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“Sebastian…”
“Please, Perry,” Sebastian said in a thin voice. “Please don’t take this from me. I’m only trying to do what’s best.”
There was heartbreak in Sebastian’s voice—Perry heard it as clear as anything—and it broke his heart as well.
“I love you, Sebastian.” He took a small step toward the door, but didn’t come any closer. There was a time and a place for physical affection, and now wasn’t one of them. Sebastian did not need his touch, but his support. “I trust you.”
Those three words undid the tension in Sebastian’s shoulders and loosened his posture by a visible degree. The barest hint of a smile crept onto his face. “And I love you more than anything. I will see to it that no harm befalls you or the babe. I vow it.”
Upon giving the oath, Sebastian left the hoard and with it, Perry, who stood in its midst. It wasn’t the outcome Perry had wanted, but it was, he supposed, a small step in the right direction. Wars were rarely won from a single battle. In time he would discover the entirety of the truth, but for now he’d arm himself with the fragments he’d discovered from this morning’s events.
One, that Bertram was somehow involved.
Two, that there was an outside threat related to his pregnancy fierce enough to scare even Sebastian.
And three, that the threat was not draconic in nature.
Or, if it was, not of the sort they’d faced before.
“Stubborn dragon,” Perry murmured to himself as he exited the hoard and headed for the atrium, where he heard the children shouting. With some luck it was over Bertram’s silly scavenger hunt and not because they were bothering Pake. Still, it warranted investigation. It would not do to let the boys believe there was no consequence to such rowdy behavior.
Before he could get far, a presence made itself known beside him. A hand slipped into his, soft and approximately the same size as his own. Visions of a time long past, when another delicate creature had blindsided him while he was alone and vulnerable, flashed through his mind—the kiss of sharpened steel as it bit into his neck and the frantic, whispered command he’d had no choice but to obey.
Out of instinct, Perry kept walking like nothing was wrong. The stranger beside him did the same, making sure to stay on the outskirts of his peripheral vision. All Perry could see of him was a black blur—his unwelcome visitor was wearing a hood, which prevented Perry from recognizing him by face. All was revealed, however, when the young man at Perry’s side spoke. “I don’t know why the drakons are keeping you in the dark, but I’m here to put an end to it.”
Relief flooded through Perry. “Misha.”
“Da. My apologies for having startled you, but you’ll see that it was necessary. The drakons do not know I’m here, and I wish to keep it that way.”
“Come.” Perry tightened his grip on Misha’s hand and led him into the nearest room—a large linen closet in which the staff kept fresh bedding and other cleaning supplies for use in the hoard. Compared to many of the rooms within their lair, it was small, but there was still plenty of space for two omegas to stand without feeling overly crowded.
Perry turned on the light and closed the door. “We can speak here. Neither Sebastian, Bertram, nor the children will think to check a linen closet should they come in search of me.”
“Good, good.” Misha elbowed a fitted sheet that had begun to slip off a nearby shelf back into place, then turned to face Perry. “It should come as no surprise to you that I actively monitor the Drake family’s cybersecurity. Reynard… he’s good… but he could be better. Two technological geniuses are always better than one. But I digress.” Misha hurried a glance at his phone, which he took from his pocket and returned just as quickly. “Do you remember, before my clutch was hatched, that it was stolen?”
A chill burrowed into Perry’s spine. “Yes. It was quite tragic, and nothing short of a miracle all of the eggs survived. I recall quite a few of the guilty parties were eaten that night.”
“Yes, but not all.” Misha tucked his hands into his pockets. “The mastermind behind the eggnapping escaped and has gone back to sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong—in the Drake’s digital domain. I wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for my interest in Bertram’s accounts.”
Not for the first time that day, discomfort prickled in the back of Perry’s mind. “I’m not sure I’m following, darling. Why are Bertram’s accounts interesting?”
“Because for the longest time, I had no idea they existed.”
Perry bit his lip and crossed his arms nervously over his chest. “How could that be?”
“They were hidden in a way not even I could see, tucked behind layers of discreet security that took me two years to break through. Finding them at all was a fluke—I’d been tracking the digital signature of the scum who took my eggs and, to my surprise, it led me straight to them. It turns out the account Reynard tends to on Bertram’s behalf is for appearances only. Bertram’s real accounts are hidden so well, not even my mate knows they exist.”
“Why would that be? It makes no sense. Bertram works for his father, and while he’s not forthcoming about the exact details of his employment, it’s no secret he does the council’s bidding. Why would he need to hide his finances from Reynard?”
“Allow me to explain.” Misha fished his phone from his pocket and tapped at it a few times, then turned its screen to face Perry. On it was a collection of things—financial figures, file names, and other digital offerings Perry did not understand. “Bertram receives regular deposits to the dummy account Reynard tends to. By all appearances it seems normal, albeit lacking in funds for a drakon of his age and reputation. But there are other funds he receives. They are deposited into his secret accounts and come from faceless entities. Shell accounts, most likely. I have not been able to determine who is sending these amounts, but I am determined to find out. It will take some time. My attention, you see, was diverted by something even more suspicious. Every month, a sizable figure—small for a drakon, but large for a mortal man—was being withdrawn from the secret account and being funneled into another. Upon closer investigation, I discovered that this secondary account has ties to the man who kidnapped my eggs. This, I assume, is why Bertram keeps it all hidden.”
“That makes no sense,” Perry said in a hushed voice. He checked over his shoulder to make sure the door was still firmly shut, then took a timid step toward Misha. “Bertram is a good dragon, Misha. The things he does, he does for the good of us all. He wouldn’t have a criminal like the man who stole your clutch on his payroll… and if he does, then surely it has to be for a reason. Perhaps under guidance from the council.”
“Ah, payroll. Yes. I understand your confusion. You see, the criminal is not on his payroll. The funds are being deducted from his personal accounts.”
Perry widened his eyes. “I beg your pardon?”
“I was surprised, too. So I kept digging. I could not find the identity of the kidnapper, but I did find other suspicious things in Bertram’s files. Documents, all of them individually encrypted. I have been working on a cypher, but there is no quick and easy way to recover the data. I have to do each one at a time, and I’m here today because I’ve finally cracked the code on the first file.”
