Page 14 of Bully for Sale
“My father is always in dire straits,” Ned admitted. “He has no sense of ‘enough.’”
Ned didn’t know if his father suffered a sick kind of optimism or if it was greed alone. All he knew was that when his father was flush, he spent like he was expecting another influx of cash the next day, and when he wasn’t flush…well, he spent the same way.
He decided to be honest with Amos about their circumstances. What did he have to lose? Amos wasn’t in any position to spread rumors about them anyway. Who would believe the words of a cast-off omega? Who would a cast-off omega even talk to? He was friendless, based on how he lived. “You know my uncle recently had an alpha son with his new omega?”
Amos’s eyes took on a thoughtful look. “I’m assuming you’re speaking of Heath? I don’t recall Sandrino having an alpha brother. Or any brother at all.”
“Yes, my uncle, Heath Clearwater.”
“Ah, yes. I’d heard the swirl of rumors before my so-called friends stopped talking to me.” Amos smirked. “Something about a scandal, but I never got the details. I’m afraid I don’t get much gossip at my new job. Trash tells all kinds of stories, but not that kind, I’m afraid.”
The kettle in the kitchen began to shriek, and Amos left the room again to reappear with two steaming mugs. He passed one to Ned, who wondered if he should drink it. Amos wouldn’t poison him, would he? For roughing up Ezer? No, the man had donesomethingto push George Fersee to cruelty, but he wasn’t going to murder the nephew of Heath Clearwater.
“It’s good. See?” Amos took a sip of his and hummed in delight before putting it down on the banged-up coffee table without even a coaster.
Ned tasted his, it was woodsy and light. A nice tea, indeed. He wondered how Amos afforded it. Then wondered if Ezer brought it to his da as a gift.
“Now, go on,” Amos said. “I’ve missed the gossip. And I believe you owe me after yesterday’s events. Tell me about Heath.”
“He contracted a breeding heat with a university omega almost at the age of majority.”
“Surprising. I thought he’d sworn off omegas after…well, after certain events.”
“He had. I was supposed to be his heir, you see. But something about this omega ensnared him.” Ned gave a self-deprecating smile. “He bought a breeding. Together, they had an alpha. No more heirship for me.”
“Ah.”
“Uncle Heath fell in love with the omega and married him.” Ned left out the scandalous bits, because while he had been angry enough about all of it at the time, sharing the news far and wide in a nasty rage, he now didn’t see the sense in further besmirching the family name.
Plus he didn’t think he’d win any points with Amos by being unkind about another omega. The gender did tend to stick together, though none at Doubleton had befriended Ezer yet. Besides, after a summer in his uncle and Adrien’s home, he didn’t want to be unkind about them anymore. “Uncle Heath’s happy, I think.”
“Love. It happens to even the strongest alphas,” Amos said, smoothing his graying, blond hair away from his forehead. “We omegas are just that tantalizing, you know. Alphas swoon for us. Especially when we’re in heat.”
Ned wondered for the first time what Amos did to handle his heats now. Or perhaps he didn’t have them anymore? Each omega only had five to eight heats in a lifetime, and it was possible Amos was through with them all. Maybe that was the real reason he’d been dismissed. Some alphas couldn’t stomach a barren omega.
But, still, Amos had had five sons with George Fersee, the man deserved better than this, even if none of them had been an alpha. There had to be something more to his shabby treatment.
“Heat crushes are quite real.”
Ned squirmed. “Yes.” He’d never been with an omega during a heat, though he’d allowed rumors to spread he had done so more than once. Braden and Finch had started them, saying it made them more appealing to the omegas in their school if they sounded experienced in all ways. Stupid. “So I’ve been told. About love, I mean.”
“Told? You seemed quite vehement that my son is, how did you put it? ‘Wonderful’.” Amos smirked. “Omega wiles.”
Ned tilted his head. “Do you believe in those? Truly?”
He’d always thought that the near magical omega wiles so often cited by alphas as their reason for poor behavior with regards to the breedable sex were old men’s tales and nothing more. But if Amos believed in them, and he was an omega, then maybe there was something to the stories.
Amos’s teeth were straight and bright when he flashed a hard smile at Ned’s question. “I believe that alphas are men, and omegas are their special weakness. Not every omega for every alpha, of course, but given the fact that you’re here, now, talking with me—the da of the omega you’re all twisted up about—I’d say Ezer is your weakness. Am I right?”
“Like you said earlier,I’mmy weakness,” Ned countered, unwilling to put any sort of negative stigma on Ezer, and that included the idea that he made Ned weak or used omega wiles. “I’m the one who makes such bad choices, and I should have to suffer the consequences of them. Ezer is stronger than I could ever be.”
“He really is, you know,” Amos mused. “Stronger than his father or I ever realized, I think.”
“I wish I could—” Ned broke off from the silly comment.
Amos’s thin eyebrows went up and he leaned forward. “What?”
“I wish I had his kind of strength. If I did? Then I’d kick Braden and Finch’s asses, and not worry about the outcome.”
