“It’s not the compensation I worry about, it’s the fact that this will back up our deliveries until I can get new trucks in and also that you stole my trucks without telling me.”
“I couldn’t tell you because we didn’t know Ivan was using Poshani transport. If we had, I’m sure Mika would have chosen a different raiding target.”
“We were only doing the job because Ivan didn’t tell us it was him.” She lifted her hand and let the water dancefrom her fingertips. “None of my drivers want to go into his territory anymore. I don’t know how he’s moving things. Human companies who don’t know any better maybe.”
“He has some of his own equipment, but it’s not enough.”
She lifted her head. “What are you doing, husband? What is this game you’re playing with your brother?”
“It is the game of… irrelevance.” Oleg lifted one dark eyebrow. “If I simply eliminated him, his sons could revolt. I don’t want that. The last thing I want is to kill every vampire in Ivan’s territory who is loyal to him because I go to war with my own brother. Many of them are useful, and it’s not their fault their boss or their sire is an idiot.”
“But how long?—”
“Impatient.” He kissed her mouth. “You must learn to be patient, little wolf. Wear your prey down before you go in for the kill. Five years is nothing to me.”
She blinked. “What about a hundred?”
Oleg pursed his lips. “Hmm. A hundred is not nothing.”
A hundred years was what she had committed to the Poshani. A hundred years was the standard term of service for a terrin, and most served more than one term.
“I don’t like this,” Tatyana whispered. “I know you think I don’t miss you when we’re apart?—”
“I don’t think that.” He stroked her hair. “When did I say that?”
“Your eyes say it. Your blood says it.”
“You’re imagining things.” He kissed her forehead. “I am happy we are married, volchitsa. Never doubt that.”
“You cannot be content with this arrangement.”
“This is the way it must be for now.” Oleg slid his hands down her body, cupping her breasts and teasing her nipples. “I have lived in worse conditions than sneaking around with a sexy and powerful vampire regent.” He bent down and nibbled on theshell of her ear. “Pretending to be enemies and rivals in public,” he whispered, “only to tear off each other’s clothes the moment we’re behind a closed door. The secrecy is delicious.”
“Oleg—”
“Do you want to go public?” He pulled away and met her eyes with his fierce stare. “The moment you say yes, I will declare our alliance and make you my queen. Every warrior in my druzhina would bow to you. Every governor would swear their loyalty. You would be as my equal in all things, and the Poshani would be treated as my own people.”
His eyes were on fire, and Tatyana knew he uttered nothing but the truth. She opened her mouth, then closed it.
“Do you want to go public?” he asked again. “Tell me the truth; I will know if you are lying.”
She whispered, “It’s not that I don’t want to.”
He nodded. “You don’t want any in your new family to question your loyalty,” Oleg said. “Do you think I do not understand this?” He whispered, “Do you think I do not respect this? I know what must be for now, Tatyana Vorona. Never question that, my queen.”
Oleg left before daylight,and Tatyana stared at her terrace doors, watching the outline of his tall frame as he disappeared into the shadows that surrounded her house.
She hated this.
Watching Oleg walk away was like cutting away half her soul and locking it in a closet. She felt the loss physically, and the onlycomfort was the low burn of his blood that still flowed within her veins.
In that way, they were one.
To the outside world, they were antagonistic allies, the young vampire who had killed her own sire for changing her against her will and then rose within the Poshani because of her wit and skills in the modern world.
Oleg was the old and powerful lord of the Kievan Rus, who scoffed at his former bookkeeper pretending to be an authority.
But when they were alone, they were husband and wife. Blood mates. Lovers. Tatyana’s blood would recognize Oleg through fire or flood.
