Prologue #2
The crowd didn’t cheer. They didn’t laugh. They simply watched. Hungry. Waiting. This was the true price of power. I felt my cold mask crack for the first time all night.
Rage. Dark, violent hunger. Possession so fierce it nearly blinded me. They wanted to watch me claim her? Fucking fine. I turned to Morena. Her eyes were wide with horror, tears spilling freely down her cheeks. She shook her head slightly, silently begging.
I leaned down, my lips brushing her ear as I lifted her into my arms. Her naked body pressed against my suit, soft.
“You’re mine now, Rena. Every fucking inch of you. And they’re going to watch me prove it,” I whispered, voice low and dark, control slipping with every word. “But don’t worry. I’ll make sure you enjoy it.”
The crowd was full of hungry silence. No one cheered. No one looked away. Hundreds of eyes pinned us in place under the lights while the bass from the speakers kept pumping. She tried to curl in on herself, but I shifted my grip and forced her legs around my waist.
“Look at them,” I ordered, low enough that only she could hear.
With tears falling down her face, I caught her chin and turned her face toward the sea of men in expensive suits and masks.
“They ordered it. I accepted the seat. You accepted the vows. Now they’re going to watch me take what’s mine.
”I set her on a low black platform that was used for private dances.
The moment my cock was free she tried to pull away.
I fisted the chains that bound her wrists and pinned them above her head.
“Look at me while I take you,” I ordered, voice low and rough. “You’re going to take every drop. The Families want heirs. Say it.”
Her voice cracked. “I… I’ll take it.”
“Not good enough.”
I snapped my hips forward and buried myself to the hilt in one hard thrust. She was still wet, and tighter than I’d had.
A broken sound tore out of her. For one second the room disappeared and all I felt was how small she was under me, how completely I had just broken the last line I swore I would never cross.
Internally, I cursed myself for doing this. I should have chosen someone else, someone older. But as I made eye contact for the first time since the bids, I had to bit my lip hard enough to bleed.
“Say ‘Please breed me, Matteo.’”Sweat slipped down her temples. “Please… please breed me, Matteo.”
“That’s my girl.” I fucked her hard and deep, every thrust deliberate and meant to be seen. Tears streamed down Morena’s face. She turned her head into my neck, trying to hide, but I pulled the chains tighter and made her arch so the entire room could watch.
Don Esposito’s voice cut through the heavy air. “Finish it properly, Ventura.”
I shifted the angle and drove into her until she was softly begging. I didn’t think anyone else heard her. Her body stayed tight and pliant the whole time. I came deep, flooding her while the entire Five Families watched.
My forehead dropped to hers for one second, long enough to feel the exact moment something in my chest cracked open and refused to close again.
When I finally pulled out, cum slid down the inside of her thigh in a thick, visible streak.
She was shaking so hard I had to lock my arms around her to keep her from sliding to the floor.
Her eyes were glassy, unfocused.
“You survived it. That is the only thing that matters tonight,” I muttered in her ear.
I did not say I was sorry. I was not. The seat was mine. She was mine. I simply fixed my clothes, lifted her back into my arms and turned to face the room.
Don Esposito gave a single, satisfied nod. “The seat is yours.”
The crowd finally moved. Low conversation started up again.
Someone laughed. Glasses clinked. I walked off the stage with my new wife in my arms and the eyes of every powerful man in the city burning into my back.
I carried her down the service hallway in silence.
Her body was ice-cold against my chest. The jacket I had wrapped around her barely covered anything.
Cum slid down the inside of her thigh with every step I took.
She did not fight. She did not speak. I kicked open the door to the private office Santino kept for “special guests” and set her on the edge of the desk.
The wood was cold. She flinched. I locked the door.
For a long moment I just looked at her. Naked under my jacket. Collar still locked around her throat. My mother’s ring already on her finger. My cum still leaking out of her. The red lights from the club painted everything the color of blood.
“Don’t hide.”
Her eyes stayed on the floor. I caught her chin and forced her face up. Tears still tracked through the ruined makeup. Her lips were swollen from the kiss I had given her in front of every powerful man in the city. “I said look at me, Rena.”
She did. The hatred in her eyes was almost pure. Almost. Underneath it was something else. Something that made my cock twitch even though I had just come inside her five minutes ago.
“You felt it,” I said quietly. “When I was inside you. You can hate me all you want, but your body already knows who it belongs to.”
I hated how true the words were. I hated that I needed them to be true.
Her voice came out cracked and raw. “You took everything from me, in front of a goddamn crowd.”
“I was obeying orders from men who would’ve killed you if I hadn’t done it.
There’s a difference.” I stepped between her thighs, pushing the jacket open so I could see every inch of what I had just bought.
“The Families ordered the consummation. I made sure they watched me put a baby in you on the same night I put a ring on you. That is how this world works.”
She tried to close her legs. I kept them open with my hips.
“Don’t,” she whispered.
“Don’t what? Don’t look at what’s mine? Don’t talk about the fact that my cum is still dripping out of you while the whole syndicate knows exactly who owns this cunt now?”
A soft sound left her throat. I leaned down until my mouth was against her ear.
“You’re going to take every drop I give you from now on.
You’re going to walk around this city with my claim leaking down your thighs and my ring on your finger and that collar around your throat so every man who ever looked at you on that stage knows you’re no longer available.
And when your belly starts to swell, they’re all going to know I did that too.
You know why? Because I own you now, baby. ”
Her breath hitched. I felt the tiny, involuntary clench of her body against my suit pants. I pulled back just enough to see her face. “That turned you on.”
“Fuck you.”
“You already did. Publicly.” I brushed my thumb over her lower lip. She tried to bite me. I smiled. “There she is. The little fighter. I was starting to worry the auction had broken you completely.”
Rena glared at me through the tears. “I hope you choke on the power you just bought.”
“I won’t. But you might choke on my cock later if you keep talking like that.
” I stepped back and started unbuttoning my shirt.
Her eyes widened. “Relax. I’m not fucking you again tonight.
You’re too raw and too tense and I don’t actually enjoy making you cry unless you’ve earned it.
I’m cleaning you up so you don’t walk out of here looking like the used toy they all think you are. ”
I pulled a clean cloth from the private bathroom and ran it under warm water. When I came back she was still sitting exactly where I left her, legs open, chains on her wrists, looking like she wanted to set the building on fire.
I dropped to one knee between her thighs. She froze.
I cleaned her carefully, doing my best to be gentle.
The cloth came away streaked with my cum and the faint pink of her blood.
I wiped every trace from her inner thighs, from the soft folds of her cunt, from the place where I had forced myself inside her while the syndicate watched.
Rena’s hands stayed locked in fists against the desk.
When I was finished, I tossed the cloth aside and looked up at her.
“You’re mine now,” I said, voice low. “Not because I paid thirty-five million dollars. Not because the Families demanded a wife. Because I decided it the first night I saw you dance and I have spent every night since then making sure no other man ever got the chance. You can hate me. You can plan to run. You can even try to cut my throat in my sleep. But you will never again belong to anyone else. Do you understand me?”
Her eyes were glassy. Furious. Wet. “…Yes.”
“Say it properly.”
“I’m yours.” The words sounded like they were being dragged out of her by force. “For now.”
I stood, cupped the side of her neck right above the collar, and pressed my thumb to her pulse. “Not for now, Rena. For the rest of your life. And if you ever forget, I’ll remind you the same way I did tonight. In front of an audience.”
She swallowed. The movement shifted my thumb against her throat. I didn’t step back. I dropped to my knees between her open thighs again. Morena’s breath hitched hard. “What are you…”