Page 2 of Alpha’s Secret Baby Girl (Nightfall Island Alphas #1)

“I love you. You know that, right?” he murmured into her hair.

“I know. I love you, too,” she whispered back.

Rafael touched her lips with his thumb as he cupped her jaw in his hand. She was so soft, so perfect. “You deserve better.”

She giggled. “Better than you? I don’t think there is such a thing.”

“Better than this pack,” he answered in a whisper. “Better than an Alpha who…”

He trailed off, unable to finish his thoughts.

“But I have you. That makes it all worth it.” She kissed him lightly.

The kiss deepened, their tongues met, and Rafael couldn’t hold back.

He needed her. Needed her touch. Needed her to believe that he was more than his father’s screw-up son.

When she looked at him, he felt like someone.

Not the pack’s heir. Everyone else saw his father. Gwen saw him.

He moaned into her mouth. Gwen’s hands moved over him, memorizing his body.

It made him stir with desire, heat flooding into his skin.

He tightened as he pulled her closer again.

She was pressed right against him, and he let his hand drop, cupping the curve of her ass to bring her even closer.

He would never be able to be close enough to her.

He kissed her neck and grinned when she gasped out his name.

Their lips met again once, twice. Neither of them spoke.

If they did, it might break the moment between them.

Rafael drank in her scent. He kissed her neck, buried his face in her skin.

Then his hands moved reluctantly, putting just enough space between them to start undressing her.

Gwen shivered with his touch, her breath a gasp in her throat. She helped him.

The night was velvet and tender around them. Here in the woods, in the darkness, Rafael felt as though he finally knew who he was. Finally, he felt at home with Gwen Parker.

Clothes were shed, and the night bore witness to it all.

***

The next morning, Rafael was woken early by his mother, Isabel. She had a deep look of disappointment in her eyes as she threw his clothes at him.

“Your father is waiting for you at town hall.”

A snake of dread slithered through Rafael’s chest, deciding on the best way to wrap around his heart.

He had been out late with Gwen. Just before dawn, they’d been woken up by movement in the forest, which Rafael had written off as a deer.

Now, though, with Isabel’s disappointed look and being summoned to the town hall?

He swallowed hard as he quickly dressed.

It seemed as though the entire pack was waiting for him to arrive.

They stared at him as he passed through the aisles.

Whispers and disapproving shakes of the head followed him.

His father waited on the small stage at the end of the town hall, where the schoolchildren performed their end-of-year plays.

The snake in Rafael’s chest found just the right spot on his heart to squeeze when he saw Gwen standing just behind Randall, her hands twisted together, her eyes downcast.

“Rafael.” Randell’s sharp gaze cut right through him. “You know why you are here, don’t you?”

Rafael shook his head. “No, Father.”

Randall snorted and pressed a button on the projector beside him.

Instantly, an image flickered to life on the wall behind him.

Rafael’s heart sank, and Gwen gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

Her face paled. It was a picture of them from last night, near the spring.

Their bodies had been tastefully blurred, but without the pixilation, both of them would have been on full display.

Their faces were clear, and it was obvious what they had been doing.

Mutters grew in the crowd watching. Rafael’s gaze skimmed over them as the snake wound tighter. He’d been wrong before. It wasn’t the entire pack. Just the adults. And judging by their expressions, most of them already knew why they had been summoned.

“Do you care to explain yourself?” Randall thundered.

And that was exactly why they were at the town hall.

Randall could have handled this privately.

Could have raged at Rafael, could have forbidden him from ever seeing Gwen again.

But where was the humiliation in that? Where was the power trip?

Where was putting Gwen’s position in the pack even lower?

This wasn’t about confrontation. It was about punishment.

Punishing Rafael, yes, but more about punishing Gwen.

If Randall knew how much Rafael actually cared about her? It would be even worse. Randall hated the wolves of lower standing and wouldn’t think twice about taking everything away from Gwen if he thought there was a chance his son was going to break the status quo.

So Rafael smoothed his expression and shrugged. “I was bored.”

Gwen’s hands pressed more firmly to her mouth. Her eyes flashed with betrayal, and Rafael stared hard at her, hoping she understood. I don’t mean it!

Randall stepped back to look from his son to Gwen. “She means nothing to you, then?”

Rafael shrugged again. “No. She was just a little fun.”

Gwen turned and fled. Jeers and laughter followed her.

Rafael had to fight the desire to run after her, to pull her into his arms. Fire flooded his veins, but he held himself still.

He had to play the part. Right now, he had nothing outside of the pack.

Even his schooling was paid for by his father.

But once he was gone again, once he was back at college, he could get a job.

He’d start earning a living and be able to support the two of them.

He was going to get her out of here.

They just needed to buy themselves a little time before breaking free from Randall Buchanan.

His father kept a close eye on him for the next week.

His bedroom window was screwed shut, and whenever Rafael left the house, he had to take his kid brother, Michael, with him.

So it was the full week before Rafael was able to make his way to the house where Gwen lived with Kira and Kira’s sister Chelsey.

He pried open Gwen’s bedroom window the way he had many times before. But as he entered the room, it was empty. Everything that made it ‘Gwen’ was gone. Her books, her computer, her knick-knacks.

The door opened, and Kira peered in, holding a baseball bat in both hands. When she saw who it was, she squeaked in surprise.

“Where is she?” Rafael asked, his heart thudding.

“Who?”

“Gwen. Where. Is. She?” he advanced slowly. Did his father have something to do with this?

Kira lowered the bat. “She’s gone. The day that you… that she was summoned to town hall. She came home, packed her things, and left.”

Left?

“She said she couldn’t stay here when nobody wanted her.”

Left. She left. She was gone. And it was all his fault.