Page 99 of Bully for Sale
Ned wrinkled his nose. “That’s disturbing.”
Yissan nodded. “He’s been through four omegas. Two sons each and then ditched them. My father refused to give me to him unless he promised to treat me differently. The contract states five sons and a minimum of twenty years with me as his only omega.”
The sheer misery in Yissan’s voice made Ned’s blood run cold.
“Your father has a habit of this,” Ned said. “Putting his sons in horrible positions with no way out.”
“Therehasto be a way out. I won’t go through with it.”
“They’ll make you. Somehow, they’ll find a way to make you.”
“Consent still matters. It’s still the law,” Yissan said, tossing aside the half-smoked cigarette and turning to grip Ned’s forearms. He pulled him close enough for Ned to smell his tobacco-laced breath. “Your uncle has to help me.Youhave to help me.”
“How can I help you when I can’t even help Ezer?” When everything Ned did to help him just made his life worse and ended up with him stuffed full of two babes who might, according to Yissan, be too much for him to handle, who might steal his life?
“You need to set up an appointment for me. With Heath Clearwater.”
Yissan sounded so sure. Wasn’t not talking to his uncle where Ned had gone wrong with this thing from Ezer from the start?
“All right,” Ned agreed. “I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not going to promise anything.”
Yissan drew back, satisfied, and his face stamped with emotion. Not relief, but some kind of hopeless hope. “Thank you. Please, just—thank you.”
“It doesn’t mean anything will come of it.”
Yissan nodded, and then lifted his umbrella away from Ned’s head. The rain was bitterly cold as it hit his scalp and slipped down his face. Ducks floated on the water, uncaring of the drizzle.
“Wait,” Ned said. “I helped you, now I need you to help me.”
Yissan stopped and turned around, his jaw tight. “All right. Quid pro quo is fair.”
“What does an omega want from an alpha? What do they want most of all?”
Yissan pondered Ned, then scrutinized the sky, letting rain hit his face for a moment before righting the umbrella. “They want to know they’re safe with them. Safe to love and be loved. Safe to be real.”
“Ezer knows he can be real with me. He’s never been fake. He fights and argues and gives as good as he gets.” Until recently. Until his safety was stolen from his nest.
Yissan’s mouth curved into an amused smile. “Sounds like Ezer. Then make sure he keeps on feeling that way. That’s all an alpha can give an omega. Love, affection? That’s all too much to ask, unless you were already a love match. Omegas need respect. They need empowerment. They need to be allowed to decide.”
Their conversation was at an end, and Ned let him walk away. Heading back toward school, ready to face the consequences of skipping out for half the day, Ned turned over what Yissan had asked of him and what he’d said about an omega’s needs. He needed to reach out to his uncle. But more than that, he needed to make a plan.
Operation Make Ezer Safe.
Now if only he knew where to start.
Chapter Thirty-One
Ezer sat bythe pool, wrapped in a heavy blanket, watching the blue water ripple in the wind coming in off the sea. The season had changed and so had he. He was tired, monstrously so, and bigger than he’d ever imagined being. His stomach bulged so much he had a hard time sleeping, and getting fucked was becoming an exhausting burden he felt compelled by his hormones to bear.
He was daring himself right now. Sitting in the place where the crime had taken place. Letting himself be exposed to the elements, letting himself be vulnerable.
After the attack from Braden, he found it hard to leave the nest, but he also hated it down there. So airless, so lifeless. All walls keeping him contained and safe, and with far too much silence. He never listened to music now, or watched television. Sometimes he didn’t even know what he thought about all day. It was a wall of white noise in his head until Ned came home, fucked him, ate dinner with him, and then broke out his homework.
Ezer didn’t even work problems for fun anymore. Just for duty to his alpha. And those were very easy, very boring problems.
Unlike the problems of his life. Those were complicated and unsolvable. Equations that piled up on top of each other and couldn’t be untangled, turning the math of his life into letters that heaved around and refused to make sense.
Perhaps that thought made no sense.
