Mine to Protect Chapter 72: DIARIES

*Hazel*

Alpha snob claims again my attention.

“Don’t worry, my pack and I have always been very welcoming with white wolves, that’s why your family resided on these lands for generations. You are free to come to our pack whenever you wish; after all, you are the only descendant of the line, and thus the only owner of your family house. It would be a pity to let it go abandoned, it is a beautiful house, you should come and stay there from time to time.”

His voice sounds sweet and welcoming, but the glint in his eyes still gives me very bad vibes. I don’t know what to make of this man, but I think I should be really careful around him.

“That’s very nice of you, Alpha Preston, we’ll think about it. If that’s all, we’ll be on our way now.”

Lukas does not wait for a reply and stirs me to the car without looking back. He revs on the engine, gives a nod of his head as a means of greeting, and speeds out of the packhouse’s entrance road.

“For Fuck’s Sake, Hazel, what’s gotten into you? Why did you tell him that you are a white wolf? Do you want me to put an ad online, so that everyone can know? Now I know what poor Derek needs to put up with every day; you are going to make him age faster.”

“Hey! Now you are being unfair,” I protest offended. “Half of the werewolf community already knows what I am, there is no point in hiding it. You and Derek should stop worrying so much. Your unnecessary worrying is going to make you bald early, not my behavior.”

“Have you had a good look at my hair? There is no way I am getting bold!” Lukas states indignantly. Then continues more seriously, “Next time, let me do the talking. Only the Goddess knows what other important secret might just pop out of your big mouth.”

I stare at him angrily, not liking this new attitude of his, but my attention is soon diverted to a beautiful Victorian style house coming into view. It is painted grey, made of 2 stories, with a turret on the left and bay windows. The decorative trims are all painted white, making the house look like it’s been crocheted at the edges. It’s cute, in a vintage kind of way.

We stop in front of the house, and I get out of the car as soon as the wheels stop moving, I am so eager to find the answers to my questions, to learn how to harness my powers.

“One rule. You stay close to me, no running around alone, ok?”

“Yes, grandpa!”

He’s spoiling my good mood with his overprotectiveness. What is with these Alphas and their need to be mother hens?

I climb the few steps of the front porch and try the main door, it is unlocked. I push the door open, and I am met with a cloud of dust that nearly chokes me. We end up coughing our lungs out, before we can take any step further.

The entrance is a huge open space, which connects the living room/dining room and kitchen; they must have changed the original structure, because this is not a typical Victorian style, but I like it, nonetheless. My mom has always loved open spaces, maybe they reminded her of her house.

There is a flight of stairs in front of the entrance, which leads to the upper floor, to where I suppose are the bedrooms and bathrooms.

I climb the stairs, hearing Lukas complaining behind me, “Didn’t I tell you to stay close to me?”

“Why don’t you stay close to me instead?” I ask unnerved, and mutter “self-centered much” under my breath.

“I heard that!” comes his sulky reply.

I roll my eyes at his childish behavior and open the first door down the corridor. It is a spacious bedroom with a four-poster bed, there’s a huge wardrobe on the left, and I go for it, hoping to find the books in there, but instead I find it completely empty.

We swipe the whole floor, but apart from dust and old clothes eaten by moths, we find no books lying around.

There’s a small stair leading to the attic, which is closed by a trapdoor, and I motion for Lukas to go ahead of me.

“What, are you afraid of now? Where did all your bravado go?”

“Werewolves I can deal with, but mice, no!” I state defensively.

I hate mice, if one of them were to fall on me when opening the trapdoor, I would die of disgust.

Lukas doesn’t seem worried about those dirty rodents, and bravely goes up the steps and opens the trapdoor. He goes in and then calls for me, “Aren’t you coming?”

“Check if there are any rats around first! Please?”

I can imagine him rolling his eyes, and I hear him mutter something about a bloody werewolf scared of rats, but I don’t bother commenting. He can think what he wants, mice are just not my thing.

“No rats around, the coast is clear,” he calls at last.

I get in the attic, and I am amazed by the amount of junk that is piled up here. It will take ages to go through all this stuff!

We gloomily get to work, and after what feels like hours, Lukas finally finds something, an old trunk locked with a silver lock. It must contain something important.

We find a metal bar to break it open, and after a few tries it gives way. I open it excitedly, and I am overjoyed to see that they are indeed the diaries we were looking for. There are at least thirty diaries, some of them are nearly aged to dust, but the majority are just yellowed and a little tarnished.

We decide that it’s better if we don’t carry the books out of the house, we would attract too much attention and make the Alpha suspicious about their content. So, we share the books fairly between the both of us, get comfortable seated on the floor, and start scrolling through for the information we need.

The first two diaries I go through are completely useless, one just depicted the pain of an unrequited love, and the second mainly contained only bad cooking experiments. The third one though, is written by a white wolf named Nora, who had the power to create illusions, she too, like me, had visions and was able to mind link anyone she wished to.

In one of her recollections, she explains how she minds linked her sister Judith, who was on the other side of the continent, and managed to teleport herself to Judith’s location, as a ghostlike figure, no one could see or hear her, and she was not able to touch anything, just like it happened in my vision.

My mind immediately goes to Cindy. Maybe I can mind link too at long distances? And if I could be able to see where they have taken her, I could surely help her out.

I don’t have time to delve too long into this thought, because suddenly we hear the main door creak open, and footsteps coming up the stairs. Noises are coming from the rooftop too, and I immediately know we are trapped.