𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝘏𝘌𝘓𝘗 𝘐𝘕 𝘓𝘖𝘞 𝘗𝘓𝘈𝘊𝘌𝘚

━━━ THE RINGING PHONES AND SQUEAKING OF NURSE'S SNEAKERS ECHOED AROUND IN MEILANI'S HEAD THAT HAD BEEN SHOVED BETWEEN HER KNEES, TRYING TO KEEP HERSELF CALM. Which became increasingly harder as the time went on and the more she worried over Melissa's well-being, along with Mason, Rafe and Lydia who had also been hit apparently in the ambush. Something she hadn't realized until Meilani had to turn Melissa onto her back to lift her up. It had taken Meilani, Malia and Isaac to get all the injured into the car and out to the hospital. She could hear the surgeons working dutifully to help keep Melissa alive, retrieving the bullet that lodged itself into her body and was narrow miss of being fatal. Though, Meilani was sure if the pack, Rafe and Chris hadn't been at the house — Melissa would have been dead.

Granted, Meilani already blamed herself because the hunters were coming for her and her pack in the first place . . . but Meilani had to keep shoving those thoughts away because she kept getting stern glares from Isaac to stop with the dark thoughts.

"Get out of my head, Isaac."

"I wish I could. It's pretty dark in here . . . think you'd spruce things up with a lamp or something."

Meilani quietly snorted at Isaac's attempt of a joke, knowing the Lahey boy was just trying to get the girl to smile . . . even for just two seconds. However, Meilani didn't even so much as relax her shoulders until she heard the surgeons announce they retrieved the bullet and could successfully stitch Melissa back up. All of the fear Meilani had been harboring inside of her practically burst out like a firework and she slouched back against the seat of the uncomfortable waiting room chair. Isaac and Malia's hands both dropped down onto her shoulders, squeezing them comfortingly as they both clearly heard what Meilani had.

Melissa McCall was going to be okay.

It didn't take long for the doctor that had taken Melissa in, a slightly older man with salt and pepper hair that Meilani vaguely remembered was named Doctor Heinrich. He'd been at the hospital since Melissa started working there and Meilani was pretty sure he'd even been there when her and Scott were born. He told the pack that Melissa was out of surgery and in her recovery room now, but she needed her rest. 

Meilani didn't waste a single second once the doctor finished and darted around him to go to Melissa, following the woman's scent all the way down the hall and around the corner right across from the nurse's station. She quietly opened the door to see the nurse finish filling Melissa's IV with a sedative, probably to help with the pain Melissa would be feeling for the next few days. Meilani pushed away the ache in her chest at the thought of her mother needing to be kept in the hospital, especially when Meilani couldn't bring her guilty self to call her brother and tell him about Melissa.

"You have about a minute before the sedative kicks in, Meilani," the nurse said, who Meilani vaguely remembered from the few nights she'd brought Melissa dinner on a double shift night. "And let her rest. She's a warrior, you know. She'll bounce back, she always does."

Melissa wheezed softly as Meilani walked over and Meilani could hear the way Melissa's heart struggled in her chest. Trying to fight off the pain that currently encompassed her body after being cut open. Her lips were incredibly chapped and her face was so pale that she almost looked like a ghost. It was rough to ignore the images of Melissa turning into one. "Hey, sweetheart."

Meilani blinked rapidly to clear the mist in her eyes, looking down at her mother was difficult. The woman who had singlehandedly done everything for her and Scott, who had accepted Meilani being a werewolf so quickly, the woman who helped Meilani and the pack more than she could ever know . . . was now laying weak in a hospital bed, because of her. Because she had to piss off Argent and Monroe. "I — I'm just gonna wait outside."

"No, hey, hey," Melissa whispered weakly, squeezing her eyes shut and reopening them to fight off the drowsiness that already began to settle in. She fixed her daughter with a look that meant she knew exactly what the girl was thinking, like she was Isaac and could hear Meilani's every thought. "You didn't do this."

Meilani sniffled and wiped rapidly underneath her pooling her eyes to rid the evidence of her crying. Something she promised herself she wouldn't do when coming into the room to see her mother. "But I'm responsible, Mom. You — you need to sleep, okay?"

"I just need to tell you . . ." Melissa trailed off, shaking her head faintly as her face twisted in pain before it slowly passed. "Don't — don't run. You fight back, you hear me?"

Meilani frowned deeply as her mother's eyes fluttered closed after that, the sedatives finally kicking in and sending her off into sleep. She exhaled heavily, the tears making an appearance once again and the alpha bent down to press a tender kiss to her mother's forehead. A swift "I love you" was whispered to Melissa before Meilani slinked out of the room and carried on to find Rafe's room next to make sure her dad was okay. Though, when she got to his room . . . it was empty.

Just as Meilani turned to scurry off down the hall to find a nurse and ask them where her father was, Noah had been coming down the hall at that moment and she ran over to him. "Noah, where — where's my dad? Did something — "

"Sweetheart, take a breath," Noah shushed her gently, placing his hands on her shoulders and squeezing them. "He's just been transferred to San Francisco Memorial. He's gonna be fine. Mason and Lydia have already been let out of surgery not too long after your mom got out. Bullet missed everything that matters on all of them, thank God. We got lucky."

Meilani's lower lip trembled as the tears continued to pool down her cheeks, the alpha not even bothering to stop them at this point. The weight of guilt was heavy like a stone, pressing down harder and harder onto Meilani's heart and she was sure it'd give out soon. She felt like she was being suffocated from the inside out and Meilani just wanted it all to end. "They almost died."

"But they're gonna live," Noah stressed, digging into his sheriff's uniform and producing a clean tissue for Meilani to use which she gratefully took. "We're gonna have two deputies posted here around the clock. Nobody sets found on this floor without my authorization. I got a pretty good idea how you're feeling right now, but the whole sheriff's department is gonna be on this. I am gonna find out who did this, I promise."

Meilani scoffed softly and tossed the now dirty tissue into the trashcan nearby, wiping the rest of her tears with her denim jacket sleeve. "We both know who did this, Noah. I can gurantee you that he'll be feeling the pain I feel right now when I get my hands on him. I'm gonna bring an army down on him just like he did on me . . . no more peace summits. I'm going to fight fire with fire."

If you would have told Meilani McCall she would be using the number Deucalion left for her a second time . . . she would have laughed in your face. When Theo had come last year, Meilani needed the extra weapon, the inside man that could get to Theo from the inside and break his pack while Meilani tried to patch up her own. The term "desperate times calls for desperate measures" was becoming something that Meilani followed more and more lately. 

Next thing she knew, she'd be calling Peter Hale for help. As if.

The sound of crunching glass alerted Meilani, Isaac and Malia and the trio whirred around to see Deucalion stood in the McCall kitchen doorway. His blue eyes swept along the glass that littered just about every inch of the McCall kitchen since Meilani hadn't had much time to clean up the place just yet. Especially not if she needed Deucalion's help to figure out what to do. Still not her wisest decision, but the only one she had at the moment.

"You know my fighting days are over, little alpha," Deucalion's accented voice thralled, slowly walking through the mess of a kitchen and into the McCall living room. 

Meilani hummed sarcastically and crossed her arms, turning on her heels to face Deucalion with a raised eyebrow. "I'll believe that when I see it, Deucalion. You once said you'd kill any living thing that got in your way."

Deucalion's back remained to the three wolves, a contemplative sound coming from his throat. "I said a lot of things, but eventually the bodies pile up so high . . . that even a blind man cannot ignore them."

Isaac played with the scarf around his neck, pursing his lips. Clearly he did not believe a word Deucalion said much like Meilani and Malia. "So what? You moved into a cave and took a vow of uselessness? Out of nowhere? Finally found the heart in your chest?"

"I changed. We should all try it," Deucalion replied vaguely, finally turning to face the three teen wolves and shrugged. "Besides, I live in a condo."

"Seems all the asshole alphas live in those," Malia quipped, sounding irritated by Deucalion's presence alone. "I kinda like the old Deucalion better."

"Well, maybe you've changed . . . but Gerard hasn't and he's not gonna stop with Beacon Hills. He's got a map with places circled — Toulouse, Brasilia . . . "

Deucalion's eyes widened in recognition and he stepped closer to the trio. "Logashkino, Zhengzhou. Nemetons of the world."

Meilani exhaled a heavy breath, nodding to let Deucalion know he was right on the nose of what Gerard was planning. "Yeah, and you know him. You can outthink him, you can read him. He's got a lot of help now. Actually . . . he's got pretty much everyone."

"You think Gerard's turned you into a pariah? Your power does that. You'll always be an outsider because of your abilities. Gerard wasn't the first person to capitalize on the general public's fear of the other . . . and he won't be the last," Deucalion warned Meilani as if she didn't already know that she was practically a different breed to everyone else around her and the pack.

"So help us stop him!"

Deucalion tilted his head at Meilani and narrowed his eyes slightly at her, almost like he knew something she didn't. "Meilani, I think you've realized that stopping Gerard now means killing him. I'm sorry, but that chapter of my life is over."

Malia barked out an incredulous laugh at the older wolf before them, poking her tongue into her cheek. Almost like she was trying to hold herself back from attacking the man. "So that's it? You're just a pacifist now? What's gonna stop me from slashing your throat?"

"Plenty."

Malia let out a roar, shifting instantly as she leapt forward with her claws raised to slash through the air. At the last second, Deucalion ducked out of the way and Malia landed hunched over and narrowly missed swinging the claws at herself. When Malia jerked back up, she was back to back with Deucalion. "How did you do that?"

Deucalion's face twisted into a cocky smirk and Meilani rolled her eyes at him. "It's Bagua. A martial art that takes the path of lethal resistance."

"You think you're going to beat me without fighting?"

"I think you're going to beat yourself."

With amused glances, Meilani and Isaac watched Malia and Deucalion spin around the room with Deucalion effectively dodging every one of Malia's slashes. He moved with fluid mobility, like an ocean going through its waves and motions. A sight Meilani never thought she'd be able to say she saw . . . until then. It was definitely something else.

Malia huffed in annoyance and bolted up to her feet after stumbling past Deucalion for the fourth time. "Alright, fine, you can protect yourself. What about everyone else who doesn't know Bagua? They're just gonna get their eyes stabbed out?"

Deucalion's shoulders deflated and he exhaled sympathetically, actually sounding quite remorseful. Meilani had to clean out her ears to make sure she had even heard him right. "Look what that war turned me into. I am not afraid to lose my eye again. I am afraid to lose my soul."

"So you won't help us?" Malia deadpanned, eyes following the wolf as he made his way towards the front door.

"I didn't say I wouldn't help you," Deucalion clarified, stopping at the door and glancing over his shoulder to Meialni, Malia and Isaac. "I can offer you guidance and my first piece of advice? You might need to lower your standards for allies."

Meilani flashed Deucalion a fake smile and motioned to him. "I thought I already was."

"Lower than me, little alpha. Much lower."

Meilani really needed to stopped joking about calling Peter Hale for help . . . because, once again, she was calling the man for help. When Deucalion mentioned going lower than him, she knew without a doubt the man meant she'd have to swallow her pride and call Peter to help them out. He hated Gerard just as much as Meilani and the pack did, considering his daughter was the reason his family were all dead aside for Cora and Derek. 

Her first clue of it being a bad idea was Peter suggesting they meet at Eichen House of all places. The place that had caused them way too many problems for Meilani to ever begin to count or think about. At this point . . . Meilani just wanted to get their meeting over and done with before she strangled Peter.

"Let me guess," Peter drawled as Meilani, Malia and Isaac rounded the corner and stopped short in the middle of the corridor when they noticed Peter leant lazily against the archway of the gated off area up ahead. "You need help with another suicide mission. Gotta say . . . I'm not interested." His eyes then flickered over to Malia and the werecoyote scrunched up her nose at her father. "Or do you need help?"

Malia shrugged and stayed back with Meilani and Isaac. "I'm just here for the moral support."

"For her or for me?" Peter questioned sarcastically.

"You'd need to have morals," Malia was quick to rebut with a placid smile in her father's direction. "Seems like you don't have any for me to support."

Meilani sighed and stepped closer towards Peter against her better judgement, hating that she had to even be in the same room as him in the first place. "Look, you helped us with the Ghost Riders and we couldn't have won without you. You're . . . stronger than all of us. You were the real reason the Wild Hunt —"

Peter held his hand up to cut off Meilani's speech and fixed her with sarcastic grin. "Brilliant effort, Meilani. I mean — seriously. However . . . you don't need to appeal to my ego. It's quite healthy on its own. You are gonna need to work a lot harder than that if you want my help. Everything is pretty much the way that I want it. My penthouse apartment is filled with mid-century furniture. My passport has more stamps than the post office. Did you see the car parked out front? That's a Shelby 1000 Cobra. There are only one hundred in the entire world. I have two. Two."

Isaac appeared unamused, wishing her could vaporize the older wolf with his dark gaze alone. "You want a fucking medal or somethin'?"

"But Gerard has an army," Meilani cut in before Isaac and Peter could go back and forth with each other. "And every single one of them want you dead."

"And you think that means I'm gonna enlist in your little endeavor?" Peter remarked to Meilani with an expression that practically called Meilani crazy. "Because you are going to defeat Gerard? You're not going to beat him, Meilani. And let me show you why." 

Peter pushed off the gated archway and strolled into the corridor, stopping next to a lever on the right wall near Malia. He wrapped his hand around the lever and lifted it up, switching the lights on in the cell next to Meilani and it revealed a brunette main laid out along the bed. A shot gun was at the foot of his bed.

"When I found him, that was pointed at my face," Peter informed the trio, strolling over to the cell himself and clasped his hands behind his back. "That is a G36, which fires seven hundred and fifty rounds per minute . . . and it's empty. For the moment." He paused to lift a magazine filled with bullets and slid it into the trap door on the cell door, handing the man inside all he needed to fire off rounds into them. "That homicidal guinea pig is going to kill all of us unless you do what's necessary, and I don't feel like dying today."

Without thought, the man slid the magazine into the gun and started to fire off bullets rapid fire into the plexiglass of his cell, bullet holes and cracks forming all along the cell. A crazed and determined hold was gripped to the gun and Meilani pushed herself, Malia and Isaac back.

"There's something wrong with him," Meilani stated, snapping her gaze from the inmate and over to Peter.

Peter's fingers pressed to his ears, muffling the sounds of the bullets firing out one by one. "Yes, he's shooting at us. If you can't even kill him, how do you expect to win this war?" He slowly dropped hands when the shooting suddenly stopped, the man slamming his hand against the gun. "Don't worry, it's just jammed. It tends to happen with automatic weapons that haven't been serviced regularly. Just slide the bolt back."

Meilani blinked as Peter simply went back to pressing his fingers to his ears and the man going to back to firing off bullets into the plexiglass. "We're not gonna hurt you!"

"He can't be reasoned with, Meilani! He's not only shooting at us because he's afraid, he's trying to kill us because he hates us."

Once again the shooting stopped, and the man crashed through the plexiglass — all the cracks and bullets making it easy for the man to break through the tough exterior and roll to his feet. His gun whipped up to try and hit Meialni, but her reflexes were faster than him and she was able to keep the side of the gun from her chest.

"Why are you doing this?" Meilani barked at him, trying not to put too much of her alpha strength into fighting him off and accidentally killing him. A part of Meialni still refused to kill people, even though that so actively tried to kill her. It was the only reason Peter and Theo were still breathing