Chapter 36 CALISTO
GALLAHAN’S POV
“Gallahan,” Zuleika gasped.
But I couldn’t bring myself to turn to her or offer some sort of response. Because the adorable dark-haired boy with green eyes had seized my entire attention and was holding it completely captive in his small hands.
My eyes drank in the cherubic face, then raked all over his small form. To be fair, he was probably average-sized among his peers, but he was tiny compared to me, who loomed over him like a tower.
“He asked you a question, you know?” Maliya murmured as a reminder.
I cleared my throat, willing the wave of nausea to go away. But with how my heart was leaping out of control and my blood fizzing with an energy I couldn’t quite explain, it was a little hard to get my bearings and reign myself in.
I couldn’t even answer the simple question of the boy, because a lump had taken residence in my throat, and I couldn’t seem to swallow it down.
It didn’t help my case that my mind was in jumbles, unable to weave words into something coherent.
The boy from my painting blinked at me and tilted his head a little to the right. “You look pale, sir. Do you want a healer?”
My lips parted as I made an attempt to answer him. But then a woman’s voice, as unfamiliar as the boy’s, called out for him.
“Calisto!”
‘Calisto,’ I mentally repeated, ingraining each syllable in every inch of my mind.
Calisto craned his neck to see the woman, and I brought my gaze to look for her too, even though, deep inside me, I knew it wasn’t Willa.
My memory of her may have faded with time despite my best efforts to keep it as vivid as my desperation to find her, but I could still say with my entire chest that I would recognize her in a heartbeat. I would know her voice, her eyes, her hair, her smile, her scent in a sea of other women.
And I was right. The woman was not her.
It was a lady with sandy brown hair that was cut short in a bob. Her tan and youthful face wore a worried frown, and her bright amber eyes were round and wide with concern.
In one swift moment, she was already by the young boy’s side, scooping him in her arms with practiced ease.
A growl almost burst out of me as the urge to snap at the woman coiled in my gut.
‘That’s my son,’ was on the tip of my tongue, but I also couldn’t let it slip past my lips.
After all, I did not have irrefutable proof of such a claim. I just knew deep down that he was my son.
That aside, though, how else could anyone possibly explain the painting? It was either the work of my inner wolf’s intuition, fate, or the moon goddess herself.
I just needed to gather evidence, so I could prove to Dad I wasn’t as insane as he thought I was.
In the meantime, I was forced to simply watch while the other woman fretted over my son.
“Calisto, there you are,” she cried out. “How many times must I tell you not to wander around on your own, especially without my permission?”
“But I am a big boy. I can find my way around on my own.”
“And yet you strayed too far and ended up outside the estate. Look…” The woman sighed, suddenly looking exhausted. “I know you are a capable young boy, but you cannot just disappear on me like that again. Okay? I was worried.”
“Sorry,” Calisto answered softly, looking genuinely apologetic. “Gillian?”
“She is with your Memaw, getting ready for the night. You must do the same too.”
Calisto nodded obediently, suddenly looking excited.
The woman finally regarded me and my friends. For a moment, a flash of recognition, mingled with fear, crossed her features. But it was all gone too soon and was replaced by a polite expression as she said, “I apologize for the trouble.”
“No, no,” Zuleika replied almost immediately. “It was no trouble at all. In fact, your son was simply being nice and helpful.”
I couldn’t help the glare I cast towards Zuleika, ready to chastise her for calling my son with Willa as someone else’s.
But my scathing glare withered instantaneously when I noticed that Calisto had tilted his head, and that his brows were furrowed in confusion.
He was about to react to Zuleika’s words, when the woman rudely talked over him, saying, “Yes, my son. He’s a sweet child, really. A sensitive soul. But anyway, the two of us must head along now. We have to make haste.”
Calisto’s confusion shifted to excitement. “Yes! Because today is the asseshon rite!”
“Ascension,” I corrected softly, gently.
“That’s what I said,” he argued with a pout and angry little glare.
It was quite possibly the most adorable picture to behold.
It was only then that I realized this was my first conversation with my son, and the woman was about to whisk him away.
So without further thought—because I didn't have the time to think when the moment was fleeting—I reached out and cupped the boy’s plump cheek.
“My apologies. I must’ve heard it wrong then.”
“You have,” he agreed seriously. “Are you feeling better now, sir?”
“Much. Thank you, Calisto.”
The genuine grin he gave me nearly melted me on the spot with how it could rival the sun in its warmth and brightness.
Fuck. The need to actually claim him as my son right here and now swelled with so much intensity that I felt as if I was close to bursting at the seams.
It took me nearly all my self-restraint not to gather Calisto in my arms, tell the woman to fuck off and storm away to look for my fated mate and our daughter.
It was difficult, especially when my inner wolf had stirred completely awake and had seemed to recognize the child.
“Sir?” Calisto mumbled, looking at me warily and pulling his face away from my palm.
Or did the woman step away?
I couldn’t think too much about it because both Maliya and Zuleika had their hands on my arms, tugging me as if trying to drag my attention away from my pup.
My fucking pup.
“Gallahan!” Maliya snapped, tightening her grip on my arm until her nails dug painfully into my skin, even through the layers of my clothes.
“You’re scaring him,” Zuleika hissed angrily.
“Uh, I think it is best if we take our leave now,” the woman said gingerly as she slowly backed away from us.
The sight of it agitated my wolf even further, and it was getting hard to co-exist with it and control myself when our thoughts and emotions were melding together to the point that it was hard to pinpoint which ones were mine and which were not.
“No,” I growled against my better judgment.
The sight of Calisto’s terrified face propelled me to continue in my attempt to dominate over my inner wolf. But it was a struggle when it was furious and frustrated.
Calisto was my pup with Willa. Not hers!
Another growl reverberated out of me as the woman turned around and scurried away with my fucking pup in her arms. I made a move to go after her, easily shrugging off the hold my friends had on me, but it spurred Zuleika into action.
She murmured a spell, and everything went black.