“He wasn’t worried about Quinn being attacked?” I hook my fingers at the end of my question. The both of us were aware of what I was alluding to.
Aleksei shakes his head, a burst of rage shadowing his expression. “It will give me great pleasure to kill my father-in-law.”
Last night, in a few words, I think he and I bonded over the big unveiling until our sweet, formidable Omega requested we focus our energy elsewhere.
Now, though, it’s as if I don’t exist. He turns to look at her, undoing the jacket he was wearing and brushing off the dusting of snow on his head. Fucking Russian walking outside without the proper winter gear on.
Aleksei lays his clothes neatly over the chair at the same time my phone lights up. He picks it up and smirks. “Oh look, it’s your BFF. The one that wants to kill me.”
“With good reason, Aleksei,” I hiss quietly. “You slaughtered half the Irish.”
He rolls his eyes, shaking his head. “Or I showed them where they have holes in their security. No one important died.” He takes off his pants next, waiting until I’m looking at him and not my phone ringing in his hand. “Go talk. Knock before you come back in.”
Aleksei throws my phone in the air at the same time as he hits the button on my phone, accepting the call. I stretch upward, in case it hits Quinn, while he dives under the fucking blankets.
“Ronin, give me a second.”
I flip Aleksei the bird and race through the house, looking for somewhere semiprivate, and not fucking freezing, to talk.
ALEKSEI
She moves towards me even in sleep. Her body is warm, her scent leaking.
I pull her to me and her eyes open. “Your hands are freezing.”
“Cold hands, big cock,” I whisper. “Go back to sleep. It’s too early for me to be looking in your pretty eyes.”
Quinn wiggles closer. Only by an inch or two, but it’s in the small things, the unconscious way she moves or the words shesays when she’s dropped her guard when the leash she has on me tightens.
“Aleksei,” she whispers.
“Hmm,maya?”
The room is dark still, but I can see her clear as day. It’s how I know she’s mine; she chases all the darkness away no matter the time or place.
Her hair is like a halo around her, and she looks like an angel.
“What?” I ask impatiently.
Another sign I know she belongs to me—I’m always on a fucking knife edge, expectantly waiting for a morsel of her attention.
Quinn blinks a few times, the flame blue of her eyes clearing quickly. She drops her eyes from mine, but I use my finger under her chin so she can’t avoid looking at me.
“Say whatever.”
A little eye roll, but it disappears quickly. Her scent hits with a touch of nervousness. “You know how you think we’re married.”
I swallow a growl. It is ferocious on the inside; I don’t want to scare her. Flicking my eyebrows up, she goes on.
“I don’t want you tied to something when you’ve been living in a cage, like me, for so long. You should be free, doing whatever you want.”
My control slips, and I show her my teeth. “I am doing what I want.”
“You bit me accidentally, you got forced into consummating your brother's marriage, and now you’ve inherited his bride.”
I slam my eyes shut and start counting backward.
“Vosem,” I grit out, losing the ability to count down more than two. I sit up, throwing the blanket off us and snatch her hand, ignoring her flash of alarm. “You think this is a sign I am sad I have a wife hogging my pillow?”
