Page 61 of The Night Movers: Season One

The other omega crawled to the end of the mattress, then sat on his haunches.

He pulled the collar of his shirt up over his nose, then inhaled deeply, using Jensen’s scent to soothe himself.

Ridley wished Titus was there. He’d tell Ridley what was happening, even if knowing might make him feel worse.

Titus might not like him, but he always leveled with him.

Diesel and Sugar exchanged a look that told Ridley he wouldn’t get a straight answer.

Instead, Sugar said, “We’re going to meet the curator.”

Rain gasped like those words had claws. “Why?” he wailed, looking at Ridley with wide eyes.

Who the fuck was the curator? Like…a museum? Did they even have museums anymore? Diesel gave a heavy sigh, then shook his head like he’d known this would happen. “We’ve been summoned.”

“What does that even mean?” Ridley asked, looking at each of them in turn, hoping one of them would provide him with something that would let him know exactly how much he should freak out.

“We’ll tell you on the way there,” Sugar said. “Just get dressed.”

“But—”

Sugar gave him a sharp look. “Don’t argue.”

Ridley snapped his mouth shut, chest tightening. He hoped it was for Rain’s benefit and not because Sugar had decided he could treat Ridley like his servant. Ridley gave him a snotty look, nose in the air before he turned on his heel, dismissing them before they could do the same to him.

He could have sworn he heard Diesel snicker. Ridley didn’t know what was so fucking funny.

Once they were alone, he turned to Rain. “You know who this curator person is?”

Rain nodded solemnly. “Everyone knows the curator.”

“Not everyone,” Ridley prompted. “Who is he? Why would he summon them? Why do we have to go?”

Ridley’s skin felt feverish, a strange thrum humming beneath his skin—not fear, but maybe a close relative.

“We should get dressed,” Rain said quietly.

Ridley made a noise of frustration. “Fine, but you can talk while we do.”

“Okay,” Rain whispered. “The curator calls himself Vesper. I don’t know if that’s his first name or his last name…or if it’s a real name at all. Maybe he made it up.”

“Okay…what does he do?” Ridley asked, flinging open the doors of his wardrobe.

“He procures things for the ones behind the wall.”

The oligarchs.

“Things?” Ridley echoed.

Rain nodded, little lines forming between his brows. “Orochi once said Vesper ran a luxury acquisitions network.”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” Ridley asked, rifling through his new clothes, trying to figure out how to dress to meet someone he knew nothing about.

“He does what the men in the arena do. He’s…a broker.”

“You mean he traffics omegas?” Ridley spat.

Rain nodded.

Ridley looked over at the door. “But then why does everyone seem so afraid of him? I thought Titus was the king?” Ridley said, putting on his snootiest voice.

Rain shook his head. “I don’t think I’m explaining it right.

Vesper doesn’t sell omegas. Or at least, not just omegas.

He sells…access. He only deals with th e rarest, most high-value items. He only sells to the richest of the rich.

The oligarchs, the government, black sites and medical military contractors, generals.

Anyone with money and power. If one of the upper echelon wants something, they go to the curator.

If someone finds a…high-value item that they know will fetch a big price, Vesper facilitates the sale. ”

“And what does he want with us?” Ridley asked. Rain stared at him for just a moment too long. “What? Why are you looking at me that way?”

“Like I said, he only deals in the rarest specimens.” Rain took a deep, shuddering breath. “He probably wants you.”

Ridley’s heart rate tripled, a metallic taste filling his mouth at the idea. “What? Me? Why?”

Rain shook his head helplessly, like the answer was failing him. “I don’t know. But I know it’s not because of me. Nobody knows I’m here, and nobody’s ever thought of me as special.”

The matter-of-fact way Rain said that made Ridley want to cry.

Rain was beautiful. He was soft and sweet and he smelled good, and when he giggled, it sounded like music.

How fucked up was the world they lived in that someone would be upset they weren’t special enough to be bought and sold like livestock?

It showed how indoctrinated they all were from birth.

The world had sold them all on this lie that the only good omega was one coveted by an alpha.

And Ridley was right there, buying into it. Last night, he’d needed Steele to want him. He’d let Steele degrade him in a hundred different ways and then he’d thanked him for it.

But maybe that wasn’t the same thing. Steele was frustrated with Ridley—with the situation they had all found themselves in—but he didn’t mean the things he said when they were swept up in their desperation for each other.

Ridley knew that deep down. Things said in the bedroom had to be looked at through a different lens. Right?

“They…” Ridley trailed off. “You don’t think this curator person could…keep me. Right?”

He hated the way his voice wavered.

Rain gave him a pitying look. “It’s not him keeping you that you have to worry about. It’s him auctioning you off to the highest bidder.”

“He can’t do that, though. I’m…claimed. Titus wouldn’t let him do that,” Ridley said, almost like he was trying to convince himself.

“That’s probably why Vesper’s summoning us. He’s probably pissed that they claimed you without asking. He has access to every chipped omega in the district. Maybe even outside of it.”

Ridley shook his head. “My chip was removed. They deleted me from the database.”

“Which is even more suspicious,” Rain said. “Vesper has probably heard people talking about you. If he tried to track you and found you didn’t exist, he’d wonder how and why you were removed from the database.” Rain frowned at Ridley. “Why would they remove you from the database?”

Fuck.

“I don’t know,” he lied, hoping his scent didn’t give him away.

“They don’t include me in decisions like that.

Queen is just a title. They were just trying to get under the other alphas’ skin by making it look like I have some kind of real power.

In the end, I’m just another omega, just like everyone else. ”

Rain studied his face, chewing on his bottom lip, like he was deciding whether or not he would call Ridley out on his bullshit.

In the end, he just sighed. “We should…probably start getting ready. We don’t have to dress up like you did last night, but Vesper is all about presentation.

So, it wouldn’t hurt to make an effort to look… extra.”

Extra? Casual, but extra? What did that even mean?

Ridley began to flip through his new wardrobe, sliding items from one side of the closet to the other, trying to find something that fit Rain’s idea to look effortlessly extra.

Whatever the fuck that meant. When he glanced back, he saw Rain sitting silently on his bed, hands clasped in his lap .

Ridley frowned. “You don’t want to look?”

Rain just shook his head. “Can you just pick something for me?”

“Are you sure?” Ridley asked.

Rain gazed up at him with wide, hopeful eyes, then bumped his cheek into the back of Ridley’s hand. “I belong to you. Don’t I?”

How was he supposed to answer that? He cupped the boy’s face, then combed his fingers through his inky dark strands. “Do you want to belong to me?”

Rain nodded, then leaned forward, pressing his forehead to Ridley’s belly, wrapping his arms around his waist. Ridley’s heart was in a vice grip.

All he could do was hug him back for a few moments before separating.

He dropped to his knees before the other boy, catching his gaze.

“I’ll find you something nice. No white. Okay?”

Rain nodded, a smile splitting his pretty face.

Once Ridley was on his feet again, he flipped through all his options.

He needed to dress Rain first. He found a pair of low-rise jeans that were fitted at the hips and over the ass but then flared wide.

They had many useless cargo pockets on them, but they had hugged Ridley in all the right places. They’d do the same for Rain.

Rain put them on without question, then waited patiently.

Ridley pulled a cropped black bubble sweater off a hanger.

It had oversized sleeves that slipped over the boy’s hands, but left a large portion of his mid-section showing.

Ridley winced when he took in the bruises left by Rurik. He’d somehow already forgotten.

“I can cover them with makeup…or find you something else.”

Rain shook his head. “Leave them,” he said softly. “Let them see what he did to me.”

Ridley blinked rapidly as tears threatened. What was wrong with him lately? Rain just activated this need in Ridley, this desire to keep him safe. Had Rain known any peace in his life? Any joy? Had he had any sense of autonomy ever?

“Do you at least want to pick out your shoes?” Ridley prompted, tickling the boy under his chin, butterflies erupting in his belly when the boy’s eyelids fluttered.

Ridley dropped his hand. They had no time for him to do the dirty things threatening to make an appearance in his head.

Rain chewed on his lip once more as he viewed the many shoes in the bottom of Ridley’s wardrobe, then grabbed a pair of platform sneakers covered in silver rhinestones, glancing up at Ridley hesitantly, like he was worried he would say no.

“Pretty,” Ridley murmured.

It took two pairs of thick socks to help keep the shoes on Rain’s feet and not slip around uncomfortably. If he was going to stay with them for any length of time, Ridley needed to convince Titus to bring Rain to Linus, too.

Ridley grabbed a silver belly chain with star-shaped crystals.

When he wrapped it around Rain’s waist, the little stars dangled just so, twinkling in the light.

Some pretty silver and pearl earrings went on next.

But then it was time for them to find something that represented a collar.

Ridley showed him the chokers Linus had picked out for him, letting him be the one to decide.

Ridley’s eyes went wide as Rain chose a black chain that wrapped around his slender throat three times before attaching to a heart shaped clasp that sat just at the dip of his throat.

Ridley’s fingers shook as he put it on, partially because he’d never collared anyone and partially because Rain was warm and smelled like flowers after it rained, and he was looking at Ridley in a way that made his belly swoop.

He knew if he just leaned in, brushed their lips together, licked across the seam of his lips, he’d open for him just like he had last night.

There was something so heavy about that.

He was no better than an alpha. All he wanted to do was push Rain back on the bed and show him that sex didn’t have to be painful, didn’t have to hurt.

He shook his head, breaking the spell. What the fuck was wrong with him? Had Steele’s pre-rut bumped Ridley back into heat? Was he destined to just live his life perpetually horny because his alphas couldn’t sync their cycles?

He turned back to his closet, pulling out silky black pants that hung low on his narrow hips before ballooning out, then gathering at the ankle.

He topped it with a leather muscle tank that clung to him like a second skin, then tucked the pants into his same heavy lace boots from the night before.

When he finished, he stared at himself in the mirror.

“It’s missing something,” he said, a knot forming in his belly.

Rain whined, fretting as Ridley’s scent did something that spooked him.

He reached out and patted the other omega absently as he tried to decide what was missing.

In the meantime, he pulled his collar out from beneath his shirt, letting the pearl dangle.

When Rain saw the single teardrop, he leaned into the drawer and pulled something silky from Ridley’s drawer.

They were elbow-length black satin gloves. Ridley’s brows went up as he contemplated the look. He pulled them on and then eyed himself in the mirror. Rain added a pearl bracelet, then an ear cuff that looked like a nautilus shell.

“Good?” Ridley asked, heart thudding heavy against his ribs.

Rain frowned then picked up one more thing. It was a metal cuff that fit in the center of Ridley’s lip, then came down in a point like a bird’s beak. He was right. That did add something. He slipped it off, then smiled when Rain frowned.

“I still have to do my makeup. Yours, too.”

“Oh,” Rain said softly. “Right.”

Once their hair was done and their faces painted, Ridley returned the lip ring to his lower lip, then added a delicate silver chain that hooked over Rain’s ears and draped across his dainty nose. He wanted this Vesper to see that they were both unmuzzled. The jewelry would draw his eye right to it.

He didn’t know what this curator wanted with them, but he refused to act like a victim, lest he become one.