Page 11 of Alpha’s Secret Baby Girl (Nightfall Island Alphas #1)

Gwen was on edge as they went to the town hall for the meeting with the council.

Kira and Chelsey had been silent as he drove them to his house so they could look after Lianne until Gwen and Rafael were done.

No doubt they were intimidated by being in the Alpha’s car and given the precious responsibility of watching his daughter.

He had interacted with them before, but the lines between outsider and Alpha were significantly more blurred when they were in his vehicle.

They should get used to it. They were friends with his mate, so he was going to make a special effort to look out for them.

As much as he could, at least. When it came to a pack, it was impossible to look out for everyone all the time.

He shook those thoughts from his head as he pulled up to the town hall.

The Council was already waiting for him and Gwen.

They chatted with each other in low voices in the conference room.

Most of them had a cup of coffee in hand.

The Elder Priest was also present. He shared a look with Rafael as he and Gwen entered.

The Priest wasn’t happy with pre-dating the marriage certificate to seven years ago, but had agreed that it was necessary for the sake of the pack unity.

“Ah, Alpha Rafael.” One of the Elders, Thera, greeted with a small smile. Her gaze skipped suspiciously over Gwen. “Mrs. Buchanan.”

“Actually, I’ve kept my maiden name,” Gwen answered, not missing a beat.

Disapproval showed openly on many of the Elders’ faces.

Rafael fought a frown of his own. There were fractures enough between them, and he didn’t want to make it worse by arguing in front of the Council.

This would require a discussion, though.

He had assumed that she and Lianne would both change their last names to his.

He hoped this wouldn’t cause another fight between them.

They were married; they should share a name.

“Well, then.” Thera shot him a brief, disapproving look as though Gwen’s words were a defiance against him. “Why have you come back to the pack after deserting it seven years ago?”

Rafael tensed.

Gwen’s shoulders hitched. “I needed answers. You know about my visions. I—”

“And you didn’t think that in the last seven years, you should have returned to your husband? You kept his child from him, and for what?” Joseph demanded, narrowing his eyes. “He would be within his rights to divorce you for your actions.”

“My personal life with Gwen is not up for discussion,” Rafael answered sharply. Gwen’s hands were twisting into the hem of her shirt. She used to do that when she was particularly nervous. “My marriage and my child are not your concern.”

Gwen shot him a brief, thankful look. It made his chest swell with pride. He liked it when she looked at him like that, as though he was someone she could rely on. There was hope for them yet, it seemed.

“It is our concern if the wife of our Alpha refused to let his daughter be raised among her own kind,” Thera said.

Rafael shook his head. “No. If that is why you asked me to bring Gwen here, we’re leaving.”

There were issues between them still. Ones that he wasn’t sure would be easily resolved, but that didn’t mean he was going to put up with this. He and Gwen would figure out their own problems without the interference of the Council. The last thing he wanted was for them to drive her away again.

“The matter of my visions,” Gwen said, her voice shaking. “Do you have any idea of what they might mean?”

“Yes. The visions you claim to have.” Thera steepled her fingers.

Rafael’s wolf bristled. Claim? As though Gwen was a liar?

“I have had them. I wouldn’t have returned otherwise,” Gwen answered.

She folded her arms and lifted her chin, staring down the Council.

“I came here for answers when I saw a danger to the pack and my daughter. I’ll admit that things have changed around her in ways that I didn’t think were possible.

I also understand that my arrival has caused a certain upset in the pack balance.

But I didn’t come back to cause trouble. ”

Here, Thera let out a heavy sigh. “Forgive us. This meeting has started on the wrong foot. We did not bring you here to blame you for the troubles in the pack, nor to say that your visions are false or the cause of the danger we face.”

Rafael relaxed a little to hear it, but he frowned more deeply.

The way Thera spoke indicated there was a real, actual danger they were facing.

But if they had interpreted Gwen’s visions, why would they start off attacking her?

Were they just feeling her out, or was there something more nebulous at play?

He was glad she’d stood up to them, too.

The Elders could be a pushy bunch, slow to change, and always finding something to argue with him about.

Gwen needed to be able to hold her own against them.

“That said, you will understand that we are going to keep a careful watch on you,” Thera continued. “As we do with all outsiders.”

“Outsider?” Gwen spoke before Rafael could. “Right. It’s not like I was born in this pack. Not like I spent most of my life on the island or that I’m married to your Alpha. But I’m an outsider.”

Joseph narrowed his eyes. “Your father was not a member of the pack.”

“So? I’m my mother’s daughter, and she was,” Gwen retorted. “Besides, how can you be mad at me for leaving the pack if I’m not even part of the pack?”

Thera frowned at her. “Don’t misrepresent what we’re saying.”

“What are you saying, then?”

“It’s well known that you were never fully integrated,” Thera said slowly. “You were always on the outside.”

Gwen shook her head. “I was pushed to the outside. Either I’m a member of this pack and have full rights to it, or I’m an outsider, in which case I’ll take my daughter and leave again.”

“That is enough,” Rafael said before anyone could reply. “Gwen is my wife. She is not an outsider, and I don’t appreciate you speaking to her like this.”

The Council glanced at each other, and Rafael had the sudden sense that they had been measuring him, not Gwen, from the beginning.

He fought back a scowl as he glanced at the Elder Priest, whose wrinkled visage gave nothing away.

The frustrations boiled higher, but Rafael bit it down, fighting to maintain his composure.

“We apologize, Alpha,” Thera said, not sounding apologetic at all.

“In that case, let us sit down to the facts of the case. We have reviewed the reports of Mrs. Parker’s visions—” Rafael scowled, adding another note to his mental list to make sure he talked to Gwen about it, regardless of whatever distractions they might face.

“—and have reviewed the texts that were left behind by the original witches with whom the treaty was made.”

Gwen let out a shaky breath. “The witches left texts? And you’ve been hoarding them away from the witch-descendants in town?”

Thera smiled at her. “Protecting, dear. Not hoarding. Now, are you done, or shall I wait to continue?”

The condensation set Rafael’s hackles up, but Gwen only nodded. Her arms were still wrapped around her middle, her expression blank. It was almost as though she was trying to convince herself that it didn’t matter what they said, that she didn’t care.

“Good.” Thera turned her gaze from Gwen to Rafael. “We believe this is connected with a certain demon that has attacked the pack before. One that has been seen again in recent years.”

Surprise rippled through him. At first, he thought they must be fucking with him, getting back at him for his defiance. But he saw no indication of amusement in their faces, only a grim certainty. His wolf snarled low as his hands curled into fists.

“There have been demon sightings?” he asked flatly.

Thera nodded once.

“And why wasn’t I informed?”

“We didn’t want to cause public panic, and so felt it was best to keep it a secret from the pack.”

Fresh irritation surged through him. Despite all of his efforts, the Council still saw him as an unworthy successor to his father.

He would have advanced the pack a lot further if it weren’t for them holding everyone back, fighting against every inch of progress Rafael made.

For them to hold something this big back…

“You weren’t Alpha at the time of the most recent sighting,” Thera responded lightly.

Gwen cleared her throat. “So how ‘recent’ is recent years if it’s from before Rafael became Alpha?”

“More recent than the ancient pact between pack and witches. Less recent than his position as Alpha. Are you going to argue semantics with me? We didn’t think it was necessary to bring it up because it has now been a few years since the last sighting.

” Thera said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Rafael ground his teeth together, fighting back expletives. He didn’t want to turn this into a fight about them dismissing his authority.

“What do you know about demons, Mrs. Buchanan?” Joseph asked.

Gwen stared at him, not answering.

Rafael resisted the urge to sigh. “Gwen.”

“Yes?”

“Answer his question.”

She turned that steady, stubborn gaze on him. “Oh, but he was talking to Mrs. Buchanan. There’s nobody here by that name.”

“Gwen!”

She glared at him a moment longer before she stiffly said, “I know the urban legend that there was a coven of demons that claimed the island as their own and caused all sorts of terrible things. Then the witches came to the island, seeking refuge, and in exchange for banishing the demons, the shifters let them stay. And promptly forget the witches were the ones that saved their asses and mistreated any children born of witch-shifter unions.”

She turned her glare back at the Elders.

Rafael wanted to snap again, until he saw how much she was trembling.

The heat in his chest eased. She wasn’t being prickly for the sake of being prickly.

She was afraid. It must be taking all she had to keep standing here, weathering the distrustful looks the council still threw her way.

All of a sudden, Rafael wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and take her away from here.

“Whatever magic the witches used to banish the demons wasn’t fully binding.

They escape from time to time.” Thera steepled her fingers again.

“The witch-descendants have always served as a sort of alarm system for when the demons were going to reemerge. It is clear from your visions that we will be dealing with them again soon.”

Gwen shivered more obviously and nodded.

“We have some tips for you to employ whenever you feel the vision starting.” Thera pushed a piece of paper across the table.”

“What is it?” Rafael asked, picking it up.

“Ways that, with any luck, will let us know more details about this demon and what it wants. In the meantime, we will keep studying.” Thera stood, her silent way of saying the meeting was over.

Normally, Rafael would force the point to linger a little longer, to remind them that they weren’t going to push him around.

He had always thought his father was unnecessarily bullying toward them, just as everyone else, but they were stubborn themselves.

Today, though, all he wanted was to get Gwen out of there.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her toward the door.

The Council stared after them, but he ignored them.

Gwen’s body was soft and warm next to him, but her shaking made his heart ache.

This wasn’t just because of her visions.

It was born from a lifetime’s expectations to be mistreated by everyone in that room.

Even me, he realized.

They were out of the building, in his car, and halfway back home before Gwen spoke.

“I’m not changing my name.”

Rafael tensed. “What?”

She turned a baleful look onto him. “I’m not changing my name.”

Out of everything that had gone down with the Council, that was what she was most concerned about? He gritted his teeth at the absurdity of it. “We’re married.”

“So?”

“So, I want to have the same last name as my wife and daughter,” Rafael answered.

“You can take my name, then,” Gwen shot back. “After all, you didn’t even like your father. Why should we all take his name when my mother was a delight?”

Rafael pulled the car to a stop. He turned to her, ready to tell her it wasn’t the same, when he stopped himself.

Her eyes were wide, her skin pale. Whatever she was feeling, it wasn’t just anger at being assumed to have changed her name.

No… this was because he’d made the unilateral decision that they were going to be married.

She was fighting back against that, trying to maintain her own autonomy in a situation that was bigger than she was.

And she was right. He didn’t like his father. “I… guess I can consider it,” he said reluctantly, because he didn’t want to hurt her any more than he already had. “I like having the same last name as my brother, though. I can’t see myself easily convincing him to change it.”

Gwen looked startled. “Is that… a joke?”

“If you have to ask, I must be doing it wrong.”

Gwen’s shoulders hunched. “I don’t know how to deal with the idea of demons coming after my daughter. Being on the island puts her in more danger, just like I said, if the demons are here.”

“The stories say that once they latch onto someone, they will chase them across the world. There is one that I remember about Martha Willowby—”

“I heard that story, too.” Gwen shuddered. “You’re right. It’s just… a lot. I don’t want Lianne to know. She’s too young and it will only frighten her.”

They gazed at each other for a moment longer.

Gwen broke it by turning abruptly and pushing open the door with more force than necessary.

They were both quiet as they went into the house.

There, Lianne instantly jumped into Gwen’s arms and started to excitedly talk about all the crafts she, Chelsey, and Kira did. The tension melted away from Gwen.

“Show me,” she urged, and Lianne pulled her toward the kitchen.

Rafael watched them, his heart aching. It wasn’t just the loss of Lianne’s first years that hurt him; he was starting to realize. He wished he could have been there for Gwen. He wished he could have helped her and made things easier for her.

All because he couldn’t stand up to his father for her.

Things are different now, he swore. He was here to look after them both. No demon was going to hurt either of them, not while he remained Alpha.