A/N: NOT EDITED.

Hey all! First I have to say that I have started posting the sequel to ‘His Forgotten Mate’ so check it out!! It’s called ‘Elixir.'

NEXT >> I started uploading the new version of ‘Unexpected,’ so please check that out. I’m adding 10 new chapters total to the story so go check it Out PLEASE!

THANK YOU FOR READING,

Hope you Enjoy.



Chapter 11 – Chelsea POV

Too much, my mind went blank, frozen, the information Marlon was giving me about Anya, not making sense in my head. Sweetheart, Gabriel said in my mind, it’s okay, just relax, his words making me realize I was holding my breath. Releasing that breath I sagged against him, but everyone else so caught up in his words hadn’t noticed this little moment of panic. I’m not sure what brought it on, but I’m guessing it was probably the reverent tone that Marlon used when speaking of my mother.



“Our mom killed three people?” Oakley asked interested, bringing me back. I glanced at her, that’s why the bad guy wanted her dead… he didn’t even let her speak about the Violins, just killed her.



“Wait,” I stopped Marlon turning to Oakley completely, “you heard when – the people that murdered her you saw them?” I asked in disbelief; they left Oakley alive?



She shook her head, walking to the kitchen and returning with a small recorder, “They didn’t see me, but I was home with momma, Daddy and Ben were out. We were just playing, singing songs for daddy and – and then…” Oakley whimpered her hands shaking as she held the player out to me. I took it unsure, “there wasn’t much memory left but after she – she left me in the crawl space in my room she went out there, y-you can listen… she uh – she even talked about you, and your mate Gabriel, and Jay,” Oakley said shocking me, but blushing crazily when she eyed Gabriel. I smiled inside; he had that affect on people, on the female population… even a few males. He growled behind me, don’t deny it.



Rolling my eyes, I hold the recorder ready to press the play button, “Maybe you should go outside Ben,” Oakley whispered, I don’t want him to get sad or afraid… she thought to herself, but Ben just stood his ground, going to her side, reaching for her hand, looking back at me and nodding. I glanced at Grant, he was eyeing the kids himself, a shoulder shrug given as a response when he caught my eyes on them.



Nodding I pressed play, not sure what to expect, but ready. Or so I thought.



“You want to make a tape for daddy baby?” the woman – my mother her voice was nothing like I imagined, and it hurt hearing it but also it made my insides clench, uneasy. Years of wondering what she sounded like? What she looked like? Was she kind? Sweet? “Ya momma.” I bit my lips at how utterly happy Oakley sounded in the recording, I was transformed back to the time when I would watch shows on TV and the kids seemed so happy. Or when we went outside and children were with their families, giddy, happy and all smiles. My chest was rising quickly, and I felt Gabriel wrap his arm around me torso, anchoring me. He was my relief, the buffer I never realized I would want or need, but did.



“Okay ready, lets sing for daddy… A – b – c – d – e – f – g – h – I – j – k…” Oakley and Anya continued until they reached the letter Z, giggling, “Now I know my ABC’s next time won’t you sing with meeeeeeee! Do you like that daddy?”



“What else should we sing for daddy Bumblebee?”



“If wou’re wappy an wou kwnow it cwap wour hwands!”



“If wou’re wappy an wou kwnow it jwemp up and dwown!” They continued singing, happily, breathless from singing and laughing, Oakley screeching out, before suddenly the pep and excitement Anya had in her voice just vanished, turned into panic.



“Oh no… Oh god… how – how did they find me…” Anya mumbles and for a minute my heart thuds against my chest uncomfortably, I would worry about what I was feeling later since I couldn’t understand it now.



“Come on Bumblebee you need to hide and be really quiet okay, no matter what you hear don’t come out Bumblebee, you understand?” Anya’s voice frantic now.



“I love you Bumbleebee okay, I love you to the moon and back you hear?”



“Yes momma,” Oakley said confusion in her tiny voice.



“Pat – Pat I love you okay, don’t think I don’t – I’m sorry I thought – I thought I got away from them Pat, I thought I could have my happily ever after with you, I loved you Pat, you were everything I ever wanted and I didn’t think I would ever get a chance at love. I love you deep in my heart, and my secrets, I kept them to protect you and the kids, don’t forget that, tell them about me, love them, cherish them for the both of us you hear?” Anya’s talking faster now, and without having been there, my own heart is beating, pounding against my chest. And Gabriel’s arms around me hold me tighter as tears reach my eyes, for her for this situation but also because I’m reminded of being locked away. That panic in my chest, my body shaking because I knew Leo was coming, I could hear his advance but I was trapped, knowing something was coming, that pain was coming but not being able to do anything about it. I’ve got you, love, it’s okay, and Gabriel’s breath is right against my neck, my love, my anchor.



“Ben – Ben I love you too, I wish I had more time with you, I wish you’d remember me, but ask your daddy about me, he’ll tell you how happy I was to be your momma.”



“Pat don’t go looking for these men okay, you can’t win with them, not yet… but when the kids are older, you need to find my daughters, I’m sorry for the secrets baby, I thought I’d get to tell you everything myself. I’m so sorry, so sorry,” Anya sobbed, “Momma what’s wrong?” Oakley whispered, the atmosphere in the room tense and strange, Marlon crossed his arms against his chest, they killed Elder Bellamy right in front of a child?



“Pat – you can’t trust just anyone – if you need to get help go to Gabriel Gavino or Jay Colt… take the kids to him, he will be able to keep them safe, my daughters will be there too, they’ll protect you guys, no body else but them Pat, do you understand?”



Anya’s voice becomes rough; lower even, the recorder picking up ever little sound, the worried pants of Anya, the slow breathing of Oakley, “Bumblebee don’t come out okay, stay here, even after you don’t hear nothing, stay here. You understand baby? Wait until daddy finds you here, you hear me? Say you were outside Bumblebee… came inside and you hid here… don’t tell anyone I put you here… not even daddy, don’t tell daddy right away, you understand?”



“Ywes momma,” the innocence in Oakley voice burned inside me, Anya knew she was going to die.



“Now I need you to listen real careful okay? Real careful…” Anya doesn’t say anything, there is a beat of silence, and the only sound we can hear is a hum, its faint, there is a ruffling sound – movement.



“I wistening momma…”



“Don’t give this player to anyone okay Bumblebee? People are gonna ask you if you saw anything or heard anything, but I want you to lie and say you didn’t, say that I left, don’t give them this player Bumblebee, just keep it to yourself until later – then show it to daddy okay? Do you understand?”



The loud shudder, distinct compared to the hum that was continuous on the recorder, “I love you Bumblebee, I love you Benny and I love you Pat. I love my other girls too, Pat let them know that I loved them too.”



My heart pounds and I feel a twinge inside, ‘I love my other girls too, Pat let them know that I loved them too.’



“Be real quiet Bumblebee… I – I love you… don’t come out… not until you hear daddies voice.”



“Shhhhh…”



“Look what we have here… Elder Bellamy – or should I call you Anya?”



“Albert…” Albert? Albert? Eleanor’s father?



“Where are the Violins Elder Bellamy?”



“What Violi-” the tape clicks right after the gunshot, I flinch and blink not expecting it but then again my eyes find Oakley and Bens’, he’s shaking, his eyes are darkening. Panting, all eyes turn to him, he’s shifting… he has a wolf… Oakley knew his angry thoughts catching my attention out of all the others.



Yanking his hand he turns to face Oakley, who is stunned, “You had this all this time? Why didn’t you let me listen?” his hands are at his sides clenched and shaking.



“I – I didn’t want anyone to know about it so they would take it away,” it’s all I had left of her, “I did tell you though Ben,” she nodded, “I told you she loved you…” her voice quiet, all the men in the room that knew of Anya or Elder Bellamy are vibrating in their own anger.



Why – why do I feel so – so angry? His small chest rising, falling quickly, Ben closes his eyes, shaking his head, almost annoyed.



“Ben…” I call softly and he turns to me, eyes wide, chest heaving, his hands still shaking, “Are you – are you angry with Oakley?” I know the other Lawsons’ are focused on me but I keep my eyes on Ben instead. He shakes his head, “No, I’m sad, but I feel angry,” he replies in a voice smaller than normal, whispered.



“I – can the rest of you calm down, control your emotions please,” I tell Marlon, Jack, Leland, and the other man whose name I don’t know, “I think… your anger is triggering his own. I can read his thoughts and he doesn’t understand why he’s feeling so angry…” I tell them, unsure, our gaze all-flickering too the little blonde haired boy shaking in his spot. He nearly… he was like this in the office, this is what Chelsea meant… she wasn’t lying Grant thinks in surprise.



“Wait what?” I direct my question to him, when he looks caught off guard, I explain, and he nods. “We were at therapy and this was how Ben was reacting,” he explained what we already knew since Dr. Wagner was recording and stored the session on her cloud. Nodding he just continued, “So – so what we saw on T.V. – that – that’s what they will turn into?” he nodded at Oakley and Ben, I answered with a sharp nod. “It’s controlled by their emotions, feelings?”



“Yes,” I said reluctantly, “When I was younger than Oakley, the man who did this to my back, he attacked me, he wasn’t expecting me to be capable of taking him on. I was able to get away, but I was so angry that he had even dared to try and get his hands on me again, that I fumed all day. Nothing I did that day could quell my anger, each and every thought that consumed me was how weak, ugly, dirty, he made me feel, and how sadistic he was. My dad, Jason, spent the whole day trying to ease my thoughts, but nothing worked, I started getting pains. My joints ached, muscles felt sore and my head felt like I was being poked by a million tiny needles, noises got louder, I could hear everything, my chest squeezed painfully, then worse I felt the angrier I felt,” I chuckled remembering the cycle before my first shift.



“I had already begun hearing my wolf, but I thought I was just going crazy, and that if I said anything Jason would send me back,” Gabriel came to me, holding my hand, but that was enough to help me continue, “that night, my body was boiling, I couldn’t seem to get cool, and around 11 p.m., I just followed instinct, ran outside to the trees, shifting.”



“That sounds terrifying,” Julia Lawson, blurted out, but when she had the attention of the whole room she seemed to shrink back, almost like she didn’t welcome the notice she had garnered with her words, “I – I just mean that, you were a small girl – it was a lot to deal with,” she shrugged.



I nodded, “It was. In a rage we can be more feral – animal – if we aren’t careful, if Ben were to shift in anger, around the person who instigated his anger, without the right techniques to calm down, he could kill someone easily, moving onto his next victim and continuing until he stopped not out of any other reason but exhaustion,” I waved my hand.



“Here, we will teach him how to hunt, track as well as keeping himself safe, because there are hunters even those like us that will seek him out to kill him. This isn’t something Oakley and Ben can be hidden from, not when their chances at survival depend on how much they train and learn to protect themselves for any possible attack.”



“Like you?” Grant asked, not rudely but I smirked.



“Everyday for nearly an hour, I make up to three of four of my people attack me, nonstop, in human form, as well as animal – at the same time. They only put back once they are in kill position, meaning that one step to take my life that true attackers – depending on their prerogative – wouldn’t hold back from. They break my limbs, punch, tackle, full on beat down mode, no mercy so that I stay sharp, aware.”



“And how does beating the crap out of you help you?” he asks his voice rising.



“Helping me find and point out weaknesses, giving me options based on the number of people that attack me, even with other more abilities to handle my protection. If I just tried punching you, on the right side of your face Julia, how would you stop that attack?” I asked pointblank waiting.



“Cover my face,” she said quickly before her face morphed into realization of how foolish that would be.



I smirked at Grant, “if you tried to do that to me, I could… use my speed and strength to flip you over using your own momentum against you, twist your hand, and pin you down with your arm behind your back. I could crush your fist, break your wrist, Ulna, Radius, use it to hold you in place and punch your face to break your nose, skull, jaw…”



“Cool…” Ben said dazed.



“The point is, without training, having enhanced speed, smell, sight and hearing still leaves you unprotected-”



“Even smell?”



I nod, “if a smoke detector is broken, you are awake and aware, will you not smell that smoke and act appropriately?” Grant and Julia bob their heads together, “Well,” I had wanted time to work this onto them but since we were discussing it, “by scent you can tell how many people were in the room-”



“I did that!” Oakley said brightly, blushing, eyes sparkling, I lift a brow. “Yeah I passed out earlier from…” her voice took on an embarrassed tone, but I smiled encouragingly, “I could tell there were faint smells of other people but yours, Ben, Julia and Ben were strongest.”



“See?” I pointed to Oakley by way of explanation for Grant, “When my father was murdered, walking into the house I could tell someone was there, someone that wasn’t supposed to be there. I didn’t learn it all in one day, it took time, it will take time, but while here, we can give Ben and Oakley a fighting chance for when they return. They’ll be able to tell the difference between human scents, and those of other supernatural beings…”



“They’ll have to learn to select the people they want around them, because of many reasons. Their relation to me, or what they can do for others.”



After that I asked Ben how he was faring now, his eyes back to their normal sky blue, before turning to Marlon to explain the Violins.



“Why don’t we all sit?” Julia offered gesturing to the large dining table.



Upon sitting Marlon began, “I guess I’ll start with your mother being an Elder, she was just one of fifteen Elders. You need to understand that things have been falling apart for our kind for quite some time now. The job of the Elders was to manage all shifters and keep peace between supernatural creatures, for a while it was working but then in the late 17th century we lost contact with the Elders, but there was an incline in deaths among gifted shifters.”



“What are gifted shifters?” Oakley asked.



Concentrating, I lifted the candle on the table, maybe four or five inches, Oakley darted her hand out bravely to swipe underneath it, eyes wide, “Oakley!” oh god! Grant scolded her, afraid of her getting hurt. Honestly why couldn’t my mother had met a man like Grant Lawson? He seemed to have all the right reactions to different situations.



“That. Is. So. Cool!” she exclaimed, her mind racing, calculations forming. “Well those with the ability to do something extra, the Elders began syphoning their abilities before killing them, making the Elders stronger. Then one day they stopped contacting, connecting with the Goddess, mother and all the others.”



“In the early 18th century, three Elders were killed and one of the Elders, Elder Bellamy contacted the Mother, explaining what she knew was going on, asking for help, she didn’t have long because when the other Elders realized what had happened they begun hunting her.”



“Your mother… she didn’t want to see more slaughtering and mindless behavior all driven by greed, so she did what she had. The thing about power is that the Elders are naturally drawn too it, as are other supernatural beings, so she had to lay very low, but she also didn’t keep the syphoned energy that she collected after the death of three Elders, Jensen, Roderik and Morgan. She transferred their powers, the substance that the other Elders would want to keep for themselves to three Stradivarius violins, all crafted by Antonio Stradivari, a man from a small shop in Cremona, Italy.”



“The three violins are said to be three of the last ten he made in his career, but your mother didn’t keep the violins either. We aren’t sure where she hid them or with whom, but many hunters and other supernatural creatures are aware of those violins and have been searching for them for years.”



“If they are so important why did they kill her before she could reply to them?” Ben asked sadly.



“I think they shot her more because of what her ability was and not being sure of what she was capable of doing…”



“What was she – her ability?”



“Your mother was a skin-shifter, she could change her physical exterior,” Marlon said and so many pieces fell into place. The picture of the woman was just another face she had been using.



“She was doing so much, Bellamy… she was kind and different. She didn’t want to be like the others so she never consumed their energy. After putting the violins out of the Elders reach, she disappeared. She never shifted because that would give away where she was, whom she was hiding with. If they killed her – they either knew where the violins were or they knew she wouldn’t be able to help them.”



I nodded, “We brought the daughter of an Albert here with us… was running with her two children away from her father. I listened to her thoughts and they sounded worse than how Anya – Bellamy was on that recording,” I told the room.



“She was on the run from her father?” Marlon asked in disbelief.



“Yeah, she was petrified, thought that he sent me for her, she smells like shifter as well. Two children with her, no older than maybe four or five years old.”



Marlon and Leland nodded, my hand went under the table to take Gabriel’s’ hands in mind, loving the feeling of comfort he brought me… until I felt eyes on me. Looking in the direction of the man I didn’t know I saw him gazing at me intensely.



“What?” I asked coldly not liking the way he was staring. She doesn’t even know, “What don’t I know?!”



“Your blood, will be able to disarm the Elders army,” the man said bluntly.



The Elders had an army?

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