smiled and hugged me again. Over my wife’s head, I met the gazes of Zaal and then Valentin. They were looking at me as they held their females tightly in their arms.
I could see the hunger for revenge burning in their eyes, the thirst for the kill. I could feel the heat rushing through my body, as I anticipated the fight that lay ahead, knowing they would be feeling this way, too.
The Arzianis were the head of the snake that controlled everything we three had been through.
A head that I planned to rip off.
These men were my brothers in arms.
And we were fucking going to war, for the prisoners yet to be freed.
EPILOGUE: VALENTIN
One month later …
“Are you ready, baby?” Zoya asked as she came into our living room. I got up from the couch and took her in my arms. Zoya’s head looked around the room and she smiled in satisfaction.
“It feels strange to have a home of our own,” she said happily.
I tracked the small room with my own eyes and felt something ache in my chest. “I’ve never had a home before.” Zoya’s arms tightened around my waist. She didn’t say anything in response, but I knew she understood.
Kirill and Ivan, along with Luka and Zaal, had gifted us this house. They wanted to give us a larger house, one worthy of a member of the Bratva, but Zoya and I preferred something small. We were both so lost living here on the outside. We wanted to be on our own, in a place big enough just for her and me. And Zoya wanted to be among her people. Avto and his wife only living two doors down.
Zoya pulled back and moved to the closet to get our coats. She slipped hers on. I couldn’t help but smile as her face became lost in the fur hood around her neck.
She was so beautiful. Every inch the Kostava printsessa.
I was busy staring at my Zoya when she turned and smiled. Taking my coat off the hook, she brought it to me and kissed me on the lips. I groaned against her mouth, my hands lifting to cup her face. I pushed her back until she hit the wall, but Zoya wrenched her head to the side and gasped for breath. “Valentin, I need a break. We’ve been in bed all day, and I want to go outside.”
My nose ran over her cheek and down her neck. I felt her shiver beneath my touch. “I can’t get enough of you,” I said, and pushed my groin against her.
Zoya laughed and pushed on my chest. “I know, baby, but I want to take a walk with you. I want us to go outside. We need to.” She reached down and took hold of my hand. She brought it to her lips and said, “With your hand in mine. Free, like other couples. We’re no longer prisoners trapped indoors. We finally get to go outside.”
My eyes blazed as I watched her press kiss after kiss on the back of my hand. A hungry growl rumbled in my chest. Reaching down to the coat that had fallen to the floor, Zoya picked it up and pushed it in to my chest.
“Put it on,” she said playfully.
Taking the damn coat, I pushed it on and followed Zoya to the door. I pulled on a heavy woolen hat and pulled the hood of the coat to cover my face.
Zoya opened the door, but when she caught sight of me behind she pushed it back shut. I frowned, wondering what she was doing. Then she reached up and pushed my hood down. I swallowed hard at that look on her face, the one I couldn’t believe she ever cast on me. The one that told me she loved me.
The one that told me I owned her soul.
Zoya pushed the hat off my shaven head and kissed along the scars on my cheek. As she pulled back, her gaze bored into mine. “Do not hide away from me,” she said.
I pushed my fingers into her hair and said, “I’m not hiding from you. You see me. I could never hide from you, kotyonok.”
Zoya sighed and said, “Then don’t hide from everyone out there, either.” She pointed out of the door. My stomach clenched at the thought of going outside. I had barely been outside in the daylight since becoming a free male. I never went out during the day. I had seen the reaction of the