Page 20 of Alpha’s Secret Baby Girl (Nightfall Island Alphas #1)

The special ops team bent over a map of the island spread over the desk, each of them frowning with frustration.

Michael and Joshua were there, too, with Joshua glaring out a window and Michael pouring himself a new cup of coffee.

Rafael tried to hold in his own annoyance.

The team had found evidence of the demon all over the island, but they had yet to figure out any pattern.

Worse, the neighboring pack on the other side of the island was being strangely hostile toward the special ops team.

Rafael had done a lot of work to repair the relationship between the two packs. He hated the thought that his father’s behavior was once more putting his pack at a disadvantage.

“What if we—” Daniel started, only to stop when Joshua yelped.

Rafael’s head swiveled toward the window. Light flared from somewhere outside the town limits. He frowned, moving toward the window. What was that? A shiver ran down his spine, and his wolf snarled, pushing him to run for the light. It couldn’t be the demon, could it?

“Something’s wrong,” Michael breathed.

The light shone again, a beam of light shooting straight into the sky. A ripple seemed to burst out from it, washing toward the town.

The ripple of energy washed through the office, and Rafael was struck by an image that flashed through his mind—Gwen, her eyes pale and fogged with death, floating face-down in the ocean.

Her body swaying back and forth in the water as fish nipped at her clothes and skin.

Fear shot frozen through his blood, and his wolf took over.

He shifted instantly and didn’t even bother with the door, instead leaping onto the table to then crash through the window.

Shouts followed him, but he ignored them, rolling on the tin roof. He scrambled to the edge of the roof and leapt off. He absorbed the impact as he landed and tore toward the beam of light. It flickered, ragged at the edges. Rafael howled, calling his pack to him as he raced through town.

He reached the beach with the sound of yelping and snarls and answering howls behind him as the special ops team chased after him, joined by the pack.

Gwen was at the edge of the water, clawing huge handfuls of sand as she kicked her feet weakly, trying to drag herself from the ocean.

Streams of blood trailed down her wet skin, blooming in patches against the torn fabric of her dress.

Rafael slid over the sand next to her, shifting to his human form as he did so. He pulled her into his arms, ignoring his own nakedness as her head fell to his shoulder. Her chest heaved, her lips blue, and her eyes wide.

“What happened?” he demanded, his heart slamming into his ribs.

“Demon,” Gwen rasped. “It attacked me. Tried to drown me.”

She was shivering violently. Rafael pulled her into his arms bridal-style and stood.

The special ops team surrounded him, sniffing the air and searching for any signs of the demon.

Michael yelped and headed back toward town.

He nipped at the doctor as he passed her.

Good; he’d make sure they were able to take care of Gwen when they returned.

The rest of the pack watched with eager and anxious eyes.

“Joshua, you’re with the special ops team. Find the demon,” he ordered. “Kira?”

A small wolf at the back of the pack stepped forward.

“Lianne is with her friend Jewel. I want you and Chelsey to take her back to my place. The rest of you, make sure your families are in town and stay indoors until further notice.”

Gwen made a slight noise. “It can’t enter the town.”

Rafael filed that away for later, focusing on the immediate needs.

She was shivering violently and injured.

He needed to get her warmed up and tend to her injuries.

His first instinct was to take her back to the house, but Lianne would be there.

This would no doubt be frightening enough; she didn’t need to see her mother in this state.

So as he carried Gwen back toward town, he headed for his office. Michael was there shortly, driving a car. Rafael was grateful for him and called the doctor to meet him at the office.

“We need a clinic,” Rafael muttered. Usually, house calls were just fine, but right now, not having a clinic seemed like a serious oversight. Wolves just normally didn’t need doctors.

The doctor performed tests, including checks on her oxygen levels, among other things.

She used more technical terms, jargon that Rafael didn’t fully understand.

As she was doing her work, Rafael got a towel from his private stash and helped Gwen dry off, then gave her dry clothes to change into.

His pants were too long for her legs and a little too tight around her waist. The t-shirt was very much too small, squishing her breasts in a way that looked mildly painful. Gwen didn’t complain.

“It looks like you got lucky,” the doctor said when she was finished with her examination. “You might feel tired for a while, and your throat is going to be sore, but there won’t be any lasting damage.”

“Thanks,” Gwen murmured.

Rafael had already begun applying a salve and gauze to the many scratches over her arms and throat.

Gwen sagged into him, clearly exhausted.

The doctor offered to help, but Rafael shooed her away.

Even though she was there to help, his wolf was feeling overly protective and didn’t want anyone else to be around.

Once they were alone, Rafael let out a heavy breath. “What happened?”

Gwen flinched. “Demon attacked me.”

“I’m going to need a bit more information than that, darling.”

She stared down at the floor for a long moment before she softly told him what had happened.

Rafael listened, his heart aching at the tremor in her voice.

He hated that this had happened, that she had been hurt and nearly killed.

When she came to the part where the demon was trying to drown her, his hands tensed around her. She winced.

“I felt this surge of magic,” she murmured. “My head exploded, and I had a vision, but at the same time, I felt the magic like a physical thing. I used it to scream for help. I don’t know how. I don’t understand what happened.”

Rafael pulled her closer. She was still shaking, and her skin was cool. He groped behind the couch with one hand to find the blanket he kept in his office and pulled it over, wrapping her in it.

“Have you ever accessed your magic before?” Rafael asked.

Gwen shook her head. “Other than the visions, no.”

Rafael made a note of that. The witch-descendants in his pack needed access to their ancestor’s written materials, so they could start building up their understanding of their own magic. This fight against the demon would be much easier if they had access to magic.

He held her there for a moment, rocking her gently as her shudders slowly stopped.

Gwen’s wet hair splayed over his shoulder.

He was still naked, though neither of them cared.

Rafael longed to press his lips comfortingly to her temple, but held himself back.

He didn’t want to take advantage of her current state.

“What did you see in your vision?” he asked eventually.

“It was different than the ones I had before. It was the town, but there was this fine net in a dome over it. The demon was looking for holes in the net.” She shook her head slowly, frowning.

“I think it means there is a protection over the town that prevents the demon from getting into it. Maybe an ancient spell that the witches made.”

Rafael’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “That would explain why there have been no attacks in town.”

It was good to know that they were safe zones.

It meant he no longer had to be as worried about Gwen and Lianne when he wasn’t with them.

The parks, the playdates, they were all safe.

And that would be something the pack would be happy to hear, too, that the demon couldn’t attack them so long as they stayed within the town border.

At least for now. If the demon was looking for weak points, it might find them.

That heaviness settled into his chest, and he breathed deeply, calming that instinctive worry.

With any luck, the special ops team would take out the demon before it came to that.

He stroked Gwen’s still-wet hair from her forehead and frowned.

He needed to get out there, too, to help them find and take out the demon.

The instinct to eliminate the threat warred with the instinct to stay with her and continue comforting her.

Gwen let out a small shudder. “You were right to keep us here.”

Rafael opened his mouth but stopped himself. There was a lot more to that conversation. The end result might be good, but his method had been… well. She had every right to be angry with him.

“We’ll talk about it in more detail when you feel better,” he told her.

He wanted to tell her that he knew he fucked up, but when her body relaxed into his, he remained silent.

They would have the chance to talk over his mistakes later.

Right now, he felt that talking about it would only remind her of the way he’d messed up and make her tense up again.

They stayed like that, Gwen in his arms, for over an hour. As it became more apparent that she was not seriously injured, his wolf became more impatient to go hunt the demon. When her hair was dry, Rafael stirred. The slight movement was enough for her to pull away from him.

“I need to get home to Lianne,” she said, sounding slightly dazed as though she hadn’t realized how much time was going by. “She’s going to be so worried that we’re not there.”

“Chelsey and Kira are with her,” Rafael answered soothingly.

Gwen pulled away from him, clutching the blanket over herself. Her eyes dropped over his naked form, and her cheeks reddened as she cast the blanket off, covering him instead. “She’s going to be worried. I need to go home now.”

Home. Surprise rippled through him, but Rafael only nodded. As much as he hoped that showed a change in her view of the island—of him—it could easily be a slip of the tongue.

He threw on a pair of jeans from his closet and led her back downstairs.

His car was waiting for them, and he made a mental note to find out who brought it and thank them.

He drove Gwen back to his house and stopped in briefly to check on Lianne.

She was pressed into Kira’s side, reading stories, and jumped up with a delighted cry when Gwen greeted her.

Rafael slipped out before Lianne could see him there, too.

He didn’t want to cause her distress by leaving right away.

Outside, he drove to the edge of town, where he stripped off his jeans, shifted, and howled for the team.

Michael answered him, and he followed the sound, running through the forest as he caught up with them.

The team was in full hunting mode, and Rafael fell in step, allowing the special ops leader, Paul, to take point.

He quickly caught the scent that they were following, and his heart gave a steady thump.

It was close, the demon. They flowed through the trees and brush, and the sounds of the forest deadened around them.

They came to a small clearing, and a flicker of shadow caught Rafael’s eye. Paul let out a short growl, and the special ops team spread around the area, slinking into the brush. Paul hesitated a moment before turning to fix Michael, Joshua, and Rafael with a stare. Stay here, that look said.

Rafael bristled at the order but reminded himself he didn’t have the training that they did.

He waited, every muscle tense, as the special ops surged into the clearing.

There was a howl which was suddenly cut short.

He crept closer to the edge of the clearing to find the four wolves sniffing around, growling… no sign of the demon.

Paul shifted to human form. “It was a false trail,” he announced, sounding frustrated.

A false trail? Rafael’s jaw clenched. He entered the clearing, searching. No sign of the demon. No trail left, either. It wasn’t here. It had led them on a wild goose chase and now…

They all shifted back to human form, but it quickly became apparent that they weren’t going to find the demon today.

Rafael fought down the urge to lash out.

He wasn’t angry with the special ops team, not really.

He wasn’t going to start yelling at them for something that wasn’t their fault…

no matter how much he wanted to yell at someone.

“We should keep looking,” he said instead.

The four special ops wolves glanced at each other. Paul grimaced. “Alpha, we understand that you want to be part of this, to protect your pack and mate. However—”

“You don’t want us around,” Joshua broke in. He scowled deeply as he crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s what you’re trying to say?”

“We are trained for this. You’re not,” Paul answered, apparently deciding the blunt approach was best. “When we catch the demon, we need to have full focus on the fight. Not worrying about whether any civilians will get caught in the crossfire.”

Joshua narrowed his eyes but didn’t protest. Rafael reluctantly agreed with Paul.

Part of him couldn’t help but wonder if he and the others had slowed down the special ops team and allowed the demon to escape.

Exhausted, angry, and at the end of his patience, Rafael turned without a word.

He, Michael, and Joshua trotted back to town in their wolf forms, silent.

Back home, Rafael nudged open the back door, still in wolf form, and entered.

The house was quiet, and his heart prickled with fear.

Quickly, he loped upstairs, following his nose.

Gwen and Lianne were curled up together in Gwen’s bed.

Their breathing was soft and even, their eyes shut, a book lying half-open over them.

Rafael watched them for a moment, letting his heart rate ease. Then, he went to his room and shifted to human form, dressing before he returned to Gwen’s room. He carefully spread a hand-knit blanket over them to keep them warm. As he gazed at his mate and child, his heart swelled.

He and Gwen still had a lot to talk about. But he wasn’t going to give up.