Page 9 of The Monster at the End of This Molt (The Monster at the End of His Pregnancy #4)

Chapter Nine

Robin

Weld made me come so many times, I couldn't tell which direction was up or where my legs were supposed to be. Whenever the thought of reciprocating made it as far as the tip of my tongue, Weld began again, licking, sucking, and stroking me to yet another orgasm.

We'd gone far past lunch. It was late afternoon by the time he tugged me into his lap, picked me up, and carried me to the kitchen like a naked princess. He handed me a glass of water and poured his own.

"I can fix us lunch." I pointed to his fridge, where I'd left the sandwiches, condiments, and fresh fruit I'd teleported here from the big house. The bags of chips still sat on the counter next to the dessert brownies.

"You sit. Let me take care of you."

I didn't know why his words stung my eyes and made my chest feel too tight. This was everything I'd ever wanted. Why did it still hurt?

"I want to take care of you, too. You've been working so hard on the tractor." Not to mention all the times he'd made me come. "When can I … you know …"

He dropped the plates to the table and kneeled beside me, tugging my hands from my lap. He kissed my knuckles and stared up at me with the same intensity as when he'd blown me. "I need to do some prep first, but I want you to fuck me tonight."

I blinked. "You what?" I'd always topped in my human form. I didn't want to ruin my first time with Weld by comparing it to anything else. However, not once had I imagined my alpha would want me to top him.

He glanced down at my hands, suddenly uncertain. "I've never bottomed for another kobold. I thought it would show you how much I want to be with you."

I blinked my eyes closed, and tears dropped down my cheeks. "I would love to," I said. "That's … I don't even know what to say, except yes."

He grinned up at me and kissed my knuckles again. When he stood, he brushed the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs and leaned in to kiss me. I could taste myself on him, bitter and sweet.

"I can help you prep," I said. "Omega slick is much better than lubrication."

He smirked. "I know. I can still taste it." He kissed my forehead and continued to set the table for our late lunch. His every move set his cock swinging between his legs, and I watched, hypnotized.

I still didn't know how to bring up his past without making things awkward between us. The more I'd studied psychology, the more I realized I didn't need to know how Weld's mind worked. I knew his heart through our bond. He wasn't the type to hurt another kobold on purpose. He'd been plagued by wrong thinking, that was all.

"Tuft and I are good friends," I said once we both had our sandwiches in hand. "He said to tell you hello."

Weld looked pained. "How is he?"

"He and Axel are doing well, and so are their kids."

"Didn't they have a second clutch?"

I nodded. "Already on their third molt. They have a little girl this time, Penelope."

"That's almost normal." Weld laughed.

"Axel got to name them this time. He's a huge fan of The Odyssey , so they also have Odysseus, Poseidon, and Aeolus."

"Nice." I could feel pride through our bond, and joy at our friend's happiness.

I waited until he took a giant bite of his peanut butter sandwich before saying, "I don't think you were wrong when you mated with him."

It took him a few moments to chew and swallow. He placed the sandwich back on his plate and met my gaze with a cool glare. "I was, though. I was young and stupid, and I thought I knew everything. I thought Alma was a silly old hag who didn't know what real strength was because she'd grown up here on Ignitas." His expression was somewhere between bitterness and remorse. "I deserved to be cast out, and instead, she asked me to become a teacher. She said my lessons had been harder than most, and she didn't want others to make the same mistakes."

"You're a bit of a legend at The Pavilion, it's true."

"I didn't want to be a legend. I wanted to be punished. I screwed up, Robin. I hurt Tuft, and I said things to Alma that no kobold should ever say to an elder." He shook his head. "I grew up thinking men were better than women, and here, we can even breed with other men. Our anatomy fits with the whole misogynistic ideology. I remember thinking, if that was true, then might must be right, too." He glanced down at his hands. "In my experience, my physical strength only made the others fear me, when they weren't laughing at me behind my back."

"Not here," I said. "Tim respects the hell out of you for all the work you've done on the tractor, not to mention your help with their harvests and your agricultural know-how." Every day I worked with Tim, he sang Weld's praises from one side of the village to the other.

"My Earth family were farmers." Weld chuckled. "I'd looked down on them, too, thinking I was so much better. I went to school to do what I thought was the furthest from agriculture."

"What did you study?"

"Finance, with a minor in history." He snorted. "Can you believe it? I studied fascism and still thought I could rewrite kobold history by pairing only the strongest kobold alphas and omegas together."

"You're no fascist."

"I was no better than any eugenics believer, and the two go hand-in-hand." He sighed. "It took your parents' courage to show me how wrong I was. I only wish they'd talked to the dragon before Tuft got pregnant."

He picked up his sandwich again, and I left him to his memories while I polished off the rest of my food. Great sex gave me an appetite.

Weld plated the brownies. He still looked wistful when he sat back down, and I couldn't let it go.

"I asked Tuft how he felt about it." I'd been so young when I first approached him. It hadn't been more than a year after Weld left, and I'd wanted to understand why the kobold I considered my sun no longer shone on my part of the world every day.

"He said he was grateful for the experience, and he wouldn't change a thing."

Weld scoffed. "What? How could he say that? Our eggs died!"

"Many eggs died," I reminded him. "Even fated mates lost whole clutches in the grotto. Coz and Grindl?—"

"Their third clutch lived, no thanks to me." He swore and pushed his plate away with half of his brownie still uneaten. "I'm not a good person, Robin. I never have been. If I'd stayed on Earth, I would have been the worst kind of person. I would have started a cult or something."

"You changed," I said. "Do I need to take you on a tour of what Ignitas would be without you?"

He frowned. "It would still be here, same as always."

"I'll do it. I'll take you on the It's a Wonderful Life tour, where I show you all the people's lives you've touched from here to The Grid and beyond."

He scoffed. "You don't even know all the places I've been."

"I do. Dragon bond, remember? I could feel you. Galen even gave me a map with the other planes on it, so I knew when you went to Earth, Osmium, and Crenolyn, too."

"Hmm." He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Tell me more."

"I can show you." My bag was still propped against the arm of the couch. I hadn't brought much besides my clothes, but I'd hoped to share some of my treasures with Weld.

I rummaged until I found the accordion folder I used for correspondence with other kobold villages over the years. My parents had helped me write letters long before I could hold a pen. I dropped the folder in front of Weld and slid his plate on top of mine, taking a large bite of his remaining brownie.

"You did all this?" he asked as he thumbed through the letters. "Olaf, Wendel, Pinkie, Luna. There's even one in here from Tim's grandfather."

"Read them," I said around another bite of crunchy chocolate goodness.

He held up a finger, and his cheeks tinged with a hint of blush. "I need to do that thing we talked about first."

"You have a plug?"

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything!" I wasn't even thinking words because the image of my hunky alpha mate filling his hole with a plug made my mouth water and all the blood rush to my cock. "I want to help."

"Come on, then." He stood so abruptly, his chair ricocheted off the back of the refrigerator and tipped forward against the table, scattering some of my paperwork. I shuffled everything back into the file and followed Weld to the bedroom. He slammed the dresser drawer shut and turned on me in a rush, with his hands behind his back. "I've changed my mind."

"What? Why?"

"It's too small. I'd be better off stretching myself with my fingers."

I held out my hand. "Let me see."

His cheeks flushed again, and he shook his head.

"It's just a plug," I said. "If you want to use it, you should." I had a few favorite toys of my own back home. My thoughts veered to my collection, and I wondered which one Weld would like best: T-Rex dick, tentacle, or the thick and veiny twelve-inch cock.

I stepped closer, backing him up against the dresser. My prey drive kicked in, and I pressed my body to his. Part of me wanted to bite and claim. Another part wished Weld was the one doing the intimidating.

I nosed along his neck, nibbling at the juncture between his neck and shoulder, where he would one day wear my mark. Now was not the time. Consent mattered to me, and at this moment, my mate smelled scared.

I reached around him and pried the plug from his strong fingers. It wasn't as small as he thought. My fingertips didn't touch my palm when I cupped them around the bulging middle. "This will stretch you out while you read the letters," I said. "Afterward, I'll do the rest."

I tilted my head up to find him staring down at me with awe. "You've topped before?"

"Is that a problem?"

He smirked. "No. I love it. I only mentioned it because … this is going to sound weird, but I think I can see some of your memories and thoughts." His chuckle turned sinister. "You think you're the predator here."

In a blur, he reversed our positions, so I was braced against the dresser. He bore down on me, his tongue hot against my neck and his lips ghosting over my sensitive flesh. My ears clogged again, the same way they had when he'd first kissed me. I loved every moment of it.

He grabbed my throat and pulled me into a languid kiss, his tongue teasing alongside mine. "You taste like brownies," he whispered.

"Plug," I reminded him. Without my compression shorts, my slick was quickly becoming a problem, one I could use to our mutual advantage if Weld let me.

He spun away from me and bent over the bed, his gorgeous, toned ass in the air. I bent over and gave him a gentle love-bite on each cheek before leaning back to study his virgin hole. I swept my thumb over it, and he moaned.

"Don't tease."

"Do as you say, not as you do?" I slicked up two fingers and brought them to circle his rim. "I can't wait to fuck your perfect hole."

I gathered up as much slick as I could and smeared it over the plug from tip to base. Then, I took my time fucking it into him, working him open a little at a time and sliding the plug home. Once the peak of the bulb passed his ring of muscle, his body sucked it inside, leaving only the flared base snug between his ass cheeks.

"You look so good right now." I leaned over and kissed the small of his back, and he shivered. "If I don't put my shorts back on, I'm going to leak all over your kitchen chair."

He rose to full height and shuffled me back to his dresser, where he pulled a towel from the drawer. "How about you stay here? I'll go get the folder."

By the time I had the towel in place and the pillows adjusted where I wanted them, he returned. He propped his pillows against the headboard, too, and grasped my hand in his while he flipped through the letters.

This was it, the peaceful domestic life we could lead together. It would be just like this, sitting in bed, holding Weld's hand and reading over his shoulder. I pressed kisses to his bulky tricep and ran my fingers over the top of his hand.

He stopped after the third letter and wiped his eyes. "I can't believe you put this together for me. You contacted all these folks … for me."

"Not only you," I said. "I wanted to get to know you better. You didn't answer my letters, but these folks did."

He tucked the letters back into the folder and slipped it under the bed before turning to me and cupping my face in both of his hands. "I didn't know what to say. You were a child, and I was a fucking failure."

I rolled my eyes. "You're not a failure. Every person who wrote back to me told me part of your story, and they all would agree. You're a hero, or at least a good person."

He planted a gentle kiss on my lips. "If I'm a good person, it's because I wanted to be better, for you."

My eyes burned with a big emotion I refused to name yet. Then he kissed me, and I forgot everything beyond the heat of his body against mine.