Bloodline Betrayal

"Some men don't ask for permission. They take what they want. And Aleksandr Volkov wanted me."

When my father's gambling debts come due, they come due to the wrong man.

Aleksandr Volkov is the ruthless Pakhan of the Bratva-a man whose name is whispered in fear, whose touch burns like a brand, and whose icy blue eyes miss nothing. At forty years old, he's built an empire from blood and shadows. He doesn't do relationships. He doesn't do sentiment.

He does acquisitions.

I'm twenty-two, broke, and suddenly the collateral on a debt I never made. But instead of ending me, Aleksandr does something far more dangerous. He claims me. As his wife. As his property. As his.

He locks me in a gilded cage-a sprawling estate as beautiful as it is suffocating. He tells me I'm an investment to be protected. That his rules are absolute. That I will come to his bed willingly or not at all.

The man is impossible. Brutal. Calculating. Everything I should hate.

But then I see the cracks in his ice.

In the solarium where he tends to his dead mother's orchids with surprising gentleness. In the rare moments when his guard drops and I glimpse the boy he was before violence hardened him into stone. In the way he looks at me like I'm the only light in his darkness.

He threatens to cage me, but he's the one who's trapped.

And I'm beginning to realize that the most dangerous cage isn't made of iron.

It's made of love.

This is not a love story for the faint of heart. This is a dark, obsessive, brutally romantic tale of a woman who discovers that sometimes the monster is the only one who can protect her-and that the real danger isn't falling for the devil.

It's burning alive in his arms.

Perfect for readers who crave:

• Dark romance with a possessive alpha anti-hero
• Mafia romance with serious stakes
• Captive/forced proximity that turns to genuine connection
• Age gap romance with complex power dynamics
• Obsessive love that will make your heart race
• The enemies-to-lovers trope with a twisted edge
• Standalone romance with a HEA