Chapter Eighteen
Galen
We spent the night enjoying each other's bodies. I couldn't get enough of Mac, and I knew we were running out of time. I kept him up most of the night, waking him up to fill him with my knot or take him inside me.
Too soon, my body forced me to return to my dragon form. Our egg's shell had begun to harden inside my testicle, making it incredibly uncomfortable. In my dragon form, there was far more room for the egg to float, suspended in nourishing fluid much like an omega's slick. After a few weeks, it would become too uncomfortable to fly, and I wanted answers for Mac and myself before then.
The next morning, we paid a quick visit to the dragonet barn to make sure Rapture was well fed after our journey. While there, Priestess Alma accosted us to ask about the dragons spotted overhead.
"Will they return?"
"They aren't a threat to the village," I promised. "I will speak to them before we leave for The Grid."
"Thank you, Galen." She bowed to me. "I'm sorry for my outburst yesterday."
"Change is never easy." It would have been easier for me to reassure her in my kobold alpha form. I bumped her with my snout, instead.
She laughed. "I suppose that's true."
"Do you need a ride back to the fortress?" Mac asked. "We need to gather supplies."
In all my years knowing her, this was Alma's first dragon ride. Mac helped her climb onto my back and directed her which scales to grab. I plastered them to me with a spell before takeoff. I would never forgive myself if I dropped anyone from my back.
Once safely on the ground again, she thanked me for the ride before leading Mac inside. I curled up in the sun while I waited for Mac to return. Instead of running from me in fear, the kobolds coming from their cabins stopped to greet me. I allowed the children to scamper up my tail and onto my back, catching them in a magical net if they slid too far off my side.
Mac returned, ending their fun.
"You're so good with them," he teased once he was secured on my back.
"We will be good with our own," I reminded him.
I tucked the bags of supplies and gifts for our nearest neighbors into an interdimensional space. Rather than heading for our destination, I took to the sky in the opposite direction. I asked Mac to wait for me on the short landing strip outside the cave entrance while I went inside. "I won't be long, I promise."
My paragon was surprised to see me so soon after our talk.
"This is not a social call," I told them. "I am here to warn you. If you do anything to hurt Mac's village while I am gone, you will have to answer to Bale, Elder, and all the other dragons you left behind when you went searching for kobolds on the other planes."
"Why would we hurt them?" Chance asked. "They're our salvation."
"Your mate proves it," Paragon said. "We talked it through last night. We want to meet the beta population of your village, to see if Chance and Lux have mates here, as well."
"And if they don't?" I didn't try to keep the suspicious lilt from my voice. They didn't recognize the nuances of tone I'd picked up from Mac over the years.
"Then we will meet the betas at the next village, and the next, the way dragons of old used to search for their fated mates."
"You no longer think human hybrids are bad?" I asked.
"What choice do we have?" Lux asked. "They're the only kobolds left."
"I do not approve of you meeting them," I said, "not until after our eggs hatch and the curse is broken once and for all."
"You found your mate before the curse was broken," Paragon said. "Why should Chance and Lux wait?"
"To prove we are trustworthy." Chance's eyes glowed with determination. I knew they would understand. "We will keep our word, and then you will keep yours."
I nodded. "If you keep your word, we will hold a dragon reunion at the new pavilion." I stopped short of saying my friends built it for me. I didn't want them to burn it down out of spite.
"Don't be so angry with them," Mac said once we were safely outside their cave and out of hearing range. "They've changed their entire worldview in less than a day. It can't be easy."
"I don't trust them," I said. "If they don't find their mates here, I worry they will burn your village and leave you all for dead again."
"We'll warn Bale and the others." Mac climbed back into place on my back.
We returned to casual conversation mixed with the occasional landmark and animal sightings until we approached The Grid two hours later.
Bale greeted us with a roar as they circled over the field of bovinji below. They dove and caught one with their back claws, tearing into its hind quarters and rendering it immobile for a trip back to the village bonfire, where Olaf waited to clean and cook their meal. Instead of a temple, their priestesses kept the fire burning for their dragon and cooked them meat every few days. I'd been jealous until Mac started cooking for me.
Still, the thought of a well-cooked meal was too tempting to resist. It had been too long since I'd had my own bovinji grilled to perfection over a roaring bonfire.
I flattened Mac even closer to my shoulder blades to keep him safe while I circled, searching for the perfect creature. I found one hobbling toward the back of the herd, young but almost full grown. It would grow weaker with age, unable to keep up with the herd. Now, at least, its meat would be fresh and tender. I dove at my mark, my movements precise for a quick and efficient kill.
"Well met, young Galen," Bale said when I deposited the carcass next to theirs. "You honor us by thinning our herd."
I bowed my head low while Mac scampered down and stood at my side. "I wish to share a meal with you and your mate, and to talk."
Bale sniffed me and turned their attention to Mac. Smoke rolled over the delicate gold scales of their nose. "You are both with child. How fortuitous for you."
"We hoped you and Olaf would have some advice," Mac said.
"You're pregnant?" Olaf's voice was high and reedy with age, but he still had a twinkle in his eye when he embraced my mate. "Congratulations! Once we get this meat to cooking, I'll tell you all about our little ones." Olaf bowed his head to me and grinned. "Not such a young pup anymore, are you, Galen? Best wishes for your eggs."
Olaf said little ones. As far as I knew, they'd only had one dragon child, Sve.
Only dragons and their mates were permitted in the bonfire circle once the meat was dressed and hung on the spits to cook. We lounged around the bonfire while two priestesses prepared the two bovinji we'd killed. They also strung up a large meat roast for Olaf and Mac to feast upon.
Once the priestesses left us, Bale and I curled on our sides, keeping our bellies toasty warm while Olaf and Mac turned the meat every few minutes. It didn't take long for it to cook, and then Olaf carved off large hunks of meat for each of us.
Mac waited until we'd taken off the edge of hunger with our first servings to ask what we both wanted to know. "You had more than one child?"
"We were afraid to tell you," Olaf admitted.
"The curse," Bale said. "We didn't tell you about our disaster because we didn't know you yet. Your paragon was so ruthless, and we didn't want it to get back to them."
"Besides, it sounds crazy. Would you have believed me if I told you I had a baby girl?" Olaf asked.
"Probably not," Mac admitted.
"We named her Ana," Olaf said.
"She didn't make it." The way they spoke at the same time made it hard to hear the exact words, but their sadness after so many years was still palpable enough to convey the meaning.
"I'm so sorry," Mac said.
"Was it the curse?" I asked.
Bale's wings rose and fell in the dragon form of a shrug. "Only your paragon and the goddess know for sure."
"How, though?" Mac asked. "Priestess Alma didn't believe me when I told her betas could get pregnant."
"My family's only suggestion was 'magic,'" I said.
"It is magic." Bale blinked slowly. "The child will let you know when she's ready to be free of Mac's body. She'll draw magic from both of you to create her shell, and she'll continue drawing magic from you until she's ready to hatch, same as your dragon baby."
"But Ana …" I didn't want to push, but I had to know what happened to their little girl.
"She hatched, alive." Olaf shared a sad smile with Bale and then cast his rueful gaze at me. "She ate her first meal, played with Sve, and we put them down in their separate cribs to sleep."
"She never woke up." Bale sniffed.
"We are both so very sorry for your loss," Mac said again, and I echoed him. He always reminded me of my manners when my thoughts raced ahead without considering others' feelings.
"They should be kept together in the nest and raised together," Bale said. "Sve never forgave us. They said she died of a broken heart because we separated them." Their dragon offspring now lived in a remote area to the north, days from any kobold village.
"That's awful," Mac said.
"That's the curse." I nodded, finally understanding what my paragon's strange riddle meant after all these years. "If dragons and kobolds grow apart, they will cease to exist. Kobold females will suffer the loss worst."
"If that makes it easier for you, thinking it's a curse that can be lifted, so be it." Bale raised their head toward the sky and breathed a gout of flame. "I curse your paragon's name."
"They've returned," I said, my voice barely louder than a whisper, lest Paragon could hear me at such a distance. Our hearing wasn't that advanced, but I wasn't taking any chances.
"What did they find?" Olaf asked. "Did they bring you another mate?"
I shook my head. "No. They found the original kobold species wiped out by disease on the other planes. Kobold/human hybrids are our future."
"It's up to you to remove your paragon's curse on our kind," Olaf said. "Betas and females are just as important to kobold society as the alphas and omegas."
"They say my pregnancy is proof the curse can be lifted, if our baby survives to its first molt," Mac said. "Yours?—"
"We didn't know to keep them together," Olaf said. "If we had, Ana would have lived."
The conversation turned to other topics then. Olaf told Mac of a dragonet shortage in the west. There were few betas who could bond full nests of them the way Mac and his young apprentice Sunny could.
"Dragons could stop eating the wild dragonets," Mac said with a shrug.
"They're too wild," Olaf said. "I have an affinity with some of them, but if they've reached their final molt, they can't be tamed."
Mac let the subject drop. I studied him in the afternoon sun, remembering our passionate night. He snuggled against my scales, dozing off while Bale and I talked.
When Olaf offered me the rest of my bovinji, I declined. "We should get home. Enjoy it tomorrow."
"Keep us posted on your paragon," Bale said.
"And the babies!" Olaf added.
Mac hopped to his feet, and Olaf gave him a quick hug. Bale leaned over the fire and wrapped their neck around mine, the way we hugged in dragon form. With that, I bent down to let Mac onto my back, secured him with a spell, and flew home.
A pile of books greeted us at the mouth of our cave. I'd spelled the entrance so my nosy family members couldn't venture inside. I was glad it hadn't rained.
"What's this?" Mac asked as he stacked the six books in his arms and carried them inside.
"My paragon hoards information of all sorts. They will be pleased to learn of kobold advances from the last few years. For now, we must resort to their books." My paragon's hoard had been locked away from me when they left. This set contained information about pregnancy and egg laying, from the looks of them. One had the image of a tiny kobold on the cover.
Mac flipped it open to the first chapter and frowned. "What language is this?" he asked. "I can't read it."
"Draconic. I'll read it to you."
I curled around Mac in my bed, my neck angled so I could see the book page over his shoulder. When I got to the bottom of the first page, I waited for him to turn it, but he was already sound asleep. It was a good thing, too. The first chapter was all about omegas, which wouldn't help us at all.
I carefully hooked my claw under the book and scooted it off Mac's legs and along the floor until it was well out of reach. "Tomorrow," I whispered. We still had plenty of time before we needed the information, I hoped.