“Yes,” Callum replied, Regan and Sonia tensed but Callum went on, “but I’ll get over it after fireworks and when I’m on a plane taking my bride on our honeymoon.”
Regan looked at Sonia and grinned.
Sonia grinned back.
Regan let Sonia go so she and Callum could walk through the door but Sonia turned back so she could aim her smile at Gregor.
She saw his eyes move to Callum’s back before they came again to her and he sighed.
Her smile got bigger.
Then she went with her groom to the dining room to feast with her family in celebration.
In other words, with abandon.
Like a wolf.
* * * * * *
Callum stood at the front door waiting for his bride to join him so he could take her into town, let their people see them healthy, happy and, for Sonia, alive and watch fireworks before he finally took her away to somewhere it would only be them for a good, long time.
He figured he had a wait since he could hear Sonia giggling with Leah, Kerry, Mabel, Mara, Callie, Regan and f**king Caleb and they were all doing it drunkenly.
Listening to their happiness and hilarity, he looked to his boots and grinned.
His wife was wolf and the sounds of her drunken cheerfulness, embracing all that she was, were far from unwelcome.
His head came up when he smelled vampire.
He watched as Gregor approached him and braced. He knew what was coming.
“We must talk,” Gregor said low when he got close.
“You’re correct,” Callum agreed. “Not now. When we return.”
“This will happen fast,” Gregor told him.
“My mate died yesterday regardless of the fact she didn’t. She’s wolf. We have not had but scant time alone. We’re taking it and we’re celebrating. When we return, we’ll talk. And when I return, you’ll show me The Prophesies,” Callum replied.
“Callum, we cannot –”
Callum leaned into the vampire. “You’ll show me The Prophesies,” he growled.
Gregor pulled in a deep breath before he nodded.
Then he stated, “She’s wolf and that explains her senses amongst other things but you know she has additional abilities.”
“Her affinity with wildlife, her dreams,” Callum confirmed.
“We must understand that,” Gregor stated.
“First, she and I will,” Callum told him.
“Callum, we’re preparing for war,” Gregor reminded him.
“I’m aware of that, far more than you since it’s myself and my mate who will be in the thick of it, Gregor. And any warrior knows, prior to war and after it, you savor the beauty of life so you always have close exactly what you’re fighting for.”
Gregor held his eyes then he inclined his head.
He turned and started to move away before he stopped and turned back.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“For what?” Callum asked.
Gregor stared into Callum’s eyes.
“Making her happy.”
Then, in a blink, the vampire was gone.
“Jesus,” Callum muttered to the space where Gregor disappeared.
He heard Sonia’s giggle.
His mood shifted and he grinned.
Then he bellowed, “Sonia! Wolf! Get your ass out here!”
“Patience, wolf!” he heard his bride bellow back and his grin turned into a wide, white smile.
* * * * *
The fire in the cabin’s grate roaring, Callum, flat on his back on the couch, heard the door to the bathroom open and his wife’s feet padding on the floors
His eyes caught her as she rounded the end of the couch and walked to him, hair in a towel, body encased in a short robe.
He moved only his hands to settle on her h*ps as she moved over him to settle astride him.
She leaned down, her face irritated, and she rested her forearms in his chest.
“Guess what,” she ordered.
“What?” he asked, fighting a grin, knowing from her disgruntled tone and the times they’d been through this before exactly what.
She lifted one hand away, jerked at the towel and her dark, wet hair tumbled around her face and shoulders. “Project So Much Bleach Marilyn Monroe Would Balk was a failure. Wolf hair is immune to peroxide,” she announced.
His hands slid up her sides, drawing her closer as they did and his lips twitched. “Baby doll, this has now been proved five times.”
“You want me blonde,” she pointed out.
He did. He missed her golden hair. The mahogany was beautiful but he fell in love with a blonde.
“With time, I’ll get used to it,” he muttered.
“How much time, a century? Three?” she asked, still disgruntled.
“Maybe four,” he answered while fighting his grin.
She glared at him then her glare melted as her body melted into his and she whispered like she still couldn’t wrap her mind around it but it made her blissfully happy all the same, “Maybe four. I have four centuries with you and more.”
His arms circled her. “Yes, my little one, four centuries and more,” his arms gave her a squeeze, “and about the time we hit four, we’ll be ready to start a family.”
Her eyes flashed, the brown spiking out to obliterate the green.
Perfect. She was getting angry.
That meant a tussle.
Which meant that tussle would end phenomenally.
His arms got tighter.
Suddenly, the brown receded and her hand slid up to curl around the side of his neck.
“You brought me home for our honeymoon,” she said quietly and Callum felt his brows draw together.
“Sorry, baby doll?”
She vaguely threw out a hand. “This has always been home to me,” she explained. “My parent’s cabin, our cabin. Where I brought you when I first met you even though I didn’t know it was you. The only home, until you gave me the castle, that I ever knew. And you brought me here for our honeymoon.” She bent even closer, brushed her mouth to his and whispered against his lips. “Perfect.”
It was.
She was.
Everything was.
Apparently, they weren’t going to tussle, they were going to do something else and Callum found he was fine with that.
He was again wrong.
“Can we run?” she asked, her thumb sweeping the thick stubble on his jaw.
He stared into her eyes. She was a fast learner, becoming quite adept at controlling her transformations. She loved the wood, nature, she loved running with him and they did it every night and some days besides, three weeks of it at their cabin.
An idea struck him.