With Everything I Am

by Kristen Ashley

  “Dreams?” he used that word to persuade the vampire to go on.

  “I dream,” Leah put in. “They’re better now but, well…” she trailed off and looked up at her mate.

  “She dreams the future,” Lucien continued for her. “Vividly. So vividly the dream can take hold in real life to the point that what’s happening in her subconscious can happen to her physically.”

  “Curious,” Callum muttered and watched Lucien’s mouth tighten in irritation.

  “She dreamed of The Sentence,” he declared and at that it was Callum’s mouth that grew tight.

  The Sentence was what, centuries ago, vampires carried out against their own who had human mates who they refused to denounce. A ruthless verdict which included the vampire tied to a stake and set alight in front of the human so she could see her mate’s imminent death. Then the human was hung in front of the vampire so he could watch his mate swing before his own life was extinguished.

  At the thought of Lucien’s stunning mate dreaming that into reality, Callum bit out, “Christ.”

  At that, Lucien shared, “She nearly strangled by hanging while doing nothing but lying in bed.”

  Callum looked to Leah and murmured, with feeling, “I’m truly sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she whispered.

  But it wasn’t.

  He could see the memory of her fear hadn’t faded and Lucien was no longer blanking his reactions. This had shaken him and he showed it visibly.

  Another surprise for Callum and an indication of trust from Lucien.

  It was Lucien’s turn to change the subject. “She has other abilities.”

  Callum almost couldn’t control his reaction to another trait Lucien’s mate shared with his but he did it.

  “And those are?”

  “The most important one, considering The Prophesies,” Lucien answered, “She can sense danger.”

  Interesting, Callum thought.

  But he asked, “Heightened senses? Hearing, smell, sight?”

  “Not quite,” Lucien answered, watching him closely. Correctly, Callum knew, assuming from Callum’s earlier warning that Sonia had these gifts. “She simply can sense a threat in enough time to prepare should a situation be uncertain.”

  “That’s fortunate,” Callum remarked.

  “It’s more than fortunate,” Lucien returned. “And it would help matters greatly if all the prophesied lifemates shared these abilities.”

  Callum decided to ease both their minds and disclosed, “Sonia dreams. She’s done it all her life. She dreamed of me repeatedly years before she met me.” He glanced at Leah and then to Lucien. “Leah knows of my people?”

  Lucien nodded. “She knows.”

  This was surprising as well.

  Werewolves, unlike most of the other immortals, shared their secrets with humans. However only with those they trusted implicitly, for instance, if their mate was human or they’d formed a friendship bond with someone they could trust. They were far more careful of sharing about other immortal cultures. In fact it was rare if they did because all of them guarded their own secrets, as well as the knowledge of other immortal beings, obsessively.

  Vampires also interacted with humans, for obvious reasons, but did so under tight strictures until recently. As with other immortals, however, if a vampire shared the knowledge of other immortal races, the vampire and the human would be hunted and put to death.

  Simple as that.

  Cold-blooded.

  And, to Callum’s thinking, totally fucking insane.

  Callum jerked his chin at Leah before he continued, “Sonia met me as wolf when she was a child. She dreams of me as wolf too.”

  “Has she dreamed of danger?” Leah asked softly and Callum could thankfully shake his head.

  “No,” he replied.

  Leah leaned slightly toward him. “I think, and Lucien agrees, as he mentioned before that these dreams tell the future. They don’t tell what it is. They tell what it could be. For me, it was a warning which thankfully we were able to avoid. Now,” her smile grew partly fond but mostly intimate, “I dream of something else. For Sonia,” her smile changed, the intimacy left it and it became friendly, “well, obviously, she was dreaming of her future but,” Leah’s smile faded, “now that has occurred, they might become something else.”

  Callum’s teeth clenched as Lucien took up the conversation. “You should know, shortly after Leah and I connected, I started to have her dreams.”

  “Fucking hell,” Callum muttered but it wasn’t with displeasure.

  He’d fucking love to know what Sonia was dreaming when she dreamed of him.

  Lucien carried on, “It was vivid. It told a version of the future but it wasn’t connected to me in a physical way where it could harm me like Leah. It was just a further warning.”

  “This is good,” Callum declared.

  “It is,” Lucien concurred on a small smile. “But, we’ll need to monitor and share these dreams, obviously.”

  “Obviously,” Callum agreed.

  Leah turned to look at her mate and observed, “Sonia seems pretty settled here and it’s safe for her. Perhaps she’s had no need to exhibit abilities to sense danger.”

  “She has abilities,” Callum announced and both Leah and Lucien turned to him. “Not like yours,” he told Leah but carried on, “she has the sensory capabilities of wolf as human.”

  Callum heard Lucien pull in a breath.

  Leah just stared at him blankly so Callum explained, “Heightened hearing, sight and smell. She can also sense danger and, unfortunately, has had the opportunity to do so. But for Sonia, it’s more. As it’s nearly wolf, she has instincts. She can sense menace but she can also sense anything even if a presence is close but not a threat.”

  “Fucking excellent,” Lucien murmured for tactically it would be should The Prophesies unfold.

  “I’m not done.” The thread of pride veined his voice when Callum continued by telling them what he’d learned on the several hikes he’d taken with his queen. “Sonia has an affinity with wildlife. She thinks it’s just animals but its more. She’s at her most comfortable in natural surroundings. The animals sense her but find her no threat. Some even move to get closer to her. I reckon, if she developed this, she could call them to her, maybe even communicate with them.”

  “How cool,” Leah breathed.

  “Again, lupine,” Lucien remarked thoughtfully.

  “Not exactly,” Callum replied. “We call to canis, wolves, jackals, dogs. Any other creature would sense us as predator. Sonia is not sensed as predator. She’s sensed as one with any species be they wolf or bird or bear.”

  “How cool!” Leah exclaimed and Lucien smiled, likely to Leah’s exuberance but also to this fortunate news. Leah turned to her mate and said excitedly, “I hope I get something like that.”

  “You have it, sweetheart,” Lucien replied and in doing so, revealed.

  “That would be?” Callum cut into their short conversation and Lucien’s eyes came to him.

  Forthright, he informed Callum, “She can mark me, communicate with me nonverbally and fight mesmerization for brief periods of time.”

  Callum didn’t bother to hide his surprise. He whistled low.

  If vampires had kings, Lucien would be theirs. He was more than an epic warrior, stronger than the lot. He had added abilities, some of which other vampires had, none of which they had with the strength and control Lucien did. He could read and control minds. He could also mark humans or immortals which meant he could manipulate their heart rates and anticipate their actions.

  If Leah even had a hint of these abilities, including fighting mesmerization, if developed, they could be powerful.

  This was all fucking excellent news.

  “It seems the fates have provided weapons for the vulnerable,” Callum noted softly, realizing finally and with a sense of relief, why his Sonia was gifted.

  “Indeed,” Lucien replied just as softly.

 
“We girlie girls might be able to help you big strong boys kick ass,” Leah declared proudly and both Lucien and Callum grinned at her.

  And after Lucien grinned at her, he turned her face to his for a brief kiss which left Leah with that fond, intimate look when he was done.

  Then he looked back to Callum. “I wanted to speak of this without Sonia because Gregor suggested you hadn’t told her about immortals and you didn’t know about The Prophesies.”

  “This first is true,” Callum disclosed.

  “She thinks you’re human?” Leah breathed in horror and Callum looked at her.

  “No.”

  Leah let out a sigh of relief and said, “She knows you’re a werewolf.”

  “No,” Callum repeated, this time curtly.

  Leah’s brows drew together and she looked toward the door before she turned back to Callum and asked, “How long have you been together?”

  “Six weeks.”

  Leah’s eyes got wide and she mumbled, “Uh-oh.”

  Bloody hell.

  There it was, just as he suspected. A female human’s reaction indicating his protection would be considered a deceit.

  “She’s not like you, Leah. She’s not grown up knowing her place in his culture,” Lucien told his bride. “If I was in his position and I understood what was at stake with my mate, I would do the exact same thing.”

  Callum felt slightly better.

  “Then you’d be in serious trouble too,” Leah stated firmly.

  Callum stifled a growl.

  Lucien looked at Callum and said with the experience of an immortal male who lived with a female human, “It’ll be fine, Callum.”

  Leah looked at Callum and said with the experience that simply was female human, “It will be but only after she makes you put your tail between your legs erm… no offense intended.”

  “Perhaps we can stop talking about this,” Callum suggested in a way that stated clearly the wording was a courtesy, the words were a command.

  Leah bit her lip.

  Lucien’s mouth twitched.

  Callum stifled another growl.

  “Your housekeeper’s coming,” Lucien finally noted and Callum would have kissed Mara for her timing if he didn’t know Drogan would challenge him for doing so.

  “Coffee!” Leah declared delightedly. Lucien chuckled and Callum smelled that Callista had, as usual, made him a gracious host because there was far more than coffee heading their way.

  Mara arrived with a tray of coffee, platters of homemade cakes and biscuits and admonishments of, “Callista is preparing a huge spread for lunch, don’t fill up.”

  Sonia arrived while Leah was pouring her second cup and it was clear to see why her appearance was delayed.

  She’d showered, put on light makeup and her hair shown, falling in sleek waves over her shoulders and down her back but the front was pulled back at her crown with a tortoiseshell oval threaded with a matching stick. She was wearing dusty pink cords and she put on a belted, cream-colored cardigan that fell to her hips and had a shawl collar. The soft fall of material was heavy enough to open the front wide, exposing a skin-tight army green camisole underneath.

  As she had when she met their guests in her robe at the door, but probably didn’t realize, Sonia looked, from top-to-toe, the queen of a werewolf’s castle.

  They all stood when she arrived. Sonia moved toward Callum with a smile at their guests and he saw her claiming chain was hidden behind the material of her cardigan but her wedding rings shown more brightly than usual as if she’d cleaned them.

  Callum’s gaze turned to Leah’s finger to see she too was wearing Lucien’s symbols. Hers were black diamonds set in platinum, the engagement diamond was cut in an emerald shape rather than Sonia’s solitaire. Although the diamond was smaller, the engagement ring was layered between two bands. One embedded with smaller, baguette diamonds at the bottom, the other embedded with lustrous black onyx at the top.

  At the sight, Callum instantly decided to send his mother out to get an accompanying band for Sonia. Something set with tiger’s eye.

  Sonia’s fingers found his and threaded through when Leah noted, “You were right, Sonia, your coffee is good.”

  Sonia’s smile deepened and he noticed she’d lost her earlier discomfiture now that she was groomed for company and her innate sociability was clearly in evidence. “It isn’t mine. Mine’s average. Callista is an artiste. Wait until you taste her cooking. You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven.”

  At her innocent words, Callum’s eyes caught Lucien’s and he knew they both had gone tense.

  For The Prophesies were known but they were far from clear. Therefore their mates’ fates were unknown and, as humans, both could easily perish and, as immortals, both Lucien and Callum faced a desolate eternity if they did.

  Unfortunately, Callum faced it anyway, sooner or later.

  “Have you asked them to stay?” Sonia enquired of Callum, taking his mind from his dismal thoughts.

  “No,” Callum forced his smile. “But you just did.”

  “We couldn’t,” Leah cut in.

  “You are,” Sonia replied, firm but friendly. She let go of Callum’s hand and moved to Leah. “Let me take you on a tour. You can pick a bedroom. There are twelve in total but eight of them are at the top of a turret. Five are taken but, trust me, the other three are fantastic.”

  Sonia guided Leah out of the room, tossing a seemingly carefree smile over her shoulder at Callum.

  Leah walked with Sonia out of the room, tossing a genuinely carefree smile over her shoulder at Lucien.

  The difference was miniscule but it bloody well existed.

  “Callum,” Lucien called softly as Callum glared at the door and he turned his head to the vampire.

  Lucien didn’t speak for several long moments, waiting until the women were well away and when he finally did, it was low.

  “I hesitate telling you but I feel you should know so you can prepare.”

  Callum remained silent when Lucien paused.

  Then Lucien shared, “Gregor is hiding something from you.”

  Callum’s gaze narrowed on the vampire. “Sorry?”

  “He’s hiding something about Sonia.” Callum tensed and Lucien went on, “When he was explaining things, I sensed it. I didn’t like it. After I read The Prophesies, I asked him about it and he told me neither you nor Sonia knew anything about The Prophesies. Later, I pressed him about it and he shared with me.”

  Callum didn’t respond.

  He knew about The Prophesies. He’d been told by Mac though for reasons he didn’t entirely understand and he didn’t fucking like, he’d never been allowed actually to see them.

  Before he could react to the knowledge Lucien had, Lucien got closer and his voice dipped lower.

  Then he said with unconcealed emotion, “I’m sorry, my friend.”

  Callum felt that feeling, the one he reckoned was fear but this time it was piercing.

  “Sorry for what?”

  Lucien lifted a hand to grip Callum’s bicep as if in an effort at containment. “Sorry to tell you that The Prophesies state your mortal’s life will be a short one.”

  Callum’s body jolted before it locked as this statement seared straight through his system.

  Lucien went on quickly and quietly, his fingers holding fast. “The Prophesies are vague, simply stating her human life will be fleeting. I haven’t told Leah and I suggest you do the same with Sonia.”

  “You lie,” Callum whispered.

  “I don’t and why would I?” Lucien replied gently.

  He wouldn’t. There was no reason. They were in this together.

  He yanked his arm from Lucien’s grip and took a step back, recognizing that feeling was fear.

  Definitely fear.

  And alongside it ran a new, agonizing thread of pain.

  “We’ll fight it,” Lucien vowed. It was a vow, no mistaking it from the vein of steel in the words. “I’d offer my s
ervices but Leah would hate it so I suggest you find a vampire to feed from her –”

  “You’ve got to be joking,” Callum growled at the very idea of a vampire feeding from his queen.

  First, she was his fucking queen.

  Second, she was his and no male would touch her for any reason.

  Third, she was Sonia, not a meal.

  And last, humans reportedly found the feeding of vampires a sensual experience. A highly sensual experience. A sensual experience his sexually responsive mate was not going to have.

  Ever.

  “We can ask a female vampire,” Lucien proposed, reading Callum’s thoughts or perhaps understanding them for they’d be his own.

  “It takes years of constant feeding for vampire saliva to work its magic,” Callum noted dismissively. “And you suggested we don’t fucking have that.”

  “She’ll survive until the war begins, Callum,” Lucien returned. “We have time.”

  “Not enough,” Callum bit out.

  Not enough.

  There had never been enough but now, evidently, there was even fucking less.

  His senses sought her in his castle. Opening up and reaching out, he found her somewhere on the second floor. Her discourse indistinct but there was laughter in her tone and it cut through him like a blade.

  “Callum,” Lucien murmured.

  “You’ll excuse me,” Callum returned and didn’t wait for a response. He was already exiting the room.

  “This is troubling news but we’ll fight it, Callum,” Lucien called after him and made his vow official. “I vow it.”

  This didn’t make Callum feel better.

  “Tell Sonia I had something to attend to,” he ordered. “I’ll be gone awhile and I don’t want her worried.”

  Again, he didn’t wait for a response.

  His skin was prickling and his blood was heating and he was finding it difficult to fight the urge to howl.

  He walked out of the room into the entryway, down the hall to the backdoor. Tucking his wedding band into his pocket, at the backdoor he leapt to wolf and ran through the snow and into the wood, the only way he could soothe his ravaged thoughts.

  Then he ran as wolf for hours in a failed effort to assuage the fear that had settled like a weight in his gut and the ache that tore at his heart.