Page 48 of The Night Movers: Season One

They were almost back to their seats when the brother of Rain’s original owner approached Titus. Up close, the man was…broad. Or maybe Ridley was just horny. No. No, the man was attractive regardless of Ridley’s secondary gender. Though, attractive was actually an understatement.

If Kenzo was hot, Orochi was molten lava.

He had piercing brown eyes framed by lush lashes and thick brows that were pinched together as he seethed in their direction.

His inky black hair brushed the collar of his unnecessarily tight long-sleeved black shirt.

Ridley couldn’t fight the pull to look at his lips.

He had two silver rings that pierced either side of his lower lip and a silver ball that sat just below that same bottom lip in the center. He also had four piercings in each ear.

Ridley’s eyelids fluttered, noting the ink on his hands and fingers.

Did he have tattoos everywhere like Ridley’s pack?

Ridley’s pack. Ridley had a pack. What the fuck.

Ridley had a pack and mates and…had somehow presented and ascended to become queen of the most fucked up court in all of history in just a week.

When Oroshi finally turned to Ridley, he almost stumbled back, hit with the full force of his scent in such a closed space.

He would have if not for Steele standing at his side, holding his arm.

He shifted, then swallowed hard, lids fluttering as he felt himself lean forward and inhale deeply.

Oroshi smelled like something sharp, salty, like… stormy seas. Ridley swallowed audibly.

The other alpha smirked at him like he could read his dirty mind. But it wasn’t Ridley’s fault. He had eyes. Oroshi’s bone structure was impeccable. Ridley itched to run a hand along his cheekbones and his wide, chiseled jaw. He had the obscene urge to lick the sword tattoo beside his left eye.

Steele nudged Ridley, who dragged his gaze away, staring at the ground even as his body lit up from the inside. Was he destined to be this fucking horny forever?

“Can we talk?” Orochi asked Titus.

“Mm,” Titus grunted, nodding towards a space near the outside of the cage, one of the few spots kept empty as a walkway to the doors at the top. To Steele, he said, “Take him back to the others and watch him.”

Ridley rolled his eyes as Steele took him by the upper arm, pulling him along. He stomped back to the concrete risers, dropping down into his previous seat in a huff, crossing his legs and glowering at his alpha and the stranger.

Ryker snickered, giving Ridley a once-over. “What’s got your panties in a twist?”

“They’re not twisted, they're soaked,” Steele muttered, glaring at Titus and Orochi. “Looks like our omega isn’t very discriminating when it comes to his alphas.”

Ryker jerked a startled glance at Ridley, his voice strangled as he asked, “Who? Orochi?”

“Uh-huh,” Steele confirmed as if Ridley couldn’t answer for himself.

“Really?” he asked, disgusted. “You have the worst taste in men.”

Ridley flicked his gaze towards him, giving him a hard up and down. “I chose you, didn’t I?” he countered.

Ridley jumped as Diesel’s large hands landed on his shoulders, then slid down, palming over his chest, his nipples hardening beneath his touch instantly .

“I’m not sure that’s the flex you think it is,” Diesel teased.

“Besides,” Ridley huffed. “It’s not me. It’s my omega. He’s… hungry .”

Diesel shifted and then his lips were right against Ridley’s ear, his fingers slipping beneath his shirt to play with the sensitive nubs, rolling them between rough fingers.

Ridley whimpered, pushing into his touch and pressing his ear closer to the alpha’s lips.

“I can still smell his cum leaking out of you and you still aren’t satisfied? ”

Steele whistled low, shaking his head like he was somehow…disappointed in Ridley.

They were the judgiest bad guys. Fake bad guys. Whatever. They just sucked.

“What are you, my dad?” Ridley muttered. “You guys were ready to tear me apart when I went into heat. It’s not like I can help it.”

“Don’t worry, princess. We’ll take good care of you once we’re home,” Diesel promised.

Ridley gasped as Ryker palmed over his half-hard cock, giving it a squeeze.

Ridley whimpered, pressing up into the heel of his hand. “We?”

Diesel snorted. “Yeah, we. Why, princess? Did you have someone else in mind?”

“Should we invite Orochi over?” Steele taunted, closing his hand high up on Ridley’s thigh. “I’m sure he’d happily put you on all fours, but I don’t think you’re ready for that.”

Ridley’s hips kicked forward, making him squirm. “What—What does that mean?”

Ridley moaned as Diesel tugged on his nipples meanly.

Ryker turned his body slightly, burying his face against Ridley’s throat, lapping at his skin right over the pack bite, his words low and raw.

“It means he won’t coddle you like we do.

He’ll use you any way he likes, as many times as he likes.

” That didn’t sound half bad right then.

“Then he’ll sell you to the highest bidder just like any other sex toy he’s ever played with,” Ryker said.

“You keep asking me to calm down, but you guys won’t stop teasing me,” Ridley managed, breathless.

All hands suddenly disappeared, leaving him wanting and leaking.

He gave a low mewl, sounding like a pathetic animal even to his own ears.

When he looked at Ryker, he was no longer watching Titus and Orochi.

His eyes were on Jensen, who was still caressing Rain’s hair absently as he noted all those tiny squares of paper.

Ridley heard himself asking a question before he could think better of it. “If Kenzo is your cousin, were you originally part of the Kage ōkami ?”

Ryker grimaced. “We weren’t called that back then, but yeah. I was raised in the gang. My mother…” He trailed off, his look too enigmatic for Ridley to decipher.

Still, he tried. “Did they hurt your mom?” he asked, setting a hand on Ryker’s leg.

He looked down at Ridley’s hand in surprise, his face twisting into something dark, his words bitter on his tongue. “Hardly. My mother and aunt were the ones with ties to the Yakuza. My dad was a beta.”

Ridley shivered. “Your mother was an…alpha?”

Ryker gave a dry laugh. “Does that surprise you?”

“I guess it does, yeah.”

Female alphas were rare. They didn’t used to be.

Before the purge, they’d been all but wiped out.

Families known to produce female alphas slaughtered to extinction.

Now, there was maybe one female alpha born for every ten thousand male alphas.

They were no longer killed. They were just considered… undesirable.

There was a time when Ridley would have been hunted down, too.

Omega males were just as reviled as female alphas.

But the powers that be quickly realized that killing male omegas was negatively affecting an already dwindling birth rate.

Too many female betas were infertile. They needed all the omegas they could get if they wanted to breed the next generation of wage slaves .

“Should we intervene?” Diesel asked Steele.

It took Ridley a moment to realize that they were all once again looking at Jensen and Rain.

“Intervene?” Ridley asked.

“No omega would sleep that soundly on an alpha’s leg. It looks suspicious,” Diesel said.

“Why? Rain doesn’t know that you won’t hurt him? Not consciously anyway,” Ridley said. “Intuitively, maybe, but can that be helped?”

Ridley understood the need to be cautious, but they had already done so many risky things tonight. Those idiot alphas probably thought it was the power that had Rain submitting, when in reality it was safety, comfort. Ridley said as much.

“No sense worrying about it now,” Ryker said. “The fight’s about to start.”

“Can you hear what they’re saying?” Ridley murmured, unable to tear his gaze from the two.

“Too far away,” Diesel said. “But we can guess.”

“Guess?” Ridley echoed.

“Mm,” Ryker said. “He’s trying to negotiate Rain’s return…to him. He’s probably offering to buy him back.”

Ridley’s gaze jerked to Ryker, then Steele. “He won’t agree to that, right?”

Steele and Ryker exchanged looks that made Ridley’s blood run cold. “Lets worry about winning first,” Steele said, expression grim.

“Is that Titus’s jacket?” Diesel asked, effectively changing the subject.

Ridley’s face grew hot. “It was his idea,” he muttered, pulling the sides of Titus’s jacket around him, tucking his nose in the collar.

If he happened to inhale deeply to calm himself, that was nobody’s business but his own. Ridley watched as Titus gave one more nod to Oroshi, then looked over the other man’s shoulder, making eye contact with Sugar. How long had Sugar been standing there?

Ridley bit his lip as Sugar sauntered back into the ring, mic in hand. Fuck, he was magnetic, drawing every eye to him immediately, skin radiant under the harsh lights above.

“Are the bets all in?” he asked Jensen.

Jensen gave a thumbs up and closed the book in front of him, though he made no move to rise. Was he trying not to disturb the sleeping boy?

“Is everyone ready?” Sugar shouted into the mic, dragging out the word “ready” until the betas were once more in a frenzy.

Unlike last time, the alphas around the cage were all very still, their agitation bleeding onto the omegas at the end of their leashes, causing them to whimper and huddle closer, even though it was obvious they weren’t permitted to comfort each other.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Sugar said, spinning in a circle to take in the whole crowd. “Our first fighter neither needs nor deserves an introduction. The traitor who dared to strike our queen,” he said ominously.

Ridley fought not to roll his eyes at the theatrics, but the crowd was eating it up. They booed loudly, all eyes on Ridley.

Sugar nodded, expression almost sorrowful. “A grave insult with dire—nay, deadly consequences.”