Vengeance in His Bed

Jannah went silent, the words cutting through her chest like glass. She looked down at the helpless form of the man who had upended her life.

A strange, overwhelming sensation—something deep and terrifyingly warm—suddenly engulfed her entire consciousness, obliterating her logic and her defensive hatred. Before her mind could formulate another excuse, her hands moved on instinct.

With shaking movements, she began to tear at the gold links of Dorrent’s cuffs. She unbuttoned his shirt with desperate fingers, ripping the fabric away from his chest. She quickly unbuckled his belt, sliding the trousers down his legs until he was completely stripped of his armor, his towering physique lying bare and defenseless on the bench.

Then, without hesitation, Jannah reached for her own clothes. Her fingers fumbled with the buttons of her clothes, pulling the fabric from her shoulders and letting it drop into the shadows of the floor. She stripped away her everything, her pale, delicate form completely exposed to the cool air of the carriage.

Trembling from both the cold and the intensity of her confusing feelings, Jannah slid her small frame over his body. She lay against his chest, wrapping her slender arms around his broad shoulders and hugging him with every ounce of her physical strength.

The moment their skin met, Jannah gasped.

His body was so cold that it felt like she was embracing a frozen corpse. The thermal shock was instantaneous, making her entire frame shiver uncontrollably. It was horrifically uncomfortable—a freezing pressure that threatened to shut down her own metabolism. But she didn’t pull away. An unyielding resolve took possession of her mind. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, pressing her warm cheek against his icy skin, actively forcing her own heat to transfer into his cold veins.

You have to live, she thought desperately, her eyes closing tight as a tear slipped onto his collarbone. You cannot die this easily, Dorrent. I won’t let you escape. You have to live to face the nightmares of what you did to my family... you have to live to look me in the eye when the truth is revealed... you cannot leave me alone.

She lay like that for what felt like an agonizing, endless eternity, her hair spilling over his chest like a protective shroud. She kept pressing her body closer, trying to create friction, but she was only harming her own system. The cold from him was too monstrous, too anomalous to be easily subdued; it began to seep into her own flesh, turning her fingers numb and her lips pale. She was freezing, her breath coming in shallow gasps as her own energy began to deplete.

Despair settled into her chest after a long time passed without a single reaction from him. Is it too late? her mind wept, her arms tightening around his shoulders in a final, desperate embrace. Dorrent... please...

Then, just as her own vision began to blur from the creeping cold—

A sudden surge of heat exploded within the core of the man beneath her.

Jannah’s eyes flew wide open as she felt a rush of hot, pressurized blood slam through Dorrent’s neural pathways. His skin instantly transformed from ice into a furnace, the frequency of his Alpha jump-starting with the force of a lightning strike.

Before she could scramble away, Dorrent’s hands clamped around her slim waist and the back of her head, his muscles contracting with strength that dragged her so close to his torso that her ribs flattened against his chest.

His eyes snapped open, overflowing with triumph as he stared into her flushed face.

A smirk cut across his lips.

"Silly girl..."

Jannah froze. The sudden blast of heat radiating from Dorrent felt like a furnace against her chilled skin, but it was his mocking words—and the triumphant glint in his eyes—that made her blood run hot with disbelief.

She shoved her hands against his chest, her eyes widening as she stared at him. "Were you... were you pretending this whole time?!" she choked out, her voice trembling with rage. "You lied to me?!"

"I wasn’t pretending," Dorrent replied smoothly. His grip around her waist didn’t loosen even a fraction of an inch. "I didn’t fake anything."

"You don’t look like a person who was just at death’s door!" Jannah snapped, her face flushing bright red as she tried to pull back. "Your skin was as cold as ice! Your heart was barely beating!"

"I am not dying," Dorrent delivered flatly, looking up at her with a calm, heavy gaze. "Shadron was only exaggerating the entire thing." He tilted his head slightly, his eyes narrowing as he scanned her face. "My body was affected by the bullets, yes. But they were not coated with any lethal toxin like Shadron claimed. It was just a minor relapse from my body healing itself. A small reaction, nothing more. It was never a big deal."

Jannah’s head snapped toward the front seat, her breathing coming in shallow gasps. "Shadron!" she shrieked, her eyes blazing with fury.

Up front, Shadron didn’t even look back in the rearview mirror. He just shrugged casually, keeping one hand on the steering wheel as he spoke in a relaxed tone. "Hey, don’t yell at me. I was just helping you figure out how you really feel about Dorrent."

"I feel nothing for him!" Jannah spat back, her voice cracking as a tear of frustration slipped down her cheek. "I don’t care about him! I only refused to let him die because I can’t let him off that easily! He hasn’t paid for what he did! He needs to stay alive so I can destroy him myself!"

Dorrent didn’t answer right away. His eyes slowly moved across her pale face. He noticed the slight bluish tint on her lips and the way her small shoulders were still shivering. Absorbing the cold from his body had taken a toll on her, making her skin pale and clammy.

"Are you really that worried about me, little doctor?" Dorrent asked softly, his voice making her chest tighten.

"Damn you!" Jannah yelled, glaring down at his handsome, unbothered face. "I already told you, I am not worried! I just can’t let you die before I get my revenge on you! You don’t get to take the easy way out!"

Suddenly, as the heavy fog of her panic cleared, the reality of their position crashed down on her.

She was completely naked, lying on top of a towering naked Alpha whose body was pouring heat into hers. Their chests were pressed together, their legs tangled on the narrow seat. Her face turned burning hot with embarrassment, and she began to wildly scramble to get off him.

"Let go of me!" she gasped, pushing her palms forcefully against his shoulders. "Move your hands!"

Instead of releasing her, Dorrent’s hands tightened around her waist and the back of her head, locking her firmly against his chest.

"Don’t pull away yet," Dorrent commanded softly, his voice leaving no room for argument. "You absorbed too much of the cold from my skin. If you move away now, your body will drop in temperature and you’ll get sick."