Page 38 of Shadow

Her cheeks flushed pink, and I couldn’t help the flicker of amusement that rose inside me.

This should be good.

“Come on,” she said, clearly flustered. “You saw how they dressed me. You haven’t figured out that they hoped you’d fall head over heels and take me up on anything I offered?”

Her cheeks darkened to a deep crimson, and she looked away, embarrassed.

“They thought your request for a female liaison was because of a shortage of women. That was therealreason they sent me.”

I shouldn’t have wanted to laugh, but I did.

“And you let them send you here to sleep with monsters?”

Her eyes ground into mine. “Stop calling your kind monsters.” She waved off my words like they were nothing. “I assumed I wouldn’t survive the plane ride, let alone meeting you if I made it off that death trap in one piece. And let me remind you, Ialmostdidn’t survive my first day here. So, no, my thought process wasn’t exactly far off the mark.”

She took a steady breath, her eyes still locked onto mine.

“My father never thought of your kind as monsters. He respected Shadow Warriors more than he did most humans. He didn’t talk about his work often, but he made sure I knew you weren’t to be feared. He was a good man, and he had an uncanny ability to judge people.”

I wasn’t letting her off the hook that easily.

“So, you were okay with sacrificing yourself? Sexually?”

Her head shook, but her gaze didn’t lower.

“I was neverokaywith it. But I knew my chances of surviving at home were slim. My job was nonessential, which meant the next time the hellhounds attacked, I’d probably be wearing a red stripe and sacrificing myself in a different way.”

She paused, her voice softening.

“I came here because I wanted to do something meaningful for my country—and, because of my father, something for Shadow Warriors.”

Her gaze finally dropped, and I noticed something surprising. The prolonged eye contact hadn’t set Beast off. Maybe he was asleep.

“I wanted my father to be proud,” she finished quietly, “even if he wasn’t here to see it.”

I let the silence linger, staring at the far wall as I made a decision.

“Hellhounds aren’t hounds at all.”

She didn’t respond right away, her mind clearly working to process my words. When she finally spoke, her voice was cautious.

“How do you know that?”

I was crossing a line, though I wasn’t entirely sure why.

Maybe it was the mention of her father.

Or maybe it was Marinah herself.

Every emotion she felt. Joy, anger, and sadness played openly across her face. If she were lying about everything she’d said, she was a world-class actress.

I felt deep in my gut that she was remarkably genuine.

So, against my better judgment, I opened Pandora’s box.

“Because we’ve captured and studied them.”

Her reaction was immediate.

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