18. Axel

Ifinished the line I was marking and wiped sweat from my face and neck. We"d waited until after the rain to put the lines on the field, which meant we were still drawing the boundaries with environmentally safe chalk an hour before the open house. Tuft questioned if it needed to be done at all because we were only playing for fun tonight, but I wanted the fields to sparkle before we started scuffing them up. A pitcher"s mound already had a good stripe of dirt and a deep claw mark marring the white rubber pad after one of my coworkers had tested it.

"Lesson learned," I said as I scooped it off the mound. "Protect the mound and bases with magic."

Tuft laughed at me when I entered his office. It was just off the gym where we used to meet for lunch and stank like basketball rubber from the giant rolling cart of basketballs that had occupied the space. Priestess Alma had moved it into the corner of the gym to make room for Tuft"s desk.

Every time I met with Tuft in his office, it reminded me of our first few lunches together. We"d grown together so much since then. I loved how I could see our similarities on his skin. Instead of a vaguely green tinge to his scales, his yellow now fully matched mine, though he still had the darker brown accents of an omega. I didn"t mind being the bright and colorful one, if it kept danger away from my mate.

Right now, the only danger I sensed was the mound of paperwork teetering on the corner of his desk.

"Let me guess." His gaze bored into me, and he pointed to the plate in my hand. "You"re going to use magic on all bases to keep them clean for next week."

"Clean? If that"s all they needed … " I showed him the deep claw marks down the middle of the brand-new pitcher"s plate. "We"ll need kobold fabricators to find new materials."

"Stone," Tuft suggested. "Lightweight, indestructible stone. Notch, the beta from the quarry, is already working on it."

"Why didn"t we start there?" I grumbled.

"We would be waiting years for our first games, not weeks. A week. Gods, what was I thinking?" He patted the pile of papers on his desk. "I accidentally hit print instead of save on a spreadsheet before I left last night. I need to take these to the recycle bin. Care to join me?"

"Sure." I walked with him to the giant shredder. Along with making the paper easily compostable, the shredder had its own magic to break down spells protecting the paper from the elements.

"After I replace this plate, the fields are ready," I said. "It"s almost time to greet our guests."

"I know." He sighed. "I"ll meet you?—"

"You know how everyone loves to arrive early." I took his hand in mine and squeezed his fingers. "Come with me."

"All right." He rolled his eyes, but he swung our arms jauntily as we walked to the fortress"s southern exit.

Outside, the suns were an hour from the horizon. Thankfully, we"d adjusted our original plan to have the volleyball nets parallel to the twin sunsets so we wouldn"t give one side an unfair advantage. We"d turned the poles to run east-west instead of north-south, and now neither team had the suns in their eyes.

A few families had already made their way to the seating around the dragon pavilion. Instead of bleachers, we"d hauled giant sandstone slabs out of the quarry to use for benches and set them into the ground in a semicircle formation with each level raised. It reminded me of amphitheaters back home, and it was my favorite design in the recreation complex.

Once the pitcher"s plate was back in place, Tuft and I shook hands and talked to newcomers as they arrived. Everyone knew Tuft and wanted to thank him for the opportunity to share our new outdoor space.

"It seemed so big and open before. Unsafe," an omega said. I didn"t know his name, but I thought he was one of Tuft"s classmates. "This feels—" all the cheer in the omega"s expression drained to terror as he pointed at the sky. "Dragon!"

"They"re friendly." Tuft grabbed the omega"s wrist and led him to the nearest bench to sit down. "See? Mac"s riding them."

I was sure Mac wanted to be riding them another way, too, but I said nothing. What Mac and the dragon got up to in their cave when no one was watching was none of anyone"s business but theirs.

Tuft bowed to the dragon from a safe distance, and then walked right up to them when they sank to the ground to let Mac off their back. Pride puffed out my chest as I stood behind him. My mate wasn"t afraid of the dragon anymore. He"d come a long way since we"d visited their cave.

"Welcome, Galen, to our sports pavilion. You may join us here any time you wish."

Galen scoffed. "Like I needed an invitation, little morsel."

The omega Tuft had helped to the bench looked like he was going to pass out from fear.

"Galen," Mac whispered. "We talked about this. Stop treating kobolds like snacks, and they won"t cower."

"Yes. I hate cowering." Galen extended their neck to bump Tuft"s chest with their snout. "Kobold Tuft does not cower before me anymore. I like him." They took a deeper sniff at Tuft"s crotch. "Even braver to approach a dragon while pregnant. You remind me of your age mate, Punky."

"Thank you," Tuft said. "That"s a huge compliment. Wait … I"m what?"

Galen"s words registered for me at the same time Tuft questioned them. Pregnant. Tuft. Tuft was pregnant!

We didn"t have time to discuss it, though. Tuft had a job to do, now that mine was complete and the courts and pavilion stood ready for use. I took a seat on a bench and watched as Tuft expanded his voice with magic, filling the pavilion and informing all the onlookers what each of the fields were and the nights they would be in use. Then, he thanked Galen for their approval to build the recreation facility in their honor.

"Without your benevolence, none of this would have been possible. We thank you, Galen."

I was glad he stopped short of venerating the dragon to god status. Kobolds of old had worshiped the dragons, but that had led to the scourging of our former home and land.

For their part, Galen seemed curious at the words Tuft chose, but they didn"t protest or burn anything. They said a few words of acceptance, and then they allowed Mac onto their back once more for a flight to the quarry.

"I want to see how much deeper my bath is, now that these stones aren"t taking up space." Galen used one of the sandstone benches as a starting block and launched themself into the air.

When they had landed out of sight, Tuft sank onto the bench beside me. "That went better than I expected. Thank you for listening to my speech over and over until I got it right."

"You would have found the right words in the moment, either way."

"I would have been groveling on my knees and begging them to take pity on us." He smirked. "You"d make a good coach."

I laughed. "Tell that to our little ones."

He sobered and took both of my hands in his. "I think they"re right. I haven"t had any pain, but I felt a little queasy this morning. I thought it was the nerves, but what if I"m?—"

"If you are, then I am the happiest alpha on Ignitas." When kobolds smiled, we showed far more teeth than were proper, but I didn"t care in that moment. I wanted Tuft to see how happy I was. I loved my mate and our little family. I couldn"t wait to be a dad.