“Is she?”The question hung in the air.“You’ve spent months on this contract.Moved her into your home.Kept her closer than any woman you’ve ever taken.Ignored my calls to stay in bed with her while a scandal we’ve planned for years finally broke.”
“The contract serves the revenge.”
“The contract ended the moment you took her to your bed as something other than a fuck.”Viktor’s voice softened, just slightly.Just enough for the warning underneath to cut deeper.“I’ve known you since you were eighteen and feral, Raphael.I’ve seen you break men without blinking.I’ve never seen you like this.Neither has Max.And when the Pakhan starts asking questions about your human pet, I need to have answers that don’t get us both killed.”
The wolf snarled at the word pet.At the threat implied in Viktor’s careful phrasing.At the reminder that the pack had rules about attachments, about weakness, about anything that could be used as leverage against a Vor.
“She’s mine.”The words came out harder than I intended.More possessive than strategic.The wolf speaking through me before I could moderate the response.“That’s all anyone needs to know.”
“Yours how, Raphael?As an asset?As a possession?Or as something else?”Viktor paused.“Something that makes you vulnerable in ways the Bratva cannot tolerate?”
I didn’t answer.Couldn’t answer.Because Viktor would hear the truth in my voice, and that truth would travel straight to Max.And Max would demand choices I wasn’t ready to make.
“Just be careful,” Viktor said finally.“Your grandfather is destroyed.The dynasty is falling.Don’t let this woman become the thing that destroys you in turn.”
He ended the call before I could respond.
I stood in the study for a long moment, staring at the phone in my hand.The screen had gone dark, but Viktor’s words still echoed in the silence.The Bratva was watching.Max was watching.And I’d just admitted to myself that I loved her.
Then protect her better,the wolf growled, pacing restlessly in my chest.Stop hiding from what we are.Stop pretending she means nothing.Claim her properly and let the Bratva see what happens to anyone who threatens what’s ours.
But claiming her properly meant completing the bond.Meant the bite that would tie us together in ways that couldn’t be undone.Meant becoming my father, a wolf who couldn’t control himself around his mate, who’d shifted in a moment of rage and destroyed the woman he loved.
I couldn’t risk that.Wouldn’t risk her.
I showered and dressed in silence, letting the hot water pound against my shoulders, trying to wash away the fear that had settled in my bones.The scandal was spreading exactly as planned.I checked the news feeds on my phone while I buttoned my shirt, watching the Senator’s face appear on screen after screen.Politicians who’d smiled with him last month now claiming they’d always had concerns.Journalists digging through the evidence I’d leaked, finding more horrors than even I had known about.
The machine worked as intended.The revenge was complete, or nearly so.
The victory still felt hollow.
Lena was awake when I returned to the bedroom, sitting up against the headboard with the sheets pooled around her waist.Her hair was a disaster, tangled from sleep and sex, and her eyes were soft with morning.The collar glinted at her throat, and she hadn’t made any move to take it off.
“You let me sleep in.”Her voice was rough with morning, warm with satisfaction.The sound of it made my chest hurt.“And you didn’t wake me to say goodbye.”
“You needed rest.”I crossed to her, drawn like the wolf to her scent.She smelled like us now, like apples and leather and sex, like something that belonged to me.“We pushed hard this morning.”
The blush that crept up her cheeks made the wolf purr.She was remembering.Everything I’d done to her.Everything she’d let me do.The clamps and the plug and the way she’d screamed when she came.
“I should get to the hotel.”She stretched, and the sheet slipped lower, revealing the marks I’d left on her breasts.“Sophie will be wondering where I am.”
“I’ll drive you.”The words came out before I could consider them.Before I could calculate whether accompanying her served any strategic purpose.
It didn’t.I just didn’t want to let her out of my sight.
Good,the wolf approved.Stay close.Protect.The world is dangerous and she is soft and she is ours to guard.
The drive to the Hughes Palace Hotel was quiet, comfortable in a way I hadn’t expected.She sat in the passenger seat of the Aston Martin with her hand resting on my thigh, casual as breathing, like she’d always touched me that way.Like she had the right.
She did.The wolf knew it even if I couldn’t say it.
Ours,he rumbled with contentment.Our mate beside us.Our scent on her skin.Let the world see what belongs to us.
The world did see.When we walked into the hotel together, her hand in mine, the collar visible at her throat disguised as an expensive necklace, the staff noticed.I caught the sidelong glances, the whispers quickly silenced.The shift in how they looked at her.
Not pity anymore.Not the patronizing sympathy they’d shown the heiress who’d lost her father and nearly lost her hotel.Something closer to respect now.Or fear.
Good.Let them fear what touching her would cost.
