I slept with my boyfriend’s twin brother, a Mafia don. One wild, drunk night, I gave in to him at his family’s masquerade ball, only to discover too late that the man who held me was not Nikolai my loving boyfriend. It was his twin Kieran Petrov, the feared don of the NY Mafia. A cruel man with blood on his hands, now I hold a devastating secret. I’m pregnant and I have no clue which of the brothers is the father. So when I decide to come clean to Nikolai and get closure before I leave the city, I find out a grave secret. Nikolai had been cheating on me with my best friend for years. So I run away, leaving it all behind and going into hiding. However, the Petrov family has enemies, does that want the only heir of the family dead. But Kieran tracks me down, he brings me back and present me with a deal I can’t refuse. Marry him and receive protection or stay where I am and die. I should hate him, in fact I do, he had known I was his brother’s girlfriend and still went ahead to make love to me. But I have no choice, I signed the contract and become Kieran’s contract wife. It was just for protection, nothing else, at least that’s what I think
Lihat lebih banyakThe Truth
Selena’s POV My heart thumps rapidly in my chest when I find out a shocking truth. My boyfriend is a criminal and so is his entire family. Moments ago “I want you to meet my family,Selena. I want to make you my woman and you must know every part of me before we do this, I do not want to hide things from you at all. Do you remember what I said the first time you tried to get close to me, Selena.” I swallow nervously. “Yes. You said bright girls like me don’t deserve a tiny chance at your dark world.” “Now, I want your brightness to light up my world and expel the darkness in me.” The calmness in his eyes did nothing to ease the anxiousness that was threatening to devour me any moment from now. “Just to be clear Selena, it is still a contract marriage. I’m only doing this because my parents are extremely sensitive. We cannot afford to mess anything up, not now.” His eyes search mine for an answer and I do not bother hiding my feelings. “Is it a must that I attend this?” “We will eventually see our families sooner or later and as much as I hate to admit it, you will later come in contact with my family. You might as well just agree to meet them now.” “I will pick you up by five in the evening. There’ll be red carpet and I want you to make me a grand entry. I want them to know that you’re mine and mine alone.” He trails his finger down my back and I have to snap my mouth shut to keep myself from moaning. “Red carpet? Nikolai,what exactly are you up to?” My heart starts hammering in my chest again. Every fibre in my body is fighting hard against this decision. A part of me is so reluctant to go see his family. “You will know me better by tonight, Sel.” He chuckles and lets go of me. “No matter what happens tonight, remember, I love you, see you tonight.” I walk faster home, my mind racing constantly on the thought of the ball. I have nothing appropriate to wear, I live a simple life and and my luxury has never included a ball. I get home and my mind somehow manages to isolate the dress to the event. “Ding.” I nearly throw my phone to the floor when I realize it’s a message from Nikolai. “The things I ordered for you for the ball are outside.” I furrow my eyebrows still lost to the thought of all of this. I walk down with my legs slightly trembling as I open the door. A red box is seated neatly on the floor of my doorstep. I pick up the box and I lock my door. It feels heavy and I open it immediately destroying the box in the process, white earrings that shine bright with a dazzling necklace and a white gown. My mouth hangs open as I unwrap the dress. A knock on the door startles me and I forced to leave the dress. “Hello?” A tall lady stands at the front of my door with a box. Everything about her screams class. “Miss Selena, Mr Nikolai sent me to you to prepare you for the ball.” Slowly, I drift away from the door, wide enough for her to pass. “I almost did not believe the young master when he asked me to come dress a lady. I was expecting to see a man, everyone thinks he is gay! I can see why now,you’ll do.” She stares at me with a scrutinizing gaze. “Sit.” She presses me to the chair with my shoulders. I bite down on my lower lip to stop myself from saying anything I’m not supposed to. We do not say a word to each other until she’s done! “Young Master Nikolai would be more than excited!” She claps her hands in air delighted at her masterpiece. I stare at the mirror in front of me and I am unable to recognize myself. I pay with my fingers as the time draws near. “He’s here. Right on time as expected of him.” I square my shoulders and I brace myself for the worst; my mind stays fix on scenerio of a prison break. I struggle to balance myself in the heels, I get better with each step. I pause in my tracks when I see him. He’s wearing a black button up and black slacks. The clothes hug him in the right places and he opens the button at the neck, wide enough for anyone to see his dragon tattoo. “Mi amor.” My mouth breaks into a smile with his greeting. “You look stunning much more than I expected.” My mind screams danger, my soul wants to leave my body and my body wants to be with him. “Here.” He opens the seat and I get in the back. “Remember Sel, no matter what happens tonight, you remain mine.” He interlaces his fingers with mine. The ride is quiet fast or maybe it’s because I’m dreading this ball or whatever it is with everything in me. “Welcome home young master.” I am dragged back to reality when I see the huge castle and the amount of humans bowing down to him. “This.. Is this? Your home?” My breath fastens and its not what I can control. “No. We’ll get there.” I place my hands on my chest unable to stop my racing heart. “Welcome to my World, Mi Sel.” The gates in front of us roll open by theirselves. “Welcome Young Master.” A man old enough to birth the both of us bows down to him. “Young Master Nikolai? I don’t understand what’s happening.” I stare around in a daze. Then it hits me, the dragon tattoo on his neck, they all have it. Some on their wrist, some on their waist but open for everyone to see it. “Nikolai?” My throat runs dry. The last time I saw a group of people with the same tattoo was when mother and father were brutally murdered right in front of my eyes. “Sel?” I jolt and my hands tightly grip my dress. “You’re a ma-“ The rest of the word hangs in my throat. “I’m a mafia boss Selina.”And the Roots Remember Selena's POV The orchard's frost broke for the last time the morning after they buried the final crown. Selena stood barefoot at the trench lip, boots abandoned behind the brine pit where the last Thorell crest lay sinking into black mud. The hush was warm today , not the bitter hush that bit bone, but something that breathed through her veins like old blood. She could feel it in the soles of her feet, roots pulsing up through the churned soil to wrap around her toes, tugging at her skin like a mother smoothing back a child's hair. She tipped her head back and let the orchard wind cut its path down her throat, the taste of pitch smoke and thawed brine thick on her tongue. Overhead, the broken chapel tower sagged against the dawn. The frost that had rimed the stone beams since Calor's throat was split now dripped steady into the orchard trench, each drop a pulse in the hush. Behind her, Kieran's boots crunched through the last crust of snow, heavy but sure.
The Hush Devours the CrownKieran's POV Before the first crow broke the dawn hush, Kieran was already standing at the orchard trench. The wind pushed frost across the brine path in thin sheets, covering the blackened footprints they'd pressed into the soil when they dragged Thorell's last sons to the pit. It should've felt final. It didn't. His fingers rested on the old orchard fence , splintered rails tied together with scraps of old priest robes. Each knot was crusted in pitch. Each knot smelled like the night they buried Calor's crown so deep no lie could root itself in the hush again. He could taste it now, the hush , thick on his tongue when he opened his mouth to breathe. Somewhere beneath his boots, the orchard roots twitched in their brine cradle, drinking down what was left of every vow he'd ever carved into flesh. The hush was a hunger. He'd learned that the first time he split a throat wide enough to feed it. Selena's boots crunched through the snow behind him. She d
Where the Orchard Breathes LastSelena's POV The frost came back with teeth sharper than any blade she'd ever held. Selena felt it biting through her boots as she stood at the far edge of the orchard trench, the brine pit steaming like an open wound at her feet. The wind was so cold it turned the breath in her throat to knives, but she welcomed it , the orchard wanted her raw, bone-deep, skin peeled to the hush that breathed between the roots. Dawn was just a bruise at the horizon, a smear of pale violet behind the broken chapel spire. Wolves moved through the orchard in pairs, brine hoops lashed over their shoulders, oil casks dripping black lines that traced old scars in the snow. Cassius limped past her at the trench lip, spear butt crunching into the frost. "They're still crawling," he rasped, voice frayed. The hush swallowed the rattle in his chest. "Thorell's last bastards, huddled in the thorn brake like they think the orchard will forget them." Selena's mouth cracked int
Kieran's POV The orchard wind cut so deep it felt like it wanted to strip the marrow from Kieran's bones. He stood at the marsh path's last bend, brine muck sucking at his boots where the ice had cracked under the weight of the dragged bodies. Roots twisted up through the frost here, black veins that pulsed when the hush got thick enough to press on his ribs. Six banners flapped weakly against the tree line , splinters of old crests sewn into patchwork lies. What was left of Thorell's envoys lay in a heap behind the trench lip, their wax seals ground into the muck like bitter herbs. Wolves moved between the barrels and the split timbers, oil flasks rattling at their belts, pitch tarps slung across shoulders gone lean from weeks of brine air and roots that drank their warmth like blood. Kieran's fingers flexed against the hilt of his blade. He could feel the hush licking at the cut on his knuckles , the same gash that had split open when he cracked the last priest's jaw against t
The Thorn-Crowned PathSelena's POV The orchard wind tasted like old blood when it came down from the ridge at dawn. Selena felt it cut through the gaps in her cloak, slipping under the soot-stiff furs that clung to her shoulders like an oath she couldn't shake off. She stood on the narrow brine path that wound through the roots behind the marsh trench, boots sinking half an inch into the black mud that steamed in the first crack of sun. Somewhere far off, where the orchard's charred bones gave way to the low thorn woods, she could hear the hush breathing. A sound older than prayer, older than the crowns that tried to silence it. The orchard didn't forget. It waited. It devoured the kings who thought they could dig graves deep enough to hold what clawed its way back up every spring. Behind her, the keep's silhouette was a broken tooth against the sky, the battered ramparts just visible through the swirl of brine fog rising off the marsh. Wolves moved like shadows along the south w
The Marsh Where Kings Choke Kieran’s POV By the time the orchard frost melted enough to taste dirt again, the marsh was already whispering to the roots about the next crown that needed burying. Kieran stood waist-deep in the trench where the old brine pit had overflowed, boots sunk so far into the black muck that he couldn’t feel the cold anymore. All he could feel was the hush , that deep-bellied silence that made his pulse thud against his throat like a blade begging to bite. Overhead, the orchard’s bones creaked in the first thaw winds. The stumps, black and brittle from seasons of pitch fires and spilled blood, bent just enough to let the morning light slide across the marsh’s frozen reeds. It made the whole world look like a graveyard spun from glass. Behind him, wolves slogged through the sludge, dragging pitch barrels up from the chapel cellar where the last stores had been hidden beneath the altar’s cracked stone. Elric barked orders with a voice that rattled like brine-
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