Page 1 of His Ruthless Vow

1

PROLOGUE

ALANA

It's the explosive sound that gets me.

So loud it makes my ears ring and pulls me from the fringe of consciousness back to the stark reality my brain tries to protect me from. I look to my right, reaching my hand toward Batya, but he doesn't see me, at least not right now. He sees red, and so do I.

Ivan's blood pools around his body, the hole in the center of his forehead oozing brain matter as his dead eyes stare into mine, lifeless. I blink and try hard to breathe in, but I'm suffocating, choked by absolute shock as my mother rushes in, Natalia too. And Mr. Sokolov?

"My God, get me something to cover her! Alana, oh, baby." Mamochka falls to her knees next to me, pulling me into her arms, but the upward motion makes more of him drain from my body, slicking my thighs.

"You killed my son, you fucking bastard!"

"Look at what he's done!"

"Shit, oh, shit!"

"Batya, no!"

The voices pile on top of each other and crystalize into chaos that wraps around me and splits my head open in a throbbing, pounding pain that matches the heat in my body. It consumes me and terrifies me.

"Alana, stay with me, baby. Lana, come on." Someone slaps my face and I turn, seeing my mother's eyes wet with tears, red with blood. "Yes, here, baby. Look at Mamulya."

"He. I." My arms feel heavy, pinned down by something. He drugged me or at least got me really drunk. I tried to fight him, but it didn't work.

"Is she okay?" It's Batya's voice, still angry but now concerned. He hovers and after a slow blink, I see his eyes boring into mine. "Are you okay, ptichka?"

"Batya," I mutter, but Natalia's face is there now, swimming in my field of vision.

"Oh, God, Lana, please. Are you okay?"

My mother rocks me, pulling me into her chest, away from the terrors of the room, so I close my eyes. It blocks out the faces but not the voices or the memory. My body is humming with adrenaline but sore, so sore.

"I'll go to the council, Nikolai. You had no right to⁠—"

"To stop your son from raping my daughter?" I hear rustling and a scream, Natalia's voice.

"Batya, no!" she shouts, and my mother holds me closer as my body begins releasing, shuddering and sobbing. Something warm covers me and hands secure it on my body.

"Both of you, stop!"

There are too many noises, a cacophony of sounds assaulting my ears. I'm weak, fading toward sleep, but I can't let go. My body is rigid with shame and anger and pain.

"I should kill you too. You and your son, and your whole family. You've disgraced my daughter and brought shame. Your son destroyed any hope of peace between our families." Batya is so angry. More tears flood my eyes, soaking my mother's blouse.

"Mamochka," I sob, now burying my face in her chest. "Please. make it stop."

"Shh, ptichka, I'm here." She still rocks me, trembling as her arms barely hold me together.

I can't get the sensation of his hands off me. What he did. How he.

"Get a doctor, someone!" Natalia is shouting again, closer to me than she was before, and then I'm being lifted. Someone with strong arms carries me, pried away from my mother's chest. I blink them open long enough to see Ivan's face, not covered in blood, and it undoes me.

I lash and kick, screaming and fighting, but the arms hold me so tightly I can't fight against them.

"Let me go! No! Stop! Let me go!"