Chapter 12
“Rang,” a familiar, soothing voice called to him, luring him from his slumber. “Rang. Wake up. It’s just a dream.”
Dream?
It was a nightmare.
But Sarang wasn’t ready to wake from it. That time between healing Shiloh and apparently rutting him had always been a blank in his mind, and he desperately wanted to go back and recall the events that had been stolen from him.
Neither of them seemed to remember spending that weekend mating, the pheromones of a dominant omega, and the amount of qi it’d taken to heal Shiloh’s injury, resulting in their minds virtually wiped of the whole ordeal.
Even knowing he wouldn’t learn anything through his dreams, Sarang resisted the pull of reality.
Ignoring the summons, he slipped back into unconsciousness.
* * *
He was already buried in warm, wet heat the next time he came too, mind muddled and unfocused.
Pheromones clouded the room, toxic and enticing.
A lithe body moved over his in the partial dark, a single golden light orb on a dim setting illuminating the arch of a pale back and the gleam of intense blue eyes.
“That’s it,” Shiloh spoke in a harried whisper, as though he’d been waiting for Sarang to wake for hours. “Almost there. I need you, alpha.”
Sarang groaned and shook his head, not understanding. The room was unrecognizable, and he couldn’t process what was happening. Wave after wave of sensation was being forced upon him, making it even harder for him to gather his bearing.
His orgasm hit him unexpectedly, knot ballooning and locking into place inside of the omega. Saliva filled his mouth and he bared his teeth without realizing.
“That’s it,” Shiloh repeated, leaning down to present that tantalizing spot on his neck. “Do it. Bite me.”
He wanted to but…there was…a reason he shouldn’t.
What was it?
It was important, that’s all he could remember.
Drowsiness overtook him before he could figure it out, and he somehow managed to pass out again, even with the omega clenching around him and the desperate pleas being whispered in his ear.
* * *
Sleep.
Sex.
Sleep.
Rinse.
Repeat.
It took until the fifth time he regained consciousness for Sarang to piece together what was happening.
He’d been severely injured in the parking garage and had lost too much blood before getting treatment.
As an alpha, he should have recovered quickly, but as a Gray who’d formed a life-bond with a person who couldn’t return the connection…
His body was struggling to make up for the lost lifeforce, and since Shiloh wasn’t aware of what Sarang really was, or how he had bound them, the prince didn’t know better than to keep pushing his physical limits.
Constantly being forced into an aroused state was taking too much out of him, but Sarang couldn’t even gather enough energy to explain all of this to Shiloh.
So instead, he drifted, waking when the omega demanded it, but ultimately succumbing to the dark pull of exhaustion as soon as an orgasm was wrung out him.
If he wasn’t allowed proper time to rest, there was a chance this could drag on for months—if it hadn’t already.
Maybe that was for the best.
Maybe that was how he’d atone for linking the two of them together and keeping it a secret all these years.
* * *
It was too bright.
Sunlight spilled in from an open window, momentarily blinding him when he blinked his eyes open. They were crusty and his lashes pulled and stuck, but eventually he adjusted and was able to keep them open long enough to process his surroundings.
The unfamiliar ceiling had him frowning, and he eased into a seated position, only realizing the chains binding his wrists once he’d moved his hands into his lap.
The cuffs were thick, gold, and attached to links that reached back and were bolted straight into the wall.
There was enough give that he could somewhat move around, though he doubted he’d be able to get off the bed or even stand beside it.
A thin white sheet covered his naked body, and he risked a glimpse beneath it, finding himself clean from the mess of fluids he’d half expected to find.
Shiloh sat in the corner by the window on the other side of the room, lifting a cigarette absently to his lips every now and again. He was a black smudge against the otherwise gold and cream-colored setting, a hint of the threat of his pheromones lingering in the warm air.
He’d been aware of the omega’s presence from the moment he’d woken, but Sarang refused to look at him just yet, taking stock of his extremities, gauging the damage.
The bullet wounds he’d sustained from their attackers were fully healed, little more than scars left behind, already starting to fade. One week? Two? How long had he been out?
His muscles felt taut, and there was a familiar discomfort that needed immediate dealing with.
“What is this place?” his voice cracked from ill use, but the omega gave little reaction.
Shiloh took another drag from his cigarette and slowly let the smoke trail past his parted lips. He was lounging on a gold striped cream arm chair, in all black, looking every bit the part of a spoiled prince.
There was an edge to his gaze when Sarang finally lifted his head and met it, a sharp intensity that seemed to see right through him and catch on his very soul.
It was a far cry from the usual soft and pouty looks Shiloh wore, and for a moment, it threw Sarang even more than waking chained to a bed did.
Except it shouldn’t, considering the events that had led them here in the first place.
“The attackers?” He switched gears, needing to hear the omega speak to ease this tension in the center of his chest. As out of it as he’d been, he’d been unable to stabilize, and while the lifeforce within him had settled from the constant physical contact he’d been lavished with, it still wasn’t enough.
Now that he was awake, that unease was returning, prickling at his senses.
Sarang took a deep breath, opening himself up, tugging on the invisible threads sewn between them. The first hit was like coming up for air after being submerged in the ocean for hours.
A wisp of glittering life energy twirled off of the omega’s body, floating toward Sarang as he continued to inhale. It surrounded him in a comforting embrace, the feeling of rightness helping to chase off some of the anxiety.
Shiloh wouldn’t be able to see what Sarang could, but he didn’t seem perturbed by Sarang’s weird actions, content to sit there and watch as Sarang sucked in another breath almost comically.
“Once you’re done stabilizing, we can talk,” the omega said after a moment, flicking the end of his cigarette to spread ashes out the window, before tossing the entire butt carelessly outside.
“All right. Give me—” Wait.
Sarang’s eyes popped open, going wide when they settled on the omega once more.
“Why so surprised?” Shiloh steepled his fingers and leaned forward, propping his arms on his knees. “Were you not aware of how talkative you get when you’re knotting?”
No, no he had not been.
“I’d ask you to explain to me what a Gray is, but it’s too late for that. You were out for so long, I got impatient and looked into it myself.” It was impossible to tell what the omega was feeling.
“Prince.” He was at a loss for words.
Shiloh snorted, seeming to find his silence amusing. “Let’s see if I’ve got this right, yeah? You healed me that night we first met, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” He clearly already knew as much.
“I believed you when you said you’d brought in a doctor with advanced nanite technology.
In hindsight, I see how ridiculous that lie was.
If you had such a rich friend, someone willing to waste that sort of medical tech on a stranger for you, surely you wouldn’t have been in such dire straits with the farm.
But I won’t hold that deception against you.
It’s on me for falling for it so easily.
However, did you life-bond me to save my life,” Shiloh searched his face, “or was it to gain a benefactor?”
Sarang couldn’t blame him for suspecting as much. He’d certainly gained the most from their bond. The prince had pulled his family out of debt, enrolled his mother in the best hospital with the best doctors, and even paid for Yuna’s private schooling.
Meanwhile, all he’d gained was Sarang’s undying devotion, a thing he could easily get elsewhere.
Hell, he got it already from Bishop and Diogenes.
At least up until this point Sarang had thought he was providing a service by being there for him in ways no one else could. By being his confidant, the one person he could trust and turn to.
Only, he’d broken that trust now, hadn’t he?
“I’m not the only one who lied,” he accused, admittedly not his finest reaction.
“Turning this on me instead of taking accountability?” Shiloh quirked a brow and sneered sarcastically, “How noble.”
“Unchain me. Let’s talk properly.”
“No.”
“Prince.”
“Answer the question, Rang.”
He sighed. “I couldn’t watch you die.”
“Couldn’t?”
“Didn’t want to,” he conceded.
“Because you’re such a good person.”
“A good person would have told you what happened the moment you woke up.”
“You’re right,” Shiloh agreed. “They certainly wouldn’t have led me to believe they were sticking with me out of a sense of caring.” He licked his lips. “What’s a life-bond, alpha?”
“It doesn’t concern you,” he attempted to minimize the situation, but the omega didn’t buy it. “I’ve managed it just fine on my own without any affecting you.”
“Is it anything like the claiming bond?”
Sarang couldn’t tell how Shiloh felt about that possibility. Was he angry? Hurt? Disappointed? The truth of the matter was, he didn’t know enough about the bond between a Gray and a Syn to properly answer questions he’d carried himself, let alone ones the omega might come up with.
So he said what was arguably the worst possible response he could have given in the history of ever.
“It was a mistake.” Sarang shook his head. “I didn’t mean to do it.”