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I’ve been ballooned up like James & the Giant Peach for way too damn long now, but even that discomfort can’t hold a candle to how strange it feels to stand here while Pavel—who’s never looked this serious since the moment I met him—presses a fist to his chest and bows to me.
I glance helplessly to Dmitri, but he leaves me to figure it all out by myself, refusing to share the spotlight.
Gulp. My turn to say… well, hell if I know what my lines are.
But the man just pledged to risk his life for me. Surely that deserves a little bow? A hug, at the very least?
“Thank you, Pavel,” I say, settling for stepping forward and putting my hand on his shoulder. “You have no idea how much I appreciate that.”
I remove my hand and he bows down low once more. Then he moves away and another one of Dmitri’s vors takes his place.
The whole thing repeats itself. Vows of loyalty ‘til death, lives on the line, men with grim faces kneeling at my feet. My cheeks stay fire red until the procession ends and finally, thank God, our impromptu little post-wedding reception can actually begin.
“What the hell? You didn’t warn me about the pledges!”
“I told you they needed to accept you as the queen of the Bratva.”
“I thought you were joking!”
He chuckles. “You did well. Very regal.”
I punch him in the arm, which only serves to make me yelp and wince. Is the man made out of steel or what? “I’m way out of my depth, Dmitri. This is not my world.”
“It is now.”
With that not-at-all terrifying sentiment lingering in the air, he turns and looks at Aleks, who’s lingering a few yards away from us and waiting for a chance to step in.
“Since the groom isn’t doing his duty,” Aleks explains, “I thought I’d step in and ask the bride for a dance.”
Dmitri scowls in equal proportion to Aleks’s cheeky grin. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and dance your way to a perimeter check instead?” he grumbles.
Slumping his shoulders forward, Aleks sighs and starts to do as he’s told—but he doesn’t even get a step away before I brush past Dmitri and take up his brother’s elbow. “A dance sounds wonderful. And just so you know,” I call back over my shoulder, “neither you nor this baby are gonna stop me from bringing the house down.”
Dmitri’s scowl deepens, but Aleks and I both know him well enough to know there’s a surprised smile swimming somewhere below the surface of it.
“You’re gonna be good for him,” Aleks tells me as we reach the dance floor and he takes up a position—a very respectful position, I might add—with one hand high on my ribcage. “The medicine he never knew he needed.”
Laughing, I let Aleks twirl me around a couple of times. “I think we might be good for each other. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve felt so wholly happy.”
“It shows. You look beautiful, Wren. I couldn’t be happier for both of you. Even the sourpuss over there.”
“What did you call me?” comes a snarling voice.
I laugh for a moment before I bury it behind a scowl to match Dmitri’s. “That was barely one verse of the song! If you’re gonna be possessive, then?—”
“I’m always going to be possessive, moya devushka,” he rumbles in my ear as he cuts in to take me off of Aleks. His hands find much more risqué placement low on my waist, dirty enough to make my skin burn even through layers and layers of tulle. “Get used to a lifetime of it.”
I can hear Aleks chuckling to himself as he concedes the space and walks away. Truth be told, it’s hard to focus on him, though. Or our guests, or the music, or anything other than the way Dmitri draws me in tight to his embrace and consumes every sense I have.
I smell him, see him, taste him, feel him.
And his eyes never leave mine. We’re miles off-beat, but he couldn’t give a shit less. He doesn’t give me an inch of space between my body and his as we rotate slowly to the beat of our own drum. His vors know to keep their distance, to let us slice haphazardly across the dancefloor. I might’ve been embarrassed in the old days.
Now, I know that Dmitri Egorov walks where he wants.
And I guess I do, too, as of today. Because I’m Wren Egorov now.
That sends a thrilling shiver down my spine.
