Not Your Mate Anymore

Chapter 44 Call Me To Sanity

Sabrina's POV

"So you are telling me that Josey is the queen of vampires?" | ask as Anthony takes a bite of mother's lunch.

“Yeah, she did not get in to detail about that as she had a pressing matter. She asked me to ask mother something actually. Mother, do you know a woman called Shadow?" Anthony asks Mother.

Her eyes bulge out and she drops her fork.

“I'm guessing that name means something to you? If it does, then Josey needs you and Sabrina to make your way there as soon as possible." Anthony says and | look at mother, who looks like she has just seen a ghost.

"Who is Shadow?" | ask looking at my mother but she remains quiet.

"Shadow is the woman that saved your mother when she fled our realm trying to protect you." Hunter tells me as he sits down to join us for

lunch.

“If that's the case then we don't have time to eat, Josey needs us and we are leaving right now." | say standing up.

X, I'm off to save Josey. It appears she has some answers and a way to prevent the war. I'll be safe, | promise." | say to Xander over mindlink.

He was helping the pups train every day during lunch. To say things have been easy with us would be a lie, our relationship was strained and with my true mate being somewhere on this earth was making it worse.

| really want to be with Xander because he's the one man that allows me to be who | am and he respects me. His love is warm, it feels like home. He is amazing with my son and when Max is around, he's super chilled. He even helps Max out with Adrastos whenever Max is struggling. | really hit the mate jackpot with Xander but | can see how this true mate thing is troubling him. It troubles me too and | hate that this had to happen now with all the other drama. this is my life.

My love life has never been easy. | wonder, if | do end up with my true mate, what problems will we have?

‘Okay love. Let's not bring back any more vampires, yeah?’ Xander says and | chuckle by myself.

Everyone stands but my mother remains seated.

"Mother?" Anthony calls out and she shakes her head.

"| know | got Shadow killed, she told me it would happen when she helped me but she did it anyway. How does Josey know of her?" My mother asks and | let out a sigh.

“That's what we need to find out and save Josey!" | say, getting frustrated.

“Look mom, we don't have enough time. The vampire king can walk in daylight with the sun high up in the sky and he knows who Josey is. She also said if you go there then that would prevent the war looming over us so | suggest we go, now." Anthony says and mother looks at him.

“Come on Kimberly. Let's go finish this." Hunter says bringing mother to her feet and disappearing. Anthony and | follow right after.

| followed Josey's essence and arrived in a room that smelled like gasoline.

On the chair was Josey who kept playing with a lighter and on the bed was a passed out man.

"This is interesting..." | say looking at the man on the bed.

Josey looks up to see me and rushes to hug me. She squeezes so tight.

"Too tight." | say with a strained voice. Hunter, mother and Anthony arrive right after as they also take in the room.

“Thank you Anthony, for getting everybody here." Josey says and Anthony just smiles. Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

"This is Cayden, the boy who has years of pent up anger and hatred for mother. Cayden is Shadow's son and when Shadow helped you, she was Carrying him. Shadow was cursed to give birth to a demon child, who drained his mother of blood from the inside and killing her. Doctors had to cut her open to save the child not knowing they had just released a vampire in to the world. The man that you are all looking at, is the first vampire, the vampire king." Josey tells us.

Cayden stirs on the bed, his body waking. He jumps off the bed to attack Josey but she throws him back on the bed, holding the lighter in her hand.

Cayden looks around the room, shocked to see so many faces.

"Finally awake my king! Oh | was worried | killed you there..." Josey jokes but Cayden half smiles.

Josey and the vampire king have chemistry. It's there and his smile even though they both want to kill each other, proves it.

"We have guests so I'd appreciate it if you would sit up. Like you know, sit like a king. Would you like some blood to reenergize?" Josey asks and Cayden nods his head yes.

"No. That will not be happening! Gross. Okay so the older man over there is father, the man Thomas tried to turn in to a vampire but | took the venom instead, you're welcome. The younger boy is Anthony my brother and his twin, Sabrina. The older woman is Kimberly, the woman your mother saved." Josey says and Cayden looks at mother.

His body was changing color, going from crazy pale to a shade of blue. He looked frozen, cold. The room went cold and | looked at Josey who

just shrugged.

"Okay people! Just make sure he does not touch you. If he does, your limbs will be frozen. Trust me, I've been there and it is no fun." Josey says but we were all just looking at Cayden as his body emits a cold, it was as if we were standing in a freezer.

A knock on the door kills the deadly vibe that Cayden was giving off as he calms down, his body changing back to pale. The door opens to reveal a young woman, a human.

"It's done." She says while eyeing all of us before closing the door of the room. Cayden smiles and that smile alone told me he was up to something.

Cayden stands up from the bed, Josey throws the lighter at him. His body was quickly covered in flames as he screams profanities left and right.

He shakes uncontrollably, screaming blue murder and suddenly, within seconds, he stops shaking. Cayden stands still as the fire dies out on his body. He was blue again, with a sinister smile on his face.

"Boo." He says and Josey fake screams.

"Tell me that was at least painful?" Josey asks in a whiny voice.

"Uh somewhat." Cayden says smiling at Josey.

Does anyone else feel the heat in here? Just me? What was that eye contact and the smile? | can't be the only one!

"How did you do that?" Anthony asks, not bringing up the weird vibes between Jose and the king but Cayden ignores him. His focus was on mother who looked uneasy.

She wanted to be anywhere but here.

"| did some digging on you Josey. Right after you won against the queen, | had to know you. | knew you'd sell me a lie and boy was | right, so | had my sister chat you up. And Josey Josey, you being the chatterbox, you let it slip that you are a werewolf." Cayden says, still looking at mother.

"| know I talk too much but I'm no chatterbox and | am a wolf, proudly so.” Josey says, folding her arms and pouting.

"Yes, you are definitely one proud wolf. You are also a vampire but yes a wolf, a saint. So much so that you had to save dear old servant girl from here. Tell me, did she arrive safely where she was going?" Cayden turns to face Josey, who quickly paled.

She takes her phone out, dialing a number and placing it on her ear.

"Jose, | was just about to call you. Your friend did not make the flight. Do you know what happened?” Cj said over the phone.

Josey looks at Cayden, fear written all over her face.

"No. Not yet but | will find out. Talk to you later Cj." Josey says before ending the call.

“| may be the only vampire that can walk in the daylight but | have enough money to pay humans who are greedy enough to do my bidding.

That scrumptious little lady you all saw is human but a lethal weapon when required to be. See, during the day, humans walk around this castle, working for me.” Cayden brags.

“What did you do to my friend?" Josey asks him and Cayden pretends to be thinking.

"| think | asked for her head, I'm not too sure." Cayden says playfully and Josey throws a large cannon like water ball at him, causing Cayden to stumble back.

She punches him in the gut and throws him to the other side of the room where Anthony had to duck before Cayden hit the wall, leaving a crack.

Cayden stands up, coughing and holding his stomach.

"| deserved that. | deserved that." Cayden says but Josey was fuming.

Her eyes were red and black, both her vampire and wolf present. She releases her power, causing Cayden to fall to his knees.

"| know you want to kill me but | don't think that would be wise. See, somewhere in this castle, | have two lycan beasts locked up and unconscious. Do the names Clayton and Chase ring a bell?" Cayden asks and Josey reels in her power.

"You. Did. What?" Josey asks through gritted teeth. Her eyes still red and black.

“Well, like | said, | did some digging and found out you have two mates. You naughty fox!" Cayden says playfully. His face gets serious as he stands up.

"| like to use this thing called leverage. When | find out my new queen is a hybrid, well | have to take some precautions like kidnapping her mates to force her in to submission. See, when | saw that you did not even break a sweat killing my queen, | was intrigued. | mean obviously that meant you would be a problem because of your strength and fighting skills but no newbie vamp should've been able to kill an old vampire. So | had you followed to human land, where my loyal subjects kept an eye on you before the sun came up. My human subjects had to take over and you were followed to the airport. Yes, you watched little human board the plane but what you don't know is, just after you left, | had my subjects inject a sedative in to her and carry her out. Blame the booze!" Cayden says, enjoying this very much.

“Anyway, | also had werewolf hunters kidnap your mates but don't worry, | asked them to be nice with your pack members. The two alphas were my priority. Now, | have a few demands that | am hoping all of you will meet, or | will have her mates killed." Cayden says, his demeanor so relaxed.

"You are lying! My mates are back at home.” Josey says but Cayden shakes his head no.

"They are here Jose. | can feel them. Try sending them a mindlink to wake them up." | say to her. She nods her head yes closing her eyes to focus. She looks back at me and shakes her head no.

She couldn't get through to them yet.

Cayden turns his attention back to mother.

"Shadow gave you something a few months after helping you, she said | would come to collect it. Where is it?" Cayden asks Mother.

"| lost it." Mother says nonchalantly.

"No. You have it with you, | can sense it." Cayden says smiling at mother. His smile not reaching his eyes.

My mother reaches in to her dress pocket and pulls out a chain. Cayden quickly snatches it out of her hand and looks at it.

It looks like an amulet and something told me this amulet will bring trouble our way. It had magic in it, the spooky give you goosebumps kind. | snatch the amulet from him and disappear.

| arrive back at the white castle where Evan was waiting for me at the door.

"Your Serene highness.” Evan says before bowing his head.

"Take this to the elders and have them study it, | will be back later. | have a feeling it's bad news and the vampire king wants it so keep it safe and nobody leaves this castle with it, understood?” | say and Evan nods his head yes. Evan hands me a small dagger, with ancient writings on it.

"It will kill him. Cold or not." He says. | nod my head at him in understanding.

"Get my brother Cj to save Josey. Tell him | need his army tactics to attack the castle." | say to Evan.

Cayden said he had humans working for him during the day so Cj would be best suited to deal with them with his gadgets. Right now, we had the king to deal with.

| disappear again and arrive back in the king's bedroom, seeing the place trashed. An angry blue vampire fighting with Anthony.

"STOPI!!" My wolf shouts out the command, which has Cayden fall to his knees. He tries to get up but his body fails him.

“Enough with this back and forth. | am here to prevent a war between my kind and the blood suckers, this is not getting us anywhere. Yes, | took mommy's amulet but that thing reeked of evil and | will not let you use it unless | deem it okay. Now Cayden, you have my brothers and something else. Why do | hear babies crying?” Athena asks and Cayden stands, throwing a smile my way.

“Excellent hearing. Josey did say you were something else and | have to agree with her, you are indeed. The babies, ah yes. | have two hundred werewolf pups in my basement to turn in to vampires, making them indestructible. | mean look at Josey! Although | had this idea before meeting Josey but she's proof that my plan will work. However, I'm willing to let the mates go and give the babies back to their mothers if you grant me two things." Cayden says looking at me.

“What do you want?" | ask, mother growls at Cayden.

"| forgot babies are your weakness with you killing off a whole vampire kingdom for one baby. Anyway, speaking of babies, | want Josey to give me an heir. If she agrees to it then I will let her mates live, oh and the two hundred plus newborn babies in the dirty, unhygienic basement.” Cayden says and Josey growls.

"lam never sleeping with you, you dirty penis! You fuck anything that walks and FYI, my mates would rather die than feel me sleep with another man. I'd rather die! I'd kill you if you try to sleep with me, | will never do it." Josey says.

“| have 43 Vampires in the room next to the babies. | can just go down there and let them feast, up to you." Cayden says to Josey.

“And you think you will make it there?" | say to Cayden.

"You may be fast and cold, but | can be just as cold. | will also burn this castle to the ground if anything happens to those kids, don't test me.

You want to sleep with Josey? | say no. You threaten to kill her mates? | say no to that one too. See, what you don't know is | can kill you. | will not hesitate to but that's entirely up to you." | say calmly but my insides are churning.

“How cold can you get? Maybe you should give me an heir..." Cayden says slowly walking towards me.

"You'd have to force your way and | doubt you will live to see the day." | say.

"You blame me for the curse. | understand, | get it. For helping me, you were cursed to be a blood sucker, killing your mother. Blame me, try and kill me but if you think for one second I will let you put a baby in my child, you really don't know me.” Mother says walking closer to Cayden.

“Lam Kimberly, mother of three and mate to the strongest male wolf in our realm. Mother to the moon goddess. Mother to the heir of the first family and mother to a hybrid. | gave birth to powerful children who will rule, your silly vampire powers are no match for them. Do you really think you have a chance getting out of this room alive? Yeah? Well, let me introduce myself then." Mother says before releasing her power.

Cayden falls to his knees again, annoyed at his body's inability to fight the force in front of him.

"Do you know why your body forces you to kneel? Let me tell you. We are godly beings, your superiors. My wolf is a deity and the animal inside of you recognizes that." My mother tells Cayden.

"| could have just compelled Josey to give me a son, but I did not." Cayden says to all of us, his head still facing down.

"Yes. Yes, you could have just done that and that is the only way you will get my Josey to be honest, but we all know that's not how you roll. You can try it now but you can't manipulate all of us at once.” Mother says before we hear shots being fired in the castle.

CJ walks in, covered in blood.

"| got your message Sab." Cj says to me and | smile. He throws each of us a pair of ear pieces for noise cancellation but this time, to not hear a vampire when they try to use their mind control gift on us.

It was game time.

‘Everyone, ear pieces. Time to take this king down. | say through mindlink as | put on my ear pieces to prevent Cayden or any other vampire from compelling me.

Everyone puts in their ear pieces, except for Josey. She did not need it as she was now also a vampire.

| release my power, Hunter follows. Anthony and Josey do the same as Cayden groans in agony.

This was overwhelming for him, forcing his vampire in to submission and | can imagine for a vampire king, this must be torture.

| walk up to him, place my index finger on his chin and lift up his head so he looks at me. | look in to his mind, his past. Growing up without a mother and growing up with the guilt of killing his own mother without even knowing it as a baby.

Turning his father, a man that was never satiated and was driven by greed. He traveled the world with his father, taking money from people. Building an empire that was legit and brought them immense wealth in the human world.

His first heartbreak was turning his sister who was sick. She was dying and he felt selfish for forcing her in to this life but he could not imagine a life without her. He loved her, more than she ever knew and she hated him for the first few years, refusing to speak to him and trying to end her life by not drinking blood. She would become unconscious and Cayden would force feed blood in to her and he would cry as he did this.

He spent half a century trying to help his sister with her transition, helping her to find a purpose in life and love. She eventually found love but just like him, she fell for a human. Who later found out what

she was and left her. Unlike her, Cayden’s lover accepted him for who he was and stayed with him until the end.

They tried so many times to have children but her body was unable to carry such a child. Every day was a battle but she was a fighter. Every time they would lose a child, she would want to try again until she grew too old and he didn't. He watched her age, year after year and his love always growing.

This was a man that knew love and had lost it. | can understand the need to have children and after so many years, Josey would seem like the perfect match but she is mated and once we bare a mark, we remain faithful to the man or men in Josey's case who gave us those marks.

"You will show me where Clayton and Chase are kept and after that, you will take me to those children. You will set them free, allowing me to take them to their homes." | say and Cayden nods his head yes, standing up and walking to the door.

Cj steps out of the way to allow Cayden and | out. He walks out behind me and everyone else follows silently behind.

It was almost sundown so we had to act fast if we wanted to save the children and Josey's mates.

We walk past so many corridors, down so many stairs and past steel doors that look hard to break through. We walk in to a dungeon with so many uv lights to torture vampire criminals I'm guessing, one would have to find shade and hide somewhere if you were a normal vampire.

Stopping at one cell where Clayton and Chase were. Chase was sitting down, his head between his legs, stressed. Clayton was standing, his head resting on the concrete wall.

Their faces look our way, once they smell us. Cayden opens the cell doors and Josey runs in hugging Chase who stood up fast when Cayden opened the cell door, stumbling back at Josey's force when she jumped on him. Clayton hugs Josey from the back and | look at Cayden, it was time to save the babies.

We walk further down the dungeon and in to a big room filled with cots that had small babies in them. My heart broke at the sight before me.

Cayden has been through so much but | don't know if | should kill him for this or not. These babies needed their mothers, family. A clean and

safe place but here they were, kidnapped to play warrior to a sick and twisted vampire king.

"Cj and Anthony, get these kids to safety out of here. | have plans for this vampire king. | need a few days to deal with him" | say before disappearing with Cayden.

"| will be staying behind. Vampires are a problem to the neighboring towns and they need to be taught a lesson.” Hunter says to me and | nod

my head in understanding.

"Sabrina, that amulet is his mother's magic. She was a powerful witch so | don't know what he wants to do with it.” Mother tells me.

"The elders are taking a look at it but I'll have Arianna take a look at it too. If Shadow was a witch then Arianna might have the answers, Cj?" | say.

"I'll have her come to your pack tomorrow. We can check the amulet then." Cj tells me and | nod my head in understanding.

| leave everyone behind, going back to the castle with Cayden.

| walk in to my castle, the moon goddess castle, to find Evan walking towards me with not less than ten guards.

"Take him in and make sure you have enough weapons to hold him." | say.

“I've got this your highness. Don't worry." Evan tells me and | nod my head yes.

“Don't give him any blood. Let him starve, | will be back to see him in a few days once he is weakened. Have the elders mix some concoctions to knock him out. Also, he is a magic creature, one surely doesn't need much to remove the curse right?” | ask Evan.

"| never thought of it like that. | will consult with the elders." He says.

“Evan, | need you to fix the situation with the vampires, Cayden has a sister that hates the life as a vampire, please find her. | will also need books or reports on my family history and what happened before Ethia’s rule." | say and he nods at me. | leave him there.

| arrive back in my room. | needed to hug my child and hold him close to me. Today, he will be sleeping in bed with Xander and |.

| can't even begin to imagine what would go through my mind if Adrastos was ever kidnapped or killed. | have to visit the mother's of those children. To apologize for being so wrapped up in my life that | neglected my duty and because of that, they lost their children.

One day here is ten years in the heavenly realm. | could have prevented this, stopped it if it occurred before | could intervene.

I'm busy stressing about my true mate being on earth, trying to make Xander believe that we deserve this time together and getting to know my family. There are far worse things happening to my wolves than my love life.

"Oh no. What happened?" Xander walks in to find me holding Adrastos tightly.

| let him in my mind. Seeing those babies in that dirty dungeon, the place was cold and they had no blankets. Goddess knows if they've been fed.

| let him feel the guilt that is currently eating at me, gnawing at my insides. The fact that | was told to go to that heavenly school and | threw a bratty tantrum because my biological dad and mother lied to me.

“Hey. Hey. None of that. You didn't know but now you do. Your job now is to never let that happen again.” Xander says to me.

"You are going to take this time to cry, let it all out and tomorrow, you go to that new school and give it your all. What's three days without you?

Adrastos will be fine with me and your mother will stay behind to watch him. Besides, Adrastos has two big ass wolves watching over him 24/7 so | don't think you have anything to worry about." Xander says to me and | smile with tears on my face.

How could | not be with this man?

He is perfect and not just in the looks department, this man just knows what to say to me and how to comfort me.

Xander gently takes a sleeping Adrastos from me and puts him in his cot. I'm glad Xander knows today | need my baby in my room, he can go back to the nursery tomorrow.

"Come. Let's take a bath together and relax, you've had a draining day." Xander tells me as he takes my hand and leads me to the bathroom taking the baby monitor with us.

| love this man. | love how he is so respectful, so patient and so kind. | love the way he loves me, the way he pays attention and even though he's having his doubts about us right now with a mate somewhere, he never ceases to be the man he promised me he would be.

He is always the man | need and that is why | choose him. He gives me stability, love and security. | will never question his intentions because he makes them clear, his honesty is it for me.