Page 76 of Gray

I stood from the chair and went over to Gray, slipping my arms beneath him and lifting him up from the rug. He instantly latched on to me—arms going around my neck and face resting on my collar, legs dangling at my sides.

“Mason,” he sleepily murmured, nuzzling me. “My Mason.”

A lump wedged in my throat.

So many questions buzzed in my head. But one thing I knew for sure? Leaving Gray wasn’t happening.

***

“He likes you,” Gray said, poking me with Dino-Pete. He pressed the tip of the thing to my lips. “Boop.”

“Did you just make him kiss me?”

He giggled and did it again. We were cuddling on his bed after he’d woken from his evening nap. And damn he looked adorable when he first woke up, hair disheveled and eyes still a bit sleepy.

“Are we ever going to talk about the bomb Alastair dropped on us yesterday?”

Gray had managed to distract me every time I’d tried bringing up the topic of mates, twice by attacking me and fucking my brains out. Another time, he ran outside, spread his wings, and flew away.

“Al dropped a bomb?” Gray blinked, exaggerating his innocence. “I don’t know what you mean.” He poked my cheek with the Dino dick-o-saurus. “Know what would be funny? If we bought you a dinosaur onesie. I could wear my sloth one. We’d look so cute.”

“No.”

“You didn’t even think about it.” He pouted.

“You just want me to wear it so you can act out your dinosaur fantasies on me. Hard pass.”

Gray laughed and put Dino-Pete back on the nightstand before laying his head on my chest, eyes darting to the TV in front of the bed. He had put on an anime with the same silver-haired character that was on his pillowcase. I had no idea what was going on in the show since he was watching it in Japanese.

“Aren’t there usually English subtitles?” I asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t need them. I’m fluent in Japanese.”

“Really?” I peered down at him.

“Mhm. I can also speak Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, French, and a ton more languages. One of the benefits of living so long. Oh! You’re probably lost, then, huh?” He grabbed the controller and adjusted the settings on the show, displaying the subtitles. “There you go. Sorry.”

“Gray.” I tipped his chin up and forced his eyes back to mine. “Nice try with the distraction. We need to—”

“Talk, I know. About the mate thing.” He huffed and rolled in the other direction to face away from me. “Al was a jerk and told you before I could. I wasn’t trying to keep it from you though. I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“So you knew I was your mate?”

“Kinda. I was like ninety percent sure you were. Bellamy has your eyes.”

“Bellamy has brown eyes,” I said, confused. Mine were a lighter russet shade, not the same at all. “They look like yours actually.”

Gray puffed out another hard breath. “That just confirms it, then. Part of Lust’s power is his eyes turn to whatever color the viewer finds most attractive. And if that person has a mate, his eyes change to that color. So you seeing my eyes and me seeing yours kinda confirms we’re mates.”

“Oh.” My chest got tight again.

“Are you mad?”

“No. I’m just…”

“Overwhelmed?” he said after a handful of seconds.

Exhale. “Yeah.”