Page 40 of The Night Movers: Season One

Ridley was two seconds away from rolling his eyes and getting them all in trouble. Was every night at the arena an alpha dick measuring contest? He glanced down at the small boy, then dropped into a squat directly in front of him. “Hi, I’m Ridley. What’s your name?”

The boy didn’t say anything, just stared through Ridley like he was a pane of glass.

That was when Ridley saw how severe his injuries were.

He had a black eye, an abrasion on his jaw, and both his bottom lip and nose looked swollen.

But the worst was his neck. There were hundreds of cuts, some bleeding, some scabbed over, a few that even looked infected.

He reached out to touch without thought.

Pain ripped through him like a grenade and Ridley’s world tilted on his axis. He grunted as he landed hard on his ass on the concrete, the fall reverberating through his spine. His nose throbbed and snot poured down his face. No, that was blood. He was bleeding. He had a nose bleed.

Ridley could only stare in awe as the puddle of blood formed on the white floor between his spread legs. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his double vision. Had he fallen? Had something hit him?

“Control your guard dog,” Titus growled.

“Control your bitch,” someone else snapped.

Arms gripped him tight, pulling him to his feet, a cloth shoved beneath his nose. Ridley tried not to wince at the sharp stab when Ryker pushed on his nose too hard. After a moment, the sharp pain became a dull throb .

When Ridley’s vision finally cleared enough for him to see, Yuri and Titus were inches apart.

Yuri had his finger in Titus’s face. All eyes were on them.

Titus moved so quickly, Ridley almost missed it.

He grabbed Yuri’s finger tightly and torqued his hand.

There was a sharp snap and a pained snarl.

Ridley’s stomach lurched as he realized the man’s finger now pointed in another direction.

“You ever put your finger in my face again and I’ll cut off every one of your fucking fingers then feed them to you, one knuckle at a time,” Titus said, voice eerily calm.

“As for you,” he said, pointing to Rurik, who still held Rain’s leash. “You’re going in the cage tonight.”

“It’s your funeral,” Rurik said. “Oh, that’s right. The king never fights. Only sends his dogs like a coward.”

Titus didn’t take the bait. “I don’t fight for your safety, not mine. I would have an unfair advantage. But, for you, I’ll make an exception.”

Rurik’s face twisted into a snarl. “I never lose.”

Titus shrugged. “You better hope you’re right, ‘cause if you lose, you die.”

Ryker checked Ridley’s nose. It seemed to have stopped bleeding. Ridley took the rag just in case.

Yuri shook his head, grabbing his own broken finger and snapping it back into place with another disgusting sound. “Never thought I’d see the butcher get so hysterical over a lowly omega,” he grunted. “Pathetic.”

Ridley’s fist flew without thought, connecting with Yuri’s face with a sickening wet splat. Ridley winced as the pain shocked up his arm then reverberated through his whole body. He’d never hit someone before.

Yuri howled in fury. Ridley yanked his throbbing hand back, blinking down at the silver now covered in blood and tiny bits of skin.

Ridley jerked his gaze to Yuri’s face, eyes widening as he saw the puncture wounds dotting along the right side of his face. The rings. Ridley’s stomach twisted. Had he ruined them? Could they be cleaned? He looked for Sugar, relieved when he saw him holding back a laugh.

Yuri lunged for him but Ridley stayed put, frozen in place.

Two of his men grabbed him from behind just as Titus stepped between them.

Yuri’s face was a startling shade of purple as he screamed, “You filthy fucking cunt. I will skin you and turn you into a rug. You dare to touch me?” To Titus, he said, “I demand you give him to me. Now. That is all I will take for this disrespect.”

This time, it was Ridley lunging forward. When hands gripped him tight, he flailed his legs out, trying to kick the man. “Fuck you. I was just trying to say hello.”

“Omegas aren’t to speak to other omegas without permission,” Rurik spat. “I was within my rights to discipline him.”

“You think a boot to the face is discipline?” Steele snapped.

Was that what had happened? He’d kicked him in the face? What a fucking piece of shit.

“You know you have no right to discipline or injure someone else’s omega,” Jensen said. “Besides, the rule is: omegas aren’t permitted to speak to other omegas alone without the presence of their alpha, not that they can’t talk to them without permission, asshole. We were all right here.”

Rurik gave Titus another sneer. “I’m going to end you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Titus said dismissively. “But you might want to get your affairs in order before the bell goes off.”

Rurik looked at Ridley, then smiled, revealing gold-plated teeth with sharpened canines. “When I win, I’m taking him.”

Before Titus could answer, Ridley gave him a simpering look over his alpha’s shoulder.

“The only prize on the table is your life, which you’re going to lose.

Then I’m going to have my alpha take that chain from around his neck, put it around yours and drag your dead fucking body around the ring so everyone will know who the real bitch is—Oh, sorry. Was.”

There was a gasp of shock from somewhere, but Ridley refused to be the first one to break eye contact .

Rurik made a show of twisting the leash around his hand until Rain began to gasp for air, blood droplets running down his skin and blossoming through the fabric.

Ridley gave him a disgusted look. “Oh, wow. It takes a really big man to torture a helpless boy completely at his mercy. What’s wrong?” he asked. “Can’t get it up or something?”

Ridley heard Titus mutter, “Christ, Strawberry.”

“I’m gonna kill that bitch!” Rurik shouted. “You hear me?”

Ridley still had his own blood caked on his face and the taste of iron on his lips. But that didn’t stop him from stepping forward, closing the gap between his front and Titus’s back. He ran his hands up Titus’s chest and hooked his chin over his shoulder. “Alpha?”

“Yeah, Strawberry.”

Ridley nipped his earlobe with his teeth, making a show of running his tongue along the shell of his ear. “Can I pick your prize?”

“Sure,” he murmured, still staring down Rurik. “What would you like?”

Ridley slipped around him, then dropped down once more, his ass dragging across Titus’s zipper suggestively. Rain still crouched there, staring hard at Orochi. Ridley tickled the boy softly under his chin.

“Him, Alpha.”