Chapter 189: Something Is Wrong with Him!
The hum of the vehicle’s luxury engine felt like a physical weight pressing down on the interior of the sedan. Up front, Shadron gripped the steering wheel as he focused strictly on the winding road that led away from the high-district estate toward the jagged, decaying borders of the lower sectors. The air in the car was saturated with an oppressive silence that seemed to vibrate between the leather seats.
In the back, Jannah sat as close to the far-right door as possible, her spine rigid against the frame. Her eyes were fixed on the blurred concrete outside the window, her hands gripping the fabric of her skirt tightly. She was deliberately cutting off all sensory connection to the man sitting on the opposite side of the wide bench seat. The mark on the side of her neck throbbed, a blistering reminder of the biological tether that had permanently fused their frequencies less than twelve hours ago. It was an invisible chain, and it made the small distance between them feel volatile.
On the left side of the carriage, Dorrent sat silently, his body shifting slightly as he tracked her profile. He didn’t say a word, his eyes completely overtaken by an unhinged intensity. From this distance, he watched the sharp, elegant curve of her jawline, the soft rise and fall of her chest beneath the linen shirt, and the way her tiny waist seemed almost fragile against the heavy leather backdrop. He let out a heavy exhale, the breath rattling roughly through his chest.
I don’t understand this biology, he thought, his inner voice dropping into a frustrated depth of obsession as his teeth ground together. He had seen countless elite ladies, flawless beauty queens from the finest families, yet none of them had ever managed to register a single inch of reaction within him like this. But this young girl—this fractured, penniless little slum herbalist—stood out from the entire universe. Just looking at the pale skin of her wrists from a distance was enough to make his blood run blisteringly hot beneath his skin. He let out a quiet, venomous curse under his breath, wondering how the hell he was ever supposed to maintain his composure when her mere presence was driving his system completely insane.
"Jannah," Dorrent called out.
Jannah didn’t move. She deliberately pressed her shoulder closer against the glass window, completely ignoring his voice as she watched the high-district high-rises slowly give way to the rusted, broken structures of the industrial perimeter.
Dorrent’s jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing into predatory slits. He leaned his broad torso slightly forward, his nostrils flaring as he caught the faint, intoxicating scent of her omega nectar still lingering on his own skin. "Tell me, little physician... since you are a master of grandfather’s lore, is there any specific medical herb that can help a man cope with abnormal arousal?"
Jannah’s head snapped around, her eyes flashing with anger that burned through the fog of her exhaustion. "Fuck off, Dorrent," she spat, her voice trembling with disgust.
Dorrent let out a short laugh, his lips curling into a cold, arrogant smirk as he held her burning gaze. "I am only asking for your professional advice, wifey, so that I can save your fragile body the immense trouble of having to be fucked by me every single time we enter a room. Because right now... just sitting across from your pale skin is making my system so blisteringly hot that I can barely breathe. Tell me... are you a witch? Did you cultivate a specific spell to lock my manhood into this permanent state of madness?"
Jannah turned her full body toward him, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the leather seat. "It is not a spell, you unhinged beast!" she yelled, her voice rising into a sharp, defensive register. "It is because your brain is completely perverted! You are an S-tier monster who can only ever think about sex and dominance every single hour of the day! That is why your body is burning!" She took a sharp, uneven breath, her lips curling into a snarl. "But if you genuinely want me to help you fix yourself... I can easily do it."
Dorrent’s smirk widened, his eyes gleaming with a twisted amusement. "Oh? And how exactly do you plan to cure me, little doctor?"
"By gouging your eyes completely out of your skull!" Jannah shrieked, her chest heaving as she glared at his face.
"That is incredibly unfair, Jannah," Dorrent murmured, his deep voice suddenly softening as he leaned back against the headboard. "If you take my sight away... how am I supposed to see how breathtakingly beautiful you are when you’re—"
He didn’t finish the sentence.
Suddenly, a violent, catastrophic tremor shot straight through Dorrent’s frame. His jaw locked instantly, his silver eyes dilating until the pupils completely swallowed the silver irises. His chest expanded with a sharp, choked gasp, and before Jannah could even process the shift, his entire body began to violently convulse against the seat. His arms thrashed uncontrollably, his shoes slamming against the floorboards of the car as his spine arched backward with a bone-crushing rigidity.
Jannah’s breath caught in her throat, panic piercing straight through her anger. "Dorrent?" she whispered, her body leaning forward involuntarily as she watched the powerful tycoon thrash around like a dying animal. "Dorrent! What is wrong with you?! Stop playing these ridiculous games!"
The convulsions stopped as abruptly as they had begun. In a matter of a heartbeat, Dorrent’s entire frame went completely limp. His arms dropped heavily to his sides, his head snapping to the side as his eyes rolled back, and his body slumped down onto the seat, still and unresponsive.
"Shadron, stop the car!" Jannah screamed, her voice cracking with terror she couldn’t understand. She lunged across the empty space between the seats, her hands shaking as she reached out toward his shoulders. "Shadron! Pull over right now and come check up on your friend! Something is wrong with him!"
Up front, Shadron didn’t step on the brake. He kept his eyes fixed dead ahead on the cracked asphalt of the road, his face completely devoid of warmth, his voice flat and clinical through the rearview mirror. "Why the hell should I stop the car, Jannah? Aren’t you the great physician of the lower districts? You are the herbalist here. Take care of him yourself."
"I don’t have my medical satchel with me!" Jannah shrieked back, her fingers gripping the fabric of Dorrent’s shirt as she desperately shook his limp, heavy frame. His head bobbed uselessly against the leather, his lips completely pale. A chaotic, suffocating wave of panic was rising in her chest, making it impossible for her to breathe. "I don’t have my herbs! I don’t have my tools! And besides... why should I even care if this monster dies right here?! It would be better if his heart just stopped functioning permanently!"