Page 105 of Alpha Dragon's Mating Contract
The alpha clutched his head. “Noooo. Now it’sdefinitelygoing to happen.”
“No, it’s not,” Walren said as firmly as he could.
Raptor opened his mouth. Then he thought better of it and nodded. “Right. Moving on. Because we don’t need to tempt the universefurther.We’ve never actually discussed our parental rights—”
“We can discuss them?” Walren blurted.
“Yes, pumpkin.” Raptor nuzzled him. “I know the contract says I get a hundred percent of the rights, but... That was before I got to know you properly. Now that I understand you better, I think you’d want some of the rights, too.”
Walren stared at the alpha, his throat growing tight. He had to swallow before he could speak. “Uh. Yeah. I—I would love that, actually.”
“What about fifty-fifty? The baby would live with me, but so can you and Zebbie. You would get better protection this way.”
Relief soaked into Walren and loosened the tension in his body. He was nodding even before Raptor finished speaking. “How long would Zebbie and I get to live with you?”
Raptor frowned. “There’s no end date on that. I wouldn’t evict you, sweetheart. I don’t want your stay here to be conditional. We’re friends. And I would like you to be my mate.”
Walren blinked hard. “We’re friends?”
“Yes.We’ve been getting along, haven’t we?” Raptor gave him a wide-eyed look, as though he wasn’t sure Walren wanted to be his friend.
Just that Raptor had been the one to extend all the gestures of intimacy. He had shared his expensive teas with Walren; he made Walren laugh, and he had gone above and beyond to cook delicious meals for Walren and his son.
“Y-yeah,” Walren mumbled. “But surely there’s someone who deserves your friendship more...?”
Raptor sighed. “Walry. Did you know? Before you came along, I had been interviewing people for your position three times a week. Fornearly a year.Some of them made it through a few days on the job. Others didn’t even pass the interview. And that’s after Hassel vetted the candidates.”
Walren scrunched up his forehead. “How? You’re offering a lot of money. And it’s not as though being your rut partner is so difficult.”
The alpha rolled his eyes. “Some of the candidates didn’t think I had the money to back it up, because I interviewed them in the Nood’s Good kitchen. Where I’m covered in sauce splatters. Some of them signed the contract, but they made faces when I sang fun songs. I terminated those contracts and kicked them out. Then there were those who got bored, or they found an alpha on the side, or they tried to steal my things.”
Walren sagged. “That’s terrible.”
Raptor blew out a breath. “So you see, you’re pretty special.”
“I’m just a regular decent person!”
The alpha looked horrified again. “Have I not done enough to show you’re special?”
“You have! You’ve been doing plenty!” Walren thought fast to stop Raptor from going overboard with his courtship. “You’ve never told me how you ended up with uncontrollable ruts. You said they only started recently.”
Raptor’s gaze slid away. “I might have, ah, accidentally offended a witch and gotten cursed.”
Walren sucked in a sharp breath. “Can you get the curse undone?”
“No,” Raptor sighed. “At first, I thought I could. But Uriel took a look at my magical energy, and he said the curse has changed my body permanently.”
Walren winced. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s not the worst kind of permanent curse. At least I’m not spitting out crabs whenever I talk.”
“Ugh!” Walren shuddered. “I guess a rut problem isn’t so bad, after all.”
“As long as I have you to help me out.”
Walren nodded.
“Now, I have another very important question,” Raptor said. Walren eyed him warily. “How do you like your pickup lines?”
