GALLAHAN’S POVI couldn’t quite believe my ears when I detected a ring of insecurity in Willa’s voice.Incredulity. Disbelief. Fondness. Upset with myself.All of these emerged, coalesced and tangled into knots in my chest, leaving me speechless.But my silence sent the wrong signal, and I saw how Willa’s shoulders drooped and hunched as the light in her gorgeous green eyes dimmed like stars losing their shine.“Forget it,” she muttered dismissively, leaning forward to capture my mouth into another round of mind-blowing kissing.“Hey, hey,” I said as gently as I could while her lips tried to land on mine. “We have to talk about this.”“I think the humiliation could already last me a lifetime. Let’s just forget I ever said anything.”“No, Willa,” I said as firmly as I could. “I won’t let you stew on this until it eats you from the inside out. I need to set the record straight.”Willa was unwilling to return my gaze. She had set her eyes stubbornly glued on a particular spot on the left
WILLA’S POVBOTH.We ended up doing both.And bloody hell, it was so damn good.I didn’t think I'd ever felt this sated and blissed out before.And yet, Gallahan was still trying to draw me into another round, as if he hadn’t even had half of his fill.“You’re quite insatiable, aren’t you?” I teased with a sigh as he carried me out of the bathroom after a round of shower sex.“For you? Yeah,” he answered with a smug grin, settling me down on my writing desk with nothing but my robe keeping me decently covered.Meanwhile, Gallahan only had a white towel wrapped around his waist.“You’re just too… tempting. Too… addicting,” he said softly, nosing along the line of my jaw while his hands danced dangerously along the tie of my robe.“Seriously, you need to stop,” I said, bubbling a little with laughter and pushing him away from me. “It’s already pretty late in the night. We just stepped out of the bath, and we have to eat dinner.”But Gallahan was nothing if not stubborn. So he didn’t bud
WILLA’S POVFor nearly all of my life, I had dreamed of the moment I would finally meet my fated mate. But never in my wildest imagination did I ever think I would meet him in the middle of a violent battle, fighting for opposing and irreconcilable causes.And yet… Here I was.I stood frozen in place as my hold around my daggers loosened slightly.It seemed as if the world blurred into nothing, while time took on an odd shift, moving sluggishly in slow motion. But my heart defied the seemingly slow ticking of time as it thundered in my chest, clamoring for the magnificent wolf standing in front of me.His thick pelt that was darker than the gloom of the bloody night looked unfairly silky underneath the brilliance of the waxing gibbous moon. His eyes glowed a vibrant amber, so beautiful in their depth that they almost looked like an endless pool of liquid gold.“My mate,” I called out even though I knew my voice would simply drown in the noisy din of the battle.But the wolf seemed to h
WILLA’S POVHis lips were on mine before I could even utter a reply, and I responded eagerly to the kiss, feeling the rightness and perfection of the act.It felt like being completed even though there wasn’t a missing piece of me before. It just seemed like it moved my heart, mind and soul, putting my entire being to right.I couldn’t help but sigh into the kiss that was surprisingly slow and steady. I had expected him to kiss me with hunger and fervor, wanting to explore every inch, given the way he had been rough and impatient in invading my personal space earlier.“Han,” I gasped when he pulled away to lick, bite and suck on the side of my neck.He slightly moved his thigh that was lodged between my legs, moving it slightly to provide friction to my cunt.“Fuck,” I cursed, feeling a thick spark of pleasure ran through my entire body. I began to move my hips, chasing the same delicious friction he just gave me.I could feel his smug smirk against my jaw, and I would’ve wiped it off
GALLAHAN’S POVMy knot had finally abated after nearly a fucking hour, and I slipped out of Willa as carefully and as quietly as I could so I wouldn’t accidentally jostle her awake. Even pulling out nearly had me moaning, my sensitive cock twitching in interest.‘I am a man with a well-functioning head. Not a beast with nothing but instincts,’ I mentally reminded myself, willing the desire to bury my traitorous cock inside her hot and welcoming channel that felt so snug around me.I had to take a slow, shuddering breath to calm myself and my inner wolf.Willa whined softly in dissatisfaction as I shifted on the bed. She rolled around, turning to face me, her eyes closed and her eyebrows furrowed.The lines between her brows eased and disappeared once she had burrowed herself against my chest. The sight of it nearly made me burst at the disgusting affection that swelled inside of me. To make matters worse for my weakening heart was the fact that the contours of her body fit so well aga
GALLAHAN’S POVA dismal look marred Willa’s features, despite the tiny curl at the ends of her lips. She was looking down at the plate of stir fried noodles that were still mildly glistening in sauce.“The war is a polarizing topic,” she said at last. “So I was thinking while in the bathroom…”“Yes?” I urged on, taking a salacious tone with my voice.A withering glare from her got me grinning.“Maybe it would help if we ease ourselves into this conversation, instead of diving head first into a topic we are sure to fight about.”I hummed with a nod of my head. “So you’re suggesting having small talks?”A pink hue dusted the apples of her cheeks. “Yeah. I am. It allows us to establish rapport, I suppose. Makes us feel a little more comfortable. Maybe then we could slowly broach the sensitive topic without one of us immediately getting defensive and angry.”“That makes sense,” I replied, picking up one of the forks and handing it to Willa.She accepted it with a whispered ‘thanks’ and be
WILLA’S POVOf all people, my fated mate had to be Gallahan Wick.Was this a cruel trick? What did I do to deserve a man who, at eighteen, formed and led the Alpha King’s Culling Army to seize and loot human kingdoms, and capture, torture and subjugate innocent humans.His hands were not only tainted. They were soaked with the blood of hundreds of people, both humans and werewolves, and I had let the very same hands hold me so intimately.Guilt roared to life inside my chest all of a sudden, clawing at my lungs and heart. I felt like I had betrayed those who had entrusted the League of the Moon to fight the tyrannical regime of the Alpha King and his son.I knew I already did when I turned my back on my comrades in the middle of battle. But this was a whole different story, a different kind of betrayal.Gallahan was the real enemy. He wasn’t just a mere soldier of this war. Gallahan himself had led the crusade against humans, even fighting his own kind who couldn’t stomach his ideologi
GALLAHAN’S POVI already knew even before I opened my eyes that Willa was gone. That she had left without so much of a goodbye.I didn’t know whether to laugh in bitterness or yell in anger. I also didn’t know if I should be grateful that Willa spared me from a direct and personal rejection, or be outraged that she didn’t seem to think I was worthy of a proper one after I had claimed her as mine. Most importantly, I didn’t know if I had wanted her to stay or to actually leave to save us from another fight where none of us would win.Fuck… Of all people, why did it have to be her?My hand went to the juncture where my neck and shoulder met, feeling the absence of her bite on my skin.Damn it.
WILLA’S POVBOTH.We ended up doing both.And bloody hell, it was so damn good.I didn’t think I'd ever felt this sated and blissed out before.And yet, Gallahan was still trying to draw me into another round, as if he hadn’t even had half of his fill.“You’re quite insatiable, aren’t you?” I teased with a sigh as he carried me out of the bathroom after a round of shower sex.“For you? Yeah,” he answered with a smug grin, settling me down on my writing desk with nothing but my robe keeping me decently covered.Meanwhile, Gallahan only had a white towel wrapped around his waist.“You’re just too… tempting. Too… addicting,” he said softly, nosing along the line of my jaw while his hands danced dangerously along the tie of my robe.“Seriously, you need to stop,” I said, bubbling a little with laughter and pushing him away from me. “It’s already pretty late in the night. We just stepped out of the bath, and we have to eat dinner.”But Gallahan was nothing if not stubborn. So he didn’t bud
GALLAHAN’S POVI couldn’t quite believe my ears when I detected a ring of insecurity in Willa’s voice.Incredulity. Disbelief. Fondness. Upset with myself.All of these emerged, coalesced and tangled into knots in my chest, leaving me speechless.But my silence sent the wrong signal, and I saw how Willa’s shoulders drooped and hunched as the light in her gorgeous green eyes dimmed like stars losing their shine.“Forget it,” she muttered dismissively, leaning forward to capture my mouth into another round of mind-blowing kissing.“Hey, hey,” I said as gently as I could while her lips tried to land on mine. “We have to talk about this.”“I think the humiliation could already last me a lifetime. Let’s just forget I ever said anything.”“No, Willa,” I said as firmly as I could. “I won’t let you stew on this until it eats you from the inside out. I need to set the record straight.”Willa was unwilling to return my gaze. She had set her eyes stubbornly glued on a particular spot on the left
WILLA’S POVGallahan’s words sent a shiver down my spine, while my heart leapt into a whirlwind of emotions.Was I really going to open up and allow Gallahan in, just because Miss Banfey wasn’t actually his chosen mate and the arrangement with Elodie no longer stood?Yes.Yes, I was.Because when Gallahan insisted that I was his only mate and that I deserve to be put on the priority list, I realized that those things were what I wanted too.I wanted…No.I needed to be loved and cared for.And deep down, I wanted Gallahan.I wanted and needed him so bad that it felt visceral and raw and…Gods… I had been deprived of a whole lot all these years. I spent a good chunk of my life dedicating myself to a cause I deeply believed in, then pouring every bit of me into motherhood because the twins needed me.I was also sick and tired of being haunted by the what ifs and of soothing the ache with nothing but imagined fantasies.But here and now? Gallahan was offering me a chance to grab somethin
GALLAHAN’S POVI stiffened as disappointment with Calisto bubbled in my veins.He wasn’t allowed to disrespect my mate and the very woman who carried him in the womb and birthed him to this world.Son or not, I wouldn’t let such a remark slip. Not by me.“Don’t be too hard on him,” Willa suddenly said, seemingly knowing what ran in my mind. “He’s just a little kid, Han.”“All the more reason to instill respect in him, don’t you think?” I countered easily. “Nip it in the bud, Willa. Because I sure as hell wouldn’t have a son who couldn’t respect women, especially their own mother.”“Han, he’s five,” she replied with a deep sigh. “He said it in the peak of his emotions.”I frowned, feeling utterly concerned that she would shove her own feelings down as if they didn’t matter. “Doesn’t make it any less hurtful for you.”“Yes,” she agreed slowly, as if she was talking to a five year old, and not a grown man. But it was hard to take offense when she was so near and looking so fucking beauti
GALLAHAN'S POVI couldn’t believe it.Willa was jealous. JEALOUS!But then again, this wasn’t the first instance she showed me how jealous she could get, given how she almost lost her composure when she saw Zuleika put on my ancestral sash for me.Tonight, though, I nearly erupted, ready to return the anger she was dishing out to me so unfairly.I was so damn close to losing my temper; I was basically just a step a way from fighting her—her vitriol against mine—until she began spouting nonsense about me being a philandering asshole, as if I hadn’t been losing my mind as I tried to look for her in the last six years.Instantly, the burning and venomous urge to argue and spat out angry words fizzled out. But it didn’t mean I was just going to let her continue to stew with all her wrong assumptions until they could fester and completely poison her thoughts and feelings for me.Daringly, I approached her and tossed the other half of her broken pencil aside. Then I plopped down next to her
WILLA’S POVGallahan’s hands were balled into tight fists at his sides, and I could almost make out the mild tremors of barely suppressed anger in them.“Because a relationship goes both ways, Willa,” he said softly, yet his tone carried a certain icy sharpness that would’ve made a lesser man tremble.Except, I was no lesser man. So I slammed my sketchbook shut, carelessly tossed it and my broken pencil aside on the couch, and said evenly, “But that’s the thing, Gallahan. Is there even a relationship between us? What even are we?”Gallahan’s throat visibly bobbed up and down as he swallowed. Then his jaws tensed as the fiery hardness in his gaze flickered with uncertainty for a fleeting while.“We’re fucking mates, Willa,” he answered, meeting my own gaze head on, as if doing so could give some sort of truth in what he was saying. “You’re mine as much as I am yours. Did that fact fail to get through your head?”“Let’s not kid ourselves, Gallahan,” I said, smiling at him wanly. “You an
WILLA’S POVMy hope continued to dwindle with each passing day that the twins refused to talk to each other. The day after the big fight, Calisto, who wouldn’t dare meet my gaze, requested to go to the Alfiero Manor to spend time with my parents.I allowed him to, thinking that maybe it was what he needed. A space to breathe. An environment where he wasn’t all cooped up.Gillian, on the other hand, stayed with me. But it was evident how quiet and subdued she had become.She still played, of course. But I could tell she was growing lonelier and lonelier. I tried to be there for her as much as I could, trying to fill in the void that Calisto’s presence and company usually filled.It just wasn’t enough, though. Because I wasn’t Calisto, and it was him who she wanted to talk to and play with.Hearing her sighs and seeing her half-forced a smile made me want to castrate Gallahan every single time.The very bastard who finally deigned to show up on the late afternoon of the fourth day after
WILLA’S POV“I… I…” Calisto stammered, but I remained frozen as stone.My heart seemed to have shrunk like a deflated balloon, while my lungs were ready to burst out.My vision blurred with tears in an instant, and I couldn’t make another sound other than a choked out gasp.“I hate you!” Gillian shouted, pushing Calisto and sending him falling on his butt. “You’re not my brother anymore!”My family was crumbling all around me in a snap, and I couldn’t let that happen just because Gallahan couldn’t be man enough to keep his promises. So I blinked away my tears and shoved my own feelings aside.I helped Calisto get back on his feet, but he recoiled from my touch as if I had burned him.It sent another wave of excruciating pain in my chest, which I dutifully tried to ignore by turning my focus on Gillian.“Gillian, that’s not nice,” I said softly, caressing her back up and down to soothe her anger away.“What he said wasn’t nice either!”Her tears had ceased falling, but her face was sti
WILLA’S POV“Mommy, when is Daddy going to come and visit us? It’s been forever,” Calisto whined, laying himself across my abdomen, making us form a crooked cross on my bed, which the twins had decided should retain its needlessly enormous size.“It’s only been two weeks,” I said, reaching down to pat Calisto’s stomach in comfort.“It’s been forever,” he insisted. “Why does he have to leave anyway? He’s our dad! He’s ours.”“Yes,” I said slowly, trying to get him off of me as gently as I could. He obligingly budged, wiggling and sliding off my stomach until only his head remained perched on it. “But he is not just your Daddy. He’s also the Alpha King’s son, and he’s-”“Wait! Really?!” Calisto exclaimed excitedly, jumping up into a sitting position. “Daddy’s the Alpha King’s son?! Does that mean the Alpha King is our Grandpa?”“We can’t call him Grandpa, Cal.” Gillian chimed in from where she was lying on her back on the floor—a penchant that stubbornly remained unchanged no matter my