Maraleena’s grin came back full force. “Uh. Yeah.” Her eyes gleamed, she leaned forward and whispered, “Definitely.” Then she went back to making the bed. “I’ve never spent a lot of time with humans but I know you don’t.” Then she finished on a mumbled, “Weird, that.”
Sonia smiled at the thought that someone would think the human’s way was weird.
Then again, to her people, it obviously was.
“Anyway,” Maraleena went on. “You have your bath. Cal says you should dress warm. I’ll bring up breakfast in a bit.”
“Can I have breakfast in the kitchen with you and Callista?” Sonia asked and Maraleena burst out laughing.
Through her laughter she said, “Sonny! You’re queen! You can do anything you want!”
Sonia really wished that was true.
Alas, it was not.
She took a nice, long, hot bath in the big, circular tub fragranced with bath salts Callum had given her for Christmas. She put on light makeup and blow dried her hair, absently acclimatizing herself to where to locate all of her things in her new surroundings as she did so.
But when she went to the wardrobe to decide on her outfit for the day she saw, with all her bags unpacked and all of her things put away, Regan had not packed a stitch of Sonia’s clothes.
She’d only packed the clothes Callum bought her.
Sonia searched through hangers, piles of sweaters and drawers for something from home, something that was hers.
Nothing.
That was likely an order of King Callum too!
Fuming, Sonia “dressed warm”, as Callum commanded her to do, in a pair of cords so dark brown they were nearly black. To this she added a wide, dark brown belt, low-heeled boots over thick socks and a bright-salmon, boat-necked sweater. The sweater was not one of Sonia’s colors but in the shop Regan had told her it was simply her and she had to buy it, so Sonia did.
She grabbed a long, thin but woolly, hot pink-colored knit scarf with fluffy dangling strands at the ends, wrapped it round and round her neck and let it hang down her front and then she stormed to the kitchen.
It was hard to keep fuming with Callista and Maraleena both so unceasingly cheerful and both so excited to share with Sonia the ways of their people.
And over a breakfast of porridge sweetened with what Callista called “golden syrup” (and it was delicious and it wasn’t huge and artery clogging), Sonia learned a lot.
For instance, she learned that when a man claimed his mate, he and his mate would hole up for weeks (even months) after the claiming, not to be seen or heard from until they emerged for the mating ceremony.
And she learned that once they emerged, they told everyone about everything as in everything about their claiming, down to the most intimate detail. Indeed, they’d do this often over the years trying to best each other’s claiming stories. And it wasn’t just the males who did it for both Maraleena and Callista shared theirs, in shocking detail (Sonia demurred, using being human as her excuse which luckily worked).
And she learned that the mating ceremony and ritual was like the humans’ wedding reception except they didn’t have any wedding dresses, tuxedos, champagne toasts, posed pictures or pre-arranged dancing. They went straight to what sounded like drunken debauchery with a big buffet of food that, as Callista assured her on a wink, “In the old days, dear, we don’t do that anymore,” led to the male actually mating with the female in front of everyone.
Now, apparently (and fortunately), at the end, the couple just stood (or swayed, depending how drunk they were) in front of everyone and restated the words, male: “Are you mine?” female: “Yes.” Then they went home with everyone shouting advice and encouragement and had sex again.
That was it!
“It’s a shame those rebel rascals had to spoil things for you and Cal. Ruined your whole claiming with their antics,” Callista muttered irately then added as an afterthought, “Oh, and the fact that he’s king.”
“What does that mean?” Sonia asked as she poured more coffee into all three of their mugs.
Callista gazed closely at Sonia, giving Sonia the (correct) impression that she hadn’t quite decided about her yet and replied, “Just that he’s like his father. Mac never rested on his laurels and Cal certainly doesn’t. Everyone knows no one could seize his rule. He’s the mightiest warrior in the kingdom. But there’s a great deal more to it and he takes it all seriously.”
“Like what?” Sonia asked, curious in spite of herself.
“Like a great deal, too much for now,” Callista answered but she did it on a genuine smile. “Now, dear, you need to get to your king.”