All heavily augmented.
All moving with the kind of coordinated precision that comes from military training.
They see us.
They see the frozen enforcer on the floor.
They see Cyprian's unfurled wings and glowing amber veins.
And they charge.
Cyprian's chest rumbles.
Deep.
Feral.
Absolutely devastating.
"Together," he says.
"Together," I agree.
And then the corridor explodes into violence.
Chapter 24: Cyprian
They charge.
Four heavily augmented enforcers moving in coordinated assault formation down the pulsing crimson corridor, their boots striking marble in synchronized rhythm, their bio-engineered shoulders locked forward in that rigid, aggressive stance that marks them as Sentinel property.
I do not retreat.
I snap my wings forward with violent force, the massive leather membranes spreading wide to form an immovable barrier between the enforcers and my mate. The bone spurs extend fully, locking into defensive position, the gold veins running through the dark leather flaring incandescent as my body floods with ancient protective instinct.
The first enforcer reaches me.
His augmented fist drives toward my chest with enough kinetic force to shatter concrete.
It meets the taut leather of my left wing.
The impact reverberates through my entire frame—a deep, bone-rattling shock that travels from the membrane through thebone spurs and into my shoulder girdle. The force is immense. Brutal. Designed to break through reinforced barriers.
But I am not a barrier.
I am eight hundred years of calcified fury wrapped in stone and leather.
I do not move.
The enforcer's fist rebounds off my wing with a dull, meaty thud. His momentum carries him forward, his balance compromised by the failed strike. Behind me, I feel Tamsin's small frame pressed against my back, her breathing rapid and shallow, her hands gripping the fabric of my suit jacket.
She is afraid.
But she has not run.
She will never run.
Because she is mine, and I am hers, and we face threats together.
