Dreams
CALLUM WALKED AS wolf into the room he shared with Sonia.
The fire was ebbing but it still danced light throughout the room.
Her eyes fluttered then opened, she spied him and whispered, “Hello, puppy.”
He sat by the bed watching her.
She grinned at him.
He continued watching her.
“Is my handsome wolf coming tonight?” she asked.
Callum growled, knowing he would be coming and she would be coming too, as hard as he could force her to do so.
Sonia blinked, slowly, dreamily, knowing herself that his thoughts would come true.
Her eyes drifted closed but her hand fell out as if reaching toward him.
He moved forward, slid his muzzle along her fingers, and in her sleep she smoothed her hand against him lovingly.
Tired of this type of affection and wanting a different kind, Callum turned from her and leapt to man.
As he approached the bed, her eyes fluttered open and focused on him.
Without a word, he slid the covers from her beautiful, naked body, and without hesitation, he covered that body with his own.
He pulled the hides back over them.
“Hi,” she breathed.
Callum stared at her.
God, he loved her.
And he loved the fact that she loved him too.
And he loved the fact that she could express the enormity of that love in one two-letter word.
Therefore, he smiled.
Her arm wrapped around him as her other hand went up to touch his face. Her fingertips in his hair, her thumb glided along his brow, then down over this cheekbone, then down again along his bottom lip.
She watched her thumb and she did this as if fascinated.
Callum waited as she did this, also loving the feel of her memorizing his features like she did every time he came to her after he roamed.
However, he thought, as she did it, he should be memorizing hers for she would be gone from this earth long before he would.
She lifted her head from the pillow and placed her mouth against his, taking him from his thoughts. “Where have you been, my handsome wolf?”
Instead of answering, he glided his tongue along her lower lip.
Sonia shivered and opened her legs so his hips could fall through.
An invitation.
As ever, his greedy little queen wanted his cock.
Then she wrapped him lovingly, protectively, in her limbs. As ever, her movements were an eloquent indication of her adoration of more than his cock, of all that was him.
At the reminder of this, Callum growled against her mouth.
She shivered again underneath him.
His deep voice rough with approval, he said, “Always in heat, my little one.”
“Only for you,” she whispered, her breath catching, her heart racing, her skin warming, all without anything but his presence.
“What do you want?” he asked low, his hips pressing into hers, knowing, when he buried himself inside her, she’d be wet, slick, ready for him.
“You, inside me,” she answered.
“Just like that?” he teased.
“You’ve been gone a while,” she told him and arched her back. “I missed you.”
He felt his face gentle.
He knew she missed it when he was gone, even if it was a minute, but especially when it was hours while he roamed.
He knew it because he missed her just the same.
He knew he shouldn’t do it. He had so little time with her and he’d wish this time back when she was gone.
But he was wolf, he needed to roam.
Understanding her yearning for him in a way he was glad she’d never know just as he detested the fact that he carried that same yearning every moment and would hold on to it for eternity, he murmured softly, “Baby doll.”
She was done talking. He knew this too as she pressed her lips against his, tightened her limbs around his body, lifted her hips into his, dug her nails into the muscles of his back, and begged, “Please, my handsome wolf, fuck—”
He didn’t let her finish. He was done talking too.
His hips reared back, he heard her breath catch and he prepared to invade.
Sonia lay with her head on his shoulder, her fingers sifting lazily through the hair on his chest.
He loved it when she did that.
“You okay, little one?” His voice was still gruff from his orgasm and from other things besides.
He asked because he’d taken her hard, as usual, and she’d loved it, as usual.
But he didn’t want her to ache.
“Mm,” she murmured, her fingers tensing to drag her nails along his chest and her legs shifted against his, tangling with them, her body pressing closer, entwining with his.
Callum smiled.
She was okay.
She did this now, entwining her body with his, getting closer.
She did it often, now that she understood.
Now that she understood everything.
He thought he’d miss her before when she was gone.
Now, these times were exquisite torture.
“Cal,” she called, her voice sounding like she sensed the turn of his thoughts.
“Yes, baby doll?”
Her hand flattened against his chest as if his skin could absorb it.
Or she could absorb something integral from his skin. Something she needed. Something she couldn’t exist without.
Then she whispered, “You know I love you, right?”
He closed his eyes before his arm about her tightened and his other hand came across his chest to slide into the soft golden hair at the side of her head.
How could he ever not have fancied blondes?
Because, he knew, they were never her.
“I know, honey.”
“You’ll never forget?” she was still whispering.
His neck arched slightly but he forced his body to relax.
“I’ll never forget.”
She cuddled close and her hand slid across his chest to wrap around him tight. “I want you to promise to be happy but I don’t want you ever to forget.”
“I won’t forget.”
“Promise to be happy?”
Impossible.
“I promise.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“I love you, baby doll.”
“I know,” she said on a fluttering sigh and his chest got so tight, Callum found it hard to breathe.
They were running, roaming, as wolves, he and his mate.
Not Sonia.
A wolf.
She was fast and kept up with him, close to his right flank, where she always ran.
Callum took them deeper into the trees. They’d been running for hours. He could hear her pants. He knew he was pushing her. He knew what she wanted.
He kept pushing her, knowing the anticipation would be worth it.
How could he ever have imagined he’d feel content with a human queen?
Then again, he had no idea he was missing this.
Finally, he turned, headed for home, and he sensed her instant excitement.
He felt it too.
She was beneath him, on her belly, her long, thick, mahogany hair spread across her back, obscuring her face, tangled with pine needles. Her sweet, musky wolf scent assaulted him, coming from her hair, her skin, between her legs.
But there was something familiar about it. Something beautiful. Something nostalgic. Something he fucking adored.
He was up on his hands, giving his hips leverage to thrust into her wetness with savage brutality.
Her moans weren’t filled with pain but each one a temptation to take her harder.
So he did.
“Spread your legs wider,” he ordered.
She did as she was told.
“Tilt your ass, take all of me,” he commanded.
Again, she did as she was told and he drove inside her then ground his hips between her spread-eagled legs and her moan was so deep, he could feel it vibrating against the tip of his cock.
That felt so fucking good, Callum ground into her deeper and he knew he couldn’t take much more.
“Let go,” he demanded, but she defied him, clenching her sex around his shaft in an effort to hold off her climax. He shifted his weight to one arm and twisted her dark hair around his fist, yanking it back, arching her neck, and driving her further down on his cock. “Let go, wolf.”
He got off on calling her “wolf” as Sonia had done to him. He fucking loved it.
Her legs spread even wider. Her ass tilted further. He dropped his head and saw its perfection. Not an ass marred with pinpricks, a constant hideous reminder of his old mate’s vulnerability and he felt a feeling of triumph so complete, the sight set him thrusting into her again.
Which was what she wanted.
“Harder, Cal,” she breathed her demand, her voice barely a whisper, even he could hardly make out the words. “Fuck me harder.”
He was losing control, his orgasm was coming and he knew it would be staggering.
With her, it always was.
The best he’d ever had.
“Goddamn it, let go!” he roared the instant her sex convulsed around his cock.
She lifted up on her own arms, propelling herself onto his shaft so intensely he feared he’d split her in two.
But she threw back her dark head, her hair flying over his hand still fisted in it, over his forearm, down her back, and she howled her release.
He pulled out and surged back in, burying himself to the root one last time, and then howled his own.
Callum woke with a start, still wolf, lying on his side in the snow under a pine tree.
The dream was still vivid. His skin under his fur heated not from his coat but from fucking the faceless, dark-headed she-wolf.
Fucking hell, he thought, coming to his paws, his mind troubled.
The parts of his dream were not syncing. So contradictory to each other, to his feelings for Sonia now, the deeper ones he had in his dream, the heartbreakingly deeper ones he felt from her. His instinct as wolf to be faithful to his mate abrading against the episode with the she-wolf, an episode so lucid, so fucking real it was like it happened.
Like he’d actually been disloyal to Sonia.
The thought was so vile he felt his gut roil and he started to run.
But he ran toward home.
Toward Sonia.
He leapt to man outside the back door, which was always open in case he or his family needed to roam, which was often.
He opened the door and mindlessly pulled on the clothes he left there when he’d transformed earlier.
He slid on his wedding band and was shrugging on a shirt while moving into the house when he noticed his mother there.
She was wearing a robe, her hair disheveled, her face as troubled as his thoughts.
Atypically, Callum had no time for his mother’s troubled thoughts.
“Not now, Regan.”
“Cal—”
Impatient to get to Sonia, he stopped and leaned in to her. “Not . . . now.”
Without another word or processing the look of distress on his mother’s face, Callum took the stairs three at a time to get to his wife.
She was lying on her side, the fire ebbing but still dancing in the room. So like his dream it sliced through him.
But, unlike the dream, she was facing away from the door.
And she wasn’t asleep.
He went immediately to the bed.
He sat next to her and put a hand to her hip over the hides.
“Baby doll,” he whispered, cursing himself mentally for giving in selfishly to his instinct to roam. “Your injection—”
“I took it,” she replied in a voice strangely flat. “Don’t worry, Callum. I made sure Regan was in the room when I did.”
He’d just run for hours, for miles, slept rough and run for miles again, and still his gut was tight. His thoughts a torment. Feelings of guilt and fear and grief all snaking insidiously through his brain.
He needed her.
“Sonia—”
She cut him off and her voice was still flat, so flat it sounded almost dead.
“Listen, Callum, I’m really tired, okay?”
“Baby doll—”
He stopped speaking when her body visibly tensed at his words and then he watched in grim fascination as she forced it to relax.
She rolled to look at him and Callum caught himself before he flinched.
Her eyes were as flat and dead as her voice.
What the fuck?
“I’ve been trying to get to sleep for a while and I can’t do it. I nearly drifted off before you came in so, would you mind . . . ?”
Worry was added to those snaking thoughts tormenting him.
He cupped her jaw with his hand. Her jaw tensed under his touch but her eyes never left his.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she answered immediately. “Like I said, I’m just really tired.”
She was lying.
He pulled her from under the hides into his arms and sat in the bed, back to the headboard, Sonia in his lap.
This felt better, tremendously better. Sonia in his lap, her body against his, her scent all around.
“Right,” he said when his mind had finally settled. “Now, the truth this time. Tell me what’s the matter.”
She was looking at him but her eyes stayed flat, emotionless. Not blank, like they were when he told her she had to take her injection, but lifeless.
“Sonia—” he started, that fear edging back in but she interrupted him.
“Do you really want to know?” she asked as if she doubted that he really would.
“Of course I fucking want to know,” he replied, beginning to lose patience.
“All right, Callum, I’ll tell you,” she stated. “I miss them all the time, but sometimes, I miss them more, and tonight, I miss them loads. That’s what’s the matter. That’s why I can’t sleep.”
She was talking about her parents and he wasn’t surprised her manner was listless. It was a defense mechanism, like her eyes going blank before getting the injection.
Missing her parents had to be worse, even than that fucking injection.
He slid a hand in her hair and pressed her cheek to his chest saying, “Honey.”
“You should know, this happens a lot,” she told his chest matter-of-factly.
“That’s okay.”
“If I have trouble sleeping, I’ll find another room so I won’t disturb you.”
His fingers gripped her head and he said, “That’s not okay.”
“I like this room but really I don’t mind.”
He pulled her head away from his chest and maneuvered it so they were face to face before he growled, “I do mind.”
He didn’t know what he minded more, the thought that she would move somewhere else to sleep or the thought that she didn’t mind not sleeping with him.
Something was fucking wrong and it was more than just thoughts of her dead parents. She liked to talk and she couldn’t sleep and he’d never fucking get to sleep after what Lucien told him and that goddamned dream.
So they were going to talk.
“I need you to explain something to me,” he announced and her eyes slightly narrowed in confusion.
“Callum, it’s the middle of the night.”
“You’re awake. I’m awake. We’re talking,” he told her and she sighed.
Not a fluttering sweet sigh. An annoyed, I’m-putting-up-with-Callum sigh.
“All right, Callum, what do you want me to explain?” she asked, a sarcastic emphasis on “me,” which made his already tight gut tighten sharply.
He ignored it.
“When we had our discussion after Regan returned my wedding band . . .” he began and felt her body get stiff against his but he ignored that too and carried on, “You said, when you gave me my ring, you didn’t know if it meant something to you. Then you said it did. I’d like you to explain that.”
“Would you like me to explain that, in, say, I have a choice as to whether I do or not? Or are you telling me to explain that, in, say, I have no choice as to whether I do or not?”
Her questions were a quagmire in which he knew, if he gave the wrong answer, he’d find it very difficult to extricate himself.
Therefore, he answered carefully, “I’m asking you to explain it, Sonia.”
She stared at him.
He waited.
She pulled in breath and said in a voice that was no longer flat but defiant, “All right, I will. You can be very kingly,” she told him absurdly for he was bloody well a king. “I’ve realized now, with time, that this is you, but back then it worried me because when you get kingly, you forget I exist. This bothered me and I suspected you didn’t care anything for me but only your duty to me as your queen.”
Callum’s jaw tightened before he clipped, “Tell me you’re fucking joking.”
“I’m not,” she replied instantly. “I’d never been around a king so of course I didn’t get it. But even after you claimed me, which in my people’s world is a pretty significant thing, and as I’ve been told time and again by your people is an even more significant thing, you forced me into a shower. Then into a car. And then you didn’t speak to me for hours. I melted from your world.” She stared at him calmly and finished, “I think it was five, ten minutes after you’d made me yours when you forgot I existed except as your duty to put me in the truck and take me down the mountain.” She continued to stare at him a moment before aiming dead on target and hitting a bulls-eye. “That, Callum, didn’t feel very good.”
He could imagine it didn’t and he did do that to her.
Exactly as she said.
Except for the fact that she ceased to exist.
“Sonia—”
“No,” she interrupted him, still calm. “I get it now. You don’t have to worry. I get it. You had a lot on your mind, more than I knew or understood. Now I understand. I was being selfish.”
No longer angry, he explained gently, “You weren’t being selfish. You didn’t understand what was going on.”
“Well, yes, true, but now I do so it’s not a big deal, okay?”
He slid his fingers through her hair while he said softly, “Baby doll.”
Her body tensed and she asked, without a flat voice, without calm, sounding impatient and annoyed. Not adorably impatient and annoyed but something different. Edgier, angrier but almost desperate, “Now that I’ve explained that, can I try to get some sleep?”
Something was still wrong. Something she wasn’t giving him. Something she was holding back.
Knowing that, suddenly he asked, “Do you love me?”
She instantly sucked in breath and tried to pull away.
His arms got tight.
She started struggling.
He registered his surprise at her actions and his gut registered worry when she just as suddenly stopped.
She’d been pushing against his chest with both hands but she bent her elbows, bowed her back, and dropped her forehead to rest on them.
“Yes,” she whispered to his chest, uttering that one word in a way that sounded like it was torn from her. But the chest she muttered into felt like iron bands, bands that had been clamped tightly around it for centuries, were finally released so Callum could, for the first time in his life, actually breathe. “Yes,” she repeated in a whisper to his chest as he looked down at her hair shining in the firelight. “I fell in love with you during my first dream when I was seventeen. And I fell in love with you all over again Christmas Eve when you wiped the tears from my face during the general’s scene in White Christmas.”
Without willing them to do so, his arms crushed her to him, forcing her body flat against his, her arms caught between them, her face coming up to rest against his neck.
All of his torment was lost in his current sense of triumph.
And he could tell her now he was wolf.
“Sonia, baby doll—”
She pressed her face against his neck and her body against his, “Please, Callum, please. Can I please just go to sleep? Please.”
He lifted a hand and trailed his fingers along her hairline, curling them in at her jaw to pull her hair away from her neck.
“Has it been bad tonight, missing your parents?” he asked quietly.
She pressed deeper into him and her fingers, like in his dream, tensed in his chest hair, her nails dragging through it. This caught at his memory, pulling up his guilt at fucking the she-wolf, glorying in her faultless ass, calling her by Sonia’s pet name for him as he ground into her, betraying his own mate even if it was only in his unconscious mind.
“Yes,” she whispered, “it’s been bad.”
It had been bad.
And he’d been gone, leaving her to face her sorrow alone while he selfishly, no, as she put it, kingly focused on his own thoughts instead of protecting his mate.
“I’m sorry, little one. Of course you can go to sleep.”
She pressed even closer and said with feeling, “Thank you.”
He exited the bed, taking her with him and placing her under the hides. Then he took off his clothes and joined her there. He pulled her into his arms and she acted as if she’d resist at first before she relaxed and melted into him.
Then, surprisingly, considering she said she’d had so much trouble getting to sleep, she drifted off quickly.
And, with Sonia close, Callum could set his thoughts in order.
No, with Sonia close, his queen, his mate, who loved him, had loved him for decades but who he’d made fall in love with him on Christmas Eve (which would, forever, be his favorite fucking holiday), Callum could finally set his thoughts in order.
He had a victory celebration tomorrow.
Then he’d tell his wife he was wolf.
Then he’d give her a Mating and a fucking wedding because she was human and she deserved it, but also because she loved him and he’d tie himself in knots to give her everything she desired for as long as she was breathing on this earth.
Then he’d talk with Lucien and Gregor in an effort to create a strategy on how to beat The Prophesy that said her life would be shortened.
In the meantime, he’d make every fucking moment count.
And the dream . . .
At first he thought it was Sonia’s dream, as Lucien said he had Leah’s and he could see how she fell in love with him if that was how she dreamed of them together. For, if he’d had that dream without knowing her, he’d have fallen in love with her too.
It was better than what they had an hour ago even if you told him that he wouldn’t have believed it.
It was what, he determined, they would have starting from now.
It was everything.
But it couldn’t be her dream, obviously.
So, it was just a dream.
Not foreshadowing of the future.
Sonia turned in his arms.
He followed her, tucking the back of her body into the front of his and wrapping his arms around her.
Unconsciously in her sleep, like she did after her injection, her hands slid along his forearms but this time the fingers of both laced with his.
His fingers tightened in hers and he smiled into her hair.
So deep in thought, he didn’t notice her left hand was bare.
He also hadn’t noticed her wedding rings sitting on her nightstand.
It took some time but finally Callum, with his queen wrapped safe in his arms, followed her to sleep.
“Wake up, honey, we have company and we’ve got a celebration to attend,” Callum whispered in her ear.
Sonia’s eyes fluttered. They focused hazily on him and he saw the hunger flow into them before she blinked, her body jerked, and she got up on an arm, pulling the hides to her chest.
“Good goodness,” she breathed. “Leah and Lucien, I should . . .”
She trailed off and looked around the room as Callum stared at her, stunned by her behavior.
She always wanted play in the morning, even if she was sleepy.
“Sonia,” he called and she blinked again and looked at him sitting on the edge of the bed, “Are you okay?”
“Yes, fine, um . . . yes,” she stammered and then twisted so her back was to him, threw the hides aside, and swung her legs off the bed.
She was heading to the bathroom when his eyes narrowed and his temper frayed.
“Sonia,” he repeated and she stopped and turned to him, clearly distracted.
“Yes?”
“Come here,” he ordered.
She stilled then asked, “What? Now?”
Callum’s temper frayed a little more.
This wasn’t, exactly, what he thought their lives would be like after she’d admitted she loved him.
And this wasn’t, at all, what he’d determined they’d be like, which was what they were like in his dream.
“Yes,” he said evenly. “Now.”
She pulled breath into her nostrils and walked to him.
The minute she was within arm’s reach, he hooked an arm around her hips and pulled her into his lap.
When she settled, he looked down at her and clipped, “Before you start your day, would you at least like to give your king a fucking good morning kiss?”
She stared at him in shock, like she’d never kissed a man before and the very idea was repugnant to her and she’d fucking kneeled between his legs and took his cock into her mouth not a week ago.
His temper disintegrated and he hissed, “What in the fuck?”
She looked into his eyes, her face paled, and she declared loudly, “Callum, I’m freaking out!”
It was his turn to blink and he did it slowly.
“Sorry?”
“Today, I’m going to . . . there are going to be lots of your . . .” She swallowed then, her voice filled with panic, she cried, “What if I do something wrong?”
He stared at her a moment before he burst out laughing, pulling her close in his arms as he did so.
“This isn’t funny!” she wailed through his laughter. “I’m representing you and Regan and Caleb and Calder and you and Ryon and even your dad!”
His fingers slid into her hair and he pulled her head back and brushed her mouth with his.
It was like he’d not moved when she stated, “I need a shower.”
“Honey, calm down.”
“Calm . . .” She shook her head as if clearing it. “No, really, Callum, I need a shower. I need to be alone, get my thoughts straight, sort my head out. I’ll be fine. I just need a long hot shower.”
Callum grinned and informed her, “You can have your shower, little one, you just have to earn it.”
She went stiff in his arms and her face again paled. “Earn it?”
His grin deepened. “Yes. Earn it.”
“How do I . . . ?” She paused and tested his arms by pushing against them. They tightened so she gave up and he tried not to laugh as she finished, “Earn it?”
“You can choose two of three things,” he stated.
“Two of three—”
“First,” he cut her off and dipped his head to mark her hair with his temple before he said at her ear, “You can tell me you love me again.”
She stilled in his arms.
He ignored it and went on, lifting his head to look at her. “Second, you can describe one of your dreams about me.”
She stared at him in horror.
He grinned and ignored that too.
“Third, you can kiss me.” He rested his forehead to hers and concluded, “Now, pick two.”
“Can I do one now and one—?”
He lifted his head then shook it. “Two.”
She glared at him.
Then she snapped, “Dream.”
When she said no more, he gave her a squeeze, bit back his smile, and encouraged, “Go on.”
“Well, the last one I had,” she hesitated and revised, “the last real one went like this.” She sat up straighter in his lap and turned fully to him. “I was sleeping and my puppy, um . . . that would be my wolf. You know, the one I told you I met when I was a child?”
She waited for him to nod. He did, his amusement diminishing and his mouth tightening about the fact that he still hadn’t told her he was her “puppy” as she went on.
“Anyway, he always comes to me in the dreams first. So he came to me. I was sleeping. I woke up and he was beside the bed. I said hi to him and he sat down. I asked where you were and then closed my eyes. Then I opened them and my puppy was gone but you were there. I felt the covers slide down me and . . .”
Callum’s body tightened as she continued, explaining, to every last detail, the dream he’d had last night.
“Then you start to . . . you know and I woke up,” she finished.
Callum stared at her.
She stared back.
Her brow furrowed and she whispered, “What?”
“That’s your dream?”
She bit her lip, released it, and continued quietly, “I told you they weren’t actually sexual, as such. It probably doesn’t seem like very much to you but . . . you have to feel it.”
Oh, he’d felt it.
He’d fucking felt it.
“What about after we have sex?” he demanded to know.
Her brows drew together in confusion and she repeated, “What?”
“You never dream of us having sex. But what about when you dream about us after we’ve had sex?”
“I’ve never dreamed of that.”
He stared at her, trying to assess if she was lying.
She still looked confused but serious.
“Never?” he pushed.
“Never. Why do you—?”
“You never dream of us lying together, telling me you love me and never to forget it?”
Her face paled again and she whispered, “No, Callum, I’ve never dreamed of that.”
At once distracted and needing to find Lucien, completely forgetting Sonia’s explanation of how it made her feel when he lost sight of taking care of his mate, Callum ordered, “Kiss me.”
“Wh-what?”
His eyes focused irately on her. “Sonia, kiss me.”
“But—”
“Fucking do it.”
She jerked in his arms.
Then she did it. Her hands curling around his neck, she pressed her lips against his quickly and then just as quickly, she pulled away.
“Now tell me you love me,” he demanded.
“But you said only two—”
“Sonia,” he warned, impatient to talk to Lucien.
She stared at him and he was so preoccupied he didn’t notice the life ebbing from her always lively eyes nor did he notice her flat voice when she said, as if by rote, “I love you, Callum.”
He touched his lips to her forehead, stood, putting her on her feet, and he strode from the room.
Therefore he wasn’t there when Sonia stared at the door, her lips trembling, silent tears sliding down her cheeks.
And he wasn’t there when she snatched her rings from the nightstand and she dug until she found her stuffed wolf and tore it from under the covers.
And he wasn’t there when she walked by the fire Callum had stoked that morning and blindly threw the rings and the wolf into the fire.
But Sonia was so blinded by emotion that, luckily, her stuffed wolf bounced off the side and onto the floor to come to rest, unharmed, under the couch.
And her rings bounced too, but fell into the fire, landing safely to glint in the firelight at its edge.
“Callum, I really need a moment to speak to you,” Regan pleaded, following her infuriated son down the stairs.
In response, not missing an enraged step, Callum asked, “Where’s Sonia?”
“Callum, hold still a second and—”
Callum did as his mother told him, stilling then swinging around to face her. “I asked you, where the fuck is my fucking queen?”
Regan took one look at him and stepped up and away from him.
Then she straightened her shoulders and stated, “Callum, something’s wrong. I know. I can see it. I felt it yesterday but I need to explain something to you. Something important. Something you must know right now.”
Callum’s hand clenched around the rings he’d found in the fire while he searched for his mate and his mind thrashed with the memories of his wife laughing, talking, joking with his people, all day. Cheering, drinking, eating, clapping, dancing, making them fall in love with her.
But she’d done all of this far away from him.
Far, far away.
She’d ridden silently in the truck beside him as he took her into town but almost the instant they arrived she melted into the crowd.
And they’d accepted her gladly. The day having the feel of two celebrations. One of victory, one at their luck that Callum’s queen was so fucking perfect.
He’d heard it time and again, his people telling him of the widespread talk of her notes to the kin of the fallen. The stories that had gone far and wide of her taking their women into her home and, together, waiting out the battle as she demonstrated strength of will, instilling hope in their females’ hearts. How brilliant they thought it was that she, a human, proudly displayed his chain around her hips as she did that day and every day. The chain flaunted boldly outside her cords, his people not knowing it was Callum’s fucking idea in the first fucking place.
And Sonia’s high spirits were evident every moment during the celebration. Clearly up for anything, his Sonia, drinking copious amounts of cider. Tasting every bit of food sold by the vendors. Laughing with abandon. Grabbing handfuls of huge, yellow and gold wolf-head-shaped confetti. Throwing it in the air and giggling as it drifted all around her and those close to her, in her hair, their hair, floating to the pavement, only for her to grab more and do it again as his wolves watched her worshipfully or joined in. Kneeling low to wrap her arms around pups and hold their wrists safely away as they twirled sparklers, all the while gleaming up at the pups’ parents as they stared down at her dotingly. Linking her arm with Leah’s, their blonde heads, the only blondes in the crowd, bent together as they talked low and giggled with each other. Not as if they’d known each other a day, but as if they’d known each other a lifetime while the she-wolves smiled at their camaraderie but the wolves watched them with hungry eyes.
But the minute Callum would start to get near to share the day with his enthusiastic fun-loving queen was the minute she’d move away. He kept getting caught in the revelry making it easy for her to escape.
And she was escaping. There was no doubt about it.
So much, when night had fallen, she’d eventually disappeared from town, and when he searched for her, he couldn’t find her. No one had seen her, of the numerous people he asked, until one of his guard told him another had taken her, for some unknown reason, to the castle.
But when he arrived at the castle, concerned at her disappearance, but more, the meaning behind it, he found she was not there.
And thorough was his search. So he found the rings he’d given her had been tossed into the fire.
Now, his mother was there and he could hear more trucks arriving. He could sense a large number of wolves, probably smashed and looking for fun because the main celebrations were over as the fireworks had gone off as planned. But they’d gone off without their king being there to witness them, or their queen, for no one knew where the fuck she was.
Twisted with this were the thoughts of what Lucien told him about how Leah’s dreams would be events in which she participated, nearly real, but Lucien dreamed more, more events, more detail of their plight. He participated too, in his dreams. He participated in things Leah never fucking dreamed.
Like Callum dreamed last night of betraying his queen with a wolf, the first of his kind to ever fuck around on his mate.
“No,” he answered his mother. “Right now I need to find my fucking wife.”
As he stalked to the entryway, he heard more trucks were arriving and there were voices on the steps. He could hear Caleb, Ryon, both sounding irate, and Lucien’s voice, cooler, controlled, but cautiously so. And another, a voice he knew, it was familiar, but Callum didn’t take a moment to process it.
Because none of the voices were Sonia.
However he smelled her there and he was going to have a word, or likely several of them, with his queen.
He threw open the door, his mother on his heels, and he stopped and stared at the scene.
Ryon, Caleb, and Lucien were standing shoulder to shoulder at the top of the steps and there were eight of Callum’s guard, four flanking each of the sides.
At a quick glance from Callum, there were in the drive seventy wolves, not his wolves, not his guard, lined at the bottom facing off, clearly on the offensive, in attack formation against them.
Automatically, Callum assessed the six to one ratio and the fact that this, for his wolves, was not a problem.
Titium, Desdemona’s father, was standing three steps up wearing a face like thunder.
The distant sounds of town still locked in drunken carousing could be heard through the utter silence.
Fucking hell.
Callum noticed Sonia and Leah, both standing close together to the side of the top landing, eyes riveted to the men, and Regan moved toward them.
“Nice you could join us,” Ryon remarked dryly.
Callum ignored his cousin and speared Sonia with a glance. Her already pale face grew paler when she caught it and he slid his hand into the pocket of his cords, depositing his mate’s wedding rings there.
Rings he never expected her to take off because first, she fucking shouldn’t and knew she shouldn’t, and second, because of how she behaved when he did.
Rings he never expected her to throw in the fire and he couldn’t bloody well imagine why she did.
It was like she’d taken off her claiming chain and thrown it in the fire.
An act which was unforgivable.
He walked between Ryon and Lucien and down three steps toward Titium.
At his bold advance, the entire assemblage tensed and several wolves started to crouch.
He heard Sonia’s intake of breath.
It was only that which made him stop.
“What’s the meaning of this?” he asked Titium.
“I’m challenging you,” Titium replied idiotically and Callum fought back a frustrated sigh.
“Fuck me,” Caleb muttered in annoyance and Titium’s infuriated eyes flashed to Callum’s brother.
“Look at me!” Callum’s voice whipped out like a lash and the tense group tensed further and at once he sensed fear from some of Titium’s wolves.
The smart ones.
However belatedly so as Callum would punish them all for their insurrection.
Titium’s eyes sliced back to him.
“You sequestered my daughter,” Titium accused.
“I did,” Callum agreed.
“It’s unthinkable,” Titium snarled.
Was he mad? He had to know what the crazy bitch had done.
Further, what she hadn’t.
“What’s unthinkable is what her inattention caused, Titium. That’s unthinkable,” Callum stated. “Desdemona should have had worse and you know it, now she’s getting the attention she needs.”
“My daughter is not mad,” Titium declared, visibly working himself up. Still spoiling his daughter and she wasn’t even fucking there.
“She refused to seek her mate,” Callum returned.
“She was a little busy doing her duty for her king!” Titium shot back.
“Not very well,” Callum replied. Titium started to crouch, and Callum warned, “You don’t want to do that. She’ll need you when she’s out.”
Titium’s eyes narrowed angrily and he snorted derisively, “You think you can best anyone.”
“That’s because I can,” Callum stated calmly.
Titium’s legs bent deeper. “You—”
“She’s unwell,” Sonia stated from behind them and Callum sensed, rather than saw, Sonia move their way.
That was when he sighed and only just stopped himself from rolling his eyes to the heavens.
After he found out what was in her head this time he was going to smack that sweet ass of hers until it was red for her latest inappropriate behavior.
For now she knew. Mara and Callista had been instructing her on royal protocol, not to mention he had told her on several occasions how she should behave. This might not be official but she knew to keep her mouth shut.
“Sonia, be quiet and stay where you are,” Callum ordered.
She defied him. He heard her boots coming closer as he smelled her scent getting sharper.
Surprisingly, Titium’s eyes moved to Sonia and his face gentled before he said, “My argument is not with you, little queen.”
“I know,” Sonia said softly, stopping wisely just out of arm’s reach of her mate. “But, I saw her, sir. She is not well.”
“She’s crazy as a fucking loon,” Caleb muttered and Sonia twisted.
“Quiet, Caleb, that isn’t helping,” she whispered.
“She is,” Caleb returned.
Sonia sucked in breath and turned back to Titium before resuming. “Callum didn’t want to do it, but you have to know, the results of her . . . um, lack of concentration were disastrous.”
“There are things you likely don’t know, little queen,” Titium told her.
“I know them.” She was still speaking softly but now her words were pained. “Please, come into the castle. We’ll sit down and talk. This doesn’t need to get heated.”
“It should have gotten heated centuries ago,” Titium replied, Sonia tensed as did Callum.
“Centuries—?” she whispered but Titium kept talking.
“He misused her,” Titium announced, his face hardening and his eyes moving back to Callum, and Callum, in preparation, removed his own wedding band and slid it in his pocket with Sonia’s. “As he did many a she-wolf. Misused her knowing how she felt about him and he set her aside and didn’t look back. Not like she was daughter to a warrior, but like she was nothing but a paid tart.”
“Enough,” Callum ordered as he felt Sonia’s tension intensify.
“Mac was a decent king, loyal to his mate, like the wolf,” Titium’s voice declared proudly before it turned snide. “You, with your sweet human, won’t last for more than—”
“Enough!” Callum thundered.
Titium started crouching and declared, “It’ll never be enough. Not until you’re brought low.”
“Don’t do this!” Sonia shouted, sensing the escalation, her panic palpable.
“I should have done it ages ago!” Titium shouted, definitely as mad as his daughter and just as adept at hiding it.
“Ry, get Sonia out of here!” Callum demanded as he watched Titium’s skin darken, the change was coming.
And then it happened.
Titium crouched, Callum following, and Sonia screamed, “Don’t!”
Both wolves leapt as Sonia moved, faster than any human he’d seen, within a blink of an eye she was between them. Like she was when he was wolf and she was a child, throwing herself in front of him to protect him, but this time stopping what would have been face to face.
But by the time she arrived, he was no longer there. He’d changed, and to avoid her, at the last second, he leaped over her head.
Titium’s reflexes weren’t as swift and he’d reached out a set of claws through the transformation in an effort at catching Callum unaware.
So by the time Callum landed on a skid at the foot of the steps and turned, Sonia was down, her body facing him. Titium was standing over her as wolf, panting and pawing the step beside her as if trying to help her.
Her head was up, her neck twisted, and she was staring at Titium, mouth open in shock.
Then her head turned and Callum saw blood trickling from her temple where it had cracked against the steps and at the sight he growled.
But he didn’t move because her eyes were wide as she gaped at him as wolf, face to face with her “puppy.”
Her expression changed. She winced in pain but Callum knew it was the pain of betrayal.
She took in a breath that sounded both surprised and ragged before she lost consciousness. In so doing, she fell forward and rolled down a step as Callum tensed to leap but he stopped when Sonia came to rest on a wide step with her back facing him, Titium’s claw marks oozing blood through her jacket.
Titium’s men behind him all shuffled back at the sight of their fallen bleeding queen.
But Callum didn’t notice.
He howled his fury and his muscles bunched to attack.
However Titium howled as well but Titium’s howl wasn’t fury.
It was the fucking tone of surrender, which meant Callum couldn’t bloody well attack when his mouth salivated to tear into the wolf’s throat.
In the seconds that transpired, Ryon, Caleb, and the guard had leaped into wolves. Ryon and Caleb were prowling, snarling, and circling Sonia’s prone body. Callum’s guard was at the foot of the steps, snapping at Titium’s men to warn them back.
Lucien, with lightning vampire speed, ran to Sonia, carefully lifted her in his arms, and again like a flash, he was up the steps, disappearing into the castle.
Callum, as wolf, bounded after him.
There were way too many fucking people in the room.
Sonia lay on their bed on her belly, her head to the side, her weight pressed into her forearms, cords still on, but back bared as Orphenon saw to her.
Younger brother to one of his guard, Orphenon was also simply a young wolf, being only a century and a half old. But his calling made him a human doctor currently practicing in Glasgow. He’d come to be with his brother for the celebrations, his brother was one of the eight who’d witnessed the scene, and after had called Orphenon in for human medical attention.
Luckily, Orphenon had learned that anything could happen anywhere and he brought his doctor’s kit with him to town.
He’d cleansed the wounds at Sonia’s back and head and had injected her to numb the pain as he stitched the claw marks together when she regained consciousness while he was still stitching.
She’d panicked, fear filling her face, and started to resist, causing tearing at her stitches when she did so. It took some effort before they could calm her enough for Orphenon to administer to her.
However, it was only Leah who could calm her and only Leah who she’d allow to touch her.
Only the human.
His cunning little queen, she could smell the difference in them now.
The rest of them, all of them—including Callum and every last one of his family were in the fucking room—she stared at with wary silent fear that didn’t even begin to mask the pain she felt at their treachery.
As Orphenon stitched and Leah sat on the side of the bed holding her hand, Callum saw his mate’s mouth get tight. Then he saw Leah start to wince repeatedly as Sonia’s hand squeezed hers with each insertion of the needle.
But she still remained silent.
“She’s feeling it,” Callum growled to the wolf.
Orphenon stopped and leaned closer to Sonia’s ear. “Sonia, do you feel what I’m doing?”
She didn’t speak, simply closed her eyes tight.
Orphenon noted this, his eyes slid to Callum, and he muttered, “I’ll administer another dose.”
Callum watched the doctor inject another dose of the anesthetic and Sonia flinch when he did but he spoke to his mother as it was happening.
“Get everyone out of here.”
“Callum, sweetheart, we’re worried and Sonia needs her family close,” Regan demurred and she was right.
In times of trouble for wolf, family would always be there.
“She’s not wolf. She’s uncomfortable with this. Get them out,” Callum ordered.
“Cal—”
Finally, he turned to his mother and barked, “Out!”
Sonia jumped at his tone, the fear in her eyes escalating, and Callum gritted his teeth.
“The vampire should remain,” Orphenon noted. “He could be useful. He can monitor her heartbeat.”
At that, Sonia’s eyes widened and she moved, skittering on her forearms up the bed, fleeing and protecting her nudity at the same time she cringed and her eyes flew about the room in a panic, trying to source the vampire.
“I can report her heartbeat is erratic, now she knows I’m vampire,” Lucien drawled with irritated dryness.
“Whoops,” Orphenon mumbled. “Didn’t know.”
“Calm, Sonny,” Leah cooed, scooting urgently up the bed with her. “It’s okay. Lucien’s okay. He’s good people. They’re all good people and they’re worried about you. Just calm down and let the doctor see to you.”
Sonia’s eyes moved to Leah. She took in a breath and held it before she let it out and nodded, settling again.
“Regan—” Callum warned.
“All right,” his mother snapped, approached the bed.
Sonia’s terrified eyes watched her as she did so, and his mate’s body tensed, preparing to flee.
Regan saw it, felt it, and her face gentled even as tears filled her eyes. She leaned toward the bed and stopped moving closer.
“Sonny, sweetie, I’m just downstairs if you need anything,” his mother told his mate.
Sonia didn’t reply.
Regan made a sound that was half whimper, half sob. Her wet eyes moved to Callum and then she left.
Callum’s glance sliced to his brethren, his order nonverbal but understood all the same.
Caleb approached the bed next only for Sonia to have the exact same reaction, so he stopped.
“Hey, sis,” he called in a tender tone and Callum was surprised for he had no idea Caleb even had a tender tone.
However, his words and tone had opposite to the desired effect on Sonia as her expression filled with a different kind of pain and she shut her eyes.
Not deterred, Caleb went on, “It’s doesn’t look bad, darlin’, probably feels it though. You’ll be sparring with Callum again in no time.”
Sonia made no response and kept her eyes closed.
Caleb, too, looked at Callum, jaw clenched, and exited the room.
Ryon didn’t approach as Sonia kept her eyes closed.
But he spoke to Callum, “I couldn’t have had any idea she’d learn like that.”
Callum turned cool eyes to his cousin. “Shit always happens, Ryon.” When Ryon’s face grew hard, Callum went on, “But it wasn’t you who didn’t tell her. It was me. You bear no responsibility and you know I’ll sort it. You go down and see how Magnum is handling Titium and his wolves.”
Ryon nodded and with one last glance at Sonia he too left.
When Callum looked back at her, Sonia’s eyes were open and her expression clearly stated she’d heard him and it was doubtful his job of sorting his mistake would be quick and easy.
Callum sighed.
Lucien moved to leave, Orphenon’s head came up, and his mouth opened to speak.
Lucien got there before him. “She’s frightened. I’m doing more harm than good being here.”
Orphenon nodded and went back to work. Lucien cut a reassuring look to Callum, a gentle one to his bride, then he left as well.
Callum stood at the side of the bed, arms crossed, legs planted wide, and watched, impatient, as Sonia’s wounds were closed.
Finally, Orphenon clipped the last thread, smoothed some medicine on the wounds and bandaged her back loosely. Throughout this, he spoke in low comforting doctor’s tones to Sonia even as he cleaned his mess and packed his bag.
The whole time Sonia stared blankly at the pillow or her eyes sought Leah’s for support.
Packed up and ready to go, Orphenon got close to Callum.
“The wounds on her back are deep but still superficial. As you can see, he didn’t even score her with his fourth claw which means the swipe was light.” Callum, who listened to this without looking from Sonia, nodded once. “I’m more concerned about that bump she had to her noggin,” Orphenon announced, clearly a different kind of doctor than Sonia’s specialist, for his wording was meant to be humorous and reassuring. “She was out for a while. You’ll need to wake her frequently in the night. She’ll have a headache which is expected. The pain shouldn’t be extreme and if she experiences dizziness, lethargy, double-vision, I’ll want to know immediately. Yes?”
Sonia watched the doctor the entire time he spoke, her face registering nothing.
“Yes,” Callum agreed tersely.
The doctor went on, “I’ll leave some pain pills with Regan. Once the anesthetic wears off, she’ll experience some discomfort.” Callum felt a muscle jerk in his jaw before Orphenon finished encouragingly, “In a few weeks she’ll be good as new and your queen will dance at your Mating.”
Sonia’s eyes closed again, this time tightly.
“Thank you,” Callum bit out but the words were unintentionally ungracious.
“My pleasure to be of service to my king and my queen,” Orphenon mumbled, took one last look at Sonia, and exited the room.
Leah glanced at him and tilted her head, giving him a small smile before she turned and leaned in to Sonia.
“I’m going now, Sonny,” she said and Sonia’s eyes flew open.
Sonia looked at Leah, then Callum, then Leah, and she shook her head frantically, clutching tight to Leah’s hand.
Leah brought their hands to her chest and leaned farther toward his mate.
“It’s okay. You’re okay. You just need to rest, get some sleep if you can, be with your mate,” Leah told her but Sonia kept shaking her head and Leah’s voice dropped when she continued, “Tomorrow, after you’ve had some rest, we’ll talk. I’ll explain a few things.” Leah grinned at her. “I’ll tell you my story. It’s a good one,” she confided as if sharing an exciting morsel of gossip before she concluded, “But you’ll understand a whole lot more once you’ve heard it.”
Sonia gazed at her new friend then her eyes went blank, she nodded and released Leah’s hand.
Leah bit her lip as she tucked Sonia’s hair behind her ear. Then she sighed, stood, and walked to Callum. She touched his hand briefly while giving him another small smile then she walked through the room and closed the door behind her.
Once he heard the click of the door in the latch, Callum moved to the bed.
Sonia lay motionless, all but her eyes, which watched him.
He put a knee to the bed and settled carefully on his side, up on a forearm, close to her immobile body, and cautiously he reached out and laid a hand flat against the small of her back above her cords.
She turned her face away.
“Baby doll, look at me,” he ordered gently.
Sonia didn’t move.
Callum decided not to push it even though he disliked her resting her head on its injured side.
He slid down the bed so his head was in his hand, his elbow in the pillow, his body nearly brushing hers as he leaned forward, and way too late whispered his secret in her ear.
“I’m a werewolf. My people are werewolves. As you know, I’m their king, as my father was before me, his father before him.”
Her body tensed tighter and tighter with each word he spoke, but other than that she didn’t move.
His hand slid along her skin to curl his fingers around the side of her waist and he continued, “I’m immortal. I’m three hundred and eighty-three years old. I was there that night thirty-one years ago when your parents died. I was there on instinct, to protect you because you were alone. I’d got shot because I’d gotten cocky and you ended up protecting me.”
No movement, no sound.
Callum pulled in breath.
Then he kept going, “Werewolves are not what you think we are, not what you’ve seen in movies. We don’t change only during a full moon, we can change whenever we want and change back just the same. You can shoot us with silver bullets and our flesh will just eject it and heal. We live our lives in wolf settlements, like the town, or amongst humans. Like humans, we try to do no harm and we mean no ill-will to anyone. As you’ve seen, my people are kind and friendly, different than yours in many ways, but none of them bad.”
No response.
Callum kept going, belatedly sharing with his queen information he should have told her weeks before. “We’re born wolves. We have no capacity to make humans into wolves with a bite. No one understands truly how we came about, though there’s a great deal of research that’s been done. We do know we’ve evolved from wolves, unlike vampires, which you’ve learned also exist, who evolved from humans. There’s no magic, nothing supernatural, nothing sinister, we’re of nature, just like you. A she-wolf gives birth and a pup grows, slower than a human child, five years for wolf to every one for a human. Then we lock in our development somewhere in our late thirties and we never show any signs of further aging.”
Still, no reaction.
“Honey, please look at me.”
Her head turned on the pillow again and when her eyes caught his, hers were blazing with hatred.
His gut wrenched and his face dipped to hers.
“This, what you’re feeling, how you’re looking at me, is exactly what I wanted to avoid by not telling you,” he explained, his voice thick with emotion.
Finally, she spoke.
Her voice trembling with loathing, she whispered, “Obviously, you failed.”
“Little one—”
“Go away, Callum.”
“No,” he replied and she closed her eyes.
When she opened them, she asked, “Why would I ever think you’d give a gosh darn about what I wanted?”
Then without hesitation she again turned her face away.
Briefly Callum weighed the virtues of giving her what she wanted and asking Leah to stay the night with her. Then he decided she’d not benefit from his absence because she could think she could get used to it.
Which she could not.
Carefully, he moved from the bed. He felt his jaw harden when she didn’t fight nor did she move at all when he pulled off her boots, lifted her ass gently at the hips to unbutton and unzip her pants, and he pulled them down her legs, leaving her panties. Then he disrobed, turned out the lights, and joined her in bed, sliding again along her side, pulling up the hides, and slowly and cautiously, forcing her body to her side, facing him.
She had to turn her head again when he did this and she glared at his throat.
“Does it hurt to lie on your side?” he asked softly.
She gritted her teeth then bit out, “I don’t feel anything.”
“Good,” he murmured. “I don’t want you lying on that wound at your temple.”
She made no response, simply continued to glare at his throat.
He pulled in a deep breath and let it out just as deeply.
Finally, he admitted on a whisper, “I fucked up, baby doll. I wanted to tell you time and again but I just couldn’t find the right moment.” She remained silent so he continued, “I didn’t expect that to happen. I didn’t expect that to be how you’d find out. I wanted to control it, protect you, manage your reaction. I knew it would be a shock and I wanted to cushion the blow.” She didn’t speak so Callum lost patience and demanded, “Baby doll, fuck, give me something.”
Her eyes lifted to his and she asked with acid curiosity, “How can I give you something, Callum, when you’ve already taken everything I have to give?”
Callum froze at her words.
With a hand in the wall of his frozen chest, she pushed away and resumed her place on her belly with her head turned from him.
Callum came unstuck, his temper flared and his arm snaked out, hooking her at the waist, and with a carefully controlled movement, he slid her toward his body so that her side was tucked in his front.
Then he leaned down to her ear. “I understand you being pissed, little one, you’ve a right. Especially considering you were injured in the fray, but I’ll point out only this once because we’re never fucking speaking of it again, that was your own damned fault.” Her body got tight in his arm but he ignored it and carried on, “I’ll give you time. But you’ve never experienced anything from a single one of my people to continue having this reaction to them after the shock wears off. As for me, I’m willing to pay my penance, but I’ve explained I was coming at this from a good place with your best interests at heart. If you don’t come to terms with that, and soon, I’ll not be pleased.” She didn’t speak so his fingers gripped her waist, still gentle but in a way she couldn’t miss. “Now tell me I’m understood.”
Instantly, still facing away, she replied bitterly, “Oh, you’re understood, your grace.”
Callum growled low.
Sonia didn’t make another noise.
Callum scowled at her hair.
Then his hand moved and his thumb encountered bandage. His anger evaporated, his eyes closed, and visions of her little, prone, bleeding body lying on the steps to their home filled his brain. To dispel the images, his eyes shot open.
That night was not the night for her to die.
But, for one unbearable second, when his eyes took in her wounds, he felt that sinister sliver of fear score through him.
Callum leaned into her cautiously and shoved his face in her hair.
“No one can piss me off like you do, honey,” he whispered there. “But I’m sure as fuck relieved you’re all right.”
Her body tensed at his first words and stayed tight for long moments after he finished speaking.
Then, slowly, it relaxed.
And, with it, so did Callum’s.
Callum woke several times in the night to check his mate and stoke the fire.
It wasn’t until a muted, gray dawn started slowly to sweep the sky that he woke her one last time.
Sonia mumbled sleepily that she was all right as she’d been doing all night.
But this time, she turned into him. Still on her belly, she pressed her soft body into the side of his hard one, rested her cheek on his pectoral, and her arm stole across his stomach.
Her weight settled heavily into his and he knew she was asleep.
Callum also knew it would be all right.
For actions, especially when they were instinctive, for both humans and wolves, said a great deal more than words.
He gathered her hair in one fist, twisted it until it was a long rope, and then he coiled it around his palm, and he too, finally fell asleep.
For all of ten minutes because, soon, he’d learn, they were coming.
“Regan, the plan was agreed.”
Regan stared out the window at the dawn’s very early light, in fact, there was almost none, and snapped into her mobile, “Well, I didn’t agree.”
“Yes,” Gregor returned calmly. “But Mac, Lassiter, and I did.” He saved his winning point for last. “And so did Cherise.”
Regan knew that.
She knew it.
She shut her eyes tight.
“Gregor, they’re suffering,” she whispered. “Especially Sonny.”
She heard Gregor’s pained sigh before he replied softly, “They’re meant to, Regan. You know this has to be the way.”
“Why does it have to be them?” Regan cried.
“I don’t know, it just does,” Gregor answered in a way that stated eloquently he liked it about as much as Regan did then he finished, “Regan, you know, this isn’t just the way it has to be, it’s the only way.”
Regan was silent.
This silence, they both knew, was her agreement.
“Describe her wounds again,” Gregor demanded and Regan did as she was asked even though it was the third time she did, then Gregor went on. “Tell me what Callum’s done to Titium.”
“Ordered Ryon and Caleb to incarcerate him and his men. They’ll all stand trial.”
“He has too much of Mac in him,” Gregor grunted, and despite her escalating sense of despair, Regan smiled.
Only Gregor, a vampire, would think Callum had too much Mac in him. By the wolf’s standard, Regan’s son was ruthless.
Though, not as ruthless as a vampire.
“As I told you,” Regan reminded Gregor, “Titium howled surrender before Callum could attack.”
“Too much Mac,” Gregor repeated.
Regan changed the subject. “You’ll need to come to her.”
“Yes,” Gregor agreed. “Earlier than expected.”
Regan held her breath a moment before saying, “You’re going to—”
Gregor interrupted her, “There’s no reason to delay.”
Regan sagged against the windowsill in relief.
Soon it would be over, for her son and for Sonia.
Thank God.
Then she blinked into the slowly rising dawn.
Not because it was bright.
But because the cars had started coming.
She stared.
“Regan?”
“I’ve got to go,” Regan said distractedly.
“What is it?” Gregor asked as Regan saw the shadows forming on the hills, coming from tents, moving slowly, making their way to the castle.
She felt a thrill slide up her spine as tears filled her eyes.
And softly, but with immense pride, she whispered, “My people are attending their queen.”