Page 10 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

But ever since Alpha Dorian was rescued after going missing for months, Damian has been visiting way too often for my liking. I don’t even know when I stopped angrily shoving laundry into the washer, but I find myself staring out the window while toying with my necklace, wondering if it’s a good idea to take my son and run before Damian finds us here.

It’s probably not a good idea to even be under the same roof as him, so when Ingrid comes back to find me after serving lunch, I breathe out a sigh of relief.

“Do you think you can cover me for the rest of the day?” I ask her as she comes in. She doesn’t close the door behind her, so I nimbly move past her and close it myself.

“Yeah, of course, honey,” Ingrid says, her brows furrowing with worry as she touches my arm. “You’re really not feeling well, are you?”

I shake my head and lie as I touch my temple. I just need to get out of the pack center, and I can hear Daniel and his friends laughing outside, which means he’s left already. That’s a good sign. “My head’s throbbing.”

Ingrid nods. “Yeah, you go on ahead and get some rest. I’ll tell Danny where to find you when he’s done playing with his friends.”

“Thanks, Ingrid.”

She winks and offers me a gentle smile. “You can count your lucky stars that I’m the manager of this place. And you happen to be my best friend around here. Don’t forget, tonight is Alpha Elias’s memorial bonfire. It will be extra special. I hear Dorian’s brother is staying for the celebrations.”

Groaning, I fake a bout of pain and press my finger to my temple again. “I don’t know if I’ll make it with the way I’m feeling.” I shrug, and Ingrid sighs.

“That’s okay. Just get better, then.”

I smile gratefully and thank her again before leaving the pack center, slipping out from the back door, my hoodie covering my head this time.

Moving stealthily around the village has become second nature ever since Damian began making his appearances in Fort Smit. I disappear into the crowd in the market, moving as if I’m one of the elderly ladies picking out a new pearl bracelet before breaking off and racing down toward my cabin.

Once I’m inside, I breathe out a sigh of relief as if I’d been holding my breath the whole way. I decide to take a shower to wash away all my anxieties, but once I’m in the shower stall and close my eyes, basking in the warmth of the water running over me, I accidentally let my mind wander off to places I’d rather not visit.

Damian Walker.

Before he became the alpha of the Valley Walker Pack.

Back then, not a day would pass without us seeing each other. And now, ten years have passed, and I pray he doesn’t see me.

What kind of twisted fate had I stepped into when I walked into the pack his brother took over?

My only consolation was their longstanding hostility, the reason why they couldn’t see eye to eye even when Dorian joined the Rosethorn Alpha Council. Everyone whispered about it, until our alpha went missing, and when he was rescued, the brothers seemed to have repaired their relationship.

I should be happy for them, but I’m not. I’d put so much distance between myself and Damian for ten years so he wouldn’t even know I had his child that I’d become detached from feeling anything for him.

Then why are you thinking so much about him right now?

I snap my eyes open and groan at my inner wolf’s intrusive question, gasping when I realize where my hand has drifted.

Snatching it from between my thighs, I gag dramatically and step beneath the showerhead so the water can rush over my head, a shiver running through me.

There’s no way Damian has me feeling things I thought I could never feel again. I’d buried the existence of those feelings long ago, when I left Valley Walker to forge a life for myself and my son. A life he couldn’t give me.

And now that he’s around, breathing the same air as me, it’s too risky to be here anymore. I bite my bottom lip in contemplation, wondering if it’ll be a good idea to leave.

The rogue threat has been dealt with, and perhaps that was the reason for the shriveled garden in Roland. Maybe there is no danger out there.

The only real danger is sticking around and risking Damian finding me. Or worse, finding Daniel.

He lost the right to know he has a son a decade ago.

And even if we’re safer here, we’re not safe from him. He had the power to break my heart once. I won’t let my son go through the same.

When I’m done in the shower, pacing the living room floor as I weigh my options, a familiar knock on the door interrupts me.

“Coming!” I call out, a smile growing on my face despite my distress, and as soon as I unlock the door, Daniel rushes inside.