Chapter One
Sebastian
Loud voices were ringing through the halls of the Blackwell Castle when I set off in search of Spencer. I paused midway down the sweeping staircase and Alrick, the Böxenwolf Brigade guard assigned to watch over me, caught himself just in time to avoid knocking me the rest of the way down. I couldn't put my finger on where the raised voices were coming from, but I was able to identify them as Harry, the dragon prince, and Cian, a frequent but uneasy visitor. Satisfied that Spencer wasn't involved, I continued on down the stairs followed by the grumbling werewolf.
I arrived in the great room and found Spencer exactly where I'd expected – sort of. He was in the great room as I'd anticipated – he usually was in the early evening - but the Alpha who stood behind him, his hand resting on Spence's nape in a familiar proprietary grip wasn't Harry. It was the dragon Alpha - Trey, he called himself - the mate of the Omega who was currently shouting at Spencer's Alpha somewhere else in the castle. I paused, uncertain what I was walking into.
"C'mon in, Seb," Spence greeted me without turning his head from the pudgy purple dragonlet he was feeding.
"I don't want to interrupt," I murmured from the door.
"You're not," Spence assured me, turning to me with a sad smile. "We're waiting for Cian and Harry to hash things out." He ran a hand over his tired face. "It could be a while."
The Alpha behind him nodded his agreement but didn't speak.
"Wh..what happened?" I cursed myself for stuttering in front of the Alpha; I'd made it weeks without doing that.
"Nothing, exactly," Spence said with a sigh. "Not anything new, anyhow. Harry and Cian used to be close friends, but things have been..strained since Cian said some unkind things when he found out that Harry and I were together. Trey and I insisted that it was time for them to figure it out."
I turned that information over in my mind.
"But I've seen you interact with Cian. It’s always friendly," I said, confused.
"Dragons live a long time," the Alpha's velvety voice washed over me. "Unfortunately, that means we also take a long time to adjust to new situations. The concept of mixed matings is still something that many dragons struggle with. Cian didn't take the news of Harry taking a wolf to mate well, but he has accepted it."
I cocked my head and Spence gave a small smile.
"He was under a lot of stress when it happened. Things here were bad, and Cian felt that Harry had abandoned his people." Spence shrugged. "Cian apologized to us, and I forgave him. Harry's having a harder time letting it go."
That I understood. Spencer was one of the gentlest, most forgiving being's that I'd ever met. Of course, he had forgiven the young dragon for his transgression. And Harry? The dragon had been almost obsessively protective of Spencer since they first met, so it wasn't surprise that he would hold a grudge over mistreatment of his Omega.
"Is there anything I can do?”
"Naw," Spence lifted the baby dragon from the highchair and cuddled her to his chest. "All we're doing now is waiting."
I nodded and settled in beside him; my petty complaint could wait.
***
"What's up?" Spence asked when I'd once again tracked him down to the great room where he was, also once again, feeding Lizzie. The shouting match between Harry and Cian had finally run out of steam a few hours before, and Trey had taken his Omega home, leaving me to broach the conversation that I had shelved earlier.
"Spence, I really don't think he likes me," I murmured under my breath for at least the thirtieth time since arriving at Terena de Dragoni a few weeks earlier. "He's always watching me like he wants to.." I trailed off, waiting for my friend to roll his eyes or laugh at me.
To his credit, Spence did neither. Instead, he looked around to find the werewolf that he knew I was referring to and found him standing against the wall a respectful distance away.
"To what?" Spence looked up with a wide grin, moving Lizzie to his shoulder to be burped. "Eat you up?"
"No!" I almost yelled, causing Spence's grin to widen even more. Ever since Harry had assured him that Alrick, the head of the German mercenary group The Böxenwolf Brigade temporarily assisting with security at the castle, meant me no ill, Spence seemed to take a little too much pleasure in the entire situation.
"I don't know," I sighed. "Maybe I should head back to Coruscation territory," I suggested. "With only baby Lizzie left, you really don't need my help anymore."
"Oh, Seb!" Spence's brow furrowed. "I'm sorry that I teased you; I'll ask Harry to talk to him again. You don't need to leave!"
"That's not it, Spence," I tried to reassure him. "You know I need to get back. I can't put off finding a job indefinitely." I patted his shoulder next to the now drowsing dragonlet, rubbing my fingertips over her soft brow. "I'll come back and visit."
"Please let me talk to Harry first?" Spence pleaded quietly. "Wouldn't you rather find a mate?"
I almost laughed. As an Omega, of course, I wanted a mate but, truthfully, who would want to get heirs on an orphaned Omega with no clue what his bloodline was? With the prospects of a mate dim, I would have been thrilled to be a super-hero, like the Blood Valley Omega, Colby, or an empath, like Trevor from the Coruscation werewolves, but not every Omega could be something special. Some of us had to be good old fashioned breeding stock. Unfortunately, I wasn't even good for that. Ultimately, I was hoping just to find my place in the world, regardless of where it was.
"Thanks, sweetie," I pressed a kiss to his cheek, "but I think we all know that isn't in the cards for me."
"You haven't stuttered in ages, even when you're talking to Alphas." Spence tried to reason with me, reminding me of my reason for being there in the first place.
I swallowed the groan that tried to escape at the thought. Spence's belief that exposure to Harry, his own calm and mostly stalwart Alpha, would help me overcome the speech impediment that flared up every time that I was exposed to Alpha pheromones had been validated. I could talk to most Alphas now without tripping over my tongue, but not all. I couldn't even look at Alrick, for example, without instinctively searching for a safe place to hide.
"And that's all thanks to you," I teased him gently, hoping to change the subject. Luckily - well, depending on your definition of luck – the small purple dragon sleeping on his shoulder burst into a sneezing fit, the tiny flame igniting the drapes behind Spencer's back and he rushed her from the room in search of a fireproof hankie, as I set about extinguishing the smoldering fabric.