Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance by Adelaide Forrest (free children's ebooks online TXT) 📕

beast in me, letting me be gentler with her in our private moments than I would be if she challenged me at the ceremony itself.

I had no doubt she would, and I'd taken precautions to ensure her complete cooperation. Even if it bothered me that I would need them.

"It won't always be like this," I said. "Things will settle. You'll adjust to your life at my side, and eventually you'll come to embrace who you are when you're with me. It would be easier if you didn't fight me every step of the way, but then you wouldn't be you," I said, smiling into her skin as she sighed.

She nodded absently as I zipped up her dress, but the move was anything but an agreement. We both knew that the real fight had yet to come.

24

Isa

There was a church on the forsaken island from hell. A place that should have been abandoned by God or the ancestors, a mockery of all that my mother would consider holy.

And yet, it was one of the more modest churches I'd ever seen, as if the people truly used it as a place to connect with God, despite the wealth of the village on the island and the riches Rafael commanded. He clearly didn't care for the church or its teachings, embracing the name of the devil as his pseudonym so fully that he'd marked it on my skin permanently. I stared down at the fresh ink staining my skin, the black so opposite to the delicate white lace of the dress Rafael had dressed me in.

As he opened the door to the SUV and guided me out carefully despite my flats, I couldn't help but notice that the inside of the building was empty. I wouldn't have pegged Rafael as the type to hold a fancy ordeal, but I'd have thought his people would want to support him if they were so loyal.

It was only when he guided me around the corner with his hand at my waist that I realized we weren't actually going to step inside. "Will you burst into flames?" I asked, the snark of my discomfort soothing me. My voice was all I had left in the situation Rafael had dealt me. My ability to refuse him, even if it would be inevitable, was my only power.

I could deprive him of my will. Keeping it for myself so that I could continue to hold on to that last piece he hadn't claimed for himself. It sounded stupid even to me, but I'd fight with him until my dying breath before I went quietly with everything he planned.

I would never be voiceless.

"No, mi reina, but I thought you might like to have an outdoor wedding," he murmured as the backyard came into view. The simple chairs on either side of the flower lined aisle were filled with people I didn't recognize, the only exceptions being the brothers, Regina, and Alejandro who I'd seen in passing moments. He'd never bothered to introduce himself, averting his gaze whenever I was near as if I was nothing of consequence to him.

I supposed I wasn't.

The flower-and-fabric decorated arch at the end of the aisle was something from a destination wedding, breathtaking despite its simplicity. A priest already stood at the end of the aisle with a smile on his face as he waited. Rafael moved to walk forward, halting when my feet didn't move to follow at his side.

His eyes were knowing as he looked to me, and I knew he'd expected this moment.

I hadn't. I hadn't thought I'd bother to resist aside from voicing my displeasure, but seeing the set up that was so close to what I might have chosen for myself, if I'd had a say, struck too close to home. I'd never dared to dream of being married. Of starting a family of my own when I was the root cause of the dysfunction within the one I had.

But I realized in those moments that I wanted that. I wanted the white picket fence and the husband who adored me. I wanted the man who would treat me like a queen and the children who would drive me insane despite the overwhelming love I felt for them.

When I tried to fill in the gaps of the image, it was a faceless man. Rafael Ibarra wouldn't fit in that picture, because he would never be a normal man. He would never give me a white picket fence, but an island so entrenched in security that I couldn't leave without his permission. He wouldn't treat me like a queen in the way I thought I should want, but he'd drive me mad with the extent of his obsession and the steps he would take to ensure he kept me as his.

"It's time, Isa," Rafael warned, dropping his voice low enough to a growl that vibrated in my ear. He leaned into my side, saying the words I didn't know I needed to hear. "I will force you."

I knew with a sudden clarity that it was what I needed. He knew it too, his gaze disappointed but not angry as I turned my face up to study him. I couldn't go willingly down the aisle, not with Rafael when he wasn't what I would have chosen for myself given the chance. I loved him, but I shouldn't have. I should have wanted someone safe, someone who would support my relationship with my family and foster my independence.

Instead, I loved Rafael. A devil with no conscience who took lives. A devil who had lied to me, stalked me, and drugged me to bring me to his island paradise. It was wrong on every level, and unlike him, my guilt wouldn't allow me to go willingly with him into the setting sun on the horizon.

He nodded his head, and Alejandro sighed before standing. He snatched Hugo from his chair by his shirt, pushing him toward where we stood at