Page 98 of Bully for Sale

Yissan nodded. “You must think I’m very cold, that we all are.”

“I don’t know how brothers are supposed to act. I’m an only child, but what I do know is Ezer’s hurting, and I’m not enough to fix it.”

“Aren’t alphas supposed to be enough? Isn’t that the point of the nest?” Yissan challenged, his dark brows drawing low.

“Maybe that’s how it is when an omega is older, when the pregnancy was wanted, but with Ezer neither of those things are true.”

“He’s been abandoned by his family and forced to carry a child—”

“Twins.”

“Oh.” Yissan’s brows twitched. “I hadn’t heard.” His expression grew even more cloudy. “I’m the only one who remembers Shan and Flo’s birth. None of the others were born yet. I was five.” His voice trembled. “Da was in agony. I could hear his screams through the entire house. He begged to be killed, to be put out of the misery of it.”

Ned shivered. “It was that bad?”

“All births are hard. Twins, for an omega aren’t what we were designed for, our bodies aren’t meant to handle it. And Ezer is small, much smaller than Da. He’s going to be in danger, you realize.”

Ned’s knees trembled. He’d assumed that Ezer would be fine. Sure, Dr. Savage had mentioned being worried, but it’d been so offhand that Ned hadn’t thought any more about it afterward. But that was how people were in front of omegas, weren’t they? And Dr. Savage probably hadn’t wanted to scare Ned either. Unlike Yissan who seemed bent on terrifying him.

“Why did you call me out here?” Ned asked, crossing his arms over his chest and resisting the urge to step out from under the umbrella and allow the rain to pour down on him.

“I should say it was out of concern for my baby brother, shouldn’t I?”

Ned frowned.

“It’s a lot less virtuous than that. I need your uncle’s help. As an omega, I can’t reach out to Heath Clearwater and beg for his intervention in my life, but as my brother-in-law and his nephew, you can.”

“What kind of help do you need?”

“I need out of this contract my father is setting up for me.” Yissan shivered, and Ned didn’t know if it was from the cold wind that cut over them both at that moment, or the idea of whatever heat/breeding/marriage arrangement George Fersee had cooked up for his eldest.

“Who’s it with?”

Yissan’s eyes went darker than Ned thought possible. So dark they shone like polished ebony. “My lover’s father.”

“Your…” Ned paused to gather his thoughts. “But you’re supposed to be a virgin for your first heat. It improves the price.”

Yissan gave him an exasperated look. “You are so young, aren’t you? Naïve. My poor brother. Stuck with someone as innocent as you.” He shook his head. “Yes, I’m supposed to be many things, but omegas aren’t dolls that exist to please alpha cocks. I’m a human being, and I have motivations and urges that exist outside my father’s plans for my asshole and womb.”

“Uh, yes, of course.” Ned’s mind reeled.

“My lover is a beta,” Yissan said quietly. “John Stone.”

“Of theTrace StoneStones?” Trace was a powerful alpha out of Summerton, who summered in Wellport and sent his sons to school here.

“I’ve been in love with him for years. We met in high school.”

Like me and Ezer, Ned thought.

“We tried to resist each other.” Yissan’s lips twisted into a bittersweet smile. “Well, he did. I was insistent that we take advantage of what alone time his status as a beta afforded us. I wanted him from the start.”

Like I wanted Ezer.

“We always knew it wasn’t going to last between us, that one day I’d have to move on to an alpha who could give me the children I want, and my father the money he wants, but neither of us ever imagined that the alpha would be John’s own father.”

“You’d imagined someone your own age. A son of the peerage.”

“But it turns out Trace Stone has wanted me for a long time. He had my father put a pin in my mating and heats until he was ready to negotiate a proper price for me.”