Page 103 of Bully for Sale

Ned knew what kind of future he wanted to have, but he also accepted that he may not get it. Ezer made up half of the outcome, and he wasn’t a doll. He couldn’t be controlled. Ezer had made that clear from the start.

Ideas began to form, slowly but surely, and Ned made additional plans. There wasn’t much he could do right away. Everything was set to a wait-and-see pattern, even the trial against Braden Tenmeter, but when the time came, he needed to have the plan in place.

Instead of going straight home, Ned took a seat in a sunny part of the nearby park to brainstorm the next steps. He wished Ezer could be there with him. He’d love the bright colors of the flowers.

Summer had arrived. Change was on its way.

Chapter Thirty-Two

“You have tohelp them,” Rodan’s voice was small and his eyes bloodshot, as he stared at Ezer through the screen. “They’re all scared, Ezer, and Father isso angry. Pete is scared, too. He hides from Father with the baby.”

That was not the greeting that Ezer had expected when he’d picked up his tablet to answer a video call from the Fersee house. He’d expected Shan or Flo, or maybe Yissan, if he’d been recently contracted with an alpha. He’d expected their worry over his pregnancy, or questions about what to expect during their heats, or even questions of where to find Da.

But Rodan? Never.

“Rodie, what’s going on?” Ezer said, shifting to get more comfortable in his body. The babies pushed against everything now. He was hungry all the time because they took up too much space inside, leaving too little for his stomach. His back ached. Hisbonesached. Pain was the only thing keeping him from sleeping his life away.

“Ezer, it’s bad.”

“Start at the beginning.”

As Ezer listened to his brother lay out the dramas that had unfolded in the Fersee house over the last few weeks, his heart pounded. The twins had rebelled. Or Shan had, rather. The alpha Flor had been interested in had changed his mind on meeting Shan and insisted on having his first heat and breeding instead.

Shan had refused.

Flo had supported Shan’s refusal.

Father had blown his top, trying to force Shan to sign the contract by threatening to give Flo’s first heat to an elderly alpha who wouldn’t have the stamina to satisfy him. Shan had still refused. Flo had as well.

Father had stormed and raged.

Then Yissan’s turn had come. He’d delayed and made excuses until Father trapped him in a room with the alpha he’d chosen, and Yissan had to fight off the man’s advances.

“Father said Yissan embarrassed him. There was shouting. Tables turned over. Yissan got a black eye. And Shan is leaving tomorrow with another alpha father forced on him.”

“How?”

“By threatening to punish both him and Flo. He said he’d trigger their heats and not allow them an alpha at all. He said that would teach them.”

Ezer sucked in a horrified breath.

“Shan doesn’t want to go. Flo has been locked into his room. He pounds on the door and screams to be let out constantly. Pete is hiding with Prince. I snuck into Father’s library and found the number to call you. I don’t know what to do. Do you, Ezer? Do you know?”

Ezer chewed on his bottom lip, listening to his baby brother’s shaking voice, trying to come up with a plan. Any plan.

“Is Father there right now?”

“He’s drinking in Pete’s old nest, yelling about ungrateful sons.”

It was madness to think he could change anything, but if he didn’t act then he was condemning his brothers to a life like his own, and the very least his father deserved was to be confronted with the ugly fruit of his actions toward Ezer.

“All right. It might take some time, but I’m on my way.”

“You can’t leave,” Rodan said, wide-eyed. “You’re pregnant.”

Ezer nodded, wondering where he could find something to wear that would fit over his swollen belly. The robe was enough for getting around the main part of the house if he was feeling shy, but it was insufficient for the street.

He’d need Earl’s help. He fingered the soft blanket on the sofa. Or would he?