5/

NATHANIEL POV

As I head to my room, I really want to be going after my sister Hunter and Cole are on my back giving me a headache trying to take over and go after her.

“Hunter, Cole! Calm down... We will go after her.”

“When?? That male already has nearly a week's head start on us. If we don’t go soon, our gift won’t work as well.”

“I know that, Hunter, but we need some rest or we won’t make it very far.”

“I could always take over and have us to our sister within moments....”

“Cole, I know you can, but if you do that with how exhausted we already are, we wouldn’t be able to do anything. We wouldn’t be any help to her...”

They both growl and hiss at me, but back off. Once in my room, I strip my shirt and jeans and climb into bed. As I lay down, I open my twin link with Scarlett.

“Scarly?? Little Sis. Please talk to me?”

“Nat! I told you I am not your little sis...”

“Ha! I knew that would get you to talk to me... Where are you?”

“Um... I’m not sure. We have been moving a lot. Nat, don’t come after me, it is better this way...”

“Scarly don’t be silly. Being with that male is not better and Phoenix should have protected and treated you better...”

“DO NOT blame Phoenix for any of this...”

“But Cara... If he had treated....”

“No! It does not matter how he treated us. This was going to happen, anyway. I just didn’t know when or how...”

“I know we are not as close as we used to be, and that is my fault, but I am not going to give up on you. I am not going to make that mistake again...”

“Nat! Do you really still care about me that much?? I thought you... I thought you...”

“I apologised for that. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into. I know I should have just trusted you but everyone was convinced that it was not true and father had made a deal or an arrangement with Phoenix to give you to him... I am sorry. Can you give me a hint of where you are? I am coming after you, whether you like it or not.”

“All I know is we are in a clan in another kingdom... I must go. He is coming..”

Before I can say anything else, she cuts the link; I sigh and allow the exhaustion to take me into the darkness of sleep.

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VICTORIA POV

I am surprised when we actually get a good rest before Nathaniel is up and ready to leave again; I meet him in Theodore’s office and we have another look at the map, applying the information he received from Scarlett last night. We work out that there are two kingdoms close to ours one is King Noah’s, and the other is a much smaller vampire kingdom but one still under Uncle Dominic’s rule, a lot of the kingdoms are under his rule even though he allowed the kings to keep their individual kingdom and territories. They could run their kingdoms however they wanted, but anything major had to go through him first.

Once Nathaniel and I have worked out the best place to start, we get Julian and Riley and head down to the cars waiting out the front for us. What I don’t expect and I don’t think Nathaniel does either, and that is Phoenix standing next to one of the cars with a bag over his shoulder.

“Phoenix...”

“I’m coming with you!”

“Really, did you finally decide that my sister actually meant something more to you other than some quick pleasure whenever you felt like it??”

“Scarlett has always been more to me than that...”

This confrontation has been coming for months. I don’t see Nathaniel move until he has Phoenix pinned up against the car and hisses in his face.

“You let that male take her... You didn’t protect her...”

Phoenix looks down as Cole comes to the surface and allows some of his royal power to seep out, showing who is the higher-ranked one out of the two. Even though Nathaniel is much younger.

“I tried and I would have rathered that male killed me than take her, but she is just as stubborn as your mother.”

I have to stifle my giggle as he has a point, but Cole still hears me and gives me a sideways stare. I step up to him and whisper,

“Cole, one more set of eyes and ears will be good.”

I lower my eyes as I can’t keep his stare, but he listened and hisses as he backs off, letting Phoenix go and Nathaniel back in control. Nathaniel doesn’t say anything, just gets into the car and slams the door. I sigh, thankful he didn’t turn on me and get into the car as all the others do; it isn’t long until we are on the road heading to the first clan we agreed that they must have stopped at.

We travel for weeks, going from clan to pack to clan, following Nathaniel’s gift, Nathaniel’s and Phoenix’s link connection to Scarlett and any information we collect from the places we stop. The next clan we stop at is the FoolsBlood clan and the clan leader Henry, is a really nice male.

He allowed us free rein to wander around the clan without telling anyone who we were. Julian and Riley stayed at the leader’s house, taking advantage of being in a new clan and learning what they can, Julian talking to the second in command and Riley talking to the Head Warrior about their security system.

I was going to meet with the Head Warrior after our trip to the clan town centre; I made my way into the clan’s town centre, following Phoenix and Nathaniel; we have been walking around the town centre for a little while when both Phoenix and Nathaniel stop suddenly and stare at someone that entered the town centre but across the other side, I finally realise that it is Scarlett and just as they both go to move towards her she is joined by one of the Royal guards.

I stop this time wondering why a Royal guard would be with Scarlett if she had been taken by the mystery male; he looks familiar. I try to think of who he was; I have seen him around the castle many times, but his name escapes me...

I watch as Phoenix and Nathaniel stop again as the male puts his arm around Scarlett like they are old friends and if you didn’t know them, you would think they looked like and were mates. I guess we just found out who the mystery male is and how he always seemed to know when and how to get to her.

I hear both males in front of me hiss loudly, which they probably shouldn’t have done because the male with Scarlett looks over and glares at them, then turns to Scarlett, who now has a terrified look on her face; he says something to her and then pulls her back out of the clan centre.

I follow Nathaniel and Phoenix as they run through the town centre towards where Scarlett and the male left, but we don’t see them. Nathaniel stops and closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. I smile as I realise what he is doing. He then takes off once again, and both Phoenix and I race to follow him.

Nathaniel leads us to a small house on the edge of the clan but we are too late they are already gone, we head back to the clan leader’s house and Nathaniel rounds up Julian and Riley and we are back on the road following Nathaniel’s gift connection to Scarlett once again; I guess I miss out on my session with Henry’s Head Warrior this time.

We follow their connection and come close to them once more in the coming weeks, but then all of a sudden both Nathaniel and Phoenix lost all connection with her; they knew and could feel she was still alive but could no longer talk to her and Nathaniel said he could only see part of his connection to her through his gift.

Nathaniel believes that the male that took Scarlett has made her wear something probably made out of silver to block the connection between her and them. Phoenix ended up having to go back to the castle under Aunt Seraphina’s orders and we continued to travel, we were still looking for Scarlett but we went back to our learning trip the only difference now was that no one ever knew which clan or pack we were going to as Nathaniel was sure there was still someone back at the castle feeding the Royal Guard H, as I found out they called him, information on our current whereabouts, where and when we would be moving on. So now it is only the four of us that know where we are heading at any one time.