Disqualified
1101 Words
Kai’s POV
My vision blurred around the edges, each breath a struggle against the memory of his elbow crushing my throat. "Hear me out first. Please."
Maybe it was something about human suffering that weakened Jensen, because after tears streamed down my face, he stepped back and let me go.
Hands on my knees, I coughed my lungs out, dragging air back in while Jensen stood over me, tapping one impatient foot. "You have one minute before I change my mind about letting you live."
I wiped my face and straightened. He was so small. I could see the top of his head without trying, yet this man had pinned me to marble like I was nothing. There was something genuinely adorable about that. About him.
He lightly slapped my cheeks like he was trying to wake me up from this beautiful nightmare. "Quit staring and talk. I don't have all day."
I stepped back, performing the flinch of a man afraid of his own shadow. My hand went to my throat. A brief squeeze, hard and fast, enough to raise the suggestion of bruising without being obvious about it. His eyes followed the movement immediately. His jaw ground tight.
He looked away. Pretended he hadn't seen it.
I took a breath.
"You might not believe me, but I just started back here today." My voice came out softer than it had any right to be, uncertain at the edges, the way weak humans always were. "I used to work here before. Mr. Harrington let me go after an incident. It wasn't my fault, but it didn't matter." I glanced up briefly, then away. "For months, I've been unemployed. A friend told me about your..." I stopped there. He knew exactly what I meant. His human male s*x toy hunt.
"I applied like everyone else. I didn't think I'd get in." A bitter smile crossed my face, "But last night I got a message that Mr. Harrington was back, and the new secretaries didn't know anything, so he let me have my job back. Since I still hadn't gotten my interview results, I just came in. I didn't even know about this partnership meeting until midnight..."
"So." Jensen’s voice was flat. "You applied to my personal b***h while employed by the company I hate most, and you want me to believe that it’s a coincidence?”
"I applied months ago. Before I was rehired… The waiting list is brutal."
He let out a short, humorless breath. Then he stepped forward and poked one finger into my chest, tilting his head up to hold my eyes. "Had I known you had any affiliation with this company, I would have never let you into my bed." Another poke. "You might have received a response email. I want you to ignore it. You've been disqualified."
He straightened his cream suit jacket and turned for the door.
I reached out and caught his wrist without thinking.
"Does that mean I passed?"
He looked down at my hand on his wrist. Then he pulled free and walked out without a word.
The door clicked shut.
My face dropped immediately, every carefully drawn line of my facade dissolving at once. I turned on the tap, washed my face, and looked at my reflection.
Of course, I passed. No human alive could have performed the way I had last night. Jensen’s standards were ruthlessly high even for humans, and I had cleared every single one.
I pulled out my phone. An email from the agency he used to contract his f**k boys was already waiting, confirming I had passed and that further information would follow.
I set the phone down.
This wasn't enough. I had predicted he might not take my word alone. Jensen Hayes was a scientist to his core; he needed evidence he could see and smell and verify himself.
A sob story was a start. What came next needed to be something he couldn't talk himself out of.
I dialed. The call connected immediately.
"Get your men ready," I said and hung up.
*
By evening, the bruises I self-inflicted on my face were already healing too fast. I stood shirtless in my Ashford apartment and lifted my shirt to check my stomach. Those were fading too. My own biology was working against me.
With no choice, I shook two tablets into my palm. One was already enough; two came with consequences I would deal with later.
The Alpha suppressant fought against everything my body was built to do, but it was the only thing potent enough to keep the damage visible long enough to be useful. I followed it with the human scent enhancer and the alpha scent suppressor.
I was ready.
*
I was stopped two streets from The Crown Casino and walked the rest of the way. The building came into view exactly on schedule.
Jensen had business here tonight. Only his closest secretary knew his movements, which meant I couldn't be accused of following him.
Not that he could prove anything either way.
The room down the hall from where he was meeting was already occupied. Men like me on the floor. Men not like me standing over them.
"You missed your last payment, Kai." Nathaniel King, neck to knuckle in tattoos, the loan shark boss who was technically my employee, circled me with the energy of a man who genuinely enjoyed this part of his job. "You think I run a charity?"
His men went to work. I hit the floor, spat blood, and kept my hands from reacting the way they wanted to.
"I just got my job back," I said from the ground. "I'll pay everything soon."
"Shut your mouth." A kick landed hard in my stomach. "You kept running. Now you show up with excuses."
Nathaniel raised a hand to pause the room. Something outside had caught his attention. I already knew what it was.
I had been able to smell Jensen for over a minute, that familiar pull cutting cleanly through the blood and sweat and cheap cologne of the room. I stayed down and kept my face appropriately wrecked.
Nathaniel walked to the doorway. "What? Never seen someone get beaten before?"
Jensen stood in the corridor with his friends and four guards, his expression set in the specific kind of cold disgust he reserved for alphas behaving exactly as he expected them to. He pinched the bridge of his nose, irritated by Nathaniel.
"Alphas," he said simply. "Always so barbaric."
He gave me one last look.
Then he turned and walked away with his entourage.
- Writer
