Page 21 of The Bratva's Auctioned Bride

Chapter 11 - Alexander

I was taught to be humble from a young age. Regardless of money, notoriety, or whatever accomplishments I might acquire with time, I should keep my humanity and be modest. But after having sex with Lara, and knowing I had the Levov Princess as my wife, that moral code seemed harder and harder to keep up.

That strange giddiness—the want and desire to express just how pleased I was about it—was almost embarrassing. I had never felt anything like that before, and trying to temper it was growing nearly impossible with every passing day.

Of course, I wasn’t one to divulge personal matters like that with anyone. Not even my brothers. Anything that didn’t have to do with work on the business I kept mostly under lock and key, but there was something about how the weekend rounded off that had me nearly bursting at the seams to say something about it.

Still, I kept it down as best as I could when I reached the lounge we'd recently opened up downtown. When we needed to gather for meetings and didn’t want to go to our main warehouse, we went to the top floor and did our business there.

Despite putting myself into work mode, it was difficult for me to focus. I thought about Lara and how quickly everything seemed to change in the kitchen, along with how her skin felt and the sounds she made for me while I moved through the lounge and went straight for the concealed steps.

During and after the ceremony, I had been full of so much doubt, afraid that I was making a mistake by forcing Lara to marry me. I was afraid my plan wasn’t as foolproof as I initially thought, but despite our fight, we still managed to connect farsooner than I ever anticipated. It was hard to believe we could change like that and find ourselves unable to resist.

Still, I was glad, and I found myself moving with a bit more ease and confidence than usual.

Once in the conference room, I found my brothers already waiting. Damien stood by the large windows that overlooked the city below while he texted unhurriedly, Daniil had his head tipped back against his chair with his eyes closed, and Valentin and Yuri were talking aimlessly about something I didn’t catch, laughing between themselves around the large table in the center of the room.

As I entered the space, their attention moved in my direction as usual.

Valentin chuckled. “There’s the groom.”

“Busy weekend, boss?” Yuri added with an amused grin.

I waved them off as I moved to my usual chair at the end and sat, finding a few small stacks of paperwork already on the table. Despite the dismissive gesture, there was at least something in me that swelled at the thought of how my weekend went.

“Personal matters are left at home, remember?” I inform them with an expectant look.

Damien snickered as he pulled himself away from the window and took up his seat as well. “Only when you don’t want to be in the hot seat.”

“There is no hot seat for me. Remember that.”

They laughed quietly amongst themselves, and I even managed to crack a small smile despite being mostly serious.

“Regardless,” I began, leaning back in my seat as I reined myself in and focused on the business at hand. “With thewedding over, we have some matters to discuss and make sure we’re all on the same page.”

The relaxed atmosphere around us eventually shifted into a more driven one as we put our attention on the most pressing topics.

Looking around the table, I lifted a brow. “Any updates I should know off the top?”

Damien cleared his throat as he began. “Since Friday night, rumors started spreading through some of the lesser families, and while the details haven’t been revealed yet, it was made clear that you’ve made some sort of divine move. Some are speculating, given the auction, but as I said, nobody has a clear story. However, it’s only a matter of time before the Levovs themselves hear.”

I nodded, feeling the heavy weight of that reality. It wasn’t a surprise at all, and I knew I’d have to confront the Levov situation eventually, but hearing about it potentially manifesting in real life felt like a completely different matter.

“If they haven’t heard already,” I hummed to myself, leaning against my armrest as I stroked my chin absently.

Damien nodded. “With Lara gone the entire weekend, surely they’ll be frantic by now. That means they’ll be desperate to find her and root out any suspects. Since word has been getting around about you winning big at the auction, we have every reason to believe they’d be on to us fast.”

Letting go of a breath, I nodded and considered the idea. He was right. The Levovs were notorious in the city for a reason, and they didn’t half-ass anything. They had more than enough resources around to find what they wanted.

“Our roots being so new here should lend us some time, at least,” Daniil added, wearing a serious expression. “They likelywon’t have much information on us yet. We can use that to our advantage.”

“That’s right. They’ll likely sniff around and try to get information from other families out there, but it should buy me some time, at least,” I murmured, half to myself.

“What’s the plan moving forward then?” Valentin asked, more focused than usual.

Gathering my thoughts, I let go of another breath as I looked between them. “From what we've heard about them, it's clear the Levovs never would’ve agreed to a regular alliance. They’ve been burned by too many families in the past, and they’re so established that an alliance would be virtually useless to them. Hence why I went the extreme route. Now that Lara is my wife, they’ll either have to accept it or call for an all-out war.”

“And now that Lara’s in the middle of it, that’ll be reason for them to hesitate, at least,” Damien added.

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