Our Lycan Protectors

CHAPTER 3

MALIA POV.

It was so cold. Amelia and I were huddled in one of the corners together and she were shaking from the cold just as much as I was. At least she managed to fall asleep which I found difficult since we got here, and I was exhausted. We have been in this cell like room for a long time with only a small square opening in the wall, much too high for us to reach, to shine in sunlight from outside. There used to be more of us, some of them we did not know but others we did from our neighboring packs whose dads were also alphas like ours and we were all scared. The only other people that we saw were big guys that came in to feed us once a day or to take one or two of us out of the room and as much as I wanted to get out of here, I was petrified of being taken out of here because the others never returned and now it was only us left. At first, I thought it was something I did but then again why was Amelia taken too… and what happened to Mikey? I hit my head and blacked out, but Amelia said that he was also taken but she didn’t see him again after mom tackled one of the rogues that had hold of Mikey, but before she could see what happened, the rogue walked off with me and dragging her behind him.

I could smell the rotting odor of the cells of being damp and underground and seeing very little sunlight but there was also the smell of rotting flesh that I could only associate with death. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want my sister to die. There had to be a way out of here, but if there were, how was I going to get out of this cell to find it and even if I did find a way out, what was I going to do? I didn’t know how to fight or even shift into my wolf. We were only five. Training only started when we turned seven and our first shifts only happens when we get to around the age of twelve.

The scraping of a key in a lock made me jump and I held onto Amelia harder as she was also jolted awake and immediately started crying.

A big burly man came into the cell, and I glared at him as I held onto Amelia protectively, but he only grinned sadistically at us. He grabbed us each by an arm and started pulling us out of the cell and Amelia and I started kicking, punching and screaming in protest to which all of our efforts was ignored. He dragged us past other cells, and I caught glimpses of other cowering kids. Some were crying, some were staring absently in front of them, and some lied eerily still on the cell floors.

All of our efforts were useless, and I stopped fighting, not because I was giving up but because I was wasting my energy and I felt even more tired than before, but Amelia was still going at it. The man dragged us to a white room. It looked almost like one of the pack hospital rooms but instead of a comfortable bed with pictures on the wall and a TV, it was scarily bare with two awkward looking beds with straps attached in the center of the room and trays with sharp tools on them. There were other big, boxed shape things that looked like giant computers and had tubes and glass containers attached to them. As scared as I was before, nothing compared to how terrified I felt now.

The man that brought us here walked over to the beds and threw us each in turn onto a bed. He held us down when another man appeared in our vision and started to tie us up with the straps of the beds. First our hand, then our feet and then we were strapped down across our stomachs and or heads. We couldn’t move.

The man that brought us here, shoved our beds together and a wave of relief washed over me that my fingers could touch Amelia’s and we immediately clung to each other’s hand. He then turned and left without a word and that left the man that strapped us to the beds alone in the room with us. From the smell of him, I could sense that he wasn’t like us, he was human but why was he working with other werewolves to kidnap us and the others? It didn’t make sense. Humans weren’t supposed to know about us and yet here he was, standing over us.

He smiled evilly and started to tap around on the big box things and turning knobs that I could see. I couldn’t even see Amelia because I couldn’t turn my head, but I could hear her sobbing. At least we were still together I thought and swallowed fearfully. The man turned around and had two identical masks in his hands and brought it towards us. Both of us started to fight against our restraints even though we knew it was futile. The last thing I remember before everything went dark, was the excited gleam in die sadistic human’s eyes as I held on to my sisters’ hand for dear life.

***

ELEVEN YEARS LATER

MALIA POV.

My body hurt… no, that didn’t sound right. It felt more like there were thousands of ants crawling under my skin. I opened my eyes and groaned as the sun shone directly into my eyes and I rolled onto my side with difficulty. The mad doctor really did a number on me this time. I thought to myself as I looked around the room where I lay facing it now, the wall with the barred window behind me. At least the beds were comfortable and provided at least relief for my body to rest on.  I felt relieved to see my sister was also brought back and she was still sleeping whatever they injected her with, and I briefly wondered if she received the same treatment as I did or did they do something different to her again. I also noticed that the others were not back.  Luckily, we achieved the ability to shift into our wolfs when we turned twelve, we finally became what nature intended us to be and not what they were trying to make us. But that didn’t help us. We were still here, four years later and still no hope of escaping.

I sigh as I closed my eyes again. Eleven years. I think to myself. Eleven years of experimentation, training, and testing. Eleven years of being tortured and pushed to our limits. We did receive education and were taught skills but what was it all for?” To satisfy some curiosity or to fulfill a madman’s fantasy? Is this really what we have left to look forward to? What was he looking for? What was he trying to do or create? The thoughts whirled through my head. That was all I could do that was of my own free will. After the first procedure, we were forced into obedience. At least my sister and I and six of the other alpha children who survived were. The others that did not survive got thrown out with the trash and some were kept to take apart their bodies for whatever the mad doctor thought good for.

They called us UNIT 16 and we were stripped of our identities. The eight of us that remained, were all put together in a large cell with at least the basic necessities like a place to sleep and bathroom facilities and it wasn’t as cold as that last cell that we were kept in, but not all of us survived. We lost two of our unit over the years so now we were six. I take a deep relieved breath as I feel the crawling under my skin start to recede and I try to close my eyes to get at least a little more sleep. That was the only upside to being used as a guineapig. After an experiment or procedure as they liked to call it, we were left alone to rest for the rest of the day.

Just as my mind stilled there was a loud banging from outside our door. I bolted upright on instinct and so did my sister. Neither of us spoke as we waited for more noises and as if right on que, there was more banging and swearing as if someone was fighting and it sounded as though the person was putting up a good fight. Curiosity getting the better of us, we leaped of our beds and squashed our faces against the small window square that was the only visible lookout from our room. The scuffle was just out of our vision, but I felt satisfaction that it sounded as if someone was giving our captures, or guards as they like to call themselves, a hard time.

Before the fight could make it into our line of site, the alarm went off and the red light in the hall and in the cell rooms went off.  I knew what this meant. Everyone in holding was to lie on the floor, face down with their hands on their head until the alarms lifted. For a moment my sister and I were frozen to the spot. I looked at her and I knew that she felt the same type of pull that kept us standing there. We didn’t want to comply with the rules. I had this overwhelming urge to see what was happening outside in the hallway, but I also knew that if we didn’t, that we wouldn’t be punished, but the rest of the unit will. That’s how it worked here. You weren’t punished for your insubordination; you were forced to watch as others were punished and that etched in a deeper set of guilt than any other punishment. If you wanted to protect your unit, you had to be obedient.

I slowly pushed myself from the door and grabbed her arm as I went. She didn’t want to but it had to be done. We just managed to assume our positions next to our beds when I heard feet at our door. From experience, I knew that it was the guards looking into the window through the door to see if we complied and I breathed out a sigh in relief and another one when the alarm with its flashing red light went off after a few minutes.

My sister was first to her feet and ran to the window, searching the hallways as far as she could but everything was quiet. No more shouting, fighting or banging was heard. I knew what she felt. She wanted to feel the pull again and so did I but I couldn’t risk anything happening to her if I got caught disobeying again because of what I wanted, so I kept myself on my spot next to my bed.

“What was that?” She asked. Her head whipping around at me before look back out the little window. I shrugged as I sat down on my bed. “Don’t know. “Whatever it is, we have to be careful. We can’t risk being pulled in by whatever that was.” I say and lie back down, staring at the ceiling. I could feel her gaze on me for a moment before she stepped away from the door and to her bed. She sighed audibly before lying down again. The adrenalin of the excitement of before was starting to drain and I felt tired again. The sun was much lower now as before and I guessed it to be nearing dinner time and right on que, two trays of food was slipped underneath the door, and she got up again to get them. I sat up, not feeling all that hungry but I had to eat to keep my strength up because I knew it would be back to hard training tomorrow. “Thanks.” I said as I took the tray and she nodded before sitting next to me. We always sat and ate together. At least this was not part of breaking the rules.