Page 120 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

I paused and closed my eyes. Was I sure? No. I wasn’t.

But the reward of taking the risk was substantial, and I needed to start thinking like a leader. Like an alpha. And that meant sometimes putting the pack’s needs above my own needs and wants.

“It’s not like he’ll have to go through with it,”Sebastian said.

“Wanna bet?”Reid asked, his lips twitching.

“Seriously, I need you all to trust me. I have a plan, but your dicking around isn’t helping!”

“We trust you, Wesley,”Reid said.

“I accept your offer,” I told Alpha Pierce out loud. “As long as Nicole isn’t being forced into this. I need confirmation from her that she agrees to the union of her own volition.”

Benjamin’s thick brows raised for a split second, and Nicole’s big, blue eyes widened. She looked at her father and then at Benjamin, staring at him for much longer than Timothy.

Then she turned to me, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears and nodding. “He’s not forcing me, Wesley. I agreed to the idea willingly. I actually was the one to suggest it.”

She held my gaze, and a flash of understanding passed between us before her face went back to that cold, unreadable expression. Almost as though I’d imagined it.

“All right then,” I stated, looking back at Alpha Pierce. “I will take Nicole as my chosen luna, and our packs will form both a personal and a business alliance, as outlined in this contract.”

“Very well,” Alpha Pierce said.

“You can step out, Dad,” I said, giving him a cursory glance.

He frowned but stood and left through the back door. Not that it would matter. He had the room wire-tapped, and he’d hear every word spoken.

I held my hand out for a pen, and Alpha Pierce laughed.

“While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I do have one minor concern before I agree to sign and before I let my daughter sign,” he said, breathing in through his nose. “The human whose scent is all over you. She won’t be a problem, will she? You won’t be continuing to see her? Because Goddess forbid if I let my daughter be mated to a man who will have her as his luna in name only. She will be treated like a queen. She will be your only female, starting from the moment you sign that contract.”

My lycan growled in my head, and it took everything in me to keep him under control, to not let that growl spill from my lips, to not react at all to Timothy’s words. That’s what he was looking for, after all. For me to crack and to show him my weakness. For him to have something to hold over us. Over me.

“Of course, she won’t be a problem,” I told him, faking my best disinterested voice. “She was just a fling. She’s no one important to me,” I said with a laugh. “You know humans. They find us so irresistibly attractive. They’re an easy lay,” I added with a shrug.

One side of his mouth lifted into a lazy, cocky smile, and he leaned back in his seat, his eyes taking me in, assessing me.

“I’m glad to see I wasn’t wrong about you,” Timothy said. “I was banking on the notion that you would be a different type of alpha than your father.”

“I’m trying to be,” I said.

In my mind, I could hear Reid and Sebastian snickering, and feel my dad’s pride and amusement at the little show I was putting on for Timothy. Every word out of my mouth felt wrong; every syllable sounded like nails on a chalkboard and tasted of bitter herbs, but as long as Timothy believed my words were sincere, that was all that mattered at the moment.

Timothy smiled wider and reached across the table, shaking my hand.

We passed the contract around, Nicole, Timothy, and I all signing it, as well as Reid and Benjamin as the witnesses.

Once everyone had added their signature, Timothy excused himself and his children and left through the main entrance of the conference room, a warrior escorting them to their car, and we went into my dad’s office through the other door.

“I can’t believe you agreed to that,” Dad said as soon as the door shut behind us. “I was serious when I said we could find another way.”

“But you told me yourself you had tried other options to form an alliance, and he’d refused you every time,” I pointed out. “Like I said, I have a plan. I need you to trust me, and—”

“You agreed?” Mom asked. “What about Haven? Harrison, why would you make him—”

“I didn’t force him to do it, Em,” Dad said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “He decided on his own. He knows this could very well be our only chance to get the insider information we need to get Timothy removed as alpha and hopefully put into prison.”

“But Reid could have done it,” she argued.

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