Spooks & Specters: A San DeLain Short Story Collection

Chapter One

Hudson stepped into his hoard, a frown on his face. The wedding band question had been preying on his mind for several days now, and he was still no closer to an answer than he was before.

From the research Connie had done, wedding bands seemed to be a human thing. Kit hadn’t said anything about them, but they were having a human wedding. Why wouldn’t he want that? Hudson didn’t have a problem with wearing the ring, although it would have to be spelled so it didn’t shatter when he transformed. Same for Connie.

He wanted to surprise Kit—and Connie, although he was pretty sure Connie knew what he had planned. Connie was the one who’d done the research, after all, but that was his thing. He liked research. It was one of the reasons he was an excellent Right Hand.

“So, if I was a human mated to a dragon, what kind of wedding band would I want?”

Hudson mused as he walked among the treasures in his hoard.

He honestly had no idea what Kit would want, and trying to put himself into Kit’s shoes was not helping.

His mate owned a lot of costume jewelry, but Hudson had never noticed any similarities in what Kit owned. In other words, there wasn’t a certain color or shape Kit tended to gravitate toward.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Here lately Kit had become obsessed with pearls, but that was most likely due to the pearl body chain Hudson had gifted him. From what he’d heard, pearls seemed to figure prominently in their wedding too.

Hudson stopped at a chest full of gems, thinking. The pearls on top of the mound of stones glistened in the light. “Hmmm. The stone for the wedding bands could be pearls.”

After a moment of consideration, Hudson pulled his cell phone out and googled what pearls represented. “They can symbolize many things, including love, purity, wisdom, and luck. The meaning of pearls is also varied depending on the occasion, the recipient’s taste, and the color of the pearl.”

Hudson slipped his phone back into his pocket. He liked the idea of using pearls, but he also knew they were delicate. Pretty, but delicate. They were “soft”

gems. He didn’t like the idea that whatever gem they went with could possibly erode over time.

There was nothing soft about him, Connie… or Kit, for that matter.

His very human mate had withstood a very traumatic introduction to the paranormal world. There was nothing soft about Kit, so Hudson discarded the idea of using pearls. That gem didn’t fit them.

From across the way, another stone caught his eye, and he wandered over to that chest. The fire opal was a beautiful gem also. They symbolized the joys of the heart.

Kit and Connie definitely brought joy to Hudson’s heart. The gem was rumored to attract money—which was always a plus in Hudson’s opinion. But it was also somewhat delicate, same as pearls.

Hudson let it fall back into the chest. From the corner of his eye, a red flash caught his attention, and he turned. The large ruby Kit had commented on the last time he was in there was still sitting where he had placed it.

Bending, Hudson examined it. Rubies had always been his favorite stone. He was drawn to red, of course, but he was especially drawn to the sharp and brilliant red color of rubies.

Pulling his phone out again, he googled the meaning of rubies. “Okay, they can symbolize love and commitment—rubies are a popular choice for wedding rings because of that.”

Hudson glanced at the stone. So far so good.

“And passion—the ruby’s intense red color can evoke emotions of passion, energy, and life.”

He liked those traits too.

“What else? Oh. A ruby’s lush color can signify wealth and success.”

That was another point for using a ruby.

“And finally, protection—rubies have been used in protective amulets.”

His dragon liked that selling point the most.

“And would you look at that. Rubies are as resilient as sapphires and only slightly softer than diamonds, meaning they are among the toughest and most enduring gemstones known to mankind. That’s perfect, then. Rubies it is.”

He could use the ruby Kit had found, but he didn’t want to break it up. Instead, he rummaged around in another chest until he found a pile of rubies and colorless diamonds. All of them were of the highest grade and small, which would be perfect for wedding bands.

The stones sparkled in the light, and Hudson grinned. Oh yes, he liked this idea the most. Maybe there would be enough left over for him to make a matching bracelet for Kit too. Now for the design. He turned his attention to his phone and wedding bands, and by Gaura, why were there so many? Just picture after picture after picture after picture.

This… this was turning out to be harder than he’d imagined. There were just so many choices. Damn. Maybe he should talk to Kit. What if his mate didn’t want small stones? What if Kit wanted a big rock that stuck up on his finger? He’d seen Kit wear both. And he wanted his mate to be happy with whatever he wore.

Hudson tugged on the braid next to his face, irritated. He desperately wanted this to be a surprise, but he really needed Kit’s input. For that matter, Connie deserved to have a say on this also. He sighed, discouraged.

He really didn’t care what the bands looked like, one way or the other. There was already a soul bond between the three of them, so the outside trappings of a human marriage weren’t that important to him.

But they were to Kit.

Decision made, Hudson left his hoard. After he secured the entrance, he placed the stones he’d retrieved in a small box in their walk-in closet.

Kit and Connie had gone for a jog that morning, so they should be home soon. Such an activity wasn’t something Hudson cared about, but his mates did.

AN HOUR later, Kit and Connie returned. Hudson was sitting on the back patio, enjoying a cup of coffee while he waited. He heard them joking and laughing as they entered the bedroom.

Connie stuck his head through the doorway. “We’re back. We’re going to take a shower, and then we’ll be right out.”

“Quickly, please. There’s something I want to talk to the both of you about.”

Kit popped up beside Connie. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course. You would’ve known if there was something wrong, remember?”

The bond the three of them shared made it pretty hard to hide their emotions. It could be done, but it was also obvious when one of them restricted emotional responses too.

“I know. I’m just checking.”

Kit shrugged. “You’re looking serious there.”

“He has his thinking face on,”

Connie said, staring at Hudson.

Hudson chuckled.

“Thinking face, huh?”

Kit winked at Hudson. “Well, hold that thought, whatever it is, and we’ll be back shortly. Unless, of course, you want to join us?”

“Then it’ll be even longer before we can talk about this idea I have,”

Hudson said. “And this is something you’re really going to want to talk about.”

“Tease!”

Kit mock yelled. “That is completely unfair, I just want you to know.”

Hudson made a show of checking his watch.

“Fine! We’re going!”

Kit grabbed Connie by the arm and pulled him toward the bathroom.

Hudson was pretty sure he heard Kit mumbling under his breath about damn dragons. Pleased with himself, he watched his two mates hurry off. He’d never been one to tease, but since Kit had come into their lives, he found himself sometimes unable to resist.

Kit brought joy into Hudson’s life.

He frowned. No, that wasn’t entirely right. When it had been just him and Connie, he’d been happy. But Kit brought a playfulness out in Hudson that he hadn’t been aware he’d had. Maybe he was somewhat stuffy, as he had been accused, but Kit made Hudson take the time to enjoy his life.

Being a royal—and being responsible for a court—didn’t often leave time for fun and games.

It wasn’t unheard of for a queen or king to be challenged for the right to rule a court, although it had been close to a hundred years since something like that had last happened, and it had been overseas too.

Two powerful, ancient dragons battling for dominance was never a good thing. Lives were lost every single time. If a royal was ousted from the throne, his or her inner circle was normally killed, along with any mates or hatchlings. It was gruesome, to say the least. Same thing happened to the challenger if they lost.

It was serious, deadly business that, thank Guara, didn’t happen often. But it was always something on the very outermost edge of his consciousness, the knowledge that one day he could be challenged, and that he could lose. Fortunately, as far as he knew, there weren’t too many Ancient royal red dragons wandering around who were courtless.

Hudson heard his two mates walking toward the patio where he sat. Shoving away those repulsive thoughts, he turned his mind back to the more pleasurable things he’d been thinking about.

Kit was dressed in some sort of blue jeans coverall outfit and was barefoot. He’d washed his hair and braided it wet. Hudson had seen Kit do that a few times, and his hair always looked wavy when it dried and was unbraided. Hudson debated doing it to his to see what it would look like.

Connie was dressed in khaki shorts, sandals, and a short-sleeved light blue shirt.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Kit asked, taking the seat next to Hudson, setting his coffee mug on the table.

“What’s going on?”

Connie asked, sitting on the other side of Hudson, coffee in hand.

Hudson didn’t know how to broach the subject, so he just jumped straight in. “Connie has done research into human weddings.”

Kit raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

“Yes,”

Connie said.

“He’s emailed me some of his notes on the traditions of a human wedding, which brings me to the subject at hand….”

Again, how was he to broach this?

“And that subject at hand is?”

Kit teased.

“Wedding bands.”

Hudson cleared his throat. “Humans like to wear wedding bands, so Connie and I were wondering if that was something you were interested in. If you are, we would be happy to take part in that tradition.”

There. He’d put that rather nicely, if he did say so himself.

“Damn straight I’m interested, and damn straight the two of you are going to wear a wedding band too. I know paranormals will know we’re mated thanks to scent, but humans won’t know that,”

Kit declared. “And I can’t have you two sexy men walking around without any sort of ownership claim on you.”

“I’m all for wearing an ownership claim,”

Connie declared, grinning at Kit.

“As am I,”

Hudson added.

“That sounded way more possessive than I meant for it to,” Kit said.

Hudson raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, so maybe I meant it to sound like that. But good grief, have you two seen yourselves? Every time we go somewhere, I’m having to beat the twinks off you two with a stick.”

“And a wedding band will make a difference?”

Hudson asked, completely confused.

Where were these twinks that Kit was supposedly beating off him and Connie? He hadn’t noticed anyone flirting with him or his mates. His dragon certainly would have had something to say about that.

“Well, no, but it’ll make a difference to me,”

Kit declared.