6. Axel

I"d only seen the alpha with the purple hair from afar on Reemergence Day. Up close, he seemed even more formidable. He"d stood up to a dragon, and I was awestruck by him and his mate, Punky.

He looked as exhausted as I felt, though. "The babies are keeping us up at night," he said. "They want to eat at all hours. Clementine is doing some kind of experiment with crickets under her bed. They"re so damn loud! But when I ask her what she"s doing, she eats the evidence."

I couldn"t help but laugh at his parenting tale. "Crickets, eh?"

"We try to keep them out of our cabin, but we can"t keep her from bringing them in." He sighed. "Our children are only a few weeks old and already have personalities and hobbies after their first molt."

"That"s intense," I said. "No one knew they would be this way?"

Lark shook his head. "The first hybrids might have known, but their parenting books were destroyed in the dragon fire. Before now, the betas had been molting less frequently below ground. We only have Coz and Grindl"s boys for reference. They"re molting at the same rate."

I was beginning to appreciate the sacrifices the first hybrid kobolds had made to ensure our survival. Several dozen kobolds had given their lives and magic to create the changeling circle. They"d sent hundreds of kobold alphas and omegas to Earth to escape the dragon"s notice. Even if it was a misunderstanding, I"d seen the dragon. They were scary as fuck. I could understand why no one had approached them to ask for their side of the story in almost a century.

"Where are you from?" Lark asked. "What part of the US or Europe?"

"Europe?" I frowned. "Some of us are from Europe?"

Lark nodded. "Any country with lax adoption laws and a strong economy."

"I haven"t noticed any accents."

"It"s part of the original changeling spell to make us look human. We return knowing how to speak Ignitas common language." He grinned. "I"ll cast a spell for both of us while we"re on Earth. All human language will be translated into kobold for us, and when we speak, people will hear us in their native tongue."

"What if I want to stay?" I asked. "I won"t be able to understand my parents and friends?"

"You can"t stay," Lark said. "Not this time, anyway. I"ll bring you back and train you on the spells you need. How strong is your magic?"

"Merritt says I"m in the middle of our class." I wasn"t great at spells, but I wasn"t trying, either. In my head, being good at magic meant I would need to stay on Ignitas, but now Lark was telling me I would need to learn magic so I could return to Earth permanently. "I"m from the US," I said, answering his first question. "Texas."

"Do you like fast food?"

I had to laugh. Odessa, Lark"s sable dire weasel, perked up at the mention of food.

"She loves burgers," he said. "I"ll have to stop somewhere to get her one."

"Yeah, there"s a great place just off the highway near my apartment."

Lark and I buckled into Odessa"s dual saddle, and then we hurtled through purple mist that reminded me of galaxy dust in the night sky. It dimmed and disappeared entirely, overtaken by a blackness far darker than anything I"d ever experienced. Then, we emerged into a light so bright, I flinched away.

I opened my eyes to find us rolling on a Texas highway in a large cargo van. We were less than two miles from my home.

"Odessa?" I asked, patting the seat.

"Magic," Lark answered. "Sorry I didn"t prepare you for the transition. I figured it would be similar to how you arrived on Ignitas."

"I don"t remember." I honestly didn"t. One moment, I had been struggling to fit into a tuxedo a size too small. The next, I"d been standing naked in a field, looking like something out of Godzilla. "Exit here," I said. "There"s the burger joint."

The van sped up of its own accord, and Lark laughed. "Easy, there, Odie."

I stared at the scenery, taking it all in while Lark pulled up to the drive-through window, ordered for us, and then parked in the far corner of the lot. This had been my home for twenty-four years. Why did it seem foreign to me now? The single sun in the sky burned the grass brown where it could grow. Most of the ground around us was paved with concrete.

Lark distributed the food between us. Then, he pulled into a parking spot and hopped out to give Odessa her treat under the hood. Lark was so fast! I hadn"t had a chance to take a bite before he was back in the driver"s seat.

"How long were you on Ignitas before they paired you with Odessa?" I asked to pass the time while we ate.

"A few months." He grinned. "Best part of training, if you ask me. I loved learning magic. Bonding with Odessa was the culmination of everything I"d learned."

"How do you communicate with each other?" Merritt had also bonded with a dire weasel, but he said his connection wasn"t strong enough to transport them to Earth. Lark and Odessa must have bonded well to get so close to my home on the first try.

"Magic with intention," Lark said. "She trusts me not to hurt her, and I trust her to take us to the right place. She pulled the location from your head before we left Ignitas."

"She did?" I hadn"t noticed any invasion.

"You"re still acting like you"re a little stoned, or maybe in shock. That"s Odessa." Lark shrugged. "Once we reach your destination, she"ll let you think on your own again."

"I"m acting stoned?" I laughed. No wonder I couldn"t stop staring at the scenery and comparing it to Ignitas. I took a bite of my sandwich and groaned. "This tastes better than usual, too."

"Oh, yeah. She"s definitely enjoying it through you."

"Gross!" I laughed again. I followed up every bite with a potato wedge. They weren"t as tasty as I remembered. "I take it she doesn"t like potatoes."

"No, but I do. This is better than most," Lark said. "I think I"ll stop for more on the way back. Punky and the kids will want some, too. Do you want me to grab you another, or maybe one for Tuft?"

I blinked. I hadn"t thought of Tuft once since we"d arrived. To be fair, I hadn"t thought of my fiancée, either. "He would like that," I said. I knew he ate meat, at least. I hoped he would like a burger. It would be nice to stop by and talk to him when we returned. No matter what I learned here, Tuft deserved to know.

"Did you question if Punky was your fated mate?"

Lark grinned and shook his head while he continued to chew. "No," he said when he could talk. "I knew from our first dance. Your situation with Tuft is a strange one, but I think we can find you some answers today."

Once we finished eating, Lark pulled out of the parking lot and Odessa continued to my apartment building. Once there, Lark asked which apartment was mine and teleported us into my bedroom. I"d thought the ride here had been disorienting, but after teleporting, I was lucky I didn"t puke on the carpet.

"Are you all right?" Lark whispered from somewhere to my right. I couldn"t see him. Shit, in the dresser mirror, I couldn"t see me!

"Yeah. Are we invisible?"

"Yes, but if anyone is home, they"ll be able to hear us. Be as quiet as possible. Do you want anything in here?"

I spent a few minutes showing Lark what was mine and what was Rosanna"s. I pointed out only the small things I wanted for the next few weeks, since I still planned on coming back here as soon as I learned enough magic. As I pointed to my must have items, they disappeared, teleported back to Lark"s van.

We were in the bathroom, sending my shower gel and toothbrush to the van when we heard the main door bang open and plastic bags rustle. Rosanna must have been out shopping. I pulled Lark over to the accordion doors of the walk-in closet and shut them behind us. Through the doors, we heard voices. Rosanna had someone over. A man. The way they talked was familiar, almost flirting.

I glanced at the phone charger on my side of the bed. My phone was still there, displaying the time. I wouldn"t have been home from work yet. Rosanna worked the early shift at the bank, so she always arrived home before I did.

"He"s still not home?" the flirty male voice asked. The door to the bedroom opened, and in walked Rosanna"s best friend James. He tugged off his t-shirt and unzipped his pants before I registered what was happening.

"No," Rosanna said from the other room. "It"s the strangest thing."

"Do you think he"s on to us?"

"That boy is the dullest lightbulb in the toolshed." Rosanna stood in the doorway in a lacy bra I"d never seen before. When she unzipped the back of her skirt and let it fall to the floor, she wore a matching pair of lacy underwear. Her belly had rounded just enough to push out over the top of the lace, the only sign of the baby growing inside her.

She was beautiful, but the words coming out of her mouth brought me crashing back to Earth. "I could mix more metaphors, but he"s not worth the time."

James hooked his thumbs in her waistband and started to pull the panties down. She kissed him with a passion she"d never had for me.

I reached for the accordion door. I didn"t have a plan for what my invisible ass was going to do when I reached them, but I couldn"t stay here in this closet.

The world spun again, and I was sitting back on the passenger side of the van, dry heaving onto the floor mat.

"Sorry. We can"t risk being seen or heard," Lark said. "Are you all right?"

"Did she … is he … what the fuck?"

"Humans and kobolds can"t reproduce," Lark said. "It"s physically impossible. Meanwhile, she"s about four months pregnant, from what I can tell."

I nodded.

"And he"s human. It"s easy enough to assume he"s the father of her child."

"But why would they lie to me about it? Why did she want to marry me?"

"Do you stand to inherit anything from your adoptive parents?" Lark asked.

"No." I sighed. "But I think I know. Somewhere, she got the impression I wasn"t going to live past twenty-five."

"Your parents might have tried to dissuade her from getting too attached," Lark guessed.

"Instead, she had me apply for all kinds of life insurance." I"d thought it was strange at the time. "Can she declare me legally dead?"

Lark laughed. "Not a chance. When we leave here, I"ll make them forget you existed. Only your parents will remember you. Have they met her?"

I nodded.

"If they see her again, they"ll think she looks familiar, but they won"t be able to place how they know her, and she won"t remember you, or them, at all."

I nodded again. "Yes. Let"s do that."

"Do you want to see them?"

"My parents?" I asked.

"Yeah." He frowned at my shocked expression. "It"s not required, but we usually do some debriefing with the parents before we whisk their kids away." He laughed. "Punky"s parents got the third degree for not sending him to college."

"I didn"t want to go," I said. "That"s not their fault."

"I won"t give them hell, then. Want to go for a quick visit?" Lark met my gaze and patted my knee.

"Yes. I think I do."

"Is there anything else you want from in there?" Lark asked. "Television? Phone?"

"Everything on my side of the closet, everything in that dresser I showed you, and the satellite television box and dish."

The last two would be worthless to me on Ignitas, but I didn"t care. I wondered how Rosanna would react when they canceled on her for nonpayment and then charged her for a box she didn"t have.

Once I was satisfied we had everything, Lark started the van again. We lurched from the parking lot and onto the freeway. My parents lived in a suburb on the other side of the city, but Odessa managed to navigate through traffic so well, we made it in half the time it normally took me.

"I"ll glamor both of us to look human this time," Lark said. "Think about how you looked when you were human."

I almost didn"t remember, and it had been less than a month. I was surprised to look down at my hands and think they appeared foreign, when only two days ago, I had molted to be able to hide my claws inside my fingertips.

I tapped the doorbell, and we waited. My mom worked from home, but I wasn"t expecting my dad to answer the door. He looked like death warmed over with a three-day old beard and dark circles under his eyes.

"Axel? Is that you?" He grabbed my shoulders and stared me up and down before pulling me into the house and hugging me until I couldn"t breathe. "Shit, Son, you had us worried!"

"I"m sorry," I managed to eke out as he passed me over to my mom, who was still in her pajamas.

"Axel! Thank all that"s holy! And who"s this?"

"Lark, Ma"am." He bowed his head to her.

"Lark." She turned us to the side so she could better see Lark past me. "Something happened on your plane, didn"t it. We"ve met other adoptive parents who all say the same thing. Their boys were taken before it was time."

Lark nodded. "We"re in the process of informing everyone, yes. We"ve notified parents of the youngest first. I"m sorry it"s taken so long."

"No," she said, "This is good. Closure is good. We were afraid we would never see our baby again." She turned her fierce gaze back to me. "That harpy who thought you were going to marry her will not stop calling."

Lark snapped his fingers and grinned. "What harpy?"

"What?" My mom blinked. "I don"t know what I was saying." She hugged me again, the scent of her perfume sinking into my clothes, along with her tears. "I"m so glad you"re here."

"I"m happy to see you, too, Mom."

"We"ve been so worried." Dad patted my back, and then I was sandwiched between them. They were both shorter than me, but their hugs were still some of the best things on Earth.

"I"m fine," I said. "I"m going back to Ignitas with Lark, but I"ll come visit you sometimes." I met Lark"s gaze over my mom"s shoulder, and he nodded. "If you want?"

"That would be great," Dad said. "Maybe you can come watch the Cowboys play, like old times."

"Or you could stop by for movie night on my birthday," Mom countered.

"How about both?" I wiggled free of their embrace, and they both wiped their eyes with the backs of their hands.

"Both," Mom said. "I"ll hold you to that."

"Time is a little bit different on Ignitas," Lark said. "We might not get the exact dates and times, but we"ll do our best."

"How are things there?" Mom asked. "Will our boy be happy?"

"Things have improved," Lark said, "At least, we hope. It was a bit of a surprise to have all changelings returned to us at once, but our chances of survival are much better."

"I am happy," I reassured her. "I think I"ve found my mate."

"Oh!" She pulled me into yet another hug, this time smearing mascara on my shirt. "That"s wonderful, dear. Maybe you can bring her to meet us?"

I swallowed hard. "Him." If they were going to reject me for being gay, it was better to know now.

"Right." Mom nodded. "I forgot. That was in the original paperwork. You confused the hell out of us when you liked girls."

I blinked. Had they expected me to be gay? "You never said anything!"

My dad laughed. "We knew you"d figure it out eventually." He slapped my shoulder and turned me around to face him for a hug. "I don"t suppose you can stay for dinner?"

"No, we should be getting back," Lark said.

In true southern fashion, it took another half-hour to leave their house, after several more repetitions of "happy to see you" and "stop by again soon."

"Your parents are a fucking delight," Lark said, wiping at his eyes once we were back in the van. He whipped out his phone and sent a quick text. "They reminded me I haven"t checked in with my own adoptive parents in too long."

"You haven"t taken Punky and the kids to meet them?"

Lark frowned. "At this point, I think it would be easier to transport them to Ignitas, at least, until the kids are older. Are you up for babysitting some night? I should bring Punky to see them."

"Babysitting? Me?" I was probably even more in shock now than I had been when we"d first arrived. "Yeah, sure. I mean?—"

"They"re free next Saturday." He glanced at his phone again. "Like I said, time is a little strange, and I"ll have to check with Punky first."

I felt guilty for suggesting he should introduce Punky to his adoptive parents. I couldn"t back out now. "Sure."

After we stopped at the fast-food joint for more takeout, we traveled home in a flash. I closed my eyes in the darkness and opened them to Ignitas"s setting suns. A murky orange faded to purple above our heads.

I wished I"d had more time to contemplate my life choices. How had I gone from thinking I was about to be a father to agreeing to babysit a clutch of baby kobolds in the span of a few hours?