Page 58 of Alpha's Secret Baby Girl
“Yeah. You mean Raf-el, right?” Lianne asked blithely.
Rafael’s eyebrows shot straight up. Gwen glanced at him, startled and maybe just a little bit accusatory. He lifted his hands quickly. He wasn’t the one who told her! They had thought it would be difficult to keep the truth from her with everyone in the pack knowing, or at least making that assumption. Lianne looked between them, her brows pinching together.
“It was pretty obvious,” she said, a note of impatience creeping into her voice.
Gwen laughed. “Was it?”
Lianne nodded. “We live with him now. So I knew then. But there’s other stuff, too. He smells a bit like me and nobody else does, not even Michael.”
Funny how she could say Michael’s name just fine, but tripped over his. Rafael picked her up and settled her between him and Gwen. “Scent is a powerful thing for us wolves.”
“Yeah. And also, you just feel nice. In here.” She touched her chest. “I’m happy when you’re around, and I just knew you were my dad.”
“And you didn’t wonder why we didn’t talk about him as your father?” Gwen asked.
Lianne huffed. “No. I just thought it was because you were mad at each other. I’m glad that you’re not mad anymore. Can I start calling Raf-el Dad now?”
Rafael’s heart skipped a beat. His throat swelled as emotion washed through him. He’d never thought that a single word could sound so very happy. He nodded soundlessly, afraid that he’d choke on his words if he tried to speak.
“You are a very special girl,” Gwen said, pulling Lianne into her arms.
Lianne smiled, looking quite satisfied with herself. “I really am, uh-huh!”
Rafael laughed. He wrapped his arms around his wife and daughter and pulled them both over until Gwen was half in his lap. As he breathed in their scents, he felt so happy he could burst. After all of his mistakes, he still managed to end up here. He was the luckiest Alpha in the world, he decided.
“I love you both,” he murmured.
“Love you, too, Dad,” Lianne said.
Gwen grinned at him. “I love you, too.”
And those, Rafael decided, were the best words in the universe.
Epilogue - Gwen
The first month after the destruction of the demon was tense. Everyone kept waiting for the next attack. At first, the longer they went without any demon sightings, the tenser everyone became. Fights broke out, and Rafael, Michael, and Joshua were constantly having to break up the fights. The special ops were kept on alert, running patrols and investigating any suspicious happenings.
In the second month, people began to feel a sense of hope. They hadn’t gone so long without a demon sighting since this began. People kept approaching Gwen on the street, asking if she had had any visions warning of impending danger. She answered honestly that she had not.
The third month passed. A new Elder Priest was chosen, and the pack celebrated. Gwen studied magic further and practiced her spells. She found the weak points in the old barrier and wove fresh strands of magic through it.
The fourth month passed.
Then the fifth.
Still no demons. And finally, they decided that it was safe again. Gwen and Rafael had their second wedding and confessed the truth of their first. That caused a bit of a scandal, but the pack had already fallen in love with Lianne, so it wasn’t actually that bad. Gwen was already getting annoyed by the comments from the older population asking, “When will you be trying for a boy?”
Rafael had made significant efforts to change the pack culture to be more tolerant, but there was still work to be done.
“That’s it,” Rafael encouraged from where he was waist-deep in the water.
The family had come out to the pond, the place where they had first been attacked. Gwen at first wasn’t sure, but this place had been so special to Rafael, she didn’t want to let her paranoia ruin things. Now, as she watched her husband teach their daughter how to swim, her heart swelled with delight.
“You’re doing great,” she called from where she lounged on the small beach, the sun soaking through the pale white cover-up she wore. She felt gloriously warm, her eyes half-drooped from the relaxation.
Her wolf cautiously wagged its tail. It was a strange sensation, feeling her wolf so strong. But she had found a spell in her research that allowed her to start fighting against the damage the demons did to her growing up on the island. The bindings on her wolf, keeping it small and weak, were gone. It was a spell that had to be performed on one’s own body, though, so Kira and Chelsey weren’t yet able to strengthen their wolves.
Lianne was showing increasing signs of being ready to shift. They were certain it wasn’t going to be long before she could do it. Gwen was so excited for her.
