Chapter 1
"Ms. Hart, I've filed to dissolve our match. I expect your cooperation."
Major General Adrian Voss stared at me. Spotless uniform. Unblinking, amber slit-pupils. He was an Alpha snake shifter, and an eighty-percent genetic match to the body I now occupied.
Beside him, his childhood sweetheart, Serena Vale, watched me eagerly. She was waiting for my hysterical, tearful breakdown.
I knew the script. I'd just woken up inside the novel Second Chance with the General as Evelyn Hart, the doomed villainess. Serena was the reborn heroine here to take her man back. If I fought for this engagement, I'd be disowned and eventually die miserably in a ditch.
A brutal fate. But as Adrian waited for my answer, I wasn't heartbroken. I was paralyzed by one horrifying detail:
Snake shifters courted their mates in their beast forms.
Holy crap! I was absolutely terrified of snakes!
Evelyn
My silence made both of them tense.
Adrian leaned forward, one finger tapping the table. Serena sat upright beside him and pressed her lips together. They were bracing for tears, threats, possibly flying furniture.
In the book's original timeline, Evelyn had refused to let Adrian go. She'd rushed toward a window and threatened to jump if he ended their engagement. Serena remembered that first life. She had every reason to be ready this time.
I lowered my head for a moment, trying to get control of my face.
When I looked up, my eyes were watering. Serena's shoulders tightened.
"Really?" My voice shook. "We can end the engagement? Right now?"
Adrian paused. Apparently, that wasn't quite the response he'd expected.
"As soon as you sign." He glanced at the documents on the table. "The Voss family will transfer a five-percent stake in our Seventh System mineral shipping routes to the Hart family. Your personal compensation will be fifty million imperial credits, paid from my own account."
I stared at him.
"Those terms can be included in the agreement," he added. "In writing. I'll honor them."
I hard-bit my lip to kill a wild smile. Fifty million credits. Just to avoid dodging a giant snake in bed. "Deal," I blurted, snatching the pen.
I had been wondering how I was going to pay the household staff next month. The Harts were wealthy, but they weren't Voss-family wealthy, and my new father had enough children to fill two soccer teams with substitutes left over. The allowance for each child wasn't nearly as generous as our surname suggested.
The original Evelyn hadn't let that interfere with her spending. It was barely the beginning of the month, and she'd already emptied her account.
She also employed five people to look after her. One handled her clothes, one cooked, one cleaned, one kept her entertained, and the fifth had the very specific responsibility of doing her hair.
Five salaries. I was functionally broke. But right now, Adrian was instantly curing my bankruptcy and paying me out of his own pocket to stay away from a reptile.
I yanked the paperwork toward me before he could blink.
