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Eleven

Harden could hear the slightest song.

It wasn’t loud, it wasn’t overpowering, and it was sometimes hard to hear over the cries of the ciucui and the lowing of the bocapals. But he knew it was there.

He thought his bwostfal knew it too, especially his larparcas and his ysidri. They were exceptionally gentle with him when he was around them, none of them nipping or spitting or kicking anymore like they used to, just for fun.

His little white, winged girl was like an angel as they had been described to him by Riley. She learned to walk so quickly and easily, with hardly a wobble, and now she was starting to flap her wings, wanting to learn how to fly. He had had to convince her mother to keep her close by her side and not let her go without supervision, because if she was going to fly she would need Brayden to go with her. She was too at risk to let her just learn on her own.

He was humming along with the song and loading fodder into the feed troughs when Brayden found him in the barn.

“Morning, my mate.”

“Bright morning to you.” Brayden had been much more at home of late. The two days off he had taken after Harden had had his —what did they call it— meltdown, had been some of the best he could remember ever, and a fortnight on, they were falling into a much easier rhythm and routine.

Three more dragons had been trained to fly the Guardian routes under supervision of Riley and a few others. That freed up Brayden and Zeke to go home to their pregnant mates, which Harden appreciated very much. Brayden still had to go and do a few nighttime patrols now and again, and he flew regular flights during the day, but now often the more lengthy shifts as defenders of the clutch went to the younger dragons who had more energy and fewer commitments.

He went to get his kiss, which he knew he deserved. The thought made him laugh, and Brayden lit up, kissing him with a delicious passion.

He hugged Brayden, answering the kiss with one of his own. I can hear the baby. I can hear him singing, just barely.

Brayden pulled back, blinking at him. “You can, and it’s a boy?”

That he was quite sure of. “Yes, we will have a son.”

Brayden swung him around, his cry pure happiness. “Our first child will be a boy, and he will ride like the wind.”

“I think so.”

Brayden chuckled. “How can he not, with you as a father?”

“And you, as an alpha father, you fly like no one I’ve ever seen, Brayden, with such joy. He’s going to have that joy.”

“If he’s singing already, you know he is.” Brayden kissed him again, this time deeper, a little harder, then his mate tugged him tight. “I was coming to see if you needed any help.”

“Of course, many hands make for lighter work. If we’re free this afternoon, maybe we could go take a walk or perhaps go see your brother and Tyr, assuming you can get either one of them to stop working.” He gave Brayden a wink. “Busy, busy, busy.”

“More like buzzy, buzzy, buzzy,” Brayden retorted. “We could go swim in the river and take a picnic lunch with us.”

“I would like that very much.”

Brayden had the best ideas.

“They will too. I’ll tell Sloan, and say he has to get to Tyr to agree.”

“They will. Tyr will do things for Sloan that he wouldn’t do for you or me. And honestly the bees will tell him he needs to take time off. They bump him, try to get him back to the house.”

Brayden chuckled at him. “Yeah, I bet they do, especially when he’s pregnant, right?”

“Yes, although he plans things very well. We were all very tickled that he knew exactly when he wanted to get pregnant.” The bees loved that little girl. No one was frightened of them because they had no interest in hurting anyone, but little Melissa?

They adored her as if she was their own.

“Yeah, he’s very smart that way. We were a little more impulsive.”

He had to laugh at that hard because, yes, they had been truly impulsive. He had just let it happen, kind of over and over again.

And then some more.