84. Linden's Letter
Seff realized that whispering *I love you* made a male’s sex drive shoot through the roof.
The look in Hawthorn’s eyes turned carnal, his grin wicked, revealing his thickened canines he half-Shifted toward his wolf form’s. She felt him hardened beneath her, and her core tightened in response. She immediately started rolling her hips, her hands moving to the back of his head to slide her fingers through his hair, but he didn’t want that. He wanted to be inside her.
And who was she to complain?
Hawthorn also didn’t want to just *take* off his pants. His Alpha strength allowed him to *rip* them off, chucking them to the side. Seff worked just as quickly: shedding the last silk, she shimmied out of her panties and sat at the edge of the bed. The footboard was no longer there, and that worked in their favor.
He knew the position. Seff’s legs rested on his hips while Hawthorn’s hands rested on hers. Panting and Seff ignoring Hawthorn’s typical worrying about her lack of slick, they moved together so their bodies could connect.
Seff’s body still hurt. Hawthorn nudging into her opening hurt, but it was rawness she welcomed. She wanted to look at him, but the mix of pleasure and pain made her close her eyes. “Keep going,” she panted. “Deeper. *Oh*—”
Hawthorn slammed into her fully. “Deep enough?” he gasped.
She laughed breathlessly. “Oh yes.”
But before she could fully fall into bliss, or even appreciate the fact that he didn’t need to be as big as Kiran to satiate her so well, their fantasy world shattered.
“This is something I never wanted to walk in on.”
Seff’s eyes flew open to horror in Hawthorn’s. Embarrassment doused all fervor. Until Seff recognized the voice and she was flooded with emotion. She twisted to see past Hawthorn and found a familiar female standing on the threshold in from of the door she thankfully closed. Tears sprang to her eyes. “Wisteria?”
Her mother’s best friend was an unlovable force, a flower not to be reckoned with. She and Linden got along so well because of their strong-willed personalities that often did not match typical Magnolia Omegas traits. They raised their daughters together after bonding over being ostracized for bearing only one pup instead of a litter.
The last time Seff saw Wisteria was changing into her gala dress, and then briefly as the event ended and she couldn’t even say goodbye. Neither of them expected their reunion to be her having sex with a perfect view of Hawthorn’s bare ass.
He cleared his throat. “Um. Can you…turn around for a second, Mrs. Ren?”
She clicked her tongue. “Of course.”
Seff and Hawthorn detangled—their shared a brief scowl of disappointment to be cock-blocked by their best friend’s mother—and hastily dressed. Smiling to themselves, they smoothed each other’s hair. “Okay,” she said, both to him as reassurance and to Wisteria as an all-clear.
The she-wolf didn’t hesitate. She crossed the room around the couch pit and held up an envelope. Seff blinked at it: it was yellowed, bent, and bulging with something inside it. Hawthorn’s hands rested on her hips in support and protectiveness, as if the envelope would come to life and attack.
Her eyes looked back at Wisteria. “What is this? Wait! Allium—Wisteria, I’m so sorry—”
The Omega suddenly glared at her. “We will discuss my daughter’s regrettable situation later. Stop crying and read this.”
Taken aback, Seff blinked away her tears and obeyed in taking the envelope. It smelled like old paper and metal, sealed with pale green wax imprinted with an unfamiliar insignia. Before she could ask, Wisteria said, “Your family’s symbol, the Amaranth.”
Indeed, it was the amaranth flower. Seff’s brow creased. “My father’s family doesn’t have one…so…my mother’s? Her last name is…is…*Amaranth*?”
The realization hit her gut like a punch. *Calla’s last name was Amaranth*. Seff’s thoughts jolted into overdrive in piecing together—
“Read the damn letter, Seff.” Wisteria’s voice cut through the chaos. “It’s been waiting ten years.”
At first she had been hesitant. Now Seff tore it open, barely catching the key that fell out of it. It was dark metal and the length of her index finger, cold to her skin. But she wasn’t interested in it just yet. Hawthorn offered to take it and she let him.
When she slipped the letter out of the envelope, Wisteria said quietly, “You should sit.”
*That doesn’t inspire confidence*, Seff thought. Hesitant and infinitely confused, Hawthorn didn’t let go of her as they sat on the new cushions of the couch pit, Wisteria across from them. It was hard to read her expression, but it was easy to see that she was unnerved.
Seff saw her name written in smudged scrawl and she fell apart.
It was her mother’s handwriting.
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and further smeared the paper.
Yet she was careful not to rip it as she unfolded it—not just a single letter, but a stack of five, marred perfectly by her mother’s script that Seff devoured as if starved for the alphabet.
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