Page 232 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

“That is a good point,” I linked back.

“This is so strange.” She chuckled, shaking her head and speaking out loud.

“Strange? It’s fantastic! Now you can reply to me, and if there is an emergency, I won’t have to wonder or worry about if you heard me or not. You can just tell me,” I said, moving my hand to her face.

“I know.” She sighed. “I wanted a way for us to be more connected. That’s another reason I asked for this and not something else. That’s why I—”

She stopped and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Why you what?” I whispered.

“Why I told Selene to not gift me with immortality,” she confessed, her voice almost inaudible.

“What?” I breathed, my hand tensing against her face.

“She offered me immortality, but I turned it down.”

“You… you gave that up? Why?”

“I don’t want to outlive you, Wesley. I don’t want to stay like this while you grow old. I don’t want to watch you die and spend eternity missing you and your touch and your bossiness and your awkward rambling when you get nervous,” she said, tears falling from her eyes.

My thumb caught them, wiping them away before they could stain her pale skin. Her hands moved from my arms, lingering on her tattoo mark on my neck before stopping, resting on my muscled chest, where my heart beat a rapid rhythm as I listened to her speak.

“You said you’d give your pack and your title up for me. I gave up eternal life for you,” she choked out. “Even the thought of that life, the mere idea of living that long without you by my side, is too painful, too overwhelming. To actually live it, experience it…” She shook her head. “I couldn’t. I couldn’t do that. It would end up breaking me.”

A hurricane of emotions hit me, both mine and hers fusing to create a storm of conflicting feelings. But the strongest one from both of us was love.

I covered her mouth with mine, pouring every ounce of my love for her into the kiss. There weren’t enough words in existence to explain or describe my feelings about what she’d told me, what she’d given up to live a full life with me.

So I did the next best thing. I showed her. I showed her with my kisses and my touch. I made love to her, using my body to tell her what my words couldn’t, holding her close as a reminder of where I would always remain—by her side and in her heart.

CHAPTER 80

SIX MONTHS LATER: MAY

HAVEN

Spring in Crescent Lake was just as beautiful as I imagined. The spring festival the pack held on the shore of the lake every year—the one he’d written to me about in the letter I never received—was a blast. I ate more food than I should have and stayed up way too late dancing with Wesley and all our friends and family. And in the early hours of the morning, after we’d gone home, my mate held me close and made love to me, whispering to me and caressing me with the same care and tenderness he’d shown me on our first night together.

That was all a few weeks ago. Now, we were gathered by the shore of the lake again, but for a different reason.

For Wesley’s alpha ceremony. For him and his friends and brother to take over the pack. And for me to become the luna.

It was still strange to think of myself as a leader of a pack of wolves. But in the short time I had been with Wesley and been living in the pack, I’d found more acceptance and love than almost anywhere I’d lived before.

Wesley, Reid, Nolan, and Sebastian all stood in front of the pack. Wesley stood forward with the three others at his back, the water of the lake rippling behind them from the breeze. I stood off to the side of the ceremony area with Maddie and Luna Emily, her fingers laced with mine and her hand giving my trembling hand a gentle squeeze. Reid’s dad and Nolan’s parents stood in front of the rest of the pack, all smiling up at their sons.

It was to be a private ceremony, a ceremony held only for members of the pack. I had asked about inviting the king and his family, as well as Alpha Benjamin and Sarina and her nomad friends, but Wesley informed me their tradition for the ceremony was pack members only.

It worked out for the better, anyway. Sarina and her friends had left just days before the ceremony. They had hung around to help Ben find the rest of the members loyal to his father, who had fled during the transition and after Wes had killed Pierce. Then one morning, they were just gone; the clearing erased of any trace of them, even their scents.

And Ben was gone on another trip to the royal palace in Hawaii to bring them more evidence of the drug his father had created and sold. So he wouldn’t have been available, even if he could attend.

Not even Shirley and Jack could attend. I was disappointed, but they were both gracious and understanding.

Wesley’s eyes slid to me, his lips tipping up as he looked at me in my light purple dress, the same dress I’d worn the night of the company’s premiere. I returned his smile, and then he turned his attention back to his father as Harrison began speaking.

“Crescent Lake family,” Harrison began, addressing the pack standing on the shore. “We are all gathered today to witness the transfer of power from our current leadership to the next generation. As is tradition, we have waited until our future alpha found his mate and marked her before we give him the reins.

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