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Perry sighed with pleasure. After the atrium, this was his favorite room in the house. He loved green, growing things. He didn’t think he’d be happy in any place where he was deprived of them for a lengthy amount of time. He leaned against one of the boulders while he waited for Sebastian. It was smooth and moss-covered. It was also vibrating very softly. Perry laughed, but softly, so as to not wake his “boulder.” Pake, the sweetest—and likely oldest—giant tortoise on the planet moved very slowly and liked to sleep. When he wasn’t sleeping, he liked to eat. Now that Perry looked closely at the foliage, he saw that some of the leaves had been chewed on a bit.
It was a mystery how Pake kept getting into the bathroom. Like Perry, the tortoise loved the new bathroom and somehow kept finding a way in. No one was entirely sure how. Perry wasn’t particularly interested in solving it. He liked to think of Pake as being a silent and deadly ninja tortoise who would defend Perry’s life every bit as heroically as Sebastian would, should it ever come down to it. Giving Pake a kiss on his shell, Perry scooted closer to the tub and didn’t alert Sebastian to the tortoise’s presence. Their pet was soundly asleep and removing him from the vicinity for Sebastian’s peace of mind was far more trouble than it would be worth. Sometimes it was best to let sleeping boulders lie.
When the tub was filled, Sebastian turned off the water, stood, and gathered Perry in his arms. Then, with great care, he stepped into the tub and set Perry down, where he proceeded to bathe him. He started with Perry’s feet, massaging their pads and arches in turn before running a soapy washcloth with great reverence between each of his toes. He cleaned Perry’s ankles and calves with the same attention to detail, then sat and drew Perry onto his lap to wash between his thighs.
His touch was an old, familiar love song, and while Perry felt very poorly indeed, it comforted him to know that there was still goodness in the world. Sebastian truly was the sweetest dragon of all.
With a contented sigh, Perry rested his head on Sebastian’s chest and hummed his appreciation, prompting Sebastian to reward him with a kiss to the top of his head. The washcloth inched inward and very gradually, Sebastian’s touch became suggestive. It didn’t surprise Perry in the least when his thickened shaft pushed between Perry’s cheeks.
“I will make things right,” Sebastian whispered in Perry’s ear. “I will protect you. I vow it. I will find a way to make this time different. We shall not lose another child.”
Perry rolled his head back, exposing the long arch of his neck. It was, at times, easy to forget how large and powerful Sebastian really was, but here in his arms, seated on his lap, it was inescapable. Next to him Perry was a doll, dwarfed in height, size, and might. It was easy to trick oneself into believing a creature of such magnitude could right every wrong in the world, but such was not the case. Sebastian was a mighty warrior and a fine hero, but some evils were unvanquishable. Defeat did not mean that he had failed. It simply meant the battle had not been his to win.
No matter what happened, Perry vowed to remember it.
Sebastian was not the reason why his heart was broken. If anything, he was the reason why it hadn’t yet fallen apart entirely.
Still slick from their time in bed, Perry lifted his hips and guided Sebastian’s cock back where it belonged.
“You are mine, Perry,” Sebastian told him as Perry arched his back and rode. “Mine. And what I take, I defend. No matter how many times I fail, I will never give up. I will protect you until my dying breath.”
The words were as sweet as the truffles Sebastian fed him later that evening, after the children had been put to bed and their lair was quiet once more. And, like the truffles, Perry delighted in them in small bites, savoring them, afraid that soon he’d eat them all up, and there would be no more.
6
Peregrine
1508
“Do you want another?” Sebastian held a piece of colored marzipan to Peregrine’s lips. “Eat.”
It was the fourth marzipan of the night, and the seventh sweet Sebastian had asked Peregrine to consume. The first had been a piece of candied orange with a flavor as bright as the southern lands it came from. Next, a curious creation Sebastian had called a “rose sugar drop” that, upon entering Peregrine’s mouth, had dissolved into sweetness on his tongue. Then had come a candied pecan, and finally, the first piece of marzipan. Peregrine had never tasted anything so good. He’d had honey before, yes, but sugar—sugar was a rarity, reserved exclusively for the rich. It was not the kind of food meant for a Disgrace.
Sebastian, however, seemed to care little about that, because he kept selecting sweets and staring Peregrine down until he accepted them. It was uncommonly frightening. Peregrine had been taught that dragons were fearsome creatures, but truly, Sebastian was menacing to the extreme. It seemed to him that if he were to disobey, Sebastian would split him open where he lay and see to it that the sweets made it to his stomach whether he wanted them there or not. So he took the candies when offered and didn’t dare remind his lord that offerings like this were above him.
It was no hardship.
They truly were divine.
The issue was, Peregrine had made the mistake of humming in pleasure upon tasting the marzipan, and now it seemed to be the only treat Sebastian would give him.
“Eat, omega,” Sebastian repeated with some force when Peregrine did not immediately take it from his fingers. “Do you not like it?”
“I like it very much, my lord,” Peregrine assured him, then took the marzipan delicately between his teeth, making sure to brush Sebastian’s fingers with his lips in as alluring a manner as he could. It was important that he be pleased.
“Good,” Sebastian grumbled, then proffered Peregrine yet another sweet that he dared not refuse.
When the latest piece of marzipan had been eaten, Sebastian retrieved a goblet of wine from the table closest to the bedside and tipped it to Peregrine’s lips. It mixed with the sugar left on his tongue and produced a wine better than Peregrine had ever known. He hummed in appreciation again, prompting a grunt from Sebastian that was entirely too empty of emotion to decipher.
“Are you sated?” Sebastian asked when Peregrine stopped drinking.
Peregrine nodded.
“Good.” Sebastian set the wine aside. “Come here.”
Both of them were on the bed, having sat up but not otherwise moved since Sebastian’s knot had loosened and their bodies had come apart. Peregrine took a moment to consider Sebastian’s invitation, then crawled his way across the scant space between them, ever careful that he held his belly in and his head at such an angle that the light from the room’s window would best play across his features. Mistress Fokje had often bemoaned the fact that his beauty had been wasted on a Disgrace such as himself, so Peregrine knew he was attractive, but he also knew that even the prettiest face could be made ugly if one was not mindful of the eye of the beholder. It was why all Pedigree omegas were trained in the art of their own bodies. Even Peregrine. After all, treasure kept alongside garbage eventually became tainted by its filth. In order to keep the other Pedigree omegas pristine, Peregrine was expected to shine.
And shine he did.
