Page 159 of Crimson Oath
When their lips parted, she buried her face, wet with bloody tears, into his neck.
“What did I do?” she whispered. “Oleg, what have I done? I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I can’t. They picked the wrong?—”
“They picked wisely.” Oleg took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then another. “Breathe with me.”
After a few moments, her breathing matched his. She was so precious. And so very, very human still.
He kissed her forehead. “You were presented with an impossible situation, and you took the lead.”
“You asked me to?—”
“Now is not the time to talk about that.” He pressed a quick kiss to her temple, refusing to think about the questions hanging between them. “Your fellow terrin are going to execute Vano tonight for betraying the clan, and I need your help.”
She perceived the situation immediately. “You need to ask him about Ivan.”
“Radu and I reached an agreement the other night, but in the heat of the evening’s revelations, I don’t want to take a chance that they will kill him before I can interrogate him.”
She sat back and took another breath, steadying herself. Her lips were trembling, but he saw the steel enter her spine as she stood up and wiped her face. “We should go.”
“Give yourself a moment,” he whispered. “You have a moment. They will not judge him without your presence.”
Her mouth settled into a line. “They’re going to kill him.”
“They might ask you to kill him yourself,” Oleg said, “as you are the one taking his seat.”
Her eyes went wide. “But he didn’t hand it over. I didn’t… I didn’ttakeit. I didn’t battle him for it.”
“Exactly. The goblet was taken from him because he betrayed the clan. If you were the one to execute justice, it would cement your position.”
“They chose me,” she whispered, “but I never wanted this. Oleg, you have to know I never?—”
“Vecchio was right.” Oleg kept his voice low. “Often horrible things happen to the wrong people. This time something good happened to the right person. Take it, Tatyana.”
The irony was not lost on him. She had been without a clan, without aegis of any kind, and now the woman he loved and wanted above all others was the leader of an ancient and powerful clan known for theirfierce loyalty.
For the rest of her eternity, Tatyana Vorona—Tatyana le Tala—would be a valued and protected member of the Poshani clan. She would have the family she wanted. The clan she deserved. She would belong to a family as devoted to her as she was to them.
There was nothing that Oleg could offer greater than that.
“You can bring the Poshani into the new century,” he continued. “Modernize their businesses, lift up those who have been overlooked, and provide guidance to a proud people that will last centuries. You are the leader that they need right now.”
Her eyes cleared, and the lip that had been trembling steadied.
Purpose. His mate needed purpose to be happy.
“Yes.” She nodded. “I can do that.”
“And you won’t do any of this alone.” Oleg stood and held out his hand. “Come, milaya. Let us go meet your fellow terrin.”
Oleg helpedher dress in a dark frock and a cape that one of her human friends brought to her trailer. It was embroidered with a bright border of red and blue flowers. She washed her face, brushed her hair, and Oleg braided it in two long plaits that he wove together and pinned on her head.
“There. You look like a queen.”
She looked over her shoulder. “How do you know how to braid?”
