Chapter 10
Kian didn’t expect Sky to text him back right away, but that didn’t stop him from growing vexed as time ticked by with no contact. Twenty-four hours. A full day and nothing. No follow-up questions, no interest, hell, the omega hadn’t even bothered to scold him for sending that lewd image.
He’d done it on purpose, a not-so-subtle reminder of what was in store for him.
He’d also been pissed that Sky was seemingly out on a date with another alpha while he was here working.
The Eumia had located Shiloh’s boyfriend, a man who’d been taken when he’d attempted to get Shiloh back from the trafficking ring who’d stolen him. After that, everyone had lost contact, including the original scumbag responsible for tearing them apart in the first place.
Kian had carved that bastard like a jack-o'-lantern, and he’d still been unable to cough up any useful details about where Lane could be detained.
They’d had to start at square one and work their way from there, tracking his movements and any potential sightings through hacked CCTV cameras.
Nikolina, his number one gray hat, had finally whittled it down to three potential locations.
The first two had been total busts, but that only meant this next stop had to be the place.
Knuckles rapped on the glass, and Kian pushed the button that would roll down the backseat window.
“We’ve cleared the premises, boss,” Sarang said. He was a sturdy alpha only a couple of years older than Kian, and had been gifted to him, for lack of a better term, by his mother when Kian had first arrived on planet.
Kian had been skeptical about his loyalty at first, but after years together, Sarang had become his most trusted Eumia. It’d been a no-brainer to name him his underboss once Kian had gained the title of Dominus.
Sarang stepped back, and Kian opened the door, easing himself out into the chilly night. The sky was inky above them, the twinkle of stars almost pretty, in that they reminded him a bit of the freckles Sky had on his left ass cheek.
Gods, he wanted to be back on Glyph.
Back with Sky.
So he could put him over his knee and punish him for seeing that alpha behind his back.
Sarang led the way down a tight alley, toward a sheltered building tucked behind two larger complexes.
There were puddles of blood and smears of crimson all over the pavement as soon as they stepped onto the scene, but Kian hardly noticed as he walked through them.
The bodies had already been pulled to the side, a group of Eumia working hard to sort and stack them for transport to one of their dump sites.
In the beginning, when he’d still been trying to prove himself, Kian had helped take down the enemy. He still did when his presence was called for, but the whole reason he’d left Sarang in charge on Synastry was so he could place all of his focus on getting things established on Glyph.
Besides, this?
This was nothing the Eumia couldn’t handle without their Dominus.
The doors had been torn off their hinges, and Kian stepped over the ledge, entering what was probably originally a storage space. The units had been converted to cells, and he wandered down the dimly lit corridor, absently glancing into rooms as they passed.
Many of them were occupied, moans and groans echoing around the tiny spaces that otherwise only contained a dirty mattress on the floor and a bucket to piss in.
They were chained, every last one of them, with a thick link of metal that was drilled straight into the concrete ground.
If that wasn’t enough to keep the toughest of alpha under control, it was clear they’d all been drugged out of their minds.
“Count?” Kian scowled when he locked gazes with one of the captives, and the man immediately unloaded his bladder.
“Twelve,” Sarang replied. “Nine male, three female. Only two are omega, the others are all alpha.”
“They were using them as studs.” They’d figured as much. The research they’d done into this particular trafficking ring had told them that was the leader's main interest. “Any sign of Vargo?”
“Odette is restraining him as we speak.”
“Perfect.” Kian could really blow off some steam. “Get these people freed and out of here.”
“I’d like to bring them to the nearest medical facility,” Sarang said, “and help them find their relatives, if possible.”
Kian shrugged. “Sure.”
He didn’t have the same bleeding heart that Sarang did, but that was half the reason he trusted the guy so much.
Kian might miss things due to his nature, and Sarang helped fill those gaps.
It also helped sell the new image they were trying to create for Eumia, a business model that Synastry’s future emperor had copied and pasted from a planet called Vitality.
It meant stripping away most of the obvious criminal activity and replacing it with lucrative, legal businesses.
Help those who needed it? Those forgotten and beaten down?
It could only work in their favor in the long run.
A good portion of the people Kian had chosen to pad his pack with had come from such places.
They were scarred and damaged goods to most, but to him, they were perfect. The perfect army. The perfect fucked up band of blackened souls.
Just like him.
Sarang’s penchant to lean into his conscience didn’t detract from that darkness. In many surprising ways, it actually added to it.
“Kian,” his name was called a second before another alpha turned the corner at the end of the hallway, his expression bleak. “There’s a problem.”
He felt his hackles rise and picked up the pace, knowing that if Diogenes took issue with something, it was a big deal. “What?”
“We’ve found the room Lane was locked in, but…” Dio let his sentence trail off as he twisted back on his heel and led the way to the left.
Kian cursed.
The whole reason they were here, busting this shit up, was for one alpha.
Kian’s younger brother, Shiloh, had been dating the same man, Lane, for over five years.
The night after their anniversary, while Shiloh had been in the midst of heat, Lane had stepped out for food, leaving him unguarded.
By the time he’d returned, Shiloh had already been taken and sold.
Wanting to solve the problem alone, the alpha had attempted a rescue without informing the Eumia, which had resulted in his capture next.
Kian had found Shiloh within a month, but by then, the damage had been done.
His brother was recovering, returning to his old self bit by bit, day by day, but being separated from his alpha took an unnecessary toll.
The two hadn’t mated, mostly because Lane had constantly put it off, saying he’d wanted to make it special, but Shiloh considered him his alpha through and through.
And now Kian was going to have to return to Glyph and tell him that his alpha was dead.
Lane was in the room at the end of the hall, half on, half off the mattress. There were piss and blood stains on it, but the vomit all over his pale face and in his mouth made it clear he’d overdosed and choked on his own puke. Judging by the looks of the corpse, it’d been at least four days ago.
Not only had the scum in charge of this place done nothing to save him, they’d also left him there to rot.
“No one breathes a word of this to Shiloh.” Kian set his gaze on Dio. “Or my sister.”
“Understood.” He crossed his arms and grimaced at the body. “Shit. The guy wasn’t worthy of the little prince, but he didn’t deserve this.”
“He should have mated Shiloh when he’d had the chance,” Sarang stated, as furious as Kian, if not more so. “Now he’ll never get to.”
“What about the pup?” Dio asked Kian.
“Don’t call it that. It’s a baby, idiot,” Sarang scolded.
“We don’t even know if it’s Lane’s yet,” Kian reminded, not wanting to listen to the two of them bicker at a time like this. He was already dreading telling Shiloh and having to listen to his brother cry.
It wasn’t like when Sky cried. All feral and intoxicating.
Hot.
“Even if it isn’t,” Dio said, “Shiloh was planning on raising the kid with his alpha.”
“Wasn’t his alpha,” Sarang stated. “He never gave him the bite. No matter how many times Lo begged him for it, he wouldn’t make that commitment.”
“Don’t act like you aren’t pleased as punch.” Dio ran a hand over his face. “Lane being out of the way doesn’t mean you can swoop in and claim him for yourself. The little prince—”
“Enough.” Kian was well aware of Sarang’s devotion toward his brother, and he wouldn’t mind if the guy did want to take him off Kian’s hands, but they had bigger things to deal with at the moment. “Clean this shit up.”
“What do you want us to do with him?” Dio chucked his chin toward Lane.
“Ash the body.” He’d take it back to Glyph and let Shiloh deal with it however he liked. If he wanted to hold funeral rites, they’d do that. If he chose to keep the damn jar on his mantel, so be it. Kian didn’t really care one way or the other.
He did, however, care about Shiloh. He cared about all of his siblings, always had.
It was different than how he imagined a normal person might care, less rooted in understanding and empathy, and more about possession and ownership than anything.
To him, his siblings were an obvious extension of himself, which meant if anyone fucked with them, they were indirectly messing with Kian.
Kian could feel affection. Longing. Greed. Anger. Jealousy. Love had thus far alluded him, but he wasn’t sure if that meant it was out of his wheelhouse or if he simply hadn’t discovered anything worthy of his love.
Maybe he loved Sky.
He couldn’t know for certain.
He’d come all this way to try and save his brother some pain, but instead, he was going to go back and make it worse.
It was tempting to lie and tell him Lane had simply wanted nothing to do with him and the baby, but that would probably just cause a different sort of trauma.
The people around him also knew him to be honest, sometimes to a fault.