21. Tuft

I"d gone from thinking Axel had left me to thinking I was the luckiest kobold on Ignitas in the span of a half-hour. I had the best alpha on this plane of existence!

He was right, of course. I didn"t have an actual window in my room in the fortress. We had magical wall viewers that made it look like we could see outside, but the exterior rock was impenetrable dragon obsidian, our protection from dragons like Galen and their fires that burned hot enough to melt our old metal buildings. The lava from those fires had kept the grottos warm for over a century. That was the reason I was in Priestess Alma"s office the next Monday.

She frowned. "Why would any omega want to stay in the fortress after he"s found his fated mate?"

"Autonomy?" I shrugged. "Things can happen a little too fast around here, and maybe he"s not sure about moving in with his alpha right away."

Her expression didn"t change. "Are you saying you want to move back to the fortress until you"re ready to lay your eggs?"

"No! This isn"t about me."

She shook her head. "While you"re right, it would be nice to have windows in the fortress, I"m still not ready to declare peace with all dragons. Galen is nice enough, but they don"t speak for the masses. Until we have an agreement with their leader, we"ll conserve our magic for now."

I tried not to show my disappointment at her rejection, but it must have showed on my face. She patted my hand and smiled. "This pregnancy is moving much faster than your last. How are you feeling?"

"My nausea is already gone." I shrugged. "Much better than before." I"d been sick for weeks with my first set of eggs.

"Any other changes?"

"Not yet." My balls felt tender, but the eggs hadn"t dropped into them, not yet. I hoped to get at least one session of rec league games in before they arrived.

The rest of the week passed in a blur of spreadsheets, texts, and phone calls with parents and team leaders. Finally, it was here, the first youth league night at the ballpark. I knew nothing about kickball, but neither did the kids I helped. I was third base coach for all three hours, helping the tailed youngsters decide when they should stay on third base or try to run home.

I only got hit with one foul ball, kicked by Punky and Lark"s older alpha boy, Ernie. Their boys were strong for their ages, but damn, their little girl could kick the ball farther than anyone else on the field. Their kids were younger than the rest, too, which only made her that much more amazing. All the beta boys wanted to befriend her afterward. Punky and Lark looked exhausted as they took her and the rest of their team to the ice cream stand to celebrate.

Once the other kobolds saw our outdoor recreation area coming together, they piled on with ideas, like the ice cream stand and some other food stands around the edges of the pavilion. I couldn"t take ownership of the other ideas, of course, but I was proud of them. Our little kobold village had been surviving for so long, most of them had forgotten what it meant to thrive back on Earth. Innovation was what being a kobold/human hybrid was all about.

The dragon took great interest in the food stands, as well. They loved grilled meat and helped themself to a hotdog and a kabob. They didn"t stay for the third youth game, saying they would be back the next night for the "real sports." I only hoped we didn"t disappoint them.

Thankfully, after a long, stressful night, our first adult recreation league session was a raving success. Everyone from Priestess Alma to Galen said they had a great time. Several participants found me in my office on Monday morning to tell me they had far more energy than usual, all thanks to their evening outside.

Several children held pickup games on the volleyball courts outside the cabin over the weekend. We"d taken down the nets, but Lark made one from magic and supervised as their net judge.

"Magic. Why didn"t we think of that?" We"d invested in physical nets. Our betas agreed we could send them back, though slightly used. One perk of our magic: we could repair the nets and their cardboard boxes and packing tape as good as new.

The weeks flew by, and before we knew it, we"d arrived at the final night of our season. That morning, I wondered if I could even play volleyball with my team. My balls ached.

The eggs had dropped overnight. Before, that meant I had a week left before delivery, but now, I didn"t want to be in the middle of serving a volleyball and go into early labor.

Instead of telling me to suck it up, Axel called our alternate omega player and asked if he could sub for me.

"Anything for Tuft. We"re just so happy to have the rec league!" The tinny voice through Axel"s phone almost made me cry. "Do you need my alpha to cover for you?"

Axel glanced at me, and I shook my head. I"d be uncomfortable, but I could still cheer Axel on from my lawn chair on the sidelines. Unless things progressed much faster than I expected, I would still be pregnant once our season was over.

I was surprised when Punky plunked his camp chair beside mine at the edge of the sand. "You look uncomfortable as hell."

"Thank you." I grinned at my former classmate.

He looked me over and nodded. "Still, you seem much happier this time around."

"You"re only saying that because you didn"t like Weld."

"No." Punky shook his head. "We wanted what we have for you. Both of you. Weld has to wait a little longer, but that"s good for him, too. He"s got more growing up to do."

"Has he told you he"s thinking of leaving?" I asked.

Punky nodded. "Robin"s not taking it well. He thinks his maturity will come when his tail falls off, same as Axel, but that"s not a sign of human experience. I want him to see Earth, maybe have his heart broken a little before he mates. I know," he gritted his teeth, "that makes me sound like an asshole, especially when I"m talking about my own kid, but I want him to understand the benefits of having a fated mate. This is so much better than what we had to look forward to as humans."

"Makes sense to me," I said. "It"s a little different, now that our kids need to learn magic before they can safely go to Earth, but I want the outcome to be the same. Even if they know they have a fated mate waiting back home, they need some time to explore and make mistakes before they come home to Ignitas to mate."

Punky grinned. "You get it. Lark doesn"t. He thinks I"m being cruel to Robin by insisting he go to college on Earth. I want him to have the opportunities I didn"t."

"Oh." I dropped my hand to my cock, which had given an involuntary twitch. "Oh, fuck."

"The eggs?"

"I think so."

I struggled to my feet, and Punky transported both me and my forgotten chair back to the cabin.

"I"ll be back with Axel. Sit tight, okay? Don"t start until he"s here with you."

I waddled to our bed, both hands supporting my balls. They were four times their normal size, which was far smaller than the ten times some clutches could be. I would settle for one or two eggs, as opposed to five or six.

I hadn"t even had time to make our nest, thinking I would have at least a week to prepare once my eggs dropped. Without magic, I could only sit on the bed and pout, wishing I"d had a chance to stack the bed high with blankets and pillows. I didn"t want to risk scouting the room and building a tentative pile without Axel here in case I went into labor … Was that even what it was called?

Yes, I went back to school after my clutch failed, but Priestess Alma glossed over some of the reproductive terms on account of my previous experience. I hadn"t minded at the time, but right about now, I wished I knew what to call the involuntary swelling of my cock and the pressure building at the base of my spine. If I wasn"t careful, I was going to start laying these eggs without Axel, which was not an experience I wished to repeat.