Page 38 of Edge of Darkness

That scent.

That fucking scent.

His dragon demanded he find that scent and capture it. Hoard it away. Lock it up and keep it safe. His body tingled as he started the partial transformation.

Mine! Mine, mine, mine!His heart beat in time to the words.Protect. Protect!He wanted to roll around in that scent until he was covered in it.

“Hudson! What thehellare you doing?” Susan yelled. “Nelson! What the fuck is your kingdoing?”

Yelling. Lots of yelling. Aggressive yelling that was entirely too close to that scent. It needed to stop. He needed to do something about it.

“I don’t know.I don’t fucking know. Your Majesty! Hudson! Shit, Terry, open a portal,” Nelson desperately demanded. “And do it quickly! He’s lost control. I’ll shove him through and—”

No. He would not leave. Couldn’t, in fact. No way was he losing that scent. It had already buried itself in his heart. He’d waited his entire life for this, and he’d burn the entire building down before he lost it.

Hudson roared a promise—he’d kill anything that got between him and that scent.

“Shit, Beckett, dosomething!”

Another powerful presence moved closer to Hudson, and his dragon snarled in warning. Another Ancient was in the room with him, but they were not royalty.

Hudson would battle them—rip them apart and grind up their bones as he devoured the threat to that scent. They would not take what was Hudson’s.

“Holy shit, is he… is he changing? Here? Oh fuck, he can’t do that here!” Terry shouted.

“Open the damn portal before it’s too late!” Nelson bellowed.

“Oh my God, what ishappening?”

Fear.

Stark raving fear. That sweet scent was now drowning infear. Fear that Hudson had caused. It assaulted Hudson’s senses, the acidity of it.

That was wrong. No, no, no. That shouldn’t be happening, especially not because of him. His dragon whimpered in confusion, and a word whispered across Hudson’s mind.

Mate.

Oh gods. Oh dragon gods. It couldn’t be. It simply could not be, but there was no denying it, not with what that scent had done to him. It had taken his control and forced him into a partial shift.

Hudson fought harder than he had ever fought in his life. Control. He needed control. He could not shift into his dragon. Not here. He would harm the person with that scent—could kill them.

He would sooner cut off his horns.

And that did the trick. His dragon stopped fighting him and gave Hudson control again. Looking around, he saw several horrified faces looking back at him.

But it was the human’s who almost brought Hudson to his knees. The fear. The terror. What was the human’s name again? Right. Kit. The owner of the bookstore. Austin’s friend.

The human that Kage had asked Hudson to take care of and protect. And what had Hudson done? Put that look of abject horror on Kit’s face.

Hudson had done that. Glancing down at his arms, he saw his skin had reverted to that sickly gray color that heralded his partial transformation. He’d rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt earlier and had never rolled them back down. Damn horns were on full display too.

“Oh Gaura, I am so very sorry,” Hudson said quietly to the group. To the human. Embarrassment washed over him. How could he? Howcouldhe terrify his own mate like that?

Oh gods, amate.

Disbelief, need, and sadness rolled unpleasantly in Hudson’s chest. A mate. Something every dragon desired, and Hudson desperately didnotwant. Fuck. Connie would be devastated.

He almost, almost, turned on his heel and walked out of the office. Unfortunately, from the tales that he’d heard, that would be useless. He’d smelled his mate and nothing would ever change that. He wouldn’t have a moment’s peace until he claimed Kit.

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