Page 10 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

"Tomorrow?" he asked.

"I'd like that." I extended my hand across the table, and he shook it. I missed the closeness of the dance floor meetups, butI wanted to go slow this time. Being a kobold wasn't all about mating. It could be about forming community and having fun. I wanted to show Axel just how much fun it could be.

Chapter 4

Axel

Tuft had asked me what I did for fun. Hours later, I was still thinking about it. I didn't yet have an answer.

I'd worked since I was fourteen. My first job had been bussing tables at a tourist trap restaurant off interstate. I'd met Rosanna while working at my second job, retail at a sporting goods store. I had always loved the smell of brand-new sports equipment.

I'd also been a little pissed that I didn't build muscle mass as quickly as the other guys. Now that I knew the reason, a spell to make us look small and defenseless so we wouldn't scare humans, I felt a little better about myself. It didn't change the fact that I'd wanted to be a part of something and missed out.

Now, I had the chance to launch something huge with Tuft. Community recreation centers were popular in my small town. We had three in the span of ten blocks.

On Ignitas, We had the chance to start a recreation league at our village, giving alphas and omegas alike something to do in the evenings besides play video games, hide in their rooms, or whatever omegas did after class and work.

My job as an alpha would have been to patrol the fortress perimeter and the outer grounds within the circle of our cabins,making sure the dragons kept their distance. After the truce with the dragon, everyone kept telling me, "That would have been your job," but they didn't have another suggestion for me until they started building more cabins and needed construction workers.

Without work, I didn't know what to do with myself. I hoped this new rec league would give me some focus.

I could have focused on Tuft, but that didn't seem fair. He was nice, but he wasn't my type. I wasn't into suspender-wearing kobolds, but I couldn't stop staring at his forearms when he rolled up his sleeves and rested them on the table after lunch. I wanted to skim my claws across his skin, to see him shiver with anticipation.

That made no fucking sense.

I was straight. I had a fiancée back home. Once Merritt heard back from his contacts on Earth and confirmed Rosanna was indeed pregnant with my child, I was going to petition Priestess Alma to change me back for good and send me home.

In the meantime, I would take advantage of my alpha body and everything it had to offer.

There was some established alpha recreation, as Tuft had said. After dinner, I got in on a game of pickup basketball in the gym with some of the younger boys, and then a couple guys from class joined me after dinner in the cafeteria.

I was surprised to learn Tuft and the other omegas ate in their rooms. Merritt said the scent of unclaimed omegas could drive us to distraction, which was why we had to eat separately, but Tuft and I had a perfectly civil lunch. I didn't get it.

I had a better understanding the next morning, when an omega stopped by the cafeteria to pick up a brown bag breakfast and two alphas shoved him up against the counter, both sniffing his neck and pawing at him.

"Leave him alone!" The beta behind the counter leaped over it, and the two alphas backed off, giving the omega time to scurry away.

Then, Tuft arrived, and the same two alphas accosted him when he grabbed his brown bag. My hackles rose when the two alphas shoved against him, sniffing and preening.

Tuft laughed and shoved them away. "Come on. Give a guy some room."

"You smell … different," the taller alpha said. I didn't recognize either of them, but I would make a point of getting to know them now that they'd tried to take what was mine.

Where the fuck had that thought come from? Tuft was not mine, and they weren't trying to take him anywhere!

"Taken." The other alpha sounded disappointed. "You smell like you've found your mate."

Tuft frowned up at the alpha, and then he zeroed in on me, a few tables away. "Interesting." He turned on his heel and left without stopping by my table. He didn't even wave. What the fuck? I thought we'd made a connection yesterday at lunch.

I grabbed my own brown bag for later in the day, thinking I would eat lunch alone, but again, Priestess Alma sent me to the gym.

Tuft was already there.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked without greeting, knowing full well I was being unreasonable. There was no way Tuft was still thinking about breakfast at lunch.

"What was … what now?" He was wearing another bow tie, this one lemon yellow like the light stripes on my forearms. And his. When had that changed? I swore his stripes had been greenish brown the day before.

"This morning, at breakfast," I reminded him. "You couldn't even say hello?"

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