Page 76 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

“Do you see what I mean?”

“I—”

My attention is zapped to the left, where the sound of screeching and wailing filters through a very narrow, very dark alleyway.

“You know what you need to do, Poppy Barnes,” the Moon Goddess whispers in my ear. “Remember who you are…”

In a blink of an eye, the Moon Goddess disappears, and the white light around me fades into grayish darkness that adds to the terror of the sounds ripping out from the side.

I gulp hard, closing my eyes and willing my wolf forward, but I still can’t seem to find her. The disconnect from my inner wolf remains despite meeting the Moon Goddess, and I have no idea what she meant when—

The screeching is louder, as if it’s right in front of my face, cutting through my thoughts and compelling me to open my eyes just in time to feel warmth spread across my fingers. I lift my hand, shocked to find ribbons of white gold light dancing on my palms.

Turning them outward feels instinctive, and a burst of energy as hot as scorching sunlight erupts from my hands, blasting the dark clouds that crawl toward me.

In seconds, the darkness recedes, disappearing into a puff of smoke that’s carried away by the slightest wind. I’ve hardly broken a sweat defeating the darkness, and that’s when I realize I wasn’t disconnected from my inner wolf.

I am my inner wolf, but I am also something more powerful.

I don’t need to meet the Moon Goddess again for her to spell it out for me.

I know what I am, and after just wiping out the dark, corrupted magic I’d been poisoned with, I’m able to open my eyes for the stars in the sky to greet me where I’m lying on the ground.

“Poppy?!” Sister Aoife’s voice comes before her face appears above me.

I sit upright without needing her help, breaking through the chains that have kept me bound using my newly discovered powers.

Aoife stares at me with wide eyes as I rise to my feet, the hospital gown burning into a white robe that wraps around my body.

The sisters stop their chanting around the fire, each equally shocked and mystified by what I just did, Aoife’s hand flying to her chest.

“You are…” she begins, pausing to gulp as she meets my eyes. “You are a white witch…”

I nod to confirm this, feeling stronger than ever, an air of authority in every breath I take.

The mate bond tugs on my heartstrings, and my eyes narrow. “Where is Damian?” I ask Aoife, and she glances over her shoulder.

“He was called to answer the siren,” she reveals. “The dark witches have come for you, Poppy.”

My eye twitches as I nod, letting the last bits of silver that kept my inner wolf away slip to the ground before stepping forward.

“I am going to him,” I tell Aoife. “He needs my help.”

Sister Aoife takes the hand I offer out to her to help her to her feet, but she holds me for a heartbeat longer.

“If you really are a white witch, then you are the only thing that can stop the war out there.”

“I know,” I breathe with certainty in my voice.

Aoife nods once, though she still looks as though she’s struggling to comprehend what she’s seeing, or what she’s hearing from the certainty and conviction in my voice.

“The prophecy…” she breathes, almost to herself. “After all these centuries…”

Her words barely register in my head when something twists violently inside my chest. It isn’t pain. It’s urgency.

My gaze snaps toward the forest beyond the clearing just as another explosion rocks the earth beneath our feet. Dark smoke rises above the trees, followed by terrified howls and the unmistakable clash of battle.

My stomach drops, and I flinch as if I’m the one being struck, pain slicing through my ribs and keeping me momentarily frozen.