Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“You know?”
Nolan nods, his arms crossed. “Sebastian told us.”
I swallow, opening my mouth to explain, but Haven reaches for me, squeezing my arm. “Don’t worry about it right now. Although Wes…” She grimaces and turns away from me. “Never mind. Follow me. Dr. Russo is waiting.”
“I’ll be right out here, Luna,” Nolan says.
Haven nods at him and hurries off ahead of me, and I follow her down the white halls of the hospital to the private room at the end. “Oh fuck,” I say. “I ruined your wedding night!”
She laughs and shakes her head as she opens the door. “You didn’t ruin it. The rogues did.”
I huff and roll my eyes, moving past her into the room where Dr. Russo—Maya and Levi’s dad—and a nurse wait. I lay Taryn on the bed, and the nurse draws the curtain around it as I step away so she can put her in a hospital gown and begin whatever it is she needs to do to get Taryn fixed up.
“Hey,” Haven says from the door, and I glance at her, my hands on my hips, and my shoulders slumped. “She’s going to be pissed at you. That’s a given. But I don’t think she’ll shut you out for long. Trust me,” she adds, winking. “I speak from experience.”
I nod at her, the corners of my lips lifting in a halfhearted smile. Then I raise my hand to wave goodbye to her as she backs out of the room and closes the door.
The curtain whips back open, and I cross to the bed in two strides, perching on the edge and taking Taryn’s hand in mine. Her eyes are closed again, and there is already an IV of fluids attached to her other hand, and the nurse slips several vials of blood into various bags to be tested for whatever it is they need to test them for.
“So she’s your mate?” Dr. Russo asks from behind me.
I nod, not looking at him, watching Taryn’s face for any reaction. But there is none. She’s asleep. “Yes.”
“But she doesn’t know? She can’t feel it?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, while I can’t say for certain why you did feel it—although I have a few ideas—there is only one thing that can block a mate bond. The separatum amoris nexum potion.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh. “I didn’t think it would be a potion. Magic,” I say, shaking my head.
“That’s not your fault,” he says. “How would you know about it? They train us doctors to know about the various potions and spells that affect werewolves. And that knowledge is intentionally kept from other wolves, so it doesn’t get used like this.”
“How does it work?”
“The bare bones of it? It is a potion that is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. It has to be mixed with food, and it is a long-lasting potion, meaning unless given the antidote, the potion can remain active for quite some time, even without receiving a dose. The potion separates the bond into two sides and makes it so the one ingesting it does not recognize their mate, and their mate cannot recognize them, either, even if their mate isn’t taking the potion.”
“And you know for sure that’s what it was?” I ask.
“Sebastian explained everything to me before he left to help. We tested one of the Silver Ridge members here for the wedding for traces of the potion, and the results were positive. We’re administering the antidote to all the members of their pack, and the doctor at Alpha Benjamin’s pack is doing the same to those who are there. And the antidote is already in the IV attached to your mate. She should be able to sense your bond when she wakes up.”
I swallow and nod. “What made you think it would be given to all members? There are couples from Silver Ridge who are mated and marked.”
“It’s easier to administer a potion like that to an entire pack than it is to just one member. And the potion only works on those with an incomplete mate bond. So it’s likely only been given to the pack for the last few years, maybe a little longer.”
I groan and shake my head, rubbing my temples, my head hurting from the events of the night and the overload of information I need to process. “So, what are the reasons you think I could feel it, even though she couldn’t?”
“Either whoever made the potion got lazy and cocky and left out the ingredient that prevents the other half from feeling the bond. Or, Taryn may have built up an immunity to chickweed.”
“Immunity?”
“Yes,” he says, nodding. “It’s not common, but it happens sometimes where someone can become immune to ingredients or poisons if they ingest them enough times. Like I said, these are only guesses. But we are lucky you did feel it; otherwise, we may not have known Silver Ridge was in trouble until too late.”
Dr. Russo pats me on the shoulder and walks to the door. “I’ll leave you two alone. I’m sure you’ll have a lot to talk about when she wakes up.”
The door closes, and I blow out a breath and lower my hands to my lap. My eyelids are heavy and my body aches and throbs, and I long to stretch out alongside my mate in her hospital bed so I can hold her and comfort her. But she will feel the bond when she wakes up, and I don’t know how she will react to me, to my presence in her bed, or to our bond.
“Please don’t hate me,” I whisper, taking her hand in both of mine and raising it to my lips. “When you wake up, please hear me out. Please let me love you.”
TARYNMy wolf stirs in my mind as I shift my position, snuggling deeper into the pillows. I’m surrounded by warmth, by the scent of fresh baked snickerdoodles and a forest of pine. It wraps around me and embeds into my soul, leaving me aching for another whiff of it. I want to bathe myself in the scent, want it to follow me everywhere. It’s life, and comfort, and home.
I smile to myself and squeeze the hand holding mine, the hand spreading warm sparkles of gold through my skin, up my arm, and into my heart. It’s more intoxicating than anything I’ve felt before, more addictive than the strongest drug ever created. I want the sparkling tingles of gold to travel further, to cover my entire body and awaken my senses with its intensity, its pure pleasure, and love.
I roll onto my side and pull the hand closer to me, opening it and pressing it to my cheek, luxuriating in the tingles awakening under my skin from the touch. My wolf purrs and rolls on her back, tongue hanging out from both the pleasure of this touch and the deliciousness of the scent filling my lungs.
Mate.
The word rings through my soul and my mind, echoing over and over, bouncing off the walls of my heart, mimicking the rhythm of its beating.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
The hand I’m holding, the scent I’m smelling—they both belong to my mate.
I freeze, torn. I’ve always wanted a mate, but I have my Cookie Monster now, and we were working things out. He was going to explain, and we were going to move forward. Do I give him up? Do I leave him behind for someone I don’t know just because there is a bond tying me to him?
My lip trembles and I squeeze the hand again, burying my face into the pillow, forcing the itching in my eyes away, bracing myself for the choice I’m going to have to make. But the thumb on the hand I’m holding brushes over my knuckles, the movement familiar and soothing.
“Hey there, Cadet,” Reid whispers, his deep voice rolling through me and dripping down my spine like hot wax.
The tears of frustration and disappointment threatening to fall switch to tears of relief. He’s the one in the room. He’s the one holding my hand. Somehow, he’s my mate.
I open my eyes and find him staring back at me, water lining his bottom lid. He’s so open, so vulnerable and handsome, and looking at me with raw passion and need. I’m filled with a wild, stormy range of emotions, both mine and his—guilt, regret, confusion, excitement, hope, and love.
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?