CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: CONNIE

CONNIE GLANCED at Hudson, then back to Kit.

Kit stepped up to Connie, cupped his face, and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Go."

Kit didn't have to tell him twice. Ever since the wreck earlier, he'd been on edge. As he had told Hudson, he wasn't in jeopardy of losing control, but he definitely was ready to shed this human fa?ade. Plus, his dragon was going crazy.

He, too, wanted his mate to admire him. Connie had to keep reminding the contrary creature Kit hadn't seen Hudson in his natural form until just then.

Connie stripped and then darted across the open space. Flinging himself into the air, he let his dragon take over. In mere seconds, his dragon was powering upward, Hudson hot on his heels.

Hudson pulled slightly in front, and Connie fell into formation right behind him and slightly off to the side. They moved in perfect synchrony, showing off the acrobatic moves they'd trained for.

The air in his face, the glide over his wings, relaxed him in a way very few things could. After a few more moments of trying to impress Kit, Hudson darted away, going straight up into the sky.

Connie had seen him do this before, so he stayed out of the way. When he had reached a certain height, Hudson folded his wings and dropped. His enormous body fell like a rock, screaming toward the ground.

He hoped Kit realized this was just an aerial maneuver, and that Hudson was okay. At the last second, Hudson snapped his wings out and soared above the treetops.

The power needed to pull off something like that was insane. Connie could do it too, but he needed to pull out of the dive much sooner than Hudson because he simply didn't have the power his mate did. Nor the age.

Hudson circled back around, doing barrel rolls in the sky. Connie threw back his head and roared, Hudson joining him. They flipped and soared through the air, streams of fire exploding from their mouth.

He glanced down to see Kit lying on the ground, his arms behind his head, watching them. It looked as if he was enjoying the show. They'd stuck close to home so Kit could watch them play in the sky and not worry about being attacked.

Eventually Hudson tipped his wing toward the ground, and Connie nodded. It was probably getting close to time to eat dinner. Hudson landed first and transformed.

As soon as he moved out of the way, Connie set down on the ground gently and also changed. He rolled his neck as he tried to settle back into the smaller form.

Kit hopped up and rushed toward them. "That was the most fascinating thing I've ever seen in my life. Seriously. I can't even begin to explain how thankful I am that I was allowed to witness something like that."

Kit flung his arms around Hudson and squeezed him tightly. Connie was still getting dressed when Kit tackled him too. Laughing softly, he one-armed hugged Kit. Hudson brushed the grass off Kit as Kit pressed a kiss to Connie's cheek.

"Are you getting hungry?" Hudson asked.

Kit nodded. "That snack we had a little while ago is long since gone."

Connie slipped on his shoes, then held out his hand to Kit. "Let's head inside and see what there is for dinner."

AFTER DINNER they played a game of pool with some of the other dragons, then returned to Hudson's quarters. Connie had noticed earlier that Kit had taken some more over-the-counter pain meds.

He hated Kit was still sore, while Connie couldn't even tell he'd been in a wreck. You know what would fix that, his dragon whispered. Yes, he did, but unlike his dragon, Connie understood Kit wasn't ready for that.

The three of them were snuggled up on the couch trying to figure out what they wanted to watch when Hudson's phone rang. He recognized that ring tone and tensed. Shit.

Sighing, Hudson slipped his phone out of his pocket and answered it. "Hello, Mother."

Kit's head snapped around.

"I've heard the most interesting rumor that I, of course, discounted because surely my only son would not have taken a human into his court," Abigail snapped. "Surely not."

Hudson growled softly as he surged to his feet. "Just a moment, please."

Connie gritted his teeth. He knew—he just knew—she was going to have something to say. She was so narrow-minded and set in her ways. It was appalling.

He also sincerely hoped Kit hadn't heard her.

Hudson hit the Mute button on his phone. "I'm sorry. I need to take this. Go ahead and pick out whatever movie you guys want. I'll be back shortly. Don't wait on me, though."

Hudson made eye contact with Connie, then turned on his heel and left. No words might have been exchanged, but Connie understood what Hudson wanted—and that was to keep Kit away while he spoke to his mother.

And who was telling tales out of school? How had word gotten around? They hadn't informed that many people.

"His mother," Kit said softly, staring after Hudson. "How big of an idiot am I that I never stopped to think about him having parents? I mean, it's not like he sprang forth fully grown." Kit curled a leg underneath him and turned toward Connie. "You have parents too, right?"

Connie was more than willing to talk about his parents. Like Kit, he had a mom and two dads: Henrietta, Leopold, and Guilford. As they'd told Kit, it wasn't unusual for dragons to have poly relationships. They were normally comprised of only dragons, though.

"I do, yes. My mom's name is Henrietta Turner. She has two mates—Leopold Bennett, who we call Leo, and Guilford Bridgemar, who we call Ford. They belong to the Fire Court of Detroit."

"Michigan."

"Yes. That's where I'm from originally." It'd been a long time since he'd been home too. He also hadn't told his parents about Kit, and if word was getting out, he needed to take care of that before he also got a phone call.

"If you grew up that far north, how in the world did you end up in California?" Kit asked.

"As soon as I was old enough, I started looking for another court to move to. And yes, I was looking for warm weather and sunny beaches." Snow was fine and all, unless you had to deal with it winter after winter after winter.

"And your parents were okay with you leaving?"

"Of course. Some of us never leave our birth court. Some of us do. It's really not that big of a deal. My parents and I get along so that wasn't why I left. I just really hate the cold."

"I completely understand. I grew up someplace where it gets cold, but we don't get the kind of winter like the more northern states do." Kit snuggled into Connie. "So? When you were old enough to look around, you happened to find Hudson's court?"

"Pretty much, yeah. I looked at Florida, Texas, and here. I liked Hudson's court the best. I could tell he was more open-minded than some of the other royals and their courts."

"Is that a thing? Are dragons not open and accepting?"

Connie shrugged. "It depends on who is leading the court. Just like any other paranormal group, we have good people and bad, much like humans. There are some who hold on to the old ways, and some who've moved into the twenty-first century."

"That makes sense, I guess. But tradition is not necessarily a bad thing."

"It's not, no." Connie left it there.

A moment later, Hudson returned. His face was devoid of emotion, but Connie had known him long enough to know that internally he was seething. That must've been one hell of a conversation.

"Is everything okay?" Kit asked.

"Yes." Hudson pursed his lips. "Why?"

"Because you're trying awfully hard not to show any emotion. When people do that, it's usually because they're feeling a certain type of feeling."

Connie snorted at Kit's word choice. That summed it up perfectly.

A small smile crossed Hudson's face. He walked over and sat back down on the couch next to Kit. "I apologize. My mother can be rather insistent."

That was a nice way of putting it. Connie had some other words to describe her personality besides insistent. "Queen Abigail—"

Kit's head snapped around. "Wait. Queen? His mother is a queen?" Kit turned to glare at Hudson. "Your mother is also royalty? Don't you think that's something you should've led with?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't think about it." Hudson took Kit's hand and kissed his knuckles. "But yes, my mother is Queen Abigail Redmond. Her two mates are Eleanor Sutherland and Cyrus Whitmore."

"All three of them are red dragons?" Kit asked.

"Yes."

Connie cleared his throat. "Are they coming for a visit?"

He sincerely hoped not. There was enough tension already without adding Hudson's mother into the mix. Eleanor and Cyrus were pretty decent, but they were definitely submissive to Queen Abigail.

"Not at the present time. We have too much going on, not to mention the ongoing threat. A visit will occur, but not right now."

Connie breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, they were only putting off the inevitable.

"I can't wait to meet them. And Connie's parents. He was telling me about them while you were on the phone. He said they're in Michigan. Where are yours at?" Kit asked.

"Dallas, Texas."

"I've been to Dallas a couple of times. I never knew there was a court there," Kit said.

"And as a human, you shouldn't have known," Hudson pointed out. "By the way, how do you feel?"

Kit sighed heavily. "I'm stiff and kinda achy. Tired as well. I was worried I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, but I don't think that's going to be a problem. Well, it probably won't if I can get comfortable."

"Why don't you take another hot bath? That seemed to have helped earlier," Connie said.

"Or the three of us could use the hot tub," Hudson suggested.

Kit perked up. "Know what? I like that idea. I'll go grab my swimsuit and meet you out there. Sound good?"

"Perfect," Hudson said.

Connie watched Kit leave. As soon as he was sure Kit was far enough away, he hugged Hudson.

"How bad was it?"

"Probably as bad as you think." Hudson hugged Connie back and then stood. "She refuses to believe I share a soul bond with Kit, even though I explained to her there was no mistaking it. She had the nerve to argue with me about it."

"She can argue all she wants, but it doesn't change the fact of who he is." Connie followed Hudson into their closet. Opening his chest of drawers, he searched until he found his swimsuit.

"Which I pointed out. Since it didn't fit with her narrative, she ignored me." Hudson rummaged in his chest of drawers until he found his too.

"So, she's unhappy about him being a human." Connie wasn't surprised. He was well aware of Queen Abigail's thoughts on humans.

It wasn't that she disliked them, she just thought they were beneath dragons. But then again, in her opinion, everyone was beneath dragons, other paranormals included. Out of all the dragons, reds were far superior, according to her.

Other dragons would disagree with her, of course. As would other paranormals. The humans who knew about paranormals would also disagree.

But at least paranormals had special abilities or talents. Humans were just… human. They couldn't fly, or change into something, or cast spells, or any of the other things paranormals could do.

Their senses were not as keen, and their strength was pitiful compared to that of a paranormal. They were beneath her, and she treated them as such. There were no humans in her court.

"Yes, she's unhappy that he's human, not that it matters one way or the other to me," Hudson said.

As far as Connie knew, her dragons also did not date humans. Unfortunately, those who remained in Queen Abigail's court felt as she did. The ones who disagreed petitioned other courts and left.

Queen Abigail knew he and Hudson had a sexual relationship. That simply wasn't something you could hide from a dragon, and he and Hudson had no desire to. He was acceptable to her because he was a red dragon and Hudson's right hand.

There was no way she'd accept Kit.

Connie changed and tossed his clothes into the hamper. Hudson's joined his once he'd changed too. Connie followed Hudson into the bathroom and grabbed a couple of towels while Hudson braided his hair. As usual, he had that one braid by his face.

"But it's not only that. She's also unhappy about him being a male."

Connie blinked in surprise. "I'm sorry, what? Hudson, your mother is perfectly aware you prefer males over females."

When Connie first joined Hudson's court, Hudson had been dating a female dragon, but it hadn't lasted long. She transferred to another court when it became obvious that she was also not going to be his queen.

Before he and Hudson started their relationship, he'd seen Hudson date, and nine times out of ten, it was always a male. Then it hit him what the problem was.

"This is about the line of succession, isn't it?"

"Sort of, but not really. She knows perfectly well another royal could challenge me for my position. No, this is more about her wanting granddragons, and that certainly isn't happening with you or Kit."

Connie was a lot of things, but capable of bearing an egg? That he could not do. "She does know there are ways to get around that, right?"

"Sure. I don't know why she is so determined for me to claim a female, and I frankly don't care." Hudson finished braiding his hair and tied it off. "And if she upsets Kit, she won't be welcomed back here."

Connie struggled to hide his reaction. That would not go well with Hudson's mother. Not at all.

"Enough about her. I'll deal with my mother if or when the time comes. Today has been stressful for Kit, and we need to concentrate on him."

Connie followed Hudson out of the bathroom. There was little doubt in his mind that they'd indeed be dealing with Queen Abigail sooner than later.