Page 39 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

“This is Crescent Lake,” I stated.

She gaped at me and then looked around at everything—the houses, the trees, the mountains, and then finally, the lake.

“Oh my gosh,” she breathed. “I didn’t even realize. I—“

“You didn’t know?” I chuckled, using her slight distraction to step closer to her.

“No. I didn’t ever ask Maya the name of her hometown,” she admitted, blushing.

“Or check a map?” I teased, crossing my arms over my chest.

It didn’t escape my notice that her eyes flickered over to my arms, where my biceps bulged against the tight hem of my short sleeves. I held in my chuckle and my smirk, and held back my lycan, who was paying very close attention to her every move and every expression.

She rolled her eyes at my teasing. “I haven’t had a chance to do much exploring or anything. I just moved here a few months ago when I was offered a position in this new—“

“Ballet company,” I said in unison with her, remembering that last piece of information about Maya—that she made costumes for the new ballet company in the city down the mountain.

“Yeah,” she breathed, blinking at me and swallowing. “You remembered?” she whispered.

“Of course I remembered,” I murmured, my arms dropping from my chest.

I lifted my hand up to touch her face, but then thought better of it and ran it through my hair.

“I still can’t believe this is real,” she said with a soft laugh, shaking her head again, her hair falling out from where she’d tucked it back. “I mean, of all the places for me to end up, of all the ballet companies in the entire world for me to choose from, what are the odds that the one I get a job with is less than an hour from where you live?”

“What are the odds, indeed?” I mused, my eyes lingering on her face as I tried to decipher the look she gave me. “Listen, I—“

“Wesley! You are wasting precious, prime moonlight time!” Reid called out, his footsteps moving closer to us. “Sorry, lovely lady,” he said with a quick look at Haven. “I need to steal this beast of a man away to…”

He did a double take as his words trailed off, then he pointed at her. “OH MY FUCKING GODDESS, IT’S YOU!” he shouted.

Haven just stared at him, her face blank. I cringed and tried to mindlink Reid to shut the fuck up, but he was too oblivious.

“IT’S YOU! YOU’RE REALLY HERE! HERE, IN CRESCENT—“

Sebastian cut Reid’s words off by smacking his hand over his mouth, pulling him away as he mouthed “Sorry!” to Haven and me. They both moved over to where Nolan stood, and as he uncovered Reid’s mouth, we heard him say, “Nolan! Did you see who’s here?!”

Nolan nodded and smiled awkwardly, lifting his hand to wave at Haven.

“Did he just say goddess?” Haven asked.

Of course. Of course, that’s what she noticed.

“Just ignore Reid. He’s wild. I think he had too many cookies,” I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder at the party. “I always tell him to limit the desserts, but he never listens. I blame the sprinkles, to be honest. The cookies are bad enough, but when you add the sprinkles, that’s just way too much sugar for him.”

Oh, my goddess, I was rambling to her. Again. Only, instead of rambling in a letter on a piece of paper, I was doing it out loud in front of her. She continued staring at me, and I tried to smile, even though I was dying of embarrassment on the inside.

I wasn’t that guy. I wasn’t the awkward rambling fumbling around girls guy. I was the confident, easy-going, smooth guy. For fuck’s sake, I was an alpha. Why did I turn into a blundering dumbass in front of her? Her, of all people.

“Anyway,” I said, giving a small laugh, trying to push through the hopefully not-that-awkward moment.

Her lips twitched with a slight laugh, and I breathed an inner sigh of relief. Laughter was at least better than her judging me in silence. I glanced behind me towards my friends and sent them all a mindlink.

“You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up in a bit.”

“Take your time, Wes,“ Sebastian replied, laughing.

“Seriously, I won’t be long,”I told him.

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