Page 16 of The Night Movers: Season One

Everyone was standing, posture closed off, arms crossed over chests.

He looked over each of them. They were all so beautiful.

Sugar and his flawless skin and gorgeous lochs, Titus with his sea glass eyes and perfect jaw.

Ryker’s wide eyes and Jensen’s perfect cheekbones.

Even Steele, who Ridley thought of as his biggest opponent besides Sugar, was exceptional.

Golden windswept hair and bulging muscles, eyes as pretty as they were mean.

And Diesel, his perfect bear, the one Ridley wished he was cuddling with right now.

“Dammit,” Sugar said. “This is a fucking mess. We have to get him out of here.”

“Tell them,” Diesel said to Titus.

Titus gave another long-suffering sigh, expression slightly constipated. “Just…give me a fucking minute.”

“Tell us what?” Steele asked, shoulders going back, like he was preparing for a fight.

“I said I need a minute,” Titus snapped.

Diesel, it seemed, did not. “The kid wants to make a deal,” he said. “We claim him but he sets the terms.”

Ridley winced. Okay, Diesel could have, like…eased them into the idea. He didn’t have to be so blunt about it. Ridley bit down on his lip. This was why alphas couldn’t be trusted with anything that required delicacy. They were sledgehammers.

“Claim him? As in make him our pack omega? For real?” Steele barked just as Sugar roared, “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

Ridley sighed internally, dropping his head into his hands. This definitely could have gone better.

“What are your objections?” Diesel asked.

Sugar snorted, beginning to pace the room. “How much fucking time do you have? We don’t own people.”

Ridley expected to hear Diesel’s voice, but it was Jensen who spoke up. “This isn’t about owning someone. It’s about protecting someone. He’s a sitting duck without us.”

Ridley lifted his head just in time to see the bespectacled alpha collapse onto the sofa. Ridley hadn’t seen him coming to his defense .

“He knows who we are, what we do,” Ryker added, hopping over the back of the couch and sitting on the edge with Jensen between his knees.

Ridley warmed as he watched the long-haired alpha pet through Jensen’s thick wavy hair.

“If you’re really pro-omega, then our options are slim to none.

We claim him and let him decide who he sleeps with and when, or we don’t and he gets torn to pieces. ”

Ridley very much preferred option A. His calmness following that statement was a testament to his confidence in his vision for the future. He just knew they would come around. They had to.

“Why do we have to claim him just to protect him?” Steele asked. “We can keep him here with us without having to claim him.”

“Like hold him hostage? Keep him under lock and key forever? How is that a better option?” Jensen asked.

Steele let out an angry breath. “I’m not saying keep him prisoner. He could be…under our protection.”

“There’s no such thing as protecting an unclaimed omega,” Titus stated firmly. “Have you forgotten who the world thinks we are?”

“Titus is right,” Diesel said emphatically.

“If we keep him but don’t claim him, every enemy and ally will think he’s up for grabs.

You’ve seen him. He’s beautiful, smart, genetically rare.

Never mind that he’s one half of a matching set.

Without a full claim, he will suddenly be the prize they demand in every fight, every race.

Do you want to risk losing him because one of us has an off night in the ring? ”

Unease crawled under Ridley’s ribs. He didn’t even know what that meant, really, but he definitely didn’t want to be a prize to be won.

“There are also a half dozen crews that would snatch him from us and sell him without batting an eye. The only way to keep him and keep him safe is to claim him,” Titus said. “There’s no other option.”

“The only claim these alphas will respect is another alpha’s mark,” Jensen said. “If he belongs to the pack, he’s untouchable. ”

“He’s only untouchable if he can be respectful. Does he strike you as particularly well behaved?” Sugar asked. “Five minutes with him and I knew his mouth was going to be a huge fucking problem.”

Rude. Ridley had barely said two words to the man. So, you’re what all the fuss is about. If anything Sugar had been rude to him, but he didn’t see Ridley holding a grudge.

They all fell silent for so long Ridley’s confidence began to dwindle.

“There’s one thing we haven’t considered,” Jensen said.

“Which is what?” Steele asked, sullen.

Jensen shrugged. “Having him around can work to our advantage.”

“That’s not a fucking explanation,” Sugar snapped.

“Our entire financial operation depends on betting—people who bet on us and money we bet on others…” Jensen began.

“And…” Steele ground out.

“And he can see the fucking future,” Ryker finished, like he was catching onto Jensen’s logic.

Oh, that was a good point. Ridley hadn’t really learned exactly how to trigger his gift, but if he could, he could be as useful to them as they would eventually be for him.

“He can all but guarantee us a win every time,” Jensen said.

Ridley squeezed his eyes shut. Don’t oversell it.

Titus shook his head. “No fucking way. If the other crews found out, they’d kill him. If we claim him, it’s because it’s the right thing to do, not because we’re using him for his gifts.”

“We all use our gifts,” Jensen pointed out, exasperated. “When did you become the king of the moral high ground? Do you want us to claim him or not?”

What were their gifts? Ridley was just dying to know. He’d seen some of Titus’s when he’d sapped his pain, but he didn’t think that was his only talent.

“They have a point. We can make sure they don’t find out,” Diesel said .

“That doesn’t fix his mouth problem,” Sugar muttered. What the fuck was his problem? “He was so mouthy with his kidnappers, they risked injuring him just to shut him up.”

Lies.

“Sugar’s right. Pack omegas are meant to be seen and not heard. They’re pets. You think your precious little strawberry-flavored chew toy is going to be okay with us trotting him around on a leash and treating him like he’s property?” Steele asked.

Ridley huffed. He didn’t really want to be treated like that, but if it helped serve the greater good, then he’d do what needed to be done. He’d do anything to find his sister.

Diesel clearly had other ideas. “Then maybe we just don’t?” he said, raising his voice enough that it echoed around the mezzanine above where Ridley sat. “Maybe we just treat him like a fucking human being because that’s what he is?”

Ridley’s heart tripped at Diesel’s anger on his behalf.

“You think I don’t fucking know that?” Steele countered, just as loudly. “You think I want to treat him like that? You think I want to treat anyone like that? You know what they did to my mother, my sisters. I’m just being realistic, asshole.”

“Calm down,” Jensen interrupted, like he was used to their screaming matches.

Diesel deflated, his voice dropping down to a dull roar.

“I’m just fucking saying that the whole point of being the bad guys is we don’t have to follow the fucking rules.

We can do whatever the fuck we want, and if others don’t like it, they can go fuck themselves.

How we treat our pack omega is none of their fucking business. ”

Yeah, you tell ‘em. Ridley leaned back, relieved, hissing as his head made contact with the iron railing.

He was rubbing his head when he realized everyone had grown very quiet. Had they heard him?

Well, fuck.