The Lost Lycan Princes: A Journey Home

The Second Leg

Jonathan POV

  The following morning, we were up early again to avoid traffic. We checked out of the motel, hit the nearby McDonald's drive thru, and were back on the road by 7 a.m. Since I had driven the last half of the drive yesterday, Jameson was behind the wheel this time. 

  We started out listening to music again, but about an hour or two into the drive, I turned the music down so that we could talk. 

  "What do you think this Alpha Terrance and Luna Ana will be like?" I asked Jameson.

  He shrugged. "Nate seems to think they're pretty cool. And Sarah says Nate's cool, so I don't see any reason not to trust him. Did you text Nate's mom?"

  "Oh, shoot, no, I forgot," I replied. I picked up my phone and scrolled down to the number I had saved the night before last. After quickly typing out a message identifying myself and letting her know we'd be there sometime that afternoon, I hit send. Within a few seconds, I got a text back telling me that they were looking forward to meeting us and asking if we had their exact address.

  'Yes, ma'am, we do. Nate gave it to us,' I replied, and added a smiley face.

  'Good. I'll link the border guards and let them know you're coming. Drive safe!' came the response. 

  I had to laugh at that. Must be a mom thing to remind kids or young adults to drive safe, because our mom did it all the time. I told Jameson, and he got a laugh out of it too.

  "Do you really think we're these missing Lycan princes?" I asked him.

  He nodded. "I do. Besides Donovan insisting that we are, my gut instinct tells me we are too. What about you?"

  I nodded. "Same. I just wanted to be sure we're on the same page."

  We rode in silence for a little while, each of us deep in our own thoughts. Occasionally Damien would comment on something we passed, but for the most part, he seemed to be in a thoughtful mood too.

  After a little while, Jameson pointed out that we were passing through the White River National Forest. Again, just like we'd done yesterday, we decided to indulge our Lycans by stretching our legs in the forest again. 

  'I wish we could shift,' Damien lamented. 'I would love to run through here in my own form.'

  'I'm sorry, buddy,' I replied. 'I wish I could fix that. Tell me again, what has to happen so that can happen?'

  'We have to meet our mate,' he said. 'Once we've been around our mate for three days, we'll be able to shift. Some Lycans never meet their true mate, so I'm hoping we're two of the lucky ones.'

  'Me too, buddy,' I replied. 'Me too.'

  After about forty five minutes, we decided to get back on the road. We didn't have all that much longer until we got to Nate's parents' house. I found the closer that we got, the more impatient I was getting. I wanted to know answers to all my questions, and I wanted them right now. And I knew my brother well enough to know that he was feeling the exact same way.

  Finally, a little over two hours after we'd gotten back on the road, we found ourselves at the Whispering Pines Pack's border. We had taken back roads after leaving the freeway, until finally we'd both felt a slight pressure building up in our heads, and Damien and Donovan told us that that was our minds responding to the pack's link that made it to where the pack members could mind link each other.

  'Mind link?'  I asked. 

  'Do you remember when Jameson sent you a telepathic message at the party the other day?' he asked.

  I nodded. 'Yes. Scared the bejesus out of me at first,' I confessed.

  'That's mind linking,' he said. 'Most of the time, werewolves can only mind link those in the same pack as them, although there are a few rare exceptions. Lycans, on the other hand, particularly royalty, can mind link almost anyone we want. Normally, you would have to be the one to put up a mental block, but because you don't know how, I've taken the liberty of doing it for you. The last thing you need right now is a thousand or so voices suddenly blasting at you from inside your own head.'

  'Thanks for that,' I said. 

  We came to a part of the road that was blocked by a boom barrier - you know, one of those steel bars that stops you from going onto, say, a toll road - and there was a small booth in the middle of the road. A young man that I presumed was a border guard stepped over to our vehicle, and Jameson rolled his window down. 

  "Hello, gentlemen! What brings you to Whispering Pines today?" he greeted us cheerfully.

  "We're visiting, ah, Linda and Dave Davis," I replied. "Linda said she would link you guys ahead of time and let you know we were coming."

  "Names?" he asked, pulling out a clipboard. 

  "Jameson and Jonathan Canton," Jameson told him.

  He flipped through some pages then, apparently finding what it was he was looking for, he smiled at us and, pressing a button that caused the boom barrier to lift, told us, "Have a great day, guys. Linda and Dave's house is down that way and to the right."

  We both smiled as we thanked him, and started to pull away. 

  "Wait," I said to Jameson. I turned to the guard that was still standing there. "Can I ask you a question?"

  "Sure," he responded.

  "If a human happens to stumble onto this area, how do you explain the gate and booth?" I asked him.

  He grinned at me. "Per the Alpha's order, I tell them this is a top secret government testing facility. Most of them buy it. But honestly, that doesn't happen anymore since our warlock friend put up a concealment spell, no humans have found us. The only reason you found us was because, since we knew you guys were coming today, we had Jessup - that's the warlock - briefly lift the spell so that you guys to find us."

  "And if they didn't? Believe you, I mean," I ask him. 

  "I would tell them it didn't matter anyway, since the boom barrier was broken," he replied with a laugh.

  Jameson and I both chuckled, and he waved us on. 

  Following the directions that Linda had already texted us, we were able to find their house pretty easily. It was a cute blue cottage with white shutters and a wrap around front porch. And on that front porch, besides the white porch furniture, was a tall, trim woman with shoulder length mahogany colored hair. When she started walking towards us, wearing a beautiful smile, I noticed that she also had piercing green eyes. I assumed she was Linda, and I was right. 

  "Hello, boys!" she called out as she approached the car after we came to a stop. She waited until we were out of the car, then she reached her hand out to shake. "I'm so glad you boys were able to find us!" She paused long enough to study our faces. "Wow, you really are identical, aren't you? Who's who?"   

  We both laughed at that. We'd heard that a few times. 

  "I'm Jonathan," I told her, shaking her hand. "Just remember I'm the better looking one," I added with a wink. "And this yahoo over here claims to be my twin brother, Jameson. Everybody says we look alike. I don't see it," I deadpanned.

  She laughed. "Well, it's nice to meet you boys. I'm Linda. My mate is Dave, but he's out on patrol right now. Come in, come in." 

  We grabbed out suitcases out of the back of the car, and she led us into the house.

  "Thank you again for inviting us to stay here," Jameson told her. "Not many people will invite strangers into their house nowadays."

  She smiled. "You're welcome. But you're not exactly strangers. I've been following your story for years, assuming you are the crown princes. But more importantly, my son vouched for you, and he's never done that. He doesn't trust easily."

  She led us into a living room that was decorated with royal blue furniture that perfectly offset the mahogany of the hard wood floors. There was a couch against the wall opposite the front door. Directly across from it, to the right of the front door, was a comfortable looking recliner that looked like it had been well used. On the wall that was between the two, there was a loveseat that looked just as soft and comfortable as it's couch counterpart. To the left of the front door, hanging on the wall, was one of the biggest TVs I'd ever seen. It had to have been at least a 52 inch screen. I made a mental note to ask about it later - I would love having a TV that size to watch the games on.

  The kitchen doorway was directly across the living room from the front door. I could tell from the smells drifting through the house that there was something amazing in the oven. 

  "I don't think it's necessarily us that Nate trusted so fast," I told Linda, referring back to her statement. "Our sister Sarah is close to him, and she vouched for us." 

  She raised a brow, looking so much like Nate for a second that it was startling. "He allows you to call him Nate?"

  We both nodded.

  "He said he was OK with it," I told her. "Is that ok?"

  She smiled. "It's better than OK. I don't know if he told you or not, but he's only allowed one other person in this world to call him that."

  I shook my head. "No, he didn't."

  "Nathan had a friend that he grew up with named Charlie. Charlie was jokester. He was quite the joker, always cracking jokes, always playing pranks. He and Nathan were inseparable. I think the two of them were hoping they would be mates, and were disappointed when they weren't. They both said if they hadn't found their mates by the time they were 25, they would just be each other's chosen mates. Well, a little over a year ago, we were having some trouble with rogues, who were trying to kidnap our Luna. There were a couple of attacks, and Charlie was killed in one of them. I've never seen my Nathan so upset. So were Dave and I, to be totally honest. Charlie was like another son to us, and his parents felt the same about Nathan." She stopped and waved her hand in apology. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to ramble on like that. My point was that Nathan has never allowed anyone else to call him Nate, so he must really trust you boys." 

  I felt guilty. "Oh wow. I had no idea. We just sorta started calling him that. But he did say it was ok. I feel bad now."

  She laughed. "Don't feel bad. Trust me, he would've told you pretty quick if he didn't like it. He told our Alpha once, he was Nathan, call him that. He even gets mad when his dad or I call him that. Lycan princes or not, he would've told you."

  I was flattered and humbled at the same time. I still felt guilty - we should've made sure it was ok to call him that before we actually did, but if what his mom said was true, he would've told us if he wasn't ok with it. The expression on Jameson's face told me he felt the same way. 

  "Now," Linda continued, "let me show you where you can put your bags."

  She led us down a short hallway and stopped at the last - and only - door on the right side. She opened it to reveal a pretty decent sized bedroom - larger than what I was expecting, given the appearance of the house. To the left of the door, there was a queen sized bed with a navy blue comforter and matching sheets, hardwood floors, and two dark mahogany dressers, one taller and more narrow than the other. One was on the far wall beside the bed, and the other was across from the foot of the bed. To the right of the door was a walk-in closet, right beside the dresser. On the other side of the dresser was a door that Linda explained let to the attached bathroom.

  She turned and pointed to the door across the hall from the bedroom. "There's the other bathroom if you need it," she told us. She then pointed to the door at the end of the hall and said, "And that's Dave's and my room. Don't hesitate to knock on the door if you need anything and we're in there."

  She then left us to get ourselves settled and said that dinner would be ready soon. "You like lasagna, right?" she asked. "I had Nathan ask Sarah, and she said that would be fine."

  Jameson smiled at her. "Lasagna is great. Mom makes Stouffer's all the time."

  She laughed. "Well, I hope you like it, because this is made from scratch with my family's recipe."

  We both grinned at that. "Made from scratch stuff is almost always better," I told her. "I'm sure we'll love it."

  She laughed again. "Good, because I made two pans of it. Sarah warned me you two have big appetites, and Dave is always starving after being on patrol."

  With that, she headed towards the kitchen.   

  Jameson and I looked at each other and grinned. We liked this place already.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

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