Alpha Scarlett

Lost in Thought

Scarlett's POV

I'm sitting in my office with my feet propped up on my desk, breathing in the rich scent of my chair's dark brown leather upholstery and tapping my pen on my teeth in my slightly open mouth when I hear my Beta practically yelling at me.

"Alpha Scarlett"! Cayden nearly shouted, snapping my focus back to him. Cayden Fenn and I have known each other our entire lives. His father was my father Beta and now Cayden is mine. That's how I know I must have allowed my mind to start wandering a while ago; when it's just the two of us, we're very casual with each other, so the fact that he's using my title with my name grabs my attention. The look on his face, with one eyebrow raised while the other is furrowed and the slight scowl on his face tells me that he's both annoyed and concerned by my zoning out.

"Sorry! Sorry, Cayden. I don't know where my mind is today, I apologize. What were you saying." I say, giving him an apologetic smile, while also pushing the sincerity of my apology through our mind link.

"I bet I know what's on your mind." He says, this time raising both eyebrows at me and giving me a look that clearly says, "Don't make me pull it out of you, you stubborn Alpha wolf."

I sigh. "Did you get the invitation to Alpha Merrick's wedding?" I ask, already knowing the answer but using it as a way to open the door to this conversation that I don't really want to have with my best friend but will before he starts to become a pest about it. Weddings aren't common practice in the werewolf community, but Alpha Merrick is mated to a human (also not common practice in the werewolf community) and he wants to give her a wedding to honor her human traditions.

"We did." The "we" referring to him and his mate Zella. "I'm assuming you did, too?"

I nod, slowly.

"Are you planning on going? I don't think he'd be offended if you didn't, but it would be strange for you to not be there since you're both Alphas and we have an alliance with the Blood Moon pack."

"Yeah, of course I'm going." I say, sounding almost bored by it. I'm not bored by it, though. After all, why wouldn't an unmated female Alpha wolf not want to go to a wedding and see all the other happily mated couples with their offspring? "Are you Zella going?" I ask in part because I'll feel better having Cayden and Zella there as a buffer but also because if we're both going, I'll need to make sure our Gamma and Delta will be around to run things while we're away.

"I was going to talk to you about it. That was actually one of the reasons I came in here. I was going to tell you that we're planning on