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“I still don’t know if I want to know,” I said.
“I get that.” Kyle took a deep breath. “Alright, let me see if I can explain without telling you. So, shifter politics 101: The alphas are linked with the higher alphas, right?”
I thought back to my high school Shifter Politics class and tried to recall the structure. “Shit. I’m going to need a crash course in all this. I don’t remember this stuff and if I do it, I’m going to do it right.”
“That’s not why I’m telling you this. You think Ace is doing anything by the book?” Kyle looked skeptical.
“Probably not,” I agreed. “But I’m not Ace. I will do it correctly.”
“I know you will but here’s the thing, Lola. If you are alpha, you’ll be connected to the higher alphas.”
“You mean the king.”
He nodded.
“So?” I wasn’t following why any of this would matter. “It’s not like I’m the one who made the toxin or was cursed. They can’t punish me for what my grandfather did, can they?”
Kyle blew out a frustrated breath. “Lola, you have to hear this eventually. Sooner rather than later. I wish I could shield you from it until you were ready, but you dad knows you’re alive. And I have a feeling even if you don’t go looking for him, soon enough, he’ll come for you,” Kyle said.
“Well, that’s fucking ominous,” I deadpanned.
“Please don’t make me keep this from you anymore. You need to know this.”
“How bad is it?” I asked.
Kyle whistled.
“Wonderful.” I took another bite of my sandwich. I wasn’t feeling hungry anymore and the sandwich might as well be made of sawdust. But it gave me something to do.
Still chewing, I wandered over to the little table and sat down. Kyle joined me, taking a seat on one of the empty chairs. I continued to eat, sure that Kyle was going to blurt out the name of my father. Would I even know who he was? I was so isolated in Wolf Creek that I didn’t know of many shifters outside the barrier.
Oddly, that gave me a little bit of hope. It was likely I wouldn’t know who he was or why he was so terrible. Maybe he was alpha of another pack and had a bad reputation. If I’d never heard of him, it wouldn’t matter. I’d know so when alphas gathered, I wouldn’t be caught off guard. If we were both alphas, we’d have to meet eventually. Or maybe he was wanted and I’d be responsible for reporting him if he crossed into our territory. Sure, that would be awkward, but it wasn’t like I actually knew the guy.
As I chewed the last bite of food, I wiped the crumbs off my fingers. Then I looked at Kyle. “Okay, lay it on me. Who is this big, bad dude who is so awful that I had to avoid him at all costs?”
“You sure?” Kyle asked.
“Two minutes ago you were begging for me to let you tell me,” I blurted out.
“You can’t un-know this,” he warned.
“Kyle, how bad can it be? What is he a gangster? A murderer?”
Kyle looked a little green.
“What could be worse than that?” I asked.
“Well, let’s just say that if you try to overthrow Ace, you’ll be following in the family tradition of challenging an alpha,” he said.
“Enough, Kyle. Spit it out, already,” I snapped.
“Your dad is Spencer Lupton,” Kyle said.
I blinked a few times as the name rolled around in my mind.Spencer Lupton.Even I knew that name. Shortly before I was born, the wolf shifter king’s brother, Spencer, tried to take the throne. He was detained and as far as I knew, he spent the rest of his life in exile or jail or something. The details were fuzzy because I never gave a shit about the royal family. They never did a thing for me. Why would I care if some rich asshole’s brother wanted some shiny crown for himself?
“I’m sorry, it sounds like my dad has the same name as the traitor who tried to take the throne. But that’s not possible.” I waited for Kyle to explain that he just shared the name with the famous traitor.
“He was barred from having offspring by the king,” Kyle said. “Any child of his would be killed.”
