Page 17 of Bribed & Bred By The BRATVA (Bred By The BRATVA #9)

His knuckles are raw. Split open, red against pale skin. A graze runs across his cheekbone, and there’s a slice over his ribs that is the kind of wound that would be nothing to him but looks terrifying to me.

I should recoil. I should be afraid of the proof of what he does when he leaves this house. Instead, all I feel is the frantic beat of relief. He came back. He said he would, and he did.

My hands tremble as I press the cloth against his side, then his hand.

Crimson seeps through white, blooming like a warning.

He sits still beneath my touch, too calm, as though violence is nothing to him.

Maybe it isn’t. Maybe it never has been.

He was born to a world where knives flash and fists fall, and he still stands. He returns.

“I hate seeing you like this,” I whisper, my voice shaking.

“I told you. It’s nothing.” His tone is flat, certain, as if the matter is already settled. “Superficial. I don’t lose, Isabella.”

His certainty cuts deeper than the knife ever could. It wraps around me like a chain, and like safety. Both at once. I don’t know how to breathe around it.

When I finish with his hands, my own shake so badly I can barely hold the cloth. Relief crashes through me, dizzying, heavy, too much to contain. And with it, something else rises. Something hotter. Wilder. Harder to name.

I set the cloth aside, and before I can stop myself, the words fall from my lips. “Claim me.”

He freezes. His head lifts, sharp, eyes darkening like storm clouds. His voice is rough, dangerous. “Say it again.”

My throat works, but I find the strength. Louder this time. “Claim me.”

The sound that tears from his chest is almost a growl.

He doesn’t hesitate. One moment I’m sitting on the couch, the next I’m in his arms, the world tilting as he lifts me, setting me on the cool tiled floor.

His mouth is on mine, hard and bruising, and I open to him helplessly, giving back everything I have.

“You ask to be claimed,” he snarls against my lips, “then I’ll show you what it means.”

His hands rip at my clothes, tearing fabric until I’m bare in the glow of the lamp. My cheeks burn, my body flushes hot, but I don’t cover myself. Not when his eyes devour me like this.

He bends, mouth closing over my breast, sucking hard until I cry out. I arch against him, nails scraping his shoulders, the sting sharp and sweet. Then he’s lower, his hands spreading me wide with no mercy, mouth claiming me as ruthlessly as he claimed my name.

I cry out again, helpless, as his tongue drags over me. His stubble is rough against the softness of my thighs, his grip steel when I try to wriggle away from the intensity.

“Don’t run,” he growls, voice muffled against me. “You asked for this. Now take it.”

I gasp his name, hips jerking, legs trembling. He doesn’t relent. He devours me, feral, relentless, until I’m shaking, climax ripping through me so hard it feels like the world is breaking apart.

Just when I think he’ll stop. He doesn’t. He keeps going, tongue and lips dragging me higher again, again, until my voice is raw, until I’m sobbing and clinging to the leg of the sofa like I’ll fall through the floor without him holding me together.

“This is what it means,” he rasps, mouth slick with me. “To be claimed by me. To be wrecked until your body only knows mine. To shatter and still come back begging.”

I scream his name when I break again, the sound tearing from my throat, raw and unashamed. My thighs tremble around his head, my body convulsing under his mouth. Tears streak my cheeks, and still he doesn’t stop until I’m utterly undone, trembling, ruined.

When he finally rises, his mouth glistening with my arousal, his eyes are wild. He grabs me, pulls me into his lap right there on the floor, and thrusts into me with a force that knocks the breath from my lungs.

The stretch is sharp, overwhelming, but I crave it now. I clutch his shoulders, moaning into his mouth as he pounds into me, feral and unstoppable.

“You’re mine,” he snarls with every thrust. “My wife. My future. Say it.”

“I’m yours!” I cry, the words spilling out unbidden, raw. “Aleksei—I’m yours!”

That breaks him. He roars, burying himself deep, spilling inside me, grinding to make sure every drop stays. His arms lock around me, crushing me to him, as if the thought of letting go is unbearable.

For a long moment, we stay like that, clinging, shaking, breath mingling. His hand spreads low over my stomach, possessive even now, as though he’s already planted his future there.

“Claimed,” he says, voice rough and ragged. “Completely. Irrevocably.”

My body aches, my throat is raw, but my heart hammers with something far more dangerous. Something that feels like love.

He lifts me from the floor and we settle onto the sofa, pulling a blanket around us for warmth even though our skin is still sticky with sweat.

His hands stroke where they touch while our heartbeats slow down.

My mind goes to how different my life is now.

How different it will be when I am pregnant with his child. When I become a mother.

I swallow hard, whispering into the silence, “Aleksei… what about Mateo? When he’s older. Will he be dragged into this? Into—” I glance at his bloody knuckles, “—all of this?”

His gaze sharpens. He grips my chin, making me look at him.

His voice is iron. “No. I won’t have him in the blood.

He owes me nothing. My deal was with you, and you’ve already begun to repay me.

He’ll earn his keep another way. Education.

Numbers or something else behind the scenes.

He can work with Rachel on the accounts when the time comes. Quiet. Safe.”

“Rachel?” I ask. “One of the women I met in the garden?”

“Yes. My brother’s wife. Well, three of them are married now. You'll meet everyone soon.”

The relief that crashes through me is so sharp it makes me tremble. Tears sting my eyes, but they’re not from fear. They’re from gratitude. From the terrifying swell of affection I can’t hold back.

I press my forehead to his, whispering, “Thank you.”

He kisses me once, slow and lingering, his mouth tasting of possession and promise. “You asked me to claim you. Now I’ve claimed your brother too, in safety. He’ll never bleed for this family.”

The words settle deep, heavier than vows, heavier than law.

I close my eyes, resting in his arms, feeling the steady thud of his heart against my back. And I know, I can never leave this man. Because the darkness doesn’t just terrify me anymore. It protects me. It shelters me.

And it feels like home.