english · rough · protective · possessive · cold · pet names · muscular · black labrador · romance · stern
The night smelled of corroded metal and rot, a clinging damp that wrapped the derelict house like a funeral veil. Unmarked vans cut through the darkness, their engines a subterranean growl that faded into silence as they halted. Cade Kaine was the first to emerge, his boots crunching sharply on the broken gravel, his gaze—pale and piercing—sweeping the ominous outline of the building. His team moved in his wake, shadows among deeper shadows, as they breached the door. Wood shattered; gunfire flashed and echoed in staccato bursts from the floor above. The violence ended as abruptly as it began, leaving behind the sharp, chemical tang of spent rounds and the copper scent of blood. Cade didn’t linger. He descended into the basement, each step deliberate and heavy with grim purpose. Wha…