Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
Luna Haven stands there, dressed in ballet attire, pointe shoes on her feet and her wild waves in two thick Dutch braids trailing down her back. The long-sleeved purple leotard dips into a V in the front, showing off her elegant neck, her mating mark from Wesley, and a webbing of scarred skin on the opposite side. Nolan sits in the corner, a computer on his lap and noise-canceling headphones on his head.
I take the towel I brought for my workout and wipe my mouth with it as my stomach lurches again. I turn to the trash can and wait, but the lurching stops and, thankfully, nothing comes up.
My knees wobble, and I lean against the wall, sipping more of the water as Luna Haven’s eyes glaze over a little, and she sticks the trash can into the hall.
I grimace as she walks back into the room and closes the door. “Sorry.”
She smiles at me and says, “It’s okay.” But then her nose wrinkles as she glances over her shoulder to where we can no longer see the trash can. “Although, I will say, I am not looking forward to that.”
My eyes widen. “You and Alpha Wesley are expecting?”
She chuckles. “No. Not yet, anyway. I just meant, in general, when I do get pregnant, I’m not looking forward to the morning sickness.”
I nod. “I’ve been lucky. This is actually the first time it’s happened. I haven’t had any pregnancy symptoms really… or, well, none that I realized were symptoms, at least. My emotional state the last week or so makes a lot more sense now, though.”
She laughs again, then moves to the center of the room, facing a mirrored wall and sitting down on the floor to stretch. Her legs straighten out in front of her, and she points her feet, lifting her arms gracefully above her head before reaching for her toes.
“Can I stretch with you?” I ask.
Her head turns to look at me, her eyes bright. “Of course. But ballet is harder than it looks,” she adds with a wink.
I join her on the floor, mimicking her stretching. The gym is clearly not going to work for me today, but I need to get back into some sort of workout routine, and the peaceful, quiet music floating through the room from her phone helps settle those nerves that won’t leave me alone.
“You must think I’m careless. Reckless.”
“How so?” she asks. I glance at Nolan, who has his brows furrowed as his fingers fly across his keyboard. “He can’t hear us. Right, Nolan?!” She raises her volume, and he doesn’t flinch or flick his eyes towards her. “But even if he could hear us, he wouldn’t say anything.”
I blow out a breath. “You must think I’m careless because I got pregnant by someone who didn’t want to fully commit to me.”
“I don’t think that.”
“I was on the pill,” I explain, even though she assured me she holds no judgment. “I don’t know what happened,” I shrug.
“Birth control isn’t one hundred percent effective,” she says. “My sister—Tiffany, Stella’s mom—she got an IUD after Stella was born, but she still got pregnant again with it in, and now I have another niece or nephew arriving in a few months. It’s rare, but it happens.”
“Maybe Tiffany and I should buy lottery tickets,” I say with a laugh.
“That’s what my dad said to her!”
“So, is Tiffany the daughter of the people who adopted you?” I ask, trying to work out the logistics of her family in my mind.
“No,” she says, shaking her head and switching to a new stretch. “Jack and Shirley wanted to adopt me, but shit happened and they were unable to. But they’ve been more like parents to me than any of my ‘real’ parents.”
“Have you met… your mom?” I ask, my voice soft.
“I have,” she replies.
Her body stiffens and her nostrils flare, and I refrain from asking more about Selene, her body language warning me off the subject. Her eyes close and she takes several deep breaths, letting her body relax into the stretch. The same glittery aura I felt during my pack initiation trickles out and floats around the room, perking up my wolf and dancing around her as she plays with it.
Nolan glances up from his work, uncovering an ear. “Luna?” he asks.
“I’m fine,” she says, shrugging off his concern. “Wes already mindlinked me.”
He stares at her for a moment, then covers his ear up and goes back to his computer, and Haven switches her position again, sitting in a butterfly stretch, and I again mimic her.
“Do you have any other powers?” I ask.
“I don’t have any powers. I can do two things. I can mindlink our pack members, and I have that… aura, I think is what you werewolves call it? I’m not really sure what it does.”
“It lets us know you’re someone important.”
“What does it feel like? To you?” she asks.
“Like starlight and like no other aura I’ve felt before. Alpha auras are commanding and protective, and sometimes possessive and suffocating. Yours is… comforting and magical. Powerful, but in a different way than an alpha or other ranked wolf aura.”
She nods as she listens to my description. “That’s similar to how others have described it,” she says. “We discovered it after my luna ceremony. I keep it under wraps as much as possible except for during pack ceremonies, as it raises a lot of questions, and we decided to keep my identity a secret. Although sometimes it slips out like it did right now. I can’t do anything else, though. At least, I don’t think I can. My mother wasn’t supposed to give me more than one gift, but it seems she did, anyway. So, who’s to say she won’t give me something else later on?”
“Do you want her to?”
“No. I don’t need powers. The mindlinking was my request because I wanted to be able to communicate with not just Wesley but all my friends. The pack. My family.”
My hand covers my belly at her words, at her mention of family. This pack, and Reid, already feel so much like a family to me, even though it hasn’t been a full two days since I became a member. And soon, I’ll have my own, smaller, family unit. Me, my pup, and—I hope—Reid.
“Have you told him yet?” she asks, her eyes on my hand, her voice soft.
“Not yet.”
“You should,” she says, covering my other hand with hers. “I… I think he will surprise you. He’s grown so much since meeting you. You’ve healed him when he didn’t know he needed it.”
“I’m going to. Today. After everything he did for me yesterday, and seeing how playful he can be and how he wants to start traditions for our family already…” I trail off and look into her caring, deep blue eyes. “Thank you, by the way. For the Christmas tree and the decorations. Reid told me you helped get it all into my guest room while we were outside.”
She waves me off. “It’s no problem. The packhouse is usually already decorated by this time of year, but with the wedding I kept putting it off. The hospitality team will set everything up this week, though. I think it will be a pleasant distraction for everyone from everything going on.”
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?