Everett grins, “I plan to make Christian the traitor in all this. The one who leaked our plans and allowed you to escape. I’ll be the only one to return having beaten all the odds and survived. I’ll be given glory.”
Geoffrey’s eyes twinkle with unhidden mirth, obviously laughing at his naivete, “Being a survivor doesn’t give you glory, Mr. Parks.”
“No.” Everett sets his drink down with a strange finality, before looking upat Geoffrey with a smile, “But killing you will.”
Geoffrey doesn’t get the chance to stand or run before Everett pulls his fingers on the trigger of the silencer hidden inside his jacket.
Two shots for Geoffrey, one for his servant, and the world resumes quietly around him. And when he turns to leave, he doesn’t notice the small black cat watching him in a corner of the room, fur bristling with hatred.
By the time Everett leaves, only death and sorrow remain, and there is no one to notice the small animal that stares at Max and Mitch, unmoving.
It is not used to the sensations—to the hot anger that threatens to carve its skin from its bones, and the bottomless sorrow that makes breathing so unnaturally unbearable.
Emotions have always been… new. Until this point, they were vaguely warm—whenever it dodged Max’s bullets or heard Mitch’s jokes.
But these feelings are different.
The small cat pads over to Christian, and they become worse. Sharp, uncontrollable,encompassing… hot and scratchy andinfuriating… Raw hate mixed with a desperate need for revenge.
Christian was never like other humans. Christian was bright and beautiful and strong. It was Christian who named him… Who took him in when he was struggling to find that place humans calledhome—
With a sinking realization, the cat realizes the truth too late.
Christian—this team—had been its home.
And now it was gone.
Stolen away by a traitor.
The cat doesn’t know why it shifts then. When it came to this world, it triedand failed to blend in as a human. Everything it’d learned about their customs was outdated andwrong…Because of that, they gave him strange looks no matter what he did—no matter how hard he tried.
He has remained a cat for 571 days, ever since failing to live as one of them… but his loss and his hatred this time, is the catalyst—it is greater than his courage and his fear as he shifts into a man again.
But this time, it is a man with bright blue eyes and black hair.
This time it is a lean body honed from years of training, with toned muscles and a pretty face.
This time—
It is Christian Adler.
Chapter 1
Reuben
“Mr. Taiga. We weren’t expecting you.” The guard at the door shuffles from foot to foot uncomfortably and I have to force my eyes not to roll.
“That was the point. Take me to Dahlia.”
“Yes, sir.” The grunt doesn’t hesitate to show me inside the mansion. Even I had to admit my cousin outdid herself handling Portland’s affairs on her own. Instead of caving in when her husband died, like everyone thought she would, she fit into the position of Capo like it was made for her.
The moment the door opens, I can already smell the overpowering rosé perfume and the bright red on her lips is like staring into a traffic light at point-blank range. Two of her bodyguards are plastered to the walls behind her desk, wearing grim expressions, but before she even registers me in the room, I can already tell that something is wrong.
The energy around her is pure black, tinted barely with bits of red.
The shock makes me forget to breathe. I’d only ever seen it this black once before... when her husband died. She never let it show when she started running Portland, but I always knew it was there. I made sure someone was keeping an eye on her at all times, no matter where she had to go or who she had to see.
Black is not the colour you see on people who want to live.
