Page 49 of The Dragon at the End of This Pregnancy

"I will come to you," I said. "If I see you anywhere near my cave before we speak again, I will attack."

Paragon nodded. "You will have no need to attack us. Thank you for inviting us into your home."

"It's much cleaner than I remember," Chance said, ever the diplomat. They were the first to shift back to dragon form and take flight. Lux and our paragon followed. Paragon circled once and then disappeared from the sky.

I wheeled to face the entrance of my cave and crouched down so Mac could climb onto my back. He did so without question, and once again, my heart filled with joy. He was my mate in every way, and we were going to be parents!

I still needed to process all the new information my paragon gave us, but we needed to share with Priestess Alma and the kobold village as soon as possible. I needed to set the priestess free to find her own mate once we broke the curse.

* * *

Priestess Alma stared at me with a blank look. "What do you mean, you no longer wish to be worshiped? We all saw the other dragons in the sky! Maybe they want our love instead. You can't decide to disbar an entire profession on a whim!"

"It's not a whim," I said. "You deserve your freedom."

"I am free! I chose this profession when I was a child! I have always wanted to be a dragon servant."

"What choice did you have?" Mac asked. "You were too young to know what prostitutes did. Your parents probably claimed they were unsavory. Fated alphas and omegas often think less of them."

She nodded. "My parents did not want me to work in the brothels. However, I talked with the brothel workers before I committed to the dragon temple. They were witty and kind, but they knew as well as I did, I wouldn't fit in there."

"You have a choice now," I said. "Like Clementine, you can do whatever you want. Learn something new. Take up a hobby. Travel. Anything."

Priestess Alma frowned at me. "I suppose it would be fun to see more of the other temples, unless you're disbanding them, too?"

I shrugged. "I need to send word to the other dragons, but both Elder and Bale have questioned whether the temples are for us or for you."

Priestess Alma scoffed. "For me?"

"For kobold females who don't want to work in the brothels," Mac said. His voice was far softer than mine, and she relaxed a little.

"I don't want little Clementine confined to the same choices I had," she admitted. "I want her to do whatever she wants when she grows up."

"That's what I want for you," I said. "It's not too late."

She met my gaze with unshed tears in her eyes. "Am I that bad at my job? This is my life's work, and you're disbanding us like we've meant nothing to you."

"You have been a wonderful priestess," I reassured her. "For the longest time, I thought you were necessary for my happiness as a dragon. However, that's not fair to you, and it's not fair to little Clementine or the others. Now, there will be many others. Eventually, you may even find your fated mate, and I wouldn't want you to think this vocation should stop you from mating."

"I'm too old for a mate." She scoffed. "We're infertile, remember?"

"It's a curse," Mac said. "A curse that's about to be broken." He patted his flat abdomen, and she frowned.

"No." She shook her head. "Betas can't get pregnant."

"I am," Mac said. "Galen's paragon confirmed it."

"How will you give birth?" She seemed as skeptical as I had been.

I rolled my eyes, remembering how ridiculous it had sounded when my entire family chimed in with one word. "Magic."

"It better work, too," Mac said.

"Wait …" Alma grabbed Mac's hand and sniffed from his wrist to his elbow. A low growl rumbled from my throat.

"I can smell the child on you." She frowned. "We don't have anything about beta pregnancies in the archives."

I would need to ask my family for more advice, but not yet. I wanted at least one night with my mate where we could celebrate our union and our future.

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