Page 88 of Dragon Keeper
Sloan laid him in the bed and stroked his braids. “I’ll check on the hives, love. I promise.” Sloan sat on the side of the bed, and his plate sort of appeared in front of his face. He took it, so Riley slipped out of the room without saying a word.
“Do you need me to help?” Sloan asked, taking his plate out of his trembling hands. Sloan didn’t wait for him to answer; he just took a forkful and held it up to his mouth, letting him nibble on it. The eggs were perfect, and there were vegetables, but it was the bread and honey that finally did it. His appetite returned, and he tore into three pieces, devouring them.
Then he lay back, mumbling about how much he loved his mate, closed his eyes, and went right to sleep.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
In the end, a few of the elders came over to meet at Tyr’s house so that no one had to leave. Cade had gone to ask for that to happen. They filled everyone in on what had occurred, and Sloan still felt a terrible rage that someone had tried to hurt his mate and his family. Not to mention they’d tried to take Fredda, dammit.
He hated to admit that Mari was probably right, though; there was safety in separating the children that whoever these inky dragons were would consider special. Concentrating more than a few of them in one place was a terrible mistake.
Mari was kind enough though to let Tor and Tyr sleep for a while before they’d all had dinner together, and then Mari and Fredda and Aleana had flown back to the seaside.
The days settled themselves into a pattern. The bees became more active as the weather heated up. Sloan, Riley, and Brayden took turns flying patrols with Cade, dealing with the dragons from up on the mountain. Harden also patrolled, but he did it on foot and on animal back saying that way he could see anyone who snuck down through the trees or who tried to come up from the hills without flying in.
No one else showed up, but it became a low-level hum in the village and at Cade’s compound and up with the Rocky Mountain clutch, a tension which had not been there before. A worry that their children were constantly in danger.
Sloan did love watching Tyr become big with his child, though, and he decided finally to take the bull by the horns and stop being angry. He was sick to death of being scared and moping around. So he called all those brothers along with Cade and Harden together for a different kind of meeting, sitting around Cade’s kitchen table.
Stella and Abe had come to visit Tyr and Tor, which they did more and more often now because Stella considered Tyr her second-best friend. She also loved their orblok and her baby, who lived with them as their familiars.
“What’s going on?” Riley asked. “Has something else happened?”
“Well, yeah. My mate needs a party.”
All of them stared at him like he’d grown two heads. Except Brayden, who grinned widely. “You mean a baby shower.”
Understanding crossed Cade’s face. “Ah, yes, they gave my mate one of these.”
“Yes, a shower. A happy baby party. He needs a happy baby shower.” He believed that his mate deserved all the happy baby parties. His mate had been through so much. There should be happiness and joy. “How do we make this happen?”
“We go to Cosmo, we tell them what we need, and we make an Amazon order. Balloons, streamers, cake topper, all sorts of presents, little girl clothes, all the things a little baby needs. It’ll be a blast.” Brayden was obviously lit up about this.
Riley chuckled. “And then we go to, like, Poe and some of the omegas in the village to see what they want to contribute, huh? Some local flavor.”
Sloan felt that damn warm glow in his belly. God, he loved his brothers. “That sounds perfect. I was at a real loss.”
Brayden’s shrug was expressive, dramatic. “Well, it’s really not your job. It’s really all of our jobs. Should we have it at the tavern?”
Cade shook his head. “No, no, no. We should have it outside. The weather is amazing. It’ll be a festival. A baby festival. That way the bees can attend.”
Riley rolled his eyes. “Do you know how weird that is that you want bees at the baby shower?”
Sloan shook his head. “I don’t think it’s strange at all. That baby’s going to be one with the bees. In fact, if she doesn’t come out striped with a little set of gauzy wings on her back, I’ll be stunned.”
That made Riley shudder a little bit. Her expression was almost horrified. “No bee nieces.”
“What? We have an owl one and a fish one.” He winked. “We’re the luckiest dragons on… well, Lunastra. How weird and wonderful is that?”
Completely wonderful. Cade beamed at all of them, looking like nothing more than a benevolent godfather. “So, I will arrange for tents and food.”
“I volunteer to go to the village and start that ball rolling. Poe can help.” Riley grinned, that inherent naughtiness right below the surface. “I’ll offer to help wrangle the triplets of doom.”
Cade growled softly, eyes laughing. “You mean of joy.”
“Doom-y joy.”
