Page 16 of The Monster at the End of This Molt (The Monster at the End of His Pregnancy #4)

Chapter Sixteen

Weld

Volleyball wasn't my favorite sport to watch, but playing it was a rush unlike any other. On Tuft's team, "You call the ball or you die," and I believed him. At first, I had been too nervous to call it, for fear I would miss and lose the point, but then Tuft started calling them for me.

"Weld." I bumped the ball over the net, and the opposing alpha lobbed it back to me in the center back.

"Weld." I bumped it up, and my teammates called their shots and hit the ball back over. This time, the alpha spiked it at my head.

"WELD."

"Mine!" I finally shouted as I dug it out of the sand.

"Mine." Tuft swept in from behind me, when a moment before he'd been to my right. He set the ball for Robin in the front middle, who spiked it at the ground at the alpha's feet. We earned our point, and Tuft served again.

Tuft almost won us the game on his serves alone, but the omega to my left misjudged a ball that looked like it was going out, and it touched the line.

The other team's server lobbed the ball into no-man's-land between me and Robin.

"Mi—Not mine!" Robin shouted when his hand didn't connect.

I trusted him, I did, but I was there to back him up. He was tall, but he wasn't that tall. "Mine." I bumped the ball straight up and backed out of the way for Tuft to set the ball to Axel. He lobbed it into the same sweet spot between the front and back center, and we scored our point.

We won the first two games in a row, which was enough to stop play. Two players on the other team wanted to prepare for their kickball game, so the others offered Robin and me their spots to play for fun.

"Do your worst," I said to Tuft through the net. We'd lined up across from each other in the center of the front row.

"Oh, it's not me you need to worry about." He winked and pointed over his shoulder to Axel, who flexed his arms in a bodybuilder pose.

Despite the threat and the hardest game I had ever played "for fun," we all slapped hands at the end and said, "Good game."

I followed Tuft to where he'd left a towel and water bottle in the sand. "Thanks for the invite."

"Oh, sure, now he thanks me!" He threw his hands up. I thought he was making a grand gesture, but then he wrapped me in a hug. "It's so good to have you home."

"It's good to be here." I meant it, which shocked the hell out of me.

"We're all going to Coz and Grindl's house tonight after the game. Want to tag along?"

I blinked. "Me? Why?"

"Well, you and Robin. It's tradition, since he was a little guy. We used to meet at Punky's house, and then mine, when our little ones were the youngest, and then Grindl's, when they had their second clutch above ground." He grinned. "I think Grindl liked hosting so much, he talked Coz into a third clutch. Now we go over there for the sheer numbers."

"They're already teenagers?" I asked.

Tuft nodded. "Yup. And the others are all grown up and living on their own." He sniffled. "I was so sad when Balthus moved out."

"That's why you had this batch?" Axel had retrieved their four little ones from the daycare area in the main dragon pavilion. I'd heard the children shouting and playing while we played.

Tuft grinned. "We're still young. We figured, why not?"

"Hell, if Alma's still young enough, she's got us all beat."

Tuft stared pointedly at me. "What’s your excuse?"

I shook my head. "I’m not ready."

He patted my shoulder. "I get it. You're scared. I promise you, no matter what happens, nothing you do will ever let your omega down. He has loved you since the first moment he saw you."

Tears stung my eyes as I glanced over at Robin, who was still chatting with two members of the other team. "I don't want to hurt him."

"I know you." Tuft grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to meet his gaze. "You'll never hurt him on purpose. Accidents happen. You talk about them and get through them. Together. You got me?"

"I got you." I grinned. "I'm glad, too. If I didn't have you, I'd be bored out of my mind on Thursday nights."

"You're absolutely right, and we can't have that!" He turned back to Axel and their family. "Now come on, let's go to Coz and Grindl's."

Their cabin was still two over from Punky and Lark's, but it was much larger now, with a staircase leading to a second floor. Outside, Tuft pointed to the three small cabins at the far edge of the property. "Sunny, Briar, and Rory live in those. The rest of their kids still live at home. They had three eggs each time."

Inside, the house was organized chaos. Grindl supervised the other seven kobolds who lived in the house. Their oldest three sons added to the pandemonium, too. I recognized Sunny from the dragonet barn, though he and his clutch mates looked a lot alike. When we arrived, he and his brothers rounded up Tuft's hatchlings and marched them to the television to watch a movie while Coz showed us to the largest dining room table I had yet seen in any kobold home. It was almost as long as the cafeteria tables.

My chest swelled with pride as I took a seat between Tuft and Robin. Kobolds had come a long way from fighting over the grotto's heat vents. Now, we lived above ground like kings.

"I like what you've done with the place," I said to Grindl while Coz passed around the snack foods and dealt cards for poker.

"It was more necessity than anything."

"I'm glad it was necessary." I sounded like a complete fool, but I still felt like an ass for almost costing them their oldest sons.

"We're glad you're home," Coz said. "Now fold, pass, or raise."

"I don't have any money." I hadn't thought to switch out any of my possessions for cash.

"We play for chips!" Punky tossed a snack-sized bag at my head, and the game was on. I ended up eating more dill pickle chips than I played. Robin had cheddar chips in his bag, so we ended up sharing and trying to stuff chips in each other's mouths while the game went on around us.

Axel ended up winning the prize box of healthy snacks for their kids, and then we sat talking until the kids' movie ended.

"That's our signal to leave." Tuft stifled a yawn and helped me to my feet. "We'll see you next week." He said it with a smile, but his tone held an edge of warning.

"Next week. Absolutely."

"Every week until the end of the season. Then, we'll have two weeks off for the dragon reunion before we start up again. Are you interested in starting a team of your own, or do you want to stick with ours?"

"Yours." Robin answered for us, but I heartily agreed.

"All right. It's an eight-week season, and then we'll see where you are."

"Pregnant, I'd guess." Coz winked.

Robin glanced down at the table as his cheeks flushed pink.

"We'll see," I said. It wasn't a promise, or even a hint at one, but Robin met my gaze with a shy smile. Through our bond, I felt his hope.

I didn't want to let him down.

* * *

I appreciated Lark's patience with me, but I didn't deserve it. He was a much better teacher now than he had been that first year. I'd traveled the world and met all sorts of kobolds, but I had no classroom presence and less of Punky's "with-it-ness," the sense some teachers had that told them when someone was about to cause trouble.

I didn't have that at all. In fact, I walked right into open traps my students set for me. "Tell us about the fight in the grotto!" This was from Marco, Coz and Grindl's youngest alpha son.

"Which one?"

"There was more than one?" Marco blinked up at me innocently. I was halfway through the story before I realized I'd monopolized the time Lark had wanted to spend on calculus with my history lesson.

"Why didn't you stop me?" I asked after I'd retrieved our lunches from the cafeteria.

"We're kobolds with magic," he said. "Do you really think they need to know calculus? They could magic up formulas on their phones now."

"You still need to teach them the formulas," I said around a large bite of dressing-covered spinach.

Lark watched me eat the whole bowl of spinach salad in under a minute. He clapped when I put my fork down with a flourish. "You haven't changed at all."

I wanted to argue. I had changed in the ways that mattered. I used my words instead of my claws now. I was kinder to strangers, and I didn't jump to as many conclusions before asking questions.

Instead of arguing, I kept my mouth shut. I sent my dirty dishes back to the cafeteria collection area and waited for him to continue.

Lark finished eating and his dishes vanished, too. Then, he met my gaze. "I know you want to argue with me, but it's true. You had already become the alpha you are today before you met Robin."

I nodded. "Losing our clutch was hard on Tuft and me."

"It was more than that. When Galen claimed I was your better, I thought you were going to challenge me, maybe kill me, but?—"

"Galen was right. You are my better."

Lark shook his head. "We're the same, you and me. We want what's best for our species, but most of all, we want the best for our families."

"I didn't know what family was until we lost those eggs."

"And now?"

"Now I'm too scared to try again."

"Coz and Grindl were scared, too."

I nodded. "They're braver than I am, then."

Lark sighed. "You're still young, and Robin?—"

"Don't say it."

"Robin's an adult now." I felt Lark's gaze boring into me, even though I couldn't meet it. I stared at my desk instead. "He will love you forever, no matter what you decide, but I've seen the way you look at the little ones teaming around the hallways before and after school. You want your own."

I swallowed hard. "What if this is karma?"

"Karma was losing your first clutch, maybe, but the odds have improved since then. We might lose an egg or two these days, but not an entire clutch."

"Can you imagine if we reproduced like humans?" Just this morning, I'd awakened from a nightmare of losing Robin during childbirth.

"We haven't lost an omega to the egg-laying process … ever, that I know of."

"I know, but …" I swallowed hard and squinted my eyes shut to push away the horrible memory. "I can't lose him."

"You won't." Lark stood and walked the few steps between our desks to pat my shoulder. "When you're thinking of worst-case scenarios, consider what's possible, and also what's probable. We don't reproduce like humans, so get that out of your mind."

"Easier said than done." I placed my hand on top of his, still on my shoulder, and squeezed. "I'll try."

"Good." He walked back to his desk. "I'm pretty sure Clem and Ernie have started collecting bets again. My money's on Robin. Always has been."

I laughed. "Money this time? Not chips?"

"You weren't supposed to eat the chips."

Our students began filing back into the room after lunch. I dropped my eyes to my notes for our next lesson, but my head reeled with new possibilities.

I'd been catastrophizing. What if everything went smoothly, instead?

* * *

The weeks passed in a blur. I loved my new routine, but there wasn't much time for reflection.

The only slow part of my day was bedtime. When most folks turned on their sexy charms, Robin and I snuggled instead. We had plenty of time during the day for sex. First thing in the morning, again in the shower, another shower when we returned home, and fooling around on the couch after dinner.

Once we dressed for bed, it was time for me to wind down with another handful of letters from Robin's file. When he'd first presented me with them, I'd been overwhelmed. There were so many, and the very first one had made me tear up with gratitude and regret. It had been from Pinkie, an elderly kobold omega in The Grid, where I'd spent a few years cultivating crops above ground. Pinkie had passed away while I was on Earth, working on the bovinji vaccine. I'd missed my chance to say goodbye, but the letter was his goodbye to me.

"You're a fortunate young omega to be mated to Weld," the letter had reassured Robin. "He was patient and kind to an old omega when other young alphas would have been cold and condescending. My own great-grandchildren want nothing to do with me, but Weld treated me like a respected elder. He is a wonderful example for his generation."

It hadn't been hard to put myself in Pinkie's position, to recognize his loneliness, which was similar to my own. His mate had died young, along with their only beta son. The practice of sending alpha and omega hatchlings to Earth had left him painfully alone, unable to make a connection with his offspring once they returned. He'd tried to connect with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but they weren't interested in his stories.

He had been full of them, flood tales and drought adventures, forest exploration and hiding under rocks whenever a dragon flew overhead. I'd encouraged him to write them down. Maybe his grandchildren didn't want to hear them now, but he was a living record of all we kobolds had survived.

The final line of the letter had inspired the tears. "P.S. Please give Weld this copy of my memoir."

At the time, Robin had assured me the book was still at his parents' house. Now it sat on our shared nonfiction bookshelf. I wanted to read it, but first, I needed to finish reading the letters Robin had gathered over the years.

We sat on our bed with our backs supported by pillows. Robin leaned on my shoulder and laced his fingers through mine. Each time I read a letter, I put it at the back of the pile and took the next from the top. Today's letter was from Olaf, another elder at The Grid. I'd assumed the beta was younger than Pinkie, but he was one of the oldest living kobold/human hybrids, thanks to his dragon bond with Bale.

His letter was about dragon bonds. Robin chuckled each time Olaf swore in the letter, which was a lot.

"I remember the first time Papa read it to me," he said once I slipped it to the back of the pile. "He inserted a lot of 'flipping,' 'forking,' and 'shiz.'"

"The entire time I lived in The Grid, Olaf never mentioned he was Bale's mate."

"Don't take it personally," Robin said. "Dragons are a secretive lot. Chance and Lux still won't say if they've met their mates."

"Still, I should have known. Our stripes make it obvious."

He shrugged. "Not all stripes. Lemon's will never match Ernie's. Besides, you left before Mac started imprinting on Galen."

Robin's tone held no animosity when he said, "you left." He merely stated the facts.

"You forgive me?"

"For leaving?" He rolled his eyes. "How could I not? Look at all the lives you've touched. That wouldn't have happened if you'd stayed here with me."

"I'm sorry you had to wait after your tail fell off."

He lifted his chin from my shoulder and sat up straight, hugging his chest. "I would have waited forever. If these letters taught me anything, it's that fated mates and dragon bonds are real, and they last forever."

He slumped against my shoulder again, hiding his face against my neck. "Did you take comfort elsewhere while you waited for me?" His hot breath puffed against my throat.

"There was no point. They weren't you."

He slipped his arm around me. "I tried to fool around with Sunny when we were teenagers."

Despite my best efforts to stay calm, my spine stiffened. "And?"

"No kobold would touch me." He leaned over, shoving his face in mine. "I've looked like you since I was born."

I tucked the papers back into the folder and dropped it to the floor with a loud pop. Robin squealed as I pulled him into my lap. I cupped his face and kissed him until he opened for me on a moan.

Before we got too carried away, I pulled back, licking my lips. "I've been yours since then, too."

Robin nodded. "I thought so."

I grunted. "You talked to Lemon, didn't you."

"He's a great guy. Doesn't talk much unless prodded, but he's really observant."

I helped him under the covers and kissed him again. "I hope Ernie goes slow and gives him plenty of time and autonomy. His brothers were … unkind."

Robin beamed up at me with a smile that could outshine the moonlight streaming through our window. "You're pretty observant, too."

I appreciated the compliment, but, "Right now, I'd like to observe the inside of my eyelids until I fall asleep."

He snorted at my poor attempt at a joke. "Please don't tell my dad that your young lover kept you awake."

I leaned to kiss the tip of his nose before turning the light off and shoving my pillows where I wanted them so I could lie beside him. "I'll tell him you wore me out in the shower, same as every other day."

We knocked the covers askew with a little impromptu wrestling. I smoothed them out before curling around Robin. All jokes aside, I loved every waking and sleeping moment with him.