𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘴

━━━ AS IF THE SUPERNATURAL GODS WANTED TO PLAY A SICK JOKE ON THE MCCALL PACK, JUST A FEW HOURS AFTER LYDIA AND MALIA HAD LEFT THE MCCALL RESIDENCE . . . BRETT TALBOT'S YOUNGER SISTER, LORI, SHOWED UP. In her hand was none other than Brett's lacrosse stick, snapped in half and his blood coating the jagged end where it had been snapped. By what or who, Meilani wasn't certain, but a part of her had a sinking feeling that it had been one of the hunters that had started to pop up in town. No doubt Brett was in trouble somewhere . . . or already dead. Though, Meilani tried to keep her brain from going that far just yet.

On the way to the woods with Lori and Isaac, Meilani had called up Liam and Lydia for recruitment to help out. Lydia, thankfully, hadn't had any premonitions about Brett dying, but that didn't mean he wasn't close to it with the hunter on his ass and him being alone in the woods. Mason, who had been with Liam when Meilani called, offered to meet Lydia at the school where she was going to try and call out a premonition on her own and would have Corey help them out since he was there studying for their history test in the morning. They didn't have much time before things could go very wrong so Meilani wasted no time in hauling Isaac and Lori into Roscoe and speeding off towards the Beacon Hills Preserve.

Brett's scent was incredibly faint when Meilani pulled up to the familiar sign that she's seen many times now after being turned by Peter Hale where Liam already waited for them. The very sign that should have been a warning one back when she was a sophomore so she wouldn't be stuck in this very mess time and time again. As much as Meilani loved her abilities because they helped people and she was able to keep the ones she loved safe . . . sometimes she really wish someone else got by Peter. 

Taking off into the woods, the four wolves followed Brett's scent to the best of their abilities as it remained faint for a good while. They had left his bloodied lacrosse stick back in the Jeep so it wouldn't mess with their senses, but the scent did linger around them which did help aid Meilani and Isaac in trying to keep up with Brett's scent. They weaved through the trees effortlessly, feet barely touching the forest ground as the pack tried their hardest to get to the area of the woods that had Brett's scent the most. 

"Here," Liam called out eventually to the other tree, standing at a tree with an arrow protruding from it. His finger slowly followed the line in which it came from, blue eyes sweeping around the area ahead to see if Brett or the hunters still lingered nearby. "I think he might have set a trap."

"He's fighting back," Meilani breathed, placing her hands on her hips while Lori bent down to pluck up the cellphone Brett had left behind in the leaves that littered the ground like a crunchy carpet. "At least now we know that Brett's alive."

Lori shook her head, walking up to the tree and ripping the arrow out from the bark. Her brown eyed and worried gaze flitted around the arrow as if picturing the item going through her older brother. "But he's still hurt. We need to find him, he needs to know we're here to help him."

Isaac quickly covered Lori's mouth as she turned around, yellow eyes flashing in the dark. "Slow down there, blondie. You really want the hunters to know we're here, too?"

Liam shrugged his shoulders, crossing his arms across his chest as if facing the hunters wasn't a frightening thing for any of them. "He's a new hunter. We can take him."

"I love the confidence, Li," Meilani praised her beta, rubbing his shoulder encouragingly. "However, if Brett howls back to us . . . it'll only lead the hunter right to him."

"Come on, Lan. There's no one out there that can track sounds like us. I mean . . . we have better hearing than that hunter does and we can surely find him faster than the hunters could," Liam argued, taking the bloodied arrow from Lori and inspecting it. "But how come we can't smell him right now? Shouldn't it be heavier over here if he was here recently?"

"He's making it," Lori answered with a frown, the worry clear in her face and in the chemosignals that hung around her like a dark and heavy cloud.

Liam chewed on the inside of his lip, eyes sweeping around them again as if in search for any clues that could have been left behind by Brett. He perked up when he noticed something in the leaves to his right and he pointed in said direction. "He went this way. Come on!"

Meilani huffed as Liam ran off without another word, Lori hot on his heels as she was desperate for any lead that could get her back to her brother. She went to run after the two younger teens when Isaac caught Meilani's wrist. "What?"

"Lans, Brett's trap didn't work," Isaac pointed out to Meilani, not releasing her wrist even when she turned to face him. "You and I both know — with or without the bond — that it's clear as day that it didn't work the way Brett wanted it to. Maybe this hunter we're after isn't so much an amateur after all."

Meilani was silent for a long moment, mulling over Isaac's words. The leaves around them had clearly been disturbed, the arrow in the tree struck a little lower than what would have been Brett's height. Another scent lingering around them that wasn't Brett's, one that smelled way too familiar to her and she couldn't pick up on why. "Or . . . maybe this hunter is learning."

Exchanging an exhausted look between each other, the duo ran in the direction Lori and Liam went to find them standing in the middle of a mess of trees. They were both stood on high alert, their senses kicked into overdrive while they both tried to figure out which way to go next to find Brett. However, not direction seemed like the right one and the four stood in the middle together trying to figure out which was the more tactical way to go.

"The trail is gone," Isaac spoke up into the heavy silence, deciding to be the one to drop the bomb on it instead of standing around and trying to figure it out. See, Lans, told you this was not going to end well.

Shut up, Isaac. Meilani huffed back to him in her head, pursing her lips as her mind tried to work out all the possibilities that could have happened after the trap was set. Depending on what Brett had been hit with initially after the lacrosse stick, he could have been already healing and his bleeding could have halted. At least . . . that's what Meilani hoped for. "He could have stopped bleeding by now. Surely his body would have started to fight against the wounds."

"I think we should split up," Liam suggested, clapping his hands together in front of him. "Lori and I can go this way and you guys go that way."

"Or maybe we go in four directions?" Lori tacked on next.

Isaac rose his brows at the two younger wolves, hands on his hips as he stared them down. "Have you two never seen a horror film? We should stick together."

Liam gaped at Isaac, his eyes shooting over to Meilani in the hopes that his alpha would back him. "What? We have the advantage here. It's four against one."

"Not if we split up, you little runt," Isaac snapped back at him, eyes narrowing at Liam. 

Be nice. Meilani warned Isaac silently and she rolled her eyes when Isaac merely pouted at her scolding, crouching down to the inspect the leaves around them while Liam stepped up to Isaac. If this were any other time, Meilani might have found the sight funny and not intimidating since there was a considerable height difference between Isaac and Liam. 

"Right, but I've been doing this for the past three months without your help. I think I can make a decision, Lahey."

Isaac cooed and reached forward to pinch Liam's cheeks to which the Dunbar growled at, slapping the Lahey boy's hand away. "Awww, how cute. You think you're like a mini Meilani now. However, if you want to go off and do something and die . . . then be my guest. I'll make sure to give you a proper eulogy at your little funeral."

Liam released an annoyed breath, slapping his hands to his sides. "Isaac, it's one hunter. One amateur who doesn't know what they're doing."

"I'm looking at another amateur that doesn't know what he's doing," Isaac remarked back, smirking at the Dunbar boy when he flashed his yellow eyes at him in warning. "Oh, cool party trick." His smirk grew when his own yellow eyes shone back. "I can do that, too."

"Can the two of you stop arguing like an old married couple?" Meilani scolded the two, waving her hand for the duo to stop their bantering and put her focus back on the ground. Hunter tracks had been left in the soil, but they had been expertly covered by leaves and twigs. Almost like the hunter was trying to throw off Brett as well. "I think the hunter is covering his tracks . . . and now I think there's more than one. There looks like two prints here. Not just one."

"Two hunters?" Isaac gasped, stepping closer to Meilani and peering over her shoulder to the tracks she was inspecting. 

"How many hunters have you seen out here before?" Lori questioned innocently, not realizing the true heaviness to her question. 

Meilani frowned softly, hand absently brushing along the shoe print in the soil and she could feel Isaac nudge her foot with his gently to remind her he was there. The memories of trying to not only survive Chris, but also his father, Gerard Argent, and Chris' sister, Kate Argent, plagued her mind. She, Derek and the others had almost lost their lives more times than Meilani could count and Meilani thought they were through the drama of hunters once Chris started to follow Allison's code of not hunting things that didn't deserve it. 

"A lot," Meilani eventually responded, snapping herself out of her thoughts before she drowned in them. In the memories that she tried desperately to keep behind a locked door in her mind. A door she really would rather not open. Ever.

"Still wanna split up, blondie?" Isaac quipped to the Talbot girl who glared at him response.

Lori, ignoring Isaac now, scanned the area and paused when her eyes landed on a stacked layer of rocks. Varying sizes and shapes topped each other and Meilani wondered how it still stood perfectly still even with all the oddities and differences in the rocks. "Rock balancing — Satomi taught us. It's him and I know where he's going.

Lori lead the trio down into the tunnels, a place that Meilani had practically memorized at this point from how much time she spent inside them. Water dripped from the piping above their heads, small PLOP!s echoing in the tunnels as they fell into the puddles forming around the pack's feet. She crouched down near a darker puddle, dipping her fingers into it and coming up with black on the tips. "Brett's been poisoned."

Meilani's shoulders slumped, the worry over Brett running through her full force as she realized that he was in a lot more trouble than they originally thought. "That's why he's not healing. Why there was so much blood we had to follow."

"What if he only has a few hours to live?" Lori cried, shooting back up to her feet and whirring around to face Meilani. Desperation and fear lingered in Lori's eyes and it nearly broke Meilani's heart in two pieces at the sight. 

"Well, if we howl, we can find him," Liam grumbled, kicking the tip of his shoe at a puddle near his foot. "Who care about the risk at this point if Brett's dying?"

Isaac scooted around Meilani, moving in the direction that they were headed in. More blackish blood covered the floor up ahead, their only indication to which direction Brett went in as he still masked his scent perfectly. "He's still moving. We just need to follow the trail."

Lori sent a pleading look to Meilani, as if the younger Talbot sibling was begging her silently to let them howl and alert Brett to them being there. "Meilani, I need to let my brother know that I'm here and I'm coming for him."

"Lori's right. We need to let him know that we're here," Liam chimed in, nodding his head in agreement to Lori's words. Without waiting for a response from Meilani or Isaac, Liam turned and roared from deep in his chest. The sound echoed off the walls and pipes around them, shaking the very ground they stood on from the power behind it. 

I am going to kill him, Lans. Isaac growled to Meilani's mind, storming off after Liam and Lori who took off ahead of them the second Liam's roar stopped. A thought that Meilani chose to ignore for the moment, trying to keep up with the two younger wolves and made sure they didn't do anything else that was stupid. Especially with the fact that Brett hadn't even answered back with a roar of his own . . . which either meant he was near the hunters and couldn't answer or he was already dead.

"Why didn't he answer?" Lori snapped, almost like she had read Meilani's thoughts like Isaac could. "What if something bad happened to him already?"

Meilani opened her mouth to answer, but heard a low ticking ahead like a trap being set into place just before it was set off. She tugged back Lori just as the ticking stopped and put herself in Lori's space, getting jammed into the stomach with a pointy ended pole. A cry of pain erupted from her and Meilani slouched back against the piped wall behind her, breathing heavily to get through the white hot pain that coursed through her. Curses from her friends were heard as they rushed to her to help her remove the stick from her body.

Isaac, who grunted through his own pain that he felt through their bond with blood coating the side of his own shirt, caught Meilani when her knees gave out once the pole was out of her stomach. The duo crashed to the wet ground of the tunnels, both of their sides bloody but only one of them sporting the injury. He pressed a hand to her shoulder, black veins instantly appearing as Isaac tried to take as much of her pain as he could while shouldering his own pain from his phantom injury. 

"They — they knew we were coming," Meilani stuttered out, hand gripping to Isaac's shirt sleeve as her face scrunched up from the pain while a cold sweat broke out over her face and neck.

"Lans, don't talk, okay?" Isaac said into her hair, holding her close to him in the hopes that his touch would help to heal his mate quicker. He remembered Deaton mentioning to them that their abilities would be stronger when they were near each other and Isaac just prayed that it almost meant it'd make her heal faster. "Just heal and let us figure this out."

Meilani shook her head, the pain still white and burning throughout her whole body even with Isaac taking most of it. "They've been a step ahead of us this whole time. One of them has to be trained in this thing if they're not making rookie mistakes."

Lori took a step away from Isaac, Meilani and Liam while her chest panted from both the near miss of that almost being her and the fear she still embodied over her brother. "I'm sorry, but I can't wait around for that. We have to go."

Liam shot Lori an incredulous, bewildered over the fact that Lori didn't even seem to care or appreciative that Meilani just saved her from getting injured. "We still have the numbers, three to two, Lori. We're faster and we're stronger than the hunters."

"They're smarter," Meilani said quietly, slumping further against Isaac's chest while the Lahey boy ran a hand over her hair and whispering encouraging words to her to get her to heal.

"I don't care who's smarter or faster or whatever, my brother is going to die!" Lori argued with the trio.

Meilani tried to swallow, but her mouth was as barren as the Sahara Desert, her skin feeling sticky and gross with the sweat that continued to pour out of her pores. "Something's not right. That arrow, the trip wire, the poison. I'm telling you guys that these aren't amateurs."

"But they've never fought us before," Liam reminded Meilani.

"And you've never fought hunters before, Liam," Meilani countered back, shooting a stern gaze to her beta who instantly shut his mouth. "We need to stick together."

"Well, I can't  just stand here! I need to go!"

"You're not going alone," Liam instantly shot down, his gaze now shifting over to Lori who stared at him surprise. She didn't expect the Dunbar boy to so easily leave behind his alpha who was knocked down. "I'll go with you."

Meilani made a noise of protest, trying to push herself up more but merely slumped again against Isaac who wore a look of pure worry that she still hadn't managed to start healing yet. Even with the pole out of her stomach. "Liam, no! You don't know who they are or what they're capable of."

Liam puffed out his cheeks and squatted before his alpha, giving her a look that shouted both confidence and determination. "I know who we are, Lan. We never give up, especially when it's someone innocent, when it's someone alone and one of our friends."

Meilani stared at Liam for a long moment, trying to decide what was their best option. She still hadn't started to heal yet, but Liam did have a point. Brett was alone and severely injured, needing them more than ever especially with the hunters on their tail. At the most, Liam and Lori could distract the hunters until Meilani got back to her feet in a few minutes. "Alright, okay. Go ahead, all of you. I'll catch up."

"I'm not leaving you behind," Isaac argued with Meilani while Lori and Liam ran off without even needing to be told twice. "You need to heal yourself while I stay here and protect you. But, Lans, how did we miss that? How did we miss that these hunters weren't amateurs?"

Meilani chuckled weakly and fluttered her eyes shut, trying to focus her body on healing. "We underestimated them. Stiles would probably be yelling in our faces by now about it, honestly. He would have been the first one to know."

Isaac chewed on the inside of his lip, hand still soothingly running over Meilani's hair absently as he tried to work through everything that happened so far. "But, how did they rig a trip that big with us down here in the tunnels? We would have heard them setting it up, wouldn't we?"

Meilani grunted softly as she shifted to sit herself more, eyes catching on the trigger system next to her that had set off the whole thing in the first place. She reached out a hand and tentatively tugged at the triggering that was now no longer needed. "They didn't. They rigged it a long time ago."

"But . . . we've been through these tunnels a hundred times. There's no way we have never passed this thing," Isaac said, furrowing his eyebrows and glancing between the trigger wire and Meilani.

"And whoever this hunter is, was through these tunnels a hundred more than us," Meilani panted quietly, face contorting as her brain tried to piece together the trap and the familiar scent she caught in the woods earlier. There was a reason this stuff seemed similar to her and it wasn't just because it was a hunter . . . but a certain one. "And he knew we were here, he was waiting for us . . . tracking us. He was prepared and we weren't. Isaac, there's not a lot of people who spend time in these tunnels."

Isaac picked up the thrown aside pole and inspected it, the blood on it now coating his only clean hand. "Who was the last hunter we saw down here?"

"I, um . . . " Meilani trailed off, all the puzzle pieces now clicking into place over why the scent was so familiar. Why this whole thing seemed like a really sick and twisted case of deja vu to her. Why she kept having flashbacks to two years ago. It all lead up to the same person. "Gerard."

Isaac's head snapped over to Meilani, both of their eyes wide at the mention of Allison's grandfather. The same man that thought so sick and twistedly over werewolves and other supernatural creatures that he never blinked whenever he had to kill one. Saw all of them as monsters that needed to be executed. Saw Meilani and Isaac and Liam and the others as monsters. Monsters he'd already tried to kill once before. "The trap wasn't lethal."

Meilani's chest heaved up and down as she could feel the panic setting into her bones. The panic wrapped around her lungs with an iron fist, making it harder for them to expand. The fear settling into her bones like a poisonous vine, spreading the toxic feelings coursing through her bloodstream. "No . . . but it slowed us down. Had Liam and Lori go off on their own without us. He's planning something else, another trap and — and my fucking beta and Lori are about to walk right into it! Isaac, get me up. Get me up right now!"

Isaac didn't even argue with Meilani, helping the weakened alpha up to her feet and the two stumbled together in the direction Lori and Liam had gone. Thankfully for them, the two didn't mask their scents like Brett had been doing since Gerard and whoever was with him wouldn't be able to smell them. Wouldn't be able to hear them coming until it was the last second and they'd set them in their trap. Though, Meilani's injury kept them slowed down a bit as Isaac had to half drag and half carry Meilani along with him. Her knees were still too weak and the sweat only plastered her hair and shirt to body along with the blood coating her side. Almost like the time back on the bus when Meilani couldn't heal after she thought Derek had died, blaming herself and her body not healing.

Meilani yelped as she tripped over her feet, shoulder crashing into the wall next to her and she collapsed to the ground. "I'm sorry. Isaac, we really can't afford to waste anymore time and I'm only holding you back."

Isaac sighed heavily and knelt before her, brushing the hair away from her face so she could breathe. "Lans, I hate saying this and if you tell him I said this I will actually kill you and sever the mate bond but . . . we should have called your fiancé. He would have known what to do."

"I — I can't do that to Stiles," Meilani breathed, eyes squeezing shut as a wave of pain crashed into her like the sea crashing into the sand as it broke. "I don't want to take him away from what he loves."

"He loves you, Lans!" Isaac grumbled, ignoring the harsh look Meilani shot him for his bluntness.

"We almost lost him last time, Isaac! I am not going to risk losing him again. It nearly tore me apart last time!"

"Yeah, and now I'm about to lose you, Meilani!" Isaac yelled, dropping his hands from her hair and sitting back on his heels. "That will tear me apart, don't you get that? That will tear this whole pack apart. It'll tear Stiles and your brother and your mother apart. Stiles would not be okay with this and you know it. If he knew all the things that we were doing without him, he would never shut up about it. Complain we kept him in the dark on another supernatural adventure."

Meilani gulped at Isaac's words, feeling his terror and his . . . feelings for her raging inside of him. He was about to basically watch her die much like Meilani had to watch Allison die, not being able to do anything about it. "I — I think Stiles would be okay over the fact he was kept out of this. He — He . . ."

Isaac surged forward as Meilani collapsed forward into him, tears welling in his eyes as he could hear her heart start to slow down. "No, no, no, no! Lans, come on. Open your eyes for me. Don't you dare pass out on me, you hear me? You can't leave me. You can't leave us. I — we all love you, you can't . . . you can't go."

Meilani groaned weakly as her hand began to slacken, falling down onto Isaac's that rested in his lap. As their skin brushed along each other, Isaac's arm instantly burst with black veins and he yelped, absorbing a massive portion of Meilani's pain. She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, feeling like a string had been pulled on her lungs that allowed them to expand again. Her body building up another brick or two to get her coherent enough to lift her head and looked at Isaac.

"What — what . . . how did you —"

Isaac licked his dry lips, blinking his eyes rapidly to get rid of the tears that lingered there. Her heart didn't sound much better, but it was definitely more rapid than it had been moments ago when it nearly stopped. He had stopped it. "I, uh — I think the mate thing kind of . . ."

Meilani nodded slowly, motioning for Isaac to help her up again. Once she was on her feet, her legs still wobbled so she clutched to Isaac still as they continued onward in the scent trail that Lori and Liam had left behind. They weaved through multiple tunnels before a familiar and emotionally pain filled roar sounded from right above their heads. It caused the duo to stop and blink in confusion. "That was Liam."

"That's not going to end well for us . . . is it?"

word count: ( 4.5k )

CHAPTERS REMAINING: 7

— brett talbot deserved fucking better and i will not take criticism on it, thank you. also, gerard argent can choke and he should have died in season two, i said what i said. BUT ON THE BRIGHT SIDE WE FINALLY GOT TO SEE MORE OF MEISAAC'S MIND BOND IN THIS CHAPTER BECAUSE IT WAS FINALLY A GOOD TIME TO USE IT! love that for my babies.

THE LUNAR CHRONICLES FACT OF THE CHAPTER:

if meilani didn't originally end up with stiles, her second option would have been lydia martin because  . . . HAVE YOU SEEN THESE TWO TOGETHER? they are actual girlfriends and i love them so much. sorry, isaac, but . . . lydia's now meilani's mate.