Page 34 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

"You should, but my future mate would be sad."

"You've scented your mate?"

"Yes, but he's a child. I've come to?—"

"I remember now." The dragon cut him off with an impatient huff of smoke. "Your problem is a tricky one and needs much discussion. It can wait until after this sports business."

The way the dragon said 'sports business,' reminded me of the way my mom talked about professional wrestling. My dad loved it, but my mom wouldn't sit in the same room while we watched.

"I'll wait down the trail." Weld wandered off toward a rock formation large enough for the dragon to sun themself.

"We would like to?—"

"You are the ones who want to turn my sand bath into a place to toss balls over nets." The dragon huffed more smoke. "Ridiculous."

"We want to harvest some sand from your quarry," I corrected. "We'll leave the majority there for your bath. We'll only take enough for a few volleyball courts."

"You also want concrete pads for other sports?"

"We don't have to use concrete." Tuft sensed the dragon's growing irritation as much as I did, and he shared our second plan, to have grass courts for tennis and badminton instead. "And baseball fields would be dirt," he said. "No concrete."

"Good." The dragon nodded. "Much better. I like this plan. Of course, I would want to watch."

"Watch?" Tuft squeaked.

"We have always watched the games of kobolds. You used to build us pavilions to be worshiped and hold feast days to honor us. Then, you would play sports."

Goodness, that would be a ton of feast days, since we were planning on having games every Thursday. I would have to run that past the betas in the kitchens.

"What type of pavilion do you want?" I asked. I had been working with the alpha crew building cabins on weekends. That would be my permanent job once I finished my magic training. I was still learning construction fundamentals, but my crew could help me build something magnificent enough for a dragon.

"I like you." The dragon puffed another warm breath of air into my clothes as they bumped my chest with their snout. "Yes, this will do nicely."

Chapter 13

Tuft

Dragons were terrifying creatures. That was my assessment when we met with Mac's smoke-and-fire-breathing friend. I wanted to ask their name and introduce myself, possibly befriend the beast like my friend Punky had, but it took far too much effort to keep from running away, screaming.

When we left with plans for the recreation park and pavilion, I was grateful for Axel's calm nerves under pressure. We'd gotten what we wanted, and this would give me something to do with my days while Axel was in class, or soon to be at work building cabins with the construction crew.

Up until now, I'd been spared the mundane task of finding a job on Ignitas. Weld and I declared each other mates while I was still in training, and then I was pregnant with our eggs. I'd finished my training over the months I should have been caring for them.

My meeting with Priestess Alma about my career was postponed by Reemergence Day. Instead of planning my future, I'd met Axel. All talk of jobs was put on pause while we discussed bringing him up to speed as quickly as possible, and then there was the chance he could move back to Earth and leave mewithout a mate once again. Priestess Alma had spent our hour-long sessions counseling me through my grief, and then my new mate, rather than walking me through the omega job openings. Two months later, I was still jobless.

Not for long. I had a feeling our recreation league was going to need a coordinator, someone who could set up teams for unmated singles and matched pairs so each team had the same number of alphas and omegas, a few spares to play if someone couldn't make it, and plenty of refreshments to be had between games. Axel had suggested taking it indoors, too, with actual basketball and volleyball teams instead of pickup games.

And balls. We would need dozens upon dozens of balls, rackets, and probably someone to fashion some baseball gloves for us, unless we could just catch them with our hands.

I needed to do some research, product development, and acquisition from Earth. Axel had worked in a sporting goods store, so I riddled him with questions on our way down the mountain.

"We've talked about volleyball, badminton, and some multi-purpose fields for kick ball, softball, and baseball. What other sports would you like to try?"

"You forgot tennis, sugar. Ooh, and the dragon seemed interested when I mentioned using the grass courts for pickleball, too," he said.

I must have missed that while I was praying the dragon wouldn't eat us.

"I'm thinking of making this my full-time job," I confessed. "I'll put together a proposition for Priestess Alma and hope she's on board. I can make sure we have extra balls and nets, and I can work on the team schedules."

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