Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
Ababy.
They were going to have a baby.
Sloan accepted congratulations all night at the fall festival. He ran a lot of interference for poor Tyr, who was overwhelmed, and who wanted to just enjoy himself.
Shit, he even enlisted Brayden and Harden and Cade to help when it was time to dance.
He wanted to give Tyr his perfect night, dammit.
Tyr was standing at the edge of the dance area, tapping his foot and sipping his tea, when Sloan finally came to him.
Sloan slipped his mask down over his face, pulled out the fall flower Harden had handed him to give his mate, and moved to bow in front of Tyr with a flourish.
“Good dragon, may I have this dance?”
Tyr’s lips parted, and a rush of pleasure and desire flooded their bond. “I would love nothing more. Nothing, sir dragon.”
“Wonderful.” He handed over the flower, which Tyr tucked into a little loop on his tunic, and he pulled his mate out into the throng of villagers. The music reminded him of a ren faire, and he got the steps pretty quickly, so off they went.
Tyr’s happiness was like a drug, and he sipped at it, letting himself become drunk on the emotions, the pure joy that his lover fed him.
I could dance with you for an eternity, he vowed.
I accept. I will dance with you until you stop asking.
Never. He swept Tyr around gently. His mate was not yet showing signs of morning sickness or any other time sickness, but he didn’t want to bring it on, either.
Not that he was going to treat his sturdy mate like spun glass, but he wanted to show some care.
And he kept their gazes locked, letting Tyr know he was so very desired.
Tyr’s pupils flared, and Sloan stole a quick kiss, letting it burn for a brief second and set them both alight.
Hand gripping his, Tyr danced with him, joy shining from him, his braids swinging, his scales rattling. Sloan had never seen anything more lovely, and he was damn happy to have given Tyr this night the way he’d dreamed of it.
The crowd was beginning to thin, couples sneaking off away from the fire.
Where are they going?
Tyr chuckled softly. Where do you think? They’re finding a quiet piece of grass.
Oh, he wasn’t sure he approved. He didn’t need to be bedding his pregnant mate on the cold grass. No. They had a luxurious bed with blankets and light and pillows.
Somewhere he could easily feed his mate in the morning and pamper him.
Laughing, Tyr put a hand on Sloan’s chest. “You should see your face.”
“I’m wearing a mask.”
“But I can still see what you think of that. We’ll have to take all of our trade goods home anyway. Some need to go into cold storage. But we can dance a while longer, yes?”
“Yes. I want to show you off.” He let a possessive growl enter his voice.
Tyr’s cheeks went pink, and the smile he got was so pleased. It never ceased to amaze him how easily he could make his mate smile for him, and how hard it had been to deny himself his sweet mate’s presence.
He’d kind of been an idiot.
Your brothers needed some time. It was… It was a good thing. Tyr glanced over to where Harden and Brayden were dancing, spinning in a wild circle. I think maybe even a very good thing.
I’m not sure that Harden is the right one for Brayden. He’s very gentle, my brother.
Unless he was hunting vampires, of course, and then he was kind of a raging psychopath.
It was kind of a win-win situation when it got right down to it.
I think it will be what it will be. It is not our decision to make.
True. Sloan chuckled, turning them again. You have a way of getting to the heart of things.
Sloan knew he overthought things. Within his family unit, he was the planner. He was the one who figured out where they were going and what they were doing. So he was used to telling his brothers what for, he guessed.
I think that’s the bees. His Tyr grinned at him. They are definite, and they don’t worry about things. Even the queens don’t really.
That’s kind of amazing.
Yes, it is. Tyr pressed against him, body rippling and shifting to the music. So are you.
Sloan moaned softly, his hands immediately finding Tyr’s waist.
That was obviously his cue to stop thinking.
He stopped talking about bees and simply enjoyed the glory that was his sparkly dragon.
He would remember this night for his entire life. This was his first harvest festival with his Tyr. The first time that he knew they had a baby coming. The first time he got to dance with Tyr. The first time he saw Tyr dressed up in fancy clothing. His first communal feast.
Suddenly he found himself buzzing, so excited for the autumn, for the winter. For the fallow time where they could just be together.
Sloan grabbed Tyr’s hand and spun him around, the feathers and gems and fringe just swirling and sparkling in the firelight.
Tyr laughed out loud, so tickled, he thought, eyes sparkling for him. “Love! You’re so happy. I can feel it through our bond.”
“I can feel you too.” They didn’t do enough of this. But they would. And he wanted right now, just now, to be as perfect as it could be, so no more regrets needed to intrude.
The light, happy music began to slow, the fire allowed to bank a bit, offering privacy and shadows to steal long, lazy kisses.
Finally, Tyr leaned against him, sighing, another dance done, another cup of cider consumed. “I think we should go home, Sloan. This costume is getting heavy, and I want to soak with you in our pool.”
“That sounds perfect, love.” He took Tyr by the hand and led him back to the wagon, where all manner of new trade goods had appeared.
He helped Tyr load up into the wagon, and then they got the bocapal moving. It was a slow, easy ride back toward the cottage, the bocapal swaying back and forth, Tyr’s pair well-trained and happy.
The moon was full and heavy, a bright blue hanging low in the sky. It was chilly but not cold yet, and Sloan couldn’t help but smile as Tyr snuggled into his arm.
They were almost home, clearing the gentle hill that led down into the hives when the bocapal stopped short.
He blinked, stunned to find the reason the beast had stopped were these huge, white creatures which were kind of half stumbling, half fluttering across a field. His entire body tensed, and his mate sat up, looking around.
“Tyr?”
“They’re harmless. The orbloks are migrating. Coming up from the coldest climes. See how they’re so pale?” Tyr smiled, leaning back into him.
“But are they bats? Do they fly?”
“Oh, yes. They can fly. Right now, they’re exhausted and feeding.
Notice the bits of straw that are left, the seeds that are still in the field?
We leave a bit behind, you see, so that they have something to eat.
There’s an old gathering place tucked back behind the mountains, back near a stream.
They winter there. They eat and they rest, they have their babies, and then in the spring? They head back the other way.”
Sloan thought they looked like a combination of owls and bats. They had white feathers or fur, it was hard to tell, and huge eyes, but no beaks. But they absolutely had wings—leathery wings, four of them. One set seemed to be huge, and the other was smaller.
They walked on the tips of the larger wings and propelled themselves a bit with the wings in the back. It was fascinating.
“But they don’t bite?”
Tyr shrugged. “Well, I’m sure they would if threatened, but really, they want to be left alone. They’re just going from place to place. They don’t harm anything, they’re quite beautiful in their own way. And they eat bugs.”
“Wow. Every time I see an animal I don’t know anything about, it makes me stunned that I’m actually here.”
“That I do understand. I think the same every time they bring something new from the other world—Cosmo and Corbin and Cullen. I feel as though, how can this thing be here? How can it be so different? Like larparcas.”
Sloan chuckled. “Well, I hope that they don’t bite our larparcas.”
“No, no, no. I’ve never seen them do anything. I mean, we just leave them alone, and they leave us alone.”
Now that was a plan. “I don’t think that that’s such a terrible idea. Sometimes, I think the human world should have just left other things alone.”
“Well. In the spring, you’ll see them fly. They’ll be fat and happy and well rested. Then they fly until they’re tired, and they do this the rest of the way when they’re back in the south.”
“Oh, so they flew from there?”
Tyr nodded. “Yes, and now they’re tired and close, and so they walk because they know that this is a safe place and nothing will bother them.”
“Not even wolves?”
“We don’t have wolves like you mean, I think. I’ve met Gareth’s sister, who has shown us her wolf form. We do have predators, and some of them are what you call canids, but they have retreated away from the villages.” Tyr chuckled. “We really are the highest on the food chain.”
“I guess we are.” Sloan chuckled. “Ideally, we would be in the human realm too, but there are just so many humans and they have such terrible weapons. Even our magic can’t survive some of that. And then there are the vamps.”
Tyr shuddered. “I am so glad we eradicated those here.”
“Yeah.” Sloan paused, smiling. “Let’s not kill the mood, huh?” He clucked, and the bocapal moved on, heading for home. The big creature liked its comfortable home.
Just like Sloan did.
“You go on in, love, and make us something to drink. I’ll unload and put him away.” He rubbed the bocapal’s side.
“I won’t argue. This costume is dragging at me a little.” Tyr kissed his chin, then made his way into the house.
“We had a good night,” Sloan told the hives as he unloaded. They were so quiet now, but that was the way of the seasons. He was still sure they heard him. “And your keeper is pregnant. I bet you guys knew that, huh? I knew he smelled different, but I thought maybe I was just away too long.”
He unharnessed and unloaded and got things into cold storage before going to look for Tyr. He would stop on the way to the pool and put Tanya’s rock in the hoard to keep for Brayden.
Tyr was nowhere to be seen, so he headed for the pool. His mate did love to soak, and now he didn’t need to stop at the cold pool first. They could just make right for the heated one.
“Love?” he called when he got there, having shed clothes all along the way.
“Mmmhmm?” Tyr was already up to his neck in the water, eyes closed, a smile on his face. “I brought juice.”
“That’s perfect, sweet.” He slid off the last of his clothes and allowed himself to walk off the edge into the water. Oh, that felt heavenly after the chill of the last half hour outside.
“Is all well?”
“Yes. Our bocapal is happily in his enclosure, the bees are quiet, and I put the food stores away. Now it’s just you and me.”
Tyr opened his eyes, flowing into him and holding on. “And our baby.”
“Our baby.” The words awed him. He had a feeling they always would.