Page 39 of His Treasured Mate

“This doesn’t sound good. Do we need to talk in private?”

“No, everyone here knows already.”

“Knows what, Kyle?”

“Jenna’s twin sister, Tessa, is joining us for the picnic with her mate and their two kids.”

“Okay. Is that a bad thing?”

“Her kids are Lake and River, and her mate is Jack Simpson.”

The blood in my veins chilled, and then my head started to pound.

“What did you say?”

“Jack Simpson is Tessa’s mate.”

“Not Oscar’s bio dad.”

“Yeah.”

“Does my sister know about this?” I demanded.

I didn’t know all the details, but I knew enough. Jack Simpson, along with his brothers, had raped my sister. Oscar was conceived in the process. I knew Maddie had been happy to find it was Jack and not one of the other tiger shifters.

My whole body shook with rage at the thought of him being anywhere near Maddie or her family.

“She knows.”

“Does Liam?”

“Yeah, he does.”

“What the hell, Kyle? They can’t just be okay with this.”

“When Oscar turned fifteen, he started really asking about his biological dad. He doesn’t know all the details, but he asked to meet him and when he found out that Jack was mated to Jenna’s sister, he pressed for them to be a part of their life. It wasn’t easy on Liam, but I think Madelyn found a bit of closure along the way. I won’t say it’s been entirely easy, but after three years we’ve all adjusted. Lake and River are Oscar’s biological half brother and sister, just like Sara and Enzo. He’s become quite protective of them.”

“And Liam just lets this happen? He adopted Oscar. This guy has no legal rights to be in his life.”

“No, he doesn’t, but Maddie and Liam always agreed that if it was what Oscar needed someday, then they would figure it out. So this is them figuring it out.”

“Just welcoming him to the family?”

“Yeah, actually. I know it’s a shock to you.”

“Why didn’t they tell me?”

“Because they knew you’d fecking lose it,” Patrick chimed in.

“I wouldn’t.”

“Your wolf is already on edge and ready to surge and go after him. That’s what they didn’t want.”

“Family’s family. Sometimes it just doesn’t matter how they came to be, just that they are. My triplets could be genetic monsters. We don’t know, but they’re ours, and they’re family. No one treats them any different or loves them any less,” Ben said.

“That’s not the same,” I argued.

“But it is. Jack did a monstrous thing, but he wasn’t entirely to blame either.”