The Devil's Bride
Prettyvillian · Ongoing · 208.2k Words
Introduction
Simone Alejandro was supposed to have her perfect fairytale ending—marrying the man she loved, uniting two powerful mafia families, and living a life of luxury. But in a single gunshot, her world shattered. Her father, the feared Don Alejandro, lay dying in her arms. Her fiancé ran like a coward. And she? She was captured.
By him.
"You're nothing but a spoiled princess playing pretend."
Nicholas Stravkos is a man who doesn’t ask twice. Cold, ruthless, and deadly, he stormed into Simone’s wedding and left a trail of blood in his wake. He expected to find a delicate little princess, begging for her life. Instead, he found fire—a woman too fierce, too proud, and too furious to break.
"Kill me, or let me go. But I will never bow to you."
Now, locked in his mansion, Simone refuses to be just another pawn in his game. She wants revenge. She wants answers. She wants out.
But Nicholas isn’t planning to let her go.
Not yet.
Not when she’s the most thrilling challenge he’s ever faced.
Not when she makes his blood heat with every sharp-tongued retort.
Not when she looks at him like she’s ready to destroy him… or kiss him.
"Careful, princess. Keep pushing me, and you might just like where it leads."
In a world of power, betrayal, and forbidden temptation, Simone must decide—fight against the man who stole her life or give in to the dark pull of the devil in Armani.
Chapter 1
~SIMONE'S POV~
The weight of a hundred years of Alejandro's legacy rested on the ivory silk draped over my shoulders. My wedding dress, a custom Vera Wang creation worth more than most homes, felt more like armor than a celebration.
This marriage was more about a military alliance than a love match.
"You look beautiful, mija."
My father's voice, usually commanding enough to make grown men tremble, softened as he entered the cathedral's private lobby.
Don Vincenzo Alejandro, feared patriarch of Sicily's most powerful crime family, looked at me not as his heir but as his daughter.
Just for a moment.
"Is it time already?" I asked though I knew the answer. The cathedral bells had just finished their third toll.
He nodded, approaching to adjust my veil with surprising gentleness. His fingers, the same ones that had signed death warrants and million-dollar deals, trembled slightly.
Age or emotion, I couldn't tell.
"Your mother would be proud," he said, the rarest compliment from a man who mentioned my dead mother perhaps once a year.
"You're securing our family's future today."
That's what this was...security.
My marriage to Rafael Russo would unite two powerful families, ending generations of bloody territorial quarrels. My heart had little to do with it, though Rafael was handsome enough with his perfectly sculpted jaw and piercing blue eyes.
He had dated me properly, respected my boundaries, and made promises of freedom within our arrangement.
It was the best I could hope for as Don Alejandro's only child.
"I won't disappoint you, Papa," I promised, meeting his gaze in the mirror. Ice blue eyes...my eyes...stared back from his weathered face.
The only biological trait I had inherited from him.
He squeezed my shoulders, a gesture worth a thousand words from such a taciturn man. "You never have."
The door opened, revealing my uncle Baron, my father's younger brother. Unlike Papa's softened behavior, Baron's face remained sharp as a blade, his dark suit impeccably pressed.
"The guests are waiting, Vincenzo," he said, not bothering to hide his impatience. "The Russos are getting restless."
My father's face hardened instantly, the softness vanishing. "They've waited three generations for this alliance. They can wait three more minutes."
Baron's lip curled slightly before he nodded, backing out of the doorway.
"Remember who you are today," my father said, turning back to me. "You're not just a bride. You're an Alejandro."
With that, he offered his arm. I took it, feeling the solid strength that had protected me my entire life. The last walk I would take is with Simone Alejandro.
After today, I would be Simone Russo...still powerful, but different.
The cathedral's massive doors swung open, revealing hundreds of faces turned expectantly toward me. The criminal elite of Europe filled the pews....capos, underbosses, allied families, and halfhearted parties who had come to witness the historic union.
Millions of jewelry sparkle beneath the stained glass light. Almost as many firearms slept beneath designer suits.
At the altar waited Rafael, handsome in his bespoke tuxedo, a victorious smile playing on his lips as he watched me approach on my father's arm.
His family flanked his side...the Russo patriarch, his brothers, and their top men.
Our side mirrored theirs, my uncles Baron and Hector, our capos, the men who'd watched me grow up while simultaneously carrying out my father's most brutal orders.
This union would end bloodshed. My sacrifice...if you could call marrying a handsome, wealthy man a sacrifice...would save lives.
I repeated this to myself as my father and I processed down the aisle, my cathedral-length train trailing behind like a silken river.
Rafael's eyes never left mine, his smile growing as I approached. Was there something else in his expression? Triumph, yes, but something more calculating? I dismissed the thought.
Pre-wedding nerves. Nothing more.
The orchestra reached a crescendo as we arrived at the altar steps. My father paused, turning toward me for the traditional blessing.
He lifted my veil, leaned forward, and kissed my forehead...a gesture so rare I nearly gasped.
"Be strong," he whispered, "no matter what happens."
Before I could question his strange choice of words, he placed my hand in Rafael's waiting palm. My fiancé's fingers closed around mine, warm but somehow wrong.
I pushed the feeling aside. This was my duty. My destiny.
The ancient Italian priest began the ceremony, his Latin phrases echoing through the vaulted ceiling. Rafael's thumb stroked across my knuckles in what should have been a comforting move but felt possessive instead.
"Dearly beloved..." the priest began in accented English.
I quickly looked over the crowd and saw where our security teams were positioned.
My eye caught a tall figure standing at the very back of the cathedral...a man I didn't recognize. Broad-shouldered, with dark hair and unusual golden eyes that somehow caught the light even from that distance.
Something about him seemed familiar, yet I was sure we had never met. I would have remembered those eyes.
He stared directly at me, expressionless, as if marking out my worth.
"If anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in matrimony..."
A movement near the side doors caught my attention. Men in dark suits enter silently. Not ours. Not the Russos. My body tensed, years of training kicking in.
"Rafael," I whispered, squeezing his hand in warning.
He frowned, following my gaze. His hand tightened painfully around mine.
The priest continued obliviously, "Let them speak now or forever hold their..."
The first gunshot shattered the stained-glass window of Saint Michael, sending colored glass raining down on the screaming guests. Before I could process what was happening, my father shoved me roughly behind him.
"Down!" he roared, reaching for the weapon he always carried.
Too late.
The second shot hit him square in the chest, blooming red against his white shirt.
My father...the invincible Don Alejandro, looked surprised more than pained as he stumbled back against me. I caught him instinctively, the weight of him driving us both to our knees.
"Papa!" The scream tore from my throat as chaos erupted.
More gunshots. Screams. The wedding guests are diving for cover or drawing weapons. Through it all, my father's blood soaked into my white dress, turning ivory silk to crimson.
"Simone," he gasped, clutching my hand with fading strength. "Trust no one. The ledger in my..."
His words cut off as another pang of pain twisted his features. I looked up desperately, searching for help, for Rafael.
My fiancé was gone. In the moment when my world collapsed, he had run.
"Someone help!" I screamed, pressing my hand against the wound as my father had taught me years ago. Too much blood. Far too much.
"Papa, stay with me!"
His eyes...my eyes...focused on me one last time. "Forgive me for not seeing..." he whispered.
Then nothing. The great Don Alejandro went lifeless in my arms, his final secrets dying with him.
I don't know how long I knelt there, cradling him, my wedding dress transformed into a burial shroud. The gunfire had stopped. The cathedral had emptied of all but the dead and dying.
And then footsteps. Counted. Slow. Purposeful.
I looked up through tears and blood to see the golden-eyed stranger from the back of the church standing over me.
Up close, he was even more imposing...at least six-foot-three, with shoulders that strained against his tailored jacket and features carved from stone.
Not handsome in the conventional way Rafael was, but magnetic. Dangerous.
Behind him stood at least a dozen armed men, all watching me with cold detachment.
"Who are you?" I managed, my voice raw. "Did you do this?"
The stranger knelt, balancing on the balls of his feet to bring us eye-to-eye. His gaze swept over my father's body without emotion before returning to my face.
He reached out, his large hand cupping my tear-stained cheek with surprising gentleness.
"Hello, love," he said, his voice deep and accented with something Northern European. "I finally found you."
Before I could react, he nodded to his men. Two stepped forward, pulling my father's body from my arms despite my protests.
The stranger...whoever he was...lifted me effortlessly, uncaring of the blood soaking us both.
"Take the bride," he ordered, carrying me toward the doors as I struggled weakly against him. "And find whoever's responsible for this mess. Don Alejandro deserved better than a coward's bullet."
The last thing I saw as he carried me from the cathedral was my father's body, the once-powerful Don now just another casualty in Sicily's endless wars.
I didn't know then that I was looking at my past and being carried into my future...both soaked in Alejandro's blood.
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Reborn and Unleashed: The Boss Lady Takes No Prisoners
Now reborn, Vivian refuses to hide her strength. She's revealing her true identity, claiming her power, and rewriting her fate. No more submission, no more misunderstandings—this time, she'll take control of her life and her love.
As regretful brothers beg for forgiveness and powerful enemies fall at her feet, Vivian has one goal: to rise without mercy and make the man she once loved fall for her all over again—on her terms.
The MC Hacker’s Stolen Princess
She did not come to find out her father had promised her to another man.
As the only daughter of Shane “Rook” Rourke, president of the Lost Coast Renegades MC, Taryn has always known club business comes first. But when Rook signs a treaty with the dangerous president of Iron Mesa, he crosses a line even she never imagined.
Safe passage through Arizona territory comes with a price.
Her.
Kellan Stroud is thirty, powerful, ruthless, and already waiting at Sturgis to meet the woman he expects to marry.
Taryn wants no part of him, no part of the agreement, and definitely no part of a future chosen for her by two men who think a signature is enough to decide where she belongs.
Then she meets Bobby Fuentes.
At twenty, Bobby is one of the youngest fully patched members of the Sons of Doom MC. He is quiet until he has something to say, dangerous when he needs to be, and smart enough to get into places no one else can. Hacking is what he does best.
Until Taryn gives him a new problem to solve.
One reckless connection at Sturgis becomes something neither of them can ignore, and when Bobby realizes exactly what Rook has promised away, walking away stops being an option.
But stealing another president’s future wife is not a misunderstanding.
It is an insult.
A betrayal.
And in the MC world, it can mean war.
Taryn refuses to be anyone’s property.
Bobby has never been good at following rules.
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The road out of Sturgis may cost them everything first.
The Billionaire's Surrogate's Secret
“Who said that’s still fucking true? We stopped being just man and surrogate the first time our eyes met.” He walked towards me, boring into my eyes with those eyes of his. “I fucking want you, Vanessa.”
My heart stuttered.
This could not be real.
“But the rules—“
“I made them. I can destroy them. I already destroyed them when I kissed you.” He was dangerously close now, but all I kept getting was danger signals combined with the panic, alarm, lust and above all, the guilt.
It was killing me.
Vanessa Sterling who never liked men because of what her father did to her mother ended up having a drunken one night stand with a stranger and that might end up changing her life forever.
Rodri Darnell who doesn’t want to get married or have kids but is forced to give his father a grand child, decided to use a surrogate.
Vanessa Sterling was supposed to be an ordinary surrogate to Rodri Darnell of the Dolphin Emirates, but he fell in love with her.
Their only problem will be Vanessa's secret.
Ex-Wife, Current Wife
For three years, she lived in the shadow of a loveless marriage. She was the woman everyone loved to hate, the one who supposedly "stole" him from his first love. She endured his cold indifference, raised their son—who struggles with a speech impediment—in silence, and traded her own brilliant career for the thankless role of a trophy wife.
But when his long-lost love returns, she is unceremoniously pushed aside to make room for the "real" family.
Enough was enough.
After he publicly humiliates her and chooses the mistress’s daughter over his own son during a birthday party, something inside her finally snaps. She doesn't just want out of the marriage; she wants her life back. With a secret talent for design and a newfound resolve, she walks away from the gilded cage of his estate.
But as she rises from the ashes of her failed marriage to reclaim her status as a top-tier designer, he realizes the woman he treated as a disposable pawn was the only one who truly held his world together.
Now, the woman who once begged for his attention is no longer looking back. Will he be able to earn her forgiveness, or is he finally too late?
Bloodright
Ashveil University is not what it looks like in the photographs. The students here carry something that shifts their eyes at the edges of anger. The northwest trees hold an attention that trees should not be able to hold. And the empty chair at the council table, the one nobody sits in, the one nobody explains, has been waiting three hundred years for one specific person to arrive.
Nobody told Adaline she was that person. They classified her as Dormant. A blank space in a file. Nothing.
She is the opposite of nothing.
Beneath the campus, three ancient entities are waking up. Every house in the pack world wants to control what runs in her blood. The boy sent to assess her has stopped being able to do his job. And the woman who has been three steps ahead of everyone since before Adaline was born is not a villain. She is a warning. She is what Adaline would have become if nobody had found her.
The suppression field holding everything together is failing. The clock is running. And the only way to stop what is coming requires Adaline to give up the thing she can least afford to lose.
She already knows her answer. She decided before anyone told her the full price.
Letters to a Dark Prince
Thrown into Isteros Academy—a world of old money, blood money, and cruel social games—she's an outsider by birth and an afterthought by design. Her sister Solyn is the school's untouchable queen and Mara is her favorite target.
Everyone expects Atreus to treat his fiancée’s scholarship sister like everyone else does—as if she doesn’t matter.
Instead, his dorm room sits directly across from hers, close enough that she can see his light go out at night. Some nights, he climbs the old maintenance trellis just to check on her. He teaches her chess. He shows up exactly when something's gone wrong—and never once asks to be thanked for it.
"Don't fall in love with one piece," he warns her, over a board neither of them treats like a game anymore. "It punishes the person who only sees half of it."
Mara doesn't understand why the boy who's supposed to make her life harder keeps quietly making it easier—not until she realizes the anonymous stranger she's been writing to every week already has a name.
His.
He doesn't know he's writing to her, either.
By the time they find out, it's too late to stop what's already happening. Far too dangerous for anyone to find out.
In an empty studio, in the middle of a rainstorm, she asks him: 'Am I the kind of girl who kisses a boy engaged to my sister?'
He doesn't answer.
So she asks: 'What are we?’
He told her not to fall in love with one piece.
She fell anyway.
And he was never far behind.
Bonds at War: The Virgin is Mine
Perhaps then they would stop controlling my every move. Maybe my brothers would stop resenting me. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel so invisible anymore.
No one believed I could do it—not even my mate, Alpha Jaxon Trevane.
The night I planned to tell him... I found him tangled in bed with my best friend.
Heartbroken and humiliated, I left everything behind and went to Elite alone.
But the academy isn’t the fairytale I dreamed about.
Beneath the grand halls and traditions, a brutal game is being played.
The four ruling Alphas of the North, South, East, and West fight for power, dominance... and now, for me.
A virgin. Untouched. Unclaimed. The prize they all want.
There’s the mate who shattered my heart and swears he’ll win me back.
The brilliant strategist who wants me as his Luna.
The dangerous playboy who promises no one will ever touch me but him.
And the cold, possessive Alpha who watches from the shadows—and would destroy anyone who dares to take me from him.
But in a place where love is a battlefield and lust is a weapon... falling in love might be the most dangerous thing I ever do.
Welcome to Elite Order Academy—where every desire has a price, and my body is the ultimate trophy.
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Zayn has a girlfriend. And the closer Kayla gets to changing his fate, the more she realizes her powers are bigger and more dangerous than she ever imagined.
The supernatural world is closing in. The clock is running out. And the one person standing between Kayla and everything hunting her is the same boy she keeps bending time to protect.
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Love's Deadly Equation
I was sent to her.
To watch her. To protect her. And, when the order comes… to kill her.
My name is Keegan Caffery. I’m the Carter Mafia’s best hitman. I don’t miss. I don’t fail.
At least, I didn’t use to.
I don’t know what it is about her that got to me first—her mouth, her mind, or the way she looks at me like I’m not what she should fear.
I’ve had a gun to her head since I walked into her life.
She knows it.
And she still doesn’t run.
She just watches me back like she’s studying a problem she refuses to call impossible.
She’s the one variable I can’t control.
And God help me… I don’t want to.
I have an order. I have loyalty. I have a trigger.
But every time I imagine it—
I can’t stand it.
Her or me. That’s the math.
It’s a deadly equation I don’t want to solve.
⬥ Maisie ⬥
I’m not ordinary. I stopped pretending long ago.
My name is Maisie Seo. IQ 145. Clinical genius.
Which sounds impressive until you realize what it actually means: I don’t fit anywhere people expect me to.
I see patterns everywhere. Outcomes before they happen. People like equations I’ve already solved.
It gets lonely in a world you’ve already figured out.
So I dull myself down. Smoke the edges off. Pretend, badly, to be the kind of normal that lets people stay.
Then he walked in.
I knew what he was immediately. Dangerous. Intentional. Wrong in all the right ways.
I should be afraid of him.
I keep waiting for that to kick in.
Instead, I’m fascinated.
Because for the first time in my life… I’ve found something I can’t solve.
He is my deadly equation.
Where The Ice Gives Way
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Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
