Page 2 of The Dragon at the End of This Pregnancy

My paragon had told me to speak as though they were still here with me, so I used the plural, "we."

"Anything for them," Coz said.

"What are their names?" I asked Grindl.

"They don't have names yet." Grindl's voice wavered as he addressed me. "We didn't know if they would need names, or if you planned to kill us all."

I had no intention of hurting them, but an angry dire weasel and the same dragonet who smelled of my mate were trying to flank me. I couldn't have that. I knocked them away. When the dire weasel wouldn't stop, I commanded her, "Don't."

I did not want to hurt my new friends' pets. They were only being protective, which I understood. I would protect my mate with my life.

I turned my attention to Lark, who had arrived on the sable dire weasel. He smelled like slick, and admitted his omega had laid four eggs, as I'd predicted. I explained the deal I'd offered the red pair, which I'd planned to extend to Lark and his omega.

"What does that mean, your dragon servants?" Lark asked.

I hid my embarrassment with a plume of smoke. "You will roast our food over fire pits."

The alpha laughed at me.

"It tastes better when you do it," I admitted.

"As you say."

I scented my mate even closer, but I couldn't stop now. I'd made a full list of demands for the kobolds.

"You will listen to our stories and laugh at our jokes. You will return joy to our days. We have been so lonely here with no kobolds beyond those who come to the temple."

I spent my days following the same routine, each repetition more bleak and depressing. Spending time with these kobolds, or at least with my mate, would change that.

"You could have told the priestess you wanted company," Lark said.

"No." I growled at that, and another puff of smoke rolled over the kobolds before me. "They never leave the temple," I sulked. "They won't even send the betas. We've tried to talk to your betas. They are boring. Worse, they don't know where they fit in your society because it is fractured."

That was an assumption based on fleeting contact with the betas in the temple, but I was feeling sorry for myself. "Your betas serve no dragons, raise no children, and have few alpha companions. Betas are the true dragon kin. They worshiped us, and in turn, we coddled them." We mated with them, but I doubted these Earth-raised alphas and omegas knew that. "We destroyed your village when you took them away from us."

"We … what now?" the red-striped omega, Grindl, asked.

"The priestesses said your betas had too much work raising the young. There were more eggs after your infraction with human genes, and they chose the betas to pick up the slack. They would no longer have time for dragons. We were angry. We destroyed your villages with fire." I couldn't contain my own anger, unleashing a large volley of smoke over their heads.

"Where are the betas now? They rarely come to the temple with your priestesses, but I know they aren't taking care of your children if you send them to Earth until they come of age. This is not the way it should be."

"We'd like it very much if we could raise our own children," Grindl said. "We don't need the betas' help. We can raise them on our own. Look at how fast they grow in the sun. They'll reach physical maturity long before twenty-five Earth years, and then they can have clutches of their own."

I nudged Grindl with my snout. "Yes. This would be an acceptable compromise. Do you agree the betas can return to our service?"

The red couple nodded, but Lark intervened. "We'd need to talk with the mature betas," he said. "It's not fair for us to make a decision for our friends without their consent."

A contingent of betas armed with long spikes moved toward us, their magical metal armor making virtually no noise until they stopped three feet behind my conversation partners. The betas were fools if they thought their weapons could pierce my scales.

Before I could finish them with a gout of flame, Lark shouted, "Hold your fire! Please, hear them out."

I was grateful I hadn't spit fire at them when my mate stepped through their ranks and lowered his spear.

"We heard them," he said.

He was everything I'd hoped he would be, as handsome as his scent was alluring. He wasn't wearing armor like the others, so I could see the tousled brown locks between his pointed ears and the brown stripes marking his arms. He wore a short-sleeved shirt and long pants, but his feet were bare, exposing his gleaming black talons. He glared at me with fierce determination, but all I noticed was his intense gaze.

"They want us to be slaves to dragonkind again," he said.

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