Chapter 24
Sarang snuck in after midnight, finding the omega asleep in bed. It wasn’t surprising that Shiloh didn’t wake when he joined him, or when he was rolled onto his stomach and his legs were spread apart.
The half-eaten sandwich on the end table—the dinner Sarang had delivered earlier—was the cause for his deep slumber.
Sarang had drugged the food, but not with a heat inducer.
Despite how rough he liked it in the bedroom, he’d meant what he’d said earlier about not getting off on Shiloh being injured.
Sure, he liked leaving a lasting effect, liked marking his territory with cuts and bruises and handprints, but if the omega tore every time they fucked…
He didn’t want that.
The room flooded with alpha pheromones, forcing Shiloh’s body to react and prime itself for him. He kept his eyes on that tight spot between his cheeks, watching as his dick started to swell, and his hole started to leak.
The scent of slick had Sarang groaning, and he removed his pants in a rush of motion.
Earlier, making Shiloh come over and over again, had gotten him so hard he thought he’d burst. Somehow, he’d managed to keep his composure, and he didn’t think his omega was any wiser about how close he’d come to coming himself with no contact.
Sarang dragged the tip of his cock down the seam of Shiloh’s ass now, coating him in precome so that his pheromones could more effectively seep into him.
Within moments, the omega was lifting his ass in his sleep, making soft, mewling sounds that called to Sarang’s primal instincts.
The plug was still snug where he’d left it, and he removed it and carefully set it aside, watching as that ring of muscle immediately started to close up.
He’d chosen a hefty toy, one only a few inches shorter than his cock, and almost just as thick, but it seems like the few hours it’d been since he’d placed it there weren’t nearly enough.
Still, one of his fingers slipped into that warm, wet heat easily, so he added another. Sarang felt around, pressing and feeling those inner walls until he found the fleshy mound he was seeking. When he pushed it, the omega’s whole body jerked and gushed, and Sarang made a pleased sound.
He took his time opening him up, fascinated by the way Shiloh’s body stretched the longer he touched him.
“How would you feel if you knew I was doing this to you in your sleep?” Sarang asked his omega, curling three fingers deep within and dragging them over his prostate.
Shiloh ground down against the bed and gasped, tears spilling from his eyes despite the fact he wasn’t awake.
He could use more prepping, but Sarang’s patience ran its course, and he pulled his fingers free so he could line up his cock. He wasn’t nearly as gentle entering this time, spearing him with all nine inches with one hard thrust that shook the entire bed and had the omega crying loudly.
Sarang settled over him, burying his nose in his hair and inhaling his intoxicating scent while he fucked him brutally into the mattress.
He’d planned to go easy, to allow his omega to adjust to him now, knowing that the second he used inducers on him, Shiloh would lose sense of rhyme or reason and wouldn’t protect himself.
But there was something mind blowing about being engulfed in his omega’s passage. The way it squeezed around him, sucking him in. Possessive alpha pheromones oozed out of him, practically choking the omega, so that even unconscious, Shiloh clawed at the sheets and tried to pull away.
A growl rumbled out of Sarang and the omega whimpered and fought harder. In response, Sarang settled more firmly over him and pounded him even more aggressively. He salivated, teeth actually aching, and opened his mouth, fighting against the urge to sink his fangs into flesh and tear through skin.
“Soon,” he darkly promised them both. But not now, and not like this.
He wouldn’t rob Shiloh of the moment. Wanted him awake and present.
Wanted him to be a willing participant.
“Not tonight.” Tonight it didn’t matter if his omega was willing or not. Shiloh had said it himself. He was his. And since he belonged to him, Sarang could do whatever he wanted with him.
He knew the moment the omega came because he clenched down around him so tight, Sarang saw stars.
Stubbornly, he kept pumping, forcing his way in and out, even as the omega finished orgasming beneath him.
Like earlier, he kept going, fucking him through his refractory period, until Shiloh grew hard again and his pain filled sobs were once more laced with pleasure.
* * *
“How’s my brother?” Kian’s voice was a bit crackly through the speakers of the holo-computer in Sarang’s office. The Dominus was still located on Synastry, and they’d gotten word of an asteroid storm traveling through space between planets, so it was a wonder he’d been able to call at all.
Sarang thought back to how Shiloh had looked earlier when he’d left him lying on his stomach, ass ruined and dripping. He’d plugged his omega back up before he’d gone, but purposefully hadn’t cleaned him off.
Since Shiloh had imprinted on him, it was only fair that he return the favor. Priming his omega with a constant flood of his pheromones was appealing, and leaving him just about bursting with several loads of his semen would ensure he was steadily absorbed into Shiloh’s system.
“He isn’t causing trouble,” Sarang replied. “How are things there?”
“Terrible.” Kian sighed. “There’s a mole. The Hierarchy has been compromised.”
“Yes.” He was aware. “Only someone who knew that Shiloh was most likely keeping me against my will would have dared to attack him at that café.” Everyone else had believed Sarang was somewhere recovering.
Recovering didn’t mean out of commission.
“They’re also the only ones who could plant elixir amongst our ranks,” Kian said. “It’s a good thing Shiloh caught those dealers, otherwise we’d have a bigger problem on our hands. Altair is in the process of integrating his mate into the Imperial family.”
The next in line for the Synastry throne wouldn’t have time to provide aid, is what he was getting at.
While Kian had a great relationship with Arbor and Avi, the Glyphian princes, they’d yet to officially take the throne from their grandfather.
The heir twins were preparing to do so, but a mafia scandal would without a doubt sway public opinion.
Their grandfather was struggling to let go, unsure if they were ready for the responsibility. If they openly backed the Eumia against dealing charges, they’d severely put their chances at risk.
Neither of the twins would be willing to do that.
“We’re on our own in this,” Kian stated.
“Elixir comes from Synastry. I’m doing my best to investigate while I’m here.
” While he continued trying to solve things with his other brother, Elm.
“There’s got to be a middleman, someone getting the product to Glyph.
Someone with enough authority to convince our guys to risk dealing under my nose. ”
“The I.P.F. agent Shiloh encountered couldn’t find anything,” Sarang reminded. “It’s unlikely this is a simple matter.”
“More of a reason to think this is a job done by someone on the inside. That agent infiltrated Lady Luck. We’re the Eumia.”
They’d learned from that agent that Elm’s kidnapping had actually been a botched mission by some idiots.
Unfortunately, that hadn’t helped them locate the beta.
All they knew was he’d been shipped to Synastry and sold off, but to who, for what purpose, and exactly how long ago were all unanswered questions.
Still, Sarang knew better than to ask Kian to return. He wouldn’t be able to abandon his sibling either, no matter how many weeks or months had passed with no word.
“Bishop was working on the leaks,” he informed the Dominus. “The traitors he handed over to Rhovan were already dead by the time we got to his lab. They exchanged information directly. It doesn’t seem like Shiloh was even given the latest report before…”
“Before someone murdered Rho and Bishop went into hiding.”
“He’ll return.”
“Of course he will,” Kian agreed. “He’d never abandon Shiloh.”
A spark of jealousy flickered to life, and Sarang squeezed his fists, banking it back down.
Eventually, he was going to have to move past this.
There was nothing between his omega and the beta, never had been, never would be.
It was a good thing that Shiloh had someone so loyal in his corner. Sarang should be grateful.
He was grateful.
But still…
“I’ll find him.” The sooner he located Bishop, the sooner he could ease this anxiety.
The problem with being loyal was the beta was no doubt scheming ways to turn the tables back in Shiloh’s favor.
Anything the beta did would undoubtably fuck with Sarang’s plans, and he couldn’t have that.
Not when he was this close. “As for the prince…”
“Bite him,” Kian surprised him by saying. “Before it’s too late.”
“I’m not like you.” Sarang was loathe to admit it, but he didn’t want some rough, callous mating. He wanted it to be special. Perfect. “He deserves a proper claiming.”
He grunted. “Trust me, my brother doesn’t understand romance. You’re wasting your time. Unless this is just another excuse because you’re uncertain?”
“Shiloh is mine.”
“Yours, yet you’re refusing the claiming bite?”
“He isn’t ready,” he argued. “Neither of us are.”
“There’s no such thing as ready.”
Maybe not, but Sarang still had to try. If he risked it and gave the bite now, Shiloh would never change. He’d never learn.
“I want love,” Sarang confessed. “I want him to give it to me. I know he’s capable of it, he just needs to be taught.”
“That sounds selfish.”
“And biting a man who says no isn’t?” Sarang drawled, thinking about how Kian and his mate, Sky, had ended up together.
“Our situations aren’t the same. Shiloh wants me to bite him.
I want there to be more between us than lies and lust. I’ve come up with a way we can both get what we want, it’s just going to take time. ”
Besides, Shiloh was being kept at Caelum. He was safe there. Secure.
Maybe Sarang was the one in the wrong here, and the brothers were in the right. Maybe he should set aside his longings for an emotional and romantic connection and just go through with the claiming. Lock his omega down before anything had the chance of going wrong.
But he’d grown up watching his mother and father both be miserable with one another.
Had been there when his dad had ultimately left, and his mom had been distraught and wrought with uncertainty over her future.
They’d started with attraction, had mistaken lust for love, and look where it’d gotten them?
Sarang wasn’t wrong. He knew he wanted Shiloh. After these past couple of weeks holding him, he’d gathered enough reassurance that the man he’d fallen for was still the same omega who held his heart.
“Until he loves me, he won’t understand the importance of sticking around,” Sarang said. “As soon as the chase is over, the novelty wears off, and things get difficult, he’ll mistake his own feelings and try to leave.”
“You sound so sure of that,” Kian stated.
“Do you think I’m wrong?”
“No,” he admitted. “There’s a good chance that you’re right. Even if he’s held onto you for all these years.”
It’d taken Shiloh time to realize what his infatuation with Sarang even was.
By his own admission, they’d been almost a year into knowing one another before then.
Prior to that revelation, Shiloh had simply been following his instincts, keeping Sarang close because that’s what felt right, even if he didn’t fully comprehend why.
Shiloh was like that. He believed in his primal urges. Believed that alphas and omegas were sexual beings meant to unabashedly lead with their primordial instincts.
Relationships were messy. Sarang was under no illusions that the bite would solve all of their problems and the two of them would never fight in the future.
He also understood that he wanted the very thing that had eluded his mother.
Right now, Shiloh believed his feelings to be shallow and solely based on possessiveness.
He thought he wanted Sarang because he was attracted to him, and Sarang had been kind to him.
The truth was, the omega had all of the right pieces, he just needed help putting them together.
Sarang remembered the things he’d told him, how he’d felt their connection just by the way Sarang had looked at him.
How he wanted to be worthy in someone’s eyes.
Shiloh hadn’t grasped how strong that sentiment truly was. He’d spoken plainly about it, like delivering a fact instead of making some big revelation. The omega knew Sarang was the only one who made him feel safe, he just didn’t fully understand the gravity of that.
He didn’t realize that the love he was so skeptical of was the very emotion he was feeling.
“Still,” Kian said. “You could try having a little more faith in him.”
“That’s what I’m doing.” He picked up the marble he’d chosen for tomorrow and rolled it between his forefinger and thumb. “It won’t be long now. He’ll be claimed before you return.”
“The fact that you’re not bothering to ask for my permission makes me certain that’s finally true.” Kian said something to someone he was with, words muffled and too low to make out, then he spoke to Sarang again. “I have to go.”
“I’ll tell you if we find anything here.” Sarang ended the call and then began shutting off the machines. He needed to head to bed and get some sleep.
Tomorrow was going to be a big day.