Chapter 1

The silk sheets felt cold against Ethan Cole' s bare skin.

He lay still, listening to the rain lash against the penthouse window.

Seraphina Vanderbilt stirred beside him, her breathing soft.

She had called him to her bed an hour ago, a familiar summons.

For a year, this had been their routine.

Her plaything, her practice.

His silent, burning devotion.

She stretched, a languid movement, then sat up, the sheet pooling around her waist.

Her eyes, usually warm when they looked at him in private, were distant.

"The wedding is in ten days, Ethan."

Her voice was cool, matter-of-fact.

Ethan' s heart clenched. He kept his face blank.

"Julian Astor will be my husband."

She didn' t look at him.

He knew this day would come. He had prepared for it.

It didn' t make the words any less of a blow.

"I offer my congratulations, Miss Vanderbilt."

His voice was even, betraying nothing.

A clap of thunder rattled the windows.

Ethan flinched, a small, involuntary movement.

Seraphina' s lips curled into a faint smile.

"Still scared of a little noise, Ethan?"

She knew his fear, a remnant of a childhood he barely remembered, a trauma seared into him before her father found him.

He didn' t answer.

She rose from the bed, naked, unconcerned by his presence.

"Our arrangement is over. You will resume your duties as my primary security. Nothing more."

He nodded. "Understood."

The rain intensified, a roar against the glass.

He remembered the streets, the violence, the hunger before Senator Vanderbilt took him in.

He was a boy then, broken.

They had molded him, trained him, made him into a weapon, a shield.

Seraphina, a young girl then, had been the only flicker of warmth in that brutal conditioning.

Her small hand in his, a shared secret in the vast, cold mansion.

He had learned to suppress everything for her: his fear of storms, his aversion to the violence they demanded of him.

He became her perfect tool.

A year ago, she had come to him after a charity gala.

Julian Astor, her then-new fiancé, had fainted when she' d tried to kiss him publicly.

"He' s delicate," Seraphina had said, her eyes assessing Ethan. "I need someone... experienced. To practice with. So I don' t overwhelm him."

She needed to be prepared for her marriage.

He knew it was an order, a new dimension to his service.

He knew it was about her needs, not his.

But a part of him, the part that still clung to the memory of her childhood warmth, had hoped.

He complied.

Now, that hope was extinguished.

He dressed silently, his movements economical.

As he reached the door, his burner phone vibrated in his pocket.

A single, encrypted message.

Nightshade Solutions. Information regarding Cole. Montana.

His parents. The "accident."

A flicker of something new, something other than pain, sparked within him.

A way out. A reason to leave.

He had to.