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“I’m sorry it came to this.” Sorin sighed, and it sounded like the weight of the world was behind it. “If I had been stronger, none of this would have happened. I tried so hard not to hurt anyone, but everything has gone wrong, and it’s all because of me.”
“No.” Bertram took Sorin by the shoulders and pried him off his chest so they were looking eye to eye. Sorin tried to duck his gaze, but Bertram was not having it—he lifted Sorin’s chin with a curled finger and held it in place. Their eyes locked, Sorin’s wide and startled. It was unlike Bertram to take agency from him, but Bertram wanted to make sure he heard what he had to say. “You did not ask Sandrine to make the choices that she did,” he said, leaving no room for argument. “You were dealt a bad hand, and you made the most of it, never once giving up on what you believed was right, even when it would have been the easier and safer choice. You fought for our cause. You fought for change. It’s more than I can say about myself, and for that, you have my deepest apologies. You shouldn’t have had to do this alone. My inability to change the council’s mind sent you down a path you never should have had to wander had only I been a better partner… but there is no changing what has been done. We can only move forward from here.”
“Toward what?” Sorin asked miserably. “There’s nothing left for us. I’ve ruined it all.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think,” Bertram said, letting go of Sorin’s chin, “it’s time I told you what has happened since the last time we spoke. I agree that the experiment was inhumane, but there is one good thing to have come from it—they have figured it out, my love. The secret behind our low fertility rates and your wild magic are one and the same. Disgraces are not Disgraces—they are dragons. They are born human, but genetically, they are our match, and meant to be our true mates.”
“But how does that change anything?” Sorin asked. “It will only make things worse. Before, clutches were so rare that almost no omegas had to suffer the pain of having their eggs taken away, but now all of them will be doomed.”
“No. Not anymore.” A genuine smile overtook Bertram’s face. “For in light of this discovery, the council has taken its first steps to abolish the Pedigree. No omega will be forced into being bred ever again.”
17
Sorin
Once, long ago, in a time before the whelps had learned to transform into boys, Owyn had broken his leg while learning how to fly. He’d misjudged the distance between himself and the ground and come down too fast, crashing into a rocky patch near the loch. A broken bone was not the kind of injury that kept a dragon down for long, but Owyn had been young, and though he’d earned his fair share of bumps and bruises while roughhousing with his brothers, it was the first time he’d experienced such intense pain. The poor thing had panicked, crying and shrieking, shooting wisps of dragon fire off at random, and while Sorin was just as panicked to see his baby hurting, he’d had to ground himself and remain calm so as not to make things worse.
It was not the only time he’d needed to mask his true feelings. Fatherhood was a battleground, and it forged those who dared enter into it blow by blow until they emerged tough as iron on the other side. Those moments had prepared him to lead the Vanguard, where the same principles applied.
Which was to say, Sorin was not easily shocked.
Blood did not faze him. He could affix a compound fracture without a hint of squeamishness, and when he wasn’t suffering from the noises in his head, he took all bad news in stride.
But what Bertram said stunned him.
Dragons were stubborn creatures. They did not welcome change.
Yet Bertram’s expression was genuine—as far as Sorin could tell, he was being truthful.
The Pedigree really was being abolished… which meant the omegas in it would finally be set free.
“Promise me you’re not lying,” he managed to say after several seconds of silence. He didn’t want to believe it lest he get his hopes up only to have them crushed, but he couldn’t stop his heart from racing. “Promise me, Bertram. I need to know it’s true.”
“Aye, I promise. I wouldn’t lie to you, love.”
“I just…” Sorin hopped off the bed and started to pace, unable to sit still. “It’s not like the council. I don’t want to believe it’s true only to find out it’s not. You’re sure that’s really what happened? They’re not going to turn around and herd up all the Disgraces of childbearing years to force them to breed?”
“They wouldn’t dare.”
“Why?”
“Because Disgraces are dragons, love,” Bertram repeated, catching Sorin’s hand in his own and bringing his pacing to a stop. “And as such, they are protected under the same laws all dragons are. They are our equals. They will not be rounded up and sent away.”
Sorin’s stomach fluttered. He looked down at Bertram’s hand, so large it entirely encompassed his own, and wondered what had changed in the hearts of dragons to allow such a thing to happen. Disgraces were omegas and tended to be smaller and weaker than their alpha counterparts. It would be easy to keep them in their cloisters and force them to produce clutches regardless of what was right or fair, but it seemed that wasn’t what was happening.
“Who decided it would be that way?” he finally asked. “Surely it wasn’t the council.”
“There are some clan heads who aren’t in total agreement,” Bertram admitted, “but I heard it said they are coming around. Apparently, an omega spoke up in defense of his kind—one of the Disgraces selected for the mating experiment. I don’t know all the details, unfortunately, but it seems like whatever he said worked. Change is happening. You don’t have to fight anymore. Our goal has been accomplished. All omegas will be set free.”
Bertram’s hand tightened around his, and it was only then that Sorin realized he was shaking. He had spent his lifetime fighting for this, quietly at first, then viciously. Giving it his everything. Ready to trade his own life so others would know what it was like to be free. From the shadows, he’d stepped in to save the ones who needed him the most, risking everything for their well-being in the hopes that one day, he’d set into motion a series of events that would flip society on its head.
And now a lone omega hundreds of years Sorin’s junior had done what Sorin had never been able to accomplish.
He’d made the dragons listen.
