Page 135 of Hoarded By the Dragon

“You want to know if I carry Ava’s mark?” Kalos guesses.

I sigh and shake my head. I’m not jealous, and I don’t want him to think I am. “It’s not like it’s something you control—”

“I understand, Rina. That mark faded sometime after her death.” His answer is simple, and tears prick my eyes at the starkness of it. I blame pregnancy hormones.

“I’m sorry,” I croak. It must have felt like losing her all over again.

Kalos nods, accepting my sympathy. “It was difficult at the time… but now I can see the purpose of it.”

“What do you mean?”

When he looks at me, it’s as if he can see the depths of my soul. As if he accepts every flaw and talent I hold. I don’t want to ever look away.

“I would have never allowed our night together to occur if I had still been carrying her mark. No matter the pain of my heat. A mating mark is sacred.”

I respect that. And if he hadn’t made our arrangement…

“I would have never found you,” he continues. “And that isn’t something I would ever risk. It was necessary to lose the mark of my previous mating… Ava and Luke are always with me, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t have happiness. That I can’t have you.” He swallows. “And our daughter.”

I nod. I know he still has fears regarding what kind of father he’ll be, but every second we’re together, the worries I carry about that fade. If there are obstacles, we’ll overcome them. The problems we face, we’ll solve.

Together.

“So if my mark doesn’t take, I’ll be using you as a chew toy until it does?” I tease, wanting to lighten this moment to match the certainty thrumming in my heart.

Kalos grins and goes back to stroking my skin under the water, his big hand coming to rest on my belly. Our daughter chooses that moment to kick him. His delight flavors the air and softens my soul.

“Yes,” he says simply. “I demand your mark and everything you choose to give me.”

“I love you, Kalos.” Before, I’d confessed that while in pain, and I want—no need—to give the words to him as the gift they are.

Kalos’s face softens.

“And I love you, thief of my heart.”

EPILOGUE

KALOS

The pain flares through my body again, and I pause in my work, breathing through it. I check the time when it fades and narrow my eyes, going back to reading the papers I hold with a silent grumble. There’s no call from the room above for me.

She’s pushing her luck.

It’s taken months of aggressively working with the soul witch to get the bond Katarina and I share to the place where I feel her pain, and I don’t regret it one bit. It gives me insight on her mood and what her body experiences.

Gage watches where I’m perched on the edge of my desk with wide eyes. He has his own paper reports in front of him.

“What was that?” he asks.

“Katarina has been having contractions since last night.”

If anything, Gage’s eyes get wider. “And that’s not something to worry about?”

I huff.

“She won’t allow me to take her from the studio until they’re closer together. She said she doesn’t want me hanging around and suffocating her until she’s in active labor.” Honestly, perhaps not even then. Katarina has gotten quite snappy these last few weeks.

I admit, I do not make things easier on her. The only thing keeping my worries under control is the knowledge that she will sense them through the bond.

---