He leaned down, brushed his mouth against hers and then knifed up, taking her with him.
She started to reach for her nightgown but with his hand in hers, he tugged her around the bed (yes, naked!) heading toward the bathroom.
“Callum,” she called, trying to yank away her hand. “You shower first, I’ll start packing.”
“We leave the clothes and food up here. I’ve people that see to the cabin. And we’re showering together,” he announced and her heart skidded to a halt as he pulled her in the bathroom, let her go and twisted immediately to the shower to turn on the taps.
“Um…” she began but gulped back whatever her next words were going to be when his hands came to her h*ps and he hauled her to his body.
“I know this is a lot and I know it’s fast,” he stated abruptly. “But, soon, you’ll be used to me, my body, the fact that I want you na**d in my bed every night and na**d in my shower every morning and na**d anytime you don’t have to wear clothes. So, it’s best that you start getting used to it now.”
She gawked at him.
How much worse could it get?
As suddenly as he grabbed her, he let her go and stepped into the shower, clearly having no time to waste.
She stared at him, clearly having no say in the matter.
With nothing for it because, she was learning quickly, when King Callum wanted something, King Callum got it, her hands went to the chain still hanging at her h*ps and she started twirling it around to find the clasp.
“What the f**k are you doing?” Callum bit out from the shower and her head jerked up.
“I’m taking this off before I shower,” she told him, her voice small in the face of his sudden anger.
He stepped right back out of the shower (getting water everywhere, incidentally), picked her up, put her in the shower and joined her, not hesitating in reaching for the shampoo.
“That’s a claiming chain, Sonia,” he informed her. “Once it’s put on, you never take it off.”
She blinked up at him as the water fell on her and asked stupidly, “What?”
He turned his attention from squirting shampoo in his big palm to her.
“It’s a claiming chain. You humans have wedding rings, my people have claiming chains.”
Her mouth dropped open.
She closed it.
His words repeated in her head and her mouth dropped open again.
Then she whispered, “You’re saying you married me this morning?”
He barely looked at her as he pivoted her out from under the spray and put himself in her place.
“Bound you to me, yes. For life. Same thing,” he replied distractedly, mind on other things, not just informing her of the usually joyous fact that that morning they’d essentially been wed.
She stood frozen and stared as he massaged the shampoo in his hair.
And she stood this way for a while.
He’d rinsed and, when he saw her standing there, his eyes narrowed.
Then he said, using a voice filled with strained patience, “Get a move on, honey. There’s things to do.”
She jolted out of her shocked stupor and automatically reached for her shampoo.
There were things to do.
Those things didn’t include Sonia having a moment to process the fact that in three days her life had been turned on its head.
She used to have a quiet life, working in a shop she loved, living in a farmhouse amongst neighbors who were good people. It wasn’t a great life. It was a lonely life. But there were moments of contentment and even happiness.
Now she was queen to an unknown people. She was the destined mate to a man she barely knew but she did know he didn’t want her. And she’d just, essentially, gotten married to him.
As that thing that curled up in her heart tightened and prepared to die, Sonia commenced showering, naked, with her husband, a man she met three days before and she wasn’t even certain she liked.
And she hurried through it.
Because he had things to do.
Chapter Nine
Duty
Callum pulled his SUV into the sweeping drive of The Territorial Mansion.
As he did he realized during the two and a half hour drive his mind was so focused on what was happening amongst his people, and what he had to do about it, both imminently and in the near future, he’d not said a word to Sonia.
He glanced toward her in the passenger seat and noted her eyes were studying the mansion with curiosity.
Fuck, she was pretty, sitting beside him, wearing an ice-blue thermal, a pale pink, quilted vest with a collar that framed the elegant line of her neck, a woolly pastel green scarf wrapped around that neck and dangling down the front and slightly faded jeans that rode low on her h*ps and cupped her ass brilliantly. He’d given her the tan leather, low-heeled boots his mother bought her that he’d kept outside in the truck and she’d chosen a belt that matched.
At the cabin, while he called Ryon and Caleb to brief them on what he wanted them to do prior to his arrival, he’d allowed her time to put on a light coat of makeup and dry her thick blonde hair so it fell in sleek, gleaming waves down her shoulders and back.
Examining her loveliness, the casual flair with which she wore her clothes, remembering their morning, knowing his chain hung about her hips, still hearing her heated cries and feeling her pulsating around his c**k with her uninhibited orgasm, Callum felt elated.
Today, his people were going to meet their queen.
And she was f**king perfect.
“We’re here,” he told her, slowing as they approached the wide-stepped entry to the mansion.
“Where’s…” she hesitated, still staring at the building, “here?”
“Territorial Mansion of the Western Territories of the Americas,” he replied absentmindedly. Then his thoughts moved from the pleasant ones of Sonia to the unpleasant ones of what he would soon be forced to do, not knowing his words would sound preposterous to her as, to him, they did not.
He knifed out of the car and to his vague displeasure saw she’d alighted without his assistance by the time he rounded the back to her side.
He looked up to the building and saw two of his warriors standing guard.
They appeared to be standing outside chatting as the Mansion, even though it had extensive walled gardens and its function was governmental, was ensconced within the city and open for passersby to see. Humans thought it housed a large, wealthy family with a goodly number of friends though the United States Government knew differently. But humans had no idea its purpose and therefore soldiers guarding the doors would seem unusual. When amongst humans, wolves did their utmost to appear “normal” and, because of that, the men, who were guards, looked like they were having a casual chat.