Page 42 of The Dragon at the End of This Pregnancy

After a few rides, I returned to his side with a bottle of water. "Are you feeling better?" I asked.

"Yes. It was weird, that's all. I've never had motion sickness before."

I stood closer than was appropriate and sniffed his neck. He didn't smell sick. I sniffed Clementine and then sniffed Mac again. "You smell different."

"Different, bad?"

"Different. I can't explain it." I could, but it didn't make sense. He smelled pregnant.

Beta kobolds couldn't get pregnant, could they? Where would they even eject their eggs? Their cocks didn't double as ovipositors, and even if they did, they didn't have slick to nourish eggs. For the first time in ages, I wished my paragon was around so I could ask them.

When we returned to the hotel, I let my horns loose and tried to push my worries from my mind. Mac would be fine. He had to be. Once we bonded, his life force would be tied to mine, and I could survive just about anything. Now that I'd had my final molt, the spike atop the kobold fortress was no longer a threat to me. I was also resistant to fire, so my paragon would have a difficult time subduing me if they returned.

None of that mattered now. I couldn't focus on the future. My mate was in the present, still unmated and worried he wasn't good enough for me.

While I showered, I felt him questioning our bond. I reached out to him through it. I hoped he sensed all my love. His response felt like a cool breeze through my cave on a hot summer day, a welcome reprieve from my own burning desire. He was my opposite in so many ways, and yet, he was perfect for me. I couldn't wait to mark him and make him mine.

I hastened my ablutions and hurried to the bed. I shifted to my kobold alpha form, since Mac preferred it to my human one. If he wanted me to be more like an omega, I didn't know how. I didn't create my own slick, and I didn't know if their cocks were always split open at the tip, or only when they laid eggs.

I shuddered. It was much better to be a dragon with a cock and a stretchy ovipositor. Instead of messy slick, dragon eggs needed only our magic once laid.

We had a special cave for egg laying and hatching, far from the villagers' prying eyes. I would take Mac there when it was time. He would nourish me so I could keep our egg's magic strong.

I chuckled as I heard and smelled him approach. He was already nourishing me with wonderful food. I cast a spell to clothe myself in lounge pants and met him at the door, opening it for him so he didn't fumble the paper bags.

With no room on the table, he resorted to setting the bag on a chair and piling the cardboard containers one on top of the other until we each had a food mountain before us. Pasta, salad, soup, and breadsticks.

Instead of diving in, I cupped his cheeks and pulled him to me for a slow, sensual kiss. He melted against me and groaned.

"Food first," he said. "Then we can do the rest."

"The rest?" I sat down.

Mac set the empty bag on the floor and took its place. "You should tell me what you want, so there's no confusion."

I chomped on a breadstick while I thought about it. Bread was still weird to me, but I didn't mind it when drenched in garlic butter.

"Won't that make it weird?"

"Galen, I'm a kobold mated to a dragon. It's already weird."

"I suppose you're right." I took a deep breath. "I want you to mate with me, you inside me. When we've joined, we can complete the mating mark to bind our lives together. And then we'll come and you will fertilize the egg inside me."

"Oh shit," Mac glanced at the wall between our room and the other kobolds. "You spelled the room?"

"I put up a privacy spell the morning we slept in late," I confessed. "I never took it down."

Mac laughed. "Good. This wouldn't be considered polite conversation for our young friends."

I nodded and dove into my salad next. I could do without vegetation, but I loved the tang of the vinaigrette. It wasn't as good as Mac's homemade marinade, though.

"You were really good with them today," Mac said. "Robin and Clementine, especially."

"I like children," I confessed. "I never had the chance to be around younger dragons." Since the return of the changelings, I had surrounded myself with young kobolds. I loved telling them stories and sharing my knowledge.

"You've always been a dragon, though, right? Kobolds don't somehow molt into dragons?"

I laughed. "Yes, I was born a dragon."

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