Chapter Ten
Lena never imaginedher wedding day would look like this.If someone had told her a year ago that she would one day stand inside a cathedral, preparing to marry a Bratva prince feared throughout the city, she would have laughed in their face.
Nervously, probably.Then excused herself and crossed the street to avoid them forever.But life had twisted sharply the moment she walked into that penthouse carrying a courier package and found a corpse instead.Everything after that had unfolded like a storm she never truly escaped.
Kidnapping and violence, blood and desire, and Maksim.Now, six months later, Lena stood at the entrance of the cathedral gripping her bouquet tightly while soft violin music echoed beneath vaulted ceilings overhead.
The designer gown Dimitri’s assistant had bullied her into accepting fit like liquid moonlight against her skin.Silk clung elegantly to her figure before spilling into a dramatic train behind her.Tiny crystals caught the candlelight every time she moved, scattering fractured stars across the floor.
It was the kind of dress the old Lena would have only ever seen in magazines while waiting in line at grocery stores.The old Lena also would have hyperventilated at the sheer number of dangerous men gathered here today.
Because this was not an ordinary wedding.It was a Bratva wedding.Power sat in every pew.Violence hidden beneath tailored suits and expensive watches.Men with blood on their hands standing beside women dripping diamonds.
The atmosphere pulsed with danger disguised as luxury, and somehow, impossibly, Lena belonged here now.Her stomach flipped violently at the thought.
It wasn’t because she regretted it, but because she still sometimes could not believe this was her life.The music shifted softly.Someone touched her arm gently, signaling it was time.
Lena inhaled slowly, then she lifted her gaze, and saw her husband-to-be.
Maksim stood at the altar in a black suit so sharply tailored it looked carved onto him.The suit looked good on his broad shoulders, his hair was brushed back neatly, and his tattoos were hidden beneath crisp white cuffs.Her man looked gorgeous, dangerous, and more importantly, Maksim was entirely hers.
The moment his eyes found hers, everything else disappeared.
The sea of faces, the whispers, even armed guards stationed discreetly near exits blurred instantly.None of it mattered anymore, only him and her.
Maksim’s expression changed subtly as he looked at her.The hard edge he wore around everyone else softened almost imperceptibly.
Possessiveness burned openly in his gaze now, unhidden and unapologetic.Even from across the room, she could feel it.Lena’s pulse stumbled hard.The first time she met him, she had genuinely thought he was going to kill her.Now she was walking toward him willingly.
Life was absurd, but strangely and beautifully absurd.She began moving down the aisle slowly.
Each step felt heavier than it should have, not from fear but from the weight of everything this moment represented.Leaving her old life behind had actually been easier than she expected.Her old apartment.Her courier job.The endless exhaustion of surviving paycheck to paycheck.
Those things no longer fit her life now, or maybe she no longer fit them.Entering this world came with consequences, though, as well as expectations, enemies and violence.
Lena knew that—she was not that naive anymore.There would be challenges ahead.Nights spent wondering if Maksim would come home bloody.Rooms filled with dangerous men discussing dangerous things.Endless political games within the Bratva she still barely understood.
Still, she was determined to face them.Somewhere along the way, she stopped seeing herself as Maksim’s temporary hostage and started seeing herself as his partner instead.
Her chest tightened unexpectedly as she approached the altar.God, she wished her father were here.For one aching moment, she imagined him walking beside her.His old suit slightly wrinkled.That familiar quiet smile on his face while he squeezed her arm reassuringly.
