Page 163 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

I clenched my fists in my pockets. “Well, did you have any more questions you wanted to ask me?”

“Just one right now,” she said, and I gestured at her to continue. “When is the next full moon?”

My stomach dropped. The only reason she would want to know that was if she planned on rejecting me. I swallowed to keep the growl or whimper—I’m honestly not sure which one was working its way up my chest—inside. “Next month,” I said.

She nodded. “Are there any special words I have to say?”

“You just say, ‘I, Haven Kenway, reject you, Wesley Stone, as my mate,’” I said quietly, not meeting her eyes.

“And what if I want to be your mate?”

I didn’t dare to look at her or even hope. “Same phrase, just ‘I accept you’ instead of ‘I reject you’. And it doesn’t have to be under the full moon. Only a rejection has to be done under the full moon,” I replied.

Every word felt heavy on my tongue as it left my mouth. I didn’t want her to reject me, but if I didn’t tell her how to do it, that would make me even more of an ass. And I deserved it. I deserved her rejection for not standing up to my dad when he ordered me to completely ignore her.

I heard her take a deep breath, and she came and stood in front of me. She held my face in her hands and lifted my chin so I looked her in the eyes.

There was a determined set to her jaw and a tiny sparkle in her eyes. “I, Haven Kenway, accept you, Wesley Stone, as my mate.”

I dropped my forehead to rest against hers as I took in a shaky breath, tears pooling in my eyes. My hands came out of my pockets and my arms wrapped around her, pulling her into me, clinging to her like I was a drowning man and she was a raft. Her arms came around my neck and I breathed in her scent, her scent that told me she was mine.

It was what I had hoped for. Her acceptance. But I had not expected it so soon. I had thought she’d make me work for it more, make me suffer, and beg on my knees for her acceptance. It was what I deserved, after all.

“I’m so sorry,” I murmured as I buried my face in her hair, my voice thick as my tears fell without restraint. “I’m sorry for everything. I wish there was a way I could take it all back. I was a big, ugly meanie, and I was stupid. So, so stupid.”

“Yes, you were,” she said.

I breathed out a weak laugh, relief flooding through me at her teasing. If she was teasing me, then she hadn’t been all that mad at me to begin with.

“But I’m sorry I made you think I would reject you,” she added.

“I would have deserved it if you did,” I admitted.

She shook her head. “No. You didn’t deserve that. After everything you’ve done for me? Even the things you did for me when you didn’t know if you would ever see me again? I could never reject you. There was no way I could have done that. The thought of it made me physically ill. I’m too—I’m too much in love with you. I can’t imagine my life without you.”

I wrapped my arms even tighter around her, a choked sob coming out of my chest and my hand gripping the hair at the back of her head as I clutched her to me. “I love you too, Sugar Plum.”

My body shook with my cries as we hugged in her little dance studio. Only with her would I allow myself to be vulnerable. Only she would ever get to see this side of me.

Her body melted into mine, fitting seamlessly against every hard line of me. She was a perfect fit with me, truly my other half. She was my everything, and I resolved myself to do everything I could to keep her.

CHAPTER 54

HAVEN

Wesley’s arms tightened around me as we stood in the makeshift dance studio he had put together for me. It was far from perfect, but that somehow made it even more special. Because he had put the time and effort into creating it just for me.

He brought his head out of the crook of my neck, his nose trailing along my jawline as he pulled back to look me in the eye again. His eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, his face open and vulnerable, revealing the depth of his emotions to me.

He kissed my forehead, then looked at me and said in a hoarse voice, “I, Wesley Stone, accept you, Haven Kenway, as my mate.”

His words echoed into my soul, settling over me like a blanket. And beneath that, beneath the surface of my skin, was the overwhelming feeling of acceptance. Of belonging. The feeling I had been craving, been searching for most of my life.

I gasped at the intensity of it, my hands clutching at Wesley’s back, pulling my body closer to his.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his powerful arms holding me with such tenderness, keeping me on my feet, and from falling under the weight of my revelation.

My hands slid to his chest, feeling his muscles and his heart beating beneath my palms, the rhythm of it matching my own, and I nodded.

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