I blink away the bad thoughts, focusing on my mates. Connall sits with his big legs crossed at the ankle, leaning back on his hands. Lou sits next to him, legs tucked neatly under her body, her braid hanging like a rope over her shoulder.
“I brought us here to have a wee chat,” I share. “There’s mead and cheese in the basket as well. But now that my intentions are fully in the open with the both of yeh, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the subject.”
Lou snorts out a laugh. “How many times did I tell you to stop following me over the last month, Dirk? Are you finally going to listen?”
I scrunch my nose. “If yeh mean I should stop staring at yeh every night while yer sleep, or appearing to help yeh with closing time at Alkemi, I could, but why would I? You love it.”
Her smile stills as she glances at Connall. “Perhaps we don’t like being peeped upon.” Yet I sense no real anger in her words. She’s simply making a point and playing with me.
I glance between them. Connall’s silent, ever watchful.
“What do yeh think, Wolf? Yeh asked me to stop spying on you. How does it feel?”
His cheeks go pink, the blush spreading down into his dark tee. I want to rip the fabric open and see how far that pretty tint extends.
“It’s good when I’m in therapy sessions. Those are designed to be private. But every time the wind blows, I wonder if it’s you.”
“’Tis not,” I say fervently. “I promised yeh I wouldnae continue after our last chat. I can be…respectful.”
Lou grins. “The monster world works a bit differently from the human world. For both of you, there are mating rituals and fated mates, and when you know, you know. It’s not quite like that for humans. We could believe we know someone is our person, and that could turn out to be wrong. It’s not foolproof, not at all. And spying ishighlyfrowned upon.”
“Yuck,” I blurt out without meaning to. I quickly tack on an apology as Connall laughs.
When Louanna looks slightly affronted, I lean forward and place my hand on her knee. “I jest mean, I cannae imagine not knowing with absolute certainty that yer mine, Louanna.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she says with a haughty lift of her chin. “You could be wrong. I’m very bratty. You might hate that.”
Connall lets out a soft growl, turning his attention to her. “As it turns out, I’m a fan of bratty.”
Her cheeks go pink as she turns to look at him.
Shifting forward, I get in her space, hovering my mouth just above hers. “Are yeh worried we’ll have no sexual chemistry, Louanna? Because I can assure yeh, it won’t be an issue.”
She looks between Connall and me, her voice soft when she speaks. “Are we doing this? Trying to figure out the whole throuple thing?”
“I think so,” Connall states simply. “We’re gonna talk more about it before anything else happens, though.”
She and I wait patiently as he looks between us.
He leans back onto his hands and focuses on Lou first. “I want to date you, Lou,” he says confidently. “Take you out, spend time together. I’d like to have time alone with you as well as time for all of us together. How do you feel about that?”
“Definitely,” she says. “Makes sense. I assume it would be the same for all of us…right? Dirk and I will date separately too. But what about…” her voice trails off as she looks between us.
“We’ll date too,” Connall says confidently. “We talked about it earlier.”
“Oof, to be a fly on that wall,” Lou says with a huffy laugh.
Connall grins at me, then refocuses on her. “Does the idea of us together do things to you, Sweetheart?”
“Yeah,” she says breathlessly. “It always has.” She glances shyly at me. “It’s part of why I held you at length for a while, to be honest. I wasn’t sure I was ready, but also…”
Connall’s nostrils flare. “You were drawn to me too.”
When she nods, he crooks a finger at her. “Come here, Lou.”
To see them together will be the ultimate pleasure.
She hesitates, looking from Connall to me and back again, uncertainty obvious in the furrow of her brow and the way she nips her lip.
