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Misha clicked something on his screen, which loaded a document branded in the top right corner with a nameless seal that felt familiar, but that Perry couldn’t place. There was no sender listed or any kind of return address, as there often were on such official-looking forms, but there was a file number and a subject line: Request for Immediate Detention and/or Neutralization.
The text below it was short and to the point.
Pursuant to activities reported on 01/11/2020, the threat posed to draconic society by the target has been escalated to level four. Detention is hereby requested with neutralization to follow should the target not be eliminated on sight.
Extreme caution is advised.
Perry scanned his memory for the date mentioned and gasped. “January eleventh is—”
“The date my eggs were stolen.” Misha extinguished the screen of his phone and tucked it back into his pocket. “It confirms the ‘target’ mentioned in this briefing and the mastermind behind the kidnapping are one and the same.”
A jolt of understanding struck Perry like lightning, but surely, it couldn’t be the case. There had to be something he was missing—a detail he’d overlooked or a fact obfuscated by the astonishing coincidence of it all. What he was seeing couldn’t be the entire truth, because that would mean…
No.
No, he wouldn’t believe it.
He wouldn’t so much as entertain the thought.
There had to be more. There had to be something he was missing. Misha would know. He was ever so clever with his devices. Surely there’d be another document he’d reveal that would shed new light on the situation, because right now, it was looking an awful lot like…
“What are you saying, Misha?” Perry asked, voice trembling despite his best efforts to stay strong. “Say it plainly. My head is spinning and I can’t figure it out on my own. I need you to tell me exactly what it is you believe.”
“I will, but I have a question for you before I can do that. Do you swear to tell me the truth?”
Perry’s panicked heartbeat throbbed in his ears. If what he feared was true, he already knew what Misha would ask, and it terrified him. “Yes.”
“Are you with child?”
The question struck like a slap across the face. Perry winced and squeezed his eyes shut, then dropped his chin and laid a worried hand over the swell of his stomach. “I am.”
“I thought so. Based on what I know, it makes perfect sense.”
It didn’t.
It couldn’t.
But it was, and while Perry wasn’t savvy enough to confirm the validity of Misha’s findings, he didn’t doubt them. Misha had no reason to lie.
“What I believe,” Misha said with a finality that chilled Perry to the very core, “is that Bertram Drake is working with the enemy, and now that he has come to your home, you and the child you carry are in danger.”
14
Peregrine
1508
Pain like fire ate through Peregrine, worse than any he’d felt before. It tore through his skin and severed his muscle until it reached so deep, he was sure it would impale him entirely.
It didn’t.
It did something worse.
It ripped downward and split him open.
As a child of the Pedigree, Peregrine had been taught the value of silence. Dragons who mated omegas for the purpose of fathering a clutch did not want mouthy partners who drew attention to themselves. No matter how painful or pleasurable the stimuli, moaning and screaming was discouraged, and while Peregrine had never expected to be chosen as a breeding partner, he’d learned to control himself all the same. With Sebastian, who was passionate and interested in breeding him even outside of his heat, keeping quiet had never been a consideration. Peregrine vocalized when he wanted to, never having to hold back out of fear of being reprimanded.
But now wasn’t like those times.
