The Italian Don's Captive Bride

Chapter No. 10

Eliseo Leone:-

After a shower and kissing my sleeping beauty on my bed, I went downstairs for breakfast in the dining room, and planned to make a plate for her so she can eat it in the bedroom, as I don't want her around my f****d up family. She is too pure to be around them. f**k, that beautiful creature has f****d up my brains. She is an assassin, a deadly and most feared one, but here I am calling pure and planning to protect her from my family, when my family needs protection from her.

It was the sound of cutlery being put away, the murmur of insults broken by the moment I entered the dining room with the plate in my hand. I didn’t have to question what they were quietly chatting about. Before I had even set the plate on the head of the table, my uncle sneered.

"You actually plan to place that girl, a Petrov blood, our enemy, on the throne as our Donna? An outsider. A nobody?"

My Aunt, my uncle's wife chimed in, "She’s not fit to carry our name, Eliseo. Let alone rule beside you."

I looked at each of them. I remained quiet for a second, saying nothing to my blood, my supposed allies. Their smugness faltered simply because the silence stretched just long enough. I slowly and without a word reached into my jacket and pulled the gun from inside, placed it gently on the dining table with a cold thud, and stood as the devil I was.

"Listen here carefully, you stronzos, because I want to make it f*****g clear to all of you."My voice was calm, deadly. "I’m the Don of this family. I make the rules. I choose who stands at my side. And Cassandra…" My gaze danced through each of them, came to rest on the last, and said, "Is not just going to be my wife. She’s your Donna. And when I put a ring on her finger, she outranks every one of you."

No one dared to breathe.

"I will not hesitate to bury one of you beneath the traitors you pretend to hate if I ever hear one more word of disrespect toward her at this table." I gestured to the gun. "Protect her. Respect her. Serve her. Because that’s how much she means to me, if needed in any dangerous situations, you will lay your lives down for her. That’s the weight of her place in this family."

A slow clap disrupted the silence. With my heart understanding the rhythm instantly, I turned around, and she was there—Cassandra. Standing in the doorway with nothing but her shirt from the night before draped over her perfect frame, hair in a messy bun, eyes smirking in mischief and pride, she looked like sin in silk and chaos in warmth; my mouth went dry. My fists clenched.

She was beautiful. Too f*****g beautiful and she was f*****g exposed in front of them. My family. My men.

A possessive rage rose in me. Before anyone else blinked, I was across the room. As soon as I saw her standing there, bare legs, my shirt barely covering her, surrounded by family and men I just put in their place, something inside of me snapped, something primal. I tore off my jacket and tied it around her waist, pulling what was mine away from men who were not worthy of the wind their bodies breathed.

"Cassandra!" I lifted her into my arms and growled in a low voice, a warning. Her protests were unheard as I continued unbothered, her eyes wide with surprise at the gasp. I looked over to the nearest staff member.

"Arrange the new wardrobe I’d ordered for her. Everything goes in my room. Once it is done, no one ever touches anything unless she says so." I ordered my staff coldly.

Instead of the soft flush or shy smile I was expecting, she tensed in my arms. Fingers dug into my shoulder, and her eyes sparkled with fury. She punched my face, or almost punched, that I dodged, and smirked while she glared at me. I need to keep my eyes wide open if I don't want to end up in a coffin by none other than this beautiful woman of mine.

"Belong to you? I would rather die than belong to you as some sick obsession of yours. It ain't important to you. I am just an obsession to you, nothing else. A f**k toy who you have prisoned in your glided cage filled with gold, armors and luxury bought by the cost of blood." she shouted and disrespected me, "You're my enemy. I would kill myself before giving in to you."

I froze mid-step as she tried to fight me off in my arms and hissed in anger and hatred.

"You ruined me, Eliseo. You dragged my name through the dirt, destroyed my family, and humiliated me in front of the world; then you have the audacity to talk about loyalty and protection? Are you even listening to yourself?"

Now she was shaking, not from fear but rage. And pain.

"You can’t claim to own me when all I’ve been to you is a hostage with a pretty face," she shouted,her voice cold and dangerous.

Gasps could be heard echoing all around us, but I didn’t turn to look at them. My eyes were locked on hers.

"I don't want to be with you, Eliseo. You are the last person I want to call mine. If you really think I am this important to you, then why have you kept me like a prisoner instead of your queen? If you really care about me, you will let me go right now. Free me now! I am a free bird. An assassin. I could kill you right now if I want to, but now I know how this will end. Our families have been through enough blood baths. Both side of the families have lost their loved ones. I don't want a repeat of that."

The whole room went dead silent, and all eyes were staring at us. On me, I was publicly challenged by the woman I had just called important and chosen as their next Donna.

I exhaled hard and ran my hand through her soft hair. "You want out?" I asked, my voice rough. "I will give you a choice then."

That startled her. She frowned at me warily.

"You want to go back to Dominic, to your family?" I bit off the name as poison, but kept going. "Then I won’t stop you. You can go to him. Stay with him. Get back the life you had, taken from you by me, and find out if it still exists."

She blinked, taken aback. Her eyes flickered in disbelief.

"You...you will let me go to him?"

"Only if he accepts you back. Truly accepts you back, then I will let you go to him, start a life you dreamt of. I will grant you the freedom you so badly want from me, when I can be the real man to give you everything your heart ever wished for." My voice was soft, but deadly, because deep down I already knew what was going to happen, and I was prepared for it.

Breath hitched slightly in her mouth, but I continued.

"But…" I brought up a hand to let the heft of my words rest. "If he throws you away, if he hurts you, if he even looks at you as anything but a goddess, you can are…" I promised my voice became low, laced with danger, "then you come back to me. No lies. No running. You give yourself to me, and agree to be mine. Entirely, unapologetically, forever."

The fire in her gaze flickered, confused, in between hatred and broken heart, staring at me in stunned silence.

"Cara Mia, I will not keep a woman who doesn't want to be mine. However, I will not let the world have what is mine if it will not treat you like I would with power, loyalty, if necessary."

Her lips trembled, but she did not speak.

"I have given you the choice. Now the next move is upto you. If you wish to go back to Dominic, one of my men will take you to him, but if he doesn't accept you, you come back to me, and this time, to be forever. So, what is it going to be, mafia princess?"