Page 27 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

“What happened to her?” I snarled, my fists clenching.

“Jack had a stroke. He’s been in the hospital this whole time, and she’s been switching between staying at Scott and Tiffany’s houses, so they didn’t see your letters until today.” His voice was way too calm for my liking.

“Okay?” I said. “Can’t we help? Send them some money, or recommend a doctor? You know people!” I exclaimed, gesturing wildly.

“We did offer that,” he said. “They are… thinking about it.”

“What does any of that have to do with Haven, though?” I asked. “I gave her my number. Why doesn’t she just call me?” Dad glanced at my mom over the top of my head. “What aren’t you telling me?” I demanded.

“Wes—”

“TELL ME!” I growled, and then I flinched back, blinking.

But my dad didn’t react to my outburst. He just looked me straight in the eye and said, “They put her in a new home. With a new family.”

I stared at him. I just stood there in the office and stared at him. There was no way I heard him right.

Why would they take her from them? Just because Jack was in the hospital for a bit? She was happy there—she wasthrivingthere. They wouldn’t just take her from the first place that felt like home to her. Would they?

“What?” I asked.

“They placed her with a new family,” he said again with the patience of a saint.

“But why? Why would they do that? She was healthy and happy and home!”

Dad blew out a breath and tried to speak, but I kept going. “They’ll put her back, though, right? It’s just temporary until Jack gets better? Right? That’s why they called? To let us know that we won’t be able to reach her until Jack gets better and she can come home?”

“No, Wes.” My dad shook his head and ran his hand over his face. “She snuck out of Scott’s house and walked all the way to the hospital one night to see Jack. Scott didn’t even know she was gone until the cops called him and told him she was at the hospital. Social services felt it was no longer a safe place for her. So they found a new placement.”

My brain and my heart both went a mile a minute. I thought my heart would leap out of my chest with how fast it pounded. But my brain was already working overtime, already working to come up with a solution to this fresh problem in front of me.

“Okay, so what can we do?” I asked. “How can we help them? They’re going to try to get her back, right?”

“They were planning to adopt her before… all this happened,” Mom whispered. “They are still planning to try, but with this most recent incident, and with… other things going on, they likely won’t get approved.”

“But… but we have money and connections, right? We can help them?”

“It doesn’t work that way, Wesley. Money can’t fix everything. We can help them get a lawyer, but we can’t force the system to let them adopt her,” she said as she walked to me and placed her hands on my shoulders.

“Then what good is having all this money if we can’t use it to help her?! What’s the fucking point of our connections and our money?!”

“Wesley!” my mom scolded, but my dad held his hand out to stop her.

“There has to be something we can do!” I exclaimed, my eyes watering and my voice shaking as I tore myself from her grasp. “I won’t accept that there is nothing we can do.”

“We are doing everything we can. Everything we legally can,” my dad clarified. “And Felix and Fiona are also going to try to adopt her. They’ve always wanted another pup, but Fiona isn’t able to have more.”

“So she’ll be Nolan’s sister?” I asked.

My dad nodded. “If they are able to adopt her, then yes. She’d be Nolan’s sister.”

“But she’s a human?” I pointed out. “How will that work?”

“We’ll have to get approval from the king and the council. Fiona is already on the phone with them.”

“But she’ll know what we are?”

My dad nodded. “Yes. We’d be able to tell her.”

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