Page 37 of Alpha's Secret Baby Girl
“I want to go see Jewel,” Lianne said at breakfast, swinging her arms in wide circles as she played with the orange segments Gwen had given her.
“Is Jewel the friend you made last night?” Gwen asked.
It had been a deliberate choice to let Rafael be responsible for Lianne last night. Not only did he need the chance to prove himself, but seeing him interact with her and take responsibility would also help more of the pack realize that he was, in fact, her father. They might question why he didn’t overtly claim her, but it would at least stop them from associating Lianne with whatever negative things they were saying about Gwen.
Lianne nodded eagerly. “She knows where the ants are at the park.”
“Ants?” Gwen repeated.
“Yeah! She says there are millions of them,” Lianne said enthusiastically.
“Well, I’ll call Jewel’s mother and see if we can meet up at the park, then,” Gwen said.
She messaged Rafael to get the contact information she needed, and then called Jewel’s mother, Marilyn. Her nerves churned in her stomach, worried. What if her efforts to associate Lianne with Rafael were for naught, and she was still going to be rejects? To her relief, when she spoke with Marilyn, she was more than happy for the playdate.
“It’s Jewel’s birthday today, so you’re welcome to drop Lianne off at the party if you have any errands you need to run,” Marilyn offered.
Gwen hesitantly agreed. It felt wrong to leave her daughter alone with the pack, but when they arrived, Marilyn and the other parents were extremely welcoming to Lianne, though they gave Gwen a polite berth. Relief washed through her. Good. It seemed last night had been a success after all.
Part of her thought that she needed to stay here to make sure things went the way she hoped. Instead, she told Lianne she would be in the car and to come get her if she needed anything at all, then stepped out. She figured the car was close enough without hovering over Lianne. Once alone, she pulled out her phone.
Over the last seven years, she had heard of Rafael’s business with Joshua and Michael, but she had avoided it as much as possible. Now, she reclined her seat slightly and pulled out her phone, typing in the business name. She found herself holding her breath as the articles appeared on her screen.
She expected it all to start right away, with a lot of details about how successful he was or how much money they were turning in profits every year. Instead, the first article that appeared was about the charity work the company had beeninvolved in. She skimmed through it, then moved to the next article. This one was about the profits they had seen, and it soon became very clear that the success she had imagined for Rafael’s company wasn’t exaggerated.
He was seriously rich. She’d known it was a billion-dollar company, but she hadn’t realized that it made Joshua, Michael, and him all worth millions themselves. And despite all that, all three of them had come back to the island.
They could be living it up wherever they wanted. They could be flying on their private jets to Paris for brunch every day and then go spend a weekend in Rome. They could be in the world of glamour and glitz, rubbing elbows with celebrities. And instead, they had all come back here. They had returned to their roots.
And Rafael? Well, with his money and responsibilities with the company, he didn’t need to take on the leadership of the pack. He could have brushed them off and let them fend for themselves. Instead, he dedicated his time, energy, and considerable funds from his own pocket to help the pack. He wasn’t following in his father’s footsteps. He was investing back into the pack, raising them out of poverty, when he wasn’t getting anything back from them. And for him to have made as much social progress as he already had, it just went to show how hard he’d worked here.
Gwen closed her phone and rested her hands on the steering wheel. Everything she learned about Rafael pushed her toward the conclusion that he had changed things, that he was genuine in wanting to make the pack better. And that, in turn, offered her the tantalizing promise that he was genuine in her. That he really did care, more than just feeling entitled to her because they shared a daughter.
Even so, he had forced her to stay on the island and forced her to marry him. He hadn’t even tried to ask her. He just declared it, and it happened.
What would he do the next time he decided on a course of action that she disagreed with? How could she trust him not to do this sort of thing again, to her or Lianne? What if he decided Lianne was going to get married to someone she didn’t like? Would he say, ‘Too bad it’s happening?’
She kept those doubts to herself over the next few days as she watched him. She had decided not to get a job, preferring not to leave Lianne in the care of others, and so she ended up spending a lot of time with the pack. They were still distrustful of her, but not as bad as they had been before the party. She began doing little things to help out in the community, such as cleaning up at the park while Lianne played.
Having so much free time also gave her the chance to observe Rafael more closely. He spent a lot of time with the pack and made an effort to encourage the outcasts. There were often community events that he participated in. The sense of unity that Gwen started to feel was almost overwhelming. The more she watched, the more she became convinced that this was the real Rafael… the one she had fallen in love with.
With so much emotion and conflict in her mind, it was hard to know what she was supposed to do. The demon’s threat lingered, but as days went by and there were no more sightings, it started to fade into the background. She didn’t have any further visions, which Gwen thought was a good sign. So when Lianne had a playdate with Jewel again one afternoon and Gwen had a couple of hours to herself, she went to the beach. Not the one she, Kira, and Chelsey went to, but the popular one for swimming next to a lagoon.
It was a cool, cloudy day, but the ocean was calm in the small lagoon. The sand sparkled white even in the pale light, and she stripped off her clothes, down to her one-piece swimsuit. It was her favorite one, with an octopus positioned just right so it looked like it was grabbing her butt. When she tried it on, she laughed for five minutes. Now, it was starting to stretch out and fade. Maybe she would ask Rafael to buy her a new suit in the same design.
Maybe.
The cool breeze made her shiver, but she raced to the water’s edge and plunged in anyway. The smack of the cold ocean made her yelp. Nobody else was on the beach, so she kept yelping as she forced herself to wade in deeper and deeper. When she was waist-deep, she dove into the water, her eyes shut tight against the sting of salt. The cold seeped in everywhere, but it felt especially frigid under her breasts, which were normally warmer than the rest of her body. Her nipples shriveled up as though they were trying to escape the cold.
It had been a long time since she’d gone into the ocean. She emerged again, her feet brushing the sandy bottom. She was just deep enough that she could stand on her tiptoes if she tried, but let herself float, the waves pushing her back toward the shore.
She had missed the ocean. Gwen had always loved swimming, and there was nothing like the taste of salt on her lips and the rocking of ocean waves. She hugged her knees to her chest, rolling to her back to stare up at the sky. With her ears below the surface, the world became muffled, and the coolness distracted her enough to let her mind empty.
She floated there for some time when suddenly her internal alarms started blaring. Quickly, she straightenedherself, finding that she was now waist-deep in the water. Her first instinct was to look for a shark in the water, but the lagoon was clear, and there were no suspicious shadows. A shudder ran down her spine as she turned and waded back to the shore. The sand clung to her wet feet, and she snatched her dress and pulled it over her head, her arms prickling still.
She glanced back, expecting to see nothing still. Instead, she found herself staring up at a dark shadow. The blackness of it stole the light, the faceless thing looming over her. The air left her lungs, and she stumbled backward. The demon let out a noise that sounded like laughter as it sprang at her. A club-like arm hit her across the chest, sending her flying backward. Something in her wrist snapped as she landed on it at a strange angle, and she screamed.
The demon dropped to all fours and loped at her. Gwen rolled at the last moment, sand spraying into her face as it skidded and turned, slipping on the loose beach. She scrambled to her feet, blood rushing in her ears. She raced for the road. There was no noise behind her, but she sensed a ripple of darkness just in time to throw herself forward. She screamed again when she landed on her already-injured wrist.
