Dorrent tossed the torch into his left hand, dropped to one knee at the slippery edge of the clay pit, and extended his arm down into the darkness. His fingers were splayed, his forearm muscles bulging against the wet fabric of his rolled-up sleeves.

"Grab hold, little bird," he commanded, his deep voice carrying a terrifyingly calm, low vibration.

Jannah hesitated for a fraction of a second, her eyes flashing with a volatile mixture of humiliation and survival instinct as the freezing water lapped at her knees. Realizing the absolute futility of her pride in this trap, she reached up, her small, mud-caked fingers wrapping around his wrist. The moment their skin locked, Dorrent effortless hoisted her entire weight out of the hole, dragging her body up over the wet clay rim until she collapsed against his solid chest, gasping for air.

He didn’t let her go immediately. He kept his arm wrapped tightly around her waist, anchoring her shivering, soaked frame against the immense, radiating heat of his S-tier body. He tilted the beam of the torch downward, illuminating her pale, dirt-streaked face.

"What exactly were you doing out here alone in the middle of a catastrophic storm, Jannah?" Dorrent demanded, his eyes narrowing as his gaze traveled down to the heavy, dark protrusion in her sweater pocket where the Somnus Root was hidden. "Did you honestly think you could vanish from my estate without a trace?"

Jannah forced her breathing to steady, her mind rapidly executing her defense strategy. She couldn’t let him suspect the true nature of the parasitic root. She raised her chin, her eyes locking onto his with a sharp, calculated defiance as she gestured vaguely toward the dark undergrowth.

"I was looking for herbs, Alpha Grefo," Jannah said smoothly, her voice a thin, shivering friction against the wind. She forced a hollow, clinical coldness into her tone. "I noticed your biological performance... your sudden failure... during your session with Lady Joanne on the video card. As your personal physician, I realized you are not healed yet. I came into the Forest to harvest the rare roots necessary to repair your S-tier neural dampening. I was doing my job."

Dorrent’s jaw clenched, a dark, dangerous flash of crimson flaring deep within his pupils as he processed her words. He knew the absolute biological reality—he knew he had achieved a terrifying, rock-hard erection the moment he hovered over her the night before, and that his failure with Joanne was entirely due to his body’s total, exclusive addiction to Jannah’s touch. But he let her be, a wicked, knowing smirk cutting into his handsome features.

"A dedicated physician," Dorrent purred, his low chuckle rumbling directly through her ribs.

Slowly, Jannah pushed her palms against his chest, forcing a fraction of an inch of space between their bodies. Her wet sweater and heavy skirt were completely plastered against her flesh, clinging so tightly to her skin that they left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Every curve of her narrow waist, the firm, cold swell of her breasts, and the long, pale line of her thighs were laid bare under the bright silver light of his torch. She felt utterly naked beneath his gaze, her core clenching in deep discomfort as his eyes slowly scanned her from head to toe, undressing her with a slow, heavy deliberation.

"Let me go," Jannah hissed, her teeth clicking from the freezing downpour. "I’m okay now. I can walk on my own. I don’t need you holding me, and I certainly don’t like the way you’re looking at me."

Dorrent’s smirk widened, but to her surprise, he smoothly withdrew his arm, stepping back into the darkness. "As you wish, little omega," he murmured, his voice dripping with a lazy condescension.

With a sudden, sharp flick of his thumb, Dorrent switched off the torch.

The entire forest was instantly swallowed by an absolute, terrifyingly pitch-black darkness. The blinding sheets of rain became an invisible, roaring wall, and the towering shapes of the trees vanished completely from sight. Jannah froze, her eyes widening as she strained to see even an inch in front of her face. She couldn’t see her own hands.

"What are you doing?!" Jannah shouted over the roar of the storm, her voice laced with immediate panic. "Turn it back on! I can’t see a single thing!" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Dorrent didn’t answer her. He simply turned on his heel, his heavy boots squelching through the mud as he began to walk ahead. Utilizing the advanced, hyper-developed sensory tracking of his S-tier Alpha biology, his eyes naturally adjusted to the infrared frequencies of the dark forest, allowing him to navigate the treacherous, root-choked terrain with absolute, fluid precision without the aid of artificial light. He completely ignored her complaints, his long strides moving further and further into the shadows.

"Dorrent!" Jannah cried out, her foot immediately catching on a hidden briar as she tried to take a step forward. She stumbled, nearly pitching face-first into the mud again.

Left with absolutely no alternative, her survival instincts overrode her hatred. She lunged forward blindly into the blackness, her hands reaching out until her fingers frantically clamped onto the wet, premium silk fabric of his shirt from behind. She held onto his clothes tightly, using his massive, moving frame as a physical anchor, dragging her feet exactly where his heavy footsteps cleared the path so she could see where she was going through the simple motion of his body.

Dorrent paused for a split second, feeling the sudden, tight pull on his clothing. He didn’t turn around, but his deep voice vibrated through the dark air.

"What’s wrong, Jannah?" he asked, a teasing, intensely arrogant amusement dancing behind his words. "Are your fragile little legs giving out on you already? Do you want me to carry you in my arms instead?"

"No!" Jannah snapped fiercely, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the fabric of his shirt even harder, her breath hitching as his pheromones washed over her face in the dark. "Just keep walking, Alpha. I don’t need your arms."

They walked in that agonizing, intimate formation for nearly twenty minutes, the freezing rain continuing to hammer their bodies until the dense canopy finally began to thin. They breached the western perimeter of the forest, stepping out onto the asphalt of the deserted, elevated district highway where Dorrent’s luxurious sports transport sat idling, its dark crimson running lights cutting through the grey mist.

Dorrent strode over to the driver’s side, the biometric scanners in the door handles pulsing green as the gull-wing doors automatically rose with a smooth, mechanical hiss, exposing the pristine, white-leather interior of the multi-million-credit cabin.

Jannah stopped dead in her tracks at the edge of the asphalt. She remained standing in the pouring rain, her dark clothes dripping streams of black, muddy water onto the clean pavement, her arms wrapped tightly over her chest as she hesitated before the luxurious vehicle.

"What are you waiting for?" Dorrent commanded, looming over the top of the open door as he looked back at her across the roof of the car. "Get in."

Jannah flicked her dazed gaze from the spotless, hand-stitched white leather seats down to her own caked, muddy boots and dripping skirt. "I can’t get into this car, Dorrent," she murmured, her voice tight with a strange, defensive friction. "Look at me. I am completely covered in mud and clay from that hole. If I sit in there, I will ruin your luxury vehicle. I’ll dirty your car."

Dorrent let out another low, rumbling chuckle that vibrated deep within his broad chest. He simply leaned his forearm against the roof of the transport, his eyes flashing with a wicked, untouchable dominance in the crimson light of the running lamps.

"You are indeed filthy, Jannah," Dorrent purred, his tone dripping with an absolute, lazy authority. "You are completely dirty from head to toe. But you will enter my car anyway. You can sit there in your filth tonight... and you can personally wash and scrub every single inch of the leather for me later."

Jannah’s jaw tightened into a rigid line of absolute fury. Clenching her fists, she stepped forward and climbed into the passenger cabin, her wet clothes letting out a heavy, squelching sound as she dropped onto the pristine white surface. But the moment she settled, she violently threw her body against the far right side of the cabin, pressing her spine flat against the passenger door panel, creating as vast a physical distance between herself and the driver’s seat as possible.

Dorrent slid into the driver’s seat, the gull-wing doors automatically sealing shut with a heavy, pressurized vacuum click that instantly silenced the sound of the storm outside.

He didn’t start the engine. Instead, he slowly turned his head, his eyes tracking the absolute, exaggerated distance she had put between them, his gaze settling on her pale, shivering form pressed completely against the glass.

"Tell me, Jannah," Dorrent whispered, his deep voice dropping into a thick, dangerously husky register that filled the quiet, pressurized space of the luxury car like a physical weight. He leaned slightly toward the center console, his pheromones expanding across the gap, trapping her where she sat. "Why are you sitting all the way over there? Have I suddenly become a plague to you?"

Jannah didn’t look at him. She kept her eyes fixed on the rain-streaked glass of the window, her hand secretly pressing against her sweater pocket where the parasitic root was hidden, her voice a flat, freezing whisper that cut through the warm air of the cabin.

"I told you, Alpha... I’m dirty."