Page 77 of Bully for Sale
Ned grabbed the phone again and typed in some words. “Earl will buy it for you.” Then, before he could put it down again, it buzzed in Ned’s hand.
“It’s your da again. He doesn’t believe me that your mind is at peace, but he understands why you don’t want to talk to him, and he says you’ll forgive him one day.Thenhe tells me that he hopes I’m taking good care of you.” The phone buzzed three more times. “Um, he sent a few pictures of his new apartment. And he says thank you for giving him this fresh start.”
Ezer put his hand out and Ned passed it to him. Taking in the photos, Ezer noticed they were taken by the lake and inside the beautiful lakeside apartment. As he studied the apartment’s posh interior, well-maintained like all his father’s properties had always been, another photo came through. It was of Da with his arm around a man Ezer recognized as Finn. It’d been sent along with another flurry of swimming words.
“What does this one say?” Ezer asked, passing it over to Ned.
Ned frowned at the words. “It says that this alpha, Finn, has come to visit him in his new apartment, and plans to stay for a bit. Um, well, he seems to imply that this man is your real father?”
Bitterness swelled, overtaking the satisfaction Ezer had felt at seeing his da’s new circumstances. “Finn’s not my ‘real father.’ I don’t have one of those. He’s the person my da decided to riskeverythingfor just to share a single heat with him.”
“Amos must have really loved him.”
“I guess,” Ezer said. “I met him once. Right before everything changed.”
“Oh…” Ned tilted his head. “You look like him.”
Ezer nodded.
“But you have your da’s eyes.” Ezer almost choked as Ned added, “I love your eyes. They’re the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen. Prettier than your da’s somehow, even though they’re the same. Maybe it’s because the rest of your face is so…” He looked up then, caught Ezer’s bewildered expression, and blushed. “It’s just that your eyes are my favorite eyes in the whole world.”
Ezer said nothing. What was he supposed to say? In another situation, if there had been love and understanding between him and his alpha, he’d have returned the compliment. He’d have said that Ned had the most handsome face and most beautiful body he’d ever seen, because he did. But as it was, he didn’t want to share the thought.
“Do you wonder about how things are at your old home?” Ned asked. “How your brothers are doing? Your father?”
“Yeah. I wonder if Pete’s had the baby yet. How that went. If they’re safe.”
Ned looked up. “I can find out. Let me just text—”
“No. I don’t want to know from you or from gossip. I want to be told by my family.” Ezer rolled his eyes. “Petty, huh?”
“Do you want me to message one of your brothers?”
“If I decide I want to talk to anyone there, I’ll call Shan and Flo. They’ll pick up.” He didn’t know if Yissan would, and Rodan was still too young to have his own phone. “I wanted to wait until…” Ezer bit his tongue as a weird sting of tears came to his eyes. What was wrong with him?
“Wait until what?” Ned prompted.
“Until I’m not ashamed of what’s happening to me here. I don’t want Father to think he won. I don’t want my brothers to think I’ve been defeated.”
Ned seemed to restrain himself from whatever his initial reply was going to be. Instead, he asked, “Can I help you feel less ashamed?”
Ezer shook his head. “It’s just that I don’t want to call them feeling meek, you know? I want to be proud and defiant and prove to them all that despite this—” he motioned at his stomach and then Ned—“they didn’t beat me. I’m still myself.”
“You are.”
“No, I’m not. Not really.” Ezer’s throat tightened. “I’m not myself anymore at all. This is changing me. And Iamashamed of that. My father wanted to show me my place and I guess he did.”
Ned stayed quiet long enough that Ezer spoke again without being prompted, which surprised Ezer as much as it did Ned. “My father never loved me. I was always his problem kid, but when he found out I wasn’t an accidental by-blow from an unexpected heat, but the planned offspring of my da’s first love…” Ezer’s voice gave out.
Ezer hadn’t loved his father in a long time, not since George had tossed his da out, but there’d been a time when hehadloved the man, and it still hurt to have lost that.
“He was humiliated to find he’d been cuckolded so thoroughly. His hate turned on Da, and then on me. Beingweirddidn’t help my cause. I’m not beautiful, or obedient, and I can’t read. I’m damaged goods. He wanted me gone, and now I am.”
Ned listened so well Ezer forgot he wanted to keep some pride and not spillallhis guts. “And it worked, because here I am pregnant and tamed, just like he wanted.”
“‘Tamed’? That’s hilarious,” Ned said. “‘Pregnant’…well, yeah. But you’re still you. You still can’t read or obey an alpha worth a damn.”
Ezer hiccupped a surprised laugh. He wasn’t sure why that struck him as funny, but it did. He rolled his eyes. “But I’m here, aren’t? Content to fuck and suck and lay around napping in the sun. I’m just like Pete.”
