Chapter 24 - Malachi
MALACHI
Do not waver. That has always been the lie people tell about me, and it has always been useful enough that I let it stand.
Leaders are supposed to be decisive, and alphas are supposed to know what they want and take it without apology. Meridian was built on that principle, brick by brick, body by body, choice by choice.
Nyx complicates that lie in a way I cannot pretend is temporary.
I stand alone in my office with the lights off, the city beyond the windows reduced to a grid of distant glow, and I let myself do something I rarely allow.
I think without performing certainty, and I turn the problem over slowly instead of cutting it cleanly in half.
Nyx is not disposable. That is the truth, stripped of sentiment and softened language, and it is also the first rule Meridian cannot afford to say out loud.
She is not a liability to be removed or a resource to be spent. She is an accelerant, and she sharpens the pack without raising her voice.
She disrupts hierarchy simply by existing inside it, and Meridian responds to that disruption by tightening, by becoming more efficient, more dangerous, more alive. Since her arrival, our systems have adapted faster, and our people have watched their steps more carefully.
It would be convenient to call that loyalty. It would be naive to ignore the other possibility.
A mole does not announce himself. He signs paperwork. He changes a schedule. He moves product through the wrong door and smiles while doing it.
Fielding’s name has shown up too often in places it should not. If he is feeding information out of Meridian, then Nyx’s heat is not just biology. It is an opening, and Meridian bleeds when men think they can reach through our walls.
That kind of influence is rare. That kind of influence is valuable, and that kind of influence is exactly why I cannot afford to think of her as a mate.
Mates change the math. A mate is not an asset, and a mate is not leverage.
A mate is a fixed point. Fixed points create vulnerabilities no amount of strategy can fully erase, and I have watched men smarter than me unravel because they mistook desire for destiny and protection for ownership.
Nyx would never tolerate ownership. That, too, was a part of the problem.
She strengthens Meridian because she does not need it. She does not orbit us or seek permission to exist inside our gravity, and she makes people better by refusing to be smaller for their comfort.
I respect that in ways I do not allow myself to name. Respect turns into consideration, and consideration becomes attachment if left unchecked.
Meridian cannot afford a leader who hesitates when the cost of action was blood. Nyx would make me hesitate, and I know this because I already have.
My phone vibrates on the desk, sharp in the quiet and precise enough to cut through my thoughts. The sound is small, but it still cuts. I do not need to look at the screen to know who it is.
Kairo’s name lights the display, and the bond tightens. I am already moving when I read the first line.
“Nyx is in heat. She’s calling for us. Get the pack.”
My pulse quickened as instinct surged through me, sharp and immediate. Not new. The same pull that had been circling her since the day she walked into Meridian. I can already scent it in the air, faint but unmistakable, her scent, sweet and intoxicating, laced with desperation and need.
It claws at my senses, making my dick twitch in my jeans, a reminder of the alpha drive I fight to control. Jabari, Kairo, Elijah, they are all linked to me, our pack bond thrumming with urgency, and I do not waste time pretending I am above it.
We head out, following the coordinates Kairo drops, and the city blurs into angles and headlights. My mind races with conflict, and the conflict is simple.
She strengthens us, yes, and that is exactly why taking her means crossing a line I have spent years pretending I do not want to cross. I tell myself it is strategy, but my body does not care what I call it.
The candlelight flickered softly across the walls of the safe-house bedroom, casting golden shadows that danced over every surface.
The air was heavy, saturated with the intoxicating perfume of Nyx’s heat, a lush blend of ripe honey warmed by sun, dark vanilla bean, and the sharp, desperate edge of pure omega need.
It wrapped around us, pulling us deeper into the room, deeper into her.
Nyx waited for us on the wide, fur-covered bed, her voluptuous body sprawled across the thick pelts. She was breathtaking, rich brown skin gleaming with a fine sheen of sweat that caught the light in shimmering highlights.
Every lush, curvy inch of her was on full display, unapologetic and commanding. Her full, heavy breasts rose and fell with each ragged breath, dark nipples already drawn tight into stiff peaks.
The dramatic dip of her waist curved inward before flaring dramatically into wide, fertile hips. Thick, soft thighs parted in shameless invitation, revealing the glistening folds of her pussy, swollen and dripping with slick that pooled beneath her on the furs.
Her deep brown eyes, glassy with the fever of heat yet still sharp with commanding need, swept over each of us in turn. That gaze alone branded us as hers long before any teeth touched skin.
Jabari broke first, as he always did. He was the sweetest of us, the one who yielded most eagerly to her dominance despite his massive frame.
His thick dreadlocks swung forward as he sank to his knees at the foot of the bed. Broad shoulders trembled beneath smooth ebony skin as he looked up at her with pure devotion, and his voice came out soft and reverent, almost a prayer.
A slow, wicked smile curved her full lips. She reached down, fingers threading possessively through his dreadlocks, and guided his head exactly where she wanted it, between her plush, thick thighs.
Jabari went willingly, eagerly. The moment his full lips sealed over her dripping pussy, a broken, guttural moan tore from Nyx’s throat.
He licked into her like a man starved, tongue long and thorough, lapping up every drop of slick that leaked from her swollen folds. He savored her taste with low, hungry sounds of his own.
Large hands gripped the soft flesh of her thighs hard enough to leave faint bruises blooming on her rich brown skin. He held her open while she rolled her hips upward, fucking herself shamelessly on his tongue.
Each grind dragged his mouth tighter against her clit, and she rewarded him with fresh gushes of slick that he drank down greedily.
“I’m yours, Nyx. Always your good boy.”
Kairo and Elijah moved in like twin shadows, flanking her on either side of the bed. Kairo, his sharp shape-up edged to perfection above the neat rows of braids that fall down his back, leans in first.
He claims her mouth in a bruising, possessive kiss. His tongue sweeps inside to tangle with hers, swallowing every gasp and whimper that Jabari coaxes from deep in her chest.
One strong hand cups the heavy weight of her left breast, thumb flicking repeatedly over the stiff nipple until she arches into his touch with a muffled cry.
Elijah, his high fade freshly lined and tight against his scalp, takes the right side. His lips trail hot, open-mouthed kisses down the elegant column of her throat.
Teeth graze the sensitive skin where her claiming gland pulses just beneath the surface. He pauses to brush his tongue over the faint scar of his earlier bite, the one he gave her weeks ago in a stolen, private moment that bound them first.
A low growl rumbles in his chest at the reminder. His long fingers slid down her belly to join Jabari’s between her legs.
He spreads her slick folds wider and begins teasing her clit in slow, deliberate circles that make her thick thighs quake and tremble.
I stand back for only a moment, my short hair cropped close to my scalp, drinking in the sight. My pack worships our curvy omega, preparing her body and soul for the final, complete bond.
My dick aches fiercely, thick and heavy, already leaking against my thigh, but I need this. I need to watch her unravel under their hands and mouths before I take my place as pack alpha and claim her fully.
Nyx’s eyes find mine over Kairo’s shoulder. They burn dark and demanding despite the haze of pleasure clouding them.
“Malachi,” she rasps, voice already wrecked and husky from moaning. “Stop watching and get over here.”
That is all it takes. Her command snaps the last thread of my restraint.
I strip quickly and efficiently. My shirt tears over my head and lands somewhere on the floor.
Jeans shove down and kick aside until I stand completely bare, skin burning with need. I climb onto the bed behind her, the mattress dipping under my weight.
I slide in close until her soft, sweat-damp back pressed flush to my chest. The heat radiating from her body nearly undoes me.
My hands replaced Elijah’s on her thighs, fingers sinking into plush flesh as I spread her even wider.
I drag the length of my dick through the slick between her thighs where Jabari’s mouth has left her soaked, sliding along her folds and up over her center before it coats her inner thighs and drips steadily onto the furs below.
The scent of her slick, mixed now with Jabari’s saliva, filled my lungs until I feel dizzy with it.
I notch the broad head of my dick at her entrance and pause deliberately. I let her feel exactly how hard I am, how thick and ready.
“Are you ready for your alpha, little omega?” I murmur against her ear, voice low and rough.
She pushes back against me impatiently, trying to take me herself. “I have been ready,” she pants. “Claim me. All of you. Now.”
I drive into her in one long, brutal thrust.
Nyx cries out, the sound raw and beautiful. Her back bows sharply as her body stretches to accommodate my size.
She feels impossibly tight, impossibly hot, velvet walls fluttering and clenching around me as though trying to pull me deeper on instinct alone.