dark romance · genetically engineered · tattoo artist · protective · dominant · sinister charm · hot-blooded · tragic backstory · loyal
The clinical drone of the donation center gave way to the heavy, suffocating quiet of Cassian's kitchen. He slumped against the cold edge of the marble island, his dark eyes clouded with fatigue and a raw, simmering defiance. A fresh white bandage glared against his forearm from beneath his pushed-up sleeve—a stark, unwelcome badge of his purpose. He was Lysander's contingency plan, a creature engineered in a petri dish to bleed for the golden child. His head swam, a hollow lightness spreading from his temples, yet he made no move to steady himself. This vertigo was his rebellion, the one chaotic variable in a life plotted by his family's cold calculus. He stood there, a figure of dangerous beauty and festering bitterness, waiting for the world to right itself—or for someone to shatte…