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He bends, mouth closing over my breast, sucking hard until I cry out. I arch against him, nails scraping his shoulders, the sting sharp and sweet. Then he’s lower, his hands spreading me wide with no mercy, mouth claiming me as ruthlessly as he claimed my name.

I cry out again, helpless, as his tongue drags over me. His stubble is rough against the softness of my thighs, his grip steel when I try to wriggle away from the intensity.

“Don’t run,” he growls, voice muffled against me. “You asked for this. Now take it.”

I gasp his name, hips jerking, legs trembling. He doesn’t relent. He devours me, feral, relentless, until I’m shaking, climax ripping through me so hard it feels like the world is breaking apart.

Just when I think he’ll stop. He doesn’t. He keeps going, tongue and lips dragging me higher again, again, until my voice is raw, until I’m sobbing and clinging to the leg of the sofa like I’ll fall through the floor without him holding me together.

“This is what it means,” he rasps, mouth slick with me. “To be claimed by me. To be wrecked until your body only knows mine. To shatter and still come back begging.”

I scream his name when I break again, the sound tearing from my throat, raw and unashamed. My thighs tremble around his head, my body convulsing under his mouth. Tears streak my cheeks, and still he doesn’t stop until I’m utterly undone, trembling, ruined.

When he finally rises, his mouth glistening with my arousal, his eyes are wild. He grabs me, pulls me into his lap right there on the floor, and thrusts into me with a force that knocks the breath from my lungs.

The stretch is sharp, overwhelming, but I crave it now. I clutch his shoulders, moaning into his mouth as he pounds into me, feral and unstoppable.

“You’re mine,” he snarls with every thrust. “My wife. My future. Say it.”

“I’m yours!” I cry, the words spilling out unbidden, raw. “Aleksei—I’m yours!”

That breaks him. He roars, burying himself deep, spilling inside me, grinding to make sure every drop stays. His arms lock around me, crushing me to him, as if the thought of letting go is unbearable.

For a long moment, we stay like that, clinging, shaking, breath mingling. His hand spreads low over my stomach, possessive even now, as though he’s already planted his future there.

“Claimed,” he says, voice rough and ragged. “Completely. Irrevocably.”

My body aches, my throat is raw, but my heart hammers with something far more dangerous. Something that feels like love.

He lifts me from the floor and we settle onto the sofa, pulling a blanket around us for warmth even though our skin is still sticky with sweat. His hands stroke where they touch while our heartbeats slow down. My mind goes to how different my life is now. How different it will be when I am pregnant with his child. When I become a mother.

I swallow hard, whispering into the silence, “Aleksei… what about Mateo? When he’s older. Will he be dragged into this? Into—” I glance at his bloody knuckles, “—all of this?”

His gaze sharpens. He grips my chin, making me look at him. His voice is iron. “No. I won’t have him in the blood. He owes me nothing. My deal was with you, and you’ve already begun to repay me. He’ll earn his keep another way. Education. Numbers or something else behind the scenes. He can work with Rachel on the accounts when the time comes. Quiet. Safe.”

“Rachel?” I ask. “One of the women I met in the garden?”

“Yes. My brother’s wife. Well, three of them are married now. You'll meet everyone soon.”

The relief that crashes through me is so sharp it makes me tremble. Tears sting my eyes, but they’re not from fear. They’re from gratitude. From the terrifying swell of affection I can’t hold back.

I press my forehead to his, whispering, “Thank you.”

He kisses me once, slow and lingering, his mouth tasting of possession and promise. “You asked me to claim you. Now I’ve claimed your brother too, in safety. He’ll never bleed for this family.”

The words settle deep, heavier than vows, heavier than law.

I close my eyes, resting in his arms, feeling the steady thud of his heart against my back. And I know, I can never leave this man. Because the darkness doesn’t just terrify me anymore. It protects me. It shelters me.

And it feels like home.

Aleksei

The pool house smells like paint and polish. I had the walls redone two days ago, fresh linen delivered, locks changed, and a security system fitted that even Nikolai admits is airtight. Still, I walk the perimeter myself. My eyes know what cameras miss.

Isabella trails behind me, her hand brushing the frame of the door, checking the details like she’s testing if this is real. I let her. I want her to see every corner and know it’s been made for her brother. Not borrowed. Not temporary. His.

The fridge hums, stocked to bursting. The books on the shelf aren’t mine, they’re ones I had brought in because I saw Isabella looking at them in the library, running her thumb across the spines like she wished she had time to read. Mateo will have them now. A television mounted to the wall, a desk with a new computer, drawers empty and waiting.