AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As Harrison prepared for surgery.
As the eggs were delivered, and Reynard and his mate were saved.
When it was done, Bertram said a few gentle things to his brothers and nodded respectfully at his father, who had come in at the last minute, then collected his omega and left with a heavy heart.
Reynard would live.
All would be well.
But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he would forever be an outsider when it came to his own family, and at this point, he wasn’t sure there was anything he could do about it.
The omega held his tongue until they were outside, well out of earshot of any dragon. A car was coming, but it wouldn’t arrive for a while, giving them a chance to speak while they waited by the doors.
“Well, that was something,” he said, digging his hands into the back pockets of his slacks and rocking back on his heels. “I can see why Raven’s pissed. That omega almost died.”
“From naturally occurring complications. It was not by fault of any dragon.”
“Uh, dude?” The omega’s eyebrow shot sky-high. “You do know how babies are made, right? A dragon sure as shit had a hand in this. Don’t go shifting the narrative. If dragons hadn’t interfered in his life, this never would have happened.”
Bertram brooded about it quietly, watching a sparrow hop along the side of the driveway. It stopped to peck at the grass, then jerked its head up and stared curiously at him.
Bertram didn’t move. He returned its gaze, and the bird, unimpressed, went back to pecking.
“It’s kind of sad, actually,” the omega said when Bertram was silent. “Everyone in there only cared about the dragon, didn’t they? No one really cared about the omega, even though he was the one on death’s door. I bet no one would have even showed up if him dying didn’t mean your brother would end up dying, too. They might’ve sent a card or something, maybe a fruit basket, and called it a day.” He laughed, but it came out empty. “Imagine being sent all the way from Russia to be pumped full of a stranger’s eggs only to die alone in his bed. The Pedigree is bad enough, but this experiment is awful. The Amethysts always seemed like one of the better clans to me, but that was before they came up with this bullshit arrangement. Now I’m not so sure.”
Bertram shook his head. “They’re not bad. They just don’t understand the consequences.”
“I don’t know.” The omega shrugged. “Even if you buy into the lie and believe with all your heart that omegas who lay clutches are shipped off to some dragon-free paradise, overlooking the whole mandatory cum dumpster requirement is a pretty big oversight. Omegas are people. People you force into breeding whether they want it or not. You can slap pretty labels on it, call them Pedigree, praise them for their submission, but the fact is, none of them wanted this. You took them from their parents and groomed them to embrace this lifestyle, and for the Amethysts not to see it for what it is makes them just as guilty as the clans that don’t give a fuck about how their omegas are treated. Evil isn’t just twirly handlebar mustaches and unhinged cackling, you know. It’s often way more insidious than that.”
The car arrived at the gates, which swung open to admit it onto the property. Bertram watched it for a moment, then glanced at the omega at his side. “What’s your name?”
“See?” He snorted. “We’ve been together for what, five hours, and you’re only asking me for my name now? You talk a big game, but you’re really not all that different from any other dragon.”
“What is your name?” Bertram repeated evenly.
He would not be baited.
He had listened, he had learned, and he would do better.
He would teach them all to do better.
But first, he had to convince Sorin to delay whatever he had planned. If he just had a little more time, he could get through to his father, and no one would have to be hurt.
The omega tilted his head back and looked up at the darkening sky. The sparrow, who’d been happily hopping along in search of better grass, startled as the car approached and took off in a panicked rush, cutting through the sky overhead.
“You can call me Sparrow, I guess,” the omega said after some consideration. “Not that it matters. I imagine after you’ve finished plying me for information, we’ll go our separate ways and you’ll never see me again.”
“You’re wrong.”
Sparrow rolled his head onto his shoulder to look up at him with curious eyes.
“It does matter,” Bertram told him. The car arrived, and he stepped forward to open the door, inviting Sparrow in. “Even if we never meet again, you deserve my respect.”
Sparrow blinked, then rolled his eyes and tucked himself into the car.
A few minutes later, they were off.
Reynard’s home disappeared in the rearview, and into Aurora they drove.
