The Night Movers S2 - Episode 5...Part 1 (Patreon)

Unbeta'd/Unedited. 20% plot, the rest smut. Have to split it for subject matter.

What are you going to do with it?

The words echoed in Ridley’s head as his new…friends? Acquaintances?…warmed themselves in the back of the van. While they talked, Ridley gleaned little bits of information about their lives. While none of them were truly happy with their situations, all but Kess said their lives were tolerable, that things could be worse.

That was the stick all omegas used to measure their lives. Horror. Where alphas did things so egregious to them that being raped, beaten, and starved was considered “not that bad.” What it really meant was they were still breathing, which was a lot more than many omegas could say. They weren’t being overtly tortured like some alphas did—like the Dollmaker and, supposedly, Ridley’s own pack had.

When the races started, they all left the van, wrapped in blankets, Ridley still cloaked in Sugar’s coat. Tires smoked over wet pavement, the loud screeching ripping up Ridley’s spine and setting every nerve in his body on edge, causing an almost primal fear. Was it biological or was Ridley starting to care about these men? The former didn’t feel true but neither did the latter somehow. 

Maybe feelings really didn’t belong in their world. Maybe they were no more than animals, led solely by instinct. Ridley shook the thought away. He didn’t have time for an even bigger existential crisis than the one the other omega had started with her question. A question he was trying—and failing—to ignore. 

Titus and Steele were racing tonight. Every time either of them were in the driver’s seat, Ridley’s heart plummeted into his shoes. There was nothing safe about these races even in the best conditions, but on a night like this? It was absolute lunacy. Every car fought to grip the wet pavement, fishtailing down the straight path from start to finish. Roan’s car lost control in the second race, crashing into the concrete railings on either side of the track.

It had taken three of his men to pry the door open. The moment he got out of the car, he stomped up to Kess and slapped him hard in the face, gripping his arm tight before dragging him away. Ridley wanted to puke at the way not a single other person flinched…except Rain, who looked at Ridley with a fear that only came from being on the receiving end of that kind of abuse. Ridley had pulled him closer, resting his head on his. 

Ridley was torn on how to move forward.

He could get Titus to ask for Kess as a prize, but when he disappeared to the sanctuary city, the other omegas would think he was dead. And, worse than that, that Ridley was scouting his own kind for his pack’s depraved red rooms and snuff films. If he was going to get any of these omegas out, he would have to be strategic about it. Careful. Quiet. It could never look like his idea. Ever. He wished he could just be straightforward. He wished he could tell them that he had a way to help. But there was no way to trust them. That was the conundrum. There was no such thing as loyalty outside of pack. While many omegas would relish the chance to escape, some had been imprisoned so long they thought themselves in love, their position in the pack important. They’d sworn their fealty to their alpha and they were in too deep to jeopardize their precarious predicament. And that made them dangerous. 

Look at Vector. He bought and sold other omegas to some of the worst of the worst of the elites all for money. Ridley couldn’t imagine any sum of money great enough to subject another living soul to someone like the Dollmaker, but maybe corruption didn’t strike like lightning. Maybe it grew like cancer, slow, invisible, insidious until it was impossible to ignore. Until it had already overtaken any of the good left inside. 

What are you going to do with it?

Nikki’s question was burning through his skull like a branding iron. He wanted to scream. He wanted to tell them not to place any trust in him, any hopes in him. Because he had no idea what he was going to do with the power given to him. 

That was Ridley’s own dirty little secret. He wasn’t smart. He wasn’t some new guard type military man. He certainly wasn’t some kind of master strategist who could topple an oligarchy. He was an omega tied to six near feral alphas who somehow just…let him do whatever he wanted. Who trusted him to lead them somewhere better when he didn’t even know where he was going.

He was winging it. There was no other way to say it. He was thinking on his—very clumsy—feet. If anything, his bravery actually spoke volumes about just how stupid he was. Anyone with any sense would be too terrified to function. 

It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid exactly. He was alarmed any time they left the safety and comfort of the hotel, even flanked by his alphas. He wasn’t afraid of death. Death would be the easy part. Dying only hurts the people left behind. He was afraid of what was happening to his sister. What would continue to happen if he just stopped trying.

That was the thing. When you’re raised in a fucking hellscape where your body wasn’t yours and your whole existence revolved around the comfort of others, death seemed less like a threat and more like a blessing. Ridley had only ever had one reason to stay alive. Ren. And now she was gone.

He looked out at the men who stood in the pouring rain, soaked to the bone, arms crossed and heads together as they talked about whatever it was alphas talked about. Hopefully it was calling off the races soon. He wanted to go home. He wanted to get warm, get fed, and get used by his alphas. Maybe more than once. He wanted to watch them make Rain cry in ecstasy. He could think of so many better things to do on a night like this. 

Rain whined, probably smelling Ridley’s arousal. His fingers absently patted Rain’s hair as he fought not to think too hard about being bred while surrounded by a dozen plus alphas. 

Titus glanced in his direction. When their eyes met, Ridley gave him a pleading look. Titus shook his head, letting him know they couldn’t leave yet. Ridley felt like his blood pressure must be through the roof. There was no way it was safe to be driving in this weather, no matter how competent Titus and the others said they were. Ridley could see the puddles of water on the track, slick with oil. The thought of any one of his alphas getting hurt shook him. Who would fight for him if something happened to them?

Did that make him selfish? He didn’t care. He hadn’t set up the rules of this godforsaken place. They did. If they wanted Ridley to care about them over him, they shouldn’t have tied his very existence to them being the only thing to keep  him safe. When he glanced over at them again, he saw Sugar watching him with an intensity that made him shiver. Or maybe it was the cold. 

What was the other alpha thinking? Could be anything. Maybe he wanted his coat back. Maybe he wanted to go home too. Or maybe he was wondering how they’d all ended up in this situation in the first place. With Sugar, it could have been anything. He was an enigma. They all were in their own way. 

No matter what the other packs thought of him—the other alphas specifically—Ridley knew his alphas would fight for him. Maybe it was instinctive, maybe it was something encoded in their bond. But if anyone came for Ridley, they’d have to go through his alphas first. And even though his alphas weren’t who people thought they were—who even Ridley had thought they were—he’d seen his alpha end a man’s life without a shred of remorse, all at Ridley’s command.

Sugar and Diesel had both told him—more than once—that they’d killed people, tortured them, mangled their corpses to send a message. They had a formidable body count as a pack, brutal disusting crimes. Just not against omegas. Never omegas.

His alphas weren’t the good guys. They just weren’t the worst guys. Which just showed how low the bar really was when it came to standards.

Ridley was so deep in his thoughts, his thumbnail between his teeth, that he didn’t even see Sugar striding toward him until he was almost on top of him. The alpha didn’t even slow down, just scooped him up bridal-style and carried him to the open van door.

He set him down on the cold metal floor then closed the door.