But she grinned against his lips.
At her reaction, his h*ps started to move faster.
Her lips went to his ear and, beginning to pant, she breathed, “Mara also told me you’re known as ‘The Wolf’.”
His body stilled and at his reaction her head fell back to the pillows so she could gaze at him curiously.
“Sorry?” he asked, a different feeling seizing him.
He’d planned carefully with Regan and Ryon as advisors as to when to share the information with Sonia that his people were werewolves. Her reaction could be anything and Callum wanted to control it.
Werewolves were fantasy creatures to humans and not good ones. Vicious, murdering and abhorrent, something to be frightened of, the villain in a horror story.
Back in the day when wolves were less careful about who witnessed the transformation, humans had sometimes seen it. And, being humans, instead of trying to understand it, they feared it.
And hunted it.
Which was one of the reasons the rebellion they’d been fighting for millennia had remained so staunch in their beliefs that humans should be enslaved.
Sonia might fear what his people could do and unless he took the time to allow her to experience the fact that wolves were friendly, good-humored and kind, there was little doubt she would.
He also wanted their bond to strengthen. He felt confidence in their connection but this would be a shock. Callum wanted her life thoroughly entwined with his in a way she couldn’t imagine it without him, no matter what secrets and how great they were that he may hold.
Regan and Ryon had agreed to his plan and it was even Ryon’s suggestion to keep this knowledge from Sonia until she was securely inserted into their fold.
However, after their blowout, Callum had concerns about this plan.
Sonia seemed to prefer to understand what was happening to and around her. The longer he waited, the less it felt he was protecting her, the more it felt like a lie.
So much so, he’d begun to feel something he’d never experienced before. A twinge of something unpleasant. Almost as if he feared she’d discover his secret and consider his keeping it from her a betrayal.
Werewolves were half man. They weren’t immune to f**king up, say taking to too much gaming or drink. Though wolves never strayed. Infidelity to your mate was unheard of. Before you found your mate, finding play partners (and numerous of them) for both males and females was the norm. After you found your mate, never. Callum had known many a wolf to succumb to the weaknesses of drink and gambling and, in so doing, betray their mate through deceits. And, with a she-wolf, it was never pretty and it was often the female would never get over it.
Living an eternity paying for a betrayal was a daunting prospect.
Living an eternity expecting another one, he reckoned, would be far worse.
Callum didn’t want anything to mar the perfection of what he had with Sonia.
And he didn’t want her to think he’d betrayed her, not for an instant but especially not for the short time that represented her eternity.
He didn’t want this so much he actually thought that unpleasant feeling was that he feared it and fear was not something that he’d experienced before.
Further, he didn’t f**king like how it felt.
“Mara told me you’re known as ‘The Wolf’,” she repeated quietly, watching him closely.
“Honey –” he started.
She interrupted with, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I –” he began again but she lifted her mouth and pressed it to his at the same time she tilted her h*ps and he slid in deeper. Both felt so good, his word ended in a growl.
“I like wolves,” she whispered against his mouth and her hand put pressure in his hair. Her head tilted slightly to invite his kiss and her eyes turned hungry before she finished, “I like them a lot.”
Her enticement was nearly too much.
But the time had come. He had to tell her.
So, he said, “Baby doll –”
But she cut him off again, cut him off with the words that always shattered his control at the same time her sex clenched around his shaft, making her invitation a demand he couldn’t ignore.
“Fuck me, wolf.”
With another growl, Callum did as she asked, in three different positions, as hard and rough as both of them liked it.
It was so hard and rough and exhausting, by the time he forced her off her knees to her belly and settled between her widespread legs, his forearms tucked into her sides and his lips at her ear to whisper his secret, Sonia was fast asleep.
* * * * *
Two days later, Callum had still not found the appropriate time to explain things to Sonia.
The first day it was Sonia again who took his mind off his determination to share his secret.
After breakfast, as usual she wandered into his study. However this time she did it with a funny look on her face that Callum couldn’t quite read.
After their extensive play the night before, he’d left her arms that morning without waking her and started his day.
This was unusual. Since coming to the castle and giving her time to acclimatize, he’d usually wait for her to wake and he’d either take care of her or the both of them before he started his day.
However, he remembered her complaints of aching when he’d taken her “vigorously” when he brought her home and, as the night before had been nearly as vigorous, he’d decided she needed her rest.
It was also unusual when she walked to him and he turned his seat toward her to offer his lap that she didn’t immediately sit.
Instead she stopped, tilted her head to the side and stared at him, seemingly mesmerized.
“What is it?” he asked but her body gave a soft jerk at his words as if he’d woken her from a daydream.
She bit her lip, looking indecisive then she sank to her knees before him.
It was Callum’s turn to stare.
She put her hands to his knees and then she put pressure there to pull them apart.
Then, Callum watched, his c**k responding instantly, as her pretty head dropped and she nuzzled his crotch with her face.
“Fucking hell,” he breathed and she lifted up, pressed her front to his groin and placed her hands on his chest.
“You didn’t play with me this morning,” she accused quietly, her expression no longer unreadable but greedy.
Always in heat, his Sonia.
Clearly, the night before hadn’t been that vigorous.
Callum marked that knowledge in his mind and his fingers slid into her hair at the side to cup her head.
“No,” was all he had the capacity to say.