The Alpha’s Pen Pal (Crescent Lake Book 1)
The Alpha’s Pen Pal: Chapter 24

WESLEY

I choked on my spit and glared at Reid, who was standing in a T-shirt and his boxers. In my kitchen. Holding a bag of Cheetos.

“How does everyone keep breaking into my house?” I asked.

Reid scoffed. “Please, I’ve had a key since your first week living here.”

“But you always knock when you come over.”

“Yeah, but that’s cause I know you’re here,” he said with an eye roll. He lifted the Cheeto bag at me. “Glad to see you upped your snack game.”

“Yeah, you can thank Maddie for that,” I grumbled.

“Oh, I already did.” He laughed.

I rubbed my forehead to hide my annoyance at replaceing him here after my date. My very successful date.

“How’d you know that was the Sugar Plum Fairy music?” I asked, to avoid lashing out at him.

“Really? We only watched The Nutcracker like… a bazillion times that Christmas. Not to mention all the times you listened to the music when you were writing Haven letters.” Reid chuckled and shook his head. “As if I could ever forget any of those tunes.”

My lips twitched at that. We did watch it more than a handful of times. The first time was out of curiosity after we’d sent her the tickets. The rest of the times—well, there was something magical about it, especially at Christmastime.

“How was your date?” he asked with a Cheshire cat grin.

“Good.” I smiled to myself as I remembered all the little moments I shared with Haven that evening, specifically that sweet kiss that held a promise of what would come if I stayed the course. “Very good,” I amended. “Great, actually.”

He kept smiling as he crumpled the bag up and tossed it into the trash, licking his cheese fingers as he did.

“Night, Nutcracker Prince.” He smirked, then ducked down the hall to the spare bedroom to avoid my wrath from his teasing.

I laughed, though, once I heard the door click shut. I would be the Nutcracker Prince if it meant Haven was my Sugar Plum Fairy.

With that thought, I made my way to my bedroom, praying to the Goddess for visions of my Sugar Plum dancing in my head while I slept.

MY HIGH FROM OUR date lasted through the weekend and into the next week. The growing restlessness from my lycan seemed to ebb, and I felt as if I had more energy, almost as if I were a pup again. There was an extra bounce to my step, and I even had to work at keeping my face straight and serious when I was dealing with the newly shifted wolves during their training.

I’d taken her to brunch on Sunday. Not anything fancy, just coffee and breakfast sandwiches at Brewed Awakenings, but since it was late morning by the time we made it over there, Haven insisted it was fancier to call it brunch as opposed to late breakfast or early lunch.

I’d also picked her up from rehearsal on Tuesday on my way back to the pack from work. It was a quick “Hi” and “Bye” type thing. I would have stayed longer, but it was pack dinner night, so I needed to be back to get ready and be there with my dad as the future alpha. But I had to see her, even if it was just for a few minutes, so I took the slight detour to do just that.

Beyond that, we talked on the phone or texted. Mostly texting since she was so busy getting ready for her upcoming premiere with the company on Friday.

Which was exactly what I was doing Wednesday morning as I made my way to the packhouse to work with my dad.

Me: Good Morning, Twinkle Toes

Sugar Plum: It’s like… 10 a.m.

Me: Would you have preferred I texted you at 5 when I first woke up?

Sugar Plum: … no

Me: That’s what I thought

Sugar Plum: *eye roll emoji*

Me: When does rehearsal start?

Sugar Plum: Soon.

She sent me a picture of her reflection in the studio mirror. She sat with her legs extended in front of her, her feet pointed in her pointe shoes and crossed at the ankles. Her red curls were up in a big messy bun on the top of her head, and she wore a long-sleeved purple leotard with a high neckline in the front and a black skirt.

Her smile was what caught my eye, though. It was bright and cheery, with hardly a trace of the sadness that had been there when we were kids.

Me: Beautiful

Sugar Plum: Don’t even. I look like an exhausted pigeon.

Me: But a beautiful exhausted pigeon 😉

Sugar Plum: I have to work now. I will talk to you later.

Me: Bye, Twinkle Toes.

I stuck my phone in my pocket and walked into my dad’s office to replace him looking at me over his fingertips with a glint in his eyes. He and my mom had both been thrilled when I told them Haven was here in California.

They’d wanted me to bring her over for dinner right away, but I didn’t want to overwhelm Haven that much yet. I knew they’d ask her question after question and be way too overenthusiastic about everything, so I figured waiting a bit for that moment was better.

“How’s Haven?”

“Tired, but good. The premiere this weekend has them all working double time to get everything perfect. Especially Haven. She puts a lot of pressure on herself,” I replied as I sat in the chair on the other side of his desk.

We were both working from the packhouse instead of in one of our offices in the city. He’d said he had something confidential to discuss with me, which usually meant pack business. The best part about working from the packhouse was that I could dress down, so today I was in jeans, a black T-shirt, and some Nikes.

“What did we need to discuss?” I asked, getting straight to business.

I wanted to get everything taken care of quickly so I could spend time with Haven in the evening after stopping by Jack and Shirley’s with her. She would be tired, but we didn’t need to do anything crazy. I’d be fine just staying in with her for the evening and watching a movie or something.

My dad tossed a manila folder across the desk to me.

“Is this—”

“Yes,” he answered before I could finish.

I snatched it up and began reading it, flipping through the pages, hoping to replace something incriminating within them.

My brows furrowed as I scanned the documents, then I went back and started at the beginning, looking at everything with more attention and care.

“How is this possible?” I growled after I’d read through everything at least twice.

I’d spread out all the pages on my dad’s desk in front of me. There weren’t as many as I had thought there would be, and none of them held what I hoped for.

“That’s what they found.”

“Nothing? You’re telling me they found nothing? Not even a parking ticket or a late fee on a credit card?” I asked.

“They’re clean. Clean as a whistle.”

“Clearly they paid someone off to wipe their records or something,” I growled. “They’re lawyers, so I’m sure they know people and have the money to do that.”

“Wesley, look, I know you were hoping we would replace something on Haven’s adoptive parents, but the fact is that we didn’t replace anything.”

“Look harder,” I said, tossing the empty folder onto the desk.

“I can’t replace something that isn’t there, Wes,” he said.

“You could if you dug deeper,” I retorted. “But let me guess—you don’t want to get your hands dirty.”

“Wesley,” he warned.

“No, I get it. You have your priorities. Once again, you’ve made that very clear.”

“That’s not it, and you know it!”

We stared at each other, both of us focusing on releasing our aura into the room. As pissed as I was with him and his ridiculous logic and stupidly high standards, he was still my alpha, and he was still stronger than me.

I looked down, submitting to him, but a growl of displeasure left my chest as I did.

“Did you check the registry?” I asked him through gritted teeth.

“Yes. No record of a Matthew and Melissa Wainwright on the shifter or witch registry.”

“They could be unregistered,” I said.

“They could be,” he agreed. “Or they could be using fake names and covering their tracks very well.”

I looked up at him to make sure I hadn’t misheard. “So you agree? It’s too clean?”

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his face. “I don’t know what to think. It’s definitely weird that they lied to her about Jack and about her letters to you. I just don’t know what else to do because—”

“Because you’re still so worried about your reputation,” I finished for him, rolling my eyes.

“Yes,” he stated. “But also, I have my hands full with my investigation into the Amber Forest Pack. The council wants proof of their shady dealings, and I don’t have anything other than my gut instincts. I’m trying to figure out how to get on Alpha Pierce’s good side, get him to slip up because he thinks he can trust me, and I’m running out of options.”

I nodded. He’d been trying to catch Amber Forest’s alpha in his underhanded business deals for a few years now and had come up short on every lead he’d gotten.

I also understood he was making a point—a comparison. Like mine, his gut instincts could only do so much until he had actual proof of any wrongdoing.

“I understand,” I said with reluctance. “Let me know if you need help with any of that,” I added.

“I will,” he told me, then stood up.

I understood that as the unspoken signal it was—our meeting was over.

“I’ll see you later,” I said.

I didn’t even bother to hide the obvious disappointment in my voice. I turned and walked to the door, but his voice stopped me before I could leave.

“Wesley.” I looked at him. “I will look into them again. And I will… consider trying other methods if I don’t replace anything this time.”

Hope bloomed within me, but I just nodded and walked out of his office without saying another word. At least he wouldn’t stop trying.

I wandered for a bit with no real direction. I hadn’t left the territory since Dad wanted to meet with me in private, and now I had the rest of the day free pretty much. I could have gone back to my office in my house, but the thought of sitting in front of my laptop all day was not appealing, not when it was still warm outside since it was only early fall. And not when I had this extra energy I hadn’t felt in a while.

Instead, I meandered over to where Reid and Sebastian led the warrior boot camp training. This was a program for any wolves who were vying for a spot in our top squad. We hosted it every fall and announced the results around the holidays.

Reid and Sebastian had been leading it together for the last three boot camps, and to the surprise of everyone, they did a fantastic job. Well, almost everyone. I knew they’d be good at the job.

As much as they could goof around, they both also took their jobs seriously. Reid worked hard learning his responsibilities as future beta and had shouldered more and more of them over the years as he prepared to take over.

And Seb—well, even though he had no drive to be any rank higher than delta, he had the brains, strength, and the skills to lead his own pack if he wanted. But he didn’t, which was why he was taking over as the head warrior, since Delta Sullivan and his mate Christopher never had or adopted any pups.

Reid nodded in greeting as I sauntered over, and I returned the gesture. One warrior called out, “Hey, Wesley!” and Reid growled, whipping his head towards the offender.

“Is that any way to greet your future alpha?” he snapped.

“No, sir!” the chorus of warriors answered.

“Fifty laps! All of you!” There was a collective grumble. “One of us makes a mistake, we all make a mistake, and we all pay for it! FIFTY LAPS!” Reid yelled.

“That was a bit harsh.” I chuckled after the last trainee had passed us by.

Reid grinned. “I know. It’s fun to be the bad guy sometimes. Now I know why your dad made us do laps so much.”

“I think that was because we were little shits most of the time,” Seb pointed out.

“Nah. It was also cause your dad got off on it.”

Seb chortled, and I held back a laugh, covering my mouth.

I stayed with them for the rest of the day, giving pointers and sparring with the candidates to give them a chance to practice with someone whose fighting style they weren’t as accustomed to. I couldn’t do much since I was in jeans, but spending time with my pack mates was nice. I needed to figure out how to make more time for that, especially once I became alpha.

I took a quick shower at home once the training was over, and once I was dressed, I saw I had some texts and a missed call from Nolan, who was supposed to be picking Haven up from rehearsal to take her to meet me at Jack and Shirley’s.

Nolan: Rachel and I are here at the theater. Haven hasn’t come out yet.

Nolan: She still hasn’t come out yet, and it’s been 30 minutes

Nolan: What should we do?

I didn’t waste any time, and I dialed his number as I sped out of my house to my truck.

“What’s going on?” I growled into the phone as soon as I heard the line pick up.

“I don’t appreciate your guard dog and his chosen loitering in my theater lobby,” Peter drawled into the phone as I made my way out of the pack gate.

I made a face and glanced at my phone, checking that I had actually called Nolan and not Peter by mistake.

“Peter. Let me talk to Nolan,” I grumbled.

“She’s in her dressing room,” he continued, ignoring me. “She seemed upset, so I told her she could take as long as she needed.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“I don’t know. I try not to meddle in the lives of… my dancers.”

“Says the man who—”

“Finish that sentence, and I won’t let you in to see her,” he warned, although there was a hint of humor in his voice.

An involuntary, low-threatening rumble released from my chest, issued by my lycan without my permission.

“Interesting,” Peter mused, and I could just picture the smug little smile he got sometimes. “I’ll see you soon, Alpha,” he teased, and then the line went dead.

I tossed my phone into the passenger seat and pushed down harder on the accelerator so I could get to my Sugar Plum.