FIVE MATES ?

CHAPTER 8: HOME AGAIN

Niyah’s POV

After our glorious escape from Asheville, we were met by a fuming Alpha, who also happened to be my Dad, at the outskirts of Diamond Ville itself !

“Hello Dad ! Did you miss me ?”, I asked innocently while giving him a peck on his cheek.

“Stella called”, he said ignoring my question.

“What about her, Dad ?”, I asked.

“She has agreed to not put you three in the Red Room if you go back after 1 week and never repeat this stunt”, he said in an angry Alpha tone which I knew was just an act as he would soften soon.

“But dad we don’t want to stay in Asheville. This is the place where we belong to and it only makes sense that we learn everything in the surroundings where we will stay”, I wailed. “Please don’t send us away, Dad”, I pleaded.

“My silly child !”, my father chided me softly as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into a long hug.

It seemed he did miss me, even if I was gone for a few hours only.

“Niyah, let’s go inside and talk. Alex, bring the rest of the girls too. I want to tell you guys something”, Dad said as he ushered us into his truck.

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“Niyah ! My child !”, my Mom squealed as she engulfed me in her chest, the moment I entered our mansion.

“I missed you so much, Mom !”, I sobbed as I felt the familiar homely feeling in my mother’s embrace.

“My baby, I missed you too”, my mother cooed as she patted my back to console me. “Did you hurt yourselves ?”, Mom asked as she pulled out of the hug to scrutinize us for injuries.

“No Mom ! Jeez just relax, will you. Nothing happened !”, I said.

“I heard you encountered five rogues back on your way. How can you girls take such a dangerous route ?”, Dad asked.

“Dad, don’t be paranoid ! We have been trained all our life to fight. We were able to defend ourselves and finish them off in no time”, I said.

“That’s not the point, Niyah ! They were former warriors and could have harmed you. How can you be so careless about your own safety ?”, Dad fumed.

“Dad, we wanted to get back home without getting caught. The very thought of staying away from all of you, broke our hearts”, I replied with genuine tears plopping out of my eyes.

“George, you should go and resume your pack business work. Just let me comfort my girls”, Mom said as she pushed out my Dad and his Beta out of the house.

After Dad went, Mom turned to us with eyebrows raised and a grin on her face.

Soon we were narrating our escapade to mom and we all laughed out so loud and for so long that our sides ached.

“Well what matters is that I won the bet from your Alpha and saved your butts!”, my mother laughed after hearing about the whole incident.

“What bet, Luna ?”, Sia asked curiously.

“That you guys would be back home before the day ended”, my mom grinned. “So, your father had to give in to my conditions after he knew he had lost.”

“Conditions ? What were they, Luna ?”, Keisha chuckled.

“Well to start with, that you all could stay back home for 1 week before going back to Asheville and secondly, there would be absolutely no punishments involved.”

Hearing this we all instantly group-hugged my mom and forgot about all our troubles.

Sigh ! Mothers are the best. What would I do without mine, I wondered.

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“Niyaaaaaahhh wake up dearie. We have to go shopping with Keisha and her mom”, mom announced early in the morning.

“What about Sia ? Isn’t she coming ?”, I asked groggily while rubbing my sleepy eyes.

“She seems to be down with fever. Her father is taking care of her so don’t worry”, mom said as I sat up on my bed.

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 “Mom, where are we going ?”, I asked as I noticed us go past the mall and enter strange dark woods.

“Girls we have something to tell and show you. We will be there in five now”, answered Leena, Keisha’s mom.

Soon our truck made its way to a megalithic structure overlooking a beautiful lake surrounded by huge, sturdy rocks and cherry blossoms.

“Girls, this is Peace Land. The boys must have shared their experience about the Red Room to you. The scenery they saw in the Red Room is the replica of this. This is where we all trained alongside vampires and werewolves of different packs when we were young like you”, Leena announced.

“Why didn’t you take us to this beautiful place before ?”, Keisha asked in wonder, her eyes getting bigger as she tried to take in the beauty of the place more and more.

“Oh ! But you have been here numerous times”, my mother smiled.

I gasped suddenly as the familiar soft breeze and whispering of the trees hit my ears.

“Ofcourse ! This is where we trained all these years but this must be the front view !!”, the truth suddenly dawned on me.

“Yes, your father and I decided that we would train the pack’s kids in the most dangerous woods to not only make you all physically unassailable but also to equip you from any harm caused by the spells of the vampires through their mind games”, mom said.

“Is this why the boys were able to withstand the attacks in the Red Room for so long ?”, Keisha asked quietly.

She is just like her brother when it comes to analyzing matters deeply.

The twins have an uncanny mind which allows them to think things through so calmly and the photographic memory only enhances their psychological abilities.

“Do you remember the ‘Drown & Run’ sessions ?”, Leena asked suddenly.

Ofcourse, we remembered the much dreaded, life-battling sessions !

They were the scariest examinations where the teacher would push us from the cliff just above the colourless lake into the said waterbody.

The lake would engulf each of us in its depths and try to contort our bodies in all directions by its strong waves which never seemed to ride on the lake’s surface.

But the pain due to the contortions was not the real test.

It was the sea creatures and inner storms that we had to battle and somehow survive the time in the lake by keeping us feeded and sheltered from the mysterious lake monsters.

The teacher after pushing us would return to Diamond Ville while we had to swim across the length of the huge lake to get back home.

The levels gradually increased as we grew up and came to the point when we all nearly lost our life when all the previous creatures we had fought till date attacked us at once, the last time we went.

But we had managed to survive somehow and now that I saw how deceptive the lake looked, it made me turn away in disgust.

“Baby, I have something to show you”, mom said while hugging me, knowing that thinking about the extreme adversities I had faced in the lake made me sick.

She led us inside a cave and gave me a pendant with a simple wolf claw hanging in the middle.

“Here, let me clasp it for you”, mom said as she placed the mysteriously beautiful pendant around my neck.

It suddenly vanished from our sight as soon as the claw touched my skin.

A similar pendant was given to Keisha except that hers had a red claw while mine was a pale white one.

“No one can know that we gave these to you. Not even your fathers, girls. These pendants were made by Leena and me from our own claws to survive mindlink blockers”, my mother said.

“These claws are both blessed and cursed. You can not communicate through these claws unless the claws deem that it is necessary to pass on a message to the other”, Aunt Leena said.

“You will get to know that the claw wants you to use it when you feel the pendant get slightly heavier on your neck”, mom explained.

“And yes always remember to keep it clasped in your neck. No one can see the pendants except for you two when you are wearing it. A powerful vampire can only sense its presence but not track or detect its owner”, Leena added.

“So Stella can feel its presence ?”, Keisha asked.

“Stella is one of the most powerful vampires, so yes, she will feel the presence of these claws but since we made these in utmost secrecy, I very much doubt if she will understand its use”, Mom said to us.

“What surprises me dear is that if Stella walked into the gate as you were exiting, she should have been able to detect your presence. I am worried, Lucy. Something seems wrong to me”, Aunt Leena sighed as turned to my Mom.

“Aunt Leena, what do you mean by getting worried about our presence going undetected by Stella ?”, I asked cautiously.

“Leena, I guess we should tell the kids everything from the beginning. Afterall, they should be well equipped with all the truths and prophecies when the Great War comes”, mom said as she opened the mindlinks to the whole Shadow Gang to hear her out.

“As you say Luna”, Aunt Leena agreed.