Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Luka shut the water off, and they stepped out and dried off. Amaru even found boxers to put on. Yes, they were Luka’s boxers, your point being?
Turned out Luka’s sense of timing was correct. They were barely into clothes when room service knocked at their door. Amaru happily sat on the bed, took the plate offered to him, and the coffee, and proceeded to scarf it down.
Delightful. Food he didn’t have to either cook or clean up after was perfection.
No one talked for a minute as they stuffed their faces. Vasily cleaned his plate first and headed for seconds since the cart still had toast and jam on offer.
“Amaru, I do have a few things I’m curious about.”
“Shoot,” Amaru said. “I probably have answers.”
“You didn’t act surprised that we were mates. How long have you known?”
“Basically from the beginning. Because I could connect to you in dreams, I knew.” Amaru swallowed more coffee. He felt like Vasily was ramping up to his question.
Luka, however, seemed sidetracked by this new information. “Is that typical?”
Ah, he should have expected that question. They hadn’t talked everything through yesterday. “Pretty typical. I mean, not every mage-dragon pair does it, but it’s standard. I didn’t realize at first this is not standard for mages of this generation. I honestly thought you knew before you even left to find me that you were both my mates.”
“Crossed lines of communication,” Luka murmured, eyes pensive on his plate. Even though he sat next to Amaru on the bed, he seemed far away.
Amaru gently knocked his shoulder into Luka’s. “Yeah. All of us were assuming the other knew certain facts. It wasn’t until Gregori told me more about you two that I realized where the lines of communication had gotten tangled.”
“He’s good about kicking people in the right direction.” Luka looked up and gave him a small smile. “Fortunately for us.”
“Now, my turn. Why did you keep running from me? Surely your dragon said something.”
Luka grimaced. “I was so afraid of losing Vasily that I was suppressing my dragon. Which made everything worse, of course. I took the silence to mean I didn’t get to have either of you.”
Amaru was rather horrified at this answer. Luka must’ve been terrified right down to his marrow if he’d been suppressing his dragon’s voice that much. “But you came back to me and Vasily anyway?”
“I finally overcame my fear enough that my dragon was able to get a word in edgewise.” Luka leaned in to kiss him softly, a man who was utterly, blissfully content. “I know for a fact I have both of you as my mates. You don’t need to worry, love. I will never run off again.”
Thank every god for that. “Good. And no more miscommunications either. We have hit our quota for this relationship.”
“All right, but that segues into my next question. You’re not upset we were together first?”
He looked at this man who he loved beyond words and asked, “Are you stupid? Why would I be upset about that?”
“Jealousy?” Vasily offered.
Even he looked nervous about this. What was Amaru supposed to do with his adorable idiots? “Listen, you two, I am not jealous. Mad that I missed out on so much time with you, yes, but not jealous. Really, I’m relieved.”
Luka and Vasily both instantly relaxed, the tension dropping from their faces.
To make sure they were completely clear on this, he added, “I know something of what the war did to you. How bleak it made the world. The two of you had no real hope for centuries you’d ever find your mate, so if mutual sex bonded you two together—”
Vasily snorted a laugh, eyes crinkling up in the corners in a charming way.
“—and gave you some solace, I’m relieved.”
“But you still plan on killing Irany for this,” Vasily tacked on knowingly.
He sniffed in disdain. “He gets to help me fix this mess first. Then I’ll kill him. I’m not doing even more of that moron’s work for him.”
“My mistake. Okay, but that brings me to another question. What’s your dating history?”
“If you’re trying to see if I was overwhelmed by you two last night, your timing could use some improvement.”
Vasily rolled his eyes. “I got that you have some sexual experience, but were you dating anyone before you went under that deep sleep?”
“Ohhh that’s what you’re worried about. That I might wake up some lover who will go apeshit.”
“It’s a valid concern,” Luka said. “You had no idea we were waiting in the wings. We’re not angry if you did have someone.”
These two were truly so sweet to him. Sometimes clueless, but still sweet. Amaru was glad to give them another answer that he knew would make them happy. “I wasn’t dating anyone. No jealous lover ready to punch you.”
From their reactions, they truly had been worried about this, as they both blew out a breath of relief. Considering it was the jealous loss of a lover that had sent the Dragon Wars into a spiraling pit of madness, he couldn’t blame them for being nervous about it.