Lahat ng Kabanata ng Betrothed By Blood Bounded By Love : Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

My flight landed with an echo of my world collapsing, right in the middle of the city, The Citadel —the capital of Fox City, a place that calls to heart-breaking memories of my return, a reality I had fled from. Even from the airport terminal, I could feel it; the city's heart was a brooding hum of chaos and vice. My memories of Fox City flooded back, bringing a terrifying chill to my soul —I was entering the devil's workshop once again, this was Fox City, and its name wasn’t a mere metaphor. A city controlled by the wealthy, where the biggest crimes were a boastful thing to commit. It was a place birthed from greed and run by thieves, smugglers, drug addicts, and human trafficking. I knew its history not from books, but from the spoken words in my home, especially during dinner. Fox City also had a civilized world —but it was built on the sins of the gang families, founded in blood of war by my ancestor, Karl Wenston, and the first Shelby, who had founded this place in the blood

While in the garden, taking a walk, my mind racing, desperate to create a lie about what I had just seen. I replayed the scene at the front door again and again, looking for the thinnest excuses to prove my sight had lied to me. "Perhaps I didn't catch his look? Or perhaps thinking about him made me think he was the one I saw? I whispered to the flowers in the garden.As I considered the consequences, the weight of my secret became heavy to bear. What if he finds out who I truly am? And decides to exploit and blackmail me? I mumbled as I stood still in the garden.These thoughts made me have cold feet, but it couldn't put off the fire that still burned inside me, a desperate, torching flame of desire for the man who had suddenly made life in Fox City a much more burning hell for my sins.The moment at the Citadel was still on a loop in my mind, obsessed with every detail of that intoxicating evening —the taste of our lips when we kissed, the gentle drag of his hands on my skin when w

Allison's POV“You smell like roses,” he moaned—a low, croaky sound of pure pleasure escaped his lips. With his face buried down, his nose snuggling my neck, a soft, deliberate motion that caused goosebumps all over my skin, I shiver. A wild scent of roses, he realized—intoxicated him. I felt his hand having a possessive sweep across my body, as it slid down my back. His fingers, a fiery touch that slowly mapped every curve of my body before coming to rest at my hips. His lips find their way to my neck, as he devours the skin of my neck with his mouth—a searing line of kisses that travels to the swell of my chest. His hands continuously took possession—kneading my breast. I arched into his touch, a soft moan escaping my lips, a sound of surrender.. In the suffocating dark, I couldn't see his face, only the cold cloth of a concealed mask. But my heart screamed a name in silent, desperate hope: LukeThe thrilling terror of a moment stolen—a moment that could cost us both everythin

Michael's POVEsme had agreed to meet me at The Truth Restaurant at 11:00 AM.I arrived at 9:00 AM, two hours early. I ordered a black coffee to keep my nerves down as I sat with my back to the wall, watching the door like a nervous guard dog.Esme didn't wait; the world waited for her. She wasn't merely time conscious; a delayed meeting was an insult she repaid in kind, usually by adding an extra zero to whatever I already owed her. Keeping her waiting was a sin that cost millions.At precisely 11:00 AM, Esme swept through the door. She didn't walk; she commanded the space. I sprang from my seat, rushing to usher her into the plush banquette. "The usual, ma'am?" I asked the waiter, who had materialized the moment her foot crossed the threshold. She didn't glance at the menu. She sat across from me—a picture of porcelain skin and icy control , her eyes, the treacherous venom of a Shelby, speared straight into my skull."Michael," she purred, the sound sharper than a diamond edge. "

Allison's POV"Call Luke!"The name was a thunderclap. A frantic, white-hot anxiety seared through my veins, instantly eclipsing the shock of the kidnapping. My mind seized up, unable to choose a reaction. One half of me felt the sickening guilt of dreading Michael's abduction, while the other half was consumed by a far more terrifying question: How was I supposed to breathe the same air as Luke without shattering every rule I was born to follow? His name was the most dangerous word in Fox City, and now my father had just yelled it across the room.Gerald didn't wait for a reply; he simply bellowed the order into the phone, his voice scraping against my raw nerves: Luke was to get down to the house right now. They needed to strategize the immediate rescue of Esme, his only sister, and Michael, my betrothed. The man I had risked my entire future to sleep with was now being summoned to save the life of the man I was sworn to marry. The entire city was collapsing into a single, absu