(Cont)

Jason and Iolanthe were beloved by all of Abattohn because of everything they had given it. Jason had changed a crumbling barely-there economy with oppressive rules and actual slavery into a striving economy and an industrial metropolis which owned multiple huge countries all over the world.

He had improved the medical care, the education system, the standard of living and the security of every life in Abattohn. Lanthe had not only strengthened the packs’ relations with each other and the rest of the hidden kingdoms of Azzuire, but she had also worked on the establishment of the secret relations and trading with the rest of the world; a task that involved paying of a lot of important people for discretion and sometimes selling our products off to the rest of the world under some other established brands.

Because of all those investments, an abundance of all kinds of precious minerals and precious stones, a top tier education system, an education that was free for everyone, coupled with the naturally higher IQ of lycans and the relatively small population of about two thousand individuals, Abattohn had grown into an incredibly wealthy and developed place which looked more like a very big luxury resort with tall building and architecture the rest of the world was yet to discover than anything else.

And Lanthe and Jason happened to be at the center of it all. The hundreds of billions I’d made for myself were merely a drop in the see compared to the amount of wealth and power Jason and Lanthe had. So it was no wonder that they were heroes to the majority of Abattohn and they were treated as such, with their birthdays declared as public holidays and an entire festival dedicated to their mating, among other things.

As per tradition, their love story was reenacted on the last day of the festivals, with different themes and dramatizations all applied to the same romantic story that portrayed Jason as the trapped prince who was locked away in a dark fortress by an evil witch who knew just how powerful he would grow up to become and the beautiful and strong enchantress who came and freed the prince and all of Abattohn from her evil reign. I had never thought much about the stories, to me they had always been mom and dad, fated mates who would have ended up together either way.

Hearing this new information from Jason was shocking but not entirely unwelcome.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I could have dwelt on the fact that a woman I had met and loved at first sight had come into the fortress under false pretenses and basically used me to get to someone else, and for a while I did, but that wasn't the crux of the matter was it? I was so hurt that my whole life had basically been a lie and I was basically Rapunzel and I felt weak and stupid because of everything that I was discovering, so for a while I did. I hated Lanthe and I thought I would be fine living the rest of my life hating her like that.” He continued.

Lanthe was mum and I loved her but still….

“You had the right to be.” I blurted out, feeling a bit guilty for saying it out loud.

Jason chuckled.

“Perhaps. But I chose to listen to her and realize that I was angrier at myself and that woman than at Lanthe and it was just easier to be angry at her than at anyone else, and I guess I just thought about her intent. Her friend had been killed by the same woman who went on to trap her friend's mate and steal their son and she had been looking for years for her friend’s son and the woman who stole her. Her falling in love with me was a complication in so many ways and the fact that I was blind to all of that woman’s faults and I had basically been brainwashed by her didn’t help. So I tried to see things from her perspective, tried to put myself in her shoes and consider all her feelings and her reactions. Motive. She never intended to hurt me; she didn’t set out to do it. But I was caught in the crossfire of her past making her react. Aleks is your mate…”

“She’s not my mate. I don’t have a mate.” I interjected.

“You know she wouldn’t have survived her pregnancy if she wasn’t.” I tried to interject, with what I’ll never know, but he continued, “And no matter how much you tell yourself you’re not Pack anymore, you are and you might not die without your mate, but you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what might have happened if you might have listened. Because the way I see it you’re like me, sheltered and unable to comprehend any other reality besides black and white and that will cost you at some point, it’s costing you right now. That young lady had a life that you are unfamiliar with and may be hard to empathize with her if she doesn’t explain herself to you. How about you decide to throw everything away after you have all the facts. And please stop upsetting your mother, it’s not good for me or the baby.” He concluded, a final note in his voice signifying how done he was with our conversation.

The intensity of my reaction to the pricks of the wahnd lessoned so I gathered he was just about done, the runes replenishing my life force to its’ peak. I didn’t mind the silence either because a lot of things were running in my mind; Jason’s and Lanthe’s history, my upcoming conversation with Lanthe, and Aleks.

She wasn’t my mate. I had lost everything that linked me to the pack and I had accepted it a long time ago. I wouldn’t let anyone have that sort of power over me. I couldn’t afford to.