Page 62 of Violent Love: Viktor

I hesitated at the door, and he looked up from his desk.

“Thank you, Pakhan,” I murmured.

“Bunny planted the seed, my brother. We just wanted to see you happy,” he said solemnly.

I winced and closed my eyes for a second.

“Dr. Novikov might be considering taking a pet.”

The Pakhan’s eyes widened. He shook his head in disbelief.

“I did not see that coming,” he muttered to himself.

???

They built my new home closest to theirs. The compound offered protection from enemy attacks, but more than that—it meant Ania was never far from the Pakhan’s eyes. From safety. From backup. It was the safest place for my pet.

When I opened the door, I froze.

Natalya knelt just inside, curled beside the entrance like she’d been waiting for hours. Her shoulders trembled. Her fingers gripped the edge of the rug. She was crying.

The mask hid most of her face, but I saw the glint of wet lashes through the holes. She blinked fast—then barked.

That single sound made my heart lurch.

Before I could get a word out, she launched herself at me, arms locking around my leg like a lifeline. Clutching. Shaking.

She didn’t speak. Didn’t need to.

I’d been gone too long.

Chapter 28

Natalya

It was all wrong. The house was wrong. Master being away from me was very fucking wrong. I couldn’t stop crying. Not even when he sat me on his lap and patted my back like a child. The tears just kept coming.

I didn’t even know why. Not really.

Nothing hurt. He hadn’t shouted. He hadn’t punished me. But something inside me was unraveling—tight and frantic, like a wire pulled too far. I couldn’t find the edges of myself without him close. Couldn’t settle.

The house felt too big. Too quiet. The silence pressed down on me like punishment. I kept waiting for his voice, his footsteps, his orders. Instead, I got silent, empty rooms.

I clung to his shirt and sniffed it. His scent helped. A little. But it didn’t fix the static in my head or the knot in my stomach. It didn’t erase the feeling that I’d been abandoned, even if it was just for a few hours.

I wasn’t scared of him. I was scared of the gap. The space where he should’ve been. The quiet felt worse than pain.

Something was broken in me.

And I didn’t know how to fix it without him.

“Did you know that I once lived in a state orphanage?”

His deep voice cut through the spiral. Grounded me.

I blinked, confused, the tears slowing. I hadn’t known that. I only knew what he let me see. The rest of him was walls and locked doors.

I shook my head, too stunned to speak.