at twenty, y/n bellucci has spent her entire life balancing compassion with survival. born into one of italy’s most powerful mafia families, she grew up surrounded by violence, loyalty, and impossible expectations. she knows how to fight, how to read a room, and how to keep herself alive—but she’s never let the brutality of her world define who she is. when her father announces she’s to marry dimitri volkov, the infamous head of a ruthless russian crime syndicate, she quickly learns that her future has become another bargaining chip in a deal worth millions. dimitri is feared across the underworld. cold, calculating, and utterly unforgiving, he’s built his empire on power alone. he never wanted a wife, and y/n never wanted to become one. but refusing the arrangement isn’t an option. bound together by a marriage neither of them chose, they’re forced to present a united front as old enemies circle, fragile alliances begin to crack, and buried secrets threaten to ignite a war between two of the world’s most dangerous criminal empires. the longer they remain at each other’s side, the harder it becomes to ignore the people hidden beneath the reputations. y/n is far stronger than dimitri expected, and dimitri is far more complicated than the monster the underworld made him out to be. in a world where trust is a weakness and love is a liability, they’ll have to decide whether they’re willing to remain prisoners of duty—or risk everything for a future neither of them believed they deserved.
Summary: Y/N returns to her old school after years away, no longer the quiet girl everyone bullied and ignored. Confident, beautiful, and unwilling to accept disrespect, she quickly becomes the center of attention. As old classmates struggle to adjust to the new version of her, Y/N must navigate jealousy, friendships, revenge, and unexpected romance—all while proving she’s nothing like the girl they once knew.
Kairo Anders has spent the last three years building a reputation no one dares question. As the twenty-one-year-old captain of his university’s hockey team, he’s known for his short temper, sharp tongue, and ability to keep everyone at arm’s length. Between practices, classes, and the pressure of professional scouts watching his every move, Kairo has convinced himself that focusing on hockey is easier than letting anyone get close. Then Y/N transfers to campus. She isn’t loud or overly outgoing, but she’s comfortable in her own skin. She has a dry sense of humor, doesn’t scare easily, and has no interest in treating Kairo like some untouchable campus celebrity. Unlike everyone else, she doesn’t tiptoe around him—and she definitely doesn’t let his attitude slide. After a scheduling mistake lands them in the same upper-level psychology seminar, they’re assigned as partners for a semester-long research project worth nearly half their grade. With no way out, the two are forced to spend months together, trading sarcastic remarks in the library, grabbing coffee before meetings, and arguing over everything from study habits to music. What starts as mutual irritation slowly turns into something neither of them expected. Beneath Kairo’s cold exterior is someone carrying more pressure than anyone realizes, while behind Y/N’s calm confidence is someone who’s just as afraid of depending on other people. As the semester unfolds, late-night study sessions become long conversations, hockey games become reasons to show up for each other, and the line between pretending not to care and caring too much begins to disappear. The problem is that Kairo has spent years believing that letting someone in only gives them another chance to leave. And when the future he’s been working toward finally arrives, he’ll have to decide whether chasing the life he’s always wanted is worth risking the person he never expected to need.
PUBLIC SUMMARY Y/N never expected to see Elias Kingsley again. Not like this. Not as the most feared mafia boss in the city. Not as a man with blood on his hands, power in every room he walks into, and a reputation that makes people go quiet when his name is spoken. They grew up together. Same world. Same dangerous families. Same circles of wealth and violence they never asked for. And they hated each other for as long as they could remember. Y/N sees Elias as everything wrong with their world—ruthless, controlling, violent, and completely unbothered by the damage he causes. Elias sees Y/N as a problem he never managed to get rid of—stubborn, sharp-tongued, and the only person who doesn’t seem afraid of him. Now the mafia world is shifting. A betrayal puts families on edge, alliances start breaking, and suddenly Y/N is caught in the middle of a war they never chose. Elias doesn’t trust them. He doesn’t trust anyone. But he keeps them close anyway. Because in his world, trust is rare, and obsession is easier to control than uncertainty. Forced into proximity, surrounded by enemies, and tied together by a past neither of them can escape, Y/N and Elias are dragged into something far more dangerous than hatred. Because in a world built on violence, the line between love and destruction doesn’t exist—it disappears.
Y/N has never met a bad idea she didn’t immediately love. Nineteen years old and incapable of minding her own business, she spends her days talking too much, making questionable decisions, and discussing drugs like she’s writing a doctoral thesis on them despite never touching one in her life. Greyson Kingsley is twenty-six, permanently irritated, and involved in the kind of work people know better than to ask about. He’s rude, foul-mouthed, and has mastered the art of making everyone around him uncomfortable. Their lives should never have crossed. Then she witnesses something she wasn’t supposed to. Now dangerous people want her gone, Greyson is stuck keeping her alive, and neither of them can stand the other. At least, that’s what they tell themselves. Between late-night drives, criminal secrets, bad decisions, and an alarming number of near-death experiences, the line between annoyance and something much worse begins to blur. Unfortunately for Greyson, Y/N has a habit of turning every life she touches upside down. And unfortunately for her, Greyson Kingsley might be the only person capable of keeping her alive.
everyone fears kairo russo. as the most powerful mafia boss in the world, he’s built an empire on violence, loyalty, and bloodshed. he has more money than he could ever spend, more power than anyone dares challenge, and a wife he doesn’t love. their marriage is nothing more than a name. the only person who has ever truly mattered to him is y/n—his best friend, his closest ally, and the one person he’d destroy the world to protect. but in a life where betrayal is inevitable and enemies never stop watching, loyalty comes with a price. and when someone makes the mistake of going after y/n, they’ll discover that kairo russo isn’t the most dangerous man in the world because of his empire— he’s the most dangerous because he finally has something worth losing.
She was trained to kill. He was born to rule. Adeline Drakos is the world’s most feared assassin, taking contracts no one else would dare touch. Valerian Bellandi is the most powerful Italian mafia don alive, with an empire built on blood, money, and fear. Neither of them needs anyone. Unfortunately, neither of them gets a choice. When a powerful arrangement forces Adeline and Valerian into an unexpected marriage, two of the most dangerous people in the world are suddenly bound together. She refuses to become the obedient wife of a mafia boss. He has absolutely no intention of letting an assassin run loose without keeping an eye on her. They don’t trust each other. They don’t particularly like each other. And yet, someone is determined to destroy them both. Because when an assassin marries the don, the line between enemy, ally, and something far more dangerous starts to disappear.
At Blackthorne Academy, everyone knows Julian “Jules” Bennett. She’s masc, openly gay, ridiculously confident, and has a reputation for being the biggest flirt in school. Jules doesn’t do relationships, doesn’t catch feelings, and definitely doesn’t believe in settling down. Girls come and go, and she’s perfectly happy keeping it that way. Then you arrive. You’re new to Blackthorne, and unlike everyone else, you don’t seem impressed by Jules’ charm, popularity, or reputation. Naturally, Jules takes that as a challenge. What starts as harmless flirting slowly becomes something neither of you expected—and suddenly, the girl who never catches feelings is starting to wonder if she’s finally met someone she can’t walk away from.
