Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
AUDREY
Volkovitch Manor
Aleksandr’s house was just as imposing now as it had been the first time I stood on the asphalt driveway leading up to the grand entrance of the estate.
Dark stone with high-sloping roofs, surrounded by a field of green—a manor fit for a prince, or a king.
Which was what the Volkovitch family hailed from; back in Moscow, they were seen as royalty, both noble and not.
I parked my bike around back, under the archway filled with ivy he had made especially for me.
I loved and hated it and all the small things he had done and would do for me.
The push and pull that never ceased to relinquish its hold.
I despised him at times for the choices we had been forced to make, the events that resulted…
the people I had hurt. I wanted to blame him more than anything, even though I knew I was just as much at fault.
If not more. Yet I somehow always found myself back here, relentlessly at his door.
Walking up to the black-stained door sparked a memory of the last time I had come running here, to him.
Before life had taken a turn for the worse and ‘complicated’ was defined as no more than his family accepting me.
A time when our choices had resulted in consequences that we had not been ready to face.
Something had felt wrong for days. A niggling sensation in my brain told me it was not something I should ignore. That something was off. The paranoia was destroying my brain.
Thinking back to the party a few weeks before, I smiled, remembering waking up to arms wrapped around me and a thirst for more. Aleksandr was always just out of reach during our overlapping years at Prep. Cold and distant, but constantly poking and prodding at me for more.
It was a game we played, for the three years we shared at Prep and the two years after, where we had this insatiable push and pull towards each other. A twisted game of chess that finally came to a head.
Aleksandr had been the only boy—no, man—who had proven he could be a king, ruthlessly dominating my board and always needing more. More fire. More fight. More feeling.
This was going to shake him. Tear at his ironclad control, topple the pristine empire he sat on. I still wished I had not needed to come here…even though it was something I could no longer ignore.
As I approached the door, I lifted my hand to knock, but Cameron opened it before I had the chance.
Grinning down at me, no doubt about to crack a joke, his face slipped when he saw my white knuckles gripping my phone.
“He’s not here yet, but he’s on his way.
” Cameron sighed as he rubbed a hand through his hair.
Opening the door wider, he walked back into the house.
“C’mon make yourself at home, Little Queen.
You’ll be here to stay soon enough if the broody bastard has any say in it.
” He led me in, even though I swore I heard him mumble the words under his breath, “Especially if he can find a way to chain your arse to him,” barely loud enough for me to hear.
My heart stuttered, knowing he had already pieced together the reason I was here.
Cameron paused at the stairs, turning to lock eyes with me.
“Don’t worry, Little Queen, Aleks is down bad.
You’ll have nothing to fear from him. Or me.
” He sauntered up the stairs, and I apprehensively followed slightly behind, realizing my life was about to change, and I was walking myself right into the monster's den.
“This room is his. Take a load off…he’s gonna nut himself just knowing you're up here waiting for him on his sheets.” Sniggering, Cameron walked away, leaving me in Aleks' room.
Alone. Momentarily, I contemplated if I was making the best decision, but deep down, I knew I was too far in to leave.
Cameron left, but his words circled my brain on repeat for hours.
“You’ll have nothing to fear from him. Or me.”
Yes, I thought to myself. That was what I was afraid of, having nothing to fear from him. Or more like, him always being there for me.
Clearing my head of the memories this place brought, I inserted my key, pushing the door open wide.
Loud voices greeted me as the chaos of four boys cohabitating a space flooded into the stillness of the porch.
Walking in, a pale green gaze locked sight on me, followed by a cheeky grin.
Cameron, Aleksandr’s best friend, stood on the counter, a cold beer in hand, pretending to commentate on a match between Aleks and another friend.
“And number sixty-two wipes out! Volkovitch gooooes for home as his honey pot enters the zone! Little Queen has entered the premises! Hoping to steal the cro—occh, fuck!” Cameron was promptly cut off as Aleks stood and hurled the controller at his head.
His hands waving his middle fingers behind his back, too chicken-shit to say fuck you to Aleksandr’s face now that I was here.
Jumping over the sofa, Aleks stalked over to me like a hunter scenting their prey.
Gripping me by the hips, he leaned down, rumbling in my ear, “I must’ve been a very good boy lately, Printsessa.
” He pushed me forward, backing me into the counter, caging me in between his arms as he nipped playfully at my throat.
“A very good boy indeed, if you came to me twice in one week. Voluntarily.”
I needed to see you. I missed you. I want you…
The words were lost on my tongue as he nibbled along my throat, biting hard, marking me for his friends to see. “I’m almost done here.” He wrapped his arms around me, lifting me off the floor as he pulled me into his chest in a bone-crushing hug. “Stay, please?”
Feigning annoyance, I rolled my eyes, smirking at Cameron pretending to gag at us over by the counter.
“Yes, Little Queen, stay for my sake. He’s been a right miserable goddamn bastard without you here to slobber over.
” Jumping back, Cam narrowly avoided getting his cheek sliced through with the pocketknife Aleks always kept on him.
Cameron chuckled as I faked a glare at him, and snapped, “Lucky for you, you won't need to concern yourself with his shitty mood. I have plans for him tonight. I’m afraid he won’t have time for much else.”
Turning back towards Aleksandr, I smiled into his shoulder, whispering so quietly that only he could hear. “I want to see Mishka.” I continued in a louder voice, “I missed you.” A chorus of groans echoed in the house at my words before exaggerated kissing noises started up.
Glaring over Aleks’ shoulder, I locked eyes with dark golden orbs, realising too late that the second friend was another old acquaintance and one I had not known was back in town. How coincidental…and convenient. It had been a while since I had seen him, not since…
Shaking off the gloomy thoughts, I smiled, slapping Aleks on the arse, signalling that I wanted to be let down.
He lowered me to the floor, sliding me along his chest and abs, making me quietly groan when he pushed his hardening cock against my pussy, showing me just how aroused my impromptu visit already had him.
He finally let me go but not before he pinched my arse right as my feet hit the floor.
Alistair! What brings you back around here?
It’s been a while and you never called me.
” I slid over to the massive man with the demon-yellow eyes who had always been there, in one way or another, quietly on the sidelines—until he wasn’t—since childhood.
“I got called in for The Ludi. The Guilda has been demanding more,” he grumped, as if the man did not live for the mayhem, The Ludi, and the games he had to know I was playing against The Guilda would create.
“And I have family matters to attend to…a marriage contract I have to secure.” His nostrils flared then, eyebrows drawing menacingly over his eyes as he turned back to the TV, signalling Cam to start the game again, ending the discussion, but leaving me curious for more.
Deciding that he had waited long enough, Aleksandr grabbed my hand and ushered me up the stairs, slapping me hard on the arse when I failed to move fast enough for him.
I could feel him smirking behind me as I shook my arse a little more than normal, swaying my hips in a show just for him.
I let out a squeal when large hands grabbed my hips as I found myself suddenly flipped over his shoulder.
Aleks planted his hand just over my bum for support.
I lifted my head, cheekily waving at Cam and Alistair as we rounded the final corner, earning a loud guffaw from Alistair and a mumbled, “Mommy and Daddy aren’t fighting anymore,” from Cam.
Aleks caught me off guard by biting down hard on my jean-covered arse cheek, and I shrieked in reply.
Fighting a smile as Aleks made his way to his room, I grabbed two fistfuls of his bum and squeezed for good measure, reminding him that I came with a plan before the fun could begin.
“How has he been? Has everything been going well?” Turning off towards the room across from him, he set me down, dropping his chin to rest on my head.
He gently nudged the door open to show the young boy that each one of us within this house would lie, deceive, and die for, calmly sleeping without a care in the world.
“He’s been well. Starting to fight like hell when he wants something.
” The mumbled response soothed an ache in my chest. It fortified the cracks in my foundation, making me realize how serious The Ludi can be.
Getting a seat at The Guilda’s table would not only provide safety for me, but for all of us here. Each of us who were hiding a secret, in the form of a child whose innocence we protected.
Smiling, I turned to Aleks, now satisfied that I would be in the right frame of mind to plan. Looking up into his inquiring stormy eyes, I batted my lashes at him.
“Now, think you can catch me, King?” Ducking under his arm, I flung my jacket and shirt onto the ground, shaking my hips as I crossed the hall to his door. Spinning around, I snapped the button on my jeans open, sliding my hand into my panties, hoping to tease him just a tiny bit more.
Right as I felt the arousal slickening my pussy lips, he wrapped an arm around my stomach, preventing me from playing with myself. Reaching around with his free arm he turned the knob, pushing the door open as he backed me inside.
“You should know by now, Lenochka, I’ll always catch you.
There is nowhere in this life you could ever run from me.
” Aleks pressed himself into me, forcing me to give up more and more space.
He peppered kisses down my neck and shoulders before coming back up and slamming his lips over mine, brutalizing my mouth in the way only he knew how.
Like two monarchs battling for dominance, neither willing to cede defeat—that was how Aleksandr kissed me.
Obsessively. Wholly. Merciless in his attempt to conquer me.
“You’ll always be bound to me, Printsessa.
Through hate, through fire, through pain and more.
” His lips became more demanding as the back of my legs hit his bed.
Calloused fingers bearing scars of our childhood slid into my panties.
Stroking me, teasing me as he pinched my clit, whispering a promise that I worried would damn us both before the end of this—whatever plans The Guilda had for each of us.
For him. “You will no longer walk this life without me, either as your shadow or as your king, at your back anymore.”