“What did you expect?” Dio rolled his gray eyes. “Everything you plotted led him to that conclusion. If you don’t like it, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.”
“I know that.”
“And yet here you are, sulking because you aren’t getting enough attention.”
“I had a miscarriage,” Shiloh growled. “He should be—”
“It wasn’t his baby.”
His mouth slammed shut, because no, no it hadn’t been.
A while ago, Shiloh had been kidnapped and thrown into a breeding den, forced to partner up with a random alpha. They’d both been given drugs to instigate their rut and heat cycles, which had led to an aggressive, violent breeding between them. One that had been successful, considering it’d left Shiloh pregnant.
During the ordeal, he’d been livid, but after…When he’d finally been rescued, had seen the panic and the longing on Sarang’s face…
It’d all been made worth it.
He didn’t even blame the alpha who’d impregnated him. They’d both been forced, and at the end of the day, Shiloh hadbeen able to use his new state as another means to tie his desire to him.
That hadn’t lasted though. Within a week of finding out, the doctors had run more tests and discovered his body had shown false signs. Something about chemical reactions, and pheromone influx, yada yada. Shiloh hadn’t really paid much attention after the initial point had been made.
He’d neverreallybeen pregnant.
There’d never really been a baby.
But the way Sarang treated him when he thought there was…
Logically, Shiloh had known he couldn’t keep up the ruse forever. He’d needed a plan. A way to make it seem like he’d lost something that he’d never had to begin with.
Maybe he’d taken things too far though.
Maybe he should have come clean from the get-go, because while the alpha still looked at him with pity, there was now a sadness there Shiloh never meant to create. There was distance now as well. Sarang still took care of him, but his actions and words were carefully chosen, even more so than they’d been prior. As though he feared setting Shiloh’s grief off and making things worse.
It was nothing like the look he’d been chasing for four years. The one the alpha had given him that day they’d met in the salt field. He’d taken Shiloh home, had patched him up…
Had looked at him like he was precious and worthy of care.
An heir to the mafia couldn’t be weak or soft. Growing up, he’d been forced to endure every hardship in the name of making him strong. Up until that point in his life, no one had ever taken the time to comfort him.
Their weekend together after he got to Sarang’s house was a blur, but that was fine. The last thing he rememberedbefore passing out was the look in the alpha’s eyes, and the feel of his hand on his cheek. When he’d woken again, days had passed, his injuries had healed, and the alpha had stuck by his side.
There were scars on Shiloh’s body from every single person in his life, including Dio. Marks meant to toughen him up, teach him a lesson, prepare him for the harsh realities of the world.
Sarang was the only one who hadn’t hurt him.
And also the only one whose mark Shiloh actually wanted.
He’d put himself through this entire act to bridge the gap, but like always, all he’d done was create more distance between them.
“Do you really think a guy like Sarang would want you if he knew who you really were?” Diogenes asked then, voice dropping low. “If he saw you now, covered in blood, standing over corpses, casually talking about your—”
Shiloh’s hand shot up, nails digging into the sides of Dio’s neck hard enough to instantly pierce skin. He growled, pheromones lashing out, slamming against the alpha hard enough to have Dio’s jaw noticeably tightening.
Typically, those with his presentation were weaker than their alpha counterparts, but Shiloh was a dominant omega. Against a regular alpha like Dio, even one as strong as he was, Shiloh was far superior and could use his pheromones to cloud the older man’s senses long enough to strike him down.
The alpha’s reaction wasn’t just pained, however. A familiar, hungry glimmer entered his gaze.
“You’re a viper, Prince,” Dio stated. “Pretty but deadly.”
