With Everything I Am(97)
Ryon’s eyebrows went up, taking Callum out of his thoughts when he enquired, “You’re certain?”
Callum turned fully to Ryon and demanded, “What are you driving at?”
Ryon blew out a sigh and noted, “Regardless of her heightened abilities, she’s still human.”
“Yes, Ry, she’s still human,” Callum remarked with strained patience.
“And female humans are not like she-wolves.”
“No, they aren’t.” Although Sonia, Callum thought, in many ways very much was.
“Cal,” Ryon went on patiently, “ours is a whole other world for her. A different culture, all of it but mostly the way a male is with his mate, what he expects of her. I’ve been watching Sonia, she’s settled quickly, too quickly. It’s strange for a human and it makes me uncomfortable.”
Callum felt his gut get tight. “What makes me uncomfortable is you watching her.”
Ryon’s body went visibly solid and his voice was threaded with angry affront when he whispered, “You insult me, my king.”
Callum studied his cousin then he reminded him, “She’s my mate.”
“Understood,” Ryon replied, “more than probably you know.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means we’ve grown up together, closer than brothers and I’ve wanted this for you for over three hundred years,” Ryon clipped. “And I don’t want you to fuck it up.”
Suddenly angry at Ryon’s unwelcome and unfathomable implication, Callum leaned in and declared, “I’m not fucking it up.”
Ryon pulled in an annoyed breath and explained, “Cal, she-wolves don’t hide their emotions. You know where you stand. They’re pissed, they come at you. They feel playful, they jump you. They need affection, they nuzzle you. They want something, they ask for it and you get it for them. Female humans are not like that. They communicate in a kind of… a kind of…” he hesitated before snapping out the word, “code that only they understand. Half the time, you’ll never have any fucking clue what’s going on in their heads. Female humans’ minds are like the answer to the meaning of life, impossible to decipher.”
“Sonia has no problems sharing what’s on her mind,” Callum informed his cousin, wondering, not for the first time, especially if this was true, why Ryon bothered with humans.
“You might think that but, with a female human, you’ll never know for sure,” Ryon retorted.
“That’s ridiculous,” Callum scoffed because it bloody well was.
“That’s human,” Ryon returned. “I know you haven’t enlightened her about the wolf within, which I understand and you know I agree she should be in the bosom of our people when that knowledge is shared. But, have you been instructing her?”
“In what?”
“In everything,” Ryon replied. “Jesus, Cal, it’s like moving to a new country but without the physical location changing. Everything is different. Our traditions, our personality traits, our behavior.” He threw his arm out in the direction of Sonia’s farmhouse. “That party, for instance. That is not a wolf party and, as delightful as her outfit is, that is not how wolves dress.” He came closer to Callum and dropped his voice lower. “Everything we are, she needs to understand. She may be experiencing things that are confusing her, even alarming her, and she’d never let on. She’d just let them build and build until it either explodes or turns to resentment, against you, our people, her new life. Even the smallest thing, Callum, she might not understand. Female humans need communication, a lot of it. It’s fucking annoying but, trust me, you’re better off giving it to her than suffering the consequences.”
Callum stared at his cousin, disliking (intensely) what he was hearing but also smart enough to know Ryon knew what he was talking about. He’d spent a lot of time in female human company whereas Callum took what he wanted and moved on. He’d never played their games but he knew they had them.
And furthermore, this conversation, and Ryon’s coaching, went a long way to dispel his disquiet at Ryon’s attention to his mate.
“Fucking hell,” Callum finally muttered then yielded, “I’ll talk to her.”
“Smart,” Ryon nodded.
Callum sighed at adding yet another issue to the list he would have to sort.
Then they walked together back to Sonia’s house.
After they’d taken off their coats, Ryon made his way instantly to Caleb while Callum went to Sonia. She was standing amongst a group of her friends, listening and smiling and he approached her from behind.