The Night Movers - Ep 2 (Patreon)

Uneta'd/UneditedEpisode TwoRidleyDiesel unlocked Ridley’s cuffs and pushed him towards Ryker and his scalpel. Ridley clenched his fists to keep his hands from shaking. The three other omegas whimpered, their whines getting louder the closer Ridley got to the instrument and the pretty man holding it delicately between his thumb and pointer finger. When he was close enough, Diesel pushed him to his knees. Ridley hated the effect it had on him, heat shooting through his core. Up close, Ryker was even prettier than Ridley thought. He had the longest, sootiest lashes Ridley had ever seen. He had a delicate bone structure that was far more prevalent in omegas or betas than in any alpha Ridley had ever seen. He supposed the pretty man could be a beta. It was wrong to assume someone’s secondary gender strictly based on looks, but, again, they were actively kidnapping him so he felt that he should be given some wiggle room on that front. Except, maybe they weren’t.Ryker caught his gaze and held it, eyes momentarily dropping to Ridley’s lips then back again. They were amber with flecks of gold. Ridley couldn’t look away, pinned down by his stare. Who were these men? Ridley’s mouth went dry, his tongue darting out to lick over his bottom lip, tasting blood. He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears. “Tip your head forward,” the man with the glasses directed from beside him.Ridley heard him, but he couldn’t look away. He didn’t want to look away. Ryker looked…somber, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Fingers fisted in his hair forcing his head forward. Diesel maybe? The bespectacled man pulled something from his bag but Ridley could only stare into Ryker’s lap, held as he was. He found himself riveted by the reflection of his own red hair in the blade of the scalpel. Something shaped like the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his neck. Ridley flinched. “Relax, kid. I’m not gonna hurt you.” The object moved down his neck onto his back, then right to left across his shoulders. He flushed when he heard the telltale beep of a chip reader. They’d scanned him. They’d found his records. So humiliating. Dehumanizing. Like he was some kind of lost pet.Diesel released him, but he stayed where he was. Titus leaned forward a bit. “What do we have, Jensen?” Ridley’s gaze flicked to Jensen. He had a bit of scruff on his chiseled jaw and a tiny scar just beneath his cleft chin. He had a perfect nose but his ears stuck out just a bit, a little too big for him just like the younger omega. Somehow it only added to his appeal.Jensen tore his gaze from Ridley to look at his screen, then gave a small cough before saying, “Ridley Christianson, 19 years-old, born in the third district. Parents deceased. He has a twin sister named Ren. Secondary gender: Omega. Alleles: Recessive. Gifts: N/A.” Jensen, looked down at Ridley. “Guess they snatched you before test day, huh?” Ridley thought about not answering, but then he nodded. He didn’t need any test to tell him what his gifts were. He’d had them since he was young. “So what is your gift? Do you know?” Diesel asked. Ridley said nothing. He still had no idea what their intentions were, with him or the others. Just because they weren’t being auctioned didn’t mean these men were harmless. Alphas were never harmless. “I’m guessing Kinsey didn’t scan your chip. If they knew you had a twin, he’d have hunted her down and sold you as a matching set,” Titus said. Ridley glowered at the pale eyed alpha. What was his problem, anyway? Ridley pressed his lips together as his heart squeezed like someone held it in their fist. Maybe that would have been the better play. But Titus’s words only confirmed what Ridley had suspected all along…none of them had seen Ren. They were fraternal, but they looked startlingly similar aside from their obvious primary genders. These men would have remembered her. Why had his visions led him to Kinsey and his men and now there if not for Ren? They were never wrong. They’d never been wrong. Panic welled behind his chest wall, but he forced it back down. There had to be a reason he was there. Titus smirked. “Don’t look at me like that, kid. I didn’t create the system,” he taunted. Ridley sneered at him. “No, but you sure don’t mind exploiting it.”Titus’s smug smile made Ridley want to spit on him again, but something still tugged at him. Something deep in his core. Did this happen to every omega in an alpha’s presence? “Titus, maybe you should tell them what’s happening? They’re scared to death,” Ryker said, noting something on a tablet he now held in his hands. Titus sighed, addressing the three girls. “You guys are gonna be fine. We’re not taking you to be sold.” They eyed him with both confusion and trepidation. Ridley didn’t blame them. Why should they believe anything any alpha said? Diesel gave them a warm smile revealing a small gap in his front teeth. “We’re meeting another group who will take you on to your next checkpoint.”“They’ll make sure you reach your final destination,” Jensen said. “Final destination?” one of the girls echoed.“Which is where?” the youngest asked, skeptical.“We’ll get to that in a minute. Just know you’re safe,” Diesel promised. “Okay, you can take it out,” Jensen said. He gave Ridley a sympathetic look. “This is gonna hurt a lot more coming out, then it did going in.” Ridley let Diesel turn him around, drawing his knees to his chin and wrapping his arms around them. Jensen picked up the hem of Ridley’s shirt and pulled it up to his neck, holding it for Ryker. Ridley couldn’t stop shaking, but he refused to argue or put up a fuss. He clenched his hands together. There was a gasp from the other three omegas a moment before a searing pain sliced through him. That pain was nothing compared to the wave of agony that hit him as Ryker began to dig around in the tender spot between his spine and shoulder blade. Tears pricked his eyes, but he bit down hard on his tongue, trying to trick his brain into focusing on the lesser ailment. There was no way he was going to let them see him cry.“Got it!” Ryker cried, triumphantly.“Go ahead, Jen,” Titus said. Jensen caught the alpha’s eye. “Terminate him?” Titus hesitated. “Make him disappear.” What the fuck did that mean? He jumped as something pinched his skin then pierced it. “Sorry, kid. Staples,” Ryker said. “Just three though.” Ridley nodded wordlessly, flinching with each click of the staple gun closing the edges of his skin. “All done,” Ryker said, a moment before a fingertip ghosted down Ridley’s spine, hardening his nipples. Diesel wrapped a hand around his and tugged him to his feet. Ridley’s vision blurred and he stumbled, landing squarely in Diesel's arms. The man was built like a bear and he radiated heat like a furnace. Ridley placed his nose against the man’s hoodie, inhaling deeply. “I bet you smell really good.” A soft chuckle made him realize he’d said that out loud in front of all of them. Diesel smiled down at him, murmuring, “I know you smell good, shortcake.” Ridley pushed away from him and returned to his seat, staring at the floor. He knew his pale skin was crimson beneath his freckles. He could feel Titus watching him, could see his smirk in his periphery. The littlest omega volunteered to go next. Ridley wrapped his arms around himself and bounced his legs, trying to get warm. He sucked in a breath when something draped over his shoulders. A black hoodie. Diesel's black hoodie. Ridley’s gaze jerked to the burly man, catching his eyes and giving a stilted nod. He knew he should have refused but his teeth were going to start chattering soon. Beneath his hoodie, he wore a black vee neck t-shirt with short sleeves that were pulling at the seams over huge biceps covered in brightly colored images all the way down to his fingertips. He looked terrifying. But that wasn’t how he felt to Ridley. He couldn’t explain it. Ridley shoved his hands into the sleeves then pulled it closed, dipping his nose inside like he was cold, but mostly because he was hoping to catch the alpha’s scent. Titus saw that too, his lips twitching upwards like omegas amused him…like Ridley amused him. Asshole. Ridley just stared at the floor while each girl took her turn being scanned and terminated from the system after having their chips removed. Ridley tuned it all out, his head spinning. What was he supposed to do now? Ren was still out there and Ridley now somehow had less information than he started with. “Now can you tell us where you’re taking us?” the youngest asked. “Liberty Point,” Titus said, texting rapidly, eyes glued to his phone, like the conversation bored him.She gasped. “The sanctuary city?” she asked. “Yeah, we’ll get you as far as the border and then the rest of the team will take you from there. Once you arrive in the city, there are people who will help you get set up.” Panic sliced through Ridley, causing him to lurch to his feet. “What? No!” They all stared at him in confusion. Titus blinked at him stupidly. “What?” Ridley shook his head. “I’m not going,” he said, directing his words at Titus since he was clearly the leader. “Just…take me back. Or…let me out here. I’ll be fine.” Titus snorted, giving him a disgusted look. “You’ll be fine? Do you know how many patrols swarm these streets at night? You’ll be on the auction block again before dawn.” Titus stood, getting in Ridley’s face. “You don’t have to thank us, but maybe just don’t make our job harder.” Ridley shook his head, trying to keep his feet beneath him as the truck swayed. “No!” he cried. Choking on the helpless feeling gathering in his chest. “I appreciate what you’re doing. I do. But you don’t understand. I can’t go. I can’t leave town. Not yet. Not until I find her.” “Find her?” Titus echoed. “Find who.” “My sister,” Ridley said breathlessly. “I can’t leave until I figure out where they took her.” Titus stared Ridley down, those sea glass eyes burning their way through him. Ridley remained as he was, refusing to give even an inch. This wasn’t negotiable. He had to get back to the city. Liberty Point was at least a two-day drive from there. He’d never make it back on his own.“Maybe hear him out,” Diesel said. Titus shot a glare at the bear, then sighed, dropping back into his seat and gesturing for Ridley to do the same. “Explain.” Ridley clenched his jaw shut. Was he supposed to spill everything to four strangers just because they claimed they were there to help? Titus gave another long-suffering sigh, then said through gritted teeth. “Explain or we’ll just dump you at the next meeting spot and you can be someone else’s pain in the ass.” Ridley scoffed. “Like you won’t do that anyway?” Titus’s nostrils flared and he sat forward, elbows on his knees, invading Ridley’s personal space. “Listen, strawberry. We’re the only thing standing between you and a dozen guards who will take you back to the facility and brand you a runaway. That is, if Kinsey and his men don’t kill you first so you can’t snitch. Choice is yours.” Tears of frustration pricked at Ridley’s eyes. He’d never felt so fucking helpless in his life. “Five weeks ago my sister presented as an omega. She went to the facility just like she was supposed to. She never came back. I know she went in, I took her there. I watched her enter. The facility had no record of her. Someone erased it. Someone like you. Though I’m guessing they didn’t have good intentions.” “So you went to the same facility?” Ryker asked. Ridley nodded. “I had no leads. So when I presented a few weeks later, I figured it was a sign. They wouldn’t let me past the door unpresented. Even though I’d been fighting with them for weeks to give me information about my sister, they didn’t seem to recognize me when I got there. They herded me through just like all the others.” “And you ended up getting taken by the same guards?” Diesel asked. “That’s a helluva coincidence. No?” “They weren’t the same guards. I know that now. But I knew they were who I needed. I put myself in their way on purpose.” “So Kinsey isn’t the one who took your sister?” Jensen asked. “No. I don’t think so. My sister and I look just alike. They would have been more eager to reunite us. ” He looked at Titus. “Like you said, a matching set would go for a lot more money. If they knew where she was, they would have used it to taunt me. I would have seen something” “Seen it?” Jensen repeated. “Is that your thing?” Ridley glanced at him. What did it matter if he told them now? “Mm. I can see the future. Sometimes I can read people's thoughts.” Titus tilted his head again. “I gotta ask, what was your plan, strawberry?” Ridley wanted to hate the nickname, but every time Titus said it, pleasure shivered through him. Ridley wanted to touch him, bury his face in his scent gland, bury his claws in his skin and mark him. Except Ridley didn’t know him, and Titus had a scent patch on and Ridley didn’t have claws. Ridley tore his gaze away. “I just needed to find her. I had no leads, nothing to go on. Nobody even acknowledged she’d ever existed. My only option was to do what she did, get taken by whoever took her, and hopefully end up wherever she ended up.” “What if you ended up somewhere worse?” Jensen asked. “You could have ended up on the block or at a breeding farm or…worse.” Ridley shot him another dirty look. “As long as my sister was there, I didn’t care. I don’t care. Together, we’d figure it out. We’d form a plan. Despite what you think, omegas aren’t completely helpless. We’ve survived alone together most of our lives.” Ridley’s body shifted as the van rolled to a stop once more. Titus looked at the three omegas. “We’re here.” The double doors swung open, revealing three people waiting just outside in heavy coats and hats. Two female alphas and a male who appeared to be in his mid-forties, maybe older. The three girls eagerly left the van, allowing themselves to be herded into a waiting gray SUV. Ridley stayed where he was. The man looked back and forth between Ridley and Titus. “What about this one?”“I’m not going,” Ridley said, stubbornly.Titus gave Ridley a pleading look. “You gotta go, strawberry. Listen, I promise I’ll—we’ll look into your sister’s disappearance. One of our connections likely knows where she ended up. If we can, we’ll get her out and bring her to you.” “Not good enough,” Ridley said. “I’m not going without her. Take me back to the city and dump me somewhere. I’ll be fine. I’m not your responsibility.” Titus let out a breath through his nose like an angry bull. “Are you crazy? I’m not being hyperbolic. Are you literally nuts? You have to be. You don’t even know if your sister is still alive and your going to risk ruining your entire life for…what? A maybe?” “What do you even care?” Ridley asked. “I’m not your responsibility.” The older alpha looked at Titus. “What do you want to do? We’ve got to get on the road. Every minute we sit here we risk getting caught by patrols.” Titus sighed and looked at the other three men. Ridley heard the opening and closing of a door, then a blonde man with pool blue eyes and a slightly bent nose appeared. “What’s the fucking holdup? We’re sitting ducks out here. Phantom says there's civil militia out here running patrols.” Steele looked at the older man, nodding once. “Cain.” “Steele,” the man said by way of acknowledgement, then looked at Titus. “What do you want to do?” Steele frowned at Ridley then looked to the others like he was trying to piece together what the situation was. Titus seemed to make some kind of internal decision, sighing and scrubbing his hand over his face before he said, “Go on. Get outta here. We’ll take him with us, and figure it out back at the yard.” Cain looked at Ridley. “You sure you don’t want to go with us?” “Want and can’t aren’t the same things,” Ridley said. “Thanks, though.” Titus clenched his jaw, the muscle there ticking. To Cain, he said. “Be safe out there, man.” Cain gave another nod. “You too.” Steele returned to the passenger seat up front with the driver. The slamming of the doors felt permanent, like he’d just closed the doors on his entire future. But he wasn’t giving up on Ren and he wasn’t trusting a bunch of strangers to look for her in their spare time. He had no idea what he would do now. Titus was right about Ridley being in danger. There was no real safe space for an unclaimed omega. Even with scent blockers, nobody would mistake someone like him as a beta. He couldn’t fake a claiming bite. He had no money. Omegas weren’t permitted to work. He could voluntarily go to a brothel but they would take all his money for room and board and he’d be forced to sleep with anyone who had the money to buy his time. He gnawed on his lip until he tasted blood, trying to keep his heart rate down. He was sure they could smell the sour scent of his distress in the small space, especially with no other omegas scents to compete with. He was so in his own head that he didn’t even realize Titus moved until his thumb touched Ridley’s chin then tugged his bottom lip free. “You’re hurting yourself.” Ridley opened his mouth to tell him he was fine, but his breath punched from him as a vision dragged him under. These men, all of them, sitting around a room with low light and a dingy couch. None of them wore their hoodies, making the marks on their neck obvious. They were a pack. An official pack. There was another man Ridley didn’t recognize with them. He had the same mark as the others. An alpha like the others. He had rich brown skin and lochs pulled back in a half-pony. He was one of them, too. One of their pack. His vision blanked, then appeared, this one much different. Ridley, naked on a bed with all of them surrounding him, each of them sinking their teeth into him at the same time. Claiming him as their pack omega. Ridley’s eyes popped open, jerking away from Titus, his eyes wide. Titus looked spooked. “What? What?!” he said again. “Did you see something?” Jensen asked. “What did you see?”Ridley’s head spun, his heart rabbiting behind his ribs. His visions were never wrong. Limited, but never wrong. He looked at each of the men in turn. These men—these alphas—were his. He could feel his breaths coming harder, faster. Being their pack omega would keep him safe. Well, it would keep him safe from the outside world. They would keep him safe. But he didn’t know these men. Just because they helped omegas escape the city, it didn’t mean they were good people. It didn’t mean they wouldn’t use him roughly, wouldn’t treat him poorly. He looked at each of them again. Somehow the idea didn’t unsettle him. If anything, it turned him on. This was why he’d been so drawn to them. He belonged to them. He blushed, then looked away. Which may have been embarrassing had his vision not been so clear. Right. Jensen asked him a question. “Well, what did you see?” Diesel asked, leaning in like he was hoping for some kind of juicy details. “You…wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Ridley said faintly. “Try us,” Ryker said, watching him with serious dark eyes. He wanted to refuse, to stay strong. But he had no choice. “I belong to you,” Ridley said, voice barely a whisper. They all stared at him with varying degrees of shock before Ryker asked, “What does that mean, exactly?” “It means I’m your pack omega,” he said, hand closing over his mouth like he was trying to remind himself to stay silent. “Yeah, we don’t do that,” Jensen said. “We would never drag an omega into this world.” “I dragged myself,” Ridley couldn’t help but point out. “Your vision is wrong,” Titus snapped. “We don’t keep omegas in the house. It would start a war.” “My visions are never wrong,” Ridley said. “Incomplete, maybe. But never wrong. I can show you.” Titus’s gaze locked with his. “What do you mean?” “I mean, I can show you exactly what I saw,” Ridley explained. “You can…share your visions?” Ryker asked. Ridley gave a stilted nod. “I think so, yeah. I-I’ve done it before. Can I show you?”