Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
The ladies keep chattering away, and I sip my tea. None of them address me, so I don’t feel bad about not contributing to the discussion. But damn, these biddies can talk. And I can’t excuse myself without appearing rude. It’s looking more and more like my spa day is going to be a spa night.
“Sandwich, Taryn?” Luna Merina asks, holding out a tray of tiny tea sandwiches.
“Oh, no thank you, Luna,” I say. “I had lunch at Brewed Awakenings with a friend, and I am beyond stuffed.”
“Oh, stop that,” she chuckles, swatting my arm playfully as she sets the tray down. “Call me Merina. We’re practically family. You and Dominic have been seeing each other for what, a year now? More? I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he asks you to be his luna and puts his mark on your neck.”
Auntie Gigi raises her brows but says nothing. She knows it’s not her place to tell Luna Merina the truth. Instead, she hides behind her teacup, taking a sip and watching the conversation unfold with great interest.
I blow out a breath, set my almost empty teacup on the table, and rub my hands on my thighs. “We ended things,” I say, and everyone around the table gasps and covers their mouths with their hand or their napkin. “I ended things,” I clarify, wanting to set that record straight.
I’m not about to have some gossip-hungry female going around saying Dominic dumped me.
“I gave him an ultimatum. I told him he needed to decide to be serious with me and settle down, and if he couldn’t do that, then I was going to walk away from him for good.”
“Oh, Taryn, sweetie! I had no idea!” Luna Merina says, her hand on her chest. “I’m so sorry. I swear to the goddess, I did not raise that boy to be so hard-headed and callous towards females. I’ll talk to him, don’t you worry. I’ll make him see what he’s missing by pushing you away like that.”
“No, Luna. Thank you, but no. If Dominic wants me—if he really wants me back in his life—then he needs to decide for himself. On his own. He needs to see my worth and acknowledge it. I want him to choose me because he wants to choose me, not because something or someone tells him he has to. And if I meet my fated mate or someone who is ready to settle down and be serious before Dominic comes to that realization… Well, then, that is his loss.” I shrug.
Auntie Gigi pats my leg and gives me a soft smile.
“That’s my girl,”
she mindlinks me.
Some of the other ladies nod their approval as well, and I sit straighter, my wolf mimicking me in my head. She’s been more active in my mind than usual since our run with Reid’s wolf—more alert and focused. I’m guessing it’s because of the change of scenery and the intense workouts we had today.
“Thank you again for the tea, Luna Merina,” I say, emphasizing the use of her title. “Now, if you will excuse me, I would really like to shower since I had a double workout today.”
I stand, grab my gym bag, and leave the tea party without waiting to hear their responses. I did my duty and played nice for a short while, but now I need to focus on myself and my needs, and my current need is to shower and practice some self-care so my mind and body can be refreshed and ready for the week ahead and all I will face starting tomorrow morning.
But I am not even halfway down the hall to my apartment when I am again waylaid. This time, by Alpha Dominic.
Lucky me.
“Where have you been?” he asks, crossing his arms and sniffing the air. “Why do you smell like Crescent Lake?”
“I spent some time with a friend from there. We went on a run and had lunch in town,” I say, leaving out the more specific details about who I was with and what we did. “Not that I need to report my every movement to you,” I add, maneuvering around him.
“Lunch? Where? With who?”
I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose, then turn around. “Brewed Awakenings. And I don’t have to tell you who I was with. We are not together. We are no longer a ‘thing.’ You may be the alpha, but you don’t get to control every movement of every member of your pack. You don’t get to be privy to every minor detail of our lives. Of my life.”
I take two steps towards my apartment when his groan stops me in my tracks. I look at him again, and his face is in his hand, his head shaking. “That’s not—I wasn’t—I’m not trying to control you, Taryn. I’m just protective. I’m an alpha. It’s part of my nature to feel protective of my pack members. All of them. Not just you.”
His lips press together, and I know there is more he wants to say, more he wants to add to that sentence—probably something like “although I am also extra protective of you”—but he doesn’t let himself say it, doesn’t verbalize that he wants to look after me. Because that would mean admitting he’s more serious about me than he wants to be. That would mean admitting he was wrong for letting me go, wrong for letting me walk away when I said he needed to choose me.
“While I appreciate the friendly, alpha-ly concern,” I say, standing my ground between him and my apartment door, even though a small part of me wants to touch his arm. “I am a big girl. I am a trained warrior. And while I may not hold that rank here—yet—I am more than capable of protecting myself if needed.”
I turn on my heel and take the last few steps towards my apartment, entering it and closing the door behind me before he can say another word.
TARYNMy alarm blares,
wrenching me from a dead sleep. My body is heavy, nestled into my bed under my warm, down comforter.
On a normal day, I would press snooze on my alarm and let it wake me up again in five minutes. And then another five minutes. And then another. On a normal day, I would hunker down into my cushiony bed and savor its warmth and comfort until the last second.
But today isn’t a normal day. Today is an important day. Today will set everything in motion for the future I’ve been working for, the future I deserve.
Rolling onto my back, I stare at the ceiling and take several long, deep, focused breaths before I get up and start getting ready. I change, pulling on leggings and a white top similar to the one I wore yesterday while training with Reid. I remove my pink satin bonnet and scarf, and since I just did my hair last night, I leave my twists alone and pull a section of them up and out of my face, then slip on a head wrap. My favorite pink tie-dye one, the one I wear when I need good luck.
As I head out the door of my apartment, I slip my headphones in and turn on my “get pumped” playlist. The upbeat, motivational, dance-worthy music has me shaking my hips while I walk down the hall and into the kitchen, mouthing the lyrics and nodding my head to the beat. I grab a banana from the fruit basket on the counter and peel it, leaning against the wall by the back door as I eat and look over the law Reid sent me yesterday.
I read through it several times last night while I did my self-care spa day—in between episodes of Queen Charlotte, of course—but I want to look it over again. I need to make sure I say everything correctly, that I use the precise wording stated in the law’s text; otherwise, my challenge will be void.
Pack members—mainly warriors, but also a few trainees like myself—fill the large, clean, gray, white, and blue kitchen, grabbing bananas or protein bars and filling up their water bottles. Other than a cursory nod or a polite wave hello, most of them pay little attention to me, even though I am not a full warrior. Not yet, at least. But trainees may attend up to two elite warrior workouts a week—a stipulation I take full advantage of—so they are used to seeing me among their ranks on occasion.
Although I haven’t attended one in a while. But that’s about to change.
Blake bounces into the kitchen, her two-toned hair pulled back in a high ponytail that swings with each of her steps. She spots me right away and weaves through the ever-growing crowd of warriors, disappearing for a split second behind a group of three she-wolves who are much taller than her.
“How was your self-care spa day?” she asks when she reaches me.
I take one of my headphones out of my ear and pause the music. “Perfect. Relaxing. Quiet,” I say. “I feel refreshed and like I can take on the world.”
“And Queen Charlotte?”
“Just as perfect as every other time I’ve binge-watched every episode in one night.”
“And how many times is that now?”
“Oh Goddess, I don’t know. I don’t keep track,” I scoff. Blake’s eyebrow lifts, and she crosses her arms and taps her foot on the floor. “Okay, okay. Five. Maybe six. Probably more. I just love the way King George looks at her, all right? I want a male to look at me like that! Is that too much to ask for?”
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?