Page 39 of Alpha's Secret Baby Girl
Rafael filed that away for later, focusing on the immediate needs. She was shivering violently and injured. He needed to get her warmed up and tend to her injuries. His first instinct was to take her back to the house, but Lianne would be there. This would no doubt be frightening enough; she didn’t need to see her mother in this state.
So as he carried Gwen back toward town, he headed for his office. Michael was there shortly, driving a car. Rafael was grateful for him and called the doctor to meet him at the office.
“We need a clinic,” Rafael muttered. Usually, house calls were just fine, but right now, not having a clinic seemed like a serious oversight. Wolves just normally didn’t need doctors.
The doctor performed tests, including checks on her oxygen levels, among other things. She used more technical terms, jargon that Rafael didn’t fully understand. As she was doing her work, Rafael got a towel from his private stash and helped Gwen dry off, then gave her dry clothes to change into. His pants were too long for her legs and a little too tight around her waist. The t-shirt was very much too small, squishing her breasts in a way that looked mildly painful. Gwen didn’t complain.
“It looks like you got lucky,” the doctor said when she was finished with her examination. “You might feel tired for a while,and your throat is going to be sore, but there won’t be any lasting damage.”
“Thanks,” Gwen murmured.
Rafael had already begun applying a salve and gauze to the many scratches over her arms and throat. Gwen sagged into him, clearly exhausted. The doctor offered to help, but Rafael shooed her away. Even though she was there to help, his wolf was feeling overly protective and didn’t want anyone else to be around.
Once they were alone, Rafael let out a heavy breath. “What happened?”
Gwen flinched. “Demon attacked me.”
“I’m going to need a bit more information than that, darling.”
She stared down at the floor for a long moment before she softly told him what had happened. Rafael listened, his heart aching at the tremor in her voice. He hated that this had happened, that she had been hurt and nearly killed. When she came to the part where the demon was trying to drown her, his hands tensed around her. She winced.
“I felt this surge of magic,” she murmured. “My head exploded, and I had a vision, but at the same time, I felt the magic like a physical thing. I used it to scream for help. I don’t know how. I don’t understand what happened.”
Rafael pulled her closer. She was still shaking, and her skin was cool. He groped behind the couch with one hand to find the blanket he kept in his office and pulled it over, wrapping her in it.
“Have you ever accessed your magic before?” Rafael asked.
Gwen shook her head. “Other than the visions, no.”
Rafael made a note of that. The witch-descendants in his pack needed access to their ancestor’s written materials, so they could start building up their understanding of their own magic. This fight against the demon would be much easier if they had access to magic.
He held her there for a moment, rocking her gently as her shudders slowly stopped. Gwen’s wet hair splayed over his shoulder. He was still naked, though neither of them cared. Rafael longed to press his lips comfortingly to her temple, but held himself back. He didn’t want to take advantage of her current state.
“What did you see in your vision?” he asked eventually.
“It was different than the ones I had before. It was the town, but there was this fine net in a dome over it. The demon was looking for holes in the net.” She shook her head slowly, frowning. “I think it means there is a protection over the town that prevents the demon from getting into it. Maybe an ancient spell that the witches made.”
Rafael’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “That would explain why there have been no attacks in town.”
It was good to know that they were safe zones. It meant he no longer had to be as worried about Gwen and Lianne when he wasn’t with them. The parks, the playdates, they were all safe. And that would be something the pack would be happy to hear, too, that the demon couldn’t attack them so long as they stayed within the town border.
At least for now. If the demon was looking for weak points, it might find them. That heaviness settled into his chest, and he breathed deeply, calming that instinctive worry. With any luck, the special ops team would take out the demon beforeit came to that. He stroked Gwen’s still-wet hair from her forehead and frowned. He needed to get out there, too, to help them find and take out the demon. The instinct to eliminate the threat warred with the instinct to stay with her and continue comforting her.
Gwen let out a small shudder. “You were right to keep us here.”
Rafael opened his mouth but stopped himself. There was a lot more to that conversation. The end result might be good, but his method had been… well. She had every right to be angry with him.
“We’ll talk about it in more detail when you feel better,” he told her. He wanted to tell her that he knew he fucked up, but when her body relaxed into his, he remained silent. They would have the chance to talk over his mistakes later. Right now, he felt that talking about it would only remind her of the way he’d messed up and make her tense up again.
They stayed like that, Gwen in his arms, for over an hour. As it became more apparent that she was not seriously injured, his wolf became more impatient to go hunt the demon. When her hair was dry, Rafael stirred. The slight movement was enough for her to pull away from him.
“I need to get home to Lianne,” she said, sounding slightly dazed as though she hadn’t realized how much time was going by. “She’s going to be so worried that we’re not there.”
“Chelsey and Kira are with her,” Rafael answered soothingly.
Gwen pulled away from him, clutching the blanket over herself. Her eyes dropped over his naked form, and her cheeks reddened as she cast the blanket off, covering him instead. “She’s going to be worried. I need to go home now.”
Home. Surprise rippled through him, but Rafael only nodded. As much as he hoped that showed a change in her view of the island—of him—it could easily be a slip of the tongue.
