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resignation effective immediately.”
“A bloody shame, but understandable,” Atticus replied. “At the very least it will get all of these
blasted Drakes out of my lair.”
There was a sort of squelching pop, and in the place of the enormous dragon lay a very naked
Hugh. He sat up at once and knelt in front of Finch. “Finch!”
“Hello, sir,” Finch said with a wobbly smile. “I’m so glad to see you again.”
Hugh tugged Finch into his arms and held him so tightly, Finch thought he might break. “Hugh,”
Hugh insisted. “You must call me Hugh. It won’t do for my mate to go around calling me ‘sir.’
Well, except sometimes you may. If you wish. When we’re naked.” He looked around and saw
that while he was naked, Finch and his assorted relatives were not, and all had their eyes upon
him. “And alone. Decidedly alone.” He touched Finch’s stomach. “My child,” he said, his entire
being full of wonder. “This is my child.”
“Our child,” Finch tried, and found that it wasn’t all that horrible to say.
“Yes, of course, ours. Finch?”
Hugh sounded so plaintive that Finch looked up and into his eyes. “Yes?”
There was a moment of silence during which Hugh looked unusually contemplative. He poked
and prodded at the shredded pieces of suit encircling them until he found the inner pocket of
what had once been his jacket. Finch watched curiously as he plucked something from inside,
but for the life of him, he couldn’t tell what it was.
“I’m not much of an orator,” Hugh said at last. “I’m not clever like Everard or Bertram or
Reynard. I’m not learned like Geoffrey or Alistair. And I’m certainly not as strong as Sebastian.
But I love you. To the very fiber of my being, I am yours and only yours, and I wager I will be
until the end of time.” Hugh opened his hand, and upon it was one of Finch’s amethyst cufflinks.
Finch’s heart squeezed. After the move, he’d only found one out of the pair of them and thought
the other forever lost. “So will you be mine again, Finch?” Hugh asked as he held out the
cufflink. “Will you come back to me? I promise to always love and respect you, and to be the
best father that I can be to whatever children you give me. I’m but a dragon and can’t give you
an eternity, but for the thousands of years we’ll have together, I vow to be the best me I can
be. For you. Always for you.”
Finch, who prided himself on being a bastion of professionalism, burst into tears once more.
