The way I see it, targets change their minds for all sorts of messy, human reasons—sometimes it's not even about the assassin! Maybe they had an epiphany while staring at their reflection in a whiskey glass at 3 AM, realizing they’d spent years chasing power only to feel hollow. Or perhaps someone they loved finally got through to them, cracking that icy exterior. I’ve seen it in shows like 'The Spy Who Loved Me' or books like 'The Day of the Jackal'—targets aren’t just chess pieces. They’re people who regret, fear, or suddenly value life more than whatever game they’re playing.
Then there’s the flip side: maybe the assassin themselves sparked the change. A whispered conversation, an unexpected act of mercy—those moments can unravel years of resolve. I’ve always been fascinated by stories where the hunter and prey blur lines, like in 'Leon: The Professional'. The target isn’t just a name on a list; they’re someone who might’ve been shaped by the same shadows that forged the assassin. It’s poetic, in a brutal way.
Could be as simple as money. Maybe a rival offered double to call off the hit, or the target suddenly inherited a fortune and decided peace was cheaper than paranoia. Or maybe it was sheer cowardice—cold feet when death got too close. Not every change of heart is noble; sometimes it’s just survival instinct kicking in.
2026-05-27 03:22:07
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The Assassin
Cooper
9.8
61.6K
Zephyr is the last air dragon in existence. For a century and a half, she has searched for her mate. Finally, she decides to have a true dragon with Avani, the last earth dragon and only remaining male dragon. Her son, Ancalagon, is the last of the pure dragons.
Ishir is a Bengal tiger shifter. He became friends with Avani before he was captured and placed into an Arena. There he met Tana, the fire dragon. He befriended her, her hybrid daughter and eventually her Lycan mate. He has been working to rescue shifters and sometimes even missing humans as his job for years. It was during a meeting to discuss taking down a new Arena that Ishir met Zephyr and realized that he was mated to a dragon.
When Zephyr recognizes Ishir as her mate, she refuses to acknowledge him. After all this time, she finally finds her mate when she’s just had her son. But a dragon can’t stay away from their mate, and in a moment of weakness, she goes to Ishir, spending a night of passion more intense than anything she could have imagined.
However, when she returns home, she finds that her son has been kidnapped, taken by hunters. She begins searching for him, half crazed to protect him from the people who so willingly kill shifters.
When she finally finds her son, Oliver, the lead hunter makes an agreement with Zephyr. She will work for him in exchange for her son’s life. Now Zephyr will have to go against her very nature, becoming an assassin to kill those she is sworn to protect in order to save her son.
Can Ishir find Ancalagon, protect the shifters and save Zephyr from herself, or will she lose herself to save her son?
I’m trained to do one thing: kill. I was put into a school where the concepts of love and forgiveness were treated as weaknesses. When I graduated, they told me I’d be lucky to survive; now I’m the best of the best and the person who gets the job done no matter what. I’ve assassinated Presidents, housewives, Navy SEALS and more shifters than I can count. I have more kills than anyone in my business, so when a new order comes in to kill Alpha Gideon, I take it without a second thought.
He’s a job like any other, but during my scouting, I see something I’ve never seen before. Alpha Gideon isn’t a tyrant or a bully; he’s kind to his Pack. I start asking questions, which is when everything goes to shit. My signal is found, and for the first time in my life, my target has me in his sights. I expect pain and maybe even death, but Alpha Gideon treats me like a welcomed guest; his warmth and kindness open up something inside of me that I didn’t know I had. I should kill him before he changes me completely. I tell him I’m cold and heartless, and he laughs. Loving a mark has never been done, but no matter what I do, every touch sets me on fire and with each longing glance, my past becomes a distant memory. I’m ready to put everything I was aside to stay with Alpha Gideon when the call comes in; my fellow assassins have been called. The bounty on Alpha Gideon has been doubled. I have two choices: protect the man who has opened up my heart or kill the target and get the job done.
Getting pregnant was supposed to be the most beautiful thing to happen to a woman.
Vivian Colbert just got the good news and wanted to gingerly share it with her husband, only to meet him in bed with another woman. As if that wasn't enough pain, she was injected with cocaine by the side chick.
Two years later, Vivian is the best skilled assassin and got a mission to murder the well known billionaire-her ex husband.
The night the family’s don was attacked, my husband had abandoned his post to win back his misbehaving mistress.
The first time I lived through this, I activated his communication device to summon him back. He thus saved the don and rose through the ranks. However, his mistress had died in the firefight, and he blamed it all on me.
Thus, on my delivery date, he dumped me in an abandoned factory and had some stray dogs rip me and my baby apart.
“There were so many bodyguards there that night. Why did you have to call me back? You knew that she would die! You did this on purpose!”
Somehow, right before I died, I went back in time to that night.
I did not activate the communication device this time. I threw it into the fountain and watched it sink.
Then, although I was eight months pregnant, I shielded the don and took the bullet meant for him.
The son of a well known billionaire is hunted down by his father's numerous enemies. But what the young boy doesn't know is that his father's rivals are not the only ones interested in seeing him buried six feet beneath the earth's surface.
A story of love, heartbreak and betrayal. Who will be last one standing unscathed? Find out more in the action novel of His Assassin's Love.
Alison didn't expect her life to change so soon. Alison didn't expect one night to change her entire life. She witnessed a crime committed by a notorious Mafia gang. She finds herself a target of the Mafia, and they send an assassin to eliminate her. What happens if the assassin falls for her? If the Mafia sends another person to kill her? Would she be able to protect herself or the assassin be able to protect her? Would he betray the Mafia, or would he choose her?
Read more to find out
The betrayal in 'The King’s Assassin' isn’t just a sudden twist—it’s a slow burn of moral conflict. The assassin, raised to serve the crown, starts noticing the king’s cruelty firsthand: villages burned for defiance, children orphaned by pointless wars. There’s this haunting scene where the protagonist overhears the king laughing about a massacre, and it clicks—they’ve been a tool for tyranny. The book does this brilliant thing where the assassin’s skills, once a source of pride, become unbearable. Every kill feels like complicity. By the time they turn, it’s less about revenge and more about refusing to lose their humanity.
What really got me was the symbolism of the assassin’s dagger. Early on, it’s engraved with the royal crest, but later, they file it off in this raw, almost desperate act of rebellion. The author doesn’t spell it out, but you can feel the weight of that moment—like shedding an identity. The betrayal isn’t clean or heroic; it’s messy, fueled by guilt and a shaky hope that maybe, just maybe, they can undo some damage. That ambiguity is what makes it stick with me.
Betrayal in this line of work isn't just about switching sides—it's often a slow unraveling of beliefs. I've seen characters like this in 'John Wick' or 'Assassin's Creed', where the protagonist realizes the organization's morals are rotten at the core. Maybe they were ordered to kill someone innocent, or discovered their handlers were manipulating them for political games. The breaking point could be personal too—like a loved one becoming collateral damage.
The psychology fascinates me. These aren't mindless killers; they're trained to question, observe, and adapt. When the system they trusted starts feeding them lies, the skills honed for loyalty become tools for rebellion. It's why stories like 'The Bourne Identity' resonate—the moment Jason Bourne sees his own reflection in the bloodshot eyes of his target, and something in him fractures.