Page 91 of Blood Mosaic

He looked at her hand holding his. “Why?”

“You seem upset.”

He wanted to strip her naked, fuck her, and sate his hunger with her blood.

And she was being kind.

Oleg looked at her face, her velvet skin and blue eyes gentle with human emotion.

He imagined her throat red with blood, only instead of Oleg’s fangs in her neck, it was Zara’s blade at her throat.

He murmured, “She will never touch you.”

Tatyana’s eyes went wide. “What?”

“Zara should die, little wolf.”

“I don’t want her dead though. She stolemoney,” Tatyana said. “You have so much money. You don’t need to do this.”

Didn’t he? He’d spread the rumor that Zara was dead to isolate her, but now he was backed into a corner. His options became more limited after lying to an ancient. “I no longer have a choice.”

“I’ll find your money. I promise I will find your money.”

Why was she so insistent? Why was she protecting Zara of all people? Zara wouldn’t hesitate to cut Tatyana’s throat to keep her quiet.

“This is not something we will debate,” he said. “She stole from me, she’s as insane as my dead mate, and she’s a threat to me.”And to you.He squeezed her hand and released it. “This is not your decision.”

“You could keep Zara locked up. You have a castle, don’t you? Castles have dungeons. You don’t have to kill her.”

Oleg cocked his head, watching the strange human beside him.

“You think locking Zara up would be more merciful than killing her?” Perhaps his little wolf was more vicious than he’d thought. “That would be even crueler than death for an immortal.”

Her cheeks flushed a little bit. “Wouldn’t that be a better punishment then?”

He grunted. She wasn’t wrong.

“If Zarahasto die, make Mika do it.”

Oleg narrowed his eyes. “Why does it matter?”

Tatyana opened her mouth, then closed it.

“Tell me what you’re thinking.” He took her hand and gripped it. “Or I will make you.”

“It will hurt you,” she snapped and pulled her hand away. “She’s your child. You might hate her, but Mika told me how it works. She’s literally your own blood. What would it do to you to kill your own blood?”

This strange, strange woman.

“You’reworriedabout me?” In the space of a heartbeat, Oleg unlatched her safety belt and yanked her across the bench seat. “You’re worried aboutme?”

Tatyana fell into his lap. She gasped and braced her arms on Oleg’s chest. Then she looked up at him, and his eyes locked with hers.

“You don’t worry about me,” he murmured. “You don’t take care of me. That’s not how my world works. I take care of you. I take care of all my people.”

And she was his. For now. Maybe forever.

Oleg was going to keep her.

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