Page 49 of The Monster at the End of This Molt

Robin

Livingwith Weld was a waking dream. His cheery alarm pulled us from slumber each weekday morning. We ate breakfast with my parents unless we took too long in the shower. Then, we walked to the fortress together and made out in my office for a few minutes before the first school bell rang.

While Weld taught with my dad, I met clients in my office. Lunch, I usually ate with my siblings in the cafeteria. Now that Grover and Ernie had met their fated mates, they chose to eat at home instead. That left me with Clementine. She seemed more distant, the closer we came to the dragon reunion.

"I don't want to leave," she said on the Friday before the big event.

"Who says you have to?"

She stared at her tray so intensely, it made me worry. Clementine was my smartest, bravest sibling.

"Hey." I took her hand, and she met my gaze. "If I could do it, you can do it."

"You knew you were coming back."

I shook my head. "If Weld had wanted to stay in The Meadows, I would have. It's a great place. You'll love it."

She frowned. "How do you know?—"

"The pink dragonet from your dream, remember?"

"He's from The Meadows, and so is Lemon." She repeated the question she'd asked when Lemon arrived. "What if my dream wasn't about me?"

"You said there was more than just the dragonet and the hunky beta kobold."

She nodded. "He took me to a stone palace in the woods, abandoned and beautiful. He said it was far enough from his village to conduct my experiments, and close enough for me to teleport there and back." She looked around the crowded cafeteria and sighed. "There's nothing like that here. Galen's too concerned about their precious ancestral mountain caves."

"You blew the top off a dormant volcano back on Earth," I reminded her. "That's some villain-level shit."

She nudged my shin with the side of her foot. If she'd been offended, she would have gouged me with her talons. "You've been to The Meadows. Does this palace exist?"

"Weld took me to some ruins about an hour north." I could see it now, Clementine working her magic to restore the place to its former glory.

"I still don't want to leave," she mumbled.

"We're only a dragonet ride away," I reminded her. "We can visit you, too. Galen won't let a week go by without their bestie."

She laughed and wiped at her eyes. "True. And I could amplify the magical Wi-Fi so I could text you all from my secret laboratory!"

"That's the spirit!"

We high-fived across the table, and she smiled. "Thanks for being an awesome big brother. I don't tell you that often enough."

"We non-alphas stick together," I said, repeating what Papa had called us when we were little."Alphas with Dad, non-alphas with me!"

"We should make non-alpha t-shirts for the dragon reunion! I bet they would sell like nobody's business!" And she was off, talking hastily to the dictation program on her phone as she raced from the cafeteria.

That left me to clean up her lunch mess, as usual, but I didn't mind. She was in a much better mood now than she had been all week.

Meanwhile, the rest of the afternoon dragged. My last two clients canceled, both mentioning they needed extra time to prepare for the dragon reunion. All school, work, and other recreation halted for the next two weeks while we welcomed dragons and kobolds alike to our village. It would be awesome, but I needed it to hurry up and get here, already. Tomorrow morning couldn't come soon enough.

I forgot my boredom the moment Weld stepped through my open office door. "Are you ready for our date?"

"Date?" If we'd planned something, I must have forgotten.

"I thought it would be fun to take Kermit up into the mountains and watch the dragons arrive."

"That sounds like a good way to get eaten by dragons."

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