Rainbow Snippets October

Part of Chapter Two from my new release The Pirate and His Omega Thief

Captain Dagger “Cutthroat” Crowe stood behind his helmsman proudly smiling.  He watched as his crew members steered the Beauté Noire away from the crumbling ship that once belonged to the Spanish armada.
He chuckled, hearing the captain screaming obscenities at him and his crew. They had just raided and plundered the ship, taking everything that wasn’t battened down. It was an easy raid. The Spanish captain and his crew gave up quicker than he was expecting. So quickly, he had thought they would be ambushed. Considering that they didn’t put up a fight there wasn’t a reason for Dagger or any member of his crew to lose their life or take one. He didn’t need to prove why he was given the name Cutthroat. He never second-guessed himself when he separated a head from a man’s body.
Dagger loved the sea. Living free on the wide blue was the life for him. The mistress of the sea had become his everything. She was his guide and compass, never steering him in the wrong direction. Without her, his chest would never be filled with gold, silver, and beautiful gems. Even with it all he wasn’t satisfied, he wanted more, and his mistress would sate his hunger. He could never stay away for a long time. She was like a siren, always calling him back to her side.  
As a boy Dagger knew his life belonged to the sea, much to his parents’ dismay. Born as a part of the upper crust of the French society, he was expected to mate with an equally noble omega and produce heirs to continue the family line. His parents feared he would turn out like his uncle who was a pirate who disappeared just after Dagger was born. His mother was a duchess and a born native of the Jamaican islands. His father was a duke and the fifteenth cousin to the current queen to France.
At one point, Dagger was on the very track his mother and father laid out for him. He’d joined the Crown’s army and served dutifully, simply to make his parents happy. But after his parents’ death, something inside of him changed. They had gotten sick from a deadly plague that had taken over Europe, killing millions of souls in its wake.
It was two years after their death when Dagger heard the siren of the sea calling to him. Not wanting to be associated with French royalty, he relinquished his birth name along with his rank from the army as Lieutenant Mickael Beauregard, choosing the name Dagger Crowe.  In his younger and misguided youth, he joined with the privateers’ ship. Under the protection of the king and queen of France, their goal was to hunt down pirates, claiming their gold and collecting the bounty that was placed on them. Even back then Dagger wasn’t settled and wanted more.
He had become bored with his life and hated taking orders from a man who seemed afraid of his own shadow. There was a point in time Dagger had thought about leaving the sea life after he’d joined The Rift. He would have gone home to France and reclaimed his name and title of duke, and possibly find an omega mate of noble echelon, but it was as if the mistress knew of his internal distress and was sent a savior named Captain Andrews. When his privateers’ ship was taken over by pirates.
Dagger remembered the feeling of elation, as if he was rescued from a life that was not his own. He was tied up and watching the crew of The Rift take all of their food and supplies. Captain Tomas Andrews didn’t need to threaten, his name was widely known for his ruthlessness and his hulking stature. It was once rumored that Andrews hung the head of one of the British queen’s most trusted and loved captains from his ship's bowsprit. Later during their time together, Dagger asked Tomas why he did it in such a manner.
“Never let a man think he is above you,” Tomas told him. “The queen sent her dogs after me because I went against her order. But what she forgot was I am my own man, and I bow to no woman or man.”
Tomas was a great teacher and friend. Thinking back, he recalled the first words he spoke to the rugged captain who later became his friend and mentor.
“Take me with you,” he’d yelled out to Tomas standing in front of the privateers’ captain, Captain Auch.
Dagger wasn’t sure why the hell he’d said it. He wasn’t a pirate, he chased and arrested them. But seeing how Captain Tomas handled Auch and his crew it was as if he was the captain of the privateers’ ship. In truth the crew didn’t regard him as the captain, they were in it for the money and recognition they got from the king and queen. They bragged and marked off the notches on their belts for killing a few pirates legally, but it didn’t amount to anything. The only reason he stayed with the privateers’ crew as long as he had was his desire to be one with the sea.  
Tomas had asked him if he was sure that was what he wanted to do. He walked over to him and cut him loose. Being free to do as he will, Dagger ran to his cabin and grabbed the only things important to him, his family crests. He gave up his name but couldn’t forsake his blood. Without a backward glance he crossed the line over to The Rift, that he later renamed Beauté Noire, and became one of its crew members. And a beauty she was, with three masts, a square rig, and three large decks.
Dagger looked away from the map in his hand and turned when he heard boisterous laughter coming from the crew members. He couldn’t help but chuckle when Clive a new crew member tripped and dropped one of the chest of gold, landing on his ass. He laughed along with the rest of his crew when three of his men began chasing after the gold pieces that spilled from the chest. Seeing his men happy made him wished Tomas was still a part of their crew. He missed his former captain, the man taught him everything he knew on how to be a pirate with morals, and how to be feared by only his name.
The life of a pirate was not only to steal and plunder the seas because they owned it. Tomas considered himself a man that robbed from the rich and gave it back to the poor. Tomas was both loved and feared. That’s how he’d lived his life. With every treasure he and his crew found, he required each man to add a coin to donate to a children’s boarding house. Tomas had a soft spot for children and believed they should be taken care of, Dagger did too. The hordes of children that had died in the plague still hurt his heart, and each time he thought about his parents and their deaths did as well. As a tribute, Dagger carried on the tradition.
Tomas had found his mate on one of their port stops, quickly giving up his life as a pirate. An action Dagger could not see himself doing. He loved and lived freely on the sea. The only thing Dagger wanted was to find a bed partner in any port they stopped in before moving onto his next adventure.
He’d been with both men and women, omegas and gammas. He was not exclusive to one gender or took things like hierarchical status as something of importance. He was pulled out of his thoughts when his quartermaster Mister Smiths walked over and stood beside him.
“How long do you think they will be stranded out there?”
Dagger smirked. “I don’t think that long, I’m quite sure another ship will be along to save them,” he answered. “So, where are we off to, Mister Smiths?”
“Port Royal, Captain. We need to dock in the next port to fix the damages to the ship and restock our supplies. The little we got off the Spaniards’ ship won’t last long. And the men could use a good bit of fun and a romp with a sweet supple body for a couple of days.”
Dagger burst out in laughter, hitting the man on his shoulder lightly. “Maybe it’s time the men think about getting a matelotage and give the poor pegboy a much-needed rest.”
“Aye. Jacob is a good lad but no need for the men to tire him out,” Cooper, his helmsman, said.
It wasn’t a secret among the crew that the man had a crush on Jacob but feared the men would rebel if he took the pegboy for himself. Dagger shook his head at Cooper who hadn’t stopped staring at Jacob who had resumed his position on his peg. All Cooper needed to do was ask, and as captain, Dagger would make the boy his.

---

amazon buy link