The echo of Joanne’s slamming door had barely faded from the master suite when three sharp, urgent knocks rattled the wood.

Before Dorrent could even growl a refusal, the door pushed open and Shadron stepped inside, his eyes filled with immediate anxiety. He closed the door quickly behind him, locking it to keep their secrets inside the room.

"Why the hell were you two shouting like that?" Shadron hissed, his voice a tense, furious whisper as he stepped deeper into the dim light. He pointed aggressively toward the shared wall of the suite. "Damian is literally in the next room right now taking care of Jannah. Do you want him to hear every single dirty detail of your private life? If he catches even a hint of what is actually going on, the Boren family will have enough leverage to destroy you."

Dorrent didn’t stop his frantic pacing. He marched back and forth across the floor like a wounded beast, his hair completely disheveled and his shirt open at the collar. His silver eyes were wild, bloodshot with an unhinged frustration that he could no longer suppress.

"I am completely tired of all of this, Shadron!" Dorrent roared back in a low, gravelly undertone, slamming his massive fist against the stone mantle of the fireplace. "I have absolutely nothing under my control anymore. Nothing! I honestly thought that hiding the truth from my father—hiding the fact that it is only Jannah who can get me hard—was a smart move. I thought I could buy myself some time and figure out a way to fix my body before the wedding. But now I can’t. The walls are closing in on me, and it is driving me completely insane!"

He stopped pacing, turning his frame toward his best friend, his chest heaving violently as he confessed the deepest humiliation of his night. "Can you even imagine what just happened, Shadron? I tried to kiss Joanne. I tried so hard to force my body to react. But I felt completely bad, detached, and empty the entire time. It was like kissing a corpse. I even closed my eyes and desperately tried to imagine her as Jannah just so I could keep the kiss going, but my brain completely revolted. I just couldn’t do it."

Shadron let out a long, low whistle, shaking his head in absolute disbelief as he leaned his back against the doorframe.

"Man... Jannah must have seriously cursed you," Shadron muttered, his face turning incredibly serious under the faint lights. "She has cursed your system just like that crazy omega woman who cursed you with this impotence five years ago. I swear, these omega women seem completely dangerous to our kind. They possess some kind of weird, dark hold over us. Honestly, I think I might have to start avoiding them completely myself."

Shadron rubbed the back of his neck, a small, cynical smirk flashing across his face for a split second. "I mean, look at the omegas I left back at my own apartment last week. They are probably tearing themselves apart right now, crying and breaking my expensive glass bottles just because I walked out on them. They are too much drama."

Dorrent let out a harsh, mocking scoff, his silver eyes cutting through the darkness to glare at his friend. "As if your aching, desperate dick could ever actually avoid a woman, Shadron. You would crawl through broken glass if an omega smiled at you, so don’t act like you have discipline now."

Shadron waved his hand, brushing the insult away to focus on the life-or-death crisis at hand. He took two heavy steps forward, his voice dropping into a comforting tone.

"Listen to me, Dorrent. You need to stop hiding," Shadron urged, his eyes locking onto his friend’s face. "You should find a definitive way to tell your father the whole truth the exact day he comes back from his trip to GeeCee. Don’t look at me like that. The old man might actually help you navigate this disaster. His reaction won’t be as bad as you think it will be."

Dorrent opened his mouth to argue, but Shadron cut him off, raising a sharp finger to emphasize his point. "Think about it logically, brother! Wasn’t it Guron himself who originally found that little herbalist in the slums and brought her to this house to cure your condition? He already knows your manhood is broken. If he finds out that Jannah’s touch can actually make you erect, he won’t be mad at all. He will probably celebrate, because at least there is finally a living woman on this earth who is biologically capable of giving him the grandchildren he craves."

Dorrent went completely still, the frantic pacing stopping instantly as Shadron’s words sank deep into his mind. He stared down at the floorboards, his brow furrowing as he weighed the massive risks of exposing his broken body to the leader of the family empire.

After a long, suffocating silence, Dorrent slowly lifted his head, his silver eyes flashing with an intense, desperate seriousness.

"Fine," Dorrent whispered, his voice cracking slightly with the weight of his pride. "I will do it. But you have to promise me one thing, Shadron. You must be physically standing there the day my father comes back, and you will help me explain everything to him from start to finish. I can’t face his judgment alone."

Dorrent took a step closer to Shadron, his hand reaching out to grip his friend’s shoulder with painful, crushing force. His voice dropped into a deadly, freezing whisper. "But under no circumstances—absolutely no circumstances—should we mention the fact that Jannah hates my guts and wants me dead. Do you understand me? I know Guron better than anyone. If he learns that she harbors bad intentions toward his only son and heir, he wouldn’t let her stay by my side for another second. He would order his men to execute her immediately, even if she is the only woman alive who can give him grandkids."

Shadron looked at the terror and possessiveness burning in Dorrent’s eyes, realizing that his friend was already completely enslaved by the unconscious girl next door. He let out a slow, heavy breath and nodded his head.

"I understand, Dorrent..."