Page 29 of Bribed & Bred By the BRATVA
Patience is easy when I know where it ends, but tonight it claws at me. I heard the crinkle of the box when she picked it up, the tear of the wrapper. I know what she’s doing in there.
When the door finally opens, she steps out pale, the test clutched in her shaking hand. Her eyes find mine, wide and uncertain. She doesn’t need to say a word. I see the answer in her face.
Positive.
My chest tightens with something sharp and hot. A future made flesh. I stand slowly, closing the space between us, and take her wrist gently, guiding the test from her fingers to set it aside. It’s only plastic. She is the truth.
Her voice trembles. “What if… what if this is all you wanted? What if once you have a child, you don’t need me anymore?”
I tip her chin up, forcing her eyes to mine. “You think I would ever put you aside? You were already mine before this. You were already my queen. Now the world will see it in your body every time you walk into a room.”
Tears slip down her cheeks. I brush them away with my thumb, slow and deliberate. “You will never be just the mother of my child, Isabella. You are my wife. My reason. My empire. AndI will keep you like this forever, swollen, glowing, marked by me. Not just because I want heirs. Because I want you.”
Her lips part, a broken sound escaping. I press my forehead to hers. “You belong here. You belong to me. You aren’t going anywhere. Not now. Not ever.”
Her arms lift, sliding around my neck, clinging like she finally believes me. “I was so scared,” she whispers.
“I know,” I murmur. “But you don’t have to be. I’ll protect you until my last breath. I’ll worship you until there’s nothing left of me but your name in your mouth. And I’ll fuck you until you’re carrying me over and over again, until every part of you knows who you belong to.”
Her body softens against mine, trembling but certain. I scoop her up, carrying her to the bed, laying her down with reverence.
I strip her slowly, kissing every inch of skin as I bare it, whispering promises against her flesh. My mouth at her throat. Her breasts. The flat plane of her stomach that will soon swell with me.
“This body is holy,” I tell her. “Every curve, every breath. Mine to worship. Mine to fill.”
She gasps as my lips trail lower, as my tongue tastes her with slow devotion. Her thighs shake, her fingers knot in my hair, but I don’t stop until she’s moaning my name like a prayer.
When I finally slide into her, it’s slow. Gentle. Every thrust meant to remind her that she is more than safe, she is adored. I hold her face in my hands, my mouth never leaving hers, until she shatters around me, sobbing into my kiss.
I follow her, burying myself deep, spilling into the body that already carries me. Holding her so close it feels like we’re the same breath.
When it’s done, I curl around her, my hand spread wide across her stomach, my lips against her temple.
“You’re mine,” I whisper. “My wife. My queen. The mother of my children. And I’ll never let you go.”
She exhales shakily, then nods, curling into me. “Yours.”
The word is enough.
I close my eyes, my body wrapped around hers, my future already swelling beneath my hand.
For the first time in my life, I feel whole.
Epilogue
Isabella
The grass is soft beneath the blanket, the sun warm on my shoulders. I stretch back, one hand resting on the swell of my belly, and breathe in the scent of citrus trees drifting on the breeze.
I never thought I’d have this. Not a picnic on estate grounds that belong to us. Not Mateo laughing with his mouth full of bread and cheese, color high in his cheeks, his breath easy and strong. Not a family gathered around me like I was meant to be here all along.
Mikhail sits in the shade; Sarah curled against his side with a tiny bundle cradled in her arms. Their daughter is pink and new, Sarah glowing with exhaustion and fierce pride. Roman sprawls nearby, pretending not to smile at something Mateo says, though I catch the twitch at the corner of his mouth. Clara is here too, her baby tucked against her chest, the other in a bouncer, Maksim fussing more than he’ll admit.
It should feel overwhelming. Instead, it feels… right. Like the circle closed around me without breaking.
Aleksei hasn’t left my side. His hand rests over mine on my belly, thumb stroking the curve as though he’s remindinghimself it’s real. Every time I shift, his gaze follows, hungry and unashamed.
“Eat,” Clara teases him, tossing a piece of bread in his direction. “You’ll starve staring at her like that.”
