Chapter 2 Chapitre 2

The chains were invisible, but Jade felt them around her wrists, her throat, each beat of her heart.

She was there, at the center of this masquerade, dressed in white as a condemned one awaiting her execution. The dress was sumptuous, of an insulting perfection. Everything here breathed elegance, wealth, power. But nothing belonged to him.

She slowly looked up towards the man who was standing in front of her, the one who had sealed her destiny without giving her the slightest choice. Liam Blackwood, impassive, was waiting. His dark costume gave him the appearance of a merciless king, a statue sculpted in the ice.

Her gaze crossed her without apparent emotion. There was no sweetness, no hesitation. Just an unshakable certainty: she was going to pronounce these wishes, whether he likes it or not.

Jade felt her throat tighten. Each fiber of his being was screaming to flee, to break this moment before it was too late. But where? How ?

The guests observed in silence, known and unknown faces forming a wall around it. They had come to attend the union of a dreaded man and a broken woman.

A cold hand touched his. Liam had just seized her, as if to remind her that everything was under control.

His breath blocked.

She had never hated someone as much as at that moment.

Liam's lips bloomed his ear, a poisoned whisper sliding against his skin.

- You will quickly learn to obey.

Jade froze, the rage beating in her veins like a burning poison. She wanted to free herself, go back, howl, but the weight of her hand on hers would anchor it on the spot. He did not hug, did not forced anything. He didn't need it. The authority he exercised over her was not physical. She was more perverse, more vicious.

She slowly straightened her head, her jaws tense.

- You can force me to be here, but you can never fold me.

A slight and unbearable smile, shouted his lips.

- This is what all those who end up giving in.

The desire to hit him crossed her so hard that she felt his fingers tremble.

- I'm not like them.

- I know.

His voice was strangely soft, almost admiring, and it was worse than everything.

The officiant scraped his throat, a brutal reminder of the role they played before the eyes of a silent assembly.

Jade swallowed her anger, aware of the trap that closed on her.

She no longer had the right to make mistakes. So that the officiant began the sacramental words, a deaf noise resonated, broken by the sound of a sudden movement, a body that was moving too quickly. A silhouette went out in the shadow of the guests, crossing the assembly with supernatural speed, almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

A cry. Lost. A man fell, his hands desperately trying to get up, but he didn't have time. Even before anyone could react, Liam rushed. In a flash, he reached the intruder, grabbing his arm with a relentless precision.

- You will not do it, blowed Liam in a calm voice, a deadly promise disguised as a simple observation.

The petrified guests observed the scene without a word. No cry, no protest. The tension crystallized in the air.

The man, trembling under Liam's grip, tried to speak, but a simple pressure on his neck was blowing his breath. He only had a fraction of a second to understand that it was already too late. A dry movement, then life froze in his eyes. Liam's enemy collapsed, his inert body hitting the ground in a silence of meaning.

The guests did not go, suspended at that moment. Marriage continued, as if nothing had happened. But at the bottom of the eyes of those who were there, Jade could read the same thing as in his own: the law of the strongest, the ruthless domination of the chief of the pack. A man capable of reigning terror with inhuman coldness. A man she had now married.

She hadn't imagined that. She had not realized, not understood. The violence of the scene, the speed with which Liam had acted, all that had left her speechless, frozen, while the soul of the man who had just fallen at his feet went into a deafening silence. It was as if the time itself had stopped breathing for a moment.

Jade felt an icy chill through her. A thrill that had nothing to do with the coldness of the room, but everything with the revelation that was in his mind. She thought he was a simple threat, a powerful, ruthless man, yes, but deep down, she thought there was humanity. She was wrong. There was none. Not for those who dared to stand against him.

Liam's eyes didn't fuck a second. The life of this man had been erased with the same ease that a fly would be crushed. He had shown no remorse, no hesitation. The worst part was that Jade now knew that this act, this brutal and relentless gesture was not an accident. No, it was a warning. A message that she had received in the heart, and that she could not ignore.

He turned to her after giving his orders to other men. A slight movement of the head, as if he asked him to follow him, without a word. And she had followed him. Without asking questions. Without daring to protest. Because everything in his behavior, in the air he gave off, reminded him of one thing: he was capable of worse.

They walked side by side in the corridors of the manor, the silence between them heavier than ever. Jade felt her stomach for each step, as if she was heading straight for a way out that she could not yet see, but which she instinctively knew that she could not escape.

She tried to break the silence, but her voice died almost before reaching her lips.

- For what ?

Liam slowly turned her head towards her, her cold and implacable look at her with the same intensity as in the altar.

- For what ? He asked in a voice which, barely more than a whisper, resounded like an echo in his ears.

She stopped, staring at him, but he did not slow down, did not stop. She had no choice but to follow him.

- Why did you kill him? She asked, her firm voice this time, although trembling.

Liam finally stopped, turning to her. His eyes had hardened, his jaw tightening slightly.

- He was an obstacle. A man who dared to challenge my will. In my world, it does not allow itself.

Jade swallowed hard. She had never seen such a relentless man, so sure of himself, so capable of deciding life and death with such ease. But it was not just her ability to kill who terrified her. That was what he was behind these actions, what he represented.

Liam was much more than she had believed. More than what she had imagined in her worst nightmares. He was not just a mafia chief. He was not just a man with terrifying power. No. Liam was a predator. A wolf in a human world. And Jade, unwittingly, had fallen into his mouth.

She would have liked to go back, to free herself, to rebel. But each step brought her closer to the abyss. Each word pronounced by Liam, every gesture he made, each look he gave him, bound her a little more to him. She was aware of it now. The cage in which she was was not made of iron, but secrets, manipulations, and a power that she could never match.

She closed her eyes for a moment, chasing the images of the lifeless body that he had left behind, empties him in the eyes of this man whom he had eliminated in an instant. When she reopened her eyes, she found herself in front of him, her gaze as an invisible socket that kept her in place.

- You learn quickly, Jade, he whispered.

She blinked, surprised by the coldness of her words. But there was also a touch of ... satisfaction. As if, in one way or another, he was waiting for her to accept this reality. That she accepts her place at her side. But she knew, basically, that this place was not that of a companion. It was that of a subordinate.

Jade clenched his fists. Each fiber of his being shouted to flee, but part of her knew that, in this world, there was no escape. Marriage was just a symbol. A simple contract. She belonged to Liam Blackwood now. A man much more dangerous than she had never believed. A man whose unsuspected nature was deployed, like a wolf ready to devour his prey. And this prey was her.

She loved her or not, she had no choice. He was his master now. And her prisoner.