Page 24 of The Monster at the End of This Molt (The Monster at the End of His Pregnancy #4)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Weld

No one would ever say teaching was easy, but it was a lot less nerve-racking to take care of someone else's kids after a full two weeks of parenting our own. I met with our children's first-year teachers and realized instantly that it was not a job for me. By the time they reached us, the teenagers knew what they could and couldn't do. Meanwhile, our little family thought anything was possible. Who was I to tell them any different?

I loved our little clutch. At the same time, I wished we had waited a year or two more. Time alone with Robin was now a precious commodity. Whenever I thought we could spell the walls for some privacy, one of the kids woke from a nightmare or banged on our bedroom door for a drink of water.

Three months passed in the blink of an eye. Our children had their first and second molts, all at different times. Lemon and Cook had both laid their eggs while we waited for ours to hatch. Robin's family was preoccupied with egg watch, forsaking everything else.

That wasn't fair to Punky and Lark. They and the rest of the family spent plenty of time with their grandchildren.

Robin and I got a few hours here and there to ourselves, but we used that time to clean the house, sanitize the backyard, and make extensive grocery lists. If we weren't careful, the babies would deplete our full cupboards to crumbs within three days. And I'd never seen anyone go through so much water. They drank a full case each week, sometimes in less than a week if they were close to molting.

Still, at the end of three months, I was sincerely regretting my life choices. I wanted to spend time with my fated mate. Alone. Apparently, that was too much to ask the dragon gods, the universe, fate, and whoever else was listening to me whine.

Thankfully, we had good friends. One Friday afternoon, Tuft dropped by the classroom after Lark had released the kids a little early for the day. "What are you doing this weekend?" he asked.

"We're on egg watch," Lark and I said at the same time.

Tuft fixed me with a withering glare. "Pretty sure your eggs hatched three months ago. I've met your children. Remember all the awesome art supplies I gave you?"

I grinned. The kids loved their art supplies. "Yes, but?—"

"No buts. Lark and Punky can handle the doting grandparent job. You and Robin need a night off."

I felt those words in my bones. "We definitely do, but now's not the time."

Tuft curled his hand into a fist and even raised it to his chest, but then he shook his head. "You are the only kobold on this plane who can infuriate me to violence."

"Infuriate?" I laughed. "Your drama is only outmatched by your extensive vocabulary."

"Are you two done flirting?" Lark rolled his eyes. "It's pizza night at the cafeteria, and I promised Punky we'd deliver pizza to our expecting children."

"I'll help!"

Now it was Lark's turn to glower at me and shake his head. "I agree with Tuft. You and Robin deserve a night off. Punky and I have been preoccupied with our alpha boys, or I would have seen it sooner."

Tuft stuck out his chest and preened from the praise. "See? I was right. Er. Axel was right. He said you looked like death warmed over today in the cafeteria."

I hadn't even seen Axel. When I stopped by to pick up sack lunches for me and Lark, I focused solely on selecting one with meat and one without.

"We're hosting movie night," Tuft said, "and Penelope insisted we make it a sleepover. Dinner at five. Movie starts at six." Our four had bonded immediately with Tuft and Axel's clutch. Like us, they had one of each: alpha, omega, beta, and female. After a few molts, the age difference wasn't as noticeable. Granted, they had a few years between them, while Robin and I still had a full-ass adult life between us.

Our age difference didn't bother me as much as it once did. Leaving The Pavilion until he was old enough to mate had helped in that respect. Most of Robin's friends assumed we were the same age when they met me. Robin liked to tease that I had gotten older, but I would never grow up. That wasn't exactly true. Raising our little ones had aged me at least a hundred years.

Tuft snapped his fingers in my face. "Did you hear a word I just said?"

"Movie, sleepover, got it."

"What movie?"

"I … missed that part."

He shook his head. "You might as well skip sexy times. You and Robin need a good night's sleep." He snapped his fingers again, and I jumped. "No, that's perfect! We'll make it a weekend sleepover! We can take the kids for a visit to Galen, and then we'll stop by the fortress for Windsor's painting class and have dinner with our older boys. You'll get your kids back on Sunday morning, and not a moment sooner."

I tried for a long-suffering sigh, but it ended on a giant yawn. "Sounds wonderful, actually."

Tuft grabbed my arm. "Say goodbye to Lark."

"Goodbye, Lark."

"You're not allowed to turn your phone on again until Sunday," Tuft said loud enough for Lark to hear him as we walked into the hallway. "Got it? If there's baby news this weekend, it can wait."

"Yes, Sir."

"Damn right." He dragged me down the hall to Robin's office. I sank onto the comfy couch as Tuft relayed our weekend plans. "You two are going to grab a pizza from the cafeteria, go home, and talk about your sexual fantasies. And then tomorrow, you might have enough energy to do something about them."

I thought I'd seen the end of Robin's adorable blushes at the mere mention of sex, but apparently, fantasies still did it for him. We'd talked a lot about desires, limits, and hard boundaries, but only in the moment.

Tuft had hit on something, and I wanted to know more.

* * *

Over pizza, breadsticks, and the largest containers of soda I had ever seen in my life, I delved deeper. We sat beside each other on the couch, our legs touching from knee to hip. The pizza box sat open on the coffee table, a sure sign our babies were out of the house, since any food left unattended was fair game.

"What's your sexual fantasy?"

Robin almost choked on a mouthful of soda. Once he could breathe, I took the pressure off by answering myself. "Mine is being bound naked to the mast of a pirate ship. The enemy pirate tortures me for information about the naval fleet."

"By torture, you mean …"

"He edges me until I can't breathe and stops to ask questions." Robin encouraged me to keep going. "When my cock goes limp from the interrogation, he sucks me until I'm on the edge again. I'm just a fisherman. I know nothing about the naval fleet. I start making shit up just so he'll let me come."

Robin laughed. "You've thought a lot about this."

"I watched a ton of pirate porn." I cleared my throat, realizing I might have given too much away. "In college. I watched porn in college."

He laughed. "So did I. Humans never did it for me, though. I watched them more for educational purposes." He swallowed hard. "Monster movies did more for me."

"Yeah? Which ones?"

"The hero tries to hide in the evil lair, but something big chases and catches him." He rested his head on my shoulder and panted hot breath against my neck. "I love how we fit together now, but in my fantasy, you're even bigger."

I growled low in my throat, and Robin's scent of arousal spiked. "I can be as big as you want, within reason." I couldn't expand to the size of a dragon, but I had excelled at body modification spells.

My earlier exhaustion forgotten, I pulled Robin to his feet. "How big do you want me?"

"Eep." He swallowed hard.

"I haven't changed anything yet."

"I know. Can we start like this? The way you're looking at me is intense."

It didn't feel any different from the way I always stared at him when I was this turned on. "What do you want me to do when I catch you?"

His throat clicked when he swallowed. "I want you to take me right there on the floor. Rip my compression shorts off and hold me down. Slide into me like you own me. Fuck me until I come."

"What level of consent?"

"I won't fight you. I want this. Need this. Please?"

I stroked his cheek and hauled him in for a hard kiss. "I'll count down from one hundred."

Our television hung on the wall opposite the hallway to the rest of the house. Our magic screens weren't reflective, but I closed my eyes to take away any advantage.

"One hundred."

Clunk. "Ow."

I stifled a laugh before counting, "Ninety-nine." Robin must have turned around too quickly and banged his knee on the arm of the couch.

As I counted, I heard rustling in our bedroom, and then in the hallway. I waited to hear the back door open, but it never did. He could have used his magic, but I didn't sense it through our bond.

I couldn't sense anything! He'd blocked me, something he'd never done in all the years the bond had tethered us. When I counted, "Zero," I let mock rage wash over me. He was mine. How dare he try to hide from me!

Still, this was a game, one Robin would win in the best way possible. I turned around and padded my way across the living room rug, checking the obvious hiding spots. No one behind the couch or under the kitchen counter. No one lurking in our bedroom closet or beneath the bed. No one in the kids' beds or hiding in their play lofts.

I saved my favorite room for last. Wembley slept on the pirate ship. His room was next door to the bathroom, so it had an extra closet where we kept the group toys and games. There was just enough room for an adult kobold/human hybrid to squeeze between the shelves and the door.

I turned the handle, and the door burst open from the inside. Robin tried to run past me, but I let the door swing wide and grabbed him around the waist. He slipped out of my grasp, and I brought my hand, coated with slippery stuff to my nose for a whiff. My omega mate had lubed up his sides with slick.

"That's fucking unfair!" I yelled after him.

I chased him back to the living room. He vaulted past me by hopping onto and over the back of the sofa.

I didn't want to destroy our house and burn too much energy over a little foreplay, but tomorrow was a new day. I would take him out to the woods, where no one would hear me crash through the underbrush as I chased my mate.

In Wembley’s play loft, I caught him again. Robin had hidden himself well under a pile of blankets, but I could smell his slick.

I dragged him out by his ankles and grabbed him by the compression shorts. His only article of clothing was slick-free by design. I dropped him to the floor on his hands and knees. With my knee to the small of his back, I flattened him to the wood planks. "You blocked our bond."

"I didn't want you to find me so fast!"

I leaned over him and licked his sweaty cheek. "You're mine."

He nodded, scraping his other cheek against the floor. "Yours. All yours."

"You know what I do with what's mine?" I asked.

"Please?"

All thoughts of roleplaying fled my mind. It was time to act.

I grabbed the waistband of his shorts. With one violent motion, I ripped them down the middle along the seam. I tugged them open for a view of his glistening hole, already dripping without the shorts to contain his slick.

His sweet smell was too delectable to resist. I grabbed his hips to hold him in place and licked up the excess.

He moaned and tried to follow me when I pulled back.

I whispered the quick birth control spell and lowered myself on top of him. Keeping both hands on his hips, I shifted his body beneath me until he lined up with my cock. I sank into him, using gravity and his slick instead of force.

He wriggled in my grasp, but I held firm, letting his body get used to me.

"Be patient." I growled the command, and he relaxed against the floor, all the fight leaving him.

"You're so good for me," I praised. "Taking all of me without any effort."

"Need more. Please."

I kissed the shell of his ear as I hiked him up onto his knees and pulled him up so his back was flush against my chest. I gripped his throat, holding him steady without cutting off his air. His pulse fluttered beneath my tongue as I licked along his neck.

"Please, Weld."

I clamped my teeth over his marked shoulder, and he gasped. Gently, I released him. With a spell, I lifted him up and off my cock. I didn't want to hurt him, so I cast another tiny spell to keep my cock in line with his hole. Then, I slammed him down and thrust into him, filling him hard and fast.

I was in complete control of his pliant body. Afraid I might choke him on accident, I tilted his head back to rest on my shoulder. He panted in my ear as I drilled into his hole over and over.

His body vibrated with the need to come, pushing me closer to the edge. I lowered my hand to his dripping cock, my strokes slow and sure while I jackhammered into him.

"Oh fuck," he wailed. "I'm coming!"

A jet of cum arced from his cock and landed a few feet away. Spurt after spurt decorated the planks until he was spent and boneless in my arms, the rest of his cum dribbling down my fingers.

I felt my knot forming as my orgasm neared. "Ready to move to the bedroom?"

"Mm-hmm?"

Even though it sounded like a question, my knees were killing me, and I wanted him to have a comfortable place to lie down. I teleported us both to our bed, bending him down to rest his head on his folded arms while I continued to thrust into him. It didn't take long before I came with a harsh shout.

"So full." Robin's words slurred as he swayed on his knees.

I rolled us onto our sides, pillowing his sweaty head on my arm. Fervently, I kissed the corner of his mouth and pulled him tight against my hips.

"I don't think I can come again," Robin whispered. "I want to, but I'm so tired."

"Shh. I've got you. Sleep, Boss."

I would clean our mess later. For now, all I wanted to do was fall asleep like this, with my knot locking our bodies together as tightly as our dragon bond had stitched our souls.