With Everything I Am (The Three #2)(142)

Without willing them to do so, his arms crushed her to him, forcing her body flat against his, her arms caught between them, her face coming up to rest against his neck.

All of his torment was lost in his current sense of triumph.

And he could tell her now he was wolf.

“Sonia, baby doll –”

She pressed her face against his neck and her body against his, “Please, Callum, please. Can I please just go to sleep? Please.”

He lifted a hand and trailed his fingers along her hairline, curling them in at her jaw to pull her hair away from her neck.

“Has it been bad tonight, missing your parents?” he asked quietly.

She pressed deeper into him and her fingers, like in his dream, tensed in his chest hair, her nails dragging through it. This caught at his memory, pulling up his guilt at f**king the she-wolf, glorying in her faultless ass, calling her by Sonia’s pet name for him as he ground into her, betraying his own mate even if it was only in his unconscious mind.

“Yes,” she whispered, “it’s been bad.”

It had been bad.

And he’d been gone, leaving her to face her sorrow alone while he selfishly, no, as she put it, kingly, focused on his own thoughts instead of protecting his mate.

“I’m sorry, little one. Of course you can go to sleep.”

She pressed even closer and said with feeling, “Thank you.”

He exited the bed, taking her with him and placing her under the hides. Then he took off his clothes and joined her there. He pulled her into his arms and she acted as if she’d resist at first before she relaxed then melted into him.

Then, surprisingly, considering she said she’d had so much trouble getting to sleep, she drifted off quickly.

And, with Sonia close, Callum could set his thoughts in order.

No, with Sonia close, his queen, his mate, who loved him, had loved him for decades but who he’d made fall in love with him on Christmas Eve (which would, forever, be his favorite f**king holiday), Callum could finally set his thoughts in order.

He had a victory celebration tomorrow.

Then he’d tell his wife he was wolf.

Then he’d give her a Mating and a f**king wedding because she was human and she deserved it but also because she loved him and he’d tie himself in knots to give her everything she desired for as long as she was breathing on this earth.

Then he’d talk with Lucien and Gregor in an effort to create a strategy on how to beat The Prophesy that said her life would be shortened.

In the meantime, he’d make every f**king moment count.

And the dream…

At first he thought it was Sonia’s dream, as Lucien said he had Leah’s and he could see how she fell in love with him if that was how she dreamed of them together. For, if he’d had that dream without knowing her, he’d have fallen in love with her too.

It was better than what they had an hour ago even if you told him that he wouldn’t have believed it.

It was what, he determined, they would have starting from now.

It was everything.

But it couldn’t be her dream, obviously.

So, it was just a dream.

Not foreshadowing of the future.

Sonia turned in his arms.

He followed her, tucking the back of her body into the front of his and wrapping his arms around her.

Unconsciously in her sleep, like she did after her injection, her hands slid along his forearms but this time the fingers of both laced with his.

His fingers tightened in hers and he smiled into her hair.

So deep in thought, he didn’t notice her left hand was bare.

He also hadn’t noticed her wedding rings sitting on her nightstand.

It took some time but finally Callum, with his queen wrapped safe in his arms, followed her to sleep.

* * * * *

“Wake up, honey, we have company and we’ve got a celebration to attend,” Callum whispered in her ear.

Sonia’s eyes fluttered. They focused hazily on him and he saw the hunger flow into them before she blinked, her body jerked and she got up on an arm, pulling the hides to her chest.

“Good goodness,” she breathed. “Leah and Lucien, I should…”

She trailed off and looked around the room as Callum stared at her, stunned by her behavior.

She always wanted play in the morning, even if she was sleepy.

“Sonia,” he called and she blinked again and looked at him sitting on the edge of the bed, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, fine, um… yes,” she stammered and then twisted so her back was to him, threw the hides aside and swung her legs off the bed.

She was heading to the bathroom when his eyes narrowed and his temper frayed.

“Sonia,” he repeated and she stopped and turned to him, clearly distracted.

“Yes?”

“Come here,” he ordered.

She stilled then asked, “What? Now?”

Callum’s temper frayed a little more.

This wasn’t, exactly, what he thought their lives would be like after she’d admitted she loved him.

And this wasn’t, at all, what he’d determined they’d be like which was what they were like in his dream.

“Yes,” he said evenly. “Now.”

She pulled breath into her nostrils and walked to him.

The minute she was within arm’s reach, he hooked an arm around her h*ps and pulled her into his lap.