“And you…” Sam moved to Rux, whose crimson scales radiated heat like banked coals. “You cooked enough food to feed an army because feeding your mate is how you show you care.”
Rux’s entire body seemed to vibrate with pleased purring.
“And the garden…” Sam turned back to Urien. “You made something beautiful for me. You just forgot I can’t fly.”
Urien huffed out a breath that ruffled Sam’s hair.
Standing there, Sam felt something click into place. Something he’d been missing his entire life without knowing what it was.
“There’s a reason I write about this,” he said quietly. “About fated mates and impossible love stories. I write it because I want it. Because I’ve always wanted someone to choose me, to look at me and think I’m wortheverything, just the way my mom always said I was.”
Three pairs of glowing eyes focused on him as if encouraging him to continue.
“I thought it was just fantasy,” Sam continued. “Just stories I tell myself because real life doesn’t work that way.” He looked at each of them in turn. “But you’re very definitely real, which means this is real.”
The purring stopped, and the garden went silent except for the wind in the trees.
“I don’t understand how this works,” Sam said. “I don’t know how to date three people, let alone three dragons. I don’t know what being a Treasure means or how any of this is supposed to happen…”
Urien shifted, cutting off Sam’s train of thought, dragon becoming man in one fluid movement. He stood naked in the moonlight – apparently, shifting did destroy clothing - completely unselfconscious.
“We don’t know either,” Urien said. “We’ve never had a Treasure before.”
Mabon shifted next, then Rux, until all three men stood like Greek statues – without the fig leaves.
“So we thought we could figure it out together,” Rux said.
Sam looked at them. He’d be an idiot not to – those three men looked just as gorgeous without clothes as they did with them on, and Sam was a healthy male. “I’m still ordinary,” Sam said. “I’m still just a guy who works in a coffee shop and writes stories nobody will ever read.”
“You’re our Treasure,” Mabon said simply. “There’s nothing ordinary about that.”
/~/~/~/~/
Sam’s plate held significantly more food than he’d managed earlier - the risotto had reheated beautifully, and the chicken was still tender despite the second warming. Now his nerves were gone, and he had some idea of what was going on, he discovered he was ravenous.
“Better?” Rux watched him from across the table with barely concealed pleasure.
“Much.” Sam swallowed another bite of the lemon herb chicken. “I think the whole tension of not really knowing what your intentions were had killed my appetite temporarily.”
“Understandable.” Mabon had dressed in soft grey loungewear, somehow managing to make casual clothes look elegant. Urien wore a cable-knit jumper, and Rux had thrown on jeans and a T-shirt that clung to his shoulders in ways that should be illegal.
Sam looked down at his own faded blue jumper - the one Rux had noticed - and felt that familiar disconnect. These men were extraordinary. What did they see in him?
“Your heart stone,” Sam said suddenly. “When you shift back, it’s still there.”
All three nodded.
“And it’s part of your dragon form, too?”
“It’s part of our soul,” Urien said. “The form doesn’t matter. The stone exists because you exist.”
Sam’s fork paused halfway to his mouth. “That’s…that sounds like a lot of responsibility.”
“No.” Mabon leaned forward. “It’s not a burden you carry. It’s simply the truth. You appeared in the world, and our souls recognized you.”
“But what if…” Sam set down his fork. “What if you’re wrong? What if there’s been some mistake?”
“There are no mistakes.” Rux’s voice was certain. “Dragons don’t work that way. When the heart stone appears, it’s because our dragon has recognized its perfect match. It’s never been wrong. Not in thousands of years.”
