Chapter 2 Lost

Panic gripped me, squeezing my chest with an iron grip, rendering me breathless.

Each second felt like an eternity as my mind screamed a single word over and over again: "Kids!"

Something unimaginable was unfolding, a sinister force threatening to snatch away the most precious beings in my life.

Every step I took echoed with desperation and fear. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, lending me an unnatural speed as I sprinted through the chaotic city streets.

Pedestrians blurred into a frenzied frenzy of color, the cacophony of their voices blending into an indistinguishable symphony of chaos. But amidst the commotion, my thoughts remain laser-focused on my beloved children, their innocence now in peril.

Frantically, I thrust my hands into the air, desperately seeking the attention of a passing taxi.

Yet, as if mocking my anguish, each cab zoomed past, indifferent to my desperate pleas. The world seemed to conspire against me, casting a shadow of hopelessness over my frantic attempts to reach my little ones.

Tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision, but I dared not stop. The darkness that threatened to consume my soul was far more terrifying than any physical pain I could endure.

Time distorted, elongating with each heartbeat, as if toying with my torment, pushing me to the brink of insanity.

Every fiber of my being yearned for a miracle, for a break in the storm that threatened to tear my world asunder.

My legs burned with an intensity that matched the fire raging in my heart. The city's pulse throbbed in rhythm with my own, a pulsating drumbeat that reverberated through the labyrinth of towering buildings.

But still, the taxi eluded me, leaving me to confront the agonizing truth-I was running out of time.

The walls of reality closed in, compressing my chest and squeezing the breath from my lungs. The deafening silence that followed my futile attempts to summon salvation was suffocating, amplifying the horrors that awaited if I failed to reach my children in time.

And so, driven by an unyielding determination, I decided to do something I had not done in ages.

I moved into the woods, wasting no time. I shifted.

My wolf form sprouted out. Ripping my clothes and I ran.

The race was of a mother worried about her pups.

It didn't take long when I arrived at my home.

I shifted back into my human form. Standing stark naked but I didn't care.

The door of my house was broken at its hinges.

I pushed into my home, the ground was stained with blood, grass, and dirt.

Sniffing the air to see if I could perceive my children but their scent was gone. What remained was that of blood.

I turned on my feet and headed toward where the smell was more intense.

And there laid the nanny. Cut open by claws that could only belong to that of a mystical being.

A werewolf to be precise.

I turned away from the scene and moved to my children's room.

Their beds were empty. The three of them. My triplets.

I walked towards the bed and held onto their toys and cried.

I knew this was going to happen. I thought I was just paranoid but I knew it.

This is what happens when the goddess thinks she is giving you a gift but it's just a curse. My triplets were blessed with elemental powers.

Karen was blessed with fire, Olivia was blessed with air and Noah ended up with earth. They could manipulate nature and I found out when they turned three.

After Karen had mistakenly turned her bed to ashes.

I chuckled at the memory. She was scared then and I was terrified.

I felt it. That someone was going to use these powers one day. Someone was going to catch up to me and see the secret I am trying to hide deeply.

Zzzzz

The home phone beside the bed vibrated.

I did not want to pick it but I did anyway.

"Hello..." I stammered, my voice barely above a whisper, as I clutched the phone tightly in my trembling hand.

"Oh my, Mia, are you okay?" Olivia's voice crackled through the receiver, laced with concern. Her words pierced through the heavy air, sending a chill down my spine. "I got a signal recently that a werewolf had entered human territory, and I just wanted to inform you. I have been trying to reach you on your line, but could not go through."

A heavy sigh escaped my quivering lips, mingling with the sobs that threatened to consume me whole. "Liv... my kids... they are gone," I managed to choke out, the words laced with anguish, as tears streamed down my face once again. The magnitude of the loss crashed over me like a relentless wave, eroding any semblance of hope that had clung desperately to the fringes of my shattered reality.

Silence hung in the air, pregnant with the weight of Olivia's disbelief, as if even she struggled to fathom the depth of the devastation that had befallen our lives.

Time stood still, an eternity compressed into mere seconds, before her voice finally broke the silence, a glimmer of determination slicing through the suffocating darkness.

"Hold up, I am coming," Olivia declared, her voice laced with worry as she hung up.

The words echoed in my ears, a lifeline thrown to me amid a relentless storm. At that moment, a flicker of hope ignited within me, fragile yet persistent, as I clung desperately to the possibility of salvation.

Every nerve in my body tingled with a heightened sense of urgency. Time seemed to warp, stretching into a distorted tapestry of dread and uncertainty.

My mind raced with harrowing possibilities, conjuring images of my children in the clutches of a merciless predator, their innocence threatened by the nightmarish existence that had infiltrated our lives.

With a heart burdened by a primal instinct to protect, I braced myself for the impending arrival of Olivia.

The seconds ticked by agonizingly. I moved around the house looking around for clues. I had wrapped myself with a robe, too sad to even care about what I wore.

I looked around the home. More claw marks. Ashes, ice, uneven earth. It was seen that my children, even at the age of six, had been smart enough to try to protect themselves and their nanny.

The person was gruesome enough to kill the nanny.

Why would someone do this? The trauma that the kids would go through, the nanny that was now dead broke my heart into pieces.

I heard footsteps. I quickly turned to see it was just Olivia.

She spread her hands wide open and I rushed into her arms hugging her.

"It's going to be okay. We will find them," Olivia whispered soothingly into my ear, her voice barely audible amidst the turmoil that engulfed us. Her gentle touch on my head offered a faint glimmer of solace, a gesture of unwavering support in the face of unthinkable tragedy.

Olivia and I had been friends since childhood, our bond forged in the fire of shared experiences and unyielding loyalty.

She had been the one to encourage my decision to venture into the human world, having made that daring choice herself after the untimely demise of her parents. With her unwavering support and guidance, I had managed to carve out a new life, a semblance of normalcy amidst the chaos.

"It was a werewolf," I finally managed to utter, my voice tinged with both fear and a desperate need for understanding.

We sat together on the patio, bathed in the ethereal glow of moonlight, our faces etched with a potent mix of grief and determination. The air hung heavy with sadness and tension, the weight of our collective sorrow palpable. Yet, even amid our anguish, the crickets chirped their melancholic melody, a reminder that life carried on, even in the darkest of times.

The words hung in the air, suspended between us like a heavy fog. The revelation unleashed a floodgate of emotions, memories of the encounter searing through my mind like a vicious flame.

Olivia's expression darkened, her eyes narrowing as she processed the magnitude of the revelation. The realization that our peaceful existence had been invaded by one of our kind sent shivers coursing through our spines.

The lines between safety and danger blurred, and the fragility of the life we had built in the human world became painfully evident.

The night enveloped us in its melancholic embrace, amplifying the weight of our shared grief.

"They know then," Olivia said, clenching her hands into a fist.

Olivia was like a big aunt to the kids. Like a second mum.

"I...I don't know where to start. This is not something we can do on our own"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "He was strong. Brutal and cruel. I just hope my kids are safe. He knew about my kid's power. The question is...how did he know?"

"I am confused, to say the least, what's the way forward now?" She said.

"I...I don't know" I said, tears filling my eyes once again.

"Well I do...we can't do this alone. You know that yourself. How long are you going to keep it away from him?"

I crossed my arms around my chest, biting my lips in nervousness. I stared into the darkness, my mind in a twirl.

I thought about seeing him again. About him finding out that he had kids. His reaction. How is he? Has he grown? Is he married now?

"I don't want him to find out. I don't want him ever to know of their existence"

"What?" Olivia asked in a high tone. Almost shouting, her voice sharp within the night. "Mia...you can't intend..."

"That's what my mind told me..." I interrupted. I stood up from my chair, pushing it back from me and I added. "Tonight we leave for the Silverwood pack. It's time to visit Lucas"