Page 47 of Alpha's Secret Baby Girl
“Stop.” Kira grabbed Gwen’s shoulders and shook her head. “You’re panicking. You have to tell Rafael. He deserves to know.”
Gwen nodded once, but she knew in her heart she wouldn’t be able to do it.
They discussed possibilities, and Kira promised to read more about the barrier and to find a way to check it for weaknesses. Gwen made her way back home in a daze. She didn’t want to put Rafael at risk. She didn’t want to be the downfall of the pack he’d worked so hard to protect, to improve. And she didn’t want to be the reason her daughter was killed.
The demon is after me. That’s why it stood over me and laughed in the vision,she thought.
An idea formed in the back of her mind, the first tendrils of a plan that might protect the town. She shuddered at it, but if it would stop the demon…
When she arrived at the house, she found Rafael and Lianne having cooked dinner. Rafael gave her a worried look, and she smiled back at him, wanting to reassure him. Right now, all she cared about was being with her husband and daughter. Whatever tomorrow brought, tonight would be good. She would make sure of it.
Chapter 20 - Rafael
After their time together at the town hall, Rafael was surprised when Gwen distanced herself from him again. He had thought that when she went to speak with Kira, it was about the recurrence of her vision, but when he tried to ask her about it, she only flinched and refused to look at him. That night, she even insisted that she sleep in Lianne’s room, claiming it was in case Lianne had a nightmare.
Rafael knew Gwen well enough these days to know when she was lying.
“Did I do something?” he asked the next morning, before Lianne woke when he found Gwen making coffee in the kitchen.
Gwen gave him an exhausted look. Her shoulders were so tense they were halfway to her ears, the smudges under her eyes so dark he almost thought it was eyeliner. “No. You didn’t do anything.”
“Then why are you avoiding me?”
“I’m not avoiding you. We had a lovely dinner last night and watched some TV,” Gwen mumbled, not looking at him.
Rafael reached for her, but she slid out of his grasp. “What is this, then?”
“I’m just tired.”
“Gwen, please. Don’t do this again,” he said, not even caring that he was begging.
Gwen ran her hands through her hair. “We’re training some more today, right? I’m not avoiding you, Rafael. I promise. I’m just tired.”
No, you’re hiding something from me. He stared at her, trying to find the words to convince her that she could trust him. How could he do that when he didn’t even know what the matter was? Maybe it was just that she was tired. Maybe he was reading too much into the events that had happened earlier.
Maybe.
Chelsey showed up at the house again to watch Lianne. When she saw her, Lianne threw herself to the floor and glared at her parents.
“No fair! I want to learn magic, too!” she wailed.
Gwen kissed her forehead. “Honey, we don’t know if you’re going to be a witch at all. You’re still too little for magic.”
Lianne wiped her hand over her eyes. “I’m not too little. I can be a witch, if you let me.”
“Maybe we can work on potions,” Chelsey suggested. It did not seem to cheer Lianne up.
Gwen dragged her feet as they left, continually glancing back at the house with a hesitant expression. When Rafael touched her hand, though, she snatched it back and strode to the car without a word. Rafael’s wolf howled. He could almost feel their relationship dissolving again.
But when he put the car into gear and started to drive, Gwen rested her hand on his thigh. “Sorry,” she whispered.
Rafael’s muscles loosened slightly. He didn’t answer, only put his hand over hers and squeezed lightly. They drove in silence to the town hall, where they quickly set up for her training. She was unable to produce the blue shield again at all, and when she tried other spells, they were equally ineffective. Her motions were jerky, and she kept getting a distant look on her face as she stared at the doorway.
“Concentrate on your magic,” Rafael finally snapped after he accidentally knocked her on the head with a hollow, dollar-store bowling pin. His frustrations reached a boiling point. There was something she wasn’t telling him; he knew that, and her refusal to open up hurt him more than he cared to admit. “You’re going to get yourself killed if you can’t even concentrate in a low-stakes situation. What will you do if you end up facing off against the demon?”
Gwen’s hands clenched into fists as she glared at him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m distracted when there is a fucking demon who’s coming after my daughter—”
“Our daughter,” Rafael interrupted.
