# Sweeter Than Hate

By Anna Zaires

Canonical: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate

Sweeter Than Hate by Anna Zaires is a 2019 romance. Tropes: assassin-heroine, captor-and-captive, Dark Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, international-crime-thriller, morally-gray-assassin-hero, Novella, possessive-hero, second-chance-lovers, secret-identity, twin-rivalry, undercover-operative. Heat 5/5. Book 0.5 of Darker Than Love.

## What happened

Free novella!

I shouldn’t have heard the things I did. Shouldn’t have attracted his attention.

Now I feel his stare like a touch. Viscerally. Acutely.

The Russian assassin has me in his sights, and there’s only one way out.

His bed.

Good thing I’m drawn to danger.

## Chapters

### Chapter 2

Thirty kilometers outside Budapest, six-year-old Mina rides home with her parents, dreaming of cookies and dinner at Grandma Hanna's. When armed men hijack their car on a snowy forest road, the family's scenic detour turns lethal. Despite her parents' pleas and her own desperate flight into the freezing woods, the strangers execute them in the snow, leaving the child to discover their bodies by moonlight. As terror curdles into something colder, Mina feels the warmth drain from her chest, her heart turning to ice in the dark. The chapter closes on the girl walking away from the carnage, numb and alone, carrying a wound that will define the woman she becomes.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-2

### Chapter 3

Working a late shift at a Budapest bar, Mina battles waves of dizziness and trembling hands that hint at a hidden medical condition or pregnancy. When two Russian men behind a column discuss an upcoming assassination, she freezes, her military training triggering an instinct to hide. Playing the clumsy waitress, she bluffs her way past them, though the lean, chiseled killer’s gaze ignites an unwanted frisson of attraction despite the mortal danger. She endures the shift through sheer will, only to find herself followed into the freezing alley after closing, the footsteps behind her signaling that the danger has only begun.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-3

### Chapter 4

In Budapest, fugitive assassin Yan and his twin brother Ilya spot a platinum-blonde waitress named Mina at a bar and, fearing she overheard them mention their wanted team leader Peter Sokolov, abduct her to their apartment. Yan is immediately consumed by a dark, possessive attraction to the petite captive, cornering her against the wall while Ilya attempts a gentler approach. Though Mina claims exhaustion and requests tea over alcohol, Yan's instincts tell him her terror is partly performative; when he suggests murdering her in Russian, her lack of reaction confirms she understands the language. As Ilya offers her the couch and reassurance, Yan retreats to the kitchen to prepare caffeine, intent on keeping his captive awake—and close—until they depart at dawn.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-4

### Chapter 5

Mina wakes as a prisoner in the Soviet-decorated living room of the Ivanov twins, men who abducted her from a bar and may yet kill her. Ilya, the kinder brother with skull tattoos, offers reassurance and calls her malyshka, promising she’ll leave unharmed. But his twin Yan—ruthless, green-eyed, and openly possessive—wedges himself beside her on the couch, his hand creeping up her thigh until the air between them crackles with danger and unwanted arousal. When Yan stakes a claim on her by sending Ilya away for sandwiches, Mina must choose between the protector who seems gentle and the predator who reads her body’s traitorous response. The chapter closes with Ilya’s heavy suspicion hanging in the air and Mina trapped between fear and dark desire, alone with the brother who proposed dumping her body in the river.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-5

### Chapter 6

YAN, a captor who previously kidnapped Mina, recognizes that his captive shares his desire despite the mortal danger. When he pulls her into his locked bedroom, her nervous hesitation melts into eager participation, confirming his reading of her attraction. Their charged confrontation escalates into a passionate, physically intense encounter where Mina asks—half-afraid, half-hopeful—whether he will kill her afterward. Yan deflects with a dark smile, and after ensuring protection, he claims her. The chapter closes on the raw aftermath of their union, with the threat of violence and Ilya’s nearby presence leaving the moment suspended between ecstasy and peril.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-6

### Chapter 7

Mina wakes alone in a second-floor room after a volatile night with her captor, Yan, one of two lethal brothers holding her against her will. Overhearing their argument, she learns their original plan to release her this morning has been overridden—Yan intends to abduct her when they leave town. Realizing her undercover mission is compromised and her grandmother Hanna depends on her, Mina battles physical weakness and the dangerous temptation to stay, then fashions a rope from bedsheets and climbs out the window into the uncertain morning, choosing duty and freedom over captivity and forbidden desire.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-7

### Chapter 8

Yan sits in Esguerra's Colombian office monitoring his inbox while the team faces a ticking deadline against rogue general Henderson. When hackers identify the sniper who killed a SWAT agent during Peter's arrest, Yan recognizes the assassin as Mina—the captivating Budapest waitress with whom he had a passionate affair before she vanished. The revelation triggers an explosive confrontation with his twin Ilya, who accuses Yan of selfishly hoarding their conquests, but their brawl is interrupted when Lucas Kent bursts in with urgent news about Sara. With cold fury replacing the rage, Yan dispatches operatives across Europe to capture Mina alive, determined to force her to reveal Henderson's location and pay for her deception. The chapter closes on the precipice of violence, as Yan's vow to make her suffer hangs unresolved over the fractured team.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-8

### Chapter 9

Mina Belan wakes with a splitting headache and bruised ribs, her wrists bound above her head in a dark, humid cell that smells of old wood. Recalling the ambush in a Budapest alley—where four armed men overwhelmed her despite her combat training—she realizes she was drugged and flown somewhere unknown. The memory of hearing 'Esguerra' and 'captain' among her captors' multilingual chatter confirms this is fallout from the Chicago incident she never should have taken. When footsteps approach, she feigns unconsciousness, but her captor sees through the ruse. Yan Ivanov crouches beside her, his sandalwood scent triggering recognition, and greets her with chilling familiarity as 'my little Mina' or 'Mink.' The chapter ends with his cruel laughter and fingers tracing her lips, leaving her trapped in the predator's presence with no escape in sight.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-9

### Chapter 10

Recaptured and bound in a Colombian shed, Mina faces her former lover Yan Ivanov and his brother Ilya, who now know she is a Hungarian Special Forces-trained sniper freelancing under the alias of a waitress. After confessing her role in a failed hit on Peter Sokolov—a job that landed her back in Yan’s hands—she bargains for her life by betraying the names of a covert team. As the brothers clash over possession and interrogation methods, Mina trades vulnerability for survival, her lip split and wrists raw, while the threat of Sokolov’s torture looms. The chapter closes on a charged standoff: alone with Yan, the man who both terrifies and ignites her, she awaits whatever comes next.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-10

### Chapter 11

MINA awakens bound in a jungle compound, her captor Yan—one of the Ivanov twins—retying her wrists with cold efficiency. The danger between them crackles with dark attraction as he strips her partially to humiliate her, yet protects her from assaulting guards, revealing a twisted bond forged in Budapest. When Peter Sokolov arrives with Yan and his twin Ilya to interrogate her about the disguises worn by their Delta Force doppelgängers, MINA recognizes the signature of her mentor, the master disguiser Gergo Nagy. To shield him from execution, she falsely confesses to the crime, severing the fragile trust with Yan, whose icy stare confirms their connection is dead. Trapped in the shed with her life forfeit, MINA faces an uncertain end where betrayal and desire collide.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-11

### Chapter 12

Yan recaptures Mina after she framed him as a terrorist and escaped, holding her in a remote shed at the compound. Consumed by betrayal and rage, he interrogates her alongside Sokolov—who suspects her lies—and plans a violent reckoning for the woman who once shared his bed. Yet when left alone with his captive, Yan’s fury collides with obsessive desire; he meticulously cleans her injuries, feeds her, and wrestles with whether to kill the traitor or keep her. Their charged dynamic teeters between torture and intimacy, leaving Yan poised to decide if Mina’s life—or his lingering fascination—will prevail.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-12

### Chapter 13

Trapped in a moonlit shed and bound for hours, Mina faces her captor Yan Ivanov, the lethal Russian whose friend she once tried to kill. With attack dogs patrolling outside and the threat of torture hanging over her, Yan forces her to disguise him as one of the Delta Force operatives she supposedly betrayed—a task that demands intimate proximity and ignites dangerous chemistry. Despite the razor's edge of violence and the certainty of her execution, their charged encounter spirals into a raw, desperate consummation that blurs the line between captor and lover. When Yan's twin brother Ilya pounds on the door, the moment shatters, leaving Mina humiliated and terrified as she is re-secured in darkness while Yan vows she will suffer more before this night ends.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-13

### Chapter 14

Yan returns to the compound after presenting Mina’s work to Sokolov, only to be confronted by his brother Ilya, who demands access to their captive. Their heated argument over who holds the right to punish Mina’s betrayal ends with Yan asserting sole dominion. Later, under cover of darkness, Yan visits Mina in the shed where she is imprisoned. What begins as a confrontation steeped in vengeful anger shifts into a raw, coercive intimate encounter marked by stark power imbalance and unspoken longing. When Yan realizes they were unprotected, panic replaces pleasure, leaving him to stumble into the night burdened by the dangerous consequences of his actions and the precarious life of his captive.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-14

### Chapter 15

Mina wakes bound in a shed, grappling with the violation of the previous night and the threat of pregnancy after Yan forces a morning-after pill upon her. When the captors depart on a lethal mission against Henderson, she endures hours of isolation and escalating dread, convinced her death is imminent. The men return at dawn bearing news that Henderson is dead, yet Mina overhears Sokolov declare she "no longer serves a purpose" and Yan vow to "take care of it," shattering her fragile hope. Instead of immediate execution, Yan offers a final meal—Pollo con chocolate prepared by Esguerra's cook—and a glass of wine, then initiates a tender, desperate intimacy that leaves her emotionally undone. In the aftermath, he administers a lethal injection, whispering "Let go, Minochka" as her life slips away.

Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate#chapter-15