Page 3 of The Night Movers: Season One

Diesel unlocked Ridley’s cuffs and pushed him towards Ryker and his scalpel.

Ridley clenched his fists to keep his hands from shaking.

The three other omegas whimpered, their whines getting louder the closer Ridley got to the instrument and the pretty man holding it delicately between his thumb and pointer finger.

When he was close enough, Diesel pushed him to his knees.

Ridley hated the effect it had on him, heat shooting through his core.

Up close, Ryker was even prettier than Ridley had thought.

He had long, sooty lashes and a delicate bone structure that was far more prevalent in omegas or betas than in any alpha Ridley had ever seen.

He supposed the pretty man could be a beta.

It was wrong to assume someone’s secondary gender strictly based on looks, but, again, they were actively kidnapping him so he felt that he should be given some wiggle room on that front.

Except, maybe they weren’t.

Ryker caught his gaze and held it, eyes momentarily dropping to Ridley’s lips then sweeping back up again.

His irises were amber with flecks of gold.

Ridley couldn’t look away, pinned down by his stare.

Who were these men? Ridley’s mouth went dry, his tongue darting out to lick over his bottom lip, tasting blood.

He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears .

“Tip your head forward,” the man with the glasses directed from beside him.

Ridley heard him, but he couldn’t look away. He didn’t want to look away. Ryker looked…somber, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Fingers fisted in his hair, forcing his head forward. Diesel, maybe? The bespectacled man pulled something from his bag but Ridley could only stare into Ryker’s lap, held as he was. He found himself riveted by the reflection of his own red hair in the blade of the scalpel.

Something shaped like the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his neck. Ridley flinched.

“Relax, kid. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

The object moved down his neck onto his back, then right to left across his shoulders. He flushed when he heard the telltale beep of a chip reader. They’d scanned him. They’d found his records. So humiliating. Dehumanizing. Like he was some kind of lost pet.

Diesel released him, but he stayed where he was.

Titus leaned forward a bit. “What do we have, Jensen?”

Ridley’s gaze flicked to Jensen. He had a bit of scruff on his chiseled jaw and a tiny scar just beneath his cleft chin. He had a perfect nose but his ears stuck out just a bit, a little too big for him just like the younger omega’s. Somehow, it only added to his appeal.

Jensen tore his gaze from Ridley to look at his screen, then gave a small cough before saying, “Ridley Christianson, nineteen years old, born in the third district. Parents deceased. He has a twin sister named Ren. Secondary gender: Omega. Alleles: Recessive. Gifts: N/A.” Jensen looked down at Ridley.

“Guess they snatched you before test day, huh?”

Ridley thought about not answering but then nodded. He didn’t need any test to tell him what his gifts were. He’d had them since he was young.

“So, what is your gift? Do you know?” Diesel asked.

Ridley said nothing. He still had no idea what their intentions were, with him or the others. Just because they weren’t being auctioned at this very moment didn’t mean these men were harmless. Alphas were never harmless.

“I’m guessing Kinsey didn’t scan your chip. If they knew you had a twin, he’d have hunted her down and sold you as a matching set,” Titus said.

Ridley glowered at the pale-eyed alpha. What was his problem, anyway?

Ridley pressed his lips together as his heart squeezed like someone held it in their fist. Maybe that would have been the better play.

But Titus’s words only confirmed what Ridley had suspected all along: none of them had seen Ren.

They were fraternal, but they looked startlingly similar aside from their obvious primary genders. These men would have remembered her.

Why had his visions led him to Kinsey and his men and now to this group if not for Ren? They were never wrong. They’d never been wrong. Panic welled behind his chest wall, but he forced it back down. There had to be a reason he was there.

Titus smirked. “Don’t look at me like that, kid. I didn’t create the system,” he taunted.

Ridley sneered at him. “No, but you sure don’t mind exploiting it.”

Titus’s smug smile made Ridley want to spit on him again, but something still tugged at him. Something deep in his core. Did this happen to every omega in an alpha’s presence?

“Titus, maybe you should tell them what’s happening? They’re scared to death,” Ryker said, noting something on a tablet he now held in his hands.

Titus sighed, addressing the three girls. “You guys are gonna be fine. We’re not taking you to be sold.” They eyed him with both confusion and trepidation. Ridley didn’t blame them. Why should they believe anything any alpha said?

Diesel gave them a warm smile, revealing a small gap in his front teeth. “We’re meeting another group who will take you on to your next checkpoint.”

“They’ll make sure you reach your final destination,” Jensen said.

“Final destination?” one of the girls echoed.

“Which is where?” the youngest asked, skeptical .

“We’ll get to that in a minute. Just know you’re safe,” Diesel promised.

“Okay, you can take it out,” Jensen said. He gave Ridley a sympathetic look. “This is gonna hurt a lot more coming out than it did going in.”

Ridley let Diesel turn him around, drawing his knees to his chin and wrapping his arms around them. Jensen picked up the hem of Ridley’s shirt and pulled it up to his neck, holding it for Ryker. Ridley couldn’t stop shaking, but he refused to argue or put up a fuss. He clenched his hands together.

There was a gasp from the other three omegas a moment before a searing pain sliced through him.

That pain was nothing compared to the wave of agony that hit him as Ryker began to dig around in the tender spot between his spine and shoulder blade.

Tears pricked his eyes, but he bit down hard on his tongue, trying to trick his brain into focusing on the lesser ailment.

There was no way he was going to let them see him cry.

“Got it!” Ryker cried triumphantly.

“Go ahead, Jen,” Titus said.

Jensen caught the alpha’s eye. “Terminate him?”

Titus hesitated. “Make him disappear.”

What the fuck did that mean? Ridley jumped as something pinched his skin, then pierced it.

“Sorry, kid. Staples,” Ryker said. “Just three, though.”

Ridley nodded wordlessly, flinching with each click of the staple gun closing the edges of his skin.

“All done,” Ryker said a moment before a fingertip ghosted down his spine, hardening his nipples.

Diesel wrapped a hand around his and tugged him to his feet.

Ridley’s vision blurred and he stumbled, landing squarely in Diesel's arms. The man was built like a bear and he radiated heat like a furnace. Ridley placed his nose against the man’s hoodie, inhaling deeply. “I bet you smell really good.”

A soft chuckle made him realize he’d said that out loud in front of all of them. Diesel smiled down at him, murmuring, “I know you smell good, Shortcake. ”

Ridley pushed away from him and returned to his seat, staring at the floor. He knew his pale skin was crimson beneath his freckles. He could feel Titus watching him, could see his smirk in his periphery.

The littlest omega volunteered to go next.

Ridley wrapped his arms around himself and bounced his legs, trying to get warm.

He sucked in a breath when something draped over his shoulders.

A black hoodie. Diesel's black hoodie. Ridley’s gaze jerked to the burly man, catching his eyes and giving a stilted nod.

He knew he should have refused but his teeth were going to start chattering soon.

Beneath his hoodie, Diesel wore a black v-neck t-shirt with short sleeves that were pulling at the seams over huge biceps covered in brightly colored images that spanned all the way down to his fingertips. He looked terrifying. But that wasn’t how he felt to Ridley, though he couldn’t explain why.

Ridley shoved his hands into the sleeves, then pulled it closed, dipping his nose inside like he was cold, but mostly because he was hoping to catch the alpha’s scent. Titus saw that, too, his lips twitching upwards like omegas amused him. Like Ridley amused him.

Asshole.

Ridley just stared at the floor while each girl took her turn being scanned and terminated from the system after having their chips removed.

Ridley tuned it all out, his head spinning.

What was he supposed to do now? Ren was still out there and Ridley now somehow had less information than he started with.

“Now can you tell us where you’re taking us?” the youngest asked.

“Liberty Point,” Titus said, texting rapidly, eyes glued to his phone, like the conversation bored him.

She gasped. “The sanctuary city?” she asked.

“Yeah, we’ll get you as far as the border and then the rest of the team will take you from there. Once you arrive in the city, there are people who will help you get set up. ”

Panic sliced through Ridley, causing him to lurch to his feet. “What? No!”

They all stared at him in confusion.

Titus blinked at him stupidly. “What?”

Ridley shook his head. “I’m not going,” he said, directing his words at Titus since he was clearly the leader. “Just…take me back. Or…let me out here. I’ll be fine.”

Titus snorted, giving him a disgusted look. “You’ll be fine? Do you know how many patrols swarm these streets at night? You’ll be on the auction block again before dawn.” Titus stood, getting in Ridley’s face. “You don’t have to thank us, but maybe just don’t make our job harder.”