Chapter 1

Everyone laughed, calling me Julian Hayes’s pathetic lapdog.

When Julian Hayes’s latest conquest let out soft moans from the bathtub,

I’d stand obediently by the door, waiting for him to call me in to clean up.

“Are you two done?”

“I’ll clean up for you.”

After cleaning the bathtub for the 99th time,

Even Julian couldn’t help but mock me.

“How can you stand it?”

“Watching me with someone else, then wiping down the tub—doesn’t it disgust you?”

I wrung out the rag, scrubbing hard at the lipstick stains and sticky residue on the tub’s rim.

“No, it doesn’t.”

“As long as it’s yours, I love it.”

He scoffed.

“Figures. You’re meant for dirty work, a scavenger. What kind of filth haven’t you seen?”

Once the bathroom door clicked shut, I took a deep breath, inhaling the sickly sweet scent in the air.

“Sweet. So incredibly sweet.”

He had no idea that I, the so-called scavenger, never truly cleaned away dirt.

The more women Julian Hayes slept with, the more complex the scent on him became.

And the more it awakened the dormant siren bloodline within me.

Julian Hayes was merely a potent tonic I’d carefully cultivated.