. Actually . . . probably longer."

"How old are these guys?" Liam asked.

"Who knows, but wherever they go, he goes, too. Keeping him alive requires a pretty unique set of conditions. There has to be a power source. It has to be underground . . . "

"And on a telluric current," Meilani finished for Theo, plucking out the map from the inside of her denim jacket and holding it out to the chimera. 

Theo gently took the map from Meilani's fingertips and opened it up, blue eyes scanning the map with a satisfied smirk before they flickered back up to Meilani and Theo. "Looks like we're going on a hike, boys and girls."

"Where is he?" Meilani asked after a while of walking through the dark woods later on that night with Theo and Liam. She knew for a full fact that Theo had Deucalion hidden somewhere whether it be at Eichen House or the tunnels or his super secret lair. She just knew that Deucalion loitered around somewhere and it didn't give her good vibes. Not in the least bit.

Theo snorted and continued on ahead, not even sparing Meilani a glance. "I thought we were out here looking for him."

"You know I mean Deucalion, Theo. Don't play dumb with me because it won't get you very far," Meilani quipped, already done with Theo and his shit. Part of her just wanted to drown him in wolfs bane and call it a day. "You shouldn't trust him."

"Says the girl that let him live," Theo remarked, smirking at Meilani over his shoulder which only earned him a glare. "Scared to change your eye color, sweetheart? I would be."

"Some of us aren't murderers, Raeken," Meilani snapped back through gritted teeth, her fists clenching at her sides momentarily to try and expel some of the annoyance that only Theo's presence could bring.

"Right and you still think you're gonna get through all of this without killing anyone?"

Meilani merely rolled her eyes at the boys, carrying on ahead until she heard Liam freeze behind her. She turned from where she'd been facing to glance at her beta as his eyes met her own, letting her know that they were close to wherever Mason could be. 

"Which way?" Theo asked, raising his eyebrows when Liam glared at him for opening his mouth. "What? You're just gonna leave me behind?"

"Liam . . . " Meilani sighed, running a hand through her curly hair in exasperation.

"He wants to kill Mason!"

"I just want his power," Theo countered, which really wasn't much better as that type of power was dangerous. Especially when it would be in the hands of Theo freakin' Raeken. "You want to fight someone that actually wants to kill Mason? Go fight Parrish."

Liam placed his hands on his hips and shot Theo a look, telling Theo that he knew more than he let on. "Who did you really see when you put on the mask, Theo? Who was it if it wasn't Mason, hmmm?"

Theo tore his gaze to Meilani who only shrugged, agreeing with Liam that she'd like to know as well. She didn't necessarily trust Theo and she needed every bit of information he had if they were going to be working together for the current moment. "Okay, I saw a man dying in the snow. He was impaled on a spear."

Meilani blinked as her brain registered where the vision could have came from. Lydia had mentioned a story that Gerard and Chris had told her about the Beast of Gevaudan. How the first ever hunter, Marie-Jeanne, had killed the Beast the first time after hunting him down for three years. The Beast had been her brother after he'd drank some water out of a wolf's paw print when he collapsed during the war back in the 1700s and she'd killed him with a pike laced with wolfsbane and mountain ash, dipped in her blood during a full moon. "It's called a pike. Lydia told us the story."

"Then you both know what it means. Time is running out. So, where is Mason, Liam? What direction?" 

Liam's jaw ticked and he looked to Meilani for some sort of guidance, only growling to himself when Meilani motioned for him to speak up so they could find Mason before it was too late. "Ugh, this way," he grumbled, pushing through the two wolves and onward in the direction they'd been heading in for the past while.

The beta lead the duo towards a small shack that was a bit away from where they'd been and he was quickly hauled back when Meilani heard a heartbeat inside. His blue eyes widened when he listened intently before rambling about how it was Mason and tore open the door, rushing inside without a second look back. There were concrete steps inside the shack that lead down to a room that kind of looked like the same one that they had met up with Theo in. However, this room had glass capsules with some sort of green liquid inside of it that Meilani could only imagine what it was. One of them housed the body of some figure that Meilani wanted to assume was the soldier that Theo mentioned before.

"Mason, hey!" Liam breathed, rushing over to his best friend and dropping to his knees next to him. When his hand reached out to grab Mason's shoulder, Mason's neck dropped a bit more to reveal a syringe in the back of his neck that connected to the same glass capsule that housed the soldier.

"He's connected to it," Meilani noted, eyes bouncing between the syringe in Mason's neck and the capsule. A heavy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach and she didn't like the dark and foreboding feeling that embodied the room. She slowly walked over to Liam and Mason, tipping Mason's head a bit to examine the syringe and grimaced at the sight. "What is this thing?"

"I have no idea," Theo answered from where he remained a few feet back.

A small whimper fell from Mason's lips, snapping the trio's attention back to Mason who they had thought to be passed out. "Liam . . . I can — I can feel it. It's in my skull."

"Be careful," Meilani warned Mason gently, noticing his chest heave rapidly as the anxiety and fear took over his body only causing the syringe in his neck to move a bit.

"What are they doing to him?" Liam demanded, turning to Theo with a dark look that challenged him to even dare lie.

"I don't know."

"Guys, let's focus!" Meilani snapped, ignoring the arguing duo and placing her gently on Mason's back as she rubbed it comfortingly. "Mase, we are gonna get you out of here, okay?" She slowly looked up to Liam and licked her lips in thought. "Li, you have to hold him still. I'm gonna try and pull it out." 

Waiting for Liam to hold onto Mason to keep him still, she wrapped her hand around the syringe in his neck and barely even made a move to pull it out before Mason cried out in agony. She quickly retracted her hand when Mason cried about it hurting him. A breath of a sigh passed her lips as Meilani tried to figure out how they could disconnect Mason from the capsule and get him to safety.

However, whatever plan Meilani could have possibly made up in her head on a whim was cut short when the familiar sound of clicking sounded in the room. Meilani bolted up from next to Mason when the Dread Doctors slowly made their way into the room and she stopped next to Theo as her eyes bounced between all of them with the same feeling of dread settling inside of her. Now that feeling made sense.

"They wanted us here," Theo stated the obvious through a breath, eyes trained on the Dread Doctor that stood before him and Meilani.

"Theo . . . Theo Raeken," an echoey, deep voice sounded through the room and Meilani could feel the hairs on her neck stand up as the head Dread Doctor spoke. "Failure . . . Theo Raeken."

Theo's heart stuttered in his chest out of fright and he stepped back, bumping into Meilani when he did and she righted him before he could topple over to the ground. "I — I'm not a failure, but Mason is coming with us."

The head Dread Doctor continued his slow walk towards Theo and Meilani, cane smacking down against the concrete floor with every step he took. "Not a complete failure. We learned from you."

Meilani gripped Theo's sleeve and shook her head, seeing the way Theo froze up at the Dread Doctor's words. "Theo, he's trying to get to you. This is what they want, don't give it to them. We can't beat them."

"The mark of a true failure," the Dread Doctor continued as if Meilani had never spoken to Theo in the first place. "Repeating the same mistake again and again."

"We're taking Mason," Theo growled, glancing at said over his shoulder before slowly looking back to the Dread Doctor while his eyes shifted to gold and his canines grew in. "Then I'm taking what's mine. Let him go."

The Dread Doctor slowly tilted its masked head to the side, trying to intimidate the chimera before him. Though, it didn't do much to deter Theo anyways. "You have the entitlement and narcissism typical of your generation. In that, you are a profound success."

Theo opened his mouth to growl another insult at the Dread Doctor when Mason let out a strangled cry from behind them. All attention went over to Liam and Mason where Liam had tired to pry out the syringe from Mason's neck only for it to barely move an inch. A desperate look crossed Liam's features as he began to fear for his best friend who only slumped further into himself.

"Lan, I . . . I can't get it out. I don't know what to do," Liam cried, causing Meilani to run back over to him and trying to figure out a way to help him while the Dread Doctor continued to speak to Theo about how his failure taught them about the banality of evil and how he was an ordinary evil. They had corrupted something truly good.

"Not something," Meilani gaped, eyes snapping to Mason and the dread only weighed heavier in her stomach.

"Someone," Liam added, his face only contorting more when he realized his best friend had been used to create something truly evil. He growled again, shifting suddenly and leaping into action to attack the beings that corrupted his best friend and put him in danger.

Meilani cursed to herself and followed in Liam's footsteps, running after him and attacking a Dread Doctor that appeared in front of her. Mason shouted for Meilani and Liam to stop as they were clearly getting beat the doctors, getting hit in every vulnerable spot they could find. It was hard to fight something that was in all mask and protective gear. A strangled cry alerted Meilani and Liam to Mason who slowly pushed himself to his feet, hand gripped tightly to the syringe in his neck and slowly but surely ripping it out of his neck. He stood up to his full height once again, breathing heavily as blood trickled down the back of his neck and black cloud began to form at his feet.

"Transformation," the Dread Doctor clicked, staring at Mason as the cloud only began to grow more and more around his legs and a bright blue lens flare effect took over his eyes. "Transformation without frequency."

"Mason!" Liam yelled, being tugged back by Meilani when he went to run at his best friend.

"That's not my name," Mason gritted through his teeth, a demonic sort of tone now taking to his voice and showing that it truly wasn't Mason anymore but the Beast instead. Something shot out of the Beast and sent Meilani and Liam soaring back into a pile of crates, earning groans from the both of them while the Dread Doctor that had been stood near them had dropped into a pool of blood. 

The Beast let out a deafening roar, gripping up another Dread Doctor and ripping its head from its shoulders without so much as a blink. It threw the head over his shoulder and allowed it to roll along the floor like a bouncing ball, blood dripping from where the head had been separated. Once the Beast was satisfied with the now dead Dread Doctor, he tossed the dead body to the side and moved onto the final one, slashing Theo in the process. 

Meilani and Theo both scrambled back up to their feet, following the Beast outside when it ran and froze when they saw a flash of flames in their peripheral vision. Parrish leapt down from up above, lit aflame and hitting into the Beast that roared in more annoyance than pain. Parrish dropped to his feet as a round of gun fire went off, Chris and Gerard coming out from the shadows of the trees only stopping the Beast once it got half over the small wooden bridge up ahead. The black smoke slowly drifted away once again to reveal not Mason, but a middle-aged man that stood tall in the darkness.

"La bete du Gevaudan!" Gerard yelled at the man that replaced Mason, his back still facing the group that stood in the woods surrounding him. "I know your name. Do you remember mine?"

The man finally looked over his shoulder at Gerard, a dark look gracing his handsome features. He had dark, short hair that was pushed back handsomely on his head and dark eyes that were nearly hidden thanks to the darkness of the woods. The man sneered at Gerard who didn't back down at the death look he was on the receiving end of. "Argent." 

Without another word, the Beast turned and ran off deeper into the woods with a flaming Parrish on his tail.

Meilani and Liam both skidded over to Chris and Gerard, both gaping at the sight of what just happened before them. "Who the hell was that, Gerard?"

"You have seen the Beast of Gevaudan. That was the man," Gerard responded, eyes still fixed on the space where the man had just previously occupied.

"Sebastien Valet."

( word count: 4.3k )

—  just one chapter left of NIGHT CHANGES, ya'll. whew. but . . . you're welcome for a double update as i was feeling inspired tonight. the final chapter will be posted tomorrow along with book six ( yet to be named still but we'll figure that out ) and i am ready to get into season six honestly. 

— crazy to think meilani quite literally has twenty-one chapters left before she's officially done. excuse me while i go sob in the corner somewhere while my emotional attachment to my own oc takes over. see ya'll on the flip side.