Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“That’s fantastic!” Tiffany exclaimed. “Is that why you both insisted Jude and I needed to come with you next weekend to the ballet?” Shirley chuckled and nodded. “It all makes so much more sense now!” Tiffany laughed.
“Of course, we’ll take those tickets, Haven!” Jack declared. “We have some for next week, too, but no reason we can’t see it twice!”
“I agree. I’m seeing it every night,” Wesley said.
I pursed my lips together and just gave him a look. “Seriously? Every night?” He nodded. “Why?”
He shrugged, “Why not?”
“You don’t have to do that,” I told him, shaking my head.
“I want to,” he replied, his voice quiet.
His gaze softened as we stared at each other, and another layer of that thick wall protecting my heart fell away.
HAVEN
We ended up staying at Jack and Shirley’s for dinner, and by the time we made it back to my apartment, it was late evening.
“Did Shirley tell you what was in this box?” Wesley asked as he shut the apartment door with his foot.
“She said it was some stuff from my old room,” I said. “They kept it all just in case.”
“Did you want to look at it now?”
“In a minute? I was going to change first,” I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder at my bedroom.
“Don’t change too much.” He winked. “I like you the way you are.” I scrunched my nose up at him and narrowed my eyes. “You’re right, that was super cheesy,” he admitted.
I laughed and shook my head. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where do you want this?” Wesley called after me as I closed the bedroom door.
“On the coffee table!” I replied.
I quickly changed out of my dance clothes into leggings and my old, too-big Salt Lake City Ballet sweatshirt. I grabbed a pair of fuzzy socks, then paused, remembering how Maya always complained about my ballerina feet.
So, instead of just throwing the socks on, I ducked into my bathroom and washed my feet. Then I brushed my teeth too. Just in case.
When I came back out into the living room, Wesley was waiting for me on the plush gray couch, his arm slung over the back and one leg crossed over the other.
I walked around him to the other end of the couch. But before my body could sink into the cushions, his arm grabbed me and pulled me to his side.
“Maya—“”Isn’t here,” he murmured, his hand resting on the smallest part of my waist.
I looked up at him. “How do you know?”
“She messaged me when you were changing at the theater, asking if you were with me because you hadn’t come back. Then she told me she was going home to her dad’s for dinner.”
I swallowed and nodded, then turned to the small box in front of us. I saw Wes pout out of the corner of my eye, but he let go of me so I could scoot forward and look inside.
The first thing I pulled out had been stored in thick bubble wrap. I held in a gasp as I unwrapped it, revealing the small white and gold music box Wes had gotten me for Christmas almost twelve years ago.
He sat up straighter as I opened it, but his face held disappointment when he realized it was empty.
“What was in it?” he asked.
“Nothing. It was always empty,” I said. “I never had any jewelry special enough to put in it.”
He nodded, then took it from my hands, turning it so he could wind up the music. As he set it down on the coffee table, the sound of “The Waltz of the Flowers” filled the room, and I looked in the box on the table again.
“Oh, my god!” I squealed, lifting out the glittery purple folder sitting on top.
I ignored everything else in the box. Nothing was as important as that folder. That folder held every letter Wesley had ever sent me in chronological order on one side and all the envelopes on the other.
“Look!” I exclaimed, angling my body to show it to him.
“It matches the glitter from your costume you got all over me,” he teased, gesturing at his black shirt as he leaned back into the cushions.
“I said I was sorry!” I laughed, scooting back to be against the couch and his side. “Plus, you were the one who hugged me first!” I reminded him.
He shrugged. “True, and I don’t regret it.”
“It’s your letters,” I told him, opening it up and pulling them all out. “See?”
Our eyes met over the top of the papers, and for a moment, I was nine years old again, waiting at the window, watching for the mail to be delivered, or coming home and running down to the mailbox to yank it open and see if he’d replied to me yet. For a brief second, I was that little girl, sitting in her private bedroom, scratching out a quick P.S. in the middle of the night because I’d remembered something urgent I needed to tell him that couldn’t wait until morning.
I looked back to the papers and settled closer against him, nestling into his warmth and his strength. His arm came back around my waist, holding me securely, and my head leaned on his chest as I read the first one out loud, with my music box playing in the background like a soundtrack to a movie.
“‘Dear pen pal,
Hello.
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?