Page 25 of The Monster at the End of This Molt (The Monster at the End of His Pregnancy #4)
Robin
I never thought I would see the day Galen would hold a dragon reunion anywhere but their precious dragon pavilion, but they would do anything for my sister. Clementine didn't even have to beg. She suggested the dragons might like to see the ruins restored to their ancient glory, and the next thing we knew, Mac sent invites for all of us to join them at The Meadows this summer.
Much had changed in the year since I'd come looking for my mate. For one, we practically filled the big house's dining area with our family alone. Besides me, Weld, and our four kids, Lemon and Ernie had four little ones of their own, and Grover and Cook weren't far behind with three.
Clementine had us all beat. She'd laid six eggs, and they'd hatched into three girls and three betas. She claimed she was the most grown-up of us, too. Our brothers had named their babies after animated series with wild fantasy names, but she'd picked an adult television show with real human names.
"Boring!" Lemon stuck his tongue out at her. Not to be outdone, Clementine flicked a pea at his head, and the food fight was on.
"Real mature, Clem," I said as I ducked a forkful of gelatin.
"What is going on here?" Tim entered with the six folks I recognized as his village council, the ones who would gather around the table nearest the kitchen at breakfast every morning.
"Lemon started it!" Clementine shouted. She had one foot up on her chair and a forkful of potatoes ready to launch. Our children all sat at the table across the aisle from ours, pretending they didn't know us.
"It's a good thing no dragons have arrived yet," an elder on Tim's council said. He scooped a biscuit off Boober's plate and tossed it up in the air like a baseball before chucking it at Weld's head. My mate ducked, and it hit Ernie in the chest.
"Oh, it's on … what's his name?"
"Scorpion," Lemon whispered.
"Scorpion?" Ernie mouthed at me. He squeezed the biscuit. "Your soul is mine!"
We suddenly found ourselves in the middle of an all-out food war. Boober launched a spoonful of peas at Scorpion for stealing his biscuit, and the other kids joined in, tossing food everywhere. Kobolds left their seats for better aim and slid on the food-covered floor. Clementine flipped our table to block us from the villagers at the tables closer to the kitchen. Tim joined us, while his council pelted us from all sides.
Finally, my sister raised a white flag. It looked suspiciously like a white pair of compression shorts, but I didn't want to know.
"We give up!" she called.
I didn't know what I expected to happen, but a full standing ovation was not it. Everyone in the dining area stood and clapped. Tim helped Clementine to her feet, and then he clapped, too. When they wound down to a few whistles and whoops, she had tears in her eyes.
"I'm not going to give a big speech," Tim said, "but I cannot tell you all how wonderful it is to have you here and enjoying yourselves like this. This never would have happened without my wonderful mate, her family, and her friends, kobold and dragon alike."
"You're not mad?" Clementine toed a half-smashed baked tuber, and it skidded along the floor.
"How could I be mad? Tonight is about our two communities coming together." He glanced around the room, seeming to notice the disaster for the first time. With a loud clap of his hands, he announced, "After we finish dessert, we can work together to clean up this mess!"
Our table had to go back for seconds, since our plates ended up on the floor. Thankfully, the cooks had prepared plenty of tubers, though we didn't leave many for breakfast the following morning.
After our dessert of chocolate pudding, Tim and his council taught us the community spell they used to keep the big house clean. It took all of us to power the spell, since we'd gotten it so dirty. Even the children past their first molts helped.
Tim initiated another round of applause. Then he sent us all to our rooms for the night.
Axel and his construction crew had been busy building temporary housing for the visiting kobolds. For the dragons, Galen and his family had found a giant cave system beneath the cliffs near Clementine's laboratory. They'd spent the spring cleaning it out. Any who made the trip to The Meadows for the reunion would be comfortable.
I'd expected to find Weld's old cabin as we left it, empty and a little run down. Instead, Axel had turned it into the perfect vacation cabin for a family of six. He'd even built us rustic wood furniture, including a huge sectional sofa that turned into bunk beds for four. The kids thought they'd hit the jackpot because their beds were so close to the television.
The festival was as fun as every other year, with the bonus of exotic delicacies and exciting carnival rides. The idea for rides had started when Dad and I joked about the roller coasters we had loved when we were kids. Axel loved a challenge. He built Ignitas's first roller coaster, if you could call it that when the car free-fell into a huge chasm, only to be caught in the hind claws of a dragon and lifted safely to the other side.
"What if they miss?" Wembley asked me. He was our cautious child.
"They can't miss," I said. "It's magic." When he trotted off to stand in line, I turned to Weld. "There's a magical safety net or something, right?"
He laughed. "Who needs a safety net when we have Galen?" He pointed to our friend, who spun from the cavern in a corkscrew motion with a car gripped in their claws. Meanwhile, the passengers screamed.
For the final day of the reunion, the dragons lined up outside the big house. Any kobolds who couldn't teleport made their way onto a dragon's back, and then we traveled together to the old ruins an hour north of the village. For our children's safety, Weld and I piled onto Galen's back with my siblings and their little ones. Papa and Dad went ahead. They'd already gotten the tour from Clementine, and I was jealous.
Now it was our turn, but with Galen as our guide. They shrank down to their alpha kobold form to share the history of the temple. The kobolds of old had erected it to worship their dragon gods.
"We were wrong to let you think of us as gods," Galen said as they led us to a spacious room that reminded me of the fortress cathedral. "I am much happier to call you all my friends."
I wasn't the first kobold to pile on the group hug. Every kobold in Ignitas owed Galen their thanks, along with my parents for going up the mountain to talk to them. I tried not to think about where kobolds would be today if Galen had decided to kill my parents. Instead, they'd given permission for Coz and Grindl to hatch their eggs aboveground, the first to do so in over a century.
Galen loved hugs, but they didn't appreciate being smothered. They grew to the size of a dragonet to give themself some room before shrinking back to alpha kobold size. "Now, my friends, we should return to The Meadows for the final ceremony."
Weld and I hung to the back of the group. Tim needed to return with Galen, but Clementine had offered to show our extended family around her laboratory and the secret tunnels beneath the ruins. Unlike the grotto, these tunnels had always been there. Somewhere along the way, Galen said they connected to the cliff cave system. The best part: these caves had natural geothermal heat vents. The restored ruins felt unusually warm to me after working in The Pavilion's chilly fortress.
Galen pointed us to the right as he continued to lead the rest of the crowd back to the main door. The narrow hallway reminded me of the fortress, but the similarities ended there. Skylights along the corridor and throughout the building filled it with natural light.
We met Clementine toward the back of the building in a room where kobold priestesses of old had once welcomed dragons into their temple for worship. Thankfully, most of the temple was designed for dragons, not the tiny kobolds of old. We squeezed through one small opening on our hands and knees, but then the natural cave system widened into comfortable tunnels. Some hugged our shoulders, while others were wide enough to fit Weld's old tractor with its giant wheels.
Clementine droned on about safety protocols, but all I could think about was later tonight. While Papa and Dad stayed at our cabin with the kids, Clementine had given Weld and me permission to return to the caves for a little hide and seek, as long as we didn't touch anything in her laboratory. Thankfully, she thought we wanted to explore the caves.
When we returned to the tiny doorway where we had to crawl through, Weld grabbed my elbow and waited for the rest of my family to move out of earshot. "We'll start here," he whispered. "I'll count while you hide."
My cock twitched in my shorts, and I swallowed back a whimper. "Gods, yes."
This wasn't the first time Weld had chased me through unfamiliar territory, but it would be the first underground. I'd outright refused to let him hunt me through the grotto. It had gotten downright inhospitable to kobolds, and I didn't want to die down there.
"Are you sure about this, Boss? I only want to do this if you do."
I nodded and swallowed around the lust blocking my throat. "Can't wait."
The rest of our party turned the corner back toward Clementine's laboratory, and Weld grabbed me for a toe-curling, mind-bending, blood-rushing kiss. I melted against him and thrust against his hip for a bit of relief.
I wished the kids were already tucked into their beds so we could play for real. I wanted Weld to chase me through the caverns, find me, and have his way with me.
"Papa?" Boober's voice echoed in the hallway.
He couldn't see us, but the blood rushed to my face, anyway. "Be right there, sweetheart." I shoved away my internal guilt. We were still working on balance between our family obligations and our mate relationship, but it got easier every day. As much as I loved Weld, I also loved spending time with our growing children.
We had hours to go before our kids' bedtime and a coastline to explore. Weld took my hand and grinned at me. Through our bond, I could tell he was as excited about tonight as I was, but first, we got to share the wonders of the ocean with our family.
Right on time, Galen and Lux dropped from the sky. Dad rode with Ernie, Grover, and their families, while Papa rode with Clementine and me. It felt like old times, when Papa would call for the "non-alphas," but now we had Weld and Gobo with us, too.
My heart soared along with Galen as we flew over the ocean. With Weld behind me and our family around us, I was happier than I'd ever imagined.
Yes, I'd been destined for this, but finally hooking up with Weld and raising our clutch was better than any of my childhood dreams. All our misunderstandings had led to better communication and a stronger dragon bond between us. I still couldn't hear Weld's exact thoughts, but I knew how much he loved me and the kids. Fate had made him mine in every way, even if I had to wait twenty-six years for my dream to become a reality.
THE END