“Bonne chance, monsieur dragon.” Matthieu grabbed Geoffrey’s face and cradled it. Geoffrey thought the omega might embrace him, but instead, he whispered, “I won’t touch him after you leave,je te le promets.” Then he bit Geoffrey’s ear. “En attendant de te revoir.”
Until we see you again.
* * *
“The omega has been bedded,” Geoffrey told Sigric, fully cognizant that he was stating the actual, if technical, truth, and still feeling guilty about the deception. He gave Sigric his best blank face.
“Fine, fine. You’ll be leaving, then?” Sigric didn’t look up from his computer.
“Yes. I have a flight in three hours. There is nothing more for me to do. Everard’s experiment has officially commenced. He will, of course, come to examine the omega after his heat has passed.”
Sigric grunted. “Thank you for the warning, but I doubt your brother will need to travel far. Ian will be in Aurora for the omega’s heat. The boy has obligations to the council, as I’m sure you’re aware, and it seems pointless to keep the omega here. You understand, of course.”
There was a glint in Sigric’s eyes that Geoffrey didn’t like. Sigric didn’t know—hecouldn’tknow. But that look worried Geoffrey.
“Of course. Thank you for allowing me into your lair.”
The only response was a wave of Sigric’s hand in dismissal. “Give my regards to your sire. Tell him that this is now a numbers game, and it’s a game the Topaz clan fully intends to win, beginning with my young whelp’s first clutch. The first of many. Thank Grimbold for this opportunity to best him. I’ll be certain to remember his generosity when I’m the new head of the council and he’s begging for scraps of power at my feet.”
Geoffrey’s blank mask didn’t waver as he turned on his heel and left without a word.
* * *
“How did it go? Was Matthieu delivered successfully?” Harrison asked, his cheeks flushed with excitement. On his shoulder, his lizard slithered out his tongue. The creature was, inexplicably, wearing a tiny black beret and a striped shirt.
“Doubt many things, cheese puff,” Everard said from Harrison’s side, “but doubt not the efficiency of your brother-in-law.”
Geoffrey made a moue of distaste. He found the nicknames Everard insisted on using for his biological and legally baffling mate to be nauseating in the extreme. “Yes. The omega has been delivered to his alpha and…” Geoffrey searched his mind for a word that was both accurate in the technical and literal sense.
Lawfully? No.
Rightfully? Also no.
Thoroughly? Yes, but not a good choice.
He finally opted for, “…assuredly bedded.”
“Oh, excellent. Did you hear that, Steve? Everything is going according to schedule.”
“Naturellement,” Geoffrey said, his mind already on Ian and Matthieu, wondering when they would arrive in Aurora, and calculating the appropriate amount of time needed before he could visit the Topaz consulate on some sort of believable pretext.
“Excuse me,” Everard said, “but did you just speak French at me?”
“I… no…” Geoffrey stuttered. “I mean, it’s just a phrase.”
“One you’ll grow out of?” Everard asked.
This time it was Geoffrey that blinked in confusion at his brother. “What?”
“Never mind.”
Harrison spoke up. “He means it as a joke. It’s a pun, or play on words. ‘Phrase’ is similar to ‘phase.’ You see?”
Geoffrey shook his head and ignored the omega-beta he was unfortunately related to by dint of an excess of his brother’s semen. It was distasteful to even contemplate. “Was there anything else?” he asked.
Everard cocked his head. “Are you sure you’re all right, little brother?”
“I hatched mere minutes after you, and yes, everything is fine. I have work to do,” he added pointedly.
