Page 11 of The Night Movers: Season One

Ridley was trapped in a nightmare—not the living one he’d just escaped from, but something far more horrific.

His mouth was drier than any desert, his lips cracked and bleeding. There were no shadows. No darkness. Just bright lights that seared his eyes from overhead and sterile walls made of gleaming white tiles. It smelled chemical, sharp and burning, making his eyes water. Or maybe he was crying.

He couldn’t tell.

He couldn’t move.

They fell on him like a pack of lions, ten at least, dressed in blue scrubs, faces hidden by surgical masks.

They looked at him but they didn’t see him.

They talked about him but never to him. He couldn’t understand them.

It was like he listened to them from under water, their quiet murmurs never forming words, making him feel like he was losing his mind.

They talked and talked and talked but it all melted together into one low monotonous rumble until it was just the buzzing of insects in his ears, in his nose, in his mouth. His heart hammered against his ribs until he worried he might actually be dying. But death had to be better than this.

Hands .

So many hands. Pulling at him. Tearing at him. Removing his clothes. Pressing him naked against the frigid metal table. Pinching his skin until it felt like they were taking him apart a piece at a time.

It was so cold.

He was so cold.

He could see his breath.

He tried to move, tried to break free, but there were too many of them.

They were too strong. They pried his mouth open, stuffed latex covered fingers into his throat until he gagged.

They forced his legs apart and pushed cold metal instruments inside him while he tried to scream around the fingers choking him.

He couldn’t breathe. He was pinned down and retching. Tears and snot running down his cheeks, drool coating his chin as an indescribable pain rendered him paralyzed.

The sound of screaming dragged him from his sterile hellscape, plunging him back into the shadows. He was on his side, covers gone, skin exposed to the chill in the air. He could feel himself shaking inside and out, his throat raw, his voice hoarse as he tried to force out more screams.

He couldn’t open his eyes. He was too afraid of what he would find. Too afraid the darkness was the dream and the sterile room was his reality. Sobs racked his body, his eyes stinging and jaw muscles hurting like someone had tried to pry his jaw open.

Suddenly, the bed dipped, warmth flooding him on both sides, drawing a relieved moan from him as he tried to bring it closer. He needed more than warmth. He needed to hide. He needed their weight crushing him into the mattress where nobody could reach him.

“Shh, Strawberry,” a voice crooned. “We got you. You’re dreaming. It’s just a dream.”

Titus.

Ridley opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was this high keening wail, like he was a wounded animal.

“Fuck, is he still asleep?” Diesel. Diesel was there, too. He was the weight pressing in on him from behind.

Titus and Diesel were hugging him between them. He wasn’t asleep. Not really. But he wasn’t ready to admit that. He tipped his face up, tucking his nose into the narrow space between Titus’s neck and the pillow, letting the bitter scent of chocolate ground him to reality.

“I don’t know. Just keep holding him until he stops shaking,” Titus murmured, his words vibrating against Ridley’s lips where they pressed against his throat.

Everything hurt. His whole body felt like it had been raked over a grater, leaving him flayed open and raw. He tried to slow his breathing, but it was impossible. It was like his brain thought he was running, his lungs burning from the inside out, a metallic taste filling his mouth.

“We gotta calm him down somehow,” Titus said. “He’s gonna give himself a fucking heart attack.”

Was he? Did he even care? Anything had to be better than the blind terror of not knowing what came next for him. Death had to be preferable to a life on the streets. Except, there was Ren. Who may already be out there, living Ridley’s nightmare. Hot tears squeezed from his eyes at the thought.

“Breathe, Strawberry. We got you. Nobody is going to hurt you,” Diesel said right against his ear.

Ridley whined. Titus and Diesel had to be lying practically on top of each other for Diesel to be right there. Surely, there was no safer place than beneath not one but two alphas? Diesel’s arm went around his waist. Titus’s palm was a brand on his bare thigh.

Almost immediately, his limbs grew heavy, his thoughts muddled. His heart slowed its gallop, becoming sedate and heavy until every heartbeat felt like it reverberated through him like a bass drum.

“He okay?” someone asked, too far away for Ridley to identify them by voice.

“Yeah, we got him,” Titus said with a surety Ridley found soothing. “Go back to bed. Someone’s gotta run the shop in the morning.”

Ridley’s teeth began chattering despite the beads of sweat gathering at his forehead and running down his spine.

“So co-cold. Why am I so cold?” he whispered, voice shaking.

A cool hand pressed against his neck.

“He’s burning up,” Diesel said.

“He doesn’t seem to realize that,” Titus muttered.

Titus shifted, pulling Ridley from the safety of his neck. He whined, trying to burrow back into the scent.

“Uh-uh,” Titus said, not unkindly but also leaving no room for argument.

Gentle hands pushed his sweaty hair from his face, lips trailed feather soft against his cheek. He sighed, fighting the sleep that tried to drag him back under.

“Fuck, he smells so fucking good,” Diesel said, his voice a low growl that went straight to Ridley’s core.

He canted his hips back without thought, grinding his ass against Diesel’s crotch, freezing when he felt the alpha’s hard cock pressed right where he wanted it most.

“Don’t,” Titus snarled.

Ridley whined, unable to stop his squirming even if he wanted to. What did Titus want from him? He was an omega sandwiched between two very hot, very horny alphas. It was biology. It wasn’t his fault.

“Fuck, I love how whiny he is,” Diesel admitted, his hand landing on his bare hip. Another growl emanated from him as he asked, “Is he naked under that shirt?”

Ridley’s head fell forward, his lips landing on Titus’s chin. When the alpha didn’t pull away, Ridley let his mouth trail along his sharp jaw, moaning at the taste of his skin.

“Stop,” Titus demanded .

Ridley froze, another pathetic whine leaving him, this one not from arousal but from fear—fear of displeasing his alpha. They all remained still, Ridley’s own ragged breathing drowning out everything else.

In his attempt to run from his nightmare, he’d forgotten the only thing separating him from them was a thin cotton t-shirt.

He did his best to remain still, even as his omega begged Ridley to defy him.

Titus would forgive his impertinence when his knot was buried inside him, when he was breeding Ridley, when his seed was flooding him with heat. With a baby.

The next few minutes were torture, Ridley’s hips trying to rock back against Diesel despite the hands pinning him in place.

Defying Titus had to be better than the gnawing emptiness between his hip bones.

It wasn’t right. He deserved to be full.

He deserved to be used. He was a good omega.

He could be a good omega. Why were they fighting him?

Ridley tried to break Titus’s hold once more, desperately trying to rut his hard cock against his hip.

Titus’s fingers returned to Ridley’s thigh, digging in until he cried out.

“You’re pushing your luck, Strawberry,” he said through clenched teeth.

Was he? Ridley didn’t know. He couldn’t think straight. This was all new to him. He’d never been close to an alpha like this, much less two. He’d never felt this desperate ache before, this basic instinct demanding he submit.

Not even during his presentation. Though, that was probably the medication the facility had pumped into him morning and night during his first few days. The arousal he’d felt during his first heat was nothing like this, nothing like the craving that felt like a living, breathing being inside him.

It demanded Ridley present for his alphas, demanded he make himself as desirable, as fuckable, as possible.

To show them he would make a good pack omega.

He wanted to dig his claws into Titus’s chest, wanted to lick the blood from his skin while Diesel fucked him stupid, fucked him full, gave him what he needed.

Ridley licked across the seam of Titus’s lips, catching him off guard. The alpha gripped him by his jaw, fingers pressing in until he forced his mouth open. Ridley stared at him with wide eyes, silently pleading.

Then Titus’s lips were on his, his tongue in his mouth, his free hand pressing and pulling until Ridley’s leg was hiked over his hip.

Titus kissed like he did everything: with complete control.

He held Ridley’s face in a death grip, letting him know he was being kissed, not the one doing the kissing.

Ridley was reeling. He’d never known this type of hunger before, this type of yearning for something that was so, so good but still not nearly enough.

Titus’s possessive claiming of his mouth had his insides bubbling like honey, his cock throbbing and leaking between them.

Diesel must have taken the kiss as a green light because his mouth was closing over Ridley’s scent gland, teeth biting down hard enough to make his hips jerk forwards and then back, making all three of them moan.

The other alpha’s hand rubbed over Ridley’s ass cheek, fingers dipping between the two globes, pulling another whine from him.

Suddenly, Titus tore his mouth from Ridley’s, breathing hard. “Stop. Moving. Or I swear to whatever God you believe in that I will tie you to this bed and leave you alone.”