The Lost Lycan Princes: A Journey Home

The King's Call

Jonathan POV

Our late lunch at the packhouse seemed to take forever. Most of the pack had already eaten by the time we got there, but the omegas were kind enough to dish up some of the leftovers for us and let us sit in the dining room and eat. Alpha Terrance had already eaten, but he sat with us making small talk while we ate. Finally, after what seemed like hours (but was probably only 45 minutes), Alpha Terrance checked his phone.

“It’s three o’clock now,” he told us. “Do you want to go ahead and head up to my office and make sure we’ve got everything we need before the king calls us?”

Jameson and I both nodded. “Yes, please,” I told him. “I think we have all the papers and pictures we need, but it can’t hurt to double check.”

With that, we carried all of our dishes to the dirty dish sink and headed up to Alpha Terrance’s office. He must have mind linked Luna Ana and his parents, because they were already there waiting for us. After we’d greeted them, we sat down at the small table that was catty-corner from his desk and spread out all the documents and pictures we’d brought with us.

“See, here’s the picture that Mom sent us, alongside the picture that we got out of the newspaper articles,” I told them. Linda had taken them a couple of days prior and gotten them both printed out on the same page for me, so it would be easier to make a side-by-side comparison. “And here’s the adoption papers Mom copied that show Arthur’s handwriting and signature.”

“I can’t believe he actually hand wrote that, knowing that the king or queen would recognize his handwriting,” Anthony remarked, shaking his head. “He may be a c**ky, arrogant prick, but he’s usually smarter than that.”

“Well, in this case, I’m glad he wasn’t,” Jameson replied. “I have a feeling we need all the proof we can get.”

“True that,” Anthony said with a chuckle.

Linda and Dave came in just then, and after a round of greetings, they seated themselves. Linda handed us the photo albums she was carrying, which contained all the articles she’d gathered over the years regarding our case.

“I wasn’t sure if there might be something in here that would come in handy,” she explained. “I figured it was better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”

Jameson smiled at her. “Good thinking,” he told her.

“How about we move to the conference room across the hall?” Luna Ana suggested. “There’s a bigger table in there, with more room to spread everything out.”

Alpha Terrance smiled at her. “Good thinking, sweetheart,” he told her. He turned to us. “You guys want to move over there?”

I nodded. “Sounds good. We are kind of cramped in here.”

Everyone laughed. We all started gathering our things to move across the hall.

Luna Ana held up a finger. “Wait,” she told us, “allow me.”

She waved her finger back and forth a few times, and I watched in amazement as the papers all began to organize themselves into stacks. Within seconds, the papers were stacked and the stacks floated over to Jameson, Linda, and me.

“Wow!” I told the grinning Luna. “That was awesome.”

Even Alpha Terrance looked impressed. “Wow, baby, I’ve never seen you do that before! I mean, sure, I’ve seen you move things with your mind before, but never so many at once.”

She blushed. “Aww, thanks, you guys! It’s something I’ve been practicing.”

We only had about five minutes before the king was due to call, so we all quickly left the office and went over to the conference room across the hall. We all were able to take seats at the large, oval shaped table, and within seconds the papers were all spread out again. Luna Ana went over to a small refrigerator in the corner of the room and started pulling out bottles of water, which she then offered to everyone at the table.

We had just gotten ourselves settled when Alpha Terrance’s cell phone began to ring, indicating an incoming video call. I felt my mouth go dry and my heart started to race. I looked over at Jameson and could see that he was feeling exactly the same way. I took a long drink of my water as Alpha Terrance swiped his finger across his phone screen to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hello,” came the response from a deep voice that sounded a lot like my own. “Are you Alpha Terrance? I’m King Sebastien.”

He smiled at the screen. “Yes, I am. It’s nice to meet you, Your Majesty.”

He had the screen turned away from us, so I couldn’t actually see the king’s face. “It’s nice to meet you too, Alpha. I’ve heard a lot about you over the years. How’s your father doing?”

Anthony moved over to where the king could see him. “I’m here, Your Majesty. I’m doing well! How are you and Queen Havannah doing these days?”

“We’re well, thank you,” he replied. “I hear you have something you needed to speak to me about?”

Alpha Terrance took a deep breath. “Yes, sir, we do. It’s about your sons.”

There was a brief hesitation. “My sons?” King Sebastien replied, his voice seeming to almost break. “Have you heard some news about them?”

Anthony nodded slowly. “Well, yes, sir, we have. But it’s more than just hearing something. We’ve found them.”

There was an even longer pause this time, and we all seemed to be holding our breath, waiting to see what his reaction was.

“You....you found them?” he practically whispered. “Are they – are they....?”

“They’re both alive and well, Your Majesty,” Anthony assured him.

“And you’re sure it’s them?” King Sebastien inquired.

“As sure as we can be without a DNA test,” Alpha Terrance told him.

“And there’s more,” Anthony added.

“More?” the king asked. “How much more?”

“They’re here,” Anthony replied. “Would you like to speak to them?”

“There? As in, there in the room with you?” The king seemed to be taken aback for a few seconds. Understandable, since the man had literally just been told that fifteen years of looking for his lost children was possibly over. “Yes! Yes, of course, I want to speak to them!”

“I’m going to hand the phone to them,” Alpha Terrance told him. He then handed his phone to Jameson, and the two of us scooted closer together so we could both be in view.

When Jameson turned the screen towards us, I couldn’t believe it. I was looking at an older version of the two of us. He had the exact same blue eyes that we did, and while his hair would’ve been described as salt and pepper now, I could tell that it had been black just like ours was. The only difference was that his hair was cut short while ours was still long.

“Oh my,” he whispered, staring at the two of us. “Oh my. It’s like looking at a picture of myself as a youngster. Which of you is which? I remember how to tell you two apart, but I need to see if you two know. I know you look like me, but I need to be sure you are my sons. But, wait just a minute.” He pulled a piece of paper off of a memo pad beside him, wrote something on the paper, then looked back up. “Ok, tell me.”

We both smiled. “First off, hello, Your Majesty,” Jameson said with a smile. “I’m Jameson, and this is Jonathan.”

The king laughed. “I’m sorry, I got so excited I forgot to even say hello to you. So hello! And you’ve passed the first of my tests.”

He held up the piece of paper he’d written on. On it, he had written, “Jameson to my left – freckle on neck. Jonathan to my right.”

I was impressed. He was right. And the fact that he knew about the freckle proved in my mind that he was our biological father. Most people didn’t notice that freckle unless we pointed it out to them. He certainly wouldn’t have randomly noticed it over a video chat.

“So, what’s the next test?” I asked him.

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” he confessed.

We all laughed. I liked him already. I had secretly been worried that, as a king, he would be stuffy and snobby. I was glad to see that it seemed that my fears were unfounded.

“How about some pictures from when we were little?” Jameson asked him. He held up the side-by-side picture of the two of us just before and just after the kidnapping. “This, as you already know, is a picture from before the kidnapping. This other one is a picture our adoptive parents had made just after they adopted us.”

The king seemed to study the pictures for a minute. “Oh wow,” he said slowly. “That’s....wow. I think....I think you two might actually be - “ His voice broke, and he took a moment to compose himself, then continued in a near whisper. “I think you boys might actually be my sons. What else do you have?”

We showed him the adoption papers, pointing out Arthur’s handwriting and signature. I saw his eyes briefly flash to black and a look of fury flashed over his features. “That’s my worthless, so-called brother’s handwriting,” he spat. “If I hadn’t already exiled him from the kingdom, I would go back now and kill him with my bare hands. How dare he – never mind. I’ll deal with that later. Right now, it’s about you boys and making sure you are indeed mine. Where have the two of you been all these years?”

We filled him in on everything, where we’d grown up, who had raised us, etc. We even told him about the first night we’d gotten our Lycans, and how we couldn’t shift until we found our mate.

“Wow,” he said when we were done. “It sounds like the two of you had a loving home, and that, at least, makes me feel a tiny bit better. I’ve spent so long looking for you boys, wondering, worrying, so afraid that someone evil had you. I’m glad that, at least, those fears were unfounded. But I would like to get a DNA test done before I say anything to Queen Havannah. We’ve had so many false leads over the years, and every time she’s gotten her hopes up, only to have them dashed. I can’t put her through that again. I hope you understand.”

Jameson and I both nodded. “We do,” I told him. “So, how can we go about getting the test done?”

The king seemed to consider for a moment. “Well, is there any way you boys can overnight some sort of sample to the castle? I can have the lab at our on-site clinic run the test and probably have the results within a couple of days.”

“We can have our clinic get blood samples or whatever is needed,” Anthony spoke up. “It’s no problem to overnight them to you. However, we have had some concerns that someone there at the castle might be working with Arthur and may try to sabotage anything that proves Jameson and Jonathan are your sons. Is there a way to secure the samples and ensure that no one gets a chance to tamper with them?”

King Sebastien nodded. “While I hate to think that someone in my own home might be conspiring against me, it’s not so far-fetched. I’ve wondered the same myself over the years, but my investigators could never find any sort of proof. I’ll tell you what, if you can ensure the safety of those samples until they leave your clinic, I can take it from there. I will personally make sure they make it safely to our clinic and I will be there while the tests are run.”

Anthony nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty. If it’s ok with you, I would rather not use a mail service for this. I have warriors here that I’ve known their entire lives and would trust them with everything I have. If it’s all the same to you, I would like to have those warriors fly the samples to you. They can use the pack’s private airplane.”

King Sebastien nodded. “That sounds good to me. Honestly, it’s better than good. This is all amazing to me. I can’t believe it. I have a very strong feeling that those tests are just going to prove what my heart is already telling me – that you boys are mine.”