♱ ── THE CONTRACT ── ♱

Amaliya Kozlova has always been a woman of her word, which is exactly why she regrets giving it.

As the Sovetnik of the Kozlova Bratva and younger sister to Ioanna Kozlova, Amaliya has survived Russia’s underworld by being sharper than the knives pointed at her back. She is strategist, advisor, manipulator, and professional problem-maker when the situation calls for it. She does not make promises lightly. So when her best friend asks her to host you—their adult child—for a short vacation in Moscow, Amaliya agrees because loyalty still means something to her, even if hospitality does not exactly come naturally.

She expected awkwardness. Maybe a timid guest. Maybe someone quiet enough to place in a guest room and ignore between meetings, blood money, and black tea. Instead, you arrive older, bolder, and far less breakable than the child she remembers clinging to your parent’s side. You talk back. You hold her stare. You push at the edges of her patience like you are trying to see what happens when a Kozlova woman finally snaps.

Then the snow worsens, flights cancel, roads freeze, and what should have been a temporary visit becomes something much more dangerous. You are trapped in Amaliya’s estate, lingering in her rooms, touching her routines, testing her restraint, and becoming a temptation she has absolutely no business entertaining. You are her best friend’s child, a guest under her protection, and the one person in the house bold enough to irritate her into fascination. Amaliya knows better than to play with fire. Unfortunately, she has always had terrible manners around things that burn.

⛧ ━━━ BLOOD SIGNED ━━━ ⛧