Vladimir (Russian Dragon Heat #1) - Carole Mortimer

Prologue

Three months previously,

The Petrov Apartment, St. Petersburg

“Where are the Romanov dragons?” Pyotr Petrov’s eyes glittered with a fevered hatred as he glared at each of the large men gathered in the kitchen of the small apartment he shared with his sister. “No doubt they have chosen to remain cowering in their palace,” he added contemptuously.

“We are all here too,” Vladimir said coldly as he stepped into the room. Aware of how dire the situation was in the confines of the Petrovs’ apartment, he left his brothers out in the hallway with two of the Pendragon brothers.

They were all here because Tanya and Pyotr Petrov had kidnapped Izzi, the daughter of Anna and Anton Mikhailov, the human servants who ran and appeared to the general public to own the palace which for generations had actually belonged to the Romanov dragon shifter family.

Having feared for Izzi’s safety, Vladimir was surprised to see it was Pyotr Petrov who currently had a piece of broken glass pressing against his carotid artery, held there by Izzi.

Vladimir had only minutes ago learned that Izzi had left the palace earlier and was now being held prisoner in the apartment of the people who had tried to kill Vladimir’s brother, Vaughn, the night before. Deryk Pendragon had reached the apartment first, as was fitting when Izzi was his fated mate, but it appeared that Izzi had already wrenched control from Petrov and his sister Tanya.

The air whooshed from Vladimir’s lungs, and he found himself unable to look away again after a single glance across the room at the beautiful, dark-haired Tanya Petrova. Her scent of flowers and spring rain instantly invaded and then took control of his senses. He had to clench his hands at his sides to fight against the need to reach out to touch her too.

Mine, his dragon growled.

No, that couldn’t be so. Vladimir’s mate, if he ever met her, would be a fitting mother for their young. The queen worthy of the king Vladimir actually was, though he chose not to use the title when he now had only his own six brothers as his subjects and the few human servants they employed.

Tanya Petrova was none of the things Vladimir had expected of his mate as she returned his gaze with the same fierce hatred and defiance that had caused her to dare to attempt to take his brother’s life the previous evening. She was also very much human.

Such a woman could not be the mate of Vladimir, the king and eldest of the Romanov dragon shifters, when he had waited every one of his thousand years to meet the woman destined for him by the fates.

Mine, his dragon disagreed.

“You will both explain your behavior,” Vladimir instructed the brother and sister.

Pyotr Petrov snorted his scorn. “Do not presume to order us about as you do your other human pets.”

Vladimir was having difficulty concentrating on Petrov’s words, or remembering the reason they were here at all, with Tanya Petrova standing just feet away from him, exuding that exquisite perfume. It made him want nothing more than to throw her down on the floor, to take and claim her, no matter who else was in the room.

It took all his considerable self-control to deny that need. “You would not understand the symbiotic relationship we have with the Mikhailov family.”

It was a connection of many centuries, one in which the human Mikhailov family acted as a shield to the curious public for the long-living Romanov family of dragon shifters, and in return, the dragons gave the humans their protection. A protection which had sadly fallen short tonight in regard to Izzi Mikhailova.

“Why did you try to kill Vaughn last night?” Vladimir now demanded to know.

He wished to know the answer to that question, but he also wanted to divert attention from Izzi, whom he could see, by the shaking of her hand, was starting to tire of holding the jagged piece of glass against Petrov’s throat.

Petrov’s fevered gaze moved to the hallway, where the rest of the dragon shifters stood, his top lip turning back in a sneer as he obviously saw Vaughn was amongst them. “For days, he’s wanted to fuck my sister, and last night, he believed he was about to succeed. Not quite the end to the evening you expected, was it, dragon?”

Maim, kill, eviscerate. Vladimir’s dragon clamored to be free so that he might carry out those deadly deeds on anyone who dared to suggest laying so much as a finger on Tanya. Even