Page 143 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

I hesitated for a moment, but I knew I had to tell him. If I didn’t, he’d be more pissed. “It’s Haven.”

CHAPTER 48

WESLEY

“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.

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 him to her. 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 have at least talked to her and explained everything going on. She was new to our world, but she was smart, and she would have understood.

I just had to hope I wasn’t too late. That she would be okay and she would forgive me.

I burst into the clinic and shifted, grabbing a pair of sweatpants from the nearby bin and throwing them on.

My brother paced in the lobby, muttering to himself and tugging at his hair, his shirt unbuttoned and covered in blood. Haven’s blood.

I stormed over to him, grabbing a handful of his shirt and pulling him into my body, my face in his.

“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?” I yelled, my voice edged with a growl.

His mouth moved, and words came out, but I didn’t hear them. My eyes moved down to his shirt and hands, to the blood covering him. I inhaled, exhaled, and inhaled again, then closed my eyes as everything washed over me.

“Plums,” I muttered. “Plums. It’s always been plums.”

My eyes snapped open, meeting Sebastian’s gaze. A flicker of something passed over his face as my words registered in his brain, but I didn’t have time to think about his reaction to what I said.

I dropped him and turned, following my nose, following the pull leading me where I needed to be. There was no reason to ask anyone where she was because I would always be able to find her.

I couldn’t see anything aside from what lay in front of me as I walked down the white clinic hall. I had a one-track mind.

Nolan’s rusty-furred wolf sat guard in front of the second door in the hall, a signal she was in that room. Not that I needed it. I could already sense she was there.

I paused for a moment as I gripped the doorknob, closing my eyes to steady myself. I did not know what I was about to see or what state I would find her in. All I knew was I had to open that door to confirm with my eyes what my soul and my heart already knew.

Nolan whimpered and nudged my leg with his paw, breaking me out of my thoughts and driving me forward, driving me to act.

The door opened inward, and everything hit me like a freight train.

Her scent filled my lungs as I breathed in—jasmine and plums—stronger and sweeter than I’d ever smelled it. She lay in the bed, her eyes closed tight, her face scrunched up in pain as they worked on a brutal wound on her neck and shoulder. Her skin was paler than its normal tone from her loss of blood, and she had minor scratches and deep, dark bruising on her throat and jawline. On the floor lay a scrap of black fabric and something sparkly, as well as some strappy heels, her club clothes now replaced by a hospital gown.

But even with all that, she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Still my world, my heart, my everything. My—

“Mate,” I said with my exhale, my lycan howling in a mixture of happiness over finding his mate and sadness that someone had hurt her and we weren’t there for her.

Her eyes fluttered open when she heard my voice, big and blue and filled with fear and pain. But as soon as they locked onto mine, I could see the wave of relief that washed over her in my presence.

Her lip trembled, and fresh tears pooled in her eyes. Her uninjured hand reached out to me, shaking and weak, but there for me to take all the same.

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