Page 44 of Dragon Keeper

“Thank you.” Nyla bobbed her head and rushed off to serve the next table.

Sloan squeezed his hand.You are not selfish or anything remotely close. You’ve been with the bees in the day and me at night.

Harden cleared his throat, and they both glanced at him. “Do I need to go to another table?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tyr snapped, and then he immediately felt badly. “No. No, of course not.” He summoned a smile for his friend. “I was just worrying.”

“Oh, Tyr.” Harden leaned halfway across the table. “I did not mean to make you feel less.”

“I know. I do. I’m just so tired.”

Sloan brought his hand up and kissed it. “We’ll work on this together, love. We will.”

“I would love that.” He brightened up his smile some. “Now, let’s have this amazing stew. It smells like everything good in the world.”

“It really does,” Sloan agreed. “Brayden might join us.”

Harden’s sudden intake of breath made him blink at his friend, but Tyr didn’t say anything. Nope. Not going to poke and prod that.

At least not right now.

He just nodded gently. “He should. He’ll love the bread.”

Sloan grinned at him, a wicked glint in his eye, and Tyr felt better suddenly. They would do this bonding thing their way. But hewastired, and maybe he could slow down some now. Spend a few lazier weeks with Sloan.

In fact, that sounded like just the thing.

Chapter

Fourteen

Sloan landed with a thud outside their house, his body tired but his brain running too fast.

He’d been down at the seaside village with Brayden. Mari had called them down to help while their new guardian had been doing his first solo work, the old guardian disappearing out to sea.

But today, Aleana had told him to go home. “Tyr will be done with the harvest, Sloan. With winterizing the bees. Go home.”

He’d wanted to defend himself. Remind her that he was there because Tyr had told him that his help was lovely, but that he was more in the way than not. He grinned. His mate could be fussy about his bees…

He shifted, because he didn’t see Tyr out back working. The bees greeted him with a kind of tired joy, and Sloan stood still, feeling them brush against him, but many of them didn’t come out to greet him.

Which was understandable. There was a crisp chill to the morning air that had not been present down at the sea.

He strode into the house, pausing to grab a shirt and pants, then following his nose to the kitchen, where he found Tyr chopping vegetables and stirring them into a large stockpot.

“Hello, love. What are you doing?”

Tyr turned, smiling hugely and waving a wooden stirrer. A spurtle? “I am making soup. You’re home!”

“I am. Your sister told me to go away.” He winked, because he knew he would learn the rhythm of their life soon. The summer season had just been a bit grinding for Tyr.

“Did she? Mean old dragon. I thought it was the perfect weather for soup…”

“Mmm. It smells lovely.” It really did. The veg had to be from their garden. That he had helped with, weeding and encouraging bugs and small animals away from eating their crop.

“Thank you. The bread is done. I made a lovely enriched bread, so it should be soft and perfect for honey. And possibly I’ll make a cake. Maybe I’ll just start a fire and get a book.”

Sloan arched an eyebrow. That didn’t sound like fun. Making a cake or reading a book seemed boring when there were things that they could do that were way more entertaining.