Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
He winks at me and flicks his eyes to Taryn. She groans and her head falls back onto my shoulder, but I catch a flicker of amusement in the bond.
“We’ll make sure we keep you updated and send more pictures as we get them,” she says, lifting her head. “You’re her only grandfather, after all.”
“Thank you,” he says, setting the image on the table. He reaches his arms out, and she leans forward to give him a hug. “You take care of him, okay?”
“I’ll try, but he seems to find trouble easily,” she says, and he laughs.
She walks to the door, and I stay by the side of the bed, half of me ready to walk out of the room with her, the other half wanting to stay with him despite his insistence that he be left alone. My hands clench and I close my eyes, trying to breathe. He promised he’d come back. He promised he’d get better—for all of us.
“It’s okay, Buddy,” he says, and a sob threatens to leave my chest again. “I’ll be okay. Go. Go be with your family.”
I inhale and blow out a long breath, nodding as I do. Then I turn and leave the room, not looking back.
Taryn shuts the door, and I place my palms against the opposite wall, my chin dropping to my chest. I count to ten, focusing on the press of Taryn’s body on my back, her arms around my waist. Her warmth and light pulse through me, comforting me and easing my burden, taking some of the weight from me so we bear it together.
Above the golden warmth wrapping around me, there is also a sparkling, glittering aura, twisting with the healing light and adding another layer of peace and love over me. I open my eyes, and Haven stands next to us in Wesley’s old gray Stanford T-shirt and a large off-white cardigan, her dark blue eyes an ocean of sadness and understanding.
Of all the ranked members in our pack, she’s the only one who has an inkling of understanding of what I’m going through. What I’ve gone through. Our losses and trauma may be different, but the result is a deeper understanding of each other, a unique connection between us, distinct from the connection she has with Nolan or Sebastian.
“Luna,” I say, my voice a quiet rasp.
She gives me a soft, sad smile. Her hands twitch at her sides, and her eyes glance at Taryn before returning to me. I huff out a chuckle and step out of Taryn’s grasp, wrapping Haven in a hug.
“I don’t think I’ve seen Wesley wear that shirt at all in the last three years,” I tell her, squeezing her but being mindful of her tiny, human body.
“He’s really worried about you,” she says, squeezing me back, ignoring my deflection.
“Where is he?” I ask, stepping back and looking down at her.
“In the packhouse gym. He scared everyone away with his growling and his aura. He said ‘I’m fine,’ but we all know that’s a lie.”
I give her an actual laugh at that, my head tilting to the ceiling. “Truer words have never been spoken.”
“That man carries the blame for everything.” She sighs, her fingers scratching at the scarring on her neck. “I wish he’d cut himself some slack sometimes.”
“I’ll go see him,” I tell her, patting her shoulder and walking past her and down the hall.
Through the windows and the glass doors, the sun peeks out from behind the dispersing gray clouds, reflecting off the thick layer of snow covering the pack grounds. The automatic doors slide open, bringing the frigid air into the hospital, still lingering even though the storm is clearing.
“How’d you get your scars?” Taryn asks Haven, and I peek behind myself as I step outside to see them walking in my shadow, arms linked together.
“My ex went crazy because I wasn’t his mate,” Haven says, the icy wind blowing her wild red curls around and tinting her ivory skin with pink.
Taryn’s eyes widen. “What?”
“He pulled me into the alley behind the club and shifted into his lycan and attacked me. I was lucky Sebastian and Nolan were there spying on me and were able to get me here in time, with the help of some nomadic werewolves. My healing was sped up because of the mate bond, but my human genes meant I had some scarring.”
“And Wesley blames himself for the whole thing,” I finish as we reach the packhouse door.
“That’s very ‘alpha’ of him,” Taryn says, walking by me with Haven as I hold the door open for them. “Too bad not all alphas care that much about those close to them.”
Haven nods and squeezes Taryn’s hand, and I suppress a growl as I remember what that dickhead alpha tried to do to my girl. What he would have done if the rogues hadn’t attacked when they did. A true blessing in disguise if there ever was one.
We walk the rest of the way to the basement gym in silence, me now behind the two girls whose arms are still linked. Wesley’s aura bears down on me as we walk down the hallway. It’s not enough to force us into submission—not that it would work on Haven, anyway—but it’s enough to have my skin prickling and my wolf dropping his ears and tucking his tail between his legs a little. Taryn tenses and rolls her shoulders, a small shiver running down her spine.
They step aside for me, and I push the door open, stopping right inside the large workout space in the packhouse’s basement. Wesley’s positioned himself in front of a punching bag, in only gym shorts, no gloves or wraps on his fists. They’re already bruised and cracked, but other than that, there’s no obvious sign he’s punishing himself, no outward display of guilt or anguish.
Taryn and Haven move to the side of the room, settling on the floor and talking in hushed voices. Taryn smiles as she listens to Haven and laughs with her, a peace settling over her as Haven welcomes her into our ranks as if she’s always been part of our group. The same peace settles within me as I see how Haven accepts her, how they’ve already formed their own little friendship, their own bond as luna and beta female.
Taryn catches my eye and mouths, “I love you,” to me from across the gym.
“I love you too,”
I mindlink her with a wink before turning my focus to Wesley.
He hasn’t paid us any attention since we entered the room, hasn’t broken his steady pace of punches. He didn’t pause to say hello or acknowledge us in any way. Not even Haven, which is saying a lot. I’m surprised he let her walk all the way to the hospital without him or Nolan. Then again, I’m not sure he realized she left the room with how focused on destroying the punching bag he is.
I walk to a treadmill and pull my shirt off, draping it over the handle while I start up the machine and put in my preferred settings. Wesley’s eyes are on me now, watching me as I stretch my muscles before the treadmill moves. The machine starts slow and so do I, picking up my pace until I’ve reached the speed I set it at.
Wesley storms to the machine next to mine, firing it up and setting the speed at a pace much higher than mine, and I bite back a smirk. Of fucking course he did. Alpha Wesley can’t have anyone showing him up.
As soon as he reaches the speed he sets the machine to, I up my speed as well, until it’s just above his. His brow furrows, and he turns the pace up on his treadmill, too.
Back and forth we go, both of us picking up our pace, both of us pushing the other to run harder and faster until the machines are at the highest speed possible and our feet pound against the belts, our hearts racing as we sweat and breathe faster than ever.
The irony of the situation is not lost on me—it’s another mirror, another echo of a day almost fifteen years ago. The day we found out we lost Haven and Wesley’s lycan pushed him into an early shift. A shift that carried the potential to kill him, but, thank the Goddess, didn’t.
But that day, he raced Seb, and today, he’s racing me. But it all boils down to the same issue—him, and the burdens he shoulders, always taking the blame for situations outside his control. He didn’t fuck things up for me or my dad, just like he didn’t fuck up Haven’s childhood.
The speed becomes too much for me, and I grab the handles, lifting my feet to place them on the sides of the treadmill to wait for the belt to slow down. Except, my toe catches on the edge and I lose my balance. My feet fly out from under me, my body flopping forward onto my stomach. A thud fills the room as my chin smacks onto the belt, snapping my teeth together, and even though I’ve stopped running, the belt continues moving and drags my body with it until I’m in a crumpled heap on the floor behind the machine.
I groan and roll onto my back, scooting myself away from the rude treadmill, giving it a kick for good measure before I’m too far away. I close my eyes, ignoring the laughs of Haven and Taryn. My body feels like a spooked herd of cattle dragged it across a dirt road, and I’m sure my knees and my chin have bruises already forming. At least with my shifter healing, it will be gone by the time I head back to Taryn’s suite to shower 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?