Page 33 of The Night Movers: Season One
There was a blur of motion and a sharp sting on his left cheek. It felt a little like his eyeball exploded. He stumbled, holding his cheek, staring at Titus in shock.
Titus just gave him a hard look. “Don’t forget where we are, Strawberry. Linus is one of us, but everyone outside that door is the enemy. You can’t act like that out there.”
Ridley stepped into his space, his temper flaring as his cheek throbbed, skin burning in the shape of Titus’s palm. “ We’re not out there. You need to remember that I’m not your pet. I’m your mate. Hit me again without cause and I’ll cut your fucking heart out while you sleep.”
From the corner of his eye, Ridley saw Linus’s brows go up, his hand going to his mouth like he was hiding a smile. Titus stared Ridley down like he was contemplating hitting him again, his chest heaving, those pale green eyes narrowed and glinting with fury.
Ridley refused to back down. After a moment, the alpha’s shoulders sagged and he huffed out a breath through his nose. “Whatever. I don’t have time for this. I’ll be back for him in two hours. Make sure he has everything he needs. I mean it, Linus. Everything.”
“Yes, sir,” he quipped, giving him a two-fingered salute that was more just a wave of his hand.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Linus went to the door and flipped the sign to closed .
When he reached Ridley, he snagged his arm, dragging him past the colorful curtains, shoving him through.
On the other side was a small room with a brightly colored fabric bench and shoes lining every shelf.
He pushed Ridley down onto the bench, then hit the floor, tucking his knees beneath his ass, propping his arm beside Ridley’s hip, dropping his chin into his palm. “Tell me everything.”
Ridley blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, how did you convince that…man to mate with you?” Linus asked. “Is one of your parents some kind of powerful alpha? Was there a family merger? That can’t be. Titus doesn’t have the pedigree for that.”
“No, nothing like that,” Ridley hedged, chewing on his thumbnail.
“Well…” Linus prompted when he didn’t expound on his answer.
Ridley flailed. What was he supposed to say? Not even he knew why Titus had lost his mind and bitten him. “Nothing. He saw me. They …saw me. I went into heat. Things…happened. They all bit me. The end, I guess.”
“Wow,” Linus whispered. “That ass must be top-tier.”
Ridley flushed. “I wouldn’t know. I barely remember any of it.”
That much was sort of true, right? At least, his last two days with Diesel and whatever they did to him while he was unconscious.
“Well, what do you say we get you out of someone else’s clothes and into outfits more suitable to your new station in life?”
“My…new station in life?” Ridley echoed.
Linus smirked at him. “Mm, you’re the new queen of the underworld, lovey.”
Ridley blinked at him stupidly. “What does that mean?”
Linus scoffed. “Do you really not know who you mated with?”
We’re the worst of the worst.
“Not really. I know who they say they are and I know who they really are,” Ridley said with a shrug.
“And who do they say they are?” Linus asked, now bustling around.
“Traffickers. Guys who buy and sell omegas to do disgusting things to them. ”
“I suppose that does sum it up.” He waved a hand around. “Welcome to hell and all that.”
“Everywhere is hell for omegas,” Ridley said.
Linus gave what Ridley could only describe as a guffaw. “And you went and married the devil himself. The Persephone to his Hades.”
“Hardly,” Ridley said faintly as Linus tugged him to his feet, pulling at his clothes. “I’m just another lowly omega.”
Linus barked out another surprised laugh, turning to narrow his eyes at Ridley. “If that’s what you think, then you’re not the person I thought you were at all.”
“And who did you think I was?”
Linus gave him a shrewd look and a knowing smirk. “Let’s talk while we shop, yeah?”
Ridley nodded. Linus disappeared behind the other side of the curtain, then hurried back in with a pile of clothes on hangers, tossing them onto the unoccupied bench. “Tell me, when you’re not wearing other people’s hand-me-downs, what’s your style?”
“I’m too poor to have a style,” Ridley admitted. “I’m always in hand-me-downs.”
“Hm,” Linus said. “Okay, how about this. Do you want to stand out or blend in?”
He leaned against the wall, observing Ridley like his answer was the key to solving some riddle. Standing out might get him the attention he needed to find his sister but it also might get him killed.
Ridley shook his head helplessly. “I don’t really know that either. What do you think?”
Linus scoffed. “The queen can’t let those bitches outshine her.”
Ridley instantly thought of the haughty omegas he’d seen outside. Would they look down their noses at him? Would he embarrass Titus? Why did he even fucking care? The man had slapped him .
Again.
It hadn’t really hurt, though. He probably would have had to hurt him if he’d done it in front of the wrong people.
“I really don’t know anything about fashion,” Ridley admitted.
Linus arched a perfectly manicured brow. “Do you trust me?”
“I don’t even know you,” Ridley countered. “But I do know that if you make me embarrass Titus, I will make him cut out your heart and give it to me as a mating gift.”
“Spoken like a queen,” Linus said, clapping his hands delicately, his grin making Ridley’s blood run cold. “Say no more.”