The Alpha’s Pen Pal (Crescent Lake Book 1)

SEBASTIAN

I twisted my glass back and forth on the tabletop of our VIP booth, leaning back into the darkness of the space, keeping myself hidden from view. I wasn’t drinking my Negroni. Not really, at least. There was too much on my mind to drink.

So much had happened since that day Dad had called Reid and me into his office. What was meant to be just the two of us checking into some rogues turned into a whole ridiculous, drawn-out charade.

My brother was the most miserable I’d ever seen him. Except, perhaps for those weeks leading up to his forced shift and then the months after that, as he adjusted to his lycan and his life without Haven. But I was having a hard time feeling even the slightest bit bad for him. He’d dug his own grave with his choice.

Sure, I understood why he did it. I could respect his reasoning and respect him making that choice to step out of our dad’s shadow and be his own alpha.

But then he stepped right back under the umbrella when Dad told him to ignore Haven and all that bullshit. Not that Dad used those exact words, but that’s basically what he told Wes.

Which was stupid. He could have talked to her. Could have explained what was going on.

I knew they had a “fight.” Which I also knew was code for “I showed her my lycan, and she freaked out.” He hadn’t told me he did, but I figured it out. And I also knew she’d be ready to talk to him quicker than he thought. And she was.

It was all stupid. We could have explained things to Haven over the phone. Or we could have sent Maya back to their apartment to protect her, which wouldn’t have looked weird since they were roommates.

But no. Wesley didn’t have the balls to disobey Dad on that order. More than anything, I wanted to tell him how much of a mistake he was making, but I kept my mouth shut. Because one, he needed to learn for himself, and two, he wouldn’t have listened to me, anyway.

Plus, Dad was still keeping up the guise of the pack being on lockdown because of the “rogues” since he didn’t want to explain what was going on with Pierce to the whole pack.

“Have you heard anything?” Nolan asked me.

I glanced at him. He sat across from me, toying with his own drink and not really drinking it.

The dark circles under his eyes told me enough about how he and his wolf felt about the whole situation. We’d all become protective of Haven when Wesley used to write to her, and even more so now that we’d gotten to meet her.

The way it all ended up playing out thrilled none of us. We just had to hope she would forgive Wesley and his dumbass decisions.

“Nope,” I told him, taking a small swig. “It should all be done by now, but who knows what kind of shit Pierce might try to pull on us.”

Nolan nodded and stared back at his drink, reverting to his own thoughts, the same as we both had been all night.

“Well, hello there, Pretty Boy and Pretty Boy’s friend.”

I lifted my head, and my gaze met two big brown eyes framed with long lashes.

Sarina.

And then, just as quickly as I’d met her eyes, I averted mine, looking over to Nolan to gauge his reception of her. He was the only one of us who hadn’t met her yet.

He didn’t even react to her, though, beyond a nod of his head. “Nolan,” he said to her, holding out his hand so she could shake it.

“Sarina,” she replied, her lips curling into a smile.

She slid into our booth, scooting close to me. I clenched my jaw but stayed in my spot, even though I wanted to scoot away from her.

I wasn’t sure why, but that little rogue drove me crazy. Every interaction we had made my irritation with her jump another level. Maybe because she took me out so easily. It had been a minute since someone had gotten the jump on me like that.

“How’d you get in here?” I asked her, raising a brow. “You’re not even twenty-one.”

“Fake ID,” she said, shrugging her exposed shoulders.

I frowned. We’d need to have a chat with our employees about how to spot a fake.

“Relax, Pretty. It’s not a big deal,” she said, reaching out and patting my cheek.

I shut my eyes and exhaled through my nose, my hand tightening on my glass. When I opened them, she still stared at me, a little smile playing on her full lips.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I grumbled, glaring at her.

“I paid the cover fee, just like everyone else,” she replied, batting those long eyelashes.

As if that would work on me. I wasn’t Reid.

Maybe that was the reason she annoyed me so much. She was literally a female version of Reid. Flirty and touchy and aware of how attractive almost everyone found her.

“I meant up here. VIP area. It’s private,” I grunted.

“We rented the other booth,” she replied.

A small growl vibrated in my chest, and I stared at her. She just stared right back, her lips wrapping around the straw of her pink, fruity, girly drink.

I was ready to tell her to move to her own booth when I got an idea. I glanced at Nolan, then turned to Sarina. “Want to help us with something tonight?”

“I don’t do threesomes,” she replied with a glint in her eyes.

I flinched back, blinked, and shook my head at her. “That’s not even—” She laughed, her chin tilting up to the ceiling and her eyes squeezing shut. I exhaled and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Can you, um… keep an eye on a friend for us?”

She looked between Nolan and me. “Your friend or his?” she asked, turning serious.

“My brother’s,” I told her, and she nodded. “She’s coming here with some friends tonight, and he’s—” I fumbled for the right words to explain the idiotic thing my brother was pretending to do. “He’s otherwise engaged.”

Nolan barked out a laugh, and I rolled my eyes. “That pun was not intended,” I mindlinked him.

“But it was a good one!” He chuckled.

“She’s a redhead. She’ll be here soon with a blonde and a vampire,” I told her, ignoring Nolan.

Her brows raised, and I waved her unspoken question away. “He’s harmless. He’s in the ballet company with her. Can you just… try to observe her from down there?” I nodded at the dance floor with my chin. “Or even try to make friends with her or something? We can’t let her know we’re here.”

“Sure,” Sarina shrugged. “Spot me my drinks?” she added, batting her lashes again.

“They’ll be on the house,” I ground out between my teeth.

“Thanks, Pretty Boy,” she grinned. “I’ll see you later.”

She winked and stood from our booth, leaving her drink behind. She smoothed out her red off-the-shoulder dress as she walked away. I forced myself to look back at my drink instead of watching her walk away like I knew she wanted me to.

“She’s fun.” Nolan smirked after she was gone.

“Hmph,” I grunted, frowning and taking a long swig of my drink.

“I heard Reid tried to make a move on her.”

“She said she’s not his type.”

“Reid’s type is female.”

“That’s what Reid said too,” I told him with a wry chuckle.

“Haven’s here,” the bouncer at the door mindlinked Nolan and me, and we both sat up straighter, moving to have a better view of the club while still staying hidden.

We watched as Haven entered, watched as she went to the bar, and had drinks with her friends. We watched Sarina chatting with Haven and watched them dance together in the mass of people on the floor. Our eyes never left them, tracking Haven’s every move as she celebrated her birthday.

“King Malachi, or whoever he sent, is still running late,” Nolan said as he checked his phone while Haven was on the dance floor with Ramón.

“That’s not good,” I grumbled. “They’re going to have to stall.”

“I know.” Nolan sighed, then put his phone back in his pocket. “At least things are going well here.”

I pressed my fingertips into my forehead and sighed. “Why would you say—”

And just like that, the power went out. Screams echoed through the club, and the sound of racing feet and rushing bodies filled my ears. The clubgoers tried using their phones and flashes to help them see, but we didn’t need to with our enhanced sight.

I jumped to my feet, and so did Nolan, both of us on alert.

“Aren’t there backup generators?” he asked through mindlink so I could hear him over the din.

“There are, but they should have kicked on almost immediately. We wouldn’t have even noticed the switch,” I replied.

We moved to the stairs, hopping down them multiple steps at a time. “Do you have eyes on her?” I asked.

“No,” he growled.

“Take the right half. I’ll take the left,” I said, moving to make my sweep before he even replied.

My eyes never stopped scanning the crowd as I moved through it, trying to find Haven and her friends. The panic level in the club made my lycan growl in my mind, even though he’d been quiet all evening like he usually was. That was my first clue that something was off.

“Sarina!” I called as I saw her little red dress moving through the crowd.

Her eyes landed on me, and I grabbed her hand, pulling her close. My hands gripped her shoulders, and I bent low so I could talk to her in her ear.

“Haven?” I asked her, hoping she knew who I meant even though I’d never said her name. They’d been dancing together, so I assumed Haven introduced herself.

“Haven’t seen her,” she replied, pressing her body closer to mine as people jostled her and pushed by to get to the exit.

I clenched my jaw as she invaded my space but focused on the task at hand. “If you see her or any of her friends, get them to my car.”

“The black SUV?”

I didn’t even bother to ask how she knew. I just nodded and then gave her shoulders a squeeze before pushing her along with the crowd.

I stared after her until she disappeared into the throng, standing in place, then let my eyes search the crowd again.

“She was over here, by the alley door,” Nolan linked me. “I can smell her scent.”

“How do you know it’s hers?” I asked.

“I just do,” he answered.

I prayed to Selene he was right and moved to where he waited for me at the alley door. As soon as I got there, we slammed through the door together and rushed outside.

The scene that greeted us in the alley was grisly. An unfamiliar lycan had Haven pinned on the ground, his canines extended and sinking into Haven’s marking spot over and over, so hard it was tearing straight through her skin.

Nolan shifted into his wolf, ripping his clothes without a care, and tackled the wolf off of Haven and further into the alley.

I removed my button-up without undoing the buttons, sending them pinging off the walls and the dumpster, but I didn’t care because Haven was more important than my shirt. Her body lay bleeding and crumpled on the ground, and I feared the worst.

I knelt next to her on the ground, watching her eyes as they fluttered, and I sighed in relief. She was alive, but I didn’t know the extent of the damage done to her, or how much blood she had lost, or how much a human could lose before it was too much.

I pressed my shirt to her wound, trying to stem the blood flow. We’d need to take her to the pack hospital. There was no way we could take her to a human one—they’d ask too many questions, and then we’d have to get the king and witches involved, and it would be a whole mess.

My hands shook as I held the fabric against her wound. Her eyes fluttered, and her breathing was shallow.

“Come on, Haven,” I murmured, afraid if she passed out, that would be it. The end. “Haven, you have to stay with me. Just—just hold on, Sparkles.”

“That fucker got away,” Nolan growled in my mind. “I would have gone after him, but I didn’t want to leave you vulnerable.”

I turned to see him trotting back towards me down the alley. “Damn it.” I sighed. “Wes is not going to like that.”

“I think we have bigger things to worry about than that right now,” he replied. “Like getting her back to the pack before she bleeds out.”

“I know! I know, I’m working on it!” I yelled.

We both turned to Haven as I tried to figure out what to do. Her eyes were open, barely, and she was hanging on, but it was getting more and more difficult for her.

“I could run with her?” I suggested, but Nolan’s wolf shook his head.

“It’s too far,” Sarina’s voice said from behind me.

I turned to find her standing there with Riven, plus Ramón and Imogen.

“OH MY GOD!” Imogen screamed as her eyes landed on Haven. “Oh my god, you have to get her to the hospital!!”

“We’re trying,” I told her.

“Get that wolf away from her!” she shrieked.

“He didn’t attack her. A lycan did!” I yelled. “Ramón, can you explain, please?”

“Yep,” he replied, then he pulled Imogen to the side and started whispering in her ear, her eyes growing wider and her face growing paler with each second.

“Here,” Sarina said, “You can’t run from here, but you can run from our campsite.”

She glanced at her friend, then handed me a light purplish pink gemstone. It was warm to the touch and smelled of incense and smoke.

A transport stone. From a witch.

“How’d you get this?” I asked her.

“The less you know, the better,” she said. “It will take you to my campsite, and then you can run to your pack’s hospital from there,” she told me.

I reached into my pocket, grabbed my keys, and tossed them to her. “Take them all to the pack. I’ll let the guards know you’re coming.”

I turned back to Haven. “I’ll need to lift you up,” I murmured. “It might hurt, and I’m sorry, but it’s the only way we can get you to the pack in enough time.”

Her eyes rolled, and her face was pale, but she nodded. I grabbed her, holding her close to my chest as I stood, and she let out a strangled, hoarse whimper.

“I’m so sorry, Sparkles,” I muttered.

Nolan whined and nudged her hand with his nose, and I turned to Sarina. “How many can it take?”

“It will take all three of you,” she said, her eyes on Nolan as he continued to nuzzle against Haven. “Go!” she urged.

I nodded and swallowed, then tossed the stone in the air and caught it. The world swirled around us, blurring into a melting pot of colors. Then, slowly the colors blended back into place, and we stood off to the left of Sarina’s campsite.

Once the world stopped moving, I tucked Haven in closer to me and took off towards the pack hospital at a full sprint, leaving Nolan behind me as he worked to catch up.

Haven continued to tense and whimper in my arms. I hated that she was hurting, but I was also happy she was making noise at all, because that told me she was still conscious. Hopefully, that meant the wound from her attacker wasn’t as bad as we thought, but I wasn’t taking any chances, and I pushed my body to its limits.

I burst through the doors of the pack clinic with a clatter and a shout. The on-duty nurses froze for a moment when they saw me with Haven in my arms, but they quickly broke into action, moving faster than I had ever seen them move.

One of them waved me forward, leading me to a room.

“She’s human,” I breathed as we walked through the door. “Another lycan attacked her. He was biting her marking spot. I think his lycan was trying to mark her.”

Not that it would have worked. We could only mark a mate in our human forms. But something had set that lycan off and made him attack her, made him think he needed to stake his claim as a beast instead of a human.

I moved to the bed and laid her down as carefully as I could, but her arms clung to me, her eyes staring into mine. They were desperate and wide, but she had to let go so they could take care of her.

“It’s okay,” I reassured her, brushing her hair out of her face. “You’re safe.”

“Wes,” she mouthed to me, and I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded.

“He’ll be here,” I whispered, opening my eyes again to meet hers. “I promise.”

Her grip on me relaxed, and she let go. Her eyes still had that deer-in-the-headlights look, but she laid back on the bed and held still as the nurses did what they needed to do.

“She’s very important to the future alpha,” I told the nurses as I put my hand on the doorknob.

They all nodded, understanding the warning I wasn’t saying out loud—don’t fuck this up.

I stepped out of the room, and as I walked back to the waiting room, I opened a mindlink to my dad, my mom, Reid, and Wesley.

“You need to come help me. Now.”

There wasn’t even half a second between the end of my link and the beginning of Wes’s response.

“Why? What’s going on?” he rushed out.

I hesitated for a moment, but I knew I had to tell him. If I didn’t, he’d be more pissed. “It’s Haven.”