Page 46 of Bully for Sale
And again.
And,fuck, probably bear his child. What had he done? Why had his da wanted him to agree to this? How could he have thought he’d be happy with this bully of a boy?
“Then I don’t understand. Why are we here?” Ned asked, and Ezer had never imagined that the brute could look and sound so small. He was hunched in on himself.
“My father wanted me off his hands.”Father?Ezer couldn’t seem to stop thinking of George as such, even after everything, even knowing the truth. Old feelings and habits died hard.
“Yeah,” Ned agreed, showing that he knew at least that much.
“My da thought that you were a good choice for me and encouraged my father to arrange this between us.” Ezer snorted. “Though why he thought you were the right match, I havenoidea.” Ezer narrowed his gaze. “He saw what you did to me, what you all did to me, what you planned to do.”
“I was going to stop them. I swear.”
Ezer took a slow breath to still the roiling in his stomach. When he was sure he wasn’t going to vomit, he turned onto his side, giving his back to Ned. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter now. I did this for my da. So my father would give him a better place to live. He had nowhere to go after the fire, and my father wanted me out of his hair, so…”
Carefully, Ned’s hands landed on him, and Ezer decided it was easier not to fight. He’d be handled by this boy for the rest of this heat now, like it or not. Ned turned Ezer over, forcing him to meet his gaze. “You’re saying your fathercoercedyou into taking this breeding heat with me?”
Ezer huffed. “Don’t act like you didn’t know all the details.”
But it was clear that Ned hadn’t known. Or that he hadn’t understood. Ned had obviously hoped this heat was about something he’d created in his mind out of a misguided attraction to Ezer. God help him. His father and da were right about Ned—he was a romantic. He’d hadfeelingsabout this.
Ned tugged a hand through his dark, golden hair. “Ididknow your father wanted you out of his way and settled. But Ididn’tknow he’d forced you by holding your da’s safety and happiness hostage like that. I swear I didn’t know he’d trapped you into this.” Ned licked his lips. “I thought you wanted it to be me handling your heat, and I thought that by taking the contract I was rescuing you from something worse. Fromsomeoneworse.”
Ezer flinched. “Knowing my father, perhaps you did.”
After all, Ned had been kind to him during his heat so far. He’d taken care of his physical demands and satiated his heat wave, and he was being gentle now. Ezer supposed it could have been worse.
Ned’s eyes filled with tears, and his lips twisted up. “I don’t know how to fix this,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have signed. I should have waited for my Uncle Heath’s advice. I’m so sorry, Ezer. I don’t know what to do.”
Ezer blinked as a tear slipped down Ned’s face, and he sat, putting a hand on Ned’s shoulder awkwardly. “Well, I should have known the details of the contract,” Ezer said. Ned’s teary eyes and trembling chin got under Ezer’s skin, pricking him with a desire to take his pain away. Stupid, really.
“Why didn’t you?” Ned asked. “Read the contract, I mean?”
Ezer wasn’t about to admit to Ned that he had trouble reading on the best of days, and even more so when he was upset. “I was angry with my parents and the situation. I thought it would be easier if I didn’t know who I was being given to, if I just accepted their will, and submitted to it, you know?”
Ned tilted his head, his eyes still wet. “No? Can you explain?”
Ezer shook his head, turned to retrieve the glass of water from the bedside table drank it down, and then thrust the empty glass at Ned. “Not now. I’m hungry.”
“Yes,” Ned said, leaping up and brushing a hand over his eyes quickly. He assumed the role of a caretaking alpha. “Let me get the yogurt. And start the stew. I’m sorry. I really thought I’d have time to prepare it all for you.” He glanced back over his shoulder as he scooped creamy, white yogurt into a bowl and added honey without asking. “And I thought you knew it was me. I believed, for some reason I didn’t understand, you wanted this.”
Ezer grabbed the yogurt from Ned’s hand and ate it like a starving man. As he shoved the honey and gooey yogurt in and swallowed it down, Ned mumbled approving praise, like eating was a sport, and Ezer was training to be a champion at it.
As soon as Ezer was full, Ned took the bowl to the sink, cleaned it, and began to chop vegetables, keeping one eye on Ezer over his shoulder.
Ezer lay back on the bed and waited. He could feel the next wave approaching. It was like a storm, shifting something in him as it came on, the intensity palpable but still distant. Part of him wanted to run, but he knew there was no outrunning his skin. It was terrifying to sense the heat coming and be unable to stop it.
Oblivious, Ned continued to babble. “We have so much to talk about, things I need you to understand, but first I need to get this stew going. The heat waves will come stronger and faster. I don’t want to be unprepared.”
“But youareunprepared,” Ezer said meanly, watching Ned flinch.
“Yes.”
“So am I.”
The tremor started inside again, hot and shocking. Ezer wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready foranyof this.
Ned glanced at him again. “Did you talk to an omega about what to expect?”
