Don’t hate me :hides:
WESLEY POV“Rogues?” I asked, blinking. “We haven’t had issues with rogues in years. Haven’t even had any sightings of them in this area.”“Did they attack?” Reid asked, his body tense and his arms crossed.Dad grabbed his tablet and pulled up the map of our lands. “No, they crossed onto our territory here,” he said, pointing out a spot at the southern edge of the map.I breathed out a sigh of relief that they were in the opposite direction from the route Haven would have taken to head back to the city. “They walked along the border for less than half a mile and then they left the territory.”“Where are they now?” Sebastian asked, looking at the map over my shoulder.“Less than a mile from our border,” Dad said.“What are they doing?” I asked.“Nothing,” he said with a shrug. “They’re just camped out. I’m not sure if they’re scoping out the area, waiting to attack, or maybe just passing through? The scouts I sent out only got close enough to check their location, but I told them not to
Hey everyone! In my very tired and Monday uncaffeinated state this morning, I accidentally titled the chapter as 43 instead of 42. But the content IS the content of Chapter 42, just with the wrong title! I will title tomorrow’s chapter “the real chapter 43” to avoid confusion. Sorry about that! I will also fix it on my end but it can take a day or two for that to go into effect! I hope everyone is having a great Monday! You don’t have to read the rest of this there just has to be one hundred words in order for me to publish the chapter ok bye!Love,Allie
HAVEN POV Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. “Hello, you have reached Wesley Stone. I am currently unavailable—” I hung up before the mailbox greeting could finish. I didn’t need to hear it. I’d heard it at least one hundred times since Sunday. “Happy fucking birthday to me,” I muttered, tossing the phone on my bed and plopping down on my back. It had been five days since I’d seen Wesley. Five days since I’d spoken to him. Five days since he’d held me in his arms. I’d taken my time, thinking through every emotion and thought and concern I had about what Wesley had revealed to me after our unbelievable night together. The initial shock, the initial bombshell of him being a werewolf — a Lycan — wore off quickly. The fear of seeing that enormous, monstrous thing in place of my Wesley dissipated faster than I’d have thought possible. And left in its place was anger. Anger and irritation that he’d lied to me. That they had all lied to me. But mostly, I directed my anger at him. I could u
WESLEY POV I was wrong. I was so, so wrong. Never in my life had I been so wrong about something. I thought for sure we would wrap everything up and wash our hands of this whole situation with Amber Forest by Sunday. But Sunday came and went. And then Monday. And then Haven’s birthday. And then Wednesday. Almost a week. Almost a whole fucking week had gone by, and we were no closer to having all the evidence we needed than we had been before I pretended to agree to this stupid union. Tim was drawing it out, demanding proof of our sincerity, asking us for things he had no right to ask of us before he’d give us the access we needed. But we had to play along, had to agree and keep up our facade. And that’s how I ended up agreeing to a small, private mating ceremony with Nicole that was scheduled for late Friday evening. I wouldn’t actually go through with it, of course, but it was the only way he would give us the account information for the merger. And despite that, what he gave us
WESLEY POV “What the hell is taking her so long? Where the hell is she?” Alpha Pierce growled as he paced back and forth in the conference room, his hair disheveled from running his hands through it over and over. I stood off to the side, leaning against the wall with my arms and legs crossed, my gray suit jacket thrown over one of the few chairs in the room. My mom and Fiona had cleared most of the normal furniture out — the conference table and most of the chairs — and rearranged what was left for this charade of a mating ceremony. The only people in attendance were my parents, Alpha Timothy, and Reid. When asked where the other ranked and future ranked members were, since it was usually custom for all ranked members to attend a mating ceremony, Dad explained they were down at the BBQ happening on the lawn for the pack, who was told there would be a surprise announcement at the end of the evening. Which was a lie. Mostly. There would be no surprise announcement. And while Brad,
THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS VIOLENT CONTENT THAT MAY BE TRIGGERING FOR SOME READERS HAVEN POV “Are you sure about this?” I asked Imogen as I stood in front of the full-length mirror in the bathroom of her penthouse apartment. “About what?” she asked back, leaning closer to the mirror to put on her red lipstick. “All of it?” I answered. “The hair, the outfit, the shoes… it’s just — well, it’s not really me.” “What are you talking about? You look hot. Own it!” Ramón yelled from where he lounged on Imogen’s bed, sipping a glass of red wine. “He’s right, you look hot,” Imogen agreed. “Wesley is an idiot,” she added. My lips twitched halfheartedly, but I said nothing in response to her words. “I TOLD YOU, WE BANNED THAT NAME FOR TONIGHT, IMMY!” Ramon yelled from the bedroom. “That’s another shot for you!” Imogen just shrugged and turned away from the mirror. “Maybe I said it on purpose. Maybe I wanted to have to take a shot,” she said with a wink at me. I laughed a little again, turning
SEBASTIAN POV I twisted my tumbler back and forth on the tabletop of our VIP booth, leaning back into the darkness of the space, keeping myself hidden from view. I wasn’t drinking my Negroni. Not really, at least. There was too much on my mind to drink. So much had happened since that day Dad had called Reid and me into his office. What was meant to be just the two of us checking into some rogues turned into a whole ridiculous, drawn out charade. My brother was the most miserable I’d ever seen him. Except, perhaps for those weeks leading up to his forced shift and then the months after that, as he adjusted to his Lycan and his life without Haven. But I was having a hard time feeling even the slightest bit bad for him. He’d dug his own grave with his choice. Sure, I understood why he did it. I could respect his reasoning, and respect him finally making that choice to step out of our dad’s shadow and be his own alpha. But then he stepped right back under the umbrella when Dad told h
WESLEY POV “WHERE ARE YOU?” I roared at Sebastian through the mindlink, already through the door of the conference room, leaving the madness behind me. Nothing mattered beyond getting to him and Haven. “The hospital,” he told me. “FUCK,” I exclaimed out loud. I picked up my pace, racing through the packhouse and out the back door. As soon as my feet hit the grass, my Lycan took over, forcing me to shift. My suit tore into pieces as I switched forms, but it didn’t matter. Haven was more important than some stupid stuffy suit. My Lycan ran the very short distance to the pack clinic faster than he’d ever ran before. And the entire way there, I cursed myself for every decision I’d made since the day I showed her my Lycan. And if my Lycan could talk, I’m pretty sure he’d be cussing me out too. I was so fucking stupid. I had fucked up so badly. I never should have agreed to the proposal from Alpha Pierce, and I should have waited by my phone for Haven to call me back. Or I should hav
Thank you again for reading "The Alpha's Pen Pal." I hope you enjoyed following along with the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. There will be a book two. Book two is titled "The Beta's Blind Date," and will follow Reid as the main character. I do not know when I will begin updates for this book, as I am currently working on another project that I need to have finished by the end of this month (July 2023), and I am also working on getting Pen Pal ready for print. In the meantime, you can leave a review for Pen Pal, as this helps readers know that others enjoyed the book. The review doesn't even have to be detailed, it can just be "I loved the story!" but even that helps out a lot! I also have another completed book on the app titled "A Prophecy of Crowns and Harmony." It is the first book in a completely unrelated series. It is a bit different from the usual werewolf story, as it also includes dragons, fairies, and witches, but I would love it if you would check it out and give
HAVEN POVWesley led me away, still holding me by my waist. We wandered around the building and into the garden where the company hosted the gala last year. It was just as beautiful and magical tonight as it was that night. Perhaps even more so, since there wasn’t a party set up within it, and its natural beauty was on display.“I have something for you,” Wesley murmured as he sat us down on a bench near some jasmine.I huffed out a small laugh. Of course, he sat us near the jasmine. “You didn’t need to get me anything,” I told him.“I know I didn’t need to, but I wanted to,” he said.He let go of me and reached under the bench, pulling out a small rectangular wooden box. I raised my brow at him, and he smiled.“Here,” he said, handing it to me.The wood was dark and smooth, except for the very center where my name had been stamped into it with a crescent moon behind a redwood tree next to it, the symbol of our pack. I ran my hand over it, feeling the ridges and dips of the letters, ma
SIX MONTHS LATER — NOVEMBER WESLEY POV Glittering lights. Rustling fabrics and programs. Instruments tuning. Whispering voices. A theater filled with audience members for the opening night of The Nutcracker this season at The Redwood Forest Ballet Company. A full house, as Haven had taught me. And all of them were here for her. The pack had bought out the house for the evening, so every single member of that audience was here because they were supporting their luna. Because tonight, she would dance the role of The Sugar Plum Fairy. “Thank you again,” I muttered, turning to look at Imogen. She rubbed at a spot on her red painted fingernails, a wrinkle between her brows. “I told you already, I needed the break. Some time to breathe and kick my feet up and just remind myself that I’m not just good at ballet, I actually enjoy ballet.” Her eyes lifted to mine, and she smiled. “Plus, it was for a good cause,” she said. “Oh, the baby is here!” She maneuvered around me and towards the
SIX MONTHS LATER — MAY HAVEN POV Spring in Crescent Lake was just as beautiful as I imagined. The spring festival the pack held on the shore of the lake every year — the one he’d written to me about in the letter I never received — was a blast. I ate more food than I should have and stayed up way too late dancing with Wesley and all our friends and family. And in the early hours of the morning, after we’d gone home, my mate held me close and made love to me, whispering to me and caressing me with the same care and tenderness he’d shown me on our first night together. That was all a few weeks ago. Now, we were gathered by the shore of the lake again, but for a different reason. For Wesley’s alpha ceremony. For him and his friends and brother to take over the pack. And for me to become the luna. It was still strange to think of myself as a leader of a pack of wolves. But in the short time I had been with Wesley and been living in the pack, I’d found more acceptance and love than alm
HAVEN POV The ghost of Wesley’s touch lingered on my skin, warm and soothing, and the whisper of his breath tickled the hair on my neck. My heart fluttered and raced in my chest, still pounding from the rush of our intimacy and the overwhelming pleasure from him marking me. I stretched, inhaling the hint of jasmine and vanilla and luxuriating in the feel of the soft blankets around my body. But where I thought I would meet Wesley’s chest with my back, there was only emptiness, vast and cold. My eyes blinked open, and I sat up, my heart now racing for a completely different reason. My clammy hands wiped against the blankets — no — the dress somehow on my body. The same dress I had worn at the temple in Greece, and during our visit with Selene. I stood to my feet, gathering the fabric in my hands as I did, scanning my surroundings. I pivoted in place, looking around me until my eyes landed on the temple. Selene’s temple. My mother’s temple. Everything was identical to how it was the
ONE MONTH LATER - NOVEMBER WESLEY POV The buzzing of the tattoo gun filled my ears and the minor ache and itch and sting of the needles hitting my skin and the silver hitting my blood had me closing my eyes every few minutes. But the tingles of the mate bond from Haven’s hand held in mine comforted me and dulled most of the pain I felt. I looked over at her and found her watching the tattooist raptly, her eyes locked on my marking spot, where he was inking her “mark” on me for all to see. I’d come up with the idea to get a tattoo as my “mark” when we were flying home from Greece. But I didn’t have the idea for what it should be specifically until we moved her out of her apartment and into our house in Crescent Lake, about a week after the challenge against Pierce. She was organizing the letters and making sure she had them all, and as soon as I saw them in her hands, I knew just what I wanted my mark from her to be. Which is how I came to be sitting in the tattoo parlor the day of
HAVEN POV I sat stiff and rigid in the chair next to Wesley’s hospital bed, his hand held in mine and my thumb stroking his skin in slow, smooth strokes. The bond would help him heal, but it was also helping me not have another massive freak out while I sat with him in the pack’s hospital. Dr. Russo had patched him up in almost no time, but he had to re-break Wesley’s foot because the bones had already started to heal in the wrong position. He’d tried to refuse any sedation, but with the damage to his ribs and lungs, they had to give him general anesthesia in order to repair all of it. Now he was in the bed, still asleep, but healing. Hopefully, he would wake up soon. I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath. His scent was still mixed with the antiseptic and medicinal smells of the hospital, the ones that always sent me into a spiral of depressive thoughts. But his scent was still there, still stronger than those other smells, keeping me in the present and not letting me return to
WESLEY POV I readied myself, crouching into position just as Pierce had done. I focused on my breathing and the extra resolve Haven sent my way, and trusted that my body and my mind and my lycan knew what to do. “The challenge will begin with my word,” King Malachi stated loud and clear for everyone to hear. “And it will end upon the death of one or both of the participants.” I breathed in again, making sure to keep my eyes opened and focused on Pierce. He was my target. We knew he was working with a witch, knew he was using her somehow to strengthen himself. I just needed to keep him engaged, needed to stay in the fight until they found the witch and took her out. I let my lycan stay at the forefront of my mind, so I could be ready to shift at a moment’s notice. I cleared my mind, letting my sole focus be on this fight. And I prayed to Selene — to my mate’s mother — that Pierce would not let his witch do to me what she’d done to Maddie to render her defenseless. “Begin,” King Mal
WESLEY POV There were varying reactions to Pierce’s preposterous challenge, but most of them included some degree of a snarl or a growl. The loudest was mine, of course, but Nolan’s, Sebastian’s, and Reid’s were all a near match of hostility and volume. How dare he. How dare he challenge me for the woman who was rightfully mine. For the mate Selene had honored me with. She had chosen me for Haven, for her daughter, and I would not let anyone take her away from me. Not again. Not in this lifetime or the next. I moved Haven behind my body, my hands still on her hips, her hands resting on the small of my back and her head peeking over my shoulder. There was a flurry of noise and movement around us, but my cold focus was only on the bag of scum in front of me. “What the hell does that mean?” Haven asked me. “He wants me to fight him for you,” I explained to her, my voice low and tight. She tensed, her hands clutching at my shirt. “Can he do that? Try to claim me that way?” she whispe