Wolf
SONIA HEARD A strange noise like claws clicking on wood floors and her eyes opened.
She was in the cabin, the green, red, and white Christmas lights twinkling from the mantel in front of her casting a cheerful glow to the dark room.
Her puppy was wandering across the room. He stopped and shook his massive body as if shaking off wet or cold. Then he started to lean back on his powerfully muscled haunches as if preparing to sit.
Or leap.
But he didn’t when she whispered, “Puppy.”
His body stopped its movement, he came alert, and his massive head swung to face her.
This was a dream, she knew.
Her father told her that wounded or sick animals often disappeared in order to die with dignity.
Her puppy had been filled with dignity.
And she’d known, the moment he looked in her eyes that night, if he didn’t have to, he’d never leave her.
But he’d been bleeding.
So when Gregor gently shook her awake that Christmas morning after her parents died and she found her puppy gone, she knew he’d stolen away in order to die.
Even if he hadn’t, that was over thirty years ago. He’d been a full grown wolf then. He couldn’t have survived thirty years.
Therefore, this was definitely a dream.
Sleepily, her arm fell toward him and she whispered, “Come here, handsome.”
More than half asleep, her eyelids slowly lowered but she felt the thick soft fur of his muzzle glide almost lovingly along her fingertips. It was cold and damp, as if he’d just come in from a run in the snow.
“My puppy,” she sighed drowsily and moved her fingers over his muzzle to his head in a loving caress.
Eyes still closed, she finished her stroke before she tucked her hand under her cheek.
“I wish you’d bring me my handsome wolf. I miss him,” she murmured as slumber started to invade.
She did wish that. Her dream Callum loved her. Her. He didn’t simply feel a duty to his queen. And if she couldn’t have him in the real world, she’d take what she could get in her dreams.
She felt the bed depress on either side of her just as she smelled an attractive, musky scent the likes of which she’d never smelled. She fought the permeating sleep and her eyes fluttered open.
Callum was there, not King Callum, her handsome wolf. He was leaned over, hands in the bed on either side of her. She knew this Callum was hers because his beautiful face in the twinkling lights showed a mixture of tenderness and desire, a look he’d given her many times before.
“There you are,” she whispered, her hand drifting to his sinewy forearm, finding his skin cold under her light touch.
“Sonia,” he murmured.
Still closer to asleep than awake, she shifted the covers off her body and invited, “Let’s get you warm.”
Her eyes drifted closed again as he hesitated then she felt him move into the bed. She fell to her back as he put a knee to her opposite side, shifted over her body, and settled mostly along her length, flicking the covers back over them when he was done.
She turned into him, wrapping her arms around him, and hooking her thigh over his hip.
“You’re so cold,” she muttered, snuggling into his body which was so cool it felt almost moist.
“Sonia.”
She nuzzled closer, seduced at the same time calmed by that beautiful aroma, and she muttered a drowsy, “Mm?”
His arms slid around her as he said, “Baby doll, I’m not your dream.”
Sonia didn’t answer because that was silly.
This was her dream. Even if it was in the cabin, it started with her puppy visiting her, always.
She burrowed deeper into his big body.
“Honey,” he called as she drifted back to sleep. “I want to make sure you know we’re not in one of your dreams.”
“Yes we are,” she told him. Sleep overcoming her, she finished on a whispered sigh, “My puppy always brings you to me.”
She was nearly asleep so she didn’t register his body tightening.
One of her hands drifted up his back to rest between his shoulder blades. The other glided down to rest on his tight behind.
“I’m glad I’m still going to have my dreams,” she muttered as she pulled his hard hips to hers just as she fitted her soft ones to his.
She was skating on the edge of dreamland when she felt his body shaking and his deep voice filled with amusement murmuring, “I’m glad too.”
She slipped over the edge into sleep.
Sonia woke up in Callum’s arms, hers around him, her thigh hooked on his hip.
Taking in her position, the soft bed, the cocoon of warmth they made, his hard frame, her entire body melted.
“Morning, little one.”
Her head slowly tipped back and she looked into his sky-blue eyes.
He was very awake, and for some reason, smiling at her.
“Morning,” she mumbled, immediately lost in the clear blue of his smiling eyes.
Her gaze drifted down and she got lost in the beauty of his smiling lips framed by his dark, thick stubble.
Those lips moved. “This isn’t a dream, baby doll.”
The residue of sleep vaporized, reality intruded, and her eyes snapped back to his.
“I know that,” she lied.
“You didn’t last night,” he replied.
Sonia stared. Then the events of the night before came to her.
Holy cow!
“Um . . .” she began, her thoughts awhirl, but she stopped speaking when he rolled into her, mostly on top of her, his thigh now between hers, and her thoughts focused on one thing. “Callum—” she started to protest.
He cut her off, saying casually but with a smile in his voice, “I’m curious about these dreams.”
Her eyes went wide before she could control her reaction and the smile in his voice hit his lips.
“You see, twice you thought you were in one, and twice, when you thought you were, you came on to me,” he informed her.
Oh good goodness.
She decided instantly that she didn’t want to dream of him anymore. Never again. It was too confusing and it was going to get her into trouble.
She tried to slide away.
He rolled over her so he was now totally on top of her but he put his forearms into the bed beside her to take off some of his considerable weight.
Even so, he was close, his body covering hers. She could feel the hair on his chest grazing her nightgown.
Her breath started getting heavy as the realization dawned that maybe her dreams weren’t going to get her into trouble.
They might already have.
To her mortification, he went on as if he was musing, “The first time you came on strong.” His face came close but veered to her side. He didn’t rub his temple along hers. Instead, he brushed her earlobe with his nose. “And I liked it a lot,” he murmured in her ear.
“Callum—” she began.
He interrupted her again, his head lifting, the tawny spikes slowly invading the blue of his eyes. “The second time, you were sleepy and sweet.” His mouth descended, and against her lips, he declared, “I liked that too.” Sonia watched close up as his eyes turned fully golden. “A lot,” he finished.
“Callum—”
“So, tell me, baby doll, what do we do in your dreams?”
It was then she realized that, yes, she was seriously deeply in trouble.
“Callum—”
“Do we do this?” he asked, his lips leaving hers to slide across her cheek to her ear, down her jaw. She felt the shiver slither lazily along her skin as his lips came back to hers and brushed them softly.
“I think—” she started, her lips moving under his.
He cut her off again. “And do we do this?”
He came off his forearms and his big, warm hands glided down her sides and in, over the small of her back and then down over her bottom as he gave her more of his weight, something which her body adored and therefore it automatically melted under his.
Oh my lord, she thought and bit her lip
Then she tried again. “Callum, can I—?”
“And do we do this?” he repeated before his head slanted and his lips took hers in a sweet light kiss.
She tried to move her head away, but since it was resting on a pillow she had no room to move.
His mouth broke from hers briefly to mutter, “And this?”
“Cal—”
Tactical error. Opening her mouth was a very bad idea. For this time he didn’t give her a sweet light kiss.
This time, his tongue invaded her mouth and he gave her a deep searing kiss.
Regardless of what her body was coaxing her to do, Sonia managed to resist but without room for her head to move, her hands went to his shoulders and pushed.
Callum, on the other hand, managed to insist. He ignored her hands and gave her more of his weight, cupping her bottom and pulling her hips deeper to his.
She felt his hardness against her and the urge instantly came over her.
Primal, animal, an urge she felt sometimes in her dreams. An urge that she had often felt budding with other lovers, and they liked it, which meant they were always difficult to get rid of.
This one, though, didn’t bud, causing her to behave slightly shameless.
It bloomed, causing her to behave highly wanton.
It was so strong, even though she tried to fight it, even though she vaguely feared it, with Callum covering her, his hardness pressed against her, his talented tongue invading her mouth, she was no match.
With a whimper, she capitulated. Her hands stopped pushing at his shoulders and her arms curled around his neck, pulling him even closer.
Then her tongue tangled with his.
His head slanted further, he growled into her mouth, and she felt it blister a path straight between her legs.
Her control annihilated and she gave in to the urge.
She fully opened her legs in invitation and his hips fell through. She kissed him back as her hips lifted, pressing insistently against his hardness.
In return, he ground his hips against hers and another sharper whimper escaped her throat as her nails grazed down his back.
His mouth tore from hers but it didn’t leave her skin. It went down, over her jaw, down her neck, as his hand came up, sliding along her nightgown, up her side, her ribcage, covering her breast.
Sonia arched into it, searching, demanding.
His thumb slid over her nipple and her neck bowed, the whimper turning to a deep, hungry moan.
Callum came back, buried his face in her neck, his husky voice sounding at the skin below her ear.
“You like that?” he asked, his thumb repeating the gesture and Sonia repeated the moan. “You like it,” he muttered and his thumb was joined with a finger, giving her nipple a rough glorious squeeze.
“Callum,” she breathed, fire racing from nipple to between her legs, her head twisting round, her mouth searching for his.
He didn’t disappoint. He gave her his mouth.
She gave him her kiss.
Planting a foot in the bed, she rolled him (and he let her). Settling her body on his big one, she embarked on a frenzied discovery. The taste of his whiskered jaw, his neck, the feel of his chest under her hands. She couldn’t get enough in fast enough to suit and the more she had, the hungrier she became.
He allowed this then his hand twisted in her hair with a rough demanding pull that caused a delicious pain. He forced her mouth to his and gave her his kiss. Deeper, wetter, longer and Sonia couldn’t stop herself from rubbing her most sensitive part the length of his rigid shaft.
“Jesus, baby doll,” he groaned against her mouth, his hands coming to her hips, grasping her nightgown. She lifted up, wanting it to be gone, needing to feel his chest against her bared breasts.
He didn’t hesitate. He yanked it off and tossed it away. His heated tawny eyes fell to her body straddling his, his hands drifting across her ribcage and up, but she dropped her chest and pressed it to his. His rough hair teased her nipples and it felt so great, her hips reflexively ground into his.
His hands found her breasts, thumbs grazing her nipples, fingers joining for a heady roll. Then he pushed her back and up, one hand tormenting her nipple, the other cupping her breast and maneuvering her to his mouth where his lips closed over her nipple and pulled.
His mouth on her felt so good, her back arched to demand more, but her head dropped down to watch him suckling as her arm flew out to the headboard to hold on.
Her body shuddered at the beauty of the sight and the sensations.
He switched breasts and she made a harsh noise as she ground deeper into his body. His hand left her breast and plunged into her panties, finding her, and it was so fantastic, she bucked against his fingers.
The minute she did, she was flying through the air, landing on her back, Callum pressed to her. His hand went back in her panties, his fingers twitching, vibrating at the exact perfect spot.
God, she’d never felt anything like that.
And it felt good.
Her arms circled him, her nails grazed his back, her hips undulated against his fingers, all the while her eyes were locked to his.
Her hand moved around, across his belly, down into his pajamas and she found him.
And he was huge, thick, long, and beautiful.
She had to have him.
Now.
“Wolf,” she breathed her demand. “I want you inside me.”
His eyes flashed and he slid a finger inside.
She gasped and ground down on his hand.
“In heat,” he murmured, his voice guttural and supremely satisfied.
“Wolf . . .” A sliver of pleading pierced her tone as his words in her dream were uttered in real life.
His finger slid out of her but only to flick insistently against her sweet spot.
“You need to be ready for me.”
She knew she did. She’d felt him. He was not your average man in any sense.
“I’m ready,” she whispered.
“Little one—”
Her hand stroked then it fisted around him and she pulled him to her.
“Callum,” she insisted, “I’m ready.”
“Baby doll—”
Her hand tightened, he groaned, she stroked and tugged, and he groaned again.
Her mouth went to his and she demanded, “Fuck me, wolf.”
Callum needed no further coaxing.
He moved and her panties were gone in a flash, whipped down her legs. His pajamas were pulled down his own.
Then he rolled into her, she wrapped her limbs around his massive body and felt the promise of him.
“Wolf . . .” Sonia breathed.
His hips reared back, her body tensed in delicious anticipation, and then he thrust inside, impaling her, seating himself to the root, filling her so full, so deep, she could swear he touched her womb.
He stopped and dropped his forehead to hers, his breathing labored.
In a tone filled with marvel, he murmured, “You took all of me.”
She did and every inch of him was wonderful.
“I’m made for you,” she whispered back and watched up close as his golden eyes glittered.
Then his mouth captured hers and he kissed her wet and hot while he fucked her, deep, rough, fast, and hard and she loved every stroke, every jolt. Her body, feeling right, feeling whole, gloried in it.
He rolled them until he was on his back, Sonia straddling him, and she took over, riding him with abandon, back arched, hips wild.
Lost in what they were doing, lost in him, full of him.
He curled up. An arm going around her waist, taking her out of her rhythm and focusing her on the beauty that was him, his face hard with almost savage desire before she lost sight of him as he twisted his torso to the nightstand. She ground her hips into his and watched as he opened the drawer and pulled out a long, slim, blue, beaten-leather case. He flicked it open with his thumb and drew out a length of delicate gold chain.
He tossed the case away and his eyes came to hers.
“Sonia,” his voice was rough, “are you mine?”
Lost in the moment, immediately she replied, “I’m yours.”
He made swift work of wrapping the gold chain around her waist and fastening it. She saw a small charm she couldn’t make out dangling from it as it settled above her hips.
His hands spanned those hips and his mouth went to hers.
But his eyes were open and the gold was so intense, it seemed to be glowing and alive.
Then he said something that settled in her brain, her heart, and sliced a heated path down to their connected bodies.
“Baby doll, you’re about to be claimed.”
Before she could utter a noise, he moved her. Pulling her off him, he tossed her to the side on her belly. He shifted to his knees between her legs and violently yanked up her hips so she was on her knees but her head and torso were still in the bed.
His big hands wrapped around her hips, he impaled her on his shaft, again and again. It was wild, beautiful. Her head snapped back, her hair flying over her shoulders as she came up on her hands and reared her hips back with greedy need into his thrusting ones.
He leaned over her and fisted his fingers in her hair, muttering huskily, “That’s it.”
He was right. That was it. In fact, it was everything.
The whole world.
She felt it coming.
And it was so huge, she feared it.
So she fought it.
“Callum—” she whispered, sudden panic in her voice.
He pulled her upright using her hair but released it and his arms went around her, one hand slid to her breast and the one slid between her legs as he continued to plunge in and out of her.
“Give in to it,” he coaxed in her ear, his breathing heavy.
She continued fighting it. It was too big, huge. It would destroy her.
But it was creeping in, invading, taking over. She wasn’t going to be able to hold it back.
“I can’t,” she breathed.
“Submit.” It was a command now. He meant to be obeyed. Every movement he made demanded it.
“Callum,” she whispered, frantically fighting, and losing. “It’s coming.”
Then it came.
Her head reared back and her body bucked as it overwhelmed her, driving through her as he drove inside her, shattering her.
He twisted her head so his mouth was on hers, taking more, draining her.
In his arms, impaled on his shaft, with his mouth on hers, everything that was him claiming everything that was her, Sonia cried out sharply against his mouth. The noise pierced the air as she shuddered uncontrollably through the longest, hardest, most luxuriously consuming climax she’d ever had in her life.
At the same time Callum’s arms circled her, possessing, protecting. One at her belly, one at her chest, he pressed her down as he drove up into her one last time and the guttural roar of his orgasm mingled with her piercing cry.
After, his breath thick in her ear, her own coming in slowing pants, he didn’t move. Callum held her connected to him like he never wanted to let her go.
Then his hand drifted down, his fingers trailing the gold chain at her hips, he tweaked the charm that hung there, while doing so flicking his fingers against the sensitive skin at her hipbone.
Then his hips moved, pulling out briefly and surging back in one last time, a movement that cut through her delightfully, making her moan.
Finally, he announced, his voice husky but firm in her ear, “You’re claimed.”
She felt claimed, completely claimed, so claimed she felt owned.
Sonia shivered in his arms.
Those arms grew tight and he buried his face in her neck.
Before Sonia could catch a thought, he lifted her off him and set her gently on her knees in the bed but kept her held close.
Then he did something unusual. Something strange and poignant and beautiful. Something that messed with her mind and tore at her heart.
His arm around her waist moved, his hand drifting around, back, and down to cup her between her legs from behind.
Then he rubbed his palm against her.
Her hips bucked and she whimpered.
He sniffed.
She froze.
“God, baby doll,” he groaned in her ear. “I wish you could smell us,” he went on, his hand gliding reverently through their combined wetness seeping between her legs. “Perfect,” he kept going. “Magnificent.”
She could smell them.
And he was absolutely right.
He dipped low, his hand sliding up to her belly then down, over the inside of one thigh then the other, coating her.
She trembled against him.
This must be something else his people did.
It was shocking, it was intense, but it was also sexy and oddly sweet.
His hand left her and his arm wrapped around her again as his mouth went back to her ear.
“That’s us I bathed you with, little one. Us,” he growled, the intensity of his tone proving the moment was profound. “And we’re . . . fucking . . . beautiful.”
“Callum—” she started but didn’t finish.
He fell to the bed, taking her with him and arranging her body fully on top of his.
He slid his fingers into her hair and tucked her face in his neck. Leaving his hand in her hair, his other hand cupped her behind.
“You weren’t blonde, honey, after that, I’d think you were one of my own,” he commented, his voice clearly content.
“What?” she whispered against the skin of his neck, not processing his words. After what happened, not processing anything but the fact that she was absolutely, seriously, totally in trouble.
“There are no blondes in my culture,” he explained. “And my people are passionate, far more than most humans, and they like to play.” His fingers dug into her bottom. “You, obviously, like to play.” His hand slid up from her bottom to wrap around her waist and gave her a squeeze. “This pleases me,” he muttered this last sounding pleased.
Very pleased.
Even smug.
Sonia didn’t know what just happened or even how it happened or even why she let it go that far.
“Callum—”
He cut her off. “Is that how it was in your dreams?”
“Um . . . no, not quite,” she answered automatically, lifting her head to look at him, trying to ignore the fact that he looked content and pleased and smug and it was a great look that did serious things to her innards, and she started again, “Callum—”
He lifted his head and brushed her lips with his as he gave her another squeeze with his arms.
“So what was it like in your dreams?” he asked, grinning at her.
She was so panicked, so desperate to get the conversation on track, though she didn’t know what that track was yet. She hoped to do some serious back pedaling even if she couldn’t imagine how she’d manage that considering she was naked in his arms and she’d just begged him to fuck her, she answered immediately, “Well, there was no gold chain and no sex and—”
His brows shot up and he interrupted her again with, “No sex?”
“No, we just talk for a while and get started with, um . . . things and then I always wake up,” she replied hurriedly. “Listen—”
He broke in. “Things?”
“You know, start having sex and then I wake up,” she told him then went on, “Callum, I’d like to talk—”
But he wasn’t listening, he was chuckling then he tucked her face into his neck again and tightened his arms.
“What’s funny?” she asked his neck.
“Poor baby,” he murmured, his tone low but playful. “Twenty years I’ve been teasing you.” He rolled into her, his head came up to look at her, his hands started to glide along her skin, and his voice was husky when he finished, “I’ve got a lot to make up for.”
“Callum—”
She stopped speaking when he grinned again and it was so wicked, so satisfied, so unbelievably arrogant and knowing, she could do nothing but stare.
“You called me ‘wolf,’” he stated.
Her body went tight.
Callum kept talking, or more accurately, teasing, “Nice to know I can cut through one of your grudges with a few kisses.”
At his words, she forgot everything instantly and snapped, “It was more than a few kisses and anyway, I was not myself.”
“If that wasn’t you, honey, then I’ll do everything I have to do to keep the Sonia I just fucked. The Sonia who came for me so hard I thought her shrieks were going to blow out the fucking windows.”
She’d been wrong two days ago.
He wasn’t a big bossy jerk.
He was an arrogant bastard.
She tried to push away, shoving at his shoulders, saying, “Of all the arrogant—”
She was writhing beneath him when he cut her off, burying his face in her neck, “That’s it, baby doll, fight me. This should be fun.”
She growled low in her throat.
He chuckled low in his.
She bucked and pushed away.
He caught her hips and hauled her under him, rolling his own hips until she was forced to spread her legs.
She stilled, her eyes locked on his, and she cried, “Get off me!”
“No, honey.” He grinned at her, all haughty, arrogant king. “I’m going to get in you.”
She gave his shoulders a mighty heave and his cell rang on the nightstand.
Both their heads twisted to it and both their eyes narrowed on it but for entirely different reasons.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, reaching a long arm out to nab it.
“Get off me,” she demanded again as he looked at its display.
“Settle for a minute, little one,” he ordered distractedly.
“Get . . . off . . . me!” she snapped and his eyes sliced to hers.
“Settle,” he commanded, his voice a sharp, regal crack.
She settled because, apparently, King Not to Be Denied Due to Royal Birth Callum was lying between her legs.
He put his phone to his ear and said, “Callum.”
Since she was close, she could hear the entire conversation.
“Cal, brother, you need to come down the mountain.”
It was Calder.
“For fuck’s sake, why?” Callum clipped.
“You remember what we talked about yesterday?” Calder inquired.
“Yes,” Callum answered tersely.
“Well, we flipped that brother. He’s talking. Talking a lot. This territory is infested. It’s far more dicked up than we imagined. Mona’s . . . hell, I don’t know what Mona’s been doing, but whatever the fuck it is, it’s not her job. Someone has to deal with her and we need to start making moves or this shit is going to start traveling,” Calder answered.
“How bad is it?” Callum asked.
“The scale doesn’t go up to this bad,” Calder replied and Sonia watched Callum close his eyes even as she saw his face set hard before he opened them when Calder kept speaking. “Pack up your mate and bring her ass down the mountain. I’m sure you’ll find time to do her here. We got more important shit to see to.”
Callum’s eyes came to her but she stared at his shoulder angrily at the same time pretending she wasn’t hearing a thing.
“The deed’s done,” Callum announced and it took everything Sonia had not to react to his words.
Good goodness.
Now she was a “deed” to be “done.”
Well, he’d done it all right.
“Hallelujah,” Calder hooted. “I knew it wouldn’t take you long,” he noted with deep respect before finishing, “Now, let’s get to work.”
“We’ll be down by early afternoon,” Callum returned.
“We’ll have everything ready,” Calder replied. “Later.”
Sonia watched as Callum disconnected and his eyes went to her.
“I’m sorry, honey, we’ve got to cut this short and get back to the real world,” he told her, and she had to give it to him, he sounded disappointed.
But she couldn’t help but think how convenient all this was.
Callum (and his brothers) making it clear (several times) that his time in the cabin with her was something he considered a frustrating annoyance. In fact he himself referred to it as a “farce.”
Callum and his brother’s talk about whatever-it-was yesterday.
This morning, Callum wasted no time in seducing her, claiming her, and then his brother called to say it was imperative he get back down the mountain.
Royal duty sorted, time to wage war.
“Sonia?” he called and she focused on his handsome face. “We don’t have a lot of time. We need to shower and go.”
“Right,” she whispered, her gaze drifting away while she felt something important curl up in the region of her heart.
“Baby doll,” he murmured and she looked back to him. “We’ll come back. As soon as we can. All right?”
Sonia wouldn’t hold her breath.
“All right,” she replied.
He leaned down, brushed his mouth against hers, and then knifed up, taking her with him.
She started to reach for her nightgown but with his hand in hers, he tugged her around the bed (yes, naked!) heading toward the bathroom.
“Callum,” she called, trying to yank away her hand. “You shower first, I’ll start packing.”
“We leave the clothes and food up here. I’ve people that see to the cabin. And we’re showering together,” he announced and her heart skidded to a halt as he pulled her in the bathroom, let her go, and twisted immediately to the shower to turn on the taps.
“Um . . .” she began but gulped back whatever her next words were going to be when his hands came to her hips and he hauled her to his body.
“I know this is a lot and I know it’s fast,” he stated abruptly. “But soon, you’ll be used to me, my body, the fact that I want you naked in my bed every night and naked in my shower every morning and naked anytime you don’t have to wear clothes. So it’s best that you start getting used to it now.”
She gawked at him.
How much worse could it get?
As suddenly as he grabbed her, he let her go and stepped into the shower, clearly having no time to waste.
She stared at him, clearly having no say in the matter.
With nothing for it because, she was learning quickly, when King Callum wanted something, King Callum got it, her hands went to the chain still hanging at her hips and she started twirling it around to find the clasp.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Callum bit out from the shower and her head jerked up.
“I’m taking this off before I shower,” she told him, her voice small in the face of his sudden anger.
He stepped right back out of the shower (getting water everywhere, incidentally), picked her up, put her in the shower, and joined her, not hesitating in reaching for the shampoo.
“That’s a claiming chain, Sonia,” he informed her. “Once it’s put on, you never take it off.”
She blinked up at him as the water fell on her and asked stupidly, “What?”
He turned his attention from squirting shampoo in his big palm to her.
“It’s a claiming chain. You humans have wedding rings, my people have claiming chains.”
Her mouth dropped open.
She closed it.
His words repeated in her head and her mouth dropped open again.
Then she whispered, “You’re saying you married me this morning?”
He barely looked at her as he pivoted her out from under the spray and put himself in her place.
“Bound you to me, yes. For life. Same thing,” he replied distractedly, mind on other things, not just informing her of the usually joyous fact that that morning they’d essentially been wed.
She stood frozen and stared as he massaged the shampoo in his hair.
And she stood this way for a while.
He’d rinsed, and when he saw her standing there, his eyes narrowed.
Then he said, using a voice filled with strained patience, “Get a move on, honey. There’s things to do.”
She jolted out of her shocked stupor and automatically reached for her shampoo.
There were things to do.
Those things didn’t include Sonia having a moment to process the fact that in three days her life had been turned on its head.
She used to have a quiet life, working in a shop she loved, living in a farmhouse amongst neighbors who were good people. It wasn’t a great life. It was a lonely life. But there were moments of contentment and even happiness.
Now she was queen to an unknown people. She was the destined mate to a man she barely knew but she did know he didn’t want her. And she’d just essentially gotten married to him.
As that thing that curled up in her heart tightened and prepared to die, Sonia commenced showering, naked, with her husband, a man she’d met three days before and she wasn’t even certain she liked.
And she hurried through it.
Because he had things to do.