All Chapters of Bound To The Devil's contract : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The only sound in the massive master bedroom was the frantic, traitorous thud of my heart against my ribs, and the violent way the rain clawed at the floor-to-ceiling glass like it wanted in. Below me, the entire city stretched out in a glittering sea of red and gold, beautiful and utterly unreachable. A million people down there, and not a single one of them could hear me scream.I was trapped on the top floor of Dante Alighieri’s fortress. A gilded cage with a view.My mind wouldn’t stop replaying it. The way his scarred fingers had locked around my jaw in the office. The low, amused chuckle when I threatened him. He didn’t want my compliance. Dante wanted my complete, humiliating submission. He wanted to break the daughter of the man who had dared to cross the Outfit and lived._Click._The sharp, metallic sound of the electronic lock disengaging echoed from the front foyer and cut through the room like a blade.Every muscle in my body went rigid. A cold wave of adrenaline flooded

The balcony doors were locked. The curtains were drawn. The storm was still raging outside. None of it mattered. The room was still cold. “Get in,” Dante said. He stood by the bed. Shoes off. Cuffs undone. White shirt wrinkled and sleeves rolled up, showing forearms corded with muscle and old scars. He looked like he owned the air in here. Like he’d been waiting for me my whole life just to tell me where to sleep. I stood by the edge of the room with my arms wrapped around my ruined dress, holding the torn silk to my chest like it was armor. “I’m not sleeping with you,” I said. My voice was quiet, but I made sure it didn’t shake. “Not in that bed.” Dante turned his head slowly. Those silver eyes caught the low light and went flat. “You aren’t sleeping _with_ me, Elena,” he said. “You’re sleeping under my roof. Under my surveillance. Under my rules. There’s a difference.” He took one step toward me. “Get on the bed. Before I carry you there.” My jaw locked. Heat and fury

Dante’s hand never left me as he guided me out of the elevator and toward the black SUV waiting in the bright morning sun, his palm heavy at the base of my neck in a way that wasn’t quite gentle and wasn’t quite cruel, just possessive. I tried to pull away because the garage felt too quiet and I hated how everyone could see, but his fingers tightened for half a second and he murmured, “Don’t make a scene, little bird. Everyone’s watching.”Lorenzo opened the back door and the city hit me all at once, late morning light and traffic and people with coffee who had no idea that inside this car a girl had just learned her brother was in the hands of Dante’s worst enemy. I slid in, Dante followed, and the door shut behind us with a sound that felt final.For a long time no one spoke. I watched Kingsport move past the window while my mind kept circling back to the text Lorenzo had shown him, to Leo’s face in that orange jumpsuit, to Julian running messages between monsters, and my hands e

I woke up to voices in my room and three women I didn’t know standing next to my bed like they’d been waiting for me to open my eyes. “Good morning, Mrs. Alighieri,” the one in front said with a curtsy. She was older, sharp suit, clipboard in her hands. “I’m Ms. De Luca. The Don has ordered a wardrobe prepared for you.” I was still tangled in Dante’s robe from yesterday and it swallowed me whole. “I didn’t order a wardrobe.” Ms. De Luca smiled like that was the expected answer. “The Don doesn’t wait for orders.” Behind her, two other women started wheeling in racks. Dresses in black and red and gold. Boxes of shoes. Cases that clinked when they moved them. Within ten minutes my room looked like a boutique had exploded in it. “Take them back,” I said. Mrs. Bellini appeared in the doorway then, calm and unhurried. “The Don doesn’t accept refusals,” she said quietly. “Shall we begin the fittings?” So I stood there for the next hour while they measured my waist and pinned hems and

The drive home was silent in a way that felt heavier than the silence on the way there. Not the sharp, warning quiet we’d had in the beginning, when every word felt like it could cut. This was tired. Worn out. The kind of quiet that settles after too many people have been watching you for too long.Dante kept both hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road, but I could tell he wasn’t really seeing it. I did the same thing with the window, watching the city blur past and thinking about three things on repeat.Everyone at that dinner calling me Mrs. Alighieri like it was already true. Dante telling Sophia to leave with the whole room watching. The man on the balcony who smiled at me like he knew my name before I did.When we got inside, neither of us went upstairs. The house was too big and too quiet at 1am. We drifted to the kitchen because it was the only room that didn’t feel like it was waiting for something to happen.I sat at the island and watched Dante pour water. He didn’