Page 1 of Monochrome (ORCA #4)

CHAPTER

ONE

JULIUS

“Mr. Hunter, Mr. Lin will see you now.” The impeccably dressed, willowy receptionist with her sleek black hair cut into an angled bob fit right in among the modern minimalist decor of the Grove Core Industries US headquarters.

The silver sheen of her tailored gray pencil skirt perfectly matched the chrome accents on the black leather furniture and the stylized silver panda logo on the front of her desk, and her white silk blouse was the exact color of the unblemished paint on the walls.

As I gave her my most charming smile and stood from the leather chair I’d barely settled into, I had to wonder if it was an accident or an intentional choice.

If she’d been wearing some sort of green accent piece to match the floor-to-ceiling live bamboo that separated the reception area from the offices beyond, I’d have known the outfit was deliberate.

I followed as she gestured down a frosted glass-lined hallway behind her desk.

“Right this way.” As we walked, I marveled at the way the office had been designed.

There were no solid walls anywhere.

Everything was glass, which meant natural light flowed all the way into the center of the building from the windows around the perimeter.

As we walked, I caught glimpses of the Seattle skyline outside.

The glass walls around some of the offices and conference rooms were obscured as the occupants held private meetings inside, and it looked like the frosted effect could be activated with the flip of a switch as I watched a man duck into one of the offices in front of us and hit something on the wall that turned the glass from clear to opaque in a second.

“Cool.” My exclamation was more for myself than the receptionist, who hadn’t given me her name, but she turned to look at me over her shoulder anyway.

“It is, isn’t it? Took me a minute to get used to the lack of walls when I first started working here, but I like the fact that I can see the sky from anywhere in the office, and it sure beats a cubicle farm.”

I nodded.

“An unexpected perk, I guess.”

She beamed and turned down another glass hall.

“Exactly.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I caught your name.”

She looked over her shoulder again, a tiny frown creasing the space between her perfect brows.

“My apologies. I’m Rebecca. I’m not usually Mr. Lin’s secretary. I’m just the receptionist, but since his executive assistant quit and Mr. Lin moved his office down to this floor, I’ve been doing double duty, and I haven’t gotten used to introducing myself to his visitors.”

I logged the information she’d just casually dropped about Ethan Lin away and gave her another megawatt smile.

“Not a problem at all. You’re doing a great job.” If I couldn’t get access to the Grove Core internal systems through Ethan Lin, maybe I could use Rebecca, though her credentials and access would likely be much different than the CEO’s—but still, a foot in the door could kick it open for Felix to work some of his magic.

And I’d always found flattery to be the first step toward getting what I needed to succeed.

The crease between her brows smoothed out again, and she smiled wide.

“I’m doing my best. It’s been a big adjustment.” Rebecca’s face fell.

“We all miss Tessa.”

Rebecca dropped yet another piece of information into my lap.

The fact that the staff, even the receptionist, missed Tessa Li, Ethan’s deceased sister and the former US CEO of the company, spoke volumes.

Most organizations with corrupt leaders at the top didn’t have staff who would miss them if they were gone.

But just because Tessa had been a great boss didn’t mean Ethan was or that he wasn’t involved in something shady behind the scenes.

“I’m sorry for your loss. I can imagine the transition has been difficult.”

Rebecca smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Don’t get me wrong. Ethan is great. He just… Well, he just has a lot on his plate.”

I nodded sympathetically, more curious than ever about Grove Core’s new US CEO.

Rebecca stopped in front of a set of double doors that very clearly led into a conference room, not a private office.

There was no reception area.

Nowhere for an executive assistant to sit.

No visitor chairs or waiting area.

Definitely no private elevator.

Rebecca’s earlier comment about Ethan moving to this floor floated to the top of my mind.

Why wasn’t he in the CEO’s office?

Could he not bear to be in his sister’s former space?

Before he’d been installed as the new CEO, he’d been the CFO of the company.

He no doubt had an office in the C-suite.

Why didn’t he just stay there?

Was he trying to hide himself away?

“Rebecca, what departments are on this floor?”

She tipped her head and studied me like my question had come out of nowhere, and I supposed, without access to the inner workings of my mind, it had.

“Um, mostly this is the marketing department and packaging design. Oh, and the on-site daycare. Why?”

I shook my head.

“Just curious.”

Her eyes narrowed for a second, then her professional smile returned as she lifted her hand to knock on the door.

“Come in.” The voice from the other side of the door sounded tired, and Rebecca held up a finger, asking me to wait while she pulled the door open and ducked her head inside.

I heard her tell Ethan that I was here to see him, and I heard his answering sigh as he gave her permission to let me in.

“Thank you, Rebecca.” I gave her another smile as she held the door open and motioned for me to head in.

She smiled in return and shut the door behind her, and I turned to take my first look at my quarry.

If Ethan Lin had sounded tired, it was nothing compared to how he looked.

I’d seen his face on the covers of business magazines, and once I’d even seen him from afar at a charity gala we were both attending.

He’d been the epitome of polished—his black hair perfectly styled and expertly cut, his broad shoulders covered in a perfectly tailored bespoke suit, his face handsome and full of life.

He carried himself and smiled like he was the smartest person in the room, and considering he’d graduated at the top of his class from Harvard Business School, that was probably true.

He and his sister had been the dynamic duo, running the US arm of their family’s business to record success while their father served as global CEO and oversaw international operations.

The man from the magazine covers was not the man in front of me.

This Ethan took me in with his dark, intelligent eyes hidden behind black-rimmed glasses that I had to guess rarely saw the light of day as he ripped them off his face and tossed them on the desk, scrubbing a hand down his face.

Even from across the room, I could see his eyes were bloodshot, and it was impossible to miss the purplish smudges under them.

When was the last time he’d slept?

At least two days of stubble darkened his square jaw, and his cheeks were a little sunken in like he hadn’t had a good meal in a long, long time.

His suit hung from his shoulders like he’d lost weight and couldn’t be bothered to find something in his closet that fit him better.

He was seated behind a desk that had obviously been shoved into the space, and the top was covered in a slew of papers and folders, some of which appeared to be covered in crayon.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but he was a mess.

Despite it all, there was still something magnetic about him, and as his lips tipped up in a welcoming smile, the skin at the corners of his eyes creasing a little, a jolt of desire hit me in the gut, turning into something warm that settled in my chest near my heart as I looked at him.

I had to fight the sudden inexplicable urge to cross the room and wrap him in a hug instead of extending my hand to shake his.

No. No, no, no.

There was no way I was attracted to Ethan Lin.

I was there to find out what he knew about the shell corporations that were funneling money to offshore accounts in order to buy stolen art.

I needed to keep my eye on the ball and do what my brothers were counting on me to do.

But as Ethan stood and came around his desk, I wondered if, for once, I’d bitten off more than I could chew.

“Mr. Hunter. I’m Ethan Lin. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He offered his hand, and although I knew exactly what was going to happen, I had no choice but to take it.

The second the warm skin of his palm connected with mine and his fingers wrapped around my hand in a firm grip, an electric zing of awareness shot through me.

My eyes shot to his face, and I stared at him, trying to see if he felt it too.

He was looking from where our hands were still clasped in a handshake that had gone on far too long to be considered professional and up to my eyes, then back again.

When his dark brown gaze finally met and held mine like he was seeing into the very depths of my soul, I knew I was completely screwed.

Investigating Ethan Lin was about to get infinitely more complicated since I was ninety-nine point nine percent certain I was looking into the eyes of my fated mate.

And goddamn, did Fate have one twisted sense of humor.

I guess this was what I’d had coming to me after I’d laughed at the fact that my brother Cal’s fated mate had turned out to be a rival mercenary and a royal pain in Cal’s ass.

Ethan cleared his throat, and I dropped his hand, wanting to sprint out of the office and into the nearest bathroom so I could unbutton my dress shirt and investigate my saddle patch.

It was an orca shifter thing.

We were all born with a patch of gray-black skin on our necks that was unique to each orca shifter.

In our shifted forms, the saddle patch sat near our dorsal fins and identified us to each other.

When we met our fated mates, the patch of skin changed shape.

If my mate was another orca shifter, their patch and mine would match, indicating to any other orca shifter who saw us in either of our forms that we were mates.

Even if I hadn’t believed in fated mates when my grandmother had told us the stories when we were younger, over the last couple months, I’d watched as my brothers fell like dominoes, each meeting their fated mates, and the evidence of their connection to their mate evident on their skin.

None of my brothers’ mates were orca shifters either, so I wasn’t surprised that Fate had decided a panda shifter was meant to be mine.

In some twisted way, there was maybe even something sort of poetic about a sea panda and a panda-panda being meant for each other.

Then again, maybe I was reading too much into this.

Maybe it was just normal, run-of-the-mill attraction.

But I’d never wanted to wrap someone I only wanted to fuck in a blanket burrito and hand feed them their favorite foods while I took care of everything that had ever deigned to bother them so they’d never have to worry about anything ever again.

So, yeah. I was fucked.

Shaking my head and trying to bring my brain out of protect-him-at-all-costs mode and back into professional territory, I turned on the charm.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Lin. I’m Julius Hunter. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”

Ethan circled his desk and sat in the leather chair behind it, gesturing for me to sit in one of the chairs that had been wedged in front of his desk.

“From what I understand, this meeting is in my best interests.” He still looked tired, but there was a fire in his eyes, and I appreciated that.

Ethan cared about his company, and he was willing to do whatever needed to be done to reverse the losses that had been plaguing it of late.

“I’m not sure about that, but I am very good at what I do.”

“And what is that exactly, Mr. Hunter?”

“Julius, please.” Ethan inclined his head, and I continued.

“I have a knack for significantly increasing a company’s return on its corporate investments.”

Like the air being let out of a balloon, I watched Ethan deflate as he settled back in his chair, and that annoying urge to hug him bubbled up inside me again.

“And what if a company has been experiencing significant losses over the last three quarters?”

“Especially then. Part of my services include a full audit of your current investments to see where there might be losses and cutting those aspects of your portfolio loose in favor of funds that support growth.” I didn’t tell him that getting into Grove Core’s financials would let me trace the money flowing into the offshore accounts held by AB Holdings, the shell company we’d uncovered while we’d been stealing my brother Quin’s forgery of the most famous shifter art piece in the world— The Evolution of Man .

Like so many things, the mystery had come back to the money, and the single transaction between Grove Core and AB Holdings was our best lead.

My forensic accountant cousin, Marcus, and my oldest brother Nero’s mate, Felix, had hit dead ends when they’d tried to trace the money from the outside.

So I’d been sent in to get access from the inside, pitching my services as a way to get eyes on Grove Core’s private financials, but now I also really wanted to help Ethan.

As long as he wasn’t involved in the plot that seemed to be targeting my family.

From what Felix, Marcus, and I had been able to dig up so far, something was definitely amiss at Grove Core, and while it didn’t seem like Ethan was living the good life on embezzled funds, there was no way to know for sure until I got a good long look at their financials and opened a back door into their systems so Felix could go hunting for anything someone on the inside might have been trying to hide.

Ethan studied me but didn’t say anything.

“Mr. Lin, if an audit of your investments wasn’t done when you took over as US CEO last year, I would highly recommend doing it now to make sure your investment goals for Grove Core align with your priorities for the company.”

I was subtly fishing, seeing how he’d react to the slight jab at his leadership.

He didn’t bristle, but the light in his eyes dimmed a fraction.

I didn’t know him well enough to know if he was reacting to my thinly veiled comments on his management of the company or to the fact that he was sitting in the position where his sister had been before her death, where she arguably should have reigned for a lot longer.

Ethan frowned, leaned forward in his chair, and sighed deeply before he spoke.

“First, please call me Ethan, and second, a lot of things have slipped through the cracks this year. It seems an audit of our corporate investment strategy was one of the many things that got overlooked.”

“It’s understandable given the way things happened.” I held his gaze and softened mine, letting the hard-nosed investment broker fall away to be replaced by the man who genuinely empathized with his situation.

“I know it’s likely little comfort, but I am so sincerely sorry for your loss.”

Ethan inclined his head, and when he looked up at me again, his dark eyes were a little watery.

“Thank you.” He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, I could tell I was talking to Ethan Lin, CEO of Grove Core and Harvard Business School grad.

“What are we looking at in terms of cost for your services?”

Reaching down into my leather bag, I pulled out the folder I had prepared specifically for this meeting and handed it to him over the stacks of paper on his desk.

“My fee schedule is included on the second page, but I’m willing to do a preliminary audit at no charge. This will give you the insight you require to decide if you need more robust services. If you decide to change some of your investments, my fees for facilitating those transactions are also included.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t bullshit me, Julius. I’ve been part of this company since I was old enough to work an adding machine, and the one thing I’ve learned above all else is that nothing is free. So, what’s the catch?” He rested his elbows on the arms of his chair and steepled his fingers against his lips.

I wanted to tell him why I was really there.

For reasons I didn’t understand, I didn’t want to lie to Ethan, but I didn’t have a choice.

“Like I said, I’m that good at what I do. I’m happy to offer what amounts to a consultation at no charge because I know you’ll want me to do more for you. I’m willing to invest some of my time because I know it’s not really much of a risk.”

“You’re incredibly confident.” The slight sparkle was back in Ethan’s eyes.

Sitting back in my chair, I mirrored his pose and raised an eyebrow.

“I am.”

Ethan sighed.

“Before I do anything, I’ll need to run it by my board.”

Not what I wanted to hear.

The more people at Grove Core who knew I would be looking into the company’s finances and investments, the more likely it would be that whoever was funneling money out of the company and into offshore accounts would get spooked and stop until I was done with my review.

While Felix would be able to embed some code into the Grove Core system to monitor the incoming and outgoing transactions even after I was done looking at their records, it would be easier if we had a smoking gun, a transaction made to one of the accounts we’d uncovered while we were watching and while I was still close enough to dig in deeper.

“This could just be something you do on your own. You know, just to make sure everything is on the up and up.”

Ethan dropped his hands and gripped the armrests of his chair, his knuckles turning white.

“What do you know?”

His reaction was making me reconsider my initial impression that he had no idea about the offshore accounts.

I could play dumb and pretend I knew nothing, or I could give him a version of the truth.

I wasn’t sure which would help me achieve my goals faster, but I landed on the latter.

“There’s a reason I approached you, Ethan. I’ve been doing some research about the losses that have been plaguing Grove Core’s US business over the last few quarters. One quarter of losses after you replaced your sister is expected, but three is a dangerous trend, and something about the trend has my instincts firing.” Again, I mirrored his posture, dropping my hands to the armrests of the visitor’s chair.

“I’m not saying something unethical is happening, but it might be worth looking into on your own.” I didn’t want to believe he was involved in anything illegal.

I really, really didn’t, but until the facts and his reaction to the bomb I’d just detonated between us hit, I couldn’t in good conscience rule it out.

“Someone could have seen the upheaval following your sister’s death as an opportunity.”

Ethan closed his eyes and shook his head like he didn’t have the mental energy to process what I’d just suggested.

Before I could pull it back, he stood.

“Thank you for meeting with me, Mr. Hunter.” My heart dropped as he addressed me like he wasn’t feeling the same things I was.

“I’ll consider your proposal and be in touch if I decide to move forward with your services.”

I stood and took the hand he offered, trying to ignore the spike of lust and protectiveness that arced through my system when his hand wrapped around mine.

This time, the handshake was a professional length, and while his touch left my skin screaming for more contact, I could take a hint.

Picking up my leather bag from where I’d set it on the floor, I moved toward the door.

When I was a few steps away, my mind attempting to process my entire meeting with Ethan Lin all at once, the door flew open and something small and solid barreled into my legs, knocking me back a few steps, my bag falling from my hand and landing with a thud against the floor.