Page 53 of The Night Movers: Season One

Rain nodded, turning to face him. Ridley pushed the boy’s wet hair from his eyes, combing it back with his fingers.

He really was so pretty, with his crescent moon-shaped eyes and full lips, eyelashes so long they cast shadows on his cheeks.

It seemed almost impossible to imagine that someone with such a pristine face was hiding so much pain beneath his clothes.

Ridley washed him with clinical efficiency, doing his best to be gentle while disconnecting from the feel of the boy’s bones beneath his skin.

Rain kept his eyes shut the whole time, swaying slightly on his feet.

When it came time to wash the boy’s hair, he went slower, took his time, massaged his scalp until the boy was letting out these breathy little moans that went straight to Ridley’s core, making him half-hard.

They both jumped when a deep voice said, “Towels, Strawberry.”

Sugar.

“Thank you, Alpha.”

“Ryker’s med kit and some clothes are on the bed for the both of you.”

He didn’t wait for an answer before he turned and walked away. Ridley turned off the water and reached for the towel, gently drying Rain off. He wrapped the boy’s towel around his waist, then quickly took care of himself.

Once in the bedroom, Ridley threw on the oversize blue hoodie he knew belonged to Diesel and a pair of boxers that were most likely Titus’s.

The other pile of clothes was from Jensen.

He recognized the scent. That wasn’t a coincidence.

Maybe they figured the alpha’s scent would soothe Rain like it had earlier.

Rain studied the pile of clothing warily as Ridley guided him to sit on the edge of the bed.

He started by dabbing antibiotic ointment where the collar had punctured the boy’s throat, then moved lower, carefully rubbing it over his piercings, wincing in apology when the boy couldn’t hold back a whine.

He worked his way down the boy’s body, coating any bite marks or injuries that had broken the skin with the salve. There was nothing he could do for the wounds on his back. They looked terrible, but they were closed. That didn’t mean they didn’t hurt.

“Are you in pain? I could look for something to make it better? A pill or—or something,” Ridley asked, not even sure such a thing existed down there.

He reached for Jensen’s black hoodie, shaking it out to put it over the boy’s head.

“They let you wear clothes to sleep?” Rain asked quietly.

Ridley stopped short. “I—On nights where I’m not sharing a bed with one of them, yeah.”

“Aren’t we sharing Jensen’s bed tonight?” he asked warily, his enthusiasm from earlier clearly having waned.

Must have been the pheromone shower talking.

Ridley shook his head. “Not if you don’t want to. No.”

Rain hesitated, then nodded, raising his arms so Ridley could slip the fabric over his head.

It was huge on him. When he offered him the underwear, the boy shook his head, then tucked his feet beneath him, tugging the fabric down over his thighs before shoving his nose against the collar, inhaling deeply.

“Do you like his scent?” Ridley asked.

Jensen’s scent was the strangest of all of them, but it was also oddly addicting. Ridley couldn’t put his finger on the smell, something like wax, but not exactly that.

Rain, it seemed, didn’t have the same problem. He thought on it for only a moment before he said, “He reminds me of my birthdays when I was really little, before my jiji died. He smells like…like…sugar and candles right after you blow them out. ”

Ridley grinned. “That is what he smells like.”

“Too bad he’s an alpha,” Rain muttered. “They’re all the same.”

If someone had said that to Ridley a week ago, he would have agreed wholeheartedly. But now, he wasn’t so sure. He wasn’t sure of anything. He couldn’t tell Rain that, though, not without giving up their secrets. And there were now so many secrets for him to keep track of.

Rain’s gaze suddenly flicked upwards to him, his intense stare nailing Ridley to the floor. “What’s your deal, anyway?”

Ridley flinched at the sudden suspicion in his voice. “What do you mean?” he asked carefully.

“You’re acting different from how you seemed at the arena. How come?”

Ridley sighed, forcing himself to look away. He walked to the head of the bed, grabbing one of his mangled pillows and fluffing it before tugging down the ugly blanket that kept him warm when he was alone in his room.

He pointed to the spot. “You should get some sleep.”

“I’ve been asleep for hours,” he said, even as he gave a jaw-cracking yawn. “Besides, how am I supposed to sleep next to someone who seems to have six alphas at his beck and call? How do I know you’re not some kind of monster, too?”

“Lie down with me?” Ridley asked, stretching out his hand to Rain.

Rain just stared at it.

“I could make you, you know,” Ridley said. “You belong to me now. At least, as far as they’re concerned.”

He watched as something died behind Rain’s pretty brown eyes. He glowered at Ridley, then wriggled himself until his head was on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling while Ridley tucked him in like a child.

He shouldn’t have said that. What was his problem? Why was he so impatient? With everything Rain had been through, now even Ridley was threatening him. He didn’t know how to do this. He wasn’t a spy or a double agent. How was he supposed to pretend he thought he was better than him ?

But he couldn’t betray his pack either.

He walked around to the other side of the bed, crawling in before sitting cross-legged beside Rain.

“Look,” Ridley said. “A couple of weeks ago, I went to register as an omega and got kidnapped by the New Guard. They sold me to these guys.” He gestured vaguely around the room. “And now, I’m here. I’m still trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing, too.”

Rain narrowed his eyes at him. “You’ve really only been with them a couple of weeks? I thought they’d maybe just been hiding you away.”

It hadn’t even been a couple of weeks, but saying that made it sound even worse. At least, to him.

Ridley shook his head. “They brought me here, and I went into heat. My first since my presentation. It was…intense, surrounded by six alphas. Not how I saw myself losing my virginity,” he added quietly.

“I was so high on alpha pheromones, I can’t even tell you what happened during the height of my heat, but when I woke up, I had a mating bite and five pack bites.

So, it wasn’t like I was going anywhere. ”

“They bit you during your heat?” Rain asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah.”

Ridley studied him. “That still doesn’t explain why they…treat you like they do.”

“That’s a little more…complicated.”

“Yeah, you collared your pack leader,” Rain said sullenly. “Sounds pretty fucking complicated.”

“Would you believe me if I said they treat me well because I have something that makes me useful to them?”

His gifts hadn’t really proved all that useful.

Yet. So far, it had only gotten him claimed by a pack of near feral, surly alphas with a mission.

And maybe it had helped keep Titus alive tonight.

Maybe. As much as Ridley hated to admit it, he was grateful nothing had happened to the man.

Even if they didn’t quite understand each other yet.

“I’d believe you,” Rain said. “But if my pack wanted something from me, they’d just torture me for it. Omegas don’t get to say no.”

Ridley’s stomach sloshed at that. It was true.

Most omegas didn’t get to say no. He chewed on his bottom lip.

“They can’t get what they need from me if I’m…

under duress,” Ridley hedged. “Their only two options were to kill me and forfeit what I can do or treat me like an equal and reap the benefits. They’re criminals. They took the most lucrative option.”

“But your alpha didn’t need to mate you for it, right?” Rain asked. “He just did.”

Ridley felt like he was walking on a tightrope over lava. “He wanted to keep me from running away. He knows that there’s somewhere else I want to be. You know what happens to a claimed omega when they leave their mate. They go insane. Now, I’m tethered to him for life.”

Rain studied him carefully. “But he’s also tethered to you. How’d you get him to agree to that?”

“By force. When I woke up claimed, I was pissed. I hadn’t agreed to that. I’d only agreed to use my talents to help them. I gave him an ultimatum.”

Rain frowned. “But the collar? He wore a collar.”

“That was just payback,” Ridley said, a little smugly as he touched his own collar through the thin material of his shirt. “I wanted him to know what it felt like to be owned.”

“Can I scent you?” Rain asked suddenly.

Ridley’s eyes went wide, heart rate speeding up. “Um, sure. Uh, how do you want to do it?”

Rain chewed on his full lower lip, staring up at Ridley for a long moment before he asked, “Can you lie down, too?”

Ridley nodded, stretching out beside the boy, who immediately rolled on top of him, nosing his head to the side to rub his cheek against Ridley’s scent gland, first one side and then the other. Wisteria bloomed in Ridley’s nose as Rain released his scent.

When he finished, he tilted his head to let Ridley do the same.

Without Jensen’s heavy pheromones clinging to the boy, his sweet floral scent was obvious.

It was lovely. Rain was just lovely. He scented him for longer than he probably should have, but there was something so comforting about being wrapped around another omega. He felt like purring.

When Rain seemed to deem them bonded enough, he rolled off Ridley but stayed close by. “So… are we sleeping with Jensen tonight?”

“I think you’ve had enough excitement for one night. You need to sleep. I’ll take care of Jensen.”

“What’s going to happen to me?” Rain asked. “Am I really your…pet?”