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“You’re not normal.”
Sadly, no. “I want to get my driver’s license.”
“I’ll think about it.”
I’d heard that before. It meant no.
“I could ask Uncle Vik,” I tried.
Kristoff’s eyes narrowed. “You could, if you want to get him into trouble.”
“Always with the threats,” I drawled.
I picked up the bataka bat one last time and stopped right in front of him. I raised the bat and moved it slowly in front of his chest. He didn’t move an inch, but I could almost feel his muscles tense. The air around us seemed to darken. He tried to stay relaxed, but I wasn’t falling for it. He was like a jaguar on a leash. The second my bat would come near him, he’d bolt.
My mind went back to the time we first met. I’d seen the crisscross patterns of faded scars on his back. Each one of them seemed to be created on purpose. Kristoff Romanov was a complex man who’d been through more pain than I could probably imagine. He was an honorable man who was dead set on keeping his promise to my mother to take care of me. It didn’t mean, however, that I was okay with living in this house of glass.
“You can beat me in any kind of sparring session,” I breathed. “But you can never cage my spirit. Perhaps the raven allowed himself to get locked up because he didn’t want to hurt the shepherd by clawing his eyes out. I bet the silly bird ended up regretting that decision, what do you think?”
I didn’t wait for his reaction but threw the bat at the ground before his feet and gave him my back.
3
KRISTOFF
Katya stomped away, swiftly putting distance between us. Anger radiated off her ramrod straight back and I felt a tightening in my chest as if someone was squeezing my blackened heart. I rubbed my left pec. Perhaps there was something wrong with me.
You meananotherthing wrong?
“Did she just threaten to claw your eyes out?” Viking walked back in after leaving before my little sparring session.
“You don’t need to sound so proud.”
He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Can’t help it. Trained the little one myself.”
That he had. I remembered the day she arrived. She’d been adamant to not show any fear, although I could practically smell it on her. And who could blame her? My house was a fortress filled with Bratva soldiers. It wasn’t suitable for a teenager, especially not for a teenage girl. Katya wasn’t supposed to stay here for long, let alone in my care. But now it had been years, with plenty of ups and downs. She had finally settled in, though sometimes I felt like “took over the place” was a more appropriate phrase. She could rule inside the house all she liked. The moment she set a toe outside, my rules were law.
“I’m not letting her stay for the meeting tomorrow night.”
“We agree on that. I don’t trust any of those fuckers not making a play for her.”
I stiffened. “No one is making a play for her. Ever.” I felt bad enough when I thought about our kiss the day she’d turned eighteen. Considering that I was ten years her senior, I should’ve known better. I felt even worse for wanting it to happen again. Except I knew that if I ever touched her again, I wouldn’t let her go. For some reason, my body was attuned to her. It seemed to always sense where she was in the house. And it had nothing to do with the chip I’d had put in her bracelet and the tracking app on her phone.
Viking gave me a strange look, then nodded. “I’ll tell Yuri to get ready. You know you can’t keep her locked up inside forever, right?”
I didn’t understand my territorial feeling about her. Before Katya, I’d never been possessive about a woman. I told myself that it was because I’d vowed to her mother that I would keep her daughter safe. And even though that was part of it, I couldn’t stop the darkness inside me whenever I thought about her leaving this house, abandoning me. This constant ache for her bothered me, but I had accepted my madness.
“I can do whatever the fuck I want.”
He grinned. “Speaking of doing whatever the fuck, there’s one more thing. Svetlana’s here.”
Another Bratva princess I had to give my attention to, except this one didn’t need a protector. She was usually the one people needed to be protected from.
“Where?”
“Library.”
I put away the towel. “Is everything ready for the meeting?”
