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SAMUEL COULD SEE THAT Thorne was hesitant. Hell, anyone could have seen that Thorne was hesitant. It made sense. He was human, and unlike mages, he’d never expected to be able to fly on a dragon. Hell, before meeting the mages, he hadn’t even known dragons existed.

But he did now. It was a pity that he’d never been taken flying. Samuel understood why. When the dragons had arrived at the castle, they’d been focused on their mages and on Carlyle. Usually, after a dragon became a mage’s shield, they never flew with anyone else again. The relationship between a mage and their dragon was too close for that. In fact, they usually fell in love.

Samuel shuddered. He couldn’t think of anything worse than tying himself to someone like that. He’d had relationships before, but tying his soul to another person was something he’d never liked the thought of. He wanted his soul to be his own, thank you very much, and he’d seen enough relationships break down to know that he was right to feel that way. A lot of people thought that mages and dragons were designed to be together and whatnot, and that once they were, they would never break apart, but that was bullshit. They did break apart sometimes, and someone got hurt.

Samuel didn’t want to be the person who got hurt.

He knew that he would be eventually if he had a relationship. That was how things went, and he was willing to deal with it, just not by tying his soul to someone else. Give him a relationship with a dragon any day, and he would be happy.

Or maybe a relationship with a human or two.

He grinned at the thought. He had both Matthias and Thorne right where he wanted them. He hadn’t even realized that was where he wanted them until recently, but he couldn’t deny it anymore.

The reason he’d been so annoyed with Thorne was that he wanted to kiss him. Well, both him and Matthias, possibly at the same time. He didn’t think either of them would go for anything else. He knew he didn’t want to.

But he had to be cautious. He didn’t know what they would think about something like that, and he didn’t want to ruin everything before it even started.

He gave Thorne what he knew was a smile that usually worked with most people. He saw Thorne blink, and he knew he had him.

“Come fly with us,” he gently urged. “I won’t let you fall.”

“I know,” Thorne croaked. He was staring at Samuel, and Samuel wondered what he was thinking. Was he finally realizing that Samuel was attractive? Samuel hoped so.

He’d always thought that Thorne was hot, but the man had been annoying on the best of days, so he’d dismissed the thought. Now, he realized that the man had been annoying because he’d hit all the right buttons. He wanted to find out what made Thorne tick. He wanted to ruffle the man, and he had been, although not in the way he preferred. Now that he knew how he felt, though, he felt ready for the challenge.

“I promise it’s fine,” Matthias said. “And you really can trust Samuel.” He turned to Samuel. “Can you fly both of us at the same time?”

“Of course. I could fly an entire family and still be okay.”

“No reason to brag,” Thorne drawled. “We know you’re strong.”

Samuel gave him a wicked smile. “Oh? You’ve been thinking about how strong I am?”

That was enough to fluster Thorne. He opened his mouth, then closed it and looked away. His throat worked as he finally looked back at Samuel. “Well? You offered to take me flying. When are we doing it?”

Samuel grinned. “We can do it whenever you want.”

He could hear the double meaning in his words, and he was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one. Thorne’s cheeks turned a light pink, which was delightful. At the same time, though, he stepped closer, and Samuel knew he’d won. “Let’s go,” Thorne said.

Samuel knew this was significant. Matthias had seemingly trusted him since the first time, but Thorne didn’t. Hell, he didn’t trust Samuel to pick up his things, and he wasn’t wrong. Samuel had been making an effort, though, and he’d been talking to Thorne a lot more. It was gratifying to realize that had worked. Thorne trusted him enough to go flying with him, and Samuel loved that.

“You’re going to have the time of your life,” he promised Thorne.

Thorne rolled his eyes. “For now, all I’m hearing is a lot of promises and not a lot of action.”

He wanted action? Samuel was going to give him action.

Samuel stretched again the way he had earlier. He didn’t miss the way Thorne’s gaze flickered briefly to his stomach, and he grinned, delighted. This whole thing was going to be fun. Samuel still didn’t know what Matthias and Thorne would think of the three of them being together, but he would find out.

It happened a lot more often within dragon clans than it did in the human world, from what he knew. A lot of dragons wanted to become a shield and dedicate their life to one mage, but other dragons were just like Samuel. They either didn’t want that or hadn’t found the right mage yet, and in the meantime, they lived their lives. They had relationships with one or more people. They built families. Samuel’s mother had always wanted him to find a mage, but Samuel had never seen the appeal. He was glad he hadn’t now, because he wouldn’t have met these two delightful men.

He shifted. Matthias had seen his dragon form often enough by now not to be fazed by it, but Thorne still took a step back. He didn’t look afraid, which was good because he didn’t have a reason to be, but he did look a bit hesitant, so Samuel decided that he needed to show he wasn’t dangerous.

He plopped himself down on the ground and put his head on his paws. He gave Thorne a blink, trying to make himself look as innocent as he could. He wasn’t sure he got the result he wanted, but he got a result, which was better than nothing.

Thorne snorted. “You shouldn’t look like a kitten, yet somehow, you’ve managed to. I almost want to scratch you on the stomach.”