Page 152 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

Wes winced and rubbed the back of his neck, still avoiding looking at me. I fixed my stare on him, boring it into the side of his face, daring him to look at me.

The tension in the room ratcheted up at least ten notches, and Dr. Russo swiveled his head between the two of us a few times before he stood to leave.

“Well, everything looks to be in good shape, Lu… Haven,” he said as he walked to the door. “Your soreness should go away by the end of the day, and you should have a full range of motion in your shoulder by then. You can resume all your normal activities. Just have Wesley contact me if you have any questions or concerns.”

He walked out of the bedroom, and a few seconds later, I heard the front door open and close behind him. Then, silence as I continued to glare at Wesley.

If he thought I would let him keep something else a secret, let him lie to me, or ignore me, he was gravely mistaken. I would not fall into that trap of his again. I would not let his warm eyes, his devilish smirk, and the heat from his touch lull me into a false sense of security.

No. I wanted answers. I was tired and empty before, but embers of fury had filled that vacuum, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to rest until I had what I wanted. The truth. All of it.

And then I would give him hell.

He moved his gaze to mine, his jaw set, and I said, “Start talking. Now.”

CHAPTER 51

HAVEN

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” Wesley said. “I won’t lie to you, Haven. I won’t ever lie to you again.”

“You better not,” I muttered, leaning back against the pillows and crossing my arms.

A flicker of amusement hit me, but his face stayed stoic and blank as he kept leaning against the wall, not showing his reaction on the outside. Probably because he didn’t want to piss me off. A little late for that.

“I won’t,” he said again. “Which is why, before we talk about anything else, I want to be upfront with you about something. And I want you to hear it from me and not from someone else.”

I swallowed but nodded. I knew whatever he was about to say would just piss me off even more, based on how he looked and acted.

“This alpha from another pack—that’s what we call ourselves, all of us werewolves who live together in one group—well, my dad has been trying to get access to his business accounts because he felt that not everything was on the up and up with his funds. He’s been making different offers to him over the last year or so to form an alliance so we’d have access to his accounts as we merged some of our businesses. But Alpha Timothy turned him down every time.”

I frowned but nodded. I didn’t really understand his world—business or werewolf—but I could make sense of most of what he said.

“What does that have to do with anything? With us?” I asked.

He grimaced. “A lot, actually.”

“How?”.

“After you left last week, I went to the packhouse to talk to my dad, and when I got there, he was in a meeting with Timothy. Timothy had brought a new offer, a new proposal to my dad. And it involved me.” He blew out a breath and ran his hand through his hair as he prepared himself to say whatever he was going to say next. “It involved me and his daughter.”

My eyebrows shot up into my hairline. That was not what I expected him to say. “What do you mean it involved you and his daughter?”

“He wanted us to form an alliance with our packs by having Nicole and I take each other as mates.”

“Mates?” I repeated.

That word again. The one I kept hearing.

“Basically, we’d unite the packs through marriage. Still separate packs, but tied together by the mating alliance.”

“Like a contract marriage. Or a political marriage. Like what rich people or royal people or other cultures do?” I asked, and he nodded. “So, what did you say after you heard this proposal?” I asked, my heart pounding in my chest and my stomach boiling.

“I said yes. But I had no intention of actually going through with it. I only pretended to agree to it so we’d get what we needed and could finally take him down, then the contract would be void.”

“So you were pretending.”

“Yes.”

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