第1章

To cover my brother Liam Carter's surgery deposit, I auctioned off my virginity.

The payment was five hundred thousand dollars. The terms: move into a penthouse in Manhattan and spend seven nights with Cassian Vere. The agency's contract ran over twenty pages, with detailed clauses on confidentiality, medical exams, and payment terms.

"Miss Carter, your role is companionship. You don't need to know anything about Mr. Vere's personal life." The agent slid a pen toward me. "Payment will arrive on the first night."

The hospital's billing reminder still glowed on my phone. Liam's heart couldn't wait any longer.

I signed.

Cassian was younger than I'd expected. Tall, dark-haired, with pale skin and a ring of dark gold around the edges of his pupils. He didn't talk much, and he never treated me like something he'd purchased.

That night, he asked if I was afraid.

I nodded slowly, trembling as I undressed. In the floor-to-ceiling window, I could see the outline of my own body, my curves overlapping with his tall, lean silhouette, desire burning in the air between us.

He stepped closer. His cold fingers trailed across my skin, then gripped my waist and pulled me against him. "Relax, baby."

I breathed in his cool, sharp scent, but his breath against my ear worked like poison, and I was wet almost immediately. His hand slid lower, his fingers finding my clit, rubbing gently.

"Slow down..."

The next second, I was lifted onto the bed and pinned beneath him. His hard cock pressed against my entrance, grinding slowly, coated in my wetness.

The teasing made my whole body shudder. Finally, when I couldn't take it anymore, he held me tight and thrust deep inside...

...

After that first night, he always waited for my nod before coming close.

But something about him made me tremble on instinct. At night, pressed against his chest, the heartbeat I heard was always slower than a normal person's. Sometimes I'd jolt awake and swear that what was wrapped around my waist wasn't an arm, but a warm, powerful serpent's tail.

During the day, he'd have my favorite food sent up, but he never asked why I kept checking hospital texts. On the fifth night, I took a call from the billing office in the bathroom. When I came out, my eyes were red. He just pushed a glass of warm water toward me. "You can leave now. You'll still be paid in full."

I shook my head. I had no reason to leave. I needed the money, and this was the only way to earn it fast enough. Before the seventh night ended, he placed a black-gold eggshell in my palm.

"Keep it safe."

"What is it?"

"When I come back, I'll tell you myself."

It was the first time he'd told me he would return. I looked at his handsome profile and felt a flicker of something. He was gorgeous and wealthy, a gentleman, and incredible in bed.

Even if I had money and could order up any man I wanted, I'd never find one like him.

But on the morning of the eighth day, I woke to find the other side of the bed completely bare. He had vanished without a trace.

His assistant stood in the doorway and handed me a black card with no spending limit. "Mr. Vere had an urgent matter. Everything he left behind is yours."

"Did he say anything else?"

The assistant glanced at his phone, deleted an internal directive that had just come through, and answered without a flicker. "No."

Seven nights of warmth, and all that remained was a card and an ice-cold eggshell.

I transferred five hundred thousand dollars from the black card and deposited it anonymously into Liam's surgical account. Beyond that, I didn't touch a cent. The eggshell, I threw into the Hudson River and watched it sink into the murky water.

Three months later, I went to a private imaging center for an ultrasound.

The doctor stared at the screen, her face draining of color.

"Miss Carter, are you certain you haven't been involved in any illegal embryo experiments?"

"What do you mean?"

She shifted the probe. On the screen, there was no clear outline of a baby's head and limbs. Instead, there were six long, coiled shadows, tangled together like six small snakes sleeping inside my womb.

One of them suddenly raised its head and stared at me through the screen.

The doctor stumbled backward and reached for the alarm on the wall.

"Don't move! We need to notify public health and security—"

I rolled off the exam table and ran out the door before I'd even gotten my shoes on.

Oh my God. I was actually pregnant with six snakes!

If they caught me, there was no telling what they'd do. I'd probably end up as a live research subject.

That afternoon, I switched phones, canceled my credit cards, and logged out of every social media account. I took nothing but a few changes of clothes and the hospital letter confirming Liam's recovery, and boarded a long-distance bus to Montana.

As the bus pulled out of New York, I felt the things inside me move for the first time while I was in the restroom.

It didn't feel like a baby kicking.

Six slender forces swept across my belly at once, then settled quietly beneath my palm.

I was so scared I stopped breathing.

The city lights grew farther away. I thought of how Cassian always asked before touching me, yet never once asked if I was willing to get pregnant. I hugged my coat tighter. Whatever was growing inside me, I couldn't let the agency or Cassian find me.

Third Person’s POV

At that same moment, Cassian returned to the penthouse.

He saw the empty closet. He saw the black card sitting unused on the table. Then he looked down at his palm.

The once-complete mate mark had faded to a single faint golden thread. The black-gold eggshell, designed to track his mate's location, had gone completely dark.

"She left on her own." His aunt, Seraphina Vere, stood in the doorway, her voice flat. "Just a worthless human who got her money."

Cassian didn't answer.

He pulled up every entry and exit log from the building and found that the final message meant for me that morning had been deleted.

"Find her," he ordered his head of security, Owen Hayes.

"Global?"

"Global."

The golden thread on his palm flared for a split second.

Cassian lifted his gaze, his voice going cold.

"Find her alive. If she's dead, bring me proof."