Operation Purge

Lucky, still shaken from the encounter with her Moon Goddess mother, felt an urgent pull to go to Midnight Moon. She felt like the answers she needed were there. She needed to go to Midnight Moon and look in to her roots, in light of the latest in a string of events that her mind was starting to link together.

It was starting to look less like a string of events. She sensed a linear pattern, with one thing leading to the next, like she was being guided by a powerful, undeniable force. She knew the concept of synchronicity. Could she be experiencing that? It was less far fetched than anything else that had happened so far.

Abandoned baby. Almost adopted by the police officer and his wife, then tragedy struck. She wondered about Mrs. Lancaster, the woman who was almost her mother, that she had no memory of. She wondered about the mother who mysteriously disappeared and left her, without certainty that she would live or die. She couldn't remember her either. She wondered about her mother the Moon Goddess, the one she met when she was today years old.

Mrs. Smith was her mother, Lucky thought. Mrs. Smith was the one who actually did the mothering. But who was Lucky? Not a human, not what she had believed for 18 and a half years. Who was her father? Why did he leave her? It was all so crazy, did she have Mommy issues? Daddy issues? It was hard to think of that considering how well the Smiths had treated her. She had never called them Mom, or Dad. Now she wondered why. She was going to have to go see them when all the chaos stopped swirling around her like an EF5 tornado.

Lucky needed to know who she was, about being a moonchild, and something invisible pulled her towards Midnight Moon. She couldn't resist it. She couldn't explain it, but she tried.

"I want to go visit my home pack. I came from Midnight Moon. Alpha Jacob, can you find out if it is safe for me ro travel there? No one should know Traven is my mate, and no one there has ever seen me. But I can prove my membership, apparently my fur color is a trait very specific to that pack. My wolf is black as the night sky between the stars. I have to go find out who I am, where I came from." She took a deep breath. "I want to head there in the morning. Time is not a luxury I have. I feel that in my soul." Lucky had never been so certain of anything. Certain enough to leave her mate behind, if only for a short while. Nyah didn't like it either but she understood it was necessary. Lucky felt confident, and she spoke with a sense of purpose.

After a moment, Alpha Jacob replied. "I am sure it will be safe, the Alpha knows you are here. he knows The Las Vegas Wolf was originally from Midnight Moon, as you say, your fur color is distinctive."

He had spoken to Alpha Liam earlier that day. Their packs were allies, and Liam had called him to talk about the Las Vegas Wolf incident. He had seen the news reports and knew it was a Midnight Moon wolf because of the characteristic fur color. He knew it wasn't Traven, he had some silver fur along his tail and feet, and Traven's wolf was larger than Lucky's. Alpha Jacob had been torn, between wanting to protect Traven and Lucky and wanting to keep as few secrets as possible from one of his oldest friends. "The Alpha is very anxious to meet you, and has sworn a sacred oath to keep you safe. You will be welcomed there by the Alpha, and all the others will fall in line." He also spoke with confidence. He sounded like she felt. Certain. He was one step ahead of her, and she admired this detective's intuition.

Traven spoke next, sounding less confident. "Damn it, I hate this and so does Miles. But we both agree that it feels right. Unfortunately , my safety could not be guaranteed. They know my scent. It becomes different when mixed with yours, which it did when we, well, marked each other. But they would recognize me."

Lucky inhaled deeply. His scent was different, it smelled like love and light would smell in a mixing bowl. She grabbed Traven's hand, smiling at the sparks from the touch. Traven had been through his own kind of hell, and Lucky wanted nothing more than to make him happy.

They sat in silence for a while, a sadness heavy in the air, sadness for what had happened to Traven and to Lucky. Finally, Alpha Jacob decided to bring up his plan. "So, back to that idea I had before the whole Moon Goddess Lost Dog Fiasco, Lucky, I think you might be able to help us shut down a large, evil organization. I am not asking you for an immediate answer, I want you to think about it and let me know after you go to Midnight Moon."

"How would I do that?" Lucky dreaded the answer, she knew it was not going to be anything fun and was likely to be extremely dangerous.

"We try so hard to get the solid evidence needed to arrest these monsters, but they are smart and they are silent. They hide in plain sight. Some of them in plain sight of the whole world." Jacob watched Lucky, for any signs that his words were triggering the anxiety he knew she must suffer from. He knew his plan asked a lot of someone who survived what she did. The fact that she survived made him think she could handle it. The discovery that she was a moonchild made him even more certain.

The balance of good and evil was threatened, the appearance of a moonchild confirmed it. He prayed silently to the Moon Goddess, "I am going to let you drive, Selene. Please don't put the wrong GPS coordinates in my mind." 

He continued, "those guys who took you had no idea you were a werewolf. I doubt that anyone in this organization knows of the existence of werewolves. It's possible that someone high up in the organization knew but they would have written it off as a mistake. Why would it be surprising for a human not to recognize a werewolf that didn't even know she was a werewolf? They didnt see it coming, because it was, to them, a stroke of bad luck."

Lucky actually laughed. "Yes, they had some bad luck all right," she said. She had an idea where this was going. "So you want me to get abducted again, only this time, I would be going in knowing I am a creature so powerful they will cower before me? That I can destroy them all and free all those other victims?" Something else occurred to her. "You must trust that I can identify the bad guys and confirm that it is a human trafficking organization. You trust me to eliminate the correct targets."

"I trust the judgment of fate, as well as yours, Lucky. Something is happening, all of us meeting each other like this, it's not a coincidence, and part of turning the tides back in the right direction is stopping as many of these organizations as we can." Alpha Jacob said.

"So I go in and wait for the right moment to take them out?" Lucky asked for clarification. "Once I verify that there is human trafficking and who the bad guys are?"

"Yes. When the time is right, you kill them all and we will get to the victims. We can't get a warrant to do a raid, but if we send you in and you witness it, you mind link Traven. We will be right outside, waiting for you. We will help guide you through the mind link with your mate."

"So I would basically be an assassin with superpowers AND the element of surprise, and backup." She smiled and rolled her eyes. "That sounds like fun!" She gave a fake laugh. "No, it sounds like pure terror. I hate the thought of being in one of those situations again but saving the victims is important, and I know I can do it." This was why the Moon Goddess had shown her that terrible vision. This was what she was supposed to do, to save those poor women and girls.

She said her own prayer to the Moon Goddess, who she had started thinking of as Big Mama. "Please, tell me if I am on the wrong path, Big Mama," She swore she could hear laughter, like tinkling wind chimes. She was glad she was amused and took it as evidence that what they were planning was, indeed, a step in the right direction.

"Are we playing judge, jury, and executioner?" Traven wondered. He had to be sure they knew exactly what they were doing. People would die, and it had to be justified, they had to be sure. He knew that better than anyone.

"Yes." Lucky and Alpha Jacob said at the same time. Traven sat back in his chair. He was glad they were confident, and trusted Lucky to make the right call. The people who took Lucky and used her like that had no place in this world. He looked at his beautiful, brave mate, and wondered how in the world he had gotten so lucky. He silently thanked the Moon Goddess and prayed for his mate's safety.

"We are doing what no one else has the ability to do, largely due to laws and regulations that are there to keep what happened to Traven from happening. In cases like this, the burden of proof can be so heavy it cripples our ability to stop it. But if some outside force takes over, they can't say human law enforcement wiped out the whole organization without a warrant, because it will clearly have been done by something not human. When the time comes, Lucky, you might have to tell some very powerful people your story. Only very high ranking government officials, mainly within intelligence and law enforcement agencies, know about werewolves. There are quite a few who volunteered for military service but they keep it on the down low, they are part of special ops teams that are sent in when they are needed. The President and Vice President know. They actually have meetings with the Werewolf Council and our Alpha King once a month. As a matter of fact, they have called an emergency meeting over the Las Vegas incident. They know it was a werewolf, but not why and not which one. I will explain to them, the meeting is tomorrow. I will also pitch this idea to them. I have a strong feeling that our leaders will be on board with this plan." He sighed. "I sure hope so, we can't risk doing this without letting them know. That could be bad for all of us."

"I could sneak out a side door, jump into a van, and never be seen outside the building. Maybe on some security cameras briefly, but that will fuel the mysery around it." Lucky felt like she was watching puzzle pieces click together. "I would need to know the location of the cameras, so I could avoid shifting in front of one." The less they knew, the better.

"We will work on that, we haven't been able to get anyone inside, but we have a blueprint showing the layout of the building and we might be able to isolate signals given off by surveillance cameras." Alpha Jacob's eyes glazed over for a minute, Traven noticed and explained to Lucky that he was mind linking with the werewolves involved with the investigation.

"Maybe scare the living hell out of one of them and let him escape so he goes to tell his bosses. We could put surveillance on him, that would not be hard to get approval for. We could even take him in to custody and offer protection from something he is more afraid of than his boss." Alpha Jacob said, pleased with his colleague for this idea sent over the mind link.

He could not believe this brainstorming session. It was amazing. He had never had an investigation like this end with what he would call success. They often seemed to know when the investigators got too close. They would move the whole organization, or abandon it, sometimes killing all of the women first, other times not. They had gotten a lot of information from survivors, but by then the ringleaders were long gone. He wanted to know who was running this kind of operation. It was an assault on the fundamental rights of any living being.

"The thing is, once they hear what is happening they will go in to hiding. What if you called agencies around the world, to see if they have anything they are investigating, and we can ask some werewolves to do the same thing as Lucky?" Traven suggested. "All at the same time, a coordinated attack."

"That is brilliant! Take them all out at once!" Lucky grinned at her mate, and Alpha Jacob was impressed.

"Operation Purge," Alpha Jacob said. He poured them each a glass of whiskey, and they toasted to the future.

Lucky was scared, but excited about her first destination. Tomorrow she would return to the place that she came from. Would she find out what had happened to her birth mother? She had so many questions. She hoped to meet with Traven's family and let them know he was okay.

"What is that awful smell?" Alpha Jacob suddenly wrinkled his nose. Flappy had released one of his famous farts.

"Maybe we could weaponize this dog's farts," Eli suggested, causing Traven to spray whiskey all over the place as he burst out laughing.

"Did you hear that, Flappy? Your farts will save the world some day!" Lucky told the sleeping dog. He snored peacefully. At least they could let one sleeping dog lie.