Wild and Free(173)
He usually righted her clothes before she recovered but her jeans were still low on her hips and his palms went to her bottom, fingers spanning her hips and his thumbs slid over the pinpricks exposed by her jeans. He was sitting by her thighs and he started talking as if to himself.
“I hate these,” he said softly. “Fucking hate them.”
She got tense (or, she should say, more tense) but he wasn’t done.
“But I should love them because they’re a part of you.”
Sonia pressed her lips together and closed her eyes tight.
She gave it a moment before she asked, “Can I get up and get my pain pills? My back is beginning to hurt.”
His fingers curled into the waistband of her jeans and he pulled them up before he offered, “I’ll get them, baby doll.”
He gave her the pills, helped her dress for bed (another nightgown, a miracle!) and he held her close when they were under the hides, acting like the devoted king to his injured queen.
They were in the same position as she woke up early that afternoon when he asked, “Would you like me to tell you more about my kind?”
She’d get Regan, Mara, Callista, Ryon and Caleb to do that.
She wanted nothing from him.
“The pills make me drowsy and they work pretty fast.” That wasn’t a lie. “I don’t want to miss anything.” That was a lie.
“All right, honey,” he murmured and went on to comment warmly, “You know, you’re taking this a lot better than I expected.”
She could have laughed.
She didn’t.
“You don’t know me very well,” she told him the truth for once.
His fingers slid into her hair and cupped the back of her head. “True, but everything I learn, I like.”
Liar, liar, liar, she thought but she just let out a fluttery, stupid sigh.
His fingers tensed against her scalp.
She prayed the pills would work their magic and, luckily, shortly after, they did.
* * * * *
The next week, Callum was patient mainly because Sonia was still feeling goodly amounts of pain which he took great care in assessing by often asking the soft, sweet, “How’re you doing, baby doll?”. He also demanded that he be the only one to clean, put ointment on and re-bandage her wounds. And, surprisingly, other than that, he gave her space to rest and heal.
Also, Callum gave her space because Gregor turned up since Regan told him Sonia had been injured.
Gregor gave her the whole, “Callum’s a big boy and doesn’t need you to protect him so you’ve no business throwing yourself in front of an angry werewolf even if you didn’t have any idea he was an angry werewolf,” lecture (although it didn’t go quite like that). Then Sonia gave him her, “So, you and your son are vampires?” interrogation (and that was exactly how she started it). Then it was done and Gregor settled in like he was going to stay a while. This was evidenced by him having a lot of luggage not Sonia being overly perceptive. This also made Callum’s patience slip a little bit but, for some reason, made Regan seem really happy.
Lucien and Leah left several days after the My Mate, The Werewolf Incident which Sonia found distressing as she’d grown fond of Leah very quickly and she liked being around them. There was something beautiful about the two of them. The way they looked at each other, acted toward each other. The quiet but obvious way they were just in love.
Normally, considering Sonia’s circumstances, this would be added torture but Sonia cared about Leah and she also started to like Lucien. He seemed the sort of man who deserved to be happy and he acted like the kind of man who’d waited a very long time to be so and appreciated it deeply now that he had it. Considering Leah told her that Lucien was older than Callum by four entire centuries, a long time for him was, literally, a long time.
Regan, Mara and Callista shared with both Sonia and Leah a good deal about werewolf nature, history, lore and just about anything else they could share because Mara, as ever, liked to talk. It was a fascinating culture with a rich history and they were proud of it (as they should be).
There was only one hiccup in the first week and that was close to the end of it.
Sonia was in bed reading and hadn’t switched out the light and settled in long before Callum came up. This was what she’d made a habit of doing, saying she was going to bed early because of pain and needing to rest, and, considering Callum didn’t know an awful lot about humans, he didn’t know any better. But Gregor gave her knowing looks and Regan gave her increasingly penetrating ones.
By the time she sensed him walking up, she couldn’t feign sleep as he’d know since the door was open and he’d see the light go out not to mention, he probably would hear her moving.