“We have the same father,” Malcom said.
“I was sort of guessing that. It’s weird, but not that weird. Lots of shifters can’t keep their dicks in their pants.” She looked from me to Malcom a few times. “But explain the rest. I know there’s more.”
“Our dad is Spencer Lupton,” Malcom said.
“Oh, fuck. I thought I had it bad. Neither of you are supposed to exist.” Her brow furrowed. “Wait, isn’t he in jail?”
“I was born before he took the throne. Lola’s mom was pregnant with her when Spencer tried to take the throne. And it turns out, both our moms kept us from him so he didn’t know about us.” Malcom turned to me. “Unless your mom told him. But Alec said Spencer didn’t know.”
“She told me she fled when she found out she was pregnant,” I said. “Do you think she knew what he had planned?”
“It doesn’t really matter,” Malcom said. “I guess my mom got lucky. She says they broke up a week before she found out she was pregnant. She never bothered to tell him cause she said she didn’t want to deal with the drama of raising me as the bastard of a royal. A few years later, he got busted. Turns out, she made the right call.”
“Does he know about you now?” I asked. “I guess he knows about me.”
“I don’t think so. And I’m good keeping it that way,” he added.
“Kyle said he’s already given some blood to do the spell. You’re going with me, right? You should have your claim broken too. Just in case.”
He shook his head. “I’m not worried about me. The masking spells seemed to have done the trick. Besides, I was clearly born before the edict about him not procreating. I’m probably safe. It’s you who is far more at risk.”
“Your mom kicked you out,” I said. “You’re clearly not safe.”
“If they were going to come for me, they would have already,” he said.
“No way.” I shook my head. “I’m not doing it solo. If the king could come after me, what’s to stop him from coming after you? And what kind of monster wants to kill children, anyway? The king sounds awful.”
“I’ve never seen him do anything to help shifters in our community. The alphas run everything and there’s nothing to keep them in check. I don’t even know why he still has that title,” Sheila said.
“Maybe he shouldn’t,” Malcom said. “Who knows, maybe our dad had the right idea.”
“I doubt we’ll ever know,” I said. “It’s not like we can ask him, right?”
“Alec talked to him,” Malcom said.
There was a piece of me that wanted to meet my father and ask him to explain himself. Everyone who was supposed to protect me as a child let me down. What would make him any different? “It doesn’t matter. We have what we need from him. We don’t need to go down that path.”
I caught sight of Kyle walking toward us and I waved him over. He glared at Malcom as he approached. Kyle was taking this protector thing pretty seriously.
I jumped from my chair and met him before he reached the rest of the group. “Have fun exploring?” I asked.
“It’s nice here,” he said.
“Did you hear about Malcom in all the other secrets you learned about me before I learned about them?” I asked.
“Name didn’t come up,” he replied.
“Well, it turns out I have a brother from a different mother,” I said, trying to keep my tone light.
“For real?” His brow furrowed.
“I guess so,” I said.
“Well, I suppose we recruit him,” he said. “The rest of the camp seems happy to stay here, unaffiliated.”
“You were asking people to join us on our possible suicidal crusade?” I hissed. “Why would you do that?”
“I didn’t ask them directly,” he assured me. “I just asked them how they liked being here and if they’d ever go back to a pack.”