Peregrine by Piper Scott
Sebastian
Present Day
It was just the three of them in Everard’s office. Harrison had been banished, Sebastian knew not where, nor did he care. A calm and quiet environment was best for Perry, and with Harrison around, the office would be neither, no matter how well-meaning the omega-beta tried to be. Sebastian had more cause than most to know that under Perry’s beautiful shell was a core of unbreakable iron, but even iron could become brittle and start to fracture under too much stress and pressure.
Sebastian held Perry’s hand and they both looked toward Everard, who cleared his throat to speak. “Congratulations are in order. So far, all seems well with fetal development.”
“You can’t fool me, Everard. I can hear that ‘but’ in your voice.” Perry’s sweet trill of a voice held a telling note of uncertainty.
Everard smiled, and it was one of his rare genuine ones. “I think you might be the last person I could ever fool, Perry, so here it is: I’m a little worried about your blood pressure. It’s higher than I’d like.”
Perry clutched Sebastian’s hand tighter. His heart beat hard and fast, like that of a captured bird. Sebastian closed his eyes and thought of cool, still, silent things, pushing them through their mate bond. A clear pool of water with a surface like glass. An immovable boulder in a misty field. A vast forest untouched by time. It did the trick. Perry’s heartbeat began to slow and his breathing evened out.
“Good.” Everard nodded at Perry. “That’s exactly what I’d like you to do. We need to keep you calm, well-rested, properly nourished, and hydrated.”
“I am very calm, I assure you,” Perry said primly.
Both Drake brothers harumphed in unison.
“I’m not ordering bed rest,” Everard continued. “At least not yet. But if your blood pressure doesn’t stabilize, that will happen. So take care of yourself. That is an order.”
“I will see to it,” Sebastian vowed. “Now tell us about the babe.”
Next to him, Perry tensed, but Everard did not notice and advanced the conversation. “Do you wish to know the sex?”
Sebastian opened his mouth, but Perry jumped in before he had a chance to speak. “No.”
“That sounded very… ah… decisive,” observed Everard.
“It is. I don’t wish to know.” Perry dipped his chin. “It’s too soon.”
He was thinking, Sebastian knew, of the heartbreak they’d suffered over the babes they’d lost, each one conceived in love, each one dearly wanted by both fathers, and each one never having survived long enough to draw a breath on his or her own. Most were lost quickly, but some had lingered long enough for Everard to tell their sex, and their passing was all the more painful for it.
“Things are different now,” Everard said gently. “It’s been a good century since your last dragonet pregnancy. Not only has modern medicine come quite a long way since then, but I am a more skilled doctor as well. Just because things have always been a certain way doesn’t mean that they can’t change.”
Perry bit his lip and nodded, his right hand cupped protectively over his nonexistent bump.
“However, until you decide you’d like to know, I’ll respect your wishes.” Everard folded his hands on top of his desk. “At two months since conception, it’s too early to determine the sex, anyway, but I’ll keep my future findings to myself. In any case, male and female markers are inconsequential. What I have yet to share is far more important.”
Perry’s shoulders tensed, causing Sebastian to bristle. “Well, brother?” he barked. “What is it?”
Everard rolled his eyes. “Really? Put your hackles down, Sebastian. I wouldn’t dream of announcing bad news so casually. I am a man of integrity, you know.”
“And a dragon of chaos.”
That brought a sparkle to Everard’s eyes. “How very fortunate it is that my dragon does not have a doctorate. Now, allow me to share my findings from today’s examination. So far the baby is healthy, if a bit small for their gestational age, and there are no abnormalities I can detect. For the moment, all is well.” Everard tapped his hands on his desk. “If this was a normal pregnancy, I’d expect to see you back here in three weeks, but I’m going to shorten that to two. We’ll have to be careful as to when we schedule our appointments, as per our longstanding agreement, my delightful butternut squash remains unaware of Perry’s pregnancy, as do the rest of the family. In any case, it will be a slight inconvenience at best, and I will do my utmost to maintain confidentiality,” Everard shot Sebastian a pointed look, “despite my… what did you call it the night of Reynard’s little disaster, brother? ‘Enormous mouth’?”
Sebastian met his gaze with narrowed eyes but did not deign to give him a reply.
Everard was being modest.
“Enormous” did not begin to encompass how large his mouth really was.
“But that said,” Everard continued when Sebastian did not reply, “I will do everything I can to see that this pregnancy goes as smoothly and as secretly as possible, and when it comes time for you to deliver, I will make sure both father and child are safe.”
Perry sat very straight in his chair and folded his hands anxiously on his lap. “Do not give me false hope, Everard. My heart simply cannot take it. How can you be so certain we’ll reach that point when I’ve never been able to keep a pregnancy beyond six months?”
At that, Everard smiled, although it was tired and strained. “Much has changed over the last decade, Perry. Dragons are finding their mates and clutches are being laid. What was once thought impossible has been achieved. In comparison, seeing you through a pregnancy should be quite simple. As long as you heed my word, I will take care of the rest, and we will put this impossibility behind us together.”
* * *
On the drive home in the back of their limo, Perry lay cuddled in Sebastian’s arms. “Everard is worried,” he said. “He puts on a brave face and plays up his confidence, but I can tell. He was entirely too nice. He only gets that way when he’s afraid of something he can’t control.”
“We will do everything we can to save this one,” Sebastian promised. “You’ve borne two clutches. There is no reason you can’t bear a babe as well.”
Perry laughed. “You can’t just growl and expect the universe to bend to your will, Sebastian. Life doesn’t work like that. Not even our lives, which are magical, I will admit.” The humor faded from his face, and a sad little frown took its place. “There is something wrong with me,” Perry admitted in a small voice. “There has been since the beginning, perhaps stemming from my injury all those years ago. Magic can only go so far. I don’t believe this is something even Everard can fix.”
Perry’s plaintive voice, trying its best to be strong, tore Sebastian in two. “You are perfect,” Sebastian said into his mate’s silken hair. “From the very first time I ever saw you, you were perfect.”
“In my rags?” Perry asked, amusement back in his tone that Sebastian was relieved to hear.
“In your rags. In anything. Or in nothing at all.” Sebastian slid a hand down Perry’s hip and around to cup his ass.
“Impossible dragon.”
“You wouldn’t love me any other way.”
A sweet, musical chuckle burst from Perry. “What you mean to say is that you couldn’t be any other way, and that’s exactly why I love you, darling.” Perry caressed Sebastian’s cheek with cool fingers. “Just know that as hard as it is, and as much as I mourn, I have you and the boys, and it is enough.”
Emotions churned within Perry. Hope and resignation and anger and despair and love. So much love, always. But for all his grace, there was sorrow, too. Sebastian felt it through their bond, which told the truth even when Perry did not.
“But I promised you everything,” Sebastian said after a time.
“And you have given it to me. By your side I have raised a clutch, seen the world, and learned so much. I can weave tapestry and brew beer, both paint and sculpt, cut and polish gems then set them into precious metals, and grow a mighty tree from a tiny acorn. I have learned to ride a horse, to swim, to fence, and to defend myself. I have managed to read nearly as many books as Alistair. Truly, my love, you have given me everything any omega could ever want.”
“Not entirely.” Sebastian’s hand wandered back up Perry’s body, stroking along his side. “You can try to hide the truth from me, but you will never succeed. You are my mate, Perry, and through our bond, I know what you feel. You long for this child. You don’t have to pretend otherwise.”
Perry made a delicate noise of irritation in his throat, then rolled onto his back so his head was on Sebastian’s lap and his body was stretched across the limo’s bench. In his new position, his curls fell away from his face, showing off the golden ear cuffs he wore and the pearl-studded posts in his lobes. “It’s not right of me to want more when you’ve already given me so much,” he admitted quietly.
But Sebastian would not have it. “It is right, Perry, because you are a dragon. Wanting more is in our very bones.”
“Gold, perhaps,” Perry argued, but his heart wasn’t in it. “Or jewels, or art, or coin, but this? It’s not the same, Sebastian.”
“It is.”
“How?”
Sebastian swept a stray curl off Perry’s brow and afforded him a smile. “We hoard the things we consider treasure, Perry. Be they art or gold or the ones we love. This is the way of the dragon. And I promise you, I will do everything in my power to make sure you never lose another treasured thing again.”
* * *
Perry took a sip from the goblet Sebastian proffered and then turned green. He bolted out of their bed and fled for the bathroom. There, he was noisily ill.
Sebastian sighed. Perry was not being a cooperative patient. He wanted to be up and doing, not stuck in a bed, forced to eat and drink the things Everard recommended.
What could be so bad about beet juice?
Sebastian looked into the goblet at the villainous juice that had made his mate ill. It was a deep red color and had a rich smell that reminded him of autumn, after the leaves had fallen from the trees and become crisp.
Perhaps it was morning sickness. What else could it be?
Sebastian tilted the goblet back and forth, watching the liquid swirl and pool. Perry had been feeling so poorly lately that he’d been forced to stop venturing out, lest any of the more observant members of their family notice that something was wrong. For the sake of Perry’s heart, not one of them knew of the struggles he’d been through, save Everard, and the three of them endeavored to keep it that way. Once it had been because Sebastian had doubted any of them would understand why they’d mourn the loss of a Disgrace, but now that hearts were changing, it was simply for Perry’s sake.
It hurt badly enough to suffer a loss like that in private, but to have to relive it time and time again when well-meaning family inquired after the health of the babe who’d passed? It was too much.
Sebastian absentmindedly took a sip from the goblet and reeled back like he’d been struck. Only his strong constitution kept him from spitting it out. No wonder Perry couldn’t keep it down. Beet juice tasted like liquid dirt. How did humans drink this? It was, in a word, disgusting.
When Perry came back to their bed, he pointed at the offending glass of dark red liquid. “That’s it,” he said. “I don’t care how healthy Everard purports it to be—I’m not drinking it. I refuse.”
“I cannot blame you.” Sebastian set the goblet aside and held out another, this one filled with a clear and colorless liquid. “It’s quite vile.”
“Quite,” Perry agreed, and regarded the new goblet with suspicion. “I don’t suppose this will prove any better?”
“It’s water.”
“Good.” Perry cuddled up to his side and took the goblet from him, sipping the water slowly.
“To be fair,” Sebastian said after a while, “the beet juice may taste terrible, but it is good for you.”
“I don’t care. At this point, anything that doesn’t make me want to vomit is good for me. The morning sickness is very bad this time. I would say I wish that it would end, but…” Perry fell silent and shook his head, and a single note of despair rang through their bond. Sebastian’s heart ached from it. He wished he had the words to tell Perry how much he was loved and needed, but he lacked the language. That was Alistair’s domain, or Geoffrey’s. They were good with words. Sebastian was not.
A bit of doggerel song sidled into Sebastian’s head. It had been a very popular song once, and it seemed he’d heard it everywhere. Every line reminded him of Perry, and how devastated he’d be without him.
He started singing, softly at first, but then growing in volume.
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You’ll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don’t take my sunshine away.”
Perry chuckled wetly. “I love you, but not even that excellent rendition can convince me to drink beet juice.”
“Will you at least eat some breakfast?”
“Yes, my tyrant. For you, I’ll try.”
“And for the babe.”
Perry’s lip trembled. “Yes. I’ll try.”
“Good.” Sebastian left the bed and gathered Perry in his arms. “Then allow me to carry you to the safety of the dining room table. There is an army of small dragons waiting for us beyond the door, you see. You’ll need your strength to withstand them.”
Perry laughed and the sound warmed Sebastian through and through. “How lucky I am to have such a valiant knight to defend me.”
Sebastian snorted, and off they went.
At the door to their bedroom, Perry signaled for Sebastian to stop. “No matter what,” he said, “I want you to know that you are enough. That they are enough. I have more love in my life than I ever thought possible.” He gave Sebastian a slow, soft kiss that gave Sebastian half a mind to bear him back to their bed. “And I can see that look in your eyes, naughty dragon. There will be time enough for that later.”
Sebastian didn’t think there would ever be enough time, but he didn’t argue with his mate. Rather, he bellowed, “’Ware the door,” then flung it open. Behind it stood eight young boys, all of them looking for attention.
“Good morning, my darlings,” Perry chirped as though nothing was wrong. “Are you ready for breakfast? Hands clean? Show me. Ah, very good. You’re such very good boys.”
“I love you, omega,” Sebastian rumbled low enough for only Perry to hear. “No matter what.”
Perry smiled brilliantly then gave Sebastian a quick kiss to a chorus of moans from their disgusted progeny.
“They’re at it again,” groaned Atticus.
“That’s what the hoard is for,” Cornelius added sternly.
“So gross,” decried Hadrian. He covered his eyes with his hands.
“That’s quite enough, darlings,” Perry trilled. “Now, time for breakfast. If you’re very lucky, Cook will have made chocolate chip pancakes.”
The boys whooped and ran toward the breakfast room. When they were all gone, Perry reached up and cradled Sebastian’s cheek. “And I love you,” he said. “Always. No matter what.”