Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“They’re told he’s the head of the ballet company’s marketing department,” Haven tells her.
“And is he?”
I huff out a short laugh. “He is not.”
Cassandra’s lips twitch, and she glances at me out of the corner of her eye. “What does he do then?”
“Computer programming,” I state.
“And what will the company think I am?” she asks.
“My new PA.”
She blinks at me. “PA? Your personal assistant?”
“Yes,” I say, nodding as I put the vehicle in park.
“Who decided that?” Haven asks.
I throw my arm over the back of the seat so I can look at her while I answer her question. “Wesley and me.” I wink at her, then redirect my focus to Cassandra. “And your first job as my PA is to go inside Brewed Awakenings and pick up mine and Luna Haven’s mobile orders.” I jerk my chin at the infamous local coffee shop our pack owns, and Cassandra’s head whips towards it and then back to me.
“What about my coffee?” she asks.
I shrug with as much nonchalance as I can muster. “I didn’t order you any. I don’t know what you like,” I reply, even as a tiny pang of guilt flares within me, and my wolf gives me a short growl of irritation.
I could have easily asked her before I ordered, but I didn’t because I was still too irritated by her questions about the ring and how she was right about the stupid daisies catching the light just so on top of the piano.
She meant nothing by the question. I realize that now. It was genuine curiosity. Even if she had seen something with her abilities, she wouldn’t have asked me to taunt me. That’s not who she is. She was only attempting to make conversation, to learn about me and establish a rapport since we’ll be living and working together for a while.
But the sting of Rachel’s rejection is still too fresh.
A stare down ensues between us, neither of us blinking or backing down, neither of us relenting or giving in. Haven clears her throat, but Cassandra and I still don’t break eye contact.
“I’ll go in with you,” Haven says, and I finally blink and break away from Cassandra’s stare, looking back at Haven where she’s unbuckling her seatbelt and scooting towards the door.
“It’s fine,” Cassandra says, rushing to get her seatbelt off and exit the vehicle as well. “I can get them. I need to practice my PA skills, after all.”
Her sharp words hit their mark, but she says them with that same smile she always wears, the one that makes me grind my teeth.
Somehow, that makes me feel even worse. Guiltier.
“Yes, but you’ve never been in Brewed Awakenings before. You won’t know where to go, and they won’t know to give you our drinks,” Haven replies, hopping out and standing next to Cassandra on the sidewalk.
Cassandra’s smile grows as she beams at Haven in thanks, then she spins away, her dress twirling and her hair bouncing with each step. Haven shuts her door, but I roll down the window just as quickly. “Haven!” I exclaim, and she glances at me, brow raised. “You can’t go in there with her.”
“I want to, though.”
“But if you get out of the truck and go inside, then I have to get out of the truck and go inside. I have to stay with you. That’s my job,” I remind her.
Haven stares at me, her lips curling into a smile and her blue eyes dancing with mischief. “Then I guess you’ll have to get out of the truck, Gamma.”
My jaw goes slack at her words, and she takes advantage of that, spinning and bouncing away, her tiny baby bump entering the cafe before she does. I sit in the driver’s seat, white-knuckling the steering wheel, a muscle twitching in my jaw as I try to resist the urge to follow her and keep her as safe as possible.
But it’s pointless. I’m hopeless. It’s just like Rachel said—I can’t trust anyone else to do my job for me.
“Fuck!”
I close Haven’s window, shut off the engine, and jump out of the truck, slamming my door behind me before sprinting after them and into Brewed Awakenings.
CASSANDRA
Silence is loud. Or so they say.
I always thought it was a joke.
Until right now. Until I had to sit with the king of surliness and endure endless, resounding silence as we eat dinner in separate rooms of his house. Him, in the living room on his couch while he finishes up some work on his laptop, and me, at the dining room table he claims he never uses.
Yesterday evening, after Maddie gave me a tour of the pack and introduced me to Beta Reid and Delta Sebastian, I had dinner with Alpha Wesley and Luna Haven in the house he built for her as a wedding gift. And by the time I returned to Nolan’s little white two-story farmhouse, he’d locked himself in his room for the night. So tonight is my first official night in his house with him as his unexpected roommate.
Housemate.
Whatever.
And the silence isn’t just deafening. It’s pressing. Pushing through it is like wading through knee-deep swamp water in the pouring rain while fully dressed with weights on your ankles and all your prized possessions in a small boat pulled behind you. It’s stifling, like a hot, humid summer day where the air is too heavy, and you can’t walk outside without feeling like you’ve stepped into a sauna. It reverberates through my body like the thumping of a much-too-loud subwoofer, ringing in my eardrums and pulsing through my veins.
I shudder for the umpteenth time as I turn the page in my book and sip my wine, shivering against an unbidden chill running through my body. I swear it’s caused by the unnatural silence. Even on our peaceful, isolated, magically protected island, it’s never this silent. There’s always the lull of the waves, the chirping of the birds, or the whispering of the breeze. There’s always someone humming, singing, or young acolytes giggling.
I could break the silence. I could go into the living room with him. Try to make small talk. Get to know him. But something tells me he would rebuke any gestures of kindness I make towards him. He’s perpetually grumpy. And while that may be off-putting for some, it just heightens my curiosity about him.
Why? Why is he like that? Why does he guard himself so? I want to find out, and I want to chip away at the armor and find all the ways to make him crack and show me the Nolan underneath.
“How do you like your coffee?”
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?