Page 18 of Dragon Billionaire

“What were you thinking?” he asked.

Chapter 8 - Anna

She felt her mouth run dry.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said. “He threatened to lie, tell you I’d been mated to him this whole time, that we were meant to be bonded and I’d broken my promise to him. If he’d done that, would the alliance have stood?”

The two men before her stiffened, jaws set, a bitterness in their expressions that she found hard to read. Was it directed at her choice, or at the threat itself? The misuse of tradition and draconian values? Did they question whether she was telling the truth, or trying to cover up the mistake she’d made tying herself to the Kuznetsovs? Or was it all about how their choices had brought about this entire situation in the first place? Did they take on some of the responsibility for it?

Finally, they exchanged a look.

And seemed to be in agreement, because Semyon said, “No. The alliance most likely wouldn’t have withstood that.”

The only reason they were willing to listen now was that the bond was already forged. They had no other option but to hear her out. A knot inside her came undone as she began to understand that, no matter what came of it moving forward, she’d made the right choice. If she’d spoken to them before she was officially and unbreakably tied to Zeke, their built-in suspicion would have sundered their agreement, even if they’d believed that she’d been telling the truth. The threat of scandal would’ve driven a wedge, just as Nikolai had intended, but he hadn’t banked on her coming clean to them once she’d succumbed to his blackmail. He wouldn’t have thought that she had the strength to defy him, even though she was the one who broke it off with him, because he had placed himself in such a clear power position.

And she’d never done well when it came to standing up to authority figures.

He’d realized that early and had never failed to use it to his advantage, telling her how to dress and what to wear and slowly eking out her sense of self until she began to feel lost in ways that were entirely new to her. She’d stopped making decisions for herself. Would expect him to inform her what her week was going to look like, even though she was in college and knew exactly what her weekly schedule was, what was expected of her. None of it felt real unless he also weighed in and gave the go ahead. It had gotten to a point where she was barely in contact with any of her old friends when she met Maury. And Maury needed her. And Nikolai had dismissed that need as something inferior, beneath them both, something to be scoffed at.

It had been the loudest clang of the warning bells that had chimed ever since she first agreed to have dinner with someone so deeply entrenched with a rival family. Why had she even agreed to that dinner?

She’d been angry with her father.

Throughout her life, she’d often been angry with her father.

With his carelessness with other people, with innocent life, with his wealth.

She’d been angry with herself for never doing what Zeke had done. She’d been angry with how unable she was to break away. To leave her family behind. They were her comfort. Living at home had felt like a failure, and still, she’d not stressed too much about it. It was a safe space. One that perhaps she took for granted, which angered her further. Because didn’t that mean she was just like her father? Spoiled with a lifestyle she’d been born into, while he was happy to build his empire on the spoils of wasted life, selling drugs to shifters and humans alike, moving weapons that were meant to facilitate insurrection and rebellion where none were needed. And squeezing the business owners in his territory for sums that bordered extortion, all so that they wouldn’t get their shops and restaurants burned to cinders.

“So, then,” Semyon said, turning his gaze back on Pietr. “What are we meant to do about this?”

“You must’ve known,” Zeke stated, the two men turning their heads to him in unison. It would’ve looked comical if the moment hadn’t been so dire. “Well, didn’t you? Isn’t that why you entered into this pact? Why you rushed the ceremony? You knew they were coming for you, one way or another. You wanted to show a united front, and you couldn’t do it by signing a piece of paper, because paper burns. So, you chose us. Your children, to join together, meaning your families are now bonded. Right? That was the message. What I can’t seem to figure out is when you two became so chummy. I thought you hated one another.”

This was news to Anna. She turned her head to Zeke, a soft frown on.

What was he talking about? They’d played together as children. He’d spent most of his time in her father’s house. Why would there be animosity between their families? Didn’t their bond signify how there had always been good blood? But she knew Zeke well enough to see how he wouldn’t have made the comment if there wasn’t truth to it.

She felt confusion like a billowing cloud moving through her. Her understanding of her father and Semyon’s relationship suddenly under inspection. What had she missed?

“It was necessary,” Pietr stated. “Us working together. It was brought about by circumstances out of our control.”

“The Incendiary?” Zeke asked.

Pietr gave a curt nod.

“What is it?” Anna asked.

There was a long pause.

“It’s a weapon,” Semyon finally offered. “The kind of weapon that comes around once in a generation.”

“What does that mean?” Zeke asked. “What does it do?”

Another pause, this time not quite so long, but still marked with tension. Speaking truths that were directly demanded had never been either of their father’s strong suit. They hated being put on the spot. Avoided it like the plague. Lived in the grey areas, skirted the issue, said too little to make sure they never said too much.

“What it does isn’t the question. What it represents is the more important query,” Pietr replied. “And this weapon represents everything the quiet masses have been hoping for. Something to give them the upper hand.”

“The rebels?” Zeke asked. “The outliers who are crazy enough to think shifters are the superior species and should enslave humankind? You mean this weapon might end up in their hands and it would… do what?”

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