Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
“Okay, so you’re telling me that you’re the guardian of the village.” Sloan was sitting down with Cade, who Tyr had introduced him to, in order to discuss security. Because he couldn’t just leave his whole life behind; he was built to be a protector.
“Yes, I think you could say I’m sort of like the local police. Is that what your people called it on Earth in the human realm?”
“Sure. I mean yeah, that’s what they’re called, but you’re not, like, meant to keep other beings from coming through the portal.”
“No, that is Cosmo and Cullen and Corbin’s job. They have the guardianship of the veil. I watch over the village, and now I have help because some of the big alphas from up at the Rocky Mountain clutch are doing flyovers with me and taking shifts.”
“All right.” He pondered that because he wasn’t entirely sure what he would do to make himself useful around the village.
He’d met a lot of dragons at the tavern the other night when he and Tyr and his brothers had gone to dinner, and all of them had been incredibly friendly except for Harden.
They’d seemed a little bit suspicious, but everyone had also made it very clear that they really didn’t know what to do with them.
It was awkward, and he really wanted to find a way to be helpful so that assimilating into dragon society was a little bit easier.
“What can I do to help?” he asked.
“Well, my thought is that you and your brothers can patrol the area between us and the seaside village, which is something that I have trouble covering. It seems prudent to do it that way because Tyr is your mate and his sister lives down in that village. Therefore, they would be more likely to accept your family as helpful.” This big guy was hilariously pedantic.
Sloan raised an eyebrow, a habit that he knew his brothers really hated, even though they did it themselves. “Do they not have a watch?”
“They do, but they’re mer-dragons for the most part. and they patrol the seas. They don’t necessarily take to the skies very often, and I think that it’s a dangerous situation to leave themselves that open.” Cade got this stubborn look on his face.
And that was fair enough. Sloan appreciated the idea that Cade was willing to let him horn in on the man’s business essentially. “I think that sounds very decent, and like something that my brothers and I can do, for sure.”
Cade chuckled. “I think your brother Riley’s occupation is going to be causing trouble.”
“He didn’t mean to set the fire.” Riley had been experimenting with his flame because in the human realm it had been awfully hard to do anything without being noticed.
He’d been melting a rock, which then had set a little bit of a blaze in the meadow area.
Which was easily put out by one of the water dragons, but it was still kind of a scare.
“I know this well, and the elders were not upset. It’s perfectly understandable that a dragon who is new to our world and to being free with showing who they are is going to experiment. But you have to admit Riley is the one of you who is quick to do things without thinking.” Cade sipped his mead.
“Oh, that is very diplomatic of you.” Sloan chuckled, his amusement catching up with him in a hurry, surprised him a little bit. He had always been sort of a serious type of dragon. “Riley will learn, and I promise you that he will not set any more fires if I can help it.”
“Hmm, I’m not so much worried about the next fire. I think that the next crisis will be him squabbling with a couple of the young bucks I saw him chest thumping with at the tavern last night.”
“Damn, he was at the tavern again?” Riley was really searching for entertainment.
He was used to being able to find places to go even if they were out in the middle of nowhere and have a couple of hours of companionship and forgetfulness.
He was finding that challenging here because everybody knew everybody’s business.
“He’ll learn. If he doesn’t, one of us older dragons will teach him a slight lesson. I hope that won’t be a problem?”
“No, Brayden and I have tried over the years, and we’re his brothers. It really just rolls off his back like water off a duck.”
“And what is a duck? I do not think I have seen this. Is it like the chickens?”
“Not exactly. Ducks are birds like the chickens, but they are water birds and they fly but they also swim really well, and they have this waxy coating to their feathers that keeps them from getting waterlogged. Sort of like the birds that I’ve seen swimming in the lake as I fly over.
” They had seemed pretty much like ducks, though larger.
“Yes! Those birds, I’m told, arrived during a veil crossing some thousand years ago. Maybe longer. We never knew what to call them so we gave them a name. They are orelas.”
“I like that. We call them ducks, but that’s okay.
We can learn to call them orelas.” In fact, he was learning that there were new names for lots of things that seemed familiar.
There was a lot of crossover between Lunastra and Earth, except that the magic here was so strong that it was really taking some getting used to.
“They are lovely creatures.” Cade sighed. “This is very good mead. I assume that Tyr brewed it.”
They were sitting outside at a little stand at the edge of the village, eating pies and drinking said mead.
“I think so, yes. This actually tastes like an outer hive. It’s spicy.” He was learning the bees so fast.
Cade slapped his hand on the table. “I am so glad to see you taking an interest in Tyr’s hives. He’s been a bit lonely for some time.”
“That’s sad, but I adore him, so he’s not lonely any longer.”
Cade nodded, seeming very pleased for his friend. “He needed someone to focus mainly on him. Please love him as he deserves.”
“I will.” That was a solemn vow. “I brought my brothers here because of him, and one wasn’t sure he wanted to come.”
“I believe that Riley will find his place here. The younger dragons will take him in, and soon he will be loving his life.”
“I hope so. Should I have Tyr introduce me to his sister’s family?”
Cade nodded to him. “That would be wise. He and Aleana are very close, and he cares for her very much.”
“And his brother?” He was desperately curious to know the situation there, but Tyr never seemed interested in discussing it.
“Tyr and his twin were so close, and they had a terrible row. For all they were born together and raised together, there are not two more different dragons in all of Lunastra.”
Twins? That surprised him. “Is he unkind?”
Cade shook his head immediately, and that made Sloan feel better.
Tyr was so decent; he’d hate to know his twin was a bastard.
“No, no, no. Tyr’s so in tune with nature that his entire world ebbs and flows with the bees and the sun and the honey.
In the winter, he is lazy and jolly and often visits.
But in the summer, he is busy, constantly working from dawn to dusk and then sleeping. You must know this.”
Sloan nodded. He was well aware. There were days that he felt like he barely saw Tyr, but he couldn’t complain, because Tyr was obviously so happy and so busy.
“Tor is pure magic,” Cade continued after another long swig of mead.
“The seasons mean nothing to him. Nature means nothing to him. He is a sorcerer, and I believe he feels as if Tyr is wasting his talents by being a beekeeper. I think that if Tor saw Tyr now, after so many years, see how he’s growing his hives and how he’s created this amazing life for himself?
Then Tor would understand. But.” Cade shrugged.
“That is neither here nor there. He is in the city, and Tyr will not go to the city.”
“I can understand that.” Of course, he’d never seen the cities here—and he was curious, desperately—but he could understand Tyr not going, even if they weren’t the size of cities that he had seen, like Denver, for instance.
He couldn’t imagine his sweet gentle beekeeper in a city surrounded by thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dragons.
Cade smiled at him. “Yes. I imagine that you do understand. No. Tyr is special and needs to be with his bees. They have bonded, and their health is tied to his.”
“Yes.” He still felt so bad about the ones Tyr had lost due to his stubbornness. Well, due to his indulging Riley’s stubbornness. But Riley was his baby brother, and he protected his brothers, often to his own detriment.
He was still learning about having a mate.
“You are going to figure this out, Sloan. Poe still has moments of confusion, and he was not nearly as in the modern world as you all were. Your Riley is like the Cuelebres. Puck and Andy and Jules.”
“Yeah, he’s been spending a lot of time with them. I think that’s good for him. Better than the tavern.”
“Mmm.” Cade toasted him. “So have you explored your home?”
“Sure. I mean, I’ve been in every room. I think.”
“Ah, but have you thought about what you want out of it.”
Sloan raised his eyebrows. “What does that mean?”
Cade chuckled, nibbling at a bite of some sort of cheese.
“The house. Think about what sort of space you want for yourself. Really ponder it. Then sit and meditate on it while you’re in the house.
You might be amazed. Tyr has been alone in that house for some time.
But you can help make it a space that works for both of you. ”
He felt a little surge of something like panic. “He’s so happy. I don’t want to change his house.”
“Sloan. You are his mate. He will want to make certain that you are happy there as well. This is not an inn you are staying at. You are not a guest in someone’s home.
This is yours as well.” Cade waved a hand.
“I lived in the bachelor quarters in the village forever. When I left my parents’ home. But Poe and I made a house together.”
He thought about that. Hard. “I’ll put my mind to it then. If it’s expected.”
“It is. Just be… deliberate. Thoughtful.” Cade smiled, his face lighting up. “It’s wonderful being mated. Trust me.”
“Oh, that I believe very much.” Sloan adored Tyr already, and he loved knotting the sweet dragon. That was something he could never see himself tiring of. But they also played games, just the two of them and with his brothers. They read together. Tyr taught him how to work the bees.
It was lovely, and he could imagine them tucked up together in the winter, snuggling and enjoying lazy nights. And making love.
“Now all you have to do is focus on your home and create your special connection.”
He sighed softly, still a bit confused. “I suppose I should come see some homes that aren’t local.”
Cade nodded. “That seems wise. You are welcome to come see our home, of course. There is an upstairs and a downstairs.” He frowned, shook his head. “No. A belowground and an aboveground.”
“Do you mean a basement?”
“I don’t know basement.”
Sloan tried to explain with “Like under the ground? Like literally?”
Cade nodded eagerly. “Yes. There’s my own private space. Tanya can come down, but not the babies. The babies are too small.”
“That makes perfect sense. Babies don’t have any reason to be belowground.”
“You’re very right. Especially now, my babies, the boys, are ’bunctuous.”
“Are they? I’ve heard that many times young boys can be rambunctious.” Sloan loved this, loved the way that their cultures were combining. Joining and twisting together. It was perfect. “I wonder if Tyr’s home has an under the ground.”
That might be a situation that he would be able to use to his advantage.
Cade tilted his head, blinked at him. “You said you’d seen all over the house.”
He nodded.
“Well, then you would know whether there was an under the ground.”
“Don’t complicate matters, man.”
Cade laughed, the sound merry. “Ah, let’s see. You could build a forge under the ground. A library. A training salle, anything you wanted.”
He did love how Cade thought. It was at once so pedantic and serious, but then somehow innocent and young. You could be a blacksmith, you could be a warrior, you could be anything you wanted. Here, make a space.
He grabbed another piece of salty, barely tinged violet cheese and smiled. “All right then. We have a plan.”