"We're okay," Meilani breathed in relief and took a deep breath. "We're . . . "

Much to how Meilani's luck had been going, she was suddenly airborne and smashed into the lockers with a loud clang. She dropped to the ground hard with a loud groan as pain shot down her entire body and the sound of Kira being hit next was heard as the Yukimura's body hit the ground by Meilani's feet.

Meilani whined as she tried to move and lift her head up and she noticed that Void in Stiles' body had been the one to smash her into the lockers and he smirked down at her.

"Sorry about that, princess, I know how you like it rough," Void taunted and turned to Stiles, his eyes darkening at the boy who rushed down the hallway, still gripping onto Lydia. "Divine move, huh? Divine move. You think you have any moves at all? You can kill the Oni. But me? Me? I'm a thousand years old. You can't kill me!"

"But we can change you," Lydia countered, stopping in the middle of the hall while she clutched onto Stiles.

Void had paused at that and Meilani used his momentary distraction to quietly push herself to her feet, ignoring the pain that was slowly beginning to fade already. She kept to her toes and made sure to stay as quiet as possible and stopped just a few feet behind him, waiting for her chance to strike.

"You forgot about the scroll," Stiles threatened, standing up taller now as the confidence coursed through him.

"The Shugendo Scroll."

Void's head tilted slightly and he flinched the slightest bit - just enough that if you blinked you'd miss it - as he noticed the pack had figured out how to stop him. "Change the host."

"You can't be a fox and a wolf," Stiles mocked.

Meilani took that as her cue and she leapt forward, gripping Void by the shoulder with her claws protruding into it. She opened her mouth to reveal her canines and bit harshly into the spirit's forearm, causing him to scream and try to fight against Meilani's hold. However, he was no use against the strength of the alpha. She moved out of the way just in time for Kira to run up behind her and shove her sword through Void's chest before swiftly pulling it right back out.

Thunder immediately began to rumble outside the school and the lights above in the hallway began to flicker. Void weakly dropped to his knees and a buzzing fly flew right out of his mouth, the same one that Mrs. Yukimura had captured all those years ago at the camp. It flew a good distance down the hallway before Isaac sideswiped it and closed it in the triskele box.

Meilani and the pack watched with wide eyes as Void convulsed and his neck snapped side to side before it snapped straight forward. His pale and sickly face staring at Lydia and Stiles for a moment before the skin on his face cracked. He collapsed to the ground and disappeared into a gray smoke.

Stiles stumbled away from Lydia at the sight and he fainted to the ground with Meilani saving him from smacking his head against the tiled floor. She sat on the floor with him between her legs and held him against his chest, pressing a kiss to the side of his head when she heard his steady heart beat.

It was over. It was finally over.

⏤⏤⏤⏤╗❀╔⏤⏤⏤⏤

It was only about five minutes before Stiles exhaled lowly and Meilani slightly pulled away from him to see his eyes fluttered open. She felt her body relax when his hazel eyes met hers and she smiled softly down at him, brushing her fingers gently across his cheek.

"Welcome back."

Stiles' eyes trailed around the small group that surrounded Meilani and him, seeing all the relieved looks he got from his friends that he was truly okay. None of them had wanted to truly believe it until Stiles finally opened his eyes to prove that they had won. They had really won. "Oh, God, I fainted, didn't I?"

Meilani giggled and held Stiles against her chest again, hugging him tightly and not wanting to let him go any time soon. "Just like you did when I agreed to that first date, babe."

Stiles squeezed his eyes shut and groaned at the memory of him finally getting the nerves shoved down enough to ask his best friend out. The fact she had even said yes to him was a wild response he didn't expect and his body just short circuited when the prettiest girl he'd ever known had agreed to go out with  him. What were the odds of that? "We're all alive. Are we all really alive?"

Meilani smiled sadly as Allison's face appeared in her mind and tried to push it away, not wanting to have a mental break down right then and ruin everyone's relieved moods. "Yeah, we're okay, babe."

Lydia slowly got to her feet and she stared down the hall with a horrified look on her face. She was off in a sprint before anyone could ask her what happened and the pack were back on their feet and took after Lydia. However, the pack didn't expect to see the sight before them when they ran out of the school.

Down below at the overhang where the small bridge that connected the two sides of the upper outside level of the school was Ethan, Aiden, Derek and Chris. Aiden was laid out on the ground and Meilani could see the black blood coated around his lowers lips as Ethan sobbed into his dead brother's chest. 

Meilani nearly lost her footing when Lydia threw herself into Meilani's arms and the McCall girl held tightly onto her strawberry blonde best friend. The Martin girl's tears soaked into Meilani's jacket and she held onto the poor teen girl tighter as she cried over the loss of the boy that she'd grown close to. She knew that Lydia held small feelings for Aiden and Meilani honestly thought the two would have made it seeing as how Ethan and Aiden were both slowly beginning to try. Actually try and be decent human beings - minus the time they tried to kill Stiles/Void in the basement of the school - and, even though Meilani wouldn't have let Ethan or Aiden into her pack, she still appreciated everything they had done for her since Deucalion left. 

"I'm so sorry, Lydia. I'm sorry," Meilani whispered into the girl's hair and placed her chin on the girl's shoulder.

Even when they win, they still wind up losing.

⏤⏤⏤⏤╗❀╔⏤⏤⏤⏤

The few days after everything had finally finished were rough for the whole pack.

Meilani ignored Scott no matter how many times he had tried to talk to her. Her guilt and anger towards him still weighed heavily on her chest and she just couldn't talk to him. Not now and she wasn't even sure how long it would be before she was ready. It helped that Scott locked himself up in his room most of the time after to try and grieve the loss of Allison, much like the rest of the pack were.

Kira gave the pack some space, but would occasionally find Lydia to ask her how everyone had been doing. It was clear that the girl felt guilty that her mom was technically behind the whole thing and didn't want to push herself on any of the pack. Not that anyone in the pack even blamed the young girl for what went down and Meilani made sure to have Lydia tell the girl that. Once they had a bit more time to breathe, Meilani knew that the pack would welcome Kira in with open arms.

Isaac had pretty much all but stuck by Meilani's side since that night. He said her presence made him feel better and helped him begin to grieve over Allison properly. There were many times that Isaac had thought about getting out of Beacon Hills, but he didn't want to leave Meilani or his friends behind. She was practically like his alpha now since she had taken him in when Derek kicked him out and he would never abandon her. Not the girl that would give up everything to save not only him, but all her friends around her. Not that the girl that was like his sister and he swore to himself that he would protect her with everything he had until his final breath.

Malia had even enrolled into the high school and Meilani and Stiles promised they would help her out with turning at will. Not before Meilani had asked Malia what really happened between her and Stiles in Eichen House. They had to have at least spoken in their time there together if Void had found it funny to use her in his trick. Apparently, the only time Stiles even touched the girl was when she was cold and wrapped a blanket around her since it was hard for the Tate girl to get used to being warm without a fur coat. He held her hands between his for all of five minutes to warm them up quicker, which Meilani didn't necessarily care about. He had even talked about Meilani and only Meilani the whole time they were in the basement searching for the answers Stiles needed for Void. Meilani actually quite liked Malia now and could see them being friends soon.

Malia had even punched Stiles in the face in Eichen House which Meilani found quite hilarious for some reason. Something that Stiles made sure to make known that he did not appreciate that his girlfriend found it funny that he got beat up by a girl. Not his fault that Malia was a werecoyote and could drop him quicker than any other girl can . . . you know, besides Meilani that is.

Meilani giggled softly when Malia flicked her wrist for the hundredth time and no claws grew out when she did it. She rolled her lips into her mouth when Malia gave her an exasperated look that the girl was making fun of her. "It's okay, Malia. Don't think about it too much. Just try to let it happen."

Malia nodded determinedly and closed her eyes for a minute, concentrating everything on the shift like Meilani had taught her to do. She flicked her wrist again and this time, her claws appeared where her fingernails used to be. She laughed in joy as she stared down at her claws and held them up for Isaac and Stiles to see who sat on the end of Meilani's bed. "Oh my God! I did it! Thank you, Meilani."

Meilani let out a small squeak when Malia jumped at her and wrapped her arms tightly around the alpha female. She stumbled back a step before she caught herself and wrapped her arms around the werecoyote next. "Oh . . . ha ha . . . you're welcome. I'll always be here to help you."

⏤⏤⏤⏤╗❀╔⏤⏤⏤⏤

Meilani had all but welcomed the normalcy that was her job as she stood in the examination room and reorganized all of Deaton's medicines and files for him. It was a slow day in the animal clinic and Scott was sat outside in the waiting area taking any phone calls that came in. Deaton had noticed the intense tension between the twins - much like everyone else had really, but no one said anything - and put them in two separate areas for the day. Meilani's shift would be ending soon anyway since Scot had asked to stay an extra few hours to help out and get his mind off Allison. 

Meilani probably would have stayed also if her body didn't desperately crave her boyfriend's arms around her. She felt bad for being the tiniest bit clingy the past few days, but Stiles hadn't complained once and just laid on his bed with her in his arms. Sometimes a movie would play on his laptop as had made some makeshift table to have the laptop be close to them. It was enough to keep her from completely breaking down and was beginning to help Meilani start on the path to getting better.

"Have you ever heard the term regression to the mean?" Deaton asked, walking into the room and leaning his hands on the end of the table that Meilani stood out.

"Am I about to get a Deaton lecture?" Meilani mused right back and focused her attention on sorting out the files in the box in front of her in name order like Deaton had asked.

"I never lecture you, Mei, and you know that. The term is a bit of a technical way of saying things will always even out," Deaton clarified.

Meilani stopped her sorting and leant her arms on the ends of the box, turning her gaze towards Deaton with a sigh. "You mean like things will always get better?"

Deaton made a face and tilted his head from side to side as he considered Meilani's take on it. "Well, in a way, but it really just means that things can't always be bad. So no matter how good or bad things get, they will always come back to the middle. Regression to the mean."

Meilani rose an eyebrow at Deaton and shook her head gently, fiddling with the bent piece of label that was stuck the side of one of the files. "Don't think that really applies to a town like this, Deaton."

Deaton chuckled softly and nodded his head, seeming to agree with Meilani's words. 

"Yeah, I guess you're right"

END OF BOOK THREE

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hi hey hello

We have officially reached the end of DARKEST HOURS. It's wild to think that when I first started this book, this was originally gonna be the last one and now we get another THREE books after this one. If you think the pack were on a ride in this book, just wait till the next one, especially with Liam finally making his cute boy appearance into the pack's live.

Book Four will be posted immediately after this one. So by the time you're reading this it will already be up on my profile! I cannot wait to continue Meilani's journey with you guys and smother you with all Meilani and Stiles content we missed out on during this book because everyone's favorite end game couple deserve some LOVE. Even with the new threat we're about to meet in the next book op