“I’ll see her now.”
“You’re tired. You should—”
“Rang.” Shiloh was going to insist, but he noticed that the alpha had a sheen of sweat on his brow, despite them having moved out of the heated pool room. “Are you un—” His hand was slapped away when he lifted it, cutting him short.
A mixture of surprise, regret, embarrassment, and sadness rushed through him, there and gone, like a flash in the pan.
But even that momentary weakness pissed him off.
“Forgive me,” Sarang said, voice low and slightly breathy. “I…don’t know why I did that. It’s just…” He sniffed the air. “Are you leaking pheromones?”
“No.” Not any more than usual, in any case. Their entire relationship he’d released them on a low constant stream to get the alpha accustomed to them. He’d never really reacted before.
Was this because they’d slept together?
“Prince,” Bishop appeared in the doorway, his presence instantly irritating Sarang, who emitted a guttural warning growl. “I can escort you upstairs if the underboss is tied up.”
Shiloh wished he was tied up.
Tied up in his bed.
“That won’t be necessary,” Sarang stated in a clipped tone.
“I’m afraid it will be,” Bishop insisted. “You’ve been summoned by the Dominus.”
Chapter 6:
“So Elm went and got himself kidnapped?” Shiloh picked the fallen leaf apart and tossed the bits onto the floor with a huff.
“I guess it’s a running theme for Kian’s brothers.” Sloane walked over to the leather couch where he was seated and pointedly slid the glass vase housing a dozen red roses further down the end table and away from him. “Stop picking at the flowers.”
“Want to try your hand at it and make it a Kian’s sibling thing instead?”
“Not being able to keep still?”
“Getting kidnapped.” She’d known what he’d meant, but it was fun teasing her nonetheless. Shiloh grinned when Sloane’s expression remained stoic and she rested her hip against the edge of the desk.
They were in the main office space at Caelum, the host club the Eumia had opened up on Glyph. The club catered to both alphas and omegas, and had various forms of operations. People paid for tables, drinks, and to spend time with the workers as one form. The other was similar to the event Shiloh had found Sarang at back on Synastry, though with a bit more class.
Caelum set alphas and omegas up for rut/heat pairings at a premium rate. It was a safe space for strangers to find someone they were attracted to enough to spend their mating period with. There were waivers ensuring discretion, meet and greets beforehand to ensure everyone was satisfied and on the same page, and the guarantee of safety thanks to the location and members of staff.
The business itself was strictly legal, but everyone knew it was being run by the mafia, and no one was foolish enough to try anything stupid while under the Eumia’s roof.
Thanks to Kian, sexual crimes in the city had dropped by thirty percent. Though, Shiloh imagined it was a hell of a lot easier to manage something like that on a fair planet like this one.
Glyphians were still ruled by their true nature, but they’d structured their laws more civilly than Synastry had bothered.
Quaint was one way of putting it.
Shiloh would call it straight up boring.
“This is serious.” Sloane crossed her arms. “Did you have anything to do with it?”
“I have nothing against Kian’s other brother.” He truly didn’t. Shiloh still hadn’t even met the guy. He’d wanted to, but Kian was overly protective and kept making excuses. At some point, Shiloh had stopped by the ceramics studio Elm and Sky ran together unannounced, but he’d only caught a glimpse of Elm leaving.
The curiosity had honestly mostly gone away after that, and between trying to seduce Sarang and adjusting to this new life on Glyph, Shiloh hadn’t made another attempt. Maybe he should have, since it seemed like there was a chance the guy was going to end up dead and he’d never get to meet him ever.
“Elm isn’t like us,” Sloane stated, brow furrowing. As twins, the two of them had the same pale complexion, dark hair, and piercing blue eyes. They were also both omega, but Sloane was known for her outspoken personality, probably because she’d never tried to mask it like Shiloh had been doing these past few years.
