Page 12 of Alpha’s Secret Baby Girl (Nightfall Island Alphas #1)

The next morning, Rafael gave Gwen a new cellphone since she didn’t want to give him her number.

It was a pointless rebellion, she knew, since her life was completely changed regardless of whether or not he knew her cellphone number.

The new one was a top-of-the-line, brand-new release from his company.

“I don’t actually need this,” she told him, stuttering when she realized what she was holding in her hand.

“It’s not for you, then. It’s for me, so I can get in touch with you whenever I need you. And this has a great camera on it, so I expect you to send me all the pictures you take of Lianne,” he added, glaring at the floor.

Gwen’s heart twinged. Was that a subtle crack at her?

Or was he being gruff for a different reason?

Either way, she hesitantly laid her hand on his arm.

She’d come into this arrangement telling herself she wasn’t going to accept anything from him, but in truth, it wasn’t a line she cared about holding.

Remembering how things used to be, he never used gifts as a means to manipulate her.

She wanted to believe that he hadn’t started any nasty habits now.

“Did you have any plans with Kira and Chelsey?” he asked, still gruff.

Gwen hesitated before she sighed and shook her head. “No. They both had to work today. I was thinking that I would start putting away my boxes.”

All of her and Lianne’s belongings had shown up in the house the previous day.

They were piled neatly in the living room, and Rafael told her to ask anyone for help if she wanted it.

There was an unsettling feeling about having her life transported here without her.

She hoped that he’d sent women to pack her clothes, but even then she didn’t like the idea of a stranger pawing through her underwear.

After learning about the demons, though, she had to admit that Rafael was right about one thing. It was safer for Lianne with him around. She just wished he hadn’t been such an asshole about it.

“Good.” Rafael lifted his head and grinned. The change was remarkable. Brooding, he was handsome. Smiling, he was devastating. “Then we’re going to have a picnic.”

Her stomach swooped. Desperately, she tried to hold onto the distrust. He was keeping her against her will!

And yet with his dark eyes sparkling at her like that, she suddenly found it very, very difficult to care.

He was trying to do the right thing. He hadn’t insisted on anything else, and he really was doing right by the pack.

“It was going to be for me and Lianne, but…” Rafael ducked his head, his smile still in place but softer now. “I want you to come with us. I was going to take her to the pond, and I remember how you used to love it.”

She did. The problem was, you couldn’t just drive to it. “That’s too far for Lianne to walk.”

“I have a child harness for my wolf form.”

Which meant… “I haven’t shifted in years.” The admission was bitter on her tongue, like she was telling him she had forgotten how to ride a bike. Honestly, it would be less embarrassing if that were the case.

“I’ll go slow,” he promised. His dark eyes lingered on hers, full of gentle promise. He waited, patient, for her reply.

A soft feeling stirred in her chest. It had been a long time since she had last felt her wolf.

She wasn’t sure it was a good idea, or if she could even still shift.

It had always been difficult. And yet, she found herself wanting to try.

Maybe it was being back on the island. Perhaps it was because this was an olive branch, and she didn’t want to throw it back in Rafael’s face.

“Okay,” she agreed hesitantly. “Let’s go.”

***

Lianne clapped her hands and squealed when Rafael changed into a wolf. Gwen had made him do it in the back yard and come back around to get the child harness put on his back. He was a large, brown wolf with sharp teeth and a white streak across his muzzle.

“You’re beautiful!” Lianne cooed.

Gwen strapped on the child harness and then helped Lianne into it.

They trotted around the yard a few times for Lianne to learn how to balance herself, then Gwen crept around back.

She stripped and, taking a deep breath, reached inward for her wolf.

She felt it stirring, but it stayed stubbornly away.

Frustration started to swell through her, but Gwen took another deep breath to calm herself.

She coaxed it, sending images of running through the forest.

Her wolf emerged slowly, painfully. Fur sprouted along her skin, and sharp bursts of pain ratcheted through her joints as they snapped and reformed.

Finally, she was fully in her wolf form and trotted back to the front yard.

In this form, she was less than half the size of Rafael.

While his coat was thick, with strong muscles beneath, her wolf form was thin, with coarse, tufted fur.

Nobody knew why the witch-descendants had such small, unkempt wolves. The leading theory was that their magic was incompatible with being a shifter. For many generations, they were born either with magic or a wolf, not both.

“Oh, Mommy!” Lianne clapped her hands, nearly unbalancing herself. “You’re so pretty!”

Gwen wagged her tail hesitantly. Rafael’s longue lolled out in a wolfish grin as he nodded toward the road.

She nodded in response, and they headed out together.

The trail up the pond was just at the end of the street.

It felt strange—but good—to stretch these muscles again.

Rafael set a mindful pace, and soon Lianne started singing as they moved down the beach and into the forest.

They ended up needing to take a few breaks, which embarrassed Gwen.

Rafael was carrying Lianne as well as the food, but he was able to keep going.

But they made it to the pond, and Gwen hid in the bushes to shift back to human form, which was easier than moving to wolf form.

Once she was dressed, she went back to help Liane down and took off the harness for Rafael.

The picnic was delightful. The long trek had made her hungry, and Lianne was excited to explore everything. Rafael made her laugh several times during lunch, and when she went to catch ‘tap-olds’ in a plastic jar, Rafael leaned back and stretched his arms over his head.

“I forgot how good you look after a hike,” he said.

“What do you mean by that?” Gwen blurted. The words came out like an accusation, but really, she was just startled.

Rafael lifted one of his dark eyebrows as his gaze ran over her form. “I always liked the smell of your sweat, and when your face is flushed like that, it highlights the green of your eyes.”

“Stop it.”

“It’s the truth. And in case you have any lingering doubts, Gwen Parker, I found you sexy and attractive seven years ago, and I still find you sexy and attractive. Time hasn’t changed that,” he said, his voice lowering to a seductive growl.

Heat pooled in her belly. Her breathing hitched, and she had to look away quickly. “Don’t talk like that in front of Lianne.”

“Lianne is on the other side of the pond. She can’t hear.”

Gwen shook her head. “Don’t.”

Her pulse thrummed. He was still attracted to her?

Even after everything, after how angry he was with her for keeping Lianne hidden from him?

She twisted her hands together, trying to come up with some excuse not to believe him.

She couldn’t. And even worse… she knew that her feelings weren’t exactly staying in the ‘anger’ category either.

I have to be careful, she told herself. Otherwise, I might just go and fall in love with him again.

***

“We should come here every day,” Lianne said as they started heading back down the path.

She didn’t want to ride again, not yet, so they were walking in human form for now.

“It’s so pretty, and we can see the tadpoles get bigger and become frogs!

But don’t touch the frogs,” she added with a stern look up at Rafael. “It’s like acid on their skin.”

Gwen internally smiled at the very serious expression on Rafael’s face as he nodded. “Duly noted. No touching the frogs. Except to eat them.”

“You don’t eat frogs!” Lianne burst into giggles, shaking her head.

“I don’t?” Rafael gasped in mock surprise.

Gwen laughed, watching them fondly. A flicker of movement caught her eye, and she turned in time to see a dark shape burst through the trees.

Something cold and hard slammed into her chest, sending her tumbling backward.

Rafael shouted, and Lianne screamed. Gwen gasped for breath, fighting for strength to push herself up.

There was a strange numbness burning across her chest.

She managed to flip onto her back and saw a black shape above her.

It was a deeper black than night, a point of utter darkness as though someone had taken a pair of scissors and crudely cut out the shape of a person.

A single point of light beamed from where the face would be.

Her lungs locked as she stared up at it.

This was the same sort of darkness in her visions.

A demon.

“Mommy!” Lianne screamed.

There was a subtle change in the shape of the empty blankness that was the demon, as though it was turning. Gwen sucked in a deep breath, forcing her aching lungs to expand as she grabbed a handful of forest debris.

“Hey,” she gasped, unable to get any volume. She threw the debris at the demon. It turned more fully, the pinprick of light that was its face disappearing entirely. Its arms lifted outward.

Gwen grabbed a branch and threw it, the wood bouncing off the demon’s back. Rafael had Lianne in his arms, crouched protectively around her, his eyes flitting from the demon to Gwen. His lip curled back, and he snarled blackly.

“Stay back,” he warned.

“Hey!” Gwen shouted again, trying to distract the demon.

It stepped toward Rafael. No. Not Rafael. Lianne. It was after her daughter. Lianne was the target. Gwen’s blood rushed in her ears as she picked up a second branch, stumbling as pain lanced through her.

The demon crouched. Lianne screamed again, clinging to Rafael. He shoved her toward the path. “Run!”

Lianne stumbled and fell. The demon lunged for her, but Rafael shifted in the blink of an eye.

He slammed into the demon, and they both rammed into a tree, splintering it.

Gwen, her chest still aching and still short of breath, focused on Lianne.

The sound of snarls and howls of pain filled the air, but she desperately ignored the wrench in her gut. She had to get Lianne away.

She grabbed Lianne’s arms and yanked her to her feet. Lianne yelped, in surprise or pain, Gwen didn’t know. She swung her daughter into her arms and ran as hard as she could. She gasped, stumbled, and nearly fell, but regained her feet and kept pressing on.

Behind them, a long howl rang through the forest.

***

Gwen stood at the window, her arms around her middle as she stared outside, looking for any sign of someone coming to tell her what was going on.

As soon as she was away from the demon, she called Michael and explained to him what had happened.

He had rounded up many of the wolves and went into the forest to help Rafael.

What if they were too late?

A shudder wracked down her spine as her body curled inward, trying to protect herself from the question. Her lungs still ached from that initial blow.

“Gwen, he’s going to be okay,” Kira said from behind her. “Nobody in the pack is as strong as our Alpha.”

Her words were no comfort. Being strong didn’t mean that the demon wasn’t stronger.

And she’d had no word. Kira and Chelsey had come to the house as soon as they heard what was happening, and Chelsey had taken the role of comforting Lianne when it became clear that Gwen was too tense and worried.

It had been all she could do not to fall into pieces in front of her daughter.

Gwen let out a shaky breath as she turned to her friend. “I think I hurt Lianne when I grabbed her.”

Kira brushed her hair behind her ear. “You remember that time when we decided to try surfing, even though none of us had ever done it?”

Wincing, Gwen nodded.

“You remember how I saw that shark, and Chelsey didn’t believe me? And she jumped off her board, and I grabbed her hair and yanked her back?”

“Of course. So?”

Kira sighed. “So, you were trying to get her away from a demon. It’s easy not to think of gentleness when there’s a predator in the water.”

Gwen’s arms tightened around her middle.

She understood Kira’s point, but that didn’t help her feel better.

The door opened and she whirled, heart in her throat.

Rafael, wearing a pair of baggy shorts, stepped into the house.

Bandages were wrapped around his arms and torso, and there were bruises on his face and visible skin.

Gwen moved forward, about to throw herself into his arms. She only stopped herself because she didn’t want to hurt him more.

He stepped forward as though he was going to embrace her, but stopped himself. “Were you hurt? And Lianne?”

“We’re okay. Bruised up a little, but that’s it. What about the demon?”

He didn’t meet her eyes. “It got away.”

And that was it. He didn’t reassure her, didn’t try to comfort her. His shoulders slumped in exhaustion, and Gwen straightened herself. He was the injured one. He didn’t need to comfort her.

“I’m going to start supper,” she said. “You must be starving.”

She quickly headed to the kitchen, Kira silently following her. Her hands shook. Well. At least they had answers as to what her visions meant.