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Peregrine shrieked in agony, but he did not back down.
He took all of Bertram’s wrath into himself.
Sebastian let loose with a strangled cry and released the strange omega. Quick transformations were painful, but nothing could compare to the anguish he felt upon having failed Peregrine, and so he rushed into his dragon form. Scales and teeth and creaking bones changed him while his inner dragon roared as though it had been slain.
He would kill his brother for doing this.
He would tear him limb from worthless limb.
But before he had a chance to strike, Alistair thumped to the ground. His tail knocked out the fire, snuffing the only source of illumination.
Everything was plunged into inky darkness. Sebastian tore forth, intending to rip Bertram apart, but his brother was already gone, and without a scent to track him by, there was nothing Sebastian could do.
He snarled his rage into the emptiness, then pulled back his transformation and rushed through the dark to find Peregrine. The villainous omega was gone now, and Peregrine was a crumpled heap on the ground.
“My love,” Sebastian uttered as he dropped to his knees and pulled Peregrine’s still body into his arms. Tears streamed down his cheeks and would not stop, no matter how he tried. “Oh, my love. Do not die. You cannot. Hold on just a little longer and I will find a way to make this right.”
12
Sebastian
Present Day
“Is the omega dead?” Sebastian pinched his cell phone to his ear with his shoulder as he held the metal post in place with one hand and twisted the wrench in his other. He’d been in the middle of assembling a new jungle gym for the boys when his brother Hugh had called to share troubling news. Apparently, an omega had drugged Hugh’s beloved secretary, Finch, who he’d been unwittingly courting since forever. Commissioning Perry to smith that impractical dragon pipe now made sense. It had to have been a courting gift for the omega. Now, several weeks later, after Hugh had come to his senses and taken Finch’s heat, the secretary was missing.
And while Hugh did not correlate his disappearance with the incident of weeks past, Sebastian was more discerning. Omegas were no threat to dragons, but toward other omegas, they could do quite a lot of damage.
Hugh’s situation reminded Sebastian all too much of a time five hundred years ago that he would prefer to forget.
“Oh, no, not in the least,” Hugh said. “I believe he remains very much alive. Bertram took off after him, but if he was smart, he evaded capture through the cellar door. But the strange omega is beside the point! Have you not been listening to the rest of what I’ve had to say? Sebastian, you must accompany me. Geoffrey says I must not leave Amethyst territory, but how does he expect me to stay in one place when Finch has been matenapped!”
“Kidnapped, you mean.”
“Yes, but for mates.”
“Is he your mate, then?”
“Well, no, not quite. But that is also beside the point! He will be. He is carrying my clutch, after all. It’s simply a matter of time.”
Sebastian grunted, but his impartiality did not derail Hugh, who continued his panicked monologue. “I found his cufflink, Sebastian,” he said. “It was hidden under a piece of furniture, no doubt tossed there by Finch himself as he was forcibly removed from his room. Why else would he part with it? He loved those cufflinks so. They were a gift to him from me, you know. It was a rare sight to see him without them. He would never leave them behind, and especially not just one of them. What in the blazes is a man supposed to do with a solitary cufflink? The writing is on the wall! Or, in this case, under the armchair. Finch was kidnapped, and this was his way of crying out for my help. However, I am but one dragon, and I fear if the worst has come to pass and a group of unsavory secretary snatchers has set their sights on Finch, I won’t be able to fend them all off. I need you to help me. You’re very strong, you know. And large. And your teeth are very sharp. Come with me on my travels and help me recover my secretary. There’s a very good chance that if you do, you’ll be able to eat some very bad men along the way.”
Sebastian’s dragon perked up at the thought, but Sebastian ignored it. “But the omega has not been killed?”
“No. Why are you so hung up on this omega? I’m sure Bertram has dealt with him. There’s no need to—”
“Bertram,” Sebastian growled, “does not have an excellent track record when it comes to omegas.”
“And I will not have an excellent track record when it comes to them, either, if you don’t come at once and join me on my noble quest to recover my mate!”
Sebastian frowned. He truly did feel for Hugh, but if there was a rogue omega on the loose, Sebastian’s hands were tied. Especially now. With Perry in such a delicate state, he could not leave. Not even for his brother. Should it come to it, and the council determined this omega a threat, he would go reluctantly on their command, but to traipse around the world while his brother searched for a secretary that could be anywhere? No. He would not risk it.
“I’m sorry, Hugh,” Sebastian said. “I cannot.”
“What?” Hugh sounded positively affronted. “But you adore eating horrible people.”
“I do, but I cannot.”
“Why?”
