“Would you choose him over me?”
“I wouldn’t choose anyone over you. But you would never ask me to.”
“No?” Sarang was curious why he thought that.
“You aren’t a cruel person.”
“Tell that to the dead men who were trying to kidnap you at the café.”
“They shot Rhovan,” he said. “They deserved it. But Bishop doesn’t. Everything he did to you he did under my order. Don’t hurt him for simply doing what you’re asking me to do.”
“Which is?”
“Be good.”
Now that he’d confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that Shiloh truly cared for others, Sarang was confident he could proceed.
“Do you think the Lefthand loves you?” Sarang questioned, only for his omega to roll his eyes.
“He’s loyal because he owes me a life debt. Love doesn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Because you don’t think it’s possible for anyone to love you?”
Shiloh gave him a strange look. “…What are you actually getting at here, Rang?”
“You claimed you lied to try and get me to like you, but that isn’t true. You don’t want me to just like you, omega. You want me to love you. Only, you don’t think that’s possible, do you?”
Could Sarang blame him? His mother, sister, and brother all lacked traditional emotion responses and connections, same as him. He’d grown up abused and pushed past his limits, stuck in an endless cycle of proving his worth and fighting for the respect and attention of those around him.
But love?
It made sense Shiloh wouldn’t recognize it. Not in himself, or in others.
“Bullshit.” Shiloh crossed his arms. “Love is irrelevant. I just don’t want you to hate me so you’ll give me the bite. You don’t have to love me to claim me.”
“Why do you want me to claim you?”
“Because I like you.”
“If I promised to give you the bite, but told you I would never like you back, not ever, you’d be fine with that?”
“Of course—” Shiloh slammed his mouth shut and clenched his jaw so hard Sarang feared he’d crack teeth. “Is there someone else, alpha?”
“If there is?” There wasn’t. Never had been. Never would be. Sarang had accepted that.
“You swore you wouldn’t sleep with another.”
“And I won’t. But that doesn’t mean I can’t think about them.”
“While you’re fucking me?”
Sarang shrugged like it was no big deal, smirking when a rush of pissed off omega pheromones hit him in the chest. A wave of dizziness momentarily overwhelmed him, but the second he set a warning glare on Shiloh, the pheromones fizzled out and then were cut off.
He’d always known Shiloh was a dominant omega, and therefore had the ability to subdue his weaker alpha nature, but experiencing it…
“Why didn’t you ever use your pheromones against me in the past?” he wondered.
“I used them all the time,” Shiloh surprised him by admitting. “You’ve been subjected to them constantly for four years straight.”
