TAMING THE BEAST

CHAPTER TWO - “Hell’s Gate”

MIKHAIL

The last thing I needed was a f*****g distraction.

I ground my teeth from the unbearable pain shooting through my right arm. I’d stitched a total of nineteen wounds myself and none had ever given me chills. I couldn’t understand why this one was acting up.

I don’t f**k with hospitals, and since the family doctor would never treat anyone again, at least not from six feet below, I tried to drown the pain in work and alcohol. Neither did s**t.

But last night, the throbbings and fever disappeared just by watching this girl dance. No woman had caught my eye in years.

For the first time I was intrigued. Intrigued and f*****g hard.

I should’ve erased her from my mind after f*****g her out of my system that night but she went and got caught as a spy. Pity, I almost snapped that pretty neck.

Truthfully, she surprised me. She was begging for her life in the cell, but as soon as she was blindfolded and shoved in the trunk, she stopped. It was like she had faith that I wouldn't blow her brains out.

If that was the case, then she was a f*****g i***t. And I just couldn’t stand idiots.

The fortress stole thoughts of her as it came into view.

As Pakhan, my estate was the most secure in all of the Russian peninsula. It was an imposing work of art ringed by layers of razor wire, protected by three dozens of soldiers who’d rather take bullets than let an intruder in.

The SUV rolled to a stop at the final checkpoint, my eyes were no longer on the perimeter. They were locked with a pair of icy blue eyes that wouldn’t stop staring. His colleagues at the checkpoint bowed their heads and lifted the banister.

I lifted a hand, bringing the car to a stop.

“You have nice eyes, kid,” Blood drained from the faces of the other soldiers. The front door popped open as Alexei stormed out, and fisted the boy’s collar in his hands, landing heavy blows to his jaw.

“You. Do. Not. stare. Into. Death’s. Eyes.” he puffed with each blow, spattering blood everywhere.

“Alexei,” He stopped at my voice, tossing the boy to the floor and taking his place in the front seat of the car.

The kid was lucky. Most men who were brought in here ended up in the six acres graveyard behind the fortress; family and captives alike.

As soon as the armored SUV pulled up to the grand stone steps, the pain in my shoulder flared into white-hot agony. I popped the trunk open and pulled her out, yanking off her blindfold.

She blinked rapidly, sweeping the environment with her eyes. “Hell Gate was your home?” She scoffed, “Are you kidnapping me? Or will you make me disappear like your many captives? I know you’re Pakhan and you can do as you wish, but…”

“Escort her to the West wing,” I snapped at Alexei without so much of a glance at her. She wasn’t just an i***t, she was a rambling nuisance. If the pain in this arm didn’t kill me, her f*****g mouth disease would.

Alexei looked like I slapped him across the face. “Pakhan?” he raised a brow for confirmation.

“You heard me.”

He bowed, holding her arm and leading her up the stone steps. In three years, I’d never brought a civilian home, moreso a woman suspected to be a spy.

I took the stairs two at a time, pausing by the bar to grab a shot of cognac. By the time I arrived at the west wing, my shirt was drenched in sweat.

She was just in the pink cardigan she had on after we f****d last night, so I turned to Alexei. “Ask Maria to get her decent clothes and prepare a bath as well.”

“Will you be okay..?” the words trailed off his lips as I glared hard at him. Alexei was a couple months older so he deluded himself with the thought of being my guardian. The devil didn’t need angels.

My eyes fell back on her. She was taking in the plush black carpet, black curtains, and ash colored walls.

“Get to work,”

She rolled her eyes at me, “Are you trying to make your visitors have nightmares with all the gloomy decor? You’re terrifying, everyone already gets that…”

“I don’t fancy repeating myself,” Watching such a tiny human wander through my room like she was in f*****g wonderland was strangely fascinating.

She grabbed the first aid box Alexei had dropped along with her, then without warning, inserted the back of her hand into my collar. My entire body went rigid.

My good arm grabbed her wrist as she pulled away, “Nobody f*****g touches me.”

When her eyes met mine, I could suddenly make out the dark circles under her eyes, and dried tear marks on her cheeks. The faint scent of lavender clung to her skin, dragging me right back to last night.

“I don’t want to touch you either, but that’s impossible, don’t you think? I have to treat your arm.” then she f*****g went ahead to grab my wrist. Examining the arm closely, she shook her head.

“You’ve been having fevers and pain spasms yet you chose overworking the arm over proper medical attention. Men.” She said the last word like we were disgusting.

“And what could someone like you probably know besides shaking your ass for change?”

“Well, I know,” she began as she snipped the hand of the affected shirt off then proceeded to pry the top skin off, “that you of all people should have known to go to a hospital instead of drowning in alcohol.”

“Watch it. Many men have lost their heads for speaking out of turn.”

Her brows were drawn together in concentration, as she filled a syringe with fluid. “It’s a good thing I’m a woman then. Hold still, this is going to hurt.” She plunged the needle into my arm. My teeth clenched in agony as she began washing the wound with surprisingly steady hands.

“Where’d you learn to treat wounds?” I had to engage my brain to avoid passing out from the pain.

She shrugged. “One of my foster mothers was a nurse. We had this clinic behind the house where we treated all kinds of gory wounds. And you? Where’d you learn to let a treatable laceration rot? Surely that’s not one of the requirements of becoming Pakhan?”

For the first time in ten years, I was moved to laugh. I didn’t. Any other person who addressed me that way would have had their heads hanging from a stake. “Do you ever shut up?” I rasped instead, sweat beading across my forehead.

“I will now, it’s done,” she announced, wiping my blood on a towel. “If you don’t go around playing spiderman, it should heal nicely.”

I wanted to say something to assert my dominance but a sudden heavy feeling came over me. The room blurred and the stinging ache in my shoulder felt like it was draining away.

The last thing I remembered was her fingers brushing against my arm as she wrapped gauze soaked in iodine around it.

Strange, I don’t remember ever falling asleep without the f*****g meds.