Page 52 of The Night Movers: Season One

On the way home, Rain huddled beside Ridley.

It was weird that Ridley already thought of the place as home, how quickly he’d acclimated to being their pack omega, to being mated to a man he was only just beginning to understand.

How would Ren feel about his new life? Would she accept it?

Would she stay with him? His stomach soured.

Would he ever even see her again to find out?

He bit down on his lip until he tasted blood, letting the pain ground him.

He couldn’t afford to think that way. He knew that.

But he couldn’t feel her anymore. There used to be this radiating warmth inside, this constant presence that he’d never noticed…

until it went cold. Now, he was always so cold.

Cold and isolated and alone in a way he couldn’t explain.

It was the not knowing that got to him. He’d told Diesel that he might feel better if he could just feel her, if he could just know where she was…how she was…if she was alive and sleeping and eating. If she was scared or hurt. Anything .

Diesel had said the opposite was true. That if Ren was out there being brutalized, knowing it wouldn’t make Ridley work harder to find her, it would just cripple him emotionally.

Part of him had wanted to argue, but when Ridley had tried to push him on it, he’d just pinned him to the bed and fucked him into the mattress… again.

Rain whimpered, burrowing closer to Ridley.

He slid his arms around the other omega’s shoulders, combing fingers through his hair like Jensen had done.

Now that the alpha’s pheromones weren’t pumping him full of calming chemo-signals, it was clear he was growing agitated again.

Could he smell Ridley’s distress? They probably all could.

Ridley rested his cheek on the top of Rain’s silky hair, letting his eyes fall shut. He didn’t open them again until Diesel brushed his thumb along his cheek. “Wake up, princess.”

Ridley forced his eyes open, cranky at having fallen asleep for just long enough to feel worse than he would have had he stayed awake.

He gently shook Rain’s shoulder. The omega immediately flinched away from him, eyes darting around like a cornered animal.

He looked at each of them in confusion until the fog of sleep slowly lifted.

He sagged against Ridley as they followed the alphas back to what Ridley had secretly started calling their “lair” in his head.

Once underground, Rain curled in on himself, his shoulders slumped, like he was trying to make himself disappear.

He refused to make eye contact with any of the alphas and whimpered if he thought they looked at him for too long.

Was this all from his short time with Rurik, or was his original pack just as bad?

It was only once they reached the cavernous space of their living room that he remembered he had to decide whether to be himself or the spoiled, bratty caricature of himself he’d played all night.

The boy was already suffering. How could Ridley keep up this act and potentially traumatize him more?

But if he didn’t, he was jeopardizing everything his new pack had worked towards for years.

He couldn’t betray his pack.

“I’m going to take my new pet for a bath. Can you find me something to dress his wounds? Please, Alpha?” Ridley all but purred at Ryker.

Ryker slow-blinked at him like a cat, then hummed in the affirmative. “I’ll put the supplies on your bed.”

“But don’t spend hours in there. The rest of us need hot water, too. Shower together,” Titus barked.

“Yes, Alpha,” Ridley said breezily before going up on his tip-toes to give Ryker a kiss that lingered.

Ryker stiffened, then melted into it, lingering just long enough to sell their supposed intimacy before pulling away.

Ridley made a show of kissing each of them.

Titus and Diesel first. Titus fisted his hand in his hair, basically holding him hostage as he plundered his mouth.

Diesel’s kiss was slow and filthy. Sugar kissed him like he had nothing but time, exploring his mouth lazily.

Jensen bit at his lips, sucked on his tongue, growled into his mouth like a feral animal.

When he broke the kiss with Jensen, his eyes fell on Steele, who leaned against the wall, arms crossed as he smirked at him.

God, he made him nervous. There was just something about his casual disinterest that gnawed at Ridley’s insecurities.

Why was he always so hot and cold with him?

He’d all but mauled him the night he went into heat, but since then, he’d kept his distance.

Would he reject him now in front of Rain?

That would be humiliating. But more than anything, it would be dangerous.

He had no idea what he would tell Rain about their pack…

about their arrangement, their lives. But he knew, for now, it wouldn’t look good for Steele to reject him.

Or maybe it would just drive home in Rain’s mind that they were thug alphas just like all the others.

Ridley couldn’t remember which was supposed to be the better option.

As he approached slowly, Steele answered his unasked question, wrapping a hand around Ridley’s throat and hauling him in, crashing their mouths together so hard their teeth clacked painfully.

Heat punched through him. Ridley whimpered, lips parting instinctively.

Steele wasted no time fucking his tongue inside, holding him in place so he could do as he liked.

It was just so very…Steele of him.

Another raw sound escaped as Steele’s hand squeezed, cutting off the blood supply to his brain. Ridley’s hands clawed at Steele’s shirt, afraid his knees might give out. He smelled incredible, like bourbon and vanilla. Ridley wanted to eat him up, wanted Steele to eat him up, too.

By the time Steele shoved him away roughly, Ridley’s head was swimming. He was embarrassingly wet, his hard-on impossible to hide. Yet, Steele didn’t seem even a little affected. He just gave him another disinterested once-over before crooning, “Night, Strawberry.”

Ridley did his best not to react to his dismissive tone, reminding himself that they all had a part to play.

But Steele wasn’t acting. Ridley just couldn’t get a read on him no matter how hard he tried.

Did he like Ridley? Did he hate him? Did he regret biting him and making him part of the pack? Had he only done it out of duress?

The thought left a hollow feeling in his chest, his omega feeling like he’d failed.

Ridley silently led Rain to the bathroom attached to his bedroom and turned the hot water on.

They both removed their shoes, Ridley sighing with relief.

They were so heavy. He peeled off the small scrap of fabric that made up his shirt, tossing it out the door, before catching Rain’s eye.

He grasped the hem of the boy’s shirt. “Can I?”

Rain nodded once, then lifted his arms to help Ridley slide the shirt up. He tried to school his features into some kind of neutral state, but the damage those alphas had inflicted on the small boy was extensive.

Try as he might, he couldn’t stop his scent from souring. Rain flinched, covering himself. “Don’t look.”

“Shh,” Ridley said gently, tugging his hands away.

Had this been all Rurik? Was that even possible?

Fingerprint-shaped bruises—all in various stages of healing—covered his hips, his upper arms, his shoulders.

There was a softball-sized, eggplant-colored bruise on his ribs and another beneath his collarbone.

Someone had recently pierced the omega’s nipples, crudely so.

They looked raw and swollen, not from infection, but like Rurik had toyed with them often to hurt the boy instead of letting them heal.

Ridley blinked back tears, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat. There was no part of him they hadn’t touched. There were rope burns on his wrists. Bite marks littered his chest, waist, and belly. All this in just a matter of days.

Rurik’s death had been too quick.

Ridley saw Rain taking in his own bite marks and bruises before looking up at Ridley. He could hear the other omega’s unasked questions. Was he forced? Did they hurt him on purpose? Would that happen to him, too? Ridley didn’t know if the truth would make Rain feel better or worse.

They were both the same. Both slaves. Both hostages.

But Ridley was meant to treat Rain as his pet, like he was less than.

How could he do that and live with himself?

A pampered slave was still a slave. And a slave that policed other slaves was just a traitor.

That was how every omega had seen Ridley tonight.

As a traitor. They weren’t exactly wrong.

Ridley removed the rest of his clothes first, hoping it would make Rain feel more comfortable, earning a giggle when Ridley’s underwear hit the floor with a wet splat. He wrinkled his nose, biting back a laugh of his own. Sometimes, being an omega was really embarrassing.

When Rain made no move to take his own pants off, Ridley hooked his thumbs into them and did it himself, doing his best not to acknowledge the other injuries. Both free of their clothes, Ridley checked the water temperature, then guided Rain beneath the spray before stepping in behind him.

He hoped the white noise of the water helped drown out his gasp as he took in the boy’s back. Someone had beaten the boy with…something. A stick or a cane, maybe? The angry red stripes were perfectly uniform, criss-crossing the skin of his back, his ass, the tops of his thighs and even his calves .

“I should have made them kill him slower,” he muttered.

If Rain heard him, he didn’t acknowledge it. Ridley grabbed the bar of soap and quickly scrubbed his own body, ridding himself of his makeup and the evidence of his hook-up with his mate in the office. When he finished, he went to hand the bar to Rain, but he just stared at it, eyes dull.

“Want me to do it?” Ridley asked quietly.