Chapter Eleven
Mac
Bottoming for Galen was both less and more than I thought it would be. Less because they were in their kobold form, which was good, since their dragon form would kill me. More because my every movement reminded me how much I loved them already.
Galen had wanted to come to Earth to learn more about humans. I hoped they had progressed beyond thinking humans were inherently evil. We'd watched a horror movie with that premise a year ago. I'd thought Galen would like the winged demons and the enormous explosions, but their takeaway had been that humans couldn't be trusted.
Galen would break my heart if they decided I wasn't good enough to mate a dragon. Already, I wanted to place my mating mark on them, to show the world they belonged to me, but they'd stopped me with a command, and a kiss.
Gods, what a kiss. I was still trembling from it.
Galen stroked my back with both hands. Something latched onto the underside of my cock, making me yelp.
"I told you," Galen said, "my ovipositor has a mind of its own. It wants you to be inside it. I keep telling it, that's not how it works."
I laughed. "It feels weird, but in a good way."
My oversensitive cock twitched at the attention, and Galen's ovipositor snaked alongside me.
"You're still hard?" I asked Galen.
"Not."
"Yes, you are," I corrected. "I can feel it." Not only that, but their cock was also expanding, becoming more.
"Knot," Galen said again, and I finally understood.
"Gods." I pulled them closer and bussed a quick kiss across their lips. "I'm slow on the uptake."
"You are not slow," Galen said. "This is my first knot."
"Mine, too." The alpha kobolds I'd fucked always pulled out before they came, jutting cum on my face or abdomen. Some had never scented their omega mates, and didn't knot, but a few of them did. It looked uncomfortable, and I always tried to help with my hands and plenty of lube.
Now, I had Galen's knot buried deep in my ass. The more it expanded, the more I wanted it to continue. The pressure on my prostate was exquisite. They would make me come without moving a muscle.
They palmed the back of my head and pulled me to them, adjusting the angle on my prostate. The kiss was slow and sweet while the pressure exploded into bliss inside me. I moaned into their mouth as I came.
Their ovipositor twitched along with their cock as they came again, too. The motion ramped my orgasm to another level. Tremors shook me to my core. I'd felt nothing like it before, and I never wanted it to stop.
I rode the waves of bliss, head tucked against Galen's chest, until their knot diminished and their cock slipped free. Cool air across my wet hole brought me back to my senses.
"Was that acceptable?" Galen asked. "I didn't hurt you?"
"Gods, that was perfect," I said. "I've always wanted to be knotted by an alpha."
"I'm not an alpha," they said.
"No." My voice wavered with tenderness. "You're a dragon, which is even better."
* * *
We spent the rest of the morning in bed. Kissing and cuddling were quickly becoming my favorite pastimes. After a room service breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes, a quick shower, and a glance at a few different swimwear options in my search browser and Galen's powerful magic, we were ready for the splash park.
"Where are your shirts?" Punky asked when we met them at their door.
"The pictures didn't have shirts," I grumbled. We walked into their room and shut the door before using our spells to create t-shirts.
The children laughed at our mishap, and then we headed to our separate vehicles. Odessa left us behind at a yellow light. I'd programmed the splash park's address into my phone for this reason. Galen freaked out when a female computerized voice started talking us through turns, but we made it to the parking lot unscathed.
"Thank you," Galen answered after she told us we'd arrived at our destination.
"She's not real," I said. "She's a phone app."
Galen frowned at me. "I've seen too many movies about the robot apocalypse to think she can't hear us."
"She's not Skynet," I promised as we climbed out of the van. I gave Rapture a little snout rub as we passed. To humans, it would look like I was patting the hood.
The children loved the splash park. The brightly colored pads, murals, slides, and the fort in the middle held their attention long after the splashes of cold water bored us adults. I dragged Galen to a bench, and we watched the kobold children interact with a handful of human children.
The boys played with a group of human boys, but when Clementine tried to join them, they made fun of her and told her it was a boys-only place.
I started to stand, but Punky was on his way over.
Robin stunned us all. "Clem can play, or we're leaving. This isn't a game for boys or girls. It's a game for people."
Punky took a step back toward the tree he'd been leaning against with a smile on his face.
"Yeah," Ernie agreed. "Games are for people. They aren't gendered."
"We're leaving," Grover said. "We can play by ourselves on that slide."
As a group, they walked away from the humans, the smallest of whom was now crying.
"But I want to play with them!" the little one shouted.
Clementine returned to the child and held out her hand. "You can play with us. We're not mean, like some kids."
"Don't go with her! She's a girl." The boy with the original objection to Clementine stuck to his argument, and soon he was alone. The two older boys took their floating toys with them to the new slide where Clementine was showing the littlest how to slide down feet first.
"How does she know how to go down a slide?" Galen asked. "There are none of those slide contraptions in Ignitas."
"They've watched videos of children on playgrounds," Lark said from behind us. He'd gone to the concession stand to get bottled water for everyone and missed most of the argument. "What did Clementine do now?"
Punky joined us at our bench and filled him in on how well their children had reacted to the bully.
I could tell Galen wanted to talk to the sulking child, but too many other humans hovered nearby. Most of them were parents of other children, though the bully's parents were nowhere to be seen. After a few minutes of watching with a pout on his face, the bully slinked away toward the washrooms.
"We should go for another picnic," I suggested. "Once the children are ready for lunch, of course."
"They already ate at bible camp." The look on Punky's face was so venomous, I scooted away from him on the bench, placing me in Galen's lap.
"Sorry," Punky muttered. "My mother decided they should eat cotton candy and s'mores instead of a nutritious meal. What did I expect from the woman who thinks ketchup is a vegetable?"
"Shh," Lark said, placing his hand on Punky's shoulder. "It's fine. We'll let them play for a few more minutes, and then we'll stop off at the grocery store on the way to the park."
Punky and Lark's brood had no problem saying goodbye to their new friends, but the littlest boy hugged Clementine so tightly, even Punky looked like he wished he could bring the kid with us.
"He's the bully's little brother," Clementine said on the way to our vehicles. "He's so little. I want to stay here and protect him."
"He'll have to learn how to protect himself," Punky said. "You taught him a way to do that today."
"I taught him how to get his ass beat when he gets home," Clementine corrected. "His brother said his parents would take care of it, and Billy wouldn't stop crying."
She looked back over her shoulder at Billy, who was now in the arms of a beautiful human woman who held the mean boy's hand. They were also heading for a vehicle.
"Don't," Lark whispered, but Punky paid him no mind.
"I can get us food," I said to Lark. "We'll meet you at the park."
"Thanks." Lark rolled his eyes. "This might take a while."
"I don't understand," Galen said once we merged onto the highway that would take us back toward the lake. "There are more female humans than there are female kobolds, right?"
"Just over half of all humans are female, yes."
"Why—"
"That boy wanted to display power over the smartest child there, is my guess."
"Hmm." Galen twisted their shoulders against the back of the seat until their spine popped. "He doesn't know the origin of true power, then. Only the smartest dragons survive, not the strongest."
"I have a feeling Punky's going to have a heart-to-heart with the child's mother." In the meantime, we'd return to the large grocery store we'd passed earlier.
The spacious store layout confused me from the start, but I followed Galen, who followed their nose to the bakery section. They had freshly baked sandwich rolls, which I grabbed. Instead of following the aisles, I walked around the back of the store, picking up lunch meat containers, potato salad, and refrigerated pickles. Galen carried the two gallons of milk for me. We passed a display of cookies on the way to the checkout, and Galen was drawn to the bright colors.
"You'll be disappointed," I warned them. Store-bought cookies were nothing like what the fortress cafeteria baked for us.
"The children will love them," Galen said, as though I didn't know they had the largest sweet tooth of all.
When we arrived at the lake, we parked by the large pavilion. There were a few people using the space to stretch out before a walk, and then they left us alone with our picnic. I helped Galen lay everything out on the table.
By the time I'd made myself a sandwich and filled my plate with all the delectable food, Punky and Lark drove up. Instead of sitting at one table, Lark let the children make their sandwiches and scamper to a table a few feet away to eat on their own.
"Sorry we're so late," Lark whispered when he finally sat down to his own sandwich. "We had to take the mother and her children to a shelter."
"She's leaving her husband," Punky said as he slathered butter on his sandwich roll. "Today's incident was the last straw. She doesn't want her children growing up to be like their dad."
Galen cocked their head, something they'd done a lot over the last few days. I wondered if they were thinking, or only trying to emote in their human form. I still wasn't sure what they wanted to emote, though.
Finally, they spoke. "Humans leave each other when they don't like how their children are being raised?"
"That's correct," Lark said. "There's a fifty percent divorce rate."
"That's only for couples who get married," Punky added.
"I'm glad I have a fated mate," Galen said. "I feel bad for these humans who do not."
Punky nodded. "I feel bad for that one, that's for sure."
"They're not all bad," Lark said. "My parents are happy together."
"But if they are unhappy, they can leave," Galen said.
"Men can leave," Punky huffed. "It's harder for women. She was terrified her husband would find and kill her and her kids."
"Kill?" I tried to imagine an alpha, or an omega for that matter, so angry with their mate that they'd murder them and their children. I couldn't do it. The most violence I'd ever seen between two kobolds had been when Weld bit Lark's ear in a tournament.
"Dragons kill each other sometimes," Galen said, "but never the children. Why would they kill their own children?"
"If they can't be controlled, some parents think death is better for them." Punky shrugged. "I'm not saying that's good or right, I'm just saying what I heard growing up."
"Is it societal?" Galen asked. "Or genetic?"
"If it's genetic, it hasn't passed to us," Lark said.
"That kid learned the vitriol he spouted at Clementine today," Punky said. "It's not genetic."
"You don't know that for certain," I said. "What if we're only a few generations away from kobolds murdering each other?"
Punky shook his head again. "I was downright murderous before I came to Ignitas. Our culture is so different."
"The endless classes on how to be a kobold focus on sex for a reason." Lark laughed. "They keep you entertained and wanting to know more, and then at the end of six weeks, most of that human rage has refined itself into seeking your fated mate."
"Priestess Alma was worried about aggression, though," I reminded them. "That's one reason she approved the sports pavilion."
"Humans are competitive by nature," Punky said. "I thought kobolds were, too."
"Dragons compete with each other," Galen said. "We passed that on to kobolds long before you forged hybrid genes with humans."
I couldn't hide my excitement. Galen was making my case for me. Dragons, kobolds, and humans weren't all that different at their core. It was our culture that seemed to define us more than our genes.
My joy faded as Galen continued.
"I will be expected to challenge my paragon when they return to my lands. If I don't, I forfeit my right to them. The only caveat is pregnancy. If I were pregnant, they couldn't challenge me."
"What does a dragon challenge look like?" I asked.
"Fight to first major burn. If the burn is bad enough, the injured dragon might die."
"I won't let you die." I couldn't keep the growl from my voice. I was only one kobold, but I would stand against an army of dragons for Galen.
"We'll do everything we can to help," Lark said. "Your parent tried to kill us all, while you've been nothing but kind to us. You've helped us in more ways than you know. We owe everything to you, Galen."
They blushed so prettily in their human form, though most of it was hidden by their beard. "I can take care of myself. Thank you, though."
The children rushed us for dessert, and Galen broke open the plastic container full of cookies. They were fresh, at least. The frosting was still moist, and the cookies were soft enough to fold without breaking. I turned mine into a frosting sandwich and gobbled it down.
"Do kobolds need to wait a half-hour before swimming?" Punky asked Lark when the kids finished their second cookie each.
"I doubt it," he said. "We've gone swimming right after dinner before."
We cleaned up our picnic space, tossing everything we could into the recycling and compost bins before throwing the rest in the trash. Thankfully, most of the food was gone. Only a handful of pickles remained at the bottom of the jar. Galen unscrewed the lid and drained the rest in one gulp and then deposited the jar in the recycle bin.
The delay meant we walked alone on the path back to the main trail to the beach. I took Galen's hand and slid my fingers between theirs. "If there's anything I can do to help you against other dragons, I will."
Galen gripped my fingers tighter for a moment and grinned up at me with my former crush's face. "You're my mate. Your very existence has helped me immensely."
With only two sentences, Galen had returned my earlier elation. They were right. I had found my mate, something I hadn't even known was possible.