“Fine,” Idrull finally said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You are spared. For now. Ignore your duties again and even my bondmate won’t be able to rescue you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ARLEN
The warning sounded threatening, but while Tyos looked a little pale, his mother snickered, completely unfazed by it all. She patted my hand when she noticed my worry, shaking her head with a smirk on her face. “Don’t worry. He’s not in any danger.”
“Well, not physical danger,” the other woman said with a matching smirk. “He’ll face the worst chore in the clan if he skips his duties again.”
It felt a lot like my fault, I hadn’t even argued when Tyos consistently pulled me back into bed and distracted me with kisses. I didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong. I probably should have. He had a job, just like everyone else in the clan. Ignoring that to stay in bed with me wasn’t a good thing.
Waving a hand dismissively, Tyos’s mother turned her attention back to me. “He learned his lesson. Nothing to fear. I want to learn more about my son’s bondmate. You are bonding, aren’t you? That’s the rumor I heard.”
Feeling my cheeks heat, I nodded slowly. “Yes? I don’t know a lot about bondmates specifically, but he said he wanted to claim me and that we’d be together.”
The other woman nodded. “He was referring to making you his bondmate. It is the barbarian equivalent to marriage. It does require permission from the clan leader, but you don’t need to worry about that. It is rare that a clan leader would refuse a bonding, and we all assumed you would become Tyos’s bondmate when he willingly abandoned his duties to stay with you.” She nudged my shoulder with her own, a grin on her face. “You must be something special to accomplish that. Tyos takes his duties very seriously. Only someone truly special could pull him away.”
I wasn’t sure whether to feel bad about that or not. I hadn’t meant to distract him. “He never said anything…”
“And what man would when falling in love?” Tyos’s mother asked, her smile pleased. “I’m glad for it. He stressed too much about our clan’s safety. Knowing he has someone to come home to who will put him at ease brings me great joy.”
She did look legitimately happy about Tyos choosing me. The momentary fear that his parents would be unhappy that he ended up with a man drifted away, leaving only awe in its wake. It truly was accepted here.
“If I could, I’d find matches for the whole clan,” the other woman said thoughtfully. “Bondmates bring such joy to our people.”
The clan leader made a disgruntled sound, turning to look at her. “And have the entire clan be distracted at the same time? The clan would fall apart, Frida. Be realistic.”
She shot him a look that made the leader of Tyos’s clan grimace and squirm under her stare. “Are you telling me you do not wish for your clan to receive the same happiness you enjoy? And you called Tyos selfish.”
The clan leader spluttered, but Tyos’s father burst out laughing at her accusation, his head thrown back in a guffaw that made everyone nearby look in our direction. He at least seemed to be enjoying himself. Tyos just looked stunned at Frida’s brashness. He mumbled something in his language that I couldn’t understand, and Frida nodded sagely in response.
“That is a smart path to choose, Tyos. What isn’t smart is ignoring your common tongue lessons while also keeping your bondmate from his own lessons. How do you plan on communicating? Body language?”
Tyos’s mother snorted, and I felt my face flush as I tried to come to his defense. “He understands me most of the time. It’s just his responses that he struggles with, and I promised I’d help him learn.”
Tyos pointed at me, his expression triumphant. “See? Arlen good teacher. I learning fine.”
They might have believed him if his reply hadn’t been so grammatically incorrect. Instead, he got cuffed by his father a lot like he did by Dras whenever Tyos’s responses were particularly screwy. He started scolding Tyos in their language too fast for me to keep up, and while Tyos looked abashed, he snuck a glance at me and winked before nodding along to whatever his father said.
Tyos’s mother made a tutting sound as she shook her head. “That boy. Getting him to focus on anything but training was already difficult enough. Now, with a new bondmate to distract him, I worry he’ll never pick up the language properly.” She nudged my shoulder with hers. “You need to help him. Dras speaks much better than he does, and they’ve been learning the same length of time. I don’t wish for him to say something inappropriate if he’s dealing with outsiders. Has he even started on his Erabi lessons?”
That, I didn’t know and was a little afraid to ask. Tyos was going to spend the rest of the morning getting scolded at this rate. It was still shocking that very little of that scolding had anything to do with me.
I was eventually escorted to my language lessons and got a smirk from Melanie when I dropped onto a cushion beside her and winced for my efforts. I was a little sore after several days in bed with Tyos.
“I thought I’d have to send a search party out for you,” she snickered. “You missed the first trip into the city. I thought you’d be the first in line to go since you don’t have any extra clothes.”
I looked down at the borrowed tunic I was wearing, grimacing at my poor attempt to make it fit better. “I hadn’t realized they were making the trip already. When is the next one?”
She didn’t get a chance to answer before lessons began. I studied diligently and practiced with a few different partners throughout the lesson, eager to learn as much as I could about Tyos’s language and how the clan worked. Now that he’d introduced me to his parents, it felt more real. Like I could finally accept that he truly meant to keep me. Which meant I needed to embrace all aspects of the clan, and I was determined to get it right. I wouldn’t be a burden on the people who saved my life.
During a break, I thought it best to apologize to Finn for skipping lessons for a few days. I’d missed quite a bit, though luckily some of it had been covered by Simon during his impromptu lessons so I wasn’t completely lost when I returned. Still, I felt like apologizing was the right thing to do, and I waitedpatiently to speak with him when an absolutely enormous barbarian came in with a blond haired toddler in his arms. The toddler was whining and red in the face, and he kept squirming until Finn put his arms out and cuddled the tot, rocking him and kissing his forehead while shooting the barbarian a worried frown.
“He’s hot,” the barbarian explained, his words slow enough that I understood him. “He is only happy in the water.”
Finn’s frown deepened. “But these are the new clothes Kirn made him. He said it was as light as he could get it.”
My brows furrowed, and I stepped closer, feeling a little awkward interjecting myself in their conversation, but persevering anyway. If I could help, I wanted to. “Um… Excuse me. Can I ask what material the clothing is made from?”