Chapter Thirty two: Into the Salt

The salt bunker corridor turned into a claustrophobic, fever-pitch furnace of sweat, friction, and raw, unrestrained bloodlust.

The air grew bitterly cold as Sera led the way, her fingers trailing frost along the damp, subterranean walls of the corporate catacombs. Every heavy iron door they passed she encased in brittle, sub-zero ice before Kael smashed through them with a single, brutal kick of his steel-toed boot, shattering the frozen metal into a million glinting shards.

"Clear!" Kael snarled, his knife dripping with the hot, dark blood of the first security detail. He didn't even glance at the corpses; his dark eyes locked onto Mari with a fanatical, worshipful hunger. He hauled her hard against his chest, his heavy hand gripping a fistful of her hair and violently wrenching her head back. He crashed his mouth down onto hers in a punishing, bruising, open-mouthed kiss, thrusting his tongue deep and claiming her throat until she let out a wet, breathless gasp. He shoved her back just an inch, his chest heaving as he stared down at her swollen lips. "You're burning me up, Queen."

Ren caught her before she could steady herself, his tablet shattering on the concrete as he yanked her lean frame against his. "They're routing an emergency distress signal—"

Mari cut him off, grabbing the lapels of his jacket and slamming her mouth against his in a deep, frantic, punishing kiss. She ground her hips down against his hard, straining erection, eliciting a raw, ragged moan from the back of his throat. She pulled back just enough to bite down on his lower lip until it bled, her voice a low, gravelly snarl of absolute sexual authority. "Cut the feed, Ren. Let them choke on it."

"Fuck—done," Ren gasped, a wild, unhinged glaze in his eyes as he hammered the master override, plunging the lower corridor into flashing, strobing amber emergency light.

Down the industrial hall, a dense wall of hissing, green bio-toxin vapor billowed toward them—the Cleaners.

Sera laughed—a dark, feral sound—and threw her hands out. A blinding wave of sub-zero frost erupted from her palms, flash-freezing the toxic gas into a jagged, glittering wall of emerald ice. In a flash, Sera spun back around, pressing her freezing, shivering body hard against Mari's front. Her ice-cold hands plunged directly under Mari's tactical vest, gripping her bare breasts with a bruising force that made Mari cry out, the violent contrast of freezing palms and fever-hot skin sending a white-hot shock straight through her core. Sera sank her teeth deep into the junction of Mari's neck, tasting her blood before whispering against her bruised flesh, "My turn to make you shiver, Queen."

"Not fast enough," Adrian growled, his massive, corded arms wrapping around Mari from behind and lifting her bodily off the floor.

With brutal, possessive strength, Adrian shoved Sera aside, his heavy, calloused hands gripping Mari's ass and grinding her frantically against his massive, aching erection through their gear. He buried his face in her damp hair, his teeth scraping against her spine as he panted a harsh, ragged warning into her ear. "Hold on, little queen. I'm going to take you against these very walls when I'm done breaking them."

With a roar that shook the salt foundations, Adrian dropped her to her feet, charging straight through the ice barrier like a human wrecking ball. He slammed into the armored Cleaners, his massive hands closing around a bio-suit helmet, smashing the corporate soldier's skull straight into the reinforced bulkhead with a sickening, wet crunch.

Mari walked through the absolute carnage like a conquering deity, her body still throbbing and dripping with heat, her inner circle locked tight around her—Adrian’s crushing weight, Kael’s blood-slicked blade, Ren’s frantic, worshipful gaze, Sera’s lingering frost, and Lena watching every heavy, panting breath Mari took with unhinged, trembling adoration.

The High Council was trapped at the dead end of this tunnel, and there was nowhere left for them to hide from the storm.