Emmaline

"Who does he think he is?"

My voice was a ragged, breathless thing in the suffocating silence of the room. My chest locked up so tight I could barely breathe. Exhale. Inhale.

"I'm fucking done."

My jaw ached from fighting back the tears and the fury twisting inside my gut. I was shattering, piece by piece, trying desperately to keep from completely losing my mind. Controlling myself. I'm almost done.

"So done... so fucking done."
I hate this monster.

I hate his suffocating dominance. I hate the way he looks right through me, like he already owns every inch of my body and soul. I hate him so much it burns a hole right through my heart.

I HATE HIM.

I HATE MY LIFE.

I HATE MY EVERYTHING.

Why does it have to be him? Just why? Why would my own flesh and blood throw me to the wolves like this?

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
The roar shattered the room, making me flinch as my grandfather's voice sliced through my spiraling thoughts.

Cold.

Merciless.

Absolute.

"You will marry him, Anastasia, and that's final."

***********

I was supposed to be a daughter, a granddaughter, a girl with a future. Instead, my family turned me into their ultimate bargaining chip. Sold off to a man who rules the underworld with terrifying power and a dark, seductive authority, I am trapped in a gilded cage.
He doesn't just want my compliance. He wants my total surrender. He wants to break my pride, taste my defiance, and claim every hidden part of me.

I promised myself I would hate him forever. But under his heavy gaze and the intoxicating, dangerous heat of his touch, the lines between survival and wicked desire are starting to blur.
He thinks he can tame me. He thinks I'll bow. But if I'm going to burn in his fire, I'm taking his entire kingdom down with me.

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A dark arranged-marriage romance told from a fierce, vulnerable female perspective. Filled with deep angst, toxic family secrets, and an undeniable, burning tension.