Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“Yes, sir,” I replied, and at the same time Sebastian said, “Yes, Alpha.”
We made our way past him and through the doorway, and Reid snickered behind us.
“Suckers!” he whispered, but of course, since we’re shifters, everyone heard him.
“Reid, you can join them,” Dad ordered without missing a beat.
“Aww, come on, Alpha. I didn’t even do anything!” Reid complained.
But he scooted his chair back, anyway. He knew he’d never get out of it. My dad never let him off the hook for anything.
“It’s only seven in the morning. I’m sure by the end of the day, you’ll have caused some sort of trouble. I’m just saving precious time by disciplining you beforehand instead of waiting for it to happen.” Dad shrugged, his arms crossing over his chest as he waited for the three of us to begin our laps.
“Go on! I don’t have all fu—all day!” He stopped himself from swearing as my mom walked up behind him, coming to check what all the commotion was about.
As we took off at a steady pace, he melted in my mom’s presence, his muscular arms plucking Maddie out of our mom’s arms with ease. He snuggled her against his chest as he talked to my mother.
It surprised me that Madeleine ever learned how to walk with how much my dad carried her around everywhere.
Spoiled little pack princess,
I thought with a roll of my eyes. Dad would never punish her with twenty laps for breaking a chair.
We continued our steady pace as we ran, and I slowed myself down so Reid and Sebastian could keep up with me. My eyes scanned our surroundings, as my dad had been training me to do.
I already had exceptional senses, and they would only improve when my lycan developed in a year or so. Most shifters had their first shift at around fourteen, but since I was of alpha blood, I would shift for the first time at thirteen.
I could see Nolan working on his drills with my dad and his dad, Felix Shepard, the pack’s gamma. I could smell the border patrol members hidden among the trees and posted at various intervals along the edge of our territory. But someone was missing.
“Where’s your dad?” I asked Reid between breaths, my head turning to glance at him.
His mouth tightened into a thin line, his eyes darkening for a split second before his expression turned back to normal. Most people wouldn’t have caught the change, but I’d learned how to read him over the years, so I did.
He finally looked at me and said, “He’s still asleep.” Then he turned his face forward and sped up, ending our conversation.
I frowned to myself, but I didn’t let Reid see or push the issue with him. He didn’t like people to feel sorry for him or pity him because of what happened.
Even so, I think part of the reason he seemed to get away with his shenanigans so often was because people knew about his situation, so they overlooked his troublemaking.
His mom, Stephanie, died when we were nine, and his dad hadn’t taken it well. He had good days and bad days. The bad days outnumbered the good days most of the time.
In other packs, Brad would have been replaced as beta. But between Gamma Felix and my dad’s delta, Sullivan, the work got covered when needed, and none of them complained or said a word to Brad about it. They just took care of it. Took care of him. Because that’s what best friends did.
It bothered Reid, though, that his dad missed out on so much of his success, even though he said nothing to me about it. He was always scanning the crowd at various school events or at our football games, and there was always a glint of disappointment in his eyes. But he would just steel himself and turn his attention back to the task at hand, pretending everything was fine.
It was a warm day for November, so our twenty laps took much longer than normal. By the end of the run, it felt more like we ran the forty laps my dad threatened us with when Sebastian complained.
We sprinted the last bit to the middle of the field, where my dad, Gamma Felix, Delta Sullivan, and Nolan all waited for us. Nolan sat on the ground with a smirk, doing his cool-down stretches, since he already finished training while the three of us ran.
We all stopped in front of my dad, and my hands went to the top of my head as I took in deep lungfuls of air and focused on slowing my heart rate back down. It didn’t take too long since I was a future alpha and had lycan healing. When I could finally shift, twenty laps would be nothing for me.
My dad just looked at us with an unimpressed stare before he moved into our regular training session and dismissed Nolan for the day. Lucky bastard.
The rest of our training passed without incident, and the three of us trudged up the stairs when we finished, heading to the alpha suite to get cleaned up and have lunch.
I could tell before we even entered the suite something important was about to happen. I opened the door and walked in, and right there, on the entryway table, was a light purple envelope addressed to Wesley Stone and sent from Colorado. My heart fluttered in my chest when I saw it.
She wrote back. She actually wrote back!
I reached my hand out for it, but before I could even touch it, Reid snatched it off the table and ran towards the kitchen with it held in his hand over his head.
“Give it back!” I shouted, but he was already ripping the envelope open, not even attempting to lift the flap like a normal person.
He tore the letter out and unfolded it, moving faster than I’d ever seen him move, his eyes already skimming over the contents of Haven’s letter. Luckily, he didn’t notice the other content of the envelope that fell to the floor in his haste to get the paper out.
I darted forward and grabbed it, tucking it into the pocket of my basketball shorts before he or Sebastian could see it.
I stood there while he read, an sigh escaping my lips as I waited for him to finish the letter. I knew he wouldn’t give it back until he did.
His eyes finally met mine over the top of the paper, but instead of the teasing I expected from him, he gave me this look before handing me the paper and leaving the room. I glanced after him, a bit concerned, but I could hear the door of the guest bathroom close and the shower turn on, so I left it alone, turning my attention to the item in my pocket I saved from the floor.
It was a photo. The tiny ones from school that mothers or grandmothers usually put inside their wallets to show off to their friends, the clerk at the grocery store, or their hairdresser. I assumed the girl in the photo was Haven, since it fell out of the envelope addressed to me.
Her hair was a strawberry blonde or light red color and was a wild mess of curls and waves that fell past her shoulders and ended out of the frame of the photo. She had dark blue eyes, and although she smiled in the picture, it was a forced smile, a fake smile.
It was a smile I had seen on Reid’s face when we won a game and his dad wasn’t there. Her eyes, too, held a sadness that was much too heavy for a nine-year-old.
As soon as I saw her, I felt this instant need to always take care of her, protect her, and keep her safe. It was a peculiar feeling, one I had never felt towards anyone outside of my family before. Well, besides Reid and Nolan, but I knew they could also take care of and protect themselves.
I was barely aware of Seb telling me he was heading to take a shower. I was too engrossed in the photo. I finally tore my gaze away from Haven’s face and went to my room, my eyes not registering my surroundings as I walked through our home.
I turned the shower on in my en suite bathroom and then sat on my bed to read her letter while I waited for the water to heat 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?