It was well past three in the morning, but not even alcohol could make sleep come. But in reality he didn’t want to sleep anyway, not when the ghosts of his past haunted him, causing the nightmares he had every fucking night to bring him right back to the horror that surrounded him. He downed the rest of the whiskey, and felt his lion pace within him, but that wasn’t a surprise from the sadistic fucker. He kept the asshole on a leash, knowing that if he ever let the animal out it would go right back to destroying everything in its path. Blaming the evil he had done on his animal wasn’t really fair, but then again that bastard had given him the sadistic strength to point a gun at his hit without blinking and feeling nothing but a void of darkness that filled him completely. He hadn’t allowed himself to shift for six fucking years, for fear that his inner animal would once again take control. Maverick had done a lot to keep himself in check this whole time, and he wasn’t about to fucking let go because his baser urges roared out for him to let loose.
Fuck. That.
He had come here for a new life, to get away from the world of death, drugs, and deceit, and that was exactly what he kept reminding himself, even six years later. But things have a way of never working out the way they are supposed to.
****
“I will not have this conversation with you again, Kettah. I don’t know how many times I must explain that a marriage to Marlon will ensure our alliance with the Ungaro family, which is essential for growth.” Kettah Milokov stared at her father, Viktor, and took a step back. She could sense the anger radiating off of him, knew he was in a foul mood before she even walked into his office, but had still told him she wouldn’t be marrying Marlon Ungaro, a wildcat shifter from the biggest Romanian shifter mafia located in America. “Now, I will not talk about this again. Do you understand me?”
It took her a moment, but she found her strength, bit back her argument and said, “Yes, Father.”
He nodded once. “Good.” The phone on his desk rang, and he picked it up and barked out, “Yeah?” There was a moment of silence, and Kettah looked out the window. The sun was shining, and a sparrow was on the branch brushing against the glass. It had freedom, something she would never have, not unless she wanted to risk everything for the hope that one day she would touch it. “I don’t care how much it is. You make the Tingarians hand over the thirty kilos they owe me, or bodies are going to hit the ground, Strauss.” Her father’s voice was deadly low, and she looked over at him, knowing she could go but unable to move. He was talking about cocaine, one of his bigger productions. She had heard enough through from whispers throughout the house to know that Strauss was a middleman, setting up the mule-ing of the coke for her father. She tried to block all of this stuff out, but there were times it was just too hard, especially when it was thrust in her face. “Don’t call me again until you get this shit taken care of.” He slammed the phone down, and his rage was tangible. “It’s time for you to go, Kettah.”
He didn’t look at her as he started to go through a stack of paperwork on his desk. There were two guards assigned to Kettah. One of them, Sevastian Damonoff, was a security guard who had risen in ranks over the last year and was now one of Viktor’s most trusted men. He gently took hold of her upper arm and steered her in the other direction. Her father liked to keep “his own kind” working for him, but Pallas’s cats were small and not very intimidating in animal form. Because of this her father had sought out protection from one of the biggest shifter species, the brown bear. That was Sevastian's breed, and even though he was frightening and intimidating, the big male was also the one that was the gentlest with her. He led her out of the office, and although only she saw a softening in his light blue eyes, he showed no other emotion. He slowly shut the door, blocking out her father, and everything that had to do with this nightmare of a life. The door shut behind her with a resounding click. She saw a few of her father’s guards speaking hushed tones, but the only thing she could make was one word: Marick. Her heart raced at the sound of that name, and she looked over at the still closed door behind her. She moved closer, and pressed herself against the wall, listening harder.
“Boss has been trying to find someone comparable to Marick for the last six years, but they keep fucking up.”
“Ain’t no one ever going to match Marick. That fucker was one bad motherfucker.” The other guy grunted in agreement. She heard their retreating footsteps.
Marick Leonous, the once most sought after hit-man in organized crime. She had heard enough talk about him over the years to know that he had been lethal, ruthless, and had absolutely no emotion when it came to taking a life. It was also known if someone wanted another person gone, he was the lion shifter to look for. She had no other information on him aside from what she gathered from the rumor mill, but knew that when he had let his animal free there was no stopping the destruction. The one and only time she had seen the lion had been when she was fifteen years old. She had snuck out of her room and down the hall, had heard the deep sound of her father’s hushed voice, and peeked over the railing. All she had seen was a flash of Marick’s black hair and the tail of his dark trench coat as he strode out of their home. There had been a rush of murmurs after he had left, but they all had the same reaction: deadly, frightening, and not one to fuck with. But even at fifteen she had felt her heart race as she watched him leave. It had been a strange sensation to have such an intense reaction to a male when she hadn’t even seen his face, and didn’t know anything about him aside from the fact he was deadly and someone she should stay away from. But the truth was she hadn’t forgotten about him in all that time. But that had been the last time she had seen him, and not because he had kept to himself. Marick hadn’t followed through with her father’s orders, whatever they had been, and a few hours later they had recovered the charred remains of a lion shifter from a very expensive vehicle. The shock that Marick was actually dead had affected the entire organization, and people had talked about it for a very long time. Her father had been pissed at the loss of the lion, not because he grieved for the male that had worked for him than Kettah couldn’t even remember, but because he was out a lethal killer. The most lethal killer, in fact. She didn’t know any more details than that, but she didn’t really want to know them either.