of her parents.
Tanya’s chin rose. “None of the Romanov brothers killed our parents,” she stated with confidence. “They did.” She nodded in the direction of the other two men.
“I— But— No. Why?” Pyotr demanded when his associates made no effort to deny the accusation.
“Science,” the son of the doctor answered calmly. “My father unfortunately died of cancer before he was able to prove or disprove his theory of another species, but I’ve been happy to carry on his work. Ten years ago, I managed to capture the two older Petrovs one evening. The woman admitted to me that she knew she was somehow different, and that she felt drawn to know more of the Romanov family. For years, she studied the brothers, learning their secrets, not to expose them, but to confirm she was somehow one of them.”
Tanya gave Vladimir an apologetic glance, knowing he had somehow tried to tell her that too, but she hadn’t wanted to listen and he cut off his explanation before he had a chance to get that far.
“Unfortunately,” the man continued, “seeing my…experimentation on the woman resulted in the man having a heart attack and dying. Once I’d taken all the information there was from the woman and ascertained that her internal organs were the same as a human’s, I then had to kill her too. I made it look as if they’d both been attacked by wild animals. Or dragons,” he added scathingly, “in order to cover up what I’d been doing to their bodies before they died.”
Pyotr’s eyes were wide with shock. “You killed our parents?”
The bigger man nodded. “We looked for the Petrovs’ children for years with no success. Damned orphanages don’t even keep proper records.” He scowled. “Then, like the idiot you are, you came looking for us after you escaped from the Romanovs two months ago. You believed us to be dragon hunters too. Which we are, but we were only willing to connect with you because you’re one of the dragons we’ve been hunting. I would have preferred it if you’d had your mother’s journals with you, but no matter.” He turned to Tanya. “I believe you have those?”
Vladimir answered coldly. “I do.”
That narrowed gaze turned to him. “Then you’ll give them to us.”
“I don’t think so.”
“A bullet might not kill you, but it will certainly kill the bitch at your side,” the man threatened as he shifted the gun in his hand toward Tanya.
“If you attempt to kill my mate—”
There was the sound of a shot being fired, followed by Tanya crying out and stumbling as unbearable pain and heat ripped through the left side of her body before she crumpled weakly to the floor.
She was aware of Vladimir’s dragon roaring his fury at the same time as another shot rang out.
Tanya saw Pyotr fall to the floor beside her, a perfect hole in the center of his forehead and his lifeless eyes staring up at the wooden ceiling, before everything faded into darkness.
Epilogue
Two days later,
The Mikhailov Winter Palace
“How are you feeling today?” Vladimir’s voice was overly cheerful as he entered Tanya’s bedroom in the east wing after he knocked on the door and was invited to enter.
His eyes widened when he saw, despite the earliness of the hour—he simply hadn’t been able to stay away from her any longer—that Tanya was already out of bed and dressed in a dark blue sweater that matched the color of her eyes, along with fitted low-rider jeans.
Worryingly, the rest of her things were sitting in a neat pile on the bed.
It had been two days since the confrontation with her brother and the other two men at the dacha. Since Pyotr had been shot and killed by one of his associates and Vladimir had then snuffed the other two men out of their miserable existence before throwing their broken bodies outside for the wolves to consume. He doubted anyone would miss them.
As a dragon, he had then flown an unconscious Tanya back here, before allowing Viktor, their healer, to attend her. Remaining in the room, Vladimir had then sent Aleksey to the dacha to take Pyotr’s body back to St. Petersburg. His brother had since informed him that Tanya’s brother was now buried with his parents.
Vladimir had explained all this to Tanya once she was recovered enough from the bullet wound to her shoulder to hear of her brother’s fate. She hadn’t commented on her brother’s death, but seemed pleased Pyotr was now with their parents.
Vladimir had wanted to