Page 49 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

I laughed at his silly pout. "You know I mean food. Speaking of which, we should grab some to go. I have something I want to show you."

Tuft let me take the lead, grabbing two bags of to-go cuisine from the counter and waving to the beta at the grill. Outside, I handed a bag to Tuft and took his free hand. In a flash, we were standing on my—our—front porch.

Tuft leaned over his knees and took a breath. "That's really powerful magic."

"I swear my magic is stronger each day I spend with you."

"Lark asked if I noticed a difference, but I don't." His adorable pout returned.

"You're pregnant with our eggs," I reminded him. "They're sucking all of your magic to form their protective eggshells. Oncethey hatch, you can compare your new magic levels to what you had before."

He flashed me a hopeful grin, and I opened the door.

His grin vanished as he looked around my living room. "Axel? Someone broke into your home and set off a glitter bomb."

I laughed. "It was me. Do you like it?"

"Like it?" He read the sign silently. Instead of the happy dance I'd expected, he frowned. "What is this?"

"I should have asked." I was such a fucking idiot. I assumed he would want to move in with me. "I'm so sorry. I moved all of your stuff here, but I can move it back to your room in the omega wing, if that's what you want."

"What … you're … I'm …" Tuft's expressions continued to shift as he tried to find the right words. Then, his eyes caught on his framed artwork, pieces I knew he'd created, and his eyes filled with tears.

I fell to one knee, which I'd neglected when proposing to Rosanna. "Tuft, will you move in with me?"

He blinked back the tears and scoffed. "Now? Really? You're not going to wait to see if the eggs are viable?"

I hopped back to my feet and grabbed his forearms, not sure if he wanted a hug or not from his body language. "Viable? Why wouldn't they be viable?"

"My first clutch didn't make it. I didn't produce enough slick. You don't want to be there if?—"

"You don't have a real window in your rooms," I reminded him. "Our friends' babies hatched in the sunlight. And why would I wait? I want to spend every waking moment with you. Walking you home each evening is fun, and probably good for my cholesterol, if we even need to worry about that, but I'd rather sleep with you, wake up with you, spend my days and nights with you."

"Oh, Axel." Tuft's tears flowed unbidden down his cheeks, leaving a shiny trail beneath his eyes. "How did I ever get so lucky?"

"We're fated," I reminded him. "It's not luck. It's pheromones, and compatibility, and?—"

"Luck," he insisted. "Thank you so much." He wrapped his arms around my neck and kissed every inch of both cheeks. I took full advantage of his proximity and lifted him off the ground by his firm ass. He wrapped his legs around me, and his lips found mine.

I regretted breaking the kiss, but we still needed to eat. I set him down to retrieve our bags of food from the floor.

"Gods, you are so perfect," he said. "Yes, I'll move in with you."

"Whew." I wiped pretend sweat from my brow. "I didn't want to move all your stuff back to the fortress."

After dinner, I gave him a tour of our room. This time, I didn't resist leaning in for a huge sniff of his underwear drawer. His magical compression shorts were clean, but they smelled like his slick. I wanted to rub myself on them, but why should I settle for his clothes when I could have the real thing? I dragged him to the bed, fully intent on doing just that.

Chapter 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."

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