Page 33 of Alpha's Secret Baby Girl
The song ended, and she twisted out of his grasp. “I should go see Kira.”
His mouth pressed tightly together, but Gwen ignored him. As she threaded through the crowd, the more her annoyance grew. So all it took was one innocent dance for Rafael to start muscling his way in again, huh? He’d been so calm and friendly lately that she had started to wonder if maybe the whole ‘we have to get married by the way I took your boat and I’m bringing all your stuff here without asking‘ thing could be an outlier. She wanted it to be an outlier, wanted to see things through rose-colored glasses.
It was all too easy for her to forget the truth of everything here. Even now, moments after she was trying to think of ways to get out of the marriage early, she was ready to fall right back into Rafael’s charms. If her wolf were stronger, she might think that this was some sort of mate-bond, but it had been made clear to her from her first shift that a wolf as weak as hers would never be worthy of a mate.
By the time she found Kira, her mood was well and truly dead. She made excuses about being tired to excuse herself from the party. Kira hesitantly decided to stay at the party, and Gwensaw her glancing in Joshua and Michael’s direction, though she wasn’t sure which one she was looking at.
Gwen slipped away and started walking home, turning her face to the dark sky. Before she could start calming her thrumming pulse, though, footsteps started behind her. She turned and glared at Rafael fell into step beside her.
“I don’t need an escort,” she said.
“After that display in the hall, I’m sure I’d disagree,” Rafael answered.
Gwen narrowed her eyes. “Possessiveness isn’t a good look on you.”
“Is it possessive not to want to watch my wife flirting with someone?”
“I wasn’t flirting.”
Rafael grunted. “His hands were all over you.”
Gwen rolled her eyes. “So what? I owe you nothing. You’re forgetting that I never wanted to marry you in the first place, Rafael. I still don’t understand why you even wanted to marry me. My wolf is weak, and nobody likes me. You should go back to your duties as leader of the pack and find someone who is good enough to be your mate.”
“Unless she looks exactly like you, smells exactly like you, walks and talks and thinks and drives me crazy exactly like you, she’d never be good enough,” Rafael shot back.
Gwen’s hands clenched into fists. She wished she had worn flats instead of her kitten heels. She could walk faster that way. “That doesn’t even make any sense!”
“What doesn’t make sense?” Rafael shot back. “The fact that you are absolute the perfect woman for me? More than good enough?”
“Tell that to the pack,” Gwen spat, unwilling to respond to what he was really saying.
Her heartbeat increased again, traitorously yearning to get him to stay it again and again until she believed it. How could he really think that she was good enough to stand at his side? Sure, he lusted for her. Sure, he married her. But that didn’t have anything to do with anything except for lust, and the marriage was purely because he didn’t want people insulting his daughter. That didn’t mean that he wanted Gwen for the sake of her being…her.
“Iwilltell the pack,” Rafael countered, his tone growing more annoyed. “You think that I want them to talk behind your back like they do?”
“You care because them talking about your wife that way is a strike against your authority as Alpha.”
Rafael growled softly. “Are you being contrary on purpose? Are you trying to piss me off?”
Gwen clamped her jaw tight and refused to engage.
“Talk to me,” Rafael demanded. He reached for her arm, but she pulled herself free.
“You wanted me to be married to you to protect Lianne from people looking down at her for being born out of wedlock. But what you’re forgetting is that I’mme, Rafael.” She didn’t look at him as the words tripped off her tongue. “I’m the witch-girl with the weak wolf. I’m the freak nobody wanted anything to do with, who was looked down on all her life. And now you’re asking the pack to accept me?”
Rafael growled aloud. “They should accept you.”
“Why? Because I’m your wife?”
“Because you’re a member of this pack! And anyone who treats you differently for things you can’t even control is stuck in the toxic quagmire my father created in this pack. You think that I’ve been working to change things around for the hell of it?” He outpaced her to turn and walk backward, seeking her eye contact. “I wanted to make this town better. It wasn’t about my ego. I wanted to make sure that no other kid would go through the same thing you did. I wanted to make it better for you if you ever came back.”
Gwen’s heart stuttered. Her pace slowed as she searched Rafael’s face. He spoke so passionately, so genuinely. Did he really think that?
“I…” she started, faltering. What was she supposed to say?
Rafael reached out. He didn’t touch her, but the movement made her stop all the same. His eyes remained on hers. The streetlight was behind his head, casting his face in shadow while lighting hers. Gwen wished that it were the opposite. She felt utterly exposed here, all her thoughts and feelings clear for him to read and do with as he wanted, and yet she was getting nothing but his words in return.
Words lied. Words hurt. Words twisted everything into shapes she couldn’t recognize.
