Page 73 of Inked in Devotion

“I’m out of options,” I told them. “Other than forcing Chloe to accept the bratva’s protection.”

“I’ll help you convince her,” Lucy said.

“King’s not gonna be happy,” Kirill pointed out.

“I don’t give a fuck. Aren’t we all going to be one big, happy family, anyway?”

“That’s true,” Lucy said. “Won’t protection extend to Chloe once Aralina marries Theo?”

“I’m pakhan,” Kirill said. “I can declare anything.”

“I don’t think that’s enough to stop the Vozhokari,” Ivan said.

Kirill glared at his father. Their relationship had warmed up ever since Lucy married into the family. I preferred it when father and son were both sniping at each other. They were entertaining as fuck, but admittedly their clashes didn’t help the stability of the bratva. If I were like my cousin Grigori, who thought he could become pakhan, fostering animosity between the ranks was a sneaky way to do it. But I hated politics. And that was why Kirill and Ivan trusted me.

“But…” Ivan added. “There might be another way.”

“Really?” Kirill sat back in his chair. “I’d like to hear this.”

“Chloe signed a covenant with Margo Winthrop, right?” Ivan asked.

Everyone in the room hitched their shoulders.

“Your point? I can’t marry Chloe unless I solve the Vozhokari problem.”

“The Winthrop covenants go back further than the Vozhokari,” Ivan said. “Two hundred years ago, covenants weren’t signed in ink; they were signed in blood and were known as the Winthrop Blood Covenants. They covered anything from ending wars to forging alliances through marriage.”

“That’s nothing new. Most ancient rituals did.”

“Yes, but even then, I believe the Winthrop Blood Covenants are absolute and supersede all prior claims from all factions, tribes, or organizations.”

“Do you have any proof of this?” Kirill asked in a dry tone.

“Margo. We can ask Margo,” Lucy said with growing excitement. “What if there are archives? Archives that Margo might not even know about.”

“You expect Margo to dig into outdated scripture? I’m sure her organization has transformed from ancient rituals,” Kirill said.

“How sure are we that it’s outdated or superseded?” Lucy challenged. “Yes, organizations evolve through the ages, leadership, wars, and revolutions but who says they are no longer honored? That’s why there are secret societies, right? Because modern society wouldn’t understand the practices that have endured for hundreds of years. If the rules of the blood covenant remain valid, then it might be a solution.”

“Isn’t that something similar to what you lawyers do?” I asked.

Lucy grinned. “Yep, legal precedent.”

“Margo doesn’t appear to be the kind of person who’d get her hands dirty in ancient dusty records,” Kirill said.

“I signed my initial covenant with her on my phone,” Lucy replied. “Their security is hard to hack, remember? They’ve joined the twenty-first century. But for the right price, dear husband, we can put in a request to the matchmaker. Everything has a price.”

“Where do they even exist?”

“There’s a rumor that the Marriage Ink building has a sublevel where all the covenants are stored. If proven that the covenant signed in blood is absolute, then we’ll have to convince Chloe to marry you.”

“I’m not her favorite person right now.” Thanks to the disastrous timing of Dimitri’s texts. Chloe wouldn’t have kicked me out if I hadn’t just fucked her. At that point we had no claim on each other except Sebastian. It might even push her to consider that I was marriage material. But now, she was seeing me as a backstabbing, cheating asshole. “But…do it. There’s nothing to lose.”

“Exactly.” Lucy stared at Kirill.

He shrugged. “Do it.”

Lucy’s gleeful expression appeared as if Kirill had handed her a blank check or the winning lottery ticket.