Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
Cassandra freezes beside me, her green eyes widening and her hand tightening around the skirt of her floral dress gripped in her fist, and a warning growl slips out of my mouth. But it’s covered by Wesley’s voice, thank the Goddess.
“Cassandra is a visiting emissary from the island of the oracles,” he says. “She is a guest in my pack and will be treated with the same respect given to any ranked member.”
The effect on Prescott is immediate. He regards Cassandra acutely, his eyes lingering on her much too long for my wolf’s liking before he says, “I didn’t realize we had such an esteemed guest among us.”
He descends the few stairs to where Cassandra and I stand. He takes her hand in his, lifting it to his mouth to kiss, and it’s all I can do to keep from pouncing on him and ripping his arm out of its socket as his lips brush her skin, holding eye contact with her the entire time as he does. But Wesley’s hand grabs my shoulder and squeezes—hard—keeping me in place.
Cassandra gives him a halfhearted smile, and Prescott drops her hand, turning to head up the stairs without another glance back at her. She breathes a relieved sigh, and I do as well as she steps closer to me and lets me wrap my arm around her waist for a brief hug, a quick moment of connection to reassure myself and my wolf and calm the growing irritation inside me. My throat bobs as I swallow it all back, pushing it down and ignoring it, using the contact with her to anchor me. She’s soft and delicate in my arm, with a gentle strength hiding beneath her unassuming, cheerful exterior.
She stands on her tiptoes, reaching up to whisper in my ear. “Don’t worry. It’s still yours.” Then she pulls away, turns, and heads up the stairs like she didn’t instantly harden my dick with three simple words.
She smiles at me over her shoulder and winks, her skirt returning to her hand, the skin exposed by the open back of her dress peeking through the strands of her thick, bouncy, golden brown hair as she faces front again and finishes climbing the stairs to the second floor.
Goddess, this female. I chuckle to myself and shake my head, eyes flicking to my suit-covered forearm, where her name is written on me in permanent marker. Counting to ten, I try to think of anything other than Cassandra’s pretty pink lips. I try to imagine something besides her naked body spread out on my bed as I wrote my name on her upper thigh.
Try, and fail.
I mount the last few stairs slower than I normally would, letting the problem in my pants calm down. Later. I will have her later. Now is not the time to give in to the possessive urges she awakens in me. Not when we have other alphas waiting for us, and we have an event to help plan.
But when we get home? When we get home, I will lay claim to her body once more.
My scent on her fades far too quickly for my liking, and I couldn’t insist she wear one of my T-shirts to this meeting. For now, I will have to settle for the brief, subtle moments of connection and the knowledge that my name remains on her thigh, just like her name remains on my arm.
Haven and Cassandra both wait for me on the landing while Prescott and Wesley make small talk as they meander towards the room where we’re meeting with the other alphas. Wesley is tense and clearly not thrilled with talking to Prescott by himself. But he does what is needed to keep up appearances and maintain a modicum of camaraderie and to save the rest of us from having to put up with Prescott’s snobbery.
“What’s an omega?” Haven asks when I reach them.
Cassandra and I exchange a glance, and my lip curls, another growl threatening to escape me. “It’s a term for a wolf who isn’t of any rank,” I explain. “It’s outdated, and most packs don’t use it anymore, but there are a few who still do.” I flick my eyes towards Prescott.
Haven grimaces, and Cassandra links her arm with Haven’s, leaning close to her so they won’t risk being overheard. “Some elitist alphas began using it as a derogatory term, meant to make any wolf who wasn’t of rank or wasn’t a warrior feel inferior. As you can imagine, it quickly morphed from a generic term for the rest of the pack to an insult.”
“But without the pack, there is no alpha,” Haven says, shaking her head. “That way of thinking isn’t becoming of a leader.” She glares at the back of Prescott’s head as he opens the door to the meeting room. “Although…”
She trails off, and I bite the inside of my cheek to stop my laughter, covering my mouth with my fist to cough. Cassandra’s eyes sparkle as she catches my eye, while Haven slips her arm from the loop of Cassandra’s, taking Wesley’s hand instead. Prescott enters the room after Wesley and Haven, letting go of the door, forcing me to grab it before it shuts Cassandra and me out. My nostrils flare, but I rein in my frustrated growl, holding the door open for Cassandra. My hand moves to the small of her back as she passes by me, and I follow her inside, my thumb sneaking up to touch the exposed skin there.
The contact is minuscule, but it’s better than nothing. It’s enough to keep me going through this meeting.
Two of the four alpha and luna couples from the other packs hosting this mating ball sit around the table, with four chairs left empty: one at the head of the table, two to the left of it, and one at the far end. Prescott heads straight for the chair at the head of the table, sitting in it without waiting for Haven and Wes. “Let’s get started,” he says.
But Wesley scans the room, taking stock of who is here and who isn’t, a frown forming. “Shouldn’t we wait for Alpha Benjamin?” he asks, glancing at Cassandra and me.
“He’s late.” Prescott shrugs and checks his fingernails. “I scheduled our meeting to start at—“
Wesley glares at him. “It is two minutes after the time we agreed to meet. We can wait a few more minutes, at the very least.”
Prescott taps the table with two of his fingers, but Wesley doesn’t wait for his agreement or his permission. He instead directs his attention to the others in the room, a genuine smile on his face as he and Haven greet them and chat with them.
“Cassandra.” Haven beckons her over with a gentle wave of her hand. “Come and meet—“
“Ah, yes.” Prescott jumps from his seat and glides through the room towards Cassandra. “Let me introduce you to the others.” He offers her his elbow, but she ignores it, walking around him and over to the first couple who rise to greet her. “This is the esteemed Alpha Thornton and Luna Jillian Maxfield of Northern Mountains.” Prescott claps the alpha on the shoulder as Cassandra shakes his hand. “They lead the largest and oldest pack here in California.”
“Cassandra Stavros,” she says, introducing herself. “I’m visiting from the island of the oracles in Greece.”
“Are you Agatha’s daughter?”
Cassandra peers around the Maxfields to look across the table at Alpha Edward and Luna Hannah Walden, regent leaders of Silver Ridge. “I am,” she says, her words slow and precise. “You know my mother?”
“Not well, no. I’ve met her only once. I do know your father, though.” Cassandra blinks at him as she takes in a deep, intentional breath through her nose. “It was a shock for all the European packs when Alpha Joseph’s mate turned out to be an oracle, and even more of a shock when he stepped down and handed his title over to his younger brother.”
“He had to so he could be with my mother.”
“Oh, of course!” Alpha Edward says. “As it should be. It was just unexpected for an alpha to be fated to an oracle. That’s all.”
“Fate works in unexpected, unexplainable ways sometimes.” Cassandra swallows, then smiles, her eyes distant and wistful, pinching the tip of her finger between the fingers of her opposite hand. “He loves my mother and me very much.”
Her eyes glisten, and her lower lip trembles, but she pulls it into her mouth to hide it, glancing at me. My wolf urges me to move to her side, to take her hand in mine and wrap my arm around her, but the room is too crowded with the bodies and the furniture, and there are two alphas and a luna blocking my path to her.
And I can’t mindlink her to check in with her, since she’s not a member of our pack. My hands curl into loose fists, and I hold back the growl of frustration growing in my chest and instead show her with my eyes that I wish I could be right next to her, soothing her like she soothed me in the lobby.
“Yes, that is clear to anyone,” Luna Hannah says with a chuckle. “The way he looked at both of you when we visited…
Well, you were just a baby at the time, but I recognize your eyes. They’re the same as your mother’s.”
Cassandra smiles again and ducks her head, tucking her hair behind her ear. “If you’re from the European pack region, then how did you end up here in California?” she asks.
“They’ve graciously stepped in to run Silver Ridge until Savannah is old enough to take her place as alpha,” Haven says.
“Savvy isn’t Reid’s. Biologically,” Wesley clarifies, winking at Cassandra whose brow furrows at Haven’s remark. “Taryn was already pregnant with her when they met, but Reid still claims her as his daughter.”
“Delightful little thing,” Alpha Edward chuckles fondly. “The last time Taryn and Reid brought her to visit the pack, she—“
But we don’t get to hear what hilariously adorable thing Savvy did during her last visit to Silver Ridge because four phones ping with an incoming text, and all four alphas grab their phones to read the message. Wesley frowns, glancing at Cassandra and then me. “Alpha Benjamin isn’t able to make it. Something came up.”
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?