Laughing, the cub I’d never expected to love as though he’d never been anything but mine ran ahead while I rounded the cottage with a shaking heart.

Setting the axe upon the grass, I lowered to the stump and listened to Helvectus as he panicked and ordered Aster not to cry. “Stop it, please. Right now.”

I smothered my laughter with my hand. Then I groaned and hung my head, wiping at the wet that had leaked from my eye.

After many a discussion, Aster and I had decided that we were content without a babe. We were not entirely opposed to having one, but even if it were possible for Aster, given her family history of death due to delivery, I was more comfortable living this life with just the three of us.

Stars knew Hel was enough for us both. Should we again want to stress ourselves with the joy of raising another youngling, then we would likely look to those who hadn’t any parents or caregivers.

A rustle sounded in the bushes. I knew who it was and quickly swiped at my face before he appeared. “What’s got you acting so out of character, beast?”

“What are you doing out here at this hour?” I barked back, withholding a snort at the sight of his long nightcap. A pompom at its end, the bright silver hat that matched his nightgown fell to the grass beside matching slippers.

“Ruth escaped,” Kloon said pointedly. “Again.”

That damned chicken was not a chicken. It was a winged, clucking waste of good food that failed to produce any for us in kind. When she did, she’d make sure to lay somewhere the elves could reach first.

“Not to worry, for I braved the night to put her away,” Kloon said and jumped up to sit on a tiny rock across from me. “You’re welcome.”

“Not paying you.”

He scrunched his crumb of a nose. “Aster does.”

“Not in coin.”

“You’re right,” the elf said, his smirk and the fluttering of his lashes warning me of what was to come. “With her love and her time. Shall I expect the same of you?”

Rising, I dusted my hands together and headed for the cottage. “Go to bed, Kloon.”

“But the boat you so cleverly made has done us such wonders, truly. The glorious craftsmanship, beast. Such skill should not be wasted. At the very least, you must take the idea of a matching wharf into consideration, then we could—”

I closed the door behind me and made sure the rest of the cottage was locked. There was no need to fuss in such a way, but old habits were hard to shake. The instinct to protect was impossible to squash.

Hel had bathed and sealed himself inside his dungeon of a room.

Aster, already in her robe, waited upon our bed with the giant book we’d spent the past week reading.