Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“Well, let’s pray to Selene you don’t dry up like a raisin while you wait.”
“Blake!”
“Taryn!”
I take a bite of my pizza to avoid snapping at her more. Again, she has a point. I
could still have fun while searching for my mate. I
could keep myself satisfied with whoever offers me a good time.
But that’s not what I want. I want commitment. I want love and a family, and I want a male who wants all those things, too. And as much as I would like it to be, that male isn’t Beta Reid Thomas.
I finish my pizza and lean forward to grab another two slices, pulling them out of the box and again watching the melted cheese as it stretches. I bite right into one piece, not waiting for it to cool off this time. The combined aroma of the toppings, sauce, cheese, and crust is too mouthwatering to resist.
“What are you watching?” I ask Blake as I try to tune into her show.
“Some show where the humans get married as soon as they meet each other.”
I scrunch up my nose. “Why?”
“For money, I think.”
“No, I mean, why are you watching it?” I laugh.
“Oh. I don’t know. Nothing else sounded interesting, and I wanted something mindless,” she says with a shrug, glancing at her phone. “We should probably turn it off soon though, unless you want to be a zombie at training tomorrow morning.”
“Speaking of training,” I say, wiping my mouth with my napkin. “Reid offered to give me some pointers and be a fresh set of eyes.”
“Ooh, a one-on-one session,” Blake teases, waggling her eyebrows.
“No! Not like that!” I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Sparring. Fighting. He said he’s been in charge of their warrior program at Crescent Lake for over five years, and he’d be willing to help me out. If I wanted.”
“Are you going to take him up on it?”
I shrug with one shoulder. “I don’t know. I don’t want anyone to think I’m cheating or anything like that.”
“How would it be cheating?” she asks.
“Because it’s extra practice? It’s an extra set of eyes and extra training with someone who isn’t even part of our pack?”
“Exactly,” Blake says, pointing at me. “No one can say anything because it’s outside the pack. It wouldn’t be any different from hiring a personal trainer at a gym. If it was a private lesson from, say, Beta Troll or Alpha Dominic, I could see how others might say that. But it’s not. It’s just a friend helping another friend.”
“You really think so?”
“I do. And I think you’d be foolish to pass up the opportunity to get some training from him. Crescent Lake’s warriors are a formidable group. If he’s the one who has been training them, then yeah, I’d kill for a chance to get even one pointer from him. And it’s not like you’ve never turned down extra training help before.”
I roll my eyes and stare at her with pursed lips. “Us meeting to train in secret as teenagers whenever I came to visit Aunt Gigi is not the same as me seeking help from someone who does that as their job.”
“I’m just saying,” she says, throwing her hands up. “If it was me, I wouldn’t even think twice about saying yes.”
Blake turns back to the crappy reality show she is watching on my television, and I think about what she said. I need every advantage I can get since Dominic isn’t taking me seriously, and since what I’ve been doing here at Silver Ridge to prove myself isn’t enough.
And beyond that, my heart flutters and dances at the thought of seeing Reid again. Of being near him and touching him or having him touch me, even if it’s only because we’re sparring together or he’s correcting my technique. Even though nothing more will come of it, because I’m determined to only develop a relationship with someone who is serious or with my fated mate, and because he isn’t the one-woman type, it will be nice to have another friend here. Someone I can trust and confide in.
I go to my purse hanging by the door, taking my phone out and shooting off a text to the phone number he gave me before we parted ways.
Me: Is the offer for extra fighting practice and pointers still on the table?
I don’t have to wait long for his reply. It pings through on my phone after less than a minute.
Reid Thomas: Of course. Just name a day and a time.
REIDI
amble across the pack grounds in the early hours of the morning, another light dusting of snow falling around me and sprinkling the grass like powdered sugar on a pancake. Without my permission, my eyes lift to the mountains in the east, where the snow clings stronger to the ground and the pine needles, up towards where Silver Ridge’s borders are.
I can’t see the pack from here, but I know the exact spot on those hills where their lands begin. It’s my job to know.
That’s the only reason I’m looking. To make sure no one is wandering too close to that line where the borders of our packs meet. Not because of a certain exquisite mahogany-skinned she-wolf who lives there. Definitely not because of that.
I wonder what she’s doing.
“Goddess, damn it,” I mutter, tearing my eyes away and gluing them to the path in front of me.
My wolf whimpers in my mind, tugging against my control to get me to look over there again.
“Not going to happen, mangy mutt!” I say under my breath, glancing around to see if anyone is nearby to witness my crazed arguing with my inner beast.
This must be how Wesley felt that week he didn’t talk to or see Haven. They didn’t know they were mates yet at that point, but I remember how testy and on edge he was during that time, and I remember him mentioning his lycan driving him nuts. Lycans are already more active and present in their human’s minds than regular werewolves, anyway, so his lycan must have been extra vocal and annoying during that week.
And now that I’ve met my mate, my wolf has decided he wants to act more like a lycan than a werewolf.
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?