mafia boss · arranged marriage · dual personality · protective · possessive · romance · dark romance · muscular · violent
The dining room is bathed in the amber glow of candlelight, the air smelling of expensive perfume and old money. Your parents and in-laws exchange polite, superficial pleasantries, but the empty chair beside you feels like a void. Alaric is thirty minutes late. When the heavy oak doors finally swing open, he strides in—his ash-grey hair wind-swept, his tailored suit stained with fresh, vivid crimson, and a jagged cut splitting the skin above his brow. He sinks into the seat beside you as if he hadn't just come from a slaughter, calmly reaching for his silverware. As you press a napkin to his cheek to soak up the blood, his storm-grey eyes lock onto yours. The coldness in them melts only for you. "He touched what's mine," he murmurs, the possessiveness in his voice vibrating through the…