The small omega rocked slightly, his eyes glazed. Damn. This was much worse than Grimbold had expected. The boy acted like he'd been traumatized. Perhaps, raised as he'd been as a Disgrace in Topaz country, he had been.
Grimbold had long held that the dragon clans could see to their own governance with minimal oversight. It had been an efficient policy, but Grimbold was beginning to see that it had also been neglectful. No one had done much investigation into how the cloisters were run. If Everard's inexplicable mate was correct, omegas with dragon sires were dragons—not humans who might be able to mate with dragons, but full members of their species—and over the several centuries in which he'd been head of the Council, Grimbold had barely spared them a thought.
Looking at the young man trembling like a leaf beneath his dining table, Grimbold felt more than guilt. He now felt shame.
“Will you come out?” he asked the omega.
Walter didn't answer. Grimbold pondered his options. He could haul the boy out, call for servants who would do the job for him, or try something else. Something new.
He remembered how angry he'd been at Sebastian centuries ago for choosing, out of all the Pedigree, a Disgrace to mate with. True, Peregrine was exceptionally lovely, but the Amethyst dragons had a standard to maintain and Sebastian's choice had reflected badly on them all.
Grimbold had been relieved when his son had taken the omega to Persia while traveling with Alistair. The Disgrace would be out of sight and out of the minds of the rest of the clan heads.
Then, years later, Sebastian had returned to Britain—without his brother, who had traveled on to Alexandria—with a mate and whelps. Sebastian himself had also changed. His temper and patience weren't nearly as short as they’d once been.
Grimbold had thought for years that fatherhood had made the change in his son, but he'd been coming to the conclusion, since Alistair and Everard had also found their mates, that it was more than becoming a parent. Love made the difference, and that was an emotion dragons liked to pretend they had no susceptibility to, substituting duty and obligation in its place.
And while Grimbold felt no love for the omega cowering under his table, the boy was more than disposable flesh. He was a dragon, and he deserved better than the lot in life he'd experienced so far.
Grimbold crawled under the table.
Walter cried out and tried to scuttle back, but he hit a row of chair legs. “Please,” he whimpered, closing his eyes. “I'm s-so s-sorry.” The boy started to hiccup gasps of air, but he didn't cry. “I d-didn’t muh-mean—”
“Breathe,” Grimbold commanded. “Just breathe. Stop talking. Stop thinking.”
Walter, his eyes still closed, obeyed.
After several minutes, the boy's breathing normalized, but he kept his eyes shut tight. That was probably just as well, Grimbold thought.
“Tell me why you're afraid, Walter.”
The boy's breath caught, then he said, his voice slow, “I'm afraid of the whip. Caning hurts a lot, but whipping is much worse. I can't do that again.” Walter opened his eyes and they shone with tears like gemstones. “I'd rather die quickly. Please, I know I've got no right to ask, but please, mercy. Kill me quickly.”
Grimbold was so caught unaware that he didn't know what to say. Where on earth had the omega gotten the idea that dropping cutlery was an offense punishable by torture or death? It might have been laughable if not for the sheer terror on the omega's face. Instead, a feeling of uncomfortable dread spread through Grimbold's chest.
This is what you get,he thought.This is what comes of letting the clans do essentially whatever they want.
It was bad enough that omega children had been cast aside for millennia, but this Grimbold hadn't foreseen or even considered. Walter had been terrorized by the very people who were supposed to shelter and care for him. And, in the end, the responsibility came back to fall on Grimbold's shoulders. He was the one in charge, and thus this was ultimately his responsibility. He had turned a blind eye to the welfare of half his people for far too long, and yes, he had begun to remedy that, but he could do more. Had to do more. And he would start with this frightened boy.
It was hard to get comfortable, but Grimbold tried to arrange his limbs into a configuration that wouldn't cause him immediate pain. He leaned back on his hands, making no move nearer to Walter.
“I have seven sons,” he told the omega. “And boys can be clumsy, especially when they're young. Hands that are used to being talons don't always cooperate when they are human fingers. Had I killed my sons for dropping their silverware, I'd scarcely have any children left.”
Walter looked at him and blinked. It made the tears in his eyes finally spill down his cheeks. “I was always told to be grateful when I was punished,” he said in a dark, quiet voice.
“Grateful for what, Walter?”
“That the correction was coming from the Topaz clan and not one of the others. Especially not the Amethysts, because you’re so much more cruel and brutal. Instead of a switch, you'd cane me. Or instead of caning, whipping. I was whipped once.” He shuddered. “I can't do that again. I can't. Please, punish me some other way.”
A slow, dreadful anger, hot like lava and sharp like knives, rose inside Grimbold. “I won't whip you. I can't. I don't own a whip.”
Walter gave him a quizzical look. “But… but you're an Amethyst. You whip all your servants when they're bad. I don't understand.”
Grimbold sat up, taking care not to knock his head on the underside of the table. “Try. I think you can, if you but try. There are far more effective punishments than whipping. When Sebastian misbehaved, I made him write lines. He hated that. And Alistair wasn't allowed to read his precious books. Everard had to sit facing a corner and talk to no one. I think, perhaps, you get the idea.”
Walter hugged his thin legs harder, shivered, and remained silent.
“I think your punishment should fit the crime. Do you agree?” Not waiting for the boy's acknowledgment, Grimbold went on, “So you have to come out from under this table, eat the food placed in front of you, and answer the questions I put forward to you.”
