Asher made his way to the bedroom, stumbling to a stop at the edge of the bed.
He stared at Caspian who was fast asleep in the huge bed for a few moments, tousling up his hair before heading to the bathroom to clean up.
Asher started for the bed again when he was done but then he stopped and headed for the door instead.
If he was building up to letting Caspian go, it was best to begin micro-dosing his inevitable absence.
Hopefully, if he told himself that enough times, he would believe it.
Because he would rather that option than being terrified that he would lose control and hurt Caspian.
The next morning, he stepped out of the bathroom, surprised to find Caspian sitting up.
"You’re up early," He noted as he headed to the closet to get dressed for the day.
Caspian had a frown on his face, groggily scratching his head.
He was up too early...
He remained a little confused until Asher stepped out fully dressed. He tilted his head up for his goodbye kiss, watching him leave.
Even though he had slept early, waking up so early felt wrong, he didn’t even feel like going back to sleep.
...and Asher’s scent was already so faint.
Caspian was painfully wide awake and he was upset about it.
Although this should be a good thing as it meant that he could have a healthy three-square meal.
But he had been prepared to struggle to get out of bed, instead, he had woken up before Asher could wake him.
Unaware of Caspian’s inner turmoil, Asher stepped out of the mansion to find Jael already waiting for him.
It was the same old routine they had always had, and it gave him some comfort that even when he lost Caspian, he would still have this.
Jael took one look at Asher’s gray pallor and knew not to strike up a conversation with the Mafia King.
He would rather enjoy the morning ride to work, and pissing Asher off first thing in the morning wouldn’t at all help with that.
Asher was perfectly fine with the silence, saying nothing even when he wound down the windows.
By the time they pulled into the parking lot of the club, the sun had warmth, illuminating the blue summer sky.
They fell into their duties, things moving twice as smoothly with the two of them in charge.
Jael had completely forgotten about Asher threatening to drop in on Mafia King Nikolai until that moment.
Because that was what that had been... a threat.
If he had forgotten, it meant that it hadn’t even crossed Asher’s mind, or at least he hoped so.
Almost like he had had a premonition, his phone rang.
He picked it up without checking caller ID, genuinely startled to hear who spoke.
"Jael!" Caspian said in his usual cheery way. "I couldn’t reach Asher. I just wanted to give you a heads up that I’ll be going on a walk."
"Ah, sure," He muttered, reminded of the time that the Omega couldn’t move around freely.
"You didn’t need to call for that," He tagged on self-consciously.
Caspian was already saying his byes, hanging up.
Jael stared at his phone thoughtfully for a few seconds and then decided to assign some bodyguards to Caspian.
The Omega was important enough to have at least one already.
After dealing with that, he frowned about why Caspian couldn’t reach Asher.
He knew well that the Mafia King would hang up on the Head of the High Council himself to pick up his call.
He was currently driving through the 5th District in Central Area to handle some business.
His eyes narrowed as he changed his trajectory, heading back to the club. He had a bad feeling about this.
Jael tried his boss’ phone next, his expectations were already in hell, so he was actually pleasantly surprised to hear it ring.
For Asher who ran through cellphones faster than paper towels, this was an improvement.
He preferred to have the call ring endlessly without an answer than be unable to reach the Mafia King at all.
Because he knew then that his phone was in pieces.
He didn’t expect to get an answer to Asher’s whereabouts when he got back to the club.
The empty back office was expected, the Alpha’s abandoned phone was a given as well but he didn’t expect one of the men to walk up to him.
"Yeah, the boss said to let you know that he went to pay a visit to Mafia King Nikolai." The man reiterated with a concerned expression.
Jael blinked slowly. "He what?"
"Yeah, it’s the strangest thing. I didn’t know they were chummy..."
That was all Jael needed to hear, he was already headed to the club’s back door as soon as the man said that.
He should have known that something was wrong considering how quiet Asher had been all day.
Even on slow days, Asher found a reason to call him if he wasn’t on standby.
Fortunately, he knew exactly where to find Asher. Mafia King Nikolai was often at his casino.
Hopefully, he would find his boss in one piece, Nikolai’s casino as well.
Asher really didn’t plot to keep Jael in the dark about dropping in on Nikolai.
He already told him the day before, so it would defeat the entire point of it if he tried to hide it now.
He had just remembered when the Beta was out was all. Leaving his phone behind was so that Jael wouldn’t scold him over the phone.
Asher confidently pulled up to Nikolai’s casino like he had a special invite, pretending not to notice the scrambling guards.
No one dared stop or approach him as he got out of his car and strode to the entrance.
His fur coat was massive as he stood at the entrance, staring down at the bouncers.
Asher could see the men tremble in their uniforms, and they couldn’t be blamed, none of their training prepared them for this scenario.