Page 8 of The Night Movers: Season One

Finding Ren was Ridley’s top priority. If binding himself to six alphas was what it took, that was what he’d do.

Besides, just because claiming was supposed to be for life, it didn’t mean it truly was for life.

An omega could live free of their pack. It would be painful, cripplingly so at first, but it could be done.

He’d endure that—and more—if it meant Ren was safe.

Where was she? Was she warm? Fed? Alive? He silenced the voice in his head that was telling him there was a reason he couldn’t sense her. He couldn’t focus on that right now. His thoughts were too scattered. Everything was so…surreal. How had he found himself here?

“Maybe he was just feeding you that bullshit because he has nowhere else to go?” Sugar said, giving Titus a look. “You’re not usually so gullible. This kid’s scent has got your fucking panties in a twist.”

“Fuck you,” Titus snarled, shoving Sugar.

Steele stepped between them. “See? It’s already starting. He can’t stay with us. It’s too dangerous. For him and for us. We’ve been a pack for six years without incident and now you want to go and change that. For him ?”

Ridley should have felt some sense of disappointment in the men’s conversation.

They clearly didn’t want to keep him around.

This was where he should have been fighting to stay, to prove that his visions were real.

But he was so tired. And so cold. Numb. He was numb.

Numb in his extremities, numb in his core, numb in his soul.

Nothing mattered anymore except being warm.

He looked at Diesel, who tilted his head, eyeing him curiously before giving him a goofy smile. Ridley didn’t stop to think, he just unfolded himself from the spool and walked to the bear-like alpha, climbing into his lap, chest to chest, collapsing with his head on his shoulder .

The whole room fell silent but Ridley couldn’t bring himself to care. Diesel radiated heat like a furnace. Ridley couldn’t get close enough. He would have climbed inside his skin if he could have. He rubbed his cheek against the alpha’s neck.

“Can I scent you?” he mumbled.

“Sure, Strawberry.”

Diesel’s large hand appeared in front of Ridley as he pulled his scent patch off.

Ridley gulped in deep breaths of a scent he struggled to identify.

It was earthy, like the dew on the grass in the morning or moss on the forest floor.

It was addicting. Ridley rubbed his cheek right against his gland once, then again, before tucking his nose against it and closing his eyes with a contented sigh.

Diesel’s massive arms closed around him. He couldn’t stop the whine that escaped as his warmth surrounded him. It felt so nice he could weep.

“Seriously?” Steele snapped.

“What?” Diesel asked, his gravelly voice vibrating through Ridley. “He’s cold.”

See? Diesel got it. Why couldn’t they all just be nice like him?

“Don’t go getting attached,” Sugar said. “We can’t just…adopt an omega.”

Jensen snorted from right beside them on the sofa. “I don’t think adoption is what Strawberry had in mind.”

“Yeah,” Titus agreed. “His vision wasn’t exactly rated E for everyone.”

“For what it’s worth, he doesn’t smell like he’s lying,” Jensen said. “His heartbeat doesn’t stutter either. And he knew Sugar before he ever saw him. I think he’s telling the truth.”

“Jensen’s right,” Ryker agreed. “Whether you want to keep him or not, the kid wasn’t lying. If he was, he’s damn near pathological about it.”

“Which, to be fair, in our line of work is kind of an asset,” Jensen offered.

“You’re only saying that because you want him on your knot,” Steele snapped.

Jensen gave another snort of derision. “Don’t push your own horny agenda off on me.

Me and my hand do just fine. I have no interest in bedding a stranger, omega or not.

You three are so hellbent on deciding whether or not an omega could survive the six of us, you’re completely overlooking the obvious. ”

“Which is what?” Titus snapped.

“That if his visions always come true, then arguing is futile,” Jensen said in that same level-headed tone. “He’ll just keep turning up in our lives again and again until he gets what the universe wants. But who knows what shape he’ll be in once he returns to us?”

Ridley shivered at that thought. They all knew what was waiting for Ridley on the outside.

He would love to stand up and tell them he was capable of taking care of himself, that he could survive on his own.

But the system was rigged against him. Alphas had created a world where Ridley was a victim just waiting for an abuser.

Whether that be the alphas in that room, random alphas on the street, or the ones who roamed in black uniforms.

Ridley didn’t stand a chance alone. He refused to apologize for that. He burrowed deeper into Diesel’s neck, sighing when a calm rolled over him. Diesel was pumping out those alpha pheromones just for him. If there was such a thing as love at first sight, Ridley might think he loved Diesel.

Titus made a noise of frustration, his tone strained. “I’m not gonna lie…there’s something…familiar…about him, about his scent. It’s…addicting? It…fits. I don’t need your permission to keep him. I don’t even need your permission to claim him. But I don’t want anything interfering with our mission.”

Ridley’s omega preened at the word addicting . Diesel laughed like he could read his thoughts.

“So, what are you saying? We just…keep him? End of discussion?” Steele asked.

Ryker shifted in his seat, jostling all of them on the sofa. “It stupid to argue about this. We’re not going to set him free in the city and we’re not going to claim him tonight, so what difference does any of this make? He’s going to be here for the foreseeable future, so arguing is futile.”

“Such a pragmatist,” Steele muttered.

“But not wrong,” Ryker countered. “Look, I’m just saying, you’re not kicking him out.

If you were, you never would have brought him down here in the first place.

So, maybe, we feed the kid and let him shower and get clean before we start deciding whether we all plan on passing him around like some kind of party favor. ”

“Yeah, in case you’ve forgotten, he was kidnapped and held hostage for three days. Look at his face. Maybe we focus on him for the next few hours and stop with all the alpha posturing?” Diesel said.

“Yeah,” Ridley said, so quietly only Diesel could hear him.

Ridley smelled Titus before he felt him. Large hands gripped his waist and then he said, “Give him here.”

“Where are you taking me?” Ridley asked.