Chapter 2

The first time I met Chloe was when she came over to the house to drop off corporate files.

The way Nicholas looked at her was filled with unmistakable admiration and tenderness.

"So this is Mia?" Chloe's voice sounded like it had been dipped in liquid honey.

She walked gracefully over to the couch, reaching out a manicured hand to stroke my hair.

"Nick talks about you all the time. He said you're sweet, gentle, and have an almost human intelligence. Seeing you today, you really are something special."

The heavy floral scent of her perfume made my stomach churn with unease.

I instinctively flinched, shrinking back into the cushions, a soft, low hiss vibrating in my throat.

Every animal instinct I possessed screamed that this woman was dangerous.

I turned to dart away.

Before I could even take a step, Chloe let out a sharp shriek and stumbled backward.

She cradled her hand against her chest, eyes brimming with pathetic, trembling tears. "Nick... does Mia hate me?"

Nicholas immediately swept Chloe into his arms. He tenderly rubbed the faint, nonexistent mark on her skin and glared at me with terrifying fury.

"Mia! This is Chloe, my executive assistant. Be polite and greet her!"

I looked at him, then shifted my gaze to Chloe.

Every fiber of my being rebelled, but I was terrified of angering him.

Clumsily using the human etiquette I had only recently picked up, I gave her a stiff nod.

Chloe covered her mouth with a soft, delicate laugh. "Oh, how adorable."

During dinner, Chloe sat directly between Nicholas and me.

Hearing her call him "Nick" rolled off her tongue with sickening familiarity.

Meanwhile, even though I had been granted a human body, my primal instincts still made me want to meow when I sought comfort.

A suffocating knot tightened in my chest.

Hoping to reclaim a shred of the closeness we once shared, I reached across the table to set a piece of his favorite roast chicken on his plate.

Suddenly, Chloe gasped. "Oh no!"

She deliberately knocked over the bowl of steaming soup beside her wrist, whimpering softly, "Nick... it burns so much..."

Nicholas's expression darkened instantly, his sharp glare impaling me like a dagger. "Mia! How can you be so clumsy?!"

I opened my mouth to plead, "It wasn't me! She did it on purp—"

"You dare talk back to me?!"

Nicholas cut me off with a deafening roar, his arm whipping forward as he struck me with a vicious slap across the face.

The blow sent me crashing to the floor, my cheek blazing with fire while my chest felt plugged with jagged ice—cold, bruised, and suffocating.

My ears rang loudly. Before my spinning head could clear, Nicholas's voice drifted down from above, chillingly detached.

"Mia, by the power of our pact, I command you: heal Chloe's hand right now!"

An invisible, monstrous force violently ripped into the depths of my soul, tearing away a fragment of my very life essence.

I scrambled up and fled to my room like a kicked stray.

Out in the living room, Nicholas's voice dipped into an impossibly gentle murmur as he comforted Chloe.

Late that night.

Nicholas stepped into my bedroom, the sickening stench of Chloe's perfume clinging to his skin.

"Does your face still hurt?" he asked softly.

I squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to look at him or answer.

Through the heavy silence, I heard him ask, "Mia, do you like children?"

I froze. Children?

My instincts as a cat didn't give me much concept of noisy, unpredictable human babies.

But if it was a child born of him and me...

A tiny spark of joy bloomed in my chest. Just as I was about to nod, Nicholas seemed to read my thoughts.

His arms tightened slightly around my waist. "We... can never have a child together."

My entire body went rigid. I stared at him, utterly lost.

"Chloe consulted a seer who told her that since you're a spirit-cat, our bloodlines can never produce human life. But our family line needs an heir."

"Chloe has a rare, blessed constitution. The seer said that a child born from her womb will bring immense fortune and prosperity to my business empire. But her physical health is too fragile. She needs one of your lives to safely endure childbirth."

"Once she gives birth to the baby..."

Nicholas cupped my face in his palms, his eyes burning with an obsessive, terrifying intensity.

"The child will be officially registered under your name. By law, you will be the real mother! The three of us will finally be a complete family! You, me, and our child."

Looking into his pleading eyes, I buried my face into his shoulder and let out a muffled, trembling whimper of surrender.

Nicholas leaned down, his lips crushing against mine in a bruising kiss.

Curled tightly in his arms, the phantom ache on my cheek flared up with renewed agony.

Silent tears soaked into the cold pillow beneath my head.

"Good girl, Mia. I knew you were the most understanding. You have to bear with this for now. It's all for our future..."

Beside the magic mirror in the Underworld, Minos kicked his boots up, listening with wicked amusement. He let out a low whistle.

"Well, well, little kitten. Turns out you were a hopeless romantic after all."

The corner of my mouth twitched into a bitter, hollow smirk. Romantic? He had no idea how low I had fallen.