Page 106 of Bully for Sale

“From Flo?”

“From Shan.”

“Where is Flo now?”

“Locked in his room.”

“Is it too late to stop this with Shan?”

“Your father triggered his heat early like he did with you. It’s not full-blown yet. The alpha has time to get him somewhere safe, but Shan fought. He spit on your father.” Pete sounded so scandalized he might vanish into the air. “He clawed and bit.”

Ezer’s heart pounded, remembering the way his da had fought being kicked out of the house, holding onto the walls, biting his father and the men who forced him. The blood.

Shan hadn’t wanted this. Shan dreaded everything to do with heat and breeding and alphas.

“Where’s Yissan?”

Pete looked away. “Your father plans to trigger his heat next. He has an alpha ready for him. Yissan will be gone by the end of the week.” Pete shifted awkwardly. “It will be just me, Flo, Rodan, and Prince then. I’m worried for Flo. He hasn’t endeared himself to his father in all this.”

Ezer swallowed hard, and when he took a step forward, the room swayed. He was too pregnant for this. It had been too many hours since he’d had Ned’s seed, and his frame was too small to support the weight of the babies inside.

He fought off the exhaustion. Tugging out of Pete’s hands and starting toward the library, he put one foot in front of another, hoping that he could reach his father before he fell to the floor.

Ezer had no idea what he wanted to say, or what he planned to do. He just needed to reach the library door, fling it open, and confront his father. The words would appear for him. He was certain.

George was at his desk, head in his hands, and a bottle of whisky next to him. At the sound of the door opening, he muttered, “Pete, love? You’re back?”

“He’s back,” Ezer said, waddling forward, hands on his big stomach, and his blanket-tunic burning on his skin. “And so am I.”

George lifted his head, eyes bleary, and took Ezer in for a long, silent moment. “You. This all started withyou.”

“It’s too late for Shan, isn’t it? He’s lost in his heat by now.”

George sat straighter. “None of you boys are right in the head. Being given to a prestigious, wealthy alpha is everything an omega could possibly dream of.”

“Some of us have dreams beyond being a baby incubator and sex machine for our alphas.”

“There it is! Thisisyour fault. You got into their heads, didn’t you? You convinced them they needed more than a perfectly happy, normal life as an omega. Now Shan wants to be a musician, and Flo wants to sell his heats, and Yissan is saying he’s in love with a beta for God’s sake. A beta!”

Ezer tilted his head. He hadn’t heard that from Rodan. He wasn’t sure how that would work for Yissan’s heats, but surely there was a creative way to deal with it. His brother was smart, and he’d figure it out. “You can blame me all you want, but the fact is, I’m the only son of yours who willingly complied.”

“There was nothing willing about it,” George bit out. “If I hadn’t had the upper hand with Amos, you’d still be in my hair.”

One of the babies jumped, as if he’d just woken up. Ezer took a sharp breath at the kick in the ribs. Closing his eyes, he puckered his lips to exhale out the pain, the way the birthing coaches did in the videos Ned had been making him watch.

Steadier, Ezer went on. “You knew I didn’t want this life, didn’t you?”

“Many omegas say they don’t, but they all come around.”

“Did Pete want his life?”

“Of course. He was docile from the start. I learned my lesson after Amos. Never choose an omega with opinions.”

Ezer nodded, plucking at his blanket-clothes, and wanting to peel them off before his skin was scoured away by the roughness of the fabric. “And you knew I didn’t want to share my heat at such a young age or get pregnant with any alpha’s child at nineteen.”

“Of course I knew. It changes nothing. You should be contented by now. Look at you. Swollen large with two of his whelps.” George hesitated, a flash of anxiety crossing his face. “You’ll be strong enough for it,” he rushed to assure Ezer. “Is that why you’re here? Because you’re afraid you can’t do it. You wanted to make sure I knew you held me responsible to the end?”

Ezer swallowed hard. He hadn’t thought of that at all. In fact, he tried not to think too much about the likelihood his body wouldn’t withstand this birth. But if his father felt guilty seeing the possibility of Ezer’s death staring him in the face with the bulging of his stomach, then so be it.