5. Tuft

Axel was avoiding me. He"d missed lunch for two days straight, and then he skipped out after class instead of staying with me to discuss forming the recreation league with his alpha teacher, Merritt, and Priestess Alma. I was surprised to receive a notification mid-meeting while I sat before them. When I checked my phone after the five-minute spiel I"d memorized, I saw Alma had sent me an invite to the omega meetup later that afternoon.

"Axel had to hurry home to get ready," she explained.

"Wait … he"s going?"

"He had his final molt. He didn"t tell you?"

"I haven"t seen him," I admitted. "Is he okay?"

"He"s taking it all in stride," the priestess said, "but he"s still convinced he has a fiancée at home and a baby on the way. We"re having Lark take him to Earth tomorrow afternoon. I"m sorry I scheduled the meetup on such short notice. I wanted him to know what he was leaving behind."

I almost choked on a swallow. It was now or never. "He could choose to stay on Earth?"

"He doesn"t know how to control his magic yet," Merritt said. "We"d need him to return. Once he can prove he"s no danger to himself or others, he could petition to leave Ignitas. He would also need to prove he"s strong enough to hold a human glamor indefinitely. We have a deal with the humans. No human-sized lizards roaming around in plain sight, or we have to cut all ties with the Earth plane."

I had never wanted to return to Earth, so that was fine with me, but I was grateful for the amenities our alpha and beta travelers brought back with them.

"Tuft." The way Priestess Alma spoke my name, this wasn"t the first time she"d tried to get my attention.

"Yes?"

"I"ve never seen an alpha kobold reject his mate after a meetup. One dance, and he"ll forget all about that human woman."

Gods, I hoped she was right.

The next time I saw Axel was on the dance floor, standing before the table where we"d eaten lunch only a few days prior. He had taken a shower and styled his hair, so it curled around his pointed ears. I was already so far gone for him. His golden eyes and bright hair usually made him look like a lemon push-pop, but today he looked like he hadn"t slept in a week.

I"d gone all out with my light gray suit with lavender sparkles and a strip of lavender silk arranged into a Balthus knot at my neck. I"d used a glamor spell to hide my talons inside my black combat boots. The lavender accentuated the yellow scales at my neck and wrists, the areas that drew Axel"s attention the most.

Priestess Alma played a track I recognized from when Weld and I had danced. She beckoned the shy first-time omegas to the floor and invited the alphas to dance with them to get to know each other better.

I made my way to Axel immediately.

Someone shoved me to the side before I could reach him. I glanced up to see my former classmate, Dirk.

"Fresh meat," Dirk said as he eyed Axel. "You don"t look like an alpha, either. You look like someone who could treat a guy right. Wanna dance?"

Axel frowned and shrugged his shoulders. "I don"t dance." He met my gaze over the other omega"s shoulder. He looked even more unhappy to see me.

"Axel is my alpha." I hip-checked Dirk out of my way. "He belongs with me."

"You had your chance." Dirk glared at me. "Where is Weld? Still licking his wounds in the grotto after you lost your clutch?"

"We lost our clutch, but it wasn"t anything either of us did. The grotto is too cold now."

Dirk rolled his eyes. "You could try again aboveground, then."

"We aren"t trying again," I said, doing my best to keep my voice calm but firm. "We"ve both found our fated mates."

Dirk crossed his arms over his chest. "If you"ve found your mates, where the hell is mine?"

"I don"t know. I wish I did, I swear." I wanted to help, so I didn"t think through how my next question would sound. "Have you tried the nursery school?"

"Why the fuck would I do that?"

I took a step back. Dirk and I had been friends before I"d gone and ruined everything by mating with Weld. Now, he looked like he wanted to sink his teeth into my neck and rip my throat out, all so he could steal my alpha.

"Weld"s mate is one of Punky"s babies." Weld and I had met with Punky and Lark earlier in the week to soothe over any hard feelings. The way Robin had latched onto Weld had been so cute. They both knew they were meant to be together, even if they had to wait twenty-five years to make it happen.

We all had our own issues, though. My mate was now a fully mature adult kobold alpha, but he refused to look at me when Dirk skulked away.

"I meant what I said." Axel huffed. "I don"t dance."

"You don"t have to dance." I grabbed his shoulders. "You can stand there while I dance beside you."

I swayed from side to side. I couldn"t help but smile when he started to sway with me.

The song changed to another, this one slower. I stepped closer to Axel. When he didn"t back away, I rested my head on his shoulder and dropped my hands to his waist.

He inhaled sharply and grabbed my hips, too. "Why do you always smell so good?"

"I do?" I leaned in, sniffing his neck for the first time. Gods, he smelled divine, like sun, sand, and sweat. "You smell like a volleyball court."

He laughed. "I talked to Merritt about our idea yesterday after class, and he showed me a natural sand quarry just beyond the fortress today at lunch. There"s a decent swimming hole, too, but we"ll need to run it past the dragon before we mine sand, or even swim."

"Rumor has it, the dragon isn"t as mean as we thought."

Axel"s chin bumped my shoulder when he nodded. "Merritt said the same thing. Said we"d need to run it by a beta named Mac."

I"d never met Mac, but I had good rapport with most betas, or so I hoped. After Dirk"s animosity, I was beginning to question whether my social skills as a human transferred to kobolds, or if I"d lost my touch.

"What are you thinking about?" Axel asked. "You look sad."

I tried to smile, but Axel"s frown deepened with concern.

"I thought I"d made some friends here, including Dirk. Mating with Weld cost me more than I realized."

"Do you still want him?" Axel didn"t seem the least bit jealous. Why would he be? He was ready to return to Earth and leave me here by myself. What would become of me then? Would I die without another chance of mating, or would the magic recognize that my fated mate was no longer on Ignitas and spawn another?

I couldn"t think like that, or I would cry.

"I don"t know that I wanted Weld in the first place," I admitted. "He was kind to me, but he was mean to others, especially Coz and Grindl."

"I"ve met Coz," Axel said. "He brought me a welcome kit when I moved into my cabin."

"He"s a great guy, but I think he might hate me."

"Nobody hates you," Axel said. "You"ve got too much shine for anyone to hate you."

"Too much shine?" I laughed.

"That"s what my grandma used to call it. Shine. Hutzpah. Gumption. Charisma. You name it, you"ve got it."

I laughed. "Charisma is a Dungeons and Dragons thing, right?"

Punky had called it that, too, when I"d introduced myself to him on our first day of class. He claimed he had negative charisma and wouldn"t make a good friend for someone like me. In the end, he was the better friend to Coz and Grindl, since it had been his idea to move their eggs into the cabins aboveground.

Axel nodded. "Did you play Dungeons and Dragons?"

"No, but I have a friend who loves all things gaming."

"A friend on Ignitas?"

"Yes."

He laughed, and my chest felt light. He wasn"t laughing at me, and it gave me hope. "See?" he said. "You have more friends than you know. I can"t resist the shine, and I"m as straight as they come."

His hands felt clammy on my hips, though, and his scent changed to something close to arousal. Maybe he wasn"t as straight as he seemed.

"Our lives aren"t all about mating," I said, hoping to ease his fears. "After we have our first clutch, you can go back to whatever work you enjoy, and I"ll take care of the babies."

"Oh?"

"There are other means to satisfy your needs, if you"d prefer a female kobold from the brothel, or a beta. We only need to mate to further the species. After that, you can do what you want."

He took a step back and stared down at me. "My grandma taught me something else," he said. "When Martins mate, we mate for life."

"Martens, like weasels?"

"That was my adoptive parents" last name. Martin."

I chuckled at my silly question, and he laughed with me.

Okay, then. Now that I understood what he meant, I wasn"t about to argue, especially since I didn"t know if I would ever see him again after he went off to Earth with Lark tomorrow. I didn"t know if he would choose to mate me, but I hoped. Oh, how I hoped.

The dance ended, and the other three omegas left without mates. One of the other four alphas offered to buy a round of drinks at the tavern next to the brothel in the grotto, and the others agreed to meet him there.

Priestess Alma approached us with a pensive grin. "How are you two faring? Getting to know each other?"

"Yes," Axel said, but he still looked conflicted.

"What did you think of our recreation league idea?" I asked instead of answering her question.

"It will help with alpha aggression," she said. "It"s a wonderful idea, and I would like to see you work together to make it happen."

"If I"m staying," Axel said.

There was the crux of the matter. Our courtship could finally begin now that Axel had lost his tail. Instead, I might have lost him to some Earth woman before I"d even met him. It was only fair, I supposed. I"d had a clutch of eggs with Weld, knowing he wasn"t my fated mate. It hadn"t worked out, but what if it had? Instead of courting Axel, I would have been taking care of my newborn babies instead.

I"d spent most of my years on Earth living a charmed life. As a kobold, I hadn"t expected the karma bus to hit me quite so hard, or so soon after my indiscretion.

Once I was back in my room, I dropped onto my bed, fighting back tears. I really had expected things to be different here.

I"d been so hopeful when Priestess Alma had explained fated mates to our omega class. My hopes had been dashed when none of the alphas at my first meetup were my alpha, but then Weld had approached me at my second meetup and said it didn"t matter. We could further our race by having a clutch of eggs together.

Weld said he"d picked me because I was strong, but I knew better. I was a people-pleaser on Earth. I didn"t flinch away from the bigger, stronger guys, even when I knew I didn"t have the physique to stand up to them. With Weld, I"d done what I always did. I"d gone with the flow. Thanks to Weld, I had experienced the wonders of slick, when before my partners had never seemed to use enough. I had also experienced spurting eggs out my cock. That first time had been terrifying. Now, I wondered what it would be like with my fated mate. Would it be passionate, like when Coz and Grindl had let us watch?

Weld and I had fun in the bedroom but delivering our eggs had been another matter entirely. It had hurt, and Weld couldn"t give me a mating bite to help me through it. Then, our two little eggs starved to death because my body stopped making slick for them. It was like my body knew Weld wasn"t meant for me.

Axel was my mate. My body knew it, producing more slick each day since we first met on Reemergence Day. That"s what Priestess Alma was calling the day the dragon had destroyed the magic circle and brought all kobold changelings back to Ignitas at once. My alpha had reemerged from Earth. Now, I hoped Lark could convince him there was nothing left for him there.