Chapter 7 #3
He grabbed onto the handle above him as their car weaved dangerously through light traffic. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Cursing now?” Shiloh chuckled. “I must be getting under your skin.”
“Prince.”
“The Wardrobe was more fun than I expected,” he shocked him further by quipping out of the blue. “I’ve never taken part in a Den Night before. It was a good time. Very...enlightening.”
Sarang felt the world go instantly silent despite the sound of rushing wind outside their speeding vehicle.
It was like someone had hit the mute button.
Need clawed at him, a roaring possessiveness that threatened to consume him almost taking control.
He’d done so well at banking it down, even when Shiloh had announced he was dating that loser Lane.
Apparently, his subconscious drew the line at random hookups.
The life-bond, a thing only he could feel, thrummed, golden threads forming in the air, linking the two of them together as he subconsciously called to it, needing confirmation it was still there.
Funny that he both loathed and loved it. This thing, an ability inherited by his father.
Something that had once saved the man Sarang cared most about in the whole universe.
Something that chained them together.
The bond was still strong, with an inward pull, Sarang felt Shiloh’s qi, even and steady. He wasn’t ill, and there weren’t any of the usual fluctuations that came whenever he was in distress or close or in the midst of his mating period.
“…You’re not due for a heat yet,” he managed to get out. “There weren’t any signs it was coming early.” Even if Shiloh had followed him to the Wardrobe, there would have been no reason for him to partake, and sleeping with a random male was beneath him.
Shiloh should be pampered and petted through his heats. The people who attended Den Night wouldn’t have delivered that kind of care.
“That’s part of what I was enlightened about. The right alpha can push their omega into heat early. It’s actually quite fascinating,” Shiloh said, and he may as well be stabbing Sarang in the gut.
“Their omega?” Sarang’s hand was on Shiloh’s wrist before he could help it, fingers tightening to the point it had to be painful, and yet the omega didn’t so much as flinch.
He never once lost control of the car either, and didn’t bother taking his eyes off the road to glance in Sarang’s direction.
Was this why he’d been different?
“Have you been seeing someone else behind my back?” he demanded.
“Someone else?” Shiloh clicked his tongue. “Oh. You mean other than Lane? So what if I have?”
“Loh.”
The corner of the prince’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t fully smile.
Usually he did whenever Sarang called him by that nickname. It was sort of a secret weapon.
A selfish secret weapon.
But it wasn’t working.
Sarang emitted a low growl before he could help it.
“Hypocrite,” Shiloh said under his breath, so quietly that Sarang might even be mistaken.
“What?”
“I said ‘forget it’,” he replied.
Oh.
“I’ll tell you if you want to know so badly.” Shiloh took an exit, but Sarang had long since lost interest in where they were going. “But I’ll only answer one of your questions. What’s more important to you? Finding out who I was with that night, or who you were?”
Sarang opened his mouth to demand he tell him the name of the alpha he’d supposedly slept with, but caught himself.
What right did he have? What would he do even if he did find out? It wasn’t like he could forbid Shiloh from seeing someone else, especially when he wasn’t willing to put his name in the running.
He couldn’t.
As badly as he wanted to claim the infuriating omega at his side, Sarang’s conscience wouldn’t allow it.
Shiloh deserved better, and if he believed he’d found that at the Wardrobe, then Sarang needed to respect that choice.
It wasn’t right to selfishly keep him trapped in a trauma bond.
And he was being a hypocrite. Hadn’t he just spent an entire day searching for someone else to bite?
“The omega I was with,” Sarang forced himself to say, each word tasting like ash on his tongue, “What was his name?”
“Was he really that good?” Shiloh asked.
“Was the alpha?” He was a child. Good Light, how pathetic.
“Yes,” he said. “He really was.”
Sarang growled again.
“What’s wrong?” Shiloh teased. “Didn’t you just ask me for the name of the omega so you could find him again? What? Going to claim him or something?”
“Yes.”
The prince lost some of his luster. “What?”
“I’m going to find him and offer him the bite.”
“Because of the sex? That’s it? That’s all it took to win you over?” He suddenly seemed lost in thought. “Was it really that easy, all this time?”
“Sexual chemistry is the most important thing for our species,” Sarang said, even though that wasn’t something he actually believed.
“Aren’t you always saying that?” For Sarang, love and understanding were the most important aspects of any relationship, but if he could convince Shiloh that he’d fallen hard enough for this omega after one rut, he had to do so.
They could end this trauma bond once and for all, a thing created the day he’d discovered Shiloh bleeding out.
The omega had latched onto him because he was the first person to protect him without selfish intent.
He’d mistaken comfort for feelings. Anyone put through what he had been would.
Shiloh’s brain rewired itself to associate Sarang with safety and security.
But that wasn’t love.
“You’re always boasting about the importance of romance,” Shiloh pointed out harshly. “Now all of a sudden you’re willing to admit that’s all pointless? Because of mediocre ass?”
“It was hardly mediocre,” he corrected. “It was the best breeding I’d ever experienced.”
“Breeding?” Shiloh blinked.
“That’s what many people call it when they sleep together during mating periods.”
“Yes, but…I didn’t realize that was a kink of yours.”
Sarang grunted. “What? Am I uncouth in your eyes now, Prince?”
“What are you talking about? When have I ever judged anyone for having kinks?”
“It’s time I did my duty as a fertile alpha,” Sarang announced, worried if they continued talking about the bedroom like this, he’d get hard and give his true feelings away. “Now that things are going smoothly on Glyph, I can settle down with an omega of my own and start a family.”
“A family?” Shiloh parroted. “When I was pregnant, you never once mentioned wanting a family.”
“Your baby wasn’t my baby.” Another lie, because to Sarang, that child would have been every bit as much his responsibility as it would have been Shiloh’s. He’d been prepared to step without any hesitation. “Besides, the baby was never real.”
“So you want a baby, but not my baby?”
Sarang caught of a whiff of distressed omega pheromones, not very strong, but there, slowly filling the car. “Loh, calm down. Why are you upset?”
“Is that a joke?” His hands tightened noticeably on the steering wheel. “You just told me you fell for a stranger after one fuck, and now suddenly you’re dreaming of a white picket fence and children with this person.”
“Aren’t you planning on seeking out that alpha as well?” It was a mistake to bring that up. Not only did Sarang not want any more details on that matter, but it also seemed to piss Shiloh off even more.
“Do you want me to go to that alpha?”
“Yes.” No. Not even a little. In fact, every instinct within Sarang, both alpha and Gray, was telling him to pin Shiloh down, sink his teeth into his neck, and demand to know where that other man was so he could go skin him alive.
“Yes?” Shiloh pulled his gaze dangerously off the road, meeting Sarang’s eyes head on. “Yes?! You want me to go fuck another alpha?”
Sarang grimaced. “Don’t say it like that.”
“But that’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?
You’re telling me to go spread my legs for someone else.
That you won’t care if I take their cock and their teeth—” A horn honked in front of them and Shiloh cursed and swerved to avoid crashing into them.
He straightened back in their lane and then swore again when his multi-slate went off.
Sarang thought he’d ignore it, but he didn’t.
“What?” he barked out as soon as he’d hit connect, Bishop’s voice coming through the speakers of the hovercar a split second later.
“You’re being tailed. Three cars, two on your left, one behind.” The Lefthand was clearly following them.
Why?
Had Shiloh invited him to the birthday party?
Wasn’t it just meant to be the two of them?
“There’s an underpass up ahead. I’ll lead them off to the side. Catch up as fast as you can,” Shiloh instructed, ending the call before Bishop could respond. It was obvious he was about to say something else to Sarang, but another vehicle slammed into their back left bumper suddenly.
Their car spun out then hit the guardrail and bounced back, sending them careening toward the opposite side where the ground slopped downward.
They tumbled down the hill, the car rolling, both of them grabbing onto anything they could, their talk of mating coming to a distinct end.