The Night Movers - Bonus #1 - The Aftermath (Patreon)

This is the first Bonus for anyone who joins my Nolah Harker newsletter. There will be several welcome bonuses including Ridley's missing ho

This is the first Bonus for anyone who joins my Nolah Harker newsletter. There will be several welcome bonuses including Ridley's missing hours told either by Ridley himself or his alphas. This first part is directly after Titus loses control. It's unbeta'd/unedited.

Titus

He'd done it.

Titus could feel the tremble in Ridley's limbs, the way his hole spasmed weakly around his knot, but all he could focus on was the taste of blood on his tongue, and the searing realization of what he’d just done. He’d bitten him. He’d pinned him down and sank his teeth into his scent gland. He could still feel the way it throbbed beneath his tongue. The way he’d clenched so hard around his knot. 

The bond was formed.

Irrevocable.

Claiming a mate during heat was one thing. But biting? Biting while knotted?

It was the end of every agreement they'd made. Every line they weren’t supposed to cross. And he’d crossed it with the subtlety of a fucking wrecking ball. Twenty minutes ago his biggest concern was getting the tiny omega pregnant. Now he’d tied Ridley to him for life. He’d robbed him of any chance to live a life free of him. 

Ridley was barely conscious, lips parted, lashes fluttering, still twitching through the aftershocks of orgasm. His fingers clutched at the sheets, knuckles pale, as he whimpered softly, lost in the haze of heat, unaware that the course of his life had just been irrevocably altered.

Titus hadn't meant to bite him. He hadn’t meant to claim him. He’d been so clear when it started. Of all the alphas in that room, Titus would have bet money that he was the least likely to falter…to crack. If anyone, he’d worried the most about Diesel. He was so goodhearted. Or Jensen who was shockingly sensitive beneath his layers of performative indifference. But not him. 

Fuck. 

His omega had begged. He’d cried so sweetly, had sounded so desperate, so needy, like only Titus could fix what was broken inside him. Instead it was Titus who had broken. And now they were all fucked. His heart thudded hard against his ribs, adrenaline pumping like he’d just won a race. 

He stayed locked inside, unwilling to move, afraid he’d hurt Ridley if he pulled out too soon. His knot throbbed in the cradle of Ridley’s body, and every twitch made his gut clench harder. 

It was too much.

The scent of bond pheromones was thick in the room, sweet and violent. It clashed with the tang of blood, the sharp chemical sting of slick. Around him, the pack was frozen. 

No one spoke.

If possible, no one breathed. 

Until Ryker.

"You bit him," he whispered. 

Titus didn’t look up, the bitter taste of his own self-hatred clashing with the iron taste of Ridley’s blood. “I know.”

There was no excuse. No explanation that would change what he’d done.

“I warned you,” Ryker continued, his voice quiet. “He’s…a stranger.”

“I know.”

Jensen ran a hand down his face, muttering a curse. Sugar leaned forward from where he’d been crouched, his expression unreadable. Steele looked like he might throw a punch—or bolt. And Diesel? Diesel looked quietly furious.

“We told him we wouldn’t do this,” Ryker said. “We told him we wouldn’t even claim him as our pack omega…and you just gave him a…mating bite. What the fuck, man?” 

Titus finally looked at him. “We didn’t claim him. I did.”

“But why?” Steele said, bewildered. 

“I don’t know,” Titus shouted. 

No one responded. They all knew the distinction didn’t matter.

It didn’t matter why he’d done it; only that it had been done. 

Titus stared down at the boy beneath him…his omega now, in every biological sense. Ridley’s body had taken his knot so well. Had clung to it, welcomed it. He’d begged for the bite. But that didn’t make it okay.

Titus could still feel the vibration of Ridley’s voice, that last whispered, "Please… do it, knot me, breed me…claim me."

And he…just did. Not like it was a plea but a command. Like this tiny little omega had demanded his bite and Titus had no choice but to obey. At least that’s what it had felt like at the time. 

Titus’s alpha had made it clear in that moment exactly what it wanted. He’d growled the word in Titus’s head again and again, drowning out all thought, all reason. One word on repeat. 

Mine. 

Even now, filled with regret, his alpha was smug, satisfied. Ridley was his now. He’d fucked the words into his skin, etched them in blood.

And now?

Now there was no going back.

The scent would mark Ridley forever. Every alpha would smell it. Every omega would know. And when he woke up—clear-headed, sober—he would know too.

Titus felt sick.

His knot began to shrink, the ache in his chest swelling in tandem. Slowly, reluctantly, he slipped free, watching Ridley whimper at the loss. The blood on his cock was faint, diluted by slick and cum. But the bond? That was still fresh. Still real.

He eased Ridley onto his side, covering him with a clean blanket Jensen handed over silently. The omega curled into it instinctively, already drifting. Already forgetting.

Titus wished he could forget too.

But he wouldn’t.

He’d remember every second of this.

The way Ridley had cried. The way he’d begged. The way he’d taken him without hesitation.

And he’d remember what it cost.

Ryker stood stiffly near the headboard. “We need to talk about what happens next.”

“I know.”

Sugar crossed his arms. “Because when he wakes up? This pack is going to feel a hell of a lot different to him.”

Jensen’s voice was tight. “If he stays.”

Titus nodded once, his jaw set.

“He will,” he said.

He had to.

He had no choice. 

None of them did.

Ryker

Titus didn’t move.

Neither did any of them.

The last sound in the room was the wet click of that final thrust, the locking sound of a knot sealing what none of them could take back. And then—Ridley’s soft, blissed-out gasp followed by the unmistakable scent of blood and bond pheromones.

Ryker’s hand was already moving before he realized what he was doing. He reached instinctively, fingertips brushing Ridley’s sweat-damp curls, tilting his head gently to get a better look at the bite.

Deep.

Messy.

Bleeding sluggishly beneath the seal of Titus’s mouth.

It was a real mating bite.

No posturing. No bluff.

And Ridley? Still conscious—barely. Still in heat. Still soft and sweet and shattered in the exact way they’d sworn wouldn’t happen. He was limp, curled like a ribbon under Titus’s weight, the curve of his body cradling that knot as if he was built for it.

Jesus. What the fuck had he been thinking? This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be happening. But it was. It had. And now here they were. Ridley lying softly on his side, tucked beneath a blanket, breathing labored. 

“Fuck me,” Ryker whispered under his breath.

Titus exhaled like he was dying. He finally opened his eyes—red-rimmed, haunted—and looked up at Ryker. “I didn’t mean to.”

Ryker didn’t respond. Not at first. There wasn’t anything to say that didn’t start with a punch or end in a breakdown.

He stepped back. Put space between himself and the bed. Between himself and the scent of mated omega. The chemical sharpness of it hit like a drug. It smelled like ownership. Like everything they weren’t supposed to do.

Like a vow they couldn’t walk back from.

“You…” Ryker started, voice even, clinical. Detached in a way he most definitely didn’t feel. It was the only way to keep from screaming. “You didn’t say anything about marking him. About binding him to you in front of all of us. Without telling him. Without asking.”

Titus shook his head, still caging Ridley’s body like he was afraid someone might try to take him. “He was begging.”

“He’s in heat, Titus,” Ryker snapped. “They all beg in heat. You’re supposed to be the one who knows the fucking difference.”

No one else spoke. Not Steele, not Jensen, not even Diesel—who usually had something to say no matter what was happening. They just stared. At Ridley. At the mark. At each other.

“Is he okay?” Sugar finally asked, voice low.

Ryker glared at Titus until he moved away enough for him to examine the omega. He pushed his hair behind his ears with a trembling hand. He laid his fingers against Ridley’s pulse, careful not to jostle him. His skin flushed and hot. He was still hard. He pushed up into Ryker’s touch. 

Still in need.

He gently pushed him forward until he was almost on his belly, carefully spreading him open. There was blood. Not a lot, but enough to let him know Titus had bred him deeply. Deep enough to take. Christ. A baby was the last thing they needed. And this wasn’t even over. He wasn’t even fully in heat yet. He was about to spend the next few days being passed between them like a sex doll. One of them needed to stock up on meds sooner rather than later. 

“Physically?” Ryker said. “He’s fine. Some bruising. He’ll be sore. But…” He glanced at Titus. “You know what this means.”

Titus nodded once, shoulders slumping.

They all knew.

This wasn’t just fucking anymore.

This was a mating bond. A biological one. A claim.

And when Ridley woke up, dazed and sticky and filled to the brim, he’d be tied to Titus in a way none of them could undo.

No matter how much he fought it.

No matter how much they tried to explain.

No matter how much they told themselves they had a choice.

Ryker sat on the edge of the mattress and slowly ran his hand over Ridley’s sweat-slick back, whispering something in Japanese that only Kenzo would’ve understood. A prayer for guidance. For peace. For forgiveness.

“We’ll have to tell him,” Ryker said finally, softly. “Everything.”

“No,” Titus said. “Not yet.”

Ryker’s gaze snapped to him. “You don’t get to not tell him.”

“Just until the heat breaks,” Titus said, voice raw. “If he finds out now, he’ll run. He’ll fight the bond. He might—”

“Might what?” Ryker interrupted. “Hurt himself?”

Titus didn’t answer.

Didn’t need to.

They were all thinking it.

Because even though they’d known him only a few hours, they all knew that Ridley—clever, stubborn, self-sacrificing Ridley—would tear the skin from his own neck if he thought it would mean keeping his autonomy.

Ryker leaned down, brushing Ridley’s hair back from his face once more, then kissed his forehead. Not in lust. Not in dominance. Just comfort.

“We can’t lie to him,” Ryker said. 

Titus didn’t argue.

Didn’t promise.

Didn’t say anything.

And Ryker knew that was answer enough.

Diesel

Diesel’s knuckles ached from how hard he was clenching his fists.

He hadn’t meant to get this worked up—not with Ridley still panting like a broken prayer on the bed, not with Titus looking like he wanted to dig a hole and die in it—but the rage in his chest felt radioactive.

He wanted to hit something. Not someone. Something. A wall. A car. A punching bag. Anything to avoid the truth churning in his gut.

Titus fucking bit him.

Not a nip. Not some instinctual tease.

He bit him. 

Right there. In front of all of them. On a neck that had been so soft, so trusting, so goddamn vulnerable.

Diesel sat back against the nearest wall, rubbing his hands down his face, trying to catch his breath. His heart was thundering. His cock still hard—fuck, they were all still hard—and it made him hate himself a little.

Because no matter how angry he was, how violated he felt for Ridley… his body still reacted. Still wanted. Still remembered the slick heat, the trembling thighs, the desperate way Ridley had looked at all of them like they were salvation and destruction at once.

He dragged in a breath.

“This wasn’t how it was supposed to go,” he muttered.

Steele glanced over, nodding once. “No shit.”

Diesel looked back to the bed.

Ridley looked so small now. Smaller than he had before. Tucked under that blanket like a bruised peach, ripe and ruined. Still in heat, still marked, still fucked out beyond reason.

“Do you think he’ll hate us?” Diesel asked aloud, to no one in particular.

Jensen didn’t answer. Sugar stayed quiet. Titus–predictably–had gone still as a statue. His default setting when he was brooding.

Ryker sighed. “I think he’ll be confused. Hurt. Angry. He might panic.”

Diesel nodded. “And then what? He bolts?”

“He might.”

“He won’t,” Titus said, ever the voice of reason. 

Steele snorted. “You seem pretty confident about that. Did you discern that from your new mating bond?”  

Titus sneered at him. “Fuck you,” he snapped. “I discerned it from a conversation we had earlier.” 

“A conversation?” 

“Mm,” Titus said. 

When he made no attempt to explain further, Sugar huffed a breath out  his nose. “Would you care to elaborate, alpha?” 

“When I took his pain away earlier–” 

“When you told us you locked him up?” Steele cut in. 

Titus glowered at him. “Do you want to hear this or not?” 

“Talk,” Diesel snapped, narrowing his gaze at Steele in warning. 

Steele simply rolled his eyes. 

“I told him that I wouldn’t let him turn you guys into rapists. He’d said it should be his choice who he spends his heat with. Then he said that maybe his vision wasn’t right.” 

“Seriously?” Steele snapped. “You’re telling us this now?” 

“Shut. Up,” Jensen said through clenched teeth. “He’s still our alpha.” 

Steele opened his mouth, then snapped it shut again. 

“He said…he said it wasn’t the vision that was wrong, but his interpretation. He said maybe he didn’t belong to us. But we belonged to him.” 

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Diesel muttered. 

“He thinks we’ve been going about what we do the wrong way. That instead of rescuing a few fish from the net we should just blow up the whole boat. I tried to tell him that he’s too young to understand that it's just not that easy but you know how he is. He’s convinced he’s some kind of avenging angel…and we’re the sword in his hand.” 

“Are you saying he wanted you to claim him? That he told you that?” Ryker asked.

 “No, I’m saying he probably won’t be as upset about it as you are. I just fucking played right into his hand.”

Diesel’s jaw worked for a long moment. He thought about all the ways Ridley had made him feel something sharp and real for the first time in too long. The way he pushed back, talked shit, begged with his whole body. The way he’d gasped Diesel’s name like it meant something. 

“Are you blaming him for this?” he asked, shaking his head. 

Unbelievable. 

“That’s not what I’m saying. I did this. It’s on me. I’m just saying, I don’t think he’ll run. If anything, I think he’ll think he owns me. Owns us. Hell, maybe he’s right. I don’t fucking know anymore,” Titus muttered. 

Diesel pushed off the wall and crouched beside the bed, reaching for Ridley’s hand.

It was damp with sweat. Sticky with the aftermath of heat.

Even like this, he was beautiful.

“I won’t let him go,” Diesel said softly. “I know we don’t own omegas, that we can’t control them. But I won’t let him run away to be butchered. He could already be pregnant. Did you think about that?”

He stroked a thumb over Ridley’s knuckles, watching the omega shift in his sleep. A twitch of the brow. A soft inhale.

“Of course I fucking did,” Titus snapped. “I’m the one who knotted him. If he runs before he takes that pill, who the fuck knows what they might do to him…to the baby.” 

Ridley whimpered at that, a soft sob escaping. 

“We won’t let that happen, princess,” Diesel whispered. “When you wake up… we’ll figure this out.”

He didn’t know if that was a promise he could keep.

But he was damn well going to try.

Steele

It was everything Steele had feared.

Exactly the nightmare he’d been waiting for.

Ridley was claimed. Knotted and bitten. Covered in cum and bond pheromones. The whole room stank of it. Ownership. Submission. A decision none of them had agreed to, forced into being with teeth and their alpha’s cock.

And all Steele could see was blood.

He hadn’t moved. Couldn’t. If he moved, he’d hit something. Titus, maybe. Himself, more likely.

He gritted his teeth, arms crossed so tight his muscles ached, eyes locked on the blanket Jensen had draped over Ridley’s wrecked body.

He remembered that same body only hours ago—defiant, mouthy, sharp as a fucking knife. And now? He looked like every other omega they’d rescued from the dregs of the system. Soft. Used. Claimed.

“Goddammit,” Steele whispered.

Jensen looked over, brows drawn. “We didn’t know it would happen like this.”

“We fucking should have. Maybe we would have had our alpha shared this little tidbit of information with us. How could you let us do this knowing he had ulterior motives? I told you omegas were fucking trouble but would you listen? No. And now here we are in this mess. You just knotted and mated a teenage omega, brought him into our home…I told you he was going to turn us all inside out and look, it's been hours since he arrived and he’s already blown up our lives.”

Titus stayed silent. Of course he did. They all did. 

“Everything we swore not to do,” Steele snapped, pointing toward the bed. “We’re no better than the fucking the Maulers or Hideo or anyone else who’s ever treated omegas like property.”

Titus’s voice came low, rough. “It wasn’t like that.”

Steele turned on him, fists clenching. “No? Then what was it, Titus? What exactly was it when you bit him while he was still in heat, so out of it he doesn’t even know his own name? Are you saying you’re in love?”

Titus didn’t flinch. Didn’t fight back. His shoulders sagged, the sour scent of his despair making Ridley whimper once again. 

And that only made Steele angrier.

Steele shook his head, every word a bullet hitting its target every time. “We told him he could trust us.”

“I know,” Titus muttered. 

“And you fucking broke him, like a new toy you just had to play with.”

Titus’s eyes flicked to the boy in the bed. He looked… haunted.

Steele ground his teeth. “And what happens when he wakes up and realizes that the only thing more terrifying than being alone in the underworld is being ours?”

No one answered.

Because no one knew.

And that silence?

It was worse than any fight.

Jensen

Jensen’s eyes were on Ridley, but his mind was racing.

Biological implications. Hormonal flood. Pheromone saturation. Bond permanence.

It was a clinical unraveling of a deeply personal mistake.

Titus had bitten Ridley.

Claimed him.

And no amount of scientific rationale would undo that fact.

Jensen exhaled slowly, fingers steepled together in front of his mouth. The urge to understand battled with the need to react. He wanted to yell. To question. To blame. But he also needed to catalog everything they were facing, so he could fix it—or at least manage the damage.

Because there was damage. Unquantifiable. Unforgivable. 

He stood at the foot of the bed, eyes tracking every shift in Ridley’s expression. The tremor of his lashes. The way he curled in instinctively. The sigh that escaped his bruised lips.

There was still arousal there. Still fever in his cheeks. Still an open, pulsing need. A need they would have to satiate if they wanted to keep him from losing it. But soon there would be clarity. Soon, Ridley would wake from the haze of his hormones. And when he did, Jensen would be ready. Because he had to be. Someone had to be. 

He’d seen a lot of things. In this life. In this world. But he hadn’t seen this. Not from Titus.

The logic screamed in his head like an alarm. The bond was permanent. The bite irreversible. And the consequences? Incalculable. Not just because Ridley had been marked, but because he hadn’t consented in the way that mattered. Not fully. Not clearly. Not when his biology had hijacked his brain and begged.

Not when he wouldn’t remember.

Jensen wasn’t sure when he’d stopped breathing. Probably somewhere between the bite and Titus’s voice shaking when he’d admitted he’d done it.

I did. 

Those two words were going to echo for weeks.

Jensen stepped back from the bed, forcing his hands into his pockets like it might stop them from shaking. He stared at Ridley, cataloguing the things that weren’t visible. Blood sugar too low. Heart rate still spiking. Brain in alpha-triggered heat compulsion mode. Bond hormone cascading through his system like a tsunami.

“His fever’s climbing again,” he said aloud, more to himself than anyone. “He’s still not stable.”

Sugar’s head snapped up. “What?”

“I said he’s still in active heat. Titus’s bite wasn’t enough to complete the cycle. His body’s processing it as partial mating which is going to confuse his chemistry even more.”

Ryker nodded grimly. “So we’ll have to…?”

Jensen didn’t finish the sentence. He just glanced around the room, already calculating.

Titus had broken the dam, but it was the rest of them who would be swept downstream.

He didn’t say what they were all thinking: that Ridley might spiral. That he might wake up and not know where the pain stopped and the pleasure began. That what they’d intended as comfort would look like violation.

They hadn’t failed him yet.

But they were damn close.

Jensen rubbed the bridge of his nose, counting backward in his head from ten. There had to be a way to fix this. Or at least, minimize the damage.

“We’ll monitor his vitals,” he said finally. “One of us needs to stay with him at all times. And when he wakes up? We let him talk. We let him remember. No one pushes. No one touches him unless he asks.”

The others were silent.

And then Diesel asked, voice low. “What if he begs again?”

Jensen paused. “Then we remind him he has the right to say no. And we wait.”

But even as he said it, he wasn’t sure waiting would be an option. The scent in the air was already thickening again. Ridley was shifting in the sheets, lost in some fevered dream, keening softly.

It wasn’t over.

Not by a long shot.

And Jensen didn’t know how to stop a train that had already jumped the tracks.

But he'd try.

For Ridley, he'd try.

Sugar

Sugar wasn’t sure what the fuck he was supposed to feel.

He just stood there, arms crossed tight over his chest, like if he could press hard enough, he might keep everything inside from coming apart. His throat was dry. His head was pounding. And Ridley—

God, Ridley looked wrecked.

Blanketed, boneless, flushed, marked and…claimed.

Sugar hadn’t moved since the bite. He’d watched it all happen like he was outside of his own body. The final thrust. The sound Ridley made. The scent of Titus’s release. And then the bite. Wet. Final. A growl that turned Sugar’s stomach inside out, so shocking none of them had even finished but the two of them. 

It should’ve been beautiful.

It should’ve felt right.

Instead, it felt like betrayal.

Titus’s betrayal. To them, his pack. To Ridley, the omega who’d trusted him with his life, his heat…fuck, his virginity. Sugar trusted Titus. Even now. Even after this gargantuan mistake.. But for the first time ever, he was having a hard time seeing past his fury. Not because Ridley wasn’t theirs. Maybe he was. Maybe he’d always been destined to belong to them. 

But they’d all agreed. No bonding. No claiming. No mating. But that had all gone out the window the minute Ridley had dropped that towel and offered himself up to them like a lamb surrounded by wolves. 

So now what?

Sugar watched Titus cradle Ridley’s slack form like something precious and broken. And all he could think about was how it looked like every fucking aftermath they’d rescued omegas from. Blank stares. Shaking limbs. Blood they didn’t remember spilling.

“You shouldn’t have done it,” he said, voice quiet.

Titus looked at him, wrecked. But Sugar didn’t flinch.

“You broke the rules.”

Silence.

“I know,” Titus rasped.

Sugar’s jaw clenched. He took a step closer to the bed, just to see him. Ridley. His Ridley now. Whether he wanted to be or not.

He reached out and brushed back a sweaty curl, careful not to wake him.

“God, you’re gonna hate us,” he whispered. “And we’ll deserve it.”

He stood there for a long moment, then leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Ridley’s temple.

“I’m sorry, shortcake,” he murmured.

It was all he could say.

And it wasn’t nearly enough.

Titus laid Ridley gently on the mattress, then rose. 

“Where the fuck are you going?”  Steele snarled. 

“I just…need to be alone?” 

“Alone?” Diesel snapped. “What the fuck are you talking about. Your omega is in heat. You don’t get to walk away.” 

Titus was already shaking his head like he was rejecting Diesel’s words even as he spoke them. “I have to. If I don’t, I’ll only cause him more distress. You guys can take care of him, of his heat. You wanted your turn. Now you’ll have it.” 

Ryker shook his head. “I’ve seen you take on some of the scariest people on the planet but you’re gonna run away from one tiny omega? You’re such a fucking coward, man.” 

Titus looked down at Ridley for a long minute. “Take care of him.” 

Sugar watched him walk away, unable to hide his disgust. When he could no longer smell the alpha, he turned to look at the others. “What do we do?” 

Jensen sighed. “We…take care of him, I guess. Someone has to.” 

“What happened to wait and see?” Sugar asked.

“That just walked out the door with our alpha…his mate,” Jensen muttered. 

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Diesel asked. 

Ryker nodded. “Jensen’s right. When he wakes up, he’s going to be distressed. If he thinks we’re rejecting him as a pack, he’ll be inconsolable in this state. We don’t have any choice but to finish what he started.” He stabbed a finger towards the door. 

“Finish what he started?” Steele asked sharply. “What’s that mean?” 

Diesel frowned. “We need to knot him, obviously.” 

“We need to claim him,” Ryker clarified. 

Steele’s head snapped to Ryker’s. “What? Are you crazy?” 

“In Ridley’s vision, he saw all of us biting him, not just Titus,” Ryker reminded him. 

“I know that. But we can’t all mate with him,” Sugar said. “That’s not how this works.” 

Jensen grimaced. “We can’t mate with him, but we can claim him. We can make him our pack omega.” 

“We can’t,” Steele snapped. 

Diesel growled. “We have to.” 

“Diesel’s right,” Jensen said. “Titus has left us no choice.” 

Steele snarled, slamming his fist into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster, dust puffing into the air as the cracks spiderwebbed up the wall like a fractured mirror. 

“Feel better?” Sugar asked dryly. 

Steele snorted. “Yeah, fucking amazing.” 

Ryker tossed a water bottle at Sugar. “We better hydrate. I have a feeling our little omega’s gonna be in rare form when he wakes up.”

He caught it without looking, twisting the cap off and downing it in one go. 

What the fuck had they done?

https://onleyjames.myflodesk.com/nolahharker