Page 53 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

“You’re kind, but you of all people understand the importance of tradition.” Oleg sat across from Radu. “So you spotted me, did you?”

“The first visit, my guard detected the security breach, but it wasn’t until I went to investigate personally that I knew it was you. I told them to watch and wait.”

“She didn’t report me.”

“She didn’t.” He shrugged. “If it were anyone else?—”

“You know I would never if it wasn’t important.”

The corner of Radu’s mouth turned up. “She must be a true wizard with a spreadsheet, old friend.”

Oleg allowed himself to smile. “She is mine. So I thank you for your consideration in this.”

“If she’d complained to me, you’d already be dead, and I’d have a massive international incident on my hands. But I would have had to kill you.”

Oleg smirked. “You would have tried.”

“So we are fortunate that whatever kind of charm you have used on the woman has worked. What piece of art from your collection are you going to give me as an sincere apology for breaking the sanctity of the kamvasa? I was thinking the new Chagall you mentioned a few months ago. ”

Oleg tried not to snarl. “The Chagall… would look beautiful in your office in Bucharest.”

“And of course a contribution to the Poshani Children’s Fund would be a thoughtful gesture of our mutual interest in the next generation.”

Now Oleg had to smile. “I am always looking toward the future, my friend.”

“Excellent.” Radu tapped on the leather folio on the table. “What are we talking about that could not wait until after Vashana? ”

Oleg kept his voice low. “Are you going to step down?”

“I believe I am.” There was some kind of conflict in Radu’s expression. “I may not have a choice, Oleg. There are… complications, and I don’t know if telling you?—”

“Are those complications the reason you invited three well-known thieves to the kamvasa this year?”

Radu cocked an eyebrow. “It’s a long story.”

“We may be old men,” Oleg said, “but I plan to live forever. I have time.”

“Someone stole the emerald goblet.”

Oleg had expected trickery from Vano. He hadn’t expected this. “The dishana?”

“Yes, it’s been missing for quite some time. I’ve searched for it myself, hired the Vecchio boy, but now he has left the kamvasa.” Radu shook his head. “I have failed my people. I must step down.”

If the emerald goblet was missing, there was no way that Radu would have been scheming about anything with Ivan. He wouldn’t have had the time.

Oleg considered the other two thieves residing in the caravan. “Tenzin? René DuPont?”

“They were both suspects.” Radu smirked. “As were Darius, Madina, and Fynn. I invited all of them so that Vecchio could discover the truth, but he has failed me.”

“You cannot step down,” Oleg said. “I am truly sorry, my friend, but no matter what happens with the goblets, it is vital for your people that you do not step down from the terrin’s seat.”

Radu’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

Oleg pulled out the tablet and opened it, spinning it around to the video that Mika had already opened. “Danior Kosinski didn’t die in those attacks on my trucks. We found him, and I think you’re going to want to hear what he has to say.”

Two hours before dawn, Oleg finally left Radu’s trailer and walked to Tatyana’s. He’d met with both Radu and Kezia, faced the heat of Kezia’s anger, and gotten a better picture of what was happening with the terrin’s seats.

He didn’t know what would happen with Vano or the missing goblet, but for now Kezia and Oleg had managed to convince Radu that it was vital he stay in his position for another century and that Vano was double-crossing them.

Tatyana opened the door while he was still a few feet away and stepped back so Oleg could enter.

“It’s so strange to have you walking up to my door with everyone watching.” She looked around and waited for him to walk inside before she closed it. When she turned to him and saw him in the light, she blinked. “What is that?”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “What? I thought you liked my wizard robe?”

“No, that.” She pointed to his head. “It looks… painful.”

Oleg pried off the twisted circle of iron and gold. “It’s my crown.”

“It doesn’t look like a crown.”

He put it on the coffee table, then unclasped the heavy silver brooch that secured his cape. “Help me get this off.”

“Oleg—”

“Unless you want me to fuck you while I’m wearing my ceremonial regalia,” he muttered. “That can be arranged. In fact, I think I would enjoy you riding my cock while I was sitting on the throne in the citadel.”

Tatyana froze, and her pretty pink lips fell open.

“Hmm.” Oleg cocked his head. “I see that you’re getting ideas now, but these trailer walls are thin, so we’d best save that one for later.”

He gripped the ermine-trimmed cape with one hand and pulled the heavy garment from his shoulders, tossing it on the sofa before he walked to her. “I believe,” he murmured, “that you wanted to bite me.”

When he reached Tatyana, her arms went up automatically, resting on his shoulders. Oleg felt the sudden ease in his neck. He inhaled and the scent of her was salt air, honey, and some hothouse flower he couldn’t put his finger on.

“I want you.” He reached down and lifted her into his arms. “I have been rattling on for hours about business and politics, and I hate politics.”

She pressed her face into his neck and inhaled deeply. “You may hate politics, but you’re good at it.”

“It makes me want to light everything on fire,” he growled. “Or bash something with an axe.”

“Does it?” She started playing with the fine hair at the back of his neck, and Oleg nearly fell to his knees.

She’s nothing you want and everything you need.

Lazlo was wrong after all. Tatyana was everything he wanted and everything he needed. He loved her. The truth of his feelings settled in his bones and eased through his veins.

Every lover he’d had before her—even his disastrous mating with Luana—it had only been so that he could recognize Tatyana when she came into his life.

As he walked to the bed with her in his arms, Oleg relished the delicate weight of her body in his hands. Her legs wrapped around him. She clung to him, and the kisses she pressed to his neck felt delicate and shy.

He didn’t want shy. He wanted the wolf.

Oleg pried her off and tossed her on the bed. “Do you have something for me?”

As expected, his haughty expression provoked her acid tongue .

“Do I have something for you?” She smirked. “I’m not the one who went hunting, Oleg Sokolov. Do you have something for me ?”

He unbuttoned his jacket, watching her as she watched him. He tossed his outer garment to the side, then unbuttoned his shirt at the neck and wrists before he pulled it over his head.

The scent of her arousal filled the air, and by the time he unbuttoned his trousers, her heart was thumping as if she were still human.

He stepped out of his pants and kicked them to the side, standing before her naked and erect. He grasped his cock in his right hand and felt the heated flesh pulse in time with her heartbeat.

She was lying on the bed, her lips flushed and her body splayed out. He wanted to fuck her and sink his teeth into her neck, but he wanted to play with her first.

“How is your control, volchitsa?” He stared at her mouth. “I want to see your pretty lips wrapped around my cock.”

She crawled forward on the bed, and Oleg nearly came just from seeing her on her knees. She looked up as she ran her lips along the length of his erection, and it was everything.

Tatyana opened her mouth, wrapped her lips around his cock, and took him deep in her mouth. Oleg reached out, grasping the long braid of her hair in his fist and moving her back and forth along his length.

She relaxed her throat and took him deeper.

Oleg nearly exploded. “Not this time.” He gently pulled her off his cock.

“I wasn’t finished.”

“It’s been too long since I’ve been in you.” He dragged her to her knees on the bed, nearly ripping her clothes off.

“Wait.” Her lips were shining and swollen red. “Let me.”

She pulled the dress over her head, and his body trembled as she removed her undergarments. Then she was naked before him, a delicacy of soft skin, pink lips, and deliciously plump breasts.

He leaned down and pulled her up by the waist, capturing her breasts with his mouth, sucking her nipples into his mouth and scraping them to hard points with his dull front teeth.

“Oleg.” Her head fell back, exposing her neck to him. Her arms were limp, and their mingled blood surged through her body.

His fangs ached to come out, but he waited. He could feel flames erupt on his shoulders, but before he could react, Tatyana reached up and pulled a gentle mist over his skin.

His entire body shuddered at her touch.

“Please.” Her fingers dug into his shoulders. “I need?—”

“Yes.” He laid her down, parted her legs, and hesitated for a moment. He wanted his mouth on her sex, but he wanted the blood at her neck too.

Tatyana decided for him when she gripped his cock in one hand and pulled him closer, parting her legs and wrapping one leg around his waist as he thrust up and inside.

A feral growl ripped from his throat as he seated himself in her body. She hooked an arm around his neck and pulled him closer, squeezing her pussy around his cock and nearly sending him over the edge like a newborn vampire.

“I could live with your cock in me,” she whispered.

The unexpected words slipping from her lips made his fangs grow long, and he arched into her body, harder, longer.

His fangs nicked her ear. “Too much?”

She shook her head, and Oleg licked the drop of blood from her ear.

The taste of her blood was a bright, soft kiss against his amnis, and his fire calmed from a raging blaze to a smolder.

For a second Oleg hesitated. She was too fine. Too clean and bright for his life. He was a fool for thinking she would ever want to be his.

The moment passed when he felt her shove his shoulder as she rolled him to the side, onto his back, and then she was arching over him, riding him in glorious, languid strokes, her long legs bracing her body over him as she took control of her pleasure .

Her braid had come loose, and her long blond hair fell over her shoulders. He gripped her thighs and slid his thumb to her clitoris, stroking the sensitive point as he felt her sex tighten around his cock.

The moment she started to climax, he sat up, slid his hand along her shoulder, her neck, angling her head to the side and lowering his fangs to her skin.

The bright, pure taste of her blood burst in his mouth as his fangs pierced her skin. She shuddered violently in pleasure as her amnis flowed into him, entering his blood, covering his body.

The fire danced from his hand to the small of her back where it teased the air over her skin, heating and licking along her body, provoking the rise of her own amnis that met his in a steaming kiss.

Oleg drank deep, sealing the small wounds in her neck with his tongue before he captured her mouth in another blood-tinged kiss.

Tatyana’s body was electric, her skin alive with goose bumps as the hairs on her body burned away at Oleg’s touch.

He leaned back, braced his arms behind him, and still she rode him. His erection was aching and ready.

He caught her eye and tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck.

Tatyana’s fangs grew long. She licked her lips, then leaned forward, and Oleg fell back so that she was draped over him and her golden hair fell around them, curtaining them as they made love.

“Milaya,” he whispered as he trailed his fingers from her temple across her cheek. “Take what you want.” He cupped the back of her head, sliding his long fingers through her silken hair and pulling her mouth to his neck. “Take it.”

He thrust his hips up, driving into her, and as she slid her fangs into his vein, the most delicious wave of pleasure crested over him; the release of elemental fire singed the silken sheets beneath him before Tatyana pulled the heat away from his body, wrapping her amnis around him even as she took his blood into her body.

They were one in that moment. She was his, and he was hers. The heady pleasure wrapped around him as Tatyana drank him in .

His body stilled as he continued to release, holding her tightly as she fed from him. His right hand rested gently on her head, and his left stroked her back, dancing along her skin as their energy spun together like threads in the wind.

By the time she finished drinking, Oleg was wrung out with pleasure and his entire body was at peace. She licked at his wounds and raised her head. Her eyes were cloudy and unfocused.

“Oleg?”

He tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear. “Tatyana Vorona.”

“What is this?” She blinked. “I feel…”

“Connected,” he murmured. “Our bond will be even stronger now. If we exchange blood like this again, it will be… quite binding.”

It would be permanent. It would be a blood bond that would last for centuries. She would live in his blood, and he would live in hers.

Tatyana started to move away, but he held her still, their bodies still joined, their blood and amnis mingling, twisting together even as they lay spent.

“I want you as my mate,” he said.

She froze. “What?”

“My mate,” he repeated. “I want you as my blood mate. Not my employee. Not a minion like you said. Not ever. If you are my mate, you will be my greatest counselor, my most trusted friend. There will be no hierarchy between us because your will will be as my own.”

Tatyana pulled away from him, and this time he let her go.

She crawled off his lap, though she stayed on the bed next to him, staring at the wall.

Oleg didn’t press. He waited.

What he was asking was no small thing. It wasn’t a passionate whim or an impetuous decision. What he was asking was no less than a bond that could be eternal and a role that would require her sacrifice.

“Oleg.” She looked everywhere but at him. “I don’t… I mean?—”

“You must take time to think about this.” He sat up and propped his back against the headboard. “You are new to our world, so let me put this in human terms.”

Oleg took her hand in his and waited until her eyes met his.

He locked his gaze on wide blue eyes the color of the summer sky. He kept his voice and his hand soft even though everything in him wanted to grab, to conquer, to steal her away like the barbarian he was.

“Call me your husband, Tatyana Vorona. Grant me your love. Ask me for my protection and you will have it. You will be my mate. No one will touch you. I will care for you, your family will be my own, and you will want for nothing ever again.”