Page 9 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

I laughed. I wasn't trapped … or was I? It had been nice to leave the fortress with Weld, but we still weren't allowed outside without an accompanying alpha or beta, for fear the dragon would swoop out of the sky and either eat us or carry us away. I'm not sure which Priestess Alma believed was more likely, but she'd threatened both.

"I've been here for about seven months."

"Do you like it here?"

"It's a lot, at first." My throat clicked when I swallowed. I'd forgotten to grab us drinks, but there was a case of water along the far wall. I excused myself to grab us each a bottle.

I wanted to be up front with Axel. I didn't want him to think I was a cheater, but he needed to know about Weld. I bided my time and waited for him to take the first swig of his water before I spoke. "I mated with another alpha when I first arrived."

Axel studied me for a moment, and my cheeks heated another degree each second he stared without speaking. "I thought it was wrong for an alpha to force himself on an unclaimed omega."

"He didn't force himself on me." My voice was low and full of gravel, more like Weld's than mine. "We talked about how the kobolds were dying out. Until the day you arrived, we were expected to mate and nest in the grotto beneath the fortress. Weld had worked in the tunnels growing our food every day, so he and the other farmers saw what Priestess Alma refused to believe. The dragon fire had gone out. The heat rising in the vents couldn't rival sunshine and fresh air above. Weld only wanted to continue our race."

Axel snorted. "Sounds like the kind of bullshit my fiancée tried to tell me about having a kid. I didn't want kids at all, but she was all like, 'Who's going to take care of us when we're old,' and …" he trailed off. "Her family had some really sick bullshitgoing on. They made her feel like she was worthless if she didn't have a kid."

"That's awful." I felt bad for her, and for him, if he hadn't wanted kids before she'd gotten pregnant. I rushed on to show his fiancée and I had nothing in common, not our feelings about pregnancy, at least. "Weld made me feel special. He said I was an innovator, like him. We didn't need fate to decide who could mate whom. We chose for ourselves."

Axel nodded. "Did you love him?"

"Gods, no." Even though he wasn't here, I tried to remove the sting of my words with a grin. "He's a great friend, don't get me wrong, but he's intense. Always going on and on about saving the world. It's admirable, but I'd rather focus on what's good."

"Good?"

"Ignitas is a beautiful place." I pointed to the arched ceilings far above us. "The architecture in the fortress is stunning."

"Architecture?" Axel shook his head. "You're too fancy for me."

"Psh. I studied building design at the community college. I am not fancy. We were poor, and that was the best we could do."

Axel nodded. "Poor. Yep. That we have in common. Weird, isn't it? You always hear about people having to pay a ton of money to adopt, but I didn't understand how my parents could have afforded it. I guess they didn't ask too many questions when someone showed up on their doorstep with a lizard baby."

I laughed. "At least you had a cool name."

"Your real name is Tuft?"

"Yup." Might as well get the teasing out of the way as soon as possible. Weld had laughed at me for days. "I went by Taft on Earth. Imagine having a dead president's last name as your first."

"I'm sorry." Axel didn't look the least bit sorry, but there was something sweet in his smile. He didn't have the same glint inhis eye as my bullies. He examined my bare forearms resting on the table, now that I was finished eating. "Were you an athlete?"

"Not a chance. My human body was a limp noodle. Couldn't run, jump, or swim."

"Merritt said that was part of the changeling spell." Axel shrugged. "None of us were strong humans, so we wouldn't give ourselves away."

"Would have made high school a lot more fun, though." I would have killed to be good at baseball, tennis, anything really.

Axel grinned. "Do you have kobold sports teams?"

"No." I frowned as I thought it through. "Now that you mention it, we could put something together. The alphas play basketball in the gym, but now we have the outdoors. We could set up some volleyball courts, a track, tennis!"

"You said Weld goes to Earth. Could he bring us some equipment?"

"I'll ask him."

He growled, surprising us both. "I don't think I like the idea of you going near any other alpha." He glanced down at his elbows, where his defensive spikes were now sticking through the fabric of his sleeves. "I've never been possessive. I'm sorry."

"No worries." I didn't want to offend him, but my fragile omega heart was cheering. My alpha wanted me, and he didn't want me to be with anyone else. Axel didn't know much about being a kobold yet, but I was grateful his instincts aligned with mine. I wanted to belong to him alone.

"This could be part of our courtship," I said. "I'll poll the omegas to see if they want to participate in outdoor team sports. You can see if there's interest from the alphas. We'll meet up again to share our results."

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