Caspian flinched badly at the knock on the door, his breath hitching when the door opened. He stiffened a bit when he saw Jael instead, his mouth going dry.
Would he really not see Asher ever again?
"Are you alright?" Jael asked carefully, keeping a wide berth between himself and the Omega who looked shellshocked.
Caspian frowned, his brain refusing to compute. "W-What?"
Jael couldn’t see any visible injuries but then again, most of his body was covered up with a robe.
"Are you hurt?" He changed tactics, moving closer.
"I-I..." Words failed Caspian. "Where’s Asher? I thought you were... I’m a guy... Aren’t you here to shoot me?"
Jael listened intently to the Omega’s discordant words, the pieces of the puzzle quickly clicking in place. That fucking idiot, he mentally facepalmed.
"Yeah, no," He brusquely answered. "I already know. So does Asher."
Caspian stared at the Beta like he had sprouted a second head, "What?"
"So I need you to tell me if you’re hurt," Jael enunciated, he needed to know how bad it had been.
Going at his eyes with an angle grinder wouldn’t be enough to get the haunted look on Asher’s face out of his head.
The startling information broke Caspian out of his daze, his arm starting to sting. "J-Just a little bite on my shoulder." He admitted.
"Is Asher okay?" He suddenly started to his feet.
If the Mafia King had already known he wasn’t a woman, it meant that he had left for a different reason.
The relief and happiness bubbling under his skin were tainted with worry, he needed to know.
Jael crossed the distance between them, "Asher’s fine. Can I see it?" He tagged on self-consciously.
Caspian didn’t think twice about tugging down the sleeve of the robe he had on, missing the look of horror on Jael’s face.
"So where is he?" He asked earnestly, "Can I see him?"
It wasn’t that he doubted the Beta’s words but that he needed to hear those words from Asher himself.
Jael couldn’t believe the Omega was worried about someone else, especially the person who had tried to rip the tendons out of his delicate shoulder.
"Later. First, we’ve got to treat that nasty bite." He started for the door and beckoned him.
Caspian immediately followed after him, pausing after a few steps. "I-I don’t have anything on." He mumbled, his face burning up.
Jael cleared his throat, "I’ll wait for you to get dressed," He said, heading for the door to give him privacy.
Caspian wanted to tell him that it wasn’t from a lack of clothes... well, essentially it was...
There were so many thoughts going around in his head that he needed a moment to breathe.
Asher didn’t hate him...
Asher didn’t hate him.
He couldn’t believe that he had somehow thought that he had managed to fool a Mafia King, it must have been so easy for them to find out his pretense.
But why hadn’t Asher ever mentioned it? Why did he refer to him as a woman?
Was it to see how long he would keep up the ruse?
He felt a little foolish but also so giddy. He couldn’t believe that just a few minutes ago, he had been resigned to dying.
Caspian quickly hurried to the closet to change into the clothes he had sworn not to wear only a few hours ago.
He got a look at his shoulder as he dressed and he could see why Jael was insistent on him getting treated.
It didn’t help that moving around so much made it start to bleed afresh, staining the gauzy white top he had on.
He winced as he walked to the door, clutching his arm.
Jael took one look at him and whipped out his phone, leading them to a nearby sitting room.
A guy in casual clothes and a very large first aid box hurried in, getting right to work stemming the blood flow.
Caspian gritted his teeth to the pain, making no sound, and saying nothing about how he had gotten the injury.
"Do I get to see Asher afterward?" He couldn’t help but ask, his lips pale as the nurse quickly bandaged up his shoulder.
"You don’t." Jael said, dismissing the nurse with a wave of his hand.
"I’m going to give you the twenty-five million dollars you were bought for. I want you to leave the country and stay under the radar for as long as you can."
"What!" Caspian repeated but this time it was a sound of disbelief. "I’m not doing that."
"I don’t remember giving you a choice." The Beta’s stare turned cold, making him shiver.
Caspian was intimidated. This was exactly what he hoped to hear, but it had come too late.
He had already been offered triple that amount and he never even considered leaving Asher. That wasn’t changing now.
"Why?" He changed tactics.
He didn’t want to leave. Not now. Not when he had been given hope that Asher still wanted him even after he knew he was a male Omega.
Jael’s jaw hardened, he hated to reveal such a weakness to a stranger but the Omega deserved to know a little.
This was just beginning, the moment he set Asher free, the Mafia King would immediately hunt him down.
He needed Caspian to understand the severity of the situation he was in.
"Asher is a danger to you-"
"He’s not," Caspian immediately countered, scowling.
"The bandage on your shoulder begs to differ," He cut back.
That shut him up but he could still see the resolute pout on his pretty face. Of course, the Omega was in love with Asher. wasn’t already fucked up enough.
"If he hadn’t stopped himself, the least of your worries would be your shoulder." He pressed right on.
He might as well be talking to a brick wall because Caspian wasn’t listening.
Jael groaned, it was like watching a trainwreck in slow motion and being unable to do a thing to stop in.
"Fine. I need you to leave the mansion for a couple days." He eased off.
He planned to make sure the Omega never returned to the mansion.