Mine to Protect Chapter 49: HOPE

*Hazel*

My mom raises her head and shakes it, telling me not to answer. Tears well in my eyes, I don’t know what to do, I can’t let her suffer again, I can’t take another round of that agony.

“Tik tok, tik tok, time is ticking,” the voice mocks me, oh I want to find this woman and rip her throat out.

“Times out,” she announces.

Electrical current zaps again through the wires, this time mom doesn’t even find the strength to struggle, she stays there slouched forward, her body trembling from the electric shock, her skin becoming dark, burnt. I need to do something. Why aren’t my wolf’s powers manifesting today? Please, wolf, make it stop, I beg you, please wake up, wake up!

But nothing happens. I am alone in this.

“I have no wolf; I have no wolf!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

The electricity stops again, giving what remains of my mom temporary relief.

“What did you say, sweetheart?” the voice coaxes.

“I have no wolf, I am wolf less. So, no, I am not a white wolf.” It isn’t a complete lie, my wolf has not woken yet, so technically I am wolf less.

“That’s not possible. White wolves’ genes are inherited through each generation, every first female born. Your mother is a white wolf, we have witnessed her powers at your house. So, you must be a white wolf too.”

I laugh coldly. “It appears you are well informed on white wolves, but unfortunately your information about me is incorrect. I have no wolf; I am practically human. I don’t know if the Moon Goddess shunned me, or if my mother had other daughters before me, whichever the case, the fact stays that I have no wolf.”

“Mhhh, so you say. There are ways to check though, you know?”

Her ominous words don’t promise anything good. Soon enough, the guards enter the room again, armed with syringes and knives. One of the guards injected me with one of the syringes, while the other takes the silver chains off me.

“You have been injected with an antidote to wolfsbane, and without the silver chains weakening your wolf, you should feel stronger, stronger enough to heal.”

To heal from what?

I don’t even get to finish my thought, that one of the guards plunges his knife in my thigh, all the way through until the hilt meets my skin, then it twists it, creating a round bloody hole, from which dark red blood gushes all over my leg and onto the floor, forming a small puddle.

My scream of pain seems to wake my mom, who is now staring at me in horror, trying to understand what is happening.

The guard drove another knife in my shoulder, making me cry out again. What are they doing?

“Hit her again, until her wolf comes out to heal her.” The voice orders through the speakers.

No, I’ll die, I can’t heal fast enough without my wolf. Will my wolf save me? Will she wake if we are on the brink of death?

The guards pummel me with their knives repeatedly, without mercy, while my mom tries to say something, but only manages to slur something incomprehensible, tears streaming down her face. I become numb to the pain, my body shutting it off feeling too much of it, or maybe it is the blood loss, I am not sure.

No one talks or moves for a while, only the noise of my mom crying can be heard. I am losing consciousness, I am going to die soon, in the end, even at my death bed, my wolf hasn’t woken. What a shame.

“It appears she was telling the truth. What a waste of my time. We’ll continue our tests on Elizabeth, take her to her room first to recover. As for her daughter, you can take her to the organ harvesting room, she’ll die soon, let’s not have those precious organs go wasted. She hasn’t shifted, but she is still a werewolf, her organs are made to support shifting.”

I feel them pick me up and place me on a gurney, they push me through the corridor to another large room, filled with other gurneys like mine, doctors in white lab suits holding scalpels and saws. My vision is coming full circle, only this time, there is no waking up in Derek’s strong arms. A doctor approaches me, and I close my eyes, filling my mind with images of Derek, wanting to go with my mind brimming with love, and not dread.

I feel my gurney moving again. Where are they taking me? Haven’t I suffered enough?

I open my eyes, but they are unseeing, my death bed awaits me, it won’t take long to lay in its soft covers.

“Hazel!” someone calls me in a whisper. Who is it?

“Hazel! Wake up! You need to heal, now, before it is too late.” My mom’s voice, how is that possible? Is it my subconscious playing with me? Or, maybe, she’s dead too, and her ghost has come to pay me a visit.

“Call to your wolf, dive into the deepest part of your mind and wake her, let her heal you. Do it, Hazel! Now!” she continues with urgency, the gurney still moving to an unknown destination.

I don’t really know what she is talking about, how can someone reach the deepest part of one’s mind? Do I need a starship? I would laugh at my stupid joke if I weren’t feeling so woozy.

For one last time, I’ll try calling my wolf, maybe she’ll answer this time, although I doubt it.

“Wolf? Wolfy? Someone’s there? Could you heal me before I die? If I die you die too, it’s counterproductive. I don’t know what grudge you have against me, but I really think you should reconsider your decision of not healing me; if we survive, we can talk it out and make it work somehow, if we die, the grudge stays for eternity.”

No one replies and I just feel stupid, stupid for still harboring some hope my wolf would save me. I want to live, I really do, with everything I have, but life doesn’t always give you what you want, and this time is no different.

I am not afraid of death, I am afraid of what I am losing, Derek, my mom, Cindy, the possibility of a family of my own, our children running around the house, all the places I haven’t seen, things I haven’t done. I also regret never shifting, never feeling the connection to my wolf, never roaming in the forest like other werewolves do, free of any restraint.

I feel my mind sleep into unconsciousness, and I know this is my end.

I am surprised though, when the feeling of coldness that was enveloping me slowly recedes, replaced by a warm sensation running all over my body, spreading from my heart to every limb. In a matter of moments, I feel good, completely alert, invigorated.

I open my eyes, coming face to face with a guard in one of those horrid lab suits.

“Thank the Goddess, Hazel, you did it! You did it!” The guard speaks with my mom’s voice, hugging me tightly like my mom would do, her scent that of my mom’s.

“Mom! You are alive! Thank God! How did you escape?” I asked her amazed, wondering how she pulled this one off.

“Get up, I’ll explain on the way, we need to get out of here.”