Chapter 13- Elders

(Sage's p.o.v)

"Are you serious?", Rosie and I asked at the same time. We rushed over to where peyton was standing.

Before Peyton could say anything else, Yeshiva stepped forward facing our direction.

"Come on, we need to go to the elders, we can discuss everything there. " he said, interrupting us.

We followed behind him and Na'mah. They led us to a large dining room where eleven older men were sitting at the table and two men standing behind each of them. They all turned their heads toward in our direction one by one.

My grandfather sat at the head of the table, gesturing his hand to Yeshiva.

"Follow me", Yeshiva said.

I heard the older men whispering to each other as we walked past them. Rosie and I stood on the left side of our grandfather. I felt nervous standing in front all of these men.

"Elders, I would like to introduce my granddaughters, they're the children of my daughter Natalie." He stated.

The room became full of commotion, making some of the older men stand up.

"Enough!", My grandfather shouted, making them all calm down. Two of the older men sat down, while the others mumbled under their breaths.

"I learned today that my daughter had twins and is currently being held in the palace dungeon" he stated, as he looked around the table.

One of the older men stood up and pointed at me. He had fair skinned with gray hair and had on a black button down shirt. His hands were covered in scars.

"Twins?, by who?", he said in a disrespectful tone.

My grandfather gritted his teeth and ball his fist, the older man was frightened.

"How dare you point your finger at my granddaughters", he said, with angry in his voice.

"This woman right there told me about my daughter and former Prince Moises ", he said and pointed in Peyton’s direction. "She's been raising them since they were born, my daughter entrusted my granddaughters to her to keep them safe.", he stated while giving her a graceful expression.

Peyton nodded her head and smiled a little.

One of the men who was standing behind another the older man gritted his teeth. His expression was filled with anger as he looked at me.

"So that's why she failed her mission, because she went and got knocked up instead.", he shouted.

The rest of the men gasped and looked at my grandfather.

Without hesitation, grandfather rose out of his chair and walked toward the man. He grabbed him by the neck and lifted up his body. He slammed the man's body down onto the table, breaking it in half.

"How dare you disrespect my daughter!", he shouted in the man's face.

Yeshiva and Na’mah rushed behind grandfather and we could hear the man groaning in pain.

"How can you accept her laying down with a royal?!" the man shouted again. He was dressed in a blue suit vest with a white shirt and blue jeans.

"Shut up" my grandfather shouted again. " Royal or not, it doesn't change the fact they're my daughter's children".

"The clan members won't accept this!", the man shouted again.

Grandfather grabbed the man again by the throat and started to drag him out of the dining room. We followed behind him and watched as he threw the man onto the ground.

"Your banned from my mansion from now on", grandfather said and slammed the door.

"Yeshiva, you're their bodyguard from now on", he said. Yeshiva nodded his head.

My grandfather and the rest of the men went back into the dining room.

"Who was that man?", I asked Yeshiva.

He sighed. "His name is Brian, he was your mother's fiance.

"Fiance?!"Rosie and I shouted at the same time.

Yeshiva nodded. " But he's married now with a daughter your age, you'll probably end up in a fight with her soon", he said, smirking.

Rosie and I looked at each other and understood what he meant.

We sat back down at the table after Yeshiva escorted us back.

My grandfather placed his hands on Rosie and I shoulder while he stood behind us. I glanced behind me and saw him smiling.

"Wow, that explains where our temper comes from", Rosie whispered in my ear.

"Shut up", I mouthed to her. Seriously, this girl is even dense in this situation.

"Anyone else has any more disrespectful comments", he said looking around. Everyone at the table stood up and shook their heads.

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(Rosemary's p.o.v )

I remember Peyton telling us our grandfather was the chief but who knew he was this cool, I thought to myself.

He walked over to the head seat of the table and took a seat. He looked ahead and the rest of the men looked towards him.

"Girls, I would like you to introduce yourself to the elders", he said, looking over at us.

Sage and I nodded our heads and started to introduce ourselves.

"Hello, I'm Rosemary Williams", I said, bowing my head.

"Um hello, I'm Sage Young," she said looking all confident, but I knew she was pretending.

One of the men looked at us tilted his head and raised his hand. He looked middle-aged around 50. My grandfather looked at him and nodded his head.

"Why do you two not have the same last name?", he asked, with a serious tone.

Sage and I looked at Peyton and she stood up and cleared her throat.

"I can answer that", she stated.

"After they were born, Natalie entrusted me to.get them far away from the king. The midwife that helped her deliver at that time took her to a private hospital that her family owned at the time, while I took the girls. I got in contact with one of my friends Nathan from school who was a bounty hunter at the time. He helped me flee the kingdom and sent me aboard to Katou and he followed me along. He helped me get a fake passport and helped me change my name. We staged a scene and pretended to find the girls at a fire station, and we pretended to be a couple that wanted to adopt. After we adopted them we gave them our last names, we decided to raise them as friends instead of sisters because they were totally opposite them being fraternal twins", she stated and continued standing.

The room was still silent after listening to what she said.

My grandfather cleared his throat and proceeded to talk but Peyton interrupted.

"And a little while ago, I got a call telling me that Prince Moises has woken up out of his coma", she said looking around the room.

"He was in a coma", I heard the men whispering.

One of the men standing up who had a purple button down shirt and black plant, he looked to be young, maybe around his twenties.

"So that's why we couldn't find him.", he said out loud looking at the man sitting in front.

Peyton looked at him with uncertainty.

"What do you mean?", she asked

The man looked at my grandfather and he nodded.

The man looked at Peyton, " One of our members was commissioned by a nobleman. He wanted him to kill Prince Moises once he was found." he said, with a serious look.

Peyton slammed her hands on the remaining on the broken table. "What did you say!", she shouted in anger.

Sage got up and went to her. The man looked and continued on.

"I remembered hearing about it, one of our members ran into a royal guard and got into a heated battle, I think that's when prince Moises was ambushed", he said trying to remember the details.

Peyton gritted her teeth and Sage tried to calm her down.

"Where is Moises?, my grandfather asked.

Peyton looked at her phone and walked towards my grandfather handing it to him. He looked at phone for a few minutes.

"In the Sergio region", he said looking at the phone, " That's not too far from here about a five hour drive.", he stated.

(Peyton's p.o.v)

I looked at the phone again after he said that. I looked at Massey who was standing next to the door.

"Who is he?"Masiro asked me.

"He's a bounty hunter that helped me protect the girls", I said.

Masiro gestured to Massey to come over and stood up to shake his hand.

"Thank you for protecting my granddaughters", he smiled and thanked him again.

Massey bowed to him and returned to where he was standing.

" We have to go see him," Sage said, looking a little eager.

"We will", Masiro said to her, " Give us time to plan the trip", he continued.

Sage nodded her head and smiled a little.

A few minutes later two maids walked into the dining room and walked towards Masiro.

"Take them to their rooms", he pointed at Sage and Rosie.

The maids nodded their heads and gestured to Sage and Rosie.

"I'll help them settle in'', Na'mah said following behind them.

I nodded and stayed in the dining room.

After seeing them leave, Masiro's face went from soft to straight rage. He slammed on the table, among the remaining pieces of the table falling to the floor. He looked straight at me.

"Now tell me everything that's going on", he said, with an serious expression.

I flinched a little because I was caught off guard.

"Yes sir", I bowed my head once and looked back up.

" A few months later, I received information that King Lincoln found out about the girls. One of his advisors was vacationing in Katou and saw the girls in the sports paper, Sage had just won his fourth archery championship, and Rosemary had just ran in the track and field championship competition. I'm sure he noticed that Sage looks exactly like Moises. I started noticing different vehicles pass up and down the street where we were living. So I started making it look like I was moving, Sage and Rosie had no idea what was going on. I had some friends protect them for me, while I started to erase information about them. Then I found out that they were kidnapped, and once Massey and I rescued them, you were the only option I had in order to keep them protected", I said.

Masiro remained silent and looked at one of the men closest to him, then he looked back at me.

"So all we have to do is kill King Lincoln", he stated.

"What?", I questioned in disbelief.

(SAGE'S P.O.V)

I followed behind Na'mah and two maids up the stairs. I looked around, the living room was huge, the walls were covered in picture l. As I walked up the portrait on the right side of me caught my attention. The woman in the picture had long straight reddish hair and big green eyes and her face had a smile on it. She was dressed in a uniform, she looked just like rosie.

"Is this my mother?", I asked as I looked towards Na'mah.

She smiled, "Yes, that's Natalie", she stated.

Rosie came closer to the picture and touched it.

"Whoa I look just like her," she said.

I kind of felt a little jealous, but inside I was happy to see how my mother looked.

"She was 19 in this picture", Na'mah said, touching the picture.

"How old was my mother when she disappeared", I asked.

Na'mah showed a sad expression.

"She was 23, it was her second mission after becoming captain of her own squad", she stated.

"Are you a mercenary too?", I asked.

She smiled and looked at me.

"No, I was the weak one out of both of us, she was always protecting me from the bullies in the branch families", she said while mesmerizing.

"What's the whole deal about the branch, are they our relatives too?"Rosie asked.

Na'mah shook her head.

" No, we only have one blood related family in the branch and it's the Chinos, everyone else started as subordinates of my father during his mercenary days.

"Yeshiva said, we were going to be fighting once we came here", I said.

Na'mah sighed. "Yes, this is a very ruthless place, the clan trains daily and we have some very arrogant and bad people in the bunch. If you two are only to stay here, you need to train to protect yourselves", she said with a serious face.

Rosie and I looked at eachother.

Na'mah continued to walk up the stairs and then she turned to me.

"Sage you will have a harder time then Rosie", she said and then looked at Rosie, " Rosemary whatever you do if my father isn't around, don't let Sage out of your sight", she said.

Rosie nodded her head and I stood there stunned.

"What's going to happen to me?" I asked.

Na'mah put her hand on my face caressing it.

"Because you look just like your father, some of the members here will do whatever they can to harm you", she said with a concerned look.

"What about our grandfather?"Rosie asked.

"Everyone in the clan has to train, once you go to the training academy in town, he can't help you", she stated.

"I'm not afraid", I said in a determined tone.

"Keep that attitude, you're going to need it", she said and continued to walk up the stairs.