The Alpha’s Pen Pal (Crescent Lake Book 1)
The Alpha’s Pen Pal: Chapter 37

WESLEY

Soft fingertips tracing along my chest and left arm pulled me from my deep, restful slumber. I blinked the sleep from my eyes and found the tent filled with a soft gray light.

My little ballerina lay next to me, still safe and comfortable in the circle of my arms, and I pulled her in closer to me. Her body melted into mine, relaxing against every inch of me, her subtle curves a perfect fit with my muscles and strength.

“What time is it?” I grumbled, my voice scratchy and my lips brushing against Haven’s forehead.

She somehow moved her body even closer to mine, seeking either my warmth or comfort or my scent, or maybe all three, so I curled myself even more around her, tucking the sleeping bag up higher so she wouldn’t get cold.

“I don’t know,” she replied, her voice raspy too. “My phone died.”

“Hmm,” I grunted, then peeked out of one eye to look for the bag of our stuff. “We’ll charge it on our way home,” I added as I reached for the bag and pulled it closer to us, then rummaged around in it for my watch.

“Sugar Plum, it’s not even 5:00 a.m.,” I groaned, tossing my watch back into the bag and snuggling back down into the pillow with my arms back around her and my eyes closed. “Go back to sleep.”

“I was trying to,” she mumbled, pressing her cheek into my chest.

“By tickling my bicep?” I asked, my lips twitching into a half smile.

She chuckled, and then her lips kissed my bicep where her fingers had been tracing when I woke up.

“I was looking at your tattoo,” she whispered as she settled back into my chest.

“Mmm,” I hummed, my hands rubbing her back. “The one of the lake?”

I felt her head nodding, and I smiled fully.

“It’s beautiful,” she muttered, her voice getting softer. “The trees, the water… it looks just like it did the night we first saw each other.”

I pictured the tattoo in my mind as she spoke, the one I had gotten on my eighteenth birthday, seeing the trees around the lake and the moon on the water, and I realized she was right.

“It does, doesn’t it?” I replied, but her breathing was back to that deep, easy rhythm from the night before, and I knew she had drifted back to sleep.

My hands kept rubbing up and down her back, going lower with each pass, until I reached her tight little ass and realized her lower half was still naked from my bedtime snack the night before.

I groaned and moved my hands back to the middle of her back and left them there. My morning wood was already making itself known, and I didn’t need to add fuel to the fire by crossing that line.

The feel of her body in my arms, the contentment filling me at knowing she was with me and safe and warm, and the way her scent wrapped around me and mixed with mine lulled me back to sleep.

When I woke up again, the sun shone brightly, warming the space inside the tent. I was on my back, with Haven sprawled across my chest, her small body all the way on top of mine.

I lifted my head to look down at her and smiled at how beautiful and peaceful she looked. I knew I would enjoy seeing this sight every morning if she agreed to be mine.

I laid my head back down and slung one arm behind my head, my thoughts drifting to the night before, to the heated moment between us when I almost lost the grip on my restraint.

I had to tell her. I had to let her know the truth. Before we continued, and took that next step to be together fully, I had to show her what I was.

I was in love with her, and I knew she felt strongly for me, that she maybe even loved me back, and I couldn’t let her love for me be built on lies.

“What are you thinking so hard about, Pal?” Haven said, interrupting my thoughts with her scratchy morning voice.

Her hand reached up and massaged the crease between my eyebrows, and I laughed.

“Just thinking about some things I need to do this week,” I told her noncommittally, a plan already forming in my mind for how to tell her what I was.

Her eyes widened, and she pushed herself up to a sitting position, putting her naked pussy right on my stomach.

“Oh shit, it’s Monday!” she exclaimed, jumping up and walking around the tent looking for her clothes, not even realizing what she was doing to me by being half-naked like that with no thought about it. “Don’t you have work? Will you be in trouble?”

“I called my dad on our way here while you were asleep,” I grumbled, my eyes following her bare ass around the tent.

The shirt fell to her thighs, but from the angle I was at with her standing and me propped on an elbow, I had an almost unobstructed view of her lower half. She bent to pick up her underwear, and the glimpse of her pussy lips between her legs had my dick rock hard again in an instant.

“Haven!” I snapped, falling back on the pillow and covering my eyes with my hands.

“What?” she asked, and I uncovered my eyes just enough to glimpse her standing up straight and staring at me in confusion.

“Are you intentionally trying to kill me?” I groaned.

She glanced down at herself, and then her cheeks turned bright red as she realized she was giving me a little show. Like I didn’t have my head between her legs the night before, or my mouth and my tongue on her pussy.

She hunched over so the shirt covered her knees, and she slipped her underwear on as fast as lightning. Then she walked over to the bag by me, bending down to rummage through it for her clothes.

I rolled onto my side and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back onto the camping pad with me and pulling the sleeping bag back up over our bodies.

“What are you doing?” I rumbled out, holding her so she couldn’t escape.

Not that she tried. She just wrapped her arms around my neck and snuggled into me.

“I was going to get dressed,” she replied. “So we can get ready to go home,” she added.

“There’s no rush,” I told her. “Just relax and enjoy your hard-earned little mini vacation.”

“You say there’s no rush, but you haven’t even checked the time since we woke up the first time.” She giggled.

I sighed. “That is true,” I agreed, rolling a bit so I could grab my watch. “Oh, wow,” I laughed. “It’s 09:00 a.m.,” I told her, tossing the watch back in my bag.

“Oops,” she said, grimacing a little. “Sorry, I know you’re usually an early riser, and—”

I cut her off with a kiss. “I’m not mad, Sugar Plum,” I said against her mouth.

She smiled and kissed me back, her hands moving into my hair. I deepened the kiss, and just as I was about to slip my tongue into her mouth, my stomach growled, loud and long, letting Haven and probably the entire beach know how hungry I was.

She pulled away with a laugh, her forehead pressing against my nose, and I just shook my head.

“Well, while I’m not in any rush, my stomach apparently is,” I said, and she laughed even more.

I moved us both into a sitting position, grabbed my bag, then looked at her. “Don’t get mad,” I said.

“Why would I get mad?”

I pulled out the shorts and the white “California” T-shirt I had bought for her at the beach shop while she tried on her swimsuits, and she looked at them and then glared at me.

“How do you know they’re the right size?” she asked.

“I called Maya,” I muttered, not meeting her eyes.

She stared at me with her jaw dropped, and I waited for the outburst, for the scolding and the complaining and the “I don’t need you to buy things for me” lecture, but it never came.

She just grabbed the clothes from me and stood from the pad, shoving her legs into the shorts. With only a cursory glance over her shoulder at me, she pulled my shirt over her head and tossed it unceremoniously to the floor, exposing her entire bare back to me.

I held myself very still as she took her sweet ass time pulling the new T-shirt on, examining it, and searching for a tag, keeping her back to me the whole time. Her wild, mussed-up bedhead hair fell past her shoulders and moved and swayed with her motions, reminding me of dancing flames.

When she finally pulled the shirt over her head—without a bra on, mind you—I stood up too, pulling my shorts and T-shirt on and sliding my feet into my new sandals.

“You’ll probably want to put your sweater on,” I told her. “It can still be chilly in the mornings, plus the wind,” I said, glancing pointedly at her chest and her hard nipples that stood at attention under her T-shirt.

Her breasts may have been small, but it was cool outside, and the shirt was white.

But she just smiled at me and walked out of the tent. I rushed after her, wrapping one arm around her waist and one around her shoulders, yanking her back against me.

“Sugar Plum,” I scolded. “You cannot possibly think I’m going to let you walk around like this. Not after last night. Not after what you told me.”

“What did I tell you?” she asked, turning her head towards me.

“That you’re mine,” I growled into her ear.

Her throat bobbed, and her ass pushed back against my groin, rubbing against my erection and making my growl turn into a groan.

“If I’m yours, does that mean you’re mine?” Haven asked.

My lycan nodded his head in my mind enthusiastically, and I gave a low chuckle.

“One hundred percent yes,” I whispered, kissing her ear. “Now, put on your sweater,” I told her, stepping away from her so she could do as I said.

“Bossy,” she grumbled, but she walked back into the tent and pulled her sweater on without another word.

THE REST OF OUR day passed by way too quickly. Time seemed to know I wanted the day to last forever, and instead of granting my wish, it did the exact opposite.

Before I knew it, we pulled up to the curb in front of her apartment building.

We’d spent a decent portion of the drive in silence, holding hands and enjoying each other’s presence. There was something so simple, so peaceful about being able to sit in silence with her and it not be awkward.

Before, with any of the other girls I’d dated, I would have tried to come up with something to discuss, something to break the awkward moment, but with her, it was different. I didn’t feel the need to fill the silence with small talk or fake niceties. I was content to just be with her.

I put the truck in park and went around to her door, where she sat in her seat waiting for me to open it for her.

“You’re learning, I see,” I said as she hopped down to the sidewalk, my lips twitching.

She rolled her eyes and turned to grab her purse from the floor of the cab. I laughed, grabbed the small bag I had put her things in, then followed her into her building.

“Hey, Maya,” I said as we entered their apartment.

She glanced up at me from where she sat in their dining nook, eating a kale salad, then wrinkled her nose a bit as her eyes slid to Haven.

“Goddess, Wes, could you leave any more of your scent on her?” she mindlinked me.

“I could,” I retorted, smiling at her over Haven’s head. “And you’ll need to get used to it,” I added.

Her eyes widened, and she looked at Haven again. “But her birthday isn’t until—”

“Either way,” I said. “As long as she wants it, too.”

Her eyes sparkled. “How was the beach?” she asked.

“Wonderful,” Haven said. “Except the water was fucking cold.”

Maya laughed, and Haven shook her head and went into her room to set her stuff down.

I followed her and closed the door partially, setting the bag in my hand on the small pink chair in her room.

“Was it really wonderful?” I asked, stepping up behind her at the foot of her bed.

“Do you really have to ask that?” she muttered, looking at me over her shoulder.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and dipped my head into the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent as much as I could before I had to leave.

I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to leave her. After spending a night with her in my arms and knowing how that felt, I wanted that every night.

Her hands rubbed my forearms, and her head tilted to the side to give me better access to her neck. I did not know if it was an intentional action or not, but it had my lycan in a tizzy.

I swallowed and kissed her neck lightly. “I have to go.”

“I know,” she replied.

But neither of us moved. Neither of us made any effort to end our embrace so I could go home.

“I want to make you dinner this week,” I murmured against her shoulder. “At my house,” I added.

I felt a little shiver run through her body and smelled her arousal leaking into her bedroom, and I had to hold back a groan. I was going to have to take care of myself as soon as I got home. Probably more than once, too.

“I would like that,” she answered, nudging me with her chin.

I lifted my face and met her lips in a gentle kiss, taking care to not let it get carried away. I squeezed her waist as I pulled back, and she turned in my arms to face me and hug me.

“I’ll call you, okay?” She nodded and squeezed me back. I gave her one more kiss, then walked to her door and said, “See you later, Sugar Plum.”