With Everything I Am (71 page)

“I also can’t believe you’re on fucking birth control,” Callum went on.

Sonia’s body started and her eyes snapped to his.

“What?” she asked.

“Baby doll, don’t you think that’s something you should have told me?”

“I assumed you assumed I was taking care of it,” she replied.

“What I assumed was, when you weren’t feeling yourself because my
mother
and
your
guardian were conspiring to titrate you off that fucking poison so your wolf could come out, you were pregnant with my pup. So when you died, I thought our pup died with you.”

Sonia felt her face get soft as she moved into her husband and put her hand on his chest. “Cal, I’m so sorry. I thought you knew.”

“Ryon mentioned it in passing months ago but that doesn’t negate the fact
you
didn’t. I didn’t know you were wolf. You weren’t having regular human cycles. What the fuck was I supposed to think?”

Suddenly, Sonia felt her brows draw together. “How did this swing around to me?”

Callum scowled at her brows then into her eyes. “Baby doll,
you died in my arms.
This is not something I’ll forget
ever
and you can’t know this and won’t for fifty, one hundred, two hundred years but our forever is a long… fucking… time. With you, I’ll add, I thought I lost
our child.
”

“It wasn’t
me
conspiring to hide
my
wolf self,” she returned. “I didn’t even
know
I had one! And anyway, a husband and wife discuss when they’re going to start a family. If you wanted to start having pups, maybe you should have
talked to me
about it. I’ll admit, I made assumptions, wolf, but you did too.”

His scowl getting scarier, Callum leaned into her. “Don’t call me wolf when you’re pissed, wolf.”

“Don’t
you
call
me
wolf when you’re pissed, either,” she got up on her toes to get closer to his face and finished, “
wolf.
”

“Do you two want to quit arguing so we can get this done and maybe kill Gregor and, possibly, Yuri so you two can get on the plane and go on your honeymoon?” Ryon called from the door they’d exited and Sonia whirled to him.

“No one’s killing Gregor
or
Yuri,” she snapped.

“We’ll see about that,” Callum bit out as he stalked by her, grabbing her hand as he went and dragging her with him as he prowled back into his study where everyone, Regan, Gregor, Yuri, Lucien, Leah, Calder and Caleb were all waiting.

Sonia followed him but announced upon entry to the room, “By the way, wolf, I want to start having pups immediately.”

“Oh, Sonny, how exciting!”
Regan cried but Callum let her hand go, whirled on her and glowered at her.

“No fucking way. I’ve got you for eternity. I’m enjoying you for at least a hundred years before we introduce
more
mayhem into our lives.”

“Children aren’t mayhem,” Sonia retorted.

“Yes they are. You like your shoes, baby doll, and werewolf pups like
chewing.
”

Oh good goodness. She hadn’t thought of that.

She bit her lip. Callum’s eyes dropped to her mouth and his scowl got even
scarier.

“Stop being adorable,” he ordered.

Sonia quit biting her lip and exclaimed, “I’m not being adorable!”

“Jesus, are you two serious?” Calder asked, sounding exasperated and Callum’s eyes sliced to him.

“Stay out of it, Calder,” he commanded.

“Brother, you forget,
me
and
everyone in this room
watched your mate die in your arms and
he,
” Calder swung a pointed finger at Gregor, “masterminded not only that scenario but Sonia enduring a fake disease and a tortuous treatment
her entire life.
”

“Yes,” Callum whispered sinisterly, his gaze moving to Gregor, his mind clearly back to the matter at hand, “let’s get back to that.”

Gregor, again cool as a cucumber, surveyed Callum. “If you take a breath and think on it a moment, Callum, you’ll understand, considering The Prophesies, the necessity for all of this.”

“How about you save us time and explain it,” Callum suggested in a way everyone in the room knew it wasn’t a suggestion.

Gregor drew in a breath not hiding the fact he was seeking patience.

Then he started, “Callum,” his eyes moved to Sonia, “Sonny, my dear, of The Three destined in The Prophesies, two of the mates are human. One, you,” he dipped his head to Sonia, “
are
not.” He looked back to Callum. “In order to communicate solidarity with humans through supernatural beings being mated with them, Sonia had to live the triangle.”

“More,” Callum growled when Gregor stopped speaking and Gregor sighed before his gaze went back to Sonia.

“Born of werewolf and human, lived a human life, and, I’m sorry, my dear, suffer for it, and
raised
by vampires in order to deliver you safely to a werewolf mate.
The triangle.”

To Sonia, this made sense. Considering the prophesied three sets of lifemates would save humanity from slavery (or, she hoped not, expire in their efforts), humans, who mostly didn’t know of werewolves or vampires, would need a strong statement to make them trust immortals. Not to mention, werewolves and vampires would need to trust humans as well and thus, as Gregor had explained earlier, all of the lifemates had to endure tribulations in order to prove their commitment to each other and, eventually, the cause.

“She is wolf, Callum, but your people accepted and loved her as human. They showed that when she was injured and they showed it in the short time they thought she passed yesterday by instantly shifting into widespread mourning,” Gregor explained to Callum and looked back at Sonia. His voice dipped low and there was deep, unmistakable emotion threading though it when he told her, “This was not easy. It wasn’t easy for Regan.
For Mac.
For your parents.
For me and Yuri.
We did not suffer as you did, Sonny, but we suffered. We hated it, every moment and, my dear, in comparison with our
lives,
yours has been short but, trust me, making you endure what you endured all of your short life felt like an eternity.”

Sonia felt her face get soft as she felt some of the anger sift out of the room but Callum wasn’t finished being livid.

“Now that you’ve explained that, can you explain why you didn’t tell me, at least, so perhaps, even if I couldn’t have talked to my mate about it, I would maybe have been able to do something,
fucking anything,
to make it easier on my
wife?
”

“It’s obvious,” Gregor returned.

“What’s obvious is
,
she’s my mate. I would accept her however she came to me. It’s the wolf way,” Callum fired back.

“Humans, as you know, are not wolves,” Gregor retorted.

“Please, do not try my patience further by telling me things I already know,” Callum
warned,
his tone deadly.

“You had to accept her as human, too, Callum,” Gregor told him.
“Her frailties.
The understanding of her life being short.
Your love for her as human and demonstrated with such ferocity was essential. You went so far as to go against all your instincts as a werewolf and allow a vampire to feed from your mate in an effort to ease her pain. If you knew, this trial you had to best would not have been bested. Wolves, vampires, all immortals would understand you would love her however she came to you but humans needed that statement to be made and I’m sure we’ll all agree it was a compelling one.”

Sonia heard Callum draw a sharp, annoyed breath in through his nose.

He understood. He didn’t like it but he understood.

“All of it,” Regan put in and everyone looked to her but she was looking at Sonia, “was carefully planned from well before your parents died.” Her eyes moved to Lucien and Leah. “Once your situation… well,
commenced,
we put into action our plan.” She looked at her son. “As The Prophesies foretold, Lucien and Leah had to be mated then you and Sonia had to find each other.” Again, her eyes went to Sonia. “Wolf children, as you know, sweetheart, age far slower than humans do and part of giving you that injection was to force your aging process to accelerate to a human one so that you and Callum could find each other at the right time. If not, right now, by wolf age, you’d be just over seven human years old. Instead, you’re an adult female and thus could be mated to your king.”

“Now that I’m not taking the injection, is my aging going to slow again?” Sonia asked and Regan shook her head.

“No, you’re locked here, Sonny. Your development has stopped as it would naturally around this age as wolf. Unfortunately, however, you now must learn how to be wolf but,” she smiled, “not woman.”

 
This was true. Yesterday, her wedding day of all days had started out wonderful but it ended not all that fun. She didn’t remember “dying” (fortunately) but she did remember waking and transforming almost immediately to wolf. It scared her silly and more, her wolf instincts to find her mate taking over and making her new body not at her mind’s command, scared her more. It got worse when she found Callum and couldn’t communicate with him nor did she know how to turn back to human. It was pure luck and a huge amount of desire that made her able to do it.

Callum had told her that morning before they had their confrontation with the family that he’d work with her, teach her, they’d transform together and he’d take her out running.

She was looking forward to that.

She was also looking forward to being her age for eternity. That was far from a bad thing, never growing old, never getting wrinkled and gray but best of all, her husband not having to watch her do it.

“Why did she die?” Lucien asked and Sonia focused her attention on the vampire because she thought his was a very good question.

“She didn’t. Her human did,” Yuri stated.

“Explain that,” Lucien ordered and Yuri’s jaw got tight at the command.

Then he looked to Sonia. “You know, of course, that wolf DNA is dominant.”

She nodded.

Yuri went on, “That does not mean you don’t have your mother’s DNA as well. It’s latent and when the wolf DNA was suppressed, as explained, it came to the fore. Regan and Father have been
titrating
you off the medication now for weeks, the actual dose smaller and smaller even if the injection was the same amount, the rest was taken with vitamins and hormones that would not alter or harm you. You didn’t actually die since you cannot die as an immortal. However, your body did shut down to finalize the change.” He looked to Callum. “We also knew this would happen. It was explained by the physicians who created the injection, it was closely monitored and the ill-effects, which could have been worse, were calculated, controlled and monitored so they weren’t. Last, it was necessary, if difficult to witness and experience.”

“Difficult is not the word I’d use,” Callum gritted out and Sonia moved to him.

The instant she got close, he curled an arm around her shoulders and pulled her front deep into his side. She rested her hand on his stomach, wrapped her other arm around his back and pressed closer

“It was hideous, Callum, for all of us, not just you. Do you think it was easy keeping this from you?
From Sonny?”
Yuri asked.

“I would suspect it was easier keeping it from us than it was for us, living your lies,” Callum shot back and a muscle ticked in Yuri’s jaw, nonverbally
acceding
the point.

“It’s my understanding, Lassiter and Cherise Arlington were assassinated by the wolf rebellion,” Lucien stated at this point and a different feel came to the room, a feel Sonia decided was not good considering how tight Callum’s body became beside her. “Is that true?” he asked Gregor.

Again Gregor drew in breath before he admitted, “No. They were assassinated by vampires.”

“What?” Sonia breathed but no one answered her.

“My father,” Lucien clipped and Sonia felt her body jerk in surprise as her eyes shot to him.

She saw Leah’s face was knowing and angry and her eyes were also on her husband.

“Yes,” Gregor confirmed. “Etienne with a retinue of vampires and werewolves who disagreed with Lassiter’s efforts within the American Government to lay the groundwork for immortals and mortals to live peacefully with the knowledge of each other hunted Lassiter and Cherise and murdered them.”

Sonia’s heart squeezed.

“I do not believe this,” Lucien hissed and Sonia pressed closer to Callum because the vampire was angry, quietly but terrifyingly so.

“You know you mustn’t precipitate The Prophesies,” Gregor warned, to Sonia, confusingly. Then again, this entire turn of the conversation was confusing.

“Have the last lifemates been located?” Lucien returned.

“Not yet,” Gregor answered.

“I suggest you find them, Gregor. Talk to The Dominion,” his eyes cut to Callum, “you request an audience with the Oracles.”

“Done,” Callum grunted.

“This must play out as it’s intended to play out,” Regan hurriedly put in.

“Etienne,” Lucien stated then looked to Sonia and explained curtly, “my father,” he looked back to Regan, “harmed my mate, touched her, terrified her, sent her running from me and into what could have been danger or even death from her own
fucking dreams.
He murdered Sonia’s parents. And yet he runs free.” Finally, he looked to Gregor. “I have been patient, Gregor, as I promised I would be but I will warn you, my patience is running out.”

“Mine evaporated five minutes ago,” Callum declared and Sonia pressed even closer to her mate.

“The Prophesies state that, once the second lifemates meet, the third will be fast on their heels,” Gregor explained.

“Let’s hope that’s true,” Callum replied.

“So far, they all have been true,” Gregor retorted.

The room fell silent on this not altogether (though some of it was) happy news.

Regan broke it by asking, “Now that this unpleasant business is over, can we have a lovely meal, celebrate the bride and groom and then get them on a plane so they can enjoy their honeymoon?”