AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sebastian turned around to snarl at Alistair, who held up his hands in surrender.
“We’ll find your omega, Sebastian. Never fear. It’s not like he has any particularly good hiding places out here.” He began to walk about the campsite, looking in spaces too small for even Peregrine to fit, and calling out the omega’s name as if he were a lost kitten.
Sebastian moved away from their camp, shed his clothes, and transformed. Doing so was always a risk, but Sebastian was prepared to immolate anyone he came into contact with. And perhaps eat them. He was in that kind of mood.
No matter what, he would find Peregrine if it was the last thing he did.
Mine, his dragon roared. Find, take, keep.
Sebastian agreed, but deep down, he worried. It was unlike him, but he couldn’t help the emotion any more than he could the beating of his heart.
Why had Peregrine run away?
Was it something he had done? Or perhaps not done?
Did the omega truly despise him that much?
When he found Peregrine, what could he do or say to make him stay?
What if he couldn’t find him at all?
Heedless of Sebastian’s morass of doubt, his dragon searched for Peregrine’s scent and found it leaving the campsite. He had not left alone. There was the scent of another omega with him, and the scent was not wholly unfamiliar, but neither Sebastian nor his dragon could place it.
“Sebastian! What on God’s earth do you think you’re doing?”
Sebastian turned back to find Alistair standing there, hands on his hips, like a nursemaid scolding a naughty whelp.
Alistair glared at him. “Don’t give me that look, sirrah.”
That made Sebastian blow fire at Alistair, although he nimbly dodged it.
“Stop that at once!” Alistair huffed as he stomped out a bit of flame that had caught on a patch of desert grass. “You nearly set the tents on fire! And you can’t just go rampaging about in that form. What if someone sees you? It’ll be disastrous. You cannot be serious. He’s only an omega!”
Sebastian lowered his great head until he could look his brother in the eye. In this form he couldn’t speak, but he was quite adept at glaring. He growled and smoke poured from his nostrils and throat.
“Fine!” Alistair shouted, throwing his hands into the air with agitation. “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you when the natives go hunting for you and try to take your stupid, scaly head. It’s not like anyone ever listens to me, anyway. Go hunt down your omega. Never mind that there’s an Onyx cloister just on the other side of Constantinople.”
Sebastian growled at Alistair again, then turned his back on his brother to follow the scent trail.
“My lord,” his brother exclaimed. “You really do care for the omega, don’t you? That is… well… it’s… all right, then. I will come as well, if this is to be a noble quest.”
With another huff, Sebastian set off, not waiting for Alistair to transform and uncaring of any human who might see him. The only thing of consequence was finding Peregrine, and after that, never letting the omega out of his sight again.
He roamed over the sand dunes, following in Peregrine’s wake, nose skimming the ground like he was a large, scaly scent hound. Peripherally he was aware that Alistair had joined him, but he was a much smaller dragon, and he wisely kept a few steps behind. They traveled for quite some time until, suddenly, the scent trail mingled with a new smell.
Something sharp and unmistakable.
Blood.
Speckles of it darkened the sand.
It belonged to Peregrine.
Sebastian’s heart tore, and he roared into the night sky.
Whoever had taken his omega would pay for every precious drop of blood they’d caused to spill. His teeth and talons would make sure of it.
* * *
