The doorbell rang three more times before the door was opened.
* * * * *
“Fucking hell, Cal, is that a wedding band?” Calder practically shouted at him from across the dining room table.
His family, and hers, had arrived bearing shopping bags stuffed full of even more presents. Everyone got a cup of coffee while Callum started a fire in the fireplace in the living room, Ryon started one in the dining room and Sonia turned on Christmas music. Then they had Christmas around Sonia’s downstairs tree before Sonia and Callum went upstairs and dressed in all new clothes. After that, Regan and Sonia made breakfast. It was Sonia’s recipe. Crepes filled with cream cheese sweetened and flavored with almonds and citrus, drenched in a sweet, slightly alcoholic citrus syrup and sprinkled with roasted almonds. His wife, he was pleased to note, when she had a mind to do it, could cook. It was fucking glorious.
Calder’s exclamation came after breakfast while everyone was still seated at the table.
Sonia was walking back into the room with full mugs of coffee for the both of them and she stopped dead at Calder’s words as everyone at the table, which was littered with their breakfast dishes, turned to look at Callum’s left hand.
“Yes,” Callum replied calmly, pushed his chair back and reached forward, snagging Sonia with an arm around her hips and pulling her to him at the same time he divested her of his mug of coffee.
“Our males don’t wear wedding bands,” Caleb declared, his eyes looking at the ring as if it was a rotting sinew wound around his finger.
“One of them does,” Callum returned firmly, carefully seating Sonia’s stiff body in his lap under the studiously remote gaze of Gregor and the openly annoyed gaze of Yuri as well as everyone else.
“For God’s sake, why?” Calder demanded to know.
“Because, this morning, for Christmas, Sonia gave it to me,” Callum answered.
“It’s not our way,” Caleb announced dismissively.
“Maybe not, but it’s our way,” Callum stated forcefully, making his point by drawing Sonia nearer and beginning to lose his patience as Sonia’s body didn’t lose its rigidity. “My mate is human. This is their symbol. It means something to Sonia therefore it means something to me.”
“But, what happens when –” Caleb started but Callum cut his brother off, knowing what he was going to say. Their males didn’t ever wear rings because they’d lose them if they needed to transform or the rings might do harm during the change to wolf.
“Caleb, let it go,” Callum ordered.
“But –” Caleb began again.
“Let it go,” Callum bit out.
Caleb snapped his mouth shut.
“You don’t have to wear it,” Sonia said quietly and Callum’s head twisted to look at her.
“Did you buy it to sit in a box?” Callum asked.
“Well…” she started hesitantly. “No.”
“You bought it because you wanted me to wear it,” he stated and she pulled in breath then nodded. “So I’m going to fucking wear it.” His gaze sliced through his brothers and he warned, “Not another word.”
Caleb and Calder both looked away.
Regan and Ryon both stared at Callum and Sonia and they were grinning broadly.
Gregor’s lips were twitching.
Yuri looked like he’d just drunk a mouthful of sour milk.
It was Yuri’s look that dissipated Callum’s temper and once he relaxed, Sonia relaxed against him.
“What’s going to be funny is,” Regan began, still smiling but now at Caleb and Calder, “when you two find your lifemates and you two find out what’s important and what’s not. Then we get to give you a hard time by reminding you of your behavior right about now.”
“Regan,” Callum cautioned, “the subject is closed.”
“I just want to declare the right to say ‘I told you so’ at a later date,” Regan shot back and Sonia emitted a soft, stifled laugh.
Callum decided that since the festive mood had been put on hold for a while, he might as well go with it and get what he had to do over with.
He looked at Ryon and informed him, “Sonia had a turn last night.”
Sonia got stiff in his arms again and murmured, “Callum.”
But Ryon was no longer smiling as he queried, “A turn?”
He said these two words at the same time Gregor said them and Yuri’s body grew visibly tight.
“That’s what her doctor called it,” Callum told them. “A turn.”
“Really, it isn’t necessary to alarm them. It wasn’t that bad,” Sonia put in and, at that, Callum’s head twisted to look at her again.