Page 53 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

Instead of retaining the wet sheen after Tuft smeared the slick over them, it seemed to evaporate or get sucked inside the shell. Our eggs were already hungry, and it was my job to feed my omega so he could feed them.

"I'll make you a snack."

It was too late to request anything from the kitchens. If it wasn't past midnight, it was near.

I broke some graham crackers in half and smeared frosting between the two layers. Complex carbs and simple sugars were the best for him right after laying our eggs. In the morning, I would bring him the best breakfast the cafeteria had to offer.

While exhausting, egg laying sure was fun, and raising our little hatchlings would be an adventure. I looked forward to everything life as a kobold alpha had to offer.

Chapter 23

Tuft

We had three eggs growing in our bedroom nest. Three eggs. Three! I couldn't contain my joy and excitement as they continued to absorb slick and increase in size.

The first time I'd visited Axel, his bedroom didn't have a south-facing window. Soon after the dragon told us we were pregnant, Axel had helped construct the opening with his work crew. Now, all the cabins had them.

When the sun rose the morning after I had laid our eggs, I couldn't get enough of their glittering shells. They shimmered like soap bubbles, especially with a fresh layer of slick. When they hatched, I would save the shells and make a collage from them.

I couldn't believe how quickly we'd gone from, "Did you know you're pregnant?" to, "It's egg day." I thought I would have a few more weeks to prepare. There was also the question of when the eggs would hatch, too. It had taken upwards of six months in the grotto, but both Grindl and Punky had hatchlings in half that time, maybe less.

Punky and I had been growing closer, but I wished we were better friends. I needed some advice, or maybe a cheer section.

Imagine my surprise when he showed up with breakfast less than an hour after I woke.

"Before you say anything, your team did not lose," he said to Axel. "We won the first two sets and then we played for fun until the end of the hour."

"Thank you." Axel took the goodie bag from him and disappeared beyond my view through the bedroom doorway.

"Can I leave them?" I asked Punky. "Will they be okay?"

"Give them some slick and spell your compression shorts to collect it for you instead of absorbing it. They'll be fine." Punky grinned.

"We can do that?"

Punky tentatively approached the bedroom doorway. "Yes, and I wish I'd known that with our clutch. We spent months on the floor naked with them. Where do you keep your shorts?"

I pointed to the drawer, and Punky showed me how to change my compression spell to a collection spell. It even transferred the slick to the plastic sheet we kept on the bed.

"We can't transfer it directly to the shells?" I asked.

"The eggs have magic of their own."

I answered my own question. "It's too risky."

He jerked his head toward the kitchen. "Let's eat, and you can ask me all your questions."

Punky wasn't prepared for the fifteen-minute rapid-fire barrage of questions, everything from, "What do the hatchlings eat?" (the same things we do) to "What's it like, raising a little girl?" (Pretty much like raising a boy, only Clementine was far more clever than their boys).

Axel had to remind me to eat my eggs before they got cold, but then I launched into another ten minutes of questions. Punky looked absolutely exhausted by the time I finished, but he offered me his cell number so I could text him when I thought of anything else.

"Thank you." I shook his hand far longer than was necessary when he stood to leave. "I can't even begin to tell you what a relief it is to know you and Lark have already done this. Coz and Grindl, too."

Punky grinned. "I feel guilty for letting you go through the first round on your own."

"No amount of advice would have changed what happened." I was still sad for our little eggs, but I knew what I said was true. My first clutch wasn't meant to be. "Thanks for stopping by today."

"Any time." His usually grumpy demeanor toward me had softened over the last however long I'd been pelting him with questions, and now he gave me a friendly smile. "I mean it. Call or text me with questions. I promise I'll answer."

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