Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“Why’d you let this one go?” Reid called as I made my way off the porch with Nolan by my side.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my brows furrowed.
“Well, with Jane, it was ‘We didn’t click anymore.'”
“Caitlin didn’t make him laugh,” Sebastian said.
“No, that was
Katie,” Reid reminded him. “Caitlin wanted different things in life.”
“Oh, that’s right!” Sebastian laughed.
“Shannon talked too much,” Nolan added. “And Ashley didn’t talk enough.”
“And Beth was too agreeable,” Reid concluded. “So, we want to know, what was wrong with this one?”
My jaw clenched as I held in a snarl. My lycan didn’t like the teasing, but he—and I—also knew my friends weren’t wrong. With each female I’d dated, I had found some unforgivable, irreparable flaw. Something that was maybe tiny and insignificant to most but was too large a hurdle for me to overlook and move past. And Lauren was no exception.
“I didn’t worry about her safety,” I mumbled, shoving my hands in my pockets and looking at the ground as we walked.
Sebastian snorted.
“What?” I asked him with a glare.
“Nothing,” he said after a sharp look from Reid.
“Well, it’s true,” I continued. “I didn’t even realize we hadn’t talked in two days. I should have been worried or at least realized we hadn’t spoken, but…”
I trailed off at another snicker from Sebastian and shot him another glare. “What?!” I gritted out.
“Nothing!” he said again, lifting his hands in the air.
I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just gave me a cheeky grin, then said, “Look, Reid! Sprinkles!”
I stopped in my tracks as the two of them took off towards the cookie table at Maya’s party, and Nolan stood next to me, watching them and the rest of the party.
“Will you three ever like a girl I date?” I muttered, not expecting an actual answer.
“If she’s our luna, I’m sure we’ll love her,” Nolan murmured, crossing his arms.
“You mean if she’s my Goddess-given mate?”
Nolan blew out a breath and ran his hand over his buzzed hair.
“I mean… maybe?” He glanced at me. “Look, Wes. Chosen or fated, it won’t work if you keep holding these females you date up to some impossible, imaginary standard. You can’t hold someone at arm’s length and expect them to become someone important to you and, by extension, us. If you don’t connect with her, then we won’t connect with her.”
I mulled his words over in my mind while he walked to the table with the other two idiots and grabbed a cookie.
He was right. For the third time that night, he was right. Shit, I hated that. I hated when Nolan pulled his “I’m one year older and therefore more experienced and wiser” crap. And I hated even more that ninety-nine percent of the time, he actually had a point.
I kicked at a small dirt clod and then walked to join them, hoping maybe a chocolate chip cookie would ease my agitation.
My lycan pranced around in my mind as I moved towards the table, more excited about baked goods than I’d ever seen him about anything.
I reached for a cookie, but as was my luck, my little brother decided he had an urgent need for my attention and yanked me away from the table and towards the docks.
“Wes. I think you need to pinch me. Or get me a breathalyzer. Or, honestly, maybe both, because I swear to the fucking Goddess I just saw someone I most definitely should not be seeing on our pack lands.”
“Oh, fuck me, is it Katie?” I asked, looking around behind us at the party. I didn’t want her to see me.
“No, no, not her,” he said, shaking his head. “But you wouldn’t believe me if I told you who, so I’m just going to…”
His voice faded as I kept moving forward, my eyes locked on the woman in front of me. Even from the back, there was almost no doubt in my mind who it was standing at the edge of our lake.
I wasn’t sure how she was there, or why she was there. All I cared about was confirming what I already knew to be true. What my lycan was telling me was true.
That red hair. Those long, graceful limbs and that pale skin. It had to be her. There was no way it could be anyone else.
The pebbles under my feet rattled, so I cleared my throat to alert her to my presence, hoping I wouldn’t scare her too much.
She made a sharp turn, and her deep blue eyes looked into mine. Time stopped as we took each other in, her eyes traveling over all of me and mine stuck on her face.
That face. I would know that face anywhere. I had a tiny, wrinkled, faded 2×3 inch photograph of the nine-year-old version of that face that I kept along with every letter she’d ever written to me. It was a face I thought I would never get to see again.
She shook her head like she was trying to shake off the remnants of a dream, and my eyes widened just as hers did when we locked gazes again, and almost all of my doubts washed away.
But I still had to know for sure. Still needed to confirm it out loud, so I whispered with a shaky voice, “Haven?”
WESLEY
“Haven?”
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?