Page 214 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

I growled again at that. Her face remained blank and her voice flat the entire time we questioned her so far, but it almost felt like she kept repeating that to goad me or rile me up. “But why?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“He told Lennox he would be strong enough to be the alpha of his pack if he could mate with Haven and mark her.”

“He told us that already. But why? Why Haven specifically?” I prodded, trying to see what she would say, how much they knew.

“I don’t know. He never told us why. Just that Lennox and her had to be together.”

The king glanced at me with a raised brow. I looked down at Haven. I wanted it to be her decision whether he commanded them to tell the truth. It was her secret, after all. She met my eyes, sighed, and nodded, and I looked back at the king.

“You will answer the question truthfully,” he ordered.

His aura and power filled the room again, forcing all of us into submission. Haven reacted quickly this time, lowering her head as well to not draw suspicion.

“I told you,” Melissa choked out under the weight of his command. “I don’t know. He never told us, no matter how much I asked him.”

Interesting, I thought to myself. Then again, it would make sense. Just as we were trying to keep it between a small circle of people, it made sense that Lennox’s dad would keep that information away from the Wainwrights—or the Blaines, I suppose. King Malachi pulled his aura back and gestured for us to continue.

“How did you know Lennox’s dad?” Sebastian asked, walking around her chair in slow, methodical steps.

“He visited our pack several times when I was twenty. He was friends with the beta, and we… We had an understanding of sorts. We would share a bed whenever he visited, and I would expect nothing more from him beyond that.”

“What pack was he from? Was he the alpha or alpha heir? Or a second or later born son?” Seb asked as he continued his circle.

“I don’t know. He never told me. I didn’t even realize he was an alpha until—until I—” She pursed her lips together and blew out a breath through her nose.

“Until you what?” Sebastian snarled, stepping closer and twirling the knife as a subtle reminder of what she would face if she didn’t just keep talking.

“Until I became pregnant with his son. With Lennox.”

I blinked and could feel the surprise ripple through the room at her confession.

“Wait. Lennox was your son?” Haven asked, her eyes wide, her hands trembling in mine.

“Yes. His father came to my pack one last time to break things off with me because he’d found his mate, and she was pregnant, too. I had already met Matthew, and we had marked each other, and I had no desire to continue anything with him. But he still accused me of trying to trap him by getting pregnant with his child, of trying to have his heir first.

“I begged him, told him I would do anything to prove to him that wasn’t true. He made us—Matthew and I—sign a blood contract that we would tell no one from our pack that Lennox was his. And that we would leave the pack and live somewhere that wasn’t near any packs, and we would do anything he asked of us.”

“And you just… just agreed to this?” I asked, looking at Matthew incredulously.

He shrugged. “I was young. I was in love. The mate bond and our marks were still fresh. I didn’t know she was pregnant when she turned twenty-one, and we mated. I just wanted to be with my mate, make her happy, and prove to her that I loved her no matter what. So I agreed.”

“You could have rejected her. Could have had the council come and perform the ritual to separate mates who are already marked,” I told him with a scowl.

“You have your mate. You know what the bond is like. Could you have done what you suggest?”

I glared at him but didn’t reply. I couldn’t give him an answer to that question. Not with Haven’s sweet jasmine scent filling my lungs every time I breathed in. Not with knowing how powerful and overwhelming the mate bond could be.

Even though I suspected ours was stronger than most because of our past and everything we’d been through together and who she was, if he’d felt for Melissa even a fraction of what I did for Haven, then I could understand how that wouldn’t have been an option for him. And he was also a weaker wolf, which would have made the rejection more painful for him and harder to withstand.

Melissa glanced at him with a look of regret and pain. “Continue,” I ordered her. “Continue your story.”

She took in another deep breath. “After a few years, he came back and told us he had a job for us. He said it may be a bit of time before he needed us to begin this job, but we had to be ready. He said if we were successful, he would name Lennox as his heir instead of his true firstborn.

“You see, even though we conceived Lennox first, his mate bore him twins, and since twin pregnancies are shorter, she gave birth first. But he was disappointed in both the children she gave him, feeling that neither would make a decent alpha.

“He took Lennox from me and said he would make sure he was raised properly, raised to be a suitable alpha should we succeed in our task.

“Then, when Lennox was eleven, he returned, and helped us adopt Haven. Gave us the new blood contract. And then I had to watch my son grow up in someone else’s home. Watch them raise him while I raised the girl who he would mate with, all the while hoping he would succeed and become alpha for all our sakes, for everything I had sacrificed.”

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