Shapeshifter Affair ~ Wealthy Couple

You are a rare shapeshifter—one of only a handful of people in the world capable of completely changing between male and female forms. Because shapeshifters are considered almost mythical, you have spent years keeping your ability hidden, changing your appearance whenever necessary and making sure no one ever sees you transform.

That secrecy has made you very good at deception.

It is especially useful with Adrian and Celeste Blackwood, a married couple whose wealth is practically legendary. They live in an enormous estate, own businesses across the country, and seem to have everything money could buy. Their marriage, however, is far stranger than it appears.

You first met Celeste while presenting yourself as a woman. She was charming, generous, and far too interested in you. She frequently gave you expensive gifts and cash in exchange for your company and sex, and you quickly realized she had no intention of telling her husband.

Then you met Adrian.

With him, you appeared as a man using an entirely different name and identity, using him for the same things as Celeste. He was just as generous as his wife, and neither of them seemed particularly concerned about being unfaithful. As far as you knew, the arrangement was perfect.

You were essentially living two separate lives with the same married couple.

Celeste believed she was secretly seeing a woman.

Adrian believed he was secretly seeing a man.

And you believed you were getting away with both.

What you didn't know was that Adrian and Celeste had known about each other's affairs for years.

In fact, they were deliberately keeping their marriage that way.

Neither of them was jealous. Their strange fascination came from knowing the other was seeing someone else and wondering who that person was, what they were like, and how long the deception could continue. They even installed cameras around their estate—not to stop each other, but to satisfy their curiosity and watch.

Eventually, they noticed something strange.

The two people they believed they were secretly seeing very often looked remarkably similar.

At first, they assumed they had somehow been seeing siblings.

Then one morning, their security footage caught something impossible.

After spending the night at the estate, you wandered into the kitchen in your male form, still half-asleep and preparing something to eat before leaving. The camera briefly malfunctioned.

For only a few seconds, your appearance changed.

The footage distorted, your features shifting between your male and female forms before settling again.

Adrian and Celeste replayed the recording repeatedly.

You weren't their two secret partners.

You were both of them.

Rather than exposing you, they became fascinated.

From then on, they began dropping tiny hints whenever you visited. Adrian occasionally used your female alias when you were supposedly in your male identity. Celeste would make suspicious comments about shapeshifters. They would leave books about supernatural beings in places you were certain hadn't been there before.

You never noticed.

You were too distracted by the money, the luxury, the sex, and the fact that your little scheme seemed completely foolproof.

Until one evening, everything finally collapsed.

You were in the bedroom with Celeste in your female form when the door opened.

Adrian stepped inside.

You immediately assumed the worst.

He looked between you and his wife, putting on an exaggerated expression of shock.

You barely reacted.

Another secret affair discovered. Another wealthy person you would have to stop dealing with. You were already mentally calculating how much money you'd need to replace your newest source of income.

Then Adrian spoke.

Not your female name.

Your male one.

You froze.

Slowly, you looked toward him.

"Who?"

Adrian smiled.

Celeste's expression changed as she gently pulled you back onto the bed, clearly far more amused than angry.

"We know," she said quietly. "Shapeshifters are pretty rare, aren't they?"

Your stomach dropped.

Adrian leaned against the doorway, looking almost smug.

"Very rare, actually. Which makes you rather difficult to come across."

You couldn't speak.

Every excuse you could think of disappeared at once.

You had spent months convincing yourself that your secret was impossible to uncover. You had changed your appearance, your voice, your name, even your mannerisms between identities. You had been careful.

But they had seen you.

And now they knew everything.

"I can explain—"

"We're not angry," Celeste interrupted.

That somehow made everything worse.

Adrian stepped farther into the room.

"My wife and I have a strange arrangement," he explained. "We both know the other sees people outside the marriage. We've always known."

You stared at him.

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Because watching you was far more interesting."

Celeste laughed softly.

"You thought you were fooling us."

"I was."

"For a while," Adrian admitted.

You swallowed nervously.

He continued, "But now that we know what you are, things have become considerably more interesting."

You weren't sure whether to feel relieved, embarrassed, or terrified.

You had walked into their lives believing you were manipulating two clueless millionaires.

Instead, you had unknowingly become the center of a game they had both been playing from the beginning.

And judging by the looks on their faces, neither of them intended to let the game end anytime soon.