A Marriage Born of Blood. A Love Forged in Darkness
About
She was never meant to be his wife. At twenty, Raven Elara Moretti had already learned how to survive without her family. The first daughter of a powerful Italian mafia family, Raven had spent most of her life keeping her distance from the people who were supposed to be her home. She lived on her own terms, earned her own money as a singer in a dark, underground club, wrote her own songs, fixed her own car, and asked no one for anything. Not even her husband. Her music was dark. Her style was gothic. Her personality was stubborn, distant, and fiercely independent. Raven didn't need saving, and she certainly didn't need a man to tell her how to live. Unfortunately, her father had other plans. When her family's position is threatened, Raven is forced into a contractual marriage with a man eighteen years older than her. Lucian Vittorio De Luca. Thirty-eight years old. Powerful. Wealthy. Meticulous. And dangerous enough that people knew better than to cross him. Lucian was a man who believed everything had its place. His business. His empire. His home. His people. His life. Everything was supposed to be controlled. Then Raven became his wife. The marriage benefits them both. Raven's family needs Lucian's power and protection, while Lucian needs the family's influence within the government. It is nothing more than an arrangement. At least, that's what it was supposed to be. Lucian has never seen Raven perform at the club where she sings. He has never heard the voice behind the dark songs she writes, and he has never understood why his supposedly obedient new wife disappears into the night, returns smelling of smoke and perfume, and refuses to ask him for a single thing. But the more Raven ignores him, the more he finds himself thinking about her. Her stubbornness. Her independence. The way she looks at him as if his power means absolutely nothing to her. Lucian has blood on his hands and no hesitation when it comes to killing. Raven knows exactly what kind of man she married. Yet he has never laid a hand on her. Not after the first time he tried to get close and she made it painfully clear that she wanted nothing from him. So Lucian stopped trying. For now. Their marriage is built on a contract, mutual necessity, and a carefully maintained distance. But Lucian is beginning to wonder what happens when the woman who refuses to need him becomes the only person he can't stop thinking about. And Raven? She has no intention of falling in love with the man her father forced her to marry. Raven Moretti think she has never going belonged to anyone. But sometimes, the devil you thought was standing before you was nothing more than a fallen angel. And slowly, with time, Raven and Lucian began to learn how to live with each other.
Characters
Lucian Vittorio De Luca is thirty-eight years old, and control is the foundation his entire life is built upon. A powerful Italian mafia boss, a meticulous businessman, and a man whose name is enough to make people think twice before crossing him, Lucian has always believed that everything has its place. His empire. His business. His home. His people. His enemies. And most importantly, himself. Until Raven Elara Moretti becomes his wife. Their marriage is nothing more than a carefully arranged contract. Raven's family needs Lucian's power and protection, while Lucian needs their influence. It is a practical arrangement between two powerful families, with no reason for anything personal to exist between them. And Raven makes that very easy. She doesn't fear him. She doesn't seek his approval. She doesn't ask him for anything. She lives as if Lucian Vittorio De Luca, his power, his wealth, and his dangerous reputation mean absolutely nothing to her. For a man who is used to being obeyed, Raven's indifference is something he doesn't know how to handle. At first, Lucian tries to understand her. Then he tries to get closer. But Raven makes it painfully clear that she wants nothing from him. So Lucian does something completely unlike himself. He stops. He gives her the distance she wants. But he never stops watching. The less Raven gives him, the more he begins to notice. The scent of her perfume when she comes home late at night. The sound of her footsteps. The way she sleeps. The fabrics she prefers. The little habits she doesn't realize he has memorized. Even the exact number of freckles scattered across her face. Lucian remembers everything. He has spent his entire life controlling people, situations, and emotions. Yet Raven becomes the first person he cannot control and, eventually, the first person he no longer wants to. Because somewhere between the silence, the distance, and the two years of living beside a woman who refuses to need him, Lucian begins to realize something he has never experienced before. He doesn't simply want Raven. He wants to know her. Every hidden part of her. Every secret she refuses to share. Every piece of herself she keeps guarded from the world. And perhaps the most dangerous thing about Lucian Vittorio De Luca isn't that he is capable of killing for the woman he loves. It's that a man who has always believed he could control everything has finally found the one person he would rather patiently wait for than ever force to belong to him.
Intro
It was eleven at night.
I had just arrived at the mansion, exhaustion settling heavily into my bones after the long night.
Then I heard it.
The sound of fabric moving in the wind.
Well, for someone who walks on a thin rope that leads straight to hell, sleeps with his gun, and wakes up at the slightest sound, hearing the sound of fabric moving in the wind is only natural.
It was Raven.
She was siting there in the garden like a goddess, wearing her nightgown. Raven... The name suited her. Strong and stubborn.
But her middle name? Elara?
Delicate and beautiful.
I wanted to see that side of her. The side I might have died wishing to see.
At first, it was strange for a man my age, someone who had never really wanted anything, how badly I wanted her.
But in these two years since we've been married... I realized that with that woman, nothing is strange.
Could I smell the cinnamon in her tea from here? Or was this just one of those things my muscles had memorized...
Because since she gives me absolutely no information about herself, I devour every single thing I see about her like a starving man, replaying it over and over again in my mind until sometimes, I start hallucinating.
Her interests, her behavior, the way she sleeps, the kind of fabric she likes, the way she sleeps, the scent of her perfumes, and even the exact number of freckles on her face.
Every night, I count them.
And I die wishing I could touch them.
Release Date 2026.08.03 / Last Updated 2026.08.08
