Page 46 of The CEO Alpha’s Substitute Mate

What is Zara doing here?

Chapter 9

Callum

The woman standing at the door has short red hair, a coat two sizes too big, and a paper sack of groceries braced against her hip. She freezes when she sees us, but it is the shift in Ariela’s scent that has me bracing. An enemy, a friend? I can’t tell.

“Ariela?” She looks at the bags in Ariela’s hands and then at me. “What’s going on?”

Before Ariela can respond, there comes an excited cry from behind us. “Auntie Zara!”

Luca comes out of his bedroom at a sprint with a plastic wolf in each fist and hits her at the hip hard enough to rock her against the frame. The groceries go down on the floor. She gets an arm around him without once taking her eyes off my face.

My wolf sits back down. The boy knows her, so she’s clearly not a threat.

“What’s going on? Why are you leaving?” Zara looks past me at Ariela. “And where have you been?! I’ve been trying to catch you for the past couple of weeks. You’re barely answering your phone.”

“I’m sorry, there’s really been a lot happening.” Ariela sets the bags down and pushes the hair off her face with her wrist.

“Really? Then tell me.” Zara’s chin comes out. “What exactly is so important that you can’t answer the phone?”

Ariela looks sheepish. “I really have no excuse for that. I was just a little overwhelmed.” She gestures toward me. “Zara, this is Callum Vance. He’s Luca’s father, his biological father.”

Zara goes still. The boy is hanging off her waist talking about dinosaurs, and she’s stopped hearing a word of it.

“He’s what?”

“He’s Luca’s father.”

“You married my boss?”

“What?”

Zara looks up at me. Then she takes me in again, properly, and the color climbs her neck in patches. “I mean, not my boss as such. I work at your company. In the marketing department.” She wets her lips. “Wait, so he and Maya…? Did you know about this all along?”

“Of course not.” Ariela’s voice sharpens. “I would have told you. And it’s not what you think. They weren’t involved.”

Zara seems to be a sharp woman because her brows lift, and she looks at Callum and then at Luca and blinks. “Oh. Maya was a surrog—”

She cuts herself off when I meet her gaze.

Zara looks at Ariela. “What does this have to do with you not being here?”

“Well—” Ariela winces. “We’re kind of staying at his home.”

“The two of you?”

“Yeah.”

Luca lets go of her coat and tips his head all the way back. “Auntie Zara, you have to come see our new house. It’s really big.”

“No, no, Luca, she can’t come right now, maybe some other time.” Ariela’s hand goes to the top of his head and stays there.

Zara’s eyes shift toward me. “Why can’t I see the house? Where is it? Are you safe there? Why are the two of you living there together?”

I can see the woman intends to keep going, and since Ariela seems to relax around her, I make my decision.

“I still have some meetings to deal with,” I announce. “You can take your friend home.”