Solara Is Mine

Her hand is ice cold. She covers it up well, but I can feel the fear coming off her in waves. I’ve already texted my driver, Earl, to be ready. There’s no way I’m staying a minute longer and allowing Darin to change his mind about her. There will be bloodshed first.


Solara is mine, and I have three months to figure out why she is attached to a spineless weasel like Darin and get rid of the problem. The only problem is, I can’t use my usual avenues of persuasion to get the information I want.


I’ll have to handle Solara with certain... finesse.


“Let’s go, Solara. The car is waiting.” I tell her, pulling her by the hand.


I don’t know what Darin just said to her, but her skin turned a pale, waxy color and she started to shake. She barely nodded in his direction and kept looking at the ballroom like he hadn’t said a word. That’s when the fear took over her. It took everything I had not to grab him by his throat and end him on the spot.


Only now he’s one of us, and I can’t cause a war without a cause. I need this spineless dumbass to come at me so I have a reason to ruin him.

Regardless of who I am, we all have rules we have to follow. And in order to protect Solara, I had to give Darin what he wanted. What I knew he would give her up for.


Now I have to give him a reason to stay away.


“Wait, you had this planned?” She asks as we move through the crowd of overdressed men, holding their glasses of whiskey, and the women who are fawning over them, hoping to catch their attention.

They have no idea what they are asking for.


“Not at first. Only after I found out you were mine. This way, and try to speed up.” I tell her.


“I don’t understand. I don’t belong to you, and I can’t speed up. Have you seen the heels I have on?” She pulls against me, trying to slow our pace.


I stop, and she practically runs right into me. I have to grab her to keep her from falling and look down at her feet. What I see are the obnoxiously tall stiletto heels I’m sure Darin has her wearing.


“Take them off,” I demand.


“What? I can’t take them off. Do you know where we’re at?” She replies like I don’t realize we are in a room full of Bratva watching me leave with what looks like Darin’s woman. It literally looks like I have the balls to run away with her, but nobody knows who she is to me.


“Yes. I’m very aware of where we’re at. Now take them off, or I can do it for you.”


She snaps her eyes to me, and I wait a second for her to make up her mind. I look over her head and see Darin walking my direction like a man on a mission. His eyes set dead on me. Any other time, I would see who would come out on top, but tonight, I need to get Solara out of here.


“You know what? Never mind.” I snap.


I pick her up and sling her over my shoulder and walk out of the ballroom and into the night. We were in the car, driving off faster than Darin could catch up with me.


“What the hell was that, Cyprus?” She asks.


“You were taking too long, and I have business to attend to.”


I watch as she literally locks up on me. Turns her head to look out the window and completely shuts down. Trying to get any information from her might as well be useless.


I’m a harsh man, and this is new for me. I search women out when I need to. I fuck when I feel like it. Simple as that. I don’t do relationships. So, trying to have a conversation with this woman is beyond my capabilities. But I had no clue the fates had other plans.

About twenty minutes outside of the city limits, I feel her head fall against my shoulder. Somewhere in this wildfire of a woman, part of her trusts me enough to fall asleep. That alone makes me feel a little less incapable and this a little more possible.


I move my arm so her head is now against my chest and pull her closer to me. I can smell everything about her. It's embedded into my brain now. I lightly chuckle to myself and lay my head against the back of the seat. The fates sure are a piece of work.


The window that separates the front of the car from the back rolls down, and Earl looks at me from the rearview mirror.


“Sir, where are we headed?” My driver asks.


I was supposed to go straight to the Pakhan after meeting with Darin. Now, I need to take care of Solara first. I don’t need to introduce her to Nikolai at this moment, and the last thing I need is for her to wake up in the mansion he lives in on the other side of the city.


“Home. I need to get Solara settled in for the night. Make sure she’s safe. Do me a favor and call Nikolai. Tell him there was a change of plans, but all the rest of the Bratva are positioned where he wants them.” I explain to Earl. Cause I know if I call, he will have questions I don’t have time for.


“Yes, sir.”


“Also, tell him I found my mate,” I add.


“Should I mention to him that she is human?”


I look down at her sleeping form and push her dark hair away from her face. She looks so peaceful against my chest, and just seeing her there seems to calm some of the darkness inside of me. She is quite a beauty, to say the least.


“No. Not just yet.”