Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“So what are we going to start with?” she asks, turning to me when Holden is out of sight, her lips in a broad smile that lights up her entire face and puts little stars in her midnight eyes.
But my face is dead serious, my mouth pulled into a tight, thin line. There is no humor in my face, no twinkle in my eyes.
“Run. Now,” I order, pointing towards the perimeter of the field.
I know she’s warmed up because she asked to have this session after her regular warrior training in Silver Ridge, so there’s no need to stretch.
“Out here?” she asks, looking around at the snow.
“Where else would we run?”
“The gym?”
“Warriors don’t get to pick the weather when they are called to action. Do you want to be a warrior?” She nods. “Then run!”
My voice is tinged with a growl, and her eyes widen. She lets out a little squeal before taking off towards the edge of the field at a light pace. As soon as she turns her back to me, I follow her, my stoic beta facade cracking and a laugh teasing my lips. Her own laughter filters back towards me as she runs.
“What are you laughing at, Cadet? You’re supposed to be running!” My voice is harsh and barking, but my lips are smiling, a silent, withheld laugh shaking my shoulders as I catch up to her.
“Sir, yes, sir!” she says over her shoulder, her lips pressing together as she fights her laughs too.
I let her set the pace, but I stay right on her heels, pushing her to go a little faster, to work a little harder. I want to see what she is capable of already, take a measure of her abilities, and move on from there to what she needs to work on.
Plus, if I stay behind her, I have an excellent view of her long, muscular legs and her round, toned ass.
Not that I’m looking. Because I’m not. Looking. I have no interest in her like that at all. It’s the mate bond and my wolf making me do that.
“How do you know Holden?” I ask to keep my mind off her beautiful body and her sweet, summertime scent as it wafts behind her and into my nose while she runs.
“Cross country in high school. He was the boys’ state champion the same year I was the girls’ state champion.”
“Oh.”
I am calm and collected on the outside. But on the inside, my wolf dances with glee that there aren’t lingering feelings or a forgotten relationship between them.
Not that I care. Those are my wolf’s feelings, not mine.
I stay quiet after that. I don’t trust my wolf to keep his jealousy and possessiveness in check, and I don’t trust him to not force me to do something idiotic because of that jealousy and possessiveness. Instead, I take advantage of our comfortable silence and assess her speed, gait, and breathing, taking mental notes on the minor constructive feedback I want to give her.
We run several more laps in this same manner until I can tell her body is loose and ready for a more intense workout.
“Water break, Cadet!” I say, my voice barking out across the grounds.
She adjusts her trajectory towards the water jugs, where the current pre-warrior trainees are gathering to get their own drinks. Sebastian looks on with his arms crossed as he gives them their water break.
I stand next to him while I wait for Taryn, my jaw working as our pack members surround her to get their water, some of them shooting her second glances. I don’t know if it’s because she isn’t from our pack or because she’s the most gorgeous she-wolf ever, but either way, I don’t like it.
They shouldn’t be looking at her that way. Only I should get to look at her that way.
No, that’s not right either. No one should look at her like that. Least of all me. I can’t let myself look at her that way. She may be my mate, but that means nothing. The full moon will come, the bond will break, and we’ll go our separate ways.
“Who is that?” Sebastian asks, jerking his chin at her.
“Taryn.”
He turns his head and raises his brow at me. “I thought you don’t do repeats?”
I shrug. “That’s not one of my rules. That one is more like a guideline.”
“Okay, Captain Barbossa.”
“I’m not a pirate. And this isn’t a date. And I haven’t slept with her.”
“Yet.”
I wrinkle my nose and furrow my brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” he says with a snort.
“You know, as shocking as this may be, I don’t sleep with every female I meet.” He continues to laugh and give me that stupid, smug look he always wears on his face, and the tether on my restraint snaps. “Maybe you should get laid so you can stop paying attention to my sex life and start paying attention to your own since your hand clearly isn’t cutting it anymore!”
The laughter, triumph, and smugness are gone in a snap. His face shutters, his jaw ticking as his teeth grind together.
But the look vanishes in an instant, his smile and laughter back as Taryn walks up to us, her face glowing and dewy from our run, little tendrils of her ebony hair framing her face, seeking the moisture in the air.
“Taryn?” Seb asks, holding his hand out to her. She nods as she shakes his hand. “Sebastian.”
“Ah.” She smiles, those twinkling stars appearing again in her eyes. “The gambling man.”
“The one and only,” he says with a grin.
I roll my eyes, but my wolf doesn’t seem to mind Sebastian teasing her. Perhaps because Sebastian has always made it clear he’s waiting for his mate, and he won’t take any female before he finds her.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?