Page 15 of Walking in Darkness

“I am, yes. That’s not something I would miss.”

Kit was tempted to face-palm himself. Of course Hudson wouldn’t miss something like that. “Sorry. That was a stupid question.”

“No, it wasn’t. You don’t know enough about mates and bonding, so there are no stupid questions. I’m serious, Kit. Ask whatever you need instead of guessing. There are three of us in this relationship, and there needs to be open communications in order to make this work.”

“You’re right. I just feel stupid sometimes.”

“Because you don’t know the answer? But you didn’t grow up knowing all this. So how are you going to know if you don’t ask?”

Kit’s lips twitched. That was a mouthful, but Hudson was right. “Ask all the questions. Gotcha.”

“Good. Now, back to what I was saying. There should be a bond between Connie and me. I’m going to be brutally honest with you. I’ve had numerous relationships in my long life, but none of those lovers affected me like Connie does.”

Kit swallowed. He believed Hudson. There was no missing the depth of feeling in Hudson’s words.

“Until you. You have taken over my heart as well. I will never be complete without both of you in my life. Same goes for Connie. But we would continue to live our lives if you rejected us, as you would. It would just be less full of a life.”

Connie slinked back into the room and quietly sat down. “Same here. Sorry I walked out. I needed a second.”

Yup. It was official. Kit felt like an ass. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I mean that.”

“I know. And of course you have questions, as you should. I’d be worried if you didn’t. Like I said, I just needed a second. Gaura knows the idea of you possibly walking out of my life is agonizing.”

Kit flinched.

“Okay, what? What was that?” Hudson asked. “Why do you flinch when our dragon god is mentioned?”

Oh boy. This was going to be interesting. “About that.”

“What?” Hudson asked.

“Here’s the thing. I’m not sure ‘god’ is the right term for your dragon deity because god means male, right? And Gaura isn’t male. Or female. Gaura is a them.”

AN HOUR—and a million questions—later, Kit was looking at two dragons who’d had the very basis of their beliefs shaken to the core.

Gobsmacked. What a wonderful word. This was the first time he could truly say he’d seen somebody gobsmacked, and they definitely were. Their mouths had hung open, and their eyes had bugged out. The look of shock had been priceless.

Kit recounted the dream—vision?—that he’d had. He’d described Gaura several times over to both Hudson and Connie, and the stunned looks still hadn’t faded.

“You met Gaura?” Hudson asked for the fifth time.

“Yes.” Kit could see that Hudson was still struggling with that.

“Do you understand I would give up my entire hoard for such a privilege?” Hudson whispered.

“So would I,” Connie chimed in.

Kit didn’t have the heart to tell them it was his most fervent wish never to relive that experience. Ever. He was also surprised neither of them was questioning why their dragon deity had revealed themselves to Kit, a human.

If he was a dragon, he’d be wondering that. Well, he was a dragon’s mate. Did that count? Oh my damn, he had two mates, who were dragons. He must have been a damn saint in another life.

Hudson shook his head. “I’m sorry, Kit. We keep getting sidetracked by the fact you met Gaura when we should be comforting you. I do agree that that was a rather abrupt—”

“Try fucking harsh,” Kit muttered.

“—way to find out who and what your father is. But at least we know why Lennox is targeting you,” Hudson finished.

“Not to mention Gaura threw us under the bus about Kit being our mate,” Connie mumbled.

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