Chapter 14 · The VIP Hardwall

Chapter 14: The VIP Hardwall

"Let her go, Voss, or I strip you where you stand."

The cage door slams open before Kane's grip even loosens off my collar. My spine's still crushed to the bars, his fist still twisted in my shirt, and the first thing I see past his shoulder is gold piping on a black coat I never wanted this close.

Alpha King Silas. In the flesh. In the room that was sealed for inspection in seventy-two hours, not seventy-two minutes.

Kane doesn't drop his hand. He goes still instead, which is worse, because I can feel the exact second his pulse stops matching mine and starts running on fear.

"My King." His voice comes out flat. Trained. "This isn't what it—"

"I can smell what it is from the hallway." Silas's nose wrinkles like the scent itself insults him. Two bodies step in behind him. One's a guard. The other's carrying a case, long and narrow, the kind that holds something you don't want opened.

"You marked a night-shift washout in my inspection hour." Silas circles us slow, boots loud on wet concrete. "On a live house mic.