Page 19 of The Alpha's Fake Mate

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Should you decide you might wish to meet, I can send a car around.

I can guarantee your safety at any meeting with me. If you do not feel secure, I will allow you to bring a friend to join our discourse.

I confess I sent this letter the old-fashioned way to get your attention. I was afraid if I sent a simple email, it would go unread. Or you would not take it seriously that you have been heard.

Thank you for your time.

Your friend in hopes of making a darker world a bit brighter,

Orion.

I held the letter tight in my fist and gave a low laugh that startled the boys on the other side of the table. They looked up, curious, but said nothing.

My laugh got creakier, and maybe even scary. I didn’t care.

This was the most ridiculous letter ever.

“Got an Alpha on the hook?” one of them said.

I had grown up with these guys, all of us attending some of the same classes. The one who spoke was Zeke, and he looked inordinately pleased with his question.

“Not likely,” I said.

“Well, then, are you gonna tell us?”

One table over, Harly turned to look at me. We hadn’t spoken in a couple days and I felt badly about that. I met his eyes, then looked away.

“None of your business,” I said, addressing Zeke.

Zeke and his friends rolled their eyes at me, and continued eating their lunch.

Right after lunch, I went back to my room and hid the letter under my pillow. I was going to toss it, but I worried that someone might find it in the trash. It was stupid, really. I didn’t want anyone to know about the letter, or that it had come from Orion. I wasn’t sure why I cared. In some weird way, it embarrassed me. Orion had written so formally. He had treated my off-hand, smart-ass comments with respect.

Why would he do that?

Obviously, my essay had been pure sarcasm, nothing more. I’d certainly disrespected his actions, yet he came back for more.

I didn’t understand it at all.

Glancing at the clock on my bed stand, I saw I had five minutes before my therapist appointment.

I snorted at the empty room, wondering what Sen would want to discuss today. My PTSD? My future here at the farm? My dreams of ever finding a bondmate dashed and broken like a pretty glass figurine now in a million pieces all over the floor?

The worst would be if he asked about my dreams. I always lied anyway about everything these days, so of course I wouldn’t say my nightmares of the attack had been replaced with dreams of a big, dumb, rich Alpha who stood before a sizzling blue swimming pool and kept asking me inane questions about what it was like living on the farm. Oh and were my needs being met?

Sometimes I woke laughing, though I didn’t find it funny at all.

But it certainly made my sleep easier, even if my moods had not really improved.

I combed my hair and brushed my teeth, then moved out into the hall and headed for Sen’s office.

When I pushed the door open, Sen was waiting for me, standing by the window and looking out over the lush lawn that sloped at the back of the farm. He had a funny look on his face as he turned to greet me. Like his eyes held all the beauty of this place but his mind was trapped.

Unmated, unbonded, did he see the prison as I did? Had he always seen it?

When he heard my footfalls, he turned and smiled his greeting a little too quickly for me to believe he was at all happy to see me.