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“Thank you.” Another pause followed, this one without explanation. Finally, Grimbold broke it, admitting quietly but sincerely, “I’m proud of you, Bertram,” before ending the call.
Bertram’s lips parted just slightly, the only indication of words he’d never speak.
He returned his phone to his pocket and kept walking.
Los Angeles swallowed him whole.
* * *
Grimbold was punctual. He called when promised and filled Bertram in on what the mating experiment entailed. Bertram listened silently. He’d been spread across the couch of his rental villa when his father called, a hand over his face while he struggled to piece together how to proceed, but as Grimbold spoke, he couldn’t sit still. He paced restlessly, wandering from one immaculately kept room to the next.
The situation was even more dire than he had imagined.
According to Grimbold, if what Everard’s mate hypothesized was true, the omegas selected as part of the experiment would all produce a clutch, and should that happen…
Bertram stopped by the doorway to the master bedroom and rested his head on the doorframe.
Should that happen, he feared they would all end up like Sorin—all of them taken from their eggs and driven insane.
“Everard’s mate predicts the mating pairs will bond,” Grimbold said in conclusion. “But I am not as optimistic. Yes, Everard and Alistair have bonded with their omegas, but I am not convinced it’s proof of anything. There are too many other factors at play. But I suppose time will tell.”
“And should a mate bond not be established, what will become of the selected omegas?” Bertram asked.
The answer did not surprise him.
“I suppose they’ll be sent away, as is custom.” Grimbold seemed to consider the statement for a moment. “The candidates selected by each clan are wealthy enough to support it.”
“Do you not think it a bit barbaric, Father?” Bertram asked, keeping the strain out of his voice by virtue of his training alone. “We are no longer in the dark ages. Omegas aren’t toys to do with as we please. They are living, breathing, sentient creatures who deserve more respect than we are showing them. They should not be forced to participate in an experiment against their will. They should not be made to bear eggs.”
Grimbold snorted with laughter. “What other purpose do Pedigree omegas serve?”
“Any number of purposes, if only we were to let them.”
He didn’t know if he’d struck a nerve, but Grimbold was silent for an unusually long time. At last, he said, “Are you well, child? This behavior is unlike you.”
“I am well enough to know we shouldn’t go through with the experiment. Some part of you must see the injustice of it, Father. It’s not just barbaric—it’s cruel.”
“Lord, you have been stationed in California for far too long.” Grimbold sighed. “Child, there is no cruelty in this. We are on the verge of solving the issue that has doomed us as a species. Pedigree omegas understand this. They have been trained to accept it, and they embrace their position and the duties it entails. Perhaps you should think about doing the same.”
Grimbold didn’t speak those words harshly, but they cut into Bertram all the same. He wanted to lash out, to scream, to tell his father that any omega who had his eggs taken from him would never be right again, but there was no way he could do it without exposing the truth—that he was mated to a dragon slayer, and that he himself was a traitor and guilty of treason. It would be a death sentence, and there would be no saving any omega if he was dead.
He only hoped Sorin would understand.
“I hear you,” he conceded, “but I do not agree. I urge you to consider what I’ve said.”
“Are you sure nothing is wrong?”
“Yes.”
“I am not sure I believe you. You are unusually despondent.”
“It’s been a long day,” Bertram said truthfully, gazing out the master bedroom’s wide window at the ocean, stained orange by the sunset, “and I’m not the whelp I used to be. These high-risk missions are wearing me out faster than they used to.”
“Your service is appreciated,” Grimbold said warmly. “You do good work, Bertram. I couldn’t ask for a better agent, or a better son.”
Bertram’s lips thinned. He watched golden waves break on the sandbar.
“When this is over and the Topaz clan has retracted its claws, perhaps you should come to Aurora,” Grimbold offered. “It would be nice to have you here while your nephews are still young.”
