Sanctum: A Dark Bratva Arranged Marriage Romance (Wicked Vows)

THE DAY GOES by in a sort of blur. I’m plucked and primped the preened until I feel like I’m ready for the red carpet. It’s a small group, though.

“I tried to hire help,” Polina says. “I had a hair stylist and a makeup artist and all sorts of specialists coming. I wanted to give you the best possible chance at knocking everyone’s socks off. I wanted every rival mafia group in the country to be drooling with jealousy.”

I look around the room. It’s me, Polina, Aria, one of Polina’s staff members, and a sleek little gray cat who happened to make herself known to me this very morning. Apparently, she’s Aleks’s and only likes him, but she wrapped herself around my legs and purred like we were old pals.

“Oh, she likes you,” Polina says. “Hisses at everyone else but she’s your buddy.”

Something in my chest loosens when she purrs. I’ve always wanted a cat, but my parents prohibited us from having pets.

“So what happened with the others you tried to hire?” I ask curiously. I’m fine with the smaller group but just curious.

She rolls her eyes and plants her hands on her hips. “Aleks, of course, the control freak. No one sees my future wife in her undergarments but her sisters,” she says in a perfect imitation of Aleks’s mild accent. “The more people we have, the greater the risk of a breach of security.”

I smile at her imitation of him, but a little pang of jealousy hits me. Is this what she grew up with? Men who actually cared about her wellbeing? It’s so foreign to me. My father would’ve taken out a loan to hire a team to prepare me so that I looked flawless and perfect, with no concern about what I wanted or my modesty, and my brother did anything my father made him do.

There’s a knock at the door. Since Polina’s hands are in my hair, she nods to Aria. “Can you get that?”

Aria fairly waddles over to the door. “One of the staff with some refreshments. Thank God, I am famished.”

Polina snickers and winks at me. About an hour ago, Aria ate a fruit cup and a bagel laden with cream cheese, then rummaged through her purse for a packet of mixed nuts she downed in seconds because she said she was still starving. When that wasn’t enough, she found a bowl of dinner mints and polished off every one of them.

“Someone’s getting close to labor, I think,” Polina whispers in my ear. “Her body’s fueling up with all those practice contractions.”

I smile at her. I’ve barely even met these two but feel like I’ve known them forever. I’m as excited as they are for the baby’s arrival.

“Here,” Aria says, bringing the tray of food over. She slides it onto the dresser. “Oh God, this looks so good.”

“Help yourself.”

She bites her lip but is clearly holding herself back. She looks hopeful.

“But you’re the bride, you need to eat!”

“I’m not really hungry.”

Her eyes light up and she’s reaching for a wrapped sandwich when her phone rings. With a sigh, she puts it down.

“It’s Mikhail. Gotta take this. You two need anything?”

“We’re good. Go, appease the baby daddy so he doesn’t cause any drama on the wedding day,” Polina says with a wave of her hand.

“Girls,” Aria says, coming back with a look of concern. “Mikhail says something strange has happened with your socials, Harper.”

“My socials?” I don’t have my old phone, just a new one Aleks got me “for safety” that I haven’t even used yet.

“What happened?” I ask, shaking my head.

Aria sighs. “Looks like someone tried to attack you. Hacked into your account and posted a bunch of things. Couldn’t have been you, I’ve already hacked in and checked the IP address of whoever posted, and they were nowhere near here.” She frowns. “You wouldn’t have posted these things, anyway.”

Do I even want to know?

My new phone rings with the newest name I’ve entered into my contacts.

Aleksandr Romanov.

My heart races. I’ve replayed this morning in my mind over and over and over again. I have mixed feelings, to say the least.

I can’t think of that now. I can’t think of what will happen when we’re alone.

I try to hide the tremor in my hand when I answer the call. “Hello?”

“Delete your socials. All of them. Someone’s trying to get a grip on you by slandering you, and I won’t allow it. Do not argue with me, Harper. If you⁠—”

“I will happily delete them. Are you kidding? I hated them.”

Polina looks at me in surprise. She shares a look with Aria.

“Do it now, on the phone with me.”

I take my new phone and go to each page, one at a time, to delete them. With every deactivated account, I feel a little bit lighter.

“It’s done. God, that felt good.”

“Good. I’m sorry if that was hard for you.”

Wow. A little humanity from him?

“It’s fine.”

“Are you almost ready?”

“Almost.”

“Staff will be up shortly with some food. Try to eat a little something before the wedding.”

I shouldn’t be touched by his concern, but I can’t help it. After a life of neglect, it’s nice to have someone who cares about even the most basic things.

“They already did, but I’m not very hungry.”

“What do you mean they already did? I’m looking at it now.”

“It must’ve been the caterers or something, then.”

“Oh my God! Aleks, your stupid cat!” Polina shoos it off the tray of food and sighs. “You’ll have to send that tray up anyway, your damn cat just traipsed all over this one and nibbled at it. Gross.”

“Be nice to my cat or I cut your allowance,” he says, and I can’t tell if he’s joking or serious.

She flips the bird at the phone.

“I saw that, Polina.” She gives me a sheepish grin. Is he bluffing, or did he really? We may never know.

I hang up the phone and am in the middle of the finishing touches when there’s a knock at the door. My heart beats faster. I’ve been distracted getting ready for the wedding. I’ve been apart from Aleks since this morning and haven’t had a real chance to think about much, much less fear anything.

But now… now that we’re about to get married, every fear I ever had about being alone with him comes to the surface. He’ll have me alone. He’ll want…sex.

I close my eyes when a flutter of fear makes my heart leap into my throat.

I have feelings about that. Reservations. Dread.

This morning, though… this morning there was a glimmer of hope. A flicker of something like humanity in his eyes. A fleeting thought that maybe, just maybe…

“Are you okay?” I look up, ready to answer Polina, but realize she’s not looking at me but at Aria. Aria’s gone pale, her hand on her belly.

“I will not have a baby on your wedding day,” she says, as if willing her body to stop. “I will not have a baby on your wedding day!”

I smile. “Aria, I met Aleks like two days ago. It’s hardly a culmination of years of falling in love. The sooner these guests go home and I can get out of these clothes and into comfy pjs, the better. In other words — go ahead, have a baby on my wedding day.”

Polina’s musical laughter makes all of us smile. “Oh, I like you, Harper. I like you a lot. Aria, what’s going on?”

“Just—contractions,” Aria says, shaking her head. “I think they’re those fake ones.”

“Well, let us know if they get any closer together or intense, okay?” Polina requests, handing Aria a bottle of water.

She turns to me. “I’m studying to be a nurse.”

“Ah, got it.” That will come in handy.

Another knock at the door. “We’re almost ready!”

“The groom’s getting impatient. They’ve played the opening music a few times,” one of the guys says.

“Alright, alright, let’s go. Don’t you know Italian women are never on time for their weddings? It’s like a rule,” Polina mutters.

I didn’t even realize we were that close to needing to go.

It all feels surreal. The sound of the music. The formality of well-dressed guests waiting downstairs, mostly all unfamiliar to me except for the small cluster of my own family I won’t make eye contact with.

Polina goes ahead of me, carrying a bouquet of flowers. I don’t even know where they came from. I look down at my own hands and realize I’m holding a bouquet of my own. It all feels weirdly dream-like, as I prepare to walk toward my future husband.

When I see him, my heart does a little leap in my chest. I remember the look of desire in his eyes this morning. The way his finger on my shoulder made every nerve in my body come alive.

I remember a whirlwind of intense emotions. The way my voice faltered as he started to undress me. The way my need to be touched by him grew with every second that passed, the way arousal and apprehension warred with each other, whipping my body into a state of incandescence.

The way his assertion of dominance and pushing my boundaries both exhilarated and terrified me.

The feel of his mouth on my skin, the waves of pleasure he sent through my whole body, the effect his commanding words had on my body and mind…

The anticipation of what our vows would signify.

I swallow hard and blink, trying to bring myself back to the present.

There’s a priest holding a book. A woman with an elegant silver up-do nearby. His mother? His brothers that I met yesterday and a younger man beside them with his arm in a sling and a bandage on his face. That must be the one I haven’t met yet.

I move toward Aleks as if propelled forward by an invisible force. I stand in front of him, my heart beating so fast it feels like the flutter of a hummingbird’s wings in my chest. He leans toward me, a hint of a smile on his lips, as he reaches for my hand.

Is he going to be nice to me, then?

“You could look a little less like you’re heading to a funeral,” he whispers.

That would be a no.

I give him a forced smile back. “Honestly, my thong is up my ass, so don’t take it personally. I like to think it’s…symbolic.”

He stifles a snort as the priest begins the ceremony.

“Why are you staring at me?” I whisper. “Are you really afraid I’ll run now?”

“I have to ensure you don’t get a case of cold feet. But I promise you, Princess. If you were to run now, I’d derive immense satisfaction in the chase.”

I swallow. “Why chase? Do you want me that badly?”

He leans closer. To anyone else, it would look like an intimate whisper of words between two lovers.

We know better.

“Every game has its end, Harper. And I always play for keeps.”

The priest drones on and on, but I don’t hear a word until it comes time for my vows. I nod and agree and so does Aleks. There’s nothing the least bit romantic in taking vows to a man you don’t know, much less love.

But when he takes my hand and slides a ring on my finger, something in me softens.

When the priest tells us we can kiss, I lift my face to his.

It starts almost tentatively, like two people stepping foot onto a frozen pond, unsure if it can hold their weight. Under the gaze of strangers and enemies and the expectant eyes of those around us, the soft meeting of his lips and mine carries the weight of what lies between us.

Like every interaction between us, it’s charged with an electric pulse. His fingers on my chin burn my skin. There’s a reverence and tenderness to the way he touches me I didn’t even know he was capable of.

For a moment, I forget that anyone but the two of us is here. This isn’t just a kiss, but maybe a silent truce, a new path forged by each of our pasts and our future. A whisper of something so much more.

As our lips part amid the hoots and hollers and cheers of the crowd around us, I stand a bit stunned. But I don’t have time to reflect on any of this as he takes me by the hand and marches me down the makeshift aisle in the middle of his — our? — living room and toward the dining room.

My family appears out of nowhere, my mother’s disapproving frown beside my father’s cruel smile. He thinks he won.

“You look beautiful,” my mother says. “But remember your loyalty.”

Aleks’s gaze darkens. “She’ll remember who she’s loyal to.”

The coloring of my father’s face tells me he got that message loud and clear.

“Look at you, all dolled up like royalty. You play the part of a blushing bride well.”

My cheeks heat. I can’t believe he just said that out loud.

Aleks’s hand on my back reassures me. It shouldn’t — he’s not my ally and hasn’t been. But now that we’re married, now that I’m his wife, maybe things will change.

“Let’s go,” he says in a low voice. “Ignore them. If they speak to you again, I’ll deal with them personally.”

We walk past them. They hold their heads high, almost haughtily. My mother gives me the glimmer of a smile. I smile back, not to be friendly but because I want her to know that while this wasn’t my choice, I’m going to be just fine.

More than fine. I’m going to thrive.

The formal dining room’s large and spacious, filled with huge vases of blooming flowers. The waitstaff mills about in formal attire, holding large silver platters of appetizers. Aleks leads me to a table set for two.

I sit down, grateful for the glass of water and flute of champagne to calm my fraught nerves. We’ll have dinner, for now.

Then we’ll be alone. Just the two of us.

I think back to this morning.

I reach for the champagne and down it.

“I think we’re supposed to wait for the toast,” Aleks says, leaning closer to me.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Oh, right. Rules and traditions and such.”

“Are you a rule breaker, Harper?” he asks, as he traces his finger down the stem of my glass. Something like lust flickers in his eyes. “Do you like to do things on your own terms?”

Why can’t I help but imagine those fingers trailing along my naked skin? Remember what he vowed to do to me if I defied him?

Not if, really — when.

“I think that you⁠—”

“Aleks.” Polina stands in front of the two of us, breathless, as if she’s just run here. Her voice is barely above a whisper, her eyes wide and panicked.

I place the flute down and set my hands in my lap to steady the trembling, but Aleks is as placid as can be.

“What is it?” he asks in a low voice.

“It’s Misty.”

Misty? Who’s Misty — oh. His cat. Misty’s his cat. Did something happen to her?

“She’s sick. I thought it was just a normal thing like she had a furball or something clogged in her throat, but it’s way more than that. I think she’s been poisoned. But that’s not the worst of it.”

Aleks’s eyes are dark and dangerous. Lethal. “Tell me.”

“Do you remember?” Polina whispers. “She ate off the tray of food meant for Harper.”