Stronger Together

Chapter 1

Gemma’s POV

I roll over on the hard ground, where these assholes have us chained to a tree. It was my turn to keep watch. Indyleigh, Joslyn and I were taken when Indyleigh was 13, I was 12 and Joslyn was 11, from our parents, brothers and mates. Yes, we each have a mate. I’ve known him since I was 7 because I saw Ezekial in a premonition. Indy knew she had a mate when she was 8 and Joslyn knew when she was 6. None of us fully understood what it meant until Aunty Elizabeth, Aunty Bridget and Mum sat us down to explain what it meant to have a mate. Considering our mates were much older than we were, they didn’t want to talk about it with us. Aunty Elizabeth made them.

Not that my mate was around to talk much after that again. Ezekial played with me for 1 day and then left. I had seen him a few more times when he came to the castle, but it was only brief. He thought by leaving me, he was keeping me safe. The vampire and his witch friend still found out about me and took all three of us from my cousin Nicholas’ 14th birthday party down by the lake on the Kingdom Pack. We know their names are Julius and Gypsy, we refused to use them, and it pisses them off to no end.

Ezekial was there the day they took us. I know he was hiding in the shadows because I could hear his thoughts. I have been able to hear them since I was 10. I pretended not to know he was there, and I would talk to him as though he wasn’t. He calls me little one and always thought he wished he could show himself again.

If he realized, I could read minds like my father, Hunter Jackman, beta of the werewolf kingdom, his brother and gamma, Jacob and his cousin; werewolf king Kyle Jackman, he didn’t show it. Aunty Elizabeth caught me talking to the shadows once. We went back inside, and she told me I shouldn’t be able to read his mind because she had placed the charm on him, so others wouldn’t be able to. I can’t read others who have stopped others accessing their thoughts, I can only read his. It’s probably because he is my mate.

It's not uncommon in my family to be able to access thoughts with a block still in place. Aunty Elizabeth and Uncle Kyle can still do it, although Josyln can’t. I’m not sure if Nicholas or Aiden can either; they are Joslyn’s brothers and my cousins. Anyway, Aunty Elizabeth and Uncle Kyle promised to keep my secret from Ezekial because if he knew he might not have come back.

The reason they can hear even with a block, has something to do with an enchantment put on my mother, Helen, Aunty Elizabeth and Uncle Lucas when they were a pup. When they marked their mate, the enchantment joined them as one. Technically, mum and dad can do the same things; most of the time. Dad can’t produce a portal like Mum can. He can make a porthole about the size of a basketball.

I let out a long breath and stood up, readjusting the collar and chains so not to wake Indy and Jos, and moved around the other side of the tree to pee. I hope today is the day Ezekial, Scott and Cornelius find us. I want to be able to speak again. Did I mention we were enchanted like my mum? Mum lost her sight to hide her being half witch, but the dark witch needed us to see, so she took our voices in exchange for the vampire to get his arm back. OK, maybe not like Mum and more like Aunty Elizabeth.

We never learned sign language and I wish we had. All us pups started to work out that was what Dad, Uncle Kyle, Uncle Jacob, Aunty Josie and Aunty Elizabeth were doing when they didn’t want to open their thoughts to have a conversation, in case we heard. It doesn’t matter, the only people I care to talk to are Indy and Joslyn, and we mind link or speak with our thoughts, at least that’s what Jos and I do.

Speaking of the vampire and the dark witch; we will most likely be on the move again. We move every month or so, because someone finds us and tries to get to us. I hate it because every time we move, we have to clean whatever cave or abandoned house the vampire and dark witch decide is good to dwell in and if it’s not spotless, which it normally isn’t, because they find something wrong with what we do, they punish us.

They learned they can’t harm us because we counteract any hexes, and we heal ourselves. They don’t feed us. We don’t need them when we have Indy, who can get us food, and they found out early on we are immune to wolfsbane and silver, but some charm the dark witch puts on the wolfsbane injections, knocks us out, and we can’t feel Addison, Paige or Chloe for about an hour when we wake up. That’s what they do to punish us. Did I tell you we have our own wolves? There I go again, not giving all the information. “You know they aren’t close by. Why do we have to do this every morning?” Addy says, stretching in my mind.

“Where is your hyperactive self this morning?” I giggled, moving to the front of the tree again and sitting beside my cousins as they began to stir. “You know why I give the run-down every morning. If Aunty Liz, Mum, Dad or Uncle Kyle are close by, they will know where we are.”

“You have 3 days and you will be 18. The mate bond will connect properly and Ezekial should be able to find you when it does. Have you had any more premonitions?” Addy asked and I let out a big sigh. She knows since they took us and placed this collar around our necks, I haven’t had a single premonition. Joslyn can’t open a portal either and Indyleigh can’t use her tail and none of us can shift.

“If that were true, why haven’t they used Indy and Scott’s mate bond? She’s been 18 for almost 8 months”, I asked Addy, and she shrugged at me. We think the collar blocks the mate bond, at least some of it, and they can’t find where we are through it. Grandma or I didn’t have a premonition about them taking us either. The dark witch must have used it to stop us from having one. Considering the vampire was my mate’s second, and he knew about grandma’s premonitions and Uncle Kyle found Aunty Elizabeth through the mate bond, he would have known he needed to have something in place.

We do get messages from time to time. Not from the message stone; Indyleigh couldn’t bring one to her, like her dad did. When Uncle Lucas figured out Indyleigh took a loaf of bread and peanut butter, he placed a note on her teddy bear. We found out we can’t send one back. We’ve tried, but the words disappear when we try to write something back regarding what has happened. We just write general things to let them know we are OK. It’s given us hope they are still trying to get us.

“Fuckwit alert”, Indy yells through a mind link. I felt the tug on the collar before I saw him. Noel and his bunch of cronies are werewolf rogues and real creeps. All three of them have tried to rape us on more than one occasion.

“You think they would get the hint after the first time we fried their p*****s” Josyln answered my thoughts.

Grandma told us stories of what happened when she was in Ezekial’s bunker. If any of his guards got handsy with the maidens that were there, she would use a heat charm and fry their d***s. What can I say? We learned from the best.

“What’s the matter, ladies? Wolf got your tongues?” Noel’s creepy voice whispers next to my ear. I roll my eyes and move my hand to the front; “Ah, ah, ah; none of that now” he snarls, grabbing my wrists and pushing me back against the tree. I could see the other two being pushed towards the tree too. I could feel his manhood on my leg and suppress the urge to gag, shaking my head as a smirk came on his face, thinking he had finally got the better of me.

What can I tell him? Oh, that’s right, nothing. I’m not shaking my head to tell him to stop; I’m shaking it because of this. I kneed him in the balls and flew my hands the moment he lets’s go, pushing all three of them away. “Damn, you did it before I did” Indyleigh says with a giggle.

Addy comes forward; “f**k OFF DIPSTICK” she yells, going back into my mind. Like Caitlyn was my mum’s eyes. Addy is my voice when I need her to be.

“Why don’t your wolves come out to play? That’s right they can’t”, Noel cackles, as all three men shift into their feral animals. I give a side glance to Indyleigh and Joslyn as they both nod in my direction; we flick our wrists and hurl them into the air. We may not have had much opportunity to learn magic; we are able to defend ourselves, and I’ll be damned if I am going to let these assholes hurt Indy or Jos.

I hear someone growl in the distance and turn my head to where it came from; Zeiky? “No, it’s Lionel again” Addy says, as he comes charging for us and the back of our collars gets yanked, and we are pulled through a portal to Goddess knows where. “At least Noel and his wanker friends won’t be living for much longer. If Lionel has found us again, then Ezekial won’t be far behind.”

I closed my eyes while they were pulling us along. Mum used to tell me, since she couldn’t see, she would have to rely on her other senses. Since we moved frequently, all three of us decided to take a page from mum’s book and use our senses of smell and hearing to see if I could recognize anything. It’s helped me to figure out what kingdom we have re-entered. “Now can you see why I give my rundown every morning?” I tell Addy, who rolls her eyes and sits down.

“What do your senses tell you?” Josyln asks and I take in a deep breath. “For me; this place is different. Their voices sound like there is an echo and I can smell seawater…” “It can’t be.” I murmured, cutting Joslyn off. “It must be the remnants of Lionel coming for us?” I added to my explanation.

I know they want more information, “Both Lionel and Ezekial smell like almonds and honey. Lionel has a hint of maple to his scent whereas Ezekial has a hint of molasses to his; the scent in here…”

I take in another deep breath as the vampire starts laughing next to me before I can determine whose scent I'm smelling. “Smell something intriguing?” he chuckled, and I open my eyes, gasping inwardly. I know this place; I’ve seen it in my dreams. I looked around the room and at first glance, there wasn't much in it. I can see the impression of where a desk and office chair used to be. Maybe a filing cabinet or shelves of some sort. “Welcome to Ezekial’s facility.”

I close my eyes to take in the scent that the vampire keeps away from me. No wonder I could smell him in here. He must have spent a lot of time here; his scent hasn’t gone fully. “I’ve learned from Ezekial’s mistakes, and we believe it’s time to start fresh. You three are going to be our first maidens.”

My eyes grow wide as the vampire starts to laugh again. “Don’t worry, I won’t begin the pregnancies, yet. We still have some work to do.”

I don’t like what he is thinking, and I suck in the lone tear threatening to escape as the dark witch opens a portal, pushing me backwards before everything goes black.