TWISTED DEVOTION

LIA

When I opened my eyes, I didn’t see my stepmother’s shabby apartment, or the narrow cot I used to sleep on. I saw black silk sheets, glowing faintly under sunlight bleeding through tall windows. For one disoriented heartbeat, I thought I was dreaming.

Then memory slammed into me—the auction, the cheers, half a billion dollars.Two dons bidding until they refused to surrender.Salve’s cold silence. Dimitri’s feral grin.Their voices claiming me in unison: She belongs to us both.

My stomach clenched, nausea rolling through me.I didn’t move.My body was rigid, my lungs shallow, as if any shift might trigger the monsters who caged me here. Salve lay on my right. Even in sleep, he was composed, his body aligned neatly, his hands resting over his chest.His face gave nothing away, sharp and unreadable, but the rise and fall of his chest was steady, disciplined. I wondered if he even allowed himself to dream.

Dimitri, on my left, was the opposite. He sprawled shamelessly across the sheets, one arm slung heavy across my stomach, his body heat radiating into me like a furnace. His head lolled toward me, lips parted slightly, his dark hair messy, his jaw shadowed with stubble. He looked like sin in human form, and he was draped over me like he already owned me.

I was trapped between them.Between ice and fire. I shut my eyes tight, praying they’d stay asleep. I couldn’t bear their eyes, their voices, their touch. That’s when I heard it.

Salve’s voice. Low. Precise. Cutting through the silence like a blade.

“We should let her know the truth as early as possible.”

My heart stuttered. Dimitri’s reply was a rough purr, laced with amusement. “She’ll find out sooner or later. Why ruin the surprise?”

The truth?What truth?

My pulse hammered against my ribs. Every instinct told me to keep still, to keep breathing soft and shallow, but curiosity and dread warred inside me until I couldn’t resist. I cracked my eyes open. Just enough. And my world tilted.

Dimitri wasn’t beside me anymore. At some point, while I’d been feigning sleep, he had shifted climbed into Salve’s space. His head rested against Salve’s chest, one of his long legs draped casually across the cold don’s lap. His arm hung lazily over Salve’s waist, his fingers tapping idly against the silk sheet like he was playing some secret rhythm.

But Salve… Salve was the real shock.

He wasn’t pushing Dimitri away. He wasn’t even tense. His hand was in Dimitri’s dark hair, slow and absentminded, stroking through the strands like one might calm a restless animal. His other hand rested on the sheets, fingers relaxed, body at ease. The man carved of ice,the don feared for his control—was touching Dimitri with quiet familiarity.They weren’t rivals. They were something more.

My breath caught. Heat flushed through me, followed by something sharp and ugly. Fear, confusion, humiliation—like I’d stumbled into a secret that rewrote everything. Dimitri’s eyes flicked open, catching me. His lips curved into a slow, wicked smile.

“Good morning, kotyonok,” he drawled, his voice rough from sleep but no less dangerous. “Like the view?”

I froze, my heart lurching painfully against my ribs. Salve’s eyes opened next.

“Now you know,” he said simply.

The words hit like a blow.

I scrambled back a little, but there was nowhere to go. The headboard pressed against my spine. Salve on one side, Dimitri on the other, their bond stretching over me like chains.

“You…” My voice cracked. I swallowed, tried again. “You’re—”

“Lovers?” Dimitri supplied cheerfully. He shifted, stretching like a cat, but didn’t move off Salve’s lap. If anything, he leaned in closer, tilting his head so that Salve’s hand slid deeper into his hair. “Partners. Brothers-in-arms. Enemies. Depends on the day.” His grin widened. “But yes, kotyonok. Lovers, too.”

The room tilted again. My stepmother had sold me to two dons locked in a war. I thought I’d be a pawn, a prize. But this—this was something else.

Dimitri pushed up on one elbow, hovering closer to me now, his smirk sharp. “You thought you were the center of our little game? That we’d bleed each other dry over you?” He laughed softly, his eyes glinting. “We were bound long before you, little rabbit.”

His words cut deeper than I expected. Humiliation burned in my chest. I’d feared being crushed between their obsessions, but now… now I wasn’t sure if I was even important. For a fleeting, desperate moment, relief flickered. Maybe this meant they didn’t need me. Maybe I was safe. But then Salve spoke, his voice as sharp and merciless as the steel edge of a knife.

“You are still ours.”

My stomach dropped. Salve’s gaze never wavered. ''This changes nothing.”

Dimitri chuckled, shifting until his breath brushed my ear. His hand trailed down the side of my face, his touch deliberate, claiming.

“If anything, it changes everything,” he murmured, his lips close enough to graze my skin. “Now you see, kotyonok. You’re not just a prize. You’re ours. Together. Fire and ice.” His teeth caught my earlobe, gentle but threatening. “There’s no leaving us. Ever.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, my body trembling, my mind reeling. I had thought I was caught in a war between two kings. Instead, I was chained to both. Their bond was deeper than I could ever break. Their obsession already twisted. And now they had pulled me into it, binding me with invisible chains I couldn’t see, couldn’t fight, couldn’t escape.

As Dimitri’s laughter rumbled low in his chest and Salve’s cold gaze held me pinned, the truth settled like iron in my bones.I wasn’t just their prize.I was their possession and they planned to make their money worth while.