Peregrine by Piper Scott
Sebastian
1508
“Where is this cloister of yours located, omega?” Sebastian asked.
The omega under his arm shivered. Possibly with cold, as he had no doublet or jerkin and his hose had worn quite thin. Cloisters were sponsored by the local dragon. In this case, Harbert. Sebastian had never heard he was a parsimonious sort, but dragons could be deceiving. This would all need to be reported to Father. He wanted to make a bid for head of the council in the next century or so, and any bit of information regarding the finances of another dragon would be useful.
“Not much farther, my lord,” said the omega. “It’s just after the bend in the road.”
Sebastian grunted his acknowledgment.
“You cannot go around purloining omegas,” his brother, Alistair, bleated in his ear like a troublesome insect. “It isn’t done. Especially since you’re not sanctioned!”
“Write Geoffrey and have him make arrangements. My finances are not an embarrassment to the family.”
“Have you gone utterly mad?” shouted Alistair, ignoring the dig at his paltry hoard. “Since when did you want to try for a clutch? We’re on a journey, Sebastian. This is no time to set up your nursery with random omegas.”
The young omega he held stiffened and Sebastian tightened his grip so he wouldn’t fall.
A clutch had honestly not occurred to Sebastian. He just knew, when he’d seen the omega, a feeling of rightness that he’d never before experienced. This man was not in any way random. He was Sebastian’s. He felt it in his scales.
Alistair was not so convinced. “Why don’t you express your interest to the cloister and they can hold on to him until we return? That seems like a reasonable option.”
Sebastian stopped and Alistair, too busy spouting nonsense to pay attention, walked into his back. Not that Sebastian was in any way discomforted. Alistair, runt of the clutch, was as likely to knock Sebastian over as a goose feather to fell a mighty elm.
“No,” Sebastian said, scowling at his brother. “The omega comes with me.”
Alistair sighed deeply. “Fine, brother. Don’t listen to my advice. I see reasoning with you is quite useless.”
Sebastian grunted and began walking toward what had to be the cloister Peregrine had mentioned. The one run by the matron with the strange-sounding name. It was a wattle and daub half-timbered structure comprised of three stories with a large barn behind. The fenced-in pasture contained both cows and horses. All looked to be better cared for than the omega he clutched to him.
Sebastian began to grind his teeth.
A frumpy woman of late middle age flew out of the cloister’s front entrance and started screeching in a way that was even more annoying than Alistair. “Peregrine! You lazy, evil omega. What have you done now?”
Sebastian put down the barrel of fish with a thump at the matron’s feet, just barely missing the toes of her soft shoes. He then gently put down his omega. He cupped the boy’s face in one hand and looked into eyes the same delicate blue of harebells. “Do not move,” he admonished. “I’ve little time today to chase down an omega. Do not run from me.”
The pale blue eyes scrutinized him. Coming to some sort of internal conclusion, the omega nodded his head once in assent.
That settled, Sebastian turned to see the matron closing in on his omega.
“Peregrine!” she cawed. “I swear, this time it will be a week with no supper. What have you done, you miserable creature?”
Beside him, the omega quivered but said nothing in his defense.
“I say,” Alistair began, sounding like an injured peacock. “There’s no need for—”
Speaking in his very halting Frisian, Sebastian interrupted his brother’s squawking. “The omega is mine. Have the paperwork drawn up and forwarded to Geoffrey Drake in Richmond.”
The beta matron’s jaw fell open unattractively, then she dropped into a deep curtsy. “Sir,” she said, switching to English. “My lord, I humbly beg your pardon on behalf of the omega. He has long been a thorn in my side. You can’t mean you wish to contract with the creature. He is the get of a Disgrace and therefore a Disgrace himself. We have much better omegas with spotless lineages. Why don’t I show you them instead?”
Beside him, Peregrine stiffened up like a poker. Sebastian looked down and saw bright scarlet shame color his ears.
It made Sebastian want to destroy something—something like the miserable excuse for a cloister—pulling it down brick by brick and beam by beam until nothing was left but rubble.
He sighed. Alas, there was no time.
“The omega is mine. That is the end of it. My father and brother will take care of whatever legalities exist. Have the omega’s things packed in a trunk and brought down. We are leaving with the morning tide.”
Alistair clutched at his long hair. “This is madness, and somehow I will be to blame for it. Mark my words, Sebastian. Father will hold me responsible for you absconding with a Pedigree omega, and a Disgrace at that. What can you be thinking?”
Thinking had no part in the matter. It rarely did. Sebastian trusted his instincts, and they had told him the omega belonged to him. That was the beginning and end of it.
There was a slight tug on the sleeve of his doublet. Sebastian looked down into worried blue eyes. The omega was biting his lip.
“Yes?” he asked, trying to make his voice sound as gentle as possible. It wasn’t an easy task.
“I have no trunk, my lord, nor anything to fill it with. My belongings can easily fit into a satchel.”
“Will it take you long to collect your things?”
Peregrine shook his head. “No, my lord.”
He patted the omega lightly on his far too skinny rump. “Go then, and be as quick as you may.”
Once Peregrine was out of earshot, Sebastian said, “My omega needs things to last him through a long sea voyage. He cannot spend the entire journey naked.”
The matron gawked at Sebastian, utterly speechless.
Alistair sighed. “What my brother means, madam, is that he expects a packed trunk full of suitable clothing for a claimed omega, and he would like this accomplished posthaste.”
“Now,” Sebastian growled, letting smoke escape from his nostrils.
“Or there will be hell to pay, madam. I suggest you start now. My brother hasn’t demolished anything in a fortnight. Do not tempt his temper.”
The matron’s eyes flared wide, then she fled. By the time Peregrine returned with his miserably small bag of belongings, a trunk had been brought and laid, with reverence, at Sebastian’s feet. Alistair, ever curious, pawed through the contents and pronounced them suitable. That was more than good enough for Sebastian. He hoisted the trunk easily onto his right shoulder, then hoisted his omega onto his left.
“We go,” he said.
They went.
* * *
After they arrived at the inn where Alistair had arranged for rooms and a private parlor for the night, Sebastian pulled his brother aside. “See to it the omega gets a hot bath and a good meal in him. I’ll be back before nightfall.”
Alistair goggled at him. “Where the devil are you going?”
“Out.” Sebastian wagged an admonishing finger in front of Alistair’s nose. “Do. Not. Touch. My. Omega.”
“As if I would be that foolhardy.” Alistair sniffed, his nose clearly out of joint. Not that Sebastian cared overmuch. Alistair had a history with omegas, and while he was fairly certain his brother valued his life far more than getting his dick wet, it never hurt to remind Alistair that there were things you could look at but not touch.
Sebastian frowned.
Not looking would also be good.
With a final glare at his brother, Sebastian set about on his errands. First he needed to find an apothecary, then a nice, cold pond or river.
* * *
The private parlor was empty when Sebastian returned to the inn. He instructed the innkeeper’s wife to bring him a suitable meal: cucumber salad, pea soup, stewed onions, roast pork, marinated roast beef, fried shrimp, cheese, and a compote of cherries cooked in wine. After supping, he went to his room where his future waited for him.
For politeness’s sake, Sebastian knocked.
“Is that you, my lord?” came a voice that only sounded a little tremulous. His omega had courage, Sebastian was pleased to note.
“It is.”
After a moment, there was the sound of a latch being drawn back and the door opened a crack. Sebastian pushed it open, secured the door, then set down his small sack of purchases on a table near the bed. Only then did he turn to fully gaze upon the omega he’d taken for his own.
Since Sebastian had left to attend to his chores, Peregrine had freshened up and changed out of his tattered clothing. His new raiment was far too large for him, but was of better make than the rags he’d worn prior. His hose was of pale rose silk just a shade darker than his own skin, and over that he wore a linen tunic so fine, it was translucent in the light of the fire. Instead of a belt, he had cinched the outfit in at his waist with a wide scarlet ribbon.
The glimpse of his slender body through his tunic aroused Sebastian greatly. He wanted nothing more than to tear the cloth from the omega’s body and ravish him right before the fire, but the boy had a somewhat uncertain look about him, so Sebastian made himself stay still.
“Are you still a virgin?” he asked.
Peregrine’s jaw went slack with shock, but he was quick to compose himself and lifted his chin prettily. “I am, my lord.”
Sebastian grunted his satisfaction with the answer.
“But I have been instructed in ways you will find pleasing,” Peregrine assured him. He stood at an angle to the fire that made its light dance in his eyes and catch all of his fairest features. “My station is to please you, and so please you I shall.” For the briefest moment, a somewhat wistful look crossed his face. “I am quite adept at it. I enjoy learning, and it is the majority of what I’ve been taught.”
Being desirous of education was a novel concept for Sebastian. “You’ll get on well with Alistair, then. He’s always got his nose stuck in some tome or another and tries to get me to listen to his blather. He’ll appreciate a new audience, no doubt. If you wish it, I’ll have him teach you to read. Can’t abide it myself, but if it will amuse you on the journey, then I see no harm in it.”
For Sebastian, that was quite a speech. He looked at Peregrine expectantly. To his satisfaction, the boy looked pleased. Happy he’d made forward progress, Sebastian began to disrobe.
“You would do that?” Peregrine asked. “For me? The omega child of a Disgrace?” He sounded honestly bewildered. “I might learn to read?”
“If you wish it.” Having removed jerkin, doublet, and shirt, Sebastian unfastened his codpiece, then began to remove his hose.
Peregrine didn’t squeak, but as his eyes took in Sebastian’s more intimate details, he did go quite pale.
“It’ll fit,” he assured the omega. “I vow it.”
Peregrine did not look so sure.
Naked and semi-erect, Sebastian straightened his stance. “Come to bed,” he ordered, and slid between the dry, sweet-smelling sheets.
Peregrine did not hesitate, but he did not hurry. “I never thought to use my training,” he admitted quietly as he approached the bedside.
“Think nothing of it.” Sebastian patted the empty space beside him. “Now, come. You seem chilled. I will warm you.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Peregrine glanced at the bed, then at Sebastian, then down at his own body. Slowly, he undressed, folding his clothing as he shed it. He was, Sebastian saw as he disrobed, far too thin. It spoke not of nature but of deprivation, and made him want to go back to thrash the matron of the cloister. He’d kept himself from doing so earlier that day, but it had been a very near thing.
Now that events had caught up with him, Sebastian wondered at what he’d done. He never went for omegas, Pedigree or not. Today he’d acted far more like Alistair than himself. Even so, his dragon was sure, completely and utterly, that this skinny, waifish, and shy omega belonged to him. There was no question of leaving him behind. But Sebastian also felt a bit awkward bedding the boy.
Did Peregrine desire him, too?
It had never mattered what an omega wanted, but it occurred now to Sebastian that perhaps that wasn’t right or fair.
He shook his head. Clearly Alistair was rubbing off on him, and not in a good way. What did fairness have to do with anything?
Still, though the omega stood naked next to his bed, Sebastian did not immediately mount the boy.
Slow,his dragon cautioned, and that seemed wise.
It would be better that his bedfellow respect him, as they would be spending quite a long time together on this journey. Therefore, he endeavored to seduce Peregrine, so that Peregrine would crave his knot as keenly as Sebastian was eager to give it.
Like the perfect Pedigree omega he was, Peregrine climbed gracefully onto the bed on his hands and knees and presented himself to Sebastian. “I am ready for you, my lord.”
No, you’re not,Sebastian thought. Carefully, like he was touching an unbroken horse, Sebastian ran his hand down Peregrine’s flank. His skin was softer than expensive silk.
Peregrine trembled, so Sebastian stilled his hand. “Are you frightened, little bird?”
“Little bird?” Peregrine lifted his head and looked over his shoulder at Sebastian.
“Peregrine,” Sebastian explained. “I’m not certain what the word is in your language, but in English, a peregrine is a type of falcon.”
“Oh.” Peregrine stopped trembling and now stretched under Sebastian’s hand like a contented cat. “I think I am more a sparrow, my lord dragon, despite my name. You are more the falcon than I.”
Sebastian gave Peregrine the very gentlest of pushes so the boy fell first onto his side, then to his back. “No,” he said. “I am the hunter. Peregrines are my favorite falcons. They are intelligent, loyal, and easily tamed.” Sebastian smoothed a lock of fair hair away from Peregrine’s brow, then ran his fingers lightly over his brows, nose, lips, chin, and jaw. “And they are very beautiful.”
“I have already been tamed, my lord,” Peregrine said earnestly. “I will not fight you.”
“Allow me to court, then.”
Peregrine shook his head. “I have no need of courting, either. You took me from the cloister. I am yours.”
Sebastian’s dragon snorted in disbelief. Peregrine wasn’t savage, but he wasn’t tame, either.
Arguing, however, was not Sebastian’s forte, so he held his tongue but kept his hands busy by lightly caressing the boy’s skin.
“You must tell me,” Sebastian urged, “if I do something you do not like.”
“Yes, my lord,” Peregrine replied, then bowed his back and moaned when Sebastian bent his head to take one of his nipples into his mouth. “Oh. Oh!”
While Sebastian licked and sucked one nipple, he rolled the other between two of his fingers. Peregrine’s eyes fluttered shut and he pushed himself as close to Sebastian as he could get. He was, Sebastian was happy to see, responsive to touch.
It was good, but somewhat of a surprise.
Pedigree omegas were not encouraged to express their pleasure. Their priority was, and always would be, their dragon. Whether or not they enjoyed being bred was of no consequence.
But there was something special about Peregrine.
Something that glimmered beneath his polished surface.
Sebastian longed to set it free.
He increased the pressure of his ministrations until Peregrine moaned and sighed and writhed, then worked his way down the boy’s body until he came to his very pretty, and thankfully erect, cock. The sensitive tip, exposed when the foreskin pulled back, glistened wetly. It was the color of a deeply pink rose. Sebastian couldn’t wait to taste it, so he drew it into his mouth, easily swallowing the entire thing.
Peregrine arched his back, his whole body taut, and strained a noise through his teeth like he was trying his best not to scream. The noise was punctuated by a series of breathy moans that verged on whimpers. They were an indication that Sebastian was—so far—doing a credible job of seducing his omega.
Assured that Peregrine was enjoying himself, the carefully added layers of caution and chivalry he’d thrown over his baser nature began to fall away. Wetting his finger in his mouth, Sebastian brought it down to first circle Peregrine’s entrance, then plunged it inside his tight, hot passage. Peregrine cried out in full this time and tightened around Sebastian’s finger.
He was small.
So small.
But Sebastian was persistent, and he pushed in until Peregrine took him to the last knuckle.
As soon as he could move no deeper, Peregrine gasped and came into Sebastian’s throat. It happened quickly, but Sebastian was able to pull back enough to be able to taste the boy’s spend all the same. He’d heard it would be sweet.
It was.
Peregrine tasted like sun-warmed honey sucked right from the comb. He was, quite literally, the sweetest thing Sebastian had ever tasted, and he wanted more. He wanted everything.
Sebastian lifted Peregrine’s hips with ease and licked and lathed at the tight ring of flesh clamped down on his finger. Even without the slick of heat, Peregrine tasted better there than his spend had. Sebastian felt he might never get enough.
He tarried there greedily long enough that Peregrine’s cock rose again. The omega bucked against Sebastian’s finger and mouth, begging for “more more more,” and Sebastian obliged him. He sank two, then three of his fingers into the boy’s body, and Peregrine began to keen in such a piteous way that Sebastian pulled back to look at his face.
There it was again.
The wild thing lurking beneath his meek exterior.
The one Sebastian wanted to coax from him.
It was so close to the surface now. How much more would it take to set it free?
“Please, my lord,” Peregrine begged. “Please, I need you in me. I need you now.”
How fortunate it was that Sebastian needed Peregrine, too.
He took a jar he’d purchased at the apothecary and opened it. Inside was a sweet-smelling substance that would ease the way for both of them. He applied it liberally to first Peregrine, then himself.
“After this,” Sebastian vowed, feeling it down to his scales, “you are mine. And I am yours.”
Peregrine opened his mouth to say something when he was forestalled by Sebastian’s cock breaching his body. His eyes snapped closed, and a look of utter bliss transformed his sharp, pretty face. He moaned loudly, and Sebastian quieted him the only way he knew how.
He kissed Peregrine and took the noise into himself.
The omega’s lips and hot, sweetly drugging mouth were nearly enough to make him forget himself, but then Peregrine’s body clamped down around Sebastian. That spurred him to move, slowly and carefully at first, but as Peregrine showed no signs of wanting him to stop, Sebastian sped up his pace and increased the power of his thrusts. He knew, in the back of his mind, that he was probably bruising the boy with the tight grip of his fingers, but there was no way to cease. Sebastian’s dragon urged him on. Take. Claim. Breed. Knot. Mate. They were curious thoughts to have, but they didn’t matter. Nothing mattered beyond the boy’s slick, tight heat, and his cries of pleasure that were even better than his taste.
“I need… I need…” Peregrine gasped.
“Anything. Speak it, and it will be yours.”
“I need… something. Oh, my lord. Please. Please.”
Peregrine reached down to latch on to Sebastian’s arse and dug his nails in deep. That was all it took for Sebastian to flood Peregrine’s body with his seed, then lock the two of them together with his knot. Inside him, his dragon roared in utter satisfaction and triumph.
Slowly, by small degrees, their breathing calmed. Sebastian fell onto his side and took Peregrine with him. Peregrine seemed to doze for a bit, then he roused and stretched his lithe body.
“Is it always like that?” Peregrine asked, breaking the silence between them.
Sebastian stroked his soft hair, now clean and shining from the bath he’d ordered earlier that day. “No,” he confessed.
“Oh.” Peregrine didn’t frown, but Sebastian could still sense his disappointment.
He looked a little sad and lost, so Sebastian truthfully added, “It is often much better. It will be next time, I swear it.”
A slow, wide smile spread over Peregrine’s face, reminding Sebastian of the other things he’d bought from the apothecary. Sweets for the sweet. He reached for it and presented the small box of candy to Peregrine. Not knowing his taste, Sebastian had bought a bit of everything from marzipan to candied fruit to rose sugar drops to sugared nuts. It seemed a pity now that he saw the glimmer in Peregrine’s eyes that he hadn’t procured a larger box.
“Truly, my lord dragon?” A mein of hopeful greed spread across Peregrine’s features. It made him look almost draconic.
Sebastian’s answer was to kiss his omega.
No,growled his dragon. Our omega. Forever ours.
And that felt absolutely, completely right. Peregrine was his prized treasure and Sebastian would never let him go. Not ever. No matter what.