Page 55 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

Whimpering helplessly, I try to force the shift back, to become human again, but nothing happens.

My wolf won’t answer me, and I’m stuck in wolf form.

Panic surges through every fiber of my being as I struggle to move, claws scraping uselessly through the dirt while my limbs remain heavy and unresponsive. It’s as though my own body has betrayed me, trapping me inside my wolf with no way to escape.

The undergrowth rustles again.

This time, I can’t even lift my head properly to look up at what’s coming. All I can see are shadows whispering across the ground, growing larger as they spread out and surround me.

I’m finally able to lift my head enough to see the dark figures emerging between the trees, their faces hidden beneath deep hoods as they glide silently across the dead forest floor. My breathing grows ragged, terror flooding every corner of my mind as I attempt another desperate growl, a last-ditch attempt for someone from Nightclaw to hear my call for help, but it comes out as nothing more than a pitiful whine.

No...

Daniel…

My mind spins from the treacherous pain in my ribs, thoughts as blurred as my vision.

Damian…

One of the figures kneels beside me, a pale, gloved hand smoothing over the fur at the back of my neck with unnerving gentleness. My entire body trembles beneath the touch, my instincts screaming at me to bite, to fight, to run.

But I can’t.

Something cold presses against the side of my neck, and a sharp prick follows.

Pain blooms beneath my fur as whatever pierced my skin sinks deeper and courses through my veins, and within seconds, an unbearable heaviness washes over me. My eyelids droop despite every frantic attempt to keep them open, the towering trees above me melting into a blur of black branches and gray sky.

The last thing I hear before darkness swallows me whole is the faint, haunting voice of a woman.

“Take this one.”

Then everything turns black and consumes me.

Chapter 15 - Damian

My heart squeezes inside my chest, and it takes everything out of me not to turn around and go back to Poppy, where I left her on the edge of the forest.

She begged me to leave.

No.

She commanded it. Demanded it in a way I have never heard her speak before. And while I wanted nothing more than to stay by her side, I knew I needed to give her space.

We both need space to think clearly when we’ve been searching for comfort in the wrong places, even if it didn’t feel wrong to be kissing her lips. I should be angry after what I just learned, about the truth she couldn’t tell me when she had ample opportunity to do so.

But what I need to do now is go and check what’s going on, what plans are being made to rescue my son.

That’s where my head needs to be. Not on Poppy, and certainly not on the anger that resurfaces when I enter the house and see Dorian belting out instructions to everyone there.

The wounds I carry are only the demons that remain haunting me, and my inability to move away from all the pain I’ve suffered. I’m stuck, and I hate myself for it. Daniel doesn’t need an incompetent, wounded man as his father.

He deserves me in my wholeness, as the alpha of the Valley Walker Pack.

His face flashes past me, and even though I’ve never met him, our worlds collided for a brief moment that morning, and that’s all I need to take a deep breath and strengthen my resolve.

“What is happening? Why aren’t we out there yet?” I ask Dorian sternly, and he doesn’t bat an eyelid at my appearance, as if it were expected.

“I’ve sent out a group of scouts to raid the area,” Dorian tells me. “Aoife is conducting a ritual in the meantime to trace Daniel’s whereabouts more accurately.”