Eleven
“Some people need to learn who you are the hard way.”
A s usual, the boys and I spent the last few hours in the gym sparring.
Sweat, fists, controlled rage—my favorite form of therapy.
It calms Sebastian, sharpens Malikai, and lets me keep my edge.
It’s our routine, our ritual. And it worked.
The boys are breathing easy again. My men are cracking jokes, giving the twins shit for letting their mama knock them on their asses.
Everything felt okay. We weren’t on alert.
No sense of danger, no sign that shit was about to go sideways.
And then a chill snakes down my spine at that thought.
It’s the kind of chill I’ve learned never to ignore.
But I shake it off.
Talon and his brothers are pissed, sure—but I didn’t peg them as suicidal. Not stupid enough to come at me or my boys. We’re not the ones to test. They know that. Or at least, they used to.
I ignore the growing pit in my stomach and keep moving, leading the boys and a few of my men down the hallway, connecting the gym to the clubhouse’s main room. The hum of music and conversation grows louder with each step, like the world hasn’t shifted beneath my feet yet.
And then it does.
The moment I cross the mouth of the hallway, a force slams into me like a freight train.
My back hits the wall with a crack. My head bounces hard, the thud of skull on concrete ricocheting inside my ears. Pain flares through my vision. My knees buckle. For a few seconds, everything is disjointed—colors, noise, pain, the scent of sweat and blood.
What the— what the fuck is happening?
I can’t breathe. Can’t think.
My brain scrambles to catch up as a pair of rough hands yanks me forward, then shoves me back into the wall. Fingers clamp around my throat, and my vision flickers. Rage ignites like a match to gasoline. My eyes snap open, and lock with Axel.
This motherfucker.
He’s about to be a dead motherfucker.
My thoughts go quiet, pure fury rising like a tidal wave.
He just signed his death warrant. Just as I gather the strength to break his damn neck, his weight is torn from me.
Axel is ripped back, and I drop forward, coughing, sucking in oxygen like it’s been denied to me for years.
My hands hit my knees, and I brace myself as the room tilts.
I hear shouting, the meaty smack of fists on flesh.
“Sebastian,” I gasp.
I look up—and there he is.
My oldest. My protector. My son.
Laying into Axel with a fury no man can match. Blow for blow, they're going at it, but Axel has no fucking clue what he’s unleashed.
You don’t lay hands on me and expect to walk away.
My heart pounds with something dangerous. Something darker than rage. This isn’t over. This hasn’t even started.
But still— why?
What in the hell could’ve pushed Axel over the edge like that? Why the fuck would he think coming at me was a good idea ?
He won’t survive what I’m planning. Sebastian’s fists? That’s just the warm-up.
“ ENOUGH! ”
Armand’s voice booms as he rushes to my side. The room freezes, the chaos stills. I look up—and the last voice I expect to hear thunders across the common room.
“What the fuck is going on here?”
Brick.
Talon’s father. Former president of LSMC.
Seventeen years.
It’s been seventeen fucking years since I’ve heard that voice, and now here he is, stomping into the room. His eyes scan the room, fury written across every line in his face. He looks at me, at my boys, at my men—and he’s trying to piece it together.
Sebastian is still fighting against the hands holding him back—Malikai and a few of my guys are keeping him in check.
Nitro and a couple of the club’s brothers restrain Axel, though he’s still snarling like a rabid dog.
But he’s not looking at Sebastian. He’s looking at me , and I stare right the fuck back.
Unflinching.
Unforgiving.
He got the wrong one.
“ That motherfucker put his filthy fucking hands on my mama,” Sebastian snarls, pointing straight at Axel with murder in his voice. “And I’m about to break every single one of his fingers. Or his damn face. I haven’t decided yet.”
Brick’s eyes narrow on Sebastian, then flick back to me.
Then to Axel.
Then back to me again.
He’s confused. Hasn’t been filled in. Doesn’t know what the fuck just went down, or why.
And then Axel, still breathing heavily, throws gas on the fire.
“That bitch put our Prez in the fucking hospital! ” he spits, finger jabbing in my direction. His voice is venomous. Filled with hate. The brothers holding him lose their grip for a second, and he lunges again.
For me.
Brick steps between us, blocking his son, saying something low and sharp I can’t quite hear. Whatever it is, Axel stops fighting. But his eyes are still glued to me like I’m the devil in the flesh, and suddenly the room feels colder. Air is thick with judgment. I look around and see it— the eyes .
Accusing.
Angry.
Suspicious.
My brows pull together. My chest tightens.
What the fuck is going on?
I haven’t touched Talon. I wouldn’t. No matter how much I wanted to beat his lying, cheating, manipulative ass into the pavement, I wouldn’t stoop to anything petty.
That’s not me. I don’t move in shadows. I don’t hide behind threats.
I come head-on. You’ll see me before you fall.
And let’s not forget—I’ve spent more than a decade cleaning up his messes.
Cleaning up this club’s fuckups. My boys and I have kept them out of shit they don’t even know about.
So miss me with that traitor bullshit.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Malikai’s voice is calm. Too calm. “Our mama didn’t do fuck all to that piece of shit. If she wanted him dead… if we wanted him dead...”
He steps forward, slow and controlled, eyes cutting through the crowd like scalpels.
“ He’d be dead. ”
Every head in the room turns toward him.
And suddenly they look scared.
Good.
They should be.
Because Malikai doesn’t throw punches, he plays chess.
He’ll gut your empire, burn your bank accounts, and make you pray for mercy—and never lift a finger.
You don’t want him angry, not even a little.
I step in, close to my boys. My hand goes to Sebastian’s shoulder, my fingers brushing Malikai’s back.
They’d burn the world down for me.
Even when they know I’m capable of ending a war with a glance and a whispered word. Still, they stand in front of me like shields.
And they always will.
I shouldn’t have let my guard down. I shouldn’t have relaxed, even for a minute. But I did, and now I’m standing in a room full of wolves that think I’m the enemy.
Lesson learned.
Never again.
Sebastian rises to his full height, chest heaving, fists clenched at his sides, and jaw locked tight. He looks like he’s barely hanging on by a thread soaked in gasoline.
“She didn’t even want to fucking come here,” he spits out, voice hoarse with fury. “Our uncle made her. Forced her. After everything that prick did—after he tossed her aside for that puttana —you think she wanted anything to do with this place? With any of you?”
His words are knives. And he’s not done cutting.
“She hates this fucking place. Hates what it represents. And standing here now, I can see why. I get it. ” His voice breaks a little, like the weight of it all pushes into his bones.
“But despite that, despite her hate for this club, that man, this life—our mamma has spent seventeen damn years defending it. Defending you. ”
He swings his glare across the room, daring anyone to speak. No one does.
“You think this club’s still standing because y’all knew what the fuck you were doing?
Because of some brotherhood fairytale?” He laughs.
Cold. Bitter. “ She kept you alive. She made deals. Stopped wars. Blocked hits from cartels and syndicates and families who would’ve swallowed this club whole and shit you out without a blink. ”
He steps forward, rage radiating from every inch of him.
“So why the fuck would she suddenly turn around and take out your precious president? Huh? Go ahead, take your time. I’ll wait.”
His voice echoes off the walls, but no one has an answer.
Then Malikai steps in, calm and deadly in a way that makes my skin crawl—and I gave birth to him.
“You really think if she wanted him dead, she’d leave room for doubt? That she’d let him live long enough to get to a hospital?” His tone is sharp as steel. “You think she would’ve stopped all those hits on your Prez… your father… this whole sorry-ass family, just to come in here and start a war?”
He laughs under his breath, like the whole thing beneath him is laughable. Then his eyes lock on Axel.
“My mamma and our family have done a shit-ton of work behind the scenes. Work you don’t even know about.
You enjoy a nice little empire built on blood and bullets?
Well, you’re fucking welcome. ” His voice turns into a low growl.
“So fuck you, and your goddamn selective amnesia, you self-righteous piece of shit.”
My chest tightens, a mix of pride and panic twisting in my gut. I never wanted them to know the extent of what I’ve done. The deals I made. The people I hurt. The monsters I kept at bay. But it’s too late now.
“Boys,” I try, voice trembling. “That’s enough—”
No one hears me.
They’re too far gone.
Axel jerks forward like he’s ready to lunge, Nitro barely keeping him back. “Well, explain to me,” he shouts, “how in the fuck—after your whore of a mother shows up—my brother ends up in the hospital?!”
His words hit harder than his hands ever could.
Something inside me fractures.
But before I can move, Sebastian surges forward like a bomb about to detonate.
“Man, you got one more motherfucking time to call my mamma out her name. ONE. MORE. TIME, ” he snarls, fighting against the men holding him back like they’re nothing but tissue paper.
Axel’s face twists into something ugly, venom in every syllable. “If not that whore, then who the fuck was it? If my brother doesn’t make it out of surgery whole, it’s war. WAR, you hear me?”
He yanks free, pointing at me like I’m the devil himself. I don’t flinch. I dare him. But before I can say a word, Sebastian explodes.
“I swear on everything I love, this fucking family is full of dumb motherfuckers! Was anybody listening?! Does that piece of shit ever listen?”
He spins toward Axel’s retreating back, voice raised, wrath barely restrained.
Malikai stands still, calm as a tomb, his words ice-cold. “You motherfuckers aren’t worth it. You never were. Never will be. I thank fuck every day we weren’t raised by you fucking idiots. You’re just as big a piece of shit as our father.”
Axel freezes in place.
Then he turns slowly, murder in his eyes.
But one of his brothers steps in and blocks him again.
My pulse spikes. My jaw clenches.
He got me once, but there won’t be a second time.
I wish a motherfucker would.
“You come at us again,” Sebastian warns, his voice low, his eyes dark and wild. “We’ll fuck your world up. Might not be today. Might not even be tomorrow. But we will. That’s not a threat. That’s a promise. And we’re real fucking good at keeping those.”
I close my eyes for half a second, trying to slow the tremble in my chest. Trying to calm the storm boiling under my skin.
But the truth is…
He means every word.
And that terrifies me.
Because he gets that from me.
I blink hard, fighting to focus, but it’s like my body is moving underwater. My voice comes out hoarse, barely there.
“What the actual fuck is going on?” I whisper.
It doesn’t sound like me. Doesn’t feel like me.
I’m lightheaded. Dizzy. My head throbs where Axel slammed it back into the wall.
My thoughts are jumbled. My vision’s hazy.
I try to piece it all together, to make sense of the betrayal, the chaos, the rage…
But I can’t because I checked everything before I left.
I made sure the club was stable. There was nothing that suggested this level of chaos. No warning.
So how the fuck did we get here?
What happened? Who lied? Who twisted the truth to the point that I’m suddenly the villain?
My knees buckle.
Everything spins.
And then—
Darkness swallows me whole.