Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
My eyes widen, and I mentally smack myself. Her ring size. I don’t know what it is.
“Five and a half,” Harrison says, and I quirk a brow at him. “Her mom messaged me the size after you spoke with her last night,” he says with a shrug and a wink.
I sigh, and the tension in my body eases. “Thank the Goddess.”
“I can resize the ring today—push some non-urgent projects down on my list—but it will take some time. Are you able to stick around?” Suzanne asks as she cleans up the ring I didn’t choose.
“How long?”
“A couple hours. Maybe less.”
I grit my teeth and clench my fists, but I nod. I hate to leave Cassandra alone for too long, but I need the ring resized so I can bring it home with me to have it before the ball this weekend. Since I won’t be able to get away again, it has to be now.
“We can wait.”
When Suzanne finally finishes resizing the ring and Harrison and I head back to the pack, the sun is already descending towards the west. My knee bounces in the car the entire drive as I stare out the window, and my wolf paces in my mind, whining and antsy. This all took way longer than I anticipated, and all I can do is hope my Daisy understands and forgives me.
Harrison drops me off at my house, and I rush inside and upstairs to hide the ring until this weekend, my steps slowing when I reach the bedroom. I stare down at the small box in my hand and perch on the edge of the bed, facing the window, my thoughts racing again.
Should I wait? Should I spend the next few days stressing and tense and trying to hide my nerves from Cassandra? Or should I ask her now? I want to make it special—romantic—but maybe I can do that without waiting for the ball.
The ball, where she might meet her true mate, leaving me all alone.
Again.
But if I ask her now, I can mark her before the weekend. I can make her mine and—
The creak of the pesky loose floorboard on the landing jolts me back to reality, and I jump off the bed, staring at where Cassandra stands in the doorway. “Cassandra! I—“
“Save your breath, Nolan,” she says, her fists clenched and ice in her voice. “I thought we had something special together. Something real. Turns out you were just pretending. I should have realized sooner you were using me as a Band-Aid.”
NOLAN
Cassandra spins to leave,
her words flying across the room like sharpened, poisoned darts, hitting their mark with precise accuracy. My heart. I rush forward, my hand encircling her wrist and tugging her back into the room, spinning her to face me with her body pressed to mine.
She glares up at me, fury flaring to life in her green eyes, setting the gold aflame. Tears rim her lids, and I growl, angry with myself for being the reason behind the pain overflowing from within her. The sound reverberates in my chest and around the room, and she flinches, but I keep her close, holding her gaze with steadfast sincerity. “You’re not a Band-Aid, Cassandra. You are my sun.”
She falters for the briefest moment, then gathers herself, doubling down on her anger. “You claim I’m your sun, yet you’re in here staring at the ring you bought for your ex-girlfriend after you ran off this afternoon because someone told you she found her second chance mate. Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
She fights against my hold, but I wrap my arm around her waist, keeping her in place as my fist tightens around the ring box in my hand.
The one she assumes is the ring I bought for Rachel.
I kick myself for the terrible timing of Harrison’s mindlink. I didn’t realize or think about how she might interpret my sudden departure after speaking with Rachel’s parents.
I can’t blame her for her misinterpretation. She has no context for what she walked in on or for what happened today. She’s assuming the worst of me, and why shouldn’t she? I’ve given her no obvious reason to trust me. I’ve been too wrapped up in my head with my fears of rejection and my self-doubt to open myself up to her fully, and in doing so, I fed into her own fears of rejection.
But no more. It ends now. Tonight.
“I don’t care about Rachel finding her mate,” I say, my fingers splaying across the small of her back.
“You ran off, and you were tense and pissed.”
“I was tense and worried,” I correct her. “Harrison mindlinked me, and I had to go speak with him. Rachel and her second chance mate had nothing to do with my reaction. I promise. That was the furthest thing from my mind.”
It’s the complete truth. I’m happy for Rachel, and it doesn’t bother me that she found her mate. She deserves happiness.
But as soon as Harrison mindlinked me, all thoughts of Rachel disappeared, and the only thing that mattered was picking out the ring for Cassandra.
“Then why were you gone for so long, and why were you staring at her ring just now?” she insists, pushing against me with her palms on my chest, trying to put distance between us even though my hold on her is relentless.
“This ring?” I lift the box between us, and she frowns at it. I shake my head, and she frowns more. “It’s not the ring I bought for Rachel. I threw that ring in the dump weeks ago. The day after you arrived, actually. This…” I swallow and draw her in closer to my chest with my arm around her waist, snaking my hand to her hip. “This is the ring I bought for you.”
It takes a moment for my words to register in her brain. But when they do, her body relaxes, and her fighting and fidgeting stop.
Her eyes lift to mine, wide and innocent, and when she speaks, her voice is low and trembling. “For me?” I nod and pop the box open with my thumb, drawing her focus to it. She gasps, and the pain recedes from her eyes. The tears of frustration, bitterness, and sorrow morph into tears of astonishment and wonder. “It’s a daisy,” she whispers, tracing the petals crafted from diamonds. “When did you get this?” she asks, meeting my eyes again.
“Today. It’s why I left and why I was gone for so long. Harrison took me into town to pick it out. I couldn’t tell you because—“
“You wanted it to be a surprise,” she says, finishing my sentence for me.
My hand rubs her back, up and down her spine, now that I know she won’t bolt. But my tight hold on her remains. I can’t let her go. Not now.
“None of that excuses me leaving you alone for so long. I fucked up and I’m sorry.” She takes the box into her hands, examining the ring further, and I tuck her hair behind her ear. “I had this whole plan. I was going to ask you to be my chosen mate at the ball. But when I got home, I started thinking—overthinking, actually—and then you showed up and now…”
“I ruined everything?” she says, her eyes flicking up to mine, a sheepish blush creeping across her cheeks.
I shake my head and cup the back of her neck, my thumb stroking her jaw. “No, Daisy. You’ve ruined nothing.”
She straightens herself to her full height, confidence returning to her aura and certainty blazing in her eyes. “Then ask me.”
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?