Chapter 13
thirteen
KAT
Callum joined Sable in the bed thirty minutes later.
"I won't snuggle unless he tells us why he doesn't want you to fuck him," she promised. "That was in the contract. He has to tell us things."
She had finally accepted that I was right. Him keeping the soulmate thing from me was what did it for her.
"Thank you."
"Maybe you should've warned him about that again before we left," she said. "I can't tell him."
"He'll remember. He looked like I'd punched him in the face when I brought it up."
"Hopefully. I still want to snuggle."
Of course she did.
I did too, if we were being entirely honest. Just not with the current situation in the relationship.
We were soulmates.
That was big. It felt big, at least.
Fate had paired us together, and I assumed there was a reason. The conversation had to have potential. The snuggling, too. I was well aware that the sex did.
I wanted to experience all of those things with him… but I had to be careful about how I did it, or he'd just keep manipulating me.
Callum showed Sable the signed contract and said he'd both scanned it and emailed me a copy. After he set it on the nightstand, he went into the closet to change.
When he climbed in bed wearing nothing but his sweats again, Sable moved away from him before he could touch her.
He didn't look thrilled, and held up the contract.
"What number is the sex part?" she asked.
"Three."
She booped him on the arm with her nose three times in a row.
His eyes dipped to the contract, and he grimaced when he read it.
She waited, her head resting on her paws as she stared up at him.
Callum stiffly lifted a hand to his hair. His waves were still the only messy part of him. His fingers tangled in the strands. "As much as I would like to be with Kat in that way, I'm uncertain how my magic will respond when I lose control with her. I don't want to hurt her."
Sable tilted her head to the side, looking for more of an explanation.
"I unintentionally hurt a partner with my magic once during sex, long ago. Before Rumor. I haven't been with anyone since. It's not public knowledge. Please don't share."
Sable just blinked.
I would've done the same.
"Is that a good enough answer?" she asked me.
"Definitely."
We were going to have to unpack it some other time, because he was clearly scarred from the experience. He didn't actually want a sexless marriage. He just didn't want to hurt me.
That seemed like a good thing.
She crawled across the blankets and plopped her head down on his chest. The expression that flashed across his face with the contact was almost orgasmic.
I wondered just how much pain he had been in.
Sable fell asleep quickly, taking me under with her.
Step one in my plan to make my soulmate fall in love with me was officially complete.
We'd decided that was the plan after all. If we were fated, fuck seduction. There wasn't a chance in hell that our connection existed just to keep him out of pain.
He was going to love me.
He just didn't know it yet.
The wedding the next morning went about as well as a wedding without any real emotion behind it could.
We pretended to be wildly in love as we made vows that should’ve felt significant, but didn’t, thanks to the bond already stretching between us.
We danced.
Drank.
Ate a plethora of my favorite chocolate cake.
Smiled for pictures.
It basically felt like one big party, except my parents and sister sat at the back, smiling politely.
None of them even tried to talk to me.
I was going to have to unpack that later, too.
Callum's family's enthusiasm made up for my family's lack of it.
No one seemed more excited than Liv, who kept dragging me back onto the dance floor every time I took a break, and Callum with me.
Dare spent most of the time dancing in a group of women who basically tripped over themselves to touch him. I noticed that every time he moved to a new spot, the crowd just sort of gravitated toward him, like bugs to light.
Merrily watched the party from a chair on the sidelines with a small smile on her face, until she came over to let us know she was going home.
When we finally drove away, Callum headed to the Honeymoon Hotel in the neutral part of Rumor. It was a staple in our city, because leaving the wards was both dangerous and difficult. Most spellcasters didn't let anyone go through them, and you couldn't get through without them.
The rooms in the hotel were large, luxurious, and literally magical. The food and alcohol were enchanted, too. The pixies who owned the place offered a steep discount for newly-mated couples, hence the name of the hotel, not that Callum cared about that.
Our fingers were intertwined as we walked up to the doors together, continuing to sell the story. Honestly, I liked the way his hand felt in mine.
He hadn't warned me to pack a bag, but he'd let me know on the way that one of the two he'd brought was mine.
I hoped there was more in it than lingerie.
But, in my experience with the lingerie he'd gifted me, he was really good at picking things I liked. I hadn't dared sleep in them outside of heat, knowing his scent would cling to my skin and the werewolves I worked with would think I was with him, but I would've if I could.
We picked up the key to the presidential suite in the lobby from a pixie who looked entirely terrified when she saw Callum. When we made it to the suite a few minutes later, I walked through the spacious, elegant apartment.
It was set up to resemble Paris, France, and the massive windows looked out on a bustling city at night with the Eiffel Tower in the center of our view.
I had no idea if it was realistic, but it was beautiful.
And supposedly, the pixies were masters at transporting you to beautiful parts of the human world.
Ignoring the rose petals on the floor and bed, I walked over to a balcony that absolutely was not located in Paris and leaned over the edge, taking in the lights, the view, and the feeling. It even smelled different.
Sable was fast asleep, leaving me to work through everything that had happened on my own.
I was itching to remove the tight, gold fabric that clung to my body, but had so many lingering, conflicting emotions about the day. I didn't feel quite ready to take the dress off and step into the next part of my life.
Callum stepped up behind me. His hands landed lightly on my waist, and I closed my eyes as the front of his body pressed against the back of mine. There was too much fabric separating us, but this was still the beginning of the fight.
He may have known everything about me, but he didn't have feelings for me. He'd made that clear with both his words and his actions.
I didn't have feelings for him, either. Not good ones, at least. And I hardly knew anything about him.
Yet there was a permanent bond between us.
The mark on my left arm had grown significantly darker when we sealed the bond, just like he said it would.
We were fated mates, connected all the way down to the soul.
He'd never even smiled at me.
I felt him sort of mentally touch the bond between us. It felt like a thin door separating our minds. Like our beings were pressed together, now, and only a gauzy sheet of fabric separated us.
My eyes remained closed, and I nearly shuddered.
Mental pack links had always felt too intimate to me, and this was on another level entirely. I could feel his consciousness there, within me. I might even be able to feel his emotions, if I pushed.
"Don't," I said aloud.
Callum's presence remained on the connection between us. The feeling was similar to a hand resting lightly over my skin, with nothing but thin silk separating us. But it was so much deeper than that. So much more intense. Because my skin wasn't my skin—it was my mind.
My soul.
Me.
"Will you be able to read my thoughts?" I asked him.
"Not that I'm aware of. Strong emotions are supposed to be able to bleed through the bond, but otherwise, only the words we speak mentally."
That was good.
I'd go insane if he could pluck thoughts straight out of my head.
I finally opened my eyes, taking in the beautiful city that wasn't really around us once again. "Alright. You can try."
"You look absolutely stunning in this dress, Kitten."
His words rolled through my mind, and I legitimately shuddered.
His lips met my shoulder for a light kiss.
Then my throat.
"You said it shows too much skin."
"It does. All of this gorgeous skin belongs to me, and I have no intention of sharing it."
He kissed the place my neck met my shoulder.
"Don't start something you're not willing to finish, Callum."
"You know how well I finish you." I rolled my eyes, even though he was right. "Your mind feels so fucking good against mine."
"Did sealing the bond help with the pain?"
"A little, but not much. Touch is the only thing that fully erases it."
"Why?"
"No one truly knows. The leading legend is that fae only possess half of a soul, and that it's only when we're in physical contact with the one who possesses the other half that we can anchor the power we possess."
"So you'd like me to live in your arms."
"Ideally."
"How did you stay away from me for so long while you were waiting for my magic to settle, then?"
"I wasn't going to risk the stability of your magic for the sake of my own relief. I never wanted to hurt you."
"Just steal me away."
"Exactly." His mouth lifted back to my throat, sucking the sensitive skin lightly. The tips of my fingers pressed against the balcony's railing, my eyes closing again.
"If you're not going to let me touch you, you can't touch me," I warned him out loud.
"You don't want to touch me, Kitten."
"No. You're the one who doesn't want me to touch you."
"That's not true."
"You're not going to let me, though. Right?"
His lack of response answered the question.
"Can you just unbutton my dress? I need to sleep."
He slowly withdrew from my throat, silent as he undid the buttons from the top down.
I held my dress up as he worked his way through them. When he was done, I stepped into the bathroom long enough to strip the dress off and shift forms.
Sable padded sleepily to the bed, ignoring the roses as she burrowed under the thick blankets.
There was only one word for the expression I saw on Callum's face as she went.
Hurt.
He was hurt that I wasn’t letting him get me off.
I wanted to, but ultimately, I had to do what I had to do. And if we were ever going to have a real shot at love, rejecting him until he was willing to take a risk with me was exactly that.