Mine to Protect Chapter 143: KEEPING ME SAFE

*Hazel*

I look down in the dark tunnel, hoping I can get a glimpse of what’s at its end, or inside of it, but it’s just too dark, even for my werewolf enhanced sight.

Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out then.

I jump into the tunnel and start sliding down at an impossible fast speed. I wish I had mom’s wind power to slow myself down, and just as I imagine a buff of wind relenting my free fall, a gush of wind runs up the tunnel making me slow down and climb down agilely to the bottom.

It happened again; the wind responded to my command. I move my hand, like to swipe something away, the same mom did before, when using her powers, I imagine e gush of wind, appearing near my hand, and there it is. Then I swirl my hand in circles, and a small whirlwind appears just under my hand.

I can’t believe my own eyes; how did this happen? I am sure I didn’t have this power before.

But I have no time to ponder on it now, I need to scour the place and find out where they have hidden Alice.

I raise my head and take a look at my dark surroundings. I am in a corridor, it’s completely empty, and I can’t hear any sound down here, the place seems to be completely deserted.

I start walking down the corridor, checking a number of rooms I encounter on my way, they are mainly offices, all completely empty, until I reach a large double door, where the smell of blood is impossibly strong.

My heart thunders in my chest, scared at what I’ll find behind these closed doors, I am sure it will be something terrible, which will hunt my dreams for a lifetime, I just hope this is not where I’ll find Alice.

Please, Alice, don’t be here, please.

I take a small breath and walk through the doors like a ghost, nearly doubling over at the sight that awaits me on the other side.

Corpses, dozens of mutilated, deturpated dead bodies lying everywhere, on the floor, on chairs, on the desks, even impaled on the walls and ceiling. Woman, children, young men, old men, werewolves and humans alike, are lying dead in a pool of deep red blood.

The room is big and round, computers with large screens are positioned all around its perimeter, while big cages are placed in the middle, to host unwilling werewolves for their sick experiments, I have no doubt.

The computers are completely destroyed, and the employees operating the computing machines are all dead, just like the others.

I don’t understand, what happened here? An experiment gone wrong?

Or maybe, a secret they don’t want to get out? I can’t make sense of what happened.

I check the whole room, and can’t find Alice anywhere among the dead, it gives me a little hope, but still, it is difficult to stomach the death of all these innocents.

They will pay for everything they have done; I will make sure of it.

I searched for the remaining rooms, they are completely empty, and don’t hold anything of value in terms of information.

I am still snooping around, when a sudden thought occurs to me. They have attacked from the west with the aim of pushing us east, where their base is, but there is nothing here, nothing dangerous for us, they are all dead.

All dead.

I wake up in Derek’s arms with my heart in my throat, we need to get out of here as fast as we can!

I jumped up, startling Derek, who wasn’t expecting my sudden move.

“We need to go, now!” I shout, shifting into my wolf, and starting to run south, in the direction of our pack.

But my voice is covered by the first explosion going off right under our feet. Derek curses, then shifts quickly into his outstanding black wolf, and starts running beside me, supporting my weight when the trembling of the ground nearly makes me fall over.

I looked around, searching for our warriors, but I found none.

“Where is everyone?” I ask Derek through the mind-link.

“There have been an attack to our pack, I have sent everyone back to fight.”

For a second, I can’t register what he is saying. An attack on the Crescent Moon? And why is Derek here, when the pack is under attack? For me, no doubt, to protect me, he wouldn’t feel safe leaving me in anyone’s hands but his own.

His protectiveness melts my heart, but at the same, I am worried for our pack, they are weak without their Alpha.

“Who attacked?” I ask, still through the link, when a deafening explosion suddenly sends the ground crumbling under our feet.

We start falling, without anything to grasp on, to the level below a carpet of high dancing flames, black smoke and fluttering ashes.

I shift mid-air, finding it easier to command this new power in my human form. I swipe my arms upwards, letting the wind make us float back to the surface, much to Derek's amazement.

I don’t stop at the ground though, being it too frail and dangerous, I let us levitate in mid-air over the top of the forest’s tall trees, where the explosions cannot reach us.

“Anything you need to tell me, kitten?” Derek asks through the link, his wolf making a nearly human-Derek-like expression that looks completely ridiculous on him. I chuckle, getting a dirty look from him, it’s unbelievable how expressive his wolf is.

“I just found out, when I was underground. I am not really sure where this power is coming from, it’s like my mother gifted her powers to me, but I am sure I didn’t have these abilities before. Maybe a gift from the moon goddess?”

Derek doesn’t reply, he looks deep in thought, so I take this opportunity to test this new wind power, see what I can do with it.

At this moment I feel a little like that character from that Japanese cartoon, who could travel the world riding on his small white cloud, he could travel really fast. Mmhh, let’s see how fast the wind can take us.

I make the wind speed up, and soon we are shooting like two arrows in the air, the strong wind swipes my long hair like whips in my face, while Derek’s fur is all flattened back and his long tongue is dangling on the side, looking like one of those dogs who enjoy riding on cars with their head out of the window. Mph! He’s cute!

My mood sours when I feel pack links snapping, and I see Derek tense up, like it’s taking his whole not to jump down and go on a rampage.

I speed up, my anxiety and guilt pushing the wind to go faster, and although the distance is great, we manage to get to Crescent moon in just twenty minutes.

As soon as we reach the borders, we see people fighting outside and inside the border fence; the gate has been taken down, probably with bombs, as it is all burnt and twisted, laying discarded on the ground.

The battling field is chaos, there are human military forces, with weapons and tanks, the mutants, our pack members, not only our warriors, but women and elder people too. My heart fills with gratitude when I spot werewolves from neighboring packs, and the Moonlight Walker’s warriors; Lukas has kept his promise, he has come to our help, and he couldn’t have come at a better time.

Bodies are littering the ground everywhere, and my heart clenches when I see that most of them are our warriors. Today, many families have been thorned apart, many children have lost their parents; I want to crouch down and cry, cry for all the innocent lives we have lost, but that’s not what a Luna or a white wolf should do, so I raise my hands, ready to bring havoc to the ones who dared attack us, when Derek jumps off my wind ship, and I suddenly fall to the ground on my butt. Ouch!