Page 59 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

He flashed me a sheepish smile. "Hi."

"Come in!" I pointed to the only child in the room with me. "This is Windsor."

Balthus and Kelvin were outside playing tug of war with a glorified dog toy. Yes, they'd made it themselves from some rope they found in an old nest in the grotto. They'd painted it with the fabric paint Axel had brought home from Earth. Then, they'd braided the pink, brown, and black strands and knotted it in the middle and on both ends.

"It's not what it looks like." We walked out the back door. I sat on the stairs, and Weld sat beside me. Windsor ran ahead to referee the game and call dibs to wrestle the winner.

"It's exactly what it looks like." Weld laughed. "Your boys are having a great time. Tell me about them."

Pride crept into my voice as I described Windsor's artistic side, Kelvin's ability to remember the tiniest details, and Balthus's carefree love of all things dirty or dangerous.

Instead of rolling his eyes at me or stopping me when I'd gone on for five minutes plus without stopping and barely taking a breath, Weld looked happy for me, for us. He even asked me questions when I finally paused to take a breath. We sat and talked so long, the boys tired of their game and decided to run off toward the volleyball courts behind our house.

"You did all this." Weld waved his hand toward the ball fields and courts in the distance. "You made something of your life besides being an egg-laying omega."

I'd been angry at the thought of being nothing but a brood mare, it was true. "Now that we can be in the sun and take shifts caring for the eggs, it's not as bad as I thought."

"You mean it's not as bad as it was." Weld nodded.

"What about you?" I asked. "You didn't come all this way to meet our children. I was going to bring them to your alpha classroom once they start preschool next week."

He smirked at me, that same look that made me swoon a million times over. Now, I recognized a fellow worrier when I saw one. Weld was nervous. "I won't be there next week. I came to say goodbye."

"You got your dragonet!"

His smirk morphed into a full smile this time. "I did. I would have brought him, but Mac said our bond would need a few more days to set before he can be around children. It will take us a few weeks to get to the next kobold stronghold. That's plenty of time in the air to get him to trust me."

"Gods, be careful."

"Always." Weld pulled me into a hug. His scent, which had once been as familiar to me as breathing, now had a sour note that repelled me from his embrace.

"Sorry," I said. "I don't know what's come over me."

"It's my fault." Weld toed a loose floorboard. "You have a stronger repulsion to my scent than to other alphas who aren't Axel, now that you've found him."

"Don't blame yourself." I'd never spoken more futile words. He would eternally blame himself for his mistakes. It was who he was.

"I'll come back for Robin when he's old enough."

"That's just over twenty-four years from now." It could be less, thanks to the mysterious effects of the sun on our molting cycles, but I didn't want to give him false hope.

"That's why I wanted to say goodbye." Weld's smirk was even more awkward this time, and he pulled me in for another quick hug. "I'm sorry I fucked things up."

"You didn't." I focused on the fortress in the distance so I wouldn't tear up. I had to say this, dammit. "I only freaked out half as many times, and only because things progressed faster with the sunlight."

He grinned. "I heard about that. You only had one day with them swelling your balls?"

"One day was more than enough, thank you."

Weld laughed and waved to Axel, who was fast approaching on … "Is that a dire weasel?"

"Everyone's picking their partners today," Weld said.

Shit. I'd forgotten all about Sunset, the sweet little dragonet I'd bribed with treats months ago. I couldn't help the pang of sadness in my gut. She probably belonged to someone else by now.

Axel yanked the reins too hard when he approached the cabin. His white dire weasel stopped, and his back legs flipped up, tossing Axel off. My mate landed on a cushion of air and laughed until he was hoarse. The dire weasel nosed him to makesure he was all right. Finally, he released the spell and walked over to us.

"This is Farnum." He turned to me and whispered, "That's not a tie name, is it?"

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