Page 46 of The Night Movers: Season One

Ridley’s blood ran cold. Raised there? He wasn’t stupid. He knew there were brothels—deep underground brothels—that catered to…those kinds of people. People who wanted…who wanted kids in that way. But was Titus one of those children?

“Like you worked there?” Ridley could barely get the words out, his stomach slippery.

Titus shook his head, then stopped short. “Not in the way you’re thinking but…yes. Steele, too. That’s how we know each other.”

Steele? He’d brought up his mother and sisters when arguing with the others that night.

He was such a mystery to Ridley. He was one of the most attractive people Ridley had ever seen up close, but he was cold, guarded, and he played everything so close to the vest. Ridley was pretty sure Steele hated him.

He dragged himself back to the present conversation, as nauseating as it was. “What do you mean by raised …in the brothel? Is that a thing? They ha ve…children just living there? Babies? Little kids? I thought they sterilized pros—brothel workers.”

“They do,” Titus said. “The woman who ran the place made an exception for my mother…and, eventually, Steele’s mother.”

“Why? I don’t get it. Did your mom get pregnant working there?”

Titus shook his head, looking paler than a moment ago. “She was pregnant when she got there. She was fourteen.”

“Fourteen?” Ridley whispered.

“A friend of her father—an alpha—raped her. Got her pregnant.” He said it without any real emotion, but there was no missing the way the muscle in his jaw ticked.

Ridley made a distressed sound, Titus’s emotions fucking with his, taking on his hurt as his own. This was what a one-sided claiming bite did. Still, Ridley’s heart broke for him. He didn’t even need to know much else. He could guess what happened next. It was always the same old story.

Titus continued after a moment. “My grandfather tried to force this ‘friend’ to divorce his beta mate and claim my mother, to make my birth legitimate so as not to embarrass him. The man laughed in his face.”

Ridley made a disgusted noise. “Of course, he did. What did he care?”

Titus snorted. “Yeah, he had no intention of divorcing his rich beta for my teen mom. Her father threatened to get the courts involved, but the man knew my grandfather was bluffing. My mom was in heat when it happened—her first—so, of course, the courts would side with him. You’ve heard the excuses. We all have.”

Omegas were assaulted every day. Probably hundreds a day. Those omegas rarely saw justice. Instead, they became cautionary tales, demonized by alphas and martyred by omegas. There was never any defense strong enough. Not when every defense attorney fell back on the same old excuses.

He was just an alpha.

He couldn’t fight his instincts .

What did she think would happen?

Why wasn’t she locked up if she didn’t want it?

It’s just nature taking its course.

It was on omegas to keep themselves safe. Nobody would protect them. Not the New Guard. Not the judges. Not the jury. They were alphas, too, after all. Hardly a jury of omegas peers, but they didn’t care about fairness.

Ridley found the irony laughable. Alphas had everything—controlled everything—yet, they were so good at playing the victim. It was Schrodinger’s alpha. The only ones stable enough to run the world, yet, somehow, simultaneously overpowered by their instincts.

How could it be both?

Ridley’s scent soured, too, but he couldn’t help it. It wasn’t his story, it wasn’t his mother…but it was. It was every omega. The helplessness, the frustration…it belonged to all of them, this burden they all were forced to carry forever.

“So, what happened?” Ridley asked, more for Titus’s sake than his own. Ridley could guess how it went.

“My grandfather had to recoup his losses. He couldn’t sell her off to some rich alpha. She was too far gone to get rid of me or trick some beta into thinking it was his.”

The sick feeling in Ridley’s stomach intensified. “Her father sold her to a brothel?”

Titus’s teeth clenched. “Worse. He put her up for auction. The”—he swallowed audibly—“ handler assured him she’d fetch a good price, much better than a direct sale to any brothel or breeding farm.”

“Monster,” Ridley muttered, trying not to choke on his own anger.

“She was a rarity, like you. Black hair and green eyes. A rare beauty.” Titus’s breathing grew heavier. “This way, if a brothel or a breeding farm wanted her, they’d have to pay top dollar. Or, maybe, if she was lucky, just one alpha would keep her as a pet, as a…mistress. ”

“She was a kid,” Ridley whispered, his heart beating hard and fast behind his ribs.

He remembered being fourteen. He couldn’t imagine dealing with everything he was going through right now at that age, much less having a baby.

“What about the baby?” Ridley asked, his pulse racing.

“I mean…you. What did they plan to do about you?”

Titus shrugged. “Some brothels wouldn’t want to risk childbirth ruining her body, but there were others, those who saw the bigger picture, who knew we were a bargain. Once I was born, they could just sell me, too. And if I looked like my mom, they could get top dollar.”

Their sick logic made sense. But it didn’t make it any less disturbing. Yet, it didn’t happen. “But they didn’t sell you?”

“No,” Titus said, his laugh acidic. “My mom was bought by a high-end brothel just outside the city limits. They put her to work right away.” He shuddered.

“Some guys pay big money to fuck a pregnant omega. Especially one as young as she was. Especially a former rich girl. You can imagine how they treated her, especially when word got out and half her clients were alphas she’d rejected for one reason or another. ”

Ridley didn’t want to imagine it. The only thing worse than an alpha was a rich alpha with an agenda and a chip on their shoulder. One set on getting even. Ridley’s eyes stung. She must have felt so helpless, so broken. She was probably terrified.

“The closer she got to my birth, the more depressed she grew. It was like she just…gave up. She wouldn’t even pretend to…participate with these men. Some liked that. But most just left frustrated. It pissed off the owners.”

“What did they do?”

“If my mother hadn’t been so sought after—so rare—they would have cut their losses, sold her to a breeding farm. But too many people were willing to pay any price for the chance to be in her bed.”

Ridley actually wanted to vomit. Grown men fighting over a chance to use a pregnant omega child. Monsters, all of them. They all deserved to die .

“Right about then, the woman running the place died, leaving her whole estate to her beta mate, Charmayne. She was the one who came up with a brilliant way to keep my mother in line. Charmayne wanted kids. Not because she liked them, but because she liked controlling things—controlling people—treating them like dolls she could move and manipulate as she liked.”

She sounded as awful as any alpha.

“She couldn’t have kids. She shouldn’t have had kids, honestly.

She was a terrible person. But she quickly realized she could fulfill her sick motherhood fantasy and keep my mother in line.

She would keep me, raise me in her home, and, as long as my mother behaved, she would get to see me periodically… as a reward.”

Ridley chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment, then prompted, “And that…worked?”

“So well that she did it again with another woman two years later. Steele’s mother.

She came to the brothel in a similar fashion: unmarried, rare, a redhead like you.

Only she was older, arrived with three children.

A boy and two girls. Steele was only a toddler, a couple of months younger than me.

His two sisters were a couple of years older. ”

“So, she basically stole four children to manipulate their mothers?”

Titus nodded. “We were the carrots she dangled in front of them to keep them docile and accommodating. As long as she had our lives in their hands, they would do anything, no matter how depraved.”

“And you just…lived with the woman who kept your moms prisoner?”

Ridley couldn’t fathom it. Having to rely on someone who had enslaved the most important person in his life? It seemed like insanity.

“She liked to play head games with us,” Titus said.

“You never knew where you stood with her. One minute she was happy, the next she was livid. She was a big fan of tossing us into the basement or locking us in closets. Steele was afraid of the dark for years. Still sleeps with the lights on.” His gaze snapped to Ridley’s.

“I probably shouldn’t have told you that. Forget I said it.”

Ridley wouldn’t forget. His heart squeezed at the idea of Steele being too afraid to sleep in the dark.

It was so…endearing. So human. It made Steele seem like something other than the indifferent alpha who hated him.

He would never tell him he knew this secret of his.

Maybe someday he’d trust Ridley enough to tell him himself. That seemed unlikely, but maybe.

Ridley gave Titus a barely-there smile. “Forgotten.”

“When we were old enough, she started making us do odd jobs around the brothel. She paid us a little bit of money, but she took half of it for our room and board.”

“She charged you,” Ridley said.

It wasn’t a question. He just needed to say something. Needed to show he was listening.

It was typical of traffickers. That promise of freedom if you just work a little bit longer, a little harder. It was quicksand. The more they struggled, the deeper they got.

“Where’s your mom now?” Ridley asked, already dreading the answer.

“Dead,” Titus said flatly.

Ridley bit the inside of his cheek to keep him doing something stupid like bursting into tears. “Did…someone hurt her?”

He gave a sharp shake of his head, his voice devoid of emotion. “Cancer. She worked until she was too sick to take care of herself. Then she died.”