“I’m uncertain of an allegiance with a man who’d leave his daughter unprotected,” Callum went on.
Callum watched something flash across Mac’s face and what he saw made him brace.
“It matters not,” his father said softly and when Callum opened his mouth to speak again Mac lifted a hand. “Senator Arlington was assassinated tonight. His wife with him.”
Callum’s head jerked toward the innocently sleeping child and he felt his gut clench painfully at the thought that she, especially she, would lose her mother and clearly beloved father on Christmas Eve.
“She was here for her safety,” Mac continued and Callum’s eyes cut back to him as he carried on, “You were here for it as well.”
“I –” Callum started, surprised at this announcement and getting pretty f**king tired of surprises.
Mac got closer. “It was a test.”
Callum’s jaw grew tight.
He had endured a fair few of his father’s tests in his very long life.
He watched Mac look back down at the girl with an infinitely gentle expression and he knew his father wasn’t finished.
He wasn’t wrong.
When Mac’s eyes came back to Callum, he went on, “As ever, you passed,” Callum watched his father smile and something oddly joyous shone in his eyes before he murmured, “And so did she.”
“Would you like to tell me what you’re on about?” Callum suggested.
Mac didn’t hesitate. “Tonight, my son, the connection has begun.”
Callum felt his body go solid before his eyes sliced down to the girl.
He looked again to his father, his voice coated in angry disbelief. “She’s human.”
Mac took in a breath through his nose, hesitated, opened his mouth, closed it then opened it again to say, “She is.”
“I can’t be connected to a human,” Callum clipped.
“The oracle has spoken,” his father declared.
Callum heard his brethren pull in shocked breaths.
Mac moved even closer and his voice grew lower when he asked, “You felt it?”
Bloody hell.
He felt it.
It was bigger than him, bigger than his brethren, bigger and more important than anything.
He’d die for her.
She was in a very important sense, his reason for being.
Hell, he’d even moved to protect her against his own father, a wolf he knew wouldn’t harm a living soul unless forced to do it.
“Fuck!” he bit out.
“She’ll be protected until the time is right,” Mac assured.
Callum narrowed his gaze on him and growled, “She bloody better be.”