Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
I took a small, hesitant step towards her. I wanted to touch her, to put my hands on her and check if she was real. But I stopped in my tracks when she crossed her arms and tugged her leather jacket tighter around her body. As if it was a shield.
Why would she react like that? Like she needed to protect herself. How could she think I would hurt her? Had someone else hurt her? My lycan did not like that idea.
I pushed those thoughts away as she shook her head again, her loose curls swaying with the motion. Her face scrunched up in confusion, and she looked up at me.
“I’m sorry, I-this is—“”It’s me. Wesley,” I said, taking another small step forward. “We used to—“”Yeah. No. I mean-I know who you are, I just-how?” she stammered. “How is this possible? How are you here?” she asked, gesturing with one hand.
“I could ask you the same question,” I replied with a laugh.
She tilted her head to the side, and the movement was so wolflike I had to stop and inhale to double-check her scent. Human. Definitely a human scent, with notes of jasmine and something… something fruity…
“I’m here with my roommate,” she said, and I opened my eyes. I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them.
“Your roommate?” I repeated.
“Um, yeah,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “It’s her birthday.”
A lightbulb went off in my mind. I had forgotten Maya had asked permission for her human roommate to come onto the grounds for her party today. Hell, I had forgotten she was living off packlands until I saw that request come across my desk.
“Oh, shit, you’re Maya’s roommate?!” I exclaimed.
“How do you know Maya?” Haven asked.
I just gave her an incredulous laugh. She had to be joking. After all, she was in my hometown. She had to remember this was where I lived. She’d written the address down so many times that year when we wrote to each other.
“This is Crescent Lake,” I stated.
She gaped at me and then looked around at everything—the houses, the trees, the mountains, and then finally, the lake.
“Oh my gosh,” she breathed. “I didn’t even realize. I—“”You didn’t know?” I chuckled, using her slight distraction to step closer to her.
“No. I didn’t ever ask Maya the name of her hometown,” she admitted, blushing.
“Or check a map?” I teased, crossing my arms over my chest.
It didn’t escape my notice that her eyes flickered over to my arms, where my biceps bulged against the tight hem of my short sleeves. I held in my chuckle and my smirk, and held back my lycan, who was paying very close attention to her every move and every expression.
She rolled her eyes at my teasing. “I haven’t had a chance to do much exploring or anything. I just moved here a few months ago when I was offered a position in this new—“”Ballet company,” I said in unison with her, remembering that last piece of information about Maya—that she made costumes for the new ballet company in the city down the mountain.
“Yeah,” she breathed, blinking at me and swallowing. “You remembered?” she whispered.
“Of course I remembered,” I murmured, my arms dropping from my chest.
I lifted my hand up to touch her face, but then thought better of it and ran it through my hair.
“I still can’t believe this is real,” she said with a soft laugh, shaking her head again, her hair falling out from where she’d tucked it back. “I mean, of all the places for me to end up, of all the ballet companies in the entire world for me to choose from, what are the odds that the one I get a job with is less than an hour from where you live?”
“What are the odds, indeed?” I mused, my eyes lingering on her face as I tried to decipher the look she gave me. “Listen, I—“”Wesley! You are wasting precious, prime moonlight time!” Reid called out, his footsteps moving closer to us. “Sorry, lovely lady,” he said with a quick look at Haven. “I need to steal this beast of a man away to…”
He did a double take as his words trailed off, then he pointed at her. “OH MY FUCKING GODDESS, IT’S YOU!” he shouted.
Haven just stared at him, her face blank. I cringed and tried to mindlink Reid to shut the fuck up, but he was too oblivious.
“IT’S YOU! YOU’RE REALLY HERE! HERE, IN CRESCENT—“Sebastian cut Reid’s words off by smacking his hand over his mouth, pulling him away as he mouthed “Sorry!” to Haven and me. They both moved over to where Nolan stood, and as he uncovered Reid’s mouth, we heard him say, “Nolan! Did you see who’s here?!”
Nolan nodded and smiled awkwardly, lifting his hand to wave at Haven.
“Did he just say goddess?” Haven asked.
Of course. Of course, that’s what she noticed.
“Just ignore Reid. He’s wild. I think he had too many cookies,” I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder at the party. “I always tell him to limit the desserts, but he never listens. I blame the sprinkles, to be honest. The cookies are bad enough, but when you add the sprinkles, that’s just way too much sugar for him.”
Oh, my goddess, I was rambling to her. Again. Only, instead of rambling in a letter on a piece of paper, I was doing it out loud in front of her. She continued staring at me, and I tried to smile, even though I was dying of embarrassment on the inside.
I wasn’t that guy. I wasn’t the awkward rambling fumbling around girls guy. I was the confident, easy-going, smooth guy. For fuck’s sake, I was an alpha. Why did I turn into a blundering dumbass in front of her? Her, of all people.
“Anyway,” I said, giving a small laugh, trying to push through the hopefully not-that-awkward moment.
Her lips twitched with a slight laugh, and I breathed an inner sigh of relief. Laughter was at least better than her judging me in silence. I glanced behind me towards my friends and sent them all a mindlink.
“You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up in a bit.”
“Take your time, Wes,
” Sebastian replied, laughing.
“Seriously, I won’t be long,”
I told him.
He just shook his head and ushered the other two away towards the forest.
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?