Page 144 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

The sight of her like that—injured and terrified and probably pissed at me, but still seeking me, seeking my touch and my presence—nearly killed me as the reality of her situation hit me.

I lunged forward into the room, crossing to her in long, purposeful strides, falling to my knees at the side of her bed, grabbing her hand with mine and pulling it to my chest. I wanted—needed—to pull her whole body to mine and hold her close and never let her go, to keep her safe at my side and in my arms.

But I couldn’t, because while I was trying to help my dad and my pack, I left her vulnerable, and I could have lost her.

“I’m here,” I murmured, kissing her hand, ignoring the feel of the mate bond on my skin. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere,” I told her.

She squeezed my hand and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths through her nose to calm herself. Her lip still trembled as she fought against her cries, and the urge to take her into my arms hit me again, strengthened by my lycan seeing her fighting to stay calm.

I rose higher on my knees and leaned forward to kiss her forehead and stroke her hair, but my eyes landed on the wound on her neck, and what I saw made my blood boil.

The growl I let out started all the way in my feet. It ripped through my body as I stood and stared at the open doorway, at Sebastian and Nolan in his wolf form.

My aura didn’t just leak out. No, it bubbled up and spilled over like a pot of boiling water, forcing every wolf in the room to bare their neck to me in submission. Even Sebastian lowered his eyes, though he didn’t have to.

“Why are there teeth marks from another lycan on MY MATE’S neck? On her MARKING SPOT?” I yelled.

“He had her in the alley,” Seb said quietly. “When we got to her, he was biting into her neck over and over. Like his lycan was trying to mark her.”

“How’d he get her in the alley? How’d you lose her?”

“Blackout,” he muttered. “It was chaos.”

I growled again, but not at him. Just in frustration with the situation. The weight of all that had happened settled on my heart, settled into my soul, and all I could think about was how I had once again failed her.

My mate.

I had failed her so many times. Failed her with my very first letter to her, failed her when I didn’t realize soon enough that something was wrong, failed her when she was adopted by those horrible people. And failed her when I agreed to be someone’s fake fiancé.

She could have died, and it would have been all my fault. Because I failed to protect her.

I wanted to tear through the room, wanted to throw the furniture and punch through the walls. I wanted to shift into my lycan and let him take over and find this asshole, find the male who dared touch what was ours.

But the small, soft, warm hand in mine kept me anchored in the present, reminding me that while that was what I wanted, what I needed was to be with my mate. My Sugar Plum.

The bond between us was already strong. She could already pull me out of a blind rage, and she didn’t even know she was doing that. My mind drifted to all the times over the weeks since she’d appeared in Crescent Lake that she’d calmed me with just her touch, and I rubbed my forehead with my fingertips.

Stupid. I was so stupid. It was her. It had always been her, and I was just too dense to realize it.

“Who was he?” I asked, and Sebastian shrugged.

“Lennox,” Haven said from behind me, her voice small and hoarse.

I whipped my head around to her, just as she swallowed and winced against the pain in her throat. I leaned over her, stroking her hair as I’d meant to before I saw her injury, keeping my hand away from where Dr. Russo and the nurses worked on cleaning and stitching up her wound.

“Who?” I asked her, my thumb rubbing her knuckles where I still held her hand.

She swallowed a few more times, her eyes closing with each one as she worked through the pain in her throat. I wouldn’t force her to talk anymore after this because she needed to rest and heal, but I knew she wanted to give me an answer.

“My ex,” she said, her voice almost inaudible.

Red flashed across my vision, and I growled again, low and deep, my hand gripping hers tightly. She squeezed it back. “Wes—”

“Don’t,” I whispered, shaking my head. “Don’t talk, Sugar Plum. You’ll just hurt your voice more. It’s okay. I’m okay,” I said.

Even though I was far from it. I was livid. Beyond livid. Not only was her ex a shifter, too, but he was a lycan. Which meant he had alpha blood.

“Find him,” I ordered Sebastian with a quick glance.

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