Vengeance in His Bed

A suffocating dread detonated inside her chest. Am I, by any chance, falling for him? The thought was a monstrous, unthinkable horror. No way. Absolutely no way. The sudden panic made her heart race at an erratic speed beneath her ribs.

"Get your hand off me!" she shrieked, violently grabbing his wrist and wrenching his palm away from her stomach, throwing it back onto the mattress. "You can only continue dreaming your pathetic dreams, Dorrent! I am not pregnant!"

"Too bad," Dorrent muttered, his voice remaining unbothered, though his hand quickly found its way back to her hip. "But you shouldn’t just be convincing yourself based on your stubborn theories, Jannah. You should try doing some tests when the time comes. You might really be pregnant right now."

"Even if it turns out that I am pregnant with your kid," Jannah delivered ruthlessly, her voice sharpening into a venomous edge, "I would abort it immediately. I would scrub your filthy bloodline out of my body before it ever sees the light of day."

The moment the word abort left her lips, Dorrent completely lost it.

The air in the room instantly turned freezing cold as his winter-frost pheromones exploded in a violent, suffocating wave of fury. Before Jannah could even draw a breath, Dorrent’s frame lunged forward. With a sudden, terrifying exertion of strength, he flipped her body over, forcing her to lie flat on her back against the mattress.

Without breaking his hold on her shoulders, his left hand shot out toward the nightstand and harshly clicked the switch of the bedside lamp.

The sudden flood of light shattered the darkness. Jannah blinked rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the brightness just in time to see his face hovering mere inches above hers.

Dorrent looked completely crazy. He was furious, his symmetrical, handsome features contorted into a mask of dominance. His jaw was clenched so tight and his eyes had turned completely dark, swamped with rage that made her primal instincts shiver. The baseline S-tier Alpha was fully unleased.

"If you want to see my dark side—the side that every person in Freenly City fears and knows," Dorrent growled, "you should try doing exactly that. Try touching my child, Jannah, and see what happens."

Jannah glared up at him, her eyes wide with defiance despite the terror coiling in her gut. She refused to back down, her chin tilting upward against his hold. "And what exactly will you do, Alpha Grefo?! Will you hold me hostage in this mansion?!"

"I would if I have to," Dorrent delivered ruthlessly, his eyes locking onto hers with a frightening sincerity. "I will lock the doors, bolt the windows, and you would never leave this room until that baby is born. Don’t test my patience when it comes to what belongs to me."

As he spoke, he deliberately leaned his frame down, settling his weight between her thighs. The rigid, heavy length of his erection pressed firmly and roughly against her sensitive womanly junction through the fabric of his trousers.

"Ah!" Jannah gasped out, an involuntary, breathy moan escaping her lips as the sudden, intense friction of his heat sent a blinding shockwave to her core. Her internal walls gave a weeping throb, betraying her defiance.

Dorrent stared down at her flushed, breathless face, his jaw tightening as he absorbed her reaction. The possessive anger in his eyes slowly shifted, turning into a troubled look.

"How hard is it to get your heart, Jannah?" he asked, his voice suddenly cracking, dropping into a rasp that carried the weight of a frustration. He looked down at her pretty face, his fingers digging slightly into the pillows next to her head. "What exactly do you want me to do? Tell me."

Jannah stared up at him, her breathing shallow and uneven as her eyes scanned his features. The proximity was suffocating, her body completely trapped beneath his massive weight.

"You keep on asking me what to do in order to win my heart," Jannah whispered, her voice trembling with grief and irritation. "You constantly push me for my feelings. But what about your heart, Dorrent? Why can you never talk about you giving me your heart? Why is it always a one-way transaction with you?"

Dorrent paused.

The dominant aura around him vanished, leaving behind a stunned silence. He stared down at the pretty, fiercely stubborn face looking up at him from the pillows, his eyes searching her dark irises for the hidden angle.

"Do you... do you actually want my heart, Jannah?" he asked quietly, the question loaded with a strange curiosity that he couldn’t hide.

Jannah’s pride instantly flared, her defensive walls slamming down as she realized how vulnerable her words had sounded. She turned her face away slightly, her expression hardening into stubborn defiance. "That is not what I meant, you arrogant bastard. Don’t flatter yourself."

Dorrent let out a soft, low breath that was almost a sigh. He leaned down a fraction of an inch closer, his eyes locked onto her profile. "Will you take care of my heart if I give it to you, little physician? Or will you only play with it to get back at me?"

"I would break it into a million pieces," Jannah spat out ruthlessly, turning her head back to glare into his eyes with venom. "I would crush it until there is nothing left... if you even have a heart inside that chest of yours."

A wicked smile touched Dorrent’s lips. He leaned down further, his chest pressing against her skin.

Without a word of warning, his head descended. His warm mouth captured the apex of one of her breasts, his tongue running in a slow, wet, pressurized circle over her sensitive, hardening nipple.

"Mmm... ah!" Jannah let out a sharp, helpless moan, her fingers convulsively digging into his shoulders as a dangerous tremor of ecstasy shot straight to her toes. "Damn you, Dorrent... stop it!"

Dorrent pulled his mouth away just an inch, his eyes flashing with an intensity as he stared down at her flushed face. "I wouldn’t mind you breaking it," he murmured, his voice vibrating against her skin. "As long as you will be the one owning it, Jannah, I will be perfectly fine. How many times have you broken my pride already? How many times have you stabbed at my conscience? And I still haven’t even given it to you yet."

His words fell into the space between them like a physical weight, making Jannah feel something inexplicable inside her chest.

A sudden, overwhelming wave of emotional conflict washed over her. She stared up at his extraordinarily handsome face under the warm glow of the lamp, her mind racing. If things were different... if he had not been the monster who descended into the 3rd Street gutters nine years ago... if he had not killed her parents... would she have believed him? Would she have allowed herself to sink into the safety of his arms, to trust the sincerity that constantly looked out from his eyes?

She observed the sharp, sculpted lines of his jaw, the perfect symmetry of his features, and the troubled warmth in his gaze. Dorrent noticed her sudden, quiet scrutiny, his eyebrows drawing together slightly as he felt the shift in her energy.

"Do you have something you want to ask me, Jannah?" he asked softly, his voice dropping into a quiet frequency.

Jannah swallowed hard, her throat tightening as a strange, unbidden curiosity got the better of her defensive wall. "Was the girl... was the girl you loved back then beautiful?"

Dorrent stared down at her for a fraction of a second. Then, a stunning, genuine smile broke across his handsome face. It wasn’t his usual arrogant smirk; it was a clear, brilliant smile that illuminated his features, making him look devastatingly charming.

Jannah’s heart slammed against her ribs, her mind screaming in a sudden panic. Why do I see him this way? she cursed inwardly, a dizzying warmth running through her entire body that she thoroughly despised herself for feeling. I have seen his face so many times. Why am I suddenly beginning to notice his charms now? Have I still not gotten used to his presence after all these months? The raw attraction was a terrifying, suffocating infection.

She quickly looked away from his gaze, her jaw tightening as she tried to forcibly crush the budding emotion. "Forget it," she snapped sharply, her voice trembling. "You don’t have to reply to that. It was a stupid question."

Dorrent’s smile widened slightly, his eyes locked onto her flushed profile as his hand gently cupped her chin, forcing her face back toward his.

"I’m more than willing to reply, little physician," Dorrent whispered thoroughly into the quiet room. "But let me tell you the truth... she doesn’t hold a candle to the woman currently lying naked beneath me."

Jannah’s breath caught in her throat, her dark eyes wide and wild with a volatile mix of hatred, confusion, and undeniable desire as she stared up into his handsome face.

"You are a liar," Jannah whispered.