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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘱𝘩𝘢

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"Hey, Scotty," Meilani said, walking over to the kitchen where Scott was sat with his homework opened up on the kitchen table. "I'm going to bring Mom dinner since she's working a double tonight. You want to come?"

Scott tossed his pencil onto his opened Algebra textbook and pushed himself out of his chair. "I'll do anything to get away from looking at numbers for an hour. Can we take the bike?"

Meilani rolled her eyes, but relented and allowed Scott to drive her to Melissa's favorite dinner spot. She always loved the sandwiches from the sandwich shop not too far from the McCall residence. Any chance Meilani had to bring it to her mom when she would be having a stressful or long shift, she would take it. Since her and Stiles weren't hanging out tonight with Stiles having a bit of homework he wanted to focus on, Meilani stayed home.

It didn't take too long for the twins to get from the sandwich shop and over to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital. The parking lot for the E.R. was jammed pack with ambulances, all with their lights on and injured civilians inside of them. Meilani had never seen the E.R. quite like this before and she could smell a lot of blood in the parking lot, which only made her wonder what the hell happened.

When Meilani and Scott entered the hospital, Melissa could be seen just by the reception desk and she had just so happened to glance over her shoulder the second they walked in. She smiled gratefully when Meilani held up the plastic bag with her sandwich in it and walked over to her twins. "Oh, thank God. I'm starving." She grabbed the bag from Meilani and placed the sandwich on the reception desk, suddenly stopping when she realized what she did. "I'm sorry, guys. Thank you for bringing me dinner."

Scott smiled when Melissa pulled him and Meilani in for a hug. "Is everything okay, Mom?"

"And don't lie either. I can hear your heartbeat," Meilani teased, eyes scanning the busy emergency area. Beds were placed in the corridor with injured and sick people on it. Nurses wheeled around people on wheelchairs and moans and groans filled the entire area. It was almost like the hospital were getting more injured people than they could handle.

"Except for half the accident victims in a ten car pile-up being rerouted here from downtown. The E.R. Attending isn't answering any of his pages, yeah I'm okay."

Scott furrowed his eyebrows and Meilani could practically hear the gears turning in his head along with her own. "What does not answering his pages  mean?"

"It means that nobody can find him so now we have to wait for the on call to get here."

"Miss," a woman with blood on her chest and skin shimmering in sweat stumbled over, soft cries leaving her lips. "Can I please get something for the pain?"

Melissa faced the woman and placed her hands comfortingly on both of the woman's arms with a sorrowful expression. "I know, okay, but giving you something could complicate things so we really just need to wait for the doctors." She had the woman sit in a row of chairs that were next to where the three McCalls had stood. "How much longer on Dr. Hilyard?"

"Ten minutes," the nurse behind the counter responded, phone pressed to her ear.

Meilani felt her heartache as she listened to the woman cry in pain. She brushed past her twin and took the seat next to the injured woman, offering her a kind smile. "Hi, I'm Meilani. I actually read online that human contact can help with pain. Would you like me to hold your hand?"

The woman whimpered and turned her palm over for Meilani to place her had inside. She was just grateful that the woman had her eyes squeezed shut so the woman missed the black veins that appeared in Meilani's arm. The groan that wanted to escape was choked down and after a minute, the woman's cries suddenly halted and her pain wasn't scrunched up in agony any longer. The woman's eyes slowly opened and she gave Meilani a thankful smile.

"Someone... someone help me!"

Ethan.

Meilani's head whipped towards the entrance to the E.R. to see Ethan drag a half limp Danny in through the double doors. She scrambled out of her chair to get Melissa so they can bring Danny around the corner to the next hallway. If Ethan had brought Danny in, then she had no idea what could have happened. If it were supernatural, they couldn't go around freely talking about it in front of the whole hospital.

"What did you do to him?" Meilani growled at Ethan, flashing her claws at him to show she wasn't messing around. Danny was her friend and if Ethan so much as hurt a single piece of hair on his head, she wouldn't hesitate to fight him where he stood. Melissa knew about the supernatural so she wasn't worried about what she'd see.

"Nothing, Meilani! He said he was having chest pains and trouble breathing, but it - it just kept getting worse," Ethan explained, actually sounding.... worried.

"This is not good," Melissa whispered, placing her fingers to Danny's throat. She peaked her head around the corner to yell to the nurse behind the desk again about Dr. Hilyard. "His larynx has shifted to the side. I think it's a tension pneumothorax."

Danny suddenly shot out of his chair and vomited all over the floor, causing Ethan, Meilani and Scott to jump back so they wouldn't get hit. Pieces of some kind of leaf, branch and white balls spewed out and covered the hospital floor.

"Mistletoe," Ethan mumbled, his eyes widening in recognition.

Meilani didn't have time to question him on why mistletoe would be coming out of Danny's mouth because two nurses came over with a gurney to place Danny onto it. Ethan, Meilani and Scott followed after the gurney towards a room where a few other gurneys had been placed with other sick and injured civilians on it who couldn't get a private room.

"Can you three please go back to the waiting room?"

"Where are the nurses and the doctors? Where is everyone?" Ethan countered back, waving his hands around the room where only one other nurse was in the room while there were about five other people in the room needing help.

"It's a full house tonight. They are tending to other patients."

Scott frowned as the sounds of Danny's choking and gasping for air only got worse. "Mom, how can we help?"

"Honey, you can't. His lung is collapsed. His heart is being pushed against his chest cavity, so..."

"He's gonna die, isn't he?" Meilani gasped when Melissa had trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence.

Melissa took a glance around the room and made sure the other nurse was occupied before she focused back on the trio, slipping on latex gloves. "No, he's not. Mei, grab that tape and... Ethan, is it? You grab those scissors and cut his shirt open.

Meilani grabbed the tape from the medical table behind her while Ethan took the scissors, cutting open Danny's shirt. The sound of Danny's heartbeat slowly go out caused Meilani's eyes to well with tears. "Mom, he's not breathing."

"I know," Melissa replied, shooting Meilani a fierce gaze to let her do her job. She raised the massive needle that was in her hand and jammed it into the left side of Danny's chest. She twisted the white knob on the side, a whoosh of air being heard as it went into Danny's chest. 

A breath of relief was released from the group as Danny exhaled. It was a bit shaky and Danny's heart still sounded just a bit off, but it was a lot better than what it was two seconds ago. Better than him being dead.

"Thank you, Mrs. McCall," Danny breathed.

"No problem," Melissa replied, running a hand comfortingly over Danny's hair. When her eyes lifted, she noticed the awe struck expressions of Ethan, Meilani and Scott across from her. "What?"

"That was awesome," Scott grinned at his mom, pride swelling in his chest at the woman stood before him. "You're a superhero, mom."

Melissa flushed bright red in embarrassment and waved her son off. "It was no problem, you know? I mean, it wasn't a big deal."

Scott and Meilani stayed a few more minutes to make sure Danny was truly okay until Melissa eventually kicked them out so they could let Danny rest up now that he seemed to be doing better now. The twins had given them mom bear hugs for saving Danny the way she had and they walked out of the hospital to make their way over to Scott's bike parked just outside of the hospital. However, before Meilani and Scott could get on the bike, Ethan had walked over to them.

Ethan held his hands up to show he meant no harm, knowing full well that Meilani was annoyed by his presence from the chemosignals she released. "I know you're not gonna believe me, but I didn't do anything to Danny."

"All I know is that the minute you got here, you went right for Danny and Aiden went right for Lydia," Meilani accused, hating the way that the twin alphas had gotten Danny and Lydia putty in their hands.

"We're not gonna hurt him," Ethan promised.

"Why should we believe you?" Scott fired back, not an ounce of fear in his body. Meilani wasn't sure if that was because he knew Meilani would step up to save him if things went south or if because he really wasn't scared of the twins. If anything, it sounded like he was just as annoyed by Ethan's presence as she was.

"Because we knew one of them was gonna be important to you and now we know it's Lydia."

Before Scott or Meilani could reply, a car suddenly sped into the parking lot, swerving back and forth until it finally hit a parked car that was only a few feet away from the trio stood. Meilani placed her helmet on the handlebar of Scott's bike and rushed over to the crashed cars. A peak inside the car showed that there was no driver inside of it and not a single passenger either. Something in between the seats caught her eye and she pulled out a moth.

Well, this just got weird.

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Noah had showed up with a squad of cars just ten minutes after Meilani had called him to let him know what happened in the parking lot. Stiles, of course, had been in tow and he barreled over to Meilani, hugging her to his chest as he rambled a dozen questions to her. He had asked her if she was alright at least half of those no matter how many times she tried to tell Stiles she was okay. He didn't even let her go until Noah had walked over with Melissa to ask Meilani and Scott what happened with the car.

"Hang on, hang on," Noah said, waving his hands in the air. "They were both in the car?"

"No, Dad, they're trying to tell you that it was two separate kidnappings, okay? Two doctors, both gone," Stiles clarified for Noah who still looked completely lost. It was a hard thing to explain to someone who didn't know about the supernatural. It only made Meilani more grateful that Melissa knew about it.

"So whose car is this?"

"Dr. Hilyard, the on-call doctor," Melissa answered. "The E.R. Attending is the one that never made it in."

"Let me just focus on getting your story first, alright?" Noah asked Melissa.

While the two adults talked, Meilani tugged her boyfriend and brother over to the side so they could talk privately away from Noah and Melissa. "These are definitely sacrifices, right?"

"Yeah, it's one Deaton mentioned: Healers," Stiles said.

"What about Danny? Ethan said he threw up mistletoe. That's not a coincidence, and if he hadn't been with Ethan, he probably would have died," Scott chimed in, crossing his arms. "Danny isn't a healer."

"I..." Stiles trailed off when he noticed something over Meilani's shoulder, tilting his head. "Babe, can you hear that?"

Meilani glanced over her shoulder at Noah and focused her ears on the phone conversation he had with one of his deputies. 

Someone had found a body - the missing E.R. Attending's body - which meant another sacrifice.

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When Meilani and Scott had gotten back to the house that night, Meilani had gone to Isaac's room to relay to him what happened that night with Danny and then the two missing doctors. She suggested that she and Isaac should sleep in Melissa's room that night to keep an eye on her in shifts so neither of them would be tired for school. If they were targeting healers, then Melissa could be on that list next and Meilani wasn't going to let her mom be made into a sacrifice.

Meilani and Isaac had snuck into Melissa's room after she had fallen asleep and Meilani took over the big leather chair while Isaac leant against the front of it. She had offered to do first watch since Melissa was her mom and woke Isaac up after about three hours so they could swap. However, it seemed Meilani wouldn't get that much sleep after her shift because Melissa's voice awoke both Meilani and Isaac. Meilani shot up out of the chair in fear that something happened to her mom while Isaac scrambled to his feet, wiping the drool that had dried up on the side of his mouth. Scott had bolted into the room at the sound of Melissa's scream at the duo stood in front of her.

"What are you guys doing?" Melissa asked, shooting Isaac and Meilani and unimpressed look.

"Uh, we were watching over you," Isaac sheepishly responded.

"We wanted to make sure you weren't the third sacrifice," Meilani added, tugging a hand through her curly hair that had knotted in her sleep.

Melissa furrowed her eyebrows and pursed her lips as she stared at Isaac and Meilani. Meilani knew that look too well and it usually meant Melissa was about to go in Mom Mode. "Both of you were asleep."

Meilani turned to Isaac with crossed arms and a cocked eyebrow, her weight placed on foot. Isaac was pretty sure he'd ever smelt so much sass come off a person before. "You were on watch last, Isaac."

"What are you talking about?" Isaac asked, scratching the back of his neck. He was clearly uncomfortable under both of the female McCall's heated gazes. "You were on watch last."

"No, you were on watch last, Isaac."

Isaac opened his mouth to argue, but the argument died in his throat as realization dawned on him. "I might've been on watch last."

Melissa let out a small laugh and smiled in amusement at the two werewolves before her. "My heroes. Wait, didn't you say they were all doctors? I mean, I haven't had an M.D. recently attached to the end of my name. So I think I'm in the clear."

"Yeah, but it could just come under kind of healer, Mom," Scott argued, stepping further into the room so he was stood next to Meilani and Isaac. "You were definitely a healer last night."

Melissa leant back on her hands and shrugged. "Yeah, well, I'm not gonna be anyone's human sacrifice today. So all three of you better get your butts to school."

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It seemed that the universe just never wanted Meilani to have a full day of school ever because mid-way through her first class she had received a call from Deaton to say he would be taken next. She tried to get more information out of him, but the line had disconnected almost immediately afterwards. Meilani had feigned a trip to the nurse's office so she could race out of the classroom, taking Scott's bike keys that he had held out to her. She had only driven Scott's bike twice when he taught her how to use it, but it was better than running all the way from the high school to the clinic.

When Meilani rushed her way into the animal clinic, she saw Noah and one of his deputies already stood inside. "How did you know to come here?"

"Stiles called me as soon as you left school. I'm sorry, but your boss' car is still here and the back door was wide open," Noah said sympathetically as Meilani collapsed into the chair behind her in shock. "Lani... I need you tell me everything."

Meilani had told Noah everything that she could without giving away anything about the supernatural. Mostly she just told him about the phone call she received in the middle of class and she had rushed there in the hopes of getting to him before something happened. She left out the fact he thought he'd be taken, but she swung in a sort of lie about Deaton just sounding freaked out and it worried her.

Scott and Stiles had showed up part way through Meilani's explanation, the two boys having left after the first class to come see what happened. Meilani hated that she had to tell the boys Deaton had been taken, but Noah promised to do whatever he could to find Deaton for them. Meilani wasn't so sure Noah would be able to do anything without any knowledge of the supernatural.

Meilani motioned for the boys to follow her into the back room where they kept the dog cages. The animals would stay in there until their owners could come back from them, but Deaton always made sure the cages were big enough and had enough food and water to keep the pets comfortable until then. "Sti, we have to tell him."

Stiles' face fell at the thought of bringing his father into the supernatural. "You - you mean, like, tell him... tell him? Or tell him something else that isn't telling him what I think you want to tell him?"

"You know what I mean, Stiles."

"You remember how your mom reacted? She didn't look you in the eye for, like, a week," Stiles argued, curling his fingers through the bars of the cage next to him.

"And my mom got over it. Plus, it makes her, Scott and I closer."

Stiles frowned and glanced through the small window in the door to Noah who looked stressed out over the consistent kidnappings in Beacon Hills. "I don't know, babe. I mean, look at him. Come on, he's completely overwhelmed as it is."

"He's overwhelmed because he has no clue what's happening. He's got people dying in his town, the town that he's supposed to protect, and it's not his fault that he doesn't know what's happening. He's gonna find out sooner or later," Meilani countered and spared her brother a pleading look. "You agree with me, don't you, Scotty?"

"Oh, please don't put me in the middle of your couple fights again," Scott whined, stepping back from the couple to show he wasn't getting involved in this conversation.

Stiles leant on the cage he had wrapped his fingers around and Meilani could smell the anxiety and sadness come off Stiles in waves. "Yeah, but is now really the right time?"

"What if not telling him now gets someone else killed?"

"What if telling him gets him killed, huh? I mean, okay, look, I get that Deaton's been like a father to you and Scott. I get that, okay? But this m- " Stiles cut himself off and shook his head defiantly. "Meilani, this is my actual father. I can't... I can't lose both of my parents, alright? Not both of them."

Meilani felt her heart shatter at the pure emotion on Stiles' face. It was an internal struggle for him over the whole supernatural thing because he didn't want Noah to get in the cross fire. Melissa had found out without Meilani being ready to tell her and she knew that she hated it, so maybe she should just let Stiles tell Noah when he was ready. "You're right, Sti. I'm sorry..."

"No, no I'm not," Stiles sighed and banged his forehead on the side of the cage with a heaved sigh. "I'll tell him."

"Scott and I can help you," Meilani offered, knowing that telling a family member something like this wasn't easy.

When the trio stepped outside the room, they saw Ms. Morell speaking to Noah and the deputy about letting her know if they find any other information on her brother. She waited for Noah and his deputy to leave before she walked over to the trio with a stern look. "Listen up the three of you. No sheriff, deputy, or detective is going to be able to find Deaton."

"You don't have to ask us for help," Meilani said, fully willing to do whatever it took to get Deaton back safe and sound.

"Actually, I'm trying to help you because if you're going to find my brother, then you need to use the one person who might actually have an ability to seek out the supernatural."

"Lydia."

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Meilani had gone back to the high school with the boys after their talk with Ms. Morell. Stiles and Scott would look for Lydia and then let Meilani know when they found her. She had tried to find Isaac to let him know that Deaton had been taken next, but no one had seen him all day. Something that threw her off since Isaac had gone in with her and Scott that morning.

Her phone beeped in her back pocket and she dug it out to see a text from Stiles.

STILES ❤️

found her

Meilani went to respond when she heard tapping from somewhere in the school, almost sounding like a ticking tock. Furrowing her eyebrows, she pocketed her phone and followed the sound of the tapping towards the darkened music room. Inside the room, Deucalion was sat at the grand piano as he tapped his walking stick against the top of it. Now it made sense why the sound was like a ticking clock.

"Do you know what a metronome is, Meilani? It's a tool to help you maintain a steady rhythm once you've set the tempo. Something tells me the tempo of your life has sped up considerably in the last few hours. If you'd like, I could help you slow it down to more a manageable pace," Deucalion offered, staring ahead of him with his walking stick now held between his legs.

"How?"

"By helping you find Deaton."

Deucalion pushed himself to his feet with the help of his walking stick and even though Meilani couldn't see his eyes properly thanks to the glasses, she could tell he had a calculating gaze. He probably heard how her heart hammered in her chest because of the anger that coursed through her. Anytime she saw Deucalion all she wanted to do was unleash all her werewolf rage on him, but she remained still.

"Your heart is pounding, but it's not out of fear. It's anger. I bet I know what you're thinking. Does he have something to do with Deaton's disappearance? Tell you what. If you can take the cane away from me, I'll tell you exactly where he is," Deucalion offered, holding the cane on his open palms. "Now, what do you think?"

Meilani grunted as she rushed at Deucalion to grab the walking stick, but he swung at her causing to roll under it. She stood crouched on one knee and growled at Deucalion as he continued to swing at her, knocking her on her back. Meilani pushed off the floor with her hands and landed back on her feet. She went to grab the walking stick again and was quickly dodged, being pushed in the opposite direction.

Meilani hopped from furniture to furniture, flipping around the room to get away from Deucalion's swings. As she landed on one of the desks in the room, Deucalion removed the red stopper on the bottom of his walking stick to reveal a small arrow on the end of it. She flipped off the desk and went to dodge the next swing from Deucalion, but he had pushed the arrow into her arm.

"Impressive," Deucalion praised, pulling the arrow from Meilani's arm which caused her to hiss in pain. "But you know I'm not the one slashing up innocent people, praying to ancient gods or gathering herbs, or whatever the hell Druids are supposed to do. I am part of a pack that wants Derek dead, though. Kali is coming for him, so there's a difficult choice you're about to face, because someone is going to die tonight, and whether that's Derek or Deaton, that's up to you."

Meilani glared darkly at Deaton and if looks could kill, he'd be six feet under right now and no longer be a problem for Meilani. Derek was finally healed after his plummet floors below to the escalator. She just hoped he stayed in his loft until this whole thing was fixed. "Tell me where he is."

"I'll give you a very important clue. Let the current guide you."

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Meilani had found Stiles, Lydia and Scott with Cora in one of the empty science labs. She had informed them that Danny had been a target last night after all, but he wasn't the next sacrifice. It was all just to distract Meilani and the pack while whoever took Deaton could get the dirty work done. They needed to get to Danny and fast, but Meilani had separated from Scott and Stiles to go to Allison's who had texted her that she had found something.

Chris hadn't been there when Meilani showed up, which was good for her and Allison because they could talk. Though, it hadn't lasted long when Chris came back to the apartment and the two girls had to hide inside of Allison's cramped up closet together for a good five, awkward minutes before Chris finally left and Allison took Meilani over to Chris' desk where a map laid. Allison had produced a black light and showed Meilani all the highlighted, blue circles, x's and symbols all over the map.

The map had showed twelve different locations when there had only been six sacrifices so far. It meant that Chris knew where the next few bodies could be found, one of them being Deaton. The circled spots didn't mean that Deaton could be at any of them, but it could be mean that he was somewhere near one of the locations until he eventually died. However, Meilani wasn't going to let Deaton get that far.

After sneaking out of the apartment when Chris had come back once again, Meilani ran out to her car and hopped inside, dialing Stiles' number. "Hey, Sti."

"Hey, babe. You find anything from Allison?"

"Yeah, Argent has been doing all this searching without telling anyone. He circled six extra locations on some map and Deaton has got to be at one of them. They're all over town so I don't know how we can get to all of them fast enough."

"Well, we might not have to. Danny was doing a project on something for Mr. Harris' physics class, and I think it actually means something. It was something on telluric currents."

Meilani's brain kicked into overdrive when Stiles mentioned currents. Maybe Deucalion didn't mean currents as in the currents of a body of water, but a scientific one. "Babe, did you say currents?"

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"So, what does this kid's homework have to do with finding Deaton?" Cora asked, staring at Danny's paper that Stiles held in his hand while Meilani pieced together a printed out map of Beacon Hills that she had taken while at Allison's house.

Meilani had met up with Stiles, Scott, Lydia and Cora at the animal clinic to go over Danny's paper. Somewhere in the paper had a clue to where Deaton was and they needed to act quickly if they wanted to get to Deaton in time. 

"Because it's not just homework, okay? It's a project on geomagnetic fields. They flow through the Earth. They can even be affected by lunar phases, alright? Now, look at this," Stiles said, showing Lydia, Scott and Cora the paper. "This is a note from Harris on Danny's proposal."

"I strongly advise you to choose another subject. The ideas, while innovative and thoughtful, border on pseudo-science. Not suitable for class," Lydia read the note scrawled in red pen at the top of Danny's paper. 

"Harris wasn't a sacrifice. He knew something," Meilani noted, glancing up from the map she had pieced together.

"Now, check this out. Allison's dad wasn't the only one with a map. Danny had one too," Stiles said, opening up the map that he took from Danny's bag. It had small markings littered across the map. "Danny marked all the telluric currents, okay?Now, the weird thing about Beacon Hills is that it actually is a beacon. You wouldn't believe how much energy flowing through the Earth is around this town.

Meilani looked between Danny's map and Argent's map to see that it was the same exact markings on both. "Stiles, look, these maps are the same." She grabbed the pen from the table and circled every spot on Danny's map that Argent had on his own. "Maybe they are sacrificing in between the currents."

"Let me see that," Stiles said, taking the pen from Meilani and put a cross in the middle of the circle around the animal clinic. "You said there's six more bodies to be found. Deaton's one of them. Got to be somewhere in between, right?"

Cora grabbed Stiles' hand before he could move it anywhere else and placed it over the vault, a sense of fear flashing in her eyes at the memories of being trapped in the bank vault. "He's in the vault."

Meilani squeezed her eyes shut, not believing she hadn't thought of that sooner. She scrambled to grab all the items for the map along with Lydia, Stiles and Scott while Cora took out her phone. Before Meilani could rush out of the examination room they stood in, Lydia called for her to wait.

"Lydia, we don't have time to hold on."

"It's Boyd. The plan didn't work," Cora announced, reading over the text Boyd had sent her. 

Isaac and Boyd had gone to Derek's to try and protect him from Kali who was going to go find Derek and more than likely kill him. They didn't want Derek to be alone and thought there was something they could do to trick Kali when she arrived to attack Derek, thinking he was alone in the loft. They were going to fill the loft's floor with water and place wires in the water so Kali would be electrocuted the second she stepped into the water. However, it seemed their luck never worked out for them in the end. "They cut the power."

Meilani's mind trailed back to what Deucalion had said about either Derek or Deaton dying that night. It was just up to Meilani who survived and who didn't. "It's just like he said. You guys go. I can save Deaton myself."

"What? Mei, what about us?" Scott argued, not wanting his twin to go off on her own.

"Cora can get there fast enough with you. Now go. We can save both of them."

Meilani didn't leave the pack any room to argue back before she ran out of the clinic and into her car to drive over to the bank's vault. She tried to not go over the speed limit as best as she could, even though she knew most of the police force were working on the disappearances. It hadn't taken her more than ten minutes to get to the bank and Meilani flew out of the car and inside the bank, the metaphorical clock ticking loudly in her head.

Inside the vault, Deaton was hung from the ceiling with his chin dropped onto his chest. It was only a matter of time before Deaton's body finally gave out. She could already hear his low heartbeat getting worse by the second. She went to rush over to Deaton and take him down, but an invisible force sent her flying onto her back. When she scrambled to her feet, Meilani noticed that black mountain ash was spread in a circle around Deaton. 

Meilani walked over to the circle and took a steadying breath. She had to try and fight through the circle so she could save Deaton. There was no way she could give up on him now. She placed both of her hands palm up in the air and tried to push against the invisible force, a bright purple taking over the room. She pushed hard against the force with all of her might, the pain nearly unbearable as it tried to push her out and away from Deaton. 

What she didn't notice was her eyes fading from yellow to red before the invisible force pushed her away once again and onto her back. 

"Meilani! Let me give it a shot," Noah said, appearing in the entranceway to the vault. 

Before Meilani could question how Noah even knew to show up at the bank, Noah fired his gun at the rope that held Deaton up in the air. Deaton's body fell limply to the ground and Meilani was relieved to still his heart beat inside of his chest, even though it was still low and slow. Noah had helped Meilani get Deaton up and leant up against the wall of the vault, Deaton's eyes thankfully open even though they were a bit droopy.

"How'd you find us?" Meilani asked, tearing her eyes from her boss finally. She felt like if she took her eyes off Deaton he would just disappear.

"The vials in the clinic with the Celtic symbols on 'em? I knew that one of them looked familiar," Noah explained and pointed to the massive Celtic symbol painted in the middle of the floor that kind of looked like a cross that just needed to be connected. 

"Sheriff, thank you for being one hell of a detective," Deaton breathed.

"You bet. Let's get you an ambulance," Noah replied and pat Deaton on the knee, walking out of the vault to dial 911 for Deaton.

As soon as Noah was out of the vault, Deaton grabbed Meilani by the front of her flannel and tugged her closer to him. She stumbled slightly at the sudden jerky motion and stared wide eyed at Deaton. "Meilani, your eyes were red. Bright red."

Meilani felt her blood run cold in her veins and gulped audibly. Her eyes had gone bright red? As in alpha red? But she wasn't an alpha. It was impossible, actually, because she'd never even killed anyone. 

Deaton opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by Noah letting the duo know that an ambulance was on the way and that he'd be back in a minute. He checked to make sure Noah was gone once again before he spoke. "It's rare. It's something that doesn't happen within one hundred years, but every once in a while a beta can become an alpha without having to steal or take that power. They call it a True Alpha. It's the one who rises purely on the strength of the character, by virtue, by sheer force of will."

Meilani blinked at Deaton because he didn't sound the least bit shocked by any of it. He just sounded genuinely proud that Meilani had become a True Alpha. Almost as if he were waiting  on the sidelines for it to happen. "You knew this would happen?"

"I believed. From the moment I knew you were bitten, I believed."

"You're not the only one," Meilani whispered, her brain filling in the pieces about Deucalion and how he had mentioned before that she had potential. That he wanted to see what she was truly made of.

"No. Deucalion isn't after Derek. He's after you."

AUTHORS NOTE

NOT YET EDITED

Hi hey hello

I hate how long this chapter took me to write, but it's so important. Meilani finally knows she is an alpha. A True Alpha at that. Our girl is one powerful queen and we love that for her, wow! We also know Deucalion is officially out to get her not Derek. This ride is about to get real bumpy, folks! I don't think you're ready for this drop.