Chapter 3 3

Chapter 3 – Flight

“What do you mean, she gave you a fucking human?” There was no way it was possible. No way I correctly understood what Kazimir was trying to tell me.

He motioned his head and we stepped closer to the front door. Alina kept her head down as she nervously focused on the floor. With a brooding expression, Kazimir never took his eyes off the girl. I stood in my towel, and he was shirtless, hands in his pockets.

“Kazimir?” “She’s my mate.”

He couldn’t possibly be serious. “Are you sure?”

“Kuzma is losing his shit. She doesn’t have a wolf. It’s like I’m fucking cursed or something. The Moon Goddess hates me. I’ve screwed too many whores and now she’s going to weaken my wolf with a human.”

Kazimir is a born Alpha, being mated to a human was bad news. It wasn’t very common, but it did happen. Shifters live twice as long as most humans and we age slower as we get older. Being mated to a human meant that she wouldn’t be able to mind link and connect to a pack as a she-wolf would. It also means the chances of surviving childbirth were slim. The stronger the wolf, the stronger the pup. Which could ultimately end in the human mother's death.

“If I reject her, I won’t get a second chance mate,” he frowned.

“I don’t know. I think the whole mate thing is a farce. Something the elders made up to ensure packs continued to grow.”

“This isn’t a farce. My wolf is certain, he feels the pull. Her scent is mouth-watering. My damn cock is twitching to be buried deep inside of her.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“Your cock is always twitching to be buried in someone’s pussy. Lots of pussy!” I reminded him and he let out a frustrated grunt.

“I’m being serious,” he scoffed.

“She’s got a nice rack,” I said, and he let out a low possessive growl.

That was all I needed to confirm it. “Yep. She’s your mate.” “What the hell am I going to do with her?”

“Fuck if I know. But first, you’re going to get her to transfer back our money. She won’t understand that she’s your mate, but she might feel a pull to you. Hopefully, you can use that to extract information from her. Then, we’re going to get the hell out of here because she’s not working alone.”

“Alina,” Kazimir called out and her head snapped up. “You wired our money to an encrypted account. You will route it back.”

“I can’t,” she said in a low voice. I didn’t hear a Russian accent.

“You can and you will,” Kazimir grabbed her upper arm and yanked her to her feet. They stood with stunned expressions, neither saying a word. Alina’s hand found the knife in the holster at his side and she stepped back from him. The knife was clutched tightly in her hand and pointed at Kazimir. He regarded her intently. Resisting the urge to laugh, I stood with my arms folded over my chest. This was going to be fun.

“Do you even know how to use that little knife?” Kazimir smirked. He took a step closer, and Alina took two steps back.

“Size doesn’t matter when I hit your jugular,” she replied. “Size is everything, malyshka,” he grinned back.

“I’m not your baby girl. You need to let me go.” She tried to sound strong, but the shaking in her voice betrayed her.

“You don’t speak with a Russian accent,” Kazimir said as he took another step toward her.

“I wasn’t raised in Russia,” she replied, sounding like an American. “No ty govorish’ po-russki?”

“Of course, I speak Russian. My parents were Russian.” She took a few steps back, still holding the knife.

“Be careful you don’t cut yourself with that thing.” He goaded her and her eyes narrowed on him.

In one fluid motion, she lunged at him with the knife. Kazimir quickly stepped to the side and clasped her wrist with a hard tug. She pulled back, kicking at his shin, which did not affect him. His smile widened and she reached for the knife with her free hand, but Kazimir plucked the knife from her grasp and jerked her against his body. She looked up into his eyes as he stared down at her, assessing her. The sound of my slow clapping brought their attention back to me.

“This has been entertaining, but I want my money,” I said firmly. “I can’t. They’ll kill me.”

“If you don’t, we will kill you.” I threatened and could see Kazimir visibly tense.

“So you’re not working alone,” Kazimir said thoughtfully. “That means the money has been moved already.”

I knew he was right. It was pointless to try and press her right now. Whoever she was working with or for, would soon realize that something went wrong. They would probably send an execution squad to try and neutralize us, and her. She had failed to return, which would make her a loose asset. One who might know secrets.

“We should move too,” I said as I headed to my bedroom to get dressed.

I slipped on my clothes and shoved everything else into my duffle bag unceremoniously. I wasn’t sure what Kazimir’s plan was for Alina, getting her out of Russia without proper documents would be impossible. I returned to the main room in the suite to find Kazimir dressing Alina in his jacket. She was laying down on the floor.

“What happened to her?” I asked.

“I gave her a tranquilizer,” he replied as she lolled her head. “The ones intended for wolves?”

He nodded his head. “I only gave her half.” “So … you’re keeping her?” I dared ask.

“Hell if I know, but Kuzma won’t settle down.”

Kazimir scooped her up in his arms and carried her out. I grabbed both duffle bags and followed them to the elevator. I wasn’t sure if bringing her with us was a good idea. Kazimir could never commit to one woman. He rarely ever shared his bed with just one woman at a time. I pressed the button for the garage.

“We need to steal a car, it’s not like we can call a taxi with her limp body in your possession.”

“I stuffed a man in the trunk of his car earlier,” Kazimir said as if this was an everyday occurrence. “He was idling and looked out of place. When I approached him, he pointed his gun at me. I snapped his neck and stuffed him in the trunk. I’m sure he was working with her.”

The elevator doors opened, and a rush of cold Moscow air filled the elevator. Kazimir moved quickly to the blue BMW with a dead man in the trunk. I pulled the driver's door open and found the keys on the floorboard. Kazimir slipped into the back seat with Alina.

“Our flight leaves in seven hours. We won’t be able to get her on the plane.” We were flying first class on a commercial airline, getting her through security would also be impossible. I continued to drive, unsure of where we were going.

“There are a lot of dachas north of here. Most should be uninhabited this time of the year,” Kazimir suggested.

Dachas were more of a rustic cottage type of dwelling used primarily as city escapes for rest and relaxation. “Even if we manage to settle into an empty dacha, what then? She’s human, she’s going to need food, clothing, and other things. How long until they discover the driver is missing and this car is tracked?” I raised an eyebrow through the rearview mirror at Kazimir.

“Fuck, I’ll call Aleksei,” he huffed.

Aleksei is Kazimir’s oldest brother. He will become the next Pahkan of the Bratva, while his second oldest brother, will take over as pack Alpha. Kazimir kept the conversation short and ten minutes later, I was driving in the direction of the airport. Aleksei had a private jet at his disposal. He made the arrangements for us to fly back to Cyprus, which would allow us to leave the country with Alina.

I eased the car to the private hangar gate and a man approached the window. For a brief moment, I considered the girl passed out on Kazimir’s chest and the body in the trunk of the car. The large man was wearing a thick coat and holding a clipboard. I lowered the window and gave him a nod.

“Imya?” He asked in Russian for my name.

“Volkov,” Kazimir’s confident voice sounded from the back seat.

A brief flicker of fear passed over the man’s face and he quickly motioned for us to drive through the gate. He lifted his hand radio and spoke in rapid Russian to someone else. The name Volkov held power in this country. Another guard pointed in the direction of a black and white jet that was waiting for our arrival.

“What are we doing with the car?” I asked Kazimir as I pulled to a slow stop near the waiting jet.

“My brother’s men will take care of it for us,” he inclined his head in the direction of two men standing by the jet. Kazimir didn’t have the best relationship with his father and brothers, except for his oldest brother, Aleksei.

With Alina in his arms, Kazimir moved to the jet and I reached for our bags. The two men that greeted Kazimir in Russian made their way to the car. They were wolves and both lowered their heads when they sensed my Alpha aura. I gave a curt nod and stepped up into the jet. I hated small planes, they always gave Haze a feeling of being caged.

Kazimir buckled Alina in a seat and placed a blanket on her. If I hadn’t known she was sedated, I would have assumed she was just sleeping. Kazimir took the seat next to her and I sat facing him. She made a low moaning sound and her head slumped to the window next to her. We sat quietly watching her as if she was the most fascinating thing.

“I’ll have Ninos pick us up at the airport,” I told him. We found Ninos three years ago while visiting Athens. He was a lone wolf who became packless when The Beast of Greece had destroyed his pack. He was two years younger than me and had no one. We took him in, and he’s been loyal ever since.

“The flight is less than four hours, with any luck, she might just sleep the entire way.” Kazimir looked nervous.

“And then what?” I asked, hoping he would elaborate but he looked just as confused as I felt.

The idea of Kazimir having a mate was almost as ridiculous as me having one. The whole idea of mates, instant love, and attraction, based on someone the Moon Goddess paired you with was absurd. Sometimes wolves lived their entire lives without finding their mate. Sometimes mated wolves rejected each other. Sometimes they even cheated.

“We need to find out who sent her,” I said. “She was raised in America and somehow ended up in Moscow. Could it be a rival Bratva that has targeted us?”

“Most of the west, especially Moscow is controlled by the Romanov Bratva. Most thieves work for my father or corrupt politicians.”

“Well, that narrows it down. Every politician in Moscow is corrupt,” I snickered.

“She said her parents were Russian,” he emphasized were, which was past tense.

I looked her over again. She was beautiful. In the cruel world we lived in, she could have easily been sold into prostitution. Her long elegant neck stretched sideways as her head rested against the window. Her pale milky skin and golden hair gave her an innocent look men would gladly pay for. She was small for a human but curvy. My gaze fell to her feet, she had lost a ballet-style flat shoe somewhere along the way.

A growl rippled from Kazimir when he noticed my eyes on her. He reached his arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her head to rest on his chest. A low chuckle caught in my throat. I had a feeling this little human wasn’t going to give into Kazimir’s charms so easily.

After we graduated from the university in Germany, we spent some time in Athens and Prague before we settled in Cyprus. Ninos is short for Konstantinos, who is much like our younger brother. Having been trained by Kazimir, he monitored the daily buying and selling of currency and other stock exchanges while we were away. We’ve made millions and are working to expand our realm.

In the last year, we’ve been investing our money in a rising oil and gas company based in Russia. It’s one of the few oil companies that is publicly held instead of being owned by the government. We launder our gambling winnings and stolen money through the Bahamas, Turkey, Philippines, and of course Cyprus. Buying and selling currencies around the world to help

hide our tracks before the money is integrated into our legitimate corporation to purchase more shares in the oil business.

The pilot announced our landing in seven minutes as the plane descended over the third largest island in the Mediterranean. A moan drew our attention back to Alina. She tried to lift her head from Kazimir's chest. She seemed groggy and sluggish. She turned her head slowly and met my gaze. Disoriented, she blinked.

“Alina?” Kazimir said her name, just above a whisper.

She turned to him, her shaking hands still clutching the blanket. She shook her head, “no,” she moaned. “Ple-please,” she licked her dry lips. Her eyes closed and her head fell forward, returning to Kazimir’s chest.