Designed to be mine Read online

  Designed to be

  Mine

  By: Sage S. Wolf

  Copyright © 2021 Sage S. Wolf

  Copyright © 2021 Sage S. Wolf

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Cover design by: Sage S. Wolf

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  ~A note from the author~

  ~More books by me~

  ~This book is dedicated to my favorite human. I hope life brings you everything that you’ve dreamed of. You deserve all the happiness. ~ *Camel*

  Chapter One

  ~Ella~

  I stared down at my husband’s phone in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening to me.

  Scott was in the shower, getting washed up after our morning romp. He had to be at the office in an hour for an important meeting with a client. Or so that was what he told me.

  I didn’t make a habit of looking at my husband’s phone. I never worried he might be cheating or even noticed anything suspicious until now… Of course, my husband was a big shot lawyer and obviously knew how to hide infidelity.

  I read the text again.

  “I’m sure your day hasn’t started that great since you had to wake up to her this morning.”

  I assumed she was referring to me. And the fact that I’d woken Scott up with a blow job that led to sex, I would say his morning started pretty great. I read on.

  “I promise to make your day better when you get home in an hour.”

  Home? They had a home together.

  “Hey, honey, have you seen my purple tie?” Scott’s voice only twisted the theoretical knife currently stabbing through my heart further.

  I furiously wiped away my tears. “I think it’s in the top drawer of the dresser in our closet.” It wasn’t. I had it sitting on the kitchen counter in front of me.

  I had wanted to put my husband’s lucky tie on him before his big meeting. Now, I was using it to buy time.

  I screenshotted the texts and sent them to my phone and then deleted them from Scott’s phone and went to the trash to empty it. My stomach dropped when I saw all the texts and pictures he’d tried to delete. Naked pictures of a pretty young brunette along with selfies they had taken together. I screenshotted those as well and then emptied the trash just in time for Scott to come down the stairs.

  “I couldn’t find it up there. Maybe the maid misplaced it when she picked up my dry cleaning.” Scott stepped into the kitchen wearing a light blue tie that looked good with his black suit, but the purple would look better. “Honey, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve been crying.” In my husband’s defense, he did sound genuinely concerned.

  I shook my head and held out his tie. “I’m fine. Those fertility drugs have my emotions all over the place. Come here and let me put on your lucky tie before you leave.”

  Scott grinned and stepped closer. “I should have known you’d have it down here with you. Sneaky wife.”

  He leaned forward and kissed me and it took everything within me to not slap his face away.

  Instead, I kissed him back and tried to pretend he wasn’t about to betray me. That he hadn’t been for who knows how long now.

  “I wanted to put it on you myself.” I really wanted to choke him with it.

  He leaned forward and stole another kiss. “That’s one of the many things I love about you. You’re always taking care of me.”

  “And I you.” I started loosening his blue tie. “Hold still while I get this tie off.”

  Scott gripped my hips. “You can take my pants off too while you’re at it.”

  I swatted his hands away. “Behave. I don’t want you to be late for your meeting.”

  I needed him to leave so I could talk to my lawyer and show him the evidence of my husband's infidelity. Then I could file for divorce and make sure Scott didn’t get a damn thing from me. Not the multimillion-dollar clothing company I built from the ground up. And Not a dime of my hard-earned money.

  I wouldn’t make the same mistakes my dad made when he finally divorced my leech of a stepmother. Scott wouldn’t get shit from me.

  For the first time in my marriage, I was glad we hadn’t been able to conceive. Any child of mine deserved a better father than the snake of a man before me.

  “Fine. Did you take your shot already or you want my help before I leave?” How did he sound so damn sincere? Lawyers.

  I pulled the blue tie off and stepped back. “I told you I could do it on my own, Scott. I do appreciate you offering to help but you only need to help with one thing.” The words tasted bitter in my mouth. We hadn’t even made it through our first round of fertility shots…

  Scott grinned and grabbed my hips again. “I’m happy to make a second deposit before I leave for work. I can skip breakfast for this.” Before, his words would have excited me. All they did now was make me nauseous.

  “I don’t want you to be late or hungry. This is an important meeting.” I threw the blue tie on the counter and slipped the purple one around his neck while he watched me.

  “You sure you okay? You seem like somethings bothering you.”

  He knew all my tells. We’d been married for three years and together for five. This man knew everything about me, and I knew nothing about him.

  I had to bite my lip to stop what I really wanted to say from coming out. “It’s the shots, I promise. They have me a damn mess.” I tightened the tie, fighting the urge to over-tighten it. “There you go. Sit down so I can make us breakfast.” Little did he know this was his last meal with me.

  I moved away and started getting everything set out to make omelets.

  “I need to make a few phone calls while you cook. I’ll be only a few minutes,” Scott said, grabbing his phone off the counter and heading back upstairs.

  He was likely calling his mistress. I wish I knew her name. I wanted to confront her too and make her explain her reasons for sleeping with a married man. Homewrecker.

  Once the omelets were done, I plated them and placed them on the island. “Scott, breakfast’s done!” I called out to him. He’d been gone for longer than a few minutes.

  Not in the mood to wait for him, I sat down and started eating my omelet. He’d join me when he was done being a cheating d-bag. “Scott, you’re omelet is cold!” I called out again once I’d finished eating.

  When he still didn’t respond, I got up and placed my plate in the sink. The housekeeper would get it when she came in after we both left for work. Then I went in search of my soon-to-be ex-husband.

  I walked slowly up the stairs, listening to see if I could hear him talking and heard nothing. I went to our bedroom first and found it empty.

  I’d bought a four-bedroom house intending to fill it with children. Children we would never have now. At thirty-one I still had time. I’d just do it on my
own after things settled from our divorce. I didn’t need a man in my life to have a family.

  “Did you look at my phone while I was in the shower?” Scott’s cold tone stopped me dead in my tracks.

  I turned to see him standing in the doorway of the guest bathroom. I guess I didn’t cover my tracks as well as I thought. “And if I did?”

  “You left Talia’s texts on read. Wasn’t hard to figure it out when adding in your tears.”

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I stood my ground when he stepped closer. He was trying to intimidate me, but this wasn’t a courtroom, and I wasn’t on the stand. “So you know this marriage is over then. Cheating is unforgivable to me and you’ve always known that. It’s the one thing I will never forgive.”

  “Don’t say that.” Scott reached for me and I stepped back. “Oh come on, Ella. Am I not a good husband? There’s no reason my being with Talia should affect our marriage. I still love you. Still want to have babies with you. I just love Talia too.”

  “Are you serious, Scott? You want to have your cake and eat it too but that isn’t going to happen.” I pushed past him and headed to the bedroom.

  I was wearing the dress shirt he’d worn the day before. “I’m getting dressed and going to my lawyer’s office to file for divorce. I’m not discussing this any further with you.” I was doing my best not to lose my temper with him. I was afraid I might actually hurt him if I let myself go.

  Scott grabbed my arm, holding it a little too tight. “I’ll take everything if you try to leave me, Ella. You won’t have a penny to your name when I’m done with you.”

  Yanking my arm loose, I went to the closet to grab some clothes and tossed them into a suitcase. “You’re the one cheating, Scott. You won’t get a damn dime from me.” I zipped up my suitcase and then slipped on a sheath dress and my running sneakers. Scott was watching my every move. “I’m going to stay with Grace until this is all over. I’d recommend moving your stuff to your girlfriend’s since I don’t plan on keeping the house.” I wanted nothing that would remind me of him or the time I spent believing his lies.

  “Ella, think about this. I’ll move Talia in with us. We have plenty of room since you can’t conceive. Maybe she’d be willing to give us a baby.” His low blow hit me right where he intended.

  “Fuck you!” I choked out, picking up my suitcase and pushing past him again. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer. Don’t try to contact me directly.” I made the mistake of giving him one last look before exiting the room. He was smiling. Bastard. “Goodbye, Scott.”

  Hurrying downstairs, I grabbed my phone and purse, then was out the door. I dug out my car keys and got in my Audi. “Siri, call Grace,” I listened to my best friend’s phone ring as I pulled out of my driveway and drove away from the stranger I had shared my life with for the last five years…

  Chapter Two

  ~Demetri~

  “Yo, Boss. What you want us to do with this guy?” My right-hand man, Luka asked, holding a bloodied man up in the doorway.

  I stood from my desk and walked around to the front, sitting on the edge with my arms crossed over my chest. “David, my friend. Are you ready to pay your debt now?”

  David shook his head, the movement sending blood splattering on the floor. I didn’t keep rugs for this very reason. “I don’t have it, Mr. Volkov. I need more time.”

  “I think you’ve had plenty of time and now I have to find a new way to get my money out of you,” I said, clicking my tongue. “I think I have a good idea. Luka, take him to the garage and strip him of all forms of ID. He can travel to Mexico with our next shipment.”

  I stepped closer and lifted David’s chin so he could see my dragon was watching him too. “If you ever want to come back to American soil alive, you better work good and hard for our friends over the border. They’ll be sending me updates on your progress. And if you try to run or give them any trouble, they will end you. Understood?” David nodded weakly. “Great. Now get him outta my face.”

  “On it,” Luka said, dragging David from the room.

  I sat back down at my desk and wiped my hand on a tissue, tossing it in the trash.

  Being head of one of the most powerful mob families in New York, I had a lot on my plate. Add in the fact that my family was made up of a large number of dragon and a few miscellaneous shifters, I didn’t have time to deal with idiot humans that wouldn’t pay their debts.

  My father would have had David killed but I ran things a little differently. I only took life if I absolutely had to. And as bad as we were, a big chunk of money made from guns and drug sales went to various charities around the city. They knew where the money came from too. Everyone knew the Volkov name. They didn’t know we were dragon shifters though and I intended to keep it that way.

  My father flew over from Russia when he was in his mid-twenties and fell in love with my human, American mother. It didn’t take long for some of the younger men in his family to follow him over and meet women of their own.

  By the time I was a teenager, my father had built an empire that he unintentionally passed on to me at twenty-three when he was assassinated by a rival family.

  That was the first time I ordered life to be taken. Ten years had passed since then.

  I pushed the button on my phone to call my housekeeper. “Missy, can you come clean the blood from my office floor, please?” There was only a hint of my Russian accent in my normal talking voice. Only when I was angry did my accent become thicker.

  “Yes, sir. I’ll head that way now.”

  I ended the call and leaned back in my chair, going over everything in my head.

  Today I had a drug and a gun shipment going south by cargo plane. They would touch down near the Arizona, Mexico border and be transported over by the buyers from there. David would be inside one of the crates and only released once they got to their destination. It wasn’t going to be a comfortable ride for him. Maybe next time he’ll think twice before borrowing twenty thousand dollars and then not paying it back.

  Movement from the hallway caught my eye, I turned to see who it was.

  My mother stepped into the room with a tray full of sandwiches. She barely missed the blood on the floor. “Demetri Alexi Volkov, why is there blood on the floor?”

  “I’m sorry, Mamuska.” I stood and went to her, taking the tray from her hands. “Missy is coming to clean it up as soon as possible.”

  “You’re a grown man, Demetri. Plenty capable of cleaning it up yourself.” She shook her head in disappointment. “This is why you can’t find a mate. No woman wants a man that refuses to clean up his own messes.”

  I chuckled. “Actually, I think the reason I can’t find a mate is that I don’t want one.

  “Why not? I want grandbabies before I’m too old to enjoy them.”

  “Mama,” I sighed. Having already grown tired of this conversation. “I’ll hire a surrogate or adopt when I’m ready to be a father. I’m not there yet and I don’t have time to deal with a mate’s needs. Mates are needy.” Something flew at my head and I barely ducked out of the way. “What was that for?”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t hit you with this lamp,” My mother was holding my desk lamp, pointing it at me. “Mates are only needy when their needs aren’t being met. I know your papa and I raised you better than that.”

  She was right. They had. “I’m sorry. I will finish up the last of this month’s shipments and then I’ll entertain the idea of meeting with potential mates.”

  “Good. Now give me back my shoe.”

  I laughed, having not even realized the object thrown at my head was a shoe. It wasn’t the first time that had happened and likely wouldn’t be the last.

  I picked up the shoe and kneeled in front of her. “Hold onto my shoulders.” She held on as I lifted her foot so I could slip the shoe on. Then I stood and sat back down at my desk. “You’re eating lunch with me, right?”

  “Of course I am, Demetri. A mama needs to spend time with her boy when
ever she can. I’m not getting any younger.”

  I pushed the plate toward her so she could take a sandwich. Not sure why she kept referring to her age. “Nonsense. You’re only fifty-six and the mate of a dragon. You’ve got plenty of time left.”

  We spent our lunch talking about some of the charities my mother was working with and interested in donating to. She kept herself extra busy with my father gone. I think she got lonely a lot and that was her real reason for wanting grandkids. She wanted something to fill her house with noise again.

  We also talked about the renovations on the house I’d just bought. It was much smaller and easier to keep up with than the one I currently lived in. I didn’t need an eight-bedroom, ten thousand square foot mansion.

  The house I bought was three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. It was a manageable three thousand square feet with a large pool and jacuzzi in the back, and plenty of land for future dragonlings. That’s the house I wanted to live in.

  “Thanks for hanging with your ole mother for lunch, Demetri.” My mother reached for the tray as she stood.

  “Leave it. Missy will get it.”

  She tsked me. “It won’t kill me to carry the tray back to the kitchen on the way out.”

  “If you say so.” I got up and gave my mother a hug. “I’ll see you Sunday for dinner unless you drop by again before then.”

  “Alright.” She patted my back before pulling away. “I love you, Demetri. Call me before then and check-in.”

  “I will. I love you too, Mamuska.” Missy came as my mother was leaving and began cleaning up the blood. “When you’re finished there, Missy, you can take the rest of the day off.”

  Missy looked up at me in surprise. “Are you sure, Mr. Volkov?”

  “Yes. You’ve earned it.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Missy gave me a small smile and finished cleaning the blood.

  Once I was alone again, I made a few phone calls to confirm everything was in order for tonight’s shipments and then headed out to run some errands…