Page 7 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

“Well, if Jackson was around, you’d still be her favorite,” Dorian snickers, and I punch him playfully in the ribs.

“Don’t say that in front of Amelia, unless you want her to exile you.”

Dorian rolls his eyes. “I’ll have you know that she’d exile me for anything less abrasive. Her pregnancy has not been easy. Mom says it’s because she’s carrying a boy.”

“Well, Mom had two, so she’d know best,” I snicker.

Dorian laughs and shakes his head. “Well, we should get going before I end up on the couch for being late to lunch.”

I nod slowly, but then the fine hairs on the back of my neck prickle with an awareness that snags my attention away from my brother.

Frowning, I turn toward the woods as goosebumps erupt across my forearms.

“Do you sense that?”

“Sense what?” Dorian asks. “Do you think it’s here again? Whatever did this?” He points to the shriveled side of the forest.

“If you can’t sense it, then it must be my imagination. You know these woods better than I do.”

“Let me get my men—”

“No,” I breathe, the uneasiness so stifling that I deduce I must be the only one feeling it. If Dorian can’t sense it, then maybe it’s all in my head.

Maybe it’s just being an overprotective uncle that has me feeling this way.

“You go on and check up on Luna, Amelia, and Damita. Mother will probably arrive soon, anyway. I’ll check your perimeters, then meet you there.”

“Are you sure you’re alright, Damian?”

I turn and nod, patting his shoulder with reassurance as I lightly chuckle. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just paranoid, that’s all.”

“Call me if you see anything,” he says, and I nod as I watch him leave reluctantly. Dorian glances over his shoulder twice before entering the walkway, then disappears beyond the thicket bordering the market area.

I turn back to the woods, shifting into wolf form to sweep the borders, when I’m suddenly hit by the intensity of a scent that would almost be suffocating if it weren’t so appealing.

My wolf paws freeze between the fruitful ground and the side that had been tainted by unknown cruelty, hackles rising, pointed ears perking up as I’m pulled toward the Nightclaw pack center. The sounds of shuffling feet fill my eardrums, and I can distinctly pick out a pair of footsteps pattering on the paved walkways as if they were my own.

The fur between my eyes tugs like a frown, and I quickly realize that whatever is beckoning to my wolf doesn’t lie beyond the Nightclaw borders.

It’s coming from somewhere within the pack territory, and my instincts lead me toward the village square. I shift back to human form before turning the corner of the building, not wanting to cause alarm if the pack members see me in wolf form.

But when I do, standing on two human feet now, the feeling of unrest continues to churn in my gut, unfurling across my arms and winding around my neck.

Someone knocks into my arm, snapping me out of the trance-like daze, but the sensations don’t stop flowing through me. Unease. A type of restlessness I have only felt a decade ago.

“Sorry, sir!” a bubbly, playful voice chirps under my nose, and that’s when I realize that whoever bumped into me is only a child.

I look down to meet a pair of apologetic, fretful eyes, as richly blue as my own.

My wolf is losing his mind internally, clawing at my subconscious as if he wants to be let out. But it’s not because the young boy is a threat. It’s because this feels like staring into a mirror reflecting my younger self, and I’m stunned.

“My friends and I were just messing around. Didn’t see ya there,” the boy shrugs, running a hand through tight brown curls as if he’s nervous.

I chuckle as I’m brought back to reality, the wariness slowing down to a mild simmer beneath the surface of my flesh.

“No worries, young man,” I reply, nodding to the group of boys waiting for him a few feet away. “Shouldn’t you be headed to the pack center for lunch, you and your buddies?”

The boy goes ramrod straight as if he just received a command, and a blindingly hot flush spreads down my spine.