ASHER I wasn't looking for love. I was looking for power. A wife is not romance in my world. She's leverage. Blood ties. Contracts sealed with rings instead of ink. When Carson begged for protection and money, offering his daughters like bargaining chips, I expected to be bored. Elisa. Eighteen. Italian. Five-foot-five of something breakable. And I wanted her. Not because she was the most beautiful - though she was. Not because she would make the best alliance - though she would. I wanted her because she looked at me like I was something terrifying... and still didn't run. I have built an empire with blood. Men fear me. Enemies whisper my name. I take what I want. And I wanted her. She is everything I am not - light where I am darkness, gentle where I am ruthless. I thought she would bend. I thought she would obey. I did not expect to fall. But the mafia monster is learning something dangerous- Even monsters can love. ⸻ ELISA Papa said this was an honor. He said I should smile. Be grateful. Be obedient. And then there was him. Asher Ivanov. Six-foot-four. Broad shoulders. Dark hair with blonde streaks. Brown eyes that looked like they'd seen too much. And dimples that didn't match the rest of him at all. I was the youngest. The quietest. The one who still believed marriage meant something soft and safe. But when he chose me, there was no softness in his voice. He didn't ask. He took. I was afraid of him. Of the way he moves like he owns every room. Of the way men step aside when he walks. Of the darkness that clings to him like a shadow. And yet... When he looks at me, sometimes there's something else there. Something almost careful. Almost gentle. He is cold. I am warm. He is a storm. I am a flower. But storms don't always destroy flowers. Sometimes... they protect them. And somewhere between fear and fate, I started falling in love with the monster who chose me.

Arabella does not wish to marry, but her father has other ideas. Without even given a choice, on her eighteenth birthday, her surname will change to the countries most notorious and deadly man's surname. Reign. Reigns gang rules New York, all men fall under his order, including his two best friends. Roman was announced a psychopath when he was a child, his dark personality, inability to feel things, kill count higher than his age, manipulative nature- a made man by the age of eleven- and Arabella has to marry him. Luca has the looks, the tattoos and scars, but deep down, everybody knows the murderer, hotel owner, businessman is a softie, and he does have a strong soft spot for Arabella. Asher, originally a bodyguard, has his reputation in the states, Italy and China, thanks to his mother being the daughter of a Chinese Triad, and his father an Italian Made Man. Asher knows how to get what he wants and doesn't stop until he has it. Arabella has three of the countries dangerous men at her feet, and that makes her the target of many attacks, but these guys will do anything to keep her safe. Anything. 18+ !!!! - (2) started: 20/03/22 finished: 08/08/22 -