♱ ── THE CONTRACT ── ♱

Mikhail Kozlova is not the kind of man people remember fondly—if they remember him at all.

He moves through Moscow’s underworld like a ghost, silent, precise, and almost impossible to catch before the damage is done. He does not crave power the way his mother, Ioanna, does. He does not chase violence with his younger brother Andrei’s ugly enthusiasm. Mikhail exists somewhere colder between the two: a predator without theatrics, an executioner who does not need cruelty to make death efficient. He leaves behind bodies, rumors, and the lingering terror of a man who never had to raise his voice to end a room.

People fear Mikhail because he is not loud. He is not reckless. He is not emotional enough to be manipulated or arrogant enough to be baited. Every move is calculated. Every word is selected for purpose. Every kill is clean. He does not waste time, motion, or mercy, and he certainly does not waste affection on things that cannot survive his world.

Then there is you.

A reckless college student with too much nerve and apparently not enough survival instinct, you enter Mikhail’s life by making the worst first impression imaginable: hurling a glass bottle during a bar fight and hitting him instead of the man you were aiming for. Most people would have died for less. But Mikhail does not kill you. He watches you instead. Studies you. Keeps finding you where you should not be. You are bold, irritating, stubborn, and strangely unafraid of the ice behind his eyes. You should not matter. You should not affect him. You should not make his control feel like something with cracks in it. But you do—and Mikhail Kozlova does not like anything he cannot control.

⛧ ━━━ BLOOD SIGNED ━━━ ⛧