Chapter 158: Universally loathed nuisance

Because thick fog and heavy electrical storms rendered aerial transport through violent turbulence extremely perilous—and considering the perimeter border was located within reasonable ground distance—Bunny’s strike team opted to deploy via heavy armored transport.

The transport’s titanium-alloy plating offered absolute resistance against extreme thermal extremes, maximizing both defensive fortitude and offensive loadouts to handle treacherous topographies and volatile meteorological shifts.

Bunny buckled into her anti-radiation combat vest. Her individual soldier loadout integrated reconnaissance, frontline combat, personal defense, encrypted communications, survival triage, and field medical modules into a unified system.

From the ballistic helmet, thermal vision optics, tactical goggles, and comms headset, down to the load-bearing harness, assault pack, modular utility belts, forearm guards, drop-leg holsters, and reinforced combat boots...

Once fully geared, Bunny looked remarkably like a stuffed round seal.

Tyr pulled her up into the transport. As the man adjusted his tactical gloves, Bunny caught an accidental glimpse of several pale pink scars starkly crossing his exposed wrist.

Confused, she turned her gaze toward Tyr, but the man promptly yanked his sleeve down and retreated back into silence.

Bunny recalled that Tyr appeared to be on a routine pharmaceutical regimen, and Rin had previously noted his emotional thresholds were dangerously volatile, keeping him trapped in a persistent state of acute suppression.

Could it be that Tyr...?

She had previously told him he could seek her out whenever he needed an outlet, but following that single neuro-cleansing session, Tyr had never once approached her of his own accord.

At the time, she hadn’t dwelt on it.

In truth, Tyr hadn’t abstained out of a lack of desire, but rather because of Xander.

That particular evening wasn’t merely about Xander sharing a drink with him; Xander had made his intentions crystal clear—he intended to claim Bunny as his woman.

Tyr knew Xander inside and out. While the Vice-Captain would gladly lay down his life alongside his brothers, he operated under an absolute code: zero tolerance for anyone casting covetous glances toward his chosen treasures.

Liam and Astin had suffered brutal beatings, and the credit for that discipline was split evenly between Cyrus and Xander.

Possessing realistic self-awareness, combined with the fact that his connection to Bunny remained largely rooted in abstract fascination, Tyr had consciously stepped back.

Up in the driver’s seat, San manned the controls, while Tyr returned to the co-pilot’s console to pull up the holographic topography map and plot their tactical route.

Rain and Arden occupied the second row. The moment Bunny settled onto the bench in the rear compartment, the armored hatch slammed open, and a pair of impossibly long legs strode unceremoniously inside.

Instantly monopolizing the majority of the back row, the intruder shoved Bunny hard against the side panel.

It took her precisely 0.00001 seconds to identify the culprit.

That universally loathed nuisance, Cyrus!

Bunny mentally screamed in sheer frustration—just how wide were his hips that he needed to sprawl out across the entire bench?!

Refusing to brush against him, she edged herself even closer to the frost-coated glass of the window.

True to form, the infuriating brute acted with calculated malice, jamming his knee forward and pressing shamelessly against her thigh.

The intense, burning heat radiating through two layers of combat fabric forced her to jerk away on instinct.

Reaching her breaking point, Bunny hissed, "Cyrus, can you move your ass over?!"

The man appeared to be nursing a hard candy in his mouth; with a casual crunch, he splintered the sweet between his teeth, arching a single dark brow:

"Gladly."

Whereupon he shifted even closer, pressing his frame flush against her side.

Did the man lack basic auditory comprehension?

"I said move over!"

Bunny shoved hard against his chest, realizing she was rapidly being compressed into a human vacuum-sealed snack.

Yet his tall, heavily muscled frame was anchored like an immovable boulder; her resistance felt like an ant trying to shake a tree. Cyrus remained utterly unbothered, watching her struggle with an amused, leisurely glint in his eye.

He even rested both arms comfortably along the backrest behind her, offering cheerful encouragement:

"Keep pushing, Miss Guide. You’re doing great."

Bunny’s face flushed a furious shade of green as she snapped her gaze upward, locking right onto Cyrus’s taunting expression.

Paired with that rogueish, insufferably smug grin, the man was genuinely the most despicable creature alive!

"I’m not sitting next to you!"

If she couldn’t win a fight, she could at least flee. Bunny attempted to stand, hoping to slide into an empty seat up front, but Cyrus’s long legs remained planted across the aisle with zero intention of granting clearance.

"Move."

Cyrus stared straight ahead, entirely deadpan.

"I’m not blocking your path."

Left with no alternative, she had no choice but to squeeze past his legs. The exact moment she brushed past him, a sudden violent jolt rocked the transport as the chassis hit a deep crater in the rugged terrain, throwing Bunny completely off balance as she pitched straight forward into his chest.

A heavy wave of smoky cedarwood flooded her senses as she collided squarely with something rigid and imposing.

Bunny’s cheeks flamed crimson. "Cyrus, you absolute scoundrel!"

Cyrus showed zero inclination to entertain the accusation. "Didn’t you climb right into my lap yourself?"

"You’re still a scoundrel!"

What kind of monster reacts like that the literal second he’s touched?!

Cyrus fell silent, his dark, ink-black eyes locking onto her with a steady, oppressive intensity—resembling the deceptive, glassy calm of the sea moments before a full-scale hurricane hits.

Bunny instinctively knew he was plotting something malicious.

Sure enough, a split second later, a dangerous, crooked smirk pulled at the corner of his lips:

"Since you’re so convinced I’m a scoundrel, it would be an absolute insult to Miss Guide’s chosen moniker if I didn’t actually live up to the title."

His large palm clamped securely around her lower back, exerting a firm tug that instantly obliterated the remaining inches between them. A deep, bruising kiss crashed over her lips, as his bold, agile tongue forced its way past her teeth.

A forbidden, cooling woodsmoke aroma mingled with the lingering citrus tang of melted hard candy across their palates, waking every nerve ending. By the time Bunny managed to reboot her cognitive functions, Cyrus had already drawn back.