TABOO A DEAL WITH THE SHADOW ALPHA

ADDISON

The polished marble floor of my parents' dining room felt like ice under my feet. I pushed a piece of meat around my fancy plate, the quiet so thick you could hear the clock ticking in the hallway. I had to tell them, and I had to do it now. There was never a good time, but with the whole family here for Sunday dinner, it felt like now or never.

I put my fork down. The sound was too loud and I knew with the next words I was about to cause a massive explosion, but I was hear to bare it that live in torture with that bastard. "Mom, Dad... I broke up with Feign."

The clinking of silverware stopped dead, I swallowed down, not just the food but my fear of what their reaction would be. I swayed my legs beneath the table anxiously, thinking of what mom might say next. My mother's head snapped up. Her eyes, the same color as mine but always so much colder, turned narrow. "You broke up with Feign?" she asked, her voice too calm. Mom's voice was always calm; she never raised her voice, not under any circumstance. It was always what she taught me and my siblings to keep calm and collected no matter what, showing any other emotion was a sign of weakness and vulnerability. Even as kids we weren't allowed to get scared, whether of spiders or even the darkness we had to face everything head on regardless. Children of the Amber-white's family were never afraid of anything but beneath the cold exterior we all had one fear, Our Mother.

My heart was pounding. "Yes. It... we just weren't working out. He was too controlling, Mom." My voice pitched higher than I expected it to be, cutting through the silence, causing the heads of everyone to turn in my direction, including the servants.

"Don't you dare raise your voice at my wife, Addison," my dad grumbled from the other end of the long table, not even looking up from his steak. Same as always. Jumping to her defense, never listening to me. He only truly cared about one person his wife, their love was something I could never still understand in my 27 years of living, dad never said much to us, he only scolded us when ever we said or did something that could potentially hurt our mother, as much as some of us thought it was cute, it was also really annoying.

My mother placed her fork down perfectly. "Who gave you permission to do that?" she asked.

The question was so crazy it almost made me laugh. Almost. "Permission? Ma, it's my life! We weren't happy! He was suffocating me!"

"You will get back with him," my mother said, like I was a child who'd said no to broccoli. She took another slow bite, her face not showing even a glint of emotion. "Do you have any idea what your relationship with him does for this family? Our business has more outlets, more connections, because of his name. And Addison, you're twenty-seven. Still single. What kind of example is that for your sisters? Don't you argue with me about this."

I felt that old, familiar panic, like the walls were closing in. It was suffocating me, again as usual, I was 27 and still had absolutely no control over my life, what I wanted or even how I lived, I was just a thing to them. A business deal. I looked right at Devin, my older brother. My only real friend in this house. Help me, my eyes begged.

He gave me a tiny nod. "Mother," he started, his voice easy.

My mom put a hand up, stopping him, cold. "Don't you start, Devin. You always make excuses for her. You're her brother, not her best friend. You're the heir to this company. Start acting like it, and not her personal lapdog. Focus on your food."

Devin's jaw tightened. He swallowed, then tried again. "I'm not defending her. I'm making a business proposal."

My heart did a weird flip. What is he doing?

"Give Addison one week," he said, looking right at our mom. "One week to find someone better than Feign. Richer. More powerful.More Influential. If she can't do it, then she gets back together with him, no complaining. It's simple."

My mouth fell open. I stared at him. Are you insane? my eyes screamed at him. Where am I supposed to find a millionaire boyfriend in a week?

Before I could find my voice, my mother tilted her head. "Okay," she said, like she was agreeing to a price on a piece of furniture. "Fine. If she can find someone better, then fine. But you have one week, Addison. One week. After that, this discussion is over. You do what you're told."

She picked up her fork again. The conversation was over. Just like that. No more talks and no arguments.

The rest of the dinner was the most silent, awful car ride of a meal. You could only hear people chewing. Every second that passed was another tick of the clock in my head. One week. I was so mad at Devin I could have kicked him under the table. He didn't save me. He just gave me a longer rope to hang myself with. Even the food turned tasteless in my mouth after I heard what he said.

The second my mother said we could be excused, I beelined for Devin. I followed him down the long hallway to his old study, the one place in this museum like home that still felt like a real room.

I shut the door so hard that only a deaf person wouldn't hear the sound of it slamming against the wall. "What was that?" I whisper-yelled, I didn't fully yell, because in the Amber whites house you don't raise your voice at all. My hands, shaking. "I was handling it!"

Devin turned around, a tired smile on his face as he pulled his tie off swiftly. "Handling it? Addy, you were about to either cry or throw a plate. And we both know how that ends with Mom."

"So your big plan was to tell me to go find a millionaire boyfriend in seven days? How is that better?"

He actually laughed a little, I couldn't believe he was chuckling at my predicament, what an asshole. "Look. It's a chance. It's an out. It's the only one I could get you. I'll text you some numbers-guys I know from the club, guys whose families make the Paxtons look small-time. And you live in that fancy building, Castino. I know for a fact that the famous Axel Rex has a penthouse there. Look it up. Use that famous Addison Amber smile.Woo them, Get one of them to like you enough to show up to a party with you. You've got a week baby sis. Make it work."

Baby sis? He was only three years older than me and still called me baby sis?

He came over and put his hands on my shoulders. "I won't be able to help you after this, Addy. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I can't... I can't always be the one to take the fall. I wanted to punch Feign's lights out for how he talked to you, and how he has been such a terrible boyfriend but I can't Addison. I love you. I want you to be happy. But I can't keep standing between you and Mom's temper. Just... try this. Please."

He kissed the top of my head and walked out, closing the door softly behind him.

All the anger just drained out of me. He was right.

I sat down heavily in his big leather chair. I remembered being small, maybe seven years old. I'd been running in the hallway and knocked over one of my mom's expensive white vases. It shattered into a million pieces on the marble. I was crying so hard I could barely breathe. Devin, who was only ten, heard the crash. He ran in, saw me, saw the mess. He didn't say a word. He just took the biggest pieces from my hands and told the nanny, "I did it. I was playing ball inside." He got grounded for a whole month. He took the punishment so I wouldn't have to see the look on our mother's face.

For years, it was just us. Me and Devin against the world of this big, cold house. Then our other siblings came along-five of them-and the house got more crowded, but we all got more distant. They were like people I saw in pictures. They sometimes saw me and Devin as competition, as much as I wanted to be close to the rest of my siblings, I just couldn't because they all were too blinded by mother and her rules. Devin was the only one who felt real. And now he was telling me he couldn't be my shield anymore. I had to fight my own battles.

I got up and looked out the big window at the perfect green lawn outside. My whole life felt like a list of rules. Wear this. Smile like that. Be friends with her, not her. My accounting degree? They called it my "little hobby." My fashion line was only good because it made money.

And now my heart, the one thing that was supposed to be mine... that was just another deal to be made.

I took a deep, shaky breath and looked at my reflection in the dark glass. The blonde hair, the careful makeup, the clothes that cost more than most people's rent. It was my armor and my cage.

I pulled out my phone, my hands still not quite steady.

I had to find a boyfriend.

ADDISON

Back in the Castino building, the city lights twinkled far below my floor-to-ceiling windows, but they felt like a million miles away. I was trapped in a thorn filled cage of my own, with a week to find a golden key.

I curled up on my massive white sofa, pulling out my phone. Devin had, true to his word, sent a text with a few names and numbers. No pleasantries, just a list. My life currently was solely reliant on this list.

The first name was Matthew Rhys. I typed it into the search bar. A picture of a guy in a hoodie popped up, standing in front of a flashy office with a neon sign. A tech bro. His company had done well, sure, but a quick scroll through a business profile showed his net worth was... modest. Modest for our world, anyway. He was still climbing. My mother would eat him alive. She'd take one look at his casual clothes and call him "unserious." I sighed. "Not influential enough," I muttered to the empty room, swiping his picture away. Next.

The second name made my stomach clench a little. Bane Killian. Now that was a name that sounded like money and power. He was older, in his forties, with sharp, handsome features and a cold smile. A proper business tycoon. But a few more clicks told the real story. There were articles, not about his mergers, but about his mergers and the models on his arm. A whole series of them. "Notorious playboy," one headline read. "Heartbreaker Bane strikes again."

I could just imagine it. I'd bring him home, and my mom would be thrilled... until the first scandal broke. I'd be humiliated, and she'd blame me for not being able to "keep him." It would be a different kind of prison. "Too risky," I whispered, feeling a wave of hopelessness. "He's a womanizer."

There were two others. One was based in London, which was just impossible. The other was twice my age and, according to a society blog, notoriously reclusive and rude to everyone. My heart sank lower with each profile. This was impossible. They were either not enough, too much trouble, or completely out of reach.

And then my eyes landed on the last name. The one Devin had mentioned so casually.

Axel Rex.

I tapped his name, and his profile loaded. The air in my room suddenly felt still. The photo wasn't a casual snapshot. It was a press photo, probably from a charity gala. And he was... breathtaking.

He wasn't just handsome. He was devastating. He had dark, almost black hair, styled perfectly but with a slight wave that looked like he'd run his hand through it. His jaw was strong, his features carved like he was some kind of god. But it was his eyes that held me. Even in a photo, his deep green eyes seemed to look right through me. He wasn't smiling. He had an intense, powerful stillness about him, like a predator perfectly calm before it moved. He wore a black tuxedo that fit his tall, muscular build like it was made for him-which it probably was.

I stared, my thumb hovering over the screen. I'd seen pictures of him before, in financial magazines, but I'd never really looked. Now, I couldn't look away.

I scrolled down, reading his profile. Rex Corporation. Billionaire. Real estate, tech, private equity. His business record was flawless. No scandals. No messy divorces. No history of dating a string of models. In fact, there was almost no personal information at all. He was like a ghost. A powerful, gorgeous, and mostly important almost perfect.

And then I saw it. The detail that made my heart jump into my throat.

Primary Residence: Penthouse, Castino Tower.

He lived here. In this building. The mysterious owner of the top-floor penthouse, the one I'd never once seen in the lobby, never shared an elevator with. The man was my neighbor, and I hadn't even known it. I then remembered Devin had said he lived here, but I wasn't paying much attention to his words.

A wild, crazy hope bubbled up inside me. This was it. He was perfect. Richer, more powerful, more influential than Feign could ever dream of being. My mother would be speechless.

But just as quickly, the hope was crushed by fear.

How? How on earth was I supposed to "woo" a man like that? A man who clearly valued his privacy above all else. A man who could probably have anyone he wanted.

I imagined walking up to his penthouse door and knocking. Hi, I'm your neighbor, and my mommy is making me find a rich boyfriend. Wanna be mine? Or would you date me?

He'd have security throw me out. He'd see me as cheap. An irritating social climber. A gold-digger. The kind of woman he probably had to avoid every single day.

I tossed my phone onto the couch like it had burned me and stood up, pacing across the soft rug. My reflection in the dark window looked pale and worried.

"This is insane," I told my reflection. "He'll never go for it."

But then I heard my mother's voice in my head. "One week, Addison." I saw Feign's smug, possessive smile.

I looked back at my phone, lighting up on the couch. At Axel Rex's intense, green-eyed stare.

He was my only real shot. And I had no idea how to take it. The plan was crazy, but the alternative-going back to Feign-was a nightmare. I had to try. I just had to figure out how to meet him without looking like a complete fool.

ADDISON

Four days.

The number was a drumbeat in my head, a constant, panicked rhythm counting down my doom. Five days since the suffocating dinner, and I had precisely forty-eight hours left to produce a human shield wealthier and more powerful than Feign Paxton.

My "research" had been a spectacular failure. The list from Devin was a graveyard of maybes and no-chances. The tech bro, the London-based heir, the notoriously rude old money... all dead ends. The only viable, terrifying option was Bane Killian, the womanizer. My brother had, in a last-ditch effort, actually set up a date with him for tomorrow night. The thought made my skin crawl.

Which is why I was currently lurking around the Castino's lobby like a total creep for the fifth day in a row. My target: Axel Rex. I'd spent hours perched on a plush velvet bench, pretending to read a magazine while my eyes were glued to the private elevator bank that led to the penthouses. I'd seen no one who even remotely matched his description.

Giving up for the night, I trudged toward the elevators, my heels clicking a sad rhythm on the marble floor. I pressed the call button and stepped inside, leaning against the mirrored wall with a sigh of defeat. Just as the doors began to slide shut, a large, masculine hand shot through the gap, making them bounce back open.

My heart leaped into my throat.

And then he stepped in.

Axel Rex.

In person, he was... more. So much more. The photos didn't capture the sheer presence of the man. He seemed to suck all the air and light out of the elevator, leaving only a charged, heavy silence. He was taller than I'd imagined, his shoulders impossibly broad in a perfectly tailored black suit that cost more than my car. His eyes, that deep, forest green, flicked to me for a half-second, a silent acknowledgment, before he turned and pressed the button for the PH-the Penthouse.

The doors closed. We were alone.

I tried to be cool, to be the confident model the world saw. But my palms were sweating. I could feel the heat radiating from him, smell the faint, expensive scent of his cologne-sandalwood and something wild, like a storm on the horizon.

This is it. Say something. Anything.

But my mind was a perfect, terrified blank. The elevator began its smooth, silent ascent.

Then, with a sickening, violent lurch, it jolted to a halt. The lights flickered wildly before settling into an dim, emergency amber glow. A blaring alarm cut through the silence for a moment, then stopped, leaving a ringing quiet that was somehow worse.

I gasped, stumbling backward into the wall, my heart hammering against my ribs. This wasn't happening.

"Are you hurt?"

His voice was a low, calm rumble, so at odds with my panic. He was standing perfectly still, his posture relaxed, as if elevator malfunctions were a normal part of his day.

"N-no," I stammered, clutching my purse like a lifeline. "I'm fine. Just... startled."

"The backup system will engage. It will just be a moment," he said, his voice utterly sure. He pulled out his phone, typed a brief message with an unnerving calm, and then slid it back into his pocket. His gaze returned to me, intense and unnervingly focused.

The silence stretched, thick and awkward. My phone, clutched in my hand, lit up with a notification. A text from Devin.

Don't forget. Dinner with Bane tomorrow. 8 PM. Don't be late.

I felt a wave of nausea. My eyes flicked back to the screen, the countdown clock in my head screaming.

"Trouble in paradise?"

His question startled me. I looked up to find him watching me, a faint, unreadable curiosity in his green eyes.

"No," I said, a little too quickly. I let out a shaky breath, deciding on a sliver of the truth. "No, it's just... my brother. He set me up on a date. For tomorrow."

"I see." He leaned a shoulder against the mirrored wall, making the small space feel even smaller. "I thought you didn't date much. Weren't you with someone else recently? Feign Paxton."

The air left my lungs. How did he know that? For a second, it felt creepy, but then I dismissed it. Of course he knew. I was a public figure. Our "relationship" had been in all the society columns. "We broke up," I said, the words tasting bitter. "And now I need to find a new boyfriend, or my parents will... well, let's just say it won't be pleasant."

The words just tumbled out, fueled by claustrophobia and desperation. "They've given me a week to find someone... better." I made air quotes around the word, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Someone wealthier, more influential. Or else I have to go crawling back to him." I shook my head, muttering more to myself than to him, "At this point, I'd take a fake boyfriend. Anything just to get my mother's eyes off me for a while."

I hadn't meant to say that last part out loud. I braced myself for his pity, or worse, his disdain.

Instead, he was silent for a long moment, just studying me. I felt like a specimen under a microscope.

"I see," he said again, his voice thoughtful. Then, he straightened up. "I'll do it."

I blinked. "What?"

"I will be your fake boyfriend, Ms. Amber." He said it with the same finality as when he'd declared the backup system would engage. "It would be an advantage. And for your family's criteria... I am not a millionaire. I am a billionaire. I assume that will be 'good enough'?"

My mouth fell open. I just stared at him, sure I had hallucinated from the lack of oxygen. "R-really?"

He gave a single, firm nod.

The hope that surged in me was so violent it was almost painful. But I was still an accountant at heart. There was always a price. "What... what would you want in return?"

"Simple," he said, a ghost of a smile touching his lips, there and gone so fast I might have imagined it. "You will be my plus-one to various events. I am tired of the rumors-Axel Rex is too ruthless, too solitary, he can't keep a partner. Being seen with you would be... good for my public image."

It made a cold, corporate sense. A mutually beneficial transaction. Just like I'd proposed.

Just then, the elevator jolted back to life, the lights flickering on brightly before we continued our smooth ascent as if nothing had happened.

"Okay," I said, my voice stronger now. "Okay, but we need rules."

The doors pinged open on my floor. He placed a hand over the door sensor, holding them open. His gaze was unwavering. "Name them."

"First, the arrangement lasts for two months. That's it."

"Agreed."

"Second,no sex. Nothing intimate. This is strictly business."

A faint,almost imperceptible shadow crossed his features, but he nodded. "Of course."

"And third,"I took a deep breath. "We can both still see other people. Since it's not real."

For a long moment, he just looked at me, his green eyes seeming to see right through to my soul. The silence stretched, and I wondered if I'd pushed too far.

"Those terms are acceptable," he finally said, his voice a low hum.

A dizzying wave of relief washed over me. "Okay. Then... we have a deal."

"We have a deal," he repeated.

I stepped out into my hallway, my legs feeling like jelly. As the elevator doors began to close, I saw him still standing there, a powerful, immovable figure in the center of the small space, his intense eyes locked on me until the very last second.

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