With Everything I Am (53 page)

Callum’s gaze narrowed on the vampire. “Sorry?”

“He’s hiding something about Sonia.” Callum tensed and Lucien went on, “When he was explaining things, I sensed it. I didn’t like it. After I read The Prophesies, I asked him about it and he told me neither you nor Sonia knew anything about The Prophesies. Later, I pressed him about it and he shared with me.”

Callum didn’t respond.

He knew about The Prophesies. He’d been told by Mac though for reasons he didn’t entirely understand and he didn’t fucking like, he’d never been allowed actually to
see
them.

Before he could react to the knowledge Lucien had, Lucien got closer and his voice dipped lower.

Then he said with unconcealed emotion, “I’m sorry, my friend.”

Callum felt that
feeling,
the one he reckoned was fear but this time it was piercing.

“Sorry for what?”

Lucien lifted a hand to grip Callum’s bicep as if in an effort at containment. “Sorry to tell you that The Prophesies state your mortal’s life will be a short one.”

Callum’s body jolted before it locked as this statement seared straight through his system.

Lucien went on quickly and quietly, his fingers holding fast. “The Prophesies are vague, simply stating her human life will be fleeting. I haven’t told Leah and I suggest you do the same with Sonia.”

“You lie,” Callum whispered.

“I don’t and why would I?” Lucien replied gently.

He wouldn’t. There was no reason. They were in this together.

He yanked his arm from Lucien’s grip and took a step back, recognizing that feeling
was
fear.

Definitely fear.

And alongside it ran a new, agonizing thread of pain.

“We’ll fight it,” Lucien vowed. It was a vow, no mistaking it from the vein of steel in the words. “I’d offer my services but Leah would hate it so I suggest you find a vampire to feed from her –”

“You’ve got to be joking,” Callum growled at the very idea of a vampire feeding from his queen.

First, she was his fucking
queen
.

Second, she was
his
and no male would touch her for
any
reason.

Third, she was Sonia, not a meal.

And last, humans reportedly found the feeding of vampires a sensual experience.
A
highly
sensual experience.
A sensual experience his sexually responsive mate was not going to have.

Ever.

“We can ask a female vampire,” Lucien proposed, reading Callum’s thoughts or perhaps understanding them for they’d be his own.

“It takes years of constant feeding for vampire saliva to work its magic,” Callum noted dismissively. “And you suggested we don’t
fucking have that.
”

“She’ll survive until the war begins, Callum,” Lucien returned. “We have time.”

“Not enough,” Callum bit out.

Not enough.

There had never been enough but now, evidently, there was even fucking
less
.

His senses sought her in his castle. Opening up and reaching out, he found her somewhere on the second floor. Her discourse indistinct but there was laughter in her tone and it cut through him like a blade.

“Callum,” Lucien murmured.

“You’ll excuse me,” Callum returned and didn’t wait for a response. He was already exiting the room.

“This is troubling news but we’ll fight it, Callum,” Lucien called after him and made his vow official. “I vow it.”

This didn’t make Callum feel better.

“Tell Sonia I had something to attend to,” he ordered. “I’ll be gone awhile and I don’t want her worried.”

Again, he didn’t wait for a response.

His skin was prickling and his blood was heating and he was finding it difficult to fight the urge to howl.

He walked out of the room into the entryway, down the hall to the backdoor. Tucking his wedding band into his pocket, at the backdoor he leapt to wolf and ran through the snow and into the wood, the only way he could soothe his ravaged thoughts.

Then he ran as wolf for hours in a failed effort to assuage the fear that had settled like a weight in his gut and the ache that tore at his heart.

When that didn’t work and night had fallen, he sat in the snow at the rise at the side of his castle, his eyes on the light that came from the windows of the room he shared with his mate and he howled his inconsolable fury at the moon.

Chapter Eighteen

Dreams

Callum walked as wolf into the room he shared with Sonia.

The fire was ebbing but it still danced light throughout the room.

Her eyes fluttered then opened, she spied him and whispered, “Hello Puppy.”

He sat by the bed watching her.

She grinned at him.

He continued watching her.

“Is my handsome wolf coming tonight?” she asked.

Callum growled, knowing he would be coming and she would be coming too, as hard as he could force her to do so.

Sonia blinked, slowly, dreamily knowing herself that his thoughts would come true.

Her eyes drifted closed but her hand fell out as if reaching toward him.

He moved forward, slid his muzzle along her fingers and in her sleep she smoothed her hand against him lovingly.

Tired of this type of affection and wanting a different kind, Callum turned from her and leapt to man.

As he approached the bed, her eyes fluttered open and focused on him.

Without a word, he slid the covers from her beautiful, naked body and without hesitation, he covered that body with his own.

He pulled the hides back over them.

“Hi,” she breathed.

Callum stared at her.

God, he loved her.

And he loved the fact that she loved him too.

And he loved the fact that she could express the enormity of that love in one, two letter word.

Therefore, he smiled.

Her arm wrapped around him as her other hand went up to touch his face. Her fingertips in his hair, her thumb glided along his brow then down over this cheekbone then down again along his bottom lip.

She watched her thumb and she did this as if fascinated.

Callum waited as she did this, also loving the feel of her memorizing his features like she did every time he came to her after he roamed.

However, he thought, as she did it, he should be memorizing hers for she would be gone from this earth long before he would.

She lifted her head from the pillow and placed her mouth against his, taking him from his thoughts. “Where have you been, my handsome wolf?”

Instead of answering, he glided his tongue along her lower lip.

Sonia shivered and opened her legs so his hips could fall through.

An invitation.

As ever, his greedy, little queen wanted his cock.

Then she wrapped him lovingly, protectively, in her limbs. As ever, her movements were an eloquent indication of her adoration of more than his cock, of all that was him.

At the reminder of this, Callum growled against her mouth.

She shivered again underneath him.

Then, his deep voice rough with approval, he said, “Always in heat, my little one.”

“Only for you,” she whispered, her breath catching, her heart racing, her skin warming, all without anything but his presence.

 
“What do you want?” he asked low, his hips pressing into hers, knowing, when he buried himself inside her, she’d be wet, slick,
ready
for him.

“You, inside me,” she answered.

“Just like that?” he teased.

“You’ve been gone a while,” she told him and arched her back. “I missed you.”

He felt his face gentle.

He knew she missed it when he was gone even if it was a minute but especially when it was hours while he roamed.

He knew it because he missed her just the same.

He knew he shouldn’t do it. He had so little time with her and he’d wish this time back when she was gone.

But he was wolf, he needed to roam.

Understanding her yearning for him in a way he was glad she’d never know just as he detested the fact that he carried that same yearning every moment and would hold onto it for eternity, he murmured softly, “Baby doll.”

She was done talking. He knew this too as she pressed her lips against his, tightened her limbs around his body, lifted her hips into his, dug her nails into the muscles of his back, and begged, “Please, my handsome wolf, fuck –”

He didn’t let her finish. He was done talking too.

His hips reared back, he heard her breath catch and he prepared to invade.

* * * * *

Sonia lay with her head on his shoulder, her fingers sifting lazily through the hair on his chest.

He loved it when she did that.

“You okay, little one?” His voice was still gruff from his orgasm and from other things besides.

He asked because he’d taken her hard, as usual, and she’d loved it, as usual.

But he didn’t want her to ache.

“Mm,” she murmured, her fingers tensing to drag her nails along his chest and her legs shifted against his, tangling with them, her body pressing closer, entwining with his.

Callum smiled.

She was okay.

She did this now, entwining her body with his, getting closer.

She did it often, now that she understood.

Now that she understood everything.

He thought he’d miss her before when she was gone.

Now these times were exquisite torture.

“Cal,” she called, her voice sounding like she sensed the turn of his thoughts.

“Yes, baby doll?”

Her hand flattened against his chest as if his skin could absorb it.

Or she could absorb something integral from his skin. Something she needed. Something she couldn’t exist without.

Then she whispered, “You know I love you, right?”

He closed his eyes before his arm about her tightened and his other hand came across his chest to slide into the soft, golden hair at the side of her head.

How could he ever not have fancied blondes?

Because, he knew, they were never
her
.

“I know, honey.”

“You’ll never forget?” she was still whispering.

His neck arched slightly but he forced his body to relax.

“I’ll never forget.”

She cuddled close and her hand slid across his chest to wrap around him tight. “I want you to promise to be happy but I don’t want you ever to forget.”

“I won’t forget.”

“Promise to be happy?”

Impossible.

“I promise.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“I love you, baby doll.”

“I know,” she said on a fluttering sigh and his chest got so tight, Callum found it hard to breathe.

* * * * *

They were running, roaming, as wolves, he and his mate.

Not Sonia.

A wolf.

She was fast and kept up with him, close to his right flank, where she always ran.

Callum took them deeper into the trees. They’d been running for hours. He could hear her pants. He knew he was pushing her. He knew what she wanted.

He kept pushing her, knowing the anticipation would be worth it.

How could he ever have imagined he’d feel content with a human queen?

Then again, he had no idea he was missing
this
.

Finally, he turned, headed for home and he sensed her instant excitement.

He felt it too.

* * * * *

She was beneath him, on her belly, her long, thick, mahogany hair spread across her back, obscuring her face, tangled with pine needles. Her sweet, musky wolf scent assaulted him, coming from her hair, her skin, between her legs.

But there was something familiar about it.
Something beautiful.
Something nostalgic.
Something he fucking
adored
.

He was up on his hands, giving his hips leverage to thrust into her wetness with savage brutality.

Her moans weren’t filled with pain but each one a temptation to take her harder.

So he did.

“Spread your legs wider,” he ordered.

She did as she was told.

“Tilt your ass, take all of me,” he commanded.

Again, she did as she was told and he drove inside her then ground his hips between her spread-eagled legs and her moan was so deep, he could feel it vibrating against the tip of his cock.

That felt so fucking good, Callum ground into her deeper and he knew he couldn’t take much more.

“Let go,” he demanded but she defied him, clenching her sex around his shaft in an effort to hold off her climax. He shifted his weight to one arm and twisted her dark hair around his fist, yanking it back, arching her neck and driving her further down on his cock. “Let go, wolf.”

He got off on calling her “wolf” as Sonia had done to him. He fucking
loved
it.

Her legs spread even wider. Her ass tilted further. He dropped his head and saw its perfection. Not an ass marred with pinpricks, a constant, hideous reminder of his old mate’s vulnerability and he felt a feeling of triumph so complete, the sight set him thrusting into her again.

Which was what she wanted.

“Harder, Cal,” she breathed her demand, her voice barely a whisper, even he could hardly make out the words. “Fuck me harder.”

He was losing control, his orgasm was coming and he knew it would be staggering.

With her, it always was.

The best he’d ever had.

“Goddamn it,
let go!
” he roared the instant her sex convulsed around his cock.

She lifted up on her own arms, propelling herself onto his shaft so intensely he feared he’d split her in two.

But she threw back her dark head, her hair flying over his hand still fisted in it, over his forearm, down her back and she howled her release.

He pulled out and surged back in, burying himself to the root one last time and then howled his own.

* * * * *

Callum woke with a start, still wolf, lying on his side in the snow under a pine tree.

The dream was still vivid. His skin under his fur heated not from his coat but from fucking the faceless, dark-headed, she-wolf.