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“So what’s going on with Bertram?” Iggy asked, turning his head to speak to Misha. “Spill the tea.”
“He has connections to the omega who has been targeting us.” Misha’s phone appeared in his hand out of nowhere, and a second later, every phone around the table buzzed or chimed. “I have sent you the proof so you can see for yourself—the TL;DR is that for years, he has been wiring money into a bank account linked to our enemy.”
Harry checked Misha’s messages to see the proof for himself, but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It looked to him like a lot of computer mumbo jumbo, but there was one interesting screenshot that seemed to be from the council. It was branded in the corner with an insignia containing the silhouette of a dragon.
Harry zoomed in to study it while the conversation continued.
“That’s… great,” said Iggy, who sounded like he found it all as confusing as Harry did. “I don’t know if it’s enough to convince me, though. You used to hack into dragon bank accounts all the time, right? So it could be that this guy is just some hacker. Or maybe he’s a catfish or like, has a kinky side Domming horny dragons for money.”
“I think Misha may be right,” Perry admitted reluctantly. Harry looked up from his phone to find Perry had crossed his arms over his chest and lowered his chin just slightly. The corners of his eyes were downturned, and there was a fragile frown on his face. “I would not go as far as to accuse Bertram of being a traitor without further evidence, but I do know for a fact he is connected to our omega assailant in some fashion, as when I was attacked, Bertram threatened Sebastian at gunpoint to stop him from killing the poor thing. He then did the same to Everard in order to force him to tend the omega’s wounds before he tended to mine. I do not know if it was because he has been tasked with capturing the omega alive, or if there is a darker reason behind why he would do such a thing, but it was quite a frightful incident, and Sebastian remains livid about it to this day.”
All omegas—and omega-betas—at the table fell silent, which was impressive, considering who was in attendance. It was an uncomfortable silence, and it was made worse by the way Perry looked so sad. To distract himself, Harry watched Steve. He had returned to the empty plate and was busying himself by clamping his mouth onto its edge like a small yet fashionable shark.
“So that’s why Bertram isn’t here,” Iggy said, sounding like he was speaking to himself, but at a volume loud enough for everyone to hear. “I mean, not that he’s often at family functions, but he has been around a little more lately. I figured maybe you just forgot to invite him, because lord knows I do sometimes, but the whole ‘uninvited for aiding and abetting the enemy’ thing makes way more sense.”
“No,” said Matthieu in quite a serious tone—so serious, Harry looked up from Steve. “I do not think that is it entirely. Ian has been quite out of sorts the last few days, and just before we left for the airport to come here, I overheard him on the phone with Grimbold. I cannot claim to know all the details, but I do know one thing for certain—Bertram is missing, and Grimbold is worried about it.”
“He’s been coming to bed late,” Wally added quietly, gathering his knees to his chest and not looking anyone in the eyes. “Grimbold, I mean. And he seems so much more stressed than he usually does. He tries to hide it and act normal, but I know better. I can hear it in his dragon.”
“Do you think it’s related to that shady omega?” Iggy asked. “Do you think Bertram was kidnapped?”
Misha snorted. “I do not think ‘kidnapped’ is the right word. It implies he was taken against his will.”
“I mean, yeah, but we don’t know for sure exactly what’s going on.” Iggy frowned. “I’m kind of with Perry on this one. None of us have ever gotten to know Bertram, have we? He’s a Drake just like the rest of his brothers, but none of us have gone out of our way to make him feel welcome. Half the time, I don’t even remember he exists. There could be a good explanation for everything that’s going on, but we wouldn’t know it, because we haven’t bothered to ask. Until we know the details, it feels kind of skeezy passing judgment—on him and that omega both.”
Misha’s eyes narrowed to bladelike slits and he crossed his arms, but he said nothing.
Matthieu shrugged. “Innocent until proven guilty.”
“It sounds like we’ve got some research to do,” Harry said quite happily, reaching out for Steve. Steve looked at him, stayed stock-still for a second, then released the edge of the plate and skittered over, letting Harry pick him up and wear him across his shoulders like a scarf. “I’ve never studied something like this before, but science as a whole is all about testing assumptions and figuring out what’s true and what’s not, so I should be able to help.”
“I have produced evidence of his wrongdoing,” Misha grumbled. He did not uncross his arms. “Is that not enough?”
“It’s a good start,” said Harry earnestly. “But the more information we have, the better—we’ll need more evidence before we can prove or disprove your point. In this case, I think a field study is in order. Herpetologists do some of their best work out in the field, where they can observe their subjects in an environment where they feel the most comfortable. Did you know that animals in captivity act differently than their wild counterparts? It’s the same with people. If we’re going to figure out the truth, we’ll need to go directly to the source—preferably together. Some science is fine to do on your own, but it’s safer to have a buddy with you when you’re out in the field in case the unexpected happens, and, well, having six buddies there would be safest of all.”
“Uh, Bertram’s missing. Apparently. And I doubt he’s here in Lebanon.” Iggy pushed his lips to the side and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “Even if we knew where he was, we’d have to travel to get there, and it would probably be into another clan’s territory, which would mean paperwork and long processing times. And I’m not sure about the rest of you, but if Alistair found out I was leaving to go hunt down a potentially dangerous criminal, I don’t think he’d be thrilled about it. You said Sebastian wasn’t even letting you out of the house because of what’s been going on, right, Perry? Once our dragons find out about it—and I’m assuming they’ll be finding out soon, since they’re off doing their own thing together right now—we’ll probably all be in the same boat.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” said a very nervous-sounding Wally. “Dragons are dangerous. If Bertram really is a traitor, he could hurt us or even kill us, and there would be nothing we could do about it. We should let our mates handle this. If there’s trouble, at least they’d be able to transform.”
“Many reptiles are dangerous,” said Harry. “But almost no animal is naturally aggressive in the way the media would have you believe. You just need to learn to speak their language and show them respect in a way they can understand. Even if it turns out Bertram isn’t on our side, I don’t think we need to be afraid of him—we just need to be polite. Plus, the fact he hasn’t killed us all yet is a great sign, especially since Perry said he had a gun.” He paused to furrow his brow. “I wonder why a dragon would need a gun when he could just set things on fire? Hm. It warrants further investigation. I’ll have to ask Ev one day.”
“Okay,” said an exasperated Iggy, “but all of that doesn’t change the fact we don’t know where Bertram is, or that we’d need clearance from the appropriate clan to enter non-Amethyst territory lest we set off some stupid lizard war.”
“War will not be an issue,” Perry said. He slowly twisted one of his golden bangles around his wrist, but Harry couldn’t tell if he knew he was doing it or not—his eyes were unfocused and unseeing, almost as if he was no longer in the room with them. “And as for our dragons… what they don’t know won’t hurt them. We are more capable than they think, especially when we band together. I cannot speak for the rest of you, but I, for one, am sick of being under what is essentially house arrest, and if sneaking away now will bring about some kind of resolution, then I will gladly do so and simply ask for forgiveness later.”
“Then we’re doing this?” Harry asked excitedly. “We’ll go on our own field study?”
Perry’s eyes came back into focus and affixed their full kindness on Harry. “Darling, you couldn’t keep me away if you tried.”
“I will go too,” Matthieu said. “My skills may be helpful to you, and should we run into legal trouble, I will be able to argue our way out of it.”
“You’ll need me there to keep everyone on track,” said Finch. “I’ll put together our itinerary and see to all the pertinent travel details.”
“I’ll help, too,” Wally said, surprising them all. When everyone turned their heads to look at him, he shrank into himself and smiled nervously. “I might be able to sense if Bertram wants to hurt us. It could help us get out safely. I’m scared to go, but I also don’t want to see any of you hurt.”
“Then I suppose I shall go as well,” Misha grumbled. “If Bertram turns out to be the traitor I think he is, I want to be there so I can kill him myself. I need no dragon to deliver justice for me. I will make sure he pays for what he’s done.”
“Okay. That’s… problematic. But maybe not unjustified.” Iggy scrunched his nose and snatched his glass from the table. In it was half a vodka-cranberry, which he drained in a single swig. When he was done, he set the glass down heavily and leveled a look at everyone else in the room. “Guess I’m going too, huh? I wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun. But, uh, I think we’re overlooking one pretty major thing. We still have no clue where we’re going.”
