Unsevered Ties

25: Down Boy

Chapter 25: Down Boy

"You want me to suddenly become some gentle giant? To woo them both with my magnetic charm?" Sega's nose turned up. "The change in character would be blatant enough. To suddenly become some kind and caring mate," he scoffed. "I couldn't fake it if I tried." Sega tried to figure out his father's current plans. He was constantly told about the grand scheme, but never the minor details. When it came to his father, Sega had to adopt a persona that he still couldn't decide was real or constructed.

Leiodus' brows furrowed. "Do not play games with me right now. You can't do it? You faked being our loving, kind Prince all this time. Do your pack and peers know what a power-hungry little black lamb you are? No, then you can do it." He cocked his head slightly. "You have been fighting me a lot lately. Have you lost your will? Has your special little toy turned you into the very simpering mate you can't pretend to be?"

The King pushed off of the oak desk, his imposing frame coming to stand in front of his slightly shorter son. They both dressed lavishly, and though the Fields' colors were royal blue, variations of green and gold, Leiodus preferred dark colors, especially black. "You seemed distraught when the Were bitch sliced his little neck wide open."

Leiodus leaned down, so that they were face-to-face. Where Sega had a straighter nose with a slightly rounded bulb, his nose was straight and wide but not unattractive. They had nearly the same shaped eyes, but Leiodus' were slightly narrower and did not slant the same as Sega's. Sega's mouth was daintier, taking after his mother's, whereas Leiodus had a wider mouth surrounded by his well-kept short beard. The point of their features that differed the most was their jawline. Sega had a jaw that sat shorter and rounder, and his father had a jaw that was strong and cut. Sega could border the line between pretty and handsome, but his father could only be called strikingly handsome.

"You wallowed over him far more than I would like. Such distress in your eyes and your voice. You seem to be showing a faker face to me more than anyone else right now." Leiodus' large hand captured his son's face, turning it up. "I'm warning you. Do not let your feelings get in the way. He'll be yours to keep, but if his purpose as a cow is put behind any other role, and I see it in your actions, I will herd him elsewhere. Do you understand Sega? You know not to test my resolve, don't you?"

Sega cast his eyes away. His father had raised him to see him as the ultimate authority figure, and the man knew the world that many others could not begin to comprehend. Leiodus knew of a type of power that no one could obtain without all the right pieces. His father needed him to obtain those pieces, and he needed his father to see the results.

For a man obsessed with having things that no one else could obtain, it was the ultimate leash to hold him in place. Still, the older he became, the more he wondered if the thing his father sought was something unhinged and beyond even his comprehension.

Still, Sega's noose was not so tightly tied that he could not loosen a few knots. "If he can serve more than one purpose, why not let him? I'm not so eager to milk him dry. If he can do what the Cloud Prince could do, if he could learn how to use what he has, why squeeze him dry when he is reusable?" The words felt sour in Sega's mouth. It was not new. His father spoke of this for years. Being in the here and now, and Naki now being his mate, the actuality of it felt downright nasty, even if he knew the assignment.

Leiodus straightened, his matching eyes cutting a sharp look toward his son. "I'll let you decide what is best. But don't think referring to him as if he were an object will change anything. I know you well, my son. I know how you work. After all, I designed you. You are my greatest work. You'd do best to remember that he is for our use and nothing more. Don't develop an attachment. Blurred lines lead to a faded picture, my son."