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“I haven’t worn it since Roscoe’s funeral, but it should still be around here somewhere,” Kay said as Mallory gave her man a kiss before turning and running up to Kay’s side. Then the two gingers disappeared into theclubhouse.

With the women gone, the boys fell into conversation, but I wasn’t a partofit.

Mallory wasn’t the only one who Polo’s words hadreached.

Anna was my old lady. I knew it, and everybody else was thinking it. Yet I couldn’t help but notice that glaring little detail that Anna had never once said she was my old lady. In fact, the only time she had mentioned it was when she was refuting the fact. At first, I had only thought she was fighting it because that resistance to anything I said was a fundamental part of her personality. She would never accept becoming my property without fighting itfirst.

But what if I was wrong? What if Anna didn’t want to be my old lady at all? There was no denying that she had feelings for me, and I sure as fuck told her more than enough times who she was to me. But what if she didn’twantthat?

It was in that moment I realized I had never asked Anna what she wanted. This entire time I had been going off our chemistry and what had existed between us. Both of us had been going with the flow these past few days. Was she just going with the flow? Or did she want more, likeIdid?

The thought became a virus and was eating its way through every core principle I had about me and Anna until suddenly, whatever the hell we had became a mystery to me. I felt a rush of insecurity inside of me, and it had me up and out of my seat before Iknewit.

The brothers gave me surprised looks at my abrupt jump, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t payingattention.

All I knew was that I needed tofindAnna.

Chapter Fourteen

Anna

When Wolf eventually found me,I was sitting on the roof of the compound. Dusk was setting in and the breeze was faint as it tickled my skin. There was noise coming up from the garden as the boys got started on the bonfire for the nightparty.

Wolf came over with a marching stride, looking full of emotion I felt too distant to recognize, never mind connect with. I didn’t bother to look in his direction. I only listened to the heavy pound of his feet, waiting until it began to slow and then stopped a few feetfromme.

I knew why he had stopped and why whatever was on his face shut down in aninstant.

My hand reached out, my fingers smoothing over the surface of the wooden box, feeling the rough inscription carved into the lid. I’d found the box tucked in a compartment in the bottom of his wardrobe where he had stored the small flamethrower. Nothing would have ever prepared me for what was inside,however.

“Have you opened it?” Wolf said, his voice quiet,cautious.

Inodded.

He returned the nod, his jaw shifting as he looked everywhere but the box. He stood, seeming uncomfortable and out of place for the first time since I’d met him.Understandablyso.

I glanced back to the box, the Russian letters on the lid. I lifted it from where it sat next to me on the concrete and placed it on my lap. “Who were they?” Iwhispered.

Wolf’s eyes finally dropped to the box, his controlled mask cracking as bits of emotion started to peak through. He looked pained. But it was nothing compared to the sadness that filled hiswhiskeyeyes.

He took a deep, shuddering breath, unwinding the coiled fists at his sides as the tension seemed to sweep out of him. He moved forward, taking one slow step at a time before he dropped down next to me, leaning his back againstthewall.

“They were members of the Raff, a small-time gang I used to work for back in Russia. Cocky kids dealt a bad hand in life.” I could hear the affection in Wolf’s voice as he talked about them, probably for the first time in a long time. “There were a few of them over the years, maybe twelve or thirteen,” he recalled, his eyes going distant, a fond smile forming on his lips. “You had the triplets first—Ivan, Aleksei, and Zach. They were always up to no good, but because they were triplets, they were all very small for their age and were able to fit into the tiniest of gaps. Then Vaughn, Oral, Luka, and Lada came over the next few years. The girls were trained in seduction, often left at a few of the prostitution places we owned. The boys trained to be nothing more than muscle, like myself. A few more came after that, all of them having no other place to go than the gang, forced into it to earn money for themselves after their parents abandoned them like sacrifices on our doorsteps. We weren’t soft on them, not when they needed to grow up in such a harsh world as ours, but we never turned them away. Maybe if we had, they might have beenbetteroff.

“But then came along Sasha.” Wolf shook his head, tone light as a weary smile overtook his face. “It was 1993. I remember it being an especially harsh winter in Penza, my hometown, that year. I was wrapped up in my crappy little apartment with the fire on, which did nothing to warm up the room. I could have afforded a bigger place, but I was working most of the time for the gang and was barely at my apartment, so I never bothered. So anyway, there I was, sitting by the fire, when suddenly I hear a knock onthedoor.”

A big smile lit up Wolf’s face as he began shaking his head. “It was like the start of some feel-good movie when I opened the door. There was nobody there, and it was fucking freezing outside, so I thought someone was playing a prank on me. I was about to shut the door. Then I felt this sharp little kick against my leg. I looked down, and there was a white-haired, brown-eyed little boy, barely reaching my thigh, standing with his hands propped on his hips, glaring at me. I was stunned for a moment, before he demanded—actually demanded—my six-foot-eight ass to let him jointhegang.”

A laugh rumbled out of Wolf’s chest, the pure amusement of it something I hadn’t seen in himbefore.

“Of course, I didn’t let him. I slammed the door in his face and told him to get lost. But that didn’t stop Sasha. He was like a dog with a bone and began following me around, glued to my side, bouncing off any form of discouragement I threw at him. I was supposed to be an enforcer for this gang, and I couldn’t even threaten off some six-year-old kid.” Wolf shook his head. “He ended up being nicknamed ‘Cub’ because he followed me around like some youngwolf’spup.”

“That’s why you called yourself Wolf...,” I whispered, fitting the pieces together. I also thought to the small paw print tattooed on the back of his neck, the symbolism now making senseaswell.

Wolf’s eyes flickered to me with surprise. He had been so caught up in his memory, he seemed to have forgotten I was even there. His hand reached up and rubbed along the back of his neck, dark hair falling overhisface.

“He ended up idolizing me. The years passed, and somewhere along the way, he ended up under my wing. He got along with the other kids in the club, and despite being younger than most of them, he was like their big brother. He was arrogant and cocky, and mostly trouble. But he had a heart of gold, that boy. Always ready to defend those he called family.” He paused, his hand tightening over the back of his neck. “So, when Oral got intotrouble...”

“He went tosaveher?”

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