Chapter 13 Jabari #3
“Don’t,” she said.
The word came quieter now, and it landed heavier.
I should have listened, and I didn’t.
I dropped to my knees between her thighs and yanked my belt free with hands that shook.
My dick was already hard, thick and aching, and the small black ring pierced through the underside of the head caught the light when I freed myself.
Nyx’s gaze dropped to it for half a second, surprise flashing sharp before she forced her eyes back up to mine.
Blood still stained my knuckles from the corridor, and when I curled my fingers around myself I felt it smear, warm and tacky. The contrast, death on my hands and heat in my pants, made my stomach roll, but it did not make me stop.
“My omega,” my alpha whispered under my ribs. “Mine.”
I didn’t have a bond to back that claim, and I knew it, but the possessive instinct didn’t care about facts. It only cared that she was here, that she was small under me, and that someone had dared to crowd her.
“This ain’t about you wantin’ it, darlin’,” I said.
The words came out rougher than I meant them to, my voice thick from the pressure building in my chest. The nest felt too small all of a sudden, the air heavy with her scent and the soft rustle of blankets shifting under her weight.
I needed her to hear the truth of it.
Needed myself to hear it too, because if I didn’t say it out loud I could lie to myself later and pretend I hadn’t known better.
My hands flexed once at my sides, fingers curling like they wanted something to grab onto.
“This about me losin’ control,” I went on, slower now. “And I’m tellin’ you that so you know damn well I ain’t confused about what’s happenin’ here.”
Nyx stayed where she was on the nest, shoulders tight, palms pressing into the blankets behind her as she held herself upright. Her breathing was uneven, the rise and fall of her chest quick and shallow while her eyes stayed locked on mine.
Fear moved through the air between us again, sharp and thin under the sweetness of her scent.
Peaches.
Cream.
Something warmer underneath it now that made my alpha pace harder under my skin.
My jaw tightened.
“I know it’s wrong,” I said quietly.
The words felt heavier coming out that time.
Not polite.
Not gentle.
Just truth sitting ugly between us.
My gaze dropped for half a second, catching the way her fingers curled into the fabric of the nest, knuckles pale from how tight she held it. The soft blankets bunched under her grip, the nest smelling like warm cloth and skin and the lingering heat of her body.
My alpha liked that smell far too much.
I dragged in a slow breath and forced my eyes back up to her face.
“But I ain’t gonna stand here and pretend I don’t feel it,” I said.
My voice dropped lower, rough around the edges now.
“That pull between us?”
I shook my head once, slow.
“That ain’t somethin’ a man just switches off.”
The nest had gone quiet except for her breathing and the faint hum of Meridian’s ventilation in the walls. The silence pressed in tight around us, the kind that made every movement feel louder than it was.
Nyx didn’t speak.
But her eyes didn’t leave mine either.
And somehow that was worse.
Nyx’s eyes widened, and she tried to twist away, but I caught her hips and held her in place with a grip that did not allow debate. The sound she made was small and furious, and it should have been another stop sign.
I pushed her thighs apart, anyway.
Slick shone on her thick skin, warm and obscene, and the smell of it hit my face. It was peaches turned sharp, need turned chemical, and it made my alpha roar.
“No,” she said, voice tight with warning.
I heard it, and I went in any way.
I pressed the head of my dick against her opening, blunt and insistent, the cool weight of the ring brushing her slick first, and pushed just enough to feel her resist. Nyx sucked in a breath, thighs tensing.
Just the tip at first, and her breath broke and my jaw clenched so hard it ached because I should have stopped right there.
I ain’t.
The heat inside her snapped something in my spine, and I shoved deeper, greedy for the squeeze and the way her body tried to lock me in even as her eyes stayed furious. She shuddered under me and dug her nails into my shoulders.
I rocked into her, slowly at first, letting her body stretch around me inch by inch. Then rut took the reins and made me stupid, hips driving the rhythm until wet sounds filled the nest, obscene and real.
Her slick coated me, hot and slippery, and my dick throbbed harder with every pullback, every push. I could feel my pre-cum mix with her, could feel the way her muscles fluttered.
Tears came next, silent and hot, and when one slid down her temple I saw it and kept moving, anyway. Shame hit, but it didn’t stop my body, and that was the part that made me want to crawl out of my skin.
My knot swelled, pressure building at the base and demanding the lock. It ached, heavy and hot, and my alpha chased permanence.
I leaned over her, breath ragged in her ear, and my teeth hovered at her throat. I didn’t bite, not yet, but the thought of it pulsed through me, vicious and reverent, and I hated how close I was to doing it.
I drove into her harder, chasing the swell, chasing the point where she would be stuck with me whether or not she wanted it. Her body trembled beneath me, hands fisted in the blankets, and her breath came out in broken, angry sounds that turned my head into white noise.
That was when the door slammed.
“Jabari.”
Malachi’s voice cut clean through the room, calm and deadly in a way that made every instinct in my body snap to attention.
It hit me like cold water.
Kairo stood behind him in the doorway with two enforcers filling the frame, broad shoulders blocking the hall. Their faces were set hard, hands already ready like they’d expected to walk into a fight.
For half a second I didn’t move.
I was still buried inside her, breath tearing out of my chest in rough pants, my body locked in that ugly space between instinct and sense.
Nyx’s eyes slid past me.
Not at me.
Past me.
She was staring straight at the men who had just walked in and seen exactly what I’d done.
“Off,” Malachi ordered.
The word landed flat and heavy.
I didn’t move fast enough.
Hands grabbed my shoulders from behind, fingers digging hard through my shirt and into muscle as they hauled me backward.
My body reacted before my mind caught up.
A snarl ripped out of my throat as I tried to surge forward again, instinct screaming that I wasn’t finished, that nobody had the right to pull me away.
Kairo stepped in hard.
His forearm slammed across my chest and he shoved with enough force to drive the air straight out of my lungs.
My back hit the floor.
The breath left me in a harsh grunt.
Nyx curled in on herself the second I was pulled away. Her knees came tight to her chest, both hands shoved between her legs like she could somehow hide herself from what had just happened.
The nest shifted under her movement, blankets bunching around her body.
Her scent spiked so sharp it made my stomach twist.
Panic.
Humiliation.
Fear riding hot underneath it.
“Out,” Malachi said again.
This time there wasn’t any room in the word for argument.
“Now.”
They dragged me into the corridor hard enough my boots scraped across the concrete floor.
One enforcer had a fist twisted in the back of my shirt, the other gripping my arm tight enough to grind bone against bone.
The hallway lights buzzed overhead, cold and fluorescent, and the sound of the nest door sealing behind us landed heavy in the quiet.
It wasn’t containment.
And it damn sure wasn’t mercy.
It was removal.
Malachi didn’t step out with us.
He stayed planted in the doorway, broad shoulders filling the frame so completely Nyx couldn’t see past him. The nest behind him disappeared into shadow, his body turning into a wall that cut her off from the hallway and cut me off from her in the same breath.
Dominance rolled off him in slow, crushing waves.
My alpha reacted instantly.
The instinct in me surged violent and furious, muscles straining against the men holding me as a snarl tore loose from my throat. Every part of me wanted to lunge back through that doorway, to shove past Malachi and get back to the nest before my brain could catch up to what I’d done.
Malachi didn’t raise his voice.
He didn’t have to.
“You will not go near her.”
The words landed low and heavy.
Final.
He stepped forward just enough that his presence filled the corridor too, the pressure of his dominance settling over my shoulders like a hand pushing my head down.
His voice dropped even lower when he spoke again, quiet enough only I could hear it over the hum of the ventilation.
“You will not speak to her,” he said. “You will not breathe in her direction unless I allow it.”
My alpha bucked against the command, rage flashing hot behind my eyes, but Malachi’s dominance pressed harder until instinct ground itself down into something closer to obedience.
My hands were shaking.
Blood had dried across my knuckles in dark, stiff streaks where skin had split earlier in the corridor. My fingers curled once, tight enough the joints cracked.
My dick still throbbed with the unfinished rut.
The sensation made my stomach twist hard.
I dragged a breath into my lungs and forced the words out.
“Yes, sir.”
The answer came rough.
Malachi didn’t nod.
He never rewarded obedience.
His gaze moved past me like I wasn’t worth another second of his attention.
“Kairo,” he called.
Kairo straightened immediately, posture snapping tight on instinct. He still wore that easy golden-retriever grin he liked to show the world, the one that made people think he was harmless and a little too playful to take seriously.
But the second his eyes landed on his father, the smile stayed while the warmth behind it vanished.
Flat.
Focused.
“Yes, sir,” Kairo said.
The words came obedient.
The tight set of his jaw didn’t.
Malachi studied him for one long second, not measuring competence the way a boss might.
Checking him.
Then he stepped forward and caught the front of Kairo’s collar between two fingers, tugging the fabric straight where it had twisted during the scuffle. The gesture was small and precise, a quiet correction that somehow felt more intimate than the violence still hanging in the hallway.
“Door and cameras,” Malachi ordered.
His hand dropped again.
“You sit on her threshold and you don’t let a single alpha breathe near that nest unless she says so.”
His voice lowered another degree, so quiet it could’ve been mistaken for the air shifting through the vents.
“And you keep your head on.”
A beat passed.
“You hear me, son.”
Kairo’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.
Something flickered there anyway.
Fast.
Contained.
“Yes, sir,” he said again.
Then he planted himself in the doorway like he’d grown out of the floor, shoulders squaring as he settled into position.
Malachi’s attention shifted to the enforcers still holding me.
“Bag the body,” he said.
His voice carried through the corridor with quiet authority that made men move before their brains finished processing the command.
“Bag his mouth. Bag his hands.”
One of the enforcers nodded and peeled off immediately toward the elevator bank, already reaching for the evidence kit clipped to his belt.
“No washing the corridor,” Malachi continued. “I want the residue. I want the strip.”
His gaze flicked once toward the nest door before returning to the hallway.
“And I want every camera angle mirrored to an offline drive before anybody touches a switch.”
The corridor filled with movement as orders started passing down the chain through quiet bursts of comm chatter.
Then Malachi looked back at me.
Sharp.
Warning.
“Whatever you pulled off him,” he said, “you give it to me.”
His eyes dropped to my clenched fist.
“And you tell me exactly where you were standing when you smelled it.”
I opened my hand slowly.
The thin strip sat folded inside the latex glove, tacky and half-dissolved where it had melted against my palm.
Malachi leaned just enough to see it clearly.
Then I closed my fist again.
My stomach twisted hard.
Because a syndicate didn’t get the luxury of being sentimental when something inside its own walls smelled like sabotage.
Malachi didn’t move toward the investigation first.
He looked at me.
Really looked.
The corridor had gone quiet except for the rustle of evidence bags and the faint buzz of the overhead lights. Blood still smeared the concrete near the elevator, dark and sticky under the fluorescent glare.
“You forced yourself on an omega under my protection,” Malachi said.
The words weren’t loud.
They didn’t need to be.
Every man in the corridor heard them anyway.
My alpha bristled, instinct reacting before sense could catch up, but the weight of Malachi’s dominance crushed down hard enough that the reaction died in my chest.
“You broke my order,” he continued.
His gaze didn’t leave mine.
“And you broke pack law.”
My hands clenched at my sides. The dried blood on my knuckles cracked when my fingers curled.
Malachi spoke without emotion.
“Enforcers.”
Two men stepped forward immediately.
“Take him to the lower holding floor,” Malachi said. “He does not leave it until I say otherwise.”
My head snapped up.
“Sir—”
“Quiet.”
The word landed like a door slamming shut.
Malachi stepped closer, close enough that the pressure of his dominance made my lungs tighten.
“You do not argue this discipline,” he said quietly. “You survive it. It’s the least you deserve.”
My jaw locked.
The enforcers grabbed my arms again, tighter this time. Malachi’s gaze slid past me, already moving to the next problem.
“Now,” he said, voice returning to the calm precision it always carried. “We deal with the person who thought pushing that guard into my corridor was a good idea.”
His eyes flicked toward the nest door.
“We’re going to set a trap.”
That was the last I heard before they drug me away.