Page 1 of Bully for Sale
PART ONE
Bought and Sold
In a world where omegas are treated as second-class citizens, and their precious heats are contracted and sold, they have little protection except a flimsy consent law that’s rarely enforced.
Poor omegas can auction their heats off to the highest bidder. But wealthy men use their omega sons’ heat and breeding for an entirely different purpose—to make alliances between powerful families.
Should a breeding be negotiated as part of the heat contract, and if a baby is conceived, an omega must live with his new alpha for the full term of the pregnancy—five months—in order to have steady access to gestation stabilizing compounds only the alpha can provide him.
The dual biological drives of heat and pregnancy keep these men together for the short term, but while all contracts end with an exchange of money, not all end in love.
Chapter One
Ezer chewed hislower lip and employed his eraser with zest. The equation was a tough one, but he knew with persistence he’d conquer it. The concrete bench beneath his bony ass and the hard table under his sharp elbows made him ache all over, but there was nowhere else for him to wait for his da to come home from work. He didn’t have a key to the apartment, and he didn’t live here, though he visited as often as he could sneak away.
The late winter had dissolved into a soggy spring, and mud puddles shimmered darkly all around the fenced-in area next to his da’s apartment. A few rats squabbled over a crust near the drainpipe at the side of the yard, and there were odd pieces of clothing strewn about, as though thrown from one of the higher windows. Ezer’s da’s living situation was less than ideal and not beautiful to dwell on, so he’d broken out his notebooks and begun to play with equations to distract himself from it all.
The divorce between Ezer’s alpha father and his da, the intimate term used for an omega parent, had been unusual and inequitable. The scandal it’d caused was still the subject of whispers amongst the upper-crust of Wellport. Even in their society where omegas were given much fewer rights than alphas, it was unheard of to be as vindictive as George Fersee had been in divesting himself of a no-longer pleasing omega.
Across town, at his father’s mansion, Ezer lived in the lap of luxury with every extravagance lavished upon him, most of the time without him even needing to ask. But here, his da lived on cheap food and wore second-hand, threadbare clothes. Da hadn’t been allowed to take anything of value when he’d left, not even his nicer clothes, and Father had burned everything after he was gone. Now Da fought just to dress and feed himself. Ezer often brought baskets of food and always wore his oldest jeans and sweatshirt when visiting. He couldn’t bring himself to flaunt his tailored pants and expensive cashmere sweaters when he knew how much his da struggled.
Ezer’s alpha father could easily afford to pay for a nicer place for Da to live, not to mention plenty of food for him to eat and nice clothes for his back. In fact, most alphas did just that when they took on another omega after dismissing or divorcing one they’d bred before. But George Fersee wasn’t a man known for doing the right thing or taking the high road. He was a man for grudges, and he held a massive one against Amos Elson, Ezer’s da, because he’d never birthed an alpha heir. Instead, Da had borne omega after omega—four in total—with Ezer being the last of them. His younger brother Rodan, the fifth child, had been the final straw—he’dbeen born a beta.
So after a horrifying and traumatic scene that’d left all the brothers sobbing, and left literal blood on the wall from where Da had resisted being ejected from his home, it’d been out with Da and in with a very young omega named Pete.
It still sickened him to think about the details.
Shaking memories from his head, Ezer looked up as an older omega with long gray hair stepped through the yard with a loaf of bread and a suspicious eye. He glared at Ezer, as if daring him to try to take his bread, and then let himself into the building with his key, glancing over his shoulder to where Ezer sat at the concrete table.
Ezer let the man go without asking to follow him in. The weather was grim with a hint of damp, but it wasn’t raining, and he didn’t want to frighten the man any more than he already had by loitering. Roughs Neck was an area known for hooligans who often laid in wait to grab whatever they could from anyone passing by. Ezer knew he was skinny, despite having plenty of food at his father’s house, and that his sharp cheekbones gave him a hungry look, which many in his Da’s apartment building took as suspicious.
Going back to his equation, Ezer worked on it a bit more, getting stumped at the same place. He broke out the eraser again, and rubbed the incorrect numbers away, his mind going back to Pete. Ezer wished he could rubhimaway and things could go back to the way they had been.
But he knew they never would. He shouldn’t resent Pete. It was never his fault. Besides, Pete was nice enough and already pregnant, and he seemed to make Ezer’s father very happy. George glowed when talking about Pete and was acting like a doting fool over him during every phase of the pregnancy. For Pete it was all hands and hugs, and sweet nothings in the young omega’s ear.
But it was humiliating for Ezer to witness, not only as the son of his father’s prior omega, but due to the wretched circumstances Da lived in now. He wondered if Pete even knew how Amos was treated these days? If so, how did he trust George not to use him the same way? Or did Pete imagine himself safe so long as he delivered the desired alpha heir? Ezer didn’t know. He’d never asked. He couldn’t stomach it.
After all Da’d done for Ezer’s father, after the five labors he’d endured, and the promises George had made to him? It was disturbing to see how his father could turn that same affection off when it suited him and redirect it to someone else. Seeing Pete waltzing about the mansion blissfully naked, well-fucked, and large with child, just made it worse.
And, if his father’s explanation was to be believed, it was all because Da hadn’t delivered a “proper” heir. Despite science demonstrating that gender was determined by an alpha’s sperm, despite Da’s tears and begging, despite Ezer’s as well and those of his brothers, George held fast to that line of reasoning. But Ezer suspected his father had spotted an ad for Pete’s first heat and been struck with lust strong enough to decide throwing over his spouse and his family was worth satisfying that primal itch.
“Ugh!” Ezer inspected the torn paper. He’d grown irritated thinking of Pete and his father, erasing too hard. The paper crumpled back, opening a hole, revealing the black cover of the folder he’d placed beneath it.
The creak of the chain link gate caught his attention, and he checked to see if his Da had made it home yet.
“Well, look who’s here.”
Ezer’s jaw ticced as he stared at the interloper. He wondered what Braden Tenmeter was even doing on this side of town, but he wasn’t going to ask. He wasn’t going to say anything at all to the asshole, nor to his two pals, Ned Clearwater and Finch Maddox, who followed him everywhere.
“It’s our class’s ugliest cocksleeve,” Braden Tenmeter called out, swinging up on the chain link fence with a nasty grin. So long as he stayed outside the barrier, Ezer was safe. He lowered his gaze back to his paper, trying to act unbothered. He stared at the equation, and for the first time ever, even math didn’t make sense to him.
Braden scoffed. “Look at him trying to pretend like he isn’t scared. Ha. His chin’s wobbling.” He laughed. “Such a wimp. Gonna cry, Cocksleeve?”
“I’d cry too, if I had to live here,” Finch’s voice rang out next.
Ned, always the most cowardly follower, murmured, “Let’s go. This place sucks. Why did you even bring us here anyway?”
“You know why,” Braden said. “To buy Bright’s powder.
