Chapter 7: Second Hand

Lennart tore the pink envelope open with his thumb, and read it with the engine ticking as it cooled.

I sat very still beside him, wet and half dressed, and watched his face.

My dearest Alpha,

I have loved you from far away for a long time.

Come to the Gathering and call my name by the fire, and I will answer.

Your Moth

He read it twice.

Then he turned the sheet over.

"Well?" I said.

"It isn't her."

I had been ready for him to be fooled.

I had been ready to hate it.

I had not been ready for the plain relief in his voice.

"How do you know?"

"She never calls me Alpha. She calls me L., or nothing, because I get enough of the other."

He held the sheet up to the gray light.

"She doesn't say 'dearest.' She'd rather chew glass."

"People change how they write."

"Moth types. This is handwritten, with a pen from a gift shop."

He sniffed the paper and made a face.

"And rose perfume. Moth smells like..."

He stopped, and gave me a strange look.

"Like what?" I said.

"I don't know. I've never smelled her. Ink and a little cold, maybe."

My neck went hot.

"Whoever sent this wants me to walk up to the wrong woman at the Gathering," he said slowly.

"Somebody who knows Moth's name and nothing else."

"The Stonewater girl?"

"Runa knew it. Karsten told her at dinner, because Karsten tells everyone everything."

He folded the letter into his pocket.

"I'm not telling the elders. I'll let her think it worked."

"That's clever."

"I'm not clever. I just know how the real one sounds."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Too Late, Alpha, I'm Your Pen Pal from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.