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“I’ll be right there,” Yasmin said, lighting up the second she laid eyes on him.“See you later, Eddie.But if you need to talk, you know where I am.”
“Yep.No worries, I’m straight,” he replied on autopilot.
Eddie’s heart squeezed as he realized he was likely to never see that expression on a woman’s face for him.Yasmin and Konstantin loved each other so much, it hurt to be in the same room with them.
It wasn’t that Eddie would never find love.Hell, that part was easy.His Bear had identified his mate the second he’d seen her picture months ago.Alina Petrova was everything soft, beautiful, and desirable to him.Five-foot nine with long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and the trim, strong figure of a dancer, of course, he was hopelessly drawn to her.But she was so young.So pure and sweet.
Alina was, in a word,perfect.But she was also Konstantin Petrov’s sister.There was a code between brothers.A bond forged in battle, and Eduardo could never dishonor the man who had saved his life by taking something valued so high above himself.
She was a Siberian Tiger Shifter.Twenty years old.Rare.Worthy.When word got out she was unmated, Alina would be courted by kings, for fuck’s sake.How could Eduardo Valens have anything to offer her?
He was ten years her senior.A gun for hire with blood on his hands.His name was shit.He had no family, no Clan, nothing of substance to give her.Yeah, he had a little money, but not more than what her brother could offer.
Truth was, Eddie did not deserve her.The best thing he could do was to get out of her way, let her find the life she deserved.Yeah, watching it would be hell, but he’d been there before.
Mine, growled his Bear.
No.We have to let her go,he told the beast.
His growl reverberated in the small hallway as he made his way to stages 2 and 3.Yeah.He would let her go.It was what was best for her.Eddie had vowed the night he’d rescued her to always do what was best for the small female.He wouldn’t break that vow now on a selfish whim.No, he had to let her go.
Even if it killed him.
ChapterTwo
The stage lights were bright, their heat beating down on Alina in her leotard and her soft dance shoes.She was sweating through the tiny spandex thing, despite the chill outside.
“Again,” Alina repeated, barely out of breath, as they finished the last steps of the number she and Yasmin had choreographed.
She had been training with the two females for the last five days under Yasmin’s tutelage, and Alina was having the time of her life.Marcella and Rosalyn were fantastic dancers, if a little bitchy.But that was nothing new.
The dance world was not all pink satin and thunderous applause.It was blood, sweat, tears, and some of the most brutal, back-stabbing Alina had ever witnessed.Both females were Shifters, one a Leopard, and one a Wolf.Once upon a time, they’d been classically trained, but not cut out for the grueling world of ballet.
Marcella and Rosie, as she preferred to be called, had been working for Alina’s brother for years.Now that The Stripe Club was adding more to their routine performances, Alina was determined to be part of it.
After all, what else did the young Tigress have?The Ivanovich Bratva had stolen her right from the Russian ballet she’d been starring in on the night of their final performance.She had been due to audition for another, better role, but missed it with everything else going on in her life.
Truthfully, she was not all that sorry.The cutthroat world of Shifter Ballet demanded sacrifices Alina was no longer of a mind to make.How could she be?
Ever since the big, strong Grizzly Bear busted into her prison, freeing her, and tearing apart the men who held her captive limb from limb, Alina had not been the same.Yes, she had been drugged during most of it, but somehow, deep inside, she had been aware.
With that awareness came recognition that the Bruin was not just some employee of her brother’s.Oh, no.Eduardo Valens was more than that.He was hers.Her fated mate.
Moy bogatyr.My warrior.So fierce and proud.
He was so big and handsome, with warm brown eyes the color of the delicious maple sugar she sprinkled on her oatmeal in the morning.
That was another thing Alina loved about the states.Food.For years, she had been starving herself to be the best dancer she could be.Prima Ballerina had been her dream.But her dreams had changed.
Now, hers were composed of one delicious looking man who, for some reason unbeknownst to her, had disappeared.He was there, technically, but Eduardo had been avoiding her.Almost as if he was in denial now that the dust had settled.
Maybe she was unattractive to him in the light of day.Maybe her Tigress had made a big mistake imprinting on him the second the fog had cleared from her mind.
No.He is mine.
“Alina, we need a break,” Rosie complained, and she turned her head, ready to snap at the female.
Thank goodness she had enough presence of mind to stop herself.Alina forced a smile on her face and nodded.These American dancers were not used to the grueling pace of the Russian Shifter ballet instructors who’d trained Alina.
