Page 28 of The CEO Alpha’s Substitute Mate

She knew Maya.

The thought comes back to me once coherency returns. How did this woman know Maya? How much did my sister confide in her, if anything? I need to know. The anxiety is a living thing within me.

I make sure Luca is fast asleep before I slip out of the room.

The corridor lights are on low. I go down the main stairs and turn left instead of right, which I’ve worked out leads to the study. The last twenty feet are carpeted thick enough that my feet make no sound at all. Ahead of me, the study door stands open about four inches. There’s a lamp on in there, and I can hear two muffled voices. I’m three steps away when I hear Isabella say my name.

“The arrangement works just fine.”

“Callum.” Isabella has dropped the sweetness she used outside. “Be reasonable. They will never accept her as his mother. Her kind are just there to give birth in certain situations.”

I stop where I am.

“Luca needs a proper mother. You picked this one up off the side of the road.”

Something creaks, and it might be a chair or it might be him.

“There’s nothing she can teach him. He gets no name out of her and no standing.” There’s a pause. “Send that woman home. I’ll help you raise him. You know my family will provide good backing.”

I put a hand against the wall, and I can’t feel the plaster under it. “That child is your heir, and that woman is of hardly any pedigree. You can’t possibly intend to have her raise your son. She’s a nobody, a flopped-out dancer who can barely make ends meet.” Her voice drops to something you’d use on a sickbed. “Just think about it. Send her out, keep the child, and I’ll help you raise him.”

I take my hand off the wall.

Send her out. Keep the child.

They want to take my son from me.

Chapter 6

Callum

“You had no right to say anything.”

I’ve finally gotten the time to deal with Isabel like the little human ordered me to.

Isabella crosses the study and sits herself on the edge of my desk, one leg over the other, which she has done since she was nine years old. Her knee is swinging.

“It was an honest mistake. How was I to know you didn’t tell him?” She pulls her hair back off her shoulder. “And how was I to know you actually brought that human woman home? What are you doing, Callum?”

I asked this house for one thing, which was that the boy stay calm. He’s yet to be examined by Healer Salar, and until that is done and I have something to work with, I don’t want the child upset. However, if anything, this did prove that his wolf is not completely in slumber. I felt its presence, my own wolf reacting to the scent of another alpha. If Ariela hadn’t calmed him down, things would have gotten bad very fast. It also proved that her presence is necessary.

“The child is bonded with Ariela.” I stay behind the desk. “I’m not separating the two.”

Isabella lifts her chin. “He’s going to be the next alpha of this pack, Callum. You really think they will respect him when they find out he’s being raised by a human woman? Alphas are from noble families. There’s a social hierarchy for a reason.” Her hands open. “I’ve never heard of a human woman raising an alpha. She can’t give him the pedigree. She’s a nobody. It would be better if I raise him with you.”

“She’s raising him just fine. I don’t need your help.”

I’m not a fool. If Isabella Crane enters my house with the intention of raising Luca, the pack elders who have been pushing me to find another mate will home in on her, and my life will be a living hell. Isabella, Damien, and I grew up together. She will be one of the candidates to be my next mate the moment I give the elders any hint of leeway. Ariela is fine. She is wholly and completely focused on Luca. She has no interest in a single alpha.

However, just as I reassure myself with that, my wolf stretches inside the confines of my mind, recalling the way we were ordered around on the doorstep of the mansion.

Deal with her.

My wolf rumbles in perverse satisfaction and sharpens its claws. He was given an order, and as he looks toward Isabella, he wants to fulfill it. I tighten the reins around it, alarmed that he suddenly sees Isabella as a threat just because a human woman said something to us.

Outwardly I don’t show my feelings, but my wolf’s desire to please Ariela is dangerous. Even in the car, when she offered the food to Petrov, my wolf had suddenly grown aggressive. A shifter’s wolf is a reflection of their very core. My wolf has always been strong and disciplined. Even when I felt the fated mate bond with Elena, while it was happy, it never once behaved like an overeager, possessive pup who wants a female’s attention.

I’ve never had difficulty in controlling him till now. And I don’t understand why. All I know is he craves her scent, wants her with a desperation that I can’t control.