Page 51 of Edge of Darkness

“Now, it’s my turn to ask if everything is okay.”

Connie studied their entwined hands. “I want to meet Kit, but I’m afraid. Afraid of what could happen. What if I lose control again? I don’t want to scare him.”

“I understand. Believe me, I do.” Hudson squeezed Connie’s fingers, then released them. “He shredded my control too, so I get it.”

“He doesn’t know who we are to him either. Hudson?” Connie fiddled with his cup. “What if he rejects us?”

“I don’t believe he will. He’s our mate. Fate wouldn’t have paired him with us if he couldn’t handle being a dragon’s mate. Do we have some hurdles to get past? Absolutely. We need to handle this with care.”

“So no carrying him off to our hoards?”

“Not yet.” Hudson smirked. “We’ll get him there one day though. Tell you what. Since we both responded so strongly, why don’t I ask Beckett to stop by here after he leaves work? He’ll have Kit’s scent on him since he’s around our mate all day. It’ll give us a chance to acclimate.”

“Huh. That’s not a bad idea.”

Hudson leaned back in his chair. “I’ve been known to have good ones on occasion.”

“Smartass. Okay, yes, let’s try that. If we can get desensitized to his scent, we might be able to talk to the man instead of turning into raving beasts.”

“Yeah. Small steps first, Connie. Let’s get used to his scent before carrying Kit off to the bedroom.”

Connie swallowed loudly. “I can’t even go there yet. Fuck, Hudson. I want to see him pinned between us.”

“Me too, sweetheart.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN –CONNIE

CONNIE’S DRAGON stirred at the very thought of seeing Kit being fucked by both of them. He scrubbed his hands over his face. Oh yes, he’d definitely have to get used to Kit’s scent before he dared to get around him.

“You okay?”

Connie dropped his hands from his face and rolled his neck, listening to it pop. “I’m in control.”

“Good. This hopefully will get easier,” Hudson said.

“I see now why your generation snatched humans and ran off with them. This need is hard to control.”

“It’s instinctual, yes, but it also caused a lot of problems. History has glossed over the fact that humans did indeed hunt dragons at one point. Which is good, I guess. Less threat to us if they think mythological creatures like us only exist in books and movies.”

“They tend to think about paranormals in general like that,” Connie agreed.

“What they don’t know won’t hurt them.”

“Or us.” Connie shrugged the thought off. “Okay, are you ready to start your day?”

“Let me call Beckett and explain what we want to do—which means informing him of who Kit is to us—then yes, I’ll be ready to start.”

Connie wandered over to the coffee bar and fixed himself another cup of coffee while Hudson talked to Beckett. Fortunately, Beckett was en route to Kit’s bookstore, so there was no concern of Kit accidentally overhearing the conversation.

Of course, Kit was human, so that really wasn’t a problem. A shiver traveled up Connie’s spine as he thought about that. Humans were damn breakable. They died so easily. Hell, all one had to do waslookat them wrong, and they up and died.

The very thought of something happening to Kit’s mortal body made Connie want to light something on fire. Kit wasn’t a dragon and never would be. Like the daemons and gargoyles, dragons were born not changed.

But their blood would give Kit certain paranormal attributes—the rapid healing was the first one that came to mind. What else would change about Kit though?

Connie frowned as the thought bounced around in his head. There wasn’t much in their written history about mating with humans for some reason.

In fact, he couldn’t think of anything off the top of his head. But then again, it hadn’t been a subject he’d ever really paid attention to. He didn’t dislike humans—he’d fucked his fair share—but he truly never imagined one as his mate.

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