Page 28 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

There’s a part of me that wants to fight him, wants to hurt him the way he hurt me in the past, but he’s staring at me with dark, hungry eyes that make it nearly impossible for me to think straight.

“Were you waiting for me to return?” he asks, and a shiver courses down my spine.

“Don’t get any ideas, Damian,” I finally manage to say. “Our mate bond isn’t real, so don’t expect any favors from me.”

“It looks real to me,” he says as he lifts his other hand to my neck, touching the raw mark with a fingertip.

Every cell of logic tells me to pull away from his touch, but I don’t move, as if instinct is calling the shots.

I hate how much I’m enjoying being swaddled in his scent, hate that his touch ignites me in places that have been long forgotten.

All the memories resurface—the romantic moments we shared, the laughter, the joys, and all the highs tangled in sheets.

And even though it was that passion that crashed and burned us in the past, I can’t help but be swept in its heat again.

It’s addictive, and I hate that I’m tempted. Hate that my body can’t adequately respond to the dangers my heart has faced over a decade without him.

I tell myself that it’s only because he’s the only man I’ve ever been with.

But it’s a lie.

I never wanted another man.

It’s always been Damian Walker.

Even now, after everything, Damian Walker is still the only man with enough power to break me.

Chapter 7 - Damian

With my senses in overdrive after that much-needed run, I notice everything.

Everything.

Like the way Poppy shudders when I touch her neck. The movement is subtle, but it’s there, and I know her body is reacting to me.

She’s still in denial. I’m aware. The way her brows furrow and she doesn’t move as I trace the indents of my teeth on her neck. The way she keeps her body rigid, almost as if she stops breathing altogether.

The scent of her awareness swims in the air between us, mingled with the scent she carries, as if she walked through a garden of flowers. Throughout the years we’ve spent apart, I never quite lost that scent, but it was faint, nearly slipping away like a ghost to my airways.

Now that it’s here, now that she is here, her scent stronger than ever and appealing to my wolf as if it’s sustenance, there’s no doubt in my mind that she is fated to be mine.

How did I miss this in the past?

Was I so riddled by the pressures of becoming the alpha that I lost sight of what was most precious to me? I’d always been attracted to Poppy, and that’s why I pursued a relationship with her in the first place.

But this?

This is much stronger, an attraction so strong that it makes me feel like I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t have her.

No.

Control.

I must exercise it. I cannot become consumed by this viciously haunting desire. My eyes flicker to her lips, noticing the way they part when she exhales, and heat explodes in my chest.

It’s almost like she’s finally giving in, her body betraying the coldness of her words, her denial that our mate bond is real, or that fate itself is wrong. That’s when I flatten my hand against her neck, then inch my fingers to her face, where I cup her cheek.

She isn’t pulling away, and instead, her eyes meet mine, and for the briefest moment, something flickers there. Hesitation. Uncertainty. My wolf seizes on it immediately, convincing me that it’s softness. That she’s finally beginning to feel what I feel. Whatever hard armor she’s been wearing since she woke up in Cedar Valley falls now in an instant, and her breath catches in her throat as I lean in.