“A mortal,” Gregor answered and Callum stopped short.
He turned and stared at the vampire. “You’re f**king joking.”
Gregor stopped too and regarded Callum. “I’m not.”
“Bloody hell,” Callum muttered, finding himself concerned for Lucien.
Vampires liked their laws, had lived under them for half a millennium and not mating with mortals was top on their list.
Lucien and his mate could be hunted, tortured and executed.
“Are they –?” he started but Gregor shook his head.
“Things became…” Gregor hesitated, “uncomfortable for a while. However, several members of The Council, including, obviously, myself, saw the wisdom of rescinding that particular edict. We were successful in convincing the others as well.”
Callum continued to study Gregor, keeping his face perfectly blank and his turbulent thoughts to himself.
It had begun. The Prophesies, or what he knew of them, were coming true.
Even the parts Callum had hoped would not.
Bloody hell.
“So the foundation of vampire culture has shifted,” Callum noted.
“It has indeed. Not only Lucien but all vampires are free to take mortal mates if they so choose.”
Callum’s jaw grew tight and he started walking again. Gregor fell in step by his side.
They rounded the block and kept walking together silently.
After some time, Gregor spoke again and, when he did so, he did it quietly.
“This means Yuri is free to take a mortal mate.”
Callum halted and turned instantly to the vampire, fighting the blinding fury that immediately started roiling inside him.
“Don’t say another word,” he warned.
“Callum, hear me out.”
“Absolutely f**king not.”
“Callum, hear me out,” Gregor repeated but Callum started walking again and Gregor again fell in step by his side.
“She’s my daughter,” Gregor stated.
Callum stopped once more and turned to the vampire. “She’s your ward.”
“She was my ward, thirty-one years ago. That’s a long time, Callum, nurturing a mortal, watching her grow up, putting Band-Aids on her skinned knees, arguing with her about eating peas and hoping you bought her the birthday present she wanted most of all.” Callum ground his teeth together, unaffected by the depths of Gregor’s heretofore unknown fondness for Sonia as Gregor finished, “Since then, she became my daughter.”
“And you’re saying you want me to renounce my queen, walk away from my f**king mate, so you can keep your daughter?” Callum bit out.
“I’m saying I don’t want her to die,” Gregor returned coolly. “Ever.”
Callum sucked in breath. He knew where this was going.
And he had no idea Gregor felt this deeply for Sonia but he didn’t disbelieve it. Gregor was not a warm male, not openly. But Sonia was a warm woman and it would be hard not to feel deeply for her, especially if you had thirty-one years of putting Band-Aids on her skinned knees and buying her birthday presents.