previous attendance record from last year," the teacher said and Meilani grimaced at the thought of her first year as a werewolf. "I don't wanna see you slip back into old habits. I'm told you're a bright student and could be on your way to Valedictorian next year if you keep your grades up the way you have."

"That's all in the past," Meilani assured the teacher. "It was a... rough year for me, but I promise I'm back into focus."

"Resolutions are only good if you stick with them."

"I will. I promise," Meilani said and made her way out of the high school to get to the hospital as quickly as she could. She switched on her phone to see five missed calls from Melissa and knew that whatever she needed wasn't good. At all.

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"Why didn't you tell me before, Mom?"

"Honestly, I was hoping I didn't have to," Melissa admitted, leading Meilani through the hospital. "Everything that you've been doing - the extra reading, the bringing your grades back up to where they were before the whole... you know... thing, and you helping Scott keep his grades up through summer school. I didn't want to disrupt a good rhythm."

Meilani stopped Melissa from walking and placed her hands on her mother's shoulder. "Mom, none of it is gonna stop, okay? It'll be better this year. I'll be a better daughter, sister, girlfriend, everything. I promise. So please don't keep things like Isaac being brought into the hospital from me. I have to look out for him."

Melissa ran a hand lovingly down her daughter's face and smiled back. "Okay. Well, Isaac is in room two-fifteen if he isn't already in surgery."

"Thank you," Meilani breathed and kissed her moms' cheek before she rushed off to find Isaac's room. If Melissa was right about Isaac's claw marks on his side healing, then there was no way he could get brought to surgery. The doctors will have no explanation on how he was suddenly fine as if he hadn't been slashed in the first place.

Meilani stepped onto the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor. However, before the doors could close, a walking stick was pressed between the doors. The reopened fully to reveal a blind man with dark sunglasses on and Meilani quickly held the doors open for the man so he could step in safely.

"Would you hit the button for the second floor, please?" the man asked, a British accent in his voice.

Meilani shrugged and pressed the second floor button again so the man knew that it was pressed. The elevator ride was silently awkward and Meilani felt relief flood through her when the doors opened on the second floor.

"Would you mind helping me out for a second?" the man asked, his gaze still straight ahead and placed a hand on Meilani's shoulders.

"Um ... yeah, sure," Meilani breathed, hoping it was quick because she needed to get to Isaac before the surgeons did. She got the man to whatever room and he needed to get to and ran off to find Isaac's room. Much to her luck he wasn't in his room, but he was being wheeled into the elevator in a wheelchair with his chin dropped to his chest.

Meilani noticed the claws the "nurse" had and felt the feeling of dread, flicking out her own claws and canines when the "nurse" turned to face her. She rushed the elevator as the doors began to slowly close, jumping through them just before they closed and crashing into the wall next to Isaac's wheelchair. She slowly got to her feet with her eyes now yellow and fully transformed, facing the wolf that now had red eyes and also fully gone werewolf. 

The wolf grabbed Meilani by the front of her shirt and threw her into the wall, picking her up again and throwing her into the adjacent wall. The whole time, Isaac's wheelchair rolling around the elevator as it moved. Meilani was suddenly flung up into the lights above and she grunted when she crashed down to the ground. She wasn't given much time to recover when the wolf grabbed her by the throat, raising her into the air.

"Don't you realize what you're dealing with?" the wolf growled at her. "I'm an alpha. 

The elevator doors dinged open and the alpha suddenly dropped Meilani when he was pierced in the back. She pushed herself to sit against the wall and had never been more happy to land eyes on Derek Hale.

"So am I," Derek mocked and flung the other alpha out of the elevator, causing the alpha to slide along the floors. He slowly turned to glance over his shoulder at Meilani who slowly transitioned back. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

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"Babe, we got a serious problem at school. Ms. Blake's class - "

"Sti, can you tell me about it later?" Meilani pleaded, following after Derek into the Hale house and froze by the end of the stairs while Derek carried Isaac into the living room.

"Well, no. Pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion."

"Alright, then you and Scott can come meet me at Derek's," Meilani sighed, already tired from the day and it was only ten AM.

"Derek's house, what? What the hell are you doing at Derek Hale's house?"

Meilani rolled her eyes and turned to see Derek lay Isaac on the table on the other side of the living room. "Just come meet us here, Stiles." She hung up before her boyfriend could protest and jogged into the living room to join Derek and the still sedated Isaac. "Please tell me you don't still live here."

The Hale house looked even worse than she remembered and it was already awful from nearly being burnt to the ground years ago. She didn't know how Derek could still want to hide out here.

"No," Derek replied, squatting down near a piece of floorboard. "The county took it over, but there's something here that I need. It'll help heal a wound from an alpha."

"Yeah, but Isaac healed already."

"Not on the inside," Derek countered, picking up random pieces of wolfsbane that Meilani didn't even know how would Isaac.

Meilani chewed on her lower lip as she watched Derek in deep thought. "Can you tell me who that was back there, Derek? That alpha."

"A rival pack. It's my problem, not yours, okay? I know you want to help, Meilani, and you did. I owe you one. Now go home," Derek instructed, grabbing the last of the wolfsbane he needed and stood to his full height. "Go back to being a teenager like you have been all summer, okay? 

Meilani slowly rubbed her hand over still tattoo-less bicep and glanced up to Derek who now had his back turned to her at the table Isaac laid on. "Uh, hey, Derek? If you want to repay back that favor now... there is something you can do for me."

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Derek's eyes flared red as he inspected Meilani's bicep that originally had the two bands on it. Stiles and Scott stood to the side after finally arriving at the Hale house, explaining how a mass amount of birds flew right into the window of their English classroom. It was so sudden and dead birds littered the classroom until a few minutes ago when they finally got cleaned out. It was definitely odd and Meilani didn't know how to view everything that was going on. Maybe it was the new rival pack in town causing all the weird animal habits. 

"I can see it," Derek said, running his hand gently over where the tattoo used to be. "It's two bands, right? What does it mean?"

Meilani shrugged and drew a small circle with two larger ones into the dust on the small table between her and Derek. "I don't know. Just something I drew with my fingers I guess."

"Why is this so important to you?"

"Do you know what the tattoo means?"

"To mark something," Stiles responded for Derek.

Meilani nodded slightly and fiddled with the end of her t-shirt. "In Tahitian. In Samoan, it means open wound. I actually only ever wanted a tattoo because Scott wanted one when he turned eighteen, you know? As we grew up, Scott and I did pretty much everything together and the same. He was the only person I really had in my life besides Stiles and my mom. After our dad left, Scott really took over and looked out for me, along with Stiles. Scott got a wolf head to represent me and... the two bands represent the two boys that were there for me the whole time, you know? I decided to do it now as a reward."

"A reward for what?" Derek asked, actually sounding curious.

"For finally realizing that I can't exactly save everyone," Meilani responded and avoided the gazes from the three boys. "It's always been so hard for me since I turned to not save everyone. I felt like a failure every time I was too late. Stiles had to give me multiple long talks on how I can't stress myself over things I can't control. Even though I know I can't save everyone, it still hurts. Kind of like - "

"An open wound," Scott finished for his twin, gaze softening at the knowledge of why his sister had suddenly begged and pleaded to get the tattoos now.

Derek grabbed the device that he had to use to tattoo Meilani. "I am warning you right now, the pain is gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt."

"Ah, that's great," Stiles mumbled.

"Do it," Meilani assured Derek, holding out her arm for him.

Derek flicked on the the blow torch and Meilani suddenly felt nervous about the whole thing. 

"That is too much for me. I think that's my cue to go," Stiles stammered and made it two steps before he was hauled back by Derek.

"No, you can help Scott hold your girlfriend down."

Stiles gulped and slowly made his way behind Meilani, holding down one shoulder while Scott held the other and avoiding the sight of the large blow torch. "Oh, God."

To say the pain was the worst thing Meilani had ever felt in her life would be an understatement. Derek was quite literally burning her skin and the pain was so unbearable that Meilani turned without meaning to, a loud growl escaping through her lips. Though, she only felt the pain for another minute or two longer before she passed out from the intense pain.

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Meilani's eyes snapped open about an hour later, sweat glistening her skin and she had never been more glad to have decided to braid her hair because it was kept off her damp skin. She glanced down to her arm where two thick bands sat on her left bicep and a small smile appeared on her face. "It worked!"

"Well, it looks pretty damn permanent now," Stiles commented as Meilani stood up and grabbed her jacket, walking between the boys to make their way through Derek's living room. 

"I needed something permanent. Everything that happened to us - everything has changed so fast. Everything's so, uh..." Meilani trailed off and stopped by the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the second floor. 

"Ephemeral," Scott chimed in and grinned at the shocked looks on his best friend's and twin's faces at the use of his big word. "It's my word of the day."

"Studying for the pSATs?" Stiles asked.

"Yep."

"Nice."

Meilani giggled and opened up the door, tilting her head when she noticed the front was now painted red. "Der, you painted the door. Why'd you paint the door?"

"Go home, Meilani."

"And why only one side?" Meilani asked, running her hand down the front of the door. What was Derek hiding? She flicked out her werewolf nails and ran it down the front of the door, ignoring Derek's protests. Eventually, she got enough of the paint away to reveal a symbol painted onto the door. It looked a triangle with zig-zag lines coming out of each point on the shape. "The birds at school and the deer last night. Just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the alpha. How many are there, Derek?"

Derek crossed his arms and let out a heavy sigh. "A pack of 'em. An alpha pack."

"All of them? How does that even work?" Stiles questioned, a flash of concern and worry appearing on both his and Scott's faces.

"I hear there's some kind of leader," Derek informed, shrugging since he didn't appear to know much more than Meilani, Scott and Stiles. "He's called Deucalion. We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac and I have been looking for him the past four months."

Meilani slowly walked closer to Derek and stopped a few feet away from him. "Let's say you find them. How do you deal with an alpha pack?"

"With all the help I can get."

Meilani glanced over her shoulder to Scott and Stiles who looked like they wanted to deal with anything but the alpha pack. They had no choice because Meilani wasn't just going to let Derek, Peter and Isaac deal with this themselves.

"Where is she?" Isaac sat up on the table, causing the other four to jump and turn to him. "Where's the girl?"

"What girl?"

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

WELCOME BACK TO BEACON HILLS, FOLKS! This final ride is about to be WILD and none of ya'll are ready for it, oof. More drama. More supernatural creatures. More alphas. More wolves. MO ISSUES!

ALSO, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU GUYS SAW IN THE FINAL CHAPTER OF A NEW START, I ASKED YOU GUYS TO ASK MEILANI SOME QUESTIONS IN HONOR OF THIS SERIES BEING TWO YEARS OLD NOW! SO GO BACK TO THE BOOK AND ASK MEILANI WHATEVER YOU WANT (YOU CAN EVEN ASK ME STUFF IF YOU'D LIKE) AND I'LL POST THE ANSWERS BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND PART OF THIS BOOK! IT'LL GIVE YOU GUYS TIME TO ASK HOWEVER MANY YOU WANT AND ASK WHAT YOU WANT!