Page 138 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

I opened my eyes, too afraid to stand up to him and his demands. It wasn’t like with Wesley when I could choose whether to fight or give in. With Lennox, I always had to listen and obey.

He was crazy. I had seen him in a rage before, but this was different. This was something else.

His entire body began to twitch and vibrate unnaturally.

“You don’t get it, Haven.” His eyes were wild, and his grin was savage. “You are mine. You were always meant to be mine, and you will always be mine.”

Fur sprouted from his skin, his face and fingers elongated, and his body grew taller. I realized too late what was happening, what he was.

The claws around my neck scratched my skin, and I cried out in pain and fear as Lennox changed into a lycan right in front of me, just like Wesley had the other day. Only this lycan looked at me in anger and malice, whereas Wesley’s had stood patiently, giving me space to react to him.

His elongated fingers squeezed tighter against my throat, cutting off my voice and air. Dark spots flashed in my vision, my body reacting without a thought, kicking out at the lycan and trying to get it to back off and leave me alone.

But it didn’t matter or make any difference. Lennox—or his lycan—dove towards me, snarling. His jaw closed and locked around my body, right at the junction where my neck met my shoulder.

My mouth opened and closed as I attempted to scream or breathe or both, but nothing happened. My body shook in terror and pain, the dark spots in my sight getting bigger and staying longer.

Lennox bit down even harder, then pulled back to examine the spot he’d bitten, loosening his hold on me. My legs folded under me, my body collapsing to the ground, but he was on me again, diving towards my body on the ground, his teeth biting into that same spot.

My mouth opened again in a silent cry as his teeth tore through my skin again with no resistance, his beast growing more frustrated with each attack.

A flash of red fur entered my field of vision, and a familiar wolf knocked into Lennox, pulling his focus away from me and onto him.

Nolan.

He snarled at Lennox, and then they lunged at each other, rolling and grappling away from me.

My chest rose and fell as I took shallow breaths, trying to fill my lungs and breathe through the pain. I knew I was bleeding, but the pain in my neck and shoulder was too much for me to focus on anything else.

As the wolves fought in the alley, Sebastian crouched in front of me, naked from the waist up, his hands holding his shirt against my neck to staunch the blood flow. His hands shook as he pressed down on my wound.

His mouth moved but I couldn’t hear what he said. The alley spun around me as I grew more and more lightheaded from the blood loss. My eyes fluttered open and shut, and I caught the tail end of Sebastian’s words, holding onto them like a lifeline to prevent myself from blacking out.

“Hold on, Sparkles…”

CHAPTER 47

SEBASTIAN

I twisted my glass 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 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 him to ignore Haven and all that bullshit. Not that Dad used those exact words, but that’s basically what he told Wes.

Which was stupid. He could have talked to her. Could have explained what was going on.

I knew they had a “fight.” Which I also knew was code for “I showed her my lycan, and she freaked out.” He hadn’t told me he did, but I figured it out. And I also knew she’d be ready to talk to him quicker than he thought. And she was.

It was all stupid. We could have explained things to Haven over the phone. Or we could have sent Maya back to their apartment to protect her, which wouldn’t have looked weird since they were roommates.

But no. Wesley didn’t have the balls to disobey Dad on that order. More than anything, I wanted to tell him how much of a mistake he was making, but I kept my mouth shut. Because one, he needed to learn for himself, and two, he wouldn’t have listened to me, anyway.

Plus, Dad was still keeping up the guise of the pack being on lockdown because of the “rogues” since he didn’t want to explain what was going on with Pierce to the whole pack.

---