Page 125 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

Their tents were small, and they seemed to have little with them, but everything looked clean and in good shape. It was clear they took care of their supplies, unlike rogues, who were irrational and reckless.

“I guess you could say we’re like our own little pack,” she answered, her head cocked to the side as she thought. “We just don’t have a territory like you. We travel around, taking odd jobs here and there. Helping out packs when we can, and then moving on once our time is up.”

“What about your families?” he asked, his brow furrowed as he looked at her. “You can’t be, what, more than twenty years old?”

“Nineteen,” she muttered, avoiding his surprised stare.

“Damn,” Reid breathed out, his eyes not so subtly scanning over her body and landing back on her face.

Sebastian gave him a sharp look, then turned back to Sarina as he sat on one of the empty chairs by the fire. “Your parents?”

“They took a longer-term job in the last place we stayed. They’ll join back up with us once that’s over,” she told him with a shrug. “We’re pretty used to it,” she added. “Some of us stay longer in one place, but we eventually find each other again.”

The rest of her little rag-tag group nodded their agreement.

“And what brings you here? To this part of California?” Seb asked.

“Just passing through, like I said.”

They locked eyes and just stared at each other for a long moment. I stood up from my spot against the tree, glancing between them, trying to gauge what exactly was going on with their stare-down.

“So, how long are you in town for?” Reid asked with a smirk, breaking the tension.

His eyes lingered on her chest, where the swell of her breasts was visible under her tank top, before moving back up to her face.

Sebastian and I both groaned, my head falling back against the tree trunk. Sarina raised a dark brow at him, a smile playing at her full lips.

“You should listen to your friend,” she said, flicking her eyes to Seb and then back to Reid, leaning forward to rest her arms on her legs. “I’m definitely not your type.”

I laughed out loud at the look of shock on Reid’s face, and Sebastian just shook his head as his shoulders trembled with his restrained laugh.

“We should get back to Dad,” he said, his voice shaking. “Let him know they’re not rogues and that they didn’t mean to cross our borders.”

He stood and crossed to Reid and me, and Sarina smiled and waved at us as we walked away. “See you around, pretty boys.”

CHAPTER 43

HAVEN

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

“Hello, you have reached Wesley Stone. I am currently unavailable—”

I hung up before the mailbox greeting could finish. I didn’t need to hear it. I’d heard it at least one hundred times since Sunday.

“Happy fucking birthday to me,” I muttered, tossing the phone on my bed and plopping down on my back.

It had been five days since I’d seen Wesley. Five days since I’d spoken to him. Five days since he’d held me in his arms. I’d taken my time, thinking through every emotion and thought and concern I had about what Wesley revealed to me after our unbelievable night together.

The initial shock, the initial bombshell of him being a werewolf—alycan—wore off quickly. The fear of seeing that enormous, monstrous thing in place of my Wesley dissipated faster than I’d have thought possible.

And left in its place was anger. Anger and irritation that he’d lied to me. That they had all lied to me.

I could understand not telling me when we were kids. How would he have told me back then, anyway? Dear Haven, by the way, I’m a werewolf? I’d have thought he was either crazy or joking.

I could even understand him not telling me before our first date. But after? There had been so many opportunities for him to let me in, to let me know the truth or to show me the truth instead of letting our relationship start with lies.

He’d even called himself my boyfriend before I’d realized that’s what he was to me, what I thought of him as. If he’d considered himself my boyfriend, then he should have told me. It wasn’t too much to ask for him to be honest with me.

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