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

HAVEN

I was exhausted. More than exhausted. I was so fatigued I couldn’t even think of a word to describe how tired I was.

I wasn’t even sure of the time, although I knew it was still Sunday. Or perhaps the wee hours of Monday.

But my mind kept drifting back to the enormous, incredibly comfortable bed in our room at our house. I kept thinking about sinking into its plushness. About wrapping the fluffy duvet around me as I placed my head on the feathery pillows and about snuggling up close to my Wesley as I drifted off to sleep with his arms around me.

My Wesley. My mate.

He must have sensed my exhaustion because he’d seated us on the couch in his dad’s office instead of in the chairs across from his desk. Even Harrison sat on the arm on the far edge of the couch, a glass bottle of beer in his hand that he sipped at while we talked.

Wesley explained everything to his dad, including all Lennox had told them the first time they’d spoken with him. Tortured him.

I shifted in my seat, my cheeks heating as I remembered my reaction to Wesley’s brutality towards Lennox at the end. I didn’t know what came over me, but my reaction to that side of him was visceral. Primal.

I wasn’t sure what that said about me—that I found his violence, dominance, and possessiveness sexy. But I didn’t care.

Perhaps it was because he still regarded me as a person, as my own being. It wasn’t a possessiveness that owned, that commanded, but a possessiveness that cherished and consumed. It was a possession of equality—he was mine as much as I was his. And it was a mutual possession. I wanted everyone to know he belonged to me. And I’d never wanted that with anyone else.

“He claimed he didn’t know how his dad knew who she was,” Wesley told his dad with a sigh.

“What I was,” I corrected him. “He kept referring to me as a ‘what’ instead of a ‘who.’”

Twin growls played in surround sound in my ears. One from Wesley on my right and one from his dad on my left.

“We should kill him again,” Wesley snarled, moving his arm from the back of the couch to around my shoulders, pulling me further into his body.

Harrison huffed out a small laugh and shook his head.

“I’m not sorry he’s dead,” Wesley said. “I won’t apologize for letting him die. For letting Nolan kill him.”

“And I’m not asking you to,” Harrison replied. “I gave you full control of the situation with him, full control of his interrogation. It was your luna, your mate, who he attacked after all. And I am proud of how you defended your pack and your luna,” he said.

“I’m sensing a but.” Wesley sighed.

“But,” Harrison said with a slight grin and a wink at me. “We could have gotten more answers from him.”

“Like what?” I asked. “And how? Wesley said Lennox’s dad had alpha commanded him not to tell. I thought those couldn’t be broken?”

“We could have found out where the Wainwrights disappeared to and why,” Harrison told me.

I looked at Wesley and his eyes were huge. “Fuck,” he breathed, rubbing his face with his free hand.

“What’s he talking about, Wes?”

“When you told me about the things your parents did when you were growing up, I asked my dad to look into them. He found nothing incriminating, but I asked him to check again, and he did. And when he checked again, we found they’d left their house and completely disappeared. Off-grid.”

I blew out a slow breath, and Wesley rushed out, “I didn’t tell you because it was during your performances, and I didn’t want to cause a distraction. And then… well…”

And then things went to shit. But it didn’t matter that he hadn’t told me. Because, one, I had decided they weren’t worth my time and energy by that point anyway, and two, there were bigger things to worry about.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, taking his hand. “And if he couldn’t tell you about their real last name or their pack, then I doubt he’d have been able to tell you that either,” I reassured him.

“Frederick had the king on standby, ready to step in if needed,” Harrison told us. “He could have lifted the alpha command on him. He could have found out if Lennox was telling the truth about not knowing how they learned Haven’s identity.”

Wesley stiffened next to me, his eyes darting to his dad.

“It’s better this way, though,” Wesley muttered. “Yes, we would have gotten those answers from him about her birthday and their parents’ real names and packs, but…” He paused and looked down at me, where I sat tucked safely into his side, and I reached up to place my palm on his chest. “But I think it’s better if we keep her identity a secret,” he finished.

“And why is that?” Harrison asked him over the lip of his beer bottle.

Wesley frowned. “Well, people have already tried to use her—have been using her. Hiding her away and promising their son she would be his mate, so he could be an alpha. Imagine what would happen if more werewolves knew? If the entire world knew? There would be wolves, lycans, and other supernaturals after her from even the far reaches of the globe. Others who would want to use her or claim her or…”

His jaw clenched, and his eyes darkened, and he didn’t finish his sentence, but I knew what he didn’t want to say out loud. That someone might try to kill me.

“The best way I can protect her is if we don’t tell anyone who she is. Or at least, anyone outside our family. Those who need to know,” Wesley concluded.

“Plus, we don’t even know for sure that I am Selene’s daughter,” I pointed out. “No reason to get everyone all excited about something that probably isn’t even true.”

“Haven…” Wes groaned.

“What? There is no proof. No conclusive evidence.”

“Your blanket?”

“Coincidence.” I shrugged.

“Lennox was convinced—”

“Yes, because his dad brainwashed him his entire life to believe if he marked me as his mate, he would be stronger and could be an alpha,” I said, exasperated. “You’re really going to take the word of a psychopath who attacked me in an alley over legitimate facts and science? Over the DNA test that confirmed I am just human?” I argued. “I mean, obviously, I don’t know what kind of tests you have that can detect supernatural DNA or whatever, but wouldn’t that show up?”

Harrison’s lip twitched as he watched Wes and I go back and forth with our arguments. “We can ask Doctor Russo to clarify that for us,” he suggested.

Wes furrowed his brow. “That would mean telling another person,” he said.

“True, but Maya and Levi already know. And I trust Doctor Russo as much as I trust my beta, gamma, and delta,” Harrison replied.

Wes sighed. “All right. Go ahead and call him.”

Harrison walked to his desk and picked up his phone.

“Can’t he do that mindlink thing?” I asked Wesley while his dad spoke to the doctor.

“Yes, but Doctor Russo prefers phone calls. In case he’s in surgery or something. That way, he’s not distracted from his work.”

“That makes sense.” I nodded. “Will I be able to do that? Mindlink?”

He blinked at me. “I-I don’t know,” he admitted with a shake of his head.

“You’ll be able to mindlink her, Wes, but she won’t be able to reply,” Harrison said as he set his phone down. “Doctor Russo will be here in a few minutes,” he added.

Wes and I both nodded, and I leaned back into his warmth, closing my eyes and soaking in his presence and comfort.

He put his arms all the way around my body, squeezing me as he placed a kiss on the top of my head. “Are you all right?” he whispered into my hair.

“It’s been a wild couple of days since Friday,” I replied. “My brain feels like mush, and I am beyond exhausted. I just want to go home, curl up in our bed with you, and sleep for a week,” I admitted.

“Whatever you want, Sugar Plum,” he said. “We can do whatever you want. After we get some answers, okay?”

I just nodded and kept my eyes closed with my head on his chest. His hand cradled my face, his thumb rubbing against my cheek as he pressed another kiss to my head and inhaled.

The knock on the office door jolted me from my snoozing state. The warmth of Wesley’s body and his delicious scent had lulled me into a light sleep, and I shook myself and rubbed my eyes as Doctor Russo walked in.

“Thank you for coming to speak with us even at this late hour,” Harrison told him as they shook hands.

“It’s no problem,” the doctor replied. “I’m always happy to help. What did you need to know?”

“When you tested Haven’s blood, what exactly did you test for?” Wesley asked him, taking my hand in his and rubbing his thumb across my knuckles.

“Everything?” Doctor Russo chuckled. “There is a whole grocery list of supernatural types we test for when we run it. Why do you ask?”

“Does it test for… divinity? If someone has the blood of the gods?” Wesley asked.

Doctor Russo laughed, his head thrown back to the ceiling. But when the three of us didn’t join him, he stopped. “Oh, you’re serious?”

Wesley nodded, and the doctor rubbed his head. “I… don’t think so? I don’t know the last time there was a record of a deity or a demigod among us. I don’t think the DNA test can check for that. And like I told you, her results showed she is completely human. There wasn’t even a hint of something odd about her DNA.”

“Could someone suppress that DNA by spells or magic, though?” Wes asked. “Like a witch trying to hide her? Maybe Lennox’s dad or her adoptive parents had her spelled so no one would notice the strange DNA?”

“As far as I know, there are no spells capable of that,” he said with a shake of his head. “A witch could hide her if you tried to search for her using human means or even magical means if it was a powerful witch. But they can’t suppress or alter someone’s genes.”

Wesley blew out a breath of frustration. “Well, then, how are we going to figure this out? How are we going to know for sure if she is Selene’s daughter? How am I supposed to know when to mark her?” he ranted, speaking to no one in particular.

Doctor Russo’s head snapped to me. “Wait… are you saying… she’s—”

“No. We’re not saying that. I’m just human like you said. They’re going off of the word of my addled ex-boyfriend who was told that’s who I was,” I said.

“We don’t know for sure either way,” Wes pointed out. “There is a reason his dad believes you’re Selene’s daughter. He didn’t just find a random human and say, ‘Ah yes, this one must be Selene’s promised daughter.’”

“Okay, well then, how do you suggest we figure out the answer? Call his dad? ‘Hello, Mr. Shelton. Sorry to bother you, but would you please tell us why you think Haven is a demigod?’”

“His parents are gone too,” Harrison told me. “We didn’t look into them before because we didn’t know about them. But after we learned Lennox was a lycan too, we did. It seems they disappeared around the same time as the Wainwrights.”

“So we’re back at square one, then,” I said, shrugging.

“Not necessarily,” Doctor Russo said slowly. “There is one other thing you can try.”

“And what’s that?” Wes asked.

“Visiting the oracles,” he answered.

“The oracles? Like… Ancient Greece, Oedipus Rex, oracle at Delphi oracles??” I asked, my voice rising.

“Yes,” Harrison answered.

My jaw hit the floor. Wesley laughed and placed his finger under my chin to close my mouth.

“I told you, all the stories are based on truth.” He chuckled. “And Doctor Russo is right. The werewolf oracles in Greece can talk to Selene sometimes. If Selene wishes to speak to them. They may be able to find the answers we need.”

I swallowed and blinked back my disbelief and shock. It seemed, with each hour that passed, I became more entrenched in this magical, mystical world I never realized existed. And even if I wanted to, there was no escaping it. I was stuck in it for good.

“All right.” I sighed. “It looks like we’re going to Greece.”