Page 3 of Alpha's Secret Baby Girl
“Do you care to explain yourself?” Randall thundered.
And that was exactly why they were at the town hall. Randall could have handled this privately. Could have raged at Rafael, could have forbidden him from ever seeing Gwen again. But where was the humiliation in that? Where was the power trip? Where was putting Gwen’s position in the pack even lower? This wasn’t about confrontation. It was about punishment. Punishing Rafael, yes, but more about punishing Gwen.
If Randall knew how much Rafael actually cared about her? It would be even worse. Randall hated the wolves of lower standing and wouldn’t think twice about taking everything away from Gwen if he thought there was a chance his son was going to break the status quo.
So Rafael smoothed his expression and shrugged. “I was bored.”
Gwen’s hands pressed more firmly to her mouth. Her eyes flashed with betrayal, and Rafael stared hard at her, hoping she understood.I don’t mean it!
Randall stepped back to look from his son to Gwen. “She means nothing to you, then?”
Rafael shrugged again. “No. She was just a little fun.”
Gwen turned and fled. Jeers and laughter followed her. Rafael had to fight the desire to run after her, to pull her into his arms. Fire flooded his veins, but he held himself still. He had to play the part. Right now, he had nothing outside of the pack.Even his schooling was paid for by his father. But once he was gone again, once he was back at college, he could get a job. He’d start earning a living and be able to support the two of them.
He was going to get her out of here.
They just needed to buy themselves a little time before breaking free from Randall Buchanan.
His father kept a close eye on him for the next week. His bedroom window was screwed shut, and whenever Rafael left the house, he had to take his kid brother, Michael, with him. So it was the full week before Rafael was able to make his way to the house where Gwen lived with Kira and Kira’s sister Chelsey.
He pried open Gwen’s bedroom window the way he had many times before. But as he entered the room, it was empty. Everything that made it ‘Gwen’ was gone. Her books, her computer, her knick-knacks.
The door opened, and Kira peered in, holding a baseball bat in both hands. When she saw who it was, she squeaked in surprise.
“Where is she?” Rafael asked, his heart thudding.
“Who?”
“Gwen. Where. Is. She?” he advanced slowly. Did his father have something to do with this?
Kira lowered the bat. “She’s gone. The day that you… that she was summoned to town hall. She came home, packed her things, and left.”
Left?
“She said she couldn’t stay here when nobody wanted her.”
Left. She left. She was gone. And it was all his fault.
Chapter 1 - Gwen
Seven Years Later
The headache had been pressing behind Gwen’s eyes for hours now. She knew the warning signs and had tried to get out of work early, but her boss had said, “There’s no going home early on a Holiday Friday night,” and sent her back to taking orders. Her jaw hurt from how much she’d been grinding her teeth against the pain when she was filling drink orders. It took all of her strength to maintain an upbeat, cheerful demeanor.
“Can I get you folks any dessert?” she asked as she approached a table of ten people, including a father, mother, and their eight grown children. They were here to celebrate a birthday.
“Sure you can,” the father of the family said, leering at her with that familiar unwelcome gleam in his eye. “When can you stop by the house?”
His wife gave Gwen an apologetic look. “We’ve got cake at home.”
“I’ll just get you your check then,” Gwen said. “Together or separate?”
“Together,” the man said quickly.
She was just printing out the order when her headache suddenly spiked. Her eyes widened and she gasped, her stomach rolling and her knees buckling. She collapsed to the floor, clutching at her head. Her vision blacked out, and a strange buzzing rang in her ears.
Images formed in the darkness. People. At first, they were indistinguishable blobs, but then they began to take shape,forming faces. She recognized them. Kira and Michael, from her old pack. They wavered in ripples of heat waves, then disappeared. A strange sense of dread filled Gwen. Kira’s face twisted, and her mouth dropped open in a silent scream. More figures burst through the haze. Wolves, dozens of them. She didn’t know their names, but she knew they were from the pack. They were in danger. They were being hunted.
