№17|I’ll Give You A Reason
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Emmanuel couldn't believe it, Marmalade was back in his arms, safe in sound. He nuzzled his nose into her neck. “You’re never leaving my side again.” Emmanuel muttered.

Marmalade laughed, “it’s been a week since the rescue and still your protective of me?”

“Yes!” Emmanuel sat up, “baby, you go kidnapped the day you came to New York! What if that happens again.”

Marmalade kissed his lips, “do you trust me?”

“With my whole heart.”

“Then trust my strength,” Marmalade got out of bed, wrapping herself in a silk robe, “I am a strong animalistic babe. I can protect myself and my mate.”

Emmanuel nodded and got up, “I’m sorry, it’s just I’m so worried.”

“There’s no need to be,” Marmalade kissed his cheek, “now, what have I missed?”

“Dizzy got marked by Shawn.”

“Makes sense, you can just sense the heat radiating off that man.”

“Summer is with Christopher.”

Marmalade nodded, “cute, they’re nice together.”

“And your sister is with Hex.”

Marmalade dropped her makeup brush, “YA!!! Oh I’m so proud of Big Sis Cruella!!!”

“That she gets excited for…” Emmanuel laughed.

“We have to visit them!” Marmalade quickly jumped into the shower to get ready.

Emma stood at the airport with Edgar and Jasmine, “are you sure you two will be okay in San Diego?”

“Yes, Emma,” Edgar ruffled his hair, “we’ll be taking over the base in San Diego while you work here. Plus, Jasmine was born there and she wants to see her family again.”

Emma hugged her big brother, “you know, Sergio would kill you if he’d known about this!”

Edgar chuckled and hugged her back, “I know, I wish he was here to see how great you’re handling things.”

“I wish he was here too...our anniversary is coming up.” Emma whimpered.

“Are you going to put flowers at his grave?” Jasmine asked.

“Yeah, I think I might talk to him.” Emma smiled.

Edgar kissed her forehead, “I know he’s watching over you up there.”

“I know,” Emma touched her heart, “I can feel it, in here.”

Matias and Alonzo watched as Clair packed her clothes in her suitcase, “what suitcase number is this?”

“3.” Alonzo groaned, throwing his head back.

“She’s your mate bro.” Matias laughed.

“What else am I missing?” Clair tapped her chin.

“The kitchen sink -- OW!” Alonzo rubbed the mark Clair’s shoe left on his head.

“Alonzo! If I’m going to be your mate you must deal with my quirks.” Clair pouted.

Alonzo chuckled, and pulled her in close, “only one more day my love.”

Clair giggled, “one more day and I’ll be all yours.”

Matias smiled, he was happy for the two of them, Alonzo and Clair were so in love it was adorable. But at the same time, he wanted to yell at his brother, “holy shit! We fucking get it! You found your mate! I’m so fucking happy for you but stop rubbing it in my face! Some people aren’t as lucky as you!” but he didn’t really say that

“Matias? Are you alright?” Clair asked.

Matias smiled fakely, “perfect!”

Clair shook her head, “you’ve been really quiet since the rescue, did something happen?”

“Nah,” Matias shook his head. Clair and Alonzo sat him down on the bed.

“Stop lying. What happened?” Alonzo demanded.

“Her name is Eponine…” Matias fell back on the bed.

“Prin-Princess Eponine?” Alonzo and Clair were shocked.

“Yeah,” Matias nodded, “she said she went willingly with Cruella’s family because she didn’t want to see her kingdom get hurt!”

Matias groaned into his hand “she’s a werecat and she has adorable cat ears and tail! Oh and her smell! Her beautiful smell of jasmine and vanilla! You can get drunk on that! I wanted to kill Hex when he told me to leave! Like physically rip his head off and bury it where nobody would find it, pissed!”

“I’ve never felt like this before! Oh and another thing! I wanted to never let her go, and Balkin, that stupid wolf in my head, wasn’t helping! Everytime I close my eyes he’s telling me I’m an idiot, ‘wolves protect what theirs, Matias! Sitting here and waiting for her to come back won't work! You need to take action!’ he really needs to stop!”

Alonzo slowly clapped, “well done Matias! You found a mate!”

“What?! No! She isn't my mate!” Matias blushed hard.

“Say that to the blush on your face!” Clair laughed hard, “but what are your gonna do? Tomorrow is mating season.”

“I’m making Mama knock me out, plain and simple!” Matias stated profoundly.

“Rather than going to go get Eponine?” Alonzo smirked.

“Yes, she’s with Cruella’s family! She wanted to go for her kingdom! If I rescue her, then...then I’d…”

“You’d what? Find your mate the Moon Goddess destined you to be with? Someone to love and care for? Someone to protect and someone who’ll protect you? You’re scared Matias, your scared you might mess it up, that she won't let you mark her, that one day she’ll wake up and think ‘maybe I don't like this man anymore’.” Alonzo gripped his shoulders.

Matias nodded, Alonzo hugged him, “I had those fears too, but I realised the moon goddess knows what you want, it knows your desires, hopes, dreams, all that shit. That’s why she brought you to Eponine.”

“Go to France, once your back, you can meet Eponine!” Matias smiled widely, “I’ll be right back! I have to get Cruella and Marmalade!”

“You want us to do what?” Cruella and Marmalade glared at Matias.

“I-I-I know it’s a lot to ask but Eponine is struggling there! I just know it! Plus it’ll be a chance to take out your family once and for all.” Matias explained, Marmalade sighed, shaking her head.

“Matias,” Marmalade got off of Emmanuel’s lap, “our family is the most dangerous mafia in the world! And you want us to go in and rescue a princess who wants to be there?”

“Yes…?”

Cruella sighed, shaking his head, “Matias-” before she could continue, a small orb was thrown through the window and into Hex’s house.

“What the fuck is that?” Emmanuel cursed. Matias morphed into his wolf form, sniffing the orb and swatted at it, turning on a hologram of Juniper and Tangerine.

“Stop sniffing the orb! You idiot mutt!” Juniper scolded, Matias backed up, morphing back into a human.

“Awe, look at my two lovely daughters,” Juniper turned her eyes towards Emmanuel and Hex, “and their garbage mates.”

Cruella and Marmalade growled, “say some shit like that again and I’ll come after your throat!”

Tangerine laughed, “awe, look mom,” Tangerine looked around, “Anjou’s not here.”

“His name is Gillian Astros, not Anjou DeVille.” Marmalade snarkly corrected.

“Seriously Gillian Astros! HA! The idiotic boy can't even pick a new name!” Juniper laughed.

“After 20 years of running from your dear mother,” Juniper placed her hand on her chest, “I finally found you! Now Cruella can come home and finally marry one of our high Gold Members!”

“Why?” Cruella scoffed, “so your mafia can grow bigger?”

“Why else?” Juniper cocked her head to the side, “because of your happiness?!” Juniper and Tangerine laughed hard.

“Honey, I don't give a shit about your happiness, I want power.” Juniper smirked wickedly.

“We’ll your not getting it through us.” Marmalade glared at the hologram, “we’re not going back no matter what you offer us.”

“Who said anything about offering you anything?” Tangerine rolled her eyes, shifting her gaze to Hex, “Hexiciah? Right?”

“Yeah…” Hex looked at her concerningly, “why are you asking?”

“How fast can you get your family here?” 

After about 30 minutes, everyone arrived at Hex’s house, they all sat around the hologram. “Good,” Juniper smiled wickedly at the Perez family, “your all here, well not all of you.”

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t shoot you for all you did to Cruella and Marmalade?” Mama glared at Juniper.

“You want a reason, Emma?” Juniper rose from her chair, walking to the back of the dark room to pull out a person tied to a chair, a black burlap sack over their face, “I’ll give you a reason, a real good reason.” 

She placed the person in front of the camera, “hey, wake up.” she slapped their face, a groan indicated he was awake.

“What do you want...devil woman?”

Mama's eyes widened, “no...no way…”

She took off the sack to reveal Sergio badly bruised but still alive, “Golden Dragons, here’s your reason.”

~A/N~

And here we go! This is how the second arc starts off! Why does Cruella's family have Sergio?! 🙉

Find out next time!