Chapter Seven
Mac
After we climbed into the hotel bed and I turned the light off, Galen tossed and turned.
"Are you all right?"
"This bed is too big," they grumbled. "Or I am too small. I don't know."
"Come here." They were larger than me in their kobold alpha form, but it felt comforting to snuggle my snout between their shoulder blades and curl my arm around their chest. I tucked my legs against theirs and held them until their breath evened out in sleep.
I kissed their shoulder blade, and a swell of happiness washed over me. My cheeks ached from the stretch of my smile. I'd smiled so much in the last eight hours, all because of Galen.
We'd had the best day, from our picnic to the racetrack. Then, it happened. After three years of blue balls, they'd finally shared orgasms with me. Amazing orgasms.
My head was still reeling. I'd been dreaming of touching their sex organs for so long, and now I knew how their cock and ovipositor felt in my hands. Well, in their kobold form, at least.
Their cock was enormous. At full dragon size, it rivaled the ocean buoys in shark attack movies, the ones the heroine used as a resting place before launching the final attack on the shark. I could wrap my arms and legs around it, but there was no way it was going inside me. Still, I would try, if given the chance.
Their ovipositor was the same length but remained soft when I stroked it. It acted like a prehensile appendage, curling around like an elephant's trunk. It had sought my touch, and gods, how it squeezed my thumb. I wondered if it could stretch, and what it would feel like wrapped around the head of my cock.
If I continued that line of thinking, I would never get to sleep.
What surprised me more than anything was how Galen seemed to want me as much as I wanted them. Until we'd arrived home from our travels across Ignitas, I thought they were completely oblivious to my desire. Now, not only did they want me, they wanted offspring with me. I felt like I was dreaming.
Galen was my fated mate. As a beta, I valued our village society over individual family. I wasn't supposed to want a family of my own. Now that I'd imagined having a child with Galen, I wanted it more than anything. I wanted to help raise them, even if dragon children were nothing like ours.
Exhausted from the long day, I sank into dreams of babies. Through the night, they kept me company. By morning, they were large enough to run around our cave. The last thing I remembered, they set our woodpile on fire and laughed.
The sound of children next door woke me. I didn't hear Punky, Lark, and their kids return last night, which meant they probably got in late. This morning, though, I could hear Ernie and Robin fighting over who got to play with something "Grandma" got them, all while Clementine scolded them that if they were any louder, they would wake the entire hotel.
"If you wake Galen before they're ready …" she threatened, and the boys were instantly quiet.
"Are they really afraid of me?" Galen whispered.
"They're children," I said. "Children often have irrational fears."
"I don't think they're irrational," they said. "I have tried to make friends with Clementine, since she might become a priestess someday. If she doesn't, that means I've scared her away."
Galen sounded so sad. I turned toward them and squeezed their shoulder. "If she chooses to become something other than a priestess, it's because she can." I'd watched many omegas fight against societal norms of what they were expected to do and be. It had to be even worse for females since there were so few. There were none my age. Clementine was the first female born in our village in three decades. In the past, she would have chosen between priestess and prostitute, but now that we didn't have to worry about keeping up appearances for Galen's sake, she had more choices.
Besides, "What do the priestesses do that I can't do?" I asked.
I watched as different emotions played across their expressive kobold face. They would think of something, open their mouth to say it, and then stop with a frown.
"Nothing."
"Exactly." I knew they would reach the same conclusion I'd reached years ago. "They lead our villages, but betas could worship and honor you just as well. You could have priests instead of priestesses."
Galen frowned. "My paragon used to threaten the priestesses. Said there would be no more females if they stopped worshiping us."
"Dragons didn't change our birthrates," I reminded them. "We did, by combining our genes with humans."
"What if that's not true?" they asked. "What if it's a magical curse?"
"It wasn't enough to destroy our village with fire so hot it burned underground for a century?" I asked. "You think your elders cursed us, too?"
They frowned. "I don't know. I wasn't included in their discussions. I was too young, they said."
I leaned toward them and kissed their cheek. "Don't worry about it. We've got a fun day ahead."
"We do?"
"Yes." I prodded their hip, where I'd learned they were ticklish. "Time for another shower, a quick one this time, and then we'll switch back into our human selves for another day as tourists."
"I don't think I like cold showers," they said.
"If we hurry, it won't be cold."
That got them moving. I had never seen anyone take a faster shower in my life. Back home, we still had one hot spring that fed into a pool in the grotto. The water moved so fast, if you stayed under the stream too long, you could suffocate.
The flow from the hotel's shower head wasn't nearly as strong, and the water heater was infinitely smaller than our hot spring. The water cooled before I finished rinsing shampoo from my hair, and it was completely cold by the time I'd rinsed the soap from my body and got out. I shivered in the room's air conditioning while I toweled off.
I pulled on my clothes before shrinking to my human form. The spell trimmed them so they still fit.
When I stepped into the main room, I found Galen sitting at the edge of the bed. They had once again taken the human form they'd used the day before. My childhood crush stared back at me with my mate's deep purple eyes.
I took their hands in mine and pulled them up. "Are you ready?"
They frowned, and I pressed a kiss to the wrinkles on their forehead.
"I would like to see our friends, so I can tell if they're joking," they said.
"What did they say?" I asked.
"More child's play. It's nothing."
It didn't look like nothing, to me. One of Galen's favorite pastimes was teaching the young kobolds about our history. If Lark and Punky's offspring had hurt their feelings, I was the one they should fear.
Lark waited for us in the hall. "Punky took the kids out to the van already. They want to go to The Machine Shed."
"The what now?" I asked.
"What is a machine shed?" Galen asked.
"It's a place to store machines?" I looked to Lark for confirmation.
"My friends, prepare for a feast," he said. "They have the best biscuits and gravy you've ever had, for starters." He turned around and led us to the elevator.
"It must be a restaurant." I took Galen's hand, and they gave my fingers a reassuring squeeze.
"I didn't know either," they said. "I understand the words, but not the concepts behind them. Everything here is so foreign to me."
It was strange to me, too. I didn't understand the need for multiple-story buildings completely at odds with nature, such as our hotel. I hated the claustrophobic boxes that hauled us up and down on thick cables instead of magic, too. Their technology seemed more lazy than efficient. At least, it did until I saw a young person in a wheelchair waiting for the elevator in the lobby. I thought I would have to pull Galen away like a young child, shushing their questions until we were out of hearing distance, but they were very gracious.
"Good morning," they said. "I like your dragon sticker."
I didn't even see the large dragon decal on the side of the armrest until Galen pointed it out.
The child smiled. "Thank you! Dragons are my favorites."
"Mine, too."
For a moment, I worried they would swoop in and sniff the child, but instead, they gave a grand head bow worthy of royalty. "Have a wonderful day."
"You too!" The child rolled into the elevator and waved as the doors closed.
Lark noticed me giving Galen side-eye and laughed. "Galen's been doing their homework," he said.
"Some humans are differently abled," Galen said. "All are worthy of love and acceptance."
"Yes, they are."
I turned to Lark. "Thanks for teaching them."
"They wanted to learn." Lark patted my shoulder and shoved me toward the door. "They've been asking about Earth as long as we've been visiting them at their cave."
Galen leaned into my side when I caught up to them, and I slung my arm around their shoulders. "I have wanted to visit since I met you," they reminded me. "Now, we're finally here."
Bright sunlight filled the parking lot. We found Odessa and Rapture side by side at the far end. I refreshed Rapture's spell before we climbed inside. Young Rapture didn't hold his vehicle shape as well as Odessa could. He needed my help to remember what a van was. He was starting to list to one side like he had a flat tire.
Once we were on the road, I was drawn to how different human architecture was to our own. Their buildings stuck out like broken bones across the landscape, while our cabins were designed to blend in with the grassland. Their roads snaked up and over other roads, railroad tracks, and rivers. We had magic to prevent collisions or accidents at crossings like these, but they needed pathways over or around them.
I wasn't as familiar with this town, so I let Lark and Punky take the lead. Rapture followed closely on Odessa's heels. He seemed nervous to lose her in this strange place.
When we arrived, the Machine Shed loomed large over acres of parking lot. The giant red building resembled our dragonet barn back home. Inside, antique tools lined the walls. Each tool had a plaque explaining its use and the number of years humans used them before they were replaced by diesel-powered machinery.
As unfamiliar with their equipment as I was, I was even more confused by their breakfast foods. I'd had my share of fast food on Earth, but I stayed away from the strange cuisine back home. I had eaten steel-cut oats and mossberries every morning for as long as I could remember.
Some of their food sounded familiar, though. I pointed out the steak and eggs on Galen's menu, and they raised one eyebrow, once again reminding me of my childhood crush whose face he'd stolen. Thankfully, the movie was over thirty years old and no one would think he was the actor, but the resemblance was uncanny to me.
I ordered the biscuits and gravy as Lark suggested, and I was not disappointed. I wondered how anyone could eat something so rich every morning for breakfast, though. I felt full and drowsy when the server brought us our bill.
"It's a good thing we're not doing anything too crazy after this," Punky said. "If you took me on a roller coaster right now, I would probably puke."
"Toast for breakfast tomorrow," Lark said. "Got it."
The restaurant lobby also served as a small general store with knickknacks and tourist baubles. While Galen paid for breakfast and the boys tried on the different straw hats in a bin, Clementine stalked a small girl with blond ringlets and the clearest blue eyes I'd ever seen.
Outside, I tried to take pictures for Punky and Lark while they posed with their family in front of a statue of an ear of corn. While I tried to find the best angle, Clementine replayed the encounter for Punky.
"Humans are stupid," she concluded as I snapped the first picture.
"Not stupid," Punky admonished. "Young."
"She said she's three!"
"Well, she's probably three," Punky replied, trying to turn her head toward the camera for the shot.
"We're three!" Thankfully, her shouts were lost in the stiff breeze.
"In human developmental years, you're closer to six," Punky said.
"Six?"
"Six," Lark agreed, "going on twelve."
"I'm six," Clementine said again for confirmation.
Both of her parents smiled and nodded, and I snapped another picture.
"Then I want more birthday presents," she said.
I snapped one more picture, capturing the smug faces of all four children while Punky frowned and Lark's eyes bulged too large for his human head.
"That's the best one," Galen said. "Well done, Clementine. We've captured a true family portrait."
"I'll tell your grandma about the presents," Punky said as he ushered the children toward our parking spots.
Lark fell back into step with us. "After the botanical garden, we're having dinner with Punky's parents again tonight, and then we're going to the amusement park tomorrow. His parents don't want to ride the rides, but the kids really want to go. They're tall enough to ride most of them, but we'll need a chaperone for the ones they can't. Are you interested?"
"Yes," Galen said before I could ask questions. "They have a dragon at this amusement park. I want to meet it."