Chapter 2I Bought The Twins Now They Own Me

Every human, upon coming of age, is granted the right to register a Beastkin companion. It’s a rite of passage, a status symbol, a partnership.

I am Ava Sinclair. The Sinclair heiress.

I’d turned my back on the family empire to chase my own dream, carving out a name for myself as an actress. I hid my background, wanting to succeed on my own terms. But my face was my fortune, and coupled with a talent for the craft and a carefully curated public image, Hollywood had been good to me.

Then my cousin, Audrey, returned from her studies abroad and, in a grand show of familial duty, volunteered to take over the Sinclair Corporation. To prove her maturity and compassion, she registered the weakest, most pitiable merman from the Blackwood Registry, Finn. But then came the performance: she was embarking on a charity mission to rural West Virginia, she’d cried, and it was simply no place to care for such a delicate creature. She begged me, with perfectly crafted tears, to look after him for her.

In reality, she was disgusted by him.

I, on the other hand, had longed for a Beastkin companion for years. But my father, a man who valued pedigree above all else, always dismissed them as beneath our station. He’d forbidden it.

So when Audrey pleaded, I caved. I took Finn in.

I never imagined his heart was made of sea-stone.

I poured my affection into him. I gave him everything. But his gaze was always distant, fixed on a memory of Audrey. He grew to resent me, convinced I was his jailer.

So he murdered me and burned my house to the ground.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on that very day. The day Audrey “saved” Finn. This time, however, I was lounging in an exclusive, underground bar.

My phone buzzed incessantly with messages from her.

I ignored them.

My attention was entirely captivated by the breathtaking fox twins. And a new, audacious idea was beginning to form.