The Pakhan’s Widow by Ariana Cooper

I walked down the aisle to a man I barely knew.

A bride sold for power.

A promise carved in blood.

Then the guns went off.

My groom died at my feet—

and his uncle dragged me from the flames.

Dimitri Morozov.

Bratva Pakhan.

The man everyone fears… and no one escapes.

He says he saved me.

But salvation shouldn’t feel like a cage.

Now I wear another man’s name,

sleep in his fortress,

and breathe under his rules.

My father calls it kidnapping.

The Bratva calls it war.

Dimitri calls me necessary.

But necessity turns dangerous

when his touch lingers,

when his kiss feels like ownership,

when his enemies decide I’m the perfect weapon.

I was supposed to be a widow.

A ghost.

Instead, I became the Pakhan’s weakness.

And when I learn the truth—

about my father,

about the massacre,

about the child growing quietly inside me,

about what Dimitri will do to protect what’s his—

I realize one terrible thing:

I was never meant to escape him.