Chapter 76 - 75. Forsaken

Connor frowned as he listened to the Skinwalkers' Leader. He had understood that the young woman had been kidnapped. She was probably badly excruciated if she refused to do what her torturers asked of her. Her appearance must have been different from having endured multiple wounds, but did that justify using such a word to refer to her? Had what she had suffered changed her to the point that even her clan who cherished her went that far?

"What do you mean by a thing that looks like Light?"

"It has probably never been explained to you properly, but our tribe and the Werewolves are considered to be the children of the Moon Goddess."

"Yes, I figured that out on my own. It is because each of your races has received a blessing from the Goddess." Connor said with a shrug.

"Yes, that's right. And as children of the Moon Goddess, we all have something in common. Our aura."

"I… I heard that. That's how you figured out I had a connection to the Skinwalkers, right?" The agent asked, turning to the Soul Healer who nodded in response.

The woman who still looked a bit confused sat down on a wooden chair. Connor immediately turned to the chief to listen to his explanations.

"It's not just a mere connection," Elias retorted with an annoyed look and the light brown-haired man rolled his eyes but remained silent as he was eager to get this over with and get to the point.

The agent's gaze paused for a moment on Glen and Eden still on the ground then got up to meet that of the leader of the shapeshifters.

"And so ?" he said, raising a smile, barely hiding his annoyance. His attitude didn't go unnoticed by the man who just gritted his teeth without answering.

"Children of the Moon Goddess all possess an aura. To explain a little more clearly, it is a link that connects us to our Goddess and allows us to interact with the energy that flows around us.

This aura houses our blessing and determines our abilities. Depending on each individual, it is more or less large and powerful. It is the goddess who determines the power of our aura. The Light our ancestors encountered in the forest was no longer a child of the Moon Goddess.

Her aura which was once powerful and radiant was gone. It had been replaced by that…dark energy that devours and destroys the auras of anything under the Goddess' protection. That's exactly what this thing that attacks your friend's Wa…aura does." He turned to Glen, who was sleeping a few feet away.

"I'm going to have to take your words for it since I don't see anything out of the ordinary."

"What ?" Alana cut him off.

"Why do you look so surprised? I told you that I lived like a simple civilian all my life. Don't you think that if I saw energy flows, auras, or whatever else, I would have thought that something was off?

"You're lying! Why would our Goddess grant such an aura to someone if they cannot see anything and remain a stranger to our world?"

An annoyed sigh escaped Connor's mouth and he stared at Alana for a moment. The woman flinched and her body froze in place.

"How are you able to do that if you don't know anything about aura?" Elias asked.

"What? Tell your daughter to piss off with my body language because she's getting on my nerves since we met like an annoying little b…"

"Connor!" The voice of the Soul Healer cut through the excess anger of the agent who turned to her and saw her shake her head.

She was right, he had to control himself. After all, they still needed them. The Skinwalkers couldn't lift the curse. However, they knew how to do it. Plus, they could help Glen. His best friend's life was at stake. The agent inhaled, then exhaled slowly to calm himself.

"I didn't come for me, but Glen. I'd like us to focus on him if you don't mind." He resumed with a cold voice.

Elias stared at him for a moment, but didn't retort anything and continued his explanation.

"In the forest, our ancestors came across a young girl who certainly looked like Light but her aura was gone and dark energy surrounded her, but that wasn't the only strange thing about her.

Light was strangely hostile towards them in a split second, whips created from this unknown energy started attacking the men. At first, they didn't react. They didn't expect to be hurt just by energy. And that's where they were wrong. The black whips pierced not only their body but also their aura. However, nothing else was affected by these energy whips. Neither vegetation nor animals. It was as if they only targeted Skinwalkers.

The cries of the men alerted the pack who, as always, came to their rescue. And the alpha found himself facing his daughter.

________

The huge black wolf was running through the forest to get to where the screams of the rising men were. As soon as he heard the first sounds of an attack, he sent several of his wolves to protect the village.

He didn't know who had intruded on their territory, but there was no way they would make the same mistake. Not again. He didn't want to lose somebody. 

He sped up and his ears picked up the sound of his wolves running behind him. When he got to where the Skinwalkers who had gone hunting were supposed to be, he slowed down. Before him a vision of horror like he had never seen before.

As a werewolf, and even before as a wolf, he was used to blood. If it was his enemies, he had no problem with that. Unfortunately, the blood that soaked the grass and plants of the clearing where he was, was that of his friends, and brothers. The blood of those he had sworn to protect. Again, he had failed.

The Alpha watched the energy whips that pierced through the bodies of the Skinwalkers as they bled to death and his eyes landed on the frail figure that stood in their center with her back to them. The whips seemed to come straight out of this young girl's body. The alpha had never seen anything like it.

His mate was a powerful witch, he knew there were several other clans of witches with different types of powers. After Humans, did the witches attack them? If he was right, why? Neither the pack nor the tribe had ever done anything to another clan of witches. Why pick on them?

The rest of his wolves had arrived and all stared at the young woman's figure. The Alpha bared his teeth and growled to signal their presence and threaten her.

The young woman moved slightly and the wind picked up. A nostalgic smell penetrated the nostrils of the black wolf who immediately froze. He breathed again to be sure of what he had smelled. His heart quickened.

He sent a link to his men to ask his wolves not to move and another one to his mate. He didn't know what was going on and what had happened to her, but given her appearance, he was sure there was something to do with magic. His mate would know what to do.

The Alpha was lost. What had happened to his daughter? What had these men done to his sweet, benevolent Light? Where had she been for the past five months?

He refused to think about the most obvious question, the one that made his reunion painful and bitter. Why had Light just killed twenty Skinwalkers? Men to whom, when she was still among them, she lavished care and attention on the slightest of small wounds. Men she used to protect were impaled against the whips sticking out of her body and she stood there, listless.

Light disliked fighting and had always avoided doing so. She loved to heal, to protect. That was her nature. Seeing her like this with this strange appearance made him think that she was no longer the one he knew.

The whips coming out of her body, the absence of her aura, nothing about this person reminded her of her daughter. Why did she continue to turn her back to him, impassive, when several men were taking their last breaths near her?

The Alpha gritted his teeth. He was about to move forward when he heard footsteps rapidly approaching.

A few seconds later, a young woman with tanned skin and intense black almond eyes came running. Her hair was cropped short, almost flush, and his body was more toned and built than it was a few months ago.

Moon arrived and, without stopping, ran towards her sister. She recognized the long black hair as the one she had and had given up to embrace the path of a warrior. She knew this silhouette, similar to hers, but more slender, more fragile. It was the silhouette of the one she had failed to protect. If only those men had taken her instead of Light that day. She gritted her teeth and accelerated again, slaloming between the whips to avoid them.

She didn't care about everything. Her sister, her twin, her other half had returned.

"Don't come near her!"

Moon heard screaming behind her and before she could react, a shock wave dispersed.

The energy that had just dispersed came from the aura of the strongest among the Skinwalkers. The Luna.

Called by her mate, she had arrived as quickly as possible given her condition. She was supported by one of her close friends. Seeing the scene ahead, the Luna felt her skin heaving in dread. She could feel how much the energy whips that pierced her daughter's body were dangerous and powerful. They contained a powerful curse which had for only target, the children of the Goddess of the Moon. Getting close meant death.

Without hesitation, the Luna placed her hand on her chest, where she wore the Crescent Moon mark. As if to answer her call, she felt her aura grow.

The energy within it expanded and took the form of a dome of golden light that grew larger and larger with each passing second. When he came into contact with the energy whips, they would disintegrate, releasing the bodies of the Skinwalkers which fell to the ground.

Moon was only a few steps away when the energy dome caught up with her and enveloped her body.

The dome stopped right in front of Light, and when her sister reached out the edge, she ran into an invisible barrier. The shock propelled her backward and Moon fell to the ground. Far from being discouraged, she immediately got back on her feet and ran towards the limit of the dome of light which she hit with all her might.

"Mom, please! It's Light! Please!" Tears flooded her face as she stared at her sister's still motionless figure.

The young woman had still not moved. An unusual silence enveloped the forest. The animals seemed to have all fled and not even a breeze was blowing. Only Moon's tears pierced this strange calm.

The tension between the pack, the Skinwalkers, and the young woman standing a few dozen meters from them was palpable.

"Why? What did I do wrong?" Light's voice suddenly rose and something snapped in the hearts of Alpha and Luna. This voice which used to resonate with clarity before, which rose with crystalline notes when it exploded with laughter, spoke to them with such coldness.

"Was it because I refused to fight? Or because I wasn't as strong as Moon? Just tell me why? Why didn't you come for me? Why did you abandon me? Why even the Goddess forsook me?"

She finally turned to them. Moon who had collapsed on the ground very close to her flinched seeing her face. Two black orbits like two abysses appeared in place of her eyes.

Light spoke a word no one heard and the whips retracted back into her body. Her eyes also returned to their normal appearance. She lowered her head to look at her sister, whose tears had stopped flowing and who was shaking on the floor, overwhelmed by all the contrary emotions that were unfolding within her.

The young woman then looked up at her parents and her eyes widened when she saw her mother.

The Luna was standing in front of her. Her round belly testified to her well-advanced pregnancy

"Oh, I got it.. It was because you didn't need me anymore."