Chapter 40 OVERDUE REUNION
GALLAHAN’S POV
Willa whirled around so fast in surprise that it almost made me chuckle. But her ashen face and widened eyes withered the huff of amusement away.
A flash of recognition settled on her features, but she managed to school her expression back into neutrality. Still, it was an effort that was a second too late.
“Excuse me,” she said, putting on a saccharine smile. One that I immediately decided to hate with how fake it seemed. “We were having a private conversation.”
But even with the infuriating fake smile that was out of place in her damningly gorgeous face, I was still enthralled by the sight of her.
So unfairly enchanting.
It was obvious how the last several years had been so kind to her. Her hair was still as fiery as ever. Much like who she was. Then there were her beautiful eyes, shining in my favorite color.
Gods, I could finally get the perfect shade of green whenever I would paint her.
She had also gained a bit of weight on her svelte figure, likely a remnant of the pregnancy that she wasn’t able to shed.
But damn… That was the body that carried my pups. Stretch marks probably littered her belly, a beautiful badge of honor of having safely brought two new lives in our world.
And just like that, the urge to worship her buzzed within my veins, only to be spoiled by a wave of fury over the fact that she had hidden our twins from me.
The longing whirling dangerously with frustration, hurt and anger—a concoction that was bound to erupt—pushed me to storm into the room without waiting for an invitation, saying, “You’re having a private conversation? But it involves me, doesn’t it?”
I felt Zuleika and Maliya walking up to flank me, always my unfailing support system. Also, because the three of us knew I could lose control with how volatile my wolf and I currently were. It didn’t help how my inner wolf was seething with impatience.
After all, the fated mate I have been searching for was just right before me like she was a dangling forbidden fruit, and I was a starved man.
And Willa was intent on keeping me hungry for so long, because she immediately denied, “No, it doesn’t.”
She defensively crossed her arms across her chest and looked at me like I was a madman. Her brows were knitted, creating creases in between, and a frown pulled down at her lips that I had imagined countless times, especially during my ruts.
“Drop the fucking act, Willa,” I seethed, my patience wearing dangerously thin and my anger slowly but surely overriding the elation of having found her after so long. “You and I know you’re lying. Everyone in this room knows you are lying.”
“I really don’t,” she insisted, putting on a tinge of innocence in the lilt of her voice.
It just fueled my anger, flaring it impossibly brighter and hotter, and I could feel the surging heat of fury in my entire body, especially on my face and neck.
“Do not toy with me, Willa.”
Willa blinked, tilting her head and dropping her hands back to her side. “Who even are you?”
The way the words slipped out of her lips sounded so genuine, and I would’ve bought the act if it wasn’t for the tension lining the square of her shoulders and the mild tremble of her clenched hands.
“You’re fucking fated mate!” I bellowed, making her wince.
“Willa,” murmured the child-stealing woman, who appeared to be her friend. “I think it’s best if we go.”
Ha. Also a mate-stealing woman.
“No,” I growled, feeling my wolf coming to the surface. “You are to stay here, and we are going to have this conversation that is already six years overdue.”
“Gallahan,” Zuleika intervened, holding my arm and slipping her hand in mine.
Willa’s eyes tracked the movement but they darted back to my face quickly. Still, she wasn’t quick enough for me to miss it.
She then said, “I don’t have any time to spare for you and your insanity. You are not my fated mate.”
The rejection cut deeper than any knives and claws that have dug into my skin before. This one was a lethal blade plunged straight into my heart.
And oddly enough, her words completely silenced my inner wolf. Whether it was just stunned into silence or wounded into oblivion, I wasn’t entirely sure.
All I knew was that Willa had struck right where it would kill me.
It stung. So fucking bad.
And I was left standing there like a fool, unable to even snap back a reply.
To make things worse for me, Willa wasn’t even done with her verbal attack that didn’t even have an ounce of vitriol.
Packed with indifference that was more brutal than hate, she added, “Besides, I don’t think it matters much if you really are my fated mate. Because I already have a chosen mate.”
A disbelieving gasp burst out of me.
“Liar,” I said softly. Then as my anger roared back to life, reignited by the ache in my chest and the incredulity of the situation, I closed in on Willa, letting go of Zuleika in the process. Then I furiously bellowed, “You fucking liar!”
“Stand down, wolf,” her friend quickly interjected, inserting herself between me and Willa.
“Stay out of this,” I snarled, my voice coming out gravelly and low.
But she refused to back down, despite the fact that I was towering over her.
So I let her be, knowing I could snap her neck even before she could have a chance to do anything.
My attention went back to Willa, who looked at me like she wasn’t fazed at all.
“Chosen mate?” I said with a tone that dripped with fiery derision. “Bullshit!”
The nosy woman winced over the volume of my voice and my crass choice of words. But that wasn’t relevant. The reaction that held more meaning to me was how Willa guiltily evaded my gaze for a moment or two, and how she gulped nervously.
Seeing how her defenses were cracking, I burgeoned on, saying, “You are mine, Willa. I bit you that night. The bite on your neck is mine and mine alone. Lie all you want, but your lies will never erase the truth. We are-”
“What’s going on here?” a stern voice suddenly piped in.
Fuck. Of all times I could be interrupted…