Control.I was in control.
Liar,the wolf snarled.You haven’t been in control since you caught her scent.
The Ivankov compound sprawled across fifty acres of forest north of Paradise Peaks.To the outside world, it was simply the private estate of a wealthy businessman.To those of us who ran beneath the moon, it was pack territory.Sacred ground.
Two of Max’s security wolves flanked the main entrance as I parked.I nodded to them as I passed, catching the subtle tilt of their heads in acknowledgment of my rank.Vor.Second only to the Pakhan himself.
I’d earned that rank in blood and loyalty.I wouldn’t throw it away for some human girl with eyes like morning sky.
Not just some girl.Ours.
I shoved the wolf down and walked inside.
The compound smelled like pine and old money.I moved through the familiar halls without seeing them, past the oil paintings of Russian landscapes, past the trophy room with its mounted heads, until I reached the study at the back of the house.
Max was waiting, a glass of vodka already poured for each of us.At sixty-two, Maksim Ivanovich Ivankov still moved like the predator he was.Silver streaked his dark hair, but his eyes missed nothing.He’d built the Ivankovskaya Bratva from a small crew of outcasts into an empire that stretched from coast to coast.
He’d also saved my life.
“Raphael Antonovich.”He rose to embrace me, the formal use of my patronymic a sign of respect between us.“Congratulations are in order.”
I accepted the vodka and raised it in his direction before drinking.The burn was familiar.Steadying.
“The Blackmore Building,” he continued, settling into his leather chair.“Six hundred sixty-six million.The news is calling you a devil.”
“Let them.”
He laughed, a low rumble that reminded me of distant thunder.“I taught you well.From nothing to billions in fifteen years.Your enemies thought you were just muscle.A guard dog with good instincts.”His eyes glinted with pride.“They never saw the wolf beneath.”
No one ever did.That was the point.
I took the chair across from him, letting the familiar scent of old books and woodsmoke settle my nerves.This room was where Max had found me at eighteen.Feral.Raging.A wolf without a pack, half-mad with grief and fury.
The boarding school had cut off my funding the day I turned eighteen.Threw me out with nothing but a duffel bag and a decade of abuse carved into my skin.I’d been shifting for three years by then, alone, terrified each time that I’d lose control the way my father had.That the monster would finally win.
I’d ended up in a bar fight outside Boston.Four men against one.They hadn’t known I wasn’t human.By the time Max’s people pulled me off them, two were unconscious and one had a shattered jaw.
Max had looked at the snarling creature I’d become and seen something worth saving.A weapon worth sharpening.
“You’re distracted tonight.”Max swirled his vodka, watching me over the rim.“Something on your mind?”
The girl’s face flashed through my thoughts.The way her pulse had jumped in her throat when I touched her.The way she’d tried so hard to hide her fear.
And her arousal,the wolf purred.She wanted us.Even then.
“Business,” I said.
“Ah.”Max nodded slowly.“The Hughes situation.You’ve been patient, Raphael.Very patient.Most men would have moved years ago.”
“Most men are fools.”
Patience was the lesson Max had taught me first.Before the business strategy, before the real estate acquisitions, before I’d transformed myself from a broken boy into something powerful enough to destroy the people who’d thrown me away.
Patience, and control.
I’d needed both in abundance.Building an empire took time.First the security contracts, providing protection for businesses that couldn’t go to the police.Then the clubs and entertainment venues, washing money through legitimate operations.Finally, real estate.Buildings and land and leverage.
All of it leading to this moment.To the debt I’d quietly acquired through shell companies so deeply layered that no forensic accountant could trace them back to me.Apex Lending.A name that meant nothing, connected to nothing, owned by no one anyone could find.
