Page 15 of The Monster at the End of This Molt

"Sorry. I am cold, though, and you're so warm."

I kissed his nape and wrapped my arm around his torso, tucking him against me as tight as I dared. He was right. He was my perfect omega. I'd been so hell-bent on breeding with any omega for the good of our people that I hadn't stopped to wonder, "What if Alma's teachings about fated mates are true?"

I swallowed hard and nuzzled his neck. I wanted more, too. We were both consenting adults now. No one in our lives would think twice about the age gap. Even Alma had mated with a much younger beta.

Our ages were the least of my worries. I'd tried to steal Punky from Lark. If I'd succeeded, Robin wouldn't have been born, and who knows if I would have had a fated mate.

And Tuft. Poor Tuft. I'd done my alpha duty and given him two eggs, but they hadn't matured. I hadn't been there in time to help him lay the first one. Tuft had done it all himself.

My poor choices had alienated me from Robin's parents and ruined my chance at friendship with some of their closest friends. I'd even angered Mac when I'd started blowing off trips to Earth to retrieve the changelings on their twenty-fifth birthdays.

No one back at The Pavilion would be eager for my return. Sure, they wanted Robin to move home, but me?

I sighed.

"What are you thinking?" Robin stifled a yawn, and I gripped him tighter.

"I'm too selfish to let you go."

He chuckled. "Good."

We fell asleep like that. I usually tossed and turned around my magic heating rock, but tonight, I stayed right where I was, wrapped around Robin until my alarm sang in the morning.

"It's Sunday," Robin pouted when I reached over him to shut it off.

"It is." I kissed his cheek and crawled out of bed. "You can sleep in."

He sighed and buried his head in the blankets, ending our conversation. I wished I could stay with him, but I was running out of time to finish the wheel before my week was up.

I grabbed a meal to go from the big house's kitchen. Tim stopped me to ask after Robin. "The kid said he's your fated mate. You never told us about him."

I shrugged. "I didn't think his family would allow him to come to me, so it wasn't relevant."

"Wasn't relevant." He chuckled. "Well, it would've been nice to know you've been planning to run back to The Pavilion all this time."

I shook my head. "I'm not leaving until the tractor's up and running again."

He pointed a finger gun at me and nodded. "That's why. I figured there was some reason you were obsessing over that damned wheel."

"I'm not obsessing." Robin had said the same, though. "Am I?"

"Any of us could fix it for you," he reminded me. "All it would take is a little magical reworking of the metal."

"Well, good for you." I shook my head. "I need to do this on my own."

He nodded again, reminding me of the little bobblehead doll Mac would secure to the dashboard of our Earth vehicles when we went on extraction runs. "I'll leave you to it." He extended his hand, and I shook it. "It's been a pleasure having you as part of our community. We're thankful for everything you've taught us."

"Thanks for putting up with my shit for the last twenty-some years." I waved and ducked out the back door of the kitchen. I'd had enough socializing with the townsfolk for the morning.

That didn't stop me from thinking about my service to The Meadows over two decades and then some. I'd done everything they needed. I taught Tim in school, helped him build a dragonet barn when he discovered he had Mac's talent for bonding with a nest of hatchlings, and advocated for him to become the village leader when his grandpa passed away.

I lacked magic, so I offered information instead. Blueprint-like sketches of alpha cabins and lessons on care and feeding of dire weasels and dragonets, thanks to the countless hours I'd spent in the van with Mac. I wasn't the smartest kobold by any means, but I'd kept a daily journal since the first day I'd arrived on Ignitas, and I'd filled it with little tidbits gleaned along the way. I'd studied farming practices at The Drawbridge. I'd watched a dire weasel give birth at The Grid. I'd even shared my own horror story of losing my eggs to an alpha and omega pair who thought they were going to forego the whole "fuck the eggs out" routine here in The Meadows.

After twenty-seven years of living on Ignitas, I considered myself an expert, for an alpha, anyway. Betas like Tim and Mac had lived here their entire lives, but they didn't have the added benefit of growing up on Earth.

I'd been smarter on Earth, or maybe people said I was smarter simply because I was a white boy living in the United States. Either way, I'd let the praise go to my head. When I arrived on Ignitas, I believed, "Might is right," and the strongest alphas should mate with the strongest omegas to further our species.

I'd been all kinds of wrong. I wasn't even the strongest alpha, even though I won my wrestling contest with Lark. Kobolds strong in magic were far stronger in a fight than I was. Fate had handed me the physical strength I'd always craved as a human teenager, but in return, I'd gotten the shaft. I had no power that mattered.

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