All of this leaving her feeling pampered, desired, protected and adored.
* * * * *
But Sonia spent her days steadfastly guarding her heart against a king who apparently wanted his queen to believe she was much desired, much adored, definitely pampered and even cherished.
Which meant that Sonia had to guard her heart with a growing ferocity that, the longer she did it, the more the bitterness built.
Chapter Thirteen
Party
“Callum, this is Jay and Jo, my neighbors from down the street, and their boys Jed and Jake,” Sonia introduced Callum to the family who’d just arrived at her Christmas Party. “Guys, I’d like you to meet my new husband, Callum.”
Callum heard Jo gasp and saw Jay’s eyes grow wide in shock and this was about the same reaction as everyone had when they met him.
His fingers, resting at Sonia’s hip, tensed reflexively.
Even though it was a human word that meant little to him as it meant little to many humans, he f**king loved it when Sonia called him “husband”.
And tonight she’d been doing that a great deal.
The family recovered from their surprise and the man thrust his hand out to shake Callum’s.
“We’re the ‘J’ family,” he announced. Then, strangely, to Callum’s way of thinking (but many things humans did Callum thought were strange), removed himself from the family legacy his wife clearly created by declaring with practiced embarrassment. “It was Jo’s idea.”
Callum’s eyes went to Jo. “It’s a good idea. My mother had the same. My brothers’ names are Calder, Caleb and Calvin.”
Sonia’s body stiffened beside him which he completely ignored. She did this often for reasons sometimes unknown, sometimes she’d tell him. He had decided in the three weeks he’d known her that if it was important, she’d tell him which she didn’t have the least problem doing. The other times weren’t worth concerning himself with.
“You’re the ‘Cal’ family,” Jo declared brightly, giving her husband an annoyed nudge with her elbow.
“We are,” Callum stated proudly.
“Jed, Jake, your presents are under the tree,” Sonia said, her eyes fond on the two young lads. “Go and –”
She didn’t finish. The boys raced to the tree, both of them ending their dash dropping to their knees on a skid.
“They love your presents best every year,” Jo confided and Callum turned back to see she’d leaned toward Sonia. “It’s giving me a complex,” she added jokingly.
That night Callum learned many people loved Sonia’s presents best every year. Indeed that night Callum learned Sonia gave everyone presents they loved best every year. He’d never seen anything like her casual generosity.
Another in a myriad of ways he’d found in the three weeks he’d had his queen that she was absolutely, f**king perfect.
“Um, it wasn’t my skateboards I saw them racing each other on, fruitlessly I might add, through the snow on the sidewalks on Christmas day last year,” Sonia replied on a smile.
“So!” Jay boomed, butting into the women’s conversation and glancing between the two of them. “This is unexpected, though we’ve seen a lot of activity at your house lately,” Jay informed them, eyes speculative, declaring openly his neighborly prying, something else humans did that mystified Callum. Wolves let other wolves be. If they wanted to share, which they usually did, they’d share. Uninvited inquisitiveness might get your throat torn out by another wolf’s teeth, a strong deterrent. “Married!” Jay continued. “That’s a big surprise. How did you two meet?”
Sonia tensed and opened her mouth to reply but, as usual that night, Callum got there before her.
“We didn’t meet. I saw her and thought she was the prettiest woman I’d ever laid eyes on. I grabbed her, carried her up to my cabin in the mountains and spent three days talking her into marrying me. She agreed, we did the deed and came back down the mountain.”
Callum liked this story.
He liked it because of the hilarious reactions of the humans.
“You… what?” Jay asked while Jo blinked at him, repeatedly and rapidly.
“He’s joking!” Sonia exclaimed, going directly into damage control, as usual that night after he told this tale, leaning into him and patting his stomach. Now her pats were much harder than they were at the beginning of the evening but they were still puny, as female human pats tended to be. Or likely male ones, for that matter, though Callum had never been patted by a male, nor would he ever be. “We’ve known each other forever,” she went on. “It almost feels like we knew each other since before we were born. I met him when I was seventeen. It’s been an off and on, long-distance relationship. I never knew it would come to this but when he surprisingly asked me, I said yes right away. We decided not to waste any more time so we eloped.”