Hunted by the Russian Mercenary
(2026)(The second book in the Volkov Bratva series)
A novel by Cora J Riley
Some monsters are made. Some are born. And some are legends.
Oleg "Ox" is all three.
They call him the Bratva Butcher. The mercenary with ice in his veins and death in his hands. The man who never fails a contract, never shows mercy, never feels a damn thing. When Moscow's underworld needs someone taken, contained, or eliminated, they call Ox.
And someone just hired him to take me.
I'm Katya Volkov—daughter of Viktor, sister to three of Russia's most dangerous men, and princess of the most powerful Bratva family in Moscow. I've been trained since childhood to be sharp, strategic, and utterly unbreakable.
But I woke up in the back of a van with my wrists zip-tied and a legend driving me toward an unknown fate.
Ox won't tell me who hired him. Won't tell me why they want me. Won't tell me anything except that I'm cargo, and in seventy-two hours, I'll be delivered to whoever paid five million euros for my life.
Three days in a remote cabin. Three days handcuffed to a radiator while he reads Dostoevsky and pretends I'm not there. Three days to find a weakness in a man who claims he has none.
But captivity has a way of stripping away masks.
I see the way his jaw tightens when I test the handcuffs until my wrists bleed. The flicker in those ice-green eyes when I tell him about my family, my life, my refusal to break. The careful gentleness when he treats my sprained ankle after my failed escape attempt.
He says he doesn't feel. But his hands shake when he touches me. His control cracks when I push him. And when I kiss his scarred knuckles and call him Oleg instead of Ox, something shifts behind those empty eyes.
The Bratva Butcher is thawing. And I'm the fire melting him.
But my brothers are coming. My father is hunting. And when they storm that cabin with murder in their eyes, Ox will have to choose: complete the contract that made him a legend, or save the woman who made him feel again.
He took me. Broke me. Changed me.
And now I'm not sure I want to go home.
Hunted by the Russian Mercenary is a dark captivity romance featuring a morally gray mercenary hero, a Bratva princess who refuses to be a victim, Stockholm syndrome done right, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, and an obsession that starts with chains but ends with something far more binding. This is Book 2 in The Volkov Bratva Series but can be read as a standalone. HEA guaranteed. Trigger warnings inside.
Genre: Mystery
Oleg "Ox" is all three.
They call him the Bratva Butcher. The mercenary with ice in his veins and death in his hands. The man who never fails a contract, never shows mercy, never feels a damn thing. When Moscow's underworld needs someone taken, contained, or eliminated, they call Ox.
And someone just hired him to take me.
I'm Katya Volkov—daughter of Viktor, sister to three of Russia's most dangerous men, and princess of the most powerful Bratva family in Moscow. I've been trained since childhood to be sharp, strategic, and utterly unbreakable.
But I woke up in the back of a van with my wrists zip-tied and a legend driving me toward an unknown fate.
Ox won't tell me who hired him. Won't tell me why they want me. Won't tell me anything except that I'm cargo, and in seventy-two hours, I'll be delivered to whoever paid five million euros for my life.
Three days in a remote cabin. Three days handcuffed to a radiator while he reads Dostoevsky and pretends I'm not there. Three days to find a weakness in a man who claims he has none.
But captivity has a way of stripping away masks.
I see the way his jaw tightens when I test the handcuffs until my wrists bleed. The flicker in those ice-green eyes when I tell him about my family, my life, my refusal to break. The careful gentleness when he treats my sprained ankle after my failed escape attempt.
He says he doesn't feel. But his hands shake when he touches me. His control cracks when I push him. And when I kiss his scarred knuckles and call him Oleg instead of Ox, something shifts behind those empty eyes.
The Bratva Butcher is thawing. And I'm the fire melting him.
But my brothers are coming. My father is hunting. And when they storm that cabin with murder in their eyes, Ox will have to choose: complete the contract that made him a legend, or save the woman who made him feel again.
He took me. Broke me. Changed me.
And now I'm not sure I want to go home.
Hunted by the Russian Mercenary is a dark captivity romance featuring a morally gray mercenary hero, a Bratva princess who refuses to be a victim, Stockholm syndrome done right, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, and an obsession that starts with chains but ends with something far more binding. This is Book 2 in The Volkov Bratva Series but can be read as a standalone. HEA guaranteed. Trigger warnings inside.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Cora J Riley's Hunted by the Russian Mercenary