Page 7 of Protecting His Treasure

“It’s never been an issue. We come from the same plane. He knew I was a Guardian when we first bonded. He knew that it was my duty to protect the innocent. When we first came here, we were newly mated. We had to fight together in order to survive. He needed me. I needed him. There was no room for male pride to get in the way. We had to work together.”

“See. That’s how a relationship should be.”

“With you and Kaede, it's different. You didn’t arrive here together. He doesn’t know what being a Guardian means. You probably haven’t explained the intense training we go through to graduate and become an official Guardian.”

Sin thought for a few seconds then replied, “No. I haven’t explained to him how intense our training was.”

“He’s going to have to get used to seeing you fight. The first time he see’s you wounded, he’s probably going to lose his shit.”

“He’s already seen me wounded.”

“Let me rephrase that. The first time he can’t reach you in time and sees you wounded, he’s going to lose his shit. He’s a dragon. An old school dragon. Plus, he’s an alpha. An immortal alpha. That right there only adds to his need to protect you.”

“I know.”

“Be patient with him. It’s not that he doesn’t respect your abilities. It’s because he’s afraid of his own inabilities.”

“Explain.”

“Nachik told me that Kaede is afraid he won’t be able to protect you. He’s afraid that in battle, he’ll be too focused on fighting the enemy that he’ll let you get hurt.”

“That happens in war. He can’t watch over me every second of every minute when we’re at war.”

“Like I said, he’s an old school dragon with a non-dragon mate. His instincts are telling him to take you off to his cave and leave you there, safe and sound.”

“I wish he would! I would tear that cave apart.”

Lee laughed. “That’s exactly why he hasn’t done that. He knows you’re fierce. His problem isn’t you. It’s himself.”

“We’re a team now. We have to face this together.”

“Which is why you should be having this conversation with him, not me. How many more times do you need to stir that batter?”

“Oh. None. I never thought I’d miss having an electric mixer.”

“Right? It’s mixed enough. Pass it here. I’ll pour it in the baking pan.”

“Here you go. They only need to bake long enough to get the top golden brown.”

They chatted about some things they missed about back home as the last three pies baked. Once the tops of the pies were golden brown, they removed them from the over and they chatted while cleaning up the kitchen. Once they had the kitchen clean, they started on Christmas dinner.

Which only led to them dirtying up the kitchen once more. But Sin couldn’t cook in a messy kitchen. If the kitchen got messy while she was cooking, she was okay with that. But if it was messy before she cooked, that was a problem. The plan was to prepare a huge dinner together, then split it.

Some would go to Lee’s house, and some would stay with Sin and Kaede. They would reheat it tomorrow. Plus, this gave Lee and Sin some time to catch up. Lee was so busy these days, she rarely had a chance to stop by. By the time they were done with Christmas dinner, Kaede still hadn’t returned from his meeting.

“I wonder what’s taking so long this evening?” Sin asked while she placed the pies in a box to be transported to the refrigerator in the main kitchen of the compound. By tomorrow it would be chilled and ready for the villagers to enjoy on Christmas day.

“Who knows,” Lee replied. “Nachik has been coming home late all week. I told him he better come home before dark tonight. It’s Christmas Eve.”

“Has there been any more attacks?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Kaede usually comes home early. I guess today they had a lot to talk about.”

“I do know they’ve wanted him to join in on the training. He’s one of the best fighters we got.”

“Training?”