Chapter 3
Glyph was exactly how he always remembered it.
Crowded and far too boisterous for his liking.
Even with the storm threatening to drown them all, people swept through the streets, chittering like flightless birds.
He was getting a fucking headache.
Appearances were important, his mother had taught him that—the one on this planet, and the one whose bones were currently rotting on Synastry—which was the only reason why Kian had agreed to leave the club to come out in the first place.
There was still so much work to do, but he’d needed the break.
He had not, however, come all this way to shop for useless trinkets and engage in small talk, though his friends didn’t seem to be of the same mindset.
“Should you declare yourself?” Arbor asked absently, pausing in front of a table with beaded jewelry spread across the surface. He picked at one that had gold and jade beads, some circular, others square.
“He’s been back for weeks,” Avi, Arbor’s twin brother, snorted. “Grandfather is well aware that he’s here by now.”
Arbor plucked the bracelet from the rest and twisted his arm to pay the seller with his multi-slate before he pocketed his find and started walking once more.
“I’ll lie low until I’m settled,” Kian said. Technically, he owed Emperor Hangyeol a meeting, now that he was in a business partnership with the twins, but the three of them had been far too busy setting everything into motion on planet for him to find time to carve out for the old man.
The emperor had bigger things to worry about at the moment anyway, like what to tell the press about the sex trafficking ring that had just been discovered by his council.
Pathetic.
Fortunately for him, Kian and his grandsons had swooped in with a plan already in place, and the problem nearly sorted.
“Arrange something for the end of the week,” he added, knowing he couldn’t put it off forever, even if he wanted to.
It wasn’t that he hated the emperor—strongly disliked, sure, but there was no hatred.
That didn’t mean he wanted to screen the slew of questions he was sure to get the moment he was alone in a room with Hangyeol.
“Last I recalled,” Avi drawled, “we still outrank you. Should you be giving us orders?”
“If you’re in a bossy mood, might I suggest picking an omega out from the crowd?” Arbor took a lengthy look around pointedly. “There are certainly many to choose from.”
“Being back, it sort of paints a new perspective on things.” Avi shrugged when Kian sent him a warning glare. “What? Like you weren’t thinking it? If it were Glyph with the same problem, would we not entertain the same solution they did?”
Synastry was struggling with birth rates.
It’d gotten so bad, the estimate was any babies born within the next five years would be the last generation seen.
While the extent of the problem had been kept on the down low, news had seeped through the cracks, and those who fed on the pain and suffering of others had come crawling out of the woodwork.
Whatever was causing Syns to become infertile wasn’t happening to their neighbors.
Glyph didn’t have the same problem. Sure, beta numbers were starting to overshadow those presenting as alpha or omega, but not high enough to alert the public. In comparison to their neighboring world, theirs was a paradise with an abundance of suitable sexual partners to choose from.
The scummy criminal organizations on Synastry, the ones with no sense of honor or structure, had taken notice and taken it upon themselves to do something to “help solve” their planet's problem.
“You do recall Altair is helping us, right?” Kian mentioned the Imperial next in line for the throne of Synastry with ease, a luxury most didn’t have.
He’d earned it though. Not through hard work or conviction.
He’d earned it through his last name. His real one.
What a load of garbage. That was the problem with their worlds.
The hierarchy still existed, even if everyone on Glyph liked to pretend they’d risen above their proclivities.
Omega and beta rights had skyrocketed in the past one hundred years, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t still prejudice and sexism running rampant in the streets.
Kian was determined to clean things up around here, to create a safer world for his siblings to thrive in. The twins were merely along for the ride because, at the end of the day, it would make them look good and further secure their positions as the future rulers of Glyph.
It was misting out now, and tiny water droplets flecked over Arbor’s head, dampening strands of his deep brown locks. He wore it long in the center and shaved on the sides. When they’d left the planet years ago, it’d been longer, falling just past his chin and typically worn wild and free.
Avi’s hair was a shade lighter, a mixture of golden-brown hues that caught the last rays of sunlight just before they were engulfed by thick clouds.
He kept his short and styled it more on the preppy side, which was ironic, because their personalities were the mirror image of each other's outward appearance.
Arbor was the dignified Imperial, who spoke with a calmness that belied the raging inferno within.
Avi was chaos embodied, quick to anger, easy to please.
Kian had known the two of them practically all his life, since his mother had become their tutor when they’d been eight.
He had experience with life in the palace, intimate knowledge of the Imperial family in general, and was welcomed to come and go as he pleased, even by their grandfather, who was notorious for hating everything and everyone.
He made the perfect candidate as the next in line to take over the Eumia, which was no doubt why his birth mother had gone so far out of her way to locate and contact him.
“This is boring. Let’s head back to Caelum.” Avi kicked an abandoned Styrofoam cup off the sidewalk they were on.
“It’s unbecoming for an Imperial prince to be spotted at a host club,” Arbor reminded. “It’s broad daylight. We’ll be seen.”
“It’s overcast and gloomy as hell,” he corrected. “I just want to check and make sure everyone is settling in all right.”
Kian and Arbor both rolled their eyes because, despite all his talk to the contrary, they knew Avi was lying through his teeth.
He didn’t give two shits about the innocent lives that had been destroyed to feed the criminal underbelly of their neighboring planet.
The only reason he’d gotten involved at all was to ensure his people were no longer taken advantage of, and that was solely to help him save face.
A weakened planet was a vulnerable one, and there was little the youngest twin hated more than vulnerability.
That was also why they’d agreed to join hands with the Eumia, a decision that was solidified the second they were able to convince Kian to accept his birthright as the next Dominus. Four years ago, it’d sounded daunting, but not likely, so he’d agreed out of principle.
What a joke.
“Have you spoken to your family yet?” Arbor asked Kian, clearly ignoring his brother.
“I have,” he cryptically replied.
“Have you told them—” He stopped abruptly, nostrils flaring as he scented the air.
On Kian’s other side, Avi made the same move, the three of them coming to a standstill at the end of the sidewalk just before the street they’d have to cross to make it to the marketplace.
He tilted his head, curious what could have caught their attention so fully to turn them mute, and then sniffed himself.
A heatwave raced through him all at once, firing off his nerve endings almost painfully, the awareness taking him in a tight grip that had him growling. The scent was unmistakable, mint and honey.
Omega.
His omega.
Sky was here.
One of the twins let out a primal growl, low and threatening, and the sound managed to dash some of Kian’s arousal. His head lifted, eyes seeking the cause of that smell, worry and anticipation swirling in his gut. He found him quickly, almost like his subconscious had known exactly where to look.
Sky Tancredi was as gorgeous as ever. He stood straight and confident in form-fitting jeans tucked into black ankle-high boots. His hoodie was the same dark color, the casual outfit doing nothing to detract from his sex appeal.
He looked good. Really, really good.
Did he work out now? The eighteen-year-old kid Kian remembered Sky being before he’d left hadn’t known where the gym was even located in their town.
This wasn’t the first time Kian was seeing him since his return—he’d spotted him at the party over the weekend.
With the same alpha who was currently standing at Sky’s side.
Kian’s possessive pheromones spiked without him meaning for them to, whipping across the expanse of space punishingly, aimed directly at his omega. Even without an official claiming mark, he could see the very moment his presence affected Sky.
The younger male, the same one who used to sneak glimpses of him whenever he was over at their house hanging with Elm, the one who’d barely been able to hold back the tears when it’d come time to part at the shuttleport, took one look at Kian now and did the most unexpected thing of all.
Sky Tancredi met his gaze head-on, then turned on his heels and took off.
The unmistakable scent of an omega nearing heat assailed their noses at once.
“Is he,” Avi’s voice was low and gravelly, indicating he was also being affected by the omega pheromones Sky was emitting, “running?”
Kian figured Sky was only acting on instinct. Going into heat in a public place like this was dangerous. The inclement weather had kept many people indoors and away from the parade this year, but that didn’t mean the streets weren’t still crowded enough.