Page 49 of The CEO Alpha’s Substitute Mate

“What if they find out that she is not the birth mother?” He sits forward with his forearms on his knees. “That would really significantly change her role. If she gave birth to Luca, at least there would be some semblance of respect; the pack has to respect her. But if you are going to bat for a human who is just Luca’s legal mother, they will not accept it, and the elders will come after you.”

“And they will fail.”

“They will.” He doesn’t blink. “But the pack will enter a period of chaos. You know how this goes. Either you bury the entire thing with Maya and destroy all the evidence, or—” He stops there and turns both palms up. “I don’t have a solution for you, but you have to think of something.”

“I will.”

After he leaves, I get up and stand at the glass with the city going orange under me. Damien is right, and it’s something I have also considered. I can’t have a fated mate. Elena was my fated mate. A wolf gets one fated mate. The bond doesn’t mean you have to love your mate. It just means the chemistry is something that can not be shared with another. I never loved Elena. Neither did she love me. We suited each other, we were a good fit. In bed, we burned, but outside of it, we were two individuals who never desired a deeper understanding. Yet I cared for her, and her death broke my wolf’s heart. As it goes, once you find your fated mate, attraction toward another female is close to impossible. Yet my wolf, who hasn’t looked at a female in ten years, now paces the inside of my skull every time Ariela leaves a room. Perhaps he’s starved for touch.

I put my forehead against the cold glass for a second, then push off it. Whatever this is, I have to figure it out and put an end to it. The problem, which I never shared with my friend, is that my human half has begun to eagerly anticipate our interactions just as much as the wolf counterpart.

❦ ❦ ❦

The house is dark at the front when the car pulls up at the front door at ten. Reid takes my coat in the hall. “The young master has been asleep since half past seven. They had lunch, then dinner, and Miss Reyes put him down herself.”

“What about the guest?”

“They’re on the roof, Alpha.” He hangs the coat and turns around. “We took care of her. You may ask Miss Reyes.”

I check on Luca first. He’s on his back with one arm flung over his head, hair stuck to his forehead, a plastic dinosaur on the pillow beside his face. Somebody has lined the toy wolves along the sill of his window in the order they were in on Garrick Street. The hall light is on, and the door is open exactly halfway, which I’ve been told twice now isn’t negotiable.

I should go to bed, but my feet find themselves making their way up to the rooftop. The roof door stands open a crack, and there’s laughter coming through it. I push it wide. Both bottles of wine from the apartment are out on the ledge. One is finished. There are two glasses out, along with a plate of shortbread, and my son’s mother is sitting on the concrete with her legs stretched out, her head back against the safety wall, laughing with her eyes shut, her throat bare. Zara lies on her back beside her with a glass balanced on her stomach.

“Ariela.”

Ariela lifts her head off the wall slowly and squints at me across the roof. Then she grins at me with all her teeth.

“Oh, look.” She points the glass at me. “Look who it is. Callum’s back.”

Zara props herself onto one elbow, sees me, and waves the glass so that most of it goes onto the concrete. “Hi, Callum. Do you want a drink?”

“No.”

I go back to the stairs and find Reid at the bottom of them. “Arrange a ride home for Miss Ellis and send two of the women up to help her down.”

The extraction takes eleven minutes and is worse than the punishment I handed out this afternoon. They cling to each other at the door with their foreheads together, talking over one another.

“Oh no, Zara, are you leaving?”

“I’ll be back, I won’t leave you!” Zara says tearily, clutching Ariela’s face. My wolf huffs in irritation at seeing how close they are.

They embrace three times. On the third one, Ariela’s eyes have gone glassy, and Zara tells her something about a Tuesday. One of the maids finally gets an arm around the guest and steers her through the door. The sound of the two of them reaches all the way down the back stairs.

Then it’s quiet. Ariela sits back down on the concrete, gets the second bottle by the neck, and pours herself a considerable amount of it.

I crouch in front of her and take it out of her hand. “Enough.”

“You can’t stop me from drinking.”

“I just did.”

She makes a grab for it and overbalances. Her elbow slides off the ledge, and then she’s against my chest with both arms hooked around my neck.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“I’m not telling you what to do.” I put my hand on the small of her back. “I’m saying you’ve had enough. It’s time to go to bed.”

“I don’t want to.” Her chin comes up. “I want to dance.”