The Protector of Wolves

Chapter 3: The Chase

Lacy's POV

Hundreds of hunters emerge from the trees and race into our little town. I look over at Jenna; she’s frozen in place and her face is as pale as a ghost.

“Jenna, go find our moms and Lauren and make sure they’re in the safe room!” I direct her. She locks eyes with me and nods at my orders. Many of our warriors are women, but learning to fight never really interested Jenna. I run with her towards the packhouse and make sure she gets inside safely. At the same time, my father, brother, and all the warriors are gathering outside of the packhouse. Elijah is giving commands to his warriors while my father helps those unable to fight get to safety.

Elijah’s eyes dart over to me. “Alessia! Get inside now!” My brother commands in his alpha voice. My wolf should submit to the Alpha’s orders, but I feel no desire to oblige. I can’t say I’m surprised. My fathers commands never worked on me either. Usually I just listen anyway.

“No, I am staying! I have to help protect our pack!” I argue, hoping he understands what I’m trying to convey to him. He looks less angry than he does worried, but he doesn’t press the matter further.

I turn to look at the dozens of hunters near us, every single one of them with a dagger, the tips ever so subtly shimmering purple, just like the first one I saw.

"They have wolfsbane! Be careful!" I link to the entire pack simultaneously. I didn't even know I could do that; that ability is usually reserved for the alpha.

I watch as one of the hunters goes after Elijah, a bad choice on his part to attack the alpha without help. Even in his human form, my brother outmatches the hunter in both speed and strength. The hunter quickly falls to the ground, dagger in hand and his neck contorted in a position that is not compatible with life. The rotten scent from earlier is all around me now, and I realize that smell must belong to the hunters.

“Strange, usually as wolves we can’t discern hunters from humans.” I tell Cecelia.

“Protector gift?” she guesses. Although I’ve known I was the protector for five years, there are many things about it that I am not fully aware of yet.

"THAT'S HER!" I hear a hunter shout from behind me. I turn around to see who he is talking about, and I realize he's pointing right at me. The warriors, though still fighting, have taken note of this exchange. They attempt to get closer to me to try to protect me, but suddenly dozens more hunters emerge from the forest.

“They just keep coming in droves.” I say to my wolf. “How do I stop this?”

"You can’t.” Her reply is full of defeat. “We have to run."

Disbelief and anger flow through me. I can’t believe that my wolf would give up so easily. I can’t believe she would suggest that I leave my pack. "No, I have to do stay and help!” I shout at her. “I can’t just abandon the pack! We are their protector, remember?”

"They are only after us, Alessia! This was a carefully planned out attack.” I look all around me, the warriors are fighting well, but I can tell they are struggling against the sheer number of hunters. Some of them have superficial wounds from the daggers. Although the wounds appear insignificant, I know the wolfsbane has to be affecting them, nonetheless. Cecelia interjects my thoughts, “If we don’t go now, they will overpower us, and we will die. Remember what the Moon Goddess said.”

I feel a sense of dread start to creep its way throughout my whole body as I start to recall what the Moon Goddess told me about hunters. Cecelia's right; as much as I don’t want to abandon my pack, we have to get out of here. I shift and take off running towards the opposite direction of the hunters.

"They are following you!" Elijah yells at me through the link.

"They know that I am the protector!" I link back. "Keep everyone back and I'll lead them away."

"NO!" He growls at me. "We can fight them!"

"Elijah, they are only here for me! They’re trying to corner me, and the warriors can’t keep up.”

"Alessia, if they catch you, they will kill you!" I can feel the panic in his voice, even through the link.

“They will certainly kill me if I stay here!” I cry. “At least this way I have a chance, and no one else needs to get hurt.”

“Then I’m going with you.” He states. My brother can be so stubborn sometimes. I know he wants to make sure I am okay, but he forgets that he has to take care of an entire pack. They are all his family, too.

“You are Alpha now, Elijah. You swore to protect the pack; you have to help them before me.” I link back to him.

“Please, don't do this," he begs me. I can feel the heartbreak in his voice. "We can find another way..."

"You know we have no other options." I struggle to keep the emotion out of my voice. My mind is made up. Elijah again tries to dissuade me, but I don't give him the chance.

“Protect the pack!” I order him. It feels weird to be able command my Alpha brother, but maybe it's yet another part of my protector gifts. Still running at full speed, I reach the edge of the pack lands. Every fiber of my body keeps pulling me back to my pack, my family. I am running to save myself, but in the process, I am hoping my plan of pulling the hunters away from the pack helps them, too.

“Are they still following us?” Cecelia asks. I look back briefly.

“Yes.” I reply, both relieved and terrified. They are just close enough behind me that I can see them well with my wolf vision. Judging by the number of them following me, I can safely assume that most of them left the pack to pursue me. I continue running northwest, taking care to avoid the human towns in the area.

After about half an hour, nothing looks familiar to me anymore and panic starts to set in about how I am going to get out of this alive. Would the Moon Goddess be mad if I lost my life while saving my pack? Would she be mad because I failed to stay alive for my true purpose? If I die, then it will be my fault if all werewolves get eradicated. I would be failing my creator and my kind. “I have to figure something out,” I keep repeating to myself.

“Alessia, we’re coming to help you.” The distance is making it difficult for us to link, but I can just barely hear my brother. “Please be careful.”

“I will, but please hurry. I don’t think I can fight all of them alone.” I reply, my voice uneven.

The link cuts out and I know we’re now too far away to be able to link each other. In the distance I spot an abandoned house and decide it is a good place to take a quick break and figure out my next course of action. Wolves can run much faster and longer than humans, so I know I have some time before the hunters catch up to me. A part of me is hoping that they lost my trail, but I also am aware that most hunters are well trained to track the animal that they are hunting.

The closer I get to the house the more I can tell it is in poor shape; the roof is caving in and all of the doors are barely hanging from the hinges. I'm able to enter the house through the back door, taking care not to disturb the house too much.

The first thing I do is look for any clothes I might be able to wear. I wasn’t able to grab any extra clothes before I shifted since the attack came as a huge surprise. The clothes I find look about as good as the house, but it’s better than nothing.

After changing, I walk back to the kitchen and sit at the small dining table. I try to recall everything the Moon Goddess said to me when she told me about being a protector. I remember her mentioning that our pack is called Solar Eclipse because the founding Alpha wolf (my great grandfather many times over) was born during a solar eclipse, just like me. The Moon Goddess made him a protector, too. And apparently, that knowledge is how Travis and Alpha Douglas found out I was a protector, though I still do not fully understand how they figured it out. Many wolves are born during solar eclipses and not made protectors.

Perhaps the most important piece of information the Moon Goddess gave me was about hunters. Most hunters are human and just hunt werewolves for sport; killing an Alpha is the ultimate prize for them. But the hunters at our pack weren't after my father or Elijah – they were after me. The Moon Goddess mentioned the protector before me wasn't just dealing with those kinds of hunters; he was dealing with dark hunters. Most were still human, but they were guided by witches/wizards who turned against the Moon Goddess for allowing such "disgusting creatures," to exist. She told me the other protector saved werewolves from becoming completely eradicated by dark hunters. If these are dark hunters, then that means there might be some magical beings with them.

"The witches can scent us!" Cecelia realizes.

"s**t!" I need to very quickly think of a way out of this house without being seen. I stand up and look around the room, searching for anything that could help me.

"Use your powers!" She barks at me.

Along with being a protector, the Moon Goddess granted me an extra ability – magic. The problem is my interactions with witches have been limited so I have had a somewhat difficult time learning to use that gift. I look around the entire house to see if I can find anything that might be helpful, but I find nothing.

I walk back to the living room and out of frustration plop on an old chair. I take another look around the room, my eyes slowly searching for anything that I might have missed. My eyes pause on a section of the wall that somehow looks off. I walk closer to it and realize what I'm looking at is a well-hidden door. I gently push it open; there is a set of stairs leading to a basement. The electricity doesn't work but I find an old candle and light it with the snap of my fingers. I walk down the stairs and around the corner I find a door leading to what I presume was a bedroom. As I enter the room, my attention immediately goes to an old jewelry armoire.

"That's it! I can enchant a piece of jewelry to hide my scent." I say to Cecelia. She grumbles at me, obviously not thrilled to be hidden but also aware of the dire situation we are in.

I open a drawer of the armoire and find several necklaces, a hair clip, and a broach. I don't want anything too flashy, so I keep searching. Finally, I find a simple ring - just a plain, silver band. I slide it on my right ring finger, and it fits perfectly! I focus all my energy on the ring, and it starts to glow. I think about what I want it to do. After a few seconds, it stops glowing.

"Did it work?" Cecelia asks.

Before I could reply, I hear a loud crash upstairs. The sounds of footsteps echo down from the ceiling. "Come out little wolf! We know you're in here!"