4. Axel

Tuft had asked me what I did for fun. Hours later, I was still thinking about it. I didn"t yet have an answer.

I"d worked since I was fourteen. My first job had been bussing tables at a tourist trap restaurant off interstate. I"d met Rosanna while working at my second job, retail at a sporting goods store. I had always loved the smell of brand-new sports equipment.

I"d also been a little pissed that I didn"t build muscle mass as quickly as the other guys. Now that I knew the reason, a spell to make us look small and defenseless so we wouldn"t scare humans, I felt a little better about myself. It didn"t change the fact that I"d wanted to be a part of something and missed out.

Now, I had the chance to launch something huge with Tuft. Community recreation centers were popular in my small town. We had three in the span of ten blocks.

On Ignitas, We had the chance to start a recreation league at our village, giving alphas and omegas alike something to do in the evenings besides play video games, hide in their rooms, or whatever omegas did after class and work.

My job as an alpha would have been to patrol the fortress perimeter and the outer grounds within the circle of our cabins, making sure the dragons kept their distance. After the truce with the dragon, everyone kept telling me, "That would have been your job," but they didn"t have another suggestion for me until they started building more cabins and needed construction workers.

Without work, I didn"t know what to do with myself. I hoped this new rec league would give me some focus.

I could have focused on Tuft, but that didn"t seem fair. He was nice, but he wasn"t my type. I wasn"t into suspender-wearing kobolds, but I couldn"t stop staring at his forearms when he rolled up his sleeves and rested them on the table after lunch. I wanted to skim my claws across his skin, to see him shiver with anticipation.

That made no fucking sense.

I was straight. I had a fiancée back home. Once Merritt heard back from his contacts on Earth and confirmed Rosanna was indeed pregnant with my child, I was going to petition Priestess Alma to change me back for good and send me home.

In the meantime, I would take advantage of my alpha body and everything it had to offer.

There was some established alpha recreation, as Tuft had said. After dinner, I got in on a game of pickup basketball in the gym with some of the younger boys, and then a couple guys from class joined me after dinner in the cafeteria.

I was surprised to learn Tuft and the other omegas ate in their rooms. Merritt said the scent of unclaimed omegas could drive us to distraction, which was why we had to eat separately, but Tuft and I had a perfectly civil lunch. I didn"t get it.

I had a better understanding the next morning, when an omega stopped by the cafeteria to pick up a brown bag breakfast and two alphas shoved him up against the counter, both sniffing his neck and pawing at him.

"Leave him alone!" The beta behind the counter leaped over it, and the two alphas backed off, giving the omega time to scurry away.

Then, Tuft arrived, and the same two alphas accosted him when he grabbed his brown bag. My hackles rose when the two alphas shoved against him, sniffing and preening.

Tuft laughed and shoved them away. "Come on. Give a guy some room."

"You smell … different," the taller alpha said. I didn"t recognize either of them, but I would make a point of getting to know them now that they"d tried to take what was mine.

Where the fuck had that thought come from? Tuft was not mine, and they weren"t trying to take him anywhere!

"Taken." The other alpha sounded disappointed. "You smell like you"ve found your mate."

Tuft frowned up at the alpha, and then he zeroed in on me, a few tables away. "Interesting." He turned on his heel and left without stopping by my table. He didn"t even wave. What the fuck? I thought we"d made a connection yesterday at lunch.

I grabbed my own brown bag for later in the day, thinking I would eat lunch alone, but again, Priestess Alma sent me to the gym.

Tuft was already there.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked without greeting, knowing full well I was being unreasonable. There was no way Tuft was still thinking about breakfast at lunch.

"What was … what now?" He was wearing another bow tie, this one lemon yellow like the light stripes on my forearms. And his. When had that changed? I swore his stripes had been greenish brown the day before.

"This morning, at breakfast," I reminded him. "You couldn"t even say hello?"

"Oh." He looked down at his hands. His claws were detracted, like a cat"s. How did he do that? As far as I could tell, mine were permanently exposed. There was so much about being a kobold I didn"t yet know.

"I"m sorry," he said. "I was a little flustered. Morris said I smelled like I"d found my mate. I saw you and … I"m sorry. I ran."

"From me?"

He nodded, and his imploring gaze made me feel hot all over. What was happening to me?

"I want this too much," he said. "I want to be your omega. I like that I"m starting to imprint on you. My stripes are changing color already."

He sighed. "I know this is a big change, especially for a guy who was straight on Earth. I don"t want to get hurt if this doesn"t work out." He cleared his throat. "That doesn"t give me license to be a jerk, though. I"m sorry I ran without saying hello."

"It"s all right." I was still trying to process everything he said. Was he imprinting on me? That must have been why his stripes were closer to my coloring today than they were yesterday.

We ate lunch from our brown bags in the same folding chairs in the exact same spots as the day before. When Tuft finished, he leaned on his elbows, same as yesterday, and I drooled a little over his bulky forearms. I"d never paid much attention to rolled-up sleeves before, but on Tuft, they drew attention to the thick muscles beneath his striped scales. I wanted to trace them, maybe even lick them.

There was something wrong with me. When we stood to leave, I had a hard time balancing. My tail didn"t counter the way I had come to expect. Just when I had gotten used to the strange appendage, it looked cracked and dry, and I was starting to lose feeling in it. Was this part of my final molt?

I hastily said goodbye to Tuft and ran back to the classroom. Merritt wasn"t there, but when I tried to find Priestess Alma, they were both in her classroom eating from their own paper bags.

"Axel." The priestess gave me a brilliant smile. "How can we help you?"

"I"m not feeling well. I"m going back to my cabin."

"Thank you for finding me," Merritt said. "I"ll let the rest of the class know. Do you want me to check in on you this evening?"

Did I? "No. That"s all right. I should be fine in the morning."

"How is everything with Tuft?" Priestess Alma asked.

"We"re getting to know each other," I said, hoping that was enough information. My stomach was starting to feel queasy, like it was going to turn itself inside out. "I really need to get home."

"Go, go." Merritt waved his arms toward the door behind me.

I did my best to stay calm as I walked to the rear exit from the fortress. I passed the cafeteria without stopping to put in an order for dinner. I had some ramen noodles in my kitchen cupboard, thanks to the welcome package another alpha, Coz, had given me. If I felt hungry later, I would cook for myself.

Right now, food was the furthest thing from my mind. Once I was outside the fortress, I ran for my cabin. Coz had mentioned alpha companion animals would be available to me once I had my final molt. With a tail, I couldn"t exactly ride a dire weasel or dragonet, but afterward …

My tail still refused to respond to my movements. I half-ran, half-staggered to my front door. Inside, I went straight to the bathroom. I stripped and stepped beneath the cold shower. I felt both hot and cold, like I had a fever. I didn"t like it, not one bit. I hadn"t gotten sick much when I was human. I suppose that should have been a clue that I wasn"t human.

Once dry, I flopped down on my bed, not bothering to get beneath the comforter and top sheet. I was tired, so tired.

I lay on my stomach, my arms stretched out over my head. The longer I tried to lie still, the harder it became to do so. I was a quivering mess. My hands shook as my claws extended even further. My tail whipped violently back and forth of its own accord, and I kicked deep grooves into the mattress with my clawed toes.

Something clattered to the floor, and I rolled to the side of the bed to see what it was. It sounded bigger than anything I had on my dresser. It was bigger—it was my tail.

"I guess this means I"m an adult now," I whispered.

Humans were considered adults at eighteen, which had always seemed like an arbitrary number to me. Physically, nothing had changed for me when I turned eighteen. My brain certainly hadn"t fully developed by then.

I still had months to go before my twenty-fifth birthday, but I was grateful to be an adult kobold alpha. Maybe I would have an answer for Tuft the next time he questioned what I did for fun. I"d wanted to ride a dire weasel since I"d first seen one in the distance. They were about the size of dragonets, but I would feel more comfortable on the ground.

I imagined riding one as incentive to stay conscious. Pain lanced through me again and again. My claws finally retracted into my fingertips, but my elbows and toes hurt worse with each passing second.

I must have passed out. I woke with relief. I wasn"t in pain. I felt good. Better than good.

Damn, I"d never been so horny in my life, not even when Rosanna had said we could do butt stuff for our first anniversary. I ground my cock into the mattress and moaned.

I rolled onto my back and took myself in hand. I didn"t have to be as cautious this time, now that my claws had retracted. I hoped they stayed that way as I experimentally tugged on my erection. It had gotten thicker, I swore. Maybe a little longer, too. Much thicker in the middle.

I didn"t care. Stroking it felt amazing, so I kept doing it, edging myself until there was no way I could hold back the tide any longer. I came with a grunt and more cum than I"d ever released, all over my chest, my abdomen, and my hand.

Then, something even weirder happened. My cock thickened even more, like I had put a plastic ring toy around it. I thought I knew what my knot was, but this was more. I kept rubbing my fingers over the bulge, teasing it to see where it felt best. I wrapped my fist above it and kept stroking with the other, imagining I was inside my omega, feeling his body wrap around mine.

My second orgasm hit without warning. I squinted my eyes shut and saw white flashes against my eyelids. How I had any cum left in me after the first time, I didn"t know, but I understood how alphas could fertilize many eggs in a short time.

I now knew two things. One, I needed another shower. Two, I wasn"t as straight as I"d thought I was back on Earth.