Page 77 of A Mysterious Slave for the Lycan Prince

“I am the same,” Finn admits with a grin.

We all laugh slightly and happily accept the protein bars Henry offers us. He brought enough for the whole group with some extras.

We chew on our bars before we start to work together to prepare our actual food.

I love how they stick together despite their slight issues. It reminds me so much of my fellow slaves back in Blood Snow, and I hope that Finn will keep his promise to help me free them. I can’t leave them hurting, especially now that I have gotten a taste of freedom myself.

*FINN*

I’ve stayed quiet most of the evening, listening to the others’ banter. Something has been lingering on my mind ever since we descended the cliff, but I can’t put my finger on it yet. While Marcel barbecues our food above the open fire, I sit next to my beautiful mate, taking her hand into mine.

It’s almost cozy here now. Everything’s prepared for the night, and we are all just waiting to eat something before getting some sleep. I assume we’ll all reek of smoke when we leave here tomorrow, but who cares. We could have been stuck in the blizzard otherwise. I’m just glad we have a moment to catch our breaths here before we resume our path back to Silverlake tomorrow.

Watching the others settle down around the fire, I finally decide to ask Henry directly about what has been bothering me. He has opened up to us now, and I feel like it’s a good moment.

“Henry,” I start. “What did you mean when the blizzard was approaching, and you asked Elodie and me to leave you behind?”

“What?” Steve exclaims in shock.

“Elodie told Marcel and me about it too,” Elise admits.

“Is that true, Henry?” Steve asks quietly.

I feel a bit bad for outing Henry here in front of the whole group, but it seems like most of them have heard about it already anyway, and maybe putting him on the spot will get some response from him.

Henry shrugs. “I was just trying to be rational. I wanted to save Anthony, and knew we were running out of time.”

“But you said something…” I continue. “About your father; Alpha Jace. You said something about how he might not miss you.”

Anthony turns to look at his brother, and they seem to have a whole conversation while the rest of us wait patiently. “You are an idiot, Henry,” Anthony mutters to my surprise. “You shouldn’t have said anything. Of course, Finn and Elodie would remember.”

“I slipped,” Henry admits to him.

“Care to enlighten me?” I ask earnestly. I brush my fingertips over Freya’s palm before entwining our fingers. “I don’t want to push you or anything, but I just feel like I don’t understand everything. If you don’t want to talk about it now, we can do so later, but we are stuck in a life-or-death situation. Isn’t this the perfect moment?”

The twins stay silent, and for a while, all we can hear is the crackling of the fire.

Then, eventually, Anthony breaks the silence. “We are not…” he pauses. “Mom’s not our mom.”

I stare at him, first thinking he is joking. As far as I remember, their father, Jace, has always been with Janice. “This is the first I’m hearing of it,” I admit.

“Hardly anyone knows,” Anthony mutters. “We are not supposed to know either.” He pauses. “Dad and…Janice were always true mates, but she is not a full…”

“Not a full lycan,” I conclude, slowly understanding where this story is going. “She is half werewolf.”

“And an omega. Dad never cared,” Henry explains. “It didn’t matter to him, but my grandparents were furious and forced him to take a chosen mate. To have strong heirs.”

“Wait…WHAT?” I exclaim, feeling shocked. I didn’t know Jace’s parents were such elitists.

“They forced him into mating with another woman. She got pregnant fast, gave birth to us, and left right after birth.” He pauses. “Seems like Dad even learned to bottle-feed us. End of the story. Or almost. My shitty grandparents wanted him to take another chosen mate, but he fought against Gramps for the alpha position and won.”

“Then he was able to be with Janice,” I conclude. “How come none of us ever heard about it?”

“Only Dad, Janice, your parents, Uncle Elden, and Aunt Flora know about it,” he admits. “And Dad’s beta.”

“And you?” I ask softly.

“I accidentally read it in one of his journals while researching for a school project. That was two years ago.” Henry shrugs. “That’s all.”

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