The Night Movers, page 5
“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.
Ridley probably should have protested Diesel handing him over to Titus like a sleepy toddler. But the reality was they were all strangers to him, even Diesel. And Ridley was sleepy. He wrapped his legs around Titus’s waist, noting the way his warmth bled through the thin cotton of his pants. He made a noise of complaint as strong hands gripped his thighs too tightly. Titus repositioned slightly, his palms now cupping Ridley’s ass. He didn’t look at the alpha, just buried his nose in his scent gland like he had with Diesel.
Titus carried him from the room like he weighed nothing, taking him down that same grand staircase to places unknown. Ridley didn’t even care what happened next. He felt a little guilty about his own apathy. It seemed almost disrespectful to other omegas. But if Titus planned on using him sexually, he would let him.
All the fight had left him.
He felt his weight being jostled once again, then heard a door open and close, but he still didn’t look up. A dim light turned on overhead and then Titus set him down on the closed toilet seat. Ridley looked around. This had definitely been a hotel once. The bathroom was dated but surprisingly clean. There was a clawfoot tub against the far wall and a stall-like shower beside him.
“Arms up,” Titus said.
Ridley raised his arms as best he could, letting Titus pull his shirt off, who dropped it to the floor. He studied the alpha’s face while he removed his clothes. There was something so appealing about him, something that went beyond looks. It was molecular.
Ridley’s first impression had been that the alpha was beautiful, but that wasn’t quite right. It was like an optical illusion. Titus was…something. Hot wasn’t the right word. Sexy, maybe? Appealing, definitely. But his features were configured in such a way that they shouldn’t work together, but just…did.
His sea glass eyes were piercing, like he could look right through him, and every time their eyes met, Ridley’s belly swooped like he was falling from high ground. Although, when Ridley looked closely, there was nothing perfect about Titus.
His bottom lip was slightly fuller than his top, and the scar that bisected his right eye had been closed hastily, making it jagged and uneven, the scar itself white and shiny against his tan skin. His cheekbones were severe, his jawline uneven, and his eyebrows were two dark slashes over eyes that always seemed narrowed in anger.
And yet, when Ridley looked at him, he wanted. He ached. There was a pull deep in his core that could only be biological. Some part of him recognized some part of Titus. Ridley had felt it with Diesel, too.
But Diesel felt like a safe space, while Titus was a war zone.
Ridley blinked rapidly as Titus removed his own shirt, leaving him staring at a wall of ink-covered muscle. His fingers itched to touch. There was no illusion there. Titus’s body was perfection. Ridley wanted to trace the lines bisecting his abs, wanted to know how the dips in his hips tasted.
Titus had to smell how turned on he was, but he couldn’t even bring himself to be embarrassed about it. The alpha made him wet, made him hard, made him feel things he’d never experienced before.
It took Ridley longer than it should have for him to understand the implication of Titus undressing as well. “Are you showering with me?”
Titus crouched in front of him, holding Ridley’s chin, forcing their eyes to meet. “Can you stand to wash yourself?”
Ridley started to nod, then changed his mind, shaking his head. He was exhausted. The only thing more embarrassing than having an alpha help him wash would be having him scoop him off the shower floor after he collapsed from extreme fatigue.
Ridley hated this. He hated how weak he felt. He hated that this was the Ridley these alphas got to see, not the one who didn’t take shit from anyone. Not the one sporting bruises everywhere for talking back. His heart squeezed. He was disappointed in himself for being everything alphas claimed omegas were.
Defenseless. Helpless. Fragile.
“Then yes, I’m taking a shower with you. I’ll leave my underwear on if that’s your concern,” Titus said, standing once more.
Ridley forced his gaze upwards, mumbling, “That’s not my concern. Just wondering how you drew the short straw. You hate me.”
Titus scoffed, glancing down at his crotch, which was unfortunately—or fortunately—at eye level. It was clear he was hard, his erection causing a ridge beside his zipper. “Does it look like I hate you?”
Saliva flooded Ripley’s mouth. He wanted to bury his face into the scent gland there, too. Ridley wanted to sink his teeth into it.
He forced himself to look away. “Wanting to fuck me and hating me aren’t mutually exclusive. One’s biology, the other’s just…bad taste.”
Titus snorted. “I bet nobody in the world has ever hated you, Strawberry. But you’re trouble with a capital T.”
Titus flicked on the water, and it came to life, hissing and spitting like a stray cat before it seemed to catch, the pressure surprisingly strong as it hit the drain. How did they get water down there? Electric? Steam rapidly filled the small space, wrapping around Ridley, clinging to his skin. “You don’t even know me,” he said sullenly. “I could be the best thing that ever happened to you…to any of you.”
Titus’s soft chuckle would have infuriated Ridley if they were in literally any other situation, but there, with almost nothing between them, it made Ridley’s heart trip in his chest.
Titus pulled Ridley to his feet, making short work of their remaining clothes until they were both very naked. Ridley had never been completely bare before. Well, not because he wanted to be anyway. Did he want to be? His thoughts were foggier than the room they stood in. It was hard to think with Titus that close.
Ridley probably would have panicked over the situation just a week ago, but after three days of captivity and four days of being stripped bare and poked and prodded by so-called “medical professionals,” Ridley was immune to that particular humiliation. At least Titus wasn’t going to poke him with surgical instruments or needles.
“I’m sure you’d like to think so, Strawberry. But no good can come of a single omega in an alpha pack. It’s not a fairy tale, it’s a nightmare.”
“Shouldn’t it be my decision?” Ridley asked, still clinging to Titus’s naked frame, afraid his knees might give out if he let go. “You rescue omegas, but you don’t think we have the right to choose who claims us?”
Ridley’s breath caught as Titus lifted him off his feet and then set him under the spray before stepping in beside him. Ridley couldn’t stop the low moan that escaped as the scalding water beat at his tired muscles. Watching the dirt and grime of the past three days wash down the drain was heaven.
But after a moment of luxuriating in the spray, Ridley became painfully aware of how close they were. The shower stall felt so much smaller than it looked. Nothing had changed but, suddenly, everything was different.
Titus looked him over with an intensity that both scared him and excited him. Nobody had ever…desired him before. Nobody had ever looked at him like they had a claim, like he belonged to them. He’d never known a look could make him lose his already tenuous grasp on reason.
Titus let him rest against the tiles as he soaped up a cloth and began to wipe Ridley down. “That’s what you don’t seem to understand, Strawberry. Right now, nothing’s changed. You’re just a cute little blip on our radar. A temporary inconvenience.” The cloth dipped lower, rubbing slow circles on Ridley’s flat belly. “But the more we get attached…each time one of us is inside you, knotting you, breeding you…it’s going to be harder and harder for us to share.”
Ridley’s cock twitched, his body releasing slick. This time, it was Titus who groaned, taking a step back. “This is what I mean. Look how fucking hard I am already. A few hours in and I already want to eat you alive. I want to chain you to my bed and breed you until you’re stuffed so full of my cum there will be no doubt you’re mine.”
Ridley’s belly did the swooping thing, his knees threatening to buckle. His body was fully on board, slick coating his ass and thighs. If he stepped back under the water, the evidence of his arousal would go right down the drain but it was clear Titus could smell how much he wanted it.
Ridley bit his bottom lip, his cock flushed and leaking, aching for some type of friction. He’d let Titus have him. He’d bend over in the shower for him right then and there. His body was screaming at him to give in, to let him take him apart in any way he saw fit. He’d only felt this way one time before, during his pre-heat. But the center had quickly quelled that with drugs.
All the alphas could talk about were their ruts, but what would become of Ridley if he went into heat? Would they take turns? Would they fight over him? Tear each other apart? Tear him apart? He should have been horrified by the idea but he wasn’t. He wanted them…all of them. Though, right now, he just wanted Titus.
He would let Titus swallow him whole. He would let him chain him to a bed and knot him until his body remolded itself into the shape of his cock. More than that…he’d beg for it. He would. Ridley knew that just like he knew he already belonged to them…to the pack.
It simply…was.
In the future, he’d go to his knees for all of them, sacrifice himself for all of them. But not because they all wanted to tear him apart, but because they wanted to tear apart anyone who came for him. They weren’t stray dogs fighting each other for dominance. They were guard dogs—Ridley’s guard dogs. He just had to convince Titus of that.
“You’ll get used to sharing,” Ridley said, pulling himself together enough to soap up his hands, giving into his urges, letting them roam over the ink on Titus’s chest. It wasn’t several tattoos, like the ones on his arms and throat, but one large tattoo. Intricate line work. Impeccable realism. It had taken someone a long time to create that.
It looked like something from a Greek tragedy, with broken columns and a crumbling colosseum. There was a woman in a flowing dress, covering her eyes as flames devoured the city behind her. Was that Ridley? Pretending that he didn’t know he might be the fire that consumes this pack?
“You say that as if you know me,” Titus growled, catching Ridley’s chin between thumb and forefinger, pushing his head to the side to lick the water from his skin.
Ridley shivered, his knees suddenly jelly-like. So much power radiated from the alpha, but he touched him with exceptional gentleness, like he was worried he might break him.
“You’re the alpha,” Ridley gasped, tilting his head farther, submitting. “I know you set the standard. Sharing me doesn’t have to end in you tearing each other apart. I can be there for each of you, separately or together. Packs are supposed to have omegas. It’s the natural order of things. I’m supposed to be yours.”
Titus’s hand slid down to grip Ridley’s ass cheek hard enough to bruise, all gentleness disappearing in an instant. “You’re saying all the right things, but I can hear your heartbeat stutter. I can smell your fear. You’re afraid of me.”
Ridley wouldn’t lie. He was afraid. Not because he didn’t want this but because he had no idea what he was doing. He pressed a small hand to Titus’s chest. “You were right…back before the van…when we met.”
“What does that mean?” Titus asked, hand snaking inward towards the crease of his ass, trailing through the sticky substance coating his skin. “Fuck, you’re so wet. Does fear turn you on?” he breathed against his ear.
“I’m…a virgin,” he blurted. “I’ve…I’ve never even been kissed. That’s why I’m scared. An alpha has me pressed against a wall. I’m scared because I don’t know what to do for you…how to make it good. I don’t want to disappoint you.”
“Christ, Strawberry,” Titus said, wrenching himself away to lean against the other side of the small shower. “I’m not gonna fuck you here for your first time.”
Ridley took Titus’s hand, noting the two fingers still covered in his slick. He took them both in his mouth, sucking the sweetness from his skin. “But you will fuck me, right? Eventually?”
Titus’s jaw muscle ticked as he stared him down with a look that was somewhere between lust and fury. An irritated growl erupted from his chest, then he spun Ridley around by the shoulders to face the spray. For a moment, Ridley thought he’d changed his mind. Instead, he finished washing him with clinical efficiency, even scrubbing his hair.
Ridley bit his lip, biting back a moan as powerful fingers scrubbed over his scalp. What would those fingers feel like inside him, working him open? He throbbed at the thought of Titus on him, in him, using him. He was stuck in a loop of desperation, every dirty thought feeding on the next only for him to push it back down again.
Titus snarled. “Knock it off. I’m barely hanging on as it is.”
“I can’t help it,” Ridley whined. “You smell good and you’re touching me.”
Titus shut off the water, leaving Ridley dripping in every sense of the word while he went to snag a towel from beneath the sink, wrapping it around him before guiding him into the adjacent bedroom.
The bed was big. It looked soft, the pillows squished and rumpled like Titus beat them into submission each night before resting his head there. It was definitely his room; his scent permeated the space. The room was surprisingly cozy, but he had the decorating skills of a teenager.
The sheets were mismatched. Yellow daisies on the mattress, an ugly blue plaid on the top sheet, and a fuzzy brown blanket that looked enticingly warm. Titus sat him on the edge of the bed, then walked to a stack of drawers.
He pulled a shirt free, unfolding it. It looked soft. It was faded black with a sports car and racing flags in white. He tugged it over Ridley’s head, waiting for him to shove his arms into the appropriate holes. When he did so, the tee fell to mid-thigh.
