The Rejected Alpha's Vengeance

Just like Ruru earlier, Nik was in shock. It was obvious that this hotel was something out of his reach, something that not even his magic could do shit in here. Clearly, he knew that from the shock on his face, but then had he tried to confirm it though?

Was he stupid enough to try and cast a spell here?

"Aren\'t you tired? This isn\'t the time for questioning. But to answer your question, this hotel is surrounded by magic, which means that no magic can work here save for mine, Hawi\'s, and the young Greyson\'s since she\'s mated to Hawi.

"Does that answer your question?" Malika asked and Nik stared blankly. It was almost like he was thinking so hard. He had never thought this would be possible but then the list of things he hadn\'t known were growing by the day.

"The young Greyson has magic?" Nik asked and Malika smirked at him.

She knew what he was thinking and honestly, she wouldn\'t say shit about that. Because tonight, she wanted to get some sleep like normal people instead of worrying about protecting everyone. Or maybe she would be doing her job but she indeed had to rest first, right?

"Yeah. Hawi unlocked her magic when they mated. Come along," Malika said when the gates opened. The moment they walked onto the compound; Nik could feel his magic be rendered useless.

It was like he was in some trap. He wanted to freak out, but then Malika had promised a truce and while Malika was the kind of woman who killed first and answered questions later, she was one who always kept her word, so this was not going to be an exception, right?

"This palace is pretty," Nik said, stating the obvious as they walked into the hotel.

Everyone knew the ASH hotels but no one really knew what the initials stood for. Which was also why when Nik asked, Malika wasn\'t surprised. Over the years the chain hotel had never revealed the full initials.

The human public had made assumptions and tried to link them with drug cartels but then investigations had proved that everything here was made with clean money and there wasn\'t any hint of trafficking within or even outside of ASH.

"What does it stand for?" Nik asked and Malaika sighed. Oh, if only they stopped asking her stupid questions, maybe her life would be easier for the evening, yeah?

"Awuor Sicario Hawi. Satisfied? I know you\'re thinking of channeling Rukiya\'s magic and trying to fuck around with it. I\'ll warn you this early. You will die if you try that," Malika said and Nik stepped back for her intuitively.

Malika Jabali was scary and for all the right and wrong reasons. With the creepy ones being what she had just mentioned. How the fuck had she done that when Nik hadn\'t felt her read his mind?

Even without magic, he would know when someone tried to read his mind and yet Malika was not going to do that, if she was just going on with her like there was nothing yet. This woman was proving to be more psychotic than he had imagined.

"You\'re not one for regular pep talks are you?" Nik sighed as he shook his head, as if Malika would ever care about that.

The only thing that mattered to Malika Jabali right now was that she went to sleep. Pep talks were for people who had even the slightest interest in each other and Malaika wasn\'t interested in Nikolai Russel.

She knew him inside out and knew his weaknesses and strengths. She had learned everything about the Seven Shadow warlocks and right now, even as he walked beside her, she knew that she wouldn\'t wake up and find him in the hotel the following morning.

The shadow warlocks were sly and always tried to create loopholes whenever. But then Malika Jabali was a piece of work that had gone nuts more than once over the years. So right now, that wasn\'t even the least of her worries. If she was being honest, she didn\'t give a shit.

"We\'re here to sleep, not for you to make small talk with me. You wasted my time for sleeping while you were out there being rowdy and shit. I even missed my chance at buying Vanilla chocolate balls.

"Now get into any room and shut the fuck up before I punch you into the wall. Trust me, I don\'t need my magic to slam your face into the brick wall, alright?" Malika said boldly before she heard the door open and close so fast.

He was a quick one and she was amused. She always worked there even when she tried to sound friendly. Well, that was what her reputation had gotten her, not that she was about to complain, yeah?

"Well, he\'s tomorrow\'s problem," Malika said as she moved on to the next room to get some rest.

She knew that things wouldn\'t be easy from the morning and she could just hope that it was all so quick because if they caused more trouble on this side the humans would be suspicious and it would be a lot of unnecessary work for her.

***

Morning did come by so fast, but even then Malika wasn\'t bothered to be an early riser, so even when the door to her chanbers were being banged, she didn\'t bother. Instead, she kept sleeping, muting them out… until she had a defeated whimper.

That was the only thing that got her out of bed so fast that she almost ran into the wall on her way to the door. There was no way that she was sharing a whimper, right? Surely there was nothing wrong this time, yeah?

"What… You… Why the fuck would you wake me up," Malika whined as she stared at Rukiya\'s blank bored face.

It was almost like she wanted to explain to Rukiya the importance of good sleep, but the closer she looked at Ruru\'s face, the more she saw tear streaks. How that shit should have never happened so this made Malika curious.

"Where is Hawi?" Malika asked and Ruru shushed her as she pushed the protector back into the hotel room. It was almost like she didn\'t want anyone to hear them. But even then what the hell could have prompted her to act like this?

"What happened?" Malika asked once they were back in her room and the alpha had locked the door.

Rukiya Greyson looked scared and that worried Malika.

She wanted to think that Hawi had hurt her but Awuor Hawi would die first before intentionally hurting Rukiya Greyson. She loved the woman too much. It was sometimes sickening to watch, but theirs was the kind of love that couldn\'t be reduced like this.

"I think someone is trying to channel my magic. I feel like my energy is draining fast. I woke up with tears on my face and beside Hawi, which had never happened before. Hawi is fast asleep, but we both know she never sleeps.

"It\'s just a matter of time before she comes to check on me. Please tell me I\'m being paranoid," Ruru said as she looked at Malika with hopeful eyes and the protector sighed.