Protectors of the Realm

Chapter 5

Queen Antonina's POV (Dream Continued)

    When I woke up, I found myself back in my room.  At first I was confused and just figured that I must have been dreaming.  I slowly got out of bed and started to make my way downstairs.  I stopped on the stairwell when I heard my parents speaking.

    "Did you know? I mean we have been living here for years, how did we not see this?" My mom said

    "I had a feeling something was strange when we first moved here, but after a while, I guess I just ignored it because we made a life here." my dad responded.

    My mom sighed and stated, "What about Nina, how do you think she's going to take all of this?"

I finished going down the stairs and saw my parents sitting at the kitchen table.  There were kids sleeping on the floor and I realized that what I saw wasn't a dream. "Mom, Dad wh-wha-what happened?"

    "Oh Nina, are you okay sweetheart?", My mom said as she rushed to me and led me to a seat at the table. 

    "I don't know mom, I - I mean I think I saw something that just can't be true!, " I cried.  "Is -Is it possible? I think I saw my bestfriend turn into a...." I shook my head unable to finish what I was trying to say.

    "Yes, there are alot of things that happened tonight that we were unaware of" my dad grunted.

Suddenly the door opened and my friend walked in.  He slowly walked to me and honestly I was strangely calm.  I was curious, could it be that this was all just me hallucinating.  He looks so normal, there is no way that it was real.  I started laughing aloud because I just knew I was being silly.

    "Nina, it's me Sebastian, are you ok, " my friend said as he sat down next to me.

    "Yea, I just realized that I must have been dreaming to think that you turned into a"

    "Wolf", my friend said.

I looked at him eyes wide, "H-How d-d-did you know that was wh-wh-what I was thinking?"

    "Because it's true, Nina," he sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair.  His parents walked in and sat down at the table. "There are so many things that we haven't told you about our community because we didn't want to alarm you and we like your family."

    "B-But how is that possible, " I said with an unusual calmness.  I actually wasn't frightened. I was really more curious than anything.

"I guess we better start at the beginning," Sebastian's Dad said.  "We are werewolves which mean that we have a wolf that is a part of us.  This wolf has its own personality and identity, but we live as one.  We try to keep our nature away from humans because they wouldn't understand or would try to kill us."

    "But why did you let us stay here?" my mom asked confused

    "When you came to us, you were in need.  You weren't looking for anything but freedom, freedom for your daughter to make her own choices. You worked beside us, helped our community, became apart of our community.  You never asked for anything.  And there was something about you all that made it feel right. You belonged here. We didn't tell you about our nature because we didn't want you to be scared of us or leave."

    "Are you going to make us leave now that we know" I asked

    "No, we want you to stay, only if you want. If you do choose to leave, we just ask that you keep us a secret." Sebastian's Dad responded.

    "This is our home, we will not leave. You are the same people we have worked alongside, became friends with and have become apart of our family."

    "I'm glad my friend, we will talk more in the morning." Sebastian's dad said as he, Sebastian and Sebastian's mom left.

My parents and I sat around the table still in shock for a few minutes but we were happy.

Without warning, the doors to the house were flung open and an angry growling came from a huge wolf. I  stood up and the wolf immediately jumped towards me. My dad, out of instinct pushed me out of the way and the wolf grabbed my dad's neck in its jaws and in a second ripped my dad's throat out.  My mom screamed and ran to jump on the wolf, when the wolf raised it's paw and swiped, leaving huge holes along my mom's chest. She fell against the wall gasping for air.  Before I could even think about I grabbed a knife that had fallen on the floor and I ran towards the wolf.  The wolf stood up on its hind legs and was really tall.  He raised his paw getting ready to strike and I quickly dodged it.  All I could see was Red, this wolf just took away my parents.  I jumped and plunged the knife in the middle of the wolf's chest.  The wolf stumbled back and I let go.  The wolf let out a very loud howl and fell to the ground.  It morphed back into a person and I saw him take his last breath.  I fell to the floor trying to catch my breath but scared because I didn't know if more were coming.  Then I heard voices.  Sebastian and his dad ran in and looked around and saw the wolf dead. Sebastian ran to me and wrapped his arms around me.  I looked up and finally took in the scene around me.  My dad was lying in a pool of blood just inches away from me and my mom was slumped against the wall no longer breathing.  I saw Sebastian's face and so many emotions were going across his face.  I screamed, I screamed for the loss of my dad, I screamed for the loss of my mom.  I screamed and once again my world went black.