Page 20 of Hunted to the Altar
“Everyone needs someone,” she replied without hesitation, her fingers gentle as she moved them around. “Even monsters.”
Her words hung heavy between us, a truth I wasn’t ready to face. But as her hands lingered on my skin, I couldn’t deny the strange comfort her touch brought. It unsettled me almost as much as it soothed me.
When she finally pulled back, her gaze met mine, and for a moment, the distance between us felt smaller than ever. “You can try to act like you don’t care, Samuel. But I see right through you.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. Instead, I watched as she stood and walked away, leaving me alone with the weight of her words and the sting of something I couldn’t name.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nina
The worldoutside the penthouse windows seemed far away, almost dreamlike. The city lights stretched endlessly, blinking and flickering against the darkness, a life I used to be part of but no longer recognized. The surrounding room, so meticulously organized and coldly perfect, felt like a cage. A luxurious, suffocating cage.
Samuel’s words still echoed in my ears, loud and unrelenting.
"You need to carry my name. Marry me."
I hugged my knees to my chest, sitting on the couch that somehow felt too big and too small all at once. My mind was spinning, replaying everything that had happened since he’d taken me from my apartment. From the moment he’d revealed himself, every shred of normalcy I’d clung to had been torn away. Now he was asking—no, demanding—that I become his wife as if my life hadn’t already been turned into a nightmare.
“No,” I whispered into the quiet room, though no one could hear me. The word felt hollow, meaningless. My choices had been stripped away one by one until I had nothing left but the illusion of resistance.
I couldn’t stay in this moment of weakness. I had to fight, even if I didn’t know how. But I was exhausted. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. The weight of everything—the threats, the fear, the constant vigilance—it was too much. And Samuel, in all his dark, predatory intensity, was both the source of my torment and the only thing keeping me alive.
I hated that he made me feel this way. Conflicted. Torn. Helpless.
The faint sound of footsteps broke my spiral. I froze, my breath catching in my throat as Samuel entered the room. His presence filled the space instantly, heavy and inescapable. He said nothing at first, just stood there with his piercing blue eyes locked on me. The tension between us was palpable, crackling like a live wire.
“Still sulking?” His voice was calm, almost teasing, but there was an edge to it that made my skin prickle.
I forced myself to sit up straighter, refusing to let him see how much he was getting to me. “You can’t be serious about this,” I said, my voice sharper than I intended. “Marriage? That’s your solution?”
“It’s the only solution,” he said simply, as if that was the end of the conversation.
I stood, needing to put some distance between us. “You’re insane if you think I’m going to agree to this. You’ve already taken everything from me—my home, my freedom, my sense of safety—and now you want to take my name, too?”
Samuel moved closer, his steps slow and deliberate. His presence was magnetic, drawing me in even as I tried to retreat. “This isn’t about taking something from you, Nina. It’s about giving you something you desperately need—protection.”
I laughed bitterly, though there was no humor in it. “Protection? From what? You? Or the people you’ve dragged into my life?”
He stopped just a few feet away, his gaze dark and unyielding. “From the Picones. From anyone who believes they could use you to hurt me ormia famiglia. Carrying my name makes you untouchable under mafia law. No one would dare harm the wife of a Caputo.”
The weight of his words settled heavily in the pit of my stomach. He wasn’t lying—I could see that in his eyes. The sincerity was pouring off of him, but maybe he was a psychopath, maybe I couldn’t really read him as well as I thought. I didn’t know for sure. But these thoughts didn’t make what he was saying any less horrifying.
“And what happens to me after?” I asked, my voice quieter now. “What happens when I’m no longer useful to you?”
Samuel’s jaw tightened, his expression hardening. “You think I’d throw you away like some pawn on a chessboard?”
“Wouldn’t you?” The words slipped out before I could stop them. “Isn’t that what this is all about? Control? Power? You don’t care about me—you care about winning.”
He closed the distance between us in a single stride, his hand gripping my chin firmly but not painfully. His eyes bored into mine, blazing with a mixture of anger and something deeper, something I couldn’t name. “If I didn’t care about you, Nina, you’d already be dead. Don’t mistake my methods for indifference.”
His words sent a shiver down my spine, and I hated how my body reacted to him, how my skin prickled under his touch. He was so close, his scent—clean, sharp, with a hint of something smokey—wrapping around me like a vice. My heart pounded in my chest, and for a moment, I thought he might kiss me. The thought both terrified and thrilled me, and I hated myself for the latter because like hell I wanted to kiss a smoker.
Instead, he released me and stepped back, his expression unreadable. “Listen to me,” he said, his voice softer now but no less commanding. “This marriage would be in name only. A convenience. Nothing more.”
A convenient lie he was trying to sell me. I didn’t trust him. Something told me there was more to this than what he was letting on.
I frowned, suspicion flickering through me. “What does that even mean?”
