Her gaze moved to Callum who was watching her closely, the anger gone from his face replaced with something profoundly gentle.
“I know this is hard for you to take in but Callum and you have been linked through eternity, even before you both existed, even before you were cells in a womb,” Regan continued softly. “You’re destined for each other, connected to each other. It’s the way of our people. You’re lifemates and, Sonia, that’s a beautiful thing. Your mother and father were good friends to our people. They accepted us. They would have been so happy you were to be among us. So very happy. I promise you that, sweetheart.”
As Regan spoke, Sonia never took her eyes from Callum.
“I dreamed of you,” she whispered and watched as his body grew visibly taut. “Since I was a teenager, I dreamed of you.”
The others started moving away but neither she nor Callum moved a muscle.
Finally, he said softly, “You know me.”
“In my dreams, you’ve been coming to me for twenty years.”
“You know me,” he repeated.
Sonia nodded a jerky, frightened nod. “When I woke up the other day, I thought it was another dream.”
Vaguely she heard the backdoor close.
“Do you understand you’re mine?” he asked.
It was then that she did.
It sang through her soul. It made her feel whole again after being fragmented since a Christmas Eve thirty-one years ago.
No, it made her feel truly whole like she’d never felt in her life.
And, at the same exact time, it scared her senseless.
She swallowed.
Then she nodded again.
“You understand you’re my queen?”
“I’m scared,” she admitted freely. She had no idea why but she was scared. Of him, of the fact that his crazy stories were real, she was under threat, she belonged to him, his people were at war and she was their queen.
How did one even go about being a queen?
“I’ll take care of you,” he replied gently.
She gazed at him long moments before nodding again.
His body relaxed.
Then, his eyes golden and shimmering, he said quietly, “Come to your wolf, baby doll.”
On trembling limbs which were moving of their own accord, she scooted off the bed, rounded it and slowly walked to him.
When she was in reaching distance he snatched her roughly in his arms and held her close. She trembled in his embrace, terrified at the overwhelming uncertainty of her future.
He sensed it and promised again, “I’ll take care of you.”
She nodded, her cheek sliding against his chest.
He rubbed his temple against the top of her head then held her tight until the tremors slid away.
Finally, he asked, “Are you okay?”