Page 26 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

“Please, you do not need to refer to me as ‘Luna.’ I haven’t been this pack’s luna for a decade. You are the luna now.”

My heart drops in an instant, a heavy weight settling on my shoulders.

This is suddenly becoming real. Serious.

And I want no part of it.

“I don’t really feel like the luna of this pack,” I say, shaking my head slowly. “Everything is happening so fast…”

“I know it’s overwhelming, Poppy. Is that why you were crying?”

I nod tersely, and Diane offers me a warm smile.

“I just want to go back home…to Fort Smit…” I whisper, teary-eyed as I stare at her. “I left something…something very important to me there. I have to go back for it.”

She nods thoughtfully. “Why did you leave Cedar Valley ten years ago, Poppy? I am a mother, and I knew something was going on between you and my son.”

My breath catches in my throat, and my eyes widen with shock. “You knew…?”

She nods. “Yes, I knew, but I never said a word about it. I waited for my son to tell me himself. But he never did. And then you left, and he was torn up. But he never spoke a word about you. And now he brings you here, and he’s mated you…” She reaches out and touches my neck where Damian had bitten me in the ritual. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m worried about Damian. He’s behaving out of character, saying things he normally wouldn’t. And if he’s hurt you…”

I shake my head, not wanting to add to this woman’s distress or alarm her. “He hasn’t hurt me,” I lie, gulping on the lump in my throat. “I just really need to get back to Nightclaw. I’m worried…” My voice tapers off when I’m unable to tell her the truth of the situation.

But she sees the weight of it in my eyes, and sighs.

“Damian needs to go to Nightclaw for a meeting tomorrow morning,” she says, and I shake my head.

“He’s not gonna—”

“He will listen to me eventually,” Diane assures me. “I will convince him to go to Nightclaw. And you can accompany him. Whatever you’ve left behind must matter a great deal. No one cries like that over something unimportant.”

I gulp hard, but nod slowly. “Thank you, Diane.”

Diane stands up and looks around the bedroom, and it’s evident when her gaze lingers on the bed that she suspects I’ve already been here last night. She purses her lips as if she’s holding back her questions, and steps back.

“Are you comfortable here?” she asks, and I nod. She takes a deep breath and says, “I’ll make dinner. You should come down and join me. Damian is… Damian won’t be back for a while, so it’ll just be the two of us.”

“I’m not very hungry, Diane,” I say, as I glance at the bed behind me. “I’d like to go to bed.”

Diane nods hesitantly this time. “If you need to talk, Poppy, I will be right here. Damian is my son, but I won’t stand by him if he’s doing anything to hurt you. You must know that.”

I stare at the older woman for a long moment, unable to bring myself to tell her the truth. Truthfully, a pang of guilt tugs at my chest at the mere thought that she might never know she has a grandson from Damian.

But it’s better to keep Daniel away, even if it’s only to protect him from Damian. It’s like his own mother said; he’s acting out of character.

And I have no idea why he’s being this way.

What do I have to do with Dorian leaving the pack? Does he think that this forced mate bond is a way to get back at his brother simply because I’ve been living in Nightclaw for a year?

Dorian doesn’t even know about our history, and surely doesn’t even care about my absence from the pack now.

Damian’s strange behavior is even more reason to get as far away from him as possible with my son.

Peeling the white gown off my body, I slip into the pajama set I find in the closet before slipping into bed. As I lie there, staring at the ceiling, my chest continues to fill with more panic and dread.

I close my eyes and whisper a gentle prayer to the Moon Goddess to place a protective hand over my son. At least for one night, until I can return to Fort Smit in the morning.

My heart is nowhere near eased when I open my eyes again, and I wonder how I’m supposed to sleep through the night knowing my son is out there, probably wondering where I am. He must have woken up this morning looking for me, and I can only hope that Connor and Ingrid came up with something.