Chương 32: PROJECT A. N. G. E. L

~ Werewolves. Vampires. Monsters.

Humans have always been fascinated by and feared things that they do not know. It was a mixture of great reverence and animosity that if they suspect someone who was associated with the above beings, death would always be the result.

What ordinary humans do not know is that their government knew that these so-called creatures of the night had always been walking alongside them.

Of course, some humans needed to be aware that they existed. The government for one. Were/Shifters lived for a long time, the chances of encountering one would be 50/50. If a person was observant. If not, then why call attention?

Hence, the elaborate story to keep humans away from the truth. It was to ensure that each of them would live peacefully.

Then again humans, like any other beings, wanted more. And by more means, power. And by power, it means doing something that was unnatural.

They crave a certain level of perfection that could only be possible by one thing.

Science.

Thus, PROJECT A.N.G.E.L was born.

A - ngelus

N - ano

G - enome

E - xperiment

L - abel

PROJECT A.N.G.E.L was a genome project funded by several highest-powered government countries to make the ultimate female soldier.

Since Were/Shifter have more advanced knowledge, they were able to understand human genes before the said species had. Talk about being lucky.

It was named thus not because they had an actual angel in their hands. But what they were trying to make. A shifter without a drop of shifter blood in the gene pool.

There have been legends of a beast that inhibits the body of a person. If he/she was worth it, these creatures would merge their souls with theirs.

The idea was as crazy as the scientist who proposed it. The shift was caused by a virus, not some mythical beast. If it was possible, imagine the number of hosts those beasts had before.

Its knowledge would be immeasurable.

So the project began. ~

Leander could not help but close his eyes and gave a tired sigh.

Project A.N.G.E.L.

How has it been since Mia had been his daughter? Leander was not counting. The minute those soulful red eyes landed on him, his heart belonged to her.

That love swelled when he found out that she was the biological daughter of his dead mate. The day Zarina died, was the day he promised not to love again.

Mia was just not more than two years old when they raided the lab where Project A.N.G.E.L was being conducted.

All of his men were horrified by the number of test tube babies that were inside the gestation cylinder. Each cylinder was marked when the gestation stage would end.

To put it simply, it was the day they would be born.

The facility was surprisingly empty. They knew that whoever built the damn place was long gone. What Leander wanted to know was why was the place abandoned.

When some of the men shouted, he quickly went over to see what the commotion was about.

The scene before him would forever be etched in his mind.

In front of him was a pit filled with bodies. The smell of rotten flesh and decaying bodies was so strong it made him gag. They were not just ordinary bodies though, they were bodies of all the workers and failed experiments.

Babies.

Whoever was the main man of these experiments had been heartless and impatient. From the remains of the bodies in the pit before him and the cylinders inside the lab, what these lunatics were doing was speeding up the gestation process of an embryo.

Leander could only shake his head in disgust. These people would never be satisfied, whoever leaked the info about this facility would be among the dead.

He signaled his men to place explosives all over the facility. The last thing he could do for all the poor souls was to give them a proper burial. The next step was to buy the land and turn the whole thing into a graveyard.

He knew that his techs were downloading and gathering all the info they could get. He had this gut instinct that this was just the beginning.

Something was wrong. It was hard to determine what exactly was amiss in his surroundings. He then saw a ripple coming at the very center of the pit. Leander knew something was off.

Could it be an animal? It couldn't be human or shifter. From his point of view, most of the bodies in the pit were dismembered, decapitated, burned, or stripped of their skin. How can…

The wolf inside him suddenly forced his body to change.

In the back of his mind, Leander could hear his men shouting, all of them had raised the guns they wore to protect him from any intruder they might encounter. He could also hear the com links they use cracked to life, letting everyone on the team know what had happened.

His wolf ignored the stench and began to sniff the bodies. His wolf must have noticed something his human side couldn't. He stopped at the center of the pit. Leander released an ear-piercing howl and began to paw at the spot where he stood.

He then began to push the bodies aside, like he was trying to reach something hidden underneath. His two oldest sons must have realized something was wrong. They both joined in, uncaring of the smell and the texture of what was in the pit.

It did not take long for them to unearth whatever caused his wolf to burst free.

All they could do was gawk at what was underneath the bodies they had pushed aside. A child.

Curled like a small ball of fluff, it was clear that the child was a she. Her long black hair was wrapped around her body like a blanket. Leander sniffed her hair and was rewarded by a movement.

The child began to move and uncurled from her position. With her flat on her back, she slowly blinked only to let out the littlest and cutest gasp that the men in front of her had heard. They watched as a smile formed on her little lips.

"Doggie!" was all she shouted before she jumped and wrapped her small frail arms around Leander.

Something inside Leander clicked and his world stopped spinning out of control, as the little girl began to pat and nuzzle her face against his neck. He looked up, to see his sons, grinning at him. It was not a mocking look, but more of adoration.

He saw one of the techs sliding down the pit and reached them. Zephyr met him halfway. The little girl suddenly stiffened, and the air around them began to have that smell he associated with fear, iron.

Orpheus knelt and began to stroke the child's back while whispering, "It's okay, you are safe." She nodded, not looking at him.

Leander felt an unholy amount of anger coming from his eldest. He didn't have to wait long to know the sudden spike of emotion. He knelt and asked, "Are you Label One?"

Leander felt the little girl clench her small fist before swallowing several times. She was afraid, that was clear. She was not shaking from the cold night wind, but from fear.

"It's okay," Zephyr said, "those bad men will not be back." He continued.

The little girl raised her head and looked at Leander's sons. Zephyr let out a loud expletive, while Orpheus gasped in astonishment.

"Really?" The little girl asked.

All the two men could do was nod. They were rewarded with a shout of joy they had never heard of before.

Later, he too had the same reaction as his sons when he returned to his human form. Why?

The little girl they found was Label One. The very first product of Project A.N.G.E.L. It was not the origin that made them react that way.

It was her eyes.

Deep crimson eyes.

The same eyes as the beast that no one has seen before.

Until now.