Page 36 of The Bratva's Auctioned Bride

It was a necessary evil of being a family head, and knowing I wouldn’t ever be able to take that away for him made me feel worse about it.

“How was work?” I asked, moving my magazine to the side. After being alone all day, I'd started to rely on how we filled those moments of quiet with conversation.

Alex sighed and shifted, carefully lowering his head into my lap in a somewhat surprising gesture of affection that brought a sense of vulnerability over him. He closed his eyes, at least seeming somewhat relaxed as I draped an arm over him. “It was shit.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

It was a shot in the dark, and not at all surprising, but I thought I’d try anyway. I couldn’t say I never asked, at least.

Letting out a breath of my own, I leaned back a bit on the couch as we remained like that with his head in my lap. A moment of silence lingered between us before I broke the stillness to speak.

“You know, I used to not be all that close with my brothers when I was younger,” I began, gently moving my fingers through his hair.

Alex hummed in response before murmuring, “You weren’t? You guys seem like a solid unit, though.”

I nodded and grinned at the thought. “It took some time for us to get there. Honestly, a part of me feels pretty guilty for not appreciating everything sooner…but I guess that part comes with growing up.”

“What caused it?” he asked quietly, sounding interested in hearing more about me. Even if we were married, there was still a lot we both didn’t know about one another.

“As you probably gathered from meeting him once, Ari is very stubborn and bossy. Now imagine him when he was younger and still had more to learn, but apply that to all of my brothers. I’d say Kir was the tamest out of them, given how close we are in age,” I began, easily able to recall how frustrating it had been growing up with them at times. “Since I’m the only girl and the youngest, I didn’t always have it easy. Growing up with all boys was a nightmare on a good day. They were so loud and obnoxious, and they always convinced themselves that they were right about everything. It was exhausting, and most days, I couldn’t wait to leave for school or hang out with friends whenever I had the chance.”

Alex chuckled at the idea. “I guess I never considered what that would be like since I have only brothers. You must’ve been at your wits' end most days.”

I let go of a huffed breath. “I was. Some days I just wished more than anything that I could have a long-lost sister I didn’t know about or something. I leaned on my cousin Anastasia a lot, but when their immediate family left for America while we stayed behind, I didn’t get to see her as much. Still, it was nice to have her.”

He sat in a moment of silence before murmuring again, visibly appearing to appreciate the absent stroking of my fingers through his hair, “What made you come around to your brothers eventually?”

“Well, it started when they actually pulled through and realized they were the only ones who could tease their younger sister without repercussions, and they’d show everyone else why they should leave me alone,” I explained with an amused grin. “Eventually, I think we all realized how important it was for us to stay together, and to appreciate all of the sacrifices that were made to keep us under the same roof. Ari had done so much forus, and in a way, we all managed to get clued in and show him our appreciation by taking it easier on him.”

Alex looked more contemplative as he listened, nodding carefully. “I know that well…the sacrifices. It’s hard, even on the better days. I’m sure Ari was grateful for that appreciation.”

“Things got easier as we got older, and while it still weighs on him to this day, he knows how much we all care for him. For each other. Without him, my family wouldn’t have survived. At least, not our branch.”

“You came from Russia directly, yeah?”

I nodded and hummed. “We did. We spent much longer there than anyone else in our family. While my cousins Andrei and Yaro moved their groups to America, we stayed back to hold down the family business. Of course, I didn’t have anything to do with it, but it felt like we were missing something without our cousins there. When he felt our time in Russia had run its course, Ari decided we should make the same move. We’ve been here ever since.”

Alex considered my word for a moment, eyes still closed with a faint grin. “Having a foreign woman for a wife has some appeal to it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh quietly at that, still gently stroking his hair. “From a technical standpoint, aren’t you a foreigner, too?”

He shrugged. “If that’s what you consider an immigrant from a sister country. My move was considerably shorter than yours.”

Smiling faintly, my curiosity got the better of me. “You and your brothers all have very Russian names, but you have virtually no accent. Why’s that?”

“My family originated in Russia, but my brothers and I were born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia. Our parentschose mostly traditional names even though we had very little influence from our background.”

Since Ari had been my parental figure growing up, I didn’t know what it was like to experience the typical love and warmth from both a mother and father. Because of that, it often made me wonder what other people’s experiences were like.

“Your parents…were they around?”

Alex let go of a breath and shook his head. “No, not really. You could say they were in and out when it was convenient for them, or when Mom was pregnant again. They were both users.”

“Oh,” I said instinctively, surprised and empathetic. “I’m sorry you had to experience that.”

He sighed, still in my lap. “There’s no need to apologize. It certainly made things harder for us. Since I was a bit older than the others, I knew how to take care of them well enough and did as often as I needed to whenever the pair of them would bugger off for a while. It was just me taking care of them as they were each born. Things got worse when the twins came and the government realized I wasn’t enrolled in school when I should’ve been. Because of it, we were all taken away at one point.”

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