With Everything I Am(210)
Regan got closer and, even with Sonia curled in Callum’s arm, she shoved hers through Sonia’s.
“Are you angry at me, sweetheart?” she asked Sonia softly.
“Of course not, Regan,” Sonia answered softly and felt Callum’s arm tense around her as Regan pressed closer. “All of that wasn’t easy, on any of us. But now it’s over.”
They moved toward the door, Regan smiled at Sonia then leaned partly across her, her eyes lifting up to her son. “Are you angry at me, sweetheart?”
“Yes,” Callum replied, Regan and Sonia tensed but Callum went on, “but I’ll get over it after fireworks and when I’m on a plane taking my bride on our honeymoon.”
Regan looked at Sonia and grinned.
Sonia grinned back.
Regan let Sonia go so she and Callum could walk through the door but Sonia turned back so she could aim her smile at Gregor.
She saw his eyes move to Callum’s back before they came again to her and he sighed.
Her smile got bigger.
Then she went with her groom to the dining room to feast with her family in celebration.
In other words, with abandon.
Like a wolf.
* * * * * *
Callum stood at the front door waiting for his bride to join him so he could take her into town, let their people see them healthy, happy and, for Sonia, alive and watch fireworks before he finally took her away to somewhere it would only be them for a good, long time.
He figured he had a wait since he could hear Sonia giggling with Leah, Kerry, Mabel, Mara, Callie, Regan and fucking Caleb and they were all doing it drunkenly.
Listening to their happiness and hilarity, he looked to his boots and grinned.
His wife was wolf and the sounds of her drunken cheerfulness, embracing all that she was, were far from unwelcome.
His head came up when he smelled vampire.
He watched as Gregor approached him and braced. He knew what was coming.
“We must talk,” Gregor said low when he got close.
“You’re correct,” Callum agreed. “Not now. When we return.”
“This will happen fast,” Gregor told him.
“My mate died yesterday regardless of the fact she didn’t. She’s wolf. We have not had but scant time alone. We’re taking it and we’re celebrating. When we return, we’ll talk. And when I return, you’ll show me The Prophesies,” Callum replied.
“Callum, we cannot –”
Callum leaned into the vampire. “You’ll show me The Prophesies,” he growled.
Gregor pulled in a deep breath before he nodded.
Then he stated, “She’s wolf and that explains her senses amongst other things but you know she has additional abilities.”
“Her affinity with wildlife, her dreams,” Callum confirmed.
“We must understand that,” Gregor stated.
“First, she and I will,” Callum told him.
“Callum, we’re preparing for war,” Gregor reminded him.
“I’m aware of that, far more than you since it’s myself and my mate who will be in the thick of it, Gregor. And any warrior knows, prior to war and after it, you savor the beauty of life so you always have close exactly what you’re fighting for.”
Gregor held his eyes then he inclined his head.
He turned and started to move away before he stopped and turned back.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“For what?” Callum asked.
Gregor stared into Callum’s eyes.
“Making her happy.”
Then, in a blink, the vampire was gone.
“Jesus,” Callum muttered to the space where Gregor disappeared.
He heard Sonia’s giggle.
His mood shifted and he grinned.
Then he bellowed, “Sonia! Wolf! Get your ass out here!”
“Patience, wolf!” he heard his bride bellow back and his grin turned into a wide, white smile.
* * * * *
The fire in the cabin’s grate roaring, Callum, flat on his back on the couch, heard the door to the bathroom open and his wife’s feet padding on the floors
His eyes caught her as she rounded the end of the couch and walked to him, hair in a towel, body encased in a short robe.
He moved only his hands to settle on her hips as she moved over him to settle astride him.
She leaned down, her face irritated, and she rested her forearms in his chest.
“Guess what,” she ordered.
“What?” he asked, fighting a grin, knowing from her disgruntled tone and the times they’d been through this before exactly what.
She lifted one hand away, jerked at the towel and her dark, wet hair tumbled around her face and shoulders. “Project So Much Bleach Marilyn Monroe Would Balk was a failure. Wolf hair is immune to peroxide,” she announced.
His hands slid up her sides, drawing her closer as they did and his lips twitched. “Baby doll, this has now been proved five times.”