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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎

𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴

╚⏤⏤⏤⏤╗❀╔⏤⏤⏤⏤╝

Meilani didn't think she'd ever seen Stiles drive so fast before right then when he flew right back to Beacon Hills. Kira and Malia were both dropped off at their respective houses while Isaac flopped over the back of the seat and sat down in the back with Lydia. Derek had been draped across their laps while they made sure the now de-aged boy didn't crash to the floor of the Roscoe.

When the pack arrived back in Beacon Hills, the sky had opened up and let down on onslaught of rain. Almost like the night that Meilani found out Stiles had been possessed and he twisted the sword in her stomach at the animal clinic. It seemed to be a trend that whenever something seriously bad was going on that Beacon Hills had a flooding of rain water and she was at the animal clinic.

Deaton was already prepared and waiting for them when the pack burst into the animal clinic with Derek over Isaac's shoulder. He had placed down the sleeping Derek Hale onto the metal examination table while the veterinarian stared down at the boy in shock. The look made Meilani nervous because she worried that this would be the first time that Deaton wouldn't know what to do to help. "Wow."

"Wow? Wow as in, I've seen this before and I know exactly what to do, kind of wow? 'Cause that's the kind of wow we were hoping for," Stiles rambled, flailing his arms around as he gestured over to Derek.

"I think you might be overestimating my abilities."

Lydia let out shaky breath and reached her hand to take Derek's hand into hers, recoiling slightly when she did so. "He's cold. Really cold."

Meilani watched Deaton grab some of his doctor tools and using the mini flashlight to shine the light into Derek's eye that he peeled open to check on him. She ran a soothing hand through Derek's sweaty dark hair, not liking the tense way that Deaton moved around. Almost like he wasn't really sure what was wrong with Derek. Sure, her and Derek had a bit of a rocky start when she was first turned, but he'd helped her out so much as of late and Meilani really did care about the former alpha. "Deaton, he's going to be okay, right?"

Deaton grimaced slightly and switched off the flashlight, stepping back from Derek. "I'm not sure a medical diagnosis is even adequate. This is well beyond my experience."

"So ━ so what do we do with him?" Isaac questioned.

"Until he wakes up? Probably not much. It might be best to leave him with me. He'll be safe here," Deaton informed, crossing his arms as his eyes assessed Derek again as he tried to figure out what he could do to keep Derek comfortable till he woke up.

"You mean safe from Kate," Stiles chimed in, reading between the lines of Deaton's statement. It wasn't a secret that Kate had some sort of obsession with Derek and would stop at nothing until she had him in her grasp again.

"If she's alive and she is what you say she is, she won't be able to walk past that gate."

Lydia frowned and wrapped her hand tighter around Derek's hand, worry etched in her features. "Why would she want to do this to him?"

"Knowing Kate, it's probably for a reason that won't be any good for anyone but her. Bad for all of us," Deaton answered, his eyes drifting from Derek and over to the four exhausted teens that stood on the other side of the table from him. It was well past midnight now and none of them had gotten any sleep in nearly twenty-four hours. "You guys should go home and get some sleep. He doesn't look to be in any danger. So maybe the rest of you can at least get some rest? It is a school night . . . and you all need to start taking care of your own lives again."

Meilani stifled a yawn into her hand and allowed Stiles to wrap his arm around her shoulders, holding him against his side. "No, someone should stay with you, Deaton. I can stay."

Lydia shook her head and jumped a bit when Derek's hand suddenly tightened around hers. As if Lydia was bringing him comfort by holding his hand while he slept on the table. "No, you go home with Isaac and Stiles. I'll stay here with them. My grades are fine . . . despite missing a few classes. You deserve a break, honey. Worry about yourself for once."

"Yeah, I'm so not okay with either one of you staying here," Stiles argued, not wanting either girl to be there if something were to happen. Especially Lydia who wasn't a werewolf and couldn't heal within two seconds of getting hit.

"Lydia, you'll text us if something happens?" Isaac checked and when Lydia silently nodded in response he flashed her a smile. His eyes met with Meilani's when Stiles tried to argue again about Lydia staying behind alone with Deaton and Derek. They both shared a nod before they both looped an arm through Stiles' and hauled him out of the clinic.

"Okay, just because you're both stronger doesn't mean you have to use it on me!"

⏤⏤⏤⏤╗❀╔⏤⏤⏤⏤

Stiles had dropped Meilani and Isaac off at home, making sure to kiss Meilani right in Isaac's face. His disgusted reaction and groans of protest were like music to Stiles' ears and it earned him a swift punch to the shoulder from his girlfriend. It was definitely worth it.

Meilani entered through the kitchen door and noticed a bucket placed in the middle of the room, catching the water dripped down from the ceiling thanks to the onslaught of rain outside. There had been a slight crack in the ceiling for years that always leaked whenever it rained excessively and they still had yet to fix it. Meilani had to remember to get Melissa to call a professional to fix it.

The kitchen door closed quietly behind Isaac and Meilani glanced into the living room to see Rafe passed out on the couch. She could hear Melissa and Scott's heart beats upstairs, one steady with sleep and the other not slow enough to be asleep but slow enough to be relaxed. She went to creep past the room so that Rafe wouldn't see her and Isaac coming back at nearly one am and froze when Isaac kicked the tool box that had been in the middle of the floor.

"Isaac!" Meilani whisper yelled at the beta as Rafe bolted up on the couch at the loud bang sound.

"MeMe?" Rafe groggily called, sitting forward on the couch and rubbing a hand over his face to try and wipe the sleep away.

"Hey, Dad," Meilani smiled innocently and stood up to her full height, rocking back on her heels as she did so. Her relationship with her father had gotten a bit better now that he'd stuck around. Something that Meilani hadn't expected at all and she was pleasantly surprised that Rafe was actually trying now. He even made sure they had dinner together as a family at least once or twice a week. "Uh, what's with all the tools?"

Isaac scoffed softly and kicked the tin box, closing the lid over and nudging it so it was out of the way. "You know, besides trying to trip teenagers who enter the house."

Rafe chuckled and pushed himself up from the couch, walking closer to the two werewolves that stood in the archway that connected the living room and the kitchen. "Oh, I was just, uh . . . getting started on a list of repairs you guys need done. "What time is it?"

Meilani glanced over to the little circular clock that rested on the cabinet next to her and it showed that it was one-twenty AM. She subtly turned the face of the clock away from Rafe before he could glance at it and cleared her throat. "Uh, midnight."

"We were supposed to have dinner, MeMe. We had a deal. When your mother has a night shift, you, Isaac, Scott and I have dinner together," Rafe reminded his daughter, stuffing his hands into the pockets on his pajama pants.

Meilani exchanged a look with Isaac who merely shrugged, not knowing what to tell Rafe. She blew out a breath and offered her father a sorrowful smile. "I'm sorry, Dad. When we got back from the camping trip, I had to go straight to the animal clinic to finish up some work and Isaac came with me to help since Scott still wasn't feeling good."

Rafe, thankfully, appeared to believe her and nodded. "Alright, that's fine. We'll have dinner together tomorrow night, you hear?"

Meilani flashed her father a bright grin and pressed a kiss to her father's cheek. "You got it! Well, I should go to bed because . . . school tomorrow."

"Right. Did you two at least get something to eat?"

Isaac smirked and nodded, playing with the frayed ends of his scarf. "Yep. Mexican."

Meilani rolled her eyes at the Lahey boy and turned away from him, walking towards the stairs to make her way up to her room. When she made it up the steps and to her room, Scott had appeared in her doorway. He was dressed in his black and white plaid pajama bottoms and red t-shirt, leaning against the doorframe.

"Hey, I see you guys made it back in one piece."

Meilani turned to face Scott from where she had stopped in front of her dresser to get her own pajamas out, not even realizing the shirt had picked up was Stiles'. Her eyes met with her twins' across the room and she felt her heart constrict. She could see Isaac pass behind Scott and shoot her a stern look, pointing to Scott behind his back to talk to him and get back to how they were as he passed to get to his room.

Scott looked a lot better than he had after he found out Allison was killed. He didn't flinch any more when someone said her name or lock himself up in his room anymore. She could see the fight in him to try and make things right between the two of them, but Meilani still felt the sucker punch of guilt whenever she looked at him. He wasn't necessarily in love with Allison anymore and was willing to let Isaac be with her since he had eyes for Kira.

However, she knew that the loss of his first love would be hard for him and it was her fault. She could have gotten up quicker to save Allison. She could have done something instead of sit on her ass and watch the sword enter Allison's chest. She missed her and Meilani could still feel the girl's absence. Chris had gotten away to France to get away from Beacon Hills who she still had yet to call to let him know that his psychotic, murdering sister was back. If only she had the money to make a collect call to the other country.

"Uh . . . yeah. You know, minus Derek being reverted back to a fifteen year old and Kate Argent being back," Meilani mumbled, playing with the shirt that she gripped in her hands.

"Wait . . . Kate's back? I thought she was dead. We were at her funeral and saw her casket."

"A closed casket," Meilani countered, tossing the shirt onto the bed and walking over to sit down next to it while Scott sat down next to her. "We think she might have been turned when Peter slashed her across the throat. I don't know where she's been hiding this whole time, though. We left Derek with Deaton for now since Kate wouldn't be able to get into the clinic."

Scott puffed out his cheeks as he absorbed all the information, his eyes seeming a bit distant as if his mind was thinking about something. More than likely Allison now that her aunt was suddenly back and a supernatural creature. "Wow . . . you really miss a lot when you're stuck in America, huh?"

Meilani snorted and slouched on the bed, feeling the exhaustion really slam into her now. She was just all around tired ( mentally, physically and emotionally ) at this point and she just wanted to curl up and sleep for a year. She really wanted to keep her promise to Isaac that she'd try and get better. Make her relationship back to how it was with Scott because even Rafe and Melissa were beginning to notice something was up with their twins. Their twins that almost never fought and were as thick as thieves. You know, minus the other point they stopped talking for a month because Meilani was trying to protect him and not tell him about her being a werewolf.

"I'm just glad you're okay," Scott said, breaking the momentary awkward silence that had taken over the room. "I was worried about you while you were gone. No one was answering my texts so I thought something happened. At one point, it was almost like I wasn't even pretending I was sick for Dad anymore because I wanted to throw up just thinking what the Calaveras could have done to you."

"It was definitely a . . . shocking experience, but they've agreed not to come here unless I do something. Like turning a random teenage boy like I'm Peter Hale or something. So we'll be fine since we both know I won't be biting anyone any time soon."

"Good because I don't think I can handle any more hunters trying to kill you," Scott mused and wrapped an arm around his twin's shoulders. He pressed a kiss to the side of her head and laid his head on top of hers. "I know you're still sad, but I don't hate you. I never did. Allison wasn't your fault, Mei. Stop beating yourself up over it. She would hate to see you like this."

Meilani sighed and leaned her cheek on Scott's shoulder. "You sound like Isaac."

"Yeah, him and Stiles have been trying to get us to work things out for a while now if you haven't noticed. I miss my womb-mate," Scott whined childishly, clutching his sister tightly in his arms as he swayed them back and forth earning a squeal of laughter to erupt from Meilani. "Take me back, Meilani. I promise I'll change!"

"You're a dork, Scott McCall," Meilani laughed, trying to push her brother away from her but he only clutched onto her tighter. "If I say I love you, will you let me go?"

Scott hummed and pretended to think for a moment, tapping his chin. "I guess that will be enough to let you go."

"Okay, I love you."

"I love you, too," Scott mused, kissing the side of her head and releasing her from his grip. He stood up from Meilani's bed and ruffled her hair up playfully. "Now, try to get at least some sleep tonight. You both deserve it and need it."

Meilani offered Scott a small smile and flopped back on her bed once Scott was out of her room. She knew fully well that she wouldn't be getting any sleep that night.

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"It's . . . like . . . nearly three am and I woke up and she's just there in my bed next to me," Stiles recalled to Scott and Isaac as Meilani followed behind them, a dark blush on her cheeks. Last night Meilani couldn't get herself to fall asleep so she had snuck out her window and made her way over to Stiles' house, knowing she'd probably sleep better if she was curled up next to him. She had texted both Scott and Isaac where she'd gone since she knew both boys always checked their phones in the morning before they got out of bed.

Stiles had bolted up in his bed when he had felt Meilani's body weight next to him and Meilani had sheepishly apologized to him. He didn't even protest that she was in his bed with him and just propped himself up in his bed, rubbing a hand on Meilani's thigh when he asked her what was wrong. He figured that everything was just weighing on her again like they tended to and she couldn't sleep. It wasn't the first time since Meilani had been turned that she had randomly wound up in Stiles' bed in the middle of the night.

The two were pretty awake by that point and Meilani did owe him that little something for not freaking out when she told him the plan for the club. It was not secret that Isaac and Stiles had a love/hate relationship with each other and were forever poking at each other to piss the other off. It was mostly like dealing with two small children whenever the two were around each other. Stiles had eventually agreed to let Isaac pretend to be Meilani's boyfriend in the club when she promised to pay him back later. She figured since Noah was gone she could pay out that favor since she couldn't sleep and Stiles wouldn't be falling back asleep any time soon.

"And then she left me these," Stiles said to the boys, lifting his shirt to reveal the red marks that littered his back. Scott gaped at the sight while Isaac merely pretended to gag at the mental image that Stiles had created for the two boys. He quickly shoved his shirt back down after Scott had reached out to poke at one of the marks.

"Some things are meant to be kept private, Sti. You forget Scott is my twin," Meilani whined, feeling her cheeks only burn hotter at the looks that she got from Isaac and Scott. She didn't even know how the boys got started on this conversation, but she's hated every second of it since she'd tuned into them. She had been on the phone with Lydia for most of the conversation, checking in on the girl who sounded alright for the time being.

"I think I'm scarred for life with those mental images," Isaac complained, rubbing furiously at his eyes as if to try and scrub the mental image away from behind his eyes. He huffed and dropped his hands when the image finally seemed to go away. "Never been more jealous of Malia for not having to ride to school with you."

Stiles flashed the blue eyed werewolf a sarcastic grin, his arm wrapped around Meilani's shoulders. "I could strap you to the hood of my car like you're a deer next time."

Scott snorted in amusement at Stiles' comment and gripped onto the straps of his bag as they made their way through the campus to their first class. "Speaking of, has anyone spoken to her since you guys got back? I haven't seen or heard from her."

"No, and I feel like she knows we're hiding something from her. I know we have to tell Malia about Peter, but I just . . . I don't know how," Meilani replied, sighing softly at the thought of having to tell Malia that Peter Hale was her father. It was something that Lydia had figured out when using her Banshee abilities just a few hours before Allison had died and none of the pack had told Malia about it just yet.

How did you tell someone that the man you had grown up thinking was your father wasn't actually your birth father?

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It seemed like Meilani's never ending supernatural drama enjoyed kicking her in the ass because in the middle of Mr. Yukimura's history lesson, she had gotten a phone call from Lydia. A call she had ignored at first when Mr. Yukimura had kindly asked her to shut her phone off. Then, Stiles' phone rang. Then, Scott's. Then, Isaac's. Mr. Yukimura had gotten so annoyed that by the point that his phone rang, he had snapped at the class to turn their phones off before he took them for the rest of the period. When Kira had pointed out it was his phone, Mr. Yukimura had taken it out to see a text from Lydia begging the pack to call her.

Meilani and the boys had rushed out after Mr. Yukimura's class to find Lydia and Deaton in the animal clinic alone. No sign of Derek anywhere and Deaton had an injured arm that Lydia wrapped up with medical gauze and tape.

"I don't think he's just younger in body. I think he's younger in mind as well," Deaton informed the four teens that stood before him and Lydia in the medical examination room.

"He didn't recognize either one of us," Lydia added, pressing the final piece of tape to Deaton's bandaging. She scratched the side of her face and sighed heavily with a frown. "And he looked like he was scared out of his mind."

"So if you're a teenage werewolf and you're scared, where do you go?" Stiles queried, eyes bouncing around the room for a solid enough response for where they could start.

Meilani puffed out her cheeks and stuffed her hands into her back pockets as she thought for a long moment. "Um, well . . . werewolves usually retreat back to their dens, but Derek lives in a loft."

"Not when he was a teenager," Isaac intoned, crossing his arms when all the occupants in the room turned to him in confusion. "He's fifteen and if he doesn't remember Deaton or Lydia, that has to mean he doesn't know about the fire just yet."

"He must have gone there in the hopes that his family was home," Scott breathed, realizing that Isaac had a point. If Derek was scared and didn't know where he was, he'd try to go back to the place that was familiar to him to figure out what was going on. However, there wouldn't be anything to go back to except for a pile of wood and debris after Derek had the place knocked to the ground after he got the loft.

"Okay, but say you do manage to catch up to him, what are you going to say to him?" Lydia questioned, halting the four teens before they could run out to find Derek. "That his whole family's dead? Good luck with that."

Stiles grimaced slightly and turned to his girlfriend, motioning to Lydia. "She's probably right, babe. Maybe you shouldn't just spring that on him. You know, at least until we figure out how to get him back to normal."

"I can't lie to him, Stiles!"

"So I'll do it."

"No, I mean . . . none of us can do it. Derek, Isaac and I are all walking lie detectors. Derek can hear our heart beats and can tell we're lying. When we find Derek, we have to tell him the truth. He deserves that much respect from us."

"If he gets to the house first, you won't even have to tell him."

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Turns out that Derek had gotten to the house first.

On the drive towards the preserve where the Hale house was situated, Stiles' police scanner had buzzed with a call on a trespasser on the Hale house grounds being brought to the station. He had instantly turned Roscoe around and drove it right over to the sheriff's station. The four teens had skidded into the station to see Derek sat on a bench outside of Noah's office as Noah's confused gaze bounced between him and something that sat on the deputy's computer screen.

When Noah's eyes rested on the four that stood in the entrance to the station, he looked like he was already exhausted and assured Parrish and the other deputy that he'd handle it. He waved the four teens into his office and motioned for Isaac to shut the door behind himself, leaning against the front of his desk.

"I need you guys to be honest with me. Completely and absolutely honest," Noah began, eyeing the four that stood in a row before him. "Have you been time traveling?"

"Wait, what?" Meilani balked, not expecting that to be the thing that would come out of Noah's mouth. She had expected many things, but that definitely wasn't on the list or even anywhere remotely in her mind.

"Because if time traveling is real, you know what? I'm done. I'm out. Stiles, you will be driving me to Eichen House next."

"Sir, we found him like that," Isaac explained, snickering to himself at the path that Noah's mind had gone. Not that he faulted Noah for thinking that because with Beacon Hills . . . you never really knew.

Noah scoffed and pushed himself off the desk, gesturing his hands around frantically like Stiles tended to do. "Where? Swimming in the Fountain of Youth?!"

Stiles awkwardly cleared his throat and rocked back on his heels. "No. Lani found him buried in a tomb of wolfsbane in an Aztec temple in Mexico underneath a church in the middle of a town that was destroyed by an earthquake."

Meilani squeezed her eyes shut when Noah's eyes instantly snapped over to Stiles. He had unintentionally just outted the pack out ━ minus Scott who had stayed back.

"You told me you were camping!"

"Yeah, Dad, we were . . . in Mexico."

Scott decided to quickly change the topic when he noticed the way Noah pointed a stern finger in Stiles' face, his mouth moving with no words coming out as he didn't know where to begin. "Noah, Derek's been aged backwards. He can't remember anything. We need to talk to him."

Noah blew out a breath and leant against the front of his desk again, looking done with the whole conversation already. "Yeah, well, so far he's not talking to anybody."

Isaac beamed and placed his hands on Meilani's shoulders, shaking her gently. "He'll talk to the alpha."

Derek had been brought into the office not even two minutes later and he was sat on the leather couch across from Noah's desk after the pack explained that they'd be looking over him for a little bit. "And why would I go anywhere with you?"

"There was an accident. You lost some memory, but we can help you get it back," Meilani explained gently, not wanting to scare off Derek when he was already freaked out. The three boys sat on Noah's desk behind her, letting her take the reins on the conversation since he would only trust Meilani with her being the alpha.

"How much memory?"

"A lot, but you can trust my friends, my brother and I," Meilani assured, squatting down so she was eye level with Derek. She bowed her head for a moment and raised it again once her red alpha eyes flashed at Derek.

Derek's tension appeared to loosen at the sight of Meilani's eyes, his shoulders relaxing and he leant forward closer to Meilani. "You're an alpha. Who are you and who are they? Who are you?"

Stiles who had been shifting through the mail laid on his father's desk next to him snapped his gaze up when Derek's eyes bounced between him, Isaac and Scott. "Just the guys keeping you out of jail." His eyes narrowed at Derek when he shook his head at the group and stood up from the desk to step next to his girlfriend. "Listen, buddy, you tore apart two cops back there. You need to listen to us. That starts with no fangs, no claws, no wolf man. You got that?"

"I'm fine as long as it's not on a full moon."

Isaac furrowed his eyebrows at that, finding it a bit weird that a born werewolf still had trouble shifting at fifteen. Shouldn't Derek have gotten used to the effects the full moon brought to all werewolves? "Wait, you still have trouble with the full moon?"

"I said I'm fine," Derek snapped at Isaac who instantly shut his mouth.

"Alright, look, are you coming with us or not?" Scott chimed in before things could escalate any further.

"You want me to trust you? Where's my family?" Derek shot back, his eyes instantly going to Meilani who he only appeared to want to listen to.

Meilani rolled her lips into her mouth and spared a glance to her three boys, noticing all their eyes suddenly on her. They all waited for her to tell Derek the hard truth about his family, but something in Meilani's heart couldn't let her get the words out. She looked right into Derek's innocent little face and it tore her up inside. How did she tell this poor kid his family was gone? "Um . . . there was a fire and . . . they're not here anymore. They are fine. Just had to move out of Beacon Hills. We'll take you to them as soon as we figure out who to get your memories back."

Derek's eyes filled up with fresh tears, but he thankfully seemed to believe Meilani when he finally nodded. "Okay."

⏤⏤⏤⏤╗❀╔⏤⏤⏤⏤

A bit later, Noah had to go through some files with Derek before he could let the boy walk out with Meilani and the boys. They waited by the reception desk just outside the back offices and Meilani leant her arms on the top of the desk with her head bowed, a low groan sounding in the back of her throat.

"Man, I shouldn't have done that. I lied my ass off to him."

Stiles pulled Meilani into his side and rubbed her arm comfortingly. "Hey, your ass is fine, baby." The sound of Isaac and Scott's groans of protest only made plastered a smirk on Stiles' face as he pressed a kiss to the side of Meilani's head. "You saved him a ton of unnecessary pain. We will figure this out in a day or two, he goes back to being old Derek, everyone is happy. Well, except for Derek who is never happy."

"Do you ever take a vacation, Stilinski?" Isaac huffed in annoyance.

"Nope."

"Of course not."

"Knock it off," Meilani chastised the two, pulling away from Stiles' side and pointing a stern finger between her boyfriend and best friend to stop acting like children. "Derek is just another person we are lying to. I'm tired of lying to people. I always feel like it's better when we tell the truth. With Lydia, Scott and I's mom, Stiles' dad."

Stiles motioned to Derek who stood with Noah and a deputy, scribbling something across the form that the deputy handed to him. "Yeah, but that's Derek in there. He may be a kid right now, but he's still Derek Hale."

"Alright, you three take him to the house and don't let him out of your sight," Meilani instructed, leaning up to kiss Stiles on the cheek before she began to make her way out of the station.

"Wait, Mei, where are you going?" Scott called after his twin before she could walk out.

"Talk to Peter," Meilani replied simply, officially pushing out of the station as Stiles yelled after her that he hated him.

⏤⏤⏤⏤╗❀╔⏤⏤⏤⏤

Meilani had ran home to get her bike from the garage since it wasn't that far from the station. She had swapped out her car and got herself a bike like Scott's except in red ( in honor of her being an Alpha, of course ) since she felt the bike came more in handy than the car. Something that she never thought she'd do because she'd hated Scott's bike at first, fearing he'd hurt himself. However, after the few times she'd stolen Scott's bike to get her to place faster or get through the woods, Meilani actually started to like it. So, with the help of Scott, she had enough money to trade her previous car in for the bike.

When Meilani pulled up to Derek's loft, she didn't expect to see Malia stood there waiting for her in front of the garage with a small smile on her face. She removed her helmet from her head and hung it from the handlebar, kicking the kickstand down and getting off the bike. "Hey, Lia, what are you doing here?"

"I heard you were coming to talk to Peter. Since Lydia tells me he is basically Satan in a v-neck, I didn't want you to be alone," Malia answered as Meilani walked up to her.

"I can handle Peter."

"You can handle him better with me," Malia quipped, grabbing Meilani's hand and tugging her up towards the loft.

Meilani tried to keep her raging awkwardness buried deep inside of her. She still had yet to let the Tate girl know that Peter was her father. The same man that they were about to come face to face with and Meilani was more than certain that Peter probably didn't even know that Malia didn't know. She worried that it would come out before she could properly sit the girl down and lay it all out for her.

Malia pushed on the sliding door the loft and walked down the steps into the darkened loft with Meilani, turning to the alpha in confusion. "Meilani, what's wrong with you? Your heart is pounding like crazy. Are you nervous?"

"She's just bad at introductions."

Meilani jumped and whirled around to see Peter lounged on the couch next to her and Malia, an opened book in his hands. She awkwardly cleared her throat and scratched the back of her neck. "Um . . . Peter this is Malia."

The book in Peter's hands fell onto the couch next to him as he raised from the couch. He stared at his daughter for a long moment in a sort of awed daze. It was almost like he was trying to commit her face to his memory. "Beautiful eyes. Did you get them from your father?"

"Mother," Malia informed, eyeing Peter weirdly and took a step back when Peter had taken a step forward.

"Interesting," Peter mumbled and tore his gaze from his daughter and over to Meilani. "Anyway, I'm sure they've told you a lot about me."

"The homicidal killing spree came up," Malia replied.

"Well, we're all works in progress."

"When you progress to your next killing spree, why don't you try and make sure they all stay dead?" Malia remarked, tilting her head mockingly at Peter with her arms crossed.

Meilani noticed Peter's confused gaze and stuffed her hands into her back pockets, not knowing what to do with her hands since she could still feel the lingerings of awkwardness in the air. "What do you know about people being turned by a scratch?"

Peter's eyes widened and he turned to Meilani, an almost kind of proud look on his face. "Did you scratch someone, Little Alpha? Ah, but don't worry about it because the claws have to go pretty deep."

"No, I haven't turned anyone and I don't really plan on it," Meilani answered, following after Peter who had begun to make his way across the room. "Is it possible, like if you clawed out someone's throat?"

Peter leant himself up against the table that rested by the massive wall of windows near the spiral steel steps that lead up to the second floor. "Well, yeah, it's possible. It is also beyond rare. We're talking one in a . . . " He trailed off as his face fell in realization and a low growl erupted from his throat. Meilani could only assume that he realized it was Kate. " . . . million."

Meilani had spent the next ten minutes trying to catch Peter up to speed with what was going on. Between the Calaveras, Derek being aged backwards and Kate now being some kind of werewolf or something from the scratch that he'd given to her that they all thought killed her.

"Can't anyone in this town just stay dead?" Peter growled, slamming his fist down on the table he turned to lean his hands on mid-way through Meilani's explanation.

"I think they were hoping you would," Malia remarked, dropping her hands back to her side.

"Do you have any idea why Kate would turn Derek into a teenager again?" Meilani quickly questioned before Malia could say anything else.

Peter was a quiet for long, tense moment before he finally glanced over his shoulder to the two teen girls stood behind him. "What color were Derek's eyes?"

"Blue."

"After Paige," Peter noted, referring to Derek's girlfriend who he had been in love with. She had gotten the bite, but her body rejected it and Derek had to do the one thing he'd never wanted to do ━ kill the girl he loved. It was the reason Derek's eyes had turned blue and, according to Peter, why Derek was always brooding around. "Which could mean around the time he first met Kate."

Meilani froze at Peter's revelation and she furrowed her eyebrows at the man. It would explain the obsession that Kate had towards Derek and why she'd go after him. If she wanted to finish off the job of getting rid of the Hale family, then she would have also gone for Peter. "Wait, Derek knew Kate?"

"Biblically," Peter laughed at his own joke and fully turned to face the girls fully again, smirking at the shocked look on Meilani's face. "That's right, Little Alpha. Our favorite little wolf climbed into a hunter's bed. Okay, anyways, Derek went to the site of the house thinking it was still there, right?"

"Yeah, but he doesn't remember the fire."

"But if he doesn't remember the fire, then he doesn't remember that it was Kate that set it," Peter theorized, beginning to pace back and forth while the two teen girls' eyes followed him back and forth. "Kate didn't just take him back to being a teenager. She took him back to the age where he still knew her. When he still trusted her."

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Not even five minutes after Peter's revelation, Stiles and the boys had called up Meilani to let her know that Derek had wanted to talk to her and only her because she was the alpha. They had been keeping him in Meilani's room till she decided to come home, but before Stiles could even finish explaining everything to her, Derek had been taken by Kate and she had quickly hung up with her boyfriend to let Malia and Peter know what just happened.

"Wait!" Meilani shouted after Malia and Peter who had both instantly took off towards the door to the loft without a second thought. Like father like daughter, Meilani guessed.

"Wait for what? Kate is out there twisting her way into Derek's head yet again. We need to find her," Peter argued, freezing near the steps that lead up to the loft door with Malia.

"All we need's a scent," Malia added.

Meilani shook her head, pocketing her phone again and approaching Malia and Peter. "No, that could take hours. If we want to get ahead of her, we need to figure out where she's going."

"Not to underestimate my own cognitive faculties, but we are not exactly a brain trust of geniuses here."

Meilani grinned and took out her phone once again as a thought came to her. There was one specific genius she knew that could be of use to them in the moment. Almost like the genius read her mind, Meilani's phone rang before she could even tell Peter and Malia what she was going to do. She rose an eyebrow in amusement and pressed the phone to her ear. "Hey, Lyds, I was actually just about to call you."

"Meilani, we have a problem. I was out with Kira and I found a dead body in a gas station bathroom. There's blood everywhere and the guy looks like he was ripped apart by an animal. We already called Stilinski and the police are on their way," Lydia rambled off to her, her tone laced with fear and concern.

Meilani squeezed her eyes shut and tugged a hand through her hair, feeling the weight on her shoulders grow as yet another thing was added to her plate. "What does it look like? Can you send pictures?"

"Um . . . okay," Lydia cleared her throat on the other end and her voice sounded the slightest bit further away as if she had removed the phone from her ear. "To be honest, I have a 4.0 in AP Biology and there are parts of the human anatomy I have never seen before on these walls."

Meilani removed the phone from her ear when she heard it beep and she held it face up to see the photo Lydia sent through. It was a photo of a man on his stomach with one arm above his head and the other laid out beside him. His head looked completely smashed in on the back as brain poked out from the skull. He was surrounded by a pool of dried up blood and his gas station uniform was stained in multiple spots with dried blood.

Who knew how long that man had been there?

"Why would she want to kill a gas station attendant?" Malia asked, tearing her gaze from the photo to look between Peter and Meilani.

"I don't think she could help. This was done in a frenzy. It's not a murder. It's a symptom," Peter responded, his face contorting into deep thought as he tried to process everything. "She can't control the shift."

"Derek said he had the same issue on the full moon. That he was still learning," Meilani recalled from earlier at the sheriff's station.

"Kate's still learning?"

"She wants to learn," Peter corrected.

Malia looked confused at Peter's response since Derek was clearly still learning also. So why she would have wanted Derek in the first place for that was a mystery. "So she wants Derek to teach her even though he's also still struggling?"

Peter sucked on his teeth as his mind finally placed all the missing puzzle pieces together and shot the two girls a look. "No, she wants the Triskelion."

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Peter had mentioned that the Triskelion was in the Hale vault that was underneath the school. The vault had apparently been there first and then the high school was built on the plot of land above the vault, making it extra hidden from the world that didn't know about it. Malia and Meilani had hopped onto Meilani's bike while Peter got into Derek's car and followed after the two girls to the high school where the trio instantly rushed off towards the front steps of the high school.

Malia had frozen half way up the steps and caught Peter and Meilani's attention. "I'm getting a scent and it's the same one. The same one as Mexico."

"What is she talking about?" Peter inquired.

"One of them came after us in the church ruins and one on the road that Stiles, Isaac and the girls were stuck on," Meilani explained to Peter.

Malia walked up the few steps that separated her from Meilani and Peter, stopping on the step below theirs with a scrunched up expression. "They couldn't have followed us here."

"They could have been brought by Kate."

Before either Malia or Peter could respond, a deep growl was heard from somewhere in the distance and Peter appeared annoyed by the sound. When the two girls glanced over to Peter for him to explain why he looked so annoyed, he sighed heavily.

"I've heard that sound before. Did it have an animal skull? A human wearing a skull over its face?"

"I think so, why?"

"What are they?"

Another deep growl sounded ahead of them and the trio all glanced in the direction they had came from. A tall figure ratted pants and a bone vest with black feathers over its bare chest. An animal skull was placed over its face blocking its true face from the three that stood frozen on the steps as they stared down at the new threat.

Malia growled deep in her throat, going to move forward to attack the Berserker when Peter gripped onto his daughter's shoulder. He pulled her back and snapped at her for being crazy. "What? There's just one of them."

"And that means we have a chance."

"To beat them?"

"To survive."

Meilani's eyes widened as she watched Peter bolt in the opposite direction up the steps. She exchanged a look with the werecoyote next to her before she grabbed onto Malia's hand and took off after Peter, her hand still gripping onto Malia's. They bolted their way through the campus, losing Peter somewhere along the way and Meilani pulled Malia to a stop when she saw another Berserker blocking the girl's route to freedom. The two girls began to back up the other way towards the steps that lead up to the upper level of the outside classrooms as two Berserkers now stood in front of them.

"Lan, it's both of them. They're both here," Malia cried, gripping tighter onto Meilani's hand. Not in a scared kind of way, but in a protective kind of way as she tugged the McCall female closer to her side.

"Where the hell is Peter?" Meilani yelled, stumbling backwards up the steps with Malia as the Berserkers slowly crept up on them.

"I don't know. He just took off," Malia responded, turning and tugging Meilani with her around the corner of the steps to get up the last flight.

However, before the girls could make it far up the final flight of steps, a Berserker dropped down from above out of nowhere while the other one blocked the bottom of the landing so the girls couldn't escape. Meilani huffed and leapt forward, kicking off the pillar next to her and landing on the landing behind the Berserker fully shifted. She flashed her red eyes at the Berserker that turned to her and slashed her hand forward, coming into contact with the vest.

The Berserker merely moved its shoulders with every slash Meilani threw at it. It was like it wasn't affected by anything Meilani did. It had suddenly grabbed her by the face and slammed her head into the pillar on the other side of the stairs, sending a sharp pain to shatter through Meilani's skull causing her to see double. She was ripped away from the pillar and was sent airborne through the air where she collided with the top of steps, sliding across the pavement to land next to Malia who was on the ground.

Meilani and Malia crab walked backwards to try and put distance between them and the approaching Berserkers. They had gotten a few feet away before two figures leapt in front of them, one with their katana raised and the other with their claws grown out and a loud roar erupting from his throat. Kira was the first one to move forward and slash her katana at the Berserker on the left while Isaac pushed off the ground, flying through the air and slashing his claws down on the Berserker on the right.

"Kira, watch out!" Meilani shouted when Kira was momentarily distracted, going to stand up to push her out of the way as the flashes from the night of Allison's death flashed in her mind. She watched as Kira's katana was knocked from her hands and the Berserker raised its hand to strike at her.

Before the Berserker's hand could come down, Isaac had pushed Kira out of the way just in time for him to get punched. He went flying backwards and landed next to Meilani on the pavement with a loud groan as the pain vibrated down his back. Kira had stumbled back towards the group just as Derek rushed up from the other side of the balcony and attacked the two Berserkers from behind.

Meilani tore her gaze from Derek and the fighting Berserkers as she checked on her best friends next to her. Kira had dropped down to her knees next to Isaac, helping the boy sit up as he grunted at the pain that shot down his spine at the movement. He assured the two girls he was okay as he was able to sit up on his own without Kira holding him up.

"Where's Scott, Stiles and Lydia?" Meilani questioned, not seeing or hearing the trio anywhere in the area and she worried something might have happened to them.

"They're okay, don't worry. They're downstairs looking for Peter," Isaac informed, patting Meilani's knee to get her to calm down. "They're always okay. You know that."

Meilani opened her mouth to respond when she heard another loud roar and turned her attention back to Derek. He now stood by himself as the two Berserkers had retreated from the werewolf. He looked a bit taller than he had before with his muscles more defined and not the smaller, thiner arms he'd had two minutes ago. She slowly pushed herself to her feet along with Kira, Isaac and Malia and took a step towards the Hale male. "Der? You okay?"

Derek slowly turned to face the group behind him, showing that he had finally reverted back to his normal self and Meilani blew out a breath of relief at the sight. She went to rush over to him and give him a hug, but paused mid step when she noticed the color of Derek's wolf eyes.

Yellow.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

Fun fact: I hyperventilated writing half this chapter . . . so that's fun

Sadly, we don't get to see Liam until the next chapter, but we did get big boy Derek back with his yellow eyes. A true king honestly. Also, expect more brotherly bickering between Stiles & Isaac because WOW do these two like to fight for Meilani's attention. Isaac just does it because he knows it pisses Stiles off and that's on being a Lahey.