Page 52 of The Wolf Professor

“By whom?”

“The guy she loved. Your father.”

Max stared, bewildered. “But Mom had no idea who she fell pregnant to.”

“Like hell she didn’t.” Benjy guffawed. “She was obsessed with the guy.”

“Who?”

“Alec Felcin.”

Max froze. “A Felcin. Y-you mean, the mountain Felcins?”

“Yep. Turbo stud Alec, as we used to call him, always came down from the mountains to the ruts. He was a great big alpha male; a real drawcard for the ladies.”

Max could hardly believe what he was hearing. He felt as if the world as he knew it had suddenly been pulled from under his feet. “Do you have any proof?”

Benjy dug out an envelope from his top dungaree pocket, pulled out a few faded snapshots and dropped them on the table between them. “I’ve been holding on to these for when you were ready to hear the truth.”

Max picked them up. Frowning, he perused them closely.

One of the photos showed his mom, much younger and very beautiful, gazing up at a handsome, muscle-bound guy wearing leathers, with his long hair bound back in a ponytail.

Another showed the same guy on a motorbike. Mom on the back.

Max stared at it, unblinking, for long moments. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

Benjy shrugged, shoveled another mouthful in before answering. “Too proud. Too stubborn. But, believe me, she wanted to be Alec’s mate. That’s why she left you here for weeks over the summer when you were a kid. Went off roaming up to the mountains to find him, didn’t she?”

“I thought she was going out there… to feed her creativity.”

Benjy snorted. “Yeah, well she was feeding a need, for sure… He might have fucked her again, who knows, but he never chose to be with her.” Benjy’s affable face tightened. “When you were ten, Alec died. Your mom was devastated. Easier to take her pain out on hating us Hunts after that, I guess. She refused to come back here ever again. Refused to let you visit us, even though we begged her. Maybe being with us just reminded her of all those summers chasing Alec around the mountains.”

Max shook his head, trying to make sense of it all. “So you’re saying my father, who I never knew, is dead.”

“Believe so.” Benjy shrugged. “Though getting any news from the mountain wolves is nigh on impossible. Killed by ogres, maybe? If your mom knew the truth, she certainly never told any of us. Your grandpa and grandma reached out to her often enough, but after Alec’s death, she barely spoke to any of us again.”

“I—oh, shit.” Max dropped his head into his hands. This was impossibly hard to hear; those images so hard to see. If Benjy was telling the truth—and Max had no reason to believe otherwise—that meant his mother had lied to him all these years about his parentage. Pretended she had never loved, when in fact she had been consumed by it. And worst of all,whoshe had loved was a bitter pill to swallow.

A Felcin wolf.

“That makes me a descendent of the original Colonel Oliver Felcin.” Max sat back in his chair, dazed. “He was a traitor to Athelrose’s army, did you know that?”

Benjy’s mouth twisted. “I did go to school once, mate. Felcin was a bit of a rogue, for sure. But when he was banished to the mountains after the mutiny failed, his pack did a great job of keeping the ogres at bay. Still do, some say. We owe ’em, for helping to keep those bastards out of Motham. Hell, can you imagine adding fucking ogres into the mix here?”

Max scraped wild hands through his hair. “This is awful.”

“Granted, it’s a bit to take in all at once.”

Max just sat there shaking his head, and finally, Benjy rolled his eyes. “For the love of all the hounds in hell, drop the drama, cuz. Look at you, dicking around in all this fancy designer gear with your snout stuck up your ass. Agreed, you’re mighty clever, just like your mom was, but you’re still wolf in your bones and sinews, and in your heart.” He reached over and, to Max’s surprise, tapped a big finger into his chest. “Your alpha is alive and well in there.”

“I am not alpha.” Max gripped his coffee cup so hard it was amazing it didn’t crack.

“Gah, it’s bloody obvious you are. Janine noticed it. We all noticed it. You really gotta stop hanging onto all that sigma shit, it’ll just lead to unhappiness.”

Max thinned his lips. Benjy sure didn’t pull his punches.

Except… whether he liked it or not, everything was starting to fall into place. Why he’d experienced these sudden wild urges to rut with Charlie. The sense of power and elation he’d felt in his wolf form. The ease with which he fought off those ferals to rescue her.

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