Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
“You’re not serious.”
Sloan stared at his youngest brother from across their shared rooms. “Of course I am. What do you think? I’m just making this up?”
Riley glared at him. “I am not going to do this; I’m not going across.”
It was fully winter in the human world, and Thanksgiving had come and gone. It had been yummy, and the dragons had come up to celebrate some kind of summer festival with them at the same time.
But all Sloan had been able to see was Tyr. He’d come, stayed long enough to lift a glass of honey mead, and then gone back to the bees.
Sloan understood. He did, because this was the prime time for Tyr to be working on the hives.
And he was just sitting here, learning about Lunastra and waiting for his mate. It just wasn’t reasonable, damn it. He didn’t like it. And he didn’t approve.
“I want to be with him. I need to see Tyr. He’s my mate.”
“Brayden, you’ve got to talk some sense into him!”
Brayden shrugged at Riley. “What for? I want to go too.”
Riley stared. “What?”
“Seriously. I want to go too. I want to be able to fly. I want to see how this whole thing works. There’s all manner of dragons down there, and they’re looking for the same sort of things we are.”
“Where are we supposed to stay? It’s not like there’s room for us here permanently.”
Sloan shook his head. “Tyr says we can stay with him.”
“In what? A beekeeper cottage? Is that a thing now? The beekeeper cottage?” Riley was getting strident.
“It’s summertime; maybe we can find your own space. You know you might like it. And I know that Puck and the others said we can always come and stay with them. They’ve got a whole system set up where they can play video games together.” Sloan was trying to be patient, so hard.
“But if we go, we never ever get to come back.” Riley shook his head. “What if you go down there and you realize you don’t really like this guy? What if you try to have sex with him, and you can’t get it up?”
“Don’t be nasty,” Sloan snapped. That wasn’t going to be an issue. In fact, Sloan could unequivocally make that kind of decision right now. “Not an issue.”
“Can’t you just try to—”
“No, I can’t. I don’t want to lose him. He needs me. You don’t have to come. You can stay here.”
“I’m going,” Brayden repeated, “I love you, like with all my heart, but I want to fly. I don’t want to hide anymore.
I want to be able to do this.” Brayden waved a hand toward the dragon side of the house.
“Just be a dragon out there doing dragon things. I’ll explore something new.
I want to learn and meet people and watch little dragons grow up.
Maybe have a mate of my own one day. Maybe have kids of my own.
I don’t think that’s unreasonable to want. ”
“You’re not scared?”
“Of course I’m scared, Ri, but that’s part of living. I know how to be scared.”
Sloan nodded to Brayden, following right along.
“I was scared the first time I saw a vampire. The first time I fought one. There have been hundreds of times in my life where I’ve been terrified.
That’s okay. Because sometimes I want to be totally overjoyed too, like totally in it.
Did you ever want that? Just be able to get out of your own head? ”
Riley shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know if I want it every day.”
“You can stay here. I mean, you’re welcome here. You’re welcome to leave.” He hated this whole thing. He didn’t want any of this to happen. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too.
“Okay. Can you give me just a little bit more time? A month?”
He found himself nodding, even though he knew he would regret it. Because he’d asked for that himself, hadn’t he? “All right, but if you don’t come on then, I’m going with you or without you.”
“Deal.” Riley held out his hand.
“Deal.”
Tyr headed up to the mountain, flying as fast and as hard as he could.
It was early in the morning, just barely breaking dawn, but his beehives had come to him in a panic. He had lost two queens in the last two weeks, and his scales were beginning to shatter and flake off.
He wasn’t going to have this.
He flew straight up to the conservatory and started banging hard on the window, making it rattle. “Sloan! I need you! I need you now. Come to the door.”
The place woke up, buzzing and furious, but then Sloan was there, looking sleepy and dazed.
“You have to come. You have to come now. We’re killing the bees.”
“What?”
He showed a couple of bad spots, the sores that were forming on his hands and his feet. “My scales are coming off. The bees are dying. I need my mate, and if you can’t come then… you have to. You have to come.”
Everyone stared, and for a horrifying moment, he realized that maybe this was over, that Sloan would say no.
Maybe he was going to die.
Him and his bees. His poor beloved bees. Because he wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t… mate enough for Sloan to convince his brothers to come with him and make a home in Tyr’s village and for Sloan to choose him and—
Sloan looked just as bad, he realized. Those beautiful two-color eyes were dull, his dark red hair limp and flat, his skin almost gray.
His brothers stood behind him, and Tyr wanted to wail and stamp and rattle, but what if his scales fell off?
“I have to go, Riley,” Sloan said, turning so he was half facing his brothers. “I gave you a month, but I can’t do this anymore. It’s one thing for me to be sick. It’s another for my mate to be fading and to be killing the bees.”
Sloan didn’t wait for an answer. He just stepped through the door at the end of the conservatory and reached for Tyr.
As soon as they made contact, Tyr cried out and fell to his knees, pulling Sloan down with him. The delicious relief from the pain, from the ache that had turned to a daily grind of agony, made him pant.
“Oh, love. I’m so sorry.” Sloan held him, letting him lean into that hard body, but he knew Sloan was hurting too. He could feel it now. Under his skin, humming in his head like his bees.
Sloan.
Tyr’s dragon popped out of him without a single thought, and he wrapped his wings around his mate, holding on, surrounding Sloan and defending him.
I’ve come to take you home. The brothers could come or go as they would. It didn’t matter. He didn’t care. Can you fly?
Brayden was beaming at them through the window. “I’m going to go get all of our shit. I’ll bring it all down maybe in a day or two. We’ll give you some time to bond, but we’re coming.”
Sloan nodded once, shrugged. “You do you, brother. I’m home now.”
Tyr roared, a wild, happy sound that had never, ever come out of his body in his entire lifetime. It was pure joy and victory and relief all braided up into one to make a shining plait of peace.
Now it’s time to go home. He nudged Sloan with his muzzle. Can you fly?
For you, I could change worlds. Sloan shifted, and suddenly he realized how much larger his alpha dragon was than him. Sloan was massive, the size of Hawk or possibly Gavin. Maybe even Caderyn.
Maybe not.
Sloan was beautiful—a stunning mixture of crimsons and the sea and emeralds.
And when Sloan stretched his wings, it was a glorious sight.
As they took off, he heard Brayden’s wild whoop.
I promise we’ll be down to visit you in a few days. We’ll fly down.
Yes. Fly. Sloan’s pleasure was palpable, ringing in his belly like sipping a glass of cold mead on a hot day.
They made a beeline for the cottage, landing softly and, as they did, the bees swarmed them—dancing and buzzing and rejoicing that Sloan had come home.
They’re huge. Sloan’s eyes were as big as saucers.
They are amazing. They say welcome. You’ll learn their language. They’re so happy you’re home. Almost as happy as I am.
He let his dragon go, shrinking down, holding out his hands so that his beloved family could gather his strength and the fact that balance was restored to their home.
“I—” Suddenly, he was worried. What if Sloan didn’t love his cottage? “Welcome home?”
Sloan’s dragon fell off as well, and he grabbed Tyr’s hands. “Thank you, love. It’s amazing.” Sloan looked at his stone cottage with its thatched roof and leaded glass windows, just beaming.
“Come inside and see where we’ll sleep.”
“Yes.” Sloan let Tyr lead him inside, looking about at everything, his curiosity intense and palpable.
The inside of the hive was intended to be cozy.
He didn’t understand the idea that so many dragons had of large rooms with nothing contained in them. His home was a warren of one little room after another—all big enough for a dragon of course, so in human form they felt spacious.
Each cell led into another, the curved doorways opening into new rooms and, as he took Sloan deeper into the hive, he felt more and more alive. The kitchen was in the back, and it was full of light and windows that were left open if it was warm enough for the bees to come in and visit.
There were rooms for reading and rooms for tea and rooms for bathing. There were rooms for company and for playing games and for storage, and he led Sloan up a set of stairs into the lofted living area wherein they could see all of the cells underneath and appreciate the lovely maze of his home.
He smiled at Sloan, their fingers intertwined. “This is the sleeping area.”
There was a huge, decadent, soft bed, a place to rest and hide from the world, the windows offering an amazing view of the mountains.
“Oh, I like it. Your home is gorgeous.”
“Our home,” he corrected.
“Our home. Lovely. You made a beehive.”
He shrugged. “I’m a beekeeper. I want them to feel at home, and I feel perfectly so here. Do you like it?” Please like it.
It’s fascinating. Do you think there can be rooms for me?
Of course. Of course we can make rooms for you. We can build up or we can build down. We like to build down, especially for the winter. We’ll travel down there later. And you can explore and bring your hoard here.