Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“Okay,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
But I don’t need him to pity me or know I am terrified. Or know the judgment I’m most worried about isn’t from the rest of his pack, but from him.
Just him.
It’s not logical since he hasn’t given me any reason to doubt him, but it’s the truth. His reaction to my wolf feels important, feels like it may be a turning point for our relationship. Our… friendship. If he judges me, pities me, or laughs at me—I’m pretty sure it might break me more than any reaction anyone has had to her.
He grins and beckons me with a jerk of his head, leading me towards the tree line near the lake. I see this lake often on runs around the Silver Ridge pack borders, but I’ve never seen it up close. The crescent moon shape isn’t as noticeable as it is from above, but the way the redwood trees, the sun, and the clouds reflect in a perfect mirror image on the surface of the water is incomparable to anything I’ve seen before.
“It’s beautiful here,” I say.
He glances at me, then around his home, taking his time to see everything, to look at it through the eyes of a visitor or a newcomer. “I’m so used to it sometimes I forget to appreciate what we have here.” He looks at me again. “Silver Ridge is pretty, too, though. I’ve been there a few times.”
“It’s different from here. We don’t have a lake, and we get more snow and get it sooner than you do. And it’s colder. Although it’s cold as balls here, too.” My body shivers as an icy breeze blows by us as if to emphasize my point. “See?”
He chuckles. “You don’t like the cold?”
“I am from the San Diego area,” I remind him. “I am used to beaches, canyons, and big cities. To me, ‘cold’ is when you need a hoodie or maybe a cute scarf around your neck. This is… this is arctic temperatures to me.”
He laughs harder. “Again, I guess I am used to it.”
I cross my arms to block against the breeze as it picks up into a full wind. “Hmph.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll try to make this quick,” he says, lifting his hands in surrender as we reach the trees. “Since we’re not in the same pack, we won’t be able to mindlink. After we shift, we’re going to run the perimeter of the lake. There is a man-made—or, I guess, wolf-made—path you should be able to find no problem. Just follow that all the way around and back to this spot, and then we’ll be finished for the day.”
I nod and glance around until I see a tree with a trunk large enough to hide my body while I strip before I shift. Nudity is normal for us as werewolves since our clothes rip if we have to shift in a hurry, but it’s common courtesy to give privacy if you can. If the situation allows.
And, as much as I want to see Reid Thomas in the buff, I promised myself I would be on my best behavior today and not act on my dirty thoughts about this sexy-as-hell male who doesn’t want a mate.
Easier said than done with the way my thoughts about him race every time my eyes land on his delicious body. Which is another reason I decided to take the route of caution and change behind a tree.
I take my shoes and clothes off as fast as I can and shift right away so I’m not naked in the frigid air. It’s colder here under the cover of the trees where the sun doesn’t reach the forest floor.
My bones crack and reset. Gray, white, and tan fur sprouts from my skin, and before I know it, my petite wolf is standing where my human body was moments ago. I shake out my fur and stretch my legs, then trot around the trunk and back towards Reid.
Who is still in his human form.
I huff and give a small growl, doing my best to convey my annoyance with him while in my wolf form.
But he is unfazed, his attention on my wolf and not my attitude. He circles around me, his face unreadable and his eyes scanning me, assessing me, and my nerves are back.
I want his approval. I’m eager for it. I need it in a way I haven’t needed approval from anyone in a long time.
I sit on my haunches and wait, trying to seem patient, although I am anything but. Each passing second of him staring at my wolf without saying a word adds another butterfly to my stomach and an extra beat to my heart rate until I’m ready to explode.
“Beautiful,” he says when I think I can’t wait any longer. “No offense, but your alpha is a dumbass.”
With that one word, that one simple sentence, all my doubts and fears dissipate and blow away across the surface of the lake, like dandelion seeds on the wind. My wolf wags her tail at his praise, like some attention-seeking pup. I roll my eyes at her, even though if I had a tail I would wag it too.
He steps closer to me and holds his hand out, hovering it over my head. “May I?”
My wolf nudges his hand with her snout, and before I can stop her, she also gives it a lick, and I’m face-palming myself in my head.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says, laughing and crouching next to me.
His hand strokes the fur on my head between my ears, then glides down my neck to my back. He doesn’t lift his hand, just moves it in one long, gentle stroke, stopping right before my tail. Then he brings his arm back to the top of my head and repeats the motion a second time, his eyes following the path of his hand, his movements even slower than the first time.
His brow furrows, and he disappears back into himself as he continues to pet my wolf, lost in his own mind. A shadow passes over those bright blue eyes of his, like a cloud covering the sun in an otherwise clear sky. His hand snaps away from my body, and he turns his back to me, storming off behind a bush.
I wish I could sense what he is thinking and feeling. I wish I could mindlink him so I could ask him if he’s all right, ask him the reason for his sudden physical and emotional one-eighty.
He strips off his clothes so he can shift, and while the bushes he’s behind hide his lower half, I have a wonderful, unobstructed view of his upper body. The muscles in his back tense and ripple as he pulls his shirt over his head and tosses it on top of the bush.
And oh my Goddess. He looks better than I imagined when we had dinner together the other night.
There are trees as far as the eye can see, but the only thing I’m interested in climbing is him.
I snap my wolf’s jaws shut so the saliva pooling in my mouth doesn’t drip out and leave me a drooling mess over this male. This male I can’t have. This male I shouldn’t want.
This male, who is standing in front of me in his wolf form, staring at me.
I got so caught up in my head and my lustful musings I didn’t realize he’d shifted and made his way over here.
My wolf perks up under his wolf’s gaze, her ears pricking forward and her tail wagging again, her snout twitching as she sniffs the air to catch his scent and learn it. Only wolves who are mates can identify each other’s exact scent, but I can detect a hint of something woodsy and cinnamony. It’s a homey scent, a scent that reminds me of Christmas.
His wolf is large. Larger than mine, of course, but also larger than a regular male werewolf. His bulky and muscular frame lets other wolves know he holds a high-ranking position in his pack, one he has earned through hard work and through his bloodline. His fluffy, thick fur is a mix of lighter and darker grays with a touch of white underneath. The heavy coat looks soft and warm, and I want to touch it the same way he touched my wolf, but that will have to wait.
My wolf, however, can touch his wolf.
I urge her forward, and she complies without hesitation, jumping up and prancing over to him, nudging him with her snout and pouncing around him, running in circles and chasing her tail, then pausing, waiting to see his reaction.
Little show-off.
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?