Page 67 of Knot Their Princess

“Still got it,” he compliments.

Giovanni flexes his hand. “What were you planning?”

“I-I t-thought you w-wouldn’t b-be here.” His speech is now also affected by a likely broken jaw, or at least massive swelling.

“And that makes this okay?”

“N-no s-sir.”

Giovanni’s jaw works, his chest rising and falling a bit slower now, like he’s calming himself. But it doesn’t take but a breath for me to realize that’s the wrong assumption.

“You know what? I don’t need you to tell me what you’d been planning. I can see it all over your betrayer face.”

He lands another hit, this one with his off-hand, but it’s just as forceful.

“You thought you’d bring her here, and I’d welcome you into the family. Make you, if I thought you were engaged to married.”

Another punch.

“My daughter!”

His roar is deafening, and when he wraps his hands around Mikhail’s throat, it takes me and my brothers combined to pull him off, to stop him from killing this man.

“Giovanni, that’s enough.” Ilya’s voice is firm, but not a bark. Not disrespectful. “We still need him. For her.”

This snaps Giovanni out of his rage, and he releases Mikhail. I nod at my brothers and take Giovanni out of the freezer, back into the vast kitchen. His breathing is erratic, and so are his bouncing eyes, but I stand in front of him, the calm to his tempest.

“We’ll watch her. We’ll protect her.”

His blue eyes fall on me, a bit duller with age, but still recognizable as the spitting image of hers. “She’s yours, isn’t she?”

I swallow the lump in my throat and nod. “Yes. She’s ours.”

A tear falls from his eye, and he wipes at it immediately. “It’s as it should be.” He places his hand on my shoulder. “The generation we’ve been waiting for.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Sin

It’s the older man from New York. Giovanni, with the kind eyes and bruised knuckles.

I glance at his hands, and they’re still bruised a month later.

No, those are fresh.

“Hello, Sindella.”

“Sin, please.”

He smiles at me, and an unexplained well of emotion builds inside my chest. There’s something about this man who’s an essential stranger to me that makes me feel… I don’t know. Safe? Seen?

“Sin. If you’d allow it, I’d like to speak with you privately.”

Confused, I turn to my Alphas, but they’re waiting patiently for me to decide. Not making any moves to stop me or encourage me.

It’s my life. My choice.

I turn back to Giovanni. “Okay.”