This annoyed him more because she didn’t use any endearments with Callum, even though he used them frequently with her. The only endearment she’d ever uttered was “wolf” and that was only when he was fucking her or playing with her.
He scowled at his brother and ordered, “Tell Sonia I’ll be back in a while.”
Caleb opened his mouth but Callum jerked his head to Ryon and walked directly to the entry, grabbed his coat and strode out the door.
Ryon was at his side within moments.
Callum didn’t speak for a block and a half.
“Cal, what the fuck?” Ryon asked with irritation.
“The vampires are hiding something,” Callum answered.
“What?”
“About Sonia, they’re hiding something.”
“That’s mad, Cal, they can’t –”
Callum stopped abruptly, turned to his cousin and asked, “Do you remember Miranda?”
Miranda was a she-wolf who had, regrettably, lost her mate. It had been centuries ago, Callum and Ryon were barely battle ready, much less battle worn and Ryon, who shared features with Miranda’s mate, had been her grief-stricken rebound. He’d not been virgin but she’d still initiated him to many aspects of play and she’d done it thoroughly. She missed her mate and she taught Ryon everything her mate had done to her and Ryon had been a grateful student and a willing replacement.
It was the first time either of them knew that the instinct to stay connected after play and into sleep was wolfish.
“What does she –?” Ryon started.
Callum cut him off, “Remember how she liked you to sleep with her?”
Ryon’s expression altered, it became roguish. He grinned and replied, “I remember a lot of things about Miranda. I still visit her from time to time.”
Losing patience, Callum resisted the urge to growl and yanked the conversation back on track. “Sleep, Ry, not play. Do you remember how she liked to sleep with you? On her belly, you over her, connected?”
Ryon kept grinning as well as missing the point. “She still likes that. One of my favorite parts about her, the reason I always go back.”
“Sonia likes it too,” Callum informed him tersely and Ryon’s grin died. “She likes it a good fucking deal.”
“You didn’t…” Ryon started. “You fucking didn’t…” he growled then spat, “Cal, she’s fucking tiny.”
“I know that,” Callum clipped. “I won’t go into how I initiated her to it but she likes it. Have you ever done that with a human?”
“In a sense but I’ve never slept like that,” Ryon bit back. “I’d fucking crush her.”
“Have you ever had a human play as rough as a wolf?” Callum pushed.
Ryon’s head jerked slightly in surprise at the question and he answered, “No.”
“Not even close?” Callum pressed.
“Not even close.”
“You ever play with a human as rough as you would with a wolf?” Callum persisted.
Ryon’s face grew dark with anger. “Please tell me –”
Callum got close. “She wants it that way, Ryon. She fucking loves it. You ever know a human, in your vast experience, who likes it like that?”
“That’s impossible, she couldn’t even take it.”
“She takes it, Ry,” Callum retorted. “She takes all of it.” Ryon’s eyebrows shot up at this shocking revelation. “And if I don’t give it to her, she begs me for it.”
“Jesus,” Ryon breathed, staring at Callum. “How lucky can you fucking get?”
Callum didn’t have time to share all the ways he was lucky to have Sonia, only some of them having to do with how she liked to play.
“That isn’t my point.”
“What’s your point?” Ryon asked.
“That’s not it, there’s more,” Callum informed him. “She’s got heightened senses. Not as heightened as a vampire or a wolf when he’s transformed but, as far as I can gather, it’s close to what a wolf has in human form.”
Ryon couldn’t hide his response, he reared back whispering, “You’re fucking joking.”
“I’m not and she’s hiding it and the vampires know about it. You ever experience anything like that with a human?”
“Never.”
“Sense it? Get the barest, fucking inkling of it?” Callum clipped.
“No, Cal, not ever.”
Callum looked away, hissing, “Fuck!”
He didn’t like what he was thinking but he couldn’t help thinking it primarily because it was the only thing that made sense.
Callum had decided to give Sonia her Christmas before he launched his offensive to quell the rebellion.
He did this for two reasons.
One, he and his men had made a significant effort to hide the extent of their intelligence, something Calder had taken over gathering (and doing a great job at it, as normal) from the rebel leaders. The rebellion thought they were still gathering information and planning their offensive. They had no idea Callum’s attack was coming. They had no idea Callum knew as much as he knew and therefore had planned as thoroughly as he’d planned. They had no idea that Callum knew that they were still amassing and planning their attack for after the New Year. Fuck, even Nikolas, one of their chiefs, Callum had asked to escort his queen and his mother to the mall (under the constant, hidden, guard of four other wolves who followed their every move, that was) in order to hide his knowledge at the depth of their infiltration. Callum spending time enjoying his Christmas with his new mate would make them think he lost focus or wasn’t taking them seriously and it would, he hoped, lull them into a sense of security.
And two, Sonia loved Christmas and Callum wanted Sonia to have her Christmas.
It was now the night before Christmas Eve. They were moving on the rebellion on Boxing Day.
There was a lot on his mind, including the fact that the rebels fought dirty and losses, on both sides, would likely be high.
He didn’t need this shit now.
His eyes came back to Ryon’s. “The minute this shit is over with the rebellion, I want you, personally, with no one knowing about it, to investigate Sonia’s disease. I want to know what it is. I want to know the incidence. I want to know what it does to her body. And I want to know exactly what’s in that fucking injection, how it works and how long she’s been taking it. If you have to torture her fucking doctor, do it, but get me what I want.”
“You don’t think Sonny –” Ryon started and it took everything Callum had to beat back the urge to strike at Ryon even thinking what he was going to say, much less saying it.
“Not a chance,” Callum gritted out. “Every night, I tell her it’s time to take her injection and every night I watch her eyes go blank. Sonia’s eyes are never blank but to hide her distress at her nightly agony, they go… fucking… blank. And every night I give her that injection and every night it’s like she’s dying in my arms and not in a quiet, pass behind the veil kind of way but in a tortured, agonizing kind of way. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It’s hideous. She wouldn’t do that to herself if she didn’t have to, no one would.”
“Then what are you thinking?” Ryon asked.
“She wouldn’t do it to herself,” Callum explained, “but a fucking vampire would do it to her.”
Ryon’s face went hard for he knew it was true.
Vampires could be ruthless.
“I don’t know what their game is or even if they’re playing it. But, if The Prophesies go down the way they’ve been foretold, then –” Callum stated.
Ryon cut him off. “I’ll investigate. Don’t jump to any conclusions before we know.”
Callum was a lucky wolf in many ways, not just having Sonia, but also a wise father, a loving mother, fiercely loyal brothers and Ryon, far more even-tempered and level-headed than Callum, as his advisor and friend.
Ryon got closer. “Lassiter wanted his daughter raised by them instead of us and you know why. Mac agreed and made the alleg
iance. And Cal, you know, Mac was no fool.”
Callum looked away, lifted his hand to his neck and gave it a squeeze.
His father was anything but a fool.
Then it hit him.
Callum dropped his arm and looked at his cousin. “Do you remember the conversation I had with Gregor that I told you about?”
“The info about Lucien?” Ryon asked.
Callum’s mouth went hard at the memory and bit out, “And the rest.”
Ryon nodded. “I remember.”
“Gregor doesn’t want to lose her, thinks of her as a daughter or at least he wanted me to believe that and he was pretty fucking convincing. Perhaps this injection isn’t for a deadly blood disease. Perhaps it isn’t for some nefarious reason, doing… whatever, to Sonia, my queen, a treachery against the alliance. Perhaps it’s vampiric. Perhaps they’ve concocted something that will lengthen her life.”
“Vampire saliva is pretty powerful but it doesn’t heighten senses,” Ryon commented.
“And humans don’t react to vampire saliva the way Sonia reacts to that injection. They aren’t injecting her with that, it’s something else. Wolves don’t need medicines and I can’t say I’ve a lot of experience with witnessing humans taking treatments but I can’t imagine their medicines regularly cause those kinds of reactions,” Callum’s gaze turned intense on his cousin. “When I say it’s bad, Ryon, I mean it’s bad.”
Ryon’s eyes flashed briefly before his thoughts turned and they gentled. “Poor Sonny.”
This was said with feeling, too much of it. More than would be offered to Ryon’s queen, even a member of his family. Callum again wondered at it at the same time he didn’t like it.
However, he’d have a word with his cousin later, after all of his problems were sorted.
“The minute we deal with this fucking situation in Mona’s territory, I’m taking Sonia to Scotland,” he announced.
“Of course.”
“I want any time she spends with Gregor or Yuri or any vampire monitored,” Callum ordered.
“It’s done.”
Then Callum said what he had to say so he could let it go and not leap out of his skin, into the wolf and tear Gregor and Yuri asunder the minute he walked back into Sonia’s house. This would cause an immortal incident which could tip the scales of The Prophesies far sooner than expected.
“I find out they’ve been doing that to her then deceiving her to doing it to herself for thirty-one years, I swear, Ry –”
Ryon cut him off yet again, stating fiercely, “You’ll have my teeth at your back.”
They held each other’s gazes for several long moments, Callum trying to decide if Ryon’s loyal declaration was for his benefit or Sonia’s.
Then Callum let it go and nodded.
“Fuck, I wish I could run,” he muttered curtly, turning back toward Sonia’s house. “It’s too long I’ve spent in this goddamned city.”
“You’ll be home soon,” Ryon replied, walking beside him. “And when you go, you’ll be taking back your queen.”
At least that was something to look forward to, so much so, Callum looked to his cousin and smiled.
Ryon returned his smile and stopped walking. Callum stopped with him.
“Speaking of your queen…” Ryon started and trailed off.
Callum automatically braced.
Ryon studied him a moment before asking, “Is everything okay with you two?”
Callum relaxed and grinned before stating, “Perfect.”
And they were perfect. Not just their play, which happened as frequently as he could manage and Sonia always greeted it with eagerness, but everything that was them was perfect.
They settled in a rhythm of life that pleased Callum very much.
He allowed her to go to Clear for two or three hours a day but kept her close any other time. Mostly in his lap, liking her near, liking her scent. The sound of her steady breathing. The sight of her elegant profile if he just twisted his neck to look at it. Her sweet ass snug in his lap, his chain within reach so he could toy with the charm she loved so much and he could have the physical reminder of their bond in his fingers.
She didn’t mind this, had settled into it nicely, in fact. As her reward, he often allowed her to do things around the house or go shopping with his mother or, if they were at the mansion, to wander freely so she could talk to and get to know her wolves. This last he’d noted, as Sonia was very sociable and sweet, she’d charmed the lot of them as Callum knew she would do.
She would often stiffen and inform him of what displeased her (or not, depending) but she was Sonia. That was her way.
They did not fight as they did in the beginning. She had clearly accepted her destiny, in fact, she’d embraced it.
Ryon’s eyebrows went up, taking Callum out of his thoughts when he enquired, “You’re certain?”
Callum turned fully to Ryon and demanded, “What are you driving at?”
Ryon blew out a sigh and noted, “Regardless of her heightened abilities, she’s still human.”
“Yes, Ry, she’s still human,” Callum remarked with strained patience.
“And female humans are not like she-wolves.”
“No, they aren’t.” Although Sonia, Callum thought, in many ways very much was.
“Cal,” Ryon went on patiently, “ours is a whole other world for her. A different culture, all of it but mostly the way a male is with his mate, what he expects of her. I’ve been watching Sonia, she’s settled quickly, too quickly. It’s strange for a human and it makes me uncomfortable.”
Callum felt his gut get tight. “What makes me uncomfortable is you watching her.”
Ryon’s body went visibly solid and his voice was threaded with angry affront when he whispered, “You insult me, my king.”
Callum studied his cousin then he reminded him, “She’s my mate.”
“Understood,” Ryon replied, “more than probably you know.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means we’ve grown up together, closer than brothers and I’ve wanted this for you for over three hundred years,” Ryon clipped. “And I don’t want you to fuck it up.”
Suddenly angry at Ryon’s unwelcome and unfathomable implication, Callum leaned in and declared, “I’m not fucking it up.”
Ryon pulled in an annoyed breath and explained, “Cal, she-wolves don’t hide their emotions. You know where you stand. They’re pissed, they come at you. They feel playful, they jump you. They need affection, they nuzzle you. They want something, they ask for it and you get it for them. Female humans are not like that. They communicate in a kind of… a kind of…” he hesitated before snapping out the word, “code that only they understand. Half the time, you’ll never have any fucking clue what’s going on in their heads. Female humans’ minds are like the answer to the meaning of life, impossible to decipher.”
“Sonia has no problems sharing what’s on her mind,” Callum informed his cousin, wondering, not for the first time, especially if this was true, why Ryon bothered with humans.
“You might think that but, with a female human, you’ll never know for sure,” Ryon retorted.
“That’s ridiculous,” Callum scoffed because it bloody well was.
“That’s human,” Ryon returned. “I know you haven’t enlightened her about the wolf within, which I understand and you know I agree she should be in the bosom of our people when that knowledge is shared. But, have you been instructing her?”
“In what?”
“In everything,” Ryon replied. “Jesus, Cal, it’s like moving to a new country but without the physical location changing. Everything is different. Our traditions, our personality traits, our behavior.” He threw his arm out in the direction of Sonia’s farmhouse. “That party, for instance. That is not a wolf party and, as delightful as her outfit is, that is not how wolves dress.” He came closer to Callum and dropped his voice lower. “Everything we are, she needs to understand. She may be experiencing
things that are confusing her, even alarming her, and she’d never let on. She’d just let them build and build until it either explodes or turns to resentment, against you, our people, her new life. Even the smallest thing, Callum, she might not understand. Female humans need communication, a lot of it. It’s fucking annoying but, trust me, you’re better off giving it to her than suffering the consequences.”
Callum stared at his cousin, disliking (intensely) what he was hearing but also smart enough to know Ryon knew what he was talking about. He’d spent a lot of time in female human company whereas Callum took what he wanted and moved on. He’d never played their games but he knew they had them.
And furthermore, this conversation, and Ryon’s coaching, went a long way to dispel his disquiet at Ryon’s attention to his mate.
“Fucking hell,” Callum finally muttered then yielded, “I’ll talk to her.”
“Smart,” Ryon nodded.
Callum sighed at adding yet another issue to the list he would have to sort.
Then they walked together back to Sonia’s house.
After they’d taken off their coats, Ryon made his way instantly to Caleb while Callum went to Sonia. She was standing amongst a group of her friends, listening and smiling and he approached her from behind.
He knew she knew he was there because he saw, nearly imperceptibly but it was there, her body grow tight before he was even close. Understanding it now, he’d likely notice these actions far more and he began cataloguing them.
He used his smile aimed at her friends to hide his unrest, came up to her from behind and slid an arm around her waist, placing his mouth at her ear.
“It’s time for your injection, baby doll,” he muttered in a voice for only Sonia to hear.
He was pleased he couldn’t see her eyes, even though he felt her body tense. Seeing her eyes go blank, night after night, was like dying a little death.
She turned to him, her gaze at his shoulder, and nodded, murmuring her apologies as he led her away, up the stairs, to the bathroom.
She waited obediently as he loaded the syringe.
When it was ready, she turned her back to him, one of his arms slid around her belly as he instructed gently, “Lift your skirt for me, little one.”