He slid his fingers across her skin to touch her with his full hand and she didn’t cry out so he carefully gathered her into his arms and sat with her in the bed, his back to the headboard, Sonia cradled against him.
“I’m okay,” she whispered into his neck and at once his hand snaked out and snatched the phone.
“I’ll want to know why this happened,” Callum said into the phone.
“She’s better now?” Dr. Mortenson queried in response.
“I said, I’ll want to know why this happened,” Callum repeated.
Dr. Mortenson sighed. “Bodies are magnificent and terrible things, son. It could be Sonia’s built up a tolerance to the drug; she’s been using it for years. But there are changes in life and in your body all the time. She may be releasing more, or less, hormones. She may have suffered a shock that caused a physical response in her system which triggered a change in the efficacy of the drug. Even if she’s living under significantly higher amounts of stress and anxiety or depression, say the loss of a loved one, the body has physical manifestations to all of those and all of them will interact with the medication. I’ll want to do blood work and she’ll need two daily injections, morning and evening, until I’m happy with what I see.”
Fucking hell, now he had to give her two of those bloody injections?
And worse, Sonia had to take them?
“When can she come in for the tests?” he demanded to know.
“Anytime you want. Go to St. Vincent’s Hospital, give them my name. I’ll send the orders. They’ll draw up the blood. Is she peaceful now?”
Callum looked down at Sonia who had wrapped her arm around his body, her other hand was cocked between them resting on his chest, her cheek on her hand. Her eyes, though, were on him. They were troubled but not fevered and delirious.
“She’s peaceful.”
“Smart girl, teaching you to give her injection. Well done, son. We’ll meet soon, I hope. Merry Christmas.”
Then the bastard hung up on him.
Callum used all of his control not to throw the phone across the room. Instead he touched the button for off and slid it into its receiver.
Then he slid his fingers through Sonia’s hair, took in a deep breath to regain his composure and asked, “You okay, my little one?”
“Um… outside of being scared out of my mind?” she queried dryly. “Yes.”
He had no response to that so didn’t make one.
“What did Dr. Mortenson say?” she enquired.
“He wants tests,” Callum replied, deciding to share the happy news that she needed two injections per day later.
She nodded.
“He also said it was a smart that you taught me how to give an injection,” he teased with mock arrogance, wishing to lift the mood and soothe away the troubled look in his queen’s eyes. Giving her a wary squeeze of his arms, he went on, “It’s lucky you were so keen to do that, baby doll.”
“Shut up, Cal,” she muttered in mock annoyance, not able to hide her relief.
But he froze.
She’d called him Cal and she’d done it more than once.
Something about that made him want to howl with victory as if he’d won an epic battle.
Instead, he gave her another careful squeeze.
Her head tilted down and she snuggled closer.
Then she shared, “All my life, that’s been my greatest fear. All my life, I feared that would happen. When I didn’t take the injection as a teen, I had to crawl to the bathroom. It seemed to take forever, it probably did. I had to stop and breathe, over and over, to get control of my limbs again. It hurt so much.”
Callum so disliked her words he wished she’d stop talking but he kept this wish to himself.
“I’d always been so scared.” Her voice hitched as if she was fighting tears and he wanted to tip her face to his and comfort her but he let her go, sensing she needed to get this out but sensing more it was something he was going to want to hear.
He wasn’t wrong.
“You want to know what I feared the most?” she whispered brokenly.
“What, baby doll?” he asked quietly.
“That it would happen when I was alone,” she turned, lifted up and tucked her face into his neck while her other arm curled around him and she pressed to him tight. “I’m so happy I wasn’t alone.” She tilted her head back until her lips were at his jaw and she whispered, “You knew what to do. Thank you, my handsome wolf, for taking care of me.”
He felt like howling his victory at that moment too.
Again, he didn’t.
Instead, he tipped his head down and he kissed her, softly and tenderly, tasting the tears on her lips.
He broke the kiss but didn’t break the connection of their lips when he muttered, “Always, my little one.”
She closed her eyes tight and nodded.
He picked her up and walked to her guest bedroom, throwing back the covers, placing her in bed, joining her there, turning her to his body and pulling the covers over them.
“Um…” she muttered. “What are you doing?”
“The bed’s drenched, the towel –”
“Oh,” she mumbled before he finished.
“Sleep, baby doll, and when you wake up, it’ll be Christmas.”
She nodded, her head sliding on his chest.
He waited until her breath evened out which took some time and he wasn’t surprised. She’d been through an ordeal. Waking from sleep in the throes of it, she wouldn’t be eager to go back regardless of the fact that she drifted off quickly every night since the claiming.
For Callum, who only needed five hours of sleep a night normally, he sacrificed a few to lay alert for another episode.
And as he did so, he allowed his mind to process the fact that she called him “Cal”.
And he replayed, again and again, her voice whispering, “my handsome wolf”.
And when he finally allowed himself to join Sonia in sleep, regardless of their recent drama, he did it with a smile.
* * * * *
Callum’s fingers brushed Sonia’s hair away from her neck.
Then he leaned to her ear and said, “Wake up, honey. It’s Christmas.”
Her eyes fluttered but stayed closed. Then he watched her sniff and they opened.
She came up on an arm, her fingers clutching the covers to her br**sts and stared at the coffee mug in his hand.
She looked at him sitting beside her on the bed and breathed, her voice husky with sleep and surprise, “You made coffee?