Jannah’s mind completely shattered when the lips that descended upon hers were not a hesitant, theatrical pretense, but a sudden, crushing reality.

Before her brain could process the switch in the script, Damian Boren’s hand shot to the back of her neck, his strong fingers burying into her unkempt hair to lock her head in place. He captured her mouth with an aggressive, shocking intensity that left her entirely breathless. Jannah’s eyes flew wide open in pure terror. She tried to violently jolt backward, her hands slamming against the thick wool of his overcoat to push him away, but Damian clung to her with an ironclad, unyielding grip. He deepened the kiss seriously, his lips moving against hers with a fierce, possessive rhythm that didn’t feel like acting at all—it felt like a man claiming what belonged to him.

The heavy, mechanical hiss of the transport door finished rising, and a split second later, the air in the alleyway turned into solid ice.

Dorrent Grefo stepped out onto the grime of the cobblestones. The moment his eyes locked onto the bench—taking in the sight of his personal physician pinned against another man’s chest, her mouth actively consumed by him—the S-tier Alpha completely lost his mind. A terrifying, crimson flare erupted behind his pupils, and he released a massive, explosive shockwave of dominant Alpha energy directly at Damian’s back, aiming to crush the man’s neural network and rip him away from her flesh.

But Damian didn’t even flinch. Without breaking the kiss, without moving a single millimeter away from Jannah’s lips, the local doctor effortlessly deployed his own hidden, high-density energy barrier behind them. The two invisible forces collided with a loud, vibrating crack that shattered a nearby glass bottle against the brick wall. Damian blocked the attack with an almost casual, terrifying ease that proved he was far more than a simple slum physician.

Slowly, deliberately, Damian broke the kiss, his thumb tracing Jannah’s wet bottom lip before he finally let her go. The moment she was released, Jannah violently snapped her head away, staring rigidly at the rotting wood of her doorstep. Her chest heaved in frantic gasps, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped animal; she absolutely did not want Dorrent to see the sheer, unadulterated terror and confusion currently marring her features.

Damian stood up from the bench, adjusting the collar of his coat as he turned his towering physique to face the billionaire CEO.

"What exactly do you think you are doing, Alpha Grefo, releasing lethal energy and attacking a pair of lovers in the middle of the night?" Damian asked, his voice flat, direct, and completely fearless.

Dorrent took three massive, predatory strides forward, his broad chest heaving under his silk shirt, his knuckles white as he pointed a trembling, furious finger at Jannah’s hidden form. "She is my personal physician! I require her immediate, mandatory medical attention at the estate, and yet she is down here in the dirt doing absolute nonsense with a gutter-doctor!"

Damian let out a low, mocking chuckle, stepping directly into Dorrent’s path to block his view of the bench. "Your personal physician? The savage, possessive way you just unleashed your S-tier aura doesn’t look like a man searching for a doctor, Grefo. It looks like a jealous lover who just found his property in another man’s arms."

"I have absolutely zero time to argue semantics with a slum worker," Dorrent hissed, his voice dropping into a sub-zero, gravelly register. He tried to brush past Damian’s shoulder. "I am here to take my personal physician back to the main terminal. Move out of my way."

"She isn’t going anywhere with you tonight," Damian countered instantly, his own Alpha presence expanding aggressively, matching Dorrent’s winter-frost scent with a sharp, heavy scent. "Jannah is my girlfriend. And as her boyfriend, I have physical needs tonight as well. I want her company for the evening. She will spend the night in my bed, and then, if she chooses, she can return to your executive estate tomorrow morning to handle your little medical problems."

The mention of the bed hit Dorrent’s brain like a spark into a powder keg. "It cannot wait until tomorrow!" the CEO roared, his silver eyes completely swamped by a violent, unhinged crimson light as his corporate mask shattered entirely. "It is an absolute, critical medical emergency! She is returning with me right now!"

"I said, she is staying with me," Damian barked back.

In a flash of pure, primal violence, Dorrent shot his right fist forward, targeting Damian’s jaw. Damian reacted with lightning speed, catching the billionaire’s wrist in an iron grip while throwing a brutal counter-strike with his left forearm. The two high-ranking Alphas slammed into each other, their bodies colliding against the brick wall with a sickening thud, their sheer physical strength and suppressed energy fields causing the metal trash bins in the alley to rattle and bend.

"Stop it! Both of you, stop it right now!"

Jannah’s voice pierced the dark like a knife. She stood up from the bench, her dark eyes flashing with a desperate panic as she noticed the rusted hinges of the neighboring windows creaking open. Up and down 3rd Street, the terrified faces of the slum residents were beginning to peep through the curtains, drawn by the sound of violence. She could not afford this kind of attention. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

She marched directly between the two fighting Alphas, her small hands forcefully wedging into the space between their tensed chests.

"I will go with you, Dorrent," Jannah said fiercely, her glare locking onto the CEO’s wild, furious face. "I will return to the estate right now to handle the emergency. But you must stop this violence immediately and stop causing trouble in my neighborhood."

The mention of her compliance instantly took the edge off Dorrent’s physical rage. He slowly lowered his fists, though his silver eyes remained locked onto her face with a dark, burning triumph.

Damian stepped back, his eyes tracking the tense, submissive posture Jannah was forcing herself to maintain in front of the tech mogul. He let out a slow, serious breath. "Jannah... look at me. If this man is giving you a tough, unmanageable time at the estate... if he is violating your boundaries, you should simply quit working for him. You don’t need their credits. Your safety is worth more than their money."

Jannah turned her head, offering Damian a stiff, grateful nod, though her heart was bleeding from the double trap she was caught in. "I understand, Damian. Thank you for the coat. I... I will come visit you another day."

She handed the heavy wool coat back to him, her fingers briefly brushing his palm before she turned and walked toward the idling luxury transport. Dorrent followed immediately behind her like a massive, brooding shadow, his hand settling heavily onto the small of her back the moment she reached the leather interior, marking his territory before the slum doctor’s eyes.

The gull-wing door slammed shut with a heavy, airtight seal, and the transport violently tore out of the alleyway, the tires screeching against the cobblestones as Dorrent drove away in a silent, explosive cloud of anger.

Inside the quiet, dark cabin, Jannah leaned her head against the window glass, her eyes closed as the digital clock on the dashboard flickered over to midnight. The car was moving at a lethal speed, but her mind was entirely fixed on the countdown. Few hours from now. Tomorrow morning. The poison would take hold, but looking at the white-knuckled grip Dorrent held on the steering wheel, she realized with a chilling, hollow dread that the lie about her boyfriend had just turned into a far more dangerous, uncontrollable reality.