Chapter 10

POV Lilly

"We're home!" I called

"Hi, girls!" Iris yelled from the kitchen.

We followed her voice to join her.

"How was your day?" she asked.

We ignored the question and stared at her.

"Where's my mother?" I demanded.

"She went out. It was hilarious. You'll crack up when you see her when she gets back. She used an aging spell and I swear, she looked exactly like our mother. She was not happy but she didn't want to try anything else." Iris giggled and then turned to face us.

Her smile dropped when she saw our faces.

"Werewolves AND Vampires?!" Jasmine screamed and Iris cringed.

"I couldn't tell you!" She defended.

"Yeah, we heard. Was that Grandma's doing?"  I cut her off and she nodded.

"She admitted to it once Rose and I figured it out. I think that's why no one ever bothered us here. The pack owes our family big." She explained.

"That was just the Werewolves. You could of at least told us about the Vamps" Jasmine raged.

"Yeah, that's true." I added and Iris shrugged.

"It didn't seem fair to tell you about one without telling you about the other" she tried and we both rolled our eyes at her.

"Rose and I thought that you would be safer without knowing" she added and I sighed.

"Yeah, real safe. Just send us into a school full of creatures that could kill us with a snap of their fingers" I muttered.

"How did you figure it out so quickly?" Iris asked us and Jasmine and I exchanged a look.

"Well..." I began but Jasmine took over.

Jasmine told her mother the whole story starting with meeting Griffin this morning. Iris got paler and paler as she went on. When Jasmine finally finished, Iris sat down at the table in silence.

"I can't believe it. What are the chances?" she mumbled and I looked at Jasmine.

"So is Jasmine right? Is that what happened to my mother too?" I demanded.

Iris nodded weakly.

"Yes. Everything. Down to the fact that her mate is Griffin's father" Iris added and my legs felt weak.

"Well...shit..." Jasmine muttered as she plopped down in a chair.

"I'm going to call Rose. We need her home to discuss this" Iris finally broke the silence.

Jasmine and I nodded in agreement. We watched as she dialed the phone and waited.

Jasmine frowned, "She's not answering."

She sent my mother a text but still looked uneasy. I was worried too. Mom would always pick up the phone. She was always worried that one of us was in trouble.

"Did she say where she was going?" I asked.

"She was going to go to the library to look up some things and then to the store for some supplies for a few spells she wanted to try this week." She answered.

"What store?" I asked.

"I don't know. She said she needed some herbs that she didn't have time to grow. There's no mystic shop in Hudsonville so, the grocery store?" Iris explained.

"We need to find her...now!" I said as I felt my senses go haywire.

Iris and Jasmine felt it too and we jumped up. We had a sixth sense about each other and always knew when one of us was in serious trouble. Something was upsetting my mother.

"Auntie, you stay here in case she comes back, Jas come with me." I ordered and they both nodded.

"Be careful, girls and keep your phones on." Iris yelled as we rushed out the door.

We ran to the car and Jasmine pulled away.

"Let's check the library" Jasmine suggested and I nodded.

I looked behind us as we pulled away and frowned as I noticed a car pulling out behind us.

"How many grocery stores are in Hudsonville?" I asked and Jasmine thought for a moment.

"Three. We'll have to check them all" She decided.

We pulled into the library parking lot and searched for my mother's car.

"I'm going to run inside just to be safe, you wait out here" I said.

I hurried out of the car and inside the building. I took a deep breath. Normally, I loved libraries. The smell of the books and old bindings, the hushed sounds, the sense of peace, I loved it all but not today. Today I hated it because I couldn't sense her anywhere in the warm building. I took a quick glance around but ran out seconds after running in.

"Nope" I muttered as I slammed the car door.

"Shit. We will find her, Lilly." Jasmine promised me.

"What if Skol found her?" I asked as she drove to the nearest grocer.

Jasmine looked over at me, "Do you think that he would harm her? She's his mate."

I sighed, "Yeah, but she rejected him and ran. She had a kid with another guy. He's got to be pissed."

"Even so, we know that werewolves never harm their mates plus he did the same thing." Jasmine shook her head.

I knew that she was right. Every book and report said that. Even our werewolf friends swore to that.

"He might not hurt her but he could take her. It happens all the time" I pointed out and Jasmine nodded.

"Yeah, but he doesn't know who he's dealing with, does he?" She smiled.

"If he took her, Aunt Rose will not take that lightly. I'm more worried for him than her. She might kill him" Jasmine continued.

We pulled up at the store and spotted her car.

"Just drive past it. Something about this feels wrong" I said and Jasmine did as I said.

I looked behind us and noticed that the same car that had pulled out after us on our street was behind us.

"Fuck!" I yelled when the realization hit me.

Jasmine looked at me sharply.

"We're being followed. If they didn't know where she was, they do now" I spat, berating myself for not checking sooner.

"Shit! What do we do now?" she asked and I thought.

"Park. Away from her car. We pretend that everything is fine. We go in and buy a couple of things. Then we book it to our house. If it's who we think, they can't touch us there." I decided.

Jasmine did as I said and soon we were in the store, buying some snacks in a daze. I kept trying to sense if my mother is near but I still couldn't locate her. She was there recently. I could tell but she was gone now. We paid for our items, and as we were walking out, my phone rang. I looked and see my mom's number.

"Mom? Are you okay?" I asked her.

"She's just fine" A familiar deep voice answered.

POV Griffin

Dad, Boris and Graves all stared at each other for a moment before Nik cleared her throat. 

"I have a theory" she began and we all turned to look at her.

"So, some odd things happened at school today" she looked and me and I nodded.

"Griffin was trying to scare Lilly by threatening to mark her" she continued.

"Boy!" Dad yelled and I nodded. I knew that he was going to give me shit for that.

"I know, I fucked up" I admitted and he shook his head at me.

"That's not the point, right now." Nik cut in. Dad motioned for her to continue.

"When he did, he went flying back, away from her. She didn't touch him. I was watching. Then, at gym, we were playing dodgeball and a couple of throws that Lilly and Jasmine threw defied all laws of physics." she finished.

Dolph nodded, "Yeah, I threw a ball at Lilly and it curved at the last minute for no reason."

"I smelled something strange during gym." I added and Dad whipped to look at me.

"What did it smell like?" he asked.

I closed my eyes to remember.

"Like lightening? But something other than that too. Like nature? Like a storm? I don't know how to explain it" I tried but Dad nodded and looked at Graves.

"Magic." Graves muttered.

"Fuck! Of course! How could I not see it! It explains everything. Why they smell different. The spell was her mothers. That's why dad never wanted us to investigate them. That's how she was able to get away and hide for so long and so well. That's how she knew about the wolfsbane." Dad ranted.

I looked at my father in confusion, not following. He looked at me and grinned.

"My mate, YOUR mate. They're not human." he said.

"No shit. Tell me something I don't know." I replied and he chuckled.

"They're witches. Powerful ones I'm betting." he replied and I felt like the wind got knocked out of me.

I thought quickly and realized that it all made sense. Everything fit except a few questions.

"If that's true, then we need to get to her quick. That HAS to be Rose. The only way to take her is now. If she gets back to that house, there's no way to get in." Boris pointed out.

Dad nodded and called someone on speaker.

"Hey, boss" our tracker answered.

"You still following her?" he demanded.

"Yeah. She's just pulling into the grocery now" he replied.

"Send me the address" Dad commanded and hung up.

"Lets go get our mates, boy" Dad said as we all stood up.