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He hoped she would see how he was the better option.
“So,” she said. “Good night?”
He was about to respond when there was a knock on the doorframe, and he turned to his eldest brother Timo taking up the doorframe. He’d always been tall but lately, he’d filled out by weightlifting the biggest rocks on the estate grounds.
“Hey,” Timo greeted, a smile on that spoke volumes of what was going on behind that frontal lobe of his.
Fuck. Dmitri had hoped to keep everything on the down low until they’d settled on which road they were taking. His family had been staying with him since they were driven out of the city but were in a different wing of the house entirely, with its own entrance, so he hadn’t thought they’d have any run-ins. Especially with Timo, who’d been in London for the past month, working on a deal with their closest relatives.
“Hey, you’re back,” Dmitri smiled, knowing there was little chance Timo would back off now that he’d made the trek to this side of the house.
Clearly, he’d come to stare at their current guest in the most intimidating way possible. Timo was the least predictable of his Kuznetsov siblings and suddenly Dmitri thought his appearance might forebode more trouble than he’d anticipated. Would his family accept her, after what her father did to them all?
Would his father accept her?
Perhaps he’d gotten this all wrong. Perhaps he shouldn’t have her answer anything before he’d run it by the ruling head of the family.
“Who’s this then?” Timo asked. His tone said he knew very well who it was. Someone had passed the news along. Could be any one of the bodyguards. Dmitri would have to find out—he didn’t want his men stepping out of bounds. Or handing information over to his brothers. “Cute,” Timo said with a nod at Alina’s pajamas.
She did a half-curtsey with a crooked smile on her face.
Dmitri’s gaze got stuck on that smile for a moment too long. He knew Timo had noticed. For fuck’s sake, this was going from bad to worse at breakneck speed, especially since Timo’s smile faded into a deep frown, eyes on Dmitri’s. There was a clear question there. One that demanded an immediate answer.
“There will be something clean to sleep in if you look in that closet there. If you want it,” Dmitri told Alina. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He’d arrange a sit-down with his father and tell her before breakfast. It’d be fine.
For now, he needed to deal with his brother and what was sure to be an inquisition as to exactly what a Kumarinova was doing under their roof. And why he was looking at her like that.
Chapter 5 - Alina
The door closed behind the brothers, and she let out a breath she’d barely realized she’d been holding, unscrewing her smile, finding a chair to slowly sit down on.
Holy shit, what was happening?
He really wanted them to enter into a mating bond. And she could see the reasons for it clear as day, of course she could, but this was insane. Wasn’t it? What, she’d entomb herself in this house and run its household for him and be the perfect homemaker? Like all the other dragon shifter women of their social status did. Her mother had. Her mother still did and loved it. Every new flower arrangement delivered and placed just so, every weekly changing of the curtains in all the downstairs rooms.
Oh, God.
No.
“I can’t do that,” she murmured to herself.
She had to get out. She had to flee this place somehow. She’d run across the grounds in whatever direction, shift into dragon form and she would fucking fly to freedom. She’d rather risk getting shot down by a defense missile than stay in this goddamn house a minute longer. She’d even shift to get out.
But then his face came back to her. The way he’d looked at her when he told her what it might mean for his family if her father got an excuse to attack. He’d be joined by the Aslanovs. It would be a bloodbath.
The heat that had begun to pour itself through her veins in preparation for the shift slowly began to cool. She couldn’t leave. He’d made sure of that. Was he playing her? Had that conversation they just had been all about getting her to see the side to him that would make her think twice about running away?
Fuck.
How could she possibly know?
She closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath, the scent of night-blooming roses coming to her from somewhere outside. There must be rose bushes growing beneath her window. It wasn’t a terrible smell. It wasn’t a terrible room. It wasn’t even a terrible man. Perhaps she could find some way to call her father…
Couldn’t that be it? If she could communicate with her father, she was certain that she could make him listen.
Was it really probable that he had struck up a partnership with Gregor?
