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

WESLEY

Before we went back inside the cells, I pulled Haven off to the side to speak with her. “I want to make sure you’re going to be okay with this. I know you handled us questioning Lennox just fine, but this is different. They were your parents. I know you weren’t close, and your relationship wasn’t great, but—”

“They’re nothing to me,” she said brusquely. “They’re not my family. I know that now. I know who my family really is.”

“And who is your real family?”

“Jack and Shirley. Reid. Nolan. Sebby. Maya, Imogen, and Maddie.” I raised my eyebrows at her, waiting. “And you, I guess,” she added with a shrug.

Her lips twitched as she held in her laugh, and I pulled her body into mine by her hips, gripping them as I lowered my face to hover just inches above her lips.

Her breath hitched in her throat. “You’re more than my family. You’re my mate,” she whispered.

Her breath was warm and tickled my lips, and I smiled at the happiness that filled my heart at her words. “Damn right I am,” I said.

I placed my lips on hers, giving her a sweet kiss. “I love you,” I whispered as I pulled away.

“I love you too, Wes.”

“The king might command them to tell the truth about everything they know,” I said, reaching to cup her cheek. “They might tell him who they think you are, if they’re aware. We might not be able to keep it a secret from him.”

She sighed and nodded. “I thought about that too. I guess we’ll have to trust that if he finds out, he’ll keep the secret with us.”

I nodded. It was what I’d been thinking, but I wanted to make sure she felt the same. It wasn’t that the king wasn’t a trustworthy male, but it was better to keep her secret between a smaller group of people.

“Okay then,” I murmured. “Let’s go get some more answers.”

We walked the rest of the distance to the entrance of the cells, where Reid stood waiting for us.

“Are you coming in?” I asked, even though I already knew his answer.

“No. Torture isn’t my thing. I’ll hold down the fort while you’re all in there,” he said with a serious look.

“I know you will, Beta.”

He stood up straighter and taller at that, his shoulders rolling back proudly. “Thank you, Alpha. Luna,” he added with a nod at Haven.

She gave him a weak smile but didn’t complain or object to him using her title. I was glad to see she was getting used to the idea and letting my friends address her the way they should. Letting them show her the respect and honor she deserved.

The king, Nolan, Sebastian, and my dad waited for us in the cells. Anticipation hung heavy in the room, all of us eager for what was to come. Impatient for answers and anxious about what they may reveal to the king.

“I will only step in if necessary and only to use my alpha command on them. I’ll let you do most of the questioning and any torture that’s needed. I can’t get blood on my suit, or Queen Tatiana will kill me,” King Malachi told us, nodding at Haven and me as we entered.

“That’s fine.” Sebastian shrugged. “That just means more fun for me.”

King Malachi shook his head and gave a slight chuckle. “Not too much fun, I hope. I’d like to get home to my mate and my family.”

“How are the twins? I meant to ask you,” my dad said to the king.

“They’re fine. Getting smarter than me every day,” he said with a small inward smile. He shook his head, tearing himself away from his thoughts. “After you,” he said, gesturing at the door.

We all filed in—myself, Haven, Sebastian, and the King. Nolan and my dad stayed out in the other room.

I expected some sort of reaction from the Wainwrights upon seeing Haven or the king, but they gave us nothing. Their faces were blank. Dead. Emotionless. Like there was nothing left inside them, nothing they had to live for. Not even a hint of remorse at seeing Haven, or a glimmer of hope that maybe she’d let us go easy on them, or a flash of fear when the king walked in. Just nothing.

Haven stood in front of me, the same iciness back in her eyes that had been there when we’d questioned Lennox. When she’d shown us how strong she truly was, how perfect of a luna she would be. She had truly removed them from her life as people who mattered to her.

I linked my hands with hers from behind, letting her decide how much more of me she needed, how much of my touch she wanted. As strong as she was, I would only strengthen her, just as she would strengthen me. Just as she already had strengthened me.

Nobody said a word. The only sounds were our varied breaths and the faint beatings of our hearts as we all waited. I gave Seb a look and a nod, telling him I was fine with him taking the lead on this one. For now.

He walked to the tray of tools and began circling it, picking things up and putting them back. Each time he angled the tools so the light glinted off them, and they were in Melissa and Matthew’s direct line of sight.

“You didn’t need to bring the king,” Melissa scoffed, breaking the silence. “We’re not under any alpha commands. And you don’t need to torture us. We’ll tell you whatever you want to know. We have no reason to lie.”

“We’ll see,” Sebastian sneered, tossing a knife and catching it by the handle. “I’ll keep this nearby. Just in case,” he told her with a wink. “What are your real names?” he asked, stepping up in front of her chair with his arms crossed and the knife visible.

“Melissa and Matthew Blaine,” Melissa told him.

“And what pack are you originally from?”

“Faithful Wolves in Wyoming. Near Yellowstone. But we renounced the pack over twenty years ago.”

Seb glanced over his shoulder at the king. “I know the pack,” he confirmed. “I’ll mindlink Frederick to check their membership records.”

Seb nodded at him, then looked back at Melissa and continued. “Why did you adopt Haven?”

“Lennox’s father made us. He wanted us to raise her so Lennox could mate with her.”

A growl escaped me at that. From me and from my lycan in my head. The thought of someone else claiming what we now knew had always been ours was not something we wanted to think about.

Haven squeezed my hands and rubbed her thumbs on the inside of my wrists, right over my pulses. Her warmth and the tingles reminded me she was still mine, and no one was going to take her from me.

“How was the adoption closed so quickly?” I asked them.

“I don’t know.” Melissa shrugged. “I would guess bribes, or maybe magic, or both. But I honestly don’t know how he managed it.”

I refrained from glaring at my dad through the glass, even though I wanted to. If we had just done the same, used our connections and our money, then maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe Haven would have grown up here, been my friend our whole lives. Been safe and happy.

“Did you really send my letters to Wes?” Haven asked her.

“No,” Melissa admitted.

“What did you do with them?” Haven asked.

“I put them through the shredder.”

Haven’s eyes narrowed, and it was my turn to soothe her. I stepped in closer so my chest brushed against her back every time I breathed. She inhaled and closed her eyes, then exhaled. “Why didn’t you send them?”

“Lennox’s dad made us sign a blood contract.”

“What’s a blood contract?” Haven asked with a wrinkled nose.

“It’s a magical contract created by a witch and signed in blood. It’s what Imogen signed when she learned about what we are. It’s what you would have had to sign if you weren’t my fated mate,” I told her.

“And they’re supposed to be monitored by the thirteen crones. Of course, just like with any group of people, there are good witches, and those with ill intent.” The king sighed, rubbing his temples and shaking his head. “What did this contract bind you to do?”

“We were to raise her and keep her away from any wolves and lycans or other packs except Lennox while she was growing up.”

“Why did he want her to be with Lennox so badly?” I asked.

“He wanted them to be mates.”

I growled again at that. Her face remained blank and her voice flat the entire time we questioned her so far, but it almost felt like she kept repeating that to goad me or rile me up. “But why?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“He told Lennox he would be strong enough to be the alpha of his pack if he could mate with Haven and mark her.”

“He told us that already. But why? Why Haven specifically?” I prodded, trying to see what she would say, how much they knew.

“I don’t know. He never told us why. Just that Lennox and her had to be together.”

The king glanced at me with a raised brow. I looked down at Haven. I wanted it to be her decision whether he commanded them to tell the truth. It was her secret, after all. She met my eyes, sighed, and nodded, and I looked back at the king.

“You will answer the question truthfully,” he ordered.

His aura and power filled the room again, forcing all of us into submission. Haven reacted quickly this time, lowering her head as well to not draw suspicion.

“I told you,” Melissa choked out under the weight of his command. “I don’t know. He never told us, no matter how much I asked him.”

Interesting, I thought to myself. Then again, it would make sense. Just as we were trying to keep it between a small circle of people, it made sense that Lennox’s dad would keep that information away from the Wainwrights—or the Blaines, I suppose. King Malachi pulled his aura back and gestured for us to continue.

“How did you know Lennox’s dad?” Sebastian asked, walking around her chair in slow, methodical steps.

“He visited our pack several times when I was twenty. He was friends with the beta, and we… We had an understanding of sorts. We would share a bed whenever he visited, and I would expect nothing more from him beyond that.”

“What pack was he from? Was he the alpha or alpha heir? Or a second or later born son?” Seb asked as he continued his circle.

“I don’t know. He never told me. I didn’t even realize he was an alpha until—until I—” She pursed her lips together and blew out a breath through her nose.

“Until you what?” Sebastian snarled, stepping closer and twirling the knife as a subtle reminder of what she would face if she didn’t just keep talking.

“Until I became pregnant with his son. With Lennox.”

I blinked and could feel the surprise ripple through the room at her confession.

“Wait. Lennox was your son?” Haven asked, her eyes wide, her hands trembling in mine.

“Yes. His father came to my pack one last time to break things off with me because he’d found his mate, and she was pregnant, too. I had already met Matthew, and we had marked each other, and I had no desire to continue anything with him. But he still accused me of trying to trap him by getting pregnant with his child, of trying to have his heir first.

“I begged him, told him I would do anything to prove to him that wasn’t true. He made us—Matthew and I—sign a blood contract that we would tell no one from our pack that Lennox was his. And that we would leave the pack and live somewhere that wasn’t near any packs, and we would do anything he asked of us.”

“And you just… just agreed to this?” I asked, looking at Matthew incredulously.

He shrugged. “I was young. I was in love. The mate bond and our marks were still fresh. I didn’t know she was pregnant when she turned twenty-one, and we mated. I just wanted to be with my mate, make her happy, and prove to her that I loved her no matter what. So I agreed.”

“You could have rejected her. Could have had the council come and perform the ritual to separate mates who are already marked,” I told him with a scowl.

“You have your mate. You know what the bond is like. Could you have done what you suggest?”

I glared at him but didn’t reply. I couldn’t give him an answer to that question. Not with Haven’s sweet jasmine scent filling my lungs every time I breathed in. Not with knowing how powerful and overwhelming the mate bond could be.

Even though I suspected ours was stronger than most because of our past and everything we’d been through together and who she was, if he’d felt for Melissa even a fraction of what I did for Haven, then I could understand how that wouldn’t have been an option for him. And he was also a weaker wolf, which would have made the rejection more painful for him and harder to withstand.

Melissa glanced at him with a look of regret and pain. “Continue,” I ordered her. “Continue your story.”

She took in another deep breath. “After a few years, he came back and told us he had a job for us. He said it may be a bit of time before he needed us to begin this job, but we had to be ready. He said if we were successful, he would name Lennox as his heir instead of his true firstborn.

“You see, even though we conceived Lennox first, his mate bore him twins, and since twin pregnancies are shorter, she gave birth first. But he was disappointed in both the children she gave him, feeling that neither would make a decent alpha.

“He took Lennox from me and said he would make sure he was raised properly, raised to be a suitable alpha should we succeed in our task.

“Then, when Lennox was eleven, he returned, and helped us adopt Haven. Gave us the new blood contract. And then I had to watch my son grow up in someone else’s home. Watch them raise him while I raised the girl who he would mate with, all the while hoping he would succeed and become alpha for all our sakes, for everything I had sacrificed.”

“Why didn’t you keep Haven from coming here, though, if you weren’t allowed to let her near other lycans and wolves or packs?” I asked.

It made little sense. Why go through all that trouble to keep her away from me, to then let her just move here, anyway? Not that I was complaining; I just didn’t understand the logic.

“The blood contract said ‘while she grew up.’ And she was fully grown by that point. I guess he didn’t think that part of the contract through very well. We tried to convince her not to leave, but she left anyway. And since the blood contract said we weren’t allowed to physically harm her, we had to just let her go.”

“Why did you disappear? Where did you go?” Sebastian asked, gripping the back of Melissa’s chair in his hands, the tip of the knife grazing her bare upper arm.

She flinched away from the knife, her teeth clenched from the touch of silver against her skin. “We didn’t want to. We went to sleep one night, and when we woke up, we were no longer in our own home. Lennox’s father had drugged or spelled us and had us moved. He locked us in cells, and we had no clue where we were.”

“Wait,” Haven said, interrupting us. Her brow furrowed, and I felt her confusion and racing thoughts through the bond.

She tilted her head to the side. “I’m confused. You said Lennox’s dad’s mate had twins, but Mary and John didn’t have any other children. Lennox was the only kid in their family. What happened to these twins? Where were they all these years?” Haven rushed out, the words almost running together with how fast she spoke them, showing how quickly her mind was working.

Melissa blinked at her and laughed, the first show of authentic emotion she’d had since we started questioning her, aside from the one look she’d given her mate. She shook her head, and then looked her straight in the eye. “I never said John was Lennox’s father.”