Page 208 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

“All I can say is, there are those with darkness in their hearts, and sadly, I have no control over the choices others make. And I cannot intervene in mortal affairs aside from pairing my warriors with their mates. I could foresee none of your life, aside from the mate I would pair you with and how your paths would cross.”

“You knew we’d be pen pals?” I scoffed. “That’s pretty specific.”

She laughed again, shaking her head. “No, my daughter, I did not see it like that. I just knew my human daughter would cross paths with the young lycan when they were children, and she would help him from becoming too arrogant and too self-absorbed.”

She gave Wesley a pointed look, and he cleared his throat, his hand rubbing my upper arm.

“Why me, though?” he asked. “Why did you choose me as her mate specifically? Why not, say, the heir to the throne? Since they are actually descended from Conan.” I turned to glance up at him, my brow raised. “I mean, I am grateful it was me. I love her. I love her more than I ever thought I could love another person, and I wouldn’t change that for anything—I am honestly just curious,” he rushed out, his cheeks heating.

He buried his face in my neck, hiding his embarrassment from his goddess, and breathing deeply. I reached up and stroked his hair as his lips pressed a kiss to my neck.

“Because I knew you would earn her love and her trust. I knew you would prove yourself worthy of her. And the heir’s fate lies with another mate. Another of my warriors who needs a nudge in the proper direction. But that is not your concern or your story,” she replied.

“I am sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No reason to apologize,” she reassured him.

“What about marking her?” he asked, lifting his head. “Does her being your daughter change how I do that?”

“You will still need to mark her under the proper moon phase. Her birthday is on October 16th. It was a new moon when she was born, same as her sister.”

“So I am just a human?” I asked.

“Demigod status is no longer granted to those born from mixed parentage. We cannot gift you with any powers or with our lifespan. But the blood of a goddess runs in your veins. You may not have our gifts or our immortality, but you are still more than ‘just’ a human. It is why you always seemed so mature for your age, so much wiser than what you should have been. It is why you possess the grace and natural ability to excel in ballet. It is why you feel so comfortable among my warriors, feel at home in Crescent Lake, and don’t shy away from the violent nature of the wolves. It is why you could feel the magic on our island. Because even without any powers, you are still connected to me by blood, and they created the island for myself and my daughter. Daughters,” she corrected.

Wesley was tense again behind me, his mind whirling as he thought about what she’d said. “Wait—wait, the new moon is tonight. Right now.”

“Last night, actually,” Selene said, grimacing in apology. “It is morning on Earth now.”

“Goddess, damn it!” Wesley cursed, unwrapping his arms from me and pacing the temple floor. “Oh shit, sorry!” he exclaimed, slapping his hand over his mouth when he realized his mistake.

Selene just laughed. “Please, you wolves use my title that way so often I don’t even notice it anymore,” she said, waving him off.

Wesley forced a smile and walked back over to me, taking my hand in his. As he did, our skin shimmered and rippled, and I felt my soul being called back to Earth.

“Your time here is almost over,” Selene said as she looked at our hands. “I hope my answers were enough for you.”

“We got the information we needed,” I told her bluntly. “Thank you.”

I turned away from her and walked the reverse of the path I took when I entered, Wesley at my side. But her cool hand grabbing mine stopped me and forced me to turn and look at her.

“Please, Haven,” she begged, her voice hoarse and her eyes glistening, her pain and sorrow right at the surface. “Please understand. Giving you up was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. Watching you struggle and being unable to do anything about it broke me in more ways than I can describe. It was the worst type of torture, being unable to intervene when things took a turn for the worse for you.”

“But you chose to have me. You knew you’d have to give me up. You chose that. I didn’t. You were selfish and wanted your daughter.”

“I made a promise to my people. I told them you would arrive, that one of them would be given to you as your mate. I couldn’t go back on my word. And do you truly wish I hadn’t had you? Do you truly wish that you’d never met your mate, met Wesley and his friends and family?”

My jaw clenched, and my throat tightened. I tried to swallow past the growing lump there, but I couldn’t. Because she was right. Everything that had happened, everything I’d been through in my life before I met him, and everything we had been through to find each other again had led us right to this moment. Had led us to be together, to find love, peace, and strength with each other. Had led me to my true family.

“I understand,” I breathed, my voice as tight as hers. “I understand why you did what you did. But I can’t bring myself to think of you as more than the woman who gave birth to me. Not yet,” I told her. “Maybe someday, but not yet.”

She nodded as Wesley and I faded into hundreds of millions of specks of stardust, our souls flashing back through time and space and other realms of existence to our earthly bodies.

CHAPTER 71

WESLEY

As my eyes opened back in the temple on Earth, I felt the shaking body of my mate next to me and smelled the salt of her tears as they fell from her eyes. She curled into me, her face burrowing into my chest and her arms clinging to my neck and shoulders.

---