Soul Mates

Chapter 17

Jason

"Okay, that's nice for you, but what has that got to do with me?"

"We have sworn to protect you and that is what we are going to do." General Sifiso says bowing his head a little to me.

I stare at his bold head waiting for the punchline to his joke. But he gets up and looks at me with seriousness in his face. A staring contest begins as if they are waiting for something from me. Which I wouldn't know what it is, as I'm not even the royal they say they are meant to protect.

Maybe they want me to join their ranks in their Royal Guards thing. But I have to go see MK first so maybe if I play along I will be able to leave this place faster.

Okay let's act like a Royal. "Nice job of protecting me general. I feel safe already. Why, with me getting kidnapped, being held in a cell for days. Escaping by myself, with someone I thought could help me, but who was pretending in order to kidnap me again and bring me here for my 'protection'." I raise my fingers in air quotes for the word protection. "Real nice job sir. Real nice." I look at Tristan as I say this to see what he would say, but he just keeps on looking down.

"Sorry about that your highness, we got alerted recently by our Commanding General that you have been missing for days, and they could not locate you. Our mission was to find and extract you from any hostile environment you seemed to find yourself in then bring you back to base." General Sifiso tells me.

After delivering that speech with a straight face I began to laugh. How could he say that, I'm not Royalty.

"I'm sorry for laughing." I try to wipe my face while still laugh talking. "But I think you got the wrong person." At this point I'm having a hard time getting the words out cause I'm laughing so hard. "I'm... I.... I'm no Roy... I'm no Royal." I keep laughing.

While laughing I pick my head up and look at all three of them. They all have serious faces and not laughing with me at their own joke. Which sobers me up a little.

"Look guys I really am not a Royal. There are no Royals in this world. I may have drea...." As I say this I remember my episode of me passing out and sleeping for the whole day and waking up with the word Jackson Royals in my head. A little spooked now I look to Tristan.

"What is going on Blaze. You said the Royal family disappeared 15 years ago. Now I'm what? The next family in line to take over or something." I say looking at all of them for answers since they are not making sense to me.

Tristan looks to general Sifiso for permission. "Go ahead Tristan." he says I get taken aback by the name remembering that he is not Blaze but actually sergeant Tristan Mbebe.

"Yes they did. But not all of them were lost on that faithful day 15 years ago. A single member was left alive. Saved by his protectors and raised by them. We did not know of this until a few days ago. You are our long lost prince." I look at them in bewilderment. This is getting to be too much.

Me, a long lost prince.

"Okay, can we table that for a little bit. Can you tell me why you used Blaze as your fake name? Because I still don't get it. You didn't need to use a fake name. I was determined to save the person on the next cell from me." I say looking at Blaze... gotta remember that his name is Tristan not Blaze.

He looks up at me and looks to General Sifiso again for permission who inclines his head.

"Well, when I was locked up next to your cell, you kept on talking about your mate Mary-Katheryn and it dawned on me that your Mary-Katheryn might be Blaze's sister and if that was true then you were the person I was looking for." when he said that my heart sped up a little.

"And since the Alpha holding us kept screaming about you not being good for his daughter. I thought it was a safe bet. And I knew that, if I tried to relate to you in that way, you would be able to trust me and come with me. Or let me come with you. And there will be no fight between us. So that I would get you here faster." He shrugs after that and looks to General Sifiso.

So he lied to me. Get me to come with him. Okay, okay. Now I'm really getting pissed. "So let me get this straight. You lied about your name to get closer to me. That's really messed up man. Where's the real Jean-Blaze? Didn't you think if I traveled back with you, I'll be able to find out that you're not the real Jean-Blaze. Where is the he? I asked them finishing on a shout. i was panicking now and pissed and when combined it came out in strange ways for me.

They looked between each other. Then Generals Sifiso answered me. "The real Blaze is actually training with us in order to be able to overthrow the alpha of your pack. That's why I decided that Tristan should bring you here. So you as well may train and be able to help in defeating your alpha and take over as the true ruler of our continent."

I got surprised by that. How am I supposed to rule a continent? When I didn't even know I was supposed to rule a continent. I'm not a frickin royal. I'm just me. After hearing that, I asked General Sifiso to excuse me so that I could just take a breather and try to make sense of this new predicament I find myself in.

I can't believe what they're telling me. So they want me to believe that my mom and dad are not really my parents and Hlelo and Amanda are not my siblings. This is all kinds of wrong. So if the Sithole's are not my family, who is and where are my real parents? What happened to them? What happened to our family? What did he mean by that fateful day 15 years ago? What happened on that day to break our family apart and make the royal family disappear as if they never even existed in this world. I need to find out what happens my family. I need to find out what happened to MK I really need to go home.

This training may pose a problem in my being able to get home faster, but I really do need to get home, maybe if I get them to contact this commanding general of the of theirs. There'll be able to get me home faster. So I can talk to my mom and dad. Find out what's really going on. I can't believe this. People think I'm a royal. I know who my parents are. I was raised by them.

Making my way back to the compound I hear sounds of fighting so I change direction to follow it.

I get to a clearing where there are people fighting with each other. I look around and step closer to see better.

Everyone stops fighting and looks in my direction, then they bow and stay like that. A little spooked I look around to see what is going on, and maybe find someone in charge here.

As I'm looking a word fleets around my head. Getting clearer and clearer, insistent on me saying it. So I just blurt it out. "Phakamani." Whoa what did I just say, then I hear them stand up straight then they say "Nkosi."

After saying that they look at me as if waiting for something and I spot a familiar face in the crowd of people. "Sipho? What are you doing here?" I ask my friend a little confused by his presence here.

Before he could answer someone else forward to me. "Sir, this is where we train the new guards. How may we help you?":That was said by Tsepo Musa. Abayomi's uncle.

Yeah this is going to get old fast. I kept looking at my best friend waiting for his answer to my question. "Sipho?"

He again looked to Mr. Musa who nodded his head.

"Hey man. How's it been." He says a little awkwardly while coming to stand next to me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him the same question like a broken record.

"Oh the Commanding General told my dad this would be a better place to train with you gone... so here I am." He says. This Commanding General is really something to place people where he wants them.

"So are you a long lost Royal too?" I say with a little laugh. I look around the clearing and see that the other people on the field have gone back to training. And let me say, I am impressed so far. I turn back to Sipho because he still hasn't answered me.

His eyes have gone a little wide. "You okay man. You look a little spooked." I say to snap him out of it.

"You are the Royal Commander?" he says then he looks down. "Man, we are so screwed." he mumbles.

Yeah I sought of agree with him there. "I'm not sure who that is. I'm still processing the fact I'm a Royal at all." I say as I gesture for him to walk with me.

"I cant man. I still have training to do." After Sipho said that it suddenly became quiet, no more fighting noises. We both look to the people fighting and see all of them looking at us. " Its ok man. We'll catch up later, still need to talk to General Sifiso about my mate." Then it suddenly pops in my head that maybe Sipho knows what happened to Mary-Katheryn. Since he was at the pack longer.

"Hey, one last question before you go. Did you see Mary-Katheryn before your parents brought you here?" I watch his face closely to see his reaction to my question.

I watch his face stiffen and see anger enter his face. Why would he be angry when I ask about my mate. "When you disappeared after the parade Mary-Katheryn was always with Dominic, we couldn't get close to her. Not even her twin. He was always around you know then after a week of that going on in school they left early together on a friday and that's the last I saw of her." I felt my heart squeeze at that information. "On that Sunday I was shipped to this place for training."

She left with him...

*****

Translations

Phakamani = All Rise

Nkosi = King