Page 15 of Alpha's Secret Baby Girl
She glanced at Lianne, who was already nodding eagerly. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
Rafael stood and collected her plate. “It would mean a lot to me.”
That shouldn’t be enough to sway her, especially with how Randall treated her in the past. But Gwen found herself nodding all the same. She repressed an internal sigh. Might as well get it over with. But if Randall Buchanan said one nasty thing about her daughter, she’d kill him.
Chapter 6 - Rafael
The graveyard was a small plot of land adjacent to the shrine of the Moon Goddess, where the Elder Priest resided and answered the questions posed to him. It was also the duty of the pack to bring him offerings every day, whether it be food, clothing, or their time to clean up around the massive mausoleums that dominated the graveyard.
Rafael pulled to a stop next to his family’s mausoleum. It was made of white-grey granite and built in the style of a Greco-Roman temple with tapered Doric pillars lined up on each side. Marble statues were placed in the eaves, depicting beautiful, half-naked women meant to represent the Moon Goddess and her daughters, who were believed to look after the dead.
“Here we are,” Rafael said. He glanced at Gwen. Her face was initially turned away, staring at the building, but she twisted to look at him. Her green eyes were wide, her plump lips pressed together. Confusion knit her brows together, and she quickly looked away.
Lianne pushed against his seat. “Lemme out.”
Rafael had to laugh. He remembered how much he hated being confined in a vehicle at that age. He slid out of the two-door car and pulled his seat forward so Lianne could climb out of the back. She looked around with interest.
“There’s a lot of pretty houses here,” she said.
“They aren’t houses, sweetie. They’re mausoleums,” Gwen said, taking Lianne’s house.
Lianne frowned. “What’s that?”
“A mausoleum is a building where people are buried. You see, since we’re on an island, there’s too much groundwaterto bury people in the dirt, so each family builds a mausoleum instead.” Gwen’s gaze moved past the grand buildings to the small mausoleum at the back of the graveyard, the one made out of plain stone cobbled together with whatever materials could be found on the island. That was where outcasts, including Gwen’s mother, were interred.
Rafael rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. He had been concentrating on making the circumstances of the living outcasts better in the pack. His next project was to make a better space for them after death. The old building appeared to be on the verge of collapse.
Lianne pressed into Gwen’s leg, her earlier enthusiasm disappearing. She looked around suspiciously. “Why are we in a graveyard?”
“My parents passed away,” Rafael told her. Why didn’t Gwen tell her that they were dead? It must have been confusing for Lianne, thinking she was going to visit her grandparents, only to arrive at a graveyard instead. Annoyance surged. Gwen should have said something before they left. “But there are pictures of them inside.”
He led the two of them into the mausoleum, past the crypts which held the skeletons of his ancestors, to where his parents had been laid to rest. Small circular portraits sat just beneath them. One was the stern, forbidding face of his father, the other his mother with her normal world-weary smile.
Gwen spoke first. “I didn’t know they passed. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Rafael briefly stiffened. She didn’t know? His jaw tightened, and he had to bite back his response—that losing Isabel was a great loss, but his father’s death had almost been a relief. The guilt he felt over that was difficult to explain. Hisfather had been terribly abusive and didn’t deserve to be missed. But at the same time, Rafael had hoped that somehow, he’d find the right words to tell Randall exactly how much his actions hurt and that it would somehow magically get better. At the very least, he hoped to rescue his mother.
And now? Now it was too late for that.
“There was an accident. My father was driving at night. He lost control of the vehicle somehow and crashed.” Rafael didn’t say the worst part. There was no indication of anything wrong with the car. It could have been on purpose. “I got the call and came back to take my place as the new Alpha.”
Gwen nodded slowly, her shoulders sagging. “That makes more sense then—”
She cut herself off, glancing at Lianne. The six-year-old had wandered away, tracing her finger along the carved design between the crypts.
“I did my best. Off the island. I worked hard to get my business off the ground,” Rafael murmured, keeping his voice low enough for Lianne not to overhear. “I wanted to make something of myself that wasn’t tainted by him. And I looked for you.”
Gwen wrapped her arms around herself. “Why?”
“Because what I said that day wasn’t true. I was worried about what Randall would do to you if he knew how much I really cared,” Rafael told her, his voice growing thick. “You weren’t just entertainment to me, Gwen. I wanted you to know that. But after it became clear you didn’t want to be found, I let it alone.”
She was quiet, her arms tightening. She opened her mouth, then turned away. She exited the mausoleum, herfootsteps quick. Lianne was quick to join her. Rafael followed, and once outside, Gwen pointed at the run-down outcast mausoleum.
“That’s where Grandma is buried. Why don’t you run up ahead and take a look? But don’t go inside,” she said, smoothing her fingers over Lianne’s fuzzy blonde waves.
Lianne nodded enthusiastically and took off.
Gwen turned to Rafael and lifted one pale eyebrow. “Are you coming?”
