Chapter 56

YENA

When we finally caught our breath, Nolan curled up next to me and rested his head on my shoulder. I combed my fingers through his damp hair. It was getting long and wild.

Finally, he asked me how I had done it. Convinced the King to release him.

He asked if I found the old man, and what had happened.

I started by telling him about my trip to the orphanage. Nolan’s eyes lit up when he heard me talking about my art lesson with the kids.

Then I told him about the interview. I sat up and retrieved my phone from the nightstand as I talked.

I pulled up the video on the news website and passed him the phone.

Nolan was lying flat with his messy black hair splayed all around his head on the pillow. I stroked it as he watched the video. The interview was less than ten minutes long.

He finished watching and gave my phone back to me.

He said, “Alaster looks awful.”

I wasn’t expecting that to be his first response.

“Yeah. He seemed alright though,” I lied. “He was glad that he could do something for you.”

Nolan stared up at the ceiling.

I had never seen him cry. Before that moment, I would never even imagined it.

But it almost seemed like he was going to do it. But then he cleared his throat, turned away, and got up and started pulling some pants on.

It dawned on me then that Alaster had been like a father to Nolan.

Someone who spent quality time with him as he grew up, maybe even taught him games and gave him wise advice.

I could not imagine the King doing either of those things. With either of his sons.

Nolan ordered some food, then crawled back into bed.

“I told you I’d explain some things,” he said. He stroked one of my blond curls, pulling it smooth then releasing it and watching it recoil.

I nodded and waited for him to continue.

“Lycans and werewolves are different creatures,” he said. “We’re both wolves. But the way we relate to our wolf selves is different.”

“I just thought that Lycan meant the royal family,” I confessed. “How are Lycans actually different from werewolves?”

“The moon doesn’t have so much power over us, doesn’t force us to change. But strong emotions can wake up the wolf inside… and a Lycan’s wolf is… very powerful.”

That made sense. Nolan and Adan were both huge, hulking men with commanding energy that was impossible to deny. The King, too.

Now for the question I was scared to ask.

After all this time wondering, I suddenly felt unsure whether I wanted to know the answer.

I spat it out.

“What kind of wolf am I?”

Nolan looked into my eyes. I couldn’t read his expression.

“A third kind. One I didn’t know still existed until I met you.”

“How is that possible? That doesn’t make sense.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

Then he looked away and took a breath, like he was not looking forward to what he planned to say next.

“Do you know… anything… about your birth parents?”

It was a gut punch.

It always was. Anytime someone brought up my biological family, about whom I knew hardly anything.

I shook my head and said, “No.”

“I don’t know very much about the kind of wolf you are, Yena, but I do know one thing.”

“About my blood?”

“Yeah,” he said, bringing his eyes back to mine. “This… supposedly extinct kind of wolf was known to have healing abilities. And they were an ancient lineage, the most noble in our world.”

There it was.

My heart started racing again.

I had argued with Lily about this so many times, now. But she was just a voice in my head, and I couldn’t help that she knew my every thought and emotion.

Hearing it from Nolan’s lips was something else entirely.

So I was born noble, after all. I just never knew it.

And right on cue, there she was.

You are not only noble, Lily said to me.

You are royalty. More noble than the Lycans.

I shook my head slowly. Not so much disbelieving anymore.

Just… not sure what to do, now that I knew it was true.

“I can try to find out more for you, Yena,” Nolan said.

I found myself incapable of replying to him. My mouth was dry.

It felt lucky when a knock on the door shot Nolan up out of bed.

I wrapped myself up in a sheet and Nolan let the servants in to set up a table full of fragrant dishes. They left and I joined Nolan at the table. The food was good, but better was watching the sheer joy on his face as he devoured a hot meal for the first time in days.

NOLAN

Nolan couldn’t imagine what it must feel like. Not knowing who you were. Not knowing who you were born to be.

It felt like the complete opposite of his own upbringing.

After getting a bite to eat and then taking a second, longer shower, Nolan finally got dressed and headed over to his office to get back into reality.

His team was waiting for him there, and they were eager to catch him up on everything from the past few days.

But before Nolan could have a complete conversation with anyone, the King’s lead attendant appeared. And Nolan was following him to the back of the palace a beat later.

They met in his father’s dining room this time. The King was seated at the head of a long table covered with beautiful, steaming dishes of food.

Nolan gave him a formal bow.

The King told Nolan to take a seat and join him for lunch, motioning to a chair directly beside himself.

Nolan did as instructed. This was certainly a different sort of meeting than their last one.

He didn’t let his guard down though. Kept his eyes on his father as he started filling a plate.

“You can relax, son,” the King said. “I am satisfied that this matter has been put to rest.”

“I appreciate that,” Nolan replied. “And I am truly sorry for the role I played.”

“Good.” The King reached out and wrenched a drumstick off a whole roasted chicken with one swift pull. Steam billowed out of the cavity left behind in the carcass.

“It was wrong of me to blame Adan’s mischief for everything that happened,” Nolan continued. “It was beneath me to let him manipulate my emotions.”

The King ate his chicken leg, picking the bone clean with his teeth.

Nolan couldn’t resist anymore. He ripped the other drumstick off the chicken and dug in.

The King nodded in approval. He gave a tiny little nod to a nearby servant, who jumped to fill two wine glasses.

The King cleared his throat and lifted his glass to Nolan.

Nolan dropped his chicken. Wiped his hands clean. And lifted his glass.

“Your wife,” the King said, “played her hand well. She is a clever girl. And very well-spoken.”

Nolan was stunned. It took some effort to keep his mouth from falling open.

They tapped their glasses together.

Nolan drained his down in one long gulp.

He looked up and saw that his father had done the same. They sat their empties on the table and the servant filled them up again.