Chapter 67 - Nine.

The Next Morning...

"What am I supposed to do when the best part of me was always you? and what am I supposed to say when I'm all choked up and you're ok? I'm falling to pieces, yeah, I'm falling to pieces, they say bad things happen for a reason but no wise words gonna stop the bleeding 'cause she's moved on while I'm still grieving and when a heart breaks no it don't breakeven, even, no"

The very worst part of grief is that you can't control it, the best we can do is to try and let ourselves feel it and let it go when we can, the only thing is that I don't wanna let it go, I don't wanna end the grief because that means finally letting go and I'm not sure I'll ever be ready to let go of Cole.

"Urgh!!, can you please not kick me so hard? mommas going through enough...she doesn't need you three footballers, kicking me like you're trying to hit a home run"

I chuckled whilst rubbing my hand over my stomach before going back to looking out of the window and listening to my music.

"I'm still alive but I'm barely breathing just prayin' to a God that I don't believe in..."

I was disturbed when I felt someone's hand on my shoulder.

I turn my head and smile a fake smile when I see Taylor, it's not a fake smile because I don't like or trust her, it's a fake smile because I want everyone to know that I'm ok even though I'm not, after last nights breakdown, everyone has been walking on eggshells with me and are scared to say or do anything in case I break again.

"Nice song, what are you listening too?"

"It's The Script, how could you hear it?"

I ask whilst taking my earphones out.

"I'm a werewolf, remember"

Oh yeah.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Go where?"

"Home, silly"

She said with a chuckle.

Home.

"What home, Taylor?...my mates dead, my family and friends clearly don't care about me..."

"What? are you crazy? of course, they care"

"Then where are they? the only people I've seen since I was brought home is you and my parents...I haven't even seen Angelo and Emily and I thought....I thought they'd be the first ones here"

"Natalia"

Taylor sighs as she sits down on the bed next to me.

"They all care about you Nat and they're all dying to see you again"

"Then where are they?"

I ask with a little bit of anger in my tone and unshed tears in my eyes.

Taylors face dropped as she looked down and it was then that I knew why they haven't come to see me.

"They're scared"

Taylors head snaps up and looks at me.

"They're not scared Nat, they're just....worried"

"Worried that I'll break again"

I say with a shaky voice as I look back out of the window, my tears dropping in the process.

"Come on, Nat"

Taylor places her hand on mine and I look up at her.

"Let's go"

She says with a smile and I nod my head.

I put my shoes on as Taylor grabs hold of my things, I go over to the mirror and take a look at myself, f**k, I look like shit.

"Ready?"

"Yer...let's go"

She smiles brightly at me as we leave the hospital room.

"So erm...who signed me out? no offence but you're nobody to me, the pack doctor isn't just gonna let anybody sign my papers to release me"

"No offence taken"

She says with a chuckle.

"And erm...i..it was your dad, yer your dad signed you out"

She said acting shifty, what's going on with her?.

We head back to the mansion and each step was like someone was stepping on my heart making it hard for me to breathe.

"Hey, are you ok?"

Taylor asked with concern as she placed her hand on my arm.

"Yer, I erm...I..I..I can't do this, I can't"

"Yes you can, now come on...take a deep breath and let's go"

I take a deep breath as I look up at my home, the mansion that Cole and I shared together, the mansion where we had spent hours fighting with each other, fooling around and making love to each other, the mansion that we were supposed to raise our children in and grow old together in but now all of that's gone, he's gone.

"Natalia"

I snap out of it and look at Taylor once again with a fake smile on my face.

"Let's go, honey"

Taylor smiles back but it didn't reach her ears, she then linked our arms and lead us back to my mansion.

We walked into the mansion through the back door and my breathing started to become a lot more erratic, I felt like I was gonna have a panic attack as memories upon memories started to hit me like a ton of bricks but luckily Taylor was able to calm me down.

"It's ok Natalia, I promise"

Urgh!!, I really need to get a grip on myself.

I nod my head and we walk into the living room where I was immediately embraced in a hug by both Angelo and Emily.

"It's so good to see you again, baby girl"

Angelo whispered in my ear and I buried my face in his neck.

"I missed you so much, Angelo"

I whimpered as tears started to fall from my eyes.

"Are you ok, Nat?"

"I'm fine, Em"

After about a minute of Angelo and Emily practically crushing me to death, they let me go and my eyes narrowed on Dimitri and Massimo, my sons.

I walked over to them and was immediately embraced by them both.

"Momma"

"Ma, are you ok?"

"Urgh!!, it's so weird hearing you guys call me that"

They both chuckle as I keep a tight grip on them.

"Ma, are you ok?"

Massimo asked me sounding worried.

"I'm fine just let me hug you, please...you're the last thing I've got of him"

I whispered the last bit hoping nobody heard me but I know they did, stupid werewolf hearing.

"Actually ma, we're not"

What?.

I pull away and look up at my grown-up sons confused.

"What do you mean?"

Dimitri and Massimo look at each other with a look I couldn't decipher but their eyes glittered with excitement, what's going on with everyone today? they're acting so weird.

"Well...what Mass and I neglected to tell you before the rogues came is that...me, Massimo and Grayson aren't the only kids you've got in the future"

"What?"

I whispered feeling confused.

"There's more of us, ma"

"How many more?"

The boys smirk as they look at each other.

"Well, let's see there's me, Massimo and Grayson"

He starts whilst raising his fingers for each one.

"Then there's Nikolai, Franco and Isabella who are total pains in the ass"

"Especially Nik and Frankie"

"Yer, I mean so is Izzy but she's our beautiful diva who gets away with murder, she's just like her momma"

Dimitri chuckled nervously whilst scratching the back of his neck as I smiled liking the names but the first one intrigued me.

"Nikolai?"

"Yer, Nik wasn't exactly thrilled to learn that he was named after a tv vampire that was a mindless killing machine who had a thing for blondes"

Dimitri says whilst aiming his stare at Emily.

I turned to look at her confused and she looked at me with the same stare.

"Why the hell are you looking at me like that? I didn't do anything"

"Actually auntie Em, you did"

"Aww auntie Em, that's so cute, wait, no, what did I do?"

The boys chuckled at her.

"Well, when momma found out she was expecting another set of triplets, she asked you and uncle Angelo to help name them, Angelo picked Frankie's name, momma picked Izzys and you picked Niks"

I glared at my best friend who was trying her hardest not to smirk.

"YOU NAMED MY SON AFTER NIKLAUS MIKAELSON, ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"What? it's not like he's a real person and besides, I don't know what I do in the future"

Urgh!!, this woman.

I take several deep breaths whilst trying to control myself from choking the life out of this god damn bitch.

"Who's next?"

Emily asks trying to get the attention of herself and luckily for her, it worked, well for now it did.

"Smooth auntie Em, real smooth"

Massimo said with a chuckle and Emily smirked which didn't last for long when she caught my glare.

"Anyway, after those three delinquents are the dynamic duo Xander and Xavier and then there's our baby Kailani, she's the princess of our family and I don't mean that literally"

"Kailani?"

My momma asked with a bright smile.

I was so engrossed in the names of each of my future children that I didn't hear what my son said next or the groans of disgust coming from everyone around us.

"Yer, apparently she was conceived on the white sandy beaches of Hawaii when dad took ma away on their yearly honeymoon"

"Urgh!!"

"Eww!!"

"That's beautiful"

"No momma, that's f*****g disgusting"

"That's foul"

"That's..."

"Nine"

Everyone quickly shut up and looked at me as I looked up at Dimitri and Massimo who were both smirking.

"That's nine kids"

"Uh-huh"

"Nine"

I whispered as I started to remember something.

Flashback.

"How many kids do you want?"

"Oh not a lot, maybe eight or nine"

"Shit babe, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine but my vagina won't be if you get your way...seriously babe, nine kids? what do you think I am a f*****g baby pez dispenser?"

"Baby, it's normal for wolves to breed loads of pups"

"I know, it's just....nine, I don't think I've got it in me to get pregnant nine times"

"Of course you have, you're one of the strongest people I know besides, you may get pregnant with multiples"

"Oh because that sounds better, Cole"

"I'm just gonna shut up before you close my favourite ride down for good before I even get a chance to plant my pups inside of you...if I haven't already"

End Of Flashback.

"Oh my god"

I whispered in disbelief as tears once again filled my eyes, this isn't happening, it can't be...it's impossible.

"Baby"

My eyes shut tightly as I shake my head in disbelief when I hear a very familiar voice.

"Turn around, ma"

"No...no, no, no this isn't real...he's dead"

I broke down once again as I ran my hands through hair and roughly tugged on it.

"No he's not ma, turn around"

"I can't, he's dead"

I growled.

"Natalia"

"STOP IT!!, STOP IT!!, WHY ARE YOU TORTURING ME?....why are you torturing me?"

Why are they doing this to me? haven't I been through enough?.

"Ma, look at me please"

Dimitri asks whilst placing his hands on my shoulders, I look up at him and he smiles sadly at me.

"Dads back, ma"

"He's not"

I whispered whilst shaking my head slightly.

"He's dead, Dimitri...he's not coming back"

"If you don't believe me ma then believe your ring and then turn around"

"My ring"

I look down at my Luna ring and my eyes widened in shock when I saw it was back to being white and iridescent, what the hell?.

"Nattie baby, please turn around"

Oh god, oh god, oh god.

I was reluctant to turn around at first because I was too scared too, I didn't wanna turn around and see my mate only to wake up in the hospital and realise that this is nothing but a dream.

In the end, I bit the bullet and turned around looking over in the direction where I heard his voice and I gasped when I saw Cole standing there alive and well with his beautiful goofy smile plastered on his handsome face.

"Hi baby"

"You're alive....oh my god, you're alive"

I didn't waste another second, I ran over to Cole and wrapped my arms around him tightly as I buried my face into his neck inhaling his scent.

"I missed you so much, my queen"

Cole spoke to me through our mate link making all of this even more real but it was still very confusing.

"I missed you too Cole, I thought you were dead"

"I nearly was, you've got Dalton to thank for that"

I pull away from Cole and look up at him, I gently cup his face and caress his cheeks with my thumbs relishing in the feeling of his skin against mine.

"How's this possible? Mason told me you died, your blood was all over him, my ring turned black and my mark is gone"

"What?...no it's not"

He said whilst moving my hair out of the way and rubbing his thumb over the area where my mark used to be.

The sensation that ran through me when he touched my mark made me feel everything towards him again...love, lust, compassion, anger, sadness, you name it, I felt it not that it ever really went away I just...I just shut it all off so that I could be strong in front of Mason but that doesn't mean I understand what's going on.

"I don't understand...how's all of this possible? I'm so confused"

"It was black magic, baby"

My momma stated as she came over and stood in front of us.

"What are you talking about, momma?"

My momma took a deep breath before explaining what Mason did to me.

"Honey, your uncle Mason cast several spells on you so that you'd believe that Cole was dead when he wasn't"

"What spells?"

"Well, the first spell was to block the mate bond between yourself, Cole and your wolves so that it would make both you and Lucky believe that the mate bond no longer existed"

"And the other one?"

I asked with curiosity but not much since I've already got a feeling what this spell is.

"It was a masking spell which has got the ability to hide from others what the witch casting it wants to hide such as your mark and the colour of the moonstone on your ring"

That f*****g bastard.

I inadvertently growled out loud, I didn't even realise that I'd done it until I felt Cole wrap his arm around my waist to calm me.

"But what about my powers? Mason said that he'd made my witch side dormant so that I couldn't use it"

"Oh that...well, that also falls under the masking spell but what my stupid brother in law doesn't know is that you can't fully make a witch become dormant as you fully well know"

She looked at me with pride and a little bit of anger.

"But I couldn't use my powers...if I could, I would've used them to orb my ass out of there"

"The spell puts a pause on your actual powers but not on casting spells which you did to protect your pups"

She said whilst placing her hand on my stomach, she then started to chant something in Latin and I felt a weird, warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach.

"What did you do?"

I asked placing my hand on my stomach.

"I reversed the spell you put on yourself my dear daughter, there's no need to hide your pregnancy anymore....Mason can't hurt you"

She said whilst cupping my face and caressing my cheek gently wiping away my tears.

"How do you know that?"

I asked with fear in my tone as my body started to shake.

"Because he's currently tied up to a fifty shades style X in the basement being sliced and diced like a kebab whilst being pumped with silver and wolfsbane"

Christian gloats causing a huge amount of relief to wash over me.

"Good...th..that's very good"

Cole pulled me close to him wrapping both of his arms around my shoulders and kissing my temple as I rested my head and hand on his chest loving how amazing it feels to be back in his arms.

"I don't wanna sound rude or anything but can you all please get out of my house, I want some alone time with my wife"

Cole kisses my head again as everyone groans in disgust.

"Dude seriously, she's our ma"

"Do you have to Cole? that's f*****g disgusting"

These were just a couple of the groans that were heard which made me chuckle.

I narrowed my eyes at Emily who was also chuckling and I remembered that I had something really important to tell her.

"Babe, does Emily know about her family?"

"Shit, I knew there was something I needed to do"

"COLE!!"

"Don't you shout at me like that, young lady"

He growled through our mate link.

I look up at him and smile.

"I missed you so much, my baby, including your dominate side"

"I missed you too, mi amor"

He leaned down and kissed me causing everyone to once again groan in disgust.

"Ok, ok we're going, we don't need to see visuals"

Dimitri groaned.

"Actually, there's one more thing I need to say before you all piss off"

"Cole"

I said angrily whilst rolling my eyes, this man has got absolutely no tact whatsoever.

"What is it?"

My father asked.

"Well, actually it's Nattie who's got something that she needs to tell Emily"

"What?"

I growled at my husband.

"Go ahead babe"

Cole says whilst smacking my ass, see what I mean about tact.

"Well erm"

Urgh!!.

I turn to glare at Cole who responded with a smirk and a wink.

"Asshole"

"I heard that"

"You were supposed too"

He growled and I smirked.

"What is it, Nat? what do you need to tell me?"

Emily said interrupting us.

I look up at my best friend and sigh, here goes nothing.

"Well, you see when Mason kidnapped me, the very first person I saw at his mansion was someone I knew very well...but it wasn't Mason"

"Who was it then?"

Emily asked me confused.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you"

I whispered suddenly losing all of the courage I had to tell her that I saw her dead brother who is not so dead anymore.

"Are you being serious?...Nattie we're best friends, I'll believe anything you tell me"

"Nattie pie"

Dalton speaks to me through the mind link, I look around for him until my eyes land by the back door and I gasped when I saw he wasn't alone, my uncle Sean and auntie Jenna are here as well.

"Nat"

Emily says with concern.

I look back at her and smile suddenly feeling courageous again.

"The person I saw at the mansion Em was....it was D..Dalton"

"What?"

"It was Dalton, Em, I saw Dalton"

"Dalton"

I nod my head as Emily looks at me in a way that could mean one of two things, either she wants to kill me for saying that I saw her deceased brother when I was kidnapped or she's trying to figure out whether or not I'm telling the truth.

Just as I thought, Emily immediately went into denial mode and got angry with me.

"No, no, it's impossible, IT'S f*****g IMPOSSIBLE!!"

"Em, please calm down"

"Are you kidding me, Natalia? you've just lied to me and told me that you've seen my dead brother and you expect me to keep calm"

"Wait, that Dalton dude is your brother?"

Christian asked looking confused.

"Yes, Dalton's my brother and he's dead, do you hear me, Natalia? HE'S DEAD!!"

"No, he's not"

Angelo said shocking and confusing me.

"What did you just say?"

Emily asked Angelo whilst looking very angry and confused.

"Dalton's alive, Emily"

"What?"

She whispered.

"It's true babe, he's the one who's been helping us to save Nattie, he's been communicating with myself and Cole for the past two weeks"

"WHAT?"

I growled feeling very angry, Dalton knew Cole was alive and never told me.

I snapped my head towards Dalton who was now looking nervous, I'm gonna have to have a serious chat with him later, the lying, sneaky little shit.

"YOU LYING BASTARD!!"

SLAP!!.

Ouch, Jesus, that sounded like it really hurt and if Angelo's face is any indication then I was right and Emilys in trouble.

"EMILY!!"

Uncle Sean shouted causing everyone to snap their heads towards him except for Emily who stiffened at his voice.

My heart was beating really fast and I wanted to go over there and hug her but I knew that she'd push me away if I did.

Emily turned her head towards where I'm standing and she gasped when she saw her whole family standing next to Cole.

"M..momma, d..daddy...D..Dalty"

She stuttered with tears falling down her face.

"Hi, baby"

"Hey Em"

"Hi, my baby...what does a man have to do around here to get a hug from his baby girl?"

Emily broke down as she immediately embraced her dad followed by her momma and brother.

"Oh my god, I can't believe this"

Emily said with so much happiness as she tightly squeezed each of her family members, Dalton then introduced his sister to his mate Taylor which I could tell from the smile on his face that it was something he's been dying to do for a very long time, Emily then introduced everyone else in the room to her family.

Auntie and uncle were both shocked that I knew about me being adopted which in all honesty they should've known or at least guessed as soon as they walked in considering I'm clinging to Cole like a damn koala bear and not in a way a sister should with her brother but their shock was amplified when Emily introduced them to my parents and my brothers, they were completely shocked that I'm a royal but Jenna quickly snapped out of her shock and immediately pointed out the similarities between me and my family.

The whole atmosphere quickly changed and everyone started to drink and get to know each other as well as have fun despite Coles very nice pleas to get lost and go home, Cole was pissed off and annoyed that everyone wouldn't listen to him whereas I couldn't help but feel happy and grateful to be back home with everyone that I love, I know I've still got two very evil assholes to torture and kill before I can truly be happy and content but right now, I don't care, I'm currently feeling something I never thought I'd feel again and I didn't wanna ruin it.