Page 16 of The Way You Hurt Me

Willow's soft, and sweet, and vulnerable. She's a weakness, from the tips of her toes to the ends of her wild curls.

That won't stop me from taking her eventually. I have to. She claimedme, all those years ago. But when I do, I'll need to lock her in a golden cage, for her safety and my sanity.

She might not see it that way, but what I'm giving her right now is freedom she'll never get to experience once she's mine.

The challenger Irina’s dealing with at the moment is my mother’s brother; not a Volkov, not even anyone relevant up until I took over, but now he’s one of the lords back home, and he has a cock, so many people favor him rather than Irina.

I know it would be different if I were truly in charge, but I have no desire to directly deal with any of it. I want to make games, invest, and socialize. I have zero intention to cover my hands in blood more often than I need to.

Which is about once a week.

“He’ll listen if you put him in his place,” Irina reasons.

“I called two months ago. I can’t tell him off every time he’s barking. It’s time for action.”

I can almost feel Irina’s grin on the other side of the line. “You’re giving me the green light to go after your uncle?”

“Make it small. A gesture.”

“You take the fun out of everything, husband.”

I roll my eyes. “I hope I don’t hear from you again until our scheduled call.”

“Understood.”

She hangs up and I sigh deeply.

We’re parked in front of the Tower, so I plaster a smile on my face, like I didn’t just tell my wife she could murder a bunch of people related to my uncle.

Another Thursday in the life of a wolf.

7

WILLOW

Isplurged a bit on the dress.

While small and relatively new, Eros Corps is a bit of a fancy company, with a head office spanning five floors of a premium Manhattan skyscraper. Lucy’s starting salary in the research team had her staring at the offer speechless for a whole five minutes, and the party’s in a luxurious hotel overlooking Central Park.

We can’t exactly go in Shein dresses.

I’ve just started my first grown-up job; and the Ruby Red cash makes sure I can afford it.

The hardest part was to convince Lucinda to buy the deep green, velvet empire dress. She may make six figures per annum, but she’s not yet used to it. Her tall, statuesque frame looks incredible, while that sort of fit would have made my curves look downright lewd. In contrast, I’m in a pink, flirty cocktail dress, with a full skirt.

“I don’t know.” Lucy pouts, wrinkling her nose. “It’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

I roll my eyes. “You look incredible.”

“That’s the point, isn’t it? This iswork. People are used to seeing me in a lab coat. Will anyone even recognize me?”

“Between the hair and the glasses, there’s no chance of anyone not recognizing you.”

Like me, Anne and Lucy are redheads, though theirs are a couple of shades darker and deeper. She couples her flaming waves with large Ray-Bans somewhere between a rectangle and a circle. They take over almost half of her face.

Lucy bites down on her lips shyly. I know she’s not used to being looked at. I’d bet anything she and Anne are late bloomers; I doubt either of them were popular in school, and now, they’re gorgeous, and don’t quite know what to do with themselves. Anne hides behind her books, Lucy, her lab coat.

I wrap my arm around her and squeeze. “There’s no such thing as too much for a New Year’s party. But if there were, you still wouldn’t cross the line.”

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