Page 23 of A Secret Baby By the Alpha

As we tumbled down together, Gage transformed as well. His dark gray wolf howled in pain and bit my flank, leaving a gash in my thigh. I growled and prepared to reengage when Alpha Axel Vitali, still in human form, jumped between us.

“Enough!” he shouted. “You two are causing a ruckus that’s going to wake the enemies. We don’t have any backup with us. Stop now, before you cause more problems for us all.”

I waited until Gage turned back into his human form before I did as well, unwilling to let my guard down.

“We’re allies. Act like it,” Axel said.

“Allies” is a bit of a stretch,Orin growled.

He’s right, though,I said.What were you thinking, attacking him like that?

I was thinking that he wasn’t going to stop talking shit until I made it impossible for him to talk again.

“We should head home,” I said. “We’ve seen everything we need here.”

“Yes. We have,” Desmond agreed. He eyed me suspiciously as we transformed again for the run back home. The hate seemed to roll off of him in waves as we ran. Our encounter may have been the first violence between us, but I could tell it wouldn’t be the last.

By the time I got back to the house, it was almost three in the morning. I did my best to be quiet as I came inside so Iwouldn’t wake the girls, but Christa must have been waiting up for me.

“Where have you been?” she whispered harshly.

“Out,” I replied with a muffled groan.

My leg had started to heal, but wolf bites were always slow. Blood had soaked my pant leg, and if I didn’t get it washed quickly, it would take longer. The sooner I got a calendula salve on the injury, the better my chances were of avoiding a scar.

“I’m serious, Colson,” Christa said, following me to my room, where I headed immediately into the bathroom and started the shower. “Jenny was worried about you when you missed dinner. You can’t just leave without telling her. You know that, right?”

I winced, both from the pain in my leg and the knowledge that I had hurt my daughter.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I haven’t been a parent for very long. I didn’t think—”

“Exactly! You didn’t think. If you want to have a relationship with her, you had better figure out how to think of her well-being first,” Christa chided.

“I will,” I assured her. “But can I get some privacy, please?”

Christa’s forehead creased in confusion at my request, and then she spotted my blood-soaked leg.

“Col!” she exclaimed. “What in the world happened?”

“You should see the other guy,” I joked, removing my clothes.

“Who hurt you? What happened?” she demanded again.

“Alpha Vitali and I had a bit of a scuffle.”

She sighed as she helped me get my blood-soaked pant leg unstuck from my skin and got me into the shower. My eyes closed as the hot water streamed down my body, relaxing my tense muscles.

I assumed that Christa would leave while I showered, so I was surprised when I opened my eyes and saw she was still there. She grabbed a clean rag and handed it to me so I could clean myself up.

“Why are you allies with them?” she asked quietly. “I don’t understand the appeal of tying yourself and your pack to a group of people that would be so cruel, let alone people who would turn on you like this.”

“Our goals align at the moment,” I answered. “Tonight was an outlier for how we usually interact. My wolf and I let our anger get the best of us and responded to Gage in a way that was… unhelpful at diffusing the tension. Trust me, if I play nice with them for a little bit, my pack will be safe for years to come.”

She eyed me intently for a moment and then turned to grab my towel. She handed it to me as I turned the water off and patted myself dry, careful to avoid getting any fresh blood on the cloth.

“Where are your bandages?” she asked.

I nodded toward the sink, and she opened a drawer to find what she needed. As I sat on the edge of the tub, Christa applied the salve to my wound and placed a large bandage around my thigh. Her fingers brushed against my skin, and I took a deep breath at the contact.

---