Chapter 231

Helen’s POV

I glanced around, looking for my mate, but Justin wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I wasn’t sure where he’d gone because I didn’t sense Justin in the same direction that I sensed his father. But I had to find him. Juden was not going to ruin this day for us.

I hurried in the direction of his scent, determined not to let him cause any trouble. I would need to get rid of Juden before Justin found out. No sooner had I stepped into the trees that comprised a greenbelt forest at the back of the property than Justin’s father materialized from the shadows.

And speaking of shadows, Juden was a mere shadow of his former self. When I first met him, he was imposing, muscular, tall, commanding, clean, and well-cut. At the time, he looked every bit like the king.

Juden was now thin and rather gaunt looking, his skin tight around his bones and his hair fully gray and rather lank. This man clearly had troubles. He wore stress nearly as obviously as his clothes which were no longer labeled by upscale brands.

Despite his altered state, Juden managed to find a self-assured smirk to throw in my direction. His gaze stayed locked on my midsection. Since I carried twins, I showed my bump despite being only halfway through pregnancy.

“Well, aren’t you looking in bloom,” he snapped. “I can’t believe that you would sink to breeding another one of those monsters.”

I put my hands protectively over my belly as if I could shield my baby from his unkind words. Honestly, I had no idea whether he was referring to my lycan pup or if he somehow had found out about the Huntsman’s insidious treatment of the baby and me inside me that bore his blood.

“There was only ever one monster in your family, and that was you,” I said.

Juden’s smirk grew wider. “Oh, very witty,” he snarked. “I suppose you think that now that you’re mated to the king, and I’ve been dethroned, and you’re carrying the next monstrosity in your belly, that you’re somehow superior to me? That you’ve somehow risen above your humble and tainted beginnings? Then you’re dead wrong.”

Inside me, Joy snarled, asking me to shift and put this man in his place. He was no longer the king. He had lost that honor, lost his people, lost his throne, lost his family. He had nothing like he tried to do to both his son and me.

I shuddered, pushing Joy back down. I would be better than this man. I would act with civility.

“I’m not here to argue with you,” I informed him. “I’m here to tell you to leave. You’re not welcome.”

He gave a flippant shrug, one hand in the air, as if he didn’t care what I had to say on the subject. “Not welcome in my own home? Seems to me you and your lot are the squatters, taking up residence in a place that doesn’t belong to you, proclaiming yourself royalty when you’re not. Everything about you is a fake, a sham.”

He took a few steps back, deeper into the woods. “And while I would like to stay here and continue to battle wits with you, you clearly have no ammunition.”

I took a step towards him. “What are you doing here anyway?” I snarled.

His grin turned positively wicked. “Wouldn’t you like to know that?”

He turned and sauntered off toward the woods, but I followed, unwilling to let him skirt around and come back to make his mischief.

“Are you personally escorting me? As Luna?” Every syllable he uttered dripped with sarcasm. “I’m honored.”

How could such a man who had fallen so far still carry that much arrogance? It bristled my fur and stirred Joy up.

“I’m seeing that me and mine are protected,” I informed him. “And I’m not letting you just sneak back in by assuming that you’re good to your word. I’ve seen piles of animal droppings that have a better adherence to honor than your word.”

Juden laughed though there was no amusement behind the noise. “You and my son are the most worthless excuse for wolfkind ever to have paraded themselves around at the head of a pack. Your multi-colored coat may have faded out to white, but I’d say it’s more like old age than purity.”

I clenched my fists. “I know the truth about my type’s history, and it has nothing to do with our worth. In fact, the more colors we have, the more powerful we are.”

He barked a laugh, holding his gut. “And you believe that crap? You’re even dumber than I thought. Your historical ancestral pack is a blight on werewolf kind. They made-up stories to feel empowered when all they were was worthless trash. You might as well become some human’s domesticated mutt. Maybe you’d be worth more running around a farm chasing after a human’s chickens.”

This time I couldn’t help the snarl that ripped from my throat. “You’re wrong,” I said. “And you can’t make me doubt my own worth anymore. Gaslight all you want, but I know the truth, and it sounds like so do you.”

I clenched my teeth together and let a question rip that I had been wondering for quite some time. “While we’re talking about lineage, how is it you came to call the last lycan your son anyway? You’re not a lycan. You’re not that powerful, and you were afraid of him.”

For a moment, the color drained from Juden’s face, turning his cheeks an ashy white, and then he flushed with rage. “Just because a bastard doesn’t have your blood doesn’t mean that you can’t get saddled with him as your child. Ask your own father about that, or rather your stepmother. Oh, right, they’re dead, and you’re alone, just the product of some night when your dad got horny and found a slut to take it out on.”

“Then Justin’s mother was a lycan,” I pressed, trying to hold in my temper.

Juden let out a hiss like I’d insulted him personally. “As if I would ever take a beast like that as my bride. Like any hot-blooded man, I have my urges, and I thought I had found the perfect solution. My mate was so violent that, had I taken a lover, she would have made a scene killing the woman and possibly hurting herself and me in the process.”

He sneered. “I didn’t want to put up with that kind of a mess. I didn’t need that kind of publicity. I didn’t want to deal with it, so when I ran across the Huntsman’s plans to wipe out the lycans, I took my chance and found myself a lycan bitch, figuring that he’d kill her before any tantrum my mate threw could come my way.”

“Unfortunately, that asshat of a Huntsman didn’t get around to killing the lycan whore before she pupped your mate. She had blood work done and stored the results in a secret location, then delivered the child to me, telling me to protect him. And if I didn’t, the secrets would come out the moment he died.”

“I did what she said,” Juden continued. “I kept him alive, chained in the basement for his good and mine. He was just as much of a beast as his mother was. That manipulative bitch thought she could blackmail me into being a father. When I had no legitimate heirs of my own, I figured maybe I could beat the lycan out of him and train him to be some sort of decent ruler in my stead.”

He grimaced his fangs at me. “Then he went and picked himself a multi-colored coated mate and cut the legs out from the last of my legacy, tainting my line in irreparable ways.”