Page 29 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

“There’s no way you can’t feel it…” I whisper, slowly but steadily closing the distance between our faces. “I felt it from the moment I saw you in Fort Smit, talking to the beta.”

Poppy’s brows furrow, and that’s when she pulls away, as if a certain realization stops her.

“If only you’d felt it years ago,” she scoffs, and suddenly pushes at my shoulders with both hands. I’m hanging on to what she just said, so I don’t even have the strength to stand, cemented.

“I don’t know what you want now, Damian, or why you’re doing this, but there’s nothing between us.”

The cold brutality of her voice makes me falter, and I step back just enough for her to spin on her heel and head to her bedroom.

I shake my head, unable to let her go when every inch of my being is ignited with the unyielding need to be close to her. My inner wolf jostles me forward, and I grab her wrist right before she can enter her room.

“What does that mean, Poppy?” I ask, spinning her around to face me.

She snatches her wrist back and scowls at me. “There’s been nothing between us for a decade, Damian. What makes you think that things will change now?”

“You’re my fated—”

“To hell with fate!” she snaps disdainfully. “Fate won’t change the fact that I am an omega wolf around here. Do you really think your pack can accept this mate bond?”

My jaw drops. “Poppy, that never mattered to me; you know that. I never cared that you were an omega. It doesn’t even matter anymore.”

“Yeah, sure!” she chuckles dryly, rolling her eyes. “The only thing you cared about was being the perfect alpha, and taking an omega as your mate would have tainted your image back then. So guess what? I don’t know what any of this is about. You found me in Nightclaw, and what? You wanted to get back at your brother for walking out on Valley Walker? Want to prove that your pack is just as welcoming as Nightclaw? Prove Valley Walker is better than Nightclaw?”

My chest hollows.

Is that what she’s believed all these years? That I’d hesitated because she was an omega?

My Goddess...

She’s built an entire life around a lie I never knew she believed.

I frown at Poppy. “This has nothing to do with Dorian,” I counter, but Poppy shakes her head and steps forward, meeting my eyes with her contempt.

“I heard your conversation with your mother, Damian!” she spits venomously. “You still resent him for leaving. And you let that resentment ruin us in the past. And now, you’re just making things worse. Do you really think kidnapping me was the right thing to do?!”

“I had no other choice, and you don’t understand. My—”

Poppy presses her fingers to her temples, her eyelids squeezed shut. “I don’t care to understand, Damian. I am not interested in any of it. You are a mess, and you’re trying to drag me down with you, but I won’t let it happen.” She opens her eyes then, holding back the tears welling in them.

“Tell me how I can fix things, then,” I plead, but she shakes her head again.

“Whether we’re mates or not doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t trust you. I’ll never be this pack’s luna, and I will never truly be your mate. You can forget about that. The least you can do is honor the deal we made.”

With that, she turns around again and steps into her bedroom, shutting the door in my face.

My hands clench into fists, and I have to fight the urge to go inside after her. But her words replay in my head, twisting and tormenting my mind as I pull myself away and drag my feet to the stairs.

I should be going to shower, but what I need now is something to take the edge off. And the only place I’ll find it is in the liquor cabinet in the kitchen, at the bottom of a whiskey bottle.

Two glasses down, and I’m still haunted by her words, slipping between anger and regret as I recall the past we shared. The sweet moments that soon lost their sweetness when Dorian left and I was forced to step up into a role I wasn’t prepared for.

I remember that night clearly, along with all the other nights we shared. The love we shared. Because even if it wasn’t clear to me back then that she was my fated mate, I knew I loved her. And she broke me when she disappeared.

All because I hesitated?

But she knew.

She knew how much pressure I was under, and she couldn’t wait.