Page 129 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

“Oh, stop it,” she said. “You know I don’t want you like that. I want my father gone and locked up just as much as you and your father do.”

“Why?”

“He’s an ass,” she said, crossing her arms.

“He’s the reason our mother is dead,” Ben confessed.

“He killed her?”

“He might as well have,” Nicole grumbled.

“He cheated on her. Constantly. She finally gave up.”

“I’m sorry,” I told them. “Why don’t you just challenge him?” I asked Ben.

“Because I want everyone to know what kind of man he truly is. If I challenge him, that doesn’t happen. But if I help expose him, then everyone sees him for what he is. And I’ll have people who know I’m nothing like him. People who will vouch for me.”

“Thank you,” I said as I took the envelope from him. “I’ll get this to the council before the end of the day.”

“You’ll still need to keep the pretense of the alliance. Let him think you still plan to go through with the intimate union ceremony on Friday so the council has time to make their move. If you back out now, he’ll get suspicious, and who knows what he’ll do.”

I sighed but nodded. “I know. I don’t want to, but I know I have to.”

“It will be over soon, and then you can work on making it up to your girl,” he said.

“If she lets me,” I muttered. “I can’t believe your dad is allowing you to have a bachelorette party.”

“Oh, what daddy’s little girl wants, she gets,” Nicole said with a sly smile as she stood up and Ben followed her. “He can’t refuse my wolf pup eyes and my pout or my whining.”

“So you’re manipulative,” I chuckled, walking them to the door.

“Only with him,” she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “Anyway, thank you for helping us,” she added as I opened the door.

“I should be thanking you. How’d you know what my dad was trying to do, anyway?” I asked, leaning against the frame after they exited my house.

“Just a lucky guess, honestly,” Ben shrugged.

I nodded, then shook his hand. “Well, I will see you on Friday, I guess.”

“Wait,” Ben said, looking down at my hand, then back at me. “Give her your shirt.”

“Excuse me?”

“Give Nicole your shirt. It will help make it seem like you two have been… intimate,” he said with a grimace.

I growled, and Nicole rolled her eyes at me. “He’s right, though, Wes. The more we can play this up, the better,” she said.

My growl didn’t subside, but I pulled my shirt over my head and threw it at her without a word. The only consolation was it wasn’t my favorite shirt, my Stanford shirt. That one was still with Haven.

I watched them leave, praying to Selene that what Ben had given to me would be enough and this would all be over by the end of the day on Friday. And that Haven would understand and forgive me when all was said and done.

HAVEN

The music swirled and swelled around me in the studio as I danced. My feet and legs stretched and moved me throughout the room, my anger and pain fueling my movements.

I performed each step from memory, connecting them to each other with ease, even though it had been years since I’d danced this piece.

But it was my piece. My choreography. My story and my emotions that brought the steps together.

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