“My daughter is not mad,” Titium declared, visibly working himself up. Still spoiling his daughter and she wasn’t even fucking there.
“She refused to seek her mate,” Callum returned.
“She was a little busy doing her duty for her king!” Titium shot back.
“Not very well,” Callum replied, Titium started to crouch and Callum warned, “You don’t want to do that. She’ll need you when she’s out.”
Titium’s eyes narrowed angrily and he snorted derisively, “You think you can best anyone.”
“That’s because I can,” Callum stated calmly.
Titium’s legs bent deeper. “You –”
“She’s unwell,” Sonia stated from behind them and Callum sensed, rather than saw, Sonia move their way.
That was when he sighed and only just stopped himself from rolling his eyes to the heavens.
After he found out what was in her head this time he was going to smack that sweet ass of hers until it was red for her latest inappropriate behavior.
For now she knew. Mara and Callista had been instructing her on royal protocol, not to mention he had told her on several occasions how she should behave. This might not be official but she knew to keep her mouth shut.
“Sonia, be quiet and stay where you are,” Callum ordered.
She defied him. He heard her boots coming closer as he smelled her scent getting sharper.
Surprisingly, Titium’s eyes moved to Sonia and his face gentled before he said, “My argument is not with you, little queen.”
“I know,” Sonia said softly, stopping wisely just out of arm’s reach of her mate. “But, I saw her, sir. She is not well.”
“She’s crazy as a fucking loon,” Caleb muttered and Sonia twisted.
“Quiet, Caleb, that isn’t helping,” she whispered.
“She is,” Caleb returned.
Sonia sucked in breath and turned back to Titium before resuming. “Callum didn’t want to do it but, you have to know, the results of her… um, lack of concentration were disastrous.”
“There are things you likely don’t know, little queen,” Titium told her.
“I know them.” She was still speaking softly but now her words were pained. “Please, come into the castle. We’ll sit down and talk. This doesn’t need to get heated.”
“It should have gotten heated centuries ago,” Titium replied, Sonia tensed as did Callum.
“Centuries –?” she whispered but Titium kept talking.
“He misused her,” Titium announced, his face hardening and his eyes moving back to Callum and Callum, in preparation, removed his own wedding band and slid it in his pocket with Sonia’s. “As he did many a she-wolf. Misused her knowing how she felt about him and he set her aside and didn’t look back. Not like she was daughter to a warrior but like she was nothing but a paid tart.”
“Enough,” Callum ordered as he felt Sonia’s tension intensify.
“Mac was a decent king, loyal to his mate, like the wolf,” Titium’s voice declared proudly before it turned snide. “You, with your sweet human, won’t last for more than –”
“Enough!” Callum thundered.
Titium started crouching and declared, “It’ll never be enough. Not until you’re brought low.”
“Don’t do this!” Sonia shouted, sensing the escalation, her panic palpable.
“I should have done it ages ago!” Titium shouted, definitely as mad as his daughter and just as adept at hiding it.
“Ry, get Sonia out of here!” Callum demanded as he watched Titium’s skin darken, the change was coming.
And then it happened.
Titium crouched, Callum following and Sonia screamed, “Don’t!”
Both wolves leapt as Sonia moved, faster than any human he’d seen, within a blink of an eye she was between them. Like she was when he was wolf and she was a child, throwing herself in front of him to protect him but this time stopping what would have been face-to-face.
But by the time she arrived, he was no longer there. He’d changed and, to avoid her, at the last second, he leaped over her head.
Titium’s reflexes weren’t as swift and he’d reached out a set of claws through the transformation in an effort at catching Callum unaware.
So by the time Callum landed on a skid at the foot of the steps and turned, Sonia was down, her body facing him. Titium was standing over her as wolf, panting and pawing the step beside her as if trying to help her.
Her head was up, her neck twisted and she was staring at Titium, mouth open in shock.
Then her head turned and Callum saw blood trickling from her temple where it had cracked against the steps and at the sight he growled.