Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
I tense and nod. “That’s what happened with Kimberly.”
Memories of the first and only other mating ball we attended flicker to life in my mind, threatening to send me spiraling and drowning in a whirlpool of despair and anxiety. But the thought of my mate, the one I chose for myself, the one making her way to me at any moment—my Cassandra—squashes it all. The sparkling rays of her sunshine reach the deepest, darkest recesses of my soul and brighten them. Her smiles, her piano laugh, her sweet floral scent—it’s all a balm.
My heart clenches, and I gaze over my shoulder and up the stairs, hoping to see her gliding towards me. My arms long to hold her and my wolf whines when we don’t see her yet.
“Selene must know that. Maybe she took that into consideration and didn’t give you a second chance mate, knowing you’d always be questioning it,” Wesley says.
I whip my head towards him, a brow arched. “You mean how she took into consideration what was best for Haven when she abandoned her at a fire station as an infant? Or when she wanted to ‘gift’ her with immortality, forcing her to stay young forever as she watched all of us die and leave her alone again?”
We stand in silence. His chest heaves, his hands clenching into fists in his pockets.
“Sorry,” I say, lifting a hand in apology. “I didn’t say that to upset you. And I know she listened to Haven when she told her she didn’t want that gift. But for everything she’s done right, there seems to be more that she’s gotten wrong. I mean, why even tie me to Kimberly in the first place?”
Wesley shrugs. “You’d have to ask Selene that.”
I bark out a harsh laugh and shake my head. “No, thank you. I have no desire to speak to her.”
He laughs, too, opening his mouth to say something, but his eyes lock on something behind me. Something that renders him speechless.
I spin to find Haven walking down the stairs, dressed in a blush pink dress with a sparkling bodice and a chiffon skirt that curves over her baby bump and floats around her, the fabric fluttering and swirling with her every step. Her wild red curls are swept off to one side, the scars on her neck from the attack on her twenty-first birthday on full display. She exudes regality and confidence, with her chin held high and her eyes locked on Wesley. She’s the picture of a perfect luna—tender yet strong, self-assured, and beautifully brave.
Wesley steps around me, removing his hands from his pockets and lending one to her as she descends the last few steps. She smiles at him and shuts her eyes as he leans in to kiss her cheek before looping her arm through his.
“Luna,” I say, greeting her with a nod as they pass me.
“She’ll be down soon,” is all she says in response before Wesley leads her towards the ballroom.
My pacing begins again. Back and forth in front of the carpeted staircase. I rub my jaw, clenching it even as I massage it to relieve the tension. Panic rises once more, closing in on me from all sides, like a pack of hunters circling their prey. My vision narrows, the blood rushing from my head, and it takes every last bit of strength within me to stay upright, to not bolt for the hills.
Or the elevator.
But before I can do either, the back of my neck prickles with awareness, and the fresh scent of daisies mixed with something lighter and sweeter floats towards me from the stairs. I turn, and there she is, gliding towards me, one delicate hand sliding down the banister as she descends, her eyes glued to me.
My mouth goes dry and my lips part, my eyes widening and my heart skipping a beat as I drink her in from her head to her toes, my breath catching in my throat.
Her all black gown hugs her body, fitted all the way to her knees before the skirt flares out and trails behind her. The velvet bodice’s low neckline curves across the swell of her breasts and then dips down in a thin V all the way to her navel. Velvet floral appliques cover the full-length, sheer black sleeves and the top sheer layer of the skirt. The underskirt of the dress is nude, giving the illusion that she’s naked beneath the skirt of the dress, making me imagine that what I’m seeing is not fabric, but the skin of her gorgeous, endless legs that have teased me since that first morning in my kitchen, when she wore those short shorts I loved and yet hated.
Her green eyes twinkle as I devour her with my gaze, a coy smile on her plump lips. They’re painted with red lipstick that’s a perfect match to the red carpet under her feet.
I remember to breathe and race up the stairs to her, trapping her against the railing and leaning forward, caging her in with my hands on either side of her body. She tilts her head up, that sassy smile still on her lips, and the waves of her low, center-parted ponytail fall from her shoulder, tumbling and swaying side to side until they come to a stop. The sleek hairstyle highlights her gorgeous cheekbones, her elegant nose, and her full lips, and I can’t keep my eyes off her.
She’s captivating. She’s ensnared me, body and soul. She’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on.
And she’s all mine.
“I don’t know what I want more,” I say, lowering my lips to her ear, my hand wrapping around her waist and gliding over the velvet of her dress. My palm presses into her lower back, and she arches, baring her long neck to me and bracing herself with her hands on the banister behind her. “I can’t decide if I want to show you off to everyone so they can all see how lucky I am to have you as a mate, or if I want to smuggle you back upstairs to our room, remove this dress from your body, and take you to bed.”
“You could do both?” she suggests, blinking up at me through her long lashes. “Make a quick appearance to show me off, and then sneak away to show me how much you love me?”
I step closer to her, guiding her hips to feel the desire rising between my legs. “The second option is more appealing.”
My hands roam her velvet-covered torso, caressing the subtle curves the bodice of her dress highlights—around her lower back, up her sides, ghosting over the curve of her breasts, across the low neckline, and then down the cut to her navel. A mix of a groan and a growl leaves me, and I grab her hips and tug her tight against my body.
“I don’t know if I can handle other males seeing you in this dress, Cassandra,” I say, resting my forehead against hers.
Her lips twitch, and her arms drape around my neck, her fingertips teasing my skin. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
I growl again and dive for her mouth, kissing her hard. A fierce kiss, a claiming kiss on the public centerpiece of Prescott’s pretentious lobby. She arches up into me, giving in to the demands of my lips, hands cupping my neck and bringing me closer still. I taste every inch of her mouth, wrapping myself around her as our lips twist together.
“Do you have your ring on?” I ask when we pull away from each other, both of our chests heaving as we catch our breath.
She nods, her hands sliding from my neck to my shoulders and down my chest, adjusting the collar of my black shirt. “I do.”
I sigh as her fingers trail across the skin exposed by the buttons I left undone. “That will have to do. But I’m not letting you out of my sight tonight.”
She smooths my lapels with a knowing smile, like she expected me to say that. I caress up and down her sides again, taking the time to feel where her waist curves in and her breasts and hips flare out before she spins away from me, showcasing the back of her dress to me.
It’s totally sheer, all the way to the top of her ass. Extending from the base of her neck and down her spine are countless buttons, the last one ending between her cheeks. And the fitted top half of her skirt wraps around her butt, drawing focus to it from the way the fabric stretches with each step she takes and from the buttons nestled between her ass cheeks.
My wolf snarls in my mind, and I almost roar, possessiveness and protectiveness overtaking me as I rush down the stairs and encircle her waist with my arm, my fingers splaying over her abdomen and my face burying into her neck.
“Scratch that,” I say, my voice raspy, low, and strained, my muscles tensing as I keep her tight against me. “I’m not letting you out of my arms tonight.”
She responds by reaching her arm backwards and stroking my cheek. We stand like that, at the foot of the stairs, me holding her and her holding me, my face in her unmarked neck, until Wes mindlinks us.
“They’re letting our pack in now.”
I sigh and pull away from her, but I keep my arm around her waist and my hand on her hip as we stroll to the ballroom entrance, where the Crescent Lake members wait. They’ve assigned each pack a separate entrance into the event space, as well as their own time of admittance, in order to space out arrivals and avoid a massive collision of feral, unmated wolves racing towards their mate all at once. Every wolf in attendance who is searching for their mate also took a scent blocker before arriving. They are given the antidote right before entering the ballroom, so no claiming happens before the event starts.
Eager anticipation swirls around our waiting pack members. It builds and builds, passing from one wolf to the next as they whisper in excitement to each other or give smiles of encouragement to their friends waiting with them.
Bile rises in my throat, and I freeze as Cassandra and I reach the edge of our gathered attendees. My grip on her tightens and my vision tunnels again. I hear nothing and see only the door looming in front of us, vast, ominous, and gaping as I walk towards it on autopilot. My wolf shrinks back into the recesses of my mind as the cloying anxiety returns tenfold, wrapping itself around my ankles and weighing me down, drowning 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?