Chapter 16 #2
The main floor acted as a basic host club, where nothing untoward was allowed to take place. If anyone acted out of line, tried to get handsy with one of the hosts, they were tossed out immediately.
The second level was where the main office was located, and where their greeting rooms were kept.
These were spaces where alphas and omegas could meet one-on-one or in groups to see if there were any good matches.
Kian employed over a dozen alphas and omegas to act as willing partners.
It cost a fair amount of coin to hire a rut or heat partner, but Caelum provided the best and had the safest working regulations in the market.
They’d only been in operation on Glyph for a few months, and yet their reputation already preceded them.
There was a mirror version of the club with the same name on Synastry.
It provided a safe space for alphas and omegas to carry out their ruts and heat cycles without fear of being taken advantage of by their partner or anyone else.
Employees signed strict NDAs and underwent screening.
Altair’s hope was that once these safe spaces for his people became more common, they could move into the next phase.
Phase three was currently still in the works, but a trial run had been conducted. Kian had heard Gunho, Arbor and Avi’s cousin, had even taken part, though he hadn’t bothered asking for details.
When he entered his office, he found Sarang seated at his desk. The other alpha quickly clicked out of what he’d been doing, but it was no big secret.
“Don’t bother,” Kian said. “I know you’re tracking Shiloh.”
“I’m keeping an eye on him,” Sarang corrected, though he did reopen the window with the security feed footage of the first level. “Making sure no one takes any liberties with him.”
The office was big, with a seating area containing a full-sized couch, a dining table large enough to sit eight, and a massive bay window overlooking the chaotic nightlife of the city.
Though he’d helped design this area as well, he didn’t spend much time there, preferring to work from his penthouse, where it was quiet.
Because of that, his underboss had utilized the space since returning from Synastry with him a few days ago.
Mostly to spy on Shiloh.
“Why don’t you just ask him to consider you?
” Kian propped a shoulder against the wall and watched the images move on the screen in front of them.
There was only one here, since there was an entire floor dedicated to surveillance above them, with people whose actual job was to sit and watch all day.
“His alpha just died,” Sarang reminded.
“So?”
He sighed. “I’ll put it this way. If Sky died and an omega immediately tried to seduce you—”
“I would kill them.” Just the hypothetical thought of Sky drawing a final breath had his pheromones flickering in warning.
“Exactly. You may have taken the proverbial crown, but don’t forget, Shiloh has been a Prince of Eumia all his life.”
His siblings had been trained in combat, forced to endure years of grueling lessons.
Kian had skipped over most of that, but he’d taken an interest in martial arts growing up, and fortunately for them all, had been trained alongside Arbor and Avi.
Their masters had treated him no differently, held him to the same standards, and so his skill level was no less than an Imperial's.
“I’ll confess when enough time has passed,” Sarang continued, though it was hard to tell if he was saying those words to comfort himself or convince Kian. “When I have something worthy to offer.”
“Such as?”
“That alpha's head on a platter?”
Kian didn’t think his brother would appreciate that, considering his bleeding heart.
The alpha in question had also been forced into the breeding, after all.
In Shiloh’s mind, that made them both victims. But there was no point getting involved.
He didn’t make it a habit of sticking his nose in other people's business.
If his underboss ruined things with Shiloh, that was his own damn fault.
Kian had his own omega problems to fret over.
“I wouldn’t wait too long,” Kian ended up saying anyway.
“Were they giving you crap for claiming Sky Tancredi?” Sarang asked, motioning to the images of Shiloh and Sloane on screen. They were sharing a couch in the corner of the room, a woman possibly in her mid-forties sitting between them.
“Something like that.”
“They’re too young to understand.”
Kian watched his underboss closely. “I don’t think age has anything to do with it.”
“It shouldn’t,” he sighed, “but it does. Forcefully claiming a mate is second nature on Synastry, which is where they both grew up. You’re a better fit for that kind of world than they are. Whimsy didn’t coddle them, but she could never beat out their emotions.”
“I have emotions, Rang.”
He clicked his tongue but left it at that.
Kian wasn’t going to bother arguing. “Any news from Pike?”
“It’s done,” he reported. “They’re cleaning up the chief of police’s remains as we speak.”
Sky didn’t know it, but that bastard alpha he’d almost gotten assaulted by at the carnival came from a family of scum.
His father, the current chief of police, had ties to the trafficking ring.
One of the major reasons the criminal organization had managed to smuggle so many citizens across planets was due to his taking bribes and turning a blind eye.
They’d replace him with one of their own, someone ruled by the Eumia.
Kian had wanted to do the job himself, but had stayed behind to tend to Sky. If he’d known he wasn’t going to be able to fuck his new mate, he would have made a different decision in that regard.
“Move over,” he ordered. “I’m going to check the books.”
Sarang got up and stepped to the side, making room for him. “Not going to go sleep with your omega?”
“I will,” Kian replied, then parroted, “When I have something worthy to offer.”
They might not see eye to eye yet, but they would. Sky just needed a little more time. Now that he knew there was no real escape for him, Kian was comfortable giving him that space needed to adjust.
He just hoped it didn’t take too long.