Another murmur swept through the crowd before Callum's eyes sliced through it and it silenced.
He looked again to Titium and opened his mouth, his gut twisting, his chest burning.
Then he shut his mouth.
His eyes moved through the wolves on their knee behind Titium. He recognized only one. He was a wolf who had fought at his side though Callum couldn't recall his name. He was young. He needed training with his teeth but he made up for it being excellent with his claws. Callum didn't remember his name but he remembered he had not found his mate, not back then, sixty years ago. He had not, thus, started a family and if he had since, his children would still be mostly pups, his life with his mate barely beginning.
After the verdict, he would have no chance to be father to his children, if he had them, and his mate was right then in the stadium, facing Callum's future.
His gut twisted sharper, the burn in his chest searing through him, he drew in breath, looked back at Titium and Sonia's words rung in his head.
What it was, was your way because you are king.
Yes, and I believe that it was also once the way of my people to treat diseases by using leeches but they found another way that works a whole lot better so now they're doing that.
Leaders who are trailblazers, who lead their people to better horizons, who do that with strength, wisdom and compassion are revered.
Callum stared at the wolves in front of him.
What it was, was your way because you are king.
You are king.
He was king.
"Rise, Titium," Callum commanded, watched Titium's body jerk in surprise and ignored the stunned murmur that swept through the crowd.
Titium took his feet but did so not taking his eyes off Callum.
"Your love for your daughter is honorable, your loyalty to her is as well and your wolves' loyalty to you is the same," Callum announced, ignoring Calder muttering, "Fucking hell," at his side.
"That said," Callum continued, "all of it was misguided, you acted on it and the result could have been disastrous."
Titium's eyes shifted to Sonia, remorse filled his features and he lowered his head.
A proud warrior stood in front of his king and queen, filled with remorse, swiftly taking responsibility for his actions, admitting his guilt, speaking for his wolves, bowing his head in defeat, awaiting judgment.
You are king.
Callum kept speaking and Titium looked back at him.
"However, my queen has grave concerns for you, your wolves and even your daughter, regardless of your actions and what pain they caused her." He watched Titium's lips part in shock as he felt Sonia turn rock-solid in his lap but he went on, "She has had my ear on this subject and she wishes for me to show mercy. I find this difficult; your claws drew my mate's blood. But if she can forgive you for the damage you inflicted on her, then I can show mercy for your actions which were, indeed, treasonous but, I believe, if we had time for cooler heads to prevail, it would have had a different outcome."
Titium blinked up at him as his wolves behind him swung their heads back and forth, glancing at each other and the murmur of the crowd swelled before it silenced when Callum kept speaking.
"Therefore, I strip you of your Governorship of Europe and your command of the European Armies. I sentence you to attend your sequestered daughter until she has been brought to her right mind. If that should occur, which is doubtful, you will stay at her side when she is released from sequester and while she quests for her mate. Only after her Mating will you be free to resume your life but you will not ever, while I rule, hold office or command men. Your wolves will not be eligible to hold office or assume a command for one hundred years. They will, prior to returning home, denounce fealty to you and announce it to me. You, Titium, will personally pay a fine of one million dollars to Canis which will be submitted to our war chest. Your wolves will each pay a fine of fifty thousand dollars for the same purpose."
As a louder ripple went through the crowd and Callum watched the shoulders of the wolves in front of him slump with relief, one even bowed his head and covered his face with his hand as she-wolves sitting to the sides, mates and mothers of the men before him, burst into tears, Callum kept speaking.
"If any one of you again moves against Canis, there will be no trial. You will be executed immediately and burned on a pyre without family allowed to attend. Your ashes will be scattered without ceremony, a dishonor even traitors do not receive."
Callum watched Titium swallow, his face reddening with emotion, his eyes darting back and forth between Callum and Sonia even as he heard Sonia's breathing escalate, her chest rising and falling rapidly, her ass squirming minutely in his lap.
"Do you have something you wish to say?" Callum asked Titium.
"Ihellip;" Titium cleared his throat then asked in disbelief, "You show mercy?"
"Were you not listening?" Callum asked impatiently in return.
"But ndash;" Titium started.
Callum felt his brows rise. "You prefer execution?" he enquired and a titter of humor went through the crowd as the men in front of him tensed.
"No!" Titium said loudly and swiftly, shaking his head. "No, no. Ihellip;" His eyes moved to Sonia. "My queen ndash;"
Callum suddenly leaned forward, taking Sonia with him and he growled, "My wife has my ear, warrior, and she has spoken for you but you address me."
Titium looked quickly back at Callum, squared his shoulders, sucked in a visible breath and announced, "I only wanted to thank her for her mercy and offer her my apologies for the pain I inflicted, your grace. You are correct. My behavior was loyal but misguided and I have, these past weeks, thought long and anguished on the hurt I caused our little queen who was doing nothing but trying to save me from myself and causing that hurt by acting rashly and in anger. I will never, not ever, your grace, forget her lying on the steps of Canis, brought low by my claws and my pride. A human female who tried to persuade me to see reason and who moved in defense of her mate." He shook his head as if he still didn't believe he'd witnessed this or caused it before he continued, "For myself, my mate and my wolves, Ihellip; there are not words to say howhellip; how much our queen's forgiveness and your mercy means. My mate wouldhellip;" he swallowed then pressed on, "my daughter, my sons, the families of my wolves," he looked to Sonia then hastily back to Callum, "you and she have saved them centuries, millennium of grief. Shehellip; you both have saved our loved ones that andhellip;" he shook his head, swallowed yet again and finished, his voice rough, "I'm sorry, I don't have words."
"If you don't have words, Titium, then I suggest you accept the mercy shown and my judgment so my queen and I can go home. We've important things to do tomorrow," Callum suggested and another titter moved through the crowd.
"I accept your mercy and judgment, your grace, for myself and my wolves and I thank you on behalf of my family, my wolves, their families and myself," Titium proclaimed loudly.
"Good, then we're f**king done," Callum muttered, ignored the relieved giggle Sonia barely suppressed, the chuckles Ryon and Caleb didn't try to suppress and stood, taking Sonia with him and putting her on her feet. He turned to the she-wolf at her laptop. "This concludes today's business." He looked to Ryon. "See to the arrangement of the sentences and fines." Ryon, grinning like an idiot, jerked up his chin. Callum looked to the crowd and called out, "Tomorrow, we'll see you here under better circumstances."
There was a moment of silence before a cheer rang out, loud and deafening, hitting Callum and his queen with a wave of sound and Callum had to hide his surprise for they weren't simply cheering tomorrow's joyous festivities. They were cheering his decision.
It wasn't entirely shocking they would accept his verdict. He was king, they had no choice.
It was just a surprise that they did it so readily and, apparently, so soundly.
Then again, many of them had found their mates therefore many of them had their mates whispering in their ear. It was likely they were not fazed by the changes Callum had demonstrated that day knowing a human like Sonia whispered in his. Or, not so much whispered, but she found her way to get her point across and he, finally, learned how to listen.
He tucked Sonia's hand against his side, drawing her close and he got them the f**k out of there.
They were in the SUV, going down the winding road surrounded by wood and Sonia was surprisingly silent.
Then she wasn't.
"Callum?" she called.
He braced, wondering if what she'd say would piss him off or make him want to kiss her.
"What, baby doll?" he asked on a sigh, knowing, either way, it was better to get it over with.
"You know I love you, right?"
It made him want to kiss her.
"You know I love you?" he replied then he heard her shift before he felt her lips against his neck and her fingers curl around his thigh.
"Yes," she whispered, her voice throaty. She shifted again, straining against her seatbelt to slide her nose the length of his neck before she buried her face there. Her voice was low and hoarse with feeling when she went on, "Yes, Cal, I know you love me. Today, I also know just how much."
He did indeed love her.
A great f**king deal.
Absolutely.
"Good," he murmured, his own voice thick.
"Yes." She was still whispering. "It is good. Very good." She gave a fluttering sigh that he not only heard but felt against his skin before she finished, "Perfect."
She was right.
Very right.
In a number of ways.
* * * * *
He had his pretty little mate pressed up against him, her back to his front on the hide covered couch when the film ended and Sonia shifted to reach out to the remote. She hit off, threw it on the table and the minute it clattered, he pulled her under him and rolled over her.
She looked up at him, smiling a small smile, her eyes dropped to his mouth and they went hungry, something, as ever, he felt in his groin.
But he, unfortunately, had to ignore that in order to say, "Time for me to find my bed and you, ours."
She blinked and her eyes moved to his. "What?"
"I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, which, I'll point out, I hope to f**k I am, it's tradition amongst humans for the bride not to see the groom before the wedding," he told her and her mouth dropped open.
She closed it to repeat a now breathy, "What?"
"Am I wrong?" he queried hopefully and she blinked again.
"Uhhellip; no, you aren't," she whispered. "But ndash;"
He interrupted her by dropping his head to touch his lips to hers before lifting it and concluding, "So I'll find my bed and I'll see you at the wedding."
"Are you serious?" she asked softly.
"Unfortunately, yes, and after tomorrow, I'll ask you to explain why humans do something that's that bloody stupid," he replied and her mouth twitched.
"It's supposed to be bad luck," she explained.
"Stupid," Callum returned then amended, "Bloody stupid."
Her lips curved into a grin and her arms curved around him. "You're going to let me sleep alone to give into a human tradition?"
"Yes," he replied but he didn't even attempt to squeeze the reluctance out of his word.
"You're going to let me sleep alone for the first time, notwithstanding the nights you were away at war, of course, since I met you so you can give me one of my people's traditions."
It was a statement and a repetitive one but Callum treated it like a question and repeated, "Yes."
Her hand slid up his back, around his neck and framed the side of his head as her thumb came out to sweep his cheekbone but her eyes never left his and he thought that if she didn't stop holding him and touching him, he was taking his offer back.
Before he got the chance to warn her of this eventuality, she spoke.
"If you find your own bed, Callum, I'm moving to that one. I was your mate before I was born. I've been your wife for months. It means the world to me you'd do something like that for me and I love you for being willing to do it. Just as I love you for doing what you did today not only for Titium, his wolves, their families but also proving you listen to me and care about what I say. Just as I love you for taking Calder's bad mood and sharp words and Caleb and Ryon's ribbing for doing exactly that. Just as I love you for a million and one other things we don't have time for me to enumerate because I'm tired, I want you to make love to me and sleep beside me in order that I can wake up tomorrow, refreshed so I don't look a mess when I stand beside you in front of thousands of wolves during our Mating. But we were destined to lie by each other's sides since before we were cells in a womb. Therefore, I'm not going to sleep without my wolf. In other words, if you find another bed, you're also going to find me in it."
Callum stared down at his wife for half a second before he growled then he growled down her throat because he was kissing her.
Then he pulled away, got to his feet, lifted his wife in his arms and carried her to their bed thinking, f**k it.
If it was true, this human nonsense of bad luck, so be it.
They already had bad luck. The worst there was.
And he wasn't going to lose a moment of Sonia that he didn't have to lose.
She wanted him.
She had him.
As always.
As it would always be.
Until that dreaded day she no longer was.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Mating
"Umhellip; don't you think it's a bit much, Mara?" Sonia asked hesitantly as Maraleena moved around the back of her, aiming a mirror at Sonia's hair while Sonia held a mirror in front of her face, taking in the complicated, but artful and lovely, twists and curls that Mara had pinned in a thick, wide bunch at the nape of her neck.
"No, Sonny! Absolutely not! Today's a big day and there will be pictures of you and Cal in every wolf newspaper in the world. It has to be perfect!"
The butterflies in Sonia's stomach, already out-of-control, went into overdrive.
She'd found a pretty, but simple, ivory dress on-line and had it delivered. It was definitely more than what Mara and Callie had described a she-wolf would wear at her Mating but far less than any self-respecting human bride (unless she was a hippie or just not that into dressing up) would wear. Sonia thought it was a happy medium although she had to admit, if only to herself, that she would have preferred the pomp and circumstance. A dress encrusted with lace and pearls, her hair just as it was, fabulous shoes and all the trimmings of a wedding.
Actually, a Royal Wedding.
She was queen, it had been a bumpy ride, it would have been nice if she'd had something amazing to remind her how glorious it was and would always be.
Until she was no longer.
She pulled in breath through her nose, hiding the fact she was doing it and deciding it was good she wouldn't have pomp and circumstance.
It would always be a happy memory for her.
For Callum, once she was gone, it would be a tortuous one.
So this was good. Simple. Fast. Then a big party.
"You look lovely," Regan whispered from close and Sonia's eyes slid to the side to see her mother-in-law standing there, tears shimmering in her eyes which made wet hit Sonia's. "Or, more lovely than you usually do," she corrected.
"Thank you, Regan," Sonia whispered back.
"Lassiter and Cherise," she pulled in breath, Sonia did the same and Regan continued, her voice husky, "they would be very proud."
"Thank you," Sonia said softly, lowering the mirror to her lap.
Regan reached out and pulled it from her hand then she set it aside, pushed her hand into the pocket of her smart trousers and pulled out something that glinted but Sonia couldn't see it. Regan's hand curled around Sonia's and she pulled it to her, pressing out Sonia's pinkie finger, she slid a thin, gold, antique-looking band with a small, yellow diamond in it on her pinkie.
Sonia stared at the ring and her startled eyes went to Regan when she stated, "Your mother's mother gave that to her when she was a girl. Your mother gave it to me for safekeeping to give to you today."
Sonia drew in a shocked, painful, joyous breath as her fingers curled tight around Regan's and tears flooded her eyes.
"Oh Sonny!" Mara cried. "Your makeup!"
"Let her cry," Sonia heard Callie say quietly. "We'll fix it."
"I ndash;" Sonia began.
"Say nothing," Regan cut her off then finished on a whisper. "I know. What you need to know is that Cherise knew, Lassiter knew, they knew you loved them just as much as they loved you."
Her lips quivering, she could hold them back no more and Sonia whimpered as Regan pulled her into her arms and held her close.
"I'll get the makeup again," Mara muttered from behind them as Sonia held on tight.
And she kept doing it for a long time.
Regan returned the favor.
* * * * *
Sonia stared at herself in the full-length mirror that had been brought up to her and Callum's room.
Her hair was not right and her makeup, again fixed after crying in Regan's arms, was also too much for her dress.
Way too much.
Way, way, way too much.
Her eyes flew to the clock on Callum's nightstand. They had thirty minutes until she had to be in the SUV with Gregor and Regan who were taking her to meet Callum at The Lodge.
"Umhellip; maybe we should ndash;" she began but stopped because she heard and smelled him.
She also heard something else and smelled it too, the scent familiar and her heart started beating hard as she turned and trained her eyes on the door.
Seconds later, Callum, so handsome he hurt her eyes wearing a well-cut, beautifully tailored tux, strolled through carrying an enormous white garment bag over his forearm.
Sonia stopped breathing even as her mouth dropped open.
Callum looked at her from head-to-toe then caught her eyes, grinned his sexy grin and declared, "Baby doll, that's pretty but it just won't do."
He then turned to the bed, threw the garment bag on it and strolled out of the room, Kerry and Mabel streaming by him on their way in as he made his way out.
Sonia started breathing but only to hyperventilate.
"Oh my God! Can you believe this place?" Kerry shrieked, racing to Sonia and throwing her arms around her.
As usual, not to be outdone, Mabel screeched, "Scotland is awesome and Callum McDonagh is even awesomer!" and Sonia felt Mabel's body hit her and Kerry's embrace and they moved to fit another in their clinch.
"I can't cry, I can't cry. We already did my makeup twice," Sonia told them, holding on tight.
Kerry pulled back, held on with one arm and lifted her other hand to fan Sonia's face and, as Mabel followed suit, Kerry ordered, "Don't cry. We don't have time. We have to get you dressed and then we have to get dressed too."
"Yes, sweetheart, we have to get you dressed," Regan proclaimed from beyond them, Sonia looked to her and she lost her breath again for Regan was holding up a beautiful wedding gown encrusted with lace and pearls and, standing beside her was Callie, holding up a fabulous pair of elegant, sophisticated, stylish, stiletto-heeled, ivory slingback pumps with pearl-encrusted, pointed toes.
"Callum thought you might want something special so he sent me shopping," Regan informed her.
"Oh good goodness," Sonia repeated on a whisper and how she managed it with her throat closed was a miracle.
"She asked our opinions and we all agreed," Mabel announced.
"As did I," Sonia heard said from the direction of the door, her eyes shifted from the beautiful wedding gown and fabulous shoes to the door and she saw Leah standing there.
Leah had told Sonia that she and Lucien were tied up, they couldn't come to The Mating but they'd come for visit as soon as they could.
She'd lied.
"Oh good goodness," Sonia moaned promptly before she burst into tears.
Kerry and Mabel folded her in their arms and only stepped aside when Leah took over.
"I'll get the makeup again," Mara muttered on a sigh.
Sonia burst out laughing but she did it through tears.
Happy ones.
* * * * *
Sonia sat between Regan and Gregor in the Rolls Royce, the fabulous car another surprise, on their way to The Lodge.
Leah, Kerry, Mabel, Mara and Callie had all changed into their lovely, but secret, deep jade bridesmaid dresses after they'd helped Sonia dress. Regan had donned her stylish, pale yellow mother-of-the-groom dress. Before Gregor helped her fold into the Rolls, Regan had handed her a huge, stunning spray of calla lilies intermingled with fluffy tufts of lilies of the valley that not only looked regal as well as just plain stunning but smelled divine.
Her gown, shockingly, fit like a glove but then again, Regan had long ago measured her for a, "Sweater I'm going to knit for you, sweetheart." Sonia, at the time, hadn't thought why Regan smoothed the measuring tape from hip-to-sole and everywhere besides. She'd had too much on her mind and didn't knit so what did she know?
Now, she knew.
Her gown, as was everything Callum, his mother and Leah (she found) put together, was perfect.
Elegant and opulent, yet somehow simple, the gown skidded over her figure perfectly, the entirety of the ivory silk covered in delicate ivory lace, including the five foot train that trailed behind her. Pearls and opalescent beads decorated the lace but not in abundance, simply catching the eye and giving the gown even more personality. The neckline was princess, the gown sleeveless, the line graceful, skimming her body to her knees then flaring out slightly in an elegant fall to a lace, scallop-edged hem and train.
She couldn't have picked better.
Tear drop pearls suspended from diamonds, a gift from Regan, dangled from her ears.
Something new.
The ring of her mother's Regan gave her on her pinkie.
Something old.
A single strand of pearls with a diamond and gold clasp sat on her wrist, loaned to her by Leah.
Something borrowed.
A garter made of blue satin and edged in intricate lace circled her thigh, given to her by Kerry and Mabel.
Something blue.
Her claiming chain hung from her hips, given to her by Callum.
Something wolf.
She was ready for her wedding and she looked exactly like a woman about to marry a king.
But she was feeling funny, as she had been now for weeks. Strange, like jetlag, not herself but, lately, it was accompanied by what felt like hot flashes, the skin on her entire body getting warm for sometimes seconds, sometimes whole minutes before it would cool.
She lifted the bouquet to her face, took in a breath and then let it out, but it didn't help.
Nothing, she'd found, did.
"Are you quite all right, Sonny?" Gregor murmured and Sonia looked to her vampire.
"Yes, I'm wonderful, Gregor," she told him and his lips tipped up but his eyes moved over her face.
"You're a bit flushed, my dear," he noted and she lifted a hand to fan her face.
"Justhellip; feeling strange. Probably stress. It's been going on for a while. I suspect, after this is over, it'll be over," she told him and was too focused on what was to come, she missed his eyes moving swiftly to Regan before coming back to her.
"Sonny, sweetheart, are you and Callum, umhellip;" Regan trailed off and Sonia turned her head to her mother-in-law.
"Are wehellip;?" she prompted.
"Uh, planning on pups sometime soon," Regan finished and Sonia grinned.
"No, I'm on birth ndash;" she stopped abruptly on a gasp, leaned into Regan and asked in a panic. "Do human birth control pills work with werewolves?"
Regan smiled a gentle smile, reached out and gave Sonia's hand a squeeze before she replied, "Yes, Sonny. Usually a doctor will prescribe a certain brand as, obviously, werewolves have, uhhellip; a different hormonal make up but it's unusual for a she-wolf or human to become pregnant if a woman is taking any kind of oral birth control."
Sonia sat back in her seat on a relieved sigh.
"Does Callum know you're on birth control?" Regan asked and Sonia looked to her again.
"I, well, I think so. I mean, we've been together awhile. I don't recall if I've ever taken it in front of him but he's never brought it up so I assumed he knew I had it covered. I mean, we would discuss having, well," she grinned, "pups and decide together when the time would be to start trying for a family."
Something which, on their honeymoon (Callum told her they were going to have a honeymoon thus it was not a surprise) she'd be bringing up.
For her, the sooner the better. Mara, Callie and Regan had explained werewolf DNA always won out over human and any offspring created in a wolf/human interaction was wolf and therefore immortal.
Callum would have centuries with their children. Sonia, decades.
She wanted to start right away.
"I think, sweetie, you may want to discuss this with him at your earliest convenience," Regan advised quietly and Sonia again grinned at her.
"Oh, I will," she whispered, Regan's eyes lit and they shifted to Gregor.
Sonia's followed and she saw Gregor slightly shaking his head and frowning.
"Vampire grandpa, of sorts," she muttered her tease, sliding into him and burrowing so he had to lift an arm and wrap it around her shoulders.
He looked down at her and muttered with distaste, "Vampire grandpa to werewolves."
Sonia grinned.
Gregor kept frowning.
Sonia pressed closer and kept grinning.
Gregor's eyes moved over her face, his frown faded and his eyes grew warm. "Vampire grandpa to my Sonia's children."
Sonia took in a quick breath and warned, "Don't make me cry, Gregor."
"Fine, Sonny. So deep breathe or do whatever you humans have to do to withstand enduring something like this," he warned then he gave it to her. "You're beautiful today. You're beautiful always but today, you glow. I love you, my dear, I have from the moment you came to me even if that moment was a sad one. And I'm immensely proud of you."
She deep breathed, taking those breaths in through her nose and letting them out of her mouth as she stared at him.
Then she whispered, "I love you too. I have for ages and I'll do it forever."
He nodded, a muscle in his cheek twitched and he turned his head to look out the window but his arm around her curled tighter.
Regan grabbed her hand and held just as tight.
Twenty minutes later, on Gregor's arm, Sonia received all the pomp and circumstance a woman walking toward her husband the king should have.
Following Calder and Caleb escorting their mother then her string of bridesmaids who wandered the length of The Lodge to the dais where Callum, Ryon, Drogan, Magnum, joined by Calder and Caleb, stood, all looking breathtakingly handsome in tuxes, Sonia noted the entirety of the space not taken up by wolves was festooned in ivory silk rosettes, bunting and so many calla lilies, lily of the valley and white roses, Callum had to have bought every bloom, not only in Scotland, but all of Europe.
The building so big, the procession took so long, the women walked the space to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", a full symphony and chorus behind the dais filling the beautiful acoustics of the space with some of the most extraordinary notes ever put together.
And on that day, as Sonia looked around in wonder and beamed up at her mate who gave her all of this, the song was aptly named.
For she was joyous.
Surrounded by friends and family.
People who accepted for her who she was, exactly who she was.
People who loved her.
And in love with a man, well, a wolf, who she loved with everything she was, everything she was meant to be.
Therefore, Sonia Arlington-McDonagh beamed as the horns and strings played a masterpiece accompanied by a hundred voices, the air was filled with the scent of lilies and roses, thousands of wolves stood, their eyes watching her progress, their faces wreathed in smiles and she, a queen, walked to the mate the benevolent hand of fate had given her, a man she'd dreamed of most of her life, her handsome wolf, a king.
And she did so having no idea that in thirty short minutes, she was going to die.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Death
Callum stared in Sonia's shining green eyes as he listened to her sweet, throaty words, up close and broadcast through the space via microphones, as she said, "I do."
He smiled.
Tears filled her eyes.
"Right, uhhellip; now, wolf," the wolf official at their sides muttered and Callum tore his gaze from his queen and looked at the male. "Callum," he prompted with a nod of his head Callum's way.
Callum nodded back and looked back down at his bride.
"Are you mine?" he asked, his voice gruff.
"Yes," she whispered immediately, her voice still husky and her eyes got brighter.
A deafening cheer tore through the crowd.
The official leaned toward Sonia. Callum, holding her hands in his, felt her start and her head turned slightly as the male whispered something in her ear. Callum's smile grew wider as she blinked in shock, her head jerked to look back at him, her lips parted, her eyes warmed and she spoke.
"Are you mine?" she asked, this new nuance of The Mating something he came up with just that morning.
He was king.
He could do anything he wanted.
And he wanted to give to her what she gave to him.
"Yes," he replied in a strong, carrying voice and another deafening cheer filled the space.
Sonia smiled, her hands tightening in his. Her smile was shaky but, even so, it was beautiful.
Callum let her hands go but only to push his into his trouser pocket and pull out what rested there.
A gold charm for her claiming chain, this one another wolf but with tiger's eye for eyes to match the band he'd added to the ones he'd already given to her earlier. He opened the link with his thumbnail and closed it on her claiming chain.
When his eyes captured his bride's and his hands again caught hers, he could see, even though her head was tipped down to stare at her new charm, she was biting her lip.
She lifted her eyes to his and they were still beaming but brighter, luminescent.
Happy.
He grinned.
"It's my pleasure to pronounce you, King Callum, and you, Queen Sonia, husband and wife and, er, wolf and lifemate!" the official declared and both Callum and Sonia looked his way to see him smiling broadly. "I've always wanted to say this," he went on then finished, "You may kiss the bride!"
Finally, Callum thought, the good part of this human ceremony.
He turned back to his bride and grinned what he didn't know was a wolfish grin, her wet eyes dropped to his mouth and he heard her fluttering sigh.
Then he bent his head, tightening his grip on hers and he kissed his bride.
Another roar tore through the space.
Even as he heard it, tasted Sonia on his tongue, smelled her scent in his nostrils, he felt her hand rip from his and move to clutch his lapel.
He broke the kiss to look down at her and saw she was suddenly flushed, her eyes vague.
"Baby doll?" he muttered low so the microphones wouldn't catch it.
"I'm fine," she whispered. "Just fine," she stated quietly but she tore her other hand from his and pressed it to her forehead even as her fingers at his lapel gripped tighter and she leaned her body to his.
"Sonia," Callum called when her eyes drifted to his chest.
He lifted a hand to her jaw and his gut twisted when he felt how hot her skin was. He gently pressed up, forcing her eyes to his and they were beyond vague.
They were pained.
"Little one," he murmured, dipping his head close.
"Okay," she said softly. "I think maybe I'm not fine."
The instant she finished her statement, her legs went out from under her and this was such a surprise, she nearly dropped to the dais before Callum caught her in his arms.
The roaring crowd stopped roaring as a hush filled the space.
Callum didn't notice it because, even through the lace and silk of her gown he could feel his wife's body was afire.
As he lifted her to cradled in his arms, his eyes sliced to his pale-faced mother sitting in the front row and he shouted, "Regan!" right before, with long strides, he moved to the side of the dais, down the steps and around the back, under the stands and into a short hall where there were training rooms, dressing rooms and locker rooms.
He took her to a dressing room, laid her on a couch, sat at its edge and took her hand.
Her eyes fluttered open.
"Cal, get the gown off me," she begged in a pained voice.
"Hang on, baby doll. Regan has an injection," he cooed, holding her hand tight as she started shifting on the couch.
"I need this gown off me," she repeated, clutching his hand and beginning to move with agitation.
"One second, honey," he told her and smelled Regan before he saw her rush in, Gregor on her heels, Yuri not far behind and behind him, Caleb, Ryon, Calder, Sonia's bridesmaids and Lucien.
"A guard on the door, Ry," he ordered, his eyes then moving to his mother, "Injection."
She was already digging in her purse as she rushed toward them.
"Cal," Sonia's hand gripped his in a death hold. "Please, honey, please, get this gown off me. I'm burning up."
"The injection's coming," Callum assured her.
"Sonny, my dear, did you forget your injection last night?" Gregor asked. Having moved close, he squatted down beside the couch.
"No," she shook her head, her eyes heated and dazed, "Cal gave it to me as usual."
Gregor looked to Callum. "Stress?" he murmured.
"Maybe," Callum murmured back as Regan handed him the loaded syringe.
"Get a cool cloth, hurry," he heard Yuri order someone as Callum looked down at his mate.
"Roll to your side, little one, I'm injecting through your dress," Callum told her and she stopped shifting with agitation and rolled to her side as ordered.
Callum made swift work of injecting the medicine.
He then carefully pulled her up and into his arms. "Two minutes," he whispered in her ear. "Two minutes, baby doll, hold on."
She writhed in his arms, fighting him as he counted it down in her ear.
At one minute five seconds, her back arched so violently she nearly tore herself out of his arms, her head flew back and she screamed a scream filled with agony.
Callum's blood ran cold.
"Fucking hell, what the f**k?" Yuri growled from close.
"Here's a cold cloth," Leah said, handing it to Gregor who immediately moved in to press it to Sonia's forehead.
He had it there for not a second before she bucked again, letting out a primal scream that tore through the space and straight through Callum's heart.
Sonia shot double, her hands forming claws, tearing at the bodice of her gown as she cried, "It's not working. It's not working. I need this gown off. I need his gown off!"
Callum's head shot around and his eyes pinned Calder. "Find the wolf who's been trained to see to this. Get me another injection," Callum ordered.
Calder, also pale, nodded and sprinted from the room.
Sonia's hands moved from her gown to claw at Callum. "Cal! Get this gown off!"
"We're getting another injection," Callum told her, trying to sound soothing but even he could hear the worry in his voice.
"I'm calling her doctor," Gregor snapped, straightening to standing, reaching into his jacket to pull out his phone.
"Do something, for f**k's sake. More cool cloths. Ice. Fucking something!" Yuri shouted.
Callum tried to control Sonia's thrashing. "Hang on, Sonia. Hang on, baby doll. It's been too much for you. We should have planned. The trial, The Mating. We should have planned."
She stopped thrashing, her hazy eyes finding his. "This isn't right," she whispered, her voice panicked, anguished, terrified.
Callum felt a presence, he knew who it was before he looked up and saw Lucien standing close.
"Let me feed," he requested gently as Leah moved in with the cool cloth to press it to Sonia's forehead.
Distractedly, Callum noted Leah's head jerk before it snapped up to look at her mate, her face shocked as well as pained.
"Vampire saliva has healing properties, Callum, powerful ones. You know this. Perhaps, until her medicine arrives, it will give her some relief," Lucien suggested.
"Do it, anything," Sonia begged. "Anything."
Callum looked to Leah to see her face had blanked and she was pressing the cloth to Sonia's forehead.
He knew in that instant, if Lucien fed from Sonia, it would be a betrayal to his mate and it might not be worth that large of a sacrifice because it might not work.
"You can't," he muttered, looking back to Lucien and he finished, "Your mate."
"I can," Gregor stated, stepping forward.
"She's your daughter," Yuri hissed, his voice repulsed.
"Yes, and I want her to survive," Gregor fired back.
"Then I'll do it," Yuri announced moving toward them.
"Fuck, f**k," Callum clipped, looked down at his agonized bride, took in her torment and made a decision. "Yuri is going to feed from you, honey. Try to stay calm. It won't hurt."
She nodded, clearly in agony, clearly willing to try anything.
Callum moved away and Yuri moved in, gently pulling Sonia up, twisting her in his lap as he sat in the couch and Callum felt his entire body turn to stone.
"Please, darling, try to stay still so I don't do you more harm," Yuri murmured in a soft voice, his arms tenderly gathering Callum's mate to him, one hand cupping the back of her head, moving it to the side, exposing her neck and Callum tasted bile in his throat.
Her eyes came to him and he forced his lips to curl up. "It's going to be all right, baby doll," he assured.
She nodded.
Yuri ran his tongue along her neck and it took everything Callum had to fight back the instinct roiling in him to tear his mate from the vampire's arms and rip him apart.
Powerless and hating f**king everything about that feeling, Callum watched as Yuri tore his bride's flesh open and he fed.
This lasted too long, way too long as Yuri gathered her closer, closer, f**king closer and took more.
Again, suddenly, Sonia's body arched violently, ripping her throat from the vampire's teeth, blood poured down her chest and she screamed that hideous scream.
Yuri moved in quickly to lash her neck with his tongue, the healing began slowly but Callum was there, tearing his wife from the vampire and pulling her into his arms.
She again thrashed, struggled, clawed at him, now keening animal noises that seemed physical, shredding him.
"Where's that goddamn injection!" he roared, moving to sit in the couch that Yuri vacated, holding his mate as close as he could get her, feeling her flesh burn to the touch.
"This isn't good, Cal. This isn't good, my wolf," Sonia said, her voice weak, the fear in it palpable, her body's struggles unceasing.
The door swung open and Orphenon followed by Calder ran into the room and straight to Sonia.
"The injection?" Callum bit out and Calder handed it to him as Orphenon got close, grabbed Sonia's flailing wrist and then dropped it immediately.
"Jesus," Orphenon whispered, glancing quickly at Callum before he went for Sonia's wrist again and demanded to the room at large, "A tub, ice, immediately! Get someone to my car to get my bag!"
Callum turned his mate and moved to inject her.
"How many is that?" Orphenon asked, his tone dire and urgent and Callum stopped.
"Dose two," Callum told him.
"Your grace, I don't think ndash;" Orphenon started.
"It's the only thing that works," Callum clipped.
"It's poison, your grace," Orphenon whispered, Sonia gasped then bucked then arched and shrieked so loud, so long and so horrifying, it was a wonder everyone's ears didn't immediately start bleeding.
Callum held her close but leaned into Orphenon. "It's worked for decades."
"I'm not sure it's wise," Orphenon replied but Sonia jerked mightily and shrieked yet again.
"If you don't think it's wise then what do we f**king do?" Callum snarled, setting the injection aside and again fighting her struggles in order to pull his mate close.
"We need to get her temperature down immediately," Orphenon answered.
"Do you think?" Callum's tone was snide.
"I can see you're upset and I understand that, I do, but I know what's in that injection, Callum, and two doses is absolutely not advisable."
"She's burning alive."
"That's why we need to get her temperature down."
"Then how about we cease discussing it and do that?" Callum gritted.
"Cal, Cal, Cal, my wolf," Sonia called suddenly, her voice strange, hideously weak at the same time desperate and Callum jerked his gaze to his wife, his blood now ice in his veins at the sound. "Cal, Cal, Cal," she chanted feebly.
"Baby doll, I'm right here."
"Cal, it's happening," she whispered, her hand moving to clutch his lapel again.
"We're going to get your temperature down, honey," he assured her.
"It's happening," she repeated, her hand in his lapel tightening, drawing him to her, pulling him close but she didn't have to. He bent into her as frantic activity bustled in the room.
"We're getting a tub of ice. It's going to be all right," he promised.
"You know I love you?" she whispered and Callum felt his heart squeeze because her tone was frail but it was also final.
"Yes, I do and I love you too, baby doll. Now, hang on."
"With everything I am," she stated, so softly, her voice fading with each word and Callum felt her body burn into his as her fingers started to loosen on his lapel.
No, this was not happening.
He pulled her closer, tighter. "Stay with me, Sonia. Stay with me, little one."
Her eyes filled with tears and held his as she whispered, "With everything I was meant to be."
This was not happening. It wasn't happening. It couldn't happen. She had to survive, at least until it began.
This was not f**king happening.
Then it happened.
His mate, his bride, his wife, his queen went limp in his arms. Her green eyes open and still on him, there was nothing behind them. No focus. No light.
They were vacant.
Dead.
Dead.
Just.
Like.
That.
He stared into her pretty face and whispered, "This is not happening."
Sonia didn't move, her hand had fallen away from his jacket, he felt no breath from her lips touch his face, the room around him was still, a dread feeling creeping through the space, slithering, cold, ugly, heinous.
"This is not f**king happening," he whispered, cradling Sonia close, smelling her smell, feeling the burn of her body cooling.
He didn't twitch as Orphenon moved in, placing his fingers to Sonia's neck as Callum stared into her face.
Vacant.
Dead.
"Please, God," he begged, "make this not be happening."
Orphenon's fingers moved away and he said quietly, his voice grave, "Your grace, I'm so sorry."
It was happening.
Rage tearing through him, Callum surged up, holding his mate's lifeless body tight to his massive chest, he threw his head back and thundered useless words, "This is not f**king happening!"
He felt a hand light on his arm and his mother's soothing voice, "She's gone, Callum, sweetheart. We knew this day would come. Please ndash;"
Callum twisted, leaned in and barked in his mother's face. "This can't happen."
She didn't flinch.
She lifted a hand to the side of his face, hers was tortured, understanding of his pain etched in her features and she whispered, "I'm so sorry, my beloved boy."
It was then, he felt it. His skin prickling. The change was coming and he knew he couldn't stop it. He couldn't.
He didn't even f**king want to.
He turned, bent and placed his bride's body on the couch like she was a piece of priceless crystal, which she goddamned was, and he stared into her eyes one last time.
Then he lifted a hand and closed them, his throat tightening, his skin beginning to burn. He bent deeper, taking in her scent, his eyes moving over her still flushed skin, registering she looked peaceful and hating it. Wanting her to sit up and argue with him. Tease him. Smile at him. Fuck, he'd take her writhing and shrieks if it meant she was still breathing.
But she wasn't breathing.
He closed his eyes, pulled in her scent one last time then bent close and touched his mouth to hers.
"My bride," he whispered against her motionless lips. He opened his eyes and they met hers that were closed and would be for eternity. "With everything I am, everything I'm meant to be, baby doll. Always."
He heard quiet, muffled female whimpers but he ignored them. He took off his wedding ring, lifted her hand and placed the band in her palm. Closing her inert fingers around it, he pressed it to her belly.
He turned, crouched and gave in, leaping to wolf in mid-air, he landed on his paws and bolted through the bodies. Out of the room, past the guards, through the onlookers held back at the mouth of the hall who stared and gasped as they saw their king race through them, stepping back to give him room, one opened the door to the building and he shot through.
And he ran.
He ran for miles, for hours through the wood, his heart pumping, his paws moving, the needles on the trees brushing his fur.
He felt nothing.
Nothing.
In a way he knew he'd never feel anything again.
Except the pain.
* * * * *
Callum sat as wolf, howling his agony through the trees to the full moon.
It didn't help.
It couldn't help.
Nothing would help.
This was his eternity.
An eternity of agony.
He thought he was prepared for it.
He f**king wasn't.
Suddenly, he smelled it. He stopped howling, his head jerked down and around as he came up off his haunches.
There was a she-wolf out there.
He stared through the dark trees, his body tensed as the scent came closer. It was familiar but it was not his mother, who he would imagine would come looking for him. It was also not any she-wolf he knew.
But, f**k, it was familiar.
Then she appeared, stumbling through the trees, clumsy, as if she'd transformed while inebriated but as he watched he noted she moved not drunken but disoriented.
She crashed toward him, seeming, strangely, not at one with her wolf. In fact, her movements actually appeared frightened. Then her body suddenly jerked sideways and she stopped.
Her muzzle turned his way and the she-wolf went completely still.
Christ, even through his grief he registered she was a beautiful wolf. He'd never seen a she-wolf as beautiful.
Just as suddenly as she stopped, she charged straight at him, so fast, he barely had time to shift to the side to miss her. As she drove past, he bared his teeth and nipped her warningly but gently on a flank.
She whirled, moving toward him, whining.
He barked at her.
She came closer as he shifted away but she kept coming, trying to butt him with her head, her movements awkward, unpracticed, her wolf whine constant.
Fuck, she was a young wolf. So young, maybe it was one of her first transformations outside of pup. Young pups transformed constantly and with no control. Parents worked with them when they grew older to teach them how to manage the transformations to do it at will. It was likely she'd gotten away from her parents but what was clear was that she was terrified.
He barked at her again and reached out with his teeth to nip her flank. She pulled her hind end away after she received his careful bite, so awkward, she fell to her haunch in the needles.
Callum barked again but she seemed unable to understand the wolf communication. She righted herself and kept trying to nuzzle him with her snout, constantly whining.
The noise, seemingly desperate and trying to communicate something she hadn't yet learned to convey as wolf, tore at his shredded heart.
He wanted peace to attempt what he knew would be futile, soothing his ravaged mind.
As a wolf, and king of the wolves, he had to get this terrified she-pup to safety.
He rounded her and began herding her, something she clearly didn't understand and fought, keeping on her course of attempting to butt him with her nose, her head, as if she was trying to mark him with her temple.
Definitely a pup. Instinctively, pups marked sires, mothers, siblings and, sometimes, elders. She-wolves, as wolves and in human form, marked their mates and offspring. He sensed this pup attempting to mark him was an attempt to mark an elder.
He moved around her, continuing to steer her toward Canis and, it took some time but she finally seemed to understand what he was trying to do and began to run with him, falling to his flank and staying there as he led her to Canis.
Once they arrived, he'd turn her over to Regan to find her parents then he would lock himself in his study with a bottle of whisky (or five).
Or he'd transform again and spend the next year in the woods as wolf.
He was coming to the decision of doing the latter when he led them to the backdoor of the castle. Instead of transforming to man and in doing so maybe making himself incapable of controlling her, he pushed in through the tall, wide lower door set into it that was there to allow entry as wolf.
She followed.
He then crouched to make the transformation in order to latch the lower door so she couldn't escape but her deep, brown eyes held his and suddenly she jerked around and started running through the castle.
Fuck, Callum thought before he darted after her.
Like she knew exactly where she was going, she raced to the steps and up them.
Fuck, Callum thought again as he raced after her.
Up she went, up, up and she dashed straight into his and Sonia's goddamned room.
He skidded to a halt outside the door.
He didn't want to be there. He could smell her scent from outside and that scent, her scent, all that was left of his Sonia, he couldn't bear it.
He didn't want to be there. He never wanted to enter that room again.
He heard the she-wolf howl.
Fuck, he thought yet again as he snarled and shot into the room then he skidded to another halt and stared.
She was jumping around, leaping, her body twisting this way and that. She abruptly stopped, whined, got down on her forepaws then leaped again, twisting her body in mid-air.
She was trying to transform.
Callum used his haunch to slam the door closed in order to contain her, crouched and leaped to man.
Quickly, he prowled to a wardrobe, yanked it open and pulled out a pair of jeans.
Tugging them on, he ordered, "Calm, wolf, focus and crouch. Do nothing more. Hold there and then listen to me."
She didn't listen. She got down to her forepaws again, jerking her mahogany-furred head this way and that then her wolf body stilled. Unexpectedly, she started digging under the couch, whining desperately, so frantic, she pushed the couch back with her body, her entire head shoved under the couch.
Then she backed out, lifted up and twirled to him, Sonia's stuffed wolf in her jaw.
Callum's heart lurched and it was pure, unadulterated agony.
That stuffed wolf, the symbol of him her parents gave her that she held close before she met him and continued to hold close even after she had him had disappeared around the time he found her rings in the fire. He had not questioned Sonia about it. Knowing she'd acted in anger with his rings, he suspected she'd done the same with her wolf.
Apparently, like the rings, her wolf had survived.
Now, with her scent that lingered in the room and his wedding band held in her lifeless hand, it was the only thing he had of her that held any importance.
"Drop that!" he snarled but she didn't.
She rushed him, racing around him, circling, butting his thighs with her head, all the while whining.
"Drop the goddamned wolf!" he barked, leaning into her only for her to jump up to her hind paws and claw his chest with her front ones.
He pushed her off, made for Sonia's wolf but she jerked her head away and pranced out of reach.
"Goddamn you, drop my wife's f**king wolf!" he roared.
She dropped the wolf, backed up until her tail hit the wall then she burst forward. Suddenly stopping on a skid and crouching through it, she leaped, transformed in mid-air and dropped to the floor on her belly as human, her body na**d and flushed, a mass of shining, extraordinary mahogany hair falling down her back and over her shoulders.
She was facing the floor, her hands to her sides, palms flat to the rug and she was panting.
But Callum was frozen.
Completely.
He knew her scent because he knew her.
He'd dreamed her.
She was the she-wolf in his dreams.
"This isn't happening," he whispered.
"It seems," she spoke and it was so quiet, even with heightened hearing he could barely hear her, "that I am like your people." She lifted her head, arching her neck way back and Callum stared in shock, his body still frozen, as beloved, familiar green eyes caught his and she finished, "Wolf."
Callum blinked as something inside him shifted, fluttered, lightened.
Hope.
But, even staring at her, he couldn't believe it.
She pushed up to her knees, sat back on her calves, wrapped her arm around her br**sts, the other around her belly, her eyes never leaving his, her glossy, magnificent dark hair framing her cherished face and she noted, "Uhhellip; the na**d thing, not so fun. And, for a while there, I thought I'd be wolf forever. It was pretty cool until it was terrifying."
"Sonia?" Callum called, his voice low, quiet, disbelieving.
She stared up at him.
Then she smiled.
Then she whispered, "Get this, wolf. I'm a wolf."
She was wolf.
She was alive and she was wolf.
Callum came unfrozen and he was on her in less than a second. Hands under her arms, he hauled her up then tossed her across the room. She landed on her ass in the bed and he moved, landing on her.
Covering her body with his, his hands framed her face, his eyes caught hers, he watched the warm, dark brown filter out the green and there she was.
His wife, his mate, his bride, his queen.
His wolf.
He dropped his head and kissed her.
Sonia curved her arms tight around him, spread her legs and then wound them around him, protectively, lovingly and kissed him back.
It was just the same. Absolutely the same. Her taste, her kiss, his Sonia.
Just wolf.
Her human life will be fleeting.
But her wolf life could last an eternity
On that thought, Callum kissed her harder and Sonia, as ever, returned the gesture, her hands moving to the waistband of his jeans, she rounded it to the inside and he lifted his h*ps so she could get to his fly.
She made short work of it, pressing into him to pull his jeans down his hips.
She broke her mouth from his. "Now," she ordered.
Callum didn't make her ask twice. He buried his c**k inside her heated wetness, straight to the hilt.
Her neck arched, her moan filled the room, her legs around him convulsed as her sex around his c**k tightened.
"Yes," she whispered.
"No," he growled.
Her neck righted and she looked at him, perplexed, her brown eyes hungry.
"No?"
"Assume the position," he ordered, felt his lips curve even as they muttered, "wolf."
Her eyes went hooded and he knew she understood. He pulled out, moved minutely to give her the ability to shift and she crawled out from under him. She got to her hands and knees in front of him then looked down the length of her body at him as he turned to a hip, yanked off his jeans then lifted up to position between her spread, quivering thighs.
He guided his c**k to her opening, sinking just the tip inside.
"Cal," she breathed, pushing back but he withheld as he reached forward and wrapped a fist in her thick, lush, dark hair even as he kept his eyes to hers.
"Are you mine?" he asked and he watched her face go soft even as it grew hungrier.
"Yes," she answered quietly. "Are you mine?"
"Fuck yes," he growled and drove into her, yanking her head back by her hair but she'd already arched it, crying out her pleasure.
She reared into him as he drove into her, hard, deep, fast, rough, hot, f**king, f**king beautiful until he felt her sex spasming around him, her pants turned desperate and her rearing turned to bucking.
"Cal," she breathed.
Callum pounded hard and deep, the momentum growing, his consuming orgasm nearly over him. "Give it to me, baby doll."
She gave it to him, arching her neck again, the sounds of her cl**ax piercing the air, drowned only by his roars.
As it left him and Sonia's left her, he gentled his strokes, his hands at her h*ps drifting over her skin, the pinpricks of her injection, he noted with some surprise, were completely gone.
Then again, wolves healed swiftly. Gaping wounds might take hours but needle pricks would take only moments.
It occurred to him then that there were a variety of people who had some explaining to do.
But he'd demand that later.
Now it would be about him and his bride.
He shoved his h*ps into hers, she knew what he wanted and came off her knees, spreading her legs wide and clutching his c**k with her sex to keep their connection. He settled his body on hers but, even if she was wolf, she was still tiny and therefore he did what he always did, resting some of his weight into his forearms on either side of her.
With his chin, he nuzzled the hair at her neck.
"Good news for you. Apparently, I'm not a blonde," Sonia muttered, he lifted his head and saw her eyes slide to the side to look at him.
They were still brown.
They were also smiling.
She was sated.
Happy.
Happy to be wolf. Happy to be his.
Callum moved his eyes to her hair and muttered back, "I'm going to miss it."
"No," he stated firmly, lifting one hand to pull the thick softness away from her neck, running his fingers through it as he rested it against her other shoulder. "It's true, baby doll. It was you."
"I could dye it," she suggested, her lips twitching.
He stared at her, feeling her under him, her sex surrounding him, wet and silky, her scent, part Sonia, part wolf, filling his nostrils, her eyes, now green with spikes of brown in them, warm and tender and it hit him.
"We have eternity for you to try whatever color you want."
Her mouth went soft as tears filled her eyes. Callum pulled out, rolled to his back and rolled her on top of him. She shoved her face in his neck and his arms closed tight around her.
He held her as she struggled to hold back the tears and this lasted a good while before he felt her calm.
He took one arm from around her so he could pull her hair from her face as he asked, "Do you know what happened?"
She shook her head against his neck but answered, "One second, I was sleeping really deeply, the next, I was on fire again and suddenly up andhellip;" she paused, lifted her head, looked down at him in wonder and cried, "Boom! I was a wolf. It was crazy. I didn't know what to do but my wolf body did and it took off. I know I caught your scent, even if it was only lingering, I followed it and I ran and ran and then I heard you howling and I ran right to you."
He stared up at her trying to glory in the fact that first, and most importantly, his mate was not dead and second, and nearly as important, she was not ever going to die, instead of giving into the searing anger he felt permeating his joy.
"I think I destroyed my gown," she muttered before biting her lip.
The searing anger dissipated because he burst out laughing, his arms closing around her, he rolled her to her back with him on top.
He lifted up and looked down at her face.
Her dark hair spread on their pillow framed it and he wondered if he'd get used to it. He had an eternity to do it so it was probable but he was surprised that he liked the idea of her dying it. Just for a while. Just until he got used to this new Sonia.
He still needed the old.
He'd always need the old.
Then again, he had a feeling, as it all came clear, she was always this Sonia. She'd exhibited wolf traits and tendencies since the very beginning.
He should have caught it.
He didn't.
Then again, this was unprecedented, human to wolf so he'd never consider it. He also, in those precious moments, wasn't going to allow himself to think of the indisputable conspiracy behind it.
He didn't share any of that.
He muttered, "You'll learn to leap out of your clothes."
"Well, unfortunately, I wasn't wearing an old pair of jeans but a fabulous wedding dress when it first happened," she replied.
"If it's torn, we'll have it repaired," he told her.
"That would be good," she murmured, he grinned, dipped his head and touched his mouth to hers.
His grin faded and he whispered, "You died in my arms."
Her head jerked and her eyes grew wide. "I did?"
She didn't remember.
"You don't remember?" he asked to confirm.
"I remember collapsing in your arms." Her nose scrunched in a way that said she found it distasteful which Callum found an enormous relief. "I remember Yuri feeding. I remember you arguing with Orphenon but then it all gets hazy and thenhellip; nothing."
He nodded but stated, "You did, my little one. You died in my arms."
She stared up at him, stunned. "How can that be?"
"I don't know," he answered.
Her head tilted to the side as her brows knitted adorably. "So you don't know what's going on."
"I have an idea," Callum replied. "What I do know," he stated ominously, "is that someone is going to f**king explain it to the both of us."
"This also would be good," she whispered, her hands moving on his skin soothingly then her arms wrapped around him, her gaze on him grew assessing and she pulled him close. "I died in your arms?"
"You did, honey," he affirmed quietly, his voice suddenly ragged at the memory.
Her hand shifted to the side of his head, her thumb coming out to smooth his brow, his cheekbone and then sweeping his lips.
He closed his eyes, memorizing that yet again even though he no longer needed to.
Her words were ragged as well when she whispered, "I don't know what's happening but I'm so sorry, my handsome wolf."
He opened his eyes. "Don't be. You're here. You're wolf which means you'll always be here." He pressed his chest to hers on the "always". "We'll soon understand why it happened and I'll make certain that nothing this fundamental is kept from us again."
She studied him even as she nodded.
Then she smiled a tremulous smile. "Cal, I'm wolf."
Callum smiled back and his was not tremulous. "You are, baby doll."
"I'm wolf," she breathed.
"As I always knew, perfect for me," Callum told her and her eyes focused on him.
"Perfect for you," she repeated, her smile strengthening.
"As I'm perfect for you," he declared.
"Yes," she whispered, her hand at his head became an arm wrapped around him again and both her arms went tight. "Can I ask one thing?"
"You can ask anything."
Love and gratitude gleamed in her eyes before she lifted her head from the pillows to touch her mouth to his.
When she set it back, she requested, "When you unleash all holy hell on whoever did all this, uhhellip; stuff, can you do it fast so we can still go on our honeymoon?"
Callum stared at his bride.
Then he burst out laughing again and he did this while rolling her and then he did it while knifing to sitting and kissing her.
With his mate straddling his lap, his hands in her mahogany hair pulling it away from her beautiful face, he answered, "Absolutely."
Then King Callum brought his queen's lips back to his and he kissed her again before he did other things to her.
And all of it was perfect.
Epilogue
Eternity
"Sonia! Call your wolf off me!" Gregor ordered Sonia.
He was on his back on the floor with Callum pinning him there, his wolf nose close to Gregor's face, his teeth bared, a snarl sounding low from his throat.
She glared at her vampire then looked at her mate. "Cal, honey, maybe you should let Gregor up."
He swung his handsome wolf head her way and growled. Then he looked back down at Gregor and snapped viciously at his face with his sharp wolf teeth, purposefully missing but he was so close, Gregor's body jerked and then he scowled.
She looked back at Gregor. "As you can see, he's a little angry." She leaned in, planting her hands on her hips. "As he should be."
And he should. They'd begun to tell Sonia and Callum all that had gone on and, obviously but understandably, Callum didn't like it very much.
"Callum, Sonny, please," Regan beseeched. "If you'll give us a moment to finish explaining, without bloodshed, I promise you'll understand."
Callum swung his head his mother's way and snarled.
Regan went pale.
Sonia sighed, moved toward her husband and ran her hand soothingly down his fur, leaning in. "My wolf, let's give them a chance to finish explaininghellip; without bloodshed."
He turned his head to her, turned it back down to Gregor, bared his teeth on another low snarl then slowly backed off Gregor's body. As Gregor pushed to his feet, again, Callum's eyes went to Sonia and he barked sharply. She nodded and went directly to the clothes he'd leaped out of. Gathering them up, she followed her mate as he prowled out of the room.
He leaped to man in the hall and Sonia handed him his clothes but even when he had them, he didn't don them. Instead, he stood there na**d and lifted his big hand, palm up. She instantly put his wedding band into it that he'd given her moments before transforming to wolf and he just as instantly slid it on his finger.
Only then did he tug his clothes on but he did it muttering furiously, "I cannot believe this f**king shit."
Sonia couldn't either. Prophesies. Plots. Oracles. Potions to suppress the wolf traits Sonia's father gave her (her father was a werewolf!) and bring out the human ones of her mother (sadly, her father's mate was a human, weirdly, this made their demise happening together, rather than her father enduring an eternity without his mate, something bittersweet).
Sonia had to admit (not then, of course, with Callum being so infuriated), it was a relief to understand things about herself that she hadn't since she could remember. Her abilities and why she had them. Why she healed so quickly and didn't scar. Why her periods came every five months instead of every month, like a human's. This last she never imparted on anyone since it was none of their business, except her doctor who told her a lot of women had irregular cycles. This might have been true but what was truer was that he was lying through his teeth. About a lot of things.
"I also can't believe you're on f**king birth control," Callum went on.
Sonia's body started and her eyes snapped to his.
"What?" she asked.
"Baby doll, don't you think that's something you should have told me?"
"I assumed you assumed I was taking care of it," she replied.
"What I assumed was, when you weren't feeling yourself because my mother and your guardian were conspiring to titrate you off that f**king poison so your wolf could come out, you were pregnant with my pup. So when you died, I thought our pup died with you."
Sonia felt her face get soft as she moved into her husband and put her hand on his chest. "Cal, I'm so sorry. I thought you knew."
"Ryon mentioned it in passing months ago but that doesn't negate the fact you didn't. I didn't know you were wolf. You weren't having regular human cycles. What the f**k was I supposed to think?"
Suddenly, Sonia felt her brows draw together. "How did this swing around to me?"
Callum scowled at her brows then into her eyes. "Baby doll, you died in my arms. This is not something I'll forget ever and you can't know this and won't for fifty, one hundred, two hundred years but our forever is a longhellip; fuckinghellip; time. With you, I'll add, I thought I lost our child."
"It wasn't me conspiring to hide my wolf self," she returned. "I didn't even know I had one! And anyway, a husband and wife discuss when they're going to start a family. If you wanted to start having pups, maybe you should have talked to me about it. I'll admit, I made assumptions, wolf, but you did too."
His scowl getting scarier, Callum leaned into her. "Don't call me wolf when you're pissed, wolf."
"Don't you call me wolf when you're pissed, either," she got up on her toes to get closer to his face and finished, "wolf."
"Do you two want to quit arguing so we can get this done and maybe kill Gregor and, possibly, Yuri so you two can get on the plane and go on your honeymoon?" Ryon called from the door they'd exited and Sonia whirled to him.
"No one's killing Gregor or Yuri," she snapped.
"We'll see about that," Callum bit out as he stalked by her, grabbing her hand as he went and dragging her with him as he prowled back into his study where everyone, Regan, Gregor, Yuri, Lucien, Leah, Calder and Caleb were all waiting.
Sonia followed him but announced upon entry to the room, "By the way, wolf, I want to start having pups immediately."
"Oh, Sonny, how exciting!" Regan cried but Callum let her hand go, whirled on her and glowered at her.
"No f**king way. I've got you for eternity. I'm enjoying you for at least a hundred years before we introduce more mayhem into our lives."
"Children aren't mayhem," Sonia retorted.
"Yes they are. You like your shoes, baby doll, and werewolf pups like chewing."
Oh good goodness. She hadn't thought of that.
She bit her lip. Callum's eyes dropped to her mouth and his scowl got even scarier.
"Stop being adorable," he ordered.
Sonia quit biting her lip and exclaimed, "I'm not being adorable!"
"Jesus, are you two serious?" Calder asked, sounding exasperated and Callum's eyes sliced to him.
"Stay out of it, Calder," he commanded.
"Brother, you forget, me and everyone in this room watched your mate die in your arms and he," Calder swung a pointed finger at Gregor, "masterminded not only that scenario but Sonia enduring a fake disease and a tortuous treatment her entire life."
"Yes," Callum whispered sinisterly, his gaze moving to Gregor, his mind clearly back to the matter at hand, "let's get back to that."
Gregor, again cool as a cucumber, surveyed Callum. "If you take a breath and think on it a moment, Callum, you'll understand, considering The Prophesies, the necessity for all of this."
"How about you save us time and explain it," Callum suggested in a way everyone in the room knew it wasn't a suggestion.
Gregor drew in a breath not hiding the fact he was seeking patience.
Then he started, "Callum," his eyes moved to Sonia, "Sonny, my dear, of The Three destined in The Prophesies, two of the mates are human. One, you," he dipped his head to Sonia, "are not." He looked back to Callum. "In order to communicate solidarity with humans through supernatural beings being mated with them, Sonia had to live the triangle."
"More," Callum growled when Gregor stopped speaking and Gregor sighed before his gaze went back to Sonia.
"Born of werewolf and human, lived a human life, and, I'm sorry, my dear, suffer for it, and raised by vampires in order to deliver you safely to a werewolf mate. The triangle."
To Sonia, this made sense. Considering the prophesied three sets of lifemates would save humanity from slavery (or, she hoped not, expire in their efforts), humans, who mostly didn't know of werewolves or vampires, would need a strong statement to make them trust immortals. Not to mention, werewolves and vampires would need to trust humans as well and thus, as Gregor had explained earlier, all of the lifemates had to endure tribulations in order to prove their commitment to each other and, eventually, the cause.
"She is wolf, Callum, but your people accepted and loved her as human. They showed that when she was injured and they showed it in the short time they thought she passed yesterday by instantly shifting into widespread mourning," Gregor explained to Callum and looked back at Sonia. His voice dipped low and there was deep, unmistakable emotion threading though it when he told her, "This was not easy. It wasn't easy for Regan. For Mac. For your parents. For me and Yuri. We did not suffer as you did, Sonny, but we suffered. We hated it, every moment and, my dear, in comparison with our lives, yours has been short but, trust me, making you endure what you endured all of your short life felt like an eternity."
Sonia felt her face get soft as she felt some of the anger sift out of the room but Callum wasn't finished being livid.
"Now that you've explained that, can you explain why you didn't tell me, at least, so perhaps, even if I couldn't have talked to my mate about it, I would maybe have been able to do something, f**king anything, to make it easier on my wife?"
"It's obvious," Gregor returned.
"What's obvious is, she's my mate. I would accept her however she came to me. It's the wolf way," Callum fired back.
"Humans, as you know, are not wolves," Gregor retorted.
"Please, do not try my patience further by telling me things I already know," Callum warned, his tone deadly.
"You had to accept her as human, too, Callum," Gregor told him. "Her frailties. The understanding of her life being short. Your love for her as human and demonstrated with such ferocity was essential. You went so far as to go against all your instincts as a werewolf and allow a vampire to feed from your mate in an effort to ease her pain. If you knew, this trial you had to best would not have been bested. Wolves, vampires, all immortals would understand you would love her however she came to you but humans needed that statement to be made and I'm sure we'll all agree it was a compelling one."
Sonia heard Callum draw a sharp, annoyed breath in through his nose.
He understood. He didn't like it but he understood.
"All of it," Regan put in and everyone looked to her but she was looking at Sonia, "was carefully planned from well before your parents died." Her eyes moved to Lucien and Leah. "Once your situationhellip; well, commenced, we put into action our plan." She looked at her son. "As The Prophesies foretold, Lucien and Leah had to be mated then you and Sonia had to find each other." Again, her eyes went to Sonia. "Wolf children, as you know, sweetheart, age far slower than humans do and part of giving you that injection was to force your aging process to accelerate to a human one so that you and Callum could find each other at the right time. If not, right now, by wolf age, you'd be just over seven human years old. Instead, you're an adult female and thus could be mated to your king."
"Now that I'm not taking the injection, is my aging going to slow again?" Sonia asked and Regan shook her head.
"No, you're locked here, Sonny. Your development has stopped as it would naturally around this age as wolf. Unfortunately, however, you now must learn how to be wolf but," she smiled, "not woman."
This was true. Yesterday, her wedding day of all days had started out wonderful but it ended not all that fun. She didn't remember "dying" (fortunately) but she did remember waking and transforming almost immediately to wolf. It scared her silly and more, her wolf instincts to find her mate taking over and making her new body not at her mind's command, scared her more. It got worse when she found Callum and couldn't communicate with him nor did she know how to turn back to human. It was pure luck and a huge amount of desire that made her able to do it.
Callum had told her that morning before they had their confrontation with the family that he'd work with her, teach her, they'd transform together and he'd take her out running.
She was looking forward to that.
She was also looking forward to being her age for eternity. That was far from a bad thing, never growing old, never getting wrinkled and gray but best of all, her husband not having to watch her do it.
"Why did she die?" Lucien asked and Sonia focused her attention on the vampire because she thought his was a very good question.
"She didn't. Her human did," Yuri stated.
"Explain that," Lucien ordered and Yuri's jaw got tight at the command.
Then he looked to Sonia. "You know, of course, that wolf DNA is dominant."
She nodded.
Yuri went on, "That does not mean you don't have your mother's DNA as well. It's latent and when the wolf DNA was suppressed, as explained, it came to the fore. Regan and Father have been titrating you off the medication now for weeks, the actual dose smaller and smaller even if the injection was the same amount, the rest was taken with vitamins and hormones that would not alter or harm you. You didn't actually die since you cannot die as an immortal. However, your body did shut down to finalize the change." He looked to Callum. "We also knew this would happen. It was explained by the physicians who created the injection, it was closely monitored and the ill-effects, which could have been worse, were calculated, controlled and monitored so they weren't. Last, it was necessary, if difficult to witness and experience."
"Difficult is not the word I'd use," Callum gritted out and Sonia moved to him.
The instant she got close, he curled an arm around her shoulders and pulled her front deep into his side. She rested her hand on his stomach, wrapped her other arm around his back and pressed closer
"It was hideous, Callum, for all of us, not just you. Do you think it was easy keeping this from you? From Sonny?" Yuri asked.
"I would suspect it was easier keeping it from us than it was for us, living your lies," Callum shot back and a muscle ticked in Yuri's jaw, nonverbally acceding the point.
"It's my understanding, Lassiter and Cherise Arlington were assassinated by the wolf rebellion," Lucien stated at this point and a different feel came to the room, a feel Sonia decided was not good considering how tight Callum's body became beside her. "Is that true?" he asked Gregor.
Again Gregor drew in breath before he admitted, "No. They were assassinated by vampires."
"What?" Sonia breathed but no one answered her.
"My father," Lucien clipped and Sonia felt her body jerk in surprise as her eyes shot to him.
She saw Leah's face was knowing and angry and her eyes were also on her husband.
"Yes," Gregor confirmed. "Etienne with a retinue of vampires and werewolves who disagreed with Lassiter's efforts within the American Government to lay the groundwork for immortals and mortals to live peacefully with the knowledge of each other hunted Lassiter and Cherise and murdered them."
Sonia's heart squeezed.
"I do not believe this," Lucien hissed and Sonia pressed closer to Callum because the vampire was angry, quietly but terrifyingly so.
"You know you mustn't precipitate The Prophesies," Gregor warned, to Sonia, confusingly. Then again, this entire turn of the conversation was confusing.
"Have the last lifemates been located?" Lucien returned.
"Not yet," Gregor answered.
"I suggest you find them, Gregor. Talk to The Dominion," his eyes cut to Callum, "you request an audience with the Oracles."
"Done," Callum grunted.
"This must play out as it's intended to play out," Regan hurriedly put in.
"Etienne," Lucien stated then looked to Sonia and explained curtly, "my father," he looked back to Regan, "harmed my mate, touched her, terrified her, sent her running from me and into what could have been danger or even death from her own f**king dreams. He murdered Sonia's parents. And yet he runs free." Finally, he looked to Gregor. "I have been patient, Gregor, as I promised I would be but I will warn you, my patience is running out."
"Mine evaporated five minutes ago," Callum declared and Sonia pressed even closer to her mate.
"The Prophesies state that, once the second lifemates meet, the third will be fast on their heels," Gregor explained.
"Let's hope that's true," Callum replied.
"So far, they all have been true," Gregor retorted.
The room fell silent on this not altogether (though some of it was) happy news.
Regan broke it by asking, "Now that this unpleasant business is over, can we have a lovely meal, celebrate the bride and groom and then get them on a plane so they can enjoy their honeymoon?"
"Yes," Callum agreed but continued, "And about that." He looked to Ryon. "The two weeks we planned just turned into two months." His eyes swept Calder and Caleb as Sonia's heart stopped squeezing so it could swell with happiness. A two month honeymoon was very good news. "Adjust your plans. Sonia and I won't return until then."
"And hopefully I'll be pregnant when we return," Sonia announced and Callum dipped his chin to look down at her.
"You won't be pregnant," he declared.
She looked up at him. "We'll see."
"We won't see. You won't be pregnant," he repeated his declaration and Sonia's swelling heart turned into swelling anger.
"Callum, you don't get to be King Callum when we're discussing starting a family and thus what you say just goes," she snapped.
"Sonia, you don't get to be Queen Sonia when we're discussing starting a family and thus you being pretty, beloved and recently, for all intents and purposes, dead, does not mean what you say goes either."
"Perhaps we can discuss this later, wolf," she snapped.
"Oh, we'll discuss it later," he leaned down so he was nose-to-nose with her, "wolf."
Her heart fluttered at her mate calling her wolf even if it did this while she was angry.
"Great, now can we eat?" Calder asked. "Or do we all have to stand around and watch you two bicker for the next half an hour?"
"Let's eat. I'm starved. Sonia dying then suddenly coming back to life and morphing into wolf, freaking me out because I didn't f**king know she was wolf, put me off my food last night," Caleb stated as he started sauntering to the door. "Time to party and by that I mean, stuff ourselves and drink until we're sick."
Sonia forgot to be irritated mostly because she thought Caleb was hilarious.
"The town is feasting now and the fireworks are rescheduled to go off tonight. I know you're keen to be away, Cal, but it might be nice if you and Sonia took some time to make an appearance before you board the plane," Ryon suggested, getting close.
"Set that up," Callum ordered, shifting and beginning to move Sonia toward the door.
Ryon nodded and moved away.
Sonia got close to her husband and requested, "Later, can you tell me what that last part was about, the part with Lucien and his father and Leah's dreams killing her?"
"I will, little one, once I find out from Lucien what the parts I don't know about were about," Callum muttered irritably and Sonia suppressed a grin.
Regan got closer and, even with Sonia curled in Callum's arm, she shoved hers through Sonia's.
"Are you angry at me, sweetheart?" she asked Sonia softly.
"Of course not, Regan," Sonia answered softly and felt Callum's arm tense around her as Regan pressed closer. "All of that wasn't easy, on any of us. But now it's over."
They moved toward the door, Regan smiled at Sonia then leaned partly across her, her eyes lifting up to her son. "Are you angry at me, sweetheart?"
"Yes," Callum replied, Regan and Sonia tensed but Callum went on, "but I'll get over it after fireworks and when I'm on a plane taking my bride on our honeymoon."
Regan looked at Sonia and grinned.
Sonia grinned back.
Regan let Sonia go so she and Callum could walk through the door but Sonia turned back so she could aim her smile at Gregor.
She saw his eyes move to Callum's back before they came again to her and he sighed.
Her smile got bigger.
Then she went with her groom to the dining room to feast with her family in celebration.
In other words, with abandon.
Like a wolf.
* * * * * *
Callum stood at the front door waiting for his bride to join him so he could take her into town, let their people see them healthy, happy and, for Sonia, alive and watch fireworks before he finally took her away to somewhere it would only be them for a good, long time.
He figured he had a wait since he could hear Sonia giggling with Leah, Kerry, Mabel, Mara, Callie, Regan and f**king Caleb and they were all doing it drunkenly.
Listening to their happiness and hilarity, he looked to his boots and grinned.
His wife was wolf and the sounds of her drunken cheerfulness, embracing all that she was, were far from unwelcome.
His head came up when he smelled vampire.
He watched as Gregor approached him and braced. He knew what was coming.
"We must talk," Gregor said low when he got close.
"You're correct," Callum agreed. "Not now. When we return."
"This will happen fast," Gregor told him.
"My mate died yesterday regardless of the fact she didn't. She's wolf. We have not had but scant time alone. We're taking it and we're celebrating. When we return, we'll talk. And when I return, you'll show me The Prophesies," Callum replied.
"Callum, we cannot ndash;"
Callum leaned into the vampire. "You'll show me The Prophesies," he growled.
Gregor pulled in a deep breath before he nodded.
Then he stated, "She's wolf and that explains her senses amongst other things but you know she has additional abilities."
"Her affinity with wildlife, her dreams," Callum confirmed.
"We must understand that," Gregor stated.
"First, she and I will," Callum told him.
"Callum, we're preparing for war," Gregor reminded him.
"I'm aware of that, far more than you since it's myself and my mate who will be in the thick of it, Gregor. And any warrior knows, prior to war and after it, you savor the beauty of life so you always have close exactly what you're fighting for."
Gregor held his eyes then he inclined his head.
He turned and started to move away before he stopped and turned back.
"Thank you," he said softly.
"For what?" Callum asked.
Gregor stared into Callum's eyes.
"Making her happy."
Then, in a blink, the vampire was gone.
"Jesus," Callum muttered to the space where Gregor disappeared.
He heard Sonia's giggle.
His mood shifted and he grinned.
Then he bellowed, "Sonia! Wolf! Get your ass out here!"
"Patience, wolf!" he heard his bride bellow back and his grin turned into a wide, white smile.
* * * * *
The fire in the cabin's grate roaring, Callum, flat on his back on the couch, heard the door to the bathroom open and his wife's feet padding on the floors
His eyes caught her as she rounded the end of the couch and walked to him, hair in a towel, body encased in a short robe.
He moved only his hands to settle on her h*ps as she moved over him to settle astride him.
She leaned down, her face irritated, and she rested her forearms in his chest.
"Guess what," she ordered.
"What?" he asked, fighting a grin, knowing from her disgruntled tone and the times they'd been through this before exactly what.
She lifted one hand away, jerked at the towel and her dark, wet hair tumbled around her face and shoulders. "Project So Much Bleach Marilyn Monroe Would Balk was a failure. Wolf hair is immune to peroxide," she announced.
His hands slid up her sides, drawing her closer as they did and his lips twitched. "Baby doll, this has now been proved five times."
"You want me blonde," she pointed out.
He did. He missed her golden hair. The mahogany was beautiful but he fell in love with a blonde.
"With time, I'll get used to it," he muttered.
"How much time, a century? Three?" she asked, still disgruntled.
"Maybe four," he answered while fighting his grin.
She glared at him then her glare melted as her body melted into his and she whispered like she still couldn't wrap her mind around it but it made her blissfully happy all the same, "Maybe four. I have four centuries with you and more."
His arms circled her. "Yes, my little one, four centuries and more," his arms gave her a squeeze, "and about the time we hit four, we'll be ready to start a family."
Her eyes flashed, the brown spiking out to obliterate the green.
Perfect. She was getting angry.
That meant a tussle.
Which meant that tussle would end phenomenally.
His arms got tighter.
Suddenly, the brown receded and her hand slid up to curl around the side of his neck.
"You brought me home for our honeymoon," she said quietly and Callum felt his brows draw together.
"Sorry, baby doll?"
She vaguely threw out a hand. "This has always been home to me," she explained. "My parent's cabin, our cabin. Where I brought you when I first met you even though I didn't know it was you. The only home, until you gave me the castle, that I ever knew. And you brought me here for our honeymoon." She bent even closer, brushed her mouth to his and whispered against his lips. "Perfect."
It was.
She was.
Everything was.
Apparently, they weren't going to tussle, they were going to do something else and Callum found he was fine with that.
He was again wrong.
"Can we run?" she asked, her thumb sweeping the thick stubble on his jaw.
He stared into her eyes. She was a fast learner, becoming quite adept at controlling her transformations. She loved the wood, nature, she loved running with him and they did it every night and some days besides, three weeks of it at their cabin.
And this made his look turn wolfish as his lips whispered, "Absolutely, little one. We can absolutely run."
* * * * *
He was lone wolf no more.
They were running, roaming, as wolves, he and Sonia.
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.
Finally, he turned, headed for home and he sensed her instant excitement.
He felt it too.
* * * * *
Sonia 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.
There was something familiar about it. Something beautiful. Something nostalgic. Something he f**king adored.
His human Sonia.
He was up on his hands, giving his h*ps 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 h*ps 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 f**king 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 cl**ax. 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 did with him, especially when he was f**king her.
He f**king loved it.
She did too.
Her legs spread even wider. Her ass tilted further. He dropped his head and saw its perfection. Not an ass marred with pinpricks 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.
* * * * *
Naked on their bed of pine needles, Callum on his back, Sonia on top of him, his mate moved. Shifting up, she pressed her temple to his and slid it through his hair, marking him.
He growled into her ear, rolled her to her back, him on top and did the same.
When done, he lifted his head and looked down at her in the moonlight.
"You know, you gave me another wedding band, another charm and a fabulous honeymoon for my wedding gifts and I've given you nothing but, wellhellip; me," she said softly.
"All I need is you," he replied just as softly and felt her already relaxed body melt under his as her arms grew tight around him.
"Okay then, how about, for your wedding present, I give you more of me and agree to wait fifty years before we start a family?" she suggested.
"Seventy-five," he countered, her head jerked slightly before he saw her eyes light and her mouth twitch.
"Deal, wolf," she whispered. "Seventy-five."
He grinned and dropped his head to touch his mouth to hers again.
He lifted his head and she shifted a hand and framed the side, her thumb moving to smooth his brow, his cheekbone, his jaw, her eyes watching.
Finally, they came to his. "You know I love you?" she asked.
"You know I love you?" he asked back by way of answer.
"With everything you are," she whispered.
He dipped his face to hers and murmured with feeling, "With everything I am, baby doll."
"And I you, my handsome wolf. With everything I am, with everything I'm meant to be and with eternity to be it in, that's a lot."
Callum grinned at his wife.
Then he shifted his head and again marked her temple.
His.
And, as he did it, she did the same.
Hers.
As it was.
As it always would be.
For eternity.
* * * * *
At that exact momenthellip; elsewherehellip;
Oh my God, they were hunting me.
Hunting me!
I ran, my breath ragged, a stitch cutting agony through my side, as I heard them getting closer. Closer.
Fast.
Too fast.
I was a girl and maybe not Jackie Joyner-Kersee but I wasn't out of shape. They'd gain but not that fast.
No way.
That didn't mean they weren't gaining that fast.
They were.
And I was terrified.
I turned into an alley, hoping in the darkness to lose them, and ran with everything I had left.
Straight to a dead end.
"Shit," I breathed, panting, turning, feeling them closing in on me.
Then there they were, on me as in on me. In the blink of an eye I was on my back, one of them pinning my body down with his on mine, one holding my arms down over my head, one my legs at my ankles while, I stared to the side in disbelief, two humongous, terrifying dogs circled, snarling and snapping their sharp, alarming teeth in my direction.
"Rip her throat out and have done with it," a voice coming from over my head bit out and my attention went back to the enormous man who was lying full on top of me, pressing the breath out of me and staring down at me in a way I didhellip; nothellip; like.
I tried to struggle but the hands at my wrists and ankles held so strong, it was preternatural how strong they were. I wasn't pinned. I was completely immobilized.
"In a minute," he grunted, his eyes not leaving mine. "Christ, smell her. Divine. Fuck me, absolutely f**king divine." His face changed to a look I liked even less and he finished, "First I'm going to feed."
"Are you insane?" a voice coming from my feet asked like he thought the dude holding me was, indeed, insane. In fact, very insane. At the same time, ugly, scary growls came from both of the dogs.
It seemed to me these were warnings but the guy on top of me was, apparently, insane because he ignored the warnings of the huge, vicious, snarling dogs. His head dipped toward me, slanted then his mouth was at my neck.
Oh shit. Oh shit!
This was definitely not good.
I belatedly opened my mouth to scream.
Not that first sound came out because, suddenly, I wasn't immobilized. Nothing was on me, nothing holding me down.
I still didn't move.
This was because something I couldn't see, and not only because it was dark but because it was happening sohellip; damnedhellip; fast, was whirling around me.
I would know what that was when sickening, warm gushes of blood spurted across my chest and neck about a half a second before I saw a canine head (with no body, mind) roll across the asphalt in front of me. More blood splashed the pavement beside me in a hideous surge and I heard the heinous noises of body after lifeless body thudding to the ground.
Then I was up, my own body swinging like it was flying through the air but I felt hands on me. A breeze was blowing through my hair, I was moving so fast, and then my back slammed against the brick wall of the building at the side of the alley.
I blinked, feeling the wall at my back but the intense, hard-muscled warmth of a body pressed to my front and before my eyes, a man.
A shock of black hair.
An intriguingly tilted set of eyes, the hue I couldn't make out in the dark but, shockingly, I could see one was a color that was light the other a color that was definitely dark.
Strong jutting jaw, sharp cheekbones, heavy brow.
The slash of an angry scar that went across his forehead, through his left eyebrow, disconnected then rejoined on his cheekbone to slide all the way down his face, curling around his jaw and disappearing.
I panted in his blood-stained face.
He stared, intense and frightening, into mine, his gaze, honest to God, like a touch.
I stopped panting because I stopped breathing.
His face came closer and my stomach clenched, my muscles tensed near to snapping, my chest burned but his head veered and he touched his temple to mine, slid it back, rubbing it through my hair.
I sucked in breath only to hold it again when his hands left my armpits. One to travel down my side and then curve to become an arm around my back holding me so strong, I was plastered to his front. One going up, over my shoulder and in to curl tight and freakishly warm around the side of my neck.
His chin dipped and I felt his lips at my ear.
"Mine," he growled in a deep, guttural, forceful way that even I, who had no clue what was happening, I just knew I didn't like it onehellip; singlehellip; bit, agreed.
When he said "mine", he meant me.
Uh-oh.
* * * * *
Lucien stood in the alleyway with Gregor who had summoned him.
They both stared at the smoldering remains of three vampires and the blood and gore of the beheaded corpses of two violently mutilated wolves still in wolf form.
He felt Gregor's eyes on him and he cut his to the vampire.
"Five against one," Gregor noted.
Two immortals could do that.
Lucien and Callum, King of the Werewolves.
Now, the third.
"I'm thinking the third set of lifemates have been found," Gregor went on to mutter drolly.
Lucien cursed and pulled out his phone. He hit one button and put it to his ear.
Four rings later, he heard a wolf growl, "This better be good to interrupt my honeymoon."
"The third lifemates have met."
"Fuck," Callum grunted.
"My thought exactly," Lucien concurred.
There was silence from Callum then he remarked, "My wife and I have had a good night. I'd like her to enjoy the rest of it as I intend to enjoy the rest of it with her. We'll be on a plane tomorrow."
"I'm sorry, Callum," Lucien murmured.
"It's begun, therefore it's closer to done," Callum replied.
"Indeed," Lucien muttered.
"We'll taste victory," Callum told him.
"We f**king will," Lucien agreed.
"Tomorrow," Callum stated.
"Tomorrow, Callum."
He heard Callum disconnect and he slid his phone back in the inside pocket of his leather jacket.
His dark eyes again surveyed the carnage.
Then, without another look at Gregor or any of the other members of The Vampire Council on the scene, he turned away and strode to his Porsche so he could leave the slaughter behind, for now, and get home to his bride.
It had begun.
They had very little time
So he and Leah were going to f**king enjoy what little they had.
