14. Axel

After I finished my last day of alpha training, Tuft and I walked to a cabin not far from mine to wish Punky and Lark well on their adventure to Earth. I was so glad I brought Tuft with me. After three hours of trying to get Robin to finish his dinner and Ernie and Grover to stop fighting, we realized Clementine was missing! She wasn"t far, thankfully. She"d wandered off to her room to conduct suspiciously chirpy experiments.

Even after Punky and Lark returned and I walked Tuft back to his room, I couldn"t escape the terror of misplacing someone else"s child. I had uneasy nightmares where Clementine ran outside to meet the dragon. In another, she was at the mouth of the dragon"s cave and fell down the mountain while I was still too far away. In another dream, she was swallowed by a giant cricket.

After getting very little sleep, I was grateful the next day was my graduation day. Merritt laughed when I explained why I looked like shit.

"Get used to it," he said. "You"ll have your own clutch before too long."

Before then, I needed to plan the dragon"s pavilion and survey the giant field for the different court locations and measurements. It was Wednesday, so I had a four-day weekend to prepare.

Our new recreation area would be outside the circle of cabins at the perimeter of the fortress. We had plenty of room to build new cabins between the fortress and the outer ring where my cabin sat. We also left room for farm fields to the northwest and southeast, if the farmers wanted to move their magical fields above ground.

I"d planned to build the recreation area to the south of my cabin because it was equidistant to the dragon"s mountain and the quarry where we would get the sand.

There was a relatively flat area that would be perfect for the tennis courts. The ground beneath the grassy field was harder than the rest, reminding me of the overgrown path of a torn-out railroad track we had followed to get from our Texas grade school to the nearest creek. I wasn"t surprised to learn the south field had once been the village square. It had contained a beautiful dragon mosaic before it had been burned to ash and abandoned to nature.

The square must have been massive enough to fit a dozen dragons. In the middle of our sports complex, I fit a pavilion big enough for two dragons on the edge of the tennis courts, where our dragon could rotate in a circle to watch whatever kobold games interested them that day. They could watch tennis and pickleball to the north, volleyball and badminton to the west, baseball, softball, or kickball to the south, and soccer to the east.

On Saturday, Tuft volunteered to help me mark the court lines with surveyor"s paint so our team of builders would know where to move sand on Monday. Tuft"s two beta volunteers, Kolge and Benz, got some others to help. Before we knew it, everyone in our little village came out to look at the funny lines, as Grover, Lark"s younger alpha boy, called them. We drew the final lines about an hour before sunset, the perfect time for the dragon to swoop out of the south without us noticing and land in the circle I"d designated the pavilion.

"This is perfect," they said. "I can see everything from here."

"I told you they would do well." Mac slid from the dragon"s back to shake my hand. "This is far bigger than I expected."

"Grand. Splendid." The dragon nosed Mac in the side with their snout. "Do not make him think I do not like it."

Mac chuckled. "They like it very much. They especially want to know if you"ll play any games with the dragonets and dire weasels. Punky has been filling their head with Kentucky Derby stories."

"I want to wear a hat," the dragon said. "Will you get me a hat?"

"I"ll take you to Earth for the Kentucky Derby, I promise." Mac rolled his eyes.

"You want us to play polo with dragonets?" I laughed.

"Polo is more for dire weasels," Mac said. "The dragonets would like an obstacle court or two, or some flying hoops."

I realized I"d been planning this far too small. I"d been thinking of Earth sports. When I"d asked the dragon for ideas on what they"d wanted, they gave us the idea for the pavilion, but, "I should have been thinking bigger."

Mac patted my shoulder and turned with me to look at the survey lines in each direction. "You did well," he said. "This will give everyone a reason to come outside, Galen included."

"Galen?" Tuft asked.

"I am Galen." The dragon leaned down to bump his snout against my mate"s chest. "Mac calls me Galen the Grumpy."

Mac"s laugh was an uncomfortable, high-pitched whine. "I only call you that when you"re being unreasonable."

"He won"t tell me what it means," Galen whined. "Will you tell me, kobold Tuft?"

Tuft laughed. "It means … discerning. Particular. Brilliant."

"All good things." Galen huffed. "I will reward my secretive beta for the compliment, then. Come, Mac."

Mac gave Tuft a quick nod of thanks before climbing onto Galen"s back. Galen took flight and quickly disappeared into the twilight sky.

"That was a kind definition of grumpy," I teased as I reached for Tuft"s hand. Instead of leading back to the fortress, where we ended most nights, he led me to my cabin.

Once inside, Tuft pulled me toward the bedroom.

"Did I forget we had plans this evening?" I asked. "Are we going somewhere?"

"We"ve reached our destination," he said.

We"d spent a few long nights naked in my bed over the last two weeks. Tonight, the air seemed supercharged with tension. The scent of Tuft"s slick was stronger in the bedroom, especially when he shucked off his pants and magical underwear in one go.

"Are you ready for the next level of our relationship?" I asked. I knew not to get my hopes up about knotting him. He wanted to fuck me first. I think he saw it as a test, but I saw it as something fun to do with my mate.

"Next level." He nodded. "Going where we"ve never gone before."

I laughed at his misquote of the Star Trek slogan. "Just so we"re on the same page, are you ready to fuck me?"

"So ready. Beyond ready. Do you have any idea how sexy you were on that field today?" He gazed up at me through half-lidded eyes. Even without eyelashes, he was the most alluring creature I"d ever seen.

I ran my nose along his neck, loving the smell of his arousal there, too. It was sharper than his slick. It made me want to mark him, claim him. It still smelled too much like Tuft and not enough like me, even though his stripes were now fully the same color as mine.

"How do you want to do this?" I asked. "I want to lie on my back and watch you fuck me, but I think I"d be too tempted to mark you."

He nodded. "I want to mark you, too. Not until we mate for real." He held up three fingers on his right hand, like I was supposed to know what that meant. "I won"t bite you, scout"s honor."

"You were a Boy Scout?"

"No." He grinned. "My adopted dad was. He used to say things like that all the time."

I loved when Tuft shared little bits of his past with me, even when he winced at each mention of his parents and the eggs that never hatched. I knew it was hard for him, but I appreciated his efforts to share his past with me.

He helped me remove my t-shirt and shorts and shoved me onto the bed on my back. Then, he poked and prodded me into place with a pillow under my back until I lay where and how he wanted me. When he leaned down to kiss me, the glide of his body along mine had me grabbing his neck to hold him in place while I plundered his mouth.

He slapped my hand away. "I"ll never get inside you at this rate. Hands up, or I"ll have to tie them with something."

"Is this a robbery?"

He kneeled above me with his hands on his hips and gave me a stern frown. He was adorable when he was bossy. "I"m about to rob you of your virginity. Hands up."

We both laughed at that. I grabbed onto the shelf ledge at the base of my headboard and lifted my knees to my chest while Tuft continued to stare at my hole like it was a work of art. I"d done the same thing when I"d had his ass in my hands, too. I"d never been as attracted to anyone as I was to my kobold omega. From the admiration in his gaze, he was attracted to me, too.

He curved his arm around his back and his eyes glazed over. The cloying scent of his slick made my mouth water. With his hand covered with slick, he traced a finger around my rim, making me squirm. No one else had touched me there. When my girlfriend had asked, I"d freaked the fuck out and said no, thank you very much, exit only.

What a difference a few months and some changeling magic can make. I couldn"t wait for my mate to get in me, already, but he was making it worth the wait by dipping his slick fingers into me, first one, then two, and finally three to make sure I was stretched as wide as his bulbous cock head. Even with the foreskin pushed back, he was large, and I was going to take it all and love it. I knew it, especially when he found the bundle of nerves that made my eyes roll back in my head. Those strange sounds I heard were coming from my mouth, unbidden.

"I was beginning to worry alphas didn"t have prostates."

Tuft chuckled as he continued to rub over that spot until I was babbling incoherently, and my cock had dripped a puddle of precome on my flat abdomen where my belly button should be.

"Get in me," I howled as he prodded the spot one more time, hard enough to make my cock jump. It landed in the puddle of precome and sent droplets flying.

"You"re a pushy bottom." He tapped the back of my thigh and crawled into place between my legs.

"I don"t think I"m going to last long," I said.

A moment later, I was sure I was wrong. I couldn"t do this. His cock head felt massive against my hole. Even with a fresh coat of slick, it would never fit inside me.

"Relax." Tuft rubbed circles along my inner thigh with one hand and smoothed his slicked hand over my cock. The motions soothed my fears, and when the head of his cock popped inside me, we both moaned. I was already so full, but I needed more of him.

I was also taking notes, since my alpha cock was bigger than his. I would need to do all this, and more, to work Tuft open so I wouldn"t hurt him, natural slick or no.

He rocked against me, and his cock slipped inside inch by inch until his balls rested firmly against my ass.

"You feel so good around my cock." He leaned forward to brush his lips against mine, and then retreated, staring hungrily at my neck. "I don"t know why I waited so long to try this."

I didn"t ask, not wanting to bring up his exes while we were in the middle of something wonderful. I was not a religious person, but this was the closest I"d ever come to a spiritual experience. I couldn"t wait to claim Tuft and make him mine.