Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
Or maybe more like a fool. A lovestruck, infatuated fool.
He’s been a hot fucking mess since last night. The sleep I thought would help did not, in fact, help. Because I didn’t get any sleep. He kept me up with his pacing, whining, and growling for letting her go back to her pack.
It doesn’t matter that I keep reminding him I’m going to reject her. It won’t matter to him until I sever the bond between Taryn and I. But I will remind him as much as I have to.
Because I will reject her. Once I have sorted out all this weird shit with her not feeling the bond.
I wasn’t going to agree to see her on Monday for a training session, even though I was the one who offered it in the first place. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it might work in my favor. If I see her again, then maybe I can get some clues about why she didn’t feel the bond between us.
A lone figure jogs down the path towards me, cheeks tinted pink and sweat staining his T-shirt, on the tail end of his morning run. I cross all my crossables that Wesley won’t see me or, at the very least, he’ll just say “hi” and go on his merry way back to his mate. But of fucking course, he decides to stop and strike up a conversation with me.
His footsteps slow, and he puts his hands on his hips, breathing in and out, making little clouds of mist in the air and melting the powdered sugar snowflakes as they fall to the ground. I hold back my groan and clench my teeth.
He may be my best friend and my alpha, but I am not in the mood for small talk. I have too much on my plate with everything going on with my mate.
I mean Taryn.
“Morning, Alpha Wesley,” I say.
I don’t have to address him with his title in public. He’s told me before I can call him Wes or Wesley—even out on the pack grounds—and he won’t get upset. But it’s a matter of respect. I’d give that respect to him no matter what, but he’s more than earned it over the years. He’s still a cocky bastard, but he’s also a good friend, a tenacious leader, and the type who stands up for what he believes in and those in need.
“Good morning to you as well, Beta Reid,” he replies, addressing me with my title, too, as he sweeps his hair away from his forehead before placing his hands back on his hips.
Both his hair and his beard have gotten longer than he tends to keep them. I’m guessing he’s waiting until closer to the wedding for a trim. Or maybe Haven digs that lumberjack, mountain man, trying to be a bear look.
“What are you doing up so early on a Saturday?” he asks.
“I’m going to the pack library. What about you?”
“I’m heading into town. Haven has a rehearsal, and I told Nolan he could take the day off. Then we’re having lunch with Haven’s sister and niece.” He cocks his head at me and raises a brow. “Wait. Did you just say you’re going to the library?”
“Yes?”
“Why?”
“To read?” His brow raises more. “What? I read!”
“Yeah… Animorphs and Goosebumps in elementary school do not a reader make.”
“Hey, those are quality pieces of literature!”
“Says who?”
“Says me!” I huff, crossing my arms. “And I’ve read other books too! I like Stephen King and Michael Crichton and Neil Gaiman and—“
“Okay, okay,” he surrenders, lifting his hands and cutting me off. “Seriously, though, why are you going to the library?”
“I’m going to do some research.”
“For what?”
“New training methods. Double checking some of the warrior laws for the kingdom.”
It’s not a complete lie. I am planning to dig into both topics in addition to searching for answers about my mate bond.
Because ever since my date with Taryn, I’ve been thinking of what she said about Alpha Dominic not letting her try for a warrior position and having to earn it by going back to the basics, back to the bottom of the pecking order. It’s not right, and there must be a law about it somewhere. I just need to find it.
“Anything I can help with? Or do you want me to ask Sebastian to work with you?” he asks.
“No!” I yell with more abruptness than I mean to. “No, I-I’ve got it,” I amend, waving him off. “You enjoy your day with your luna and her family.”
He smiles at that and returns my wave as he continues on his way, jogging backwards. “Oh, I definitely will,” he murmurs before turning and heading off towards his house, disappearing around the bend in the path.
I continue on my way as well, and I thank Selene I don’t get waylaid by anyone else before I reach the library. I’m too tense and on edge to have something that resembles a normal conversation right now.
I give Mrs. Appleton a cursory nod as I enter the building. She retired from teaching in the pack’s elementary school years ago, but she volunteers in the library to keep herself busy.
She smiles at me but says nothing. She must register that “man on a mission” vibe I’m giving off because usually she’d stop me to ask about Wesley and Haven. She loves to remind everyone she is the reason our alpha and luna met.
I grab the sticky notes and pen I stole from Wesley’s office out of my pocket as I wake up the library catalog computer, then type in the keywords for the topics I’m researching. Hopefully, this search will be more fruitful than the internet search I did last night when I couldn’t sleep.
All I got from that search was a bunch of terrible romance novels written by humans about werewolves and other supernatural creatures. I didn’t know they wrote about us like that, but from what I saw, it’s a very niche market of romance novels. The weirdest part, though, was how much they got right about us and the way our bonds work. There was a lot wrong, too, but I guess that makes sense when they’re writing about something they assume isn’t true and have no real-life experience to draw from. They have to make it up.
The library search will for sure be more productive, since actual werewolves and other supernatural beings wrote and curated all the information here, instead of humans making up wild and inaccurate stories about us and how we treat our mates and other beings.
I jot down a list of books on the mate bond that look promising, then search for books on the other two topics I came to research. Then, on a whim, I type in one more query, searching for one more topic that may help with both the mate bond problem and with the training I’ve promised to do with Taryn—information about smaller than normal werewolves.
That could very well be the reason—or at least part of the reason—she doesn’t feel the bond between us. Maybe shifters with smaller wolves feel it later than twenty-one years old? I’ll also need to adjust some of our wolf form exercises as well, so I can make sure I don’t hurt her, and so I can focus on the specific skills and abilities she needs to employ to make up for her size in a fight.
My blood boiled when she told me her alpha used her wolf’s small size against her, at the thought that he or anyone else would underestimate her. The size of our wolves isn’t what determines if we’re capable as warriors. It’s our willingness to learn, work hard, and build our strength and abilities. A larger wolf with no training is more of a hindrance than a smaller wolf who has worked their way through a solid warrior training program.
And my blood didn’t boil at that information only because of the mate bond. I would feel this way no matter what because I can’t stand when others are judged by what they are rather than what they can do. I get pissed when people hint that Haven can’t help the pack as the luna since she isn’t a werewolf. Just like Wesley has proven himself as our alpha, she has more than proven her worth and her capability as our pack’s luna, even though she is “just” a human.
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?