With Everything I Am (The Three #2)(37)

“You know your brother’s tastes don’t tend to stray down Sonia’s way.”

“Even so, it’s nuts. Did you see her?”

“I saw her.”

“Ryon said Callum seemed impatient for the mating, wanted to get it over with so he could get on with taking down the rebellion,” Caleb went on and Sonia’s briefly buoyant heart lurched before Caleb mumbled, “Fuck me.”

“Caleb –”

“It was me, I wouldn’t be shitty I was forced to spend a week with that woman in a remote cabin explaining the ways of our culture to her. It was me and I was alone with her in a remote cabin, I’d draw it out so long, it’d take a year.”

“Well, it isn’t you,” Regan retorted firmly.

“No, it isn’t and a damned shame it isn’t.” He paused and went on sharply, “Not for me, Regan, for her. Woman like that? She deserves a man who wants her not the mate the oracles foretold would be his queen.”

Oh dear lord, Sonia thought as her lurching heart turned to stone.

“Perhaps he’ll grow an attraction to her,” Regan suggested.

“Oh, he’ll do his duty to his people, Mac made sure of that,” Caleb clipped. “The oracles said it was Sonia, Callum will mate with Sonia. The end. Every one of us expects to find the other half to our soul. Not Cal. Duty first, heart second.” There was a pause and then the kicker as a finish, “Maybe, if he’s lucky, as a human, she’ll understand his need to f**k around on her with his kind.”

Sonia sucked in breath.

“Caleb!” Regan snapped. “You don’t know he’ll do that. She’s his mate and –”

“It’s Callum we’re talking about, isn’t it?” Caleb returned sarcastically.

Sonia rested her forehead on the bathroom door.

“I’m not talking about this anymore,” Regan replied. “I’m going to go and get to know my soon-to-be daughter-in-law.”

“I’m gonna run,” Caleb returned irately.

“You do that, you need it,” Regan retorted.

Sonia turned her back to the door and slid down it until her bottom hit the floor. Then she rested her temple on her knee as she wound her arms around her calves.

Evidently, the cosmos wasn’t done with her.

So it gave her the handsome, charismatic king of a secret sect of eye-color-changing, slow-aging people as her destined mate.

But it also made it so that king didn’t want her.

And, apparently, he was a philanderer (even his brother said so!).

Somewhere in her heart at every moment she missed her mother and father.

It was only times like these when that slightly dulled ache grew and blossomed and twisted and reminded her how truly alone she was in the world.

Not that she often found, and lost, her dream man in the span of minutes.

But Sonia Arlington had lost a lot in her life.

This was just the last in long line of it.

And, unfortunately, she’d never gotten used to it.

* * * * *

Sonia was in the kitchen with Regan watching Callum arrange greenery and lights on the mantels of the fireplaces.

The Christmas decorations were Ryon’s idea.

After Sonia experienced her latest life trauma, she composed herself (she hoped), came out of the bathroom and she and Regan made breakfast for what Regan called “The Boys”. “The Boys”, Regan informed Sonia, were Calder and Caleb, Callum’s younger brothers, and Ryon, his cousin.

Regan was really nice, talky and chatty in a motherly way that was a little bit weird (okay, it was a lot weird) considering she looked like their sister.

Still, she took great pains letting Sonia know she was welcoming her into the bosom of her brood with open arms.

As they made huge, fluffy pancakes for the men, she told Sonia stories about her Momma and Papa which was the only nice thing that had happened in this mess, Regan knowing and having stories about Sonia’s parents. It was something Sonia hadn’t had for years and she appreciated greatly. Although Gregor was supposed to be their very best friend, he disliked talking about them and, eventually, Sonia stopped bringing them up.

When Sonia told Regan this, Regan’s mouth got tight in a way that made Sonia curious.

“What?” she asked Callum’s mother.

Regan slid the bacon around in the skillet with a fork and muttered, “It’s just…” She looked at Sonia with a carefully closed face and finished, “I’ve known Gregor too, for a long time. He didn’t get along with my husband.”

“Oh,” was all Sonia said because it was obvious Regan didn’t want to talk about it. As she wouldn’t, considering Gregor didn’t get along with her dead husband.

This was also not a surprise. Gregor didn’t get along with hardly anybody.

Callum, Ryon and Calder came back and Sonia heard it before Regan did.

She also heard who she would later know was Calder mutter before they walked into the house, “This is brilliant. Fuck her tonight, you can bring her down the mountain and we can stop dicking around with this shit.”

Sonia’s heart twisted.

There you go. More proof she was just a kingly duty for Callum.

“Jesus, Calder,” Ryon (she would recognize later) muttered back, his voice sounding annoyed.