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Every muscle in my body tensed as I heard the door open and then slam closed. Slowly, I turned my head.
Only for the entire world to suddenly feel like it was off its axis.
Yerik, one of my mom’s own personal security detail, was walking toward us. He had someone tossed over his massive shoulder. I couldn’t tell who it was since there was a hood over their head, but I did know it was female from the shape of her hips and the way she was squirming to get away from him.
Yerik stopped ten feet from me and placed the woman on her knees in front of him. When he pulled the hood off her head, burning rage like I’d never felt before in my life filled my blood.
Tavia.
Her clothes were disheveled, her top torn down the middle, showing everyone the pale-pink bra she was wearing. There was a bruise already forming along her jaw, her plump bottom lip cut and trembling. Yerik, or someone else, had touched her.
With violence.
And I was going to kill that motherfucker.
Her darker-than-espresso eyes darted around quickly, the fear in their depths making my stomach bottom out. I clenched my hands at my sides to keep from reaching for her. If I moved to shield her, Petrov would take that as a sign of weakness. He would know he’d won, and that would only put my Tavia in even more danger.
When her gaze landed on me, a flash of relief filled her eyes until she noticed I wasn’t moving to save her.
I wanted to grab her, hide her away from the evil that pulsed in the world.
From the evil that lived inside me.
“Th-Theo,” she pleaded in a shaky voice, tears blinding her. “Help me.”
“What the fuck is this?” I demanded of Petrov, turning my gaze back to him. With Herculean effort, I blocked out Tavia’s whimper of distress when Yerik grabbed her hair, yanking her back toward him.
From the moment he touched her, he was a dead man. He just didn’t know it yet.
“Tavia is my present for you, young wolf,” Petrov informed me with a wicked grin. “My token of peace.”
“She isn’t yours to give,” I growled.
She was mine. As she always had been. From the first moment I set eyes on her. That long, thick hair damp from the rain as she sat at the large table in the library of my adoptive parents’ house with my sister, teaching her the components of some chemistry compound. I knew the instant I saw her that she was mine.
But she was too young.
I knew I would have to wait. Had known, for her own sake, it would be better if I left her alone completely.
But I was a weak man where Tavia was concerned. I couldn’t not make her mine. Only, once I had, things had started blowing up with Petrov, and I didn’t want her in the cross hairs if things began to get bloody. So, I’d backed off, promising myself I would make it all up to her once my enemy was no longer a danger to her.
Petrov shouldn’t even have known she existed. I’d been careful. Kept my distance. Not let anyone, with the exception of my best friend, Lexa, know what this girl meant to me. Not even Ivan and Yury.
“Oh, but she is,” Petrov said in a calm voice as he looked over at Tavia possessively. “As her father, I have every right to give her to anyone I want.”
Chapter 3
Tavia
I was in a nightmare. There was no other way to describe what had happened from the moment I realized Yerik wasn’t taking me where I was supposed to go.
Once he’d stopped in the desolate parking lot of some abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city, he’d gotten out and come to the back door where I was sitting. Desperately, I’d tried to get out before he could reach me, but the child safety locks were engaged. When the door opened and he came in after me, I’d fought him tooth and nail, trying to get free, but he was stronger. My shirt was no barrier for him, and his laugh still echoed in my ears from when he’d ripped it in half, exposing my bra.
His rough hands had touched my breasts, and I’d lost it, clawing at him. It only earned me a backhand to the face, making my jaw ache from the blow. My pain seemed to turn him on more, and he kissed me. My mouth still throbbed from how forceful he was, and I could taste blood beading where his teeth had cut me.
His phone going off was what saved me. Then he’d tied my hands and put a hood over my head before tossing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. When he put me on my knees in front of a group of men, I thought for sure I was about to be gang-raped. Until I saw Theo.
I nearly sobbed with relief, seeing him standing there. The one person in the world I wanted to save me was right in front of me. His shoulders were tense, the expensive suit he wore molded to his perfect body.
