Chapter 14
“Where is he?” Sarang glared at the tray as it was set on the end of the table in front of him. It’d been days with no other company but the Lefthand—and only to deliver meals—and he was growing impatient.
At least he’d convinced Bishop to unchain him from the bed, using needing to go to the bathroom as an excuse. He’d considered striking the other man down and escaping, but there was a reason Bishop had been made Shiloh’s personal person and entrusted with his safety.
The guy had pulled a blaster and held it on him the entire time.
Even now, the weapon was aimed his way while Bishop deposited the tray and then stepped back to give the two-seater table in the living area of the suite a wide berth.
Dart gun. The same one he’d used on the alpha who’d attacked Shiloh and him in the parking garage.
“The prince sends his salutations,” Bishop said.
Which was just a dick way of saying Shiloh had no intentions of showing up today either.
“He can’t keep me here forever,” Sarang warned.
“The business will eventually have to open,” he agreed, purposefully misinterpreting Sarang’s words.
Apparently this was a hotel Shiloh and the beta had secretly been working on.
His eyes narrowed. “I’ve barely tolerated you all this time.”
Bishop acknowledged that with a slight head bow. “Fortunately, there’s nothing you can do to me without the prince’s permission.”
“Think he’d choose you over me?” Sarang phrased it like a taunt, but in reality, he was wondering the answer. Before all of this, he would have said no, but now…This version of Shiloh was a stranger.
He’d need to relearn him, see if the omega was still the same person his instincts craved.
Logically, there was no rhyme or reason to that sort of desire.
Yes, the day they’d met, Sarang’s bleeding heart had taken pity on the young omega and he’d been unable to watch him die.
But the need to own him…that sprouted from a different sort of emotion.
Personality was important, but it’d only become so in the past couple of hundred years. In the past, their ancestors had taken mates for all sorts of reasons, compatible pheromones and political gain just to name two.
The smell of Shiloh still lingered in the room, though it was faded after so many days, and knowing the prince wasn’t the helpless person he’d always assumed did nothing to calm his libido whenever he got a particularly strong whiff.
Sarang still wanted Shiloh’s body.
But could that be enough for him?
What the omega had done in the parking garage…
As the underboss, Sarang had witnessed his fair share of violence and cruelty, had even partaken in it himself when it’d been called for, but Shiloh had taken things to the extreme simply for enjoyment.
Even Kian controlled his dark nature, tried not to cross too many lines.
The second Shiloh had decided to reveal himself to Sarang? He’d done away with any and all decorum or subtleties. It’d be one thing if Sarang believed he’d torn through those bodies simply to get a rise out of him, but it’d been plain as day on his face that Shiloh had done it for his own pleasure.
His emotional growth had always come off as stunted, hardened from years with the Eumia, sheltered from growing up basically as royalty despite not owning the official title. Sarang had excused those instances away for these reasons, had allowed himself to pity Shiloh.
Shiloh, who was now very clearly a psychopath.
A fact that Bishop had obviously been privy to.
“He wouldn’t choose anyone over you,” Bishop replied, not seeming the least bit upset by that notion.
“Then tell him to come see me before I decide to cut ties.”
“Shall I enlighten you? He plays the fool often, but like with most other things, it’s only an act. He won’t return until he thinks you’ll willingly submit.”
“I’m the alpha in this relationship.”
“Yes, but you don’t want his submission,” Bishop stated. “Not like how he wants yours.”
This was the most he’d gotten the other man to speak with him in days, and Sarang was desperate to keep the conversation going, to glean more information and figure a way out of this mess he’d found himself in.
“Is he very angry?” Shiloh hadn’t seemed angry the last time he saw him. But he’d been cold.
“He’s taking you being a Gray rather well, actually.”
“Half,” Sarang corrected, but Bishop shrugged a single shoulder like it didn’t matter.
“He knows the only reason you saved his life that night was because you felt bad for him. Personally? I think that should bother him.”
“It doesn’t?” The old Shiloh—or rather, the person Shiloh had been pretending to be—would have been. He would have teared up and pouted. Maybe even gone to his sister to vent, or taken it a step further and fled to Synastry to—
Sarang felt his body tense, and his sudden irritation must have been obvious because Bishop’s grip on the gun tightened.
“Who else knows?” he growled, thinking of one specific alpha in particular.
Diogenes had grown up with Shiloh. Depending on when the omega had decided to lean into this farce, he would have seen his true personality.
Not to mention most of the rest of the Hierarchy.
Kian had even hinted on more than one occasion that Sarang was too overprotective of Shiloh, that he was underestimating his capabilities.
During those times, Sarang explained it away as the older brother having grown up separately from the younger, and attributed it to Kian’s lack of emotional connection with others.
Now, like with so many other aspects, it was starting to make more sense.
The Dominus had tried warning him without breaking whatever agreement with Shiloh he’d made. It was just that Sarang had been too na?ve to see it. Kian might not know the extent of the omega’s deception, but he knew Shiloh was hiding his fighting capabilities.
“Anyone who entered the family after you was fed the same story,” Bishop confirmed. “Those from before then already knew the truth.”
“And they all just agreed to play along?” Ridiculous.
“Having our enemies believe the prince is too weak to defend himself only works in our favor. When people underestimate someone, they tend to drop their guard. It also helped set the stage for Kian to take over in the twins’ places with little pushback from lower-level members.
Anyone who did complain when it was announced Shiloh and Sloane were stepping aside for their newfound brother, the twins dealt with.
That was more than enough to convince the rest to follow their lead and help downplay both of their capabilities. ”
“He took you in a year after we’d already met,” Sarang pointed out.
“Perhaps he was lonely and needed a confidant.” Bishop shrugged again. “Or maybe he simply saw something in me and knew I could handle his truths. Either way, this isn’t about me, underboss. This is about you. Can you handle who he really is?”
“If I say yes?”
“Without taking the time to think about it?” he tsked. “I would call you a liar, though, we already know that you are one.”
“It’s been days stuck here. I’ve had nothing but time to think.”
“Shiloh might have lied about who he really is, but you never have. I won’t be fooled so easily, and neither will he.”
“You think you’re being loyal, but all you’re doing is enabling him. First and foremost, I’m the underboss.”
“You’ve always been his, first and foremost,” Bishop corrected.
There’d been a time when Shiloh’s mother had still been around when that had been challenged. She’d “gifted” Sarang to Kian, and they’d all gone along with it even though it hadn’t been true.
Shiloh because he hadn’t wanted to give her the satisfaction of seeing him bothered.
Sarang because he couldn’t risk her removing him entirely.
And Kian…Well, it appeared now like a big part of his accepting had been a deal struck between him and his brother.
But Sarang had always been loyal to Shiloh above all else.
“You won’t accept him then?” Bishop asked. “Now that you know he has blood on his hands?”
“We all have blood on our hands. We’re mafia.”
“Don’t pretend not to understand.”
Sarang glanced away. “I’m not sure.”
What would life with Shiloh even be like now? Before, Sarang had a clear place at his side, guarding him, protecting him, spoiling him even. But now? This Shiloh, the real one, didn’t need him.
Which meant the only reason for his insistence otherwise, for this whole charade and trying to get Sarang in line, had to be residual effects of the life-bond.
That’s when Shiloh had started the act, right? After Sarang had healed him and linked them. Now that he was thinking about it, the person he’d met in the salt field had been brash and confident. He hadn’t cowered in the presence of an alpha, not even one of Sarang’s stature.
Sarang had been too caught up in the man who’d clung to him when he’d woken and begged him not to leave. The one who’d been unable to look him in the eyes when he talked about the Eumia, how he was trapped in a dangerous world he couldn’t handle, and how desperately he needed someone to save him.
He’d spoken directly to Sarang’s hero complex, had pegged him from the get-go.
Had manipulated and used him.
“Was it fun?” Sarang found himself asking, taking out his frustrations on the man who was here, since the omega he wanted to see was avoiding him. “Watching me misunderstand and fawn all over him? Watching him play me?”
“It was sometimes entertaining,” Bishop answered smoothly, the almost monotone inflection in his voice never wavering, the only sign that he wasn’t trying to be a dick. “The prince is a very good actor.”
On that they agreed.
“The prince will pay for his deception.” No matter what conclusion Sarang ultimately ended on, that was a given. He would be punishing Shiloh, the only thing left to decide was how his revenge would be enacted.