Page 7 of The Alpha's Forbidden Secret Baby

He told her of what he was and his people. Rayla was the first human he had told his secret to. He apologized for hiding the truth. Xander confided in her about how his people cannot be exposed to the mundane. Then, he begged her to keep it a secret.

It was a lot to take in. But several mysteries she had wondered about Xander became clear to her.

Xander was shaken, too. He kept kissing her hands like he needed assurance from her. He seemed scared that she would leave him.

She looked at him closely and all she saw was the person she was in love with, certainly not a beast.

Xander exposed his people’s secret to her because he loved her. Because he couldn’t watch her die when he could do something about it. Werewolf or not, Xander was a good person. So, she vowed to keep his existence a secret.

He was delighted when she kissed him and asked to see his wolf.

Xander’s wolf was black and huge. She admired and caressed him. They spent the rest of the day in each other arms.

She shook her head as the memory faded. All the promises he made were lies in the end. He left when she needed him the most.

Too bad for him. Rayla was content with herself and her son. It was both of them against the world.

Although things didn’t end well with Xander, she still kept her promise. Maybe even more so than before. After all, a word from her could gravely endanger her werewolf son.

Rayla couldn’t help being constantly worried about Abel. He was thirteen, and she knew little of what to expect next. Getting help would be the sensible thing to do.

Xander had told her that there were different wolf towns. She could move to one of those and get Abel the help he clearly needed. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to do that.

The possibility of someone in one of the wolf towns seeing Abel and connecting his resemblance to Xander was extremely high. If news got to Xander about Abel… she couldn’t let herself think of what would happen then.

Keeping Abel away from Xander is not being selfish, is it?

Rayla wondered if her intentions were selfish. She was trying to be a good mother. The whole dilemma was just too much to handle sometimes.

Rayla and Abel were exhausted by the time they got home. She instructed Abel to go wash up and rest while she got busy around the house. Her mind was heavily burdened by everything that was happening even as she went to bed.

For a while, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Just as she began to drift off, she heard a loud crash. She jolted off her bed.

Disoriented and drowsy, Rayla’s mother instincts kicked in. “Abel?” she whispered.

She ran up to Abel’s bedroom. The door was left ajar as always, but Abel was not in the room. Her heart raced as she noticed his bed in tatters. It looked like a beast had run its claws through the sheets.

Abel, where are you?

She looked toward the window to see it shattered in pieces. A body had broken through the glass. Immediately, a sinking feeling settled in her gut. Terror iced her blood as she looked at the full moon in the night sky.

Chapter 3 - Xander

Xander found himself standing in the shadows, a faint outline of another figure beside him. He reached out tentatively, his hand passing through the darkness like smoke. "Who are you?" he called out, his voice echoing in the emptiness.

In the darkness, he felt a presence, like someone watching from the shadows. It was a sensation he couldn't shake, a feeling of unease that clung to him like a second skin.

But there was no response, only the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. He glanced around, his eyes searching the darkness for any sign of life. And then he saw them, a pair of eyes staring back at him from the shadows.

They were his eyes, he realized with a start, but they looked different somehow. Younger, more innocent. Like the reflection of his own eyes in the still waters of a lake when he was just a child.

"Are those my eyes?" he whispered to himself, his voice barely audible over the rustling of the leaves and the waves of the water in the darkness.

But before he could ponder the question further, he felt a sudden shift in the air, a presence in the shadows. He turned, his heart pounding in his chest, but there was nothing there. Just the faint outline of the other figure beside him.

With a start, Xander jolted awake, his heart racing in his chest. He had been awakened from the dreamscape by a presence in his room, a subtle shift in the air that indicated he was not alone.

Sitting up, his black eyes darted around, scanning the darkness for any sign of danger. His eyes didn't need any adjusting to the darkness; he could clearly make out every object in the room. His eyes turned to the right, and that's when he saw him.

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