“We will.”
“And we’ll take it because maybe we deserve it.”
“We’ll take it so hard.”
“Shut up. But in the end, it’ll be okay, because it has to be. And even if Ryan and Justin have accidentally fallen in love and given each other sloppy blow jobs, I’ll fight to get him back.”
“And even if Gary has been pounded by so many different people that he leaks when he walks, I shall stuff my cock inside his asshole and make him sit there for at least a week, because once you go dragon, all the rest is laggin’.”
“Oh my gods. Why are you making those sounds with your mouth?”
“Is what Gary will say when I eat his—”
“Moment ruined.”
He hugged me a little tighter.
“Can I—can I stay out here? With you. To sleep.”
He pulled back, looking a little surprised. “You’ve been wanting a bed for a long time. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard you bitch about anything more than that very thing.”
“Whatever,” I mumbled. “I just—it’s weird here. Things are… not what I expected them to be.”
“Things change, pretty. We’ve talked about this.”
“I don’t like it.”
“And yet it’s the way things are.”
“I hate it when you get philosophical.”
“I’m a dragon. It’s what I do.”
I snorted. “Yeah, that’s not even remotely true.”
“Yes, Sam. You can stay with me. In fact, I prefer you did. I’ve gotten used to having you whenever I wanted you.”
“Ugh. Don’t say it like that.”
He grinned at me. “You wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Maybe he was right, but I wouldn’t tell him that.
Later, when we were on the cusp of sleep, Kevin curled around me protectively, I whispered the one question I’d buried deep in my heart a long time ago. “What if they don’t forgive us for what we’ve done?”
“Then we’ll work that much harder and prove to them we love them with everything we have,” Kevin whispered back. “And we’ll do whatever it takes to make them believe us. Because in the end, we may have had to leave them, but we left our hearts behind in their care. We must have hope that they kept them safe.”
And then I slept.
I WAS dreaming about lights of green and gold, black and white, and blue and red. I was walking in a field, and they circled around me like fairies, their brightness warm and inviting. The blue lights were the liveliest of all, flitting around me in dizzying patterns. I knew they were the Northern dragons, the mated pair, and I wondered if this was real. If I was dreamwalking because of them.
The grass in the field swayed with a soft breeze, the sun shining high in the sky and—
“Sam?”
My heart stuttered. My breath caught.
“Sam,” he said again from behind me.