Chapter 14 · Hunters Below

Dorian hit the hidden door hard enough to crack the frame.

I was right behind him, because apparently being furious at a dangerous billionaire shifter did not stop me from following him into the part of his building where my mother’s voice was coming from.

The door swung inward.

Cold air rolled over us. It smelled like wet concrete, burned wires, and that sharp metal stink you got when somebody had bled a lot and tried to clean it up badly.

“Move,” Dorian snapped.

“Try ordering me again.”

His head turned just enough for me to see the blood running from his hairline down his cheek. He looked wrecked. Shirt torn at the shoulder. One cuff dark with blood.

Still hot, unfortunately.

Still a liar, definitely.

“This isn’t a fight you can win with me, Mara.”

“Great. Then stop making it one.”

Something slammed in the dark below us.

Not a pipe. Not machinery.

A body.

Dorian’s whole posture changed. His shoulders pulled tight. His eyes went pale silver for half a second.

“Stay behind me,” he said.

“No.”

“Mara.”

“My mother is down there.