Page 193 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t,” I declared. “In this story,” I said, tapping the book, “it said Selene loved her daughter and took her everywhere with her. Protected her. Cherished her.”

I swallowed against the lump forming in my throat as I voiced the insecurities I’d carried with me for so long. I felt the eyes of everyone in the room on me, but I didn’t look at anyone because I didn’t want to face the pity I knew I’d see there.

“My parents abandoned me,” I continued. “Dropped me off at a fire station when I was only days old, wrapped in a blanket. And just because the symbol on my blanket matches the symbol at the beginning of this story doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a coincidence. I can’t be a—a—a demigod or whatever! I’m not special. I’m just Haven.”

My shoulders rose and fell, and my voice got louder with each word out of my mouth. I hugged the book to my chest to keep myself from chucking it across the room like a live grenade.

Wesley turned my body towards him, his hands cupping my cheeks. “You’re special to me.”

I wanted to melt into him and sink into his love and warmth, but I had to stand my ground. “I know, Wes, but that doesn’t make this true,” I replied, lifting the book. “It’s just a story.”

“And all the stories are based on truth,” Sebastian repeated. “Lycans are real. Fated mates are real. Second chances are rare but real. Why wouldn’t her daughter be real too?” he reasoned with a shrug.

I blew out a breath and climbed out of Wesley’s lap. I had the book hugged to my chest again with one hand as I paced back and forth and played with the end of my braid with my other.

“Okay, okay. Let’s say I suspend my disbelief for the moment and say I believe you. That I believe I am this—this promised daughter. If it is true—how did Lennox know who I was, and how did his parents find me?”

“I don’t know,” Wesley said as he stood from the chair. “But I know how we can find out. Let’s go ask him.”

CHAPTER 65

WESLEY

“Let me come with you this time,” Haven said, following me as I walked out of my parents’ apartment, Nolan and Sebastian right behind her.

I stopped in my tracks at her words. “What? No.” I shook my head and turned to her. “Haven—”

“I want to go with you,” she insisted, interrupting me.

“No, Haven,” I said, gripping her shoulders. “It-it will be violent and bloody and gruesome. I have to be someone you won’t recognize. All three of us do. I don’t want you to see me—to see us—like that.”

Even though I had given my word to Lennox I wouldn’t touch him, I still had to put on that mask. I had to be the brutal, cruel alpha. The vicious lycan.

I didn’t know what Sebastian had up his sleeve for Lennox, but I knew it would be something bloody and bordering on sadistic. I had no idea how Haven would react to gore and violence, and I wasn’t about to find out by having her watch us interrogate that piece of shit.

She crossed her arms and frowned at me. “We’re a team. I’m your luna. That’s what that means, right? Facing challenges together? Leading the pack together? Doing dirty work together?”

My chin dropped to my chest. I had nothing to say in response to that. She was right. But it didn’t make it any easier to agree to her request. My first instinct as her mate and as an alpha was to always protect her. To keep her safe. And bringing her with me went against all those instincts.

Sensing my hesitation and change of heart, she pushed forward with her arguments. “You said I’m strong. Sometimes even stronger than you. And I need this. I need to hear his answers and see him locked up for myself. For closure. I can’t let him win. We can’t let him have that influence on our lives.”

She stepped closer to me, her hands coming to my chest and resting there. My lycan turned to putty like he always did when she touched me that way, practically purring under her touch.

“I need to do this, Wesley,” she continued. “Ineedto. Besides, just think about what it will do to him to see us together. What better torture than to show him you have what he so desperately wants?”

Damn. She had a point with that remark. And while I had promised not to touch him, I said nothing about hurting him emotionally or finding other ways to torture him. My mind raced with all the possibilities, all the ways I could assert my dominance over him and my claim on her if she was in the room too.

And I couldn’t deny the thrill that went through me at her words. At the calculating idea she had come up with in only a matter of minutes. How she didn’t shy away from this darker side of my world but instead embraced it and tried to find her own footing within it.

I met Sebastian’s eyes over the top of her head and jerked my chin towards the stairs, ordering him and Nolan away without a word. They both scurried down the steps, leaving Haven and me alone on the landing.

Once their footsteps faded, I turned our bodies and pressed Haven’s back against the wall. My arms caged her in, and my body pressed flush against hers, a low growl vibrating in my chest.

“You will stay right next to me, touching at least my hand the entire time,” I commanded, my voice quiet and my tone leaving no room for argument. “At even the tiniest hint of fear or shock or nervousness from you, I will have Nolan take you out of the room and back to our house,” I continued. “And you will not hide your emotions from me. You will keep your walls down for me. I want to know exactly how you feel the whole time.”

Her big blue eyes stayed locked with mine throughout my speech, and she nodded at the end, understanding it wasn’t something to push me on or something to argue with me about. That it was real and dangerous and that she needed to be safe. That I needed her to be safe.

My face lowered, and my nose brushed against hers, my lips hovering over her mouth as I growled, “You’re mine, Sugar Plum.”

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