"This place is just...I'm lost for words," Alphard mumbled causing Luna to chuckle.
"Wait till you reach the place," She said.
He was in awe looking around the forest he thought he knew by now, but it turned out that the forest he thought he knew was far more extended than he can ever know. Thanks to Luna that he got to see this part of the forest.
After arriving at the town, Luna took him straight here and proposed that everyone think they were still somewhere in the snow, to which Alphard agreed.
They were now in the middle of the forest, surrounded by thick bushes and tall trees. Unlike the ground of the forest near his house, here it wasn't damp in the least, but was dry like that of any well maintained park. One thing bothered him and so he asked.
"I hear only chirping around. Are there no animals?"
"No wild animals in this part of the forest, don't worry." She assured.
He was looking around as they walked and bumped into Luna's back who'd stopped walking ahead of him.
"What t___" He gawked ahead. "My goodness," His jaw dropped, Luna laughed, unable to control herself.
"I wonder what'd become of you when you enter the workspace," She said after getting a hold of herself.
An Oak stood so tall over the ground, that Alphard thought its branches to be the protective arms which were holding the entire forest within, so that no harm comes to it.
Luna dragged him to the right side of the tree trunk and asked him to place both of his palms over what looked like lichen.
"It's literally fungi! I'm not putting my hands on that."
"Will you do it yourself, or shall I?" She asked.
"You do whatever you want to," He answered, assuming that she was going to put her own hands on that. But found himself wrong. "Hey!" He shouted as she pushed him from behind, making his hands land where she wanted them to.
"You asked for it," She simply shrugged. He tried retracting his hands back, but wasn't able to and felt like they were being pulled in.
"What the f*ck is going on!? I never knew quick sand can be found on tree trunks!"
"It isn't. A dermatoglyphic scan is being made, stay still." She ordered. "It is artificially made to look like lichen, so no one suspects anything." She clarified. "Just stay there till the system lets you go on its own." He did as she said and it was over in less than a minute.
"Now? Where do we get in from?" He asked.
She gestured for him to follow and took him some 20 feet away from the tree, only to stop in front of another. Just that, despite its size; this one was hollow from the inside.
She tapped her feet, 2 times each on the only protruding root there and the left side of the trunk opened for them to enter. Once in, she knocked on the C mark made at the right side of the opening and it closed. Then she asked him to place any one of his fingers over a mark that looked like an I, he did.
When finished, a path was revealed for them to walk in on the very left corner which closed when she pressed a hand over the door as soon as they descended down the steps and finally, into the workspace.
The place was so good that Alphard forgot he was twenty five and started running around to touch and feel every object in there.
"Calm yourself down, Alphard." She chuckled.
"What else do you expect from me? This is just awesome!" Luna giggled.
"You remember all that I did to get in here?" He nodded. "Good, the next time you wanna come in, you can on your own and there's no need stop by the Oak as you're already registered." She said.
"Oh, so that's why you didn't place your hands over the lichen?" He asked.
"Yeah. Why were you worried about placing your hands over it?" She asked casually, while walking herself in.
"Just prevented myself from acquiring Immediate Hypersensitivity Anaphylaxis," He said in hopes to leave her perplexed and thought he'd succeeded when she frowned.
"Can't you just use the word allergy?" She shook her head in disbelief, leaving him with widened eyes. He quickly got over it and caught up with her.
"I've never really asked you this before, what did you graduate in?"
"I'm a field agent, isn't it obvious?" She said.
"Yeah, makes sense, but I witnessed your knowledge about chemicals lately and also the word play I did with allergy, not everyone is familiar with the term," He pondered.
"I'll save the answer for some other time, now we've other things to do," She was already walking towards the library.
Though Alphard had no idea what they were here for, he followed her.
The area was massive and held so many books, that made him feel kinda dizzy.
"I'm not really fond of libraries, or even books, in the least." He admitted.
Luna remembered that. Seeing books in bulk made him feel uncomfortable. Even as a child, he never stacked books on the shelves of his room.
"I know that and often wonder how you managed to study medicine, let alone to perform surgeries." He narrowed his eyes at that and huffed in annoyance, she laughed. "Why don't you go check the lab?" He agreed and went to the other side.
His lab at the agency was large, but this, what he was seeing now was even more...larger, not to mention the inbuilt clinic! Guess, Luna knew he'd be in the state he was now - in amazement - so she'd walked in and was standing beside him.
"I could run a hospital in here," He said.
"Unfortunately the owners wouldn't approve of it," Both of them laughed. Shortly after, Luna was back to the library.
Alphard began testing the equipments and Luna there was busy finding a certain book. What she'd seen on the man's arm was still not sitting right with her. She thought shifters with that mark were out of existence! Not only she, but her whole kind knows so.
She finally got the book she was searching for and closed the library door so Alphard doesn't walk in to see her reading about werewolf marks. She opened the book and got to the page with the title 'Forbidden Marks'. Fairly enough, it was the first mark under the heading.
The Blood Eye, also known as the Blood Thirst mark. As the name suggests, individuals with this mark are thirsty for blood, i.e. aggressive and cruel. With them, killing comes as natural as breathing and it doesn't matter if their prey is a stranger, or someone of their own pack.
This is because these individuals have no power over their beasts as they don't allow their human emotions to connect with their inner wolf. Any individual with the mark who tries to connect its human and wolf through emotions shall find it difficult at the beginning, but will soon find the mark change into another (based on the intensity of each emotion).
Temporary control can be established by being physically in contact with any werewolf, or human (not necessarily be their own mates) of the opposite gender.
Shifters with this mark can only be defeated by the ones bearing the Eight Armed Flake mark, i.e. the Flake of Alverales (only one of the individuals belonging to a well known and powerful pack can be seen with the mark).
She froze at that. This was literally her mark! Although, she didn't know till now that it's also called the Flake of Alverales, she knew that hers was the Eight Armed Flake.
Werewolves get their marks shortly after they find their mates, with both the individuals having them on the same spot, but as Luna was told and seen for herself, she's had it since birth.
Seeing that she didn't get any after finding her mate, she's assumed that it was a unique birthmark that just happened to resemble the Eight Armed Flake by some chance and her wolfmark didn't appear as Alphard doesn't know anything about them being mates, or the whole werewolf thing itself.
But what she'd just found out - one individual of a well known and powerful pack - indicates nothing, but of it to be her wolfmark! If it was, then how has she'd it since birth!? Nothing made sense to her except that why Alphard was under chase.
That fool thinks it's the 'Wolverales boy' who's going to destroy him just because the mark is called the Flake of Alverales? Embrace yourself you idiot, for it's me you'll have to face if you ever plan on bringing harm to Alphard!
She was the one, for she knew her parents bear the crescent mark - the mark of royalty. She closed the book and brought it back to its place. Her head was still throbbing from what she'd just discovered. Fresh air would do her good and so she got to the lab to inform Alphard.
Alphard noticed that she was stressed about something the moment she entered.
"What happened?" He worried, then decided to joke about it. "You too feel uncomfortable around so many books, don't you?" She snorted at that.
"It's just I didn't find what I was looking for, okay?" She lied. "I'm going out for a walk in the forest," She said.
"All right, I've got some things to arrange in here. I'll join you in some 10 minutes. If you don't mind, that is." He asked.
"I don't mind," She pulled out a map from inside her jacket. "I'll be on this path, it's the opposite direction from the Oak. You keep this with you." She showed him the path on the map and gave it to him. "Make sure you don't leave any door open," He nodded and she left.
Once out, she took a deep breath and let go of it slowly. Still trying to make sense about the information gathered not so long ago, she strolled on the path. The weather was a bit chilly than usual, it seemed like it was going to rain, dark clouds lined the sky.
She smiled to herself at the sudden memory of her childhood when this place was still being made by her parents. That day it'd rained a lot and despite her excitement as a child to see how an underground workspace looks like, she'd chosen to get sick by jumping around as water poured down from the sky.
She was now a couple meters, or more away from the workspace and was still walking ahead when she felt shifters around. She slowed her pace down and set her eyes and ears on guard.
She felt something fly towards her from her right, but before she could move, it struck her upper arm.
A syringe? She pulled it out of her arm and one sniff was enough to tell what its contents were.
Silver.
Sh*t! She cursed inwardly.
Silver, when gets into the bloodstream, prevents werewolves from getting into their wolf form for a while. She let out a frustrated growl so loud that it brought the ones who'd attacked her out of their hiding.
3 men, all in their mid thirties.
"She's the one?" A man on her right asked the one standing from across her. He nodded.
"You don't wanna mess with me," She stated.
How foolish of me to leave my gun at the workspace!
"Just hand us over the one you're protecting and we won't," Said the one on her left.
"Not gonna happen till I breathe,"
"And so we came prepared," The one from across her spoke and lunged forward. Her back was pressed on to his chest as he held a knife over her throat. "Just give us the information," She pressed hard her left foot over his and managed to free herself from his clutches. The knife fell to the ground.
"F*ck you! Good luck with trying to get any information from me!" She yelled as she looked around for what she could use as a weapon.
Alphard was now out of the workspace. He made sure he hadn't left any door open and walked himself on the path Luna said she'd be on. Nearly a meter away from the workspace, he heard Luna yell. He contained his urge to run for her rescue as the agent within him took over.
He took cover behind the thick bushes and tree trunks while making his way to Luna.
There he saw her surrounded by 3 men and one had a knife, ready to throw her way.
"Aren't you a stubborn one?" The one from her right said.
"Thank you," She said and threw sand on his eyes.
While he was trying to recover from it, she charged at the man with the knife and kicked him on his stomach. He reached for her and took her by her right foot. Then something happened and the knife was now sticking out of her left thigh. She stood up somehow, right then she felt her wolf and was about to let it out, but stopped when she felt Alphard's presence there.
He didn't miss the blue eyes and elongated canines. He can never forget those Swiss topaz coloured eyes. But they were gone as fast as they came, that he was convinced he was imagining things.
"You don't wanna die young, do you? Now like a good child, tell us where your partner is," The man who'd stabbed her said.
"No! And there's no way you're gonna find him on your own. He's smart enough to stay undercover, you fools." She carefully chose her words and although he wondered how she'd seen him, Alphard knew she was telling him to stay in hiding.
But he knew he'd to help her somehow. She was losing so much blood that her jeans was now soaked till its hem. Alphard was desperate to find anything that may help and so he found a way.
Right from across him was a tree with beehive within reach and those men were standing just below it. He checked his pockets and found what he needed.
A mask and a rubber band. He put on the mask to stay unidentified as Luna had told him to, as he'd have to come out of his hiding eventually and then found a small, but strong U shaped branch. He tied the rubber band to its free ends.
A medium sized pebble flew over their heads and they didn't even notice it, but Luna did. She smirked at them and took a few steps back. They were about to make a move, but the bees were already stinging them.
Alphard emerged out of his hiding and caught her just before her leg gave up. He steadied her before moving away with his gun and shot two of the men. The third one was nowhere to be seen.
He started looking around for him while Luna spotted the man aiming at Alphard from his left.
"Watch out!" She made a run for him, half limping and pushed him away, but couldn't manage to save herself and the bullet pierced her right shoulder.
Another shot and blood gushed out from just below the right side of her ribcage. Alphard didn't think much and shot aiming at the man's heart. It did the job and he fell lifeless to the ground. He ran to Luna who was struggling to breathe. To make matters worse, it started raining heavily.
"Breathe, Luna. Breathe!" He picked her up in his arms and started running towards the workspace. "Nothing's gonna happen, you'll be just fine. Breathe as much as you can." He kept on saying more as an encouragement to himself.
"Alp...ph...ard...," She mumbled.
"Don't talk, you'll lose more blood, try to___"
"I...I..."
"Shh, almost there. Be brave, you're stronger than this." He tried not to choke on his own voice. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes.
Don't lose it now Alphard, she's strong. Seeing you lose it will weaken her, collect yourself.
He was already carrying her down the stairs to the workspace. He rushed to the lab and had her on the bed. Her breathing and heart rate were going down with every passing second.
"Alph...you... I'm..."
"Everything's gonna be as it was," He mumbled while preparing the oxygen mask.
When he was about to place it over her nose and mouth, she gave him a weak smile and just before losing her consciousness, he heard her say those words for which he'd worked so hard till date, but never imagined it to come in a situation like this.
"I'm...pr...p...proud of...you, Alphard..."
__________
Author's Note:
Hey all!
How's everyone doing? Hope good.
I was about to post this chapter yesterday, but my parents dragged me to some 'boring' family 'get together' and so, I couldn't finish editing it, anyways, now it's done.
Oh, oh and the Flake of Alverales, wanna see? Check my IG page ;-)
Read my other stories on Wattpad #Crowded Silence (completed) #Holding On to Silence Until; You Came Along (ongoing)
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