Vladimir (Russian Dragon Heat #1) - Carole Mortimer Page 0,4

what he already knew: none of the Romanov brothers were responsible for killing them. Nor were the Pendragon brothers. Not only did they have no reason to kill the couple, but for one of the Pendragons to have done so would have meant them intruding on the Romanov territory, and Vladimir knew none of them had done that. This meant the senior Petrovs could not have been killed by the only dragon shifters in existence, Welsh and Russian.

Unfortunately, journals had been kept by the mother in which either she or her husband had written down the movements of the Romanov brothers during the months the mother had worked inside the Mikhailov Palace and the father in the grounds. Detailed journals which had helped to convince the brother and sister of the Romanovs’ involvement in their deaths.

Vladimir had read those same journals, and he could quite understand why the grieving Petrov children should have latched onto the idea that the Romanov dragons had killed their parents.

Vladimir’s own investigations proved otherwise.

Using his ability to cloak his presence, Vladimir had also entered the offices of the necessary authorities and read everything available on the attack made on the Petrovs ten years ago. The description of their wounds appeared to fit with them having been attacked by wild animals. In the eyes of the authorities, those animals had to be wolves. In the eyes of Tanya and Pyotr Petrov, they were dragons.

Studying the photographs of those wounds revealed something else entirely to Vladimir. The wounds only looked like those caused from an attack by wild animals. There were other signs, precise incisions on both bodies, which indicated something far more sinister.

But it was all only Vladimir’s conjecture ten years after the fact. Which meant it was only his word against what was written in the journals of Tanya and Pyotr’s parents. Journals which, if read time and time again, as Vladimir had, could be interpreted in two completely different ways.

Vladimir doubted Tanya would wish to even contemplate the second conclusion he’d come to, although the fact she seemed to be his mate—

She does not seem to be, she is our mate.

The possibility Tanya was his mate only added veracity to Vladimir’s own conclusion for the senior Petrovs’ interest in the Romanov family.

“I could kill her for you.” Vaughn’s angry rasp revealed he had not yet recovered from the humiliation of having allowed himself to be enticed into a position where the Petrovs were able to attack and almost kill him.

Vladimir couldn’t say he was exactly pleased at the thought of Vaughn having intended to meet with Tanya the night he was attacked, with the sole intention of fucking her. “If you go anywhere near her again, for any reason, you will answer directly to me,” he warned harshly.

He might not have told any of his brothers that Tanya, the woman who had tried to kill Vaughn, was his mate. But that didn’t mean he would ever allow any of them to so much as be alone with her.

To his surprise, Vaughn gave one of the mischievous grins he was once so well known for, but which had happened so rarely since the attack. “She’s been imprisoned at our winter palace for three months now. If you aren’t going to kill her, then it really is time to either mate her or let her go.”

Vladimir’s heart stopped at the thought of allowing Tanya to walk away from him and never seeing her again. It literally stopped. Before it started again, pounding loudly enough for both men to hear. He eyed Vaughn cautiously. “You seem very calm at the idea of my mating the woman who tried to separate your head from your body.”

His brother rose to his feet to tower over the desk Vladimir sat behind. “I’m not calm at all, but time has helped me understand why Tanya felt she had to do what she did. I can even admire her for it. I’m also very aware,” he continued determinedly, “of the battle that’s been raging inside you for months.”

“I have no idea—”

“I saw your reaction to Tanya the night we all went to the Petrovs’ apartment to rescue Izzi.”

“I—”

“I saw, Vlad,” Vaughn insisted firmly. “You only had to see her to look as if you had been struck by lightning. And I have witnessed how you’ve suffered in the months since sending her away to our winter palace. You pace the halls here, day as well as night. You rarely sleep, and when