The Lost Lycan Princes: A Journey Home

Mom, Dad, We're Not Human

Jonathan POV

  After our talk with Nathan, both of us found ourselves with more questions than answers, but we felt like we at least had a better idea of what direction our search needed to take. Nathan had promised to get his mom to send him some articles she'd saved about the kidnappings and have Sarah pass them onto us.

  When we went back outside after our talk with Nathan and Sarah, Mom gave us a funny look, her way of asking where we'd been. "Just a misunderstanding we needed to clear up," I explained to her. I knew she would want more details than that later, but for now that did the trick. Dad was having a pretty detailed conversation with the next door neighbor about the art of grilling the perfect steak and didn't even seem to notice we'd been gone. 

  We spent the next couple of hours continuing to hang out with our friends and family. Mom even brought out the huge birthday cake she'd made and Sarah had decorated. It was triple chocolate - both of our favorite. We opened the huge pile of gifts, making sure to thank each person as we did. Mom and Dad had gotten us each a Bible with our full names on the front. Jameson Andrew Canton on his, Jonathan Daniel Canton on mine. They also gave us $250 each. Normally we got anywhere from $50 to $100 for our birthdays, but Mom said our 18th was a special birthday and they wanted to make sure we got what we really wanted. Sarah got us accessories for our cars - seat covers, steering wheel covers, etc. We also got a variety of UCLA football related items, since we planned on going there in the fall. 

  After the party was over, we helped with the cleanup. As we were changing the trash bags, I glanced at Jameson and he looked back over at me. I raised an eyebrow and jerked my head towards our parents, and he knew what I was thinking. He nodded. 

  "Hey, Mom? Dad?" I started. "When we finish with this, can we talk to the both of you? We have something we want to discuss with you both."

  Dad nodded. "Sure. You boys know you can talk to us about anything."

  "Sarah too?" Mom added. "Or just us?"

  "Sarah already knows what we're needing to talk to you about," Jameson told her. "But she can stay if she wants to."

  "Sarah already knows?" Mom said, looking a little hurt.

  "Now, Carrie," Dad spoke up. "Don't be upset. You know sometimes it's easier to talk to your siblings than it is your parents."

  I nodded. "Plus, she kind of found out without us even saying anything."

  Mom narrowed her eyes at us both. "You boys aren't doing anything you shouldn't, are you?" she asked.

  I shook my head. "No, Mom. I promise."

  As soon as we'd hauled the garbage to the outside cans, Jameson and I came back in and found Dad in the living room in his recliner, with Mom and Sarah on the loveseat beside the recliner. Jameson and I sat down on the couch across from them. 

  "So," Mom started, "what's going on? Are you two in some sort of trouble?"

  We both shook our heads. "No, we're not in any sort of trouble," I assured her. 

  "So what is it?" Dad asked us. 

  I took a deep breath. Jameson and I had discussed it while doing cleanup and we decided I would do a lot of the talking. "Mom, Dad, have either of you heard of Lycans?" I asked them. 

  "Heard of what?" Mom asked, looking confused. 

  "Lycans," I repeated. "They're a little like werewolves, except more powerful, and they walk on two legs instead of four. There's more differences, but that's the gist of it."

  "I can't say I have," Mom replied. "Why do you ask that?"

  I noticed that Dad wasn't saying anything. He was simply watching us with a thoughtful look on his face. 

  "Dad? Have you ever heard of them?" I asked. 

  "I have," he replied. "Why are you asking us this?"

  "You have?" Jameson asked, surprised.

  "Yes," Dad repeated. "Now, again, why are you asking?"

  Jameson and I exchanged a look, and I took another deep breath. "Well....because, apparently, that's what we are."

  Mom jumped up. "What? Who's been telling you this nonsense?! Werewolves are mythical creatures that do NOT exist!"

  Sarah put her hand on Mom's arm. "Calm down, Mom. Come on, sit back down." Mom slowly sank back down onto the couch before Sarah continued. "Please, Mom, just hear the guys out. I can attest to it, werewolves do exist. My friend Nathan is one." She looked at us. "He gave me permission to tell Mom and Dad if it made it any easier to convince them."

  Mom narrowed her eyes. "Is that what the four of you were in here discussing earlier?" she demanded angrily. "Coming up with this nonsense story for some cockamamie reason?"

  "It's not nonsense, Mom," Jameson told her. "Why would we tell you something so crazy if it wasn't true?"

  "I don't know. Maybe you're pulling some sort of prank, or you, you, well, I don't know!" she spluttered. "But I don't think - "

  "They're telling the truth, Carrie," Dad interrupted her calmly.

  We all turned to stare at him. Did he....did he just say he believed us??

  "You believe us, Dad?" Jameson asked, shocked.

  He nodded. "Yes. I do. It all makes sense now. Your size, your natural leadership abilities, your talent at every sport you ever tried, your intelligence....it just all makes sense."

  Mom stared at him with wide eyes. "And how do you know all this?" she asked.

  Dad sighed. "Well, I never told you this, any of you, because I was sure you wouldn't believe me, and I had no way to prove it. But I was raised near a wolf pack. And although Lycans don't normally live with wolf packs, this one happened to have a few living there, for various reasons. I grew up with them. I saw them shift many times. Heck, I even hung out in their packhouse nearly every day, ate dinner with them quite often. But over the years, I've lost touch with them. Once my family moved, we all just sort of drifted apart. I'm not sure where any of them are now."

  Mom was staring at him, slack jawed. "And you never mentioned a word of this?!"

  He shook his head. "Besides the fact that I was sure no one would believe me, there's also the fact that shifters have a rule that humans cannot know about their existence unless one of three things happens. One, the human happens to see them shifting, although they're supposed to try to avoid that at all costs. Two, the human happens to be their mate, as all children born as Lycans are male. They're all mated to human females, who are then turned into Lycans. Or three, as in my case, someone close to that human becomes mated to a shifter, be it werewolves, werebears, Lycans, etc. My sister was mated to a Lycan. But they were only together a few years before they were both killed in an attack. Lycans are hard to kill, almost impossible, but somehow rogue werewolves took both of them down. They didn't have any children."

  When he'd stopped talking, the four of us were just staring at him in silent shock. Our family was usually very open and straightforward with each other. None of us could believe that there was such a big part of Dad's life that he'd kept hidden from us. 

  "You told me your sister was killed in a home invasion," Mom said softly, and I could see from the look on her face that she was hurt that he'd keep this from her and was struggling to understand.

  "Carrie, I'm sorry," Dad replied. "I never, ever wanted to hurt you or keep things from you, but I was so afraid you'd think I was crazy, or worse, that you would think I was lying to you. And to be honest, it wasn't really a lie, what I told you about my sister. She and her husband were killed in a home invasion. But it was just a partial truth - I left out the fact that it was rogue werewolves and that they were invading the pack's territory. I'm so sorry, Carrie. Can you ever forgive me?"

  Mom looked at him and let out a breath. "Is there anything else you're keeping from me?"

  Dad shook his head. "No, sweetheart, there isn't."

  She gave him a shaky smile and reached for his hand. "I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not hurt that you didn't trust me enough to tell me, but I love you, and we'll get past this. But, our boys need us right now, so we'll have to discuss this later, OK?"

  He smiled at her and squeezed her hand. "OK, sweetheart." He turned to us. "So tell us everything."

  And we did. We told them about meeting our Lycans for the first time, how black magic was keeping us from shifting until we found our mate, about our conversation with Nathan, Arthur's true identity, everything.

  "I should've known there was something off about it all," Mom said. "He was too glib about....everything. Just, I don't know, the way he seemed to brush off what he said had happened to you boys, avoiding most of our questions about your parents, all of it. I should've known."

  "Honey, I knew Lycans existed and I didn't pick up on anything," Dad told her. "Looking back, I should've seen it, but I just didn't. Don't blame yourself."

  "How did he find the two of you anyway?" I asked. 

  "We had put an application in online at some adoption agencies," Mom replied. "My guess would be that he somehow hacked into one of their systems and found us. He claimed to be from an adoption agency, but obviously he was lying."

   Jameson and I both nodded. "Obviously he was," I said. "But the question is, where do we go from here? We have no idea where this kingdom even is, let alone how to get there. I'm pretty sure that's not an address we can type into a GPS."

  Everybody laughed at that, and I felt the tension start to melt away. 

  "Why don't you just wait on the articles from Nathan?" Sarah suggested. "Maybe they'll give you a better idea of where you go from here - literally and figuratively, since I'm assuming you're wanting to go to where your biological parents are."

  Jameson nodded. He and I had talked a little about it during our drive that afternoon, and we'd both decided we'd like to go find them if possible. "Yes, we do. We need to get everything set straight, at the very least. I mean, they don't even know for sure that we're alive. Mom, Dad, would you both be OK with us going to find them? We don't want to step on your toes at all."

  They both nodded. "As a mother, I can't imagine going years without knowing if my children were dead or alive," Mom replied. "I think finding them is definitely the right thing to do."

  "Why not just call them though?" Sarah asked. "Do you really have to go there?"

  Jameson and I looked at each other again. "I can't explain it," I told her honestly. "But there's just something inside me - inside both of us - telling us that we need to go there. It's like we're being pulled. We just have to find out what direction we're being pulled from."

  She nodded, then came over and squeezed herself in between us. Throwing an arm around each of us, she said, "I get it. I do. But just know that, no matter what, we're still your family, and your home will always be here for you to come back to. Right, Mom? Right, Dad?"

  They both nodded, tears in their eyes. "Absolutely," Dad replied. 

  They stood up, and the three of us did too. We all came together in the center of the room, throwing our arms around each other. 

  "GROUP HUG!!" I yelled. Everyone dissolved into giggles.