Page 21 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

"Take all the time you need," I said. I'd been too eager to please before, too accommodating to Weld's desires. This time, I wanted to focus on my own needs. I wanted our relationship to last beyond the hormones and the promise to continue our race.

It took every ounce of my willpower to climb out of Axel's lap, help him off my couch, and walk him to the door.

Instead of walking away, he turned to face me.

"I'll wait for you in the hall outside the alpha classrooms tomorrow," I said, still not wanting this night to end.

"See you then."

My hands instinctively went to his nape when he leaned in. His lips were softer than I'd imagined, and then they were gone, barely a ghost of a kiss. I rubbed the scales at his neck and then let him retreat down the hallway backward. He met my gaze and almost backed into an omega coming out of his room. I laughed and waved, and he finally turned around as he neared the hall door.

I spent the next half-hour cleaning my rooms. I didn't stop until I had all my clothes picked up, the dishes clean, and every book back on its shelf instead of sitting on my bedside table, waiting for me to have enough free time to read.

Who was I kidding? I was a book dragon with my own hoard, but right now, my mind was too occupied by Axel to focus on anything else.

Chapter 8

Axel

Tuft met me outside class, as promised, wearing a shiny green shirt with a white tie and white pants. The tie's elaborate knot was almost lost in the color until I got closer, and then I couldn't stop staring as I tried to figure out how anyone had enough patience to stand in front of a mirror long enough to twist knot after knot into one larger knot.

While my mind boggled, Tuft handed me a small box and a single wildflower I didn't recognize. "For our date," he said. "I hope you don't mind."

"Thank you." The box rattled with the chocolate-covered caramels inside. I sniffed the star-shaped flower. It smelled like the daisies that grew along our roadways back home. "What would I mind?"

He visibly relaxed and took my arm. He leaned against my shoulder as we walked toward the main doors. The more he touched me, the more I wanted, but this wasn't a date, not exactly. First, we needed to meet with Mac, the beta with direct contact to the dragon.

"Some alphas are strange about gender roles," Tuft said once we were alone in the large entryway. "My adoptive parents raised me to be a provider. I like giving gifts."

"I'm sorry I didn't bring you anything," I said. "I'm a little clueless about dating, to be honest. I asked Rosanna on one date, and she took care of the rest."

He laughed. "Including getting pregnant with someone else's child and rigging a marriage?"

"Yep." I felt terrible for screwing up a routine dating requirement, though. "If there's anything you want from me today, just let me know."

"Just your knot." Tuft swiveled his head in my direction, and I almost tripped over my own feet.

My knot. He wasn't talking about his tie. "That's a little too fast for a first date," I said.

He leaned his head against my arm again and snorted. "No shit." He patted my bicep and glanced up at me again. "Sorry for being so crass. Part of me can't believe this is real. You were so sure …"

"It's real," I said. "I'm not going back to Earth. I want to make the most of what we have."

It was all new to me, but I couldn't deny my attraction. My cock had perked up when I'd laid eyes on Tuft outside the classroom. It chafed uncomfortably against my underwear as we walked, but I knew just enough magic to make it less noticeable through my corduroy pants.

We met Mac outside the giant barn to the southeast of the fortress. He was a brown-scaled beta with curly sandy brown hair between his pointed ears. He grinned and nodded as we shared our proposal for kobold recreation leagues. Before Tuft even asked, he agreed to carry our message about the sand quarry to the dragon who lived high up the mountain to the southwest.

"The priestesses used to meet them at the temple to the south of the old changeling circle, but they would rather visit with us intheir cave now," Mac said. "They want me to spend so much time there, I've asked some other betas to help with my dragonets."

"Dragonets?" I asked. Since meeting Odessa, I was fascinated with bonded animals. I wanted my own, and I had seen dragonets from afar. They didn't look much bigger than dire weasels, and I'd never been much of a daredevil, so I didn't know how I'd feel about flying at breakneck speed without a harness or saddle to keep me from crashing to the ground.

"I run the dragonet farm." Mac beamed with pride and pointed to the barn behind him. "We have a clutch of babies and some first years who are almost to their final molt." He looked me over. "Good to see you've lost your tail. Are you interested in bonding an animal once you've learned magic?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Want to meet them?" he asked. "I know, dragonets aren't for everyone," he glanced apologetically at Tuft, "but they're fun."

"They are gorgeous," Tuft said when we walked up to the main room's central attraction, a nest of hatchlings inside a wooden corral. They were much tinier than I'd expected after seeing the adults. It didn't seem possible that something the size of a house cat could grow to the length of a bus in a year.

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