Then, slowly, it relaxed.
And, with it, so did Callum’s.
* * * * *
Callum woke several times in the night to check his mate and stoke the fire.
It wasn’t until a muted, gray dawn started slowly to sweep the sky that he woke her one last time.
Sonia mumbled sleepily that she was all right as she’d been doing all night.
But this time, she turned into him. Still on her belly, she pressed her soft body into the side of his hard one, rested her cheek on his pectoral and her arm stole across his stomach.
Her weight settled heavily into his and he knew she was asleep.
Callum also knew it would be all right.
For actions, especially when they were instinctive, for both humans and wolves, said a great deal more than words.
His hand gathered her hair in one fist, he twisted it until it was a long rope and then he coiled it around his palm and, he too, finally fell asleep.
For all of ten minutes because, soon, he’d learn, they were coming.
* * * * *
“Regan, the plan was agreed.”
Regan stared out the window at the dawn’s very early light, in fact, there was almost none and snapped into her mobile, “Well, I didn’t agree.”
“Yes,” Gregor returned calmly. “But Mac, Lassiter and I did.” He saved his winning point for last. “And so did Cherise.”
Regan knew that.
She knew it.
She shut her eyes tight.
“Gregor, they’re suffering,” she whispered. “Especially Sonny.”
She heard Gregor’s pained sigh before he replied softly, “They’re meant to, Regan. You know this has to be the way.”
“Why does it have to be them?” Regan cried.
“I don’t know, it just does,” Gregor answered in a way that stated eloquently he liked it about as much as Regan did then he finished, “Regan, you know, this isn’t just the way it has to be, it’s the only way.”
Regan was silent.
This silence, they both knew, was her agreement.
“Describe her wounds again,” Gregor demanded and Regan did as she was asked even though it was the third time she did then Gregor went on. “Tell me what Callum’s done to Titium.”
“Ordered Ryon and Caleb to incarcerate him and his men. They’ll all stand trial.”
“He has too much of Mac in him,” Gregor grunted and, despite her escalating sense of despair, Regan smiled.
Only Gregor, a vampire, would think Callum had too much Mac in him. By the wolf’s standard, Regan’s son was ruthless.
Though, not as ruthless as a vampire.